Joan Steffend and Joe Brandmeier (Kindness Documentarians)

Former Kare 11 and HGTV personality, Joan Steffend and her award-winning documentarian husband, Joe Brandmeier discuss an important project they are developing (with longtime KSTP Sports Anchor, Joe Schmit). It’s the heartwarming story of a special friendship between a St. Paul High School Student and a new student at his school…Minnesota Twin and MLB Hall of Famer, Joe Mauer and his friend Mike, a new classmate at Cretin Derham Hall, who just happened to be blind.  

Episode Transcript

(00:16):
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota.
Kindness.
Ooh.
That it desperately needs.
Ooh.
Uh, we have some special guestsin the studio with us tonight.
Doesn't happen often in studio.
Special ones that is in studio.
We have people in here in studioall the time, but we're gonna
get to them in just a second.
But Steve Brown is here.
Hello, Steve.

(00:36):
Hello.
Hello.
Hi everybody.
And we got, we'll get to youpeople in a moment.
Um, we've got, uh, kg, you'reout in the, uh, the big apple.
How are things happening outthere?
It's been a great week.
Started in New Jersey, went toManhattan for a couple of days
in the middle, and took the busride from Manhattan to Long
Island today and got settled outhere.

(00:57):
We got one more game on the tripand it's been good.
Not great trip so far with acouple of, uh, over time in
shootout losses along the way.
The team is, I think, doingeverything they can with the,
uh, the, they've got in placeright now and, uh, to get back.
It's been a long week, but it'sbeen good.
Am I hearing a dog in thebackground?
I'm at the hotel lobby.

(01:18):
There's no dogs here.
I don't think there's peoplehere.
Oh, I thought Earth.
I swear I heard a dog.
I did too.
I did too.
Well, anyways, that nice.
And you know what, Joan, we'regonna get to you in a moment.
Joan heard it too.
She can't help herself.
Um, just real quick, Kevin, howhas New York been to you?
Are the people being kind.
Yeah, I didn't run into yourbuddy Elmo, so, um, Elmo always

(01:38):
good there.
Um, that's an inside joke fromthe, uh, the show earlier.
But no, I, it's been great.
The people in New York areawesome.
It's the biggest misnomer I'veever found, uh, how hardcore and
tough everybody is out here.
They're great people.
Uh, they help you if you getlost.
They point out cool spots to go,um, in the side of things.

(02:00):
From the guys that work.
The lights to the sound guys, tothe camera guys are, they're
fabulous.
They've got the great accents,they're fun to work with.
And, uh, you know, being thatthis is the kindest chronicles,
um, you see different thingsalong the way.
But there was a kid last nightwho, uh, he couldn't have been
more than five or six years old,and he had this flury on and

(02:21):
wore backwards, so.
He got down with a wild come offthe ice.
And of course, you know, as I'vetold you guys before, the
flower, uh, being this hall offame, goalie is even a better
human being and took the time totake a picture with the kids,
sign the the jersey, and make alittle connection with the
family.

(02:41):
And, you know, to me that's kindof what kindness is all about.
He didn't have to do it.
There were people everywhere,you know.
He always seems to find the kidin the crowd and make that
connection, and that's prettyspecial.
Well, maybe upon the, uh,retirement of the flower, we
could, lean into him.
Oh, he has a little more timeand get him on the program.

(03:02):
Ooh, I know that.
Great.
Again, save all of the goodguests for wooden sticks, but
you know, come on buddy.
You do both, right?
Why dip?
Exactly.
Um, just real quickly, for thoseof you that are unaware, the
Elmo story that Kevin wasreferring to, I was accosted by
an Elmo in, uh, times Squareseveral years ago when I was

(03:25):
about 50 pounds heavier than Iam right now.
He asked if we wanted to take apicture with him.
Uh, me and the family I saidwe're okay.
And he was kind of a greasylooking Elmo and he had kinda
wild eyes.
And as I was walking away, hecalled me Gordo, which is
Spanish for fatty.
And I turned around and I said,You called me Gordo?

(03:46):
I said, come on man.
You are in an Elmo a a real poorlooking Elmo costume, and you're
making fun of me.
I could have gotten ugly.
It didn't get, am I allowed tosay something now?
Yeah.
So, you know what?
Get physical.
Let's, let's introduce ourguests.
Yeah.
We have really special guests.
We have the, you know,moderately famous people in the,
uh, in the studio.

(04:07):
One for sure.
One for sure.
We have Joan Steffan.
Many of you'll remember Joanfrom her time on Care 11.
She was also an HGTV star forhow many years were you there?
10 years.
10 years.
Oh my gosh.
I know.
And, uh, her sidekick is withher tonight.
Uh, Joe Brandmeyer.
Joe is a, uh, a documentarian.

(04:28):
We're gonna get to Joe in amoment, but first.
Let's start with Joan.
I wanna talk about this Elmosituation.
So, the Elmo situation did notwork out very well for me.
There were no fisticuffs.
There were, there were not.
My kids were there and you know,I, you just never know in New
York City.
I know it was, uh, were yourboys holding you back?
They thought it was funny.
Oh, because they all had hadSpanish and when they heard the

(04:49):
guy refer to me as Gordo.
El Godo, sassy Elmo.
They thought that that was realfun.
So that's, I know you wanna talkto her first, but just that,
that the words.
Mm-hmm.
How powerful words are.
Yeah.
And you still talk about it.
And you still remember.
Yeah.
Oh, I'm scarred.
Yeah.
There's no question about it.
I think we all have a moment.
Yeah.
You're scarred.
In fact, it may have been theimpetus for me to stop eating so

(05:11):
much.
You know, I doubt, I doubt it.
Trauma as a child I was calledBig Red and that big red that
stuck with me for a long, longtime.
You know, just brutal words are.
So, Joan, tell us a little bit,what have you been doing since
your days on, uh, care 11 and,uh, HGTV.
Welcome, by the way.
Welcome you.

(05:31):
Thank you.
It was fun to be here.
Um, it.
I have been contemplating life.
Okay.
Honestly, I mean, it sounds soboring.
My life, according to the worldlooked really successful and
really interesting before Ileft.
The life has opened up for me inways that I am so, I'm so happy
about, um, having left mysuccess.

(05:53):
Wonderful.
I'm not making money.
I'm driving the same old car Iam living a life that feels like
my life.
Now because I get to contemplatethe things that I care about,
one of which is kindness.
Well, and I heard a greatdescription of that and I
thought of you guys.
This to me, and I think it alsoapplies to Joe Schmidt, who
we're gonna talk about in acouple of minutes here.

