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God has done some amazing things with and for The Starting Point Project. Listen in as we discuss a few of the highlights and be greatly encouraged!

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Why We’re Working Harder and Spending More to Reach Fewer People with Todd Wilson

unSeminary Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 20, 2026 52:05

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by Todd Wilson, co-founder of Exponential and a leader at Multipliers, where he helps churches and ministry leaders pursue multiplication and greater Kingdom impact. Todd has spent decades studying church planting, disciple-making, and movements, and his latest book, How Did We Get Here? Looking Back to Look Forward, explores the evolution of the American church growth movement and what it may mean for the future. Are churches working harder while reaching fewer people? Have our systems become better at producing activity than disciples? Todd challenges leaders to examine the operating system beneath modern church ministry and consider what needs to change if we want to see true reproduction and multiplication. We have a disciple-making problem. // For years, Todd has championed the goal of seeing more churches reproduce. Research once showed that fewer than 5% of U.S. churches were reproducing, and while that number has improved, multiplication remains rare. But Todd believes church planting is ultimately an outcome of a deeper issue: most churches do not have a functional culture of disciple-making. If disciples aren’t reproducing disciples, churches will struggle to reproduce churches. Reproduction has to become generational. // Multiplication begins when reproduction continues beyond the first generation. One disciple makes another disciple, who then makes another, and the process keeps going. The same is true with churches. A church plants a church, which plants another church, which plants another. Once reproduction moves across multiple generations, addition becomes multiplication and the potential for movement begins to emerge. The church growth system has slowly changed. // Todd’s research traces roughly 75 years of church growth history, beginning with missionary Donald McGavran. McGavran originally studied why some churches on the mission field grew while others did not and developed principles aimed at helping missionaries reach more people. Over time, those ideas moved into the American church and blended with seeker-sensitive ministry, the megachurch movement, purpose-driven strategies, multisite, church planting networks, and other innovations. Much good came from these eras, but Todd believes the system gradually shifted toward institutional and programmatic growth. Good intentions can still create the wrong outcomes. // Todd is careful not to blame previous generations of church leaders. Many of the people who shaped modern church ministry were deeply evangelistic and sincerely wanted to reach people. Yet over time, the dominant definition of success increasingly became bigger attendance, larger programs, and expanding organizations. The unintended result is a consumer-driven model that can attract people effectively but struggles to produce disciples who reproduce. The angst leaders feel is real. // Todd hears a growing frustration among pastors: churches are spending more money, employing more staff, and working harder while seeing less fruit. Even churches that appear successful can sense something isn’t right beneath the surface. Todd believes much of that angst comes from trying to produce multiplication through an operating system designed primarily for addition. Naming the problem is an important first step toward changing it. Leaders must model what they want reproduced. // Todd believes transformation has to begin with senior leaders. If disciple-making is going to become the church’s growth engine, lead pastors and elders must personally participate in a simple, reproducible disciple-making process. Rather than merely preaching about discipleship, pastors should be able to name the people they are actively discipling and allow those relationships to shape the way they lead and teach. Keep the process simple and reproducible. // Whatever model a church chooses, Todd believes it must be simple enough for anyone to reproduce. The goal isn’t another sophisticated program but a way of following Jesus that can move naturally from person to person. The same approach should work for a lead pastor, a volunteer, or even a teenager. Simplicity increases the possibility of multiplication. Give the next generation permission to experiment. // Todd isn’t calling churches to abandon everything they’ve inherited. Instead, he encourages leaders to learn from the past, retain what is fruitful, and recognize that the current operating system may be losing effectiveness. Churches should create space for younger leaders to experiment, learn, and discover more reproducible approaches to disciple-making without being forced to preserve every assumption of previous generations. To learn more about Todd Wilson, visit multipliers.org. You can also download a free PDF or audio version of How Did We Get Here? Looking Back to Look Forward at church-growth.org or pick up a paper copy on Amazon.com. In addition, check out Todd Wilson’s conversation with Carey Nieuwhof, and the interview A Simple & Scalable Way to Reproduce Christians with David Putnam. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Portable Church Your church is doing really well right now, and your leadership team is looking for solutions to keep momentum going! It could be time to start a new location. Maybe you have hesitated in the past few years, but you know it's time to step out in faith again and launch that next location. Portable Church has assembled a bundle of resources to help you leverage your growing momentum into a new location by sending a part of your congregation back to their neighborhood on Mission. This bundle of resources will give you a step-by-step plan to launch that new or next location, and a 5 minute readiness tool that will help you know your church is ready to do it! Click here to watch the free webinar “Launch a New Location in 150 Days or Less” and grab the bundle of resources for your church! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, welcome to the unSeminary podcast. I am so glad that you have tuned in today for this reason, friends, lean in. um I want you to be a part of the conversation that we’re having today. The leader that we’ve got on the phone, on the I don’t know why say the phone because we have not been on phones for podcasts in, you know, 10 years, but on the line is really pressing on an issue that I know that a large portion, you know, almost 90 percent of the churches in the country need to be doing what we’re talking about today. And they’re not. And I really want you to lean in and learn from Todd Wilson. Rich Birch — If you do not know Todd Wilson, he has been the founding and co-founding member of a number of faith-based organizations, including Exponential and Multipliers. He has designed a number, and been a part of the launch of a multiple of national church planting networks. He’s currently a team member, or team leader at Multipliers and serves leaders and ministries who are pursuing multiplication, helping them develop vision and strategy ultimately for a 100 X impact. You know that I love that. Rich Birch — Recently, he wrote a book that caught my attention that I want to dive in on and kind of um unpack some of the core lessons for us today. It’s called, How Did We Get Here? Looking Back to Look Forward. And it’s really looking at the whole conversation, American church growth movement. Todd, welcome to the podcast. So glad you’re here.Todd Wilson — Rich, it’s great to be here with you. I’m really looking forward to this conversation.Rich Birch — Yeah, me too. So why don’t we start with kind of giving us a picture of Multipliers and the work that you’re focused on now, kind of set the context for us.Todd Wilson — Sure. It’s probably good to have the context, you know, at at my core, my own personal calling. I am an entrepreneurial engineer at my core. I love to envision, envisage opportunities, seek strategies and opportunities of the future. And so where I like to do it anywhere, there’s potential for a hundred X kingdom impact. And that’s what gets me in trouble often is the, wherever there’s potential for a hundred X kingdom impact.Todd Wilson — When I came out of the marketplace over 25 years ago into full-time ministry, the most natural hundred X place for me, in addition to being in the local church was, was church planting. I was just drawn to church planting. I got to spend almost 20 years, ah you know, leading Exponential and co-founding there.Todd Wilson — And in recent years, really trying to get even more focused really on the 100x impact. I want to spend my next decade as I’m getting older here, you know, what’s it look like for every hour, for every dollar, for every bit of energy, to see 100x return.Todd Wilson — And so the idea of Multipliers, and it’s a small team of us that, you know, we have a definite bias within the kingdom space to the disciple-making as the mission and engine of the church. And what’s it look like to get back to Jesus style disciple making. But then church planting and multiplication, what does it look like to be doing things that that are even capable of reproduction that can lead to multiplication and ultimately movement. So our goal is to just help champion at the personal level through personal calling, at the church level through disciple making and cultures of disciple making that can ultimately produce movements.Todd Wilson — And so we are a champion and advocate for that.Rich Birch — That’s fantastic. You and I are are similarly wired. And over the years, you know I’ve heard people talk about, you know, and they always they’ll do like a series at a church on spiritual gifts. And I’ve often wondered because of the kinds of things I’ve been involved in, if, you know, if I have some sort of apostolic gift, just because of the stuff I found myself doing and, you know, launching campuses and all that.Rich Birch — And it’s interesting that gift over the years I’ve heard, which is similar to the kind of work you’ve been doing over the years is the only gift that I’ve ever noticed that preachers, they seem to talk down about it. And they’re like, stop starting things like, you know, they’re like, they always, you know, are like on the negative side of, you know, being the guy who wants to be entrepreneurial and see new things.Rich Birch — And that’s a part of what I admire about you and the good work you’ve done. When you were at Exponential over those, you know, with you that you co-founded, you know, that almost 20 years, you know, they had this, they saw some amazing things happen there under your leadership, where this idea of moving church reproduction from under 5%, really trying to push us towards 16%.Rich Birch — So for people that are unaware of this, I think this is good context to kind of take a step back and talk about why that number, why are we actually, why are you giving decades of your life towards this idea of trying to move towards 16%? What do we mean by that when you you know talk about that? Because I think that’s a good foundational idea for today’s conversation.Todd Wilson — Yeah. I think it’s important it to understand, again, context for me. I didn’t grow up a Christian. I never had a dream to be in full-time vocational ministry. I’ve never wanted to be a lead pastor of anything. You know, ministry was the farthest thing from my mind growing up. When you’re asking kids, what do you want do when you grow up? Todd Wilson — So when God brought me into full-time vocational ministry, and I’m going to say kicking and screaming, I wanted to go start a company. I wanted to go make money. I wanted to go change the world. And so coming into full-time vocational ministry, why in the world would I want to see anything except movements happening? Rich Birch — That’s good.Todd Wilson — We read about movements in the New Testament. Why do I want to be personally satisfied if God’s calling me into a new life of ministry with anything less than seeing movements?Todd Wilson — And so that was my context of stepping in and and leading at Exponential and what was driving us. And your question from 5% to 16%. Well, Houston, we have a problem.Todd Wilson — If movements are multiplication, and multiplication is generational reproduction, and we, at the time we were starting Exponential, there were less than 5% of U.S. churches were reproducing. You just got to let that sink in.Rich Birch — Yeah.Todd Wilson — 95% of churches just 25 years ago, 95% of churches in the U.S. are not reproducing. It’s physically impossible, both mathematically and biblically, to see multiplication and ultimately movements if less than 5% of churches are reproducing.Todd Wilson — So the answer to where’s the 5 to 16, for me personally, God’s called me into a new life and a new ministry. I don’t want to be satisfied with just status quo, but the state of the U.S. church is such that we physically can’t see 100x impact in the operating system of how things are working. Todd Wilson — So the 5 to 16 was very simple. Let’s measure where we’re at. And so the 16% sociologists say that if you can get 16% of an audience acting a certain way, behaving a certain way, it will become normative for everyone else. I like to say, if you’re in a room and you start quacking like a duck to talk, if you can get 16% of the people in the audience quacking like a duck, then everybody’s going to communicate by quacking like a duck.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — And so it just became a conviction. Let’s move the needle from less than 5% to 16%. And then the language we would use is, at 16%, healthy church reproduction would become such a normative thing that we would see multiplication happening.Todd Wilson — Now, the little bit of an elephant in the room before we move on, church planting is just the outcome. So that 5% number, it’s an outcome of the system and what’s happening.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — The more ornery number is that the national studies that we did on what percentage of U.S. churches have a disciple-making culture. That’s also less than 5%.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — So 95% of churches don’t have a functional mission of disciple-making, and that’s their normative growth engine through disciple-making. So in reality, we have a disciple-making problem, not a church-planting problem. And so those two became very tied together, as as will become evident as we have this interview.Rich Birch — Yeah, absolutely. and And just can you define generational reproduction for folks that are listening in? When you when you when you say that, like, hey, we’re trying to move churches towards generational reproduction, kind of just unpack that a little bit more.Todd Wilson — Yeah, let’s let’s start at the personal level of disciple-making. If one person makes a disciple of another person, you’ve got one generation. If that person goes on to make another disciple two generations, that person makes a disciple three generations. We see that biblically. We see that in the leadership pipeline with Paul, that you know we need to see disciples who make disciples who make disciples.Todd Wilson — Once you get to the third or fourth generation of something reproducing itself, if you drew that on paper, one becomes two, two becomes four, four becomes eight, eight becomes 16. That is an exponential or a multiplication curve. So all you have to do to go from addition to multiplication is have healthy reproduction broad and wide multiple generations into the future.Todd Wilson — Now we just take that to the church level, a church that plants a church that plants a church that plants a church broad and wide.Todd Wilson — Now you’ve gone from one church to 16 churches. And now look at the collective attendance of those 16 churches. That’s what you call healthy growth. That’s what you call multiplication when you keep reproducing it over and over.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s so good. And there’s actually been progress against this. This is one of the things that I’ve loved as a person just sitting on the outside looking in as you and the team, you know, Dave and the broader Exponential community have really been hammering away at this. You know, we’re not at 16% yet, but we’re seeing progress, which is which is amazing.Todd Wilson — Right. It’s in the studies that we did, and it’s been repeated a couple of times, the needle has moved to at least 7%. That may not sound like a lot, but if you go take the number of churches we’re talking about…Rich Birch — Yes.Todd Wilson — …and that needle moving from less than 5% to 7%. And we’re not taking credit for all that at Exponential. Rich Birch — Right. Todd Wilson — We’re getting to ride a wave that really started around 2000. Prior to 2000, denominations planted churches, not really churches or networks. We saw the birth of networks around 2000 in the U.S. It’s hard for people to realize, but like in the church planting world, groups like City to City and GlocalNet and Acts 29 and ARC and Church Multiplication Network and Stadia and New Thing Network, none of them existed.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Todd Wilson — Literally in a five-year time period, we saw the birth of all these church planting networks, and that happened to coincide with that we saw that need to start Exponential to serve those networks.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — So We we were a little bit the right group at the right place, advocating for the right thing.Todd Wilson — And I do think that generally the the wonderful thing is that as that needle is starting to move and the visibility is getting more and more, the next generation wants it. Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah, I would agree.Todd Wilson — They want the scorecard of that. So I feel very optimistic that we’re still a ways away from 16%, but the needle is moving in the right direction.Rich Birch — Yeah, I would echo that too. I think there is, um you know, one of the couple years ago, I had one of those ages in my life flip over with zero on the end that you kind of notice and you reflect back on life a little bit. And I would say one of the things I’ve noticed over, you know, almost 30 years of ministry is this issue is has become more normative. Like it’s it’s a part of the conversation. It’s not that everyone’s doing it, but it’s in the dialogue, which I think is is wonderful.Rich Birch — Well, I, so you know, there’s, you interact with a lot of church leaders across the country. You interact with a lot of people, you have a pulse on a lot of, you know, what’s going on. And there’s a growing sense, you have flagged that there’s a growing sense among leaders that there’s just something wrong. It’s like, you know, there’s like a stink in the bottom of our, our, garbage that’s like, oh it’s a little bit stinky. It’s not like overwhelming, but we can’t put our finger on exactly what that is. Rich Birch — They can’t necessarily name it, but we feel it. We kind of see that there’s maybe something in the way we’re doing what we’re doing that isn’t working. What are you hearing as you sit across the table from church leaders in across the country, you know, around all of these things that we’re talking about?Todd Wilson — Let me describe it a couple of different ways. I think the the word I would put on it is an angst. I think if you look at the definition of an angst, there’s a there’s a growing and an underlying angst. um I’m going to say, if I’m descriptive of the angst, that might not be the way people would exactly say it but it’s how I translate what I’m hearing.Todd Wilson — We are working a lot harder to reach less people and we don’t like the cultural Christian product we’re getting. We’re working a lot harder. We’re spending more money to reach fewer people. And we’re just having this angst that the product we’re producing is a little bit too much consumer cultural Christian as we’re working harder and spending more money. And that leaves somebody full time, know, if I mean, if you’re a full time vocational pastor, there’s an angst that sits in the middle of that dynamic going on. Todd Wilson — My mentor and friend, Robert Lewis, who led Fellowship Bible Church in Little Rock for years, Robert’s handed off the leadership back in 2005. Robert describes it this way. He did the foreword on my recent book, and when he read and reviewed the book, he said, Todd, oh my goodness, this is first and foremost a walk down history lane. It’s like going back and looking at history. Todd Wilson — But he said, here’s the thing. I had this angst in 2005. Everything was up and to the right. We were growing. We were doing new campuses. We had started a church planting. Like we’re doing all of the stuff. People are turning to us. They’re looking at what we’re doing. We had started a leadership conference. And I just had this angst that something wasn’t right.Todd Wilson — And he said, I couldn’t name it. He said, I needed a therapist. But where does a megachurch pastor who’s having nothing but success with up and to the right, who’s feeling angst about the system, where do you go for therapy in that? He’s like, I didn’t know whether to feel like I was being ungrateful or what.Todd Wilson — And his words were, as you’ve traced the 75 years of the church growth movement and its evolution into a consumer-driven operating system, you have named my angst. I wish I would have had this book in 2005 to name my angst because half the battle is getting our hands around understanding why we’re feeling the way we do.Rich Birch — Yeah, I was talking to denominational leader within the last year to kind of add a bit more flavor even to that angst, who was saying, and this is a fantastic denomination, you know, Jesus loving, you know, fantastic group of people um and have, you know, very similar what you’re saying, like lots of good things going on.Rich Birch — And this was one of those like, After dinner conversations, you know, long ah a long ways away from a bunch of leaders, we were just chatting on the sideline. And he said, you know, the interesting thing, when you look at our tribe, his movement, he rattled off all their stats. We have a certain number of churches. We have a certain number of pastors. We have a certain number of, you know, baptisms every year. It rattles all that off.Rich Birch — And he said, you know, if you were to look at where we were 20 years ago, the number of churches is the same, the number of, and rattled off all these stats that are the same. Like we’re baptizing the same number of people, the attendance is the same, the the like all these things. He said, the only thing that’s gone up in the last 20 years is we’ve doubled our staff head count. There’s twice as many staff today as there was. And when I read, heard about your book and you talk about this angst, I was like, ooh, that’s exactly what he was describing. He’s like, wait a second. what’s happening here. And him as a denominational leader, he had the same read, hey, there’s something wrong with the way we set this thing up. Rich Birch — So your book, let’s actually dive into a little bit. It starts really at 70 year arc from Donald McGavron from 1955, all the way to today. And so for a leader who’s never really stepped back and thought about the history of like, what, how did we get here? It’s the name of your book. Why does knowing what got us to where we are today, this kind of consumer operating system that you describe, why does, how does understanding that help us as we think about the future?Todd Wilson — It’s a really good question. And I’m not sure, honestly, that I when I, when I set out to write this book, that, that that was even driving me to begin with, but very quickly that became the, I realized that’s why I need to write this book.Todd Wilson — So let, let me explain. And I need to give you a little bit of background to explain, because it’s an important question.Rich Birch — Yep, yep, for sure.Todd Wilson — So when I think about the moment that, that I realized we had a problem. Like that that, okay, we’re on this trajectory, things are moving the right direction to the 16%, and I’m back in the leadership of Exponential now. And I’m realizing, oh my goodness, we really do have a problem. And here’s here was what that looked like. Todd Wilson — I believed we had started learning communities and we had very vibrant learning communities And our learning communities got started because we felt like we need to shift the paradigm of people’s measure of success in the scorecard of church. It was very much about we need to shift paradigm. Alan Hirsch was involved with this on how do we shift from just growing large things to growing decentralized things that saturate. And it was very much about scorecard.Todd Wilson — And if you think about it, we’re wanting to move the needle from 5% to 16%. That’s a scorecard thing. So our initiating event was scorecard. But as we got into these learning communities, which in my opinion were the best things we were doing at Exponential. I mean, they were six to eight month learning journeys and we would rock people’s paradigm.Todd Wilson — We really would. People would go through it and be like, Oh my goodness, I got to have a different view of success in the church.Rich Birch — Right. yeahTodd Wilson — And guess what? They’d go home and Sunday’s coming. Rich Birch — Right. Todd Wilson — There’s, services to run, there’s people to pastor, there’s things to do. And the aha moment for me came, Rich, when I realized the the whole definition of insanity, that if you just keep doing the same thing over and over and hope for a different outcome, but that’s insanity. And here I am trying to lead a national organization to see a change in scorecard to move the needle to 16%.Todd Wilson — And I remember the day that I realized we’re not going to get there with the operating system we have in place in church right now. This operating system is not capable of getting us to the 16% number.Todd Wilson — That was a personal crisis. I’m leading an organization that’s up and to the right that the needle is moving. But as a futurist, I’m realizing we’re not going to get where we need to be with the operating system in the church. So the the operating system part was what drove me to start writing this book. I’ll let you ask a question there, and then we’ll circle back to the how does it relate to understanding how we got here, though.Rich Birch — Yeah, so ah just to underline what you’re saying there, um you know in in other conversations, I’ve heard leaders say, you know it’s like, um you know what you know what you reach people with is what you end up keeping them with. And so if what I hear you saying, just putting, I think, other language around it, but correct me, is kind of a consumer-oriented or a consumer cultural operating system that we’ve we’ve used as a church… Todd Wilson — Right.Rich Birch — …you know, obviously by definition, if you ah use a um consumption-based model, that doesn’t, leave you it’s very difficult to turn around and say, okay, now become a multiplier. You know, we got you here as a consumer. Okay, now how do we make you a multiplier? Is that the core pain?Todd Wilson — It is. And Rich, you’re painting the picture of why looking back to understand how we got here is important. If it’s true, that are ah If it’s true, and I want to suggest people ought to go look at it for themselves, that the underlying operating system that has evolved over the last 75 years, it’s not where it started with Donald McGavern in 1955. And there was never bad intentions by any of the good people through the 70 years.Rich Birch — Yeah, right.Todd Wilson — We have evolved from what was originally one thing. into a consumer model that is way more focused on success is growing big, success is making converts, not necessarily disciples. And we we can diagnose that if there’s a problem today, and I suggest there is a problem today, then how we got here and understanding how over 70 years, what was intended to be one thing, gradually (like the frog getting boiled in cold water) turned into something else.Todd Wilson — We’ve got to go through the the, if we really want to change the operating system, and I’ve seen how hard it is, guys can have the paradigm shift. We need to change. Then they go back home into the operating system that they’re operating in. And it is really, really hard to just throw off one operating system and embrace another oneTodd Wilson — And I wouldn’t even encourage people to do that. Don’t go home and just change your operating system overnight. But if you do want to make thoughtful, progressive change, the best way to do it is to start by going back and learn the lesson of how did we get where we are?Rich Birch — Yeah.Todd Wilson — How did things get off track to where to where we are?Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.Todd Wilson — And that’s what ended you know, I started out the book really to go after understanding the operating system itself. And very quickly came to the conclusion, oh, we I’m not sure how we’re going to move to a new operating system if people don’t go through the hard work of looking back and understanding how well-intentioned people over time have delivered for us what we have today in a flawed system.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. You know, I know, again, from my own personal experience, not to bring this back to me, but to my own personal experience, again, it’s been interesting to see similar patterns. You know, every couple years, there’s like some new idea that comes up in the church. And oftentimes I’m like, yeah, this is just like of rehash of a thing I saw 10 years ago or 15 years ago or 20 years ago.Rich Birch — It’s like, oh, this is is brand new. It’s like, ah, it’s echoes of things we’ve seen in the past. So why don’t we just kind of give people a flyover or a walkover of the kind of eras that you kind of define as you went through the book, just to give people a high level. Rich Birch — Ultimately friends, you know, I’m encouraging you to to do two things out of today. One is to pick up, I think this could be a great book for you and your team to go through. You and your leadership team, buy copies of this, read it. I think it could be an interesting book for you or, and go and listen to Todd’s interview with Carey as well. Carey just takes longer in his podcast and has more time. So there’s going to be, there’s lots packed into that as well. Rich Birch — But why don’t you kind of give us a flyover of the eras? And then maybe when you think about each one of those, something that was like, really positive that came from that area something like hey there’s something good there or maybe there’s something there that we’ve got to be cautious about as we think about the future.Todd Wilson — Yeah. And just to be clear, Rich, you know this, ah I’m a local church guy. My calling is a local church. I’m still on staff at a local church. I love the local church. So this part of the, difficulty for me in spending two years and over a hundred hours of interviews and putting this timeline of history together is I love the church.Todd Wilson — And I I, don’t know that I’d be sitting here talking to you if it weren’t for several of these eras I’m getting ready to name to you. So you’ve got really, I think a common thread through across these areas as we jump into them is typically apostolic, evangelistically driven leaders who really want to reach people. Hell is real. Lost people are going there. We got to reach them. And I think that’s the driving factor across all these eras is well-intentioned people…Todd Wilson — And if I can start with the end point, I think we’ve sort of co-opted the more holistic disciple-making growth engine that’s capable of generational disciple-making with strategies for institutional programmatic growth that are not capable of reproduction. They’re very good at growing large things and reaching lots of people, but not necessarily making, you know, through relational disciple making, disciples who make disciples who plant churches that plant churches.Todd Wilson — So here’s how I would do the flyover. When I got started writing this history, I thought I was doing one chapter of this history in another book. Rich Birch — I love it.Todd Wilson — And one chapter turned into two chapters and three chapters. And eventually my editor said, Todd, you just need to do a full book.Rich Birch — Well, that’s a book.Todd Wilson — And it ends up turning into the longest book I’ve written because of the 75 year history. And ah Rich, seriously, don’t, people don’t need to feel bad if they don’t know all the history. I, I’m like a where’s Waldo through a lot of this history. I’ve had a seat at the table for a lot of the stuff through these eras.Todd Wilson — Until writing this book, I did not know how all the dots connected across these eras. And then it became there were so many, oh, oh, oh. So here’s here’s the shot I’ll give to you. Ididn’t really I knew I had heard of Donald McGavern. I knew he was considered the father of the modern church growth movement. I’ve never, prior to writing this book, read about him, gone off and studied him. Gary McIntosh is his by is Donald McGavern’s biographer. So I spent a lot of time with Gary. He pointed me in the right directions.Todd Wilson — And here’s what I learned. Donald McGavern, born in the late 1800s, international missionary in India. um His father and mother were missionaries in India. He came from the mission field and his context was the international mission field. Todd Wilson — Now, get this as the starting point in 1955. He’s an international missionary. He has planted 15 churches himself in his career, none of which ever grew to more than 100 people. So you got to let that sink in. The father of the modern church growth movement planted 15 churches, none of which grew to more than 100. And yet he’s the father of what we consider now the modern church growth movement.Rich Birch — Right. Interesting.Todd Wilson — So the kind the context was, he became fascinated after reading a research report on why some churches in provinces in India were growing and others weren’t. Sometimes churches in the same village that were growing and just down the street, others weren’t.Todd Wilson — So he kind of took a scientific approach, the study of church growth. Like let’s study this like it’s a science, like what’s causing some churches to grow. And he he had very clear conclusions out of that, but you know, a handful of conclusions of what’s causing that.Todd Wilson — And so ultimately, when he came off the mission field by 1960, 61, he started the Church Growth Institute, not for U.S. pastors, but for international missionaries who were on furlough to come home and learn about church growth principles that they could take back to the international mission field. He had no interest in U.S. pastors. Todd Wilson — So for multiple years in the 60s, he was doing that. And when Fuller wanted to start their International School of World Missions, one of their best faculty member ratings was Donald McGavern. So they invited him to come become the founding dean of the the Fuller School of World Missions.Todd Wilson — But he only agreed to do it if he could bring the Church Growth Institute with him. So by 1970, you’ve got that up and running. He’s built his team. He invited a guy called C. Peter Wagner off the mission field to come be on his faculty staff. And in 1970, 71, Peter Wagner convinced Donald McGavern that they ought to run one class for U.S. pastors on church growth.Todd Wilson — And the rest is history. That one class, it just turned into, Imean, people were very interested in it. Denominations became interested. And literally within a couple of years, you’ve got this up and to the right people latching on to church growth science.Todd Wilson — And that starts the process, you know. Even from the beginning, you start to see a little bit of co-opting away from McGavern’s things. Not fast, but a little bit. Todd Wilson — So right on the heels of that, in the 70s then, you’ve got this young kid, ah Bill Hybels… Rich Birch — Right. Todd Wilson — …who’s running you know going to go into business and he’s running a street ministry with youth. He’s being mentored by Robert Shuler.Rich Birch — Yes.Todd Wilson — And Shuler’s got the possibility thinking, think outside the box, very apostolic. Turns out Shuler not only mentors Hybels, but there’s some mentoring of Rick Warren. And so you’ve got the birth of the seeker-sensitive era then.Todd Wilson — You know, if the first era was the McGavern-Roots era, now we’ve got the seeker-sensitive era. And, you know, that can be a positive or a negative stigma. For me, in 1976, I’m in middle school going into high school, not a Christian, live down the street from this movie theater called the Willow Creek Movie Theater. Rich Birch — Right. Right.Todd Wilson — And my mom drags us kicking and screaming into the Willow Creek Movie Theater. We were the avatar family for the Seeker Sensitive family movement.Rich Birch — Right. Movement.Todd Wilson — From Seeker Sensitive, you get out of that the what Peter Drucker and Bob Buford would call the large church phenomena and the birth of Leadership Network then with the large church phenomena, which became the megachurch phenomena.Todd Wilson — You’ve got Rick Warren and his masterful work with the purpose-driven church. Rick’s able to put handles on this church growth part, but Rick was a disciple of Donald McGavern, so he’s got the McGavern roots. Todd Wilson — You’ve got Hybels with the Shuler roots. And in that 80 into the 90s with the birth of the Global Leadership Summit and the other, you’ve you’ve got this very influential large church phenomena, purpose-driven, being shaped by, you know, in large part, the combination of Leadership Network, Hybels, Rick Warren… And that brings us up to you know about 2000. Todd Wilson — And just as a flyover, I would then call the era of the externally focused church. You’ve got the rapid fire birth of church planting networks. You’ve got multi-site. People don’t realize prior to 2000, there’s less than 50 multi-site churches.Rich Birch — Yeah.Todd Wilson — Leadership Network engages it in 2000. And from 2000 to 2010 you see an up, I mean, radically up and to the right.