How to be a Better Listener

Today, Doug Pike interviews author Christine Miles about her book "What Is It Costing You Not To Listen: The Power of Understanding to Connect, Influence, Solve & Sell."

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplacethe TV remote because you were the TV
remote. Remember when music sounded likethis, Remember when social media was truly
social? Hey, John, how'sit going today? Well? This show
is all about you on a gooddie. This is fifty plus with Doug

(00:26):
Pike. Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to do
for fun that die. Fifty plusbrought to you by the UT Health Consortium
on Aging Informed Decisions for a healthier, happier life. And by Incredible.
If the staine seems indebible, youhaven't tried Incredible And now fifty plus with

(00:49):
Doug Pike. All right, welcomeaboard the Friday and issue of the program.
Well, I got so engrossed insomething over at my desk, looked
up and Will was around the cornerkind of this little You looked a little
bit concerned, Will, I wasa little worried. Plenty of time,
like seconds to spare, Let mecatch my breath, Holy Kell, Welcome

(01:15):
one and all of you perfect soulswho listened to fifty plus and the rest
of you, and that group includesme and Will, I suppose the rest
of us who are imperfect in someway, shape or form, and we
really, except for Will because he'sstill young and impressionable. We're the Americans
who, by Gosh, fought insacrifice and worked our fingers to the bone,

(01:38):
which some of us still do,so that this current generation could be
better off than we than ours.That's how every generational story is supposed to
end, right with the offspring becomingmore successful than the parents, the offspring
benefiting somehow in more ways, andjust an inheritance from the labors of the

(02:02):
parents. My parents weren't wealthy inany way, shape or form, but
they gave me everything they had sothat my well gave us, my sister
and I, so that we couldfind our way in the world. My
sister's retired now and I'm not.But I've had the good fortune for the
past thirty something years of doing thingsI truly enjoy I do. I get

(02:28):
paid to do stuff I love todo anyway, and to go places I
only dreamed of going as a kid. I looked back at I've got a
couple of passports at the house andthumb back through them recently, and like,
wow, I didn't realize I'd beenthere well so many times. Mexico
didn't take a passport. When Istarted going down there, you could show

(02:51):
them, you could show them alibrary card. I think when I started
traveling to Mexico, and they wouldhave let you out of our country,
into Mexico, back out of Mexico, and back into our country. There's
a long story I won't get intoabout a mistake we made trying to go
to the Bahamas once after nine toeleven, my wife and I that almost

(03:16):
cost us the trip. We werefortunate enough to have some people at the
airport who had already kind of beenthere and done that with people not having
the correct documentation, and we wereable to solve the issue within hours and
not days, and so only onlypostponed everything. By just those couple of

(03:38):
hours. We're able to get outon a flight the same day after having
to jump through some pretty fiery hoopsto get some things done. Back to
my parents, though they did prettymuch everything they could make sure that I'd
have a good life, and Ifeel like I've had a good life.
There are, like in anybody else'slife, they're ups and downs, but
overall, the opportunity I got throughwriting and photography and radio now broadcast.

(04:06):
I love doing this stuff. Ireally do, and I like being able
to share the stories that I sharewith you. This latest bunch a little
bit different, honestly, marching throughlife feeling some feeling of entitlement that I
never had. Really, we weretaught that we had to work for what
we wanted and not will. Buta lot of people his age think that

(04:29):
they pretty much, and I hearthis from employers, these kids. And
I call you a kid respectfully,will, I know you're not a child
anymore, but nonetheless you're young,so much younger than I. That is
that okay with you? Do youmind being called kid? I'd like to
be man? Your highness is that? Yeah? On the way, on
the way to your highness, I'llcall you man. Okay. This man,

(04:54):
his majesty Will Melbourne across from mein this studio is not one of
these. But the rest of them, I fear are they just think they
deserve raises and promotions just because theyshowed up for work on time twice last
week. It's not how it works. That's not how it works. Enough

(05:14):
of that, do you read whatyou sew? And someone once said and
then was copied a billion times orso they may be honestly, this bunch
may be sewing themselves into a tightcorner. I do wish them well,
which is all we really can do. Walls don't listen, will though,
And that's on the walls. OnGood News Friday, I will say that
I am hearing more and more aboutyoung people who are refusing to buy into