(06:15):
I feel like this project thatwe're gonna be talking about is
really like a divine assignment.
I think so too.
This is sort of about legacy andall of those kind of things.
Yeah.
But let's just get into what wewant to talk about here.
What do we wanna talk about?
There is, uh, I'm gonna give alittle background as to how I,
uh, came into contact with thesefine folks, uh, a couple of

(06:37):
weeks ago.
Your friend Joe Schmidt?
Yes.
Of Channel five.
Mm-hmm.
Recently announced hisretirement.
Did, how about that?
Very exciting.
Hmm.
We kept the secret for twomonths.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I would've said, don't tell methe secret.
'cause as Kevin and Steve know,I can't keep secrets.
I am terrible at keeping secret.
Neither could I.
I'm the same way as John.
Yeah.
Glad I didn't tell you.
At least we're honest about it.
Yeah.

(06:57):
So anyways, a couple of, uh,about a month ago, Joe Schmidt
was a speaker at one of ourMasonic.
functions that we had up in St.
Cloud and Derby, who is a, adear friend of ours and has been
on the podcast, invited him backto our office to do, the
podcast, the Minnesota MasonicHistories and Mysteries Mm-hmm.
And they started talking about,you know, all the things that

(07:18):
Joe's got going on.
He's a speaker, he is an author.
And they started talkingspecifically about a project
that he's working on, and hesaid it's a story about Joe
Mauer.
Yeah.
And I'm gonna let you guys tellthe whole story, but the, the,
the, the Joe Mauer story rang abell with Reid and Reid said,
what you're talking about soundsvery similar to something that

(07:40):
we do.
This Selfless Scholar programplayed this video that we had.
Reed says, you really ought totalk to John because, uh, this
project that you're working onsounds very similar to the, the
mission of what we're trying todo at Minnesota Masonic
Charities.
Mm-hmm.
So take us back to how did youconnect with Joe Schmidt and how

(08:00):
long have you known him and howdid you guys get roped into this
whole, uh, adventure?
Well, Joe is, Joe met him whenthey worked in Green Bay
briefly.
Yeah.
When we first worked in GreenBay, I was at one affiliate, he
was at another, we didn't evenknow it, and we were just
talking about that.
All these years later, we'reworking together.
It's very bizarre.
So would you, did you, would youdescribe yourself as a
photojournalist?

(08:21):
Um, I am a producer director.
Okay.
I've been working in this, um,genre for quite a while.
I've been in Minneapolis, we'vebeen married for about 300
years, something like that.
Very nice.
You look good.
Well, thanks.
Um, so I produce and direct, Icreate.
And, and collaborate with peopleto make documentaries like this
one.
I've done a lot of music stuffover the years and have been

(08:43):
really fortunate to work withreally a-list artists.
Um, and I've just been doing,uh, production for a long time
and we met at Carrie Levin.
Um, and since then, you know,have done all kinds of stuff
together.
Very cool.
And Steve, you happen to knowpeople that know this guy well,
yeah.
I was gonna go over, is this anintervention or this is an
intervention?
No, I, I have a lot of friendsin the music world, but then

(09:05):
also I, I graduated a degree inTV production at St.
Cloud, and then I worked inMinneapolis.
I worked at Target for a while.
I worked at a place called HeroProductions.
Yeah.
And I'm sure we have a lot ofinter intermixed people in the
video world.
I know the name.
As soon as you said I went, Iknow that name.
Yeah.
Before we forget.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Could you tell us about your funconnection to Joan Steffen?
Yes, Joan, you have a veryspecial place in my heart.

(09:25):
Oh, I'm glad.
And, and the whole band's heartbecause What band is that?
The band's called JohnnyClueless.
Okay.
We still play.
Okay.
We're not retired.
Not retired.
That's how I know John calls us.
Uh, those are our, our glorydays.
Mm-hmm.
But we still play and we have agreat time.
It's our biggest year in manyyears.
We have like a bunch of gigs.
Anyway, Joan, in 1994, we hadour release party at the
Caboose.

(09:45):
Um, previous to that JeffCrocker, which you guys probably
both know him.
Oh, absolutely.
He's a video, uh, Photographer.
Yeah.
He put together a story for us.
I don't know how it allhappened, but, uh, it was a kind
of a human interest story on ourband.
It was like one of the laststories on the news.
It was the night before ourrelease party, and my family and

(10:06):
my friends just, it was a greatthing.
It, and you were the one that.
Set up the story, so, oh, soyour, and we have, we have, I
have it on VHS somewhere.
I have to find it.
Oh God.
Oh.
But that story put us on the mapin, in our world.
Wow.
You know, like there's momentswhen.
You know, it makes things real.
And that, that moment was like,wow, this is all happening.

(10:26):
My band moved from St.
Cloud down here.
We started playing, we put outan album and that news story was
just a gr a huge thing for us.
Oh.
And just to hear your voice isso great to sitting if you
sitting with you and like, thatmakes me happy.
My family wouldn't, differentface, but you know, my mom and
dad thought that was thegreatest thing in the world,
that Care.
Levi did a news story on us onthe 10:00 PM news.
Yeah.
Uh, it would've been on aSaturday or Sunday.

(10:46):
Yeah.
Night probably.
Yes.
It was a probably Saturdaybecause it was.
May, uh, 1994.
Anyway.
Wow.
It's so great to actually, andthat was, it's great to see that
was KISS in Kansas.
Yes.
Which is one of my favoritealbums.
Really?
Well, you know, I mean, it's theonly one you remember right now,
John.
Well, it's the only one that Isee that you and I have talked
about lately.
Yeah.
Kevin, thank Kevin to Kevin.
You, uh, great, great to meetyou.

(11:07):
Yeah.
Your friends, uh, with JoeSchmidt, aren't you?
You've worked with him.
Yeah, I was lucky enough to workjust, uh, last month at the
state tournament, the boyshockey, and, uh, you know, Joe
and I had known each other foryears, covering a lot of the
same teams, whether at theballpark, xl, covering the wild,
and then I for a weekend.

(11:29):
And you know, I didn't know thesecret, so I had no idea he was
retiring.
I love that he went out on topbecause I was so impressed with
how smooth he was.
Yeah, how easy he was to workwith.
When you're that guy and you'rethe host, you've gotta set
everybody up and you're kind ofthe quarterback of the offense.
And anyone that's watched Joe orknows Joe, like this guy is a
pros pro first.

(11:57):
When we weren't on the air, um,about this project, connect with
au impressed.
So, yeah.
As I told you, John, when wefirst started talking about
this, I could not be moreimpressed with, with Joe,
hardest working man in sportapparently.
So we have buried the lead, asthey say.

(12:18):
Yeah.
But that's, that's what we do.
There is a, and we're out oftime, 18 minutes left,
everybody, excuse me.
We have, a documentary that youguys are, uh, in the process of
putting together.
Why don't you guys tell us alittle bit about, where that
started and where it's going?
Okay.
Well, you know, it kind of fitsin with the book itself.