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — The externally focused church, same thing. Rick Russo has book right in that time period. The missional guys, right in that time period. So the common theme between these church planning networks, the missional guys, the externally focused guys, the multi-site, is we’re now looking outside of ourselves.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — But in large part, we’re still looking outside of ourselves as growth strategies for our things. If you really go look under the hood of a lot of those.Todd Wilson — And then I would say coming out of the externally or outwardly focused era, 2015 to 2025, I just have no other name than the disruption era. As I was doing the research on this book, um I had to stop at like 12 major disruptions that happened in that time period with COVID right in the middle. Rich Birch — Right. Todd Wilson — And so that’s the…Rich Birch — Political upheaval. There’s a bunch in there in that same, you know, yeah, that there’s been a schism.Todd Wilson — You’ve got deconstruction of faith.Rich Birch — Yep.Todd Wilson — You’ve got cynicism. You’ve got platformed individualism with the birth of social media. Now anybody can be their own, you know, playlist influencer. There’s just so many disruptive factors in there.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — Now you look at all those disruptive factors with the evolution of what’s happening in the church and the church operating system. And it leaves us on a very shaky foundation at that point that, you know It kind of brings us up to where we are now, and you can either be a pessimist at that or an optimist. And I choose the optimist path that we’re poised for a new day and a new operating system is my prayer.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s amazing. And friends, as you can see, you just got a real thin slice of, you know, just all the various phases that you do such a great job unpacking for us to help us really understand how we we got here. It was It was wild, it’s wild thinking about a lot of that because I remember, you know, various phases of those over the last particularly 25 years, you know, seeing that up close and seeing, you know, kind of the impact that has had and then wondering about the future and where we go from here. Rich Birch — So thinking about the future and, you know, obviously you’ve, um you know, you’ve you’re making a clear clarion call around, hey, we’ve got to think differently than the consumer driven operating system. We’ve got to we’ve got to come up with something different. After all of that, um and we’ve kind of covered this already, but I’d love to make sure we kind of hone on this, have this resonate with people that are listening in. Why is it so difficult for that system, for the consumer-driven operating system to to really ultimately produce healthy reproduction and multiplication and in churches? What’s structurally ah broken about it? And what what would be some first steps we should be thinking about change to the future as we think about, okay, where we go from here? Todd Wilson — Yeah.Rich Birch — How do we, you know, build on the positive stuff, but also look for something different as we look to the future? Todd Wilson — Yeah. I think we don’t have to make it complex, Rich, if we just keep trying to come back to simplicity for a minute. Like the system that has evolved has actually become pretty complex when you think about it. I would say if we could just focus on, I’m not even going to say changing overnight, but if if I’m a lead pastor, if I’m on staff at a church, I’m really focused on disciple-making as the core mission and growth engine of the church. Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — Like what is it, most churches are going to say our mission is disciple making or it’s going to be part of it. They’re going to say we have a culture of disciple making, but it is not what the data shows. Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — You know, again, 95% of churches do not have a culture of disciple-making. They have a culture of program activity. Rich Birch — Right. Todd Wilson — And so I’m not an advocate of changing everything overnight, but if you want to shift from a culture of program activity to a true culture of disciple-making‚ it has to start with the lead minister having a simple, reproducible, in-practice disciple-making approach that is being modeled for the… I don’t mean discipling the staff. I mean there’s people the lead pastor are personally discipling, modeling that simple, reproducible process. Todd Wilson — Where we’re starting to see traction and where I think the breakthroughs are going to come in getting us to the new operating system of the future, it is going to start, and it’s it’s happening right now, with pastors who say, you know, if I’m really honest, I’ve been preaching the last 52 weeks. I’ve been leading meetings. I’ve been doing, I’ve been doing, I’ve done, but I’m not really personally making disciples. Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — And I think it’s going to start with the lead pastor, the elders, senior people saying, If we could only have one metric of success in the next 12 months, it’s not growth, it’s not the activities we do, it’s not the new building. If we only have one measure of success, it’s how many disciples have I personally, relationally been involved in? me Not how many have I preached to, not how many outreach events have we done where we’ve got, but what have I personally done on the disciple-making front?Todd Wilson — And I don’t want to make it more complicated than that. That’s what we’re missing right now.Rich Birch — That’s good. No, that’s really good. Yeah, that’s good. I love the practical takeaway of, um yeah, it’s like, who are the three people in your life that you’re actually discipling? Let’s start there. Rich Birch — So this is kind of a sidebar to it.Todd Wilson — Can I just look real quick?Rich Birch — Yes. Yep. Push back. Yep.Todd Wilson — So David Putman, who’s part of what we do at Multipliers, David’s longtime kingdom guy.Rich Birch — Yep.Todd Wilson — You should have him on as an interview here. David is completely focused on what he calls the 5-3-2 right now. Five simple reproducible principles, three rhythms, and and two relationships. So it’s a triad of three people that just keeps reproducing.Todd Wilson — Anybody can do it. A ninth grader can do it. A lead pastor can do it. I’m watching this model take different groups by storm right now. And whether you embrace the 5-3-2 or some other model like it, the key is going to be having a simple, reproducible process that works for the lead pastor and anyone else in the church. Same model.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Yeah we had David on back in 2020 and I’m like we got to get him back on uh the podcast. Rich Birch — So sidebar issue, so this is not something we’d you know kicked around ahead of time but it’s kind of adjacent to this. So I am not a I'm not a teaching pastor. Similar to you. I’m not, i never saw myself as a lead pastor. I’ve always been in the like, Hey, my job’s to be in the second chair, cheering for other lead pastors. I’ve worked for um really over my career as an XP three incredible communicator lead pastors who it would appear like, and it is, they, all three of them, God gifted them with this ability to speak and gather crowds. Like that was like core. And, and I, I’ve spent a lot of time like listening to them and watching them. And part of it just appears to be like, it’s definitely a gifting that’s going on there.Rich Birch — And I, over time, ah questions like the following would come up that I would I'd struggle with, where it’s like, it would appear like this person can gather a lot of people, and we can build more chairs in front of that person and people will hear that person and they’ll they’ll take steps towards Jesus. Rich Birch — And I understand that that’s not, or that’s not a full picture of discipleship. That’s one piece of the discipleship puzzle, but it’s not… And the the kind of organizational pressure is, okay, let’s keep figuring out how to build more seats in front of this person and and their gift. How do we get them to leverage their gift well? Rich Birch — And to be honest, I’ve been in conversations where I’ve been the voice of like, I want to line 100,000 people up in front of this person to hear this person speak because I think the way they talk about Jesus is different than what I’ve heard other people say and it it’ll make a difference. Rich Birch — That is, I think, at the center of this tension that there’s some there seems to be something about the gift of teaching that it’s not, I don’t know whether it’s not evenly distributed, or there’s like a brokenness in humanity and we only want to listen to certain kinds of people. I don’t know whether it’s one of those two things. So all I’ve done is describe a problem and I’m going to say, comment on it, Todd.Todd Wilson — Yeah. I think you’re right on the mark. I think I want to affirm that, you know, I mean, everybody has their definitions. I believe the preaching role is, and and the teaching and reaching is a piece of the discipleship equation.Rich Birch — Yep.Todd Wilson — I think if I’m defining the problem statement, We have made it the biggest piece… Rich Birch — Sure. Todd Wilson — …instead of a piece or a playing a role in it. So I think the issue is that how big we’ve made it. Like you, I was an executive pastor for years. And when I look back on that time, my role was not about holistic relational disciple making that could be the growth engine of the church. and it It was how do we get as many people in seats in the auditorium on Sunday? We need great marketing. We need great outreach.Todd Wilson — And again, I think all of those play a role in the disciple-making process ultimately. But let’s just be honest, that’s not disciple-making itself. It plays a role in the disciple-making process.Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — So the elephant in the room here is, how do we scale disciple-making? If I if I could be If I could be the czar of this, I’m not, but if I could be, I want the genius at the end. I want the unique gifts that are represented across the whole mosaic and the church, starting with that dynamic creature that can attract the crowd. I want it. Todd Wilson — But I also want those senior leaders of the organization I really want to be focused on what is our growth engine and what is our holistic disciple-making process. Rich Birch — Right.Todd Wilson — And the number one thing I want from those senior leaders is not their unique gift. I want their modeling, their personal modeling of the simple, reproducible, disciple-making growth engine that anybody in the church can do. Rich Birch — That’s good.Todd Wilson — I mean, that that preaching gift you’re talking about, that that one lead pastor can do, how many other people in the church can do that?Rich Birch — Right. Not many. Yep.Todd Wilson — So there’s their paradigm. So we need them doing it.Rich Birch — Yes.Todd Wilson — But I would argue what we need them doing even more than that inspiration is modeling the simple reproducible disciple making thing that people know that’s how we’re going to win here.Rich Birch — Yeah. Well, and I’ve that lines up, I’ve said it at probably, well, not a thousand times, but hundreds of times with lead pastors over the years that in the context of this conversation, I would rather them weave in the discussion about their discipleship relationships as like just a normative part of conversation rather than the, we’re doing six weeks on discipleship and how to become disciple making. I’m like, if you just pepper that stuff in week in, week out, it just is a normative part of the conversation that changes culture. Rich Birch — The kind of like, we’re going to make it a program. We’re going to brand it. We’ve got a great name on it. And my experience has been, it’s it’s a little bit like nailing jello to the wall. There’s there’s actually some of that containing of what we’re talking about actually kills the exact thing that we’re trying to do. And so, man, I think there’s a real tension there. And how do we help those people? Rich Birch — Because it’s not like we want them to do a worse job. It’s not like, hey, if you could stop talking in a way that attracts a crowd, that’s not the answer. But we’ve got to, like you say, how do we move them into those personal relationships? That’s fantastic.Rich Birch — Well, this has been a great conversation…Todd Wilson — My question would be, Rich, what what would happen…Rich Birch — Yep.Todd Wilson — …if an average lead pastor went on a one-year journey to to of disciple-making themselves? Call it a triad, call it four, five. They’re always, over the next year, going to be in a disciple-making small micro group… Rich Birch — Yep. Todd Wilson — …and all of their preaching is going to be informed.Rich Birch — Yep.Todd Wilson — That’s their laboratory of learning.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s their paradigm. Yeah, that’s good.Todd Wilson — That’s their paradigm. And now they’re bringing it to life, not just as periodic examples, but, you know, my whole frame of reference of my library is what comes out of that experience. Rich Birch — Yeah.Todd Wilson — And our problem right now is that’s just lack. It isn’t that it’s inserted a little bit. It’s just lacking.Rich Birch — Right. Yeah, that’s good. Yeah, this has been great. what ah What a great conversation. And as you can tell, friends, there’s a lot we could talk about there. And a lot you know just there’s a rich conversation that could be had around this. Rich Birch — Let’s let’s pivot and kind of talk a little bit about the book specifically. i want to make sure people pick up copies of this. Again, the name of it is How Did We Get Here? Looking Back to Look Forward. People can get this on Amazon. Are there other places that you would send people if they want to pick up copies of this?Todd Wilson — Yeah. So if they go to church-growth.org, church-growth.org, that’s the book’s homepage. You can actually get the free PDF there. You can get the free audio version there. There’s a full wiki there that people can contribute to. What you kind of mentioned it in passing, but I’ll highlight, it is impossible to read this book and not see yourself in it. Rich Birch — Yes. Yeah.Todd Wilson — Anyone who’s been a Christian for a while, they, the editor of the book said the power of this is going to be, she said, I can tell you the page in the book that I entered the story. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s great. Todd Wilson — So you’ve got the free PDF, the free audio, the wiki, and then for people that just want the paper versions, you can get it on Amazon.Rich Birch — That’s great. And we’ll link to that friends so that you can, you know, find that quickly in the show notes and, and friends, I would encourage you again, to me, I think this could be a great resource to do with your leadership team, as I mentioned earlier. It would be a great kind of conversation starter and really context setter for us to think through these issues as we think about the future. Rich Birch — So kind of as we, as we come to close up today’s conversation, any final words as we wrap up today?Todd Wilson — Rich, I just appreciate the work you’re doing. I want to be an encouragement to pastors. Don’t let this book be, it’s not a deconstruction book. It’s not, oh my goodness, the church has fallen apart.Rich Birch — No, yeah.Todd Wilson — We need to keep plugging away doing what we’re doing, but we also have to have an eye on the future that this operating system that has evolved, everything has a beginning and an end. And this operating system, I believe, is in its final days. I think we’re we’re seeing you know less and less effectiveness with it. And I think we just need to be in a posture of giving permission to the next generations to do some trial and error and experimentation and not be locked into the paradigm of the of the past inheriting previous things.Rich Birch — No, fantastic, Todd. I appreciate you being here. And I would echo that, you know, you’re you’re the kind of leader that’s in our corner trying to help us get better. And so I appreciate the voice that you’ve had for for decades. And so I really appreciate that. Rich Birch — If people want to track with you, get connected, follow along with Multipliers where do we want to send them online?Todd Wilson — Multipliers.org can get me to all the different ways from email to phone to social media. So multipliers.org.Rich Birch — That’s great. Thanks so much, Todd. Appreciate you being here, sir.Todd Wilson — Thank you, Rich. Appreciate it.