(05:41):
some of the current narratives about whothey should be and how they should be.
And every one of them, everyone of us, is born into
the world as innocent as everybody else. And I don't know, I don't
know why some of these people feellike they're so much better somehow or different
somehow, But every one of uswalks into the deal with an opportunity to

(06:08):
achieve. And I don't know,we just I don't think anybody should feel
badly about themselves for thoughts they've neverthought, or privileges they've never experienced.
That's an unfair burden to put onpeople. It really is, It really
is. It's unfair. All right, We're gonna take a little break,

(06:29):
I think, and I need todo that, And rather than walk it
all the way up to the edge, as sometimes I do, I will
go ahead and go to this breakand when we get back by the way,
I will tell you this, We'regonna talk to Christine Miles about the
fine art and skill of listening,which not many of us are also good

(06:53):
at doing. On the way,I'll tell you about Incredible, the staying
remover that I have had in myhouse. I hope you listen to this
for twenty something years now, Andfor twenty something years, Incredible has performed
up to an A plus level.It has never knock on wood always,
It's never failed to remove a stainthat I've found in my house, carpet,

(07:14):
rugs, furniture, my clothes.All you do is pour some on
the stain or on a smell bythe way, it gets rid of pet
smells, those kind of things too. All you do is pour some on
the area the affected area, waita little while, maybe hum one of
your favorite songs, or go tothe kitchen and grab a bottle of water,
whatever you want to do, andthen come back and blot that stain

(07:38):
away with a clean dry cloth.The worst it ever I ever encountered at
home with some oddball stain on anupholstered chair took four applications of Incredible,
but each time I poured some onthere, I could see this thing whatever
it was dissolving, and that's allthat dissolved. The chair remains perfectly the

(08:03):
same color. There's no staining.Watch the bottle, read the bottle of
Incredible to find out where you mightwant to double check and maybe try it
first in a hidden spot before youjust slather it on there and go willy
nilly. But by and large,it's safe to use on most any stain
or smell. Safe for children andpets too. The water based colorless liquid.

(08:26):
It has no chemical smell, whichthe whole Pike Castle likes a lot.
You don't have to call anybody andget them to come to your house
three days later with a bunch ofequipment that doesn't need to be there either.
Ask for it by name and hibin most fine hardware stores Incredible now
they sure don't make them like theyused to. That's why every few months
we wash them, check his fluidsand spray on a fresh coatle wax.

(08:52):
This is fifty plus with Doug Pike. Just all right, welcome back to
fifty plus on this Friday. Honestly, we're I think we're through all the
rain between Thursday night and that wassuch a mess. It woke me up

(09:16):
and kept me up for about twotwo and a half hours fifty plus.
Here, Land of the Wrinkle Free, I'll go with that for you Botox
fans, and Home of the Grayfor all of those who have chosen to
let nature take its occasionally cruel,weird course. We'll talk in this segment
about a very important skill, onethat's critical to understanding really just about anything,

(09:41):
and one that's not well understood bymost people, and that skill is
listening. And to help us allbecome better listeners, I will enlist Christine
Miles, author of What Is ItCosting You Not to Listen? Welcome back,
Christine, Well speak to me backfor how we got You're quite welcome.
Are we getting any better at listeningsince your book came up? Well,

(10:03):
I know some people are. Thepeople have read the book. You
know. It's really nice to hearbecause as someone who has an in physics
a long time and to have completestrangers reach out to me and say thank
you, it's it's it's really verynice and and somehow unexpected, but very
nice. Yeah, well, youdeserve the accolades you're getting. It.

(10:26):
It is a very important skill.I can't think of many things, honestly,
that would be more important to ourown potential for independent thought than just
keeping our mouth shut until we've heardsomebody else's complete thought. Is that?
Is that a good place to start? Well? It is an even maybe
even one step thought because I've beenthinking about this a lot. You know,
I sell talk for a living.You know, people see it,

(10:50):
they see the importance of listening.It's like fog, it's you talked about
the weather or none know it's aroundus. But I'm putting our arms around
what it does and what it cando for us. Us is like it's
hard to catch, it's hard tograsp it. So you know, it
really comes down it when you listenand elevates everything about your relationships, your

(11:11):
business, Is your ability problem solved? I mean there's I just saw an
article of seventy things that listening does, so the list is really really long.
Um, but it is hard tograsp just how incredibly powerful it is.
What would you consider the the singularmost common thing people do to classify

