12-10-24 FULL SHOW - It's Colorado Gives Day!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock,
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
No, it's Mandy Connell.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
And Connall on KOA FM, Gotty and.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
The Nicety three. Mandy Connall keeping no sad thing. Welcome, Welcome,
Welcome to a Tuesday edition of the show. And what
a day it is. I'm here your host for the
next three hours.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Mandy Connell, joined, of course, by Anthony Rodriguez in his
Darth Vader Christmas sweater? Is that an homage to the
ill fated Star Wars Christmas Special that only aired once?

Speaker 5 (00:52):
You know?

Speaker 6 (00:53):
That is?

Speaker 5 (00:53):
Uh, that's special.

Speaker 4 (00:55):
I would tell people that is say you were so
moved by the Star Wars Christmas Special nineteen seventy eight
that you had to adorn your sweater with the Dark Lords.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
The only thing I'm missing is the guyliner from Luke
Skywalker and other cast members in that thing is woof Yeah,
where's my Walks?

Speaker 7 (01:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:14):
If you've never seen If you've never seen the Star
Wars Christmas Special, I believe it is available on YouTube.
I think it is, yes, and it is as bad
as you might think. It might be the worst thing
that has ever been made. For television, and that says something.

Speaker 8 (01:29):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
The story of Chewy's family is heartwarming. Yeah, you know,
I can't do my Chewy noise, my vocal cords.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
The backstory of Chewy and the fam. You know, it's
something we don't get in any.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Other I know.

Speaker 4 (01:42):
Oh gosh, Yes, it's certainly special is the word that
I would.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
I would use for it special, as would they in
the title special. We're going to take you right through
three p m.

Speaker 4 (01:52):
And today is a very special day because it is
Colorado Gives Day bio Yes, which is the day that
we ask you.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
And we're not the only ones.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
First Bank puts together Colorado Gives Day every single year.
It's an opportunity for smaller nonprofits to fundraise on a
grander scale, and I have featured some of these nonprofits.
I'll have three of them on the show today in
the format of an interview, and then I have another
list on the blog.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
So let's do that.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
I don't know if you have it on the list
on the block, but if you don't, obviously mind I
would always recommend Big Brother, Big Sisters for Colorado.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Not put it on there. But I will go back
and I will put it on. Yeah, I was trying to.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Okay, I'm just gonna be perfectly frank. You guys what
to sleep Last night at like eight o'clock. Woke up
at three starving. I never wake up hungry. I was like,
oh my god, I'm so hungry. I can eat my
own arm. I've got the jet lag something fierce right now,
and I'm just trying. I'm having coffee right now, Anthony,
I have coffee.

Speaker 2 (02:49):
Food, just food.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
I didn't really eat yesterday. I mean I barely ate
yesterday because I was just not hungry, so I didn't
really eat. And then I woke up this morning I
was starving, because yes, I did grambled eggs and.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Half an avocado at three one at three thirty.

Speaker 4 (03:03):
Oh boy, Actually no, I stayed in bed till like four,
so it was four o'clock in the morning.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
There I got.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
You know, well, I'm officially back on the plan next week,
so hey, I mean, I'm eating kind of the same stuff,
hence the two scrambled eggs and a quarter of an avocado,
you know, but I'm not officially back on the plan
until next week, so I'm a little bit jet lag.
So if I stopped making sense at some point. I
haven't had a stroke, but I might just fall asleep

(03:29):
on on the air today. That's never happened to me.
But hopefully you won't fall asleep listening. Here's what's on
the blog. You can find it by going to mandy'sblog
dot com. That's mandy'sblog dot com.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
Look for the headline that says.

Speaker 4 (03:41):
Twelve ten, twenty four blog It's Colorado Gives Day. Click
on that and here are the headlines you will find within.

Speaker 5 (03:50):
What if you know something doesn't crash on me? Which
it is.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Office half of American all with ships and clippers, and say,
that's kind of press plant today on the blog, it's
Colorado Gives Day, step Denver Children's Diabetes Foundation, the other
side Academy. But I've got a few more options for you.
Independence Institute, the Steamboat Institute, Colorado Veterans Project, Come Back Yoga,
Motorcycle Relief Project, and of course Big Brothers, Big sisters.

(04:17):
It's time to end the Vacancee Committee nonsense. We are
now funding medicaid for illegal immigrants. Want to learn how
badly Syria is screwed?

Speaker 4 (04:26):
Scurolling, squirrelling, congrats to see you's Travis Hunter, who is
watching Where the Money is Going? Merry Christmas for Mike Rosen.
Mass transit in Denver is failing, ladies. This one is
for US government sucks at building things. I ugly cried
on this one. The kiffness and a gay kiddy more
life advice for old people.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
This may be my sport? How did we not notice
this before?

Speaker 4 (04:51):
Those are the headlines on the blog at Mandy's blog
dot com. And I have some really really, really really
good videos on the blog today, not the least of
which is a sport that a Rod sent me this
morning that I feel like this could be my jam Anthony,
if I'd only known about.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
Disco foot when I was.

Speaker 4 (05:11):
Young and enthusiastic about such things. Apparently, and I don't
know where this sport takes place, but he imagine this,
and you can go watch this on the blog today.
Imagine a soccer match taking place, but throughout the entire
soccer match, you must continue to dance during the soccer match,
and at the end of the match you are judged

(05:32):
not only on how many goals you scored, but also
the quality of your dats.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Apparently a part of it, at least was a TV
program in Sweden.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
I love this.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
I would pay money to go watch this, that's how
much I loved it. And then seriously, like, we should
get a disco foot team together.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
What would our name be, I mean, the fancy dancers.
What would our name be? Fancy footers? Bam, there you go,
were the fancy footers. But it's a thing. I mean,
it's a thing, and so there you go. You should
do this. Go watch that on the blog today.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
I've got a Kiffness video with a little kitty who's gay.
It came out to the world this little kitty, and
Kifness made a song about it. I hope he was
ready a kitty. By the way, I also.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
Have a video that we're going to talk about a
little bit later.

Speaker 4 (06:20):
Ben Shapiro did a great It's about twenty four minutes long.
He did a really really good explainer on how all
the factions in Syria come together, including with maps and
graphs and everything else. And I started watching it this
morning at three thirty at four o'clock in the morning,
when I.

Speaker 2 (06:38):
Was eating my breakfast and I was just gonna watch
a couple of minutes. I ended up watching the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (06:43):
Because it was so useful and I knew part of this,
but I didn't know all of it. And what's happening
in Syria. The fall of Asad in Syria could and
there's a big could there could have incredibly powerful ramifications
for the entire Middle East region because Iran, who is
the big state sponsor of terrorism in the Middle East,

(07:06):
has been significantly weakened because of Israel taking out Hesbula's
leadership and degrading Hamas to the point where there's so
few Hamas members left that you know, it's almost comical.
They were the proxies that Iran used to foment terror
in attack Israel and try to destroy the Jewish state.

(07:26):
So they've been wildly degraded because of that. Right now,
the Houthis are still powerful. They're in Yemen and they're
still powerful. They're the last proxy that Iran had but
Iran and Syria, aside was allied with Iran. So Syria
is incredibly important in moving Iranian weapons to other places

(07:48):
like Lebanon.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
So Ben Shapiro does an amazing job.

Speaker 4 (07:51):
And I thought to myself, like I could try to
explain this, but I don't have the graphs in the
maps and if you're not familiar with the way that
region is structured, if you're I'm not super familiar with
the map of the Middle East and how it all
goes together. Cannot recommend this video highly enough because it
is very very good at explaining how all of the
pieces go together. And we are going to talk about

(08:11):
this later because the Trump administration coming into power is
going to have to deal with this, right, It is
not going to just go away, and Aroan knows this,
and Ronan also knows that, unlike the Obama administration and
its extension, the Biden administration, Donald Trump is not in

(08:32):
a mood to give them one hundred and fifty billion
dollars for a hollow promise that they won't develop nuclear weapons.

Speaker 3 (08:38):
Right.

Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's a whole new game for them, a whole new game,
and so it's a fact that is going to be
a big deal. What's happening right now is a big deal.
So we're going to talk about that more a little
bit later. But watch that video when you have chance,
if you just want to educate yourself about how all
the players fit together and how the different factions are
going to be fomenting.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Issues in that in that area. So today is Colorado
Gives Day. This is a big day for Colorado in
that Colorado Gives. The Colorado Gives Foundation has this big
day today and they offer a match for monthly donors.

Speaker 4 (09:19):
If you set up a new recurring monthly donation on
Colorado Gives, Colorado Gives Foundation will match your first month's
gift dollar for dollar up to one hundred bucks. These
are these are really great ways to get charities money
that they desperately need.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
So that that is the first part of this.

Speaker 4 (09:38):
But I know it's hard to figure out sometimes if
you're not aligned with a certain charitable organization. If you're
like me, this is how I view charitable giving. I
want to make sure that the money is being spent
on services that is incredibly important to me. I don't

(10:00):
want to give money to a charity that spends more
on overhead than they do delivering on what they are
supposed to deliver on. That is very important to me.
I also prefer to donate to hand up charities instead
of hand out charities. Now, don't get me wrong. I
donate to the Parker Food Bank. You know, those are

(10:20):
very specific literally a handout charity. But I want to
support organizations who are invested in helping people become the
best people that they can be, and that's how I
choose my charitable donation.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
So I thought I would just make it easy for
you guys by giving you a list of my faves. Aron.

Speaker 4 (10:40):
If you want to go on the blog, you can
add Big Brothers, Big Sisters. Just get the link from
Colorado gives dot org and put it on there.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
To make it easy for people.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
I've got three of my favorite nonprofit organizations on today.
The first is step Denver. We're going to talk to
them at twelve thirty. If you've listened to this show
for any length of time, you know about the incredible,
great work that they do. And then a little bit
later we're going to talk to Dana Davis from the
Children's Diabetes Foundation.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
This is a wonderful.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
We're so lucky to have the Barbara Davis Center here
in Colorado to help people young people living with type
one diabetes and helping their families with education.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
They help with research, they do.

Speaker 4 (11:20):
All this amazing stuff to stop type two type one diabetes.
Type one is different than type two. And we're going
to have Dana back on the show today to talk
about that, and then a little bit later, I've never
done this before what we're doing today. The Other Side
Academy is an organization that is very similar to Step Denver,
but slightly different, And I'm having two organizations with a

(11:42):
similar mission on today for this reason. Both of them
are helping people who have really messed up their lives
because of addiction, really just.

Speaker 2 (11:54):
Messed up their lives.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
And they are both incredibly value programs at this time,
especially because if you look around the streets of Denver,
you see a lot of people who need their help.
So I've never done this before, but I'm later on
in the show, we're going to talk to the Other
Side Academy because both of these organizations are worth your investment.
And I say investment because we sit here on the

(12:17):
show and we talk a lot about homelessness and addiction
and all of these things. These two organizations are helping
people in a way that matters, that is important, and
is helping save their lives, and not just save their lives,
but they're coming out of these programs with dignity and
they're self respect back, and that to me is an

(12:37):
invaluable gift to give to someone who's willing to work
for it, and so we're going to talk to the
other side a little bit later. But I also have
some other options that I want to roll through real quick.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
Now.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Several of them are politically based, but.

Speaker 4 (12:55):
They are doing really incredibly important work, both in their
own ways.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
The first is the Independence Institute.

Speaker 4 (13:01):
John Caldera and his team at the Independence Institute, they
are they're doing stuff that is so incredibly valuable for
you as of Coloradin.

Speaker 2 (13:11):
They are the reason we've had two.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
Income tax cuts, regardless of what the governor tries to say. Now,
the Independence Institute is why we've cut income tax twice.
The Independence Institute is the one who is always fighting
to make Colorado more free and more fair. Not fair
in the sense that everybody has equal outcomes, but everybody
has equal opportunity. And they run a very tight ship

(13:34):
at the Independence Institute.

Speaker 2 (13:36):
That's the other thing.

Speaker 4 (13:37):
I want to make sure money is spent wisely. And
I think, you know, I tease John because John is
so teasable, right, So he's John, He's John Caldera. I
love the guy like I love, love, love John Caldera,
But dang, he does a great job and He's assembled
this just amazing staff and all they do every day
is try to figure out a way to prevent Colorado

(13:59):
from becoming California and yet even more than it already has.
So give them some money. Also, they also support complete
Colorado dot com, a website I use every single day
in my show prep. It is the best aggregator of
news for Colorado.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
You will find. I have never found a better one.

Speaker 4 (14:16):
So Independence Institute also supports Complete Colorado. Those two things
alone are worth a donation in my mind. Then we
have the Steamboat Institute. Yes, they're located in Steamboat, and
their mission is very similar. They're defending freedom, they're celebrating
the rugged individualism that made our nation great.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
But they're doing it a little bit differently. Whereas Independence
Institute is very engaged in promoting and talking about policy
positions and they successfully run many ballot initiatives to protect
Colorados from big government, Steamboat is going at it in
a different way. They do education.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
They take to college campuses these debates about big issues,
so college students can see two things. Number One, they
can see the conservative side of that issue being presented
by an incredibly intelligent person, no matter who it is.
And secondarily, they can see people disagree civilly, so they both.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Do important work.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
They're both worthy of a donation. So if you want
to put your money into saving Colorado, give it to
either of them. Then I've got the Colorado Veterans Project.
Not only do they do the Veterans Day Parade, they
also donate money to other veterans organizations throughout Colorado.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Very well run organization.

