An Army of Normal Folks - Adrien Lewis: The Ultimate Care-Sharing Network (Pt 2)

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Adrien and his bride felt called to foster and adopt three boys. And then came another calling of building a technology platform that connects families whose kids shouldn't be in foster care, but are at-risk because they can’t afford basic needs, with churches and individuals in their area who want to serve those needs. CarePortal has helped 265,000 kids to date and they're just getting started! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks and we continue now with part two of our conversation with Adrian Lewis right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast NBA DNA with Hannah Storm digs deep into the history of professional basketball along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters. Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today. We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with from Dr. J to Charles Barkley and recap iconic moments. Yes, he's got it.

Here he comes. Way rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk. As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like, what? What are we in for? The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off. Today, the NBA is a global sports and entertainment giant. Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. Igadala to Curry, we got here, both on and off the court. And what's next?

Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. More Than a Movie is back with season two of the award-winning film podcast and this time with a lot more movies. I'm your host, Alex Fumero, and each week I'm going to talk to the people behind some of my favorite movies. From the Godfather, Andy Garcia. He has the smarts of Vito, the temper of Sonny, the warmth of Fredo, and the coldness of Michael.

To the OG spy kid, Alexa Pena Vega. You had Carlo Gugino, who's the coolest mom ever. You had Antonio, who's handsome, amazing, charismatic, and then Carmen and Juni. I felt like a lot of other kids felt like this could be me. To the legend behind La Bamba, Lou Diamond Phillips. When I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot at Richie because John Stamos' picture was already up on the wall.

Every episode will feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers, and producers behind your favorite films and tap into the history of Latinos in film. Listen to More Than a Movie as part of the MyCultura Podcast Network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Johnny B. Good, and I'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of VidCon. Over this nine part series, I'll explore the life and crimes of my best friend, Ray Chirpanning. I always wanted to be a criminal. If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money?

I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme. You see, Ray has this unique ability to find loopholes and exploit them. They collected $30 million. There were headlines about it. His company, Centratec, was one of the hottest crypto startups in 2017. It was going to change the world, until it didn't.

I came into my office office opened my email and the subject heading was FBI Request it was only a matter of time before the truth came out You can only fake it till you make it for so long before they find out that your Harvard degree is not so crimson How could you sit there and do something that you know will objectively cause more harm in the world? Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And while we're going through that process, the leadership of the Global Warfare Project also really felt led for us to stop flying over the kids in our own backyard. I love that. I was going to say at some point, I didn't know that part, but I was going to say at some point, I didn't know that part, but I was gonna say at some point, it is wonderful we're helping kids. It's Haiti and Mexico and Guatemala and Uganda and everywhere else. But I do struggle with the notion of us flying to all of these countries, all of the place,

employing tons of money and resources when right here in the United States, we have hungry children. Yes, right. So your organization said, Orphans at Home. Orphans at Home. That's right, Orphans at Home. Who are the orphans at home?

Where are the orphans at home? Well, these are the kids in the foster system. These are the orphans at home. And we set out as an organization to try to encourage and support churches in Kansas City to encourage their people, their congregants, to become foster and adoptive parents. At the time, there were 773 kids who were available to be adopted in the greater Kansas City area. Seven hundred seventy three at the time.

That's right. This is back in 2011, 12. Right. And we got met. With crickets, crickets from the congregation, from the congregations, right? The churches, the leaders that we approached agreed this would be a great thing to do. And didn't do it. the churches, the leaders that we approached, agreed this would be a great thing to do, and didn't do it. And it burned at first. It was very disappointing at first. Like, what the heck?

Come on, man. This is, it's very clear. Love your neighbor. Oh, and by the way, caring for the orphan and the widow is actually true religion. So what's the problem? Well, the problem is taking kids into your home is a huge commitment.

And if you as a leader, don't feel that personal call yourself, it's very difficult to go to your congregation and say, we should do this, right? It takes someone who sees all the way around the corner to say, you know what? I'm not personally called to do this, right? It takes someone who sees all the way around the corner to say, you know what? I'm not personally called to do this. I'm called to do these things.