(11:31):
themselves as bad listeners? Um,I would say, without any presence,
if they would say that they havea hard time holding me attention they would
have, they have. They havea hard time just being patient, not
thinking about what they're going to say, not preparing for what they're going to

(11:54):
say. That's once once we givethem a list of what we call this
inhibitors, the majority of people willwill say they problem solved or advise too
soon. They jump to answering solvinggiving advice as an interference, But most
people are it's all part of that, right. They're preparing what am I

(12:16):
going to say next? While theperson's listening, while they're trying to listen
to somebody, and I, honestly, I have my hand just a teeny
ways up in the air. Idon't want to just go full on true
confessions here, but yeah, Itend to be a problem solver, and
as soon as I hear the firstpart of the problem, I want to
start solving it so that it's nolonger a problem and that I shouldn't be

(12:37):
doing should I Well, I don'twant you to stop having the good intentions
that you have, because I thinkthat's what I hear the good intentions are.
I don't want to see you inteen I know the problem. I
may actually have a fix for youBy the way knowledge and experience helps us
solve problems, but it also meanswe also solve the problems too soon because

(12:58):
what we know ready to jump in, but the person may not be ready
for that advice. So for thatreason called it because it's in sales,
we called a sales trap. Whenthe customersiness will tell me what you think
I should do, that's the salestrap because then they're just going to argue
with you. That's why they can'tdo it, or they'll roll ropa until

(13:18):
you've made sure that you truly understandthem and had what we say earn the
rights to start solving or selling,which is one of the subtitle of my
book, because we tend to inan effort to be helpful, and we
think our advice is helpful, whetherwe're selling a business or selling and personal
life. That doesn't mean the otherperson is ready to hear it. Nothing,

(13:41):
nothing at all, Christine, happensin an instant, right. So
is there some sort of three orfive or ten step program that can make
us better listeners? Well, yeah, we call that the listening path um.
That's the that's the solution to theproblem that I outlined in the book,
which is what is it costing you? Because you can't solve the problem,
you don't really have aute. Ihave to identify and everybody, nobody's

(14:05):
ever argued that listening is important.That's that's when the table granted. But
because we're not club how to listen, we don't know what good listening looks
like. That's that's why we don'tknow there's a problem. I was being
a bad listener to and I apologizeso and if I recall when we talked
this past time, you are deadset that our educational system has failed on

(14:28):
teaching listening skills. Right. Iwas at a very prominent school in Philadelphia,
one of our customers and soil aboutthe area. UM a private school,
and I asked the elementary teachers andwhat they did to teacher list me
And they have a mind to atleast mentioning because there's no curriculum around it
at all. Hero. Wow,And that's just one example every I mean.

(14:52):
I talked to an edittator and oldum just a month ago and I
asked him the same question. Hesaid, nothing. Nothing in schools.
Yeah, they're so busy trying toteach well, now, so many other
things even than reading, writing,and arithmetic, that they're not teaching one
of the most most valuable tools wecould have. Is there in lieu of
that? Is there some way?I guess all trails lead back to your

(15:16):
book. Really, but something parentscan and should do to be teaching their
children how to listen, Well,it's to teach us to learn, right,
So the first thing they must todo is learn themselves how to do
this, and they haven't been taught. So again, what's providing the book
and what we deal with businesses,it's help them earn them with the tools

(15:37):
that they need in their in theirboss pok the analogy. Then, wouldn't
go hiking in the woods without youknow, some tools are supplied for an
extenditary of times, and we gointo the conversational was completely unprepared to expecting
how to get out of it withanybody without everybody getting hurt. So parents
need to learn themselves and then wecan help our kids learn how to do

(15:58):
this as well. Now I don'tthink all the farmers should be on their
parents. I'm adamant that this isthe educational systems responsibility, and I'm working
very hard to arm the students.The schools with the tools they need.
We're working on a product that wecan with in arm schools with the help
them. We're in the skill froma very early age. Can you start

(16:18):
with my son's school asking for afriend, give me, give me me
a contact of the administer. Youknow, actually, if any school would
would be open to this, Ithink he might, and I might just
send you the name and just seewhat I'd be curious. Yeah, I'll
be curious to see what you getout of them. That would be interesting.