Speaker 4 (15:28):
So if you'd like to support veterans, you could donate
to CVP right.

Speaker 2 (15:31):
There by the way.

Speaker 4 (15:32):
I put links to all of their donation pages on
Colorado GIFs Day on the blog, so.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
You don't even have to go to Colorado Gifts. You
can just go to the.

Speaker 4 (15:40):
Blog and click right through and make a donation. And
we've added Okay, let me refresh there, but let me
get through these other two. Then I've added come Back Yoga.
Come Back Yoga is their mission statement provides free, accessible,
trauma informed, science based yoga classes to the military community
to enhance overall health and quality of life. And my

(16:02):
friend Rob of the Day, Rob is now a yoga
instructor because of come Back Yoga, and he speaks very
very highly of how the program helps veterans who might
be struggling. And so please, if you're a yoga person,
maybe consider giving some money to come back yoga. Then
we have the Motorcycle Relief Project. This is another veterans
organization that takes veterans on multi day motorcycle trips, which

(16:27):
you know, you're like, okay, what's the value there. But
every night at the end of the ride for that day,
they sit around, they have conversations, They talk about dealing
with stress and post traumatic stress and let these guys
and gals know they aren't alone. So if you love
motorcycles and you love veterans, Motorcycle Relief Project might be.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
The one for you.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
And then of course A Rod just added, but I
don't think it's updated just yet.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
It's not updated yet. Oh yeah, you did.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
Big Brothers and big sisters. He himself is a big
He has.

Speaker 2 (16:57):
A little brother.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
And if you're not familiar with big brothers and big sisters,
they provide kind of adult mentorship and friendship for kids
who may not have In the case of a Rod's kid,
maybe they don't have a father figure in their life,
or maybe they don't have a female role model in
their life. It's a wonderful program and it really helps
kids have another trusted adult in their life to give

(17:20):
them a different perspective.

Speaker 3 (17:22):
Humbly seeing the impact on my little and honestly, you know,
I don't know how much is to do with me,
more so just to have someone there for him, and
then seeing all the other bigs with their littles in
the big.

Speaker 5 (17:33):
Group settings that we do, it has a massive impact.

Speaker 3 (17:36):
And the leadership, all the different kind of kind of
like camp counselor escort, all the other leaders that really
help guide our activities are just so cool and they're
so great with the kids. They make the activities so
awesome for these for these littles, And it's just a
couple hours a month we donate our time, but it
is a huge impact.

Speaker 5 (17:55):
And I'm gonna.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Venture to guess, the more money that the big brother,
big sister of colorad who gets, the the cooler activities
that get that we get to do, the more often
activities we get to do, the cooler meals that we
get to have for lunch, the more guidance that they
have as a program.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
So I couldn't say enough good things about them.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
Excellent, So we've all got all of these links on
the blog at Mandy's blog dot com.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
When we get back, I've got some of the folks
from Step Denver. Step Denver is. They've been around for
so long, they used to be Step thirteen. I can't
even I wonder how many men they have actually helped.
It's got to be thousands get their lives back through
a program of work and accountability. And I love them.

Speaker 4 (18:31):
They're coming up next stick around helping men overcome the
perils of addiction in a fashion that I enthusiastically support.
I've had the opportunity to go and tour the facility,
and if you do that, if you take the tour
and you go and find out how the program works,
you will be blown away as I was at everything

(18:52):
required and joining me in the studio. Now the executive director.
Are you is that your official title?

Speaker 2 (18:57):
Megan?

Speaker 4 (18:57):
Yes, Megan Shay. She's new to that role, but not
new to Step Denver. And we also have Derek who
has now are you where are you in the program?

Speaker 8 (19:05):
Derek, I'm a recovery support manager.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
Recovery support manager? Are you a former addict or recovering addict?

Speaker 8 (19:11):
Okay, I'm in recovery myself.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
And that is very common. It's Step Denver.

Speaker 9 (19:15):
It is twenty of our twenty five staff members have
been through the program themselves or are actively in recovery.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
What is the point of that.

Speaker 9 (19:23):
I believe it's part of the peer to peer model
where we're not just people that got a degree in
something and have that on the wall and say hey,
I read this in a book.

Speaker 8 (19:33):
It might help you.

Speaker 9 (19:34):
We get to with the residents that we work with
on a daily basis. We get to tell them, hey,
look I've been where you're at. As a matter of fact,
I've been in this program myself. I'm not asking you
to do anything that I haven't done, but I'm going
to give you suggestions and experience through my lived experience
to help you get out of this cycle of addiction.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
How did you end up in STEP in the first place.

Speaker 9 (19:56):
I was homeless before I got to STEP, and I
went to a deta and the counselor that was there
when I was seeking treatment said you might want to
try this place called Step Denver. And I was out
of options, and so I was willing to do anything
at that point.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
So you really were at rock bottom definitely when you
first came into the program.

Speaker 2 (20:14):
And when you enter the program, it's.

Speaker 4 (20:16):
Called Step because there are steps that you go through
and they are physically manifested.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
In where you sleep.

Speaker 4 (20:22):
And when you first come into the program, you have
these barracks. You know, you're out with all the other guys.
What was that like for you when you got there
and you realize like, okay, I'm gonna do this. Tell
me what that part was like, Like how you made
that first step?

Speaker 9 (20:35):
Yeah, So my experience with STEP, like I should mention that,
like I chose to sleep on the street instead of
the shelters because it was safer and cleaner on the
street than in the shelters. And so I went into
STEP with the expectation with if it looks, smells, or
feels like a shelter, I'm not going to stay. And

(20:55):
so when I walked in and I saw how immaculately
clean it was twenty four and how kind and comforting
the staff members were, and then like I get a
bed to sleep on instead of like a bunk and
it's like a really nice bed, and I get a
closet and the living space was like beyond what I
was expecting, and it made me like immediately when I

(21:16):
walked in, it felt like home. It felt like a brotherhood,
and it felt comfortable and I felt welcome.

Speaker 2 (21:22):
How did you fall into addiction in the first place.

Speaker 9 (21:24):
I got introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very
young age, just being exposed to in the environment that
I grew up in.

Speaker 4 (21:32):
So tell me about what has happened for you just
as a human since you became You got sober, and
then you committed to the program, and now you're actually
working for the program.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
How has that evolution been for Derek?

Speaker 9 (21:46):
I mean, it's it's been life saving and life changing.
To be honest, like I'm I'm a completely different person
to the selfish, self centered, egotistical full of pride and
guilt and shame and fear before for recovery and now
I'm the exact opposite of all those things. I have
a purpose in my life to be of service to

(22:07):
other people and to help people, and to be a
messenger of truth and love and an advocate for recovery.
And I'm very much I'm very much a fan of
recovering out loud. I'm not shy about my recovery and
I don't shout it from the rooftops like a preacher.
But I'm definitely willing to have the conversation and have
the vulnerable conversations, and I lean into discomforts and I

(22:29):
lean into fear, and I only know how to do
these things and just be a regular citizen in our community,
like tax paying member of our community, like a good member.
I only know how to do those things because Step
and the twelve Step Fellowships that I got involved in.

Speaker 4 (22:44):
Megan, you, guys, how many people do you think you've
actually helped over the years.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
I mean, you know that has to be thousands. When
did Bob Kota start this?

Speaker 3 (22:52):
What year?

Speaker 10 (22:53):
So we were founded in nineteen eighty three. We have
served thousands of men over the years. Last year we
served almost four hundred men. So we're now serving about
four hundred men per year. So, and the key is
it's not just servings, right, So we consider a man
served when they've been in our program five plus days.

(23:13):
We don't consider them served because they had a place
to stay for one night, or we've provided them with food.
To us, true service is they learned something they can
put into action in their life that is going to
have an impact in their quality of life. Their ability
to recover, their ability to be self sufficient. And so
we consider men served after they've actually received career coaching

(23:35):
and peer coaching from men like Derek and gone through
you know, some of our curriculum and meetings and received
things that they can actually apply. And so I think
that's the difference too. When you look at shelters, it's
like heads and beds, right, how many nights did they stay?

Speaker 8 (23:50):
For us?

Speaker 10 (23:51):
It's about them actually receiving the tools that they need
to become the people that they're capable of being. You
see what Derek is doing every day in his life,
the pact he's having on these men.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
And we don't want lives to be wasted.

Speaker 10 (24:04):
We don't want people on the street living in misery
and despair. We want them to have purpose. And that's
our main goal, is that they can sustain where I
learn it step after they leave, not just oh great,
we served four hundred men.

Speaker 4 (24:18):
This is a challenging population. Addiction is a real tough
thing and there's a lot of relapse and things of
that nature. Do you feel like because of the program,
And either of you can answer this, because this program
is and I never want to knock any kind of rehab.
Like there's a form of rehab that's going to help people.
It may not help all people, but I am all
in favor of any program that I want to be

(24:39):
clear about that. But the thing I like about STEP
is that it does require that accountability portion. It requires
self sufficient It requires you to go out and get
a job, It requires you to do these things that
bring you back into society.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Is that do you.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
Think that's why it's so successful. I'm gonna ask Derek
that I.

Speaker 8 (24:57):
Do believe that's why it's so successful.

Speaker 9 (25:00):
I was telling Megan the other day and spoke about
it this morning as well as like we recover in
real time.

Speaker 8 (25:05):
Life isn't on pause.

Speaker 9 (25:07):
We're able to go do those life things instead of
just focusing just on one thing for eight hours a day,
which is my addiction and the recovery from it. But
like I actually get to save my money, I get
to be accountable for my actions within this community.

Speaker 8 (25:23):
I get to go to the store and cook my food.
I need to be able to.

Speaker 9 (25:27):
Learn how to make my bed in the right way
and be accountable for all those things.

Speaker 8 (25:31):
But also like.

Speaker 9 (25:32):
Really just build habits that are going to carry me
once I get out of said program because it's going
to end eventually.

Speaker 4 (25:40):
I love the way you just said, I get to
do these things. I get to have a job, I
get to do these instead of I have to. That's
a pretty significant mindset situation there, you know. It's that
I get to.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Do these things, not I have to. Meghan, how much
does it.

Speaker 10 (25:55):
Cost take a man, Yeah, it's five It's just over
five thousand, fifty two two hundred dollars per man, and
that's for the entire stay. So most men are staying
with us for four to six months, some up to
two years. But if we look at how many men
we serve in a year in our total expenses, it's
about fifty two hundred dollars per man, which, by the way,
is one sixth of the cost I did the math

(26:15):
on one of these hotels, one sixth of the cost
of just putting someone in a hotel room. And so
for a fraction we are able to help men become
self sufficient, get out of that cycle of dependency, and
be able to contribute because they have a lot to contribute,
by the way, to their community and to their families,
and just for.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
The person on the text line who asked if Mayor
Mike had done the tour of step Denver yet that
is a big fat no. I asked Megan that when
you came in, if you would like to help out
step Denver and if you're like me, I love a
hand up program, they could use your donation today. I
put a link on the blog today where you can
go straight to the Colorado Gives page. What is the
benefit of working through Colorado Gives instead of a direct donation.

Speaker 2 (26:58):
Well, there are a couple.

Speaker 10 (26:59):
One is the Colorida Gives Foundation does an incentive fund match,
so we will have a larger percentage of that incentive
fund at the end of the day based on how
many people are supporting step Denver among all of the
other charities that they're supporting today. We also have a
twenty five thousand dollars match. We have an individual who
has stepped up and said I will match dollar for

(27:19):
dollar up to twenty five thousand dollars gifts that are
received on this show.

Speaker 4 (27:23):
Now you just need to hit twenty five thousand dollars
and you hit another twenty five How.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
About five thousand dollars from that last.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
I was going to look on this right now. It
doesn't have the thing on there.

Speaker 10 (27:32):
Yeah, I've been getting updates from our director of development,
and right before we left Step to come here, we
were about five thousand away from lat so here we go.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
It is.

Speaker 4 (27:41):
Yeah, well, no, it's that's a pretty match. Okay, it's weird.

Speaker 10 (27:46):
There's another cool thing that's happening is Colorado Gives Foundation.
Any new monthly donation that's made today through Colorado gives
dot org slash Step Denver. People who sign up for
a monthly gift, Colorado Gives Foundation will match their first
donation okay, dollar for dollars, so there are a couple
of different matches. There's one other benefit which is new,
the Homeless Contribution tax Credit. So people who give one

(28:08):
thousand dollars or more to step Denver are eligible for
a twenty five percent tax credit on that gift, So
twenty five percent of their gift they'll get back in
a tax credit on their federal or state TAXI state
state of Colorado. All right, my friends, there you go.

Speaker 2 (28:21):
How long is the waitlist for step Denver. We never
have a waitlist, Okay.

Speaker 10 (28:25):
We were actually an overflow two weeks ago for the
first time, so I've been there six years and I've
never seen us full, and a couple weeks ago we
hit sixty one or sixty two and the sixty three
bed capacity. We actually say we're a sixty bed facility,
but we have three overflow beds okay, and we had
one overflow bed open. So we're very grateful that right

(28:46):
now the demand is actually leading men to our doors.
Men are making that choice. But the fact of the
matter is, at any given time, there are over one
hundred and fifty beds open in this community. We do
not have a shortage of beds for people to have.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
A shortage of people taking them. Correct.