But we collectively, Big C Church, are the ones who have the responsibility and opportunity, dare I say, to show up and bring these kids into our home. Don't you, devil's advocate here. And I'm hearing you as if I'm a congregate in your church. Okay. I'm in my pew and I'm hearing your plea. And I'm hearing the demographics that just came out of my own mouth, which makes me from

what I'm about to say an incredible hypocrite. Wow, man. I mean, to say, an incredible hypocrite. Wow, man. I mean, I've got my own wife, I've got my own kids, I've got my problems at work, I've got my normal life problems. And I know if I bring a foster kid or two, and if they're brothers or sisters, you need to bring them together,

that I'm gonna be bringing their baggage and their trauma and poking my family in the eye with this. And that's, that's a hard commitment to make. I mean, I can get the crickets, I guess is what I'm saying. Me too. Me too. It was hurtful and I understand. Just like my parents, my grandparents,

it was hurtful and I understand. But your training of being graceful and forgiveness and not being a victim of the circumstance said to you, but I ain't quitting. I'm not done. And dude, we have a team of people in our organization who are not done, who have such courage to take risks and to keep on when we believe we're doing something we're supposed to do.

So what'd you do to answer the crickets? Yeah, so we kept trying for two years. We failed for two years. Two years? Two years, we failed for two years. But we met people along the way who had had some success. One of which is Bishop Aaron Blake out of Brownwood, Texas. His wife, he and his wife started fostering.

Then they encouraged their congregation who stepped up huge. Hundreds of kids were fostered. Then he started engaging churches in his community to say, we can do this. And because he was and they were, there was tons of success. Then he got the ear of the state

and they started getting excited. And so he now had a seat at the table at the state level for child welfare in Texas to say, what can we do with a church partnership here? How can we go faster and stronger and better? And so we went and spent time with him and we got hooked at the hip. We learned about child welfare things.

We spent time with the agencies there. We understood some things that were going on with them. And one day, December of 2013, I'm reading a summary document that our CEO Joe Kinetic wrote, right? I'm reading this document and I'm sitting there reading this document. I'm telling you, Bill, in a flash,

the vision for Care Portal came. You just spilled the beans. Care Portal, which is the craziest thing that I'm gonna let you run with and I really am gonna try to shut up and let you go. But the craziest thing is your life, you graduate, first of all, you get these unique tenants

seared into your psyche and your soul of not being a victim, but always being forgiven and graceful, which sets you up perfectly from a human standpoint. And then when you graduate college, you're in care, it's healthcare, but it's still care, and implementing software to make the effectiveness of the education of that care

and thusly the total care system better, you're given all these tools along the way to get to this point in life which nobody would have ever anticipated. So tell us about it. Well, what you need to know, Bill, is these markers I've been telling you about, I didn't ask for the markers, right?

And this vision was not mine. This is God's idea. And it's not a new idea to empower neighbors to see and serve other neighbors. That's not a new idea, right? But using technology to connect kids and families in crisis with churches and people who care in proximity that want to help, like that was the thing. And how can we take the six foot barrier of taking a kid into your home and bring it down to six inches?

Where you might be able to help a mom keep her kids if you could provide some things she really needed for that to happen. Or you might be able to help kids get out of foster care if you could provide some things that they really needed to make that happen. That's a six inch bar. And so if I ask you, Bill,

would you be willing to receive an email about a single mom who just left an abusive relationship and she's got a new place now, but she needs some beds so her kids can get back with her? It's the last thing that she needs before she can have them back. Before Child Protection Services will re- Reunite them.

Is it called reuniting? Reunite them, that's right. Before Child Protection Services will reunite them. Is it called reuniting? Reunite them. That's right. Before they can get reunited. And I said, would you be willing to see an email about that need? Not only would I see the email, I'd buy the damn bed. You'd buy the damn bed. That's right. And that idea, from what all we learned, is actually super important. When you talk about prevention, what is the things that are barriers that make it so that families are not able to stay on course?