(16:41):
I was at the locals when theyhave a STEM Academy, Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mouth andthey already this is high schoolers. They
already have a mind to teaching someof the soft skills. And why do
they have that Because when they startedtheir school, they went up to businesses
to create internship. They said,would you put our high schoolers in your

(17:02):
business? And gets what the businessleader said, They said, yes,
as long as you teach them someof the soft skills. Are there any
twelve years ago? Yeah? Arethere any examples? Say, celebrity TV,
talk show host or whatever who youfeel like are better listeners than others?
M. David Letterman, there's obviouslynot as an incredible listener. We

(17:26):
use you know, he's because hedoesn't shape the story, and he's notoriously
known. He never went off thecars. He always had, you know,
was very curious. Um how AStern. I call him the kind
of gentler Howard I know a lotof you know, depending on where you
were in his career trajectory. Buthe also going to talk about him in
the book uses the tools fundamentally veryvery well. And then and everybody has

(17:51):
their moments right, it's it's puttingit all together, which is hard to
do, especially like what you haveto do in such short something that you
want to get the most of youas a very short we need to be
affected an officitions. Yes, Unfortunately, on the efficiency part, we're out

(18:12):
of time. I hate to tellyou that. Christine Miles, author of
What Is It Costing You Not ToListen? I strongly recommend the book.
I really do. I'm gonna gopull it back off our shelf at home
and take another look. Christine's thankyou so much for your time. I
love coming to talk to you orI appreciate the opportunity you bet. I'm
gonna get that school name to youas well. I really am you bet

(18:34):
my pleasure of thinking. All righton the way out, I'll tell you
about Kirk Holmes, my favorite.Truly, I've known these people for the
better part of ten years at least, I don't know, maybe more.
I'm not really sure. Now,it just seems like my relationship with Kirk
Holmes goes way back, because itdoes back to when I first walked through

(18:57):
a home that they had built andstarted looking around and really, and this
was not some expansive manner. Thiswasn't ten thousand square feet. This was
a home that a lot of peoplecould have afforded back then, and it
struck me as being so different.And I said, okay, I'm looking
at a lot of things that Idon't normally see. And my wife and

(19:18):
I had been looking at homes andthis particular home was way up north and
I wasn't going to move up thatfar, but nonetheless, I said,
what is it that's so different aboutthis place? And they started pointing out
little things at this over here,and the attention to that detail there is
something most other builders don't do becausethey're not custom builders, because they're they're

(19:38):
working off kind of rubber stamp plans, and you can get Plan one,
two, three, four, fiveor ABCDE But at kirk Holmes, you
sit down with someone and they wantto know what your dream home looks like,
not what the last twenty homes theybuilt look like. They want to
understand your dream. They want tobuild your custom home where you want it,

(20:02):
the direction you wanted facing. Everythingabout that home is yours. They've
got a Southern Living showcase home inMission Ranch up in College Station. You're
welcome to go to her that oryou can start right at the website Kirkholmes
dot com. That's ku r K, because at kirk Holmes it's all about
you. Once life without a nap. I suggest to go to bed and

(20:23):
sleep it off. Just wait untilthis show's over. Is sleepy? Back
to Doug Pike as fifty plus continues, an wanted where you want just to
just to sing? She doesn't.All right, Welcome back to plus.

(20:49):
Thanks for listening. It's roughly twelvethirty four. Will they're right close enough?
Yeah, I'll take it. Oh. I going all the way back
at the end of that first segmentwhen I was talking a little bit about
the entitlement a lot just way toomany young people feel honest to goodness.
If anybody listening right now is ayoung person who just stumbled onto this part

(21:12):
of the dial and like, wow, that's kind of interesting about listening.
Maybe I'll start doing it to myparents. Maybe not. He's a pro
tip for you, Okay, ifyou want something, to work for it,
and I'll give one more and thenwe're gonna move on to the good
stuff that I'm supposed to be doingon Fridays. Anyway, this may come
to a shock as a shock tomany young people too. Nobody owes you

(21:33):
anything. Nobody owe you. Whatabout mom and Dad? Don't they owe
me a happy life? No,that's on you. It's on how you
use the time you have here.Being happy starts inside. You find something
that makes you smile, latch ontoit. If negative stuff comes along,
deal with it, but never letgo of the stuff that makes you smile.

