In this episode of The Good News, Angie Austin sits down with Jim Stovall to explore the fascinating world of mysteries and critical thinking. Despite being visually impaired, Jim shares his insights on how literature and high-speed audio have transformed his life. This rich conversation dives into how mysteries like Sherlock Holmes teach us to use available facts for problem-solving in our daily lives. From the art of decision-making with limited information to the beauty of imagination, Jim’s wisdom enlightens us on finding answers in the simplest of ways.
00:00:01 Introduction to The Good News with Angie Austin
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin and Jim Stovall here on The Good News, speaking about Jim’s weekly column, the Winner’s Wisdom column. And today, it’s Solving the Mystery, which I have been waiting to do for a very long time, Jim. I don’t know which one it is, but I love solving a good mystery. Welcome.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, it’s great to be with you, Angie. You are a mystery, and that’s something we all enjoy and appreciate, just living with it throughout the years. You know, this week’s column is about the fact, and I have to give full disclosure and throw myself under the bus here, that as the author of more than 50 books and 1,000 columns and Nine of my novels have been turned into movies. When I could read, like most of your listeners do, with my eyes, I don’t know that I ever read a whole book. Oh, my goodness. After losing my sight, I participated in an experiment on high-speed digital audio listening back 30 years ago when they compressed digital audio for the first time, and they wanted to see how fast people could listen. And, you know, after the experiment was over, I kept going, and… The long story short is the fact that I listen to a book every day. There has not been a day in probably 25 years I haven’t listened to a whole book. And that changed my life. Becoming a reader made me want to be a writer. And among the many things I read are great mysteries. Of course, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Rex Stout’s Nero Wolf novels, and right now I’ve just started rereading all of Sue Grafton’s Alphabet mystery series. And the things that I’ve learned from mysteries is kind of, I call it critical thinking, because you get all these facts through the story and everything, and you know Sherlock Holmes is going to figure this out. And at the end of the book, you realize, okay, I know everything he knows.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
So I ought to be able to figure this out. And then later on, he explains to Dr. Watson what happened. Elementary, my dear Watson. And that’s how he explains it to Watson and all the rest of us who read his books is, this is what you should have figured out. And, you know, and I think that’s a great life lesson, Angie, in that whatever we’re going through, you know, there is… There’s information out there, and if we just had that information, the questions would be answered, the mysteries would be solved.
SPEAKER 03 :
I have a question that doesn’t totally relate to that. Are you friends with other people who lost their sight? You lost yours after 20, and are you friends with people who never had sight? I know you’re friends with Ray Charles and other people who are blind. Is there a difference, I’m assuming, in the way like you can visualize all the things that you’re reading or I guess listening to now reading than your friends who never had sight? Have you ever kind of talked about that?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I mean, there is a difference. I mean, certainly I have. Things I remember seeing.
SPEAKER 02 :
Like your wife’s face.
SPEAKER 04 :
You know, I was a teenager before I started losing my sight, and I was 30 before I went totally blind. Okay. Yeah, there are certain things I well remember seeing. And then there are things that, you know, I haven’t. But people who have been blind since birth, they’ve never seen anything. But it doesn’t mean they don’t imagine. I’ll give you an example. You and everyone listening to us right now. you have met someone at some point in life over the telephone. And all they are is a voice on the phone. And then at some point, weeks or months later, you decide, hey, I’m going to get together with you for coffee. And here they come and you instantly think, wow, they either do or they do not look like I thought they would. And what that tells us is you put an image in your mind. You put it right there and And so I have an image of what Angie Austin looks like. And it’ll surprise people. We’ve been doing these for seven, eight years, best I can figure. You and I have never met.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Now, you’ve seen my picture online. I’ve never seen yours.
SPEAKER 02 :
Right.