When you're in poverty, $150, $200 at bed, it might as well be $1,000. I'm trying to figure out how to get food. I don't have, I can't get to that, right? But Child Protective Services is not gonna reunite your kid with you when you gotta lay him on the floor on some clothes. How could they?

Right? They would be a dereliction of their duty to the child. That's right. Even though they may want to reunite the child with the parent. Absolutely. And the parent is not in this situation because they're a bad parent, they were abused.

Who are you gonna blame? So everybody's. That's right So everybody's been institutionalized and put into a system. And eventually these folks lead to the very demographics we're talking about. But what you're saying is, caring about the foster system

doesn't necessarily mean you have to adopt a kid. There's lots of other stuff we can do if we can't adopt a kid to remedy the foster care problem. Come on, that's exactly what I'm saying. That's right. And facts. You hear that everybody? Yeah, yeah.

No, we're sitting here imagining how everybody's thinking, well, dang, I wanna be part of that, right? Yes, you do. Because you are an audience. That all of a sudden is not so scary. That's not so scary. And when we started casting this vision, not only did child welfare say,

oh my goodness, this would be amazing if that actually existed, but the churches started saying, dude, we would do that. Of course we would do that. How can we do that? How soon can we do that? And so we set out to go build this Mickey Mouse

little software that we had no business building. I can't write code. I'm a little geeky and so I can think through some stuff, but I can't write code. But we just duct tape and shoestring and made this product that was ugly and clunky. And it worked. And it is called? It's called Care Portal. that was ugly and clunky and it worked.

And it is called? It's called Care Portal. And tell me, soup to nuts, what it actually does. So we build care sharing networks in a given city, right? We'll take you. And this is the other beautiful thing. It's city to city. It's city to city. So you're not hearing in Topeka what somebody in

Marleyborn needs. You're hearing in Kansas City what a person in your community, and people seeing areas of need in their community and filling those gaps, and you've created a system to inform the people who can about the people who can't and need. That's right.

We call it care sharing. That's what we call it. So talk about how it works. Yes. So we have a team of people who build a network, a care sharing network. They bring child welfare agencies and schools and homeless shelters and pregnancy centers,

places where there are caseworkers who see the needs and it's their job to help people move along in their life, right? They have a caseworker. And then we build churches and businesses and people who care and they're the responding side. So you have the requesting side and you have the responding side, right?

And in that given city, now we end up having these vetting organizations, these requesters, they're submitting this need for the mom I just told you about into Care Portal, which then goes out to the network, who are in our network and our platform of churches and businesses and people who care, who can see a need and say, I wanna help with that,

or they can ignore it. There's no obligation. How are the givers notified? So the givers are notified by signing up to join CarePort. So if you went to careport.org right now, you could sign up as a church, you could sign up as a business, you could sign up as an individual,

and you could start to see and meet needs. Do I log on or do I get an email? Both, you get a push notification, you get an email, you go to the website. So I may get an email that says, hey, Sally X left an abusive deal. She is two steps away from being able to have Today, Sally X left an abusive deal. She is two steps away from being able to have her six-year-old who is now in Child Protective Services

being reunited with her. They gotta have a table with two chairs. They gotta have a bed with some blankets so they stay warm. And oh, by the way, it wouldn't be bad to fill up their pantry. Exactly. And you could get an email that says that. Just like that. And the sooner we act the sooner this child and this mother are reunited. That's right. One of the biggest things I hear all

the time my brother is I want to help so much I just don't know how. From the givers. And you hear all the time from people who need where do I go to get help? You're answering both questions with IT. I mean that's what you're doing. What I am saying is that there are barriers all around us and Care Portal helps remove those barriers because connections change everything. That's what we do. We make those connections. We'll be right back. I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast NBA DNA with Hannah Storm digs deep into the history of professional basketball along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters. Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today.

We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with from Dr. J to Charles Barkley and recap iconic moments. Yes, he'sley, and recap iconic moments. Yes, he's got it. Here he comes. Way rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk. As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like, what? What are we in for?