Speaker 4 (29:02):
I do want to say you do have to go
to the program sober, yes, meaning if you are intoxicated
on anything, you have to sober up before you can
come through the door, which I think is reasonable because
all of the other men there are trying to maintain
their sobriety and they don't need to be around someone
who is not sober. But you can go to detox
and then go straight to step Denver and that is
something that's.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
What you did. Derek.

Speaker 4 (29:23):
Absolutely, Yeah, guys, I really appreciate you coming in. I
love the program. I'm so excited you're expanding into Colorado Springs.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
When is that open?

Speaker 10 (29:31):
We are this time next year, we hope to have
our doors open, fifty bed facility in Colorado Springs. It'll
be called STEP Springs. It is our first replication of
this program. We've now got a forty plus year history,
we have proof ten years of data proving this works,
and so now our mission is to take this model
into communities and reach more men in need of this program.
Men like Derek give them that opportunity. So Derek will

(29:53):
be moving to Colorado Springs to help us launch that
and give other men the same opportunity he was given.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
They're lucky to have you, Derek.

Speaker 8 (29:59):
I'm blad to be a part of it.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Meghan Shay from an executive director of Step Denver and Derek,
thank you so much because we'll be back right after this.
Somebody to hit the text line, is today's show just
going to be you asking for money that I don't have,
not directly, but it is Colorado Gives Day, So yeah,
kind of not the whole show, though, I do promise
you that got a lot of stuff on the blog today,
But I want to do this real quick because I

(30:22):
don't a lot of time here. I went a little long.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Can we all just be excited for Cus Travis Hunter?

Speaker 2 (30:27):
I know, don't. I don't talk sports a lot, but it's.

Speaker 4 (30:31):
Very exciting that a Buffalo is a finalist for the
Heisman Trophy, and truly from where I sit, and I
didn't watch a lot of college football this year because
Florida State took the year off.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
And don't tell me otherwise.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Okay, just don't even stop it, don't don't you don't
say it. But since Florida State took the year off,
I haven't been watching a college a lot of college football,
but man, the highlights of this kid, Holy macarony, Holy macarny.
It is really really I hope he wins. Let me

(31:05):
just say that, I do hope he wins.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
We'll see.

Speaker 4 (31:07):
We're all rooting for you, Travis. I'm sure Travis listens
to the program when he's not in school, because you know,
our college age men numbers are off the charts. Anyway,
I just thought that was cool, so I wanted to
bring that to your attention. Mike Rosen has written a.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Column at page two at.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
Complete Colorado dot Com and I love it so much,
but it's addressing something that we had a conversation about
with in my friend group not too long ago, and
that was a friend of mine said, hey, did you
notice that Mary Christmas has made a comeback? And I
was like, what, she goes in the stores, in the
stores everywhere, it's Merry Christmas again. Some places still have

(31:47):
Happy Holidays. She's like, where I am, everything is Mary Christmas.
She's in Florida, of course, so of course it's Merry Christmas.
But I wanted to ask you, guys, have you noticed
the messaging in stores or whatever, the banners and whatnot.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Have you have you noticed this?

Speaker 4 (32:03):
And I figured I would ask the question and then
you guys can hit the text line at five sixty
six nine zero and tell me if you've noticed it.
Because Mike Rosen makes a really good case for retailers
going with the prophet motive and going back to Merry Christmas.
And I love it, not because I disparage any other religion.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
And if I know someone is.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Jewish or a Muslim, I'll say happy Honkah or happy Holidays.
I'm not trying to, you know, rub the big Christian holiday.
But the point Mike makes, and he makes it beautifully
is that Christmas is there's two versions of Christmas. One
celebrates the birth of Christ. One is Santa Claus bringing
presents for kids. Right, those things are very different, and

(32:46):
we should be able as a society to recognize the
secular Christmas should be okay for everyone to just say
Merry Christmas. I think we're getting past the era of hypersensitization.
I mean, or maybe I'm just hanging out with people
who have, you know, completely heartless.

Speaker 2 (33:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (33:06):
Hit my text lineup the Common Spirit Health text line
five sixty six nine oero. Are you seeing Merry Christmas
or are you seeing happy Holidays?

Speaker 2 (33:13):
And do you even care? Have we beaten this to death?

Speaker 5 (33:16):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:17):
We'll talk about it next.

Speaker 1 (33:19):
The Mandy Connall Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and Injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (33:23):
No, it's Mandy Connell, Mandy Connell, KA.

Speaker 1 (33:31):
Nine FM, Got.

Speaker 6 (33:36):
Study and the Niceys Through Freight, Mandy Coronal keeping your
really Sad Thing.

Speaker 2 (33:45):
Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the second hour of the show.

Speaker 4 (33:48):
I'm your host, Mandy Connall, and it is Colorado Gives Day,
where we ask you to dig out your piggy bank
and donate to your favorite charities. One of my favorite
charities is well she is not my favorite charity. She
is working with the Children's Diabetes Foundation. Dana Davis, Welcome
back to the show.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
Thank you so much for having me. We're so proud
to be one of your favorite charities.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Well you guys work with First of all, I want
to ask you this because I saw this not too
long ago and I meant to look it up and
I've forgotten to. Right now, there was a big breakthrough,
it seems in type two diabetes.

Speaker 2 (34:21):
Earlier this year they did some gene editing SYPE two,
so we too. Yes, so I thought it was type one.
Well you said type two, but I know type one
with type one.

Speaker 11 (34:34):
So there are some amazing things that are happening, and
there are some breakthroughs that are happening, and we're hoping
and thinking and I know so many people think that's
just so far down the line.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
But in like, we think in twenty.

Speaker 11 (34:47):
Years that would be a cure, and I know people
feel like that's so far away. What we're able to
do is figure out right now we can do where
we put islet cells in the body, but we need
to still give people anti rejection drugs right, So, to
be honest, I would rather be type one right than beyond.

Speaker 2 (35:05):
Anti rejection correct. Correct.

Speaker 11 (35:07):
So we're so close. We're so close. I didn't think
I could ever say that before. I actually just had
a meeting with our researchers last week and for the
researchers were very honest and we're very sort of organic
and specific about what we'll share.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
For the first time, they told me they feel like
we're close. Wow, that's got it.

Speaker 4 (35:29):
I mean, wouldn't it be great to have your organization
go out of business because you weren't need it anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
It would be that would be my ultimate goal.

Speaker 11 (35:38):
Yeah, And for right now, our goal really is is
to make sure that type ones who do have it.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
Are getting the best care possible.

Speaker 4 (35:45):
Let's start with what's the difference between type one and
type two? Because a lot of people are like, well,
just love some wait that this is not a lifestyle disease.
Type one diabetes totally different than type two diabetes.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
What is the difference?

Speaker 11 (35:58):
So type one is an autoimmune disease, and you can
have markers. We can actually test and see if people
have markers to predispose them to type one, and we
actually can give infusions for two weeks that can delay
the onset of type one. Oh wow, the type one
is an autoimmune disease. You don't do anything, you don't

(36:20):
You didn't cause it. Type two is more about lifestyle.
There are some possibilities. There are Type two's that are thin,
and people are like, well, they're thin and they're in shape,
and that's because the pancreas was stressed and make enough insulin.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
But type one, literally your body makes no insulin and
you were diagnosed as a child.

Speaker 5 (36:42):
Is that why?

Speaker 4 (36:42):
Because everybody asked, well, why is it the Children's Diabetes
Foundation when in reality, you can be diagnosed with type
one diabetes at any point in your life.

Speaker 11 (36:49):
Thank you for saying that, one hundred percent. So when
I was diagnosed, I was seven, and my parents called
it the Children's Diabetes Foundation because at that time they
called type one childhood diabetes and juvenile diabetes.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Right right now that's changed.

Speaker 11 (37:04):
I mean I have board members that were twenty six
and thirty one. They were diagnosed. You can get diagnosed
when you're ninety with type one diabetes. You can be
diagnosed at any age. And I'm really glad you brought
that up because it's so important for people to know.
We recently, you know, we have people that need to
know the symptoms. Recently, there was a teenager who was

(37:25):
misdiagnosed not through US, not through SeeU, but through somewhere
else and unfortunately they passed away because they didn't get
the proper care. And all it is is a simple
blood test and you'urine test, very simple test.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
What are the symptoms to look for. Let's go ahead
talk about that.

Speaker 11 (37:40):
It's weight loss, it's fatigue.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Unexplained weight loss.

Speaker 4 (37:45):
To be clear, like, if you're on a diet you're
losing weight, that doesn't mean you have type one diabetes.
But if you all of a sudden start to shed weight.

Speaker 11 (37:51):
Shed weight, it's like twenty pounds in nothing flat. It's
extreme thirst. Depending on your age, it's bed wedding. I
was wedding my bad at seven. That was not normal, right,
It's it's it's crankiness.

Speaker 4 (38:06):
Well then I might have Type two guys.

Speaker 11 (38:11):
I mean, I say it continues through. We're all a
little cranky, right, So it's that it's knowing the symptoms.
We're working really hard on education too, and educating everyone.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
I think people just assume.

Speaker 11 (38:23):
They know what type one diabetes is and says, oh,
you know, you're too old to.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Get it, or you're too.

Speaker 11 (38:29):
Healthy to get it, and that's it's almost like an
invisible disease because so many people look so healthy you
would never think they actually have it.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
Well, it seems like now there are like managing diabetes.
There's so many tools on the market now that are
just crazy. The constant glucose monitor that the people have
for kids, that's just got to be a game changer.
What it's a god sense. So imagine that you have
a one year old.

Speaker 11 (38:56):
Who can't quite tell you what's wrong with them, and
you can look.

Speaker 2 (39:02):
And see what their numbers are.

Speaker 11 (39:03):
So I'm wearing one right now and it tells me
twenty four hours a day on my phone what my
blood sugars are, right, And it's something that in the future,
they feel like all all people should be wearing at
some point in time in their life because it's such
an important thing to see how food and activities affect you,
not just as a type one, right, but as.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
A human being.

Speaker 4 (39:24):
There's some really interesting stuff happening right now when it
comes to personalization.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
To your point, and one.

Speaker 4 (39:30):
I just read an article a couple of weeks ago
about a study that's happening now where people are wearing
these glucose monitors and eating what is we've all been
told is a healthy diet, but some people are finding
out certain vegetables are making their blood sugar go crazy.
So we're maybe looking at a future, well, you will
have a very specific eating plan of like these are
your food these are your superfoods, and they might be

(39:51):
different for everyone.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
It's so cool the stuff that's cool, isn't it cool?
And it's cool that it can all springboard off of
each other.

Speaker 11 (39:56):
There's so many things that with chronic illnesses that can
help everybody. And I think that's the one thing about
you know, diabetes, is there's some really cool technologies that
have happened that can help everybody.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:08):
I just got a question on the text line, Manny
ask her what it's called or what type of diabetes
it is? When the person doesn't have a pancreas, so
that will that's type one.

Speaker 11 (40:18):
Yeah, that's type and that's sometimes when people have cancer
and they're pancreas is removed. I have a girlfriend who
has a father that lived for twelve years, I mean,
and he was older.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
Without it, you become type one in need insulin.

Speaker 4 (40:31):
But yeah, so let's talk about the Barbiadavia Center first
of all, because we are so blessed and lucky here
in the Denver metro to have the Barbia Davia Center
started by your mom. It was because of your conditional
Is type one diabetes hereditary?

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Is there a hereditary component?

Speaker 11 (40:46):
There is a hereditary component. I don't have it in
my history at all. So it's also really possible just
out of nowhere for somebody to have life. I know,
I'm special, so yeah, can come out of it? Can
it can be either you know, you know of it
and it's in your genes and and and that's why

(41:06):
it's important too, I think for people to make sure
they get a blood test or to get tested if
you do have it in your family.

Speaker 2 (41:14):
The Barbara Davis Center will test you for free, oh.

Speaker 11 (41:16):
Wow, to see if you have the markers and then
be able to let you know if an onset of
type one is coming.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
What do you guys do at the Data Dava or
the just renamed the Center of the Barbaraga. They need
to change, right, we need rebranding what do you guys
do over there overall because there's so many things.

Speaker 11 (41:37):
There's so many things, it's fantastic. So we do patient
care on the first floor. Second floor there's an infusion
center where we actually able to do there's a few
drugs that you can now infuse and push off the
onset of type one if you have all the markers.
And then the top two floors are a wet lab
and a dry lab. So we do sort of soup

(41:58):
to nuts. We do everything from care to trying to
prevent it to a cure.

Speaker 4 (42:02):
And that's pretty amazing that there are drugs that you
can give someone to keep their pancreas going if they're headed.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
In that direction.

Speaker 11 (42:10):
Yeah, but now it's just getting the testing ryan some
of it again is going to be a sticky a
sticky answer, but some of its insurance. It's a very
expensive drug right now. We're trying really hard to get
it past. We're trying very hard to get as much
data as we can on it so that we can
get it into mainstream.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
Is that part of what you do as well? Do
you do you help researchers, do you do you fund
that kind of stuff?

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Absolutely? We have we have two floors of researchers. Wow,
so you actually have it. For some reason, I thought
you did grants, But you guys actually are telling we
actually have researchers.