WALDO GERALDO FALDO

The Show

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2026

Kick off this morning with a deep dive in to ‘Family Matters’ lore as that’s been Josh’s go-to summertime show. Josh also recounts his visit to Kurt Cobain’s hometown and childhood home. The best way to deal with dogs that hate vacuums is to yell at the vacuums. Plus, ugly dogs, Buzz Ball flavors & so much more on a Wednesdee!

kick family matters kurt cobain waldo geraldo faldo

Where's Waldo? Highlights From My Travels (Part 3) #183

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 14, 2026 42:03

God has done some amazing things with and for The Starting Point Project. Listen in as we discuss a few of the highlights and be greatly encouraged!

ciudad buenas razones la ciudad wolff waldo legislador

Waldo Wolff @WolffWaldo (Legislador de la Ciudad por Vamos x Más) Buenas Razones

Eco Medios Entrevistas

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2026 17:34

Waldo Wolff @WolffWaldo (Legislador de la Ciudad por Vamos x Más) Buenas Razones

Where's Waldo? Highlights From My Travels (Part 2) #182

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2026 47:59

God has done some amazing things with and for The Starting Point Project. Listen in as we discuss a few of the highlights and be greatly encouraged!

Revisiting Fleet Foxes' sparkling landmark folk debut album with Aoife Barry

Nialler9

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 7, 2026 43:12

A live recording from The Big Romance about a 2008 Sub Pop-released classic album of the 2000s. Listen on Apple | Android | Patreon | Pocketcasts | CastBox | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS Feed | Podlink Step into a world of misty melodies and cavernous echoes with Seattle band Fleet Foxes' landmark debut – a defining record of the late-2000s indie folk revival. Led by Robin Pecknold, the album blends the lush, pastoral harmonies of the 1960s with a haunting baroque-pop sensibility and lyrical themes rooted in nature, tradition, and introspection. Like the Bruegel painting on its cover, every track reveals a dense, beautiful world that evokes a timeless – almost mythic Americana sound. This podcast episode is a live recording from our listening party in The Big Romance in April, with guest journalist and Fleet Foxes fan Aoife Barry. Our next Listening Party is Smashing Pumpkins later this month and it's sold out. Listen Closely: Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (2008) A Nialler9 listening party, hosted by Niall Byrne with guest Aoife Barry. Before the album Niall: Hello everyone, how are you? Welcome to the Listen Closely album listening party. I'm Niall, and this is Aoife Barry. Aoife: Hello. Niall: We're here tonight because Aoife picked this album, as she has before. You picked Jeff Buckley last year. Aoife: Yeah, and we ended up doing three of them. Niall: We did, we went to Cork. We did two here and then we went to Cork to talk about Jeff Buckley. And you were at the My Bloody Valentine listening party last year as well, back in October. Aoife: It must have been October, yeah. Niall: Well, obviously we're here for a very different album tonight: Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes, from 2008. As you heard there, we played a bit of the Sun Giant EP by the band, which came out a few months before this album, because we want to give the album its full due. They're a little different, and we'll talk about that. But yeah, you picked the record. Aoife: I did. I obviously must like it. And it's such an incredible record. Is there anybody here who hasn't heard it? That's really exciting, if so. I'm excited for you to hear it. You got a sneak peek there of what the vibe is going to be. I picked it because I love this record, but I also had a funny story about how I first heard them. Back in 2008, when this record came out, I'd read about this band called Fleet Foxes in a music magazine. I don't even think I'd heard a song yet, this is back in the day. And I was on holidays in Berlin, and in the tiny little hostel we were staying in, they had a sign up on the wall: "Who's playing tonight? Fleet Foxes, Café Zapata." I said to my boyfriend, "I think that's a band I read about in the magazine, will we go see them?" And he was like, "Grand." So we went, and they were unbelievable. It was so good. Beach House were supporting them. So it was 2008 smacking you in the face. Niall: Come on. Aoife: And I took photos, which I found. I have photos. Artifacts. One is terrible, the other one's not so terrible, taken on one of those little Canon digital cameras. And I still have the ticket, I kept the ticket, I'm one of those hoarders who keeps all their gig tickets. But it was so good: the venue they played in had a dragon that breathed fire out every fifteen minutes. Niall: So they'd be playing and this dragon… Aoife: I'm not even exaggerating. Fire would just shoot out of this mechanical dragon. It was so Berlin. And Fleet Foxes were so stunning, and Beach House were so stunning. I love Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, I love all those harmony vibes, I wish I was born in the seventies, sadly I was not. So I fell in love with them immediately, and I've been a big fan ever since. Although I'll say I probably dipped a little bit around the Crack-Up era, their third album, but then I saw them when Shore came out, their most recent album, and fell right back in love with them. Niall: We're going to talk about all the albums that come afterwards, but we'll start with this one, because this is presumably your favourite, or one of them. Aoife: Shore is up there as well for me, but yeah. Niall: So what was it about Fleet Foxes at the time? For context: in 2008 there was quite a lot of this kind of music around. We previously did Bon Iver's For Emma, Forever Ago as a listening party, and the funny thing, which I only found out when we did this, is that they have the same origin story in a way. Both songwriters went to a cabin in the woods to pour their heart out and write the songs. Aoife: I think Justin Vernon just got there first in terms of the marketing. Niall: So they must have pulled back on talking about it too much, because it's basically the same thing. They never really talked about Robin Pecknold's writing process in those terms. Aoife: For Emma was such a massive moment, everybody was obsessed with this guy who broke up with a girl and went to a cabin and wrote a record about it. It was the ur indie-folk album. Niall: What was really appealing about Fleet Foxes is that they were so young, between about twenty-two and twenty-seven, and Robin Pecknold was twenty-one when he wrote the record. Which is frankly offensive, you shouldn't be allowed to be so talented at twenty-one. Aoife: I know. And they were clearly these people from Seattle, which we associate with grunge, and then it becomes this place where they're bringing out all the pastoral, outdoorsy, mountain-and-sea vibes of the Washington area. They're obviously really influenced by the seventies too, by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, by Laurel Canyon, but also by Appalachian folk. There's a real purity to what they're doing. The harmonies are unbelievable, there's even a bit of a gospel feeling. So these young guys made this album that was being called an iconic American record on release. The Guardian called it a landmark American album, something like that. And that's special, because you don't get that many records immediately being called landmark. Niall: It was a very exciting time for music around then. I actually brought some records. We mentioned Beach House and Teen Dream earlier, that's a bit later, 2010. I wanted to do a listening party for that at some point, that'd be good craic. Around that time you had Animal Collective and Panda Bear, Person Pitch was right there, that was the apex for that very experimental scene. A few years later we had Sufjan, our very first listening party. And Bon Iver, of course. There's also stuff like Neutral Milk Hotel very much of that vibe. Aoife: I've noticed people covering Neutral Milk Hotel more now. Niall: I think when we got to it, it was on its second go-round, and now it's getting a third, which is great. It's a great record. So, the band were from Seattle, they had a bit of the scruffy flannel-shirt look, but obviously didn't sound like that. The album was written in the woods, in the cabin, brought to the band, and recorded with Phil Ek. Aoife: Who did a lot of stuff with Built to Spill. Niall: Yeah, and he worked with The Shins, and Modest Mouse, a really long history. Aoife: Are The Shins from Seattle as well? Niall: I think they might be. Band of Horses is another one. So they recorded it themselves with Phil Ek, paid for it all themselves, and then the local major independent label Sub Pop came calling. Obviously known for a lot of grunge traditionally, but they'd clearly been releasing this kind of music around then too, The Shins had been on the label for a few years, Band of Horses. When it came to it, they signed to Sub Pop. Apparently there was a bidding war. Aoife: They'd become quite popular on MySpace. Anybody remember MySpace? Every time I do one of these I feel older and older, mentioning the top eight, the randomers you'd put in your top eight. Word could spread quite quickly once you got popular on MySpace. Niall: What I thought was really interesting, that I discovered when I was researching, is that recording the album was actually a total pain for them. They didn't have much money, so they ended up recording a lot of it in their houses, or in Robin Pecknold's family home. And he re-did all the vocals right before they mastered the record, because he'd been sick during the initial sessions and his voice wasn't in great shape. They recorded it all in one go, scrapped that, did another version, and kept moving the running order around. I'm always fascinated by albums where the creation was a total pain and they had no idea it would even work out. Robin Pecknold actually said, "I hope nobody cares about this album, because I just want to move on to the next one." And then it becomes this iconic record. Aoife: Isn't every artist sick of their album by the time it's done? You're like, "my paintings." Yeah. Niall: 2008 was an interesting time for it to land. The album draws on the Beach Boys and Brian Wilson, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Nick Drake, Simon & Garfunkel, Fairport Convention, Judee Sill, very much old-timey or sixties folk and pastoral stuff. And in 2008 there's a financial crash. The album was worked on before that, but it was released into that environment, and a lot of this music seemed to catch. When things go bad, we retreat, we dream, we listen to music that's maybe the opposite of what we're feeling. There was a gentleness, an unhurriedness to it that resonated. Aoife: Grizzly Bear is another band from that time. When Jay-Z and Beyoncé went to see Grizzly Bear in Brooklyn, that was kind of where all the indie music peaked. Niall: And the other part of it, which I was involved in, was the MP3 blogs, that's where you'd hear this music. Especially the American and Canadian stuff, no one was promoting it over here yet, so you'd be months ahead. You'd hear Fleet Foxes in these MP3 formats. That was a mad period, it showed how the internet could collapse geography, a song could spread really quickly on the blogs. And in an American context, this came out post-Bush, with the Obama era coming in, a more hopeful tone. You had the Lehman Brothers crash, these global pressures, and then these hopeful times too. It's interesting to wonder whether these albums are a reaction to it, or whether they appeal to us because we want nice, happy things. I feel like Fleet Foxes have so much emotional depth: there's yearning, sadness, hope, nostalgia. Aoife: I loved Yellow House by Grizzly Bear, their first record, a complex, complicated, almost jazzy thing that sounded beautiful but had a lot going on. We weren't going for simplistic music, but we wanted music that gave us depth and beauty. Is art a solution to the world collapsing? Niall: We could be answering that in 2026. We live in a cursed timeline, as I keep saying. That's all I'm going to say. But what else happened in 2008 in the wider circle of music? Portishead returned with Third. TV on the Radio released Dear Science. MGMT released Oracular Spectacular, 'Kids' and all that. Cut Copy released In Ghost Colours, Indie Sleaze night on Saturday, folks, come on. Kanye put out 808s & Heartbreak, that was November that year. Rihanna was at the peak of her powers. Aoife: Katy Perry appeared that year. And 'American Boy'. Niall: 'American Boy', still one of the best pop songs, fire. Iron & Wine was the other one I forgot to mention. So it was a really vibrant, varied year. As you heard, there's the Sun Giant EP too. Aoife: The thing about that is it came out before the album, but was recorded after. The album was done, in the bag. Niall: They decided to go into the studio and record Sun Giant, a collection of songs intended to sell on tour. It ended up being quite popular, and for a lot of people it was their first time discovering Fleet Foxes. Aoife: It wasn't like The Coronas' 'San Diego Song', their summer-holiday anthem, or anything like that. But it came out before the album, and then the album arrives. Niall: So what was the reaction at the time? Was it immediate? Aoife: Things happened really quickly. In January that year they got all the MySpace attention, and by June the album was coming out. Really, really quick. There was so much chatter about them, which is partly why I'd seen the name, and a music blog like yours would have seen it too, and known they were one of the big bands. In a way that's harder now. Niall: These days you see bands like Geese getting a lot of attention because they use companies that help them go viral. You didn't really have that then. Now you'd dress yourself up in some gimmick, polka dots, whatever, and go viral all over the internet for it. I couldn't imagine these lads doing that. Aoife: No. But maybe in a way they were cosplaying living in the forest, on the Puget Sound. Niall: Anyway, when the album came out, people loved them, and it really hit it off. Because they sound so seventies, your parents would love the records and you'd love the records. There's almost a lullaby quality to the folk stuff too. The music is applicable to anybody of any generation, and there's something lovely about nostalgic music that reminds you of a better time. To finish on that point: I think there's something very mysterious about Fleet Foxes, they feel out of time. They're these young, scruffy lads with the beards, but there's a mystery to them. They didn't come across as the hipster end of things, they weren't leaning into anything. They were presented as the kind of band that wouldn't have had phones, would have lived off-grid, which is funny because they were a MySpace band. They're the most un-MySpace band you can imagine. Surprise people, do something a bit different, don't be exactly what people want you to be, and they'll love you for it. And then your songs are unbelievable too, soaring and stunning. Can we talk for a second about the cover? It's an original painting from 1559 by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Netherlandish Proverbs. It depicts a densely populated Flemish village scene illustrating 126 folk proverbs. There's a lot there. Some on this side are cut off, but for example, this woman here, she's putting the blue cloak on her husband, meaning she deceives him. This guy is casting roses before swine, wasting effort on the unworthy. And right at the top there's a man running through a field with his arse on fire, chasing pigs, "he who eats fire craps sparks," do not be surprised at the outcome if you attempt a dangerous venture. There are 126 of those. Aoife: The interesting thing is that the band managed to get permission to use it. Really unusual to be allowed use it as commercial artwork. Niall: And apparently the museum that holds the artwork were delighted. A lot of stars aligned for them. It's an iconic cover because it's so different from what anybody else was doing, clearly of a particular period, and it has that Where's Wally quality. I have a quote about it. Robin said: "We were trying to figure out what we wanted to do, and my brother had been working some stuff out, when I saw this Bruegel painting in a book my girlfriend had. I liked that it had a really intriguing