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

The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock, Accident and injury Lawyers.

No, it's Mandy Connell.

And Connall on KOA FM, Gotty and.

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.

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?

You know?

That is?

Uh, that's special.

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.

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?

Yeah?

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.

I don't know.

The story of Chewy's family is heartwarming. Yeah, you know, I can't do my Chewy noise, my vocal cords.

The backstory of Chewy and the fam. You know, it's something we don't get in any.

Other I know.

Oh gosh, Yes, it's certainly special is the word that I would.

I would use for it special, as would they in the title special. We're going to take you right through three p m.

And today is a very special day because it is Colorado Gives Day bio Yes, which is the day that we ask you.

And we're not the only ones.

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.

So let's do that.

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.

Not put it on there. But I will go back and I will put it on. Yeah, I was trying to.

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.

Food, just food.

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.

Half an avocado at three one at three thirty.

Oh boy, Actually no, I stayed in bed till like four, so it was four o'clock in the morning.

There I got.

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 on on the air today. That's never happened to me. But hopefully you won't fall asleep listening. Here's what's on

Look for the headline that says.

Twelve ten, twenty four blog It's Colorado Gives Day. Click on that and here are the headlines you will find within.

What if you know something doesn't crash on me? Which it is.

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. It's time to end the Vacancee Committee nonsense. We are

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.

This may be my sport? How did we not notice this before?

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.

Disco foot when I was.

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 not only on how many goals you scored, but also the quality of your dats.

Apparently a part of it, at least was a TV program in Sweden.

I love this.

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.

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.

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.

Have a video that we're going to talk about a little bit later.

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.

Was eating my breakfast and I was just gonna watch a couple of minutes. I ended up watching the whole thing.

Because it was so useful and I knew part of this, but I didn't know all of it. And what's happening

So Ben Shapiro does an amazing job.

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

Right.

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.

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.

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.

So that that is the first part of this.

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 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

So I thought I would just make it easy for you guys by giving you a list of my faves. Aron.

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.

To make it easy for people.

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.

This is a wonderful.

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.

They help with research, they do.

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

Messed up their lives.

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 show and we talk a lot about homelessness and addiction

Now.

Several of them are politically based, but.

They are doing really incredibly important work, both in their own ways.

The first is the Independence Institute.

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.

They are the reason we've had two.

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 at the Independence Institute.

That's the other thing.

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 from becoming California and yet even more than it already has.

You will find. I have never found a better one.

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.

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.

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.

Do important work.

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.

Very well run organization.

So if you'd like to support veterans, you could donate to CVP right.

There by the way.

I put links to all of their donation pages on Colorado GIFs Day on the blog, so.

You don't even have to go to Colorado Gifts. You can just go to the.

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

The one for you.

And then of course A Rod just added, but I don't think it's updated just yet.

It's not updated yet. Oh yeah, you did.

Big Brothers and big sisters. He himself is a big He has.

A little brother.

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 them a different perspective.

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.

Group settings that we do, it has a massive impact.

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.

And I'm gonna.

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.

So I couldn't say enough good things about them.

Excellent, So we've all got all of these links on the blog at Mandy's blog dot com.

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.

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 required and joining me in the studio. Now the executive director. Are you is that your official title?

Megan?

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?

Derek, I'm a recovery support manager.

Recovery support manager? Are you a former addict or recovering addict?

Okay, I'm in recovery myself.

And that is very common. It's Step Denver.

It is twenty of our twenty five staff members have been through the program themselves or are actively in recovery.

What is the point of that.

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.

It might help you.

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.

How did you end up in STEP in the first place.

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.

So you really were at rock bottom definitely when you first came into the program.

And when you enter the program, it's.

Called Step because there are steps that you go through and they are physically manifested.

In where you sleep.

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?

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

How did you fall into addiction in the first place.

I got introduced to drugs and alcohol at a very young age, just being exposed to in the environment that I grew up in.

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.

How has that evolution been for Derek?

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 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

Megan, you, guys, how many people do you think you've actually helped over the years.

I mean, you know that has to be thousands. When did Bob Kota start this?

What year?

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. We don't consider them served because they had a place to stay for one night, or we've provided them with food.

For us?

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.

And we don't want lives to be wasted.

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.

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 clear about that. But the thing I like about STEP

Is that do you.

Think that's why it's so successful. I'm gonna ask Derek that I.

Do believe that's why it's so successful.

I was telling Megan the other day and spoke about it this morning as well as like we recover in real time.