Speaker 11 (42:43):
We have over two hundred and twenty people in the
building at the Barbara Davia Center. I'd say a third
of them are Type one themselves, so they have a
lot of passion for it and a lot of the
researches is going on. We also have the largest clinical
base of patients, so any devices that are going to
mount in the next five years have come through our
center for testing. Oh wow, We've been able to be

(43:05):
a part of it because we have the most children,
the most adults. Ninety percent of the Type ones in
Colorado and surrounding areas come to the center.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
Oh that's fantastic, because I got to tell you, every
time we have this have you on the show, I
get an email from someone that says, Oh my gosh,
I had no idea this was here. Just found out
I had Type one diabetes. I'm going to go there because,
you know, for the education component, because it's scary.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
I mean scary, you really do when you get that diagnosis.

Speaker 4 (43:34):
I think when you're a child and I don't want to,
you know, speak for your experience.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
It's a pain.

Speaker 4 (43:41):
But maybe because your parents are kind of handling things,
it may not be as scary as it could be.
But when you're an adult and you realize, oh, this
is going to be the rest of my life, it
can be really intimidating and frightening.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
So what do you guys do in the way of
education and do you have how old do you serve?

Speaker 11 (43:57):
We serve literally from day one to we have one
patient that's had it for seventy five years.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
Oh my gosh, she's amazing, and you know, to one
hundred years old.

Speaker 11 (44:07):
Education is crucial and my parents wanted to start this
because they wanted to care for the whole family, right,
So part of it is making sure that the siblings
are okay. If it's you yourself, that your partner or
you know your kids are okay with it, it's we
treat it as a whole family in the education and
that means, you know, a lot of times Type ones
are twice as likely.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
To suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts and.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
A function of the I mean, is there a physiological
reason for that or is it just the stress and
the and the sort of yeah, you know, mental where
are you? Yeah, Like, yes, I think it's a little
of both.

Speaker 11 (44:46):
And then actually Type ones are four times as likely
to suffer from eating disorders because there's such a focus
on what you're eating and what that looks like, and
and that can be at any age. That's not just
for kids and not just for teenagers. So mental health
shoes is a big push that we do as well,
because it's such a crucial part of it and taking
care of the whole person, not just your disease, but

(45:09):
making sure your mind, body, and soul are Okay, Well,
what are.

Speaker 4 (45:13):
The repercussions of untreated type one diabetes? Obviously people can die.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
You die?

Speaker 11 (45:17):
Oh oh, just that's it, okay, I mean yeah, one
hundred years ago, they starved you till you died. Oh my,
that was the treatment before insulin was discovered. Like it's
kind of crazy to think, so to think when people
are like, oh, it's been so long since we've had
a cure, It's like we've only had insulin for one
hundred years and they've known about it since Egyptian times.

(45:37):
There's proof that it was called the sugar urine disease
and they knew to you know, sort of if there
was sugar, if ants went to where you were urinated.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
That you probably had diabetes. Like got's crazy, right, Like
it's been around forever.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
So if you don't want to go get tested, just
be on the ground near an ant pilon.

Speaker 2 (45:58):
And see what. It's perfect. But don't crazy. Now people
are going to do that and I'm going to get
in trouble with our doctors. They're going to be like,
what kind of you live?

Speaker 4 (46:08):
But I don't find that fascinating because we don't think
about the ancient Egyptians.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
I mean, they had a civilized.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Culture for the time, but you don't think about the
fact that they were figuring out the internal workings or
at least knowing that something was wrong, right, and it's crazy.
That's amazing, Yeah, I mean, that's just amazing. What are
some of the things that people who are coming to
the center for the first time.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
What can they expect.

Speaker 11 (46:34):
They can expect a really warm and welcoming place. They
can expect to find people who understand them. They can
expect to be treated as a whole person, their whole
family to be treated. We make sure a lot of
times like kids will come over from Children's hospital and
little red wagons.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
You know, they'll come across.

Speaker 11 (46:55):
After they've been diagnosed, they're welcome to they get to
meet with therapist, they get to meet with a nurse practitioner,
they get to meet with a doctor. We do the
initial sort of setup, and then a few weeks later
we have them come back. That's a lot of information
to get in the beginning. That's a lot of We
try to connect them with a network. We try to

(47:15):
get them with social networks, and we have support groups
and different things to really help to help them get
through it.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
So what kind of changes have we seen in terms
of life expectancy and the life expectancy since you were
diagnosed as.

Speaker 11 (47:31):
So when I was diagnosed, they were basically I was told,
you know, to not have children. I didn't have children
for other reasons, but that I couldn't have children and
that I could expect to live like thirty forty years.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
WHOA, and now we have.

Speaker 11 (47:43):
People that are living with it for seventy five eighty.
It'll be my fiftieth anniversary diversary this next year. So
we're doing a celebration in a metal celebration because we
have over four hundred patients.

Speaker 2 (47:55):
That I have had it more than fifty years. So
if the life.

Speaker 11 (47:58):
Expectancy has just doubled, it's become and the quality of
life right right, I mean, let's be really.

Speaker 4 (48:05):
You can extend someone's life, but their quality of life sucks.

Speaker 2 (48:08):
What you're really doing, you know, that's it and now
it can be.

Speaker 11 (48:11):
That's one of the bigger pushes too, is with cgms
and pumps in different ways that you can take care
of your body. You can. I mean you see there's
Olympic athletes, there's race car drivers. You can do absolutely everything.
And now even you're allowed to you know, before you
weren't allowed to fly planes. There are you know, you're
allowed to do that now, like it's amazing. There's nothing

(48:31):
that you can't do anymore.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
So what are they working on?

Speaker 4 (48:34):
What are your researchers working on right now that they
feel hopeful that the end may be near.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
That would be stem cells.

Speaker 11 (48:44):
I mean that would be the implanting of stem cells
and seeing you know what do you maybe put it
in what a cancer cells shell is right, because it's
you know, survives the immune system and it's you know, impervious,
so you can it can come, will come and go,
sorry about that, but working on how to create that

(49:05):
as a protective implant to put it in the body.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
So the delivery system is the challenge.

Speaker 11 (49:11):
It's the delivery system, yeah, because now they can know
they can sit and watch and see a cell make
it into They can take a beta cell, make it
in or an islet cell, make it into an insulin
producing cell. They can watch it turn green. When that happens,
they put an algae on it. They know exactly when
it becomes an insulin producing cell. They can actually really

(49:31):
manipulate the cells. It's just a matter of churning off
the autoimmune system or you know, fooling it.

Speaker 4 (49:39):
Right right, And that's the issue. I mean, I read
a lot about stem cells. I remember regenerative therapy client
that is on the show quite often, and I'm fascinated
by the potential for that in the future. But it's
like you think about stem cells can be anything. How
do you make sure that they are going to be
what you want them to be? And to your point,
an insulin producing stem sell or you know, to basically

(50:01):
juice the pancreas.

Speaker 2 (50:03):
That's to make it work the way it's supposed to.
It's all. It's just isn't it a great time to
be alive?

Speaker 11 (50:08):
And thank goodness, there are people that are so brilliant
that understand that. Yeah, you know when I talk to
our researchers and they talk about things and they're so
excited and they get it and it's just not how
my brain works.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
But so happy that there are people that think that way.

Speaker 4 (50:21):
Well, this is why we have Dana on the show today,
because this is Colorado Gives Day, and as we just
talked a little while ago to step Denver, it's the
perfect day to make a donation that could feasibly I mean.

Speaker 2 (50:31):
We're actually talking about for real.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
You could make a donation that can help end type
one diabetes. And then I wouldn't get to see Dana
every year.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
But we'd find something used to talk about.

Speaker 4 (50:41):
We'd find some reason to have you on for another reason.
I've got a few text messages I want to share.
This one said, please tell her that I used to
work for her dad at Davis Oil when he.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
Started the foundation. I'm so proud of how far they've come. Thanks.
So it's so incredible people watching you this.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
When my son participated in the program until he was
eighteen or nineteen.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
What's the Daisy program?

Speaker 11 (51:03):
So the Daisy program is one of the programs where
he must have a sibling that has Type one.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Oh, also Celiac and also tess for Celiac. And is
there a connection there? There is no way, there's a big.

Speaker 11 (51:17):
Connection with I think it's like half the type ones
have Celiac as well.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
I have four autoimmune diseases.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Wet's see my family. We don't get cancer, we get
autoimmune disease.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Right, we have a healthy.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
Stream of Celiac's on one side, and then we've got
you know, like sriatic arthritis. I mean, we got a
whole gamut of of autoimmune Diseases' just a cornucopia of
waiting for.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Mine to kick in. Like every time something hurts, I'm like,
well here it goes, you know here what I'm ready
down the path. Just it's one time, but that's interesting
to me.

Speaker 11 (51:45):
So they do so that program then follows people for
a certain amount of time to see.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
There's two different programs.

Speaker 11 (51:52):
One's Teddy, one's Daisy, and I honestly don't remember which
is the difference.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
I'm sorry I should know that.

Speaker 11 (51:58):
But one follows Type one are already diagnosed if they
get a second autoimmune and one is following siblings or
maybe children of people that have type one and following
it through.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
I think that is an amazing part of this program,
because when you have a kid that has a chronic
illness or a disease or a condition, the other kids
kind of get left behind a little bit out of necessity.
It's not bad parenting, it is out of necessity. You
have to direct more energy to that.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Child who needs that.

Speaker 4 (52:29):
But what a wonderful thing for you guys to say,
we're going to bring you all in and we're going
to make you all feel special and loved.

Speaker 2 (52:35):
Well, And unfortunately we have a lot of siblings that
are both Type one. Yeah, we've been finding that more
and more recently. Are we seeing a higher percentage.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Are the percentages going up the general population or are
we just getting better.

Speaker 2 (52:48):
At catching it. I think it's a little bit of both.
I think the percentages aren't a huge jump.

Speaker 11 (52:52):
I mean during COVID everybody's like, oh my god, there's
you know, there's been a jump, and there wasn't. It
was unfortunately that people were getting to the point they
were in DKA and needed to be in the hospital, right,
So it's being able to catch it early enough. So
I think it's it's a little bit of both, you know.
It's I don't think it's a huge jump per se, right,
you know, it just depends on the population exactly.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
Dana Davis with the Children's Diabetes Foundation, I have put
a link on the blog today where you can go
directly to their Colorado Gives page and make a donation
and maybe be a part of curing type one diabetes.

Speaker 2 (53:25):
Those are big words. They are big words, and hopefully
we'll get to clink.

Speaker 11 (53:29):
To the curing of diabetes, very very fantastic and maybe
some other autoimmune disease at the same time.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
Absolutely, because you got to knock him out before I
get mine. So there you go, Dana, it's good to
see you, to see We'll be right back.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Would you say to me.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
On the break, I said, my youngest brother in law
shout out to kin keeen. Just turned twenty one years old,
so the birthday, Yeah, so you know me, you can.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
To introduce him to that, to the drinking life. And
what did you just say? After that? Where are you starting?
And this is where this is why I bring this up,
Well I already see a problem.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
Well we're going to bro too, but we're start I mean,
we we want to dial all the way back. We're
taking him to dinner. First, we're gonna go Putt Putt downtown.
Where are you taking him to dinner?

Speaker 5 (54:09):
Oh, we're gonna go to who Hot for some Mongolian.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Yeah, we're gonna do who Hot. You know, call it
who ha And that's not obviously it's who What is it?
Who Who?

Speaker 3 (54:20):
It's on the outskirts to Denversus before we, you know,
reach the downtown scene. Chill it out a little, have
a good dinner. Then we're gonna go to put Putt downtown.
In a place downtown.

Speaker 2 (54:29):
Where's there Putt Putt Downtown?

Speaker 3 (54:30):
Multiple there's multiple. There's one that we've been to multiple
times called Holy Moly. It's it's incredible, like the most
immaculate scenes that they build.

Speaker 5 (54:38):
Where is that?

Speaker 2 (54:39):
I will tell you right now, give you the general vicinity.

Speaker 5 (54:43):
I couldn't even tell you the general city.

Speaker 3 (54:44):
I told you the general facility downtown on eighteenth and
uh Lawrence, okay, so near Lodo Okay. Then the other
one we're gonna go to is also kind of in
your course field. It's called uh putt Shack, of course.
So we're gonna go there because we've been to that
one yet. And then we're starting to experience the pretty
much the tour of downtown.

Speaker 5 (55:06):
We're gonna the first one we're going to. We're going
we're going to the rooftops. We're gonna go to a
view house first and foremost.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Well, you just mentioned a two minutes ago, you mentioned
Margarita's first.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
You can't start with yeah, yeah, Margaret Mark, we're getting
the Rios has the best.

Speaker 2 (55:19):
No, no, no, you do you know.

Speaker 4 (55:21):
I'm just saying, I'm just I know your Mexican. I
know that this is I know this the Rios. Have
you even been to Rios?

Speaker 2 (55:27):
I have not, and I'm not I'm not do wait
hear me out.

Speaker 4 (55:29):
I'm not doubting the quality of their Margarita's. I bet
they're amazing.

Speaker 5 (55:33):
Max out it too. You can't have more than two.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
But it's also got like a ton of sugar, and
that's going to make him puke at some point exactly.