(21:56):
That'll help you a lot in life. So, as you may already
know, upgraded Fridays from good newsFridays. To make sure I have ample
material, I am including also nowgenerally interesting news, but no bad stuff.
The interesting stuff will swim right alongsidethe good, but just no bad
stuff. For example, I sawa story this morning about some microbe that

(22:19):
lives on the slopes of Italian volcano, because that's just the kind of stuff
I read. And this microbe eatscarbon dioxide and stores it, and then
it sinks into the water, oh, because it's trying to swim way too
soon after it eight carbon dioxide,and there it can be harvested and then

(22:42):
destroyed so that the process can berepeated over and over. It's like recycling
kind of for carbon dioxide, whichis good news for the climate warriors.
Warriors or warriors, I'm not surewhich they are, really, although I
do wish someone in one of thesestories would point out, for the sake

(23:07):
of complete thinking, that carbon dioxideis also what plants and trees absorb and
turn into the oxygen we breathe.Nobody wants to talk about that. All
kinds of talk about zero carbon emissions, but if we go to zero on
carbon dioxide, that means plants,that means ocean vegetation, algae, all

(23:30):
of that stuff. None of it, none of it can make oxygen,
which is not gonna farewell for us. If you're interested at all in space,
specifically perhaps in Mars. This Ifind quite interesting A company, I
believe where are they Actually it's overin Abu Dhabi either or Saudi Arabia,

(23:53):
I'm not sure, but anyway,they have compiled they have just created this
compilation of three thousand images of Mars, and the company says they're gonna make
it available as soon as they can, and a variety of sizes to pretty
much anybody who wants a two dimensional, full full on look at Mars,

(24:21):
and they're gonna they're gonna have Iguess everything from place match to wall murals.
Huh. And maybe in a coupleof hundred or so years, some
couple can stick a pushpin into oneof those maps on the wall and tell
friends about the cool honeymoon they sharedon Mars. Speaking of outer space,

(24:41):
almost outer space, well, i'mgonna give you I told you earlier that
one of these three titles, I'mgonna give you that I put on a
little bitty stories. One of thempertains to a nineteen year old who was
arrested, one of them pertains tosomething to do with almost space travel,

(25:02):
and one of them is neither whodidn't know this fancy feast or an apple
a day. Let's good with fancyfeast, And what do you think that
one is about? That's got tobe about the nineteen year old going to
prison. Actually, she's not goingto prison. She's got arrested. Will
she's going to the state penitentiary.The slammer he hasn't even been she hadn't

(25:27):
been even convicted of anything yet.So you're you've got the heart of the
cart just a bit ahead of thehorse. Here, fancy feats dinner in
space? How does that sound?Will kind of scary coming to you thanks
to a company in France in twentytwenty five. Here, I'm just gonna

(25:48):
give you a hint too on howmuch it's gonna cost to go eat dinner
and then hang out up there ina balloon. Hope it doesn't get mistaken
for one of those Chinese by balloons. Holy cow, they're gonna have this
thing up about fifteen miles, which, unfortunately for people who think they're actually
getting dinner in space, isn't highenough to make you weightless. It's just

(26:11):
way up high where there's almost nooxygen. So they'll have to deal with
that. And guess how much itcosts to go up and have dinner and
a couple of cocktails and hang outwith your other here's a hint, rich
friends, it's just dinner. We'renot talking about a trip to the moon
here, It's just dinner. Can'tbe that much, right, how much

(26:33):
will a cool one point two million? Oh no, that's way too much.
You could bring some friends for that. It's only this may this may
encourage you to take a swing atit will because it's only a hundred and
thirty two dollars per person. Now, I'm I'm an adventurous soul, and

(26:56):
the thought of going up in aballoon to eat dinner, I guess once
you're up about a mile that's enough. So maybe if they would just do
that, go take them up twomiles and then tell people they're actually up
higher, and nobody would know thedifference, your house is still gonna look
like a pinhead down there on theground. One hundred and thirty two thousand

(27:18):
dollars per person. I don't knowwhat they're feeding up there at that,
And I wonder if they would almosthave to pre cook the meals too,
or they would have to bring oxygento build a fire to cook the meals,
and that somehow, just that doesn'tring well with me if I'm fifteen
miles off the ground in a balloon. I don't want any fires. I
don't want open fires at all.Okay, I'm gonna give you one more

(27:40):
chance to pick the right one.Who didn't know this? Or an apple
a day? Who didn't know this? You are over two? Will if
you who did not know except maybetoddlers that if you pinch your nose when
you eat something, you can't identifyits flavor. You did you know that

