An Army of Normal Folks - 25,000 Babies Experience Withdrawal Every Year—So This Mom Took Action (Pt 1)

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

Every year, 25,000 babies experience withdrawal from addictive substances after birth. Jill Kingston saw this up close as the very first 2 babies that she decided to decide to foster were withdrawing from heroin. This normal mom felt convicted to do even more and so she founded Brigid’s Path, which helps both these newborns and their parents to heal. And they’re so successful that when 70% of these babies enter foster care, 85% of their babies remain with their families! You’ll walk away from this episode believing that you don’t have to feel qualified to solve a problem—you just have to start.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We started fostering, and every baby that came into our home was substance exposed. But we had no education on that. So when you say baby, you were fostering infants? We were fostering newborns. It was 2013. It was when the opioid crisis was beginning, and you were starting to hear a little bit of it on the news. But as foster parents, we weren't trained on how to take care of this baby. And so we went through our training, got our license.

And that very first day, they called us and said, Can you go pick up a baby at a local hospital and brought home a little three and a half-pound baby who was withdrawing from heroin and had to figure out what his needs are and how to take care of him? Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm an entrepreneur. And I'm a football coach in inner city Memphis. And that last part, it oddly led to Oscar for the film about one of my teams. That movie's called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never going to be solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us.

Just you and me deciding, hey, maybe I can help. That's what Jill Kingston, the voice you just heard, has done. Jill is the founder of Bridget's Path, which has served over 300 families with babies. withdrawing from addictive substances in the wound. And they help both the baby and their parents to heal. When 70% of babies in this situation in her foster care, Bridget's path is so effective in helping the whole family heal that 85% of their babies leave them in the care of their family of origin.

Jill isn't a medical professional or a nonprofit expert. She's just a normal mom. who will teach you that you don't have to wait to feel qualified to solve a problem. I can't wait for you to meet her right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. You know Roll Doll, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been.

Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What? And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you.

I was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? and what darkness from his covert past

seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 10, 10, shots five, City Hall building. A silver 40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene. From IHeart Podcasts and Best Case Studios. This is Worshack, murder at City Hall.

How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest. Both men are carrying concealed weapons. And in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead. Everybody in the chamber is ducked. A shocking public murder.

I scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. Those are shots. Get down. A charismatic politician. You know, he just bent the rules all the time. I still have a weapon, and I could shoot you. And an outsider was a secret.

He alleged he was a victim of flatdown. That may or may not have been political. That may have been about sex. Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about, and they are experts at Everett. Here at the Nick Dick and Poll show, we're not afraid to make mistakes. What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director.

Who do you think he is? I don't know. You meet the like the president? You think Canada has a president. You think China has a president. The law frouzette. God, I love that thing. I use it all the time.

I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night. It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. It was a good one. I like that snake. It is an actual Polish saying. Yeah. It is an actual Polish name. Better version of Play Stupid Games, win stupid prizes.

Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time. I actually thought it was. I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick Dick and Paul show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Kristen Davis. Host of the podcast, Are You a Charlotte? In 1998, my life was forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte York on a new

show called Sex and the City. Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and relive all of the incredible moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Like when Sarah Jessica Parker shared that she forgot we filmed the pilot episode. You forgot about it? In the very

long time they took to pick us up. And when the show was picked up, I panicked. And Cynthia Nixon reveals if she's a Miranda. We both feel confident about our brains. But that's kind of where it ends. Plus, sex in the city super fan,

Megan V. Stelion, doesn't hold back on her opinions of the show. Carrie will literally go set New York on fire and then come back and type about it at the end of the day. Like half of it wasn't her fault. Listen to Are You a Charlotte on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, folks, Amy Robach and T.J. Holmes here. And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran. of the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high-profile trials, and what the hell is that Blake lively thing about anyway?

We are on it every day, all day. Follow us, Amy and TJ for news updates throughout the day. Listen to Amy and TJ on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Joe Kingston from Kettering, Ohio, which is the Dayton area. Is that right? Yep. Just flew down to Memphis to visit with us. How are you?

I'm good. I hope your flight was good. It was great. No problems. Everybody, Jill, is the founder of Ridgid's path. I'm pronouncing that correctly. You are. Yep. And we're going to get right to it.

