Ordinary People with Extraordinary Stories

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Welcome to the good news with Angie Austin. Now with the good news, here’s Angie.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:09

Hey there friend, Angie Austin and Jim Stovall. He is back from a wonderful trip to San Diego. One of his favorite places. How many times have you gone to this particular place, Jim?

SPEAKER 05 : 0:20

Well over 50. I do two or three events a year out at, uh, at paradise Island and paradise point resort there and love it in mission Bay. And, uh, So it’s a little work, a little play.

SPEAKER 03 : 0:32

Wow. Oh, my gosh. I just love it. I might check that out next weekend when I head out there to visit a friend. All right. So this week, your winner’s wisdom column is called My Cowboy Friend.

SPEAKER 05 : 0:47

Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. I have written 50 books, and our ninth one is being made into a movie now about Will Rogers. And Will Rogers was such a unique figure. I mean, he was a cowboy, but he was a philosopher. He was a movie star. He was a radio personality. He was a daily columnist, syndicated. And without question, in the 1920s, 1930s, he was the most famous person of his era. And to this day, when they interview senators or congressmen in the rotunda, Generally, the statue behind them is the statue of Will Rogers, because he consulted with all the presidents of both parties, and he’s the only statue in the rotunda that’s not an elected official for one party or another, so everybody always does their interview in front of Will Rogers. But it’s interesting, because in the midst of that, I was thinking of my… My dear friend Dr. Michael Johnson I met through the National Speakers Association, and he’s a real live cowboy. He’s done the rodeo thing, and he trains horses, and he does all this stuff. But he’s also a wonderful speaker and author. And, you know, we have a tendency to think of cowboys as these ignorant people that run around and rope cows or something, which they do. But, you know, he and I were talking recently about, about potential and attitude. And he said, Jim, you remember what Faust said. When we treat people as they are, they get worse. When we treat them as they could be, they get better. They grow. And I said, you’re the only guy with a rope and a horse that also quotes Faust. I mean, it’s amazing. And But it is true, and I think back to what Gandhi told us, that everyone is my superior and that I can learn something from them. And we need to be careful when we put people in these categories. A lot of my trips, including the one I just took out to California, You know, you get in a cab, and many of the drivers are international people from other countries. And, you know, they don’t always, English wasn’t their first language. And you have a tendency to think, well, this is an ignorant person that doesn’t, you know, know how to do anything else. And, you know, but I’ve gotten in the habit of over the last 25, 30 years, I always talk to my drivers. And, you know, I have had drivers who were neurosurgeons, who were attorneys, who who were international delegates and dignitaries and all kinds of things, and they want to come to America, and this is a job they can get while they’re bringing their family here and getting their paperwork in order. And if you don’t know better, you’re talking to this learned, distinguished person like they’re some kind of ignorant imbecile, and that’s just not the way it would be, just like talking to a cowboy about Faust.

SPEAKER 03 : 3:55

know it’s interesting you say that because i i have gotten in the habit you know i’m a natural journalist as well or question asker and so i i don’t have a driver per se like a limo driver but i am in a lot of ubers and uh take lift you know quite a few places so anyway to make a long story short i always ask them questions my kids are like why why do you always ask so many questions i’m like You know, it’s fascinating things we’ve learned. I mean, one guy was like a higher up, you know, officer in the military and there was a coup and then, you know, the regime was toppled and then he couldn’t go back to his country. And, you know, his family’s all there and he had like his Ph.D. in math. And I’m like, his whole life changed because he can never go back. And then, you know, like you said, people who are physicians, you know, professors, dentists. And it’s fascinating to me to hear their story because it makes us so thankful to have what you mentioned, the winning ticket in the birth lottery to be born here in the United States. And so many of us take it for granted.

SPEAKER 05 : 4:59

Yeah. And, you know, you just you can’t assume, you know, who you’re talking to. I have a dear friend. Well, his name is Jim King. Jim King played over 10 seasons in the NBA, a great basketball player, and then he was a college coach. And recently he retired, and his wife passed away, and he just didn’t want to sit around the house anymore. So he’s living down in Dallas, and he said, you know, I got a nice car, and I drive Uber or something when I just want to get out and meet people and make a few bucks. And, well, he said, when the Mavericks are having their games, I’ll drive people down there. And in my last ride, I’ll stay and watch the basketball game. Well, he said, you would not believe how many people get in my car and tell me all about the game. Then they ask my opinion. He’d be like, well, you have no idea about basketball. Obviously, you have no idea what you’re talking about. And he said, I just let it go. I don’t need to tell them that I played 10 years in the league and then coached at the college level for 20 years. I just let them drop. I just drop them off and smile. And people have no idea who they’re talking to.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:09

Talk about somebody with humility because I think so many people would want to bring it up and school the person about how mistaken they were. And I mean, to me, that’s being very, very humble to not, uh, you know, set the record straight and say, well, I kind of know what I’m talking about because I played for them, but wow, that’s pretty impressive to me.