(28:03):
or not? On a space up? No, I didn't know. Really,
I've never tried that before. Weneed to breathe do you have over
there? Any? I mean theseare some cold breakfast tact well no,
well don't know. We're not gonnawaste it on that. But yeah,
when you eat that breakfast taco atsome point when you're is it bacon or
sausage or potato or what? Um? I had a little brisket. I

(28:27):
had a little bit of the baconone, okay, and the brisket okay.
So when you fix the brisket oneand you take a bite and you
just get all that delicious brisket flavorfrom Rudy's in your mouth, do yourself
a favor then and just pinch yournose, and your taste buds might as
well have just jumped out of yourmouth. You can't taste anything when you're

(28:49):
holding your nose. Who would dothat? Though, people who are eating
things it taste horrible? I wouldimagine. I guess it'd be my first
instinct. Now that you know,you'll start doing it. If you take
take a bite of something and it'shorrible, pinch your nose and spit it
out and wrench your mouth and youwon't even know what was there. So
back to the apple. Nineteen yearold woman gets arrested in Phoenix at the

(29:11):
airport for assaulting three TSA agents.Innocent until proven guilty always you know what
they took away from her, herapple juice. She's nineteen and she got
in a fist fight for apple juice. Not a very smart person. UT

(29:32):
Health Science Center can't help her,but they can't help us. If you
are a senior, you are luckyenough to be eligible to be treated at
the UT Health Science Center consourium onaging, where that's all they do,
senior medicine. They take care ofus. They always have, they always
will. They're very good at whatthey do. Look on the website.

(29:53):
You'll get an idea of all thethings they can do for you, all
the resources they can provide to you, all the research you can access by
going to that website. It's afascinating site. Really. You get there
and you're gonna end up spending alot of time. They're learning about yourself,
learning about the caregivers over there,and if you need their help,

(30:14):
you can set up an appointment goover there and have your specific case,
your senior related case, heard bysomeone who specializes in senior medicine. I'm
so happy and so proud to speakfor them. I really am ut dot
edu slash aging ut dot edu slashaging old guy's rule. And of course,

(30:38):
women never get old. If youwant to avoid sleeping on the couch,
Okay, well I think that soundslike a good plan. Fifty plus
continues. Here's more with Doug.All right, welcome back to fifty plus.

(31:11):
Thank you for listening on this Friday, this gorgeous outside Friday. Even
my son commented this morning when hestaggered out of bed ten minutes before we
had to leave the house. Hey, wake up, man, wake up,
bub we gotta get going. Iknow, Dad, Like, yeah,

(31:32):
I know, you know, butthat doesn't mean you're up and moving.
It's some it's a it's a struggle. But he is a good kid
overall. He is a good kid. So, oh, I mentioned a
little bit of space well, semispacenews a minute ago about the map of
Mars, and then this Fox spaceride in a balloon. This looks like

(31:57):
something it's like something out of amovie, or around the World in eighty
days or something one hundred and thirtytwo thousand dollars for dinner in a balloon
that's not even in space. Inany event, the Hubble telescope captured some
real space news. It is asuper massive will how are on a one

(32:20):
to ten? How are you onspace stuff? Oh? I'm your interest
level? Oh yeah, it's definitelyinteresting. I'll say I'll say an eight,
a solid eight. Oh, you'regonna like this. Then, a
super massive black hole has been caughton camera by the Hubble Space telescope.
This thing, to give you someperspective, Will, is three times the

(32:45):
diameter of our galaxy. So it'sbig, dude, and it's way out
there. It's big, and it'sway out there. And if it were
to pass by here, which wouldpretty much be the end of everything we've
ever known. If it were todo that, though, it would travel

(33:07):
from the Earth to the Moon infourteen minutes. I can't even make the
sound of something moving that fast.Maybe that's close enough. And what is
really cool about it though, thephotograph reveals that this giant black hole they

(33:29):
believe has merged with another one,and what they're doing is spewing out this
contrail of newborn stars. They're justthey're just starting over. It's just another
kind of a big bang kind ofthing. I have no idea what they're
doing out there. And for perspective, that chain of young stars is about

(33:52):
how long will? Oh? Imean it has to be. You'd think
it have to be big when theblack hole itself, if it's three times
the width of our galaxy, howlong is that tale of stars? Kind
of like when a bottle rocket goesup there's sparks behind it. Okay,
it's gonna be at least a fewlight years, at least a few at