Every year, more than 25,000 babies are born exposed to addictive substances. So before we go any further, just consider that. 25,000 babies a year. That's a little more than two. 2000 a month, that's a little more than 500 a week, which means we're talking about 70 or 80 souls a day are born in our country already exposed to addictive substances. And before that baby ever takes a breath, there's a mother wondering, what's going to happen to my baby? Joel, what does that moment look like for both the mom and the baby? Sure. Well, at the time the baby is prenatally, they're probably nice and warm and cozy in their mommy's belly,

but the moms are struggling. There's a lot of shame and guilt happening. They're lost in their addiction or they're on some sort of medication where baby has to withdraw from. And they are very afraid that they're going to lose their baby because of, because of the substances they've taken during that pregnancy. So there's not a lot of prenatal care. There's not a lot of trust in the medical system. Children's Services is waiting for them to deliver

and they're afraid they're going to lose their baby. When you say lose their baby, I think there's two forms of lose that baby. Lose that baby to death. Correct. Or lose that baby to the system. Yes. Don't those fears look different?

They would look different. Many of our moms that we work with, their goal, they just want to be a mom. They want to have a healthy life. They want to have a normal family. But they have a lot of past trauma, which led to addiction and a lot of generational trauma. So they are, they're struggling. What, I mean, we're right into it right off the top. Yeah.

When I, I think of my four children. and I can't help but think about my four children. Lisa and I had four babies in four years, which makes us crazy. Yes, it does. Which means our children were like five, four, three, and two. I love it. Today, 30, 29, 28, 27. And I don't think Lisa, I don't, she was so careful during pregnancy to make sure she was being,

the best steward of that little baby in her womb. Right. And I know how much. My wife would gladly give an arm for any of her kids today, as I would. How is it that a mother could even get into a position to hurt their fetus? You got to go back to when that mom was a child. a lot of this stems from the abuse, the neglect that she received as a child. She never had a mom that raised her in a healthy way.

She never had the people around her, the community around her, that showed her that there's a different way to live. And so a lot of the past trauma led them to where they are today. And so when I didn't know that, when we started fostering, it wasn't until I met the families and heard their stories. and heard their stories and what they went through in their life and the struggles they had. They don't want to have the struggles they're having. But many times as a child, they were abused or trafficked. Parents may have been the first ones to give them drugs

that got them started in their addiction. And it just continues as a generational problem. So I've read that after birth, when the exposure to drugs of a fetus, when that exposure to drugs suddenly stops, i.e., they're born, so they're no longer connected to the mom's system that has the exposure, that the nervous system becomes kind of overstimulated, and they go through NAS, which is neonatal abstinence syndrome, which is basically withdrawal, I think.

It is. It's withdrawal. So my understanding is what that looks like a baby is usually irritable and difficult to console and crying. Goes through the same things you would notice in withdrawals of an adult, tremors and shaking. Kind of take us through what that looks like from the moment of birth for the first few days of an infant's life. Sure. So right away, you might not see those withdrawal symptoms. Oh, really?

You don't see it right away. It's not immediately. You know, it's once the body doesn't have that anymore, it takes a little bit. So there's usually about a five-day window where they observe the reaction of the baby and the symptoms of the baby. And depending on what mom was prescribed or what mom took illegally is how the baby reacts. And you'll see things like shaking, the loud-pitched cries. you'll see a lot of acid reflux, vomiting, diarrhea, just a really hard time, just like when an adult would go through, like you said, with their withdrawals. And it's not pretty.

And it's not fun for the baby at all. And mom already feels guilty for exposing, and then she sees her baby going through this. And so, but she has no one there to walk through that with her. to help choose a different path in her life. And so that's where we come along. I am a guy that struggles to balance my idealism with my realism. Yeah. Idealistically, I want everybody to be happy in the world.

And realistically, it just doesn't happen. Right. But I got to tell you, when I first hear that, my initial reaction is, screw the mom. She did it to a... Innocent, helpless child. Right. I have a hard time, real hard time, having any feelings for the mom.