SPEAKER 04 :
Although my wife did tell me you’re really hot. But I’ve never seen your picture. So for everybody like you, I just grab somebody out of my past that I remember seeing in person or movies or television, and I make you look like them. Oh, that’s fantastic.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, that’s fascinating. I do know that’s a really good example to use because my producer of many years, Trevino, when I started working with him was a kid basically still, you know, like maybe 20, 19, right in there. And I envisioned him as this skinny kid. And once he asked me about like flying and I’m like, yeah, this, this, and this, and you check in and you go like two hours early. He’s like, and should I do this? And what should I bring? And I’m like, You’ve never flown? And he’s like, no, I’ve never flown anywhere in my life. It was like a whole new thing, right? So as the years went on, eventually he came to set up my home studio and then we both lived in California for a summer at the same time. So we’d go out to dinner with his fiance and my husband and my family and stuff. So when I first met him, it was like I knew him so well because I spent four hours or five hours a day with him. long distance as he produced my show so we’d talk every commercial break and this that and the other he was so much bigger than i thought he’d be just a such i’ve pictured this scrawny little kid like five two maybe 110 20 pounds and he was big you know and and and like looked nothing like i’d envisioned him you know because i’d only seen like pictures like from that you know like his face So anyway, it was weird because I knew him, but I didn’t know him. And it was the weirdest thing because he looked so different than I thought he would look that even though we’d known each other for many years and talked every single day, it was like a stranger for a little while, even though we were friends for so long. So I think that’s a good example for you to use.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. And so when I’m talking to you, which I do every week, I kind of have this vision in my mind of there’s Angie over there and I’m talking to her and I know what you look like. So there you go.
SPEAKER 03 :
All right. So in solving the mystery, we talk about, you know, your Sherlock Holmes mysteries and Rex and Sue Grafton, which I’m going to start Sue Grafton. I wrote that down. So these audio books, how fast do you read them? And then we’ll continue on through the column.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, I mean, people are used to listening to, you know, if you go on Audible, you can listen to one and a quarter or one and a half. And I often go three times, four times, you know, if it’s a simple… I may go as much as five times the speed. No way. You know, the Sue Grafton novels are a great example, because I just started rereading them. I read them all 20 years ago, and they’re like the alphabet. You know, A is for alibi, B is for burglar, C is for corpse, and they go through all these mysteries and wonderful characters she created and great stories, and I like them. But, you know, I can, you know, I can move them forward pretty fast. So a book that would normally take seven or eight hours to listen to, I can listen to in, you know, an hour and a half, something like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Whoa. So is that like you only have to spend like an hour and a half or two hours a day to read an entire book?
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. Yes. And so I get up every day at four and I listen to books while I’m doing my exercise and, you know, and other things. So it, you know, it really doesn’t take that much time out of my day to read a book a day.
SPEAKER 03 :
Wow. Okay. Yeah. A is for alibi. That’s where I’ll start, too. Okay. So in solving the mystery, the winner’s wisdom column, what else are you teaching us here?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I always want people to assume there’s an answer to every question. You know, the people that get out there and say, well, I don’t know, and there’s no way to know that. No, Carl Sagan, the great scientist, said somewhere there is something incredible waiting to be known. And, you know, somewhere out there, there’s the information you’re looking for. You know, we succeed in life when we make great decisions, and great decisions are made when we have enough information. And, you know, I believe about a 10- or 12-year-old kid can make great decisions if you give them all the details. But without the details, we’re all kind of just shooting in the dark. We really don’t know what we’re doing. And so, you know, I just think it’s great to assume there’s something I can know, and once you get all the information together, it is easy to make decisions.
SPEAKER 03 :
I love that because I think that you say that by not making a decision, you’re making a decision. And so many of us put off decisions. Now, I can see putting it off to gather information to make a good decision. But by putting it off indefinitely, you’ve made it. It’s kind of like I always say to my kids, like if they want to try something or ask a teacher, if they can have extra credit or if they can play a different position on a team, I’m like, If you don’t ask, you already have the answer. It’s no. If you ask, it might be no, you know, but by not asking, you definitely have an answer.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah. I was listening to the British open over the weekend. Love that golf tournament. And one of the ads said, uh, you know, you miss every shot you don’t take. That’s true. I mean, you never hit a shot that you didn’t take. So, uh, uh, you know, and it is simply a matter of assuming the information’s out there and, uh, And assuming you’re going to win, assuming things are prepared for you, you look for the good things. If you start every day looking for good things, you’ll find them. And if you want to look for bad stuff, you can find it, too.