(34:15):
least way more than a few willAnd honestly I could I'm like you,
I couldn't guess. I wouldn't know, but I do know the answer,
and the answer will is two hundredthousand light years. That's how long the
trail of stars is. That's theexhaust fumes coming out of the truck as
it goes down the freeway at whatI don't know. The moon's a quarter

(34:39):
million miles from here, and they'regonna get there in fourteen minutes, so
somebody's exceeding the speed limit. Happybirthday, by the way over in Great
Britain, guy who qualifies as doublequalified plus five for this audience. He's
turned one hundred and five. AWorld War Two veteran with no living relatives,

(35:01):
just celebrated that one hundred and fifthbirthday on which he received and this
is I think this is good.I really do. He got three thousand
cards from total strangers. That,my friend is that's the power of the
internet right there. That's it.It reminds me kind of my father in
law, who is ninety eight andattributes his longevity to he takes, by

(35:27):
the way, no medications, noprescription meds. He just eats some vitamins
every day and he's been that wayfor decades. I don't I don't know
that I remember ever being told ohyeah, and he's on some meds now
now and I've known the man forthirty something years. He contribute to contributes
his longevity to his mother's daily tablespoonfulcastor oil. I'm guessing genetics had at

(35:57):
least a lot to do with that. You you just don't get dealt that
lucky a hand in life without somehelp from your parents. And maybe for
four or five generations of long livedpeople. There's a speaking old people.
There's a guy from the he's retiredfrom the US Postal Service. And after

(36:22):
he did that, and he shedhimself of a wife that didn't want to
be with him, and he didn'twant to be with her. Frankly,
they just they split the sheets.And so that's off his responsibility list.
And he finally decided he was goingto take a swing pun intended at something
he'd always wanted to do. Thisguy is attending Montgomery County Community College,

(36:47):
not in Texas, in Pennsylvania,although as a side note, that community
college is in Bluebell, Pennsylvania.That's another Texas style reference. We all
know what that is. So he'salmost texting anyway, I guess. And
he is also in addition to beinga student at Montgomery County Community College.
He is also number thirty eight ontheir baseball team. Jim Fullen is and

(37:12):
he is fifty six years old andhe's on the baseball team. He had
played some adult baseball in his twentiesand thirties and then just kind of gave
up on the dream and just keptbeing a postman or whatever his job was
with the Postal Service. And hedoes. It's kind of funny, he
said. He does end up prettysore after these three hour practices every day,

(37:37):
which he's required to be there.His coach is only like six years
older than he and doesn't cut himin. He slack. He's just expected
to do everything the other guys do. But and he stayed injury free to
He said he did bust a fingeronce, but nobody who's played baseball for
longer than an hour and a halfhasn't jammed a finger or broken a finger.

(37:57):
Look at this, well, that'sbaseball related. Why are you cringing?
Does that bother you? Scary?That bother you? My finger tilts
backward to what maybe forty degrees?They should have chopped it all at forty
degrees You think forty five now,But it's it's weird looking, it's close.
Yeah, it's weird. That's allit is. Though. Yeah he
gets sore, but nothing gonna slowhim down, he says, So hats

(38:20):
off to him. There's one wehad two or one minute? Will we
had two minutes? Well now it'smore like a minute and a half.
There you go. You know howtime flies? Right, I'll give you
this one, which I titled JimmyTake the Wheel. Seventh grader in Michigan.
I don't know his real name.Seventh grader in Michigan sees his school
bus driver as they're headed down theroad pass smooth out. No explanation given

(38:46):
for that, but this seventh graderjumps behind the wheel and manages it to
bring it to a safe and completestop without anybody getting hurt, which I
think is cool. One minute,that's per Here's a little till all of
you who have a junk drawer athome full of bed Bath and Beyond twenty

(39:06):
percent off coupons. You've probably heardthat bed Bath and Beyond fall for bankruptcy
this week and they've stopped accepting thosecoupons. But if you haven't thrown them
away yet, here's where you cantake advantage Big Lots and the Container Store
are going to accept those. BigLots is going to take them through May

(39:29):
seventh, from bedbath and beyond,and the Container Store is gonna take them
until May thirty first. And finally, I guess for today, let's just
three cheers for quitters. Right.CDC says smoking has hit an all time
low in the US of A.We are down to eleven percent of people
smoking. That's down from forty twopercent in the sixties. I was among

(39:53):
them in the seventies, eighties,and nineties. Not anymore. See it
Tuesday ideos. Thanks for listening.