Life isn't on pause.

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.

I get to go to the store and cook my food. I need to be able to.

Learn how to make my bed in the right way and be accountable for all those things.

But also like.

Really just build habits that are going to carry me once I get out of said program because it's going to end eventually.

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.

Do these things, not I have to. Meghan, how much does it.

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 on one of these hotels, one sixth of the cost

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.

Well, there are a couple.

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 dollar up to twenty five thousand dollars gifts that are received on this show.

Now you just need to hit twenty five thousand dollars and you hit another twenty five How.

About five thousand dollars from that last.

I was going to look on this right now. It doesn't have the thing on there.

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.

It is.

Yeah, well, no, it's that's a pretty match. Okay, it's weird.

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,

How long is the waitlist for step Denver. We never have a waitlist, Okay.

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 now the demand is actually leading men to our doors.

A shortage of people taking them. Correct.

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.

What you did. Derek.

Absolutely, Yeah, guys, I really appreciate you coming in. I love the program. I'm so excited you're expanding into Colorado Springs.

When is that open?

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.

They're lucky to have you, Derek.

I'm blad to be a part of it.

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 don't a lot of time here. I went a little long.

Can we all just be excited for Cus Travis Hunter?

I know, don't. I don't talk sports a lot, but it's.

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.

And don't tell me otherwise.

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 just say that, I do hope he wins.

We'll see.

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.

Column at page two at.

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 Happy Holidays. She's like, where I am, everything is Mary Christmas.

Have you have you noticed this?

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.

And if I know someone is.

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 we should be able as a society to recognize the secular Christmas should be okay for everyone to just say

I don't know.

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?

And do you even care? Have we beaten this to death?

I don't know.

We'll talk about it next.

The Mandy Connall Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock Accident and Injury Lawyers.

No, it's Mandy Connell, Mandy Connell, KA.

Nine FM, Got.

Study and the Niceys Through Freight, Mandy Coronal keeping your really Sad Thing.

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome to the second hour of the show.

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.

Thank you so much for having me. We're so proud to be one of your favorite charities.

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.

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.

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.

But in like, we think in twenty.

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.

Anti rejection correct. Correct.

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.

For the first time, they told me they feel like we're close. Wow, that's got it.

I mean, wouldn't it be great to have your organization go out of business because you weren't need it anymore.

It would be that would be my ultimate goal.

Yeah, And for right now, our goal really is is to make sure that type ones who do have it.

Are getting the best care possible.

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.

What is the difference?

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 You didn't cause it. Type two is more about lifestyle.

But type one, literally your body makes no insulin and you were diagnosed as a child.

Is that why?

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.

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.

Right right now that's changed.

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

What are the symptoms to look for. Let's go ahead talk about that.

It's weight loss, it's fatigue.

Unexplained weight loss.

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.

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.

Well then I might have Type two guys.

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.

I think people just assume.

They know what type one diabetes is and says, oh, you know, you're too old to.

Get it, or you're too.

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.

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.

Who can't quite tell you what's wrong with them, and you can look.

And see what their numbers are.

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.

A human being.

There's some really interesting stuff happening right now when it comes to personalization.

To your point, and one.

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 different for everyone.

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.

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.

Yeah.

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.

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.

Without it, you become type one in need insulin.

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?

Is there a hereditary component?

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 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.

The Barbara Davis Center will test you for free, oh.

Wow, to see if you have the markers and then be able to let you know if an onset of type one is coming.

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.

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 to nuts. We do everything from care to trying to prevent it to a cure.

And that's pretty amazing that there are drugs that you can give someone to keep their pancreas going if they're headed.

In that direction.

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.

Is that part of what you do as well? Do you do you help researchers, do you do you fund that kind of stuff?

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.

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 a part of it because we have the most children,

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.

I mean scary, you really do when you get that diagnosis.

I think when you're a child and I don't want to, you know, speak for your experience.

It's a pain.

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.

So what do you guys do in the way of education and do you have how old do you serve?

We serve literally from day one to we have one patient that's had it for seventy five years.

Oh my gosh, she's amazing, and you know, to one hundred years old.

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.

To suffer from depression and suicidal thoughts and.

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.

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 making sure your mind, body, and soul are Okay, Well, what are.

The repercussions of untreated type one diabetes? Obviously people can die.

You die?

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.

That you probably had diabetes. Like got's crazy, right, Like it's been around forever.

So if you don't want to go get tested, just be on the ground near an ant pilon.