(12:39):
The book is called The RightThing to Do.
It's a children's book, and it'sabout planting seeds of kindness
that you don't know how they'regoing to unfold, how they're
going to grow, where they'regoing to go, and that's, that's
kind of what happened with.
Us we, we had a documentary thatwas at the Twin Cities Film
Festival.
A man came up to us and talkedto us.
We became friends with him.

(12:59):
He then 10 years later.
Introduced us to Joe Schmidt assomebody he might wanna talk to,
to do a documentary on reallyhis book.
Yeah.
You didn't meet Joe Schmidt backin the day when you were a
broadcaster.
I met him once.
Wow.
That's crazy.
I met him.
Well, they're, you know, thecomplete station.
I know.
Different.
I know, but still.
Yeah, yeah.
No, I met him once at theUniversity of Minnesota, the day

(13:20):
Shaq was there.
Oh, wow.
So it was a long time ago, huh?
Yeah.
Um, and it was just a reallybrief interaction, so no, I had
not met him.
Hmm.
Um, and then.
Then we sat in turtle bread inSouth Minneapolis and had a
conversation, Fran Zuli, the manthat we knew, Joe Schmidt, Joe
and I, my husband, and um, andthere just felt like there was

(13:42):
some something wonderfulhappening.
We all kind of came at thisstory knowing what the real
meaning of the story was, whichis you have the ability to offer
kindness and plant seeds inevery moment of every day.
Of your life.
Well, tell us a little bit aboutthe story.
For those that haven't, haven'tseen the book or are familiar

(14:03):
with the story, tell us aboutJoe Mower's connection to, uh,
this story and his apparentreluctance to even have the book
made.
Yeah, yeah.
Which is charming in itself.
Um, the book is called The RightThing to Do, and it, and it
talks about three differentinstances in Joe Mower's life
where he did the right thing.
Uh, one was where he.
Uh, knocked out a baseballthrough a neighbor's window and

(14:25):
he wanted to run away, but hisdad sat him down and said, Nope.
The right thing to do is to goover and admit it to the
neighbor and make good on it.
Uh, second one was he waschoosing teams for baseball at
a, some sandlot in St.
Paul, and his choice was to takethe guy who was the worst.
Picked last.
Typically, he was usually pickedlast.

(14:46):
He picked him first.
I love that.
Yeah.
But the one that we're focusingon is, uh, something that
happened when he was a senior inhigh school at, um, Creighton
Durham.
Creighton Durham Hall, and therewas a new student in town.
His, his name is Mike Hallie.
And he was sitting by himself inthis, um, I don't know what cl
social studies class, I think itwas.

(15:07):
Um.
Joe Mauer noticed that he wasblind and sitting on his own.
So when the bell rang to go tolunch, he went over there, he
said, Hey, we're going to thesame place, offered his arm.
And Mike Hallie took it and theywalked down to the cafeteria and
they spent the rest of the yeartogether at that table.
Wow.
And Joe invited him into hisgroup of friends.

(15:28):
They became, um, fast friends.
They're still friends today.
And it's just, it, it, itchanged Mike Cali's existence in
high school back then, but Ithink it changed his, his life
in a lot.
Absolutely a lot more ways.
Um, so, so Joe has been, JoeSchmidt has been talking about
this in his speeches for a longtime and getting great reaction.

(15:52):
And then somebody finally said,why don't you do a story?
So he did this children's book,and the book is just stunning.
It is well done, simple.
Simple and beautiful.
Yeah.
So it is beautiful in itssimplicity.
Yeah.
There's no question.
And, and I, and I can't stressthe simplicity enough because I
think we need to make kindnesssimple.
We can't make it something,something complex that we have

(16:13):
to really effort at.
It's something, it's aboutkeeping other people in your
heart as you walk through your,your life.
But anyway, this book is nowbeing turned into a musical at
Stages Theater in Hopkins.
Um.
And, uh, that will be opening upin about a year, which is super
exciting.
Yeah.
And what I understand is the, isthe guy that had played a role

(16:35):
in Turning Diary of a Wimpy Kidmm-hmm.
Into a musical Oh yeah.
Is involved in this project aswell.
Yeah.
He's doing the libretto and he'sdoing the music for it.
And we've already heard one ofthe songs you used the word
libretto.
Now we are from the east side ofSt.
Paul.
That term was at the theater wasway over our head.
Way over our head.
Yeah's a goalie.
Could you tell, does he playfor, have no chance?

(16:57):
Does he play for Quebec orsomething?
Res beretto.
Everybody knows.
He pretty good slap shot, I'veheard.
Yeah.
No teeth.
All kidding aside, what isLibretto?
It's, it's the story.
Okay.
He's writing the script.
Oh yeah.
The libretto.
Oh yeah, sure.
I don't know.
I maybe made that up, but I wasa theater major, so I made it
You what?
You said it with conviction.

(17:17):
Thank you.
And that's what we do on thisshow is exactly even when, the
other day I was talking to a guyand I said, this Joe Brandmeyer,
he, you know, he did, uh.
A documentary on Prince and BobDylan and I said it was such
conviction.
And Joe called me back and hegoes, I don't know which
documentary you're talkingabout.
The FR one maybe, but the BobDylan.
It's like, can you send me acopy?

(17:39):
It was a children's book.
Yes.
And now it's gonna be a Amusical.
A musical, yes.
And, and, and you guys arebuilding upon that story and,
and finding the, the throughline and creating a documentary
about.
All of it, or just about thestory or No?
Well, I think we're, the storyis kind of the container for,
um, a larger documentary that isfocused on kindness.

(18:00):
Cool.
Yeah.
Just join up our alley.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
And that'ss, you know, I have tosay another tangent when we met
you, John.
Yeah.
Um.
It was exhausting.
It, it wasn't nice.
He was kind, exhausting.
I he'll do that, he'll do that.
No, it was, it, it, I was sonervous coming to that meeting.
It's like I, because it was ameeting with John, two other men

(18:23):
from the, the Masons who wedidn't know, and we were gonna
be talking about thisdocumentary and I, kindness is
so important to me and it feltlike an important meaning.
And I was really nervous and Isat down and you instantly
showed me s.
Oh, such kindness.
Oh, there she goes.
There I go.
Well see, you see, when I, whenwhen I tell the truth, I cry.

(18:43):
So you showed me such kindness.
That's very nice.
Thank you.
And I just want, that's verykind.
I want people to know that thisisn't just a title for a
podcast.
Yeah.
It's who you are.
Well, that's, that's very kind.
The first time I met John, I'veshared this story, the first
time I met him, oh God, let's dothis in high school.
He loves this.
He loves this.
But it's true, it's a roast andum.
He, he, I don't know what thesituation was, but he said

(19:05):
something.
We were in the weight room orsomething.
There was skirmish.
No, we're in the weight room.
Some kind of skirmish or somekind of like, someone was
talking bad to me or something.
And John goes, wait a minute,wait a minute.
Who are you?
I said, Steve Brown.
He goes, you, Dan Brown'sbrother?
I said, yeah.
He goes, all right, come here.
And he basically picked me outof a group of people and I
wasn't getting really picked on.
I don't know what was going on,but he, he literally pulled me
out and go, no, you know, hereyou're, you're good.