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, it’s interesting that you say you miss every shot you don’t take. Both of my kids were at tournaments this weekend, and Jim, you will be saddened to hear that they all use my youngest daughter, the basketball player, who, as you know, is pretty stinking good with ball handling. So she’s a point guard, even though she’s super tiny. And her high school team, they’ve been state champions in Colorado, I think four out of the last seven, six or seven years. I don’t know if we count COVID or not, because that was a weird year that I don’t think they even had it. So let’s say four out of the last six. And so she’s on the JV team as a freshman this summer. They played a lot of tournaments. But she wasn’t with the high school team. She was with their club team in Las Vegas this weekend. And no less than three parents out of the only seven girls were there. No less than three parents made comments that got back to my daughter. Because she’s smaller, they were wondering why the bigger point cards weren’t getting more time on the court. And a couple of other like just comments, you know, some of her shots weren’t as hot as they normally are. She’s usually a good three point shooter. And she said, Mom, my confidence was just coming back. And then these parents on the team were like talking about me. And I said, Faith, their opinions of you are irrelevant. First of all, like one parent doesn’t look like he’s ever hit the court in his life. So I really don’t want her using his opinion. I mean, these are people that how dare they mess with a child’s self-esteem by making these comments when she’s trying to make a shot and she is an exceptional ball player. She had people come up to her at the tournament, other coaches saying, if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’re going to be a D1 player. If you keep doing what you’re doing and you keep working this hard and developing these skills you already have as such a little kid, she’s 14. that, you know, you’re going places. And then for these parents to make these comments, and one even came to my husband, Jim, and said, I wish you were the coach because I really don’t like the rotation. These two girls really have some chemistry. And then meaning the third girl, the other point guard doesn’t, which is our daughter. And my husband said, He said, I was so tempted to say, no, you realize Faith is my kid, right? As you’re saying these things to me about wanting me to be the coach, like, that’s my kid. And so, Jim, I won’t even go into what a disaster the other tournament was, but it wasn’t the kids. It was the parents. And I’m so, like, ashamed of us as a group that we would be such a bad influence on these kids.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, as you know, my late great friend and mentor and great influence of my coach, Wooden, was the greatest coach. basketball coach of all time and he said when when the crowd boos and everybody’s down on my players i would always remind him don’t ever listen to advice from people that had to buy a ticket to get into a basketball game i’m gonna tell her that i mean anybody that had to buy a ticket to get in here i mean okay you you you’re allowed to watch but i really don’t need your your your advice here
SPEAKER 02 :
That is hilarious. All right. So in terms of what you want us to take away from your column, solving the mystery, I can’t wait to tell her that. What’s the takeaway here?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, there is an answer and there is information out there. And if you get all the information together, it will solve all the mysteries and answer all the questions. And, you know, life becomes simple when you get enough research and you get enough answers and just assume they’re out there and go find them.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I love it, your last couple of sentences. Making great decisions with all the details and facts is relatively logical and simple. Making decisions without info and facts is merely a guessing game. As you go through your day today, get the facts and solve the mystery. JimStoval.com. You’re no mystery. You are terrific. Thank you, friend. You’re the best.
SPEAKER 06 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
Loveland is listening to the Mighty 670 KLT Denver.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hello there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. I may have mentioned to you that my daughter was recently taken by ambulance to the hospital and I was asked by the paramedics, which hospital do you want to go to? And I really wanted to know in that moment, like what was the best place for me to tell them to take my daughter? And I didn’t know. And then standing right next to me is the chief surgeon at a local. She’s helping my girlfriend because. Our kids play on the same team. So I said, where should I tell them to take him? And she goes, you know, at this time, she picked the hospital, blah, blah, blah. And so I said, we want to go there because she knows she’s a chief surgeon in a local hospital. So thank goodness I had her. But U.S. News and World Report, they’re a global authority in health care rankings and ratings, and they’ve just released a 2025, 2026 edition of the best hospitals. And so, hello, wouldn’t that have been handy to know? So joining us as an expert in this area, Chelsea Wen, Senior Health Data Analyst with US News and World Report. Welcome, Chelsea.
SPEAKER 01 :
Hi, thank you so much for having me on.
SPEAKER 03 :
You are welcome. Okay, so you do this 2025-2026 edition of Best Hospitals, just released. How do you evaluate these hospitals? How long do you do it and why?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, of course. So US News has been looking at hospitals for over 30 years. And we aim to create ratings and rankings that are useful and relevant for Americans to use. So we evaluate hospitals on the things that patients care most about, which are going to be survival rates, readmission rates, complication rates. We also look at patient experience, as well as the number of patients that are treated at each hospital. So those outcomes and many more all go into our evaluation of hospitals, and we also evaluate hospitals typically on the procedure or condition that is being treated. So hospitals receive a rating for hip replacement specifically or hip fracture or heart attack. COPD, diabetes, we evaluate 22 procedures and conditions. This year we added heart arrhythmia and pacemaker implantation, and we also rank hospitals on 15 specialties, which range from neurology to cancer to orthopedics and more.