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Oh, I didn't realize turning, he's turning what twenty w.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
The Rios Margarita will be the first, one of the
first drinks, he goes, yeah yeah, and then view house
and one up will be a stop, hit up all
the rooftop bars, the whole the whole tour.

Speaker 2 (55:55):
You know what?

Speaker 4 (55:56):
That that just honestly like And don't get me wrong,
I had my day in the sign you it sounds exhausting,
like I'm like, God, that just sounds.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
Like a lot.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
Another thing I confirmed on this Europe trip that we
just got back to. I can no longer day drink
into night drink at all. I can day drink period,
or I can night drink period, cannot do them both
in the same day.

Speaker 2 (56:21):
And that's what getting old does.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
To you, amateur.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Oh are you kidding me?

Speaker 5 (56:25):
I'm not.

Speaker 4 (56:25):
I'm such a professional that I no longer can do
these things because my body's like, you know what, haven't
we learned? Haven't we learned from all those years of
going to brunch and then you know, making it the
whole day?

Speaker 2 (56:37):
Why?

Speaker 11 (56:37):
Why?

Speaker 7 (56:38):
Why?

Speaker 2 (56:38):
Why haven't we learned that?

Speaker 3 (56:40):
I mean it's and then Keeper's telling me about Dessauce,
which is an amazing apparently pizza place that is Chicago
style but thin crust.

Speaker 4 (56:48):
The western Chicago. The Kyle we had in Chicago. Yes,
that pizza was so good. I still dream about that pizza.

Speaker 3 (56:54):
I still talk about every menu item at every restaurant
in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (57:00):
It's the best food town in the country and it's
not particularly close and it's not particularly expensive.

Speaker 5 (57:07):
We spent so much.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
Oh yeah, way more money, way less quality.

Speaker 8 (57:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
I'm actually thinking of going to uh A radio conference
because it's in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
Oh yeah, Like I would totally go back, just to go. Yeah,
and I will go back and get that exact same
pizza that I had.

Speaker 5 (57:21):
It was so good.

Speaker 8 (57:22):
Everything was so good, so good.

Speaker 4 (57:24):
Okay, so that's the plan. Now who is driving you people?
Because whose car is going to get puked in?

Speaker 5 (57:30):
That's what I want to know.

Speaker 3 (57:32):
You know, I don't know. I don't know cars, cars,
cars will be left in places. Sure, yeah, I have
no idea. I mean, you know how far north you live,
So I have no clue what's happening.

Speaker 4 (57:41):
And who is the one that remains mostly sober to
make sure that nobody dies or anything like that.

Speaker 8 (57:47):
No one, no one.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
You're just throwing caution to the wind. Just yeah, this
is uh, this is uh you know role where they.

Speaker 5 (57:52):
Made this is all things all bets off.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
I wish I could remember my twenty first birthday.

Speaker 5 (58:01):
Mine was in Vegas, but I I had.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
A fake ID, right, I had a fake ID from
the time I got to college. Kimberly Van Cleek fourteen seven.
Oh excuse me, Kimberly Brandt fourteen seventeen, Van Cleek, Avenue
Newsromera Beach, Florida.

Speaker 3 (58:15):
Now he has a real fun party trick because he
has an ID that just expired is from when he
was two, as a picture of him when he was two,
because they needed an ID for the passport for them
for their Wait.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
Wait, wait, wait, you can't hand someone a pass or
photo that it's a party trick.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
He's got another one that shows that's not gotcha. But
he's gonna first show that one literally is a face
of a baby because he's adorable and he looks exactly
the same. But it's a baby ID that my wife
had to sign for because he couldn't sign at two, right,
But they needed an ID to get a passport at
the time. So he literally carries around this idea that
just expired at twenty one years old that literally is
a picture imagining full on ID and then just a

(58:56):
baby face, literally a baby right there.

Speaker 5 (59:00):
It's great.

Speaker 4 (59:00):
Well, I had a fake ID the whole time I
was in college until two months before my twenty first birthday. Well,
this is the eighties, dude. I mean everybody had a
fake ID. So uh, kids, don't try this at home,
because now you'll get arrested.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
Luckily his idea doesn't.

Speaker 3 (59:13):
The one you will actually use doesn't expire, because I
think a lot of people got to get screwed because
I think some places, if it's expired doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (59:19):
I know they won't take it an expire driver's license,
but yeah, so many don't. So many IDs expire, like
on your birthday.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
It could be the birthday of twenty one, so like
you go out for the night of twenty one, or
or some places that don't even take vertical IDs. It's like, well,
I just turned twenty one, so I obviously couldn't get it.
So hopefully he's getting his new idea this week. We'll
say I don't because he actually turned tenty one last Saturday.

Speaker 4 (59:40):
The story that I was about to share just went
oh no. So I had my fake ID all the
way through college. I was going to all these bars
in Tallahassee all the way through college, and then two
months before I turned twenty one, I went to go
to this bar, Bullwinkles, in Tallahassee, Florida. If you went
to Florida State, you know what I'm talking about. They
were notoriously difficult getting They would take everybody's fake id's.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
But I've been in Bullwinkles a million times, so I
was like, I'm going.

Speaker 4 (01:00:02):
The girl working the door I found out later had
a crush on my boyfriend at the time, it wasn't
even with me, and she took my fake ID two
months before my birthday. So two months later, I'm going
out with my real ID and I'm like.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Hey, it's my twenty first birthday.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
And all the bouncers were like, dude, you've been coming
here for a year. I'm like, I know, I know,
but I'm twenty.

Speaker 5 (01:00:25):
One now, you'll let you come in. Yeah. Yeah, it didn't.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Like I'm telling you, the eighties were wild a rod
It were wild.

Speaker 3 (01:00:32):
It was Friday's give me wild, well down down. Still,
I'm looking for that kind of time you still find it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
I just I'm never looking for that kind of time anymore.
I mean, I just and here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:00:44):
I've been watching all these videos and I have one
of the blog today of this guy.

Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
I love this guy. I kind of want to get
him on the show.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
He just goes around and interviews older people in parks, right,
all of these people some of them are eighty, some
of them or seventy, some of them are ninety in
their nineties. It's fascinating because he asked them questions like
what do you regret from your life? And they're all
very similar answers, and it's all it's relationships, not stuff, right,
Like that's just a kind of a sweeping generalization. But

(01:01:13):
as I as I'm getting older, like I hear myself
in these older people. And then I realized, my god, Mandy,
to other people, to a certain people, you are older.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
It's weird. But the thing is is like as much
fun as I want you to have, I want you
to go out and have a blast. I want your
brother in law to have a blast. I want all
of you to have a blast.

Speaker 4 (01:01:32):
Like if you said to me, Mandy, you have to
go with us, it would feel like punishment for me
at this time in my life.

Speaker 7 (01:01:37):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
It would just be like, why do you hate me.

Speaker 3 (01:01:40):
I can't do that I be responsible to I mean
you you asked should there be and will there be
a responsible adult, and the current plan is is no.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
Well I'm not gonna and I'll tell you one of
the things that as I get older, I hate more
and more is super drunk people.

Speaker 2 (01:01:53):
My tolerance for super drunk people has dropped.

Speaker 3 (01:01:55):
Track the word right there you used, I mean when
it comes to tolerance. Yeah, here's the thing. Also, when
you're downtown, it takes a while to even get a drink.
I don't I mean, I couldn't tell you last time
I went out and actually got at all in dogs kady,
because you wate a long in between drinks. For me,
my tolerance level is stupid high. So like it has
to be like at a house party where I'm like

(01:02:16):
it's boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, unless you know, yeah,
going out, it's not gonna be possible. So to answer
your question five minutes later, I'm gonna probably wind up being.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
The guy back to the bar.

Speaker 4 (01:02:25):
You're going up to the bar though you're immediately ordering shots,
like you have to have shots at twenty first pan.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Yeah, but even shots for me, like has to be
one after another to feel anything. Tequilia anything even.

Speaker 2 (01:02:37):
Tequila nothing El Tequila's Tequila's water to me.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Oh god, the last thing is Rodriguez. I love tequila
is like that tasted. I'll like, I'll like, I'll like
sip it. Not because I'm a baby, but because that
just tastes good. Well, I like to I enjoy tequila.
I mean, I mean for the brother in law, I'll
try to hammer them, you know, and try to keep
with emotions. But downtown experience, you're going a couple, you know,

(01:03:01):
like going like ten twenty sometimes thirty minutes between drinks.

Speaker 5 (01:03:04):
I'm not feeling nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:03:05):
Say, when I was young and drinking enthusiastically, I knew
all the bartenders, so we never because all my friends
were bartenders, So I never had to wait for a
drink because my bartender friends were like they knew everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
So we would go out and then we had the hookup,
so I never had.

Speaker 3 (01:03:18):
A waiting and then too expensive. You know, Well, we'll try,
we'll see what we can do. I mean, we're all
just going to be buying shots for him, so doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
Yeah, yeah, that's all I hope.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
You crazy kids have a blast, but don't start with
the marguerite. Is man, you can't start with the sugary
beverage because that's what makes you puke.

Speaker 3 (01:03:34):
Oh no, we're going to have the We're going to
have the just lost the name of it. What we
use right at the end of the night. The liquid IV.
It's a game saver, game changer. It doesn't matter what
we drink and how much we drink.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
Because you're young. Liquid IV. Bang next morning, let's do
it again. Got a texture, w said a rod.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Even if his vertical idea is not expired, bars will
not accept them, even though he's twenty one. He'll have
to get a new idea or the temporary ID they
give you to get drinks at bars. So temporary works
with the vert with the vertical idea, Yeah, I guess okay,
this person said, trying being an alcoholic in recovery former
bartender drunk is not pretty? Amen, my friend, Amen, Can

(01:04:15):
I just throw this out here? When you have high
quality mescal, it's a game changer.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
Nope, tried high quality mescal. My dad has some. It's gross.
What what is It's not so much nonsense? It's so different.
One's good one's trash. Guess which one is trash?

Speaker 2 (01:04:30):
Mescal? Mind mescal, but not the super cheap kind any kind.
But one of the reasons I don't drink mescal has
to do with that. Hey, just eat the worm. It's fine.
It's not fine.

Speaker 5 (01:04:40):
Oh yeah, eat the worm.

Speaker 2 (01:04:41):
It's a bad.

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
Idea, extremely extremely bad idea. Now I have another couple
of things on the blog today that I want to
get to. One of them super frustrating. I'm going to
get to you in the next hour about how we
are now paying for medicaid for illegal immigrants.

Speaker 2 (01:04:55):
Now I talked about this earlier in the show. It
is Colorado Gives Day.

Speaker 4 (01:04:59):
In just a few minutes, we are going to be
having a conversation with the Other Side Academy, one of
the worthy organizations on today's blog that I would love
for you to consider making a little donation if you're
going to make some a donation on Colorado Gives Day.
But also on the blog today, there's a great video
by Ben Shapiro about Syria and how you know Asad

(01:05:20):
Bashar al Assad is now he's gone, he's in Russia.
His administration has fallen to rebels, and Ben does a
fantastic job in this video of explaining the different factions
that exist in Syria and how Syria itself is an
incredibly important part of Iran's strategy in the Middle East.

(01:05:41):
And now you'd think to yourself, well, Bashir al Asad,
he was in the pocket of Iran, so it's good
that he's gone, but what comes next may not be better.
That's that's the point that we're trying to make here.
And the people, the rebels that actually overthrew Asad are
isis adjacent some of them, some of them are not

(01:06:03):
nice people.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
They are not nice people at all. So the reason
I bring this up is because this particular situation in
Syria could have even bigger implications for the Middle East
as Iran tries to figure out what to do next.
The thing I didn't mention earlier is.

Speaker 4 (01:06:19):
That right after a Sod left, because he just took off,
he went into exile in Russia, and almost immediately Israel
started surgical air strikes to completely destroy the Syrian military.
Because Syria had a stockpile of chemical weapons, had because

(01:06:41):
Israel blew them up. Israel had a navy they had
because Israel blew it up. They had worsh planes, they had,
helicopters had because Israel blew them all up. They struck
two hundred targets in Syria almost immediately after Asad left,
and they pretty much left nothing behind because they don't
want these rebels, they don't want these ices adjacent people

(01:07:04):
to have access to that kind of hardware. So if
this gives you an eight, think about this for just
one second, just one second. Israel is demonstrated in the
past six months that they have incredibly high level intelligence
on Iran, which they struck with pretty much impunity, with

(01:07:26):
the Pager situation and then going in and killing the
leadership of the Iranian National Guard. And now they've demonstrated
that they had incredible intelligence about where everything was in
Syria because they went and we're like, we don't need
to make a map, we know where it all is.

Speaker 2 (01:07:42):
Boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom, and it is
all gone.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
So watching what's going to happen next in Syria has
implications for Israel, it has implications for Iran, it has
implications for the entire Middle East. Plus we've got Donald
Trump coming into office, and I love the fact that
Donald Trump is viewed by the.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
Rest of the world as kind of crazy.