SPEAKER 05 : 6:29

Yeah. And then, you know, and there’s just so many people like that, that you just, you don’t know who you’re talking to. So, uh, You know, when in doubt, treat everyone with respect, and you’ll be right most of the time.

SPEAKER 03 : 6:44

You know, when you talk about Will Rogers, I’m always, you know, since I’m not that familiar with him, he actually, in Colorado Springs, on the top of a mountain, they have an area where he’s entombed, I understand. It’s kind of like a little chapel, and it’s real beautiful, and it gives you some history about him, et cetera, and you have to drive through the zoo to get up there. So they have to, like, give you the okay to kind of like, oh, yeah, go through the gates and drive on up. And it’s really interesting because you can tell by where he’s been laid to rest that he was something, you know, he was a big deal. And when you say that he not only was the biggest box office draw, but that he had a syndicated column in a national radio program and that people were Just couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say about breaking news or poking fun at political leaders from both parties, which in this day and age, it seems we only choose to poke jokes at one party, whichever one we don’t like. There doesn’t seem to be any equal opportunity poking fun at both parties. But he didn’t need to do those extra things. I mean, he was already a bigwig in movies, so he didn’t need to write a syndicated column every day or do a national radio program. I mean, that’s a lot of time investment. Like, he really cared about the state of the world.

SPEAKER 05 : 8:05

Yeah, he died in 1935 at age 55. Had he lived another 25 or 30 years, he would have owned the early days of television, the Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle age. You know, he had a Broadway show, The Will Rogers Follies, that played for many, many years on Broadway, and he would just come out and do his humorous routine. But he also taught a lot while he was doing it, and on his tombstone, It said, I met the greatest leaders of my time, of my era, and I can honestly say I never met a man I didn’t like. And he was known for that. And I think we have to understand that better than we do. And, you know, and he was also an American Indian, a full-blood Cherokee. So, you know, he always said when we played cowboys and Indians, I was both. And he said when I go to New York or Boston, the society people always argue about, you know, whose people came to America sooner. And he said, well, when you get it all figured out, just realize my people met the boat. We were already here, you know. And it just, it’s a perspective and it’s a, Uh, you know, it’s, it’s a, um, one of my favorite things when he spoke to the United States Senate, he said, you know, he said, uh, you people are pretty funny up here. He said, I’m a humorist. I get paid for being funny, but when you make a joke, it’s a law. We got to live with this stuff and you people need to watch what you’re doing up here, you know, and, and there’s a lot of reality to that. And, uh, And in any one of my favorite broadcasts he did, he spent a day in Congress watching them do this. And he said they yielded to a man who stood up and said he from the great state of whatever. And he was going to yield his time to somebody else because he was going to pass and had nothing to say. Then he said, the man took four and a half minutes to say he didn’t have anything to say. He said, back where I’m from in Oklahoma, if we ain’t got nothing to say, we just don’t say nothing. It’s just simplified. But in Washington, you’ve got to make a speech about the fact that you don’t have anything to say.