(19:26):
Come on over here.
And I said, who's I told myasked my brother who's, who's
John Schitz?
He goes, oh, he's, he's a goodguy.
Like, that's my first time I metJohn Schitz.
Wow.
So, yeah, this is really turningon.
I know he loves it.
Exactly how, I hope, I don'thave to say right now, but I'll
think of something I, I do have.
I think it's important.
He makes you comfortable, right?
He makes a joke and sometimes,yeah, no, absolutely.

(19:47):
He figures it out.
Well, speaking of that, so we'reat this, we're at Minnesota
Valley Country Club.
Oh, good for you.
Yeah.
Nice.
We were having lunch and Inoticed that this Joe Brandmeyer
guy was kind of like, he's likepicking stuff off of Joan's
shirt, and I'm like, this seemslike something we might need to
call HR about.
Why is he pawning, you know,pawning over this person not

(20:10):
knowing at the time that theywere married for 300 years to
each other.
And I shed.
So he was taking the hair offmy, you know, but I mean, you
talk about the, I mean,basically this is based on that
story and everybody, you know,how do you not love Joe Mauer in
one former or another?
Oh, yeah.
But then the book startedgetting a lot of attention,
right?
So Kelly Clarkson had them ontheir show, right.

(20:32):
Because that it was so popular.
Um, so it's really about theripple effect, right?
Yes.
I mean, it's, I think that'skind of why we're sitting here
right now.
Absolutely.
It's just one more element ofthe ripple effect because it was
the act, the play, excuse me,the book.
Kelly Clarkson, the play, thedocumentary all about.
Now we're kind of aligning withwhat you guys are doing.
You bet.
I mean, it's an easy tie in tosome of the stuff you're doing.

(20:53):
Selfless, program um, and thecivility project, you know, it's
an easy tie in to what's goingon.
So it's that ripple effect thatthat one small act had.
And it also is sort of tellingof our time.
It, we sort of all need to bereminded and remind each other
of how it's so important rightnow in this world to express
this because we need thoseripples, right?
We need the ripple effect.

(21:14):
Yeah.
Boy do we.
We need a tsunami we do ofkindness.
And when I, when I go out andspeak, I tend not to, you know,
ask people to do big things withkindness.
I ask them to do the le, youknow, like, what's the least you
can do?
Because I don't want people tobuild up this defense against
like, well, I don't have time todo, I don't have time to, yeah.
You know, to go.
Drill wells in Africa or youknow, whatever.

(21:35):
It's like, no, you can do it.
Like right now.
Think a kind thought.
Why could you do that?
Could you think a kind thoughtright, for somebody or for
yourself?
Could you think a kind thoughtfor yourself and it is the
smallest things mm-hmm.
That really have the biggestimpact.
Yeah.
You know, I, I'm just going backto Joe Mauer.
Yeah.
Joe, from what I understand Yep.
Uh, was very reluctant to havethis story told very, because as

(21:57):
he says in this, this little.
Teaser video.
He is like, I don't want to drawattention to myself.
He's never been a guy.
No.
So it was very different thanyou.
Right?
So much different than me.
Totally different.
Totally different.
Steve.
That was pretty good.
Yeah, that's great.
In fact, I think Joe Schmid tothe um.
Joe Mauer had been approached by20 some authors saying, I would

(22:17):
like to write your story.
I would like to write a book onyour life.
And he said no to everybody.
And the reason he said yes toJoe Schmidt was because it had
this particular focus and themoney from the book goes to two
charities.
Two charities, yeah.
That he's really, um, in lovewith.
Mm-hmm.
So, which is just typical JoeMauer, right?
Isn't it?
Yeah.
And he was hesitant for themusical and.

(22:39):
We talked him into thedocumentary.
So I'm, I'm curious, and I, I'msure this will kind of come up
in your documentary.
I'm curious about sort of wheredoes that come from, that guy?
What are, what are those, thosesymbols of kindness and those,
those acts of kindness that hedid that were, seemed, you know,
in the children's book, justlooking at it and hearing what
you're saying.
I haven't read all of it, butthat's.

(22:59):
Some kind of thing that's builtin him, or it's just not just
upbringing as we know, we talkabout this a lot.
You know, you can teach yourkids a lot of stuff.
Mm-hmm.
But sometimes they just dothings.
You go, I don't know where theygot that from.
Right.
It's just sort of amazing how Iagree people are born a certain
way, but yeah.
I, I'm, I'll be curious to hearhow that kind of gets explored
in your documentary.
I think he would tell you thatit is his grandfather and his

(23:20):
father and his mother, and it'show he was raised and he was
raised in a, a city St.
Paul where, in an area wherepeople just.
They watched out for you.
Yeah.
And they, you know, it took thevillage to raise Joe Mauer, but
I agree with you.
I mean, just, I have fourgrandchildren right now, and
each one of them arrived exactlythe way they were meant to.
Yeah.
You know, they didn't, theydidn't arrive and we formed them

(23:40):
into who they become.
Yeah.
We, we try to take creditsometimes, and sometimes the
kids just do, they do thingsthat it will amaze you before
you even taught'em that, youknow?
Yeah.
But it's like you just said, islike, you, you kind of get
surprised every once in a while,like, wow.
Mm-hmm.
They were listening.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, well, but if you weregoing to script a story, I mean,
could you script somethingbetter that this guy is raised
to, to be kind and he'snaturally kind and then he

(24:03):
becomes one of the biggest, youknow, baseball players probably
the greatest athlete inMinnesota history.
Yeah.
You know, quite Dave Winfieldmight be up there, you know, but
he maintains that sense ofhumility.
Oh.
And kindness and I mean, hewalked into the room when we did
the interview with him and, andI would, he's much taller than I
thought.
He was very tall.
He's really tall.
Yeah.
He's a giant, but there's justthis, this river, river of of

(24:25):
calm that comes with him andyeah.
Ha g kg.
If, if he's have, have you everhad, have you ever connected
with Joe Mauer?
Yeah, back when I did working.
When covering twins baseball,which at the time was Fox Sports

(24:46):
North, you know, think of howmany times he would've been one
of the players of the game andhe was apprehensive even then.
Mm-hmm.
You know, if he had the gamewinning hit, or he went four for
five and had a home run on atrip, like he hated talking
about himself, and everyinterview I ever did with him,
he would point to someone else.