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?

But I don't find that fascinating because we don't think about the ancient Egyptians.

I mean, they had a civilized.

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.

What can they expect.

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.

You know, they'll come across.

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 get them with social networks, and we have support groups and different things to really help to help them get through it.

So what kind of changes have we seen in terms of life expectancy and the life expectancy since you were diagnosed as.

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.

WHOA, and now we have.

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.

That I have had it more than fifty years. So if the life.

Expectancy has just doubled, it's become and the quality of life right right, I mean, let's be really.

You can extend someone's life, but their quality of life sucks.

What you're really doing, you know, that's it and now it can be.

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 that you can't do anymore.

So what are they working on?

What are your researchers working on right now that they feel hopeful that the end may be near.

That would be stem cells.

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 as a protective implant to put it in the body.

So the delivery system is the challenge.

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

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 juice the pancreas.

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?

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.

But so happy that there are people that think that way.

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.

We're actually talking about for real.

You could make a donation that can help end type one diabetes. And then I wouldn't get to see Dana every year.

But we'd find something used to talk about.

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.

Started the foundation. I'm so proud of how far they've come. Thanks. So it's so incredible people watching you this.

When my son participated in the program until he was eighteen or nineteen.

What's the Daisy program?

So the Daisy program is one of the programs where he must have a sibling that has Type one.

Oh, also Celiac and also tess for Celiac. And is there a connection there? There is no way, there's a big.

Connection with I think it's like half the type ones have Celiac as well.

I have four autoimmune diseases.

Wet's see my family. We don't get cancer, we get autoimmune disease.

Right, we have a healthy.

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.

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.

So they do so that program then follows people for a certain amount of time to see.

There's two different programs.

One's Teddy, one's Daisy, and I honestly don't remember which is the difference.

I'm sorry I should know that.

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.

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.

Child who needs that.

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.

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.

Are the percentages going up the general population or are we just getting better.

At catching it. I think it's a little bit of both. I think the percentages aren't a huge jump.

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.

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.

Those are big words. They are big words, and hopefully we'll get to clink.

To the curing of diabetes, very very fantastic and maybe some other autoimmune disease at the same time.

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.

Would you say to me.

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.

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.

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?

Oh, we're gonna go to who Hot for some Mongolian.

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?

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.

Where's there Putt Putt Downtown?

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.

Where is that?

I will tell you right now, give you the general vicinity.

I couldn't even tell you the general city.

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.

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.

Well, you just mentioned a two minutes ago, you mentioned Margarita's first.

You can't start with yeah, yeah, Margaret Mark, we're getting the Rios has the best.

No, no, no, you do you know.

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?

I have not, and I'm not I'm not do wait hear me out.

I'm not doubting the quality of their Margarita's. I bet they're amazing.

Max out it too. You can't have more than two.

But it's also got like a ton of sugar, and that's going to make him puke at some point exactly.

Oh, I didn't realize turning, he's turning what twenty w.

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.

You know what?

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.

Like a lot.

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.

And that's what getting old does.

To you, amateur.

Oh are you kidding me?

I'm not.

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?

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why haven't we learned that?

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.

The western Chicago. The Kyle we had in Chicago. Yes, that pizza was so good. I still dream about that pizza.

I still talk about every menu item at every restaurant in Chicago.

It's the best food town in the country and it's not particularly close and it's not particularly expensive.

We spent so much.

Oh yeah, way more money, way less quality.

Yeah.

I'm actually thinking of going to uh A radio conference because it's in Chicago.

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.

It was so good.

Everything was so good, so good.

Okay, so that's the plan. Now who is driving you people? Because whose car is going to get puked in?

That's what I want to know.

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.

And who is the one that remains mostly sober to make sure that nobody dies or anything like that.

No one, no one.

You're just throwing caution to the wind. Just yeah, this is uh, this is uh you know role where they.

Made this is all things all bets off.

I wish I could remember my twenty first birthday.

Mine was in Vegas, but I I had.

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.

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.

Wait, wait, wait, you can't hand someone a pass or photo that it's a party trick.

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 baby face, literally a baby right there.

It's great.

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.

Luckily his idea doesn't.

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.

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.

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.

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.

But I've been in Bullwinkles a million times, so I was like, I'm going.

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.

Hey, it's my twenty first birthday.

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.

One now, you'll let you come in. Yeah. Yeah, it didn't.

Like I'm telling you, the eighties were wild a rod It were wild.