SPEAKER 03 :
When you determined which hospitals are the best regional hospitals, for instance, could there be a best hospital for hips or for certain specialties or is it an overall best hospital? So kind of go into how U.S. News determines which hospitals are best per se.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, so we provide a variety that we think is most useful to Americans. So with our best regional hospitals, we are naming hospitals that are providing excellent care across a wide range of areas of care in their community. So we’re really highlighting local options because we want to focus in on the fact that You know, there are really great hospitals with really great outcomes in almost every pocket of America, and traveling for care is not really always necessary. Yeah, that’s true. But on the other hand, we also provide those procedure-specific ratings. So you can look up who has a high-performing rating in hip replacements. So that information is also available for you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Excellent, which is always great to know because a lot of us, like my mom, just had two knees down in the last few years, and we’re looking into hips now, and it’s like you do want to find the best in the area if you don’t want to travel, and you’re right. Sometimes you don’t have to. You can find some of the best in your neck of the woods. I know we found one of the best knee guys that 3D prints the knee to exactly match your body right here in Denver, so that was pretty handy. I know that U.S. News also evaluates the top hospitals in more than three dozen different health care services. You were talking about some of the specialties like cancer care, orthopedics, orthopedics, heart bypass surgery. Can you talk a little bit more about the different specialty areas and procedures and conditions that you evaluate? Because I’m sure there’s somebody listening right now that’s like, oh, I really want to know about cancer care or hearts or in my case, orthopedics.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, yeah. So with our procedures and conditions, we’re looking at some of the most common areas of care that Americans are interested in. So that is going to be your knee and hip replacements, We have several different types of cancers. So we have prostate cancer surgery, gynecological cancer surgery, lung cancer, colon cancer. We also evaluate hospitals for diabetes care, several heart conditions like heart attack, stroke, heart failure. And as I said earlier, we are expanding our ratings this year to also capture pacemaker implantation and also heart arrhythmia. And then on the other side, we also rank the hospitals in specialties, which are going to examine hospitals’ ability to treat some of the sickest patients. This is looking at some of the highest risk, most complex cases. So that’s specialties like cancer, neurology, urology, pulmonology, things like that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Cool. Now, I have a question. Let’s say it was cancer care. Would I be able to look at my regional hospitals and then also the national hospitals and say I’d be able to determine, like, would it be worth it to me to go to the Mayo, for instance, for a certain thing? Like, will it kind of give me an idea of where my hospital might rank in overall cancer care compared to some of the hospitals that aren’t in my region?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, for sure. So our website has all of this information. If you want to look up a specific type of cancer care in your area, we have a search bar tool where You know, you can type in colon cancer surgery in Denver, Colorado. It’ll show you a list of all of those hospitals and it will show you how each hospital is performing on each of the outcomes that we evaluate. So you can see, oh, this hospital, for example, Intermountain Health St. Joseph Hospital has this mortality score and it has this number of readmissions. And then you can compare that directly to other hospitals that you might see like Mayo Clinic, you can compare directly and see, oh, what’s their mortality score. How many patients are they catering to And, you know, our website is just one tool of many, of course, you should reach out to, you know, your personal doctors to your community. And all of that information comes together to make that decision.
SPEAKER 03 :
And any other tips for us, you know, using the U.S. News’ best hospitals list as we make our decisions?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, I mean, I think the website is a really great tool. We also have our methodology listed on there. So if you’re curious about what exactly goes into a best hospital and what we consider to be the criteria for a best hospital, all of that information is readily available. Yeah.