(25:06):
Mm-hmm.
Whether it was a manager or acoach or a teammate.
Um.
Speak to his successes, which Ithink for a star professional
athlete is, is pretty, um,impressive.
Mm-hmm.

(25:27):
And in, I just, I, I just have,um, such a good feeling about
this documentary and about this,this book because it, it, it
gives people the, the abilityto, to, to shine.
Like Joe Mauer.
Nobody can be in the Hall ofFame like Joe Mauer.
Probably nobody can hit a balllike Joe Mauer, but we can.
We can emulate the best part ofhis, his humanity.

(25:49):
Well, and, and one of the thingsthat, uh, resonates with me.
More than anything about thisstory, and we have talked about
it multiple times.
Where have I said a person'sloneliness is more exposed than
anywhere in the world.
High school lunchroom.
High school lunchroom.
Yep.
And you're, because it's ondisplay there in front of, it's
on display and everyone's inthere front.

(26:11):
Formative era, they don't knowwhere they fit in.
And everyone's looking to makesure they do fit in.
They don't want to be left aloneor Exactly, yeah.
It's, it's a very vulnerabletime in your life.
So for him to do that, and Ijust think that the stories of
inhumanity that take place in ahigh school lunchroom mm-hmm.
Are so painful for me to thinkabout.
Yeah.
But when you hear stories ofhumanity.

(26:31):
Like the one that, that JoeMauer, uh, participated in and
the one that, uh, in ourcivility project, there's a
story about a, wide receiverfrom Florida State that noticed
this kid with autism that wassitting alone and they were
there, you know, to, to connectwith the kids.
he saw that there was this kidsitting by himself, and it's

(26:51):
like, that's the guy I wanna sitwith.
the story, it's uh, another oneof those Steve Hartman sort of
stories.
Oh, I love Steve Hartman.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I don't know if thisspecifically was the Steve
Hartman, but it felt like aSteve Hartman story.
Mm-hmm.
The, the, the next day in schoolthere's a picture of this little
boy with autism and he'ssurrounded by like 15 girls
sitting at the table with him.

(27:13):
Wow.
And it's just, I, the, there'sone image and whoever the artist
is that they got to do, thisit's unbelievable how well done
it is.
I think Joe Auer did all thedrawing for this.
Yeah.
The guy's incredibly talented.
He's really good.
He much more talented than wethought, but the, the image of
the the, of Mike Yeah.
Sitting by himself in thelunchroom.
Yeah.
And the fact that Joe Mauer seesthat and you know, essentially

(27:35):
embraces this young man who.
I mean, can you imagine?
I can't.
I can't either.
I cannot imagine.
Yeah.
Kevin Cannon did all theillustration.
It is beautiful.
Yeah.
Good for you, Kevin.
Beautifully done.
Speaking of Kevin's, Kevin, youhave, uh, dinner coming up?
Where you going to Sbarro or,or, uh, classic New York Pizza?
Uh, well, olive Garden tonight.

(27:55):
New York City style.
Little bit Beth beyond, but I'llsay the big city where we just
left earlier today has many moreoptions.
You know, we're in an area kindof like the suburbs are, right?
Long Island.
We're kind of off the beatenpath.
And so a place called Seasons,it's probably like, uh, Joe

(28:16):
Sensors back in the day, kind ofa sports bar type of deal.
It's be on, there'll be lies.
Uh, getting ready, hopefully fora little playoff run by the
wild.
But, um, yeah.
Of the big city down inManhattan, the concrete jungle.
I could never live there, guys,but I love visiting, if that

(28:38):
makes sense.
Well, I don't wanna be the guythat stands between you and your
next meal, so I'm going to Yeah.
You've learned that the hardway.
I have.
I have.
In fact, uh, you and I have goneout for many a meal and, uh.
I don't want to get between youand that last, uh, cheese curd
that's on the, uh, plate.
But, uh, well, Joan, Joan andJoe, thank you for, for doing

(28:59):
this with us.
Oh, I look forward to it.
To some great things ahead.
Just hearing Joan's voice, John.
And again, when you do theseright, I holding, like I'm doing
that voice does.
Yeah.
And I love it.
It's, it's iconic and, uh,really appreciate you guys doing
this.
Oh, it's, it's, thank you ourhonor.
For sure.
Yeah.
It's so relaxing.
I wet my pants.

(29:20):
Wow.
Careful.
See, there it goes again.
I know.
Edit that.
There we go.
I'm not editing that kg you go.
We're gonna, we're gonna hammerthese guys for another 10
minutes.
Good luck.
Thank you so much.
Bye.
Thanks, you guys.
Take care.
Bye Kevin.
So tell us about thedocumentary.
How is this coming together foryou?
I don't know.
I've still got that image of youwedding pants over there, right?
I've got that.
We all do.

(29:42):
See, I just, this is, this is,I, I, I knew I instantly was,
uh, uh, drawn to Joan and to Joeand to Joe when we were.
Playing some of our civilityschool videos.
And I looked over at Joan andshe was wiping tears from her
eyes, and I've known her forabout 10 minutes at this point.
And I said, get yourselftogether, Joan.

(30:02):
And as it was coming outta mymouth, I'm like, did I just say
that to Joan Stephan?
What the hell is wrong with withme?
No, but that's the energy ofmeeting people who have some of
the same, uh, you know, heartthe same.
I mean, we, we obviously have apassion for, for what we're
talking about.
You bet.
We also have a passion forpeople, and you were making me
feel comfortable by beinghumorous with me, so, well,

(30:22):
thank you.
It's, uh, yeah, no, I, there andshe cries at commercials too, by
the way.
So I, who doesn't?
It's oxytocin, man.
Oxytocin.
Oxytocin.
We talk about it all the time.
So, back to the documentary.
Yes.
What about it?
What do you wanna know?
So where, where are you goingwith this?
What, what is the plan?
Oh, uh, the plan.
Joe, you're the documentarian.
You know, it's, it's funnybecause it, it, I just keep
going back to that rippleeffect.
I mean, it is about the storyand it is about Joe Mauer, which

(30:44):
is great, by the way, to haveJoe Mower, but that ripple
effect mm-hmm.
Between all the things that havehappened since that moment and
that high school, even the twocharities, which we didn't
mention, the two charities thathave been born from this act of
kindness, um, and the handfulof, um.
Networks that I've talked to,MLB has already agreed to air.
They, all they have seen is thatfive minute pitch real and

(31:06):
they've already said, yeah, welove Joe.
We'll, we'll figure out where toput it.
Wonderful.
Right?
That's the MLB.
So the other people that we'retalking to in the network and
the distribution world instantlysay.
Wow, Joe Mauer, let's figuresomething out.
So, I mean, it's, I think thebase of it is already there.
So that's just one more elementin the ripple effect, right?
Don't tapping into some, goahead.
Tapping into some powerful humanstuff.