meaning, there's a story to each little scene, which felt fitting for the record. It was dense but unified, not a collage. It has a Where's Waldo quality, something you could look at for a long time on a vinyl sleeve and keep finding new little things. It was very easy to get the museum in Berlin that has it to say yes, they were super excited the band wanted to use it, and put it in their newsletter. When you open it up, on the inside there's a Paisley pattern traced from the back of a book that Skyler's mum got me. We wanted two very different feelings." So, what to look out for when we press play very shortly? Aoife: When I was going back to this, I had it in my head that every song was one of these big songs, because there are so many big moments. But actually there are two tracks that are pretty much acoustic, so it's interesting to notice how they go from the big sound to the small. And for me they're a real emotion-and-feeling band, so notice how you feel listening to it. I always feel this swell of emotion with Fleet Foxes, I was walking down the road listening to Shore and I was like, my God. So lean back and feel into the emotions they're bringing you. And listen to the lyrics if you can make them out, because they're so out of time, all about pack horses and this amazing imagery. Robin Pecknold said he didn't write about a lot of personal stuff because he didn't have enough life experience yet, so instead he wrote these beautifully poetic narratives about pastoral and rural life. So I'd say the lyrics and the feelings are the two things. Niall: Track two, 'White Winter Hymnal', is probably the biggest one, watch out for that. And a few other people thanked and cited as influences, for some extra context: Brian Wilson, Joanna Newsom, Bob Dylan, Noah Lennox and all the lads from Animal Collective, Levon Helm and Robbie Robertson of The Band, Blitzen Trapper, who they toured with at the time and who were bigger than them then. For some reason Joni Mitchell and Neil Young are listed together, which is fair enough. Marvin Gaye, Damien Jurado, Paul Simon and John Lennon listed together. Townes Van Zandt, a legend. Vashti Bunyan, and Van Morrison. There's a nice quote from Robin Pecknold I'll read afterwards. Let's just open it up and listen. I'll play it at full volume, it's about thirty-nine minutes, two sides. Close your eyes, whatever you want to do, vibe away in your own way. [The album plays: Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes, 39 minutes.] After the album Niall: It's quite an economical album, isn't it? It doesn't stick around long, thirty-nine minutes. Aoife: I like an economical album. It's also one of the first fairly short records we've done here. Niall: That's part of why I was thinking about Sun Giant in that context too. I'm going to read a bit from the liner notes, because for an album that's very much about feelings, with only a few direct songs, some of what's written here is interesting: "My first memory has always been of me and my mom on a cold grey day down at some beach in Washington, along the Puget Sound somewhere near Seattle. I would be around two or three years old, and we were with a friend of mine from the neighbourhood and his mom, walking among the driftwood looking for crabs. Even now I can remember the smell and temperature of the air, the feeling of the sand and the swaying tall grass. I can even remember looking over at my friend and how his face looked when he smiled back at me. Another memory I'll sometimes recall as my first is dressing up in the dead of summer as Jack London, with tennis rackets on my feet and wearing my dad's hiking pack, after seeing Disney's terrible version of White Fang. Or the memory of stealing my neighbour's Big Wheel and riding it halfway down the block before getting caught and having to turn around defeated. Or wearing a fireman's outfit while washing my parents' car, or eating an orange popsicle from the ice cream truck. These have always been some of my most distinct and persistent memories of childhood. So it came as a disappointment when, one day as a teenager, I opened up a photo album and found pictures of each and every one of these memories. I didn't have a single memory that didn't belong to, or somehow grow from, those pictures my parents had. I guess I've seen all these photographs at some point, forgotten they were just photographs, and over time made them into my most tangible memories. That's scary to me in a way. This leads me to something weird about the power music has: its transportability. Any time I hear a song or record that meant a lot to me at a certain moment, I'm instantly taken back to that place in full detail. Whenever I hear 'Feel Flows' by the Beach Boys, I'm taken straight to the back of my parents' car on the way to my grandparents' place, with Surf's Up in my Walkman and the Cascade Mountains going by in the window. Any song off Radiohead's Kid A brings back the airport near Seattle, from when we were on the way to Colorado for a wedding and Kid A was the only record I brought or wanted to bring. 'Crayon Angels' by Judee Sill is the whole winter of last year. And Brian Wilson's solo version of 'Surf's Up' takes me back to driving my parents' car around town alone at sixteen, windows down at night. I can't ascribe exact memories to songs by The Microphones, Joni Mitchell, Built to Spill, Dungen, Harry Nilsson and so many others, and it's a form of recall I can actually trust, there's no visual element to complicate things, no chance of a planted memory that wasn't actually supposed to be there. Maybe I should be concerned that I'm alone in almost all of these memories, but I guess I was just a private kid, and music was a private experience for me. Music activates a certain mental freedom in a way nothing else can, and that is so empowering. You can call it escapism if you like, but I see it as connecting to a deeper human feeling than the one found in the day-to-day world." Aoife: That's lovely. It's a nice addendum. And he was only twenty-one. Niall: For some reason it's signed "Warren Gamaliel Bancroft Winnipeg Harding," Warren G. Harding being the 29th president of the United States. I don't know why, he thought it was funny. Dated April 6th, 2008, Chicago, Illinois. So, any particular highlights, anything that stood out? Aoife: I was reminded how much I love 'Blue Ridge Mountains', the second-to-last song. I just love those four- and five-part harmonies so much. There's something that really gets me about beautiful harmonies stacked on each other that sound so natural. My dad was really into Neil Young and all of that era, my mum's really into Simon & Garfunkel, so I feel like I came out of the womb going, this is the music I love. Niall: There was another one I meant to mention. Aoife: I'm really bad at remembering song names, which isn't great for an arts journalist. They go in one ear and out the other. Niall: 'He Doesn't Know Why'. Aoife: That was it. I always forget the name of that one, and it's an absolute banger. It's quite a direct song, the last one on the first side. Niall: He mentions his brother Sean in 'Blue Ridge Mountains', which is interesting. And Oliver James is his younger brother, that's the last song. Aoife: His sister is Aja, after the Steely Dan album. The parents were really into them. Niall: It holds up so well. The harmonies and vocals sound incredible, there are those beautiful little flourishes, a flute on one of the tracks, the guitar is stunning, lovely little bass lines. I love the way Robin Pecknold and the band hear music. There's a really good Song Exploder episode with him talking about a song from Crack-Up, and the way he thinks about translating his thoughts and emotions into music is so illuminating. He has a beautiful melodic flow that's really similar to the flow of water and nature. There are so many nature references, it's almost parody there are so many. Aoife: You could do a Portlandia sketch about it. "Power of nature, man." "Come down from the mountain, you've been gone too long." Niall: In terms of the line-up: alongside Robin Pecknold on vocals there was Skyler Skjelset on lead guitar, his best friend from Nathan Hale High School, later joined by Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo on bass, and Nicholas Peterson on drums, who left after this album. Aoife: And who came in as the drummer? Niall: A man who's been a main character in one of these listening parties himself: Josh Tillman, Father John Misty, played drums with them. Aoife: For how long? Niall: Only a year or two, pretty short. As I said, main character, he was making his own record. Any Father John Misty fans? He writes really good songs and he's handsome, so we all love him, but he's also a bit of a pain, and he didn't get on very well with Robin Pecknold, which isn't surprising. When I was looking back at the Pitchfork interview they did in 2008, a few months after the album came out, it was a big joint interview with Robin and Josh Tillman, and Tillman is answering the questions at the start. That's confidence. Do you want to hear a quote from what Robin Pecknold said? I've written it in my little notebook, so old-school, that's the only way I remember these things. In a 2020 Reddit AMA, Pecknold said that on that tour, the Helplessness Blues tour, Tillman was supposed to bring out his own record, but his label said he could only release it after the tour. So he was on tour thinking, "I want to bring out my own record, I'm tired of Fleet Foxes." Pecknold said he "had to endure being around a lot of substance abuse, sabotaged shows, general ill treatment and shit-talking, all while paying him for songs he didn't have anything to do with. It sucked." And then Tillman left the band. Whereas in that Pitchfork interview he'd said, "I love playing in this band, these are all my friends, I'm having the best time, I'm sorry if that's a corny quote, but that's the best thing about this experience right now." Aoife: So he was lying through his teeth. I think he's the kind of person who really has to be a solo artist, too iconic a personality. You wouldn't want to wrangle him out of bed to get to the next show. Niall: Too big a price. You mentioned Pitchfork, the album was number one on their end-of-year list in 2008, and they listed Sun Giant alongside it, breaking the traditional conventions of end-of-year lists. What they said was: listing Fleet Foxes' debut album and EP together may be awkward, but it just feels right, they're two sides of a coin that equally express the band's mastery, "a catch-all Americana that takes a wide slice of our popular music spectrum and pulls it through a reverse prism to create a gorgeous and focused sound of the band's own. The threads of Brian Wilson's coastal pop, Appalachian folk, modern indie rock, Grateful Dead jams and other influences are masterfully synthesised in the band's harmonies." Robin Pecknold's sense of dynamics, they said, flows like a river, wild and free but logical, filling what needs to be filled and moving on. I swear I didn't rip that off Pitchfork, I came up with something similar on my own. Aoife: Very good. Niall: It was Uncut's album of the year too. But more than anything, and this is a strange accolade, the album was ranked number 36 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest stoner albums. Aoife: I don't think Robin Pecknold was a stoner. It doesn't really fit. He's a reader. Niall: So what came after? Helplessness Blues, which is really difficult to say, in 2011, then Crack-Up in 2017, then Shore in 2020. Big long gaps, some personnel changes. And Robin Pecknold, as we've established, is a very literary guy, he went to Columbia to do an undergrad in English literature, because he'd left high school early and gone to a community college, and he really wanted that college experience. So that was part of the break. He's also had difficult times, he's spoken about mental health issues and suicidal ideation, many tough experiences that contributed to the gaps too. They haven't released anything since 2020, and he does a lot of cover events. There are two live records. He's actually playing a gig tonight, I think, where he covers Judee Sill. Any Judee Sill fans? Aoife: Oh my gosh, she's amazing. Nobody ever knows Judee Sill. If you listen to anything, listen to Heart Food, it's iconic. He loves her, mentions her on this record. She's the one who does 'The Kiss', people might have seen her perform it on the Old Grey Whistle Test, it's on YouTube. She had a really tragic life. Niall: One of those I've been meaning to listen to properly for years. She only has two records, so it's easy to get into. There's a documentary about her as well, which I haven't seen. Aoife: She's one of those ill-fated seventies musicians, really religious imagery, did a lot of drugs, really interesting. Niall: Did you get to see them again after your first foray in Berlin? Aoife: I saw them when they toured, though it's really bad when you can't remember what you were doing in the 2010s. Niall: Did anybody see them at that Dublin gig, the outdoor one in 2022? Wasn't it amazing. They've played here a fair bit: Vicar Street in 2008, Electric Picnic 2009, The Marquee in Cork 2011, the Iveagh Gardens in 2017. I don't know if I've missed any, maybe you can tell me. So if you were to pick, is there any further listening or reading you'd suggest to somebody, not necessarily Fleet Foxes? Aoife: Some of it is obvious. As I said, I'd definitely check out Judee Sill, because if you really like Fleet Foxes you'd really vibe with her. And he mentions Harry Nilsson, also unbelievable, more well known than Judee Sill, did the cover of 'Everybody's Talkin''. I'd also mention a guy people would have known at one point but isn't very well known now: Richard Swift. He sadly passed away a couple of years ago. He was friends with Robin Pecknold, a hugely talented musician who struggled with addiction. He has an amazing double album from around 2005 or 2006 that's brilliant, and a record called The Hex, which is referenced on 'Sunblind' on Shore, that's the song where Robin name-checks a lot of musicians he loves, like Elliott Smith, David Berman and Richard Swift. It's such a beautiful record for finding new people to listen to, and it's lovely to hear a musician pay tribute to musicians he loves. The imagery is him talking about this beautiful day where he'll go for a swim and listen to all these beautiful bands, an ecstatic kind of song. So check out all of those records, but Richard Swift deserves more fans, and The Hex is really, really good. Niall: Good shout. What we'll do now is play a tune, and then maybe give Sun Giant another go if you want to stick around. Our next listening party is on the 27th of May, and it's an indie-rock album very close to my heart: Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It in People. I've been wanting to do this one on record for a long time. They're playing here later in the year, but I want to give this record its flowers, it's incredible. My niece has just turned seventeen and I bought her a copy, because it's an anthemic record for a seventeen-year-old. I can't believe that band are still going, which is kind of mad, but it's hard to underline what Broken Social Scene meant to a certain segment of indie. Aoife: And there's four hundred of them on stage. They're from Canada, and we were all like, my God, these people are the best. Niall: For me it's the MP3 times again, we'll talk about this next month. I heard about them through the music blogs, and then I got to see them in the Button Factory, which was the Temple Bar Music Centre at the time. It was one of the first things I ever wrote about, back in 2005. A transcendental experience. Aoife: They're so good live. Niall: I once DJ'd in Galway after one of their gigs, and one of the members of the band, I'll leave him nameless, came over and turned off the decks while I was DJing. Aoife: On purpose? Niall: He was that drunk. I can't remember what I was playing, but I was like, great, DJing after Broken Social Scene and then a band member ruins it. I don't think he liked it. No, I think he was just really drunk and thought it was funny. Thumbs down to him. In a way it's surprising a man like that has managed to persist in a band with so many members. Anyway, I digress. We'll talk about it next month, May 27th. Aoife: I cannot wait. I've been listening to it a lot lately again, it's fantastic. Niall: Thank you for being here. Let's play a bit of this and see what happens. Thanks for being here, appreciate it.