SPEAKER 03 : 10:18

Oh, that’s funny. I think about Frederick Douglass as well, because my daughter’s studying him right now. And I know his mother was a slave and that he worked as a slave. And he may have been, his father may have been his mother’s master, per se. And so I don’t know if that’s all I’m shaking out. I don’t know the history on his background, but the fact that he traveled the world, basically giving speeches, you know, and people were so astounded at his level of brilliance and, you know, his writing still to this day, he studied and. Like you said, you never know who you’re speaking to, and I think we make so many assumptions about people because of their grammar, etc. And I think about my father-in-law, who’s so intelligent, and he grew up in the same little town in Illinois, and he does have some little idiosyncrasies, the dialect in his area, where they use some double negatives, like… he don’t know or she didn’t never or something like to that effect but he’s so smart and he worked his way up he grew up out of high school worked in like a McDonald’s and then worked at the cat factory and then became the union president for and then had to negotiate with all the cat executives and traveled you know all over the world as well as the union president for this particular you know area of expertise this For Kat, there’s kind of a specialty area. So anyway, he’s done so well, but he never thought of himself as intelligent. And then he had a secretary who would, you know, correct things in terms of grammar and type things up for him and write all of his letters and his memos. But his mind is just he’s so sharp. He became a bailiff then because he helped so many judges. politically, because the union was so influential in politics because they had all that dough, you know, all that money. And so they said, hey, why don’t you come be a bailiff at the courthouse? So he was like a wandering bailiff. He’d get to pick whatever courtroom he wanted to go in and listen to whatever case he wanted to listen to. So really, he was kind of a judge’s buddy. So it was fascinating because he knew so much about law and learned so much, and it was so interesting to him to have this job that he didn’t have the same responsibilities, obviously, that he did in the union, but just such a bright guy. So I think of him when I think that people say, oh, they’re uneducated, so they can’t be that bright.

SPEAKER 05 : 12:49

Yeah, and you know, you just never know. When my first movie was out in theaters, I went about 20 days in a row, and I would go in the afternoon and sit, you know, on the stadium seating. So I’d sit on the front row where the seats start going up, just so I could sit there and listen to the audience reaction. Because you never know, I mean, did I leave too much space there or not enough? Are they laughing over the next line? or what’s going on. And I’ll never forget, one day I was sitting there as the theater was clearing out and my assistant was making notes. I was telling him, we want to remember this and this and this. And a lady stopped and says, what did you think of that movie? I said, well, I thought it was pretty interesting, yeah. And she said, what was your favorite part? And I said, well, the part with the young man where he really starts realizing his grandfather’s legacy is not the money, it’s the lessons. She said, well, obviously you don’t understand the story.

SPEAKER 03 : 13:42

Oh, my gosh.

SPEAKER 05 : 13:44

And I didn’t say, you know, I wrote the story. I mean, don’t tell me I don’t. I mean, I created that character. But I said, well, I’m going to stay and watch it again. So maybe it’ll dawn on me. I don’t know.

SPEAKER 03 : 13:56

That is hilarious. All right, Jim, your website?

SPEAKER 05 : 14:01

Jim Stovall, S-T-O-V-A-L-L, jimstovall.com.

SPEAKER 03 : 14:06

Maybe it’ll dawn on me. Thank you, Jim.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:14

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SPEAKER 01 : 15:10

Elizabeth is dialed in to the mighty 670.

SPEAKER 03 : 15:19

Hello there, Angie Austin here with The Good News. You know, I get to meet a lot of very interesting people on this show and interview people that are doing a lot of really wonderful things, whether they be authors or people who are really devoting their lives to helping others. I wanted to talk to you about a couple, Margie and Don Cook, and they are two friends of mine that I met, I’d say, 13 or 14 years ago. And they came on the show. and I was very excited to talk to them about their retirement. Now, he’s an engineer. They had four kids. They’ve lived all over the world. They’re from South Africa. And when they retired, quote-unquote, Hawaii is their favorite state, but they’ve lived all over the world. They had done some work volunteering after a tsunami, and they were in India, and they were giving rice to the villagers. And he said the area was just – Don said the area was just destroyed, like just flattened from the tsunami at the time. And they were told not to give rice to the widows and their children because they were considered bad luck and they’re kind of throwaway people. Like hundreds of years ago, the widows were supposed to throw themselves on the husband’s funeral pyre because the husband was kind of like their god. And so now they’re just kind of throwaway people, throwaway families. And – Of all the hundreds of widows that Marky and Don have met in their work over in India, only two widows have remarried and they were highly educated. Generally, the women in the caste system and the lower castes don’t remarry. And some of them are very young, like 20 years old with maybe two or three kids. So they said, well, you know, why don’t they get rice? And they said, well, we kind of want them to go away. We don’t want them to stay here because they’re bad luck. So they have devoted the last many years building homes for widows because if you go to Hands on Houses on Facebook, Hands on Houses, or just find Margie and Don on their website, Hands on Houses, you’ll see the shacks that these women and their children live in, like maybe an orange tarp with some sticks holding it up and underneath a couple of rudimentary dishes and maybe a… A barrel that they use for fire and trying to cook. It’s just unbelievable. So they have built over 500 homes and now they branched out into the Philippines, Nepal, Zambia. So they’re building homes in other countries as well. And they’re based now here in the United States. And I got to have dinner with them last night to talk more about they’ll be on the show again soon. I think it’s been three times they’ve been on. So maybe I’ll run their interview from last year and then do their new interview. So you can kind of catch up on what they’re doing now, because they’ve worked out a way through their connections to provide these homes all over the world. And one thing they did like doing is. is building the homes in the village. That was one of their favorite things to do because then there’d be a real community environment because people would come out and they would help and the whole community would get involved. And so there’d be a lot of bonding and people really feeling like they were helping the widow as well. So I just love that. So Hands on Houses, Margie and Don Cook, just so great to catch up with them last night and to, you know, really meet the friends that you make on the radio over, you know, a decade or so. I think I’ve been doing this show now about 12, 13, 14 years now. All right, changing gears now from hands-on houses, we’re going to talk Parkinson’s. This November, the Parkinson’s Foundation joins organizations across the country to recognize National Family Caregivers Month, an opportunity to raise awareness, educate the public, and support those who care for people with chronic conditions like Parkinson’s disease. Here to highlight the work being done are two people who know a lot about caregiving. John Lear is president and CEO of the Nonprofit Parkinson’s Foundation and Ripley Fricano-Hensley. She’s a care partner for her father who is living with Parkinson’s. Welcome, John and Ripley. Thank you so much. Pleasure to be here. All right, John, let’s start with you. Oh, you’re welcome. John, let’s start with you. Why is National Caregivers Month so important? Why are you here to let us know about it and the message that you hope to send to us?