Right. I think most people hearing this, maybe I'm wrong, but I think a lot of people hearing this also share that same emotion is, who cares about the mom? She did that. Right. How is it that you care so much about the mom as well as the babies when you know what that mom's actions did to that infant? When you see that infant going through all that pain, how is it that you not look at that mom and say, what the hell were you thinking?

The way I do it is I know that she was one of these babies. This mom was one of these babies. And if we don't help break that cycle, then our babies are going to be having those babies. and it's just going to continue on down the road. And so a lot of the choices our moms have been placed in front of them have not been real choices. They've been trying to survive. They've been trying to get through the abuse and neglect that they felt as a child. And that's what led them to where they are now.

It's got to be a hard bridge to travel sometimes. It is. It is. How? How do you do that? Well, we really advocate. Well, we work with the mom. We work with the mom and we learn about mom and what she wants.

She wants her baby to be healthy. She wants to be a good mom. And so we start setting goals with her so that she can move forward being a parent, that she can break that cycle of what she experienced as a child. And so we try to walk along with her. And that's how it begins. And we've been able to see the transformation that happens in our mom's lives and then our babies. So you have tools for these babies, still kind of thinking about, you know, what the moment looks like for the mom and the baby, right?

You have tools for the baby. You have medicines for the baby. Kind of explain that first 24 to 72 hours after birth so people fully understand what's entailed in that first initial, I mean, child that is, really coming off substance abuse. Right. So what you see in a delivery hospital, a mom will show up to deliver, and she may have said that she's using or she may not have or not shared what baby's exposed to or she may have. So it just depends where she is or if she has had children in the past and they might know that or they might not.

So in that very beginning time, they're focusing on the healthy delivery of the baby and then really just watching, they use something in Ohio called the Finnegan score. People are also now starting to use something called Eat, Sleep, Consul. And they watch for the different symptoms of babies having in those next few days. Depending on the hospital system, our babies come from the Cincinnati hospital systems or the Dayton Hospital delivery system. So it depends where they come from and what medication they start them on in those hospitals.

And then they transfer them over to Bridget's Path in a more homeless. setting in a setting that's really focused on the withdrawal of that baby and making sure we're meeting their needs right away. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first, you guys got to hear this, okay? This is real opportunity. Our six local service clubs are now battling one another through April 8th to see which of them can recruit the most members to their giving circle of just $10 a month and up, and the winner of this thing is going to get a $25,000 grant from staying together. If you live in Memphis, Oxford, Atlanta, Wichita, Northern Duchess County, or Ozaki County, join your giving circle today by visiting

normalfolks.combs, backslash, service clubs. normal folks, not us, backslash service clubs, and just click on your club. And again, guys, the club that raise the most money and gets most people, the most of the giving circle, stand together is going to grant that club 25K to go do something good in your community. I can't imagine why you guys wouldn't do that. It's free stuff. We'll be right back. You know, Real Doll.

The writer who thought up Willie Wonka. Matilda and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters

of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy.

Did you know Doll got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with hair. Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood, where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever? And what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote.

Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. A silver 40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene. From I-Heart podcasts and Best Case Studios, this is Rorschach, murder at City Hall. How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest. Both men are carrying concealed weapons, and in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead. Now everybody in the chambers ducts.

A shocking public murder. I scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. Those are shots, get down. A charismatic politician. You know, he just bent the rules all the time. I still have a weapon. And I could shoot you.

And an outsider with a secret. He alleged he was a victim of flatdown. That may or may not have been political. That may have been about sex. Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech

and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about and they are experts at everything. Here, the Nick Dick and Poll show, we're not afraid to make mistakes. What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director. Who do you think he is?

I don't know. You meet the president? You think Canada has a president? You think China as a president, Lozah Crosette. God, I love that thing. I use it all the time. I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night.

It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. Yep. It was a good one. I like that saying. It is an actual Polish saying. Yeah. It is an actual Polish saying.

Better version of Play Stupid Games, win stupid prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift, who said that for the first time. I actually, I thought it was.

I got that wrong. Listen to the Nick Dick and Paul show on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Kristen Davis, host of the podcast, Are You a Charlotte? In 1998, my life was forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte York on a new show called Sex and the City. Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and relive all of the incredible

moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Like when Sarah Jessica Parker shared that she forgot we filmed the pilot episode. You forgot about it? I completely forgot about it. And when the show was picked up, I panicked. And Cynthia Nixon reveals if she's a Miranda. We both feel confident about our brains. But that's kind of where it ends.