united states god tv music american canada power chicago english kids disney washington young canadian colorado dj fire seattle radio berlin surprise barack obama kanye west illinois built horses band wine beyonce guardian columbia rolling stones bush dublin led rihanna heartbreak folk elder bob dylan americana canon john lennon surf myspace djing neil young microphones shore uncut beach boys radiohead appalachian spill grateful dead marvin gaye cork landmark joni mitchell paul simon smashing pumpkins brian wilson galway artifacts waldo geese niall steely dan pitchfork lehman brothers stills van morrison garfunkel thumbs hex sparkling walkman beach house tillman puget sound bon iver aja mgmt debut albums my bloody valentine marquee grizzly bears jeff buckley every body jack london aoife portishead portlandia coronas nick drake laurel canyon elliott smith modest mouse robbie robertson father john misty listening party harry nilsson fleet foxes shins flemish big wheels sub pop townes van zandt song exploder animal collective levon helm panda bears reddit ama neutral milk hotel broken social scene crack up fairport convention bruegel warren g harding electric picnic cascade mountains joanna newsom justin vernon yellow house white fang listen closely david berman dungen damien jurado cut copy pieter bruegel judee sill forever ago sufjan vashti bunyan blitzen trapper vicar street indie sleaze old grey whistle test richard swift robin pecknold oracular spectacular teen dream aoife barry josh tillman iveagh gardens helplessness blues noah lennox nialler9 dear science niall byrne

Where's Waldo? Highlights From My Travels (Part 1) #181

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2026 39:24

God has done some amazing things with and for The Starting Point Project. Listen in as we discuss a few of the highlights and be greatly encouraged!

Lazy Parenting with Stephanie Kennedy

85. How Readers Are Really Made

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2026 17:12

Wondering how to raise a reader?Worried about graphic novels, reluctant readers, or kids who just won't sit still long enough to finish a chapter?Trying to figure out whether screen time is killing your child's love of books — or whether your son who only reads Diary of a Wimpy Kid even counts as a reader?In this episode Stephanie reframes the whole conversation.Because the question most parents are asking, "how do I get my kid to read", is actually the wrong question. The better question is: how do you raise someone who thinks of themselves as a reader?Starting with the moment she discovered her daughter Katie used to cover her reading lamp with her hand when she heard footsteps in the hallway so nobody would know she was still awake reading past her bedtime. She wasn't sneaking her phone. She was sneaking her book.This episode covers: Are graphic novels real reading? (Yes. Here's why.)What to do with boys who won't sit still long enough to read.The book list Stephanie's son Nick put together from memory. Every book he remembers loving, organized by age and reading level.What a Yoto player is and why it matters for pre-readers.How to read alongside your kids instead of just telling them to read.Why the no-screens-in-bedrooms rule quietly built a reading culture in Stephanie's house over twenty years.Plus the line that changes how you think about all of it:Families don't raise readers. Families create homes where reading is normal.Nick's full book list — graphic novels, funny books, adventure series, non-fiction and more:NICK'S BOOK LIST FOR YOUNG BOYSBOOKS WITH PICTURES OR EASIER BOOKS TO START WITH• Amulet• Bone• Geronimo Stilton• Lunch Lady by Jarrett J. Krosoczka• Diary of a Wimpy Kid• Captain Underpants (lots of spin-off series)• STAT: Standing Tall and Talented (basketball books)• Smile (maybe more for girls but according to Nick, still good)• Jedi Academy “Really good”• Origami Yoda • Potterwookiee (part of The Creature from My Closet series)• Who Would Win? (books that imagine two different animals fighting each other)• Big NateA STEP UP - Nick started reading many of these around Grade 3:• Warriors (the cat books)• Harry Potter• Percy Jackson• I Am Number Four (lots of books in the series)• The 39 Clues• Goosebumps (Scary stuff, but good)• The Spiderwick Chronicles• Holes• Magic Tree House• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume• Choose Your Own Adventure books• How to Eat Fried Worms• Bruno and Boots• Loki's WolvesNON-FICTION AND OTHER BOOKS BOYS MAY LOVE• Fun facts about animals (the more dangerous the animals, the bette)• Fun facts about space• Books about different climates, including jungles, the Arctic and deserts• Anything about the depths of the ocean, especially creatures like the colossal squid• Books about historical periods such as dinosaurs, Ancient Rome and the Vikings• Guinness World Records• Encyclopedias or “ultimate guides” connected to a favourite show or character, such as the Pokémon Ultimate Handbook• Ultimate guides for video games they enjoy• Where's Waldo?• I Spy books• Books with titles like The Ultimate Guide to Being a Ninja• Books about aliens and whether they might be real• Books about monsters and how to hunt them• Books about myths and legends: What is the chupacabra, where did the story come from, and how might you find one in real life?Save it. You will use it.Lazy Parenting Podcast | Episode 85 | lazyparenting.ca | @lazyparenting

starting books fun families warriors smile diary pok wondering creatures worried grade arctic readers ultimate guide talented waldo ancient rome wimpy kid i spy who would win yoto fourth grade nothing my closet

Why Motherhood Makes You Better at Business (Not Worse): Lessons on Burnout, Capacity & Building a Sustainable Life | Priya Rednam Waldo

She's Crafted To Thrive™

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2026 58:34 Transcription Available

The business advice you're following probably wasn't written for someone whose capacity changes with the seasons of motherhood. It wasn't written for someone navigating pregnancy, postpartum, chronic health challenges, or school pickup while trying to grow a business they love.In this conversation, licensed perinatal therapist, keynote speaker, CEO, and mother of four Priya Rednam Waldo shares why motherhood doesn't make you less capable—it can actually make you a stronger leader and business owner when you stop measuring success by constant productivity.Drawing from her own experience with military service, chronic health challenges, traumatic birth experiences, postpartum mental health, and building a thriving private practice, Priya shares what it really looks like to create a business that honors your values, your family, and your changing capacity.Whether you're raising children, navigating chronic illness, recovering from burnout, or simply trying to build a business that fits your real life, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on success that doesn't require sacrificing yourself to achieve it.In this episode, we discuss:Why motherhood can make you a better business owner—not a less capable oneHow chronic illness, burnout, and changing capacity reshape the way we workBuilding a business that supports your life instead of competing with itLetting go of perfectionism and redefining success on your own termsCreating a sustainable business model that doesn't require you to be available 24/7Why building a support village is essential for both motherhood and entrepreneurshipProtecting your energy, honoring your values, and making decisions without guiltHow to lead with intention instead of constantly pushing through exhaustionThis episode is for you if:You're building a business while raising children and wondering if it's possible to do both well.You're navigating pregnancy, postpartum, or the changing seasons of motherhood.You live with chronic illness, burnout, or fluctuating energy and need a more sustainable way to work.You're tired of business advice built around unlimited capacity and constant hustle.You want to build a successful business without sacrificing your health, your family, or yourself.