SPEAKER 06 : 19:56

Yeah, so care partners are truly the backbone of the Parkinson’s community. Parkinson’s disease is a very difficult disease that affects millions of Americans, with 90,000 individuals being newly diagnosed each year. And it doesn’t just affect those people who are diagnosed. It also affects spouses, family members, friends, and anyone who helps the person with Parkinson’s navigate their daily life. So Caregivers Month gives us a chance to say thank you, to shine a light on those unsung heroes, those care partners. And this year’s theme, Real Care Anyway, reminds us that caregiving can take many forms. Some people provide daily hands-on care at home, while others, like Ripley, support loved ones from afar. And so no matter what caregiving looks like, every role is critical, you know, to the person living with the disease. And we want care partners to know that they are seen, appreciated, supported every day, but during November, Care Partners Month, we want to put a special spotlight on them to say, great work, thank you, and make sure to take care of yourself too.

SPEAKER 03 : 21:10

Yeah, absolutely. I think the caregiver gets lost in the ruckus, you know, of everything going on because there’s so much to do. And Ripley, it sounds like the way that John was describing it, you have a slightly different or unique caregiving experience. Can you talk about your experience as a care partner?

SPEAKER 04 : 21:26

Absolutely. So my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2017. He was 52. And when he was diagnosed, our family went through all the emotions, fear, uncertainty, even grief for what we thought life might look like. And over time, we’ve learned that Parkinson’s is only one part of our story. I do live several states away from my family, which means we’ve had to redefine what we thought caregiving looks like. For us, that’s been staying closely connected through frequent calls, frequent FaceTime. Sometimes I have to talk about symptoms. It’s often just to share everyday life. My mom and I do use shared calendars, shared notes to coordinate appointments, and I try to anticipate needs before they come up, especially things I can do from afar like grocery deliveries or prescription refills. As a nurse, I’m also able to interpret some medical language and help navigate the system, but As a daughter, I’ve learned that listening and laughter matter often just as much and that caregiving isn’t just about being physically present, but about emotional presence, communication, and being part of that support system because every little bit matters, even the phone calls and planning from afar.

SPEAKER 03 : 22:39

Yeah, I love what you can do from afar. You know, now with all, you know, the way things have changed that you can have groceries delivered or like for my mom, I might have delivered like a four prong cane or something that maybe my brother wouldn’t think of or some of her personal need items that she might not want to ask him for. But I can send when we we kind of share her. She comes halftime with me and halftime with her. But that’s that’s really great to think about. I never thought about groceries and prescriptions now, like you said, can be delivered, too. Okay, that’s good to know. What else, Ripley, do you think caregivers need to be aware of?