(31:27):
That's why, and everyone sees itand we need it, and it's, it's,
it's.
So exciting to think about andI've heard that over and over
and over again.
So I think timing is really,really crucial right now because
everybody has said the samething, man, this is great.
We gotta figure out how to getthis on.
The tough part about it, for meanyway.
'cause it kindness is a toughsell when you're, you're looking
at specials and networks andseries and stuff.

(31:48):
Yeah.
The guy, could you murdersomebody in the middle of it?
Right?
We, we talked a little bit aboutwhat's it, yeah, car chase maybe
a car chase, an explosion,explosion, sex scene.
Maybe just, you know, we'llthrow that in there somehow,
but.
But I think, I think the cellhas become easier because of
where we are right now.
Have you guys seen the, show on,Netflix called Adolescence?
Not yet, but it's on my list.

(32:09):
Watch it because I think thatit's another example.
You've seen, seen all of it theweekend.
It's unbelievable.
You guys are gonna, just, theproduction of it alone will
freak you out.
It is.
It's all one shot.
Every show is one shot.
Oh my God.
Shot and Joe, they go from in ahouse, they follow the actors
out in a car, they drivesomewhere and get out.
And they walk around where the,where the rig was.

(32:30):
But you don't see the rigbecause they quickly remove it.
Right?
They lift it off.
The Jimbo.
Yeah.
The, how they go about it is,uh, is nerdy tech stuff, but you
will be freaked out about howthey do it.
And how about acting?
It's a really powerful show.
How about acting the little kidsfirst time, first time acting?
No way.
The reason I bring it up is, is,uh, Becky and I, my wife and I
were watching it and she's like,this is, this should be a part

(32:52):
of the documentary.
There should be some reference.
To this story because it's sortof a bullying.
Yeah.
Uh, and just the, the, thechallenges of being a 13,
14-year-old kid Yeah.
And the challenges that exist inthe United States exist
everywhere.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the story is set in Englandand it's, it's a beautiful story
and you live it.
'cause it's so how they do it,you live with these actors, you

(33:14):
know, it's, it's very.
Powerful.
I am of the belief that whoevertells the story defines the
culture.
And we are in a world that thestories that are being told are
stories of divisiveness andthey're all these terrible
stories.
The Selfless Scholar programthat we have has given us an
opportunity to uncover storiesof kindness that I believe would

(33:35):
otherwise go untold.
And it dawned on me that, youknow, there's a lot of aspiring
filmmakers out there, and Ithought that in, uh, not this
year.
'cause it's, it's too soon.
We've got our May 21st eventcoming up.
Yeah.
Where we're gonna do the livepodcast with some of our
Selfless scholar stories.
But for our scholarship night in2026.

(33:56):
I'm gonna announce right nowthat what we're gonna do is
we're gonna have a, a mini filmfestival Whoa.
In, uh, may of 2026, and we'regonna invite students from
throughout the state ofMinnesota high school and
college students to create theirown four to five minute stories,
mini movies of stories ofkindness that they've either

(34:16):
witnessed within their schoolOh.
Or they can call us and we'llgive them one that they can
curate.
Uh.
And then I love that when, whenI mentioned I love this so much,
when I mentioned it to Joan,what was the word you used when
I, brilliant.
I think it's brilliant.
Well, come on Joan.
Well, I wasn't saying he'sbrilliant.
I No, no, I, no, that is areally cool idea.
It's a wonderful idea because itgets you, you know, I to, I gave

(34:39):
you a kindness card when I metyou.
Uh, yep.
Um, I, there are little cardsthat say I appreciate the kind
fingerprints you leave in theworld.
And when you're holding those,those cards and you're out in
the world, you're looking.
Looking for kindness becauseyou're looking for somebody to
hand that card to.
And when you ask somebody tomake a film on kindness, that
will change their perspective.
They will start looking forkindness and that changes the

(35:02):
world.
Absolutely.
You don't have a lot offilmmakers out there.
But everybody that's got a, acell phone, you know that, that
that tapes a fight taking placeand then uploads it to YouTube.
Mm-hmm.
Or maybe take it from selfie ofthemselves and maybe turning it
on people a little bit.
But why wouldn't you?
Yeah.
Why wouldn't you use that samedevice mm-hmm.

(35:23):
To capture moments of, ofhumanity.
Mm-hmm.
Moments.
Moments of kindness, positivity.
Right.
Right.
And then you've got some peopleout there.
So I mentioned to this, to the,some folks that I know at the
University of Minnesota.
Meeting with them on April 10thbecause they love the idea of
taking this to their journalismschool.
Mm-hmm.
This idea.
And of course, you know, wewould have a scholarship to the,

(35:44):
to the top, you know, couple of,uh, programs.
But what, what's good forMinnesota Masonic charities?
Is we get the content of that toshare with people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
With the whole, idea ofinspiring other acts of
kindness.
And I would imagine that thisdocumentary, you don't look at
this documentary as being a oneoff, you look at this as being

(36:04):
like the start of something.
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah.
It's the road trip, the.
Educational road trip?
Yeah.
Well, I mean we, we see thisgoing on the road in so many
different directions.
Um, touring high schools, youknow, putting panels together to
dis to discuss it, to givepeople the real, like this is
how kindness can look, you know,when the rubber hits the road.
It could be as simple as youjust saying hi to that person

(36:26):
across the room, it feels likeit goes to high schools, it goes
to, to elementary schools, itgoes to colleges, it goes to
corporations.
I don't, I, I don't thinkthere's a place in the world
that this shouldn't touch,because if you look at kindness,
there isn't a single thing inthe world that kindness wouldn't
make better.
What do you call those videos?
Is it a teaser video?
That one's a pitch reel.
Pitch reel, right in the pitre.

(36:48):
So we're learning lots ofthings.
That word that you used?
Libretto, libretto, pitre.
Oh yeah.
You said something about, Gibo.
Yeah.
What was that word?
Yeah.
Gimbal.
Oh yeah, Gibo.
Sure.
Doing this, knows that's whatthey look like.
They're held the old gibo,smooth gimbal, not gimbal,
gimbal, gimbal, gi, whatever.
Gibo.
Yeah.
Dear friend of mine, I'll editthis out, but I'm pretty sure

(37:11):
I'll be out the whole time too.
Oh, no, Joe.
See how much of Joan we can getin there.
Oh.
To you, Joe, you tell us aboutsome of the documentaries that
you've done in the past.
I mean, you've, you've donequite a few really cool things.
Not Bob Dylan, right?
Not Bob Dylan.
I think I, I've been really,really fortunate to work with
all kinds of different artists.
That's why when we talk aboutJoe Mauer, I.
I kind of go, wow.