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In Tune with the Infinite - Ralph Waldo Trine

The Communist Manifesto - Karl Marx

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 29, 2026 286:28

"In Tune with the Infinite" by Ralph Waldo Trine explores the profound connection between individuals and the Universe, emphasizing that by harmonizing with this cosmic force, we can attract love, health, peace, and success into our lives. As a pivotal work in the "New Thought" movement of the late 1800s and early 1900s, Trine's insights laid the groundwork for what would later evolve into the "New Age" movement. The themes of personal empowerment and the pursuit of a harmonious existence remain relevant today, encouraging listeners to reflect on their own connections with the Universe and the possibilities that arise from a positive mindset.

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Episodio 62. SESIÓN DOBLE: CHICHO IBAÑEZ SERRADOR - La Residencia (1969) - ¿Quién puede matar a un niño? (1976)

MANIATIC Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 28, 2026 241:29

LA RESIDENCIA (1969) / ¿QUIÉN PUEDE MATAR A UN NIÑO? (1976) ¿Se puede cambiar la historia del cine con solo dos películas? Narciso Chicho Ibáñez Serrador demostró que sí. En este episodio de Maniatic Podcast nos metemos de lleno en las dos obras maestras más perturbadoras del terror español. Primero viajamos al oscuro e hipnótico internado de La Residencia, un retorcido precedente del slasher que fascinó al mismísimo Dario Argento. Después pasamos sin frenos al sol cegador de ¿Quién puede matar a un niño?, ese tabú definitivo que destruyó la inocencia infantil en pantalla y que te va a arruinar las vacaciones para siempre. Además, aprovechamos este díptico para repasar la biografía de este genio y entender cómo cambió las reglas del género. Dale al play si echas de menos cuando el cine de terror era verdaderamente salvaje, audaz y descarnado. Para analizar este programa doble nos acompaña de nuevo un invitado de auténtico lujo: Xavi Sánchez Pons, escritor, crítico de música y cine, coordinador de publicaciones y programador del Festival de Sitges, autor de El Almanaque del vídeo, miembro de los podcasts Estamos Vivas y Marea Nocturna, además de responsable de contenidos adicionales en formato doméstico. Y antes de arrancar, ya sabes cómo va esto: anímate y déjanos un comentario contándonos qué te parecen estas pelis y el episodio. Si te gusta el contenido, no te olvides de darle un buen me gusta a ese corazón. Equipo Maniático: Albert San (Mr. Maniático), Naila Knight, Miguel y Montse Vela. ¡¡¡Saludos Maniáticos!!!!!! Intro Musical SINOIA CAVES — “1983 Main Titles” Música de Waldo de los Ríos

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SportsCall 7.27.26

chicken los angeles dodgers auburn braves pga tour best worst waldo sec media days

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 27, 2026 138:27

Ryan Lavoie, Tom Peavy, and JJ Jackson broadcast live from Son's Ford in Auburn to recap SEC Media Days and recap Jackson Koivun's first PGA Tour win. Enjoy this Monday edition of SportsCall!! 0:49 - Show Open 7:11 - SEC Media Days Recap 20:36 - Waldo's Chicken and Beer Birthdays in Sports 31:07 - SEC Media Predictions 47:05 - Hour 2 Open 50:22 - Pre Season All SEC Teams 1:13:06 - Greg Sankey Interview 1:35:14 - Hour 3 Open 1:36:05 - Can the Braves pass the Dodgers? 1:46:36 - Champ Anthony Interview 1:58:35 - Jackson Koivun wins 3M Open 2:10:40 - Best/Worst of the Weekend

Do I Have A Purpose | Waldo Ramirez

Mercy Street Church

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 26, 2026 33:12

Sermon Series: Am I.....?Thank you for listening to the Disciple City Church Podcast! To learn more about us or to connect with us, please visit our…Website: https://disciplecitychurch.orgInstagram: https://instagram.com/disciplecitychurch Facebook: https://facebook.com/disciplecitychurch

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WFYM 383 - Lint Blunt (PREVIEW)

WFYM Talk Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2026 5:59

Chevy small block engine fans are going to love this one but fans of Marco Polo might as well skip it entirely the same way he skipped his trip and made everything up. They had to put Where's Waldo above the urinals so no one would look at the guy next to them but one guy ended up spending all day standing there and everyone had to pee in the sink like a Buddhist. If you listen to NSBM all of the Simpsons are judging you https://www.patreon.com/ChapoFYM/posts/wfym-383-lint-163911191

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The Salesman - Waldo T. Boyd

Daily Short Stories - Science Fiction

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2026 7:36

Immerse yourself in captivating science fiction short stories, delivered daily! Explore futuristic worlds, time travel, alien encounters, and mind-bending adventures. Perfect for sci-fi lovers looking for a quick and engaging listen each day.

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SportsCall 7.14.26

Alloy Personal Training Business

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 14, 2026 142:25

Ryan Lavoie, Tom Peavy and Brooks Childress react to Auburn baseball's new hitting coach, breakdown who we will see at SEC Media Days and see who has been meeting expectations for the Braves at the All-Star break. Enjoy this Tuesday edition of SportsCall!! 0:55 - Show Open 7:55 - Auburn Baseball new coach 25:59 - Waldo's Chicken and Beer Birthdays in Sports 33:31 - Auburn Football Media Days 47:15 - Hour 2 Open 49:53 - SEC Media Days 1:10:25 - Phone Calls 1:36:46 - Hour 3 Open 1:42:20 - Braves Meeting Expectations.

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HPR4680: Robert A. Heinlein: The Future History, Part 2

Hacker Public Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 10, 2026

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. In his early days as a writer, Heinlein wrote his stories in the context of a shared universe that he called the Future History. These were mostly short stories at first, with the occasional novella. But they include some great stories. The Future History, Part 2 There were a few key themes running through Heinlein's body of work. One we have already remarked upon, individual freedom, which had to be protected from any source of power, including both government and private corporations. This was essentially a libertarian perspective, but unlike many of today's libertarians he was equally averse to the corporate type of power as a threat. But he had a complex view of the world which has resisted some attempts to pigeonhole him. He started out as a socialist, and while he didn't remain one, he never became a knee-jerk reactionary either. In fact, he clearly despised them just as much. One way of looking at his body of work is that he explored the ramifications of different social policies through his stories, but in most cases the needs of a good story came first in the early years. In his later works he often surrendered to the temptation to pontificate, which reduced the enjoyment of them somewhat for anyone who was not already in agreement with his opinions The second major theme you see throughout all of his works is the idea of the competent individual. He admired anyone who could do a job well, and clearly did not care whether they were man or woman, nor black or white. Alexei Panshin writes, in Heinlein in Dimension: “There is one unique and vivid human Heinlein character, but he is a composite of Joe-Jim Gregory, Harriman, Waldo, Lazarus Long, Mr. Kiku, and many others, rather than any one individual. I call the composite the Heinlein Individual. . . . It is a single personality that appears in three different stages and is repeated in every Heinlein book in one form or another. “The earliest stage is that of the competent but naïve youngster. . . . The second stage is the competent man in full glory, the man who knows how things work. . . . The last stage is the wise old man who not only knows how things work, but why they work, too.” Harriman we have already encountered in The Man Who Sold The Moon, and the others appear later. The Heinlein Individual, as he is often referred to, appears in many of Heinlein's stories. A third major theme has to do with morality and religion. Heinlein grew up in what he considered the heart of the Bible Belt, in Missouri, and saw first-hand how the evangelical Christians operated, and despised what he saw. As someone who believed in individual freedom, he could never surrender to someone else's idea of how he should live his life. He saw them as a danger to his ideal libertarian society, and this shows up very early in his work. He personified the good, upright, church-going folk as “Mrs. Grundy”, and while you might want to draw the drapes to keep her from knowing what you were doing, you should never let her dictate how you would live your life. Revolt in 2100 begins the exploration of this in detail. There is a chart of the future history at Baen Books, and in it we see that the 1960s were what Heinlein called The Crazy Years. (Remember, he conceived this in the 1940s and 1950s.) But in 2012 the major thing occurred when Nehemiah Scudder, a backwoods preacher, managed to get elected as President. This would be the last election held under the U.S. Constitution as he established a religious dictatorship that lasted a couple of generations. IS this plausible? Heinlein wrote about this: “As for … the idea that we could lose our freedom by succumbing to a wave of religious hysteria, I am sorry to say that I consider it possible. I hope that it is not probable. But there is a latent deep strain of religious fanaticism in this, our culture; it is rooted in our history and it has broken out many times in the past. “It is with us now; there has been a sharp rise in strongly evangelical sects in this country in recent years, some of which hold beliefs theocratic in the extreme, anti-intellectual, anti-scientific, and anti-libertarian.“ His background in the Bible Belt is what informs a lot of his thinking. He goes on to describe how this might happen: “Throw in a Depression for good measure, promise a material heaven here on earth, add a dash of anti-Semitism, anti-Catholicism, anti-Negroism, and a good large dose of anti-“furriners” in general and anti-intellectuals here at home, and the result might be something quite frightening — particularly when one recalls that our voting system is such that a minority distributed as pluralities in enough states can constitute a working majority in Washington.” As the science fiction author David Brin points out, Heinlein accurately predicted much of what we are going through in the United States right now. There is an emerging dictatorship in the United States, promoted by right-wing religious groups. The “material heaven here on earth” is represented by the Prosperity Gospel, prominent in the Trump movement, and so on. Where the Prophet used a restored Ku Klux Klan as his muscle, we have The Proud Boys, and so on. It really does track very closely. Read David Brin's article for more on this. But nothing lasts forever. Empires rise and fall, governments change, and in this case a resistance movement arises. The revolt is depicted in the novella If This Goes On— (1940), and it is set in the year 2100, giving the title to the book. The main character is John Lyle, who is a young army officer assigned to the group protecting The Prophet in his capital of New Jerusalem. In the beginning he is thoroughly indoctrinated, but then begins to question his beliefs when he falls for one of The Prophet's virgins, Sister Judith. He has an older companion in the military who is not only unshocked when John confides in him about his doubts, but offers to help him. It turns out this companion, Zeb Jones, is a member of the underground group called The Cabal that is working to overthrow the theocracy. In the end they are successful, and in the course of this John Lyle does a lot of growing up. In this we see another common characteristic of Heinlein stories: a young, naive boy meets up with an older and wiser man who helps him to grow. In 2016 If This Goes On— won the Retro-Hugo Award for best novella of 1940. And in a personal note, I have T-shirt that says “Scudder for President 2012”. This baffles most people, but I enjoy the in-joke. What is interesting in this book is that Heinlein doesn't stop with a successful revolution. He then goes on in a second novella to describe the government that arose following the revolution, and this story is called Coventry (1940). The new government that arises after the revolution is called The Covenant, and it is an attempt to make sure that what happened with Scudder in 2012 could never happen again. It is a strongly libertarian government based on an agreement to be non-violent. In this society, scientists can cured criminal or violent tendencies, but any citizen convicted of such must agree to the treatment. The alternative to treatment is that they can be exiled to a place called Coventry. Coventry is outside of the Covenant society, and the Covenant society has nothing to do with them. Our protagonist, David McKinnon, is convicted of assault, and chooses to go to Coventry instead of getting treatment. He imagines it is a peaceful anarchy, but is disabused of this notion when he is robbed of all of this possessions upon entry and thrown in jail. A fellow inmate, Fader Magee, helps him escape, and we learn he is an agent of the Covenant government. They learn that two of the factions in Coventry have joined forces, and found a way to break through the barrier that surrounds Coventry. They plan to attack and overthrow the Covenant government. David and Fader separately work to escape and get back to warn the Covenant government, which they do successfully. And by doing this, David has demonstrated that he is no longer a danger to the Covenant society and no longer subject to treatment. This story won a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, which is awarded by the Libertarian Futurist Society. And the Covenant society certainly has libertarian features. But this is not the Randian version of libertarianism, as exemplified by the fact that David is restored to the society because he demonstrated his concern for others. Heinlein always promoted individual freedom, but also the idea that people have a responsibility towards others. Finally, Revolt in 2100 contains the short story Misfit, w2hich we have looked at previously. The Past Through Tomorrow (1967) is a one volume collection of most of the Future history stories. I say most because just which stories belonged in this group could change from time to time. It also has the last version of the Chart of the Future History, and a few stories we have not yet mentioned (Methusaleh's Children, and The Menace From Earth). And many of his other works contain back references to these events that imply that they might be set in the same alternate universe. Heinlein gets the last word on this: “I have never been sure whether or not publishing that chart was a good idea or a bad mistake. Possibly it helped to sell some stories later—but certainly it caused me and still causes me to receive a lot nuisance mail from nitpickers. I have never felt bound by that chart; it was to serve me, not the other way around. If I found myself with a good story notion which fitted fairly well into the chart but not perfectly, I shed no tears—I went ahead and let the inconsistencies stand. I want each story to be internally consistent . . . but I won't let myself be painted into a corner through trying to fit that chart perfectly. I may start another “Future History” story tomorrow . . . and find that to make it a good yarn I must violate some item on that chart. I'll give the nitpickers something to pick, for I will not hurt a good yarn for the sake of “logic”—logic is not involved, as that chart is fiction, not Holy Writ.” Links: https://www.amazon.com/Heinlein-Dimension-Critical-Alexei-Panshin/dp/0911682015 https://web.archive.org/web/20151105170345/http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/1439133417/1439133417___1.htm https://david-brin.medium.com/heinleins-future-history-coming-true-before-our-eyes-10356a95556a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22If_This_Goes_On%E2%80%94%22 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coventry_(short_story) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus_Award#Hall_of_Fame_Award_inductees https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Past_Through_Tomorrow https://www.palain.com/science-fiction/the-golden-age/robert-a-heinlein/the-future-history-part-2/ Provide feedback on this episode.