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
Because you don't necessarily strike at people that you think
are kind of crazy because you don't know how they're
going to spawn. By the way, Rod, I forgot to
say this about our trip to Europe. Not a single
person asked me about the election or talked about Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Yeah, and last year we went to Switzerland, it was
a big topic of conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
So I guess they're all like, well, we got Trump
again and we'll see what happens there. So great video
if you want to know about the ins and outs
of the entire region. Ben Shapiro does a phenomenal job
including maps and charts, maps and charts in this video,
so go watch that so you can at least have
an educated viewpoint of what's happening in the Middle East,

(01:08:43):
because like it or not, we're involved now. The Biden administration,
of course, was not involved at all with the fall
of Syria, because you may remember, the last big bold
move an administration took from over here was if you
use chemical weapons, that's a red line we won't accept.
And then Syria you used chemical weapons and Obama didn't

(01:09:03):
do anything. So whatever it's fine, it's fine. In the
next hour, we're going to talk about two things that
have to do with the Denver City Council. One that
has to do with not just the Denversity Council. The
first one medicaid for illegal immigrants. And two, the Denversity
Council is defending an organization that, in my mind is

(01:09:26):
a taxpayer needs to be shut down until they open
their books. We'll talk about all that, but first, my
friends from the Other Side Academy are up next.

Speaker 2 (01:09:33):
It's Colorado Gives Day. Keep it right here on KOA.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock
Accident and injury Lawyers.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
No, it's Mandy Connell and.

Speaker 1 (01:09:49):
Ninety three.

Speaker 2 (01:10:00):
Who is sad Babe? Well, we welcome to the third
hour of the show.

Speaker 4 (01:10:05):
I'm your host for the next fifty six minutes. Mandy
Connell A d right over there, and it is Colorado
Gives Day. This is the day where if you have
a little extra scratch laying around and you want to
give it to an organization that does great work. I
have conveniently provided you some options. Now, of course, you
don't have to choose my options. If you have a
charity that's near and dear to your heart, please give

(01:10:26):
money to them. But if you'd like to give some
money away, but you're not quite sure. The organizations that
I have on my blog are two things for the
most part that you are either helping keep Colorado as
free as possible, or they are helping veterans, or they
are helping people get out of the depths of addiction.
And one of those organizations is called the Other Side Academy.

(01:10:47):
And joining me now is a guy you may have
heard the last time he was on the show, Bill,
a caller to the show several years ago, was at
rock bottom, as they say, And I said, Bill, you
got to go to the Other Side of Academy. And
then we hung up the phone call. And I was
pretty sure Bill wasn't going to go to the Other
Side Academy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:04):
But low and behold, he went.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
To the Other Side Academy. And now is a successful
Are you full graduate now?

Speaker 2 (01:11:10):
Bill?

Speaker 8 (01:11:11):
Not yet?

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
I graduate in May in May a master student.

Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
You're a master student at the Other Side Academy. And
joining me also is Keith. Now, Keith, what is your
Where's your role? Get right on that mic, Where's your role?
At the Other Side Academy.

Speaker 6 (01:11:24):
I'm the same as Bill. I'm a master student. Yep,
we work together in the warehouse.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
So how did you end up at the Other Side.

Speaker 6 (01:11:31):
I was just a decade long drug addict, very bottom
of the barrel, drug addict, homeless, out of options. I've
gotten to numerous rehabs, and I have enough of a
ability that I could talk my way out of any rehab.

Speaker 2 (01:11:44):
I was really you, im good at rehabbing.

Speaker 6 (01:11:47):
I was really really good at it. I could tell
I can tell you. I can tell anybody anything they
want to hear, right. So for me, it was going
to have to be something drastically different, something free because
I'd run out of any kind of financial options.

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
Right, and something where I was going.

Speaker 6 (01:12:00):
To be held accountaboint and something where I was just
gonna have to learn a completely new way of life.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
Because the way I'd been living for a decade didn't
work for me.

Speaker 4 (01:12:06):
And I had the opportunity very recently to go and
speak to the participants at the Other Side Academy. And
this program is so incredibly cool and powerful, and I
want to kind of speak to what you just said there, Keith.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
What made this different? Why did this stick well for
someone like me.

Speaker 6 (01:12:26):
I mean, I'm a master manipulator, and I'm a master
at believing my own dishonesty. My main core issue was dishonesty,
and so it took me being in a program where
I was going to be held accountable by fifty other
master manipulators who could spot every tell I had that
I was bessing or that I wasn't being completely truthful.
It took that kind of peer accountability to really get

(01:12:47):
me to take a look at what was really going
on with me. Because I can tell you if I
was one on one with a therapist, I can say
the most beautiful things about.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Freud Nietzsche, and I could tell everything they want to hear.

Speaker 6 (01:12:57):
But it was when I was with someone like Bill,
someone who'd been on the streets, who was an addict,
who knew how to gain the system, and he could tell, hey,
you're not being completely forthcoming right now, that was the
only thing that could work for me. I was so
far gone, my moral compass had completely degenerated. I had
no semblance of any kind of honesty with myself or others.
And it wasn't until I was in a facility with
a bunch of other dishonest.

Speaker 2 (01:13:16):
People that I was able to really see that and
start to work on it.

Speaker 4 (01:13:19):
We were talking when I was there about certain things
in the program that I found fascinating, and I'm going
to ask you about this bill, the notion that you
guys have meetings where people can say you did something
wrong and you're not allowed to respond. You just have
to sit and take it. But the reason for doing
that is to force that kind of accountability that Keith

(01:13:41):
is talking about. Is that the kind of thing that
makes the other side Academy work? And is that the
kind of thing that really truly changes behavior?

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
For me?

Speaker 7 (01:13:50):
Yes, it is, because a lot of times we want
to fight back somebody's telling us something, excuse me, We
don't want to believe it, We don't want to hear
it most of the time because what they're telling is
and it hurts right and it hits, and we immediately
want to deflect, or we want to blame somebody else
when you're forced to sit there and take a look
at your actions through somebody else's eyes. Because I've I've

(01:14:13):
lived my life and I've seen my life through my
own eyes, and for me, a lot of the stuff
I do is okay. But when Key sits there and
tells me, Bill, you did this today or you made
a comment like this today, and here's how I appreciate it,
and this is why, and I have to sit there
and I have to take a look at that and go, okay, well,
this is something I've done my whole life. Maybe other

(01:14:35):
people around me have felt the same way, but they
haven't said it, either afraid to, or they just didn't
care enough.

Speaker 4 (01:14:41):
Or they knew you would be angry in response, so
there wasn't any point, right, right, Does that kind of
approach wear down that hard?

Speaker 2 (01:14:49):
Outer BSL Absolutely.

Speaker 6 (01:14:52):
Like when you have to recall anything about yourself, nine
ten out of ten you tell it as you're either
the hero with a complete victim. Right, So when you
get to hear it from people, and you get to
hear other people, multiple people's perception of something that you did,
where you thought you were either the hero of the
victim and you were neither, you're actually a perpetrator. Yeah,
you know, it's a sobering effect, especially for me, Like
I would think, well, this person, they don't really know

(01:15:14):
what they're talking about. But when I heard it from
five or six different people, twice a week for a year.

Speaker 2 (01:15:18):
I kind of had to. I didn't really have another
choice other than other than to believe that, yeah, they're
probably telling the truth and that I was seeing things
in a distorted way.

Speaker 4 (01:15:25):
Was there a was there a distinct moment, or was
there a single event or was it all an accumulation
of this that made you go, wait a minute, they
may be onto something.

Speaker 6 (01:15:36):
For me, it was just that I I just believed
all the rhetoric that went on in my head all
the time for my whole life about how I thought
I was so smart, nobody really knew anything.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
It was one I got a group, they're called groups.

Speaker 6 (01:15:48):
I got a group where somebody looked at me and said,
you're completely incompetent when it comes to telling the truth.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
Wow, And no one has ever told me I.

Speaker 6 (01:15:55):
Was incompetent at anything? Right, So when I heard that
I was incompetent at telling the truth, stung me. And
I had to take a look at it, and I realized.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
That actually I was. I had no idea what the
truth was with myself or with anybody else.

Speaker 4 (01:16:06):
Do you think, I mean, where did all these defense mechanisms,
Because all that's a defense mechanism that you're describing.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Where did that come from? I think it comes from
I mean, it comes from a lot of the way
I was raised, but it's just a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:16:18):
Of the way I was able to survive on the streets,
or the way that I was able to just do
everything my whole life.

Speaker 2 (01:16:23):
I didn't have to put a lot of effort in.

Speaker 6 (01:16:24):
I could talk my way out of anything, and when
somebody would confront me with something ugly, I had the
ability to tell myself something that I believed and then
tell them whatever they wanted to hear. Right, I have
some severe codependency issues where I don't really care how
I'm doing inside. I care more or less what you
think I'm.

Speaker 2 (01:16:39):
Doing right, how I look, I sound, how you're fronting, Yes, exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:16:43):
So for me, my defense mechanism is, let's just push
off what actually didn't. Let's make myself sound good or
look good in that moment. So the other side, academy
is a commitment. How many months are is the program?
How long are people there?

Speaker 8 (01:16:56):
Thirty months, two and a half years.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
And they commit to living there? Being there?

Speaker 7 (01:17:01):
Yeah, we live together, we work together, we eat together.
You know, we you know, we get to know each other,
probably better than most of our families know each other
from constantly being around each other, being in the groups,
and seeing the behaviors, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
We see it all. We see all of it, you know,

(01:17:22):
because people come in there and when we're like everybody,
they come in there, they want to put that front up.
But as you stay there, you know, the real youth
starts showing and those behaviors start showing, and people point
that out to you.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
But it's I mean, it's it's a family.

Speaker 8 (01:17:36):
We were a family.

Speaker 5 (01:17:37):
I've have brothers and sisters.

Speaker 4 (01:17:39):
One of the things that I like about the Other
Side Academy is immediately as soon as people come in
they immediately start participating in the financial side of things.
So you guys have the moving company, you have the
furniture to teach. So people are actively engaged in in
supporting the Other Side Academy as they are benefiting from
the Other Side Academy. But this is an expensive program.

(01:18:02):
You guys have a beautiful space. You've got another house
coming up for women, which is something I want to
talk about because we had stepped inver On earlier.

Speaker 2 (01:18:09):
They don't accept women. The other side, academy does accept women. Yes.
Do we have a women's house as well, Yes.

Speaker 10 (01:18:14):
We do.

Speaker 2 (01:18:15):
I will say this.

Speaker 5 (01:18:16):
You have to go in sober, yes, And.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
You have to have an interview process, which sounds terrifying.
I mean it sounds terrifying.

Speaker 5 (01:18:24):
It's rigorous.

Speaker 7 (01:18:25):
We're going to point some it's older students that are
going to interview you. When you come in and sit
on the bench. Myself and Keith are interviewers, and we're
gonna we're gonna poke the front right. We're going to
ask you about yourself and we're gonna tell you some
things about yourself that you probably don't want to hear,
but there's a reason for it. And we're also going
to make sure that you're a right fit for us,
and we're a right fit for you, because we're not

(01:18:47):
gonna let anybody that's prone to violence come inside the
house or anything like that. That's never happened in our
house since not tolerated. But we just want to make
sure that you're the right fit and you want help,
because you have to actually want that.

Speaker 4 (01:19:00):
And to be clear, you know, Step has a lot
of guys off the streets, but you guys have a
lot of people that are into versionary programs, so they
have the option of going through treatment or being incarcerated,
and that's a big motivator.

Speaker 2 (01:19:12):
But you still have to say, we're not gonna put
up with violence or any of that stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:19:17):
A lot of the guys though, when they come in,
there's a lot of people that come in there just
to beat a sentence.

Speaker 2 (01:19:21):
Right.

Speaker 7 (01:19:21):
We have a lot of people now that you know,
after the two and a half years is over, Like myself,
I'm committed to stay in a third year. Keith is
committed to staying a third year to give back. You
have a lot of people that once they embrace the
program and they see the changes in them, the bridges
that they're rebuilding with their family, they are truly invested

(01:19:42):
in it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:42):
I mean, I think this program is amazing.

Speaker 4 (01:19:45):
It is doing incredible work right here in Denver at
a place in time when.

Speaker 2 (01:19:49):
We need it desperately. If you have a little extra
money to throw at the Other Side Academy, I put
a link to their Colorado Gives a page on the
blog today, or you can go to Colorado Gives dot
or search the Other Side Academy and give him your money.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
Bill and Keith, thanks for coming in today. I really
appreciate it. All right, we'll be right back. I did
put a list of great organizations. If you don't know
who to donate to, or you're not sure what you
want to donate, please check him out on the blog
today at mandy'sblog dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:20:20):
Because it's a great day to give. There's matching funds available.

Speaker 4 (01:20:23):
There's a lot of reasons to give through the Colorado
Gives website, so check that out.

Speaker 1 (01:20:28):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
I have this text message, and I got to.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
Thank my colleague Michael Brown for bringing this story to
my attention because I did not see it but recently,
and I've mentioned this on the show, although I haven't
gone into super detail. I had to sponsor my friend's
husband to get his permanent green card here. He's been
in the United States for years, he has a job,
he pays his own way. The only reason I'm bringing
this up again is they made me promise to be

(01:20:55):
financially responsible for him until he becomes a citizen, because
they to make sure he is not going to live
off the government.

Speaker 2 (01:21:02):
Teat Okay, great and admirable goal, but it brings.

Speaker 4 (01:21:07):
Us to the story in from CBS four starting January first,
twenty twenty five, a new law will help children and
pregnant moms get health coverage no matter their immigration status.
The program, called Coverall Coloradin's, makes state Medicaid available for
prenatal and postpartum care and covers physical, dental, vision, and

(01:21:30):
mental health.