Plus, Sex and the City super fan, Megan V. Stelion, doesn't hold back on her opinions of the show. Carrie will literally go set New York on fire and then come back and type about it at the end of the day. Like half of it wasn't her fault. Listen to, are you a Charlotte on the Eye Heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Amy Roboc alongside T.J. Holmes from the Amy and T.J. podcast.

And there is so much news, information, commentary coming at you all day and from all over the place. What's fact, what's fake, and sometimes what the F. So let's cut the crap, okay? Follow the Amy and T.J. podcast, a one-stop news and pop culture shop to get you caught up and on with your day. and listen to Amy and TJ on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. So if the hospital recognizes this or knows it's coming, either way, like you said, so they had Nick you, right, but that's really not tailored for this specific. So the hospital actually then reaches out to you and says,

we need your help with this child and they transfer the child to you. It's normally somebody else advocating for the baby to come over. A lot of times the hospitals just tend to keep the babies in the NICU. We have to work with the families to advocate for moms to place the babies with us and transfer the babies to us. Why are you better than NICU? We have built a setting that is quiet. It is focused, dark, quiet, calming. We can see when a baby comes over with the Finnegan score baby,

around 12 or 15 when it drops. What is 12 or 15? It's a number. It's a score. Finnegan scores the number that they're graded on. And if it's higher, that means the hospital's normally given more medication to drop that number down. Which is an addiction index? Yeah.

It follows symptoms and they get scored on certain symptoms. So sneezing and if they're able to trouble eating, if they have trouble sleeping, all of those things and they score them on it. Okay. So the hospital sees higher scores because it's a busier-paced environment. A nurse usually gets two to three, maybe four babies on her case, and she has to triage. If there's a baby over here dying, she has to go take care of that baby while a baby that's with NAS will have to be medicated so that they sleep or left to cry. And once they get too upset, it's really hard to get them regulated and down again.

I see. And so Bridget's Path was built so that we could have that regulation so that we could have an environment that calms the baby that makes them relax. And it helps mom relax. It helps the families that are involved with the baby. Everybody's more relaxed in our atmosphere. And so you see those scores drop within the same day of a baby coming to Bridgeton. Wow. All right.

So someone advocates for this child and then the hospital transfers them to you guys. Who typically would be the advocate? We work closely with Children's Services. So depending on the Children's Services person that we're working with, if they support a mom getting healthy and staying with baby, that's one. Mom can self-refer. So if she has a friend that's been through our program, that she can self-refer.

We've had family members do referrals. What about neonatal nurses that know the babies would be better with you? Do you get any of those? We do have nurses inside the hospital system. who will talk to the moms about referrals. That's cool. Yeah. So, if your job is to care most about the mom and the baby, not the hospital's bottom line,

you would hope that they would speak up and say, you know. Our goal would be that every baby in the Dayton area or Cincinnati area would get at least a referral to us. You said something that I think it's important for all of our listeners to understand, which it took me a while for it to get through this thick, stupid skull. on, illustrate verbally the environment in a NICU ward. Yes. So depending on what hospital system they come from, there's more beeping loud noises.

There's more of a schedule where the nurse has 30 minutes to work with this baby, and then they'll be back to check on it in three hours. Lots of bright lights. Lots of bright lights. There's just a lot of activity. And whereas at Bridget's Path, we're able to really focus on what that baby's schedule is. And the schedule is demanded by the baby. And if a baby needs a quiet room, they can go into,

they each have their own private room. They can go into the room, shut the door, keep it quiet, soft music, and have a really calming environment. And then when they're ready to be social, they can start being introduced to the rest of the babies around and the moms and that sort of thing. So it's just a whole different environment.

The way I've related it in my own world is, you know, if I'm sick and have the flu and fever and my head, ringing and banging. The last place I want to be is somewhere with bright lights and beeping noises and activity all around me. I want to go in my bed, shut the door, pull the blondes down, have a dark room and have some quiet and just calm. Yes. And really, that's the difference that Nick you and your place as it pertains to just the environment. Yes.