SPEAKER 04 : 23:14

That’s such an important question, and I think care partners tend to put themselves last, and it’s important to realize that it’s not sustainable and to recognize the signs of burnout, which can look like fatigue, irritability, or even that foggy feeling where everything feels just a bit harder, and knowing that taking regular breaks isn’t selfish, but it’s essential, and You can’t pour from an empty cup. Truly caring for yourself is part of caring for your loved one. So lean on your support network. Use resources like those from the Parkinson’s Foundation. And for those in positions like mine, caring from afar, I’d say build small, sustainable routines of connection. Try to let go of the guilt and know that caregiving isn’t about proximity or perfection, but about presence.

SPEAKER 03 : 24:02

Well, and John, as your role as CEO and president of the Parkinson’s Foundation, I know you do a lot for others. So what are some of the resources that you know are available for care partners?

SPEAKER 06 : 24:15

Yeah, so at the foundation, we’re very pleased to offer a wide range of free resources for care partners and anyone really at every stage of the journey. We have a Everything from checklists and planning tools to educational guides that can help care partners prepare for doctor’s visits or manage day-to-day activities and challenges. Those are all available on Parkinson.org, our website. But if you ever need to talk to somebody over the phone, we have a toll-free helpline, 1-800-4-PD-INFO, that has great experts in Parkinson’s care on the other end of the line who can help either in English or in Spanish, care partners navigate a very complex world. So, you know, we really try to tell people, go to the website, parkinsons.org, or call our helpline if you need any help identifying additional resources, referrals, or just you need to talk to somebody about what’s going on.

SPEAKER 03 : 25:19

Well, you’re navigating this world every day, John. So do you think that the general public really understands Parkinson’s?

SPEAKER 06 : 25:28

So I think awareness is increasing. A lot of people know about Michael J. Fox, Alan Alda, people who’ve been diagnosed recently. But I think our job at the foundation is to raise awareness awareness about Parkinson’s disease. The thing about PD is that it primarily affects an older population, and so as our population ages, more people are going to be diagnosed with Parkinson’s. Michael J. Fox, because he was diagnosed so young, sort of represents a very small percentage of most people’s experience with Parkinson’s. It happens later in life. But if you start to see some of the early signs, like tremors or issues with walking or balance, We really want to encourage people to go see their doctor or even better, go see a neurologist who can diagnose Parkinson’s and get people on the right medications and really, most importantly, on a regimen of exercise. So we’re doing our best to raise awareness and just raise awareness for people living with the disease, but the other part of the care team, other part of this equation, which is the care partner, who plays a huge role in managing and helping the person with the disease well.

SPEAKER 03 : 26:43

And Ripley, even though your dad wasn’t as young as Michael J. Fox, he’s my husband’s age, so when you said your dad’s age when he was diagnosed, that seems young to me. So let’s talk about, in your opinion, Ripley, what are some ways that the public can help?

SPEAKER 04 : 26:57

I think supporting care partners doesn’t always mean doing something big. Sometimes it’s just being there. offering to run errands, listening without judgment, or even just checking in with a quick call or message, and also educating yourself about Parkinson’s goes a long way. A lot of people don’t know you can be diagnosed young. I know we definitely did not before my dad was diagnosed, and also before he was diagnosed, I only thought of Parkinson’s as a movement disorder. I thought of the tremor, and it’s so much more than that. It affects the whole person, and many of the most debilitating symptoms aren’t visible. And sometimes those non-motor symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, pain, sometimes those can impact quality of life even more than the motor symptoms. So learning everything you can because the more you know, the more empathetic you can be. And just if you have a family member or a friend who’s a care partner, reach out, ask how you can help because even sometimes Even just a little bit of relief or encouragement really makes these worlds of difference.

SPEAKER 03 : 28:04

Yeah, just caring, you know, actually showing you care. So, John, knowledge definitely is power. So where do we go to get more info?

SPEAKER 06 : 28:14

Go to our website, Parkinson.org. That’s Parkinson.org. Or call our helpline, 1-800-4-PD-INFO. That’s 1-800-4-PD-INFO. Okay.

SPEAKER 03 : 28:27

Well, John and Ripley, thank you so much for all you’re doing for others to, you know, educate them in this arena. And thank you so much for joining me on The Good News.

SPEAKER 06 : 28:37

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER 04 : 28:38

Thank you for having us.

SPEAKER 01 : 28:40

Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.