SPEAKER 03 :
Excellent. And then, Chelsea, since I have been doing news for 30 years now and TV and radio all over the country, I love I get to interview people in so many cool areas of expertise. So, of course, I looked into your background and your passions and where you went to school. And I think it’s pretty neat that you are passionate about empowering patients to make informed health decisions through information, through data. And I remember when I worked in the news business, just every day, you have to become an expert of whatever it is. Like, let’s say there’s a gorilla attack, then I’m an expert on gorillas. And then somebody dies during a liver transplant, and then I have to be an expert on that. But one thing I did learn It was a lot about medical care in terms of getting multiple, you know, opinions rather than just going with the one. And boy, sometimes you get some really different opinions when you’re looking into all of this. So what gave you and I’ve got a master’s degree in epidemiology and a bachelor’s degree in psych. What what gave you this passion for helping people and getting into this area of expertise? Was it something that came later in life or is this something that you started getting a passion for earlier in terms of helping others?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, so I have always been interested in ways to uplift people. disadvantaged communities and underserved populations. Growing up, I was someone who was on Medicaid, so I have firsthand experience with needing that kind of support. And as I went through school and started learning about different fields, I thought it was really interesting to be able to uplift people when it comes to health outcomes, when looking at their access to healthcare. And I think that providing information in a understandable and accessible way, you know, our website is free. Everything is very clearly outlined. Those kinds of things really make a difference for people who may not have a ton of resources. You know, we also highlight the best regional hospitals for community access. And that also highlights hospitals. providing really great outcomes specifically for people in their community that are either on Medicaid or they are socioeconomically vulnerable. So it’s really rewarding to be able to work on things like this and be able to have an impact on public health in general.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s interesting. When I grew up really poor, I wasn’t on Medicaid per se, but we lived in low-income housing and just really bad neighborhoods. And I kind of see that maybe you do what I did, kind of educated myself out of poverty. But because I live in foster care, I have a real passion for kids that, through no fault of their own, don’t really have a home. And here you are with a heart for people who may not – have access to the best health care. Or I think that when you are socioeconomically disadvantaged, you feel that you’re less empowered to ask for what you need because you’re like, oh, well, I’m the patient on the bottom of the totem pole because I remember one of my family members waiting for this clinic. in the dark outside of a Denver establishment in downtown Denver, which isn’t safe. And she was waiting alone in the dark to get health care with a bunch of homeless people. She wasn’t homeless at the time, but this was the only health care that she could get at the time. And our neighbor ran a domestic violence shelter and she’s like, well tell her to go downtown and do blah blah blah um and i was like wow i mean you don’t have the power when you’re waiting in that line with a bunch of homeless ladies trying to get health care and you’re then you want to tell the doctor like well you know i really want you to look into this and it’s my right to be treated for this i mean as you know sometimes you don’t have the rights or even you don’t think you do to get the proper care that you need yeah yeah exactly and there are so many barriers to health care
SPEAKER 01 :
take on so many different forms, and information is just one of them. Knowledge is one of them, and then there’s all sorts of different stigmas to get over as well.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, in terms of, let’s see, I want you to give the website again for sure, but in terms of the takeaway from this, after listeners hear our interview, what do you want them to take away from this and do with this information?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, so I think one really cool result of this study is that it shows that there are great hospitals Really great options for care in almost every pocket of America. And I think that’s something that will be very useful for listeners. And you can see all of these lists on our website, which is www.usnews.com. And yeah, it’s just a really great tool to use along with your community, along with your doctors to make those really important decisions.
SPEAKER 03 :
I totally agree with you. I think it’s a great tool as well. And when I took my daughter to the hospital like me here, I think I’m like really well versed in all of this now. You know, I’ve been an anchor woman and I know a lot about health care. And then that split second when I had these three choices of hospitals and they’re low nerve, we were at a basketball tournament. she can’t move her legs and her, she has like her spine is tingling. And these coaches are trying to get her off the court. We need to keep, you know, continuing the game. And my doctor friends, like do not move this child as coaches are trying to lift her by the arms. And she’s like, I can’t move. I can’t move that. Those are the times where we need to go now and look at us news and world report and kind of know, like, if that happens again near my tournament, where is the best, best place for me to take my child? So yeah, Thank you so much for all you’re doing for others. This is something we should look into today, not when the ambulance is arriving to take your kid who can’t use their legs off of the basketball court. So thanks for all you’re doing for others, Chelsea. Great interview and really good information.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER 05 :
You bet. Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
In this episode of The Good News, Angie Austin sits down with Jim Stovall to explore the fascinating world of mysteries and critical thinking. Despite being visually impaired, Jim shares his insights on how literature and high-speed audio have transformed his life. This rich conversation dives into how mysteries like Sherlock Holmes teach us to use available facts for problem-solving in our daily lives. From the art of decision-making with limited information to the beauty of imagination, Jim’s wisdom enlightens us on finding answers in the simplest of ways.