The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off. Today, the NBA is a global sports and entertainment giant. Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. And these stories are about how we got here, both on and off the court. And what's next? Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Stor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. More Than a Movie is back with season two of the award-winning film podcast and this

time with a lot more movies. I'm your host, Alex Fumero, and each week I'm going to talk to the people behind some of my favorite movies. From the Godfather, Andy Garcia. He has the smarts of Vito, the temper of sunny, the warmth of Fredo and the coldness of Michael to the OG spy kid, Alexa Pena Vega. You had Carlo Gugino, who's the coolest mom ever. You had Antonio who's handsome, amazing, charismatic, and then

carbon and Juni. I felt like a lot of other kids felt like this could be me to the legend behind La Bamba, Lou Diamond Phillips. When I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot at Richie because John Stamos' picture was already up on the wall. Every episode will feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers and producers behind your favorite films and tap into the history of Latinos in film. Listen to More Than a Movie as part of the MyCultura Podcast Network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

My name is Jonny B. Goode, and I'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of VidCon. Over this nine-part series, I'll explore the life and crimes of my best friend, Ray Trapani. I always wanted to be a criminal. If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money? I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme. You see, Ray has this unique ability to find loopholes and exploit them.

They collected $30 million. There were headlines about it. His company, Centratec, was one of the hottest crypto startups in 2017. It was going to change the world until it didn't. I came into my office, opened my email, and the subject heading was FBI request. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out.

You can only fake it till you make it for so long before they find out that your Harvard degree is not so crimson. How could you sit there and do something that you know will objectively cause more harm in the world? Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How long has this thing been operational? We just hit nine years and in what cities? Oh gosh. It started in Kansas City. Yeah. So we, yes, it started in Kansas City and in Texas, pretty much simultaneously. At the church guy. That's right. It was Austin, Texas. Bishop Aaron Blake. And in Austin is where we piloted.

OK, then we came to Kansas City right after and got officially launched in a couple of markets at about the same time. Thirty one states now, I think. Thirty one states, thirty one states. Yeah, we kind of roll out county by county and we're in the 400s. I don't know exact number of counties, major metros like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago.

Do you have numbers on the amount of children you've been able to read? Yeah. So here's cool. Last Wednesday, we met the 100,000th request, happened last Wednesday, which represents 260 something thousand children

and over 300,000 people when you include their parents. Whoa, whoa, whoa, say that again. You met the 100,000th? 100,000th request, right? Which represents about 265,000 children who have been served through churches and communities connected by Care Portal. And you add their parents and we're in the 300,000th of number of people, right?

So we're over 300,000 people served total. And oftentimes the givers don't even know who they're giving, they don't know on a personal level anything that they're giving to. Yeah. But they're giving, don't know on a personal level anything that they're giving to. Yeah. But they're able to just do it. They're able to do it because what Care Portal brings is a currency of trust.

Okay, let me unpack. Well, that's interesting. It brings a currency of trust. So the caseworkers are super important because they're the ones bringing vetted needs. You are not bringing your own need to Care Portal. You are not saying I have a need for X, Y, and Z, because if you did that,

then the responders wouldn't really know. Can I trust this? Can I really need this? They really need this. And it also allows the need person some level of dignity because they're not having to ask. Somebody's doing it in their stead. Absolutely, absolutely.

They have an advocate who is on their behalf. Which is the caseworker. Which is the caseworker, right? So, vetted needs come in. That's pillar number one. Pillar number two is that anybody can participate. So we have businesses and sports teams. We've got rotary clubs and individual families.

It would be an awesome philanthropy for a rotary club. Awesome. Every monthly meeting to say, hey, here's the needs on the care portal. Who do we want to help this month? Absolutely, absolutely. Everybody pull out 20 bucks. If there's a hundred people in here,

everybody pull out 20 bucks and we can help five children in our community. You could do it right through your app. You could do it on your phone. Like the giving process is super simple and you're giving to a specific need, right? So anyone can participate. We got synagogues and anybody can participate

in that part of the process. But pillar number three, at the point of care has to be a local church. Really? And let me unpack why. The last thing that you want is for a single woman to have some person with no accountability single woman to have some person with no accountability show up on her doorstep. Because what we're really after here is not just here's your bed. What we're really after is a meaningful connection.