It was Friday's give me wild, well down down. Still, I'm looking for that kind of time you still find it.

I just I'm never looking for that kind of time anymore. I mean, I just and here's the thing.

I've been watching all these videos and I have one of the blog today of this guy.

I love this guy. I kind of want to get him on the show.

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 as I as I'm getting older, like I hear myself

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.

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.

Huh.

It would just be like, why do you hate me.

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.

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.

My tolerance for super drunk people has dropped.

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 it's boom boom boom boom boom boom boom, unless you know, yeah,

The guy back to the bar.

You're going up to the bar though you're immediately ordering shots, like you have to have shots at twenty first pan.

Yeah, but even shots for me, like has to be one after another to feel anything. Tequilia anything even.

Tequila nothing El Tequila's Tequila's water to me.

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, like going like ten twenty sometimes thirty minutes between drinks.

I'm not feeling nothing.

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.

So we would go out and then we had the hookup, so I never had.

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.

Yeah, yeah, that's all I hope.

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.

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.

Because you're young. Liquid IV. Bang next morning, let's do it again. Got a texture, w said a rod.

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 I just throw this out here? When you have high quality mescal, it's a game changer.

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?

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.

Oh yeah, eat the worm.

It's a bad.

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.

Now I talked about this earlier in the show. It is Colorado Gives Day.

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 Bashar al Assad is now he's gone, he's in Russia.

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.

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 Israel blew them up. Israel had a navy they had because Israel blew it up. They had worsh planes, they had,

Boom boom boom boom, boom boom boom, and it is all gone.

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.

Rest of the world as kind of crazy.

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.

Yeah, and last year we went to Switzerland, it was a big topic of conversation.

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,

It's Colorado Gives Day. Keep it right here on KOA.

The Mandy Connell Show is sponsored by Belle and Pollock Accident and injury Lawyers.

No, it's Mandy Connell and.

Ninety three.

Who is sad Babe? Well, we welcome to the third hour of the show.

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 money to them. But if you'd like to give some

But low and behold, he went.

To the Other Side Academy. And now is a successful Are you full graduate now?

Bill?

Not yet?

I graduate in May in May a master student.

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.

I'm the same as Bill. I'm a master student. Yep, we work together in the warehouse.

So how did you end up at the Other Side.

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.

I was really you, im good at rehabbing.

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.

Right, and something where I was going.

To be held accountaboint and something where I was just gonna have to learn a completely new way of life.

Because the way I'd been living for a decade didn't work for me.

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.

What made this different? Why did this stick well for someone like me.

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 me to take a look at what was really going

Freud Nietzsche, and I could tell everything they want to hear.

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.

People that I was able to really see that and start to work on it.

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 is talking about. Is that the kind of thing that

For me?

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

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?

Outer BSL Absolutely.

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

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.

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.

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.

It was one I got a group, they're called groups.

I got a group where somebody looked at me and said, you're completely incompetent when it comes to telling the truth.

Wow, And no one has ever told me I.

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.

That actually I was. I had no idea what the truth was with myself or with anybody else.

Do you think, I mean, where did all these defense mechanisms, Because all that's a defense mechanism that you're describing.

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.

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.

I didn't have to put a lot of effort in.

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.

Doing right, how I look, I sound, how you're fronting, Yes, exactly.

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?

Thirty months, two and a half years.

And they commit to living there? Being there?

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, because people come in there and when we're like everybody, they come in there, they want to put that front up.

But it's I mean, it's it's a family.

We were a family.

I've have brothers and sisters.

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.

They don't accept women. The other side, academy does accept women. Yes. Do we have a women's house as well, Yes.

We do.

I will say this.

You have to go in sober, yes, And.

You have to have an interview process, which sounds terrifying. I mean it sounds terrifying.

It's rigorous.

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,

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.

But you still have to say, we're not gonna put up with violence or any of that stuff.

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.

Right.

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 in it.

I mean, I think this program is amazing.

It is doing incredible work right here in Denver at a place in time when.

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.

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.

Because it's a great day to give. There's matching funds available.

There's a lot of reasons to give through the Colorado Gives website, so check that out.

Now.

I have this text message, and I got to.

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,

Teat Okay, great and admirable goal, but it brings.

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 mental health.

Care for children.

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, people that have more money than they should. They should

That's the word. The public charge rule.

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 Colorado state laws, they protect the privacy of the clients that are applying for these public benefits.

The state says that not only is.

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 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.

I'll share that next.

Put respect on Thanksgiving nor Yes, and my friend.