Make Summer Count: Key Actions for Success with Matt Helland

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2026 30:19

July is the slowest month in fitness. Everyone knows it. The question is what you do about it. Rick Mayo and Matt Helland sit back down in the Beats Lab for one of their unscripted conversations about what it actually looks like to run a great personal training studio when the season is working against you. No guest, no slides, just two people who have been doing this for decades talking through what works. They get into three things you can start doing right now: getting ahead of your members before their schedules fall apart, running a student and teacher special that brings new people in the door at exactly the right time, and a social campaign called Where's Waldo that one of Alloy's top franchisees has turned into one of the best retention and culture tools in the system. Rick also tells the story of Kathy — a client who sat across from him every month for the better part of a year, never once followed his advice, and still became one of his clearest examples of why showing up for people is the whole job. Listen in. You can start using all of this the day you hear it. Key Takeaways: 00:00 If It Becomes Transactional, You Have Already Lost 00:46 Back in the Beats Lab 02:38 Why July Is the Hardest Month in Fitness 06:02 Strategy 1: Have the Summer Schedule Conversation Now 08:22 Do Not Let Them Off the Hook 10:54 The Kathy Story 13:10 Why Alloy Members Do Not Count Sessions 17:38 Strategy 2: Student and Teacher Summer Specials 21:50 The Private School Play and the Scholarship Contest 24:32 Strategy 3: Where's Waldo 28:18 Why Jolson Does It Better Than Anyone 29:14 Wrap Up: Three Things You Can Start Today Additional Resources: - Alloy Personal Training - Learn About The Alloy Franchise Opportunity --------- You can find the podcast on Apple, Google, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you haven't already, please rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts! To learn more about the Alloy Personal Training Franchise Opportunity, visit

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Currently Playing - 25 - Mina the Hollower and StarFox '26 with Fox and Marcy of FYHOD

Talking to Women about Videogames

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 7, 2026 73:16

I headed to a sleepy coastal town on Lake Michigan to hang out with some of the crew from the Fix Your Heart or Die podcast and along the way we figured we might as well get some content on the books. For the first time ever, 2 guests in-studio gathered together to talk Mina the Hollower and StarFox '26 (along with some guesses regarding the future release of Ocarina of Time '26). The mostly free form chat is a sort of "warts and all" podcast with a few disruptions from Waldo the cat, and plenty of technical glitches you only get from recording locally, but it was cool to get face to face on the topic of video games. After this chat, I got the chance to play StarFox '26 and my thoughts are "this sure is StarFox 64 with a coat of paint!" But for more in depth analysis, you'll have to listen to this episode.0:00:00 - Welcome Back to the Show, Shy Fox and Marcy0:05:40 - What Are You Playing? Mina the Hollower0:39:11 - What Are You Playing? StarFox '261:04:10 - Top 3 - David Lynch Movies1:07:09 - Wrap Up/PlugsFix Your Heart or Die podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/5stt5kNgqOKhlPs4jh7UoU?si=d4b2b09d20b24bbeRapid Moon Music: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4gTF4zYZKBIOZ2iAtpOr0zFollow FYHOD on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fixyourheartpod.bsky.socialFollow Marcy's music page on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/oshinai.bsky.socialFollow Daniel on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/douibyorthst.bsky.socialFollow the show on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ttwav.bsky.socialDaniel's music on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/4L6eQUJ07JMsKBnQ5btGAj?si=c624s1Q0Qv6HSQYmbdBxEw

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85 - Dinosaurs

90s Disney

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 6, 2026 60:10

AJ, Mike, and Chris travel back to the golden age of the dinosaurs. That is, the animatronic ones design by Jim Henson's Creature Shop. That's right, we delving into the history and creation of the hit ABC family sitcom Dinosaurs.We explore the show's origins as a feature film idea from Jim Henson himself into a biting satirical sitcom that tackled ideas like warfare, drug use, and corporate greed. The sitcom used groundbreaking technology to create dinosaurs that utilized traditional puppetry and advanced animatronics. With each character requiring at least three performers, this show was a production unlike any in history.00:00 Intro01:23 Why Dinosaurs Rules01:44 1991 Pop Culture Check02:31 Henson Origins and Tech03:33 From Film to Sitcom04:41 After Henson and Disney Deal05:47 Straight to Series Costs06:36 Showrunners and Catchphrases08:12 Satire and Environmental Themes10:34 Designing Dinosaur Everymen12:46 Triple Casting Explained13:08 Main Cast Breakdown21:49 Supporting Cast and Guests26:26 Oil Company Name Easter Eggs26:41 Puppetry Workflow on Set28:25 Waldo and HPCS Controls30:38 Suits Heat and Set Challenges31:25 Reusable Dino Suits33:16 Satire and Hot Topics35:06 Banned Drug Episode36:52 I'm the Baby Song40:19 Disney Parks Appearances42:34 Dark Series Finale46:51 Streaming and Laugh Track48:41 Trivia and Spinoffs50:18 Family Memories and Rewatch55:53 Mailbag and Next Plans59:43 Sign Off and GoodbyeFollow UsBlue Sky | Facebook | Threads | InstagramEmail: 90sDisneyPodcast@gmail.com

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America 250 Celebration! Plus Waldo Troubles and Kelce/Swift Wedding! | 7-3-26

Pete Mundo - KCMO Talk Radio 103.7FM 710AM

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 3, 2026 66:33

America 250 Celebration! Plus Waldo Troubles and Kelce/Swift Wedding! | 7-3-26See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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#4762 A Reverse Where's Waldo

TBTL: Too Beautiful To Live

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2026 67:10

A dark question from a teenager somehow leads to a conversation about Luke and Andrew's respective showering routines. They also discuss the State Of Mickey Rourke (it is not strong) and the perfect salad bowl for mice.

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All Thrust, No Vector | Why Working Hard Isn't the Same as Moving Forward | Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman

The Happy Engineer

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2026 60:24

Watch the Engineering Director Promotion Plan (free): https://youtu.be/ZrRe3O8KHSQ Fear doesn't go away. You just learn to turn the volume up on what matters more. Zach sits down with former F-16 fighter pilot Lt. Col. Waldo Waldman to talk about flying 65 combat missions while battling claustrophobia, why courage isn't the absence of fear, and how engineering leaders build the kind of resilience that actually holds up under pressure. Waldo shares the "why before you fly," the trap of being all thrust and no vector, and why nobody great is doing it solo. You'll learn: Why "envisioning the victory" and knowing who you're flying for pulls you through fear faster than willpower How to tell the difference between real growth and just staying busy in your comfort zone Why courage is love in action — and how that reframes the hard calls you make as a leader The wingman principle: who you need in your cockpit before the missiles start flying

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If You Want Me (Waldo (AR) Remix) [Feverball]

Boom Zwapp Podcast Sessions

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 26, 2026 2:54

If You Want Me (Waldo (AR) Remix) [Feverball] by Ladies On Mars

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790. Funny Church Signs / Where's Waldo Blessing (06/22/26)

Kankelfritz & Friends Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2026 18:20

Kankelfritz & Friends chat about one church that meant well with their church sign message, but has been tuning heads. Also, what one construction worker is doing to bless sick kids in a hospital across the street from his worksite.

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692: A Ross to Bear Edition

The Scathing Atheist

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2026 60:00

In this week's episode, the Grand Canyon state creates an Arizona UNTRUTH, we learn that God has an atheist sense of humor with his weather-based smiting, and we'll finally get the juicy personal Ross Douthat details you've been waiting for.---To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com/ScathingAtheistTo buy our book, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Outbreak-Crisis-Religion-Ruined-Pandemic/dp/B08L2HSVS8/If you see a news story you think we might be interested in, you can send it here: scathingnews@gmail.comTo check out our sister show, The Skepticrat, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/the-skepticratTo check out our sister show's hot friend, God Awful Movies, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/god-awful-moviesTo check out our half-sister show, Citation Needed, click here: http://citationpod.com/To check out our sister show's sister show, D and D minus, click here: https://danddminus.libsyn.com/Report instances of harassment or abuse connected to this show to the Creator Accountability Network here: https://creatoraccountabilitynetwork.org/---Guest Links:Learn more about SkeptiCal 2026 here: https://www.skepticalcon.com/Check out Waldo's YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/@waldospoliticalstream ---Headlines:AZ law goes too far to protect against religious harassment: https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2026/06/10/critics-say-religious-service-protections-could-run-afoul-of-right-to-free-speech/The country's largest Protestant adoption agency is dropping LGBTQ couples — again: https://religionnews.com/2026/06/10/the-countrys-largest-protestant-adoption-agency-is-dropping-lgbtq-couples-again/Muslims feel unwelcome in the bigot party: https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/15/texas-republican-party-convention-muslims-sharia-law/The Hill pretends Jewish services are just hanging out for a pray with your bros: https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/5921285-religious-assembly-permit-lawsuit/This week in Christian history:https://www.christianpost.com/news/this-week-in-christian-history-touchdown-jesus-destroyed.html

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EP 702: "Malagim" with Papa Dudut

Barangay Love Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 15, 2026 36:40

Para sa mag-asawang sina Topeng at Alma, kahit mahirap ay sinisikap talaga nilang matulungan ang mga kaibigan at kapitbahay nila. Kahit ang patapon na si Waldo, nakuha pa rin nilang pagkatiwalaan sa paniniwalang makakaahon din ito sa mga problemang kinasasadlakan. Pero hindi lang si Waldo ang nangangailangan ng tulong, kun'di pati ang asawa at anak nito. Pakinggan ang kwento ni Alma sa Barangay Love Stories.

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Nobody Can Find This WHERE'S WALDO Book. That's Probably Good.

Freaky Attractions

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 11, 2026 11:46

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCuRS4Ujb-PV1Msz_ZwLt5A/join A boy and his grandmother find an unusual children's book at an estate sale and the more he reads it, the more something feels wrong. Written By ► Mr. Freaky Music By ► Kevin MacLeod Mr.Freaky Discord server ► https://discord.com/invite/5SyDc2DFDJ © 2026 Freaky Attractions. All rights reserved. This Creepypasta is for Entertainment Purposes Only.

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The Salesman - Waldo T. Boyd

Daily Short Stories - Science Fiction

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 10, 2026 7:36

173: Your Business Bank Account Is a Liability

Rich Habits Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2026 56:35

In this week's episode of the Rich Habits Podcast, Robert Croak and Austin Hankwitz chat with Ryan Saleh, co-founder of Waldo.---

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SportsCall 6.8.26

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2026 136:12

JJ Jackson, Tom Peavy, and Jac Myrick broadcast live from Son's Ford in Auburn to recap Auburn baseball's disappointing Super Regional and what Auburn Football has been doing on the recruiting trail. Enjoy this Monday edition of SportsCall!! 0:50 - Show Open 5:30 - Auburn Baseball recap 15:57 - Phone Calls 47:13 - Hour 2 Open 49:34 - AU Football Recruiting 1:02:36 - Phone Calls 1:25:08 - Waldo's Chicken and Beer Birthdays in Sports 1:32:21 - Hour 3 Open 1:34:00 - College World Series 1:42:42 - Phone Calls 1:58:39 - Stella Artois Perfect Pour Play of the Day 1:59:53 - Best/Worst of the Weekend

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203 - Where's Waldo

Why Not?

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2026 67:58

Gang! the crews back for another lively episode, discussing what we've been up to, what major changes we've been experiencing, Stephen's next place to call home ongoing search and what Summer's plans are for her future. Always scheming baby, Stay happy, Stay active. Love y'all! Be back soon! Gon tell somebody to tell somebody to tell some.. body about the show!

love gang waldo gon

SportsCall 6.2.26