And it's only natural that that's what a human view would want. It doesn't matter if you're three days old or 30 years old. It's all the same. Right. It is. Yeah, it's, I found that very interesting when I started to understand. That's kind of the first step. It's just quiet.

Right. And just that therapeutic candling, just being rocked and held and your needs being answered right away instead of getting upset, getting really, really upset, and then it's really hard to bring them back down. Okay. So that's the baby. What about the mom? Mom depends on her situation. We have moms who are well into recovery and are on.

medication that they're for their recovery, that baby has to go through withdrawal. Those are moms that usually choose to come to Bridget's Path because they just need that extra support. They want their baby to be in that sort of environment. And so they usually have a short length of stay, but they're there just for that therapeutic candling and help their baby get through it. And our goal really is a lot of our moms that are well into recovery is to have no medications given to their baby after they're born. And just through that therapeutic candling, they heal that way. And so if we can get babies there within one day to two days old,

we're able to keep them off of medication to go through that withdrawal side. Which is phenomenal because the hospital is the exact opposite. Their goal is to just get the baby to rest, and so they're going to medicate. They're going to do what hospitals do. Yeah. And, you know, we need our NICUs. Our team is from the NICU. This is in no way damning the NICUs at all.

But this is a specific. thing, a specific situation for an infant that really is a little different than anything in NICU really is designed to deal with. Yeah, it's just not designed for this. So, before we dive deeper into the extraordinary work, Bridges Path, how long you've been doing it and what you've managed to get done even in the policy space, which I find fascinating, your story really begins with your husband being a child in the foster care system. When you talk about that a little bit?

Because I think it speaks to your inspiration. Yeah. My husband and I, we were married, what, 26 years ago. I'm like, I don't even know how. 26 years ago, but he was adopted through the foster care system and raised a happy, healthy family and had a really good life. And so we had three children. biologically and decided that we wanted to start fostering. Yeah, well, besides working with addicted babies after having three children like Lisa and I did,

I can't, you're nuts is all I'm saying. You're crazy. You and your husband are absolutely insane. He would agree with you. Yeah, bad. All right, so you had three healthy kids. Your husband grew up in a foster care, and then you decided, hey, there's not enough chaos in our life. Yeah, exactly.

Well, it's funny because my husband said he's an only child. So he always wanted one child as well. And I said, I always wanted five. And he says, okay, we compromise. So we have five now. That's how that's supposed to work. Yeah. But yeah, so we started fostering.

And every baby that came into our home was substance exposed. But we had no education on that. So when you say baby, you were fostering infants? We were fostering newborns. And every single one of them? Yes. And that's when I knew there's something going on. And then I had met other foster parents, and they were getting a lot, you know, a lot more infants with substance exposure.

Because you didn't hear about it in the news. It was when the opioid, it was 2013. It was when the opioid crisis was beginning and you were starting to hear a little bit of it on the news. But as foster parents, we weren't trained on how to take care of this baby. And so we went through our training and got our license. And that very first day, they called us and said, can you go pick up a baby at a local hospital and brought home a little three and a half pound baby who was withdrawing from heroin and had to figure out what his needs are and how to take care of him. Was your heartbroken?

I was still learning. So I wasn't heartbroken by any means. I thought, you know, I raised. A three and a half pound heroin addicted infant did not break your heart. How? I mean, because I guess I have that. I wanted to help. And so my heart wasn't broken.

I just had the compassion of wanting to help. And having three. What was that first day like? That child had to been screaming. All the things you described at the beginning, you must have experienced. Yes. And so I was like, oh, I had three of my own children. No problem I can take care of this baby.

And so I'm feeding him this teeny little bottle because he was such a pre-meet. And he ate it right up. And I thought, he's going to do it. great, I'm going to make him better. And all of a sudden he just started vomiting and then aspirated, stopped breathing in my hands. And I, you know, had to get him breathing again. And he was fine, but it was a very scary moment. And that's when I knew we have a much different baby than I typically have cared for my whole life. So I had to start figuring out what are those special therapeutic things that babies need to get through this. And then within two weeks, I asked us to take

home another little guy who was also withdrawing from heroin. And so I had two that we were taking care of in our home. Simultaneously? It was like having twins that were withdrawing. We'll be right back. You know Roll Doll, the writer who thought up Willie Wonka, Matilda, and the BFG. But did you know he was also a spy? Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Our new podcast series, The Secret World of Roll Doll, is a wild journey through the hidden chapters of his extraordinary, controversial life. His job was literally to seduce the wives of powerful Americans. What?