Greg made the best spot of Apple music Christmas list.

It's so good.

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.

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.

But it was too much work and I will never allow that.

I know, because you do you do.

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.

Got Christmas shopping?

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.

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 a wish list and I'm leaving it there until the day after Christmas, when I will probably order.

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.

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.

This smells help. I think we'll candle at home tonight, try to because we got some Christmas ones.

Like you got some spruce pine type whatever works.

This year's gone.

I like that.

I'm not afraid to.

Burn a pine scented candle in the middle of summer. I'm i I'll go rogue.

I don't care.

But you're an animal.

I know you're a wild wild I haven't watched any Christmas movies though yet.

We just did Elf did Polar Express.

See, Okay, let me just say this.

ELF is number one in one. A is a year without a Santa Claus Express.

Is top three. I don't like the animation.

Did you know almost every single actor and that is Tom Hanks the.

Child I know, I don't. I don't like the animation.

Well you're what I called nuts. Home Alone is up there, Diehards. Not a Christmas movie, so stop it?

What about Arthur Christmas? Are you familiar? A great movie?

Ever seen?

Challenge? You watch that movie?

It's a is it Arthur the TV show?

No, it's it's It's Arth for Christmas? Okay, totally different Arthur?

What is that?

What is that Arthur animal?

What is it an ark?

Is it an art ark?

I believe?

Isn't it a long enough nose?

Home Alone's in there? For sure, there's a there's a there's a solid rotation.

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?

It's a good movie, A good one. Not as much.

The second one's okay. The third what's the one with Martin Short? I hate that one?

That one?

And then there's also the Evil Santa Claus opel Gang or what.

Yeah, I didn't like that one, So you're right. Maybe the Jim Carreys.

Jim Carrey, Yeah, you're not.

You're not Christmas family absolutely, Leo yeah yeah.

Nothing makes you feel more alone at Christmas than Christmas music when.

You are alone.

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.

Let it bring you up.

Put on a little brandi ly rocking around the Christmas tree and listen to her curse about Pie.

It'll make you happy.

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.

It feels out of place at both holidays. I'm pro with you on that. But I will watch it in.

Like March, yeah, any time of year, except ironically for the two holidays, because it has both.

It's weird.

Okay, So Diehard is not a Christmas movie, says this texture and Polar Express is weird.

The animation in that movie is weird.

Okay. Do you you know what you need to do yourself?

A favor fight through the animation because I'm telling you you forgot how much heart there is in that and you will.

You will almost cry.

The story is.

Beautiful, The story's great. I cannot watch the animation.

But Tom Hanks at his best.

I know he does every damn role in that movie. I know he does the kid another.

Texter or the animation and Polar Express is one hundred percent creepy.

No it's not.

Yes, it is.

No in the heart of it about Oh, you have to watch Klaus it's animated nteen.

I just read about that today.

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?

So good? Is Gremlin's a Christmas movie?

No?

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.

Correct.

I really want to say this person.

If die Hard isn't a Christmas movie, then neither is. It's a wonderful life.

Blasphem me.

I don't hate it.

What do you not like it's a wonderful life?

I don't know, But now now I cannot wait to finish Elf tonight and then start Home Alone.

I love it.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

It's horrifying. Why would I watch that?

What?

That's a great it's it's you.

Already knew in our history together. I'm not going to watch it.

But it's really scary.

Race Willis himself said it's not a Christmas.

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.

I mean, if you have a.

Christmas celebration where people get shot and fall out of buildings, it does.

No, it doesn't have the spirit, the feel, the vibe of Christmas. That is the ultimate factor.

Christmas vacation of course on the list.

Yeah, it's just hard to watch. God, it's cringey, but it's so good. No, I love it.

I'm saying cringey because of how much goes wrong and how badly it goes.

I am aware that it is the whole thing.

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.

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.

Yeah, oh my god, he says, say elf one more time.

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.

It's weird.

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.

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.

Chocolate, chok, hot chocolate.

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.

Would go no, But that's a really good idea. So Chuck brought a little flask of shops with him.

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.

To try it.

What's in it?

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.

Hot chocolate so good.

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.

But you can take a ride on the Polar Express by the way.

By the way, the Durango silverton a gauge rail rate the official They're the official Polar Express.

They're the only railroad company in the country.

Videos of them. I didn't know it was the official one.

They are licensed from Polar Express.

To go, you should go Tom Hanks on every single round.