(37:32):
Compared to some of the peoplethat I've run into over the
years, you know, the five monthswith Prince and all these other
people that I've been fortunateto work with.
I mean, it, it just stands outso much.
'cause I know we've said itseveral times, but when you
think about that kind ofpersonality and the people that
I've come across over the years,'cause musicians as you know, I
don't want to.
Insult you.
But I have a lot of musicians inmy family too.

(37:53):
Uhhuh musicians are likewriters.
They're very sensitive.
Oh, yeah.
Um, so it's a, it's a, I've donea lot of stuff.
I mean, I've been fortunate towork with all kinds of a-listers
documentaries.
We've done a documentary onmarriage just because I don't
understand marriage.
Um, so in order 300 years, 300years, you should, in order to
understand that, I, I literallyjust got in the car and brought

(38:13):
some cameras and started askingcouples about.
Why do we get married?
How do you stay married?
Why, you know, all that kind ofstuff.
Um, so it's, it's really comesfrom a base of curiosity,
whatever the documentary is.
'cause a good documentary startswith curiosity, right?
Mm-hmm.
Um, and this is, you know, I'mjust curious about how this
story has come to be what it isright now.

(38:34):
So that's, that's kind of reallyforget all the other ones, but
this one's really.
Important, I think just becauseof the curiosity of where it can
lead and what it's done so far.
And tell me about the logistics.
How do you put something likethis together?
I mean,'cause there's writersand, oh no, it's, it's, it's a,
it's a huge thing, but I think,I don't know if you ever saw the
movie Finding Forrester.

(38:54):
It's with Sean Connery.
Oh yeah, yeah.
There's a line in there wherehe's teaching a, a guy to write,
a novelist to write, and hebasically just says, just start
typing.
And I, I, we use that line allthe time.
Just start typing.
And I, I do that by literallyjust go, alright, we have the,
the groundwork, we know theorder of how things have
happened.
We know people like KellyClarkson and you know, Ken

(39:17):
Griffey Jr.
Who, um, Joe talked about isimportant.
And I think we just start, westart with, alright, here's an
interview, here's anotherinterview.
Alright.
We have a script outline ofwhere we want to go and what
we're gonna do.
But then you just start.
But you have to leave thingsopen to Well, that's, I was just
gonna on location.
Yeah.
Gonna add to this my, I lovedocumentaries.
I've never made one.

(39:37):
I love watching them.
Yeah.
And that's what I.
I know that about them is thatsometimes where they start is
not where it leads them.
Absolute.
It's kind of a, not at all.
It's kind of a sculpture of, of,uh, idea.
You have to keep going.
You, it, you, you find it in allthe interviews.
You find the message and it kindof might not go how, you can't
really write a documentary.
That's what's No, no, no.
That's, it's brilliant about it.

(39:58):
So it's hard to pitch adocumentary sentence.
Yeah.
Really hard to pitch adocumentary because you know
what you want, you know what youwant, but you're, you're just
throwing a lot of stuff at ituntil you keep honing that it's,
but the one thing you do know isif you have mentally a script
outline and you know the story,and this is, you know, kind of a
growing story in the rippleeffect, is you kind of know that
if you start to drift in aninterview and you start talking
about, yeah.
You know.

(40:19):
Blue onions and, you know,religion or certainly politics.
John gets way off course all thetime here too.
Yeah.
So you get way of course youknow how to bring them back
because this is kind of whatwe're talking about.
Yeah.
Um, so yes, but I mean, I can'ttell you how many times we've
been places and we come out ofsomething and we look at each
other like, oh my god's.
We didn't even even think ofthat for the, for the marriage
documentary.
He was not happy with me when Iwas, I looked at something that

(40:41):
he had and I said.
We need more.
We need more in, in one certaindirection, right?
He got in his car and he droveup to Frederick, Wisconsin and
he happened to just notice a, a.
A couple on a fishing dock inFrederick, Wisconsin.
Went over there, started talkingto them.
They were the perfect, they werethe best part of the
documentary.
Wow.
They were the best part of thedocumentary.

(41:02):
Something.
Yeah.
So when you least expected, notplanned, didn't make any
appointment with anybody, it wasjust these two people whose last
names we still don't know tothis day.
But again, it is organizedchaos.
Right?
Yeah.
I mean, but again, I keep usingthe word curiosity.
'cause if, if you're not curiousabout what's going on or the
person's story or who this.
You know what their backgroundis, then it's just gonna be
really dull.
We were at a film festival oncein The Bahamas and I, they pick

(41:25):
up the directors and they take'em to the screenings.
And I was talking to a guy onceand I, I said something about,
you know, what's your nextproject?
And he went, you know, it's thisan X, Y, Z project.
It's this X, Y, Z.
And I said, oh, you know, isthere interest in that?
You know, why are you doing it?
And he goes, well, it's a hotthing right now.
And I figured that's why I'mdoing it.
Oh boy.
And I'm thinking to myself.
There's no way that's gonna goanywhere.
'cause you live with thesethings for a long, long time.

(41:46):
So if you don't have a heartuhhuh, a heart based or
curiosity, there's no way you'regonna get this thing on a
screen.
And kindness has been a passion.
Yeah.
We live it for us for, I mean,sometimes you live it well,
sometimes we don't have it.
Well, but it's been a passion ofours and for a.
It's a long time, but I do thinkthat that, you know, when I look
at the team that's putting thistogether, yeah.
Mm-hmm.
I look at, what they're bringingto the party.

(42:09):
Obviously you've had yoursuccess as a storyteller through
the images that you, that youcobble together.
You've had success as a writerand as a storyteller on the
news.
For how many years did you workon the news?
Oh, it was 17 at care.
Okay.
Two and a half in Duluth, andthen 10.
But you know, I can tell youthat when I told my mother.
That Joan Stefan was gonna be inmy basement.
She's like, can I come over andI can you lock her in the

(42:32):
basement for a while?
Yeah.
Keep her down there for a while.
My mom would be excited too.
My, our, our mom sat right hereby the way, and did an interview
with us.
We did a Mother's Day's.
Great story.
And that was, that was one ofour, our That was really cool.
That was really fun.
Please say hello to them.
Yeah.
They my people.
Absolutely.
They are your people.
And you are their people.
And then you got Joe Schmidt,you know, your, yeah.
Your connection to thestorytelling related to kindness

(42:54):
and Joe Schmidt's connection toeverybody.
To, to everybody.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, it's, it's kinda likethis Minnesota, a team that's
being put together yeah.
But we need to put it in frontof people.
Absolutely.
It needs, it needs to be just asredundant in front of people as
all of the horrible things thatwe hear on a regular basis.
Mm-hmm.
About what's wrong with you andabout what's wrong with the
world.
And, you know, why we can't justhave a one off and, and think

(43:18):
like that, that's gonna do it.
Um, and I have to say one more.
I do have to say that, um, we'reexcited about the Mason's
possibility of, of helping usout with Yeah.
With me too.
Yeah.
But, but one of the things thatwe talked about before we even
met you was that our great hopewas that whoever we could
partner with would have the samepassion that we had.