And he was really good at it. You probably won't believe it either. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you. I was a spy. Did you know Dahl got cozy with the Roosevelt's? Played poker with Harry Truman and had a long affair with a congresswoman. And then he took his talents to Hollywood,

where he worked alongside Walt Disney and Alfred Hitchcock, before writing a hit James Bond film. How did this secret agent wind up as the most successful children's author ever, and what darkness from his covert past seeped into the stories we read as kids. The true story is stranger than anything he ever wrote. Listen to the secret world of Roll Dahl on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 10 shots, 5, City Hall building.

A silver 40 caliber handgun was recovered at the scene. From IHeart podcasts and Best Case Studios. This is Worshack, murder at City Hall. How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me. that. Jeffrey who did it? July 2003, Councilman James E. Davis arrives at New York City Hall with a guest.

Both men are carrying concealed weapons. And in less than 30 minutes, both of them will be dead. Everybody in the chambers duct. A shocking public murder. I scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. Those are shots. Get down. A charismatic politician.

You know, he just bent the rules all the time. I still have a weapon. and I could shoot you. And an outsider with a secret. He alleged he was a victim of blackdown. That may or may not have been political. That may have been about sex. Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall,

on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. When you listen to podcasts about AI and tech and the future of humanity, the hosts always act like they know what they're talking about and they are experts at everything. Here, the Nick Dick and Poll show, We're not afraid to make mistakes.

What Coogler did that I think was so unique. He's the writer-director. Who do you think he is? I don't know. You mean, like, the president? You think Canada has a president. You think China has a president. Los Wauque Rousette.

God, I love that thing. I use it all the time. I wrap it in a blanket and sing to it at night. It's like the old Polish saying, not my monkeys, not my circus. Yep. It was a good one. I like that saying.

It is an actual Polish saying. Yeah. It is an actual poland. Better version of Play Stupid Games, win stupid prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift, who said that for the first time. I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong.

Listen to the Nick, Dick, and Paul show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Kristen Davis, host of the podcast, Are You a Charlotte? In 1998, my life was forever changed when I took on the role of Charlotte York on a new show called Sex and the City. Now I get to sit down with some of my favorite people and relive all of the incredible moments this show brought us on and off the screen. Like when Sarah Jessica Parker shared that she forgot we filmed the pilot episode. You forgot about it? I completely forgot about it.

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Do you have a cape? No. That's, I just, I can't. Honestly, I would expect most people would go through that first experience and say, okay, when this baby goes, goes wherever it's supposed to go after we're finished fostering. I let myself do this again. I started researching deeper and felt a bigger calling to do something because by that time I had spent time in the hospital and watched the stress of the nurses and watched the stress

in the hospital that the baby experienced. Then I started doing visitations with the families and watched caseworkers being stressed because they had too many cases to take care of all these families in the foster care system. and then meeting the moms and the dads. In my case, both of them had moms and dads that I worked with and watched these people that wanted to be good parents and just didn't know how and didn't know how to get through their addiction. And I just felt a bigger calling to do something to help.

My gosh, so many questions. But that initial meeting with your two, heron-addicted infants that you fostered. Did you meet their parents? Oh, yeah. I was very big on meeting the parents and letting them know where their baby was going because I had children.

I can't imagine them just going to someone and not knowing where they're going. So I was very open with my family, is given my phone number, so that we could communicate, that sort of thing. And you're telling me not once in that initial thing before you actually met the parents understood them, you didn't have the reaction of what the hell were these people doing, not thinking about this poor child?

The one thing that was very scary when I took the first baby home is that they gave us the parents' names, and I could look up their backgrounds, and I could see all of their criminal records. And they said, I was sitting in the room feeding their baby at the hospital, and I could hear on the little nurse's call that the parents had shown up. And they're like, okay, we got to get the foster family out of here. And so they took us out of a back door, like, out of the hospital so that we didn't cross pass with the family. So I was scared to death of this family. I'm like, what did, you know, I knew criminal records.