No, but I'm sure they pipe his voice in What is Chocolate? Somebody keeps suggesting violent Night?

What is that?

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.

Oh, I'm not doing that. It looks appealing. I'm not doing it.

It looks kind of cool, traded all.

I'm not doing it. If it's scary, I don't want to watch.

It's like it's like it looks like John Wick meets Santa Claus, which doesn't appeal to because John was terrible.

What what John's trash?

I love?

Every John Wick movie is terrible.

You know what's funny is I can watch violence like that.

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.

As well, my dog.

I'm not saying I wouldn't go John Wick on them. Terrible, just let it terrible, terrible, choppy.

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.

Fine, I'm going on, but we don't need movies about it.

Oh stop it.

No plot there, there's just rape.

But what is this? Tom Hanks is a known pedophile?

What what?

No, he's not a known pedophile. You can't just throw that stuff out there like everybody.

It's not known.

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.

It is a classic.

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.

Right anyway, because it's thirty dollars scared.

But that is nostalgia number one.

But ELF movie wise is number one, number one, it's number One's Will Ferrell's.

Best work is best work, and that's best. Step Brothers is damn good.

Elf.

I would say, yes, okay, lost all credibility. J W is awesome. Who's JW? What movie we're we talking about?

J W?

I don't know what.

John Way, oh, John Wick? Yeah, trash No, it's not it's good.

I've seen trash more appealing.

Jack's on my side.

Hey, everyone has has an ability to be wrong. You guys are both exercising.

That's not a Christmas movie. No, it's not best Christmas movie.

Fat Man with Mel Gibson and Walton Goggins.

I don't know about that. I do not know about that.

The animation style, you know, Frosty the Snowman. Those movies in the realm are also classics, but not great movies.

This person said.

Polar Express was a very early computer animation. It's the best they could do at the time.

Like I said, yes it is.

They had forty bucks left for the animation.

They used to Apple original Apple computer to do it all.

Being with that much high quality, they were able to do it of that good a movie.

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.

Anyway. I did not mean to go down the Christmas movie.

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.

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.

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.

Mandy, did you have the bread filled with cheese on your trip? I did not.

Find the fondue sandwich as they call it. But trust me, I did not lack for snacks on this trip.

Vienna.

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.

Oh my goodness, And yes, Texter, Love actually is very good. Is a very good movie.

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.

I'm still bitter about that.

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 are getting your stuff. Frosty the Snowman, of course a Christmas movie. Mandy, the best Christmas song, Hard Candy Christmas

Sometimes.

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?

I have one.

What's your favorite Christmas Movief The Red Nose Reindeer? Safe choice?

Well done, You're practically Switzerland.

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.

You get right down to it, Rudolph is a story about reindeer being bullied until Santa found Eddie was useful.

So there you go. Now it's for the most exciting segment on the radio of its guide in world.

That's what I'm talking about, Zach of the day, What is our dad joke of the day?

Please?

In Germany you would know this, Mandy.

They even have a sausage made out of other sausages.

It's the worst of the worst.

Oh wow, why did I eat a lot of German sausage when I was on this train.

Protein.

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.

Is all right?

I have not heard that word before.

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.

It's like a shoe thing.

So what is an Irish brogue?

What is that?

Like?

What is what is?

What is that?

I don't know? Brichant is called a brogue?

Well, I mean, man, it's another term for us. It is wait.

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.

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.

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.

Prior to his debut as a performer, Nelson wrote songs for other artists. Think about that that.

He's going on sixty two years of performing.

It's unreal, real what ca marijuana will do for you?

Zach right there, That's what I'm talking about.

What's our category category today is wearable tech?

Okay you know what.

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.

In twenty eighteen, betted A cumber Batch voiced this Susian title guy who wasn't as into Christmas as those were.

That's okay, I'll get Which is the the Gridge?

And now we make it? Who are doing good?

Who is the Gritch?

Oh?

Man, it's not great, but it's okay.

That Ridge fine original of course, still the basketing mind.

Jim carry Alistair sim is among those who have played this Dickenson.

Andy who is Scrooge cogged?

Basically, this heartwarming Frank Capra classic is about what's.

It's a wonderful life. Jack. We're still playing right now, Bud.

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?

Yeah? Jump, you gotta jump in. Okay, you know what I got? One last time, I got completely swept.

So I just had more appearances.

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.

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?

I don't know, candy game?

Okay, we're done, thanks, b Rod.

All right, we're gonna wrap this up. We got ko Sports coming up next. Keep it right here on KOA