Speaker 2 (01:21:31):
Care for children.

Speaker 4 (01:21:33):
Now this is again, you don't want little children to
go without medical coverage. You don't want pregnant moms to
not be able to get prenatal care. You don't want
any of these things. But here's the big butt that
I have. We talked yesterday about how much Medicaid is
sucking up of the state budget because they've expanded it
to cover people that I don't believe should be covered,

(01:21:55):
people that have more money than they should. They should
be the exchange, they should get subsidized coverage. But now
we're going to cover illegal immigrants. At the same time,
I had to sponsor my friend so he would not
become a public charge.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
That's the word. The public charge rule.

Speaker 4 (01:22:17):
Specifies that a US citizen and Immigration services officer may
deny a person admission to the United States if they
deem the person is likely to become dependent on certain
government benefits in the future, which would make them a
public charge. Now, according to the woman who is signing
illegal immigrants up for Medicaid, she said, based on current

(01:22:40):
Colorado state laws, they protect the privacy of the clients
that are applying for these public benefits.

Speaker 2 (01:22:46):
The state says that not only is.

Speaker 4 (01:22:48):
Privacy protected, the benefits don't present a public charge challenge. Now,
I'd like to know how putting someone on a government
program isn't a public charge. This kind of inconsistency in
the immigration system is making me absolutely crazy, and now

(01:23:10):
I just wanted you to be crazy about it too.
We'll talk about this and another move by the city
council to protect an organization that I support their mission,
but their lack of transparency not cool.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
I'll share that next.

Speaker 5 (01:23:24):
Put respect on Thanksgiving nor Yes, and my friend.

Speaker 4 (01:23:28):
Greg made the best spot of Apple music Christmas list.

Speaker 2 (01:23:33):
It's so good.

Speaker 4 (01:23:35):
He sent it to me and I was like, there's
so few things I would add to this. Your heart
it is to find someone that has the same Christmas
music taste as you do. It's really challenging.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
Chuck just goes along with my Christmas music taste that
he likes Christmas music but I love Christmas music. Years ago,
I used to play Christmas music as rejoins the entire
month after Thanksgiving leading up to December.

Speaker 5 (01:23:56):
But it was too much work and I will never
allow that.

Speaker 2 (01:24:00):
I know, because you do you do.

Speaker 3 (01:24:02):
Today was the day I made the proclamation, though, like
I've got the sweater on, I'm listening to the music hardcore,
like I haven't you.

Speaker 2 (01:24:08):
Got Christmas shopping?

Speaker 3 (01:24:10):
No, because we're not gonna do much because all the
people that are going to get each other we're gonna
go to go to Mexico for Christmas, so we're not
gonna that's the gift for all of ourselves.

Speaker 4 (01:24:18):
Well, uh, you know, we're not seeing the kids this year, like,
so we'll ship them their Christmas presents and stuff like that.
And I'm not at the point in my life where
I am struggling for anything for like a Christmas list.
My Christmas list essentially is the stuff I would normally
buy from Amazon already, but I just put it on

(01:24:38):
a wish list and I'm leaving it there until the
day after Christmas, when I will probably order.

Speaker 3 (01:24:43):
All of it because no one will buy it for me. Well,
I'm just trying to get in the spirit first, which
is what today's This is a weird year. It's gone
so fast. It does not all feel like Christmas season
to me. Little snow on the ground last, nothing is
making me feel like it. So I'm trying everything I can.
I'm pulling out all the stops to try to get
the spirit. I'm feeling a little feeling a little bit today.

Speaker 4 (01:25:04):
Maybe maybe tomorrow we should I should bring in like
a simmering pot where we can do like orange slices
and some cinnamon, and we'll just we'll stink the whole
joint up with Christmas.

Speaker 5 (01:25:17):
This smells help. I think we'll candle at home tonight,
try to because we got some Christmas ones.

Speaker 2 (01:25:22):
Like you got some spruce pine type whatever works.

Speaker 5 (01:25:27):
This year's gone.

Speaker 10 (01:25:27):
I like that.

Speaker 2 (01:25:28):
I'm not afraid to.

Speaker 4 (01:25:29):
Burn a pine scented candle in the middle of summer.
I'm i I'll go rogue.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
I don't care.

Speaker 5 (01:25:34):
But you're an animal.

Speaker 2 (01:25:35):
I know you're a wild wild I haven't watched any
Christmas movies though yet.

Speaker 5 (01:25:40):
We just did Elf did Polar Express.

Speaker 2 (01:25:44):
See, Okay, let me just say this.

Speaker 3 (01:25:46):
ELF is number one in one. A is a year
without a Santa Claus Express.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
Is top three. I don't like the animation.

Speaker 5 (01:25:54):
Did you know almost every single actor and that is
Tom Hanks the.

Speaker 2 (01:25:58):
Child I know, I don't. I don't like the animation.

Speaker 3 (01:26:00):
Well you're what I called nuts. Home Alone is up there, Diehards.
Not a Christmas movie, so stop it?

Speaker 2 (01:26:06):
What about Arthur Christmas? Are you familiar? A great movie?

Speaker 5 (01:26:09):
Ever seen?

Speaker 2 (01:26:09):
Challenge? You watch that movie?

Speaker 5 (01:26:10):
It's a is it Arthur the TV show?

Speaker 2 (01:26:13):
No, it's it's It's Arth for Christmas? Okay, totally different Arthur?

Speaker 7 (01:26:17):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
What is that Arthur animal?

Speaker 5 (01:26:18):
What is it an ark?

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
Is it an art ark?

Speaker 5 (01:26:21):
I believe?

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
Isn't it a long enough nose?

Speaker 5 (01:26:24):
Home Alone's in there? For sure, there's a there's a
there's a solid rotation.

Speaker 4 (01:26:29):
You know what I just watched not too long ago,
not in part of Christmas, but just oh no, maybe
we watched this? Where did we just watch the Santa
Claus with Tim Allen?

Speaker 5 (01:26:39):
It's a good movie, A good one. Not as much.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
The second one's okay. The third what's the one with
Martin Short? I hate that one?

Speaker 3 (01:26:46):
That one?

Speaker 5 (01:26:46):
And then there's also the Evil Santa Claus opel Gang
or what.

Speaker 2 (01:26:50):
Yeah, I didn't like that one, So you're right. Maybe
the Jim Carreys.

Speaker 5 (01:26:54):
Jim Carrey, Yeah, you're not.

Speaker 2 (01:26:57):
You're not Christmas family absolutely, Leo yeah yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:27:02):
Nothing makes you feel more alone at Christmas than Christmas
music when.

Speaker 2 (01:27:05):
You are alone.

Speaker 4 (01:27:06):
Let me just say this, if you're alone at Christmas.
First of all, I'm sorry if you don't want to
be alone at Christmas, but don't let the Christmas music
bring you down.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
Let it bring you up.

Speaker 4 (01:27:18):
Put on a little brandi ly rocking around the Christmas
tree and listen to her curse about Pie.

Speaker 2 (01:27:24):
It'll make you happy.

Speaker 3 (01:27:24):
I'll tell you what I can't watch, and I can't
watch it at Halloween either. You're here with that as
Santa Claus the night before Christmas. It feels weird at
both holidays.

Speaker 2 (01:27:34):
It feels out of place at both holidays. I'm pro
with you on that. But I will watch it in.

Speaker 3 (01:27:38):
Like March, yeah, any time of year, except ironically for
the two holidays, because it has both.

Speaker 5 (01:27:44):
It's weird.

Speaker 4 (01:27:44):
Okay, So Diehard is not a Christmas movie, says this
texture and Polar Express is weird.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
The animation in that movie is weird.

Speaker 5 (01:27:51):
Okay. Do you you know what you need to do yourself?

Speaker 3 (01:27:53):
A favor fight through the animation because I'm telling you
you forgot how much heart there is in that and
you will.

Speaker 5 (01:27:57):
You will almost cry.

Speaker 3 (01:27:58):
The story is.

Speaker 2 (01:27:59):
Beautiful, The story's great. I cannot watch the animation.

Speaker 5 (01:28:02):
But Tom Hanks at his best.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
I know he does every damn role in that movie.
I know he does the kid another.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
Texter or the animation and Polar Express is one hundred
percent creepy.

Speaker 5 (01:28:12):
No it's not.

Speaker 8 (01:28:12):
Yes, it is.

Speaker 3 (01:28:13):
No in the heart of it about Oh, you have
to watch Klaus it's animated nteen.

Speaker 2 (01:28:20):
I just read about that today.

Speaker 4 (01:28:22):
I came out on Netflix in twenty nineteen, flew under
everybody's radar. But now everybody's like, this is an instant
Christmas classic five years later?

Speaker 5 (01:28:30):
So good? Is Gremlin's a Christmas movie?

Speaker 6 (01:28:32):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:28:32):
I mean no, you can put it in the same
category as Diehard. It takes place at Christmas, but it's
not a Christmas movie.

Speaker 5 (01:28:39):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
I really want to say this person.

Speaker 4 (01:28:40):
If die Hard isn't a Christmas movie, then neither is.
It's a wonderful life.

Speaker 2 (01:28:43):
Blasphem me.

Speaker 5 (01:28:45):
I don't hate it.

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
What do you not like it's a wonderful life?

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
I don't know, But now now I cannot wait to
finish Elf tonight and then start Home Alone.

Speaker 5 (01:28:54):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:55):
I watch Home Alone whenever it's on. Doesn't have to
be Christmas. Christmas with the Cranks, that's not bad. Mandy
Nott King Cole's Christmas album is Better than Being.

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
Is not liar. You are wrong, ACDC need a mistress
for Christmas? Not familiar, but I'll look it up. Crampis okay,
So do you know, I mean, do you know the
story of crampis generally okay? So in Europe we just
went through this.

Speaker 4 (01:29:24):
In Germany on December sixth, Saint Nicholas comes and brings
toys and little candies for the kids. Yep, so that's
their Santa Claus comes on December, but he also comes
along with Crampus.

Speaker 2 (01:29:36):
Who is terrifying. Satan meets Santa and if the kids
are bad all year, they don't get a lump of cold.
Crampis takes them to hell. Yeah, your soul is mine.
I kind of like that better than are Like, you know, oh,
you're not gonna get any toys. Yeah, if you're bad
in Europe, cramps Is gonna take you to hell.

Speaker 3 (01:29:53):
If you mean, I'm not gonna answer that question. I
ask that question, I know the answer. You have not
seen the movie because it's horrifying. I'm not gonna watch Crampis.

Speaker 2 (01:30:00):
It's horrifying. Why would I watch that?

Speaker 3 (01:30:02):
What?

Speaker 5 (01:30:02):
That's a great it's it's you.

Speaker 2 (01:30:04):
Already knew in our history together. I'm not going to
watch it.

Speaker 5 (01:30:06):
But it's really scary.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
Race Willis himself said it's not a Christmas.

Speaker 3 (01:30:10):
Movie when I was on with deb Flora, because I
told her that, and that's true. A director didn't necessarily
say that it is, but he didn't say that it's not.
It's got like well, and again my number one category
is a number one factor is a Christmas movie. A
Christmas movie does have the spirit of Christmas? Does it
feel like Christmas? Diehard does not? That is all I am.

Speaker 2 (01:30:30):
I mean, if you have a.

Speaker 4 (01:30:31):
Christmas celebration where people get shot and fall out of buildings,
it does.

Speaker 3 (01:30:34):
No, it doesn't have the spirit, the feel, the vibe
of Christmas. That is the ultimate factor.

Speaker 2 (01:30:41):
Christmas vacation of course on the list.

Speaker 5 (01:30:43):
Yeah, it's just hard to watch. God, it's cringey, but
it's so good. No, I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:47):
I'm saying cringey because of how much goes wrong and
how badly it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:30:51):
I am aware that it is the whole thing.

Speaker 4 (01:30:52):
It's just like, of course, when Clark goes to turn
the lights on. That is That's one of my favorite
cinematic moments of all time.

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
It's hard to match the cringe though, when Will Ferrell
goes after comes in the office and goes after Peter
Dinklish thinking he's an elf.

Speaker 5 (01:31:08):
Yeah, oh my god, he says, say elf one more time.

Speaker 4 (01:31:13):
This is the most perfect text message about Polar Express
that has ever existed. It's great, It simply says Mandy,
Polar Express animation is that you ordered from Timu. It's old,
it's old anime. It's it's like a little too anime
e for me. I don't like it at all.

Speaker 2 (01:31:33):
It's weird.

Speaker 4 (01:31:34):
It looks like it was done on a budget. Like,
hey guys, we've got forty bucks. Can we animate this
movie because Tom Hanks is willing to do all voices,
but we can't afford it. We can't afford animation, good animation.

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
And Tom Hanks, And we're going with Hanks. He's gonna
do all the voices. But now we only have forty
dollars of that texture. I ask one simple question, are
you in need of refreshment? And if so, you need
hot chocolate just like that. Having the movie it is
we had a lot of hot chocolate. If the Christmas
markets hot.

Speaker 5 (01:32:03):
Chocolate, chok, hot chocolate.

Speaker 4 (01:32:05):
Come on, if you guys go to the Christmas markets
next year, I need to know that if the hot
chocolate cellars also have pepperminte shops, because Chuck would say,
do you have peppermint shops to put in the hot chocolate,
and they.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Would go no, But that's a really good idea. So
Chuck brought a little flask of shops with him.

Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
On TikTok made a recipe as to what they think
the recipe would be from the creamy hot chocolate on
the Polar Express, and I really need.

Speaker 5 (01:32:29):
To try it.

Speaker 2 (01:32:29):
What's in it?

Speaker 4 (01:32:30):
Do you know with my fancy cocoa that I have? Well,
there's a couple of different things. There's hot chocolate and
then there is sipping chocolate, which is like liquid thick,
delicious chocolate syrup.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Hot chocolate so good.

Speaker 3 (01:32:45):
Well, they only let the kids enjoy the hot chocolate
during the duration of that song on the Polar Express.
And then they take it away from him, like it
looks like most cups are like half full and it's
really depressing.

Speaker 5 (01:32:55):
But you can take a ride on the Polar Express
by the way.

Speaker 4 (01:32:57):
By the way, the Durango silverton a gauge rail rate
the official They're the official Polar Express.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
They're the only railroad company in the country.

Speaker 5 (01:33:07):
Videos of them. I didn't know it was the official one.

Speaker 2 (01:33:09):
They are licensed from Polar Express.

Speaker 5 (01:33:12):
To go, you should go Tom Hanks on every single round.

Speaker 4 (01:33:14):
No, but I'm sure they pipe his voice in What
is Chocolate? Somebody keeps suggesting violent Night?

Speaker 7 (01:33:20):
What is that?

Speaker 3 (01:33:20):
I've heard about that. It's a new horror style. It's
got a god have here. David Harbor as Santa clausa
guy from Stranger Games.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
Oh, I'm not doing that. It looks appealing. I'm not
doing it.

Speaker 5 (01:33:32):
It looks kind of cool, traded all.

Speaker 2 (01:33:33):
I'm not doing it. If it's scary, I don't want
to watch.

Speaker 3 (01:33:37):
It's like it's like it looks like John Wick meets
Santa Claus, which doesn't appeal to because John was terrible.

Speaker 5 (01:33:43):
What what John's trash?

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
I love?

Speaker 5 (01:33:46):
Every John Wick movie is terrible.

Speaker 2 (01:33:48):
You know what's funny is I can watch violence like that.

Speaker 3 (01:33:50):
Violence absolutely zero, positively, no substance of a plot. My dog, guy,
I'm gonna go on a rampage over four movies for
five or six or.

Speaker 5 (01:33:59):
As well, my dog.

Speaker 2 (01:34:00):
I'm not saying I wouldn't go John Wick on them. Terrible,
just let it terrible, terrible, choppy.

Speaker 4 (01:34:05):
So your wife Jocelyn, god forbid, and then she dies
after she gives you this dog, and somebody kills Poppy
and you're gonna be like, oh, it's.

Speaker 5 (01:34:13):
Fine, I'm going on, but we don't need movies about it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:16):
Oh stop it.

Speaker 5 (01:34:16):
No plot there, there's just rape.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
But what is this? Tom Hanks is a known pedophile?

Speaker 7 (01:34:21):
What what?

Speaker 4 (01:34:22):
No, he's not a known pedophile. You can't just throw
that stuff out there like everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
It's not known.

Speaker 4 (01:34:29):
No trading places, I would argue. Also, not a Christmas movie.
You just know it when you know it's the feeld
thing for Christmases. But Elf is the best Christmas movie,
and that's not close. ELF's number one. I love Elf,
but I think there are My favorite Christmas movie of
all time is White Christmas because.

Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
It is a classic.

Speaker 3 (01:34:49):
Again nostalgia. Number one is Year Without a Santa Claus.
Heer colder. I mean, come on, Al's drop like thirty
dollars on a on a year without a Santa Claus
sweatshirt this morning and.

Speaker 2 (01:34:58):
Right anyway, because it's thirty dollars scared.

Speaker 5 (01:35:01):
But that is nostalgia number one.

Speaker 3 (01:35:03):
But ELF movie wise is number one, number one, it's
number One's Will Ferrell's.

Speaker 2 (01:35:07):
Best work is best work, and that's best. Step Brothers
is damn good.

Speaker 5 (01:35:11):
Elf.

Speaker 2 (01:35:13):
I would say, yes, okay, lost all credibility. J W
is awesome. Who's JW? What movie we're we talking about?

Speaker 11 (01:35:22):
J W?

Speaker 8 (01:35:24):
I don't know what.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
John Way, oh, John Wick? Yeah, trash No, it's not
it's good.

Speaker 5 (01:35:28):
I've seen trash more appealing.

Speaker 2 (01:35:30):
Jack's on my side.

Speaker 3 (01:35:32):
Hey, everyone has has an ability to be wrong. You
guys are both exercising.

Speaker 2 (01:35:36):
That's not a Christmas movie. No, it's not best Christmas movie.

Speaker 4 (01:35:42):
Fat Man with Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins.

Speaker 2 (01:35:45):
I don't know about that. I do not know about that.

Speaker 3 (01:35:50):
The animation style, you know, Frosty the Snowman. Those movies
in the realm are also classics, but not great movies.

Speaker 2 (01:35:56):
This person said.

Speaker 4 (01:35:56):
Polar Express was a very early computer animation. It's the
best they could do at the time.

Speaker 5 (01:36:01):
Like I said, yes it is.

Speaker 2 (01:36:02):
They had forty bucks left for the animation.

Speaker 4 (01:36:04):
They used to Apple original Apple computer to do it all.

Speaker 2 (01:36:09):
Being with that much high quality, they were able to
do it of that good a movie.

Speaker 4 (01:36:14):
But no, I'm telling you that animation is just strange.
It's just really really strange. And to the person who
said Bruce Willis has de menia, of course Diehard is
a Christmas movie, stop that. That's not nice, not nice
at all.

Speaker 2 (01:36:31):
Anyway. I did not mean to go down the Christmas movie.

Speaker 4 (01:36:33):
And I've wasted the last segment of the show, which
is fine, because let's face it, we're in that time
of December where.

Speaker 2 (01:36:39):
If you're at work right now, you're kind of mailing
it in, right, I mean, aren't we? I mean you,
not me. I'm not mailing. I never mail it in.

Speaker 4 (01:36:49):
I bring it one hundred percent every single time. Now,
this person makes a point. If Diehard is a Christmas movie,
so is lethal weapon, which is why Diehard is not
a Christmas movie, nor is leth a weapon.

Speaker 2 (01:37:00):
Mandy, did you have the bread filled with cheese on
your trip? I did not.

Speaker 4 (01:37:04):
Find the fondue sandwich as they call it. But trust me,
I did not lack for snacks on this trip.

Speaker 3 (01:37:10):
Vienna.

Speaker 4 (01:37:11):
Christmas Markets win for the snack department. They have this
Austrian flatbread where they take like a pita dough and
then they put it on a grill and then they
fill it halfway with fillings and then they flip the
other side over, kind of like a calzone, and they
cook it on the grill.

Speaker 2 (01:37:27):
Oh my goodness, And yes, Texter, Love actually is very good.
Is a very good movie.

Speaker 4 (01:37:36):
Christmas Vacation is the clear winner from this one. Mandy,
it's Anton. It's my former UPS driver or FedEx driver
until they changes around.

Speaker 2 (01:37:43):
I'm still bitter about that.

Speaker 4 (01:37:45):
How come everyone argues over die Hard being a Christmas movie,
but no one mentions Lisa weapon because leitha weapon like
Diehard clearly not a Christmas movie. So there you go,
and we've already established the Diehard lethal weapon not Christmas movies.
Grimlins not Christmas movie. I don't know where you people

(01:38:08):
are getting your stuff. Frosty the Snowman, of course a
Christmas movie. Mandy, the best Christmas song, Hard Candy Christmas
my Dolly partner. I love that Christmas song, but unfortunately
it comes from uh best little whorehouse in Texas, so
it kind of gets left behind.

Speaker 2 (01:38:26):
Sometimes.

Speaker 4 (01:38:27):
Zach is joining us in the studio. Zach, what's your
favorite Christmas movie? And you better think carefully because you're
gonna pick a Rod has one?

Speaker 7 (01:38:34):
I have one.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
What's your favorite Christmas Movief The Red Nose Reindeer? Safe choice?

Speaker 4 (01:38:39):
Well done, You're practically Switzerland.

Speaker 2 (01:38:41):
With that choice. You can offend no one with that choice.
It's just so great. You know it hasn't aged the best,
but I just love the style of it. Those old
hate to stop animation whatever. Yeah, but really, I mean, when.

Speaker 4 (01:38:52):
You get right down to it, Rudolph is a story
about reindeer being bullied until Santa found Eddie was useful.

Speaker 2 (01:38:58):
So there you go. Now it's for the most exciting
segment on the radio of its guide in world.

Speaker 4 (01:39:08):
That's what I'm talking about, Zach of the day, What
is our dad joke of the day?

Speaker 2 (01:39:12):
Please?

Speaker 5 (01:39:12):
In Germany you would know this, Mandy.

Speaker 3 (01:39:14):
They even have a sausage made out of other sausages.

Speaker 5 (01:39:19):
It's the worst of the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
Oh wow, why did I eat a lot of German
sausage when I was on this train.

Speaker 5 (01:39:25):
Protein.

Speaker 2 (01:39:26):
Today's word of the day. Please don't think I'm how
to pronounce this, but if you have the computer whirl brogue,
brogue b r o g u e. That's a certain
vocal pattern, like you have an Irish brogue.

Speaker 8 (01:39:39):
Is all right?

Speaker 5 (01:39:41):
I have not heard that word before.

Speaker 3 (01:39:43):
It is a low shoe, usually made of leather, decorated
with small holes along the sides of the shoe, and
that usually refers usually features a wing tip brogue.

Speaker 5 (01:39:55):
It's like a shoe thing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:56):
So what is an Irish brogue?

Speaker 5 (01:39:58):
What is that?

Speaker 11 (01:39:59):
Like?

Speaker 8 (01:39:59):
What is what is?

Speaker 11 (01:40:00):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:40:02):
I don't know? Brichant is called a brogue?

Speaker 8 (01:40:06):
Well, I mean, man, it's another term for us. It
is wait.

Speaker 4 (01:40:11):
The word originates from the Irish word for shoe. The
term brogue is believed to have emerged from the Irish
people's rough and unrefined way speak.

Speaker 2 (01:40:18):
Webster compare this is from me, Webster. Well, no, you're right,
it is a shoe. But they also called the Irish
brogue because it never mind. Go ahead. Today's trivia question.
What was country music.

Speaker 4 (01:40:29):
Legend Willie Nelson's debut album, I Have no idea, and
it was called and Then I Wrote. Released in nineteen
sixty two, the album featured the single touch Me.

Speaker 2 (01:40:39):
Prior to his debut as a performer, Nelson wrote songs
for other artists. Think about that that.

Speaker 4 (01:40:44):
He's going on sixty two years of performing.

Speaker 8 (01:40:50):
It's unreal, real what ca marijuana will do for you?

Speaker 2 (01:40:53):
Zach right there, That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:40:55):
What's our category category today is wearable tech?

Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
Okay you know what.

Speaker 5 (01:41:01):
Nope, we're gonna do that. We're gonna do the one
night next whips. I didn't see Christmas movies. Oh, here
we go, Here we go Christmas movies.

Speaker 3 (01:41:09):
In twenty eighteen, betted A cumber Batch voiced this Susian
title guy who wasn't as into Christmas as those were.

Speaker 5 (01:41:18):
That's okay, I'll get Which is the the Gridge?

Speaker 2 (01:41:22):
And now we make it? Who are doing good?

Speaker 5 (01:41:23):
Who is the Gritch?

Speaker 8 (01:41:24):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:41:24):
Man, it's not great, but it's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:41:27):
That Ridge fine original of course, still the basketing mind.

Speaker 3 (01:41:30):
Jim carry Alistair sim is among those who have played
this Dickenson.

Speaker 2 (01:41:35):
Andy who is Scrooge cogged?

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
Basically, this heartwarming Frank Capra classic is about what's.

Speaker 2 (01:41:42):
It's a wonderful life. Jack. We're still playing right now, Bud.

Speaker 3 (01:41:45):
In this film Santa Tell's Buddy, there are thirty great
and finally, two memorable bits from this nineteen eighty three classic,
The leg Lamp and what is a Christmas Story?

Speaker 2 (01:42:00):
Yeah? Jump, you gotta jump in. Okay, you know what
I got? One last time, I got completely swept.

Speaker 8 (01:42:06):
So I just had more appearances.

Speaker 2 (01:42:08):
And I'll I'm telling you right now, the more you play,
the easier this guest. That's the fact of it. That time,
I at least had the answers in my head. I
didn't feel completely You just have.

Speaker 4 (01:42:16):
To get them out of their mouth and then bam,
you're just gonna be like ready to go. All right,
you guys, we'll be back tomorrow. We got another full show.
I already got questions for weather Wednesday. Wait what we
have to get this in because I will forget My
mom just sent me another dad job. What does a
gingerbread man use when he breaks his leg?

Speaker 5 (01:42:35):
I don't know, candy game?

Speaker 2 (01:42:37):
Okay, we're done, thanks, b Rod.

Speaker 4 (01:42:40):
All right, we're gonna wrap this up. We got ko
Sports coming up next. Keep it right here on KOA