I knew what was going on that way. And I thought, yeah, I was scared. And then I got to meet them at the first visitation. And they were not scary people. They were lost in their addiction, but they were not scary people. They were lost and broken in addiction. We were broken, and I fell in love with them. And I knew that they loved their baby.

This feels like role reversal. I get often asked if I was ever afraid coaching in some of the places I coached in the inner city. Yes, yes. And the truth is, I'd never have been. Because once you get to know the people, you understand their circumstances around them are often horrific. Yep. But they're still just people. And they want the same things everybody else wants.

and that's what you're saying here. That's a great analogy, and that's what I experienced. It's true. And I think for most, until you actually get off your ass and get involved and engage with folks like this, you can't fully understand it, but once you do, your world's opened up a little. Right. And once you see it, you don't unsee it. That's also true.

You can't forget that experience. And you want to give back and you want to do more. So tell me about, I'm just curious how those two first foster heroin addicted children, how that cycled. Sure. So I'll first start saying babies aren't addicted. They're exposed or they're dependent? I'm sorry. Oh, no, it's okay.

I don't know. I'm so glad you said that. They're not addicted because they're exposed. Yeah, yeah. Because the addiction is what the family says. have because of, you know, there's a, they go after the drug of their choice, whereas a baby doesn't. There's no choice.

They have no choice, and they're just exposed. Yeah, that's bad vernacular on my part. Oh, it's okay. Yeah, but I'm glad you've cleared that. You know, we try to explain. But with, when I had those, those two little boys in my home is when I really started researching and trying to find who's doing anything anywhere with babies. and I found Lily's place in West Virginia

opening the first newborn recovery center. And so I went down there. It's only three hours from my house and loved what they were doing. And that's when I knew God was calling me to go and do this in Dayton. What happened to those kids? Oh, where are they now?

They're with their grandmothers. Oh, actually, one's with his father and the other. Who's recovered, I assume. Yes, he's in recovery, well in recovery. God bless him. Yep. He's doing well. He lived the next town over.

And then I've had five total kids that we fostered, all newborns. So one went with dad. One went with grandma. The other went with grandma, and then two are with us. We adopted two, our youngest two. How old are they now? Nine and 11. What are their names?

Mary and Noah. And Noah. Yeah. She's also got like a 23-year-old, right? I have a 23-year-old, a 21-year-old, and a 19-year-old. And then... Mary and Noah. So I have three in college, two, an elementary.

Yeah, you are insane. I think I've said that once or twice, but I may say it again for it's over with. Yeah. But in the... I hope to be one day, but... I don't know. No, no. No.

No. Okay. So, you have this personal experience. Yes. You go down to West Virginia, and you say, oh, this is how you care for these kids. And, of course, you kind of had to figure out on the fly. The other thing I heard you said that was interesting, you must have had other friends or other co-foster parents out there dealing with the same thing.

Yes. Probably looking for the same answers or having the same questions. Yes. Yes. All right. And so then you have this idea to build a newborn recovery center for babies exposed to drugs in the womb. That sounds great, but that sounds like a massive. of undertaking.

And, you know, given that the more patients they serve, the more money they make, I struggled with the pragmatic version of, why would the hospitals ever give their babies up to you? Because they're actually giving up revenue. And I know when we're talking about exposed to children and addicted parents, I said it right that time. There's a pragmatic version of this, is that there's money to be made for a hospital. and profits or a necessary measure of any organization's success.

So why would hospitals even willingly give up this revenue stream to you? Hopefully for the goal of having a healthier family, having that baby go to a healthy family, we are able, babies can stay at Bridget's Path up to 90 days. So it really gives us. Say that again? They can stay up to 90 days at Bridget's Path. Do they need 90 days? Not necessarily for the medical stuff.

side. But do they for the social side, for the stability side, to keep them out of the foster care system? The negative outcomes from the foster care system is huge. Many of our families have been foster kids, their parents. And so keeping them out of that system and stabilizing the family, they have a huge ripple effect on their lives and the community. We have moms now that are, how can I help other moms that have been in my situation? How can I give back? And they go out and speak on our behalf and they help other mothers. And it's beautiful.