(43:39):
Right.
For what we were talking about.
We didn't want it to be justsomebody slapping their own
label on Right.
Something.
We wanted it to come from adifferent place, a place that,
that was similar to ours and,and that's what we felt at that
meeting with you guys.
You got the guy.
Yeah.
Scholar and we found that out.
Yeah.
Podcast.
Yeah.
And by the way, I just wannapoint out, you made a comment

(44:00):
about me going in these wild,uh, directions.
I haven't mentioned donuts.
No.
Today.
Donuts.
I haven't mentioned Hil or St.
Thomas.
Yeah.
No.
Seinfeld.
We haven't talked Seinfeld.
Well, that's'cause KG ISS gonealready.
That's true.
I love Seinfeld, by the way.
So every episode there has to bea Seinfeld reference.
Okay.
Try.
We try.
All right.
I have one for you.
Let's have it.
So.

(44:21):
We were talking about ourmarriage documentary.
I actually tried to get therights to the, I don't know if
you remember the scene whereKramer came in telling um, Jerry
Seinfeld about marriage.
Marriage is a prison.
You can't, you know what sceneI'm talking about?
Oh, absolutely.
Yes.
You talk about your day.
You know what you do.
Yeah.
How was your day?
I don't know.
How was your day?
And you can forget aboutwatching tv.

(44:42):
Right.
And he goes on and on and on.
And I tried to get that for theopening of.
Of the actual documentary thatwe had.
So that's, and they wouldn't letyou have it?
No.
Well, for a lot of money.
For a lot of money, sure.
You know, those money grubbing sit was like using a Bruce
Springsteen song or somethinglike that.
It's tough.
All kidding aside, that'sirritating to me.
What the, just the fact that,that, you know, here they have

(45:02):
something that.
It wouldn't cost them a nickelto let you use it.
Right?
Yeah.
And the impact that havingsomething like that would have
on a doc.
I just find that, well, let me,let me just tell you though,
John, oh, here we go.
No, no.
I'm saying it, there's a goodchance that this message is not
even getting to the source, uh,Seinfeld people.

(45:23):
It's, it's, there's so manyagents Oh yeah.
People involved that it'sprobably a whole business move
that, that they, right.
So it's probably not as, it'snot as clear as you think.
Like Bruce Springsteen doesn'tsay, no, I don't wanna look.
Right.
It's, there's a lot of peopleinvolved.
Do you guys play live anymore orwe all the time?
No, we, we do, we played, we'vebeen playing maybe one or two
shows a year for many years.
We have, uh, almost five showsgoing this year.

(45:45):
Wow.
That's a lot.
And have to let us know whereYeah.
It's very exciting.
But yeah, you, you have to letus know where.
Yeah.
All right.
I will.
He has red pants and that, thatwasn't a Hollywood thing.
May 10th is the first one rightup from John's house here.
Yeah, at the dugout.
The dugout, yeah.
May 10th dugout.
I will be Saturday.
I be at the, uh, the wine festfor the uh, Masonic Children's
Hospital.
We all seem to do it on the samenight as Wine Fest, but that's
okay.
We'll have an after party hereat your house.

(46:07):
That's good.
We'll be here before you gethome.
Did you say wine Fest andchildren?
No, no, it's a wine.
It's wine fest to benefit thechildren's hospital.
Sorry, the Masonic Children'sHospital.
Sorry to put those two together,but yeah.
So I'm gonna finish with a realquick story about, uh, kindness.
You mentioned having the afterparty here.
Yeah, let's do it.
Probably 15 years ago.

(46:27):
Very close friend of ours,neighbor of ours, passed away
from brain cancer, and we had abenefit concert for him at.
The Myth, which is in, inMaplewood.
Oh yeah.
And we had Rob Thomas come andhe sang, and this guy who passed
away, pat Brandt was his name,just the most lovely, one of my

(46:48):
favorite people.
Pat was the best man in themarriage of Kristi Yamaguchi and
Brett Heikin.
Brett Heikin, who was a St.
Cloud state hockey player.
Mm-hmm.
They met in the 1992 Olympics,got married anyways, so Kristi
Yamaguchi had just won.
The first season of Dancing Withthe Stars, so she and Mark

(47:10):
Ballas and the rest of the castfrom Dancing With the Stars
came.
To this, to this benefit.
Wow.
And raised a ton of money and itwas just lovely.
So now to the after party, mywife decides when the show is
all over, we're gonna have anafter party at my house.
And you've probably heard thisstory.

(47:31):
No, I never heard it.
You've never heard this story?
No.
I'd just love the setup for it.
So I am not.
Great.
After about 10:00 PM and thatnight she had probably 75 people
here.
The music is blaring.
It's just insanity.
At about two o'clock in themorning, I called the Washington
County Sheriff's Department onyourself, on your own party,

(47:54):
just on on the non-emergencyline.
And I said, Hey, there is aparty at 4 25 Tita Avenue.
Could you send somebody overhere to break up the party?
And the, the person says you'recalling from 4 25 Mad Avenue.
The calls coming from inside thehouse.
Yeah.
I said, yes.
The party is at my house.
Why don't you go tell'em to shutdown the party?

(48:15):
Yes, sir.
I said, I have, and they're notlistening to me.
Oh my God.
So honestly, the police show up.
Oh my God.
God and my wife and her friendsconvinced them that the party
should not stop and the cops satand hung out with them.
'cause we had some celebritieshere.
It was unbelievable.
Where'd the kindness land inthis story?
Story?
The reason for the story storywas the kindness that the police

(48:36):
officers showed.
Okay.
All right.
And a reminder that we're nothaving an after party here on
May 10th.
Well, I would say that the,also, the, the, some of the more
or less story is don't be thatguy, which is you.
Oh no.
Oh, grumpy Gus.
It sounds like it was a goodevent, was a great event.
They were celebrating this guy'slife.
You know what?
Sometimes too much of a goodthing.
Ah, sometimes you gotta dial itback.

(48:58):
Alright.
That is the greatest story.
All right, we've so even Ihaven't done that.
Yeah.
Well, uh, Joan, I'm kind proudyou for some reason.
I dunno what.
Yes, I agree.
I'm proud of me too.
This program has been brought toyou by the donut hut and Little
Canada.
No, I'm kidding.
There it is.
Um, you ever been the, what'syour favorite donut?

(49:18):
The donut hut in little Canada.
Oh.
What's your favorite donut?
The donut donut hut.
I like the white frosted sortof, uh, bow tie, twisty, glazed
thing.
It's, oh, I don't want to talkabout it.
How did we, how did we get thisfit into this one too?
Every episode.
Every episode.
And with that, off we go.