We're creating just a community of support around these families. That 90-day thing led to another question for me, which is so typical. I am curious, from birth until, all right, if they're exposed but not addicted, they're still suffering withdrawals as if they were addicted. So how long does it typically take from birth until that infant is, I don't even know if clean is the right word, but cleansed of the exposure to the addiction. Did I say that right?

I don't know if that's right. I don't know how I would say that. Do you know what I'm saying? How long do the baby's like over it? How about that? depends. I mean, some children will have lifetime effects from the exposure. Some, you would not even know that there was any exposure at all. So it just depends on that baby. But the medical side is usually at first 30 days is when you see the hard withdrawal side of that. So you do need 30 days

probably, typically. Yeah, yeah, typically. But some are longer. I didn't even think about something just said that absolutely just hit me right in the gut. Some of these children will do with this forever? Yes. And what does that manifest itself? It can in different ways. ADHD is a huge one that we see, but there's also a lot of eye problems that babies that are exposed, depending on what substances their parents took.

Eye problems seem to be a lot. Just behavioral problems they can have in the long run. So the earlier that you can intervene and get them regulated and get them regulated and get them in a stable home, the less things that you see. But just the same with like alcohol, fetal alcohol syndrome, that sort of thing. You can see the longer term effects from that. And there's not a lot of research around this because it is more new. Really? There's a group called Generation O and they're really getting into understanding the longer term

effects for children born exposed. I guess parents have to live with, um, the guilt of that forever them. Yeah. I mean, in some ways, even if a parent cleans up, if their child has long, long-term effects, they're staring at the results of their addiction for the rest of their lives.

Right. And many of that is because of, you know, they're still dealing with all the trauma they dealt with as a child. It goes right back to that. So if we can keep kids healthy and trauma-free growing, up, we won't see the long-term effects in the same way. Now, if they're put back into a home that's continuing that trauma, then you're going to see longer-term effects. That's, I mean, until talking to you right now, I hadn't really thought about that,

but that might make getting over addiction even more difficult because you're still dealing with some of the same traumatic effects that you always have. Right. And I guess you see that. Yes. We absolutely see that. With the 90 days, I think what you might be saying, but it could be helpful for us to make clear, with the Department of Children and Family Services, does that just hold that whole process? So if they're with you for those 90 days, they're not taking away custody. They're giving the moms, I mean, I'm guessing you have such a strong partnership with them. Yep. That it's basically a hold on that whole process and see if the mom can get clean over those 90 days.

Yes, that was our goals. I did not want to take custody of a child from their mom, because they obviously. often lose the motivation to stay healthy if they lose custody of that child. So parents retain custody while babies at Bridget's Path and can room in with baby right in their room. And that concludes part one of our conversation with Jill Kingston. You don't want to miss part two. It's now available to listen to.

Together, guys, we can change this country. But it starts with you. I'll see in part two. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG. But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What?

You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you, the guy was a spy. Listen to The Secret World of Roll Doll on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How could this have happened in the City Hall? Somebody tell me that.

A shocking public murder. This is one of the most dramatic events that really ever happened in New York City politics. I scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. A tragedy that's now forgotten. End of mystery. That may or may not have been political. It may have been about sex.

Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On paper, the three hosts of the Nick Tehran. Dick and Poll show are geniuses. We can explain how AI works, data centers, but there are certain things that we don't necessarily understand. Better version of Play Stupid Games, Win Stupid Prizes. Yes. Which, by the way, wasn't Taylor Swift who said that for the first time.

I actually, I thought it was. I got that wrong. But hey, no one's perfect. We're pretty close, though. Listen to the Nick Dick and Poll show on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey there, folks. Amy Robach and T.

And we know there is a lot of news coming at you these days from the war with Iran to the ongoing Epstein fallout, government shutdowns, high-profile trials, and what the hell is that Blake lively thing about anyway? We are on it every day, all day. Follow us, Amy and TJ for news updates throughout the day. Listen to Amy and TJ on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Saturday, May 2nd, country's biggest stars will be in Austin, Texas. I Heart Country Festival presented by Capital One. Tickets are on sale now. Get yours before they sell out at Ticketmaster.com. That's Ticketmaster.com.