What we're trying to do is to empower neighbors to see and serve other neighbors. And so the showing up at the doorstep with the bed, coming two by two with the authority of your church who you are part of and they have let you into their care portal account, they know who you are. You have said yes on behalf of your local church that I am going to do this.

When you show up two by two to go serve that family, there is accountability and there is an opportunity for you to make a meaningful connection. Because that mom, she doesn't just need a bed. She is isolated. She needs people to come alongside of her as neighbors. She needs community, stable community. People who care about her, who are motivated by

love, who can help her see a different way forward, who might be there in three months after they build a relationship when she actually needs a babysitter every Thursday afternoon so she can go to whatever class she's supposed to go to that she has to go to because the state says she has to go. Who's going to do that? Well, you're gonna do that because you've just been hanging out with her for the last three months and now she's a friend. That is what transformed people. That's the secret sauce.

It also, first of all, wow. Second of all, one of the things I hear a lot about trying to help people that are existing in poverty is accessibility. Is a lot of people don't have it. Things are not accessible. And it's so simple to think of somebody to watch my kid for an hour while I have to go to this class,

but if that help isn't accessible, you start down the vacuum of misery all over again because you miss your class, now you risk losing your kid, and the whole thing goes. And it's all because you don't have accessible to somebody to help you with your kids. Solid trial care. And so this is not only giving people what they need to get reunited, but it makes friendship and community accessible to people who need it the most. That's right. That's exactly what we're talking about. And that doesn't happen every single time, right?

But it's there. But it's there. And there's hundreds and hundreds of, thousands of stories of that actually happening, of those things leading to significant life transformation. And even when that doesn't happen, dude, mom has a bed now. She didn't have that bed for her six year old before, and now she does. And that fricking matters. It matters a lot.

And you may have just transferred some hope from you to her in a really hard moment where now she feels like I can actually take this next hill. We keep talking about beds, but it could be an operable refrigerator or stove or- That's right. Pick something that a child needs or a woman in a- Whatever. That's right.

And it's not all single moms. It's dads, it's parents, it's grandparents, it's all kinds of people who are in there. It's foster parents who have taken kids in and they need some things in order to keep going. It could be a kinship placement, a grandma who took in some kids. She wasn't expecting these kids.

She's not ready for these kids. A grandma and grandpa don't have all the things that they need for a four-year-old and a five-year-old all of a sudden. I wouldn't. But you know what happens in my house when I have an immediate need? Either I can afford to buy it

or I got 10 people I can call. Right. Right? These folks don't. These folks don't. So Care Portal has nothing to do with placing foster kids. It has everything to do with reuniting people and stopping kids from being foster kids in the first place. That's correct.

Upstream prevention is what helps us stop those downstream statistics about homelessness and sex trafficking in an incarceration that you talked about. You're being proactive instead of reactive. Best we possibly can. And our theory of change is that neighbors, seeing and serving neighbors is what actually makes the

difference in somebody's life. Government has a role to play to protect for sure. But on my doorstep, I don't want a professional. That's not what I want. Yeah, we're here from the government. We're here to help. It's really not what you want to hear on my doorstep. That's not what I want. Right. But if you are a neighbor motivated by love and you show up on my doorstep, I can't help but wonder what the heck, dude, what are you doing this for?

How was this not in every single city and county in the, in the country? Because we haven't met on this podcast yet. We haven't met the army of normal folks. So it's about me now, huh? So the success rate is everywhere it is, I guess. Yeah. So here's the... And how big is the organization now? So we have 130 staff across the country. You're kidding me

And this started with you going to Haiti and putting your job about 15 12 years ago 14 years ago 14 years ago and you have a hundred and thirty staff 130 staff now Where's the money come from bro? That's a great question. So two things. One, what do we use the money for? You asked a question, why is this not everywhere? It's really expensive and time consuming to build the care sharing network in a city.

I would expect, yeah. You're connecting lots of people. Lots of people. You gotta have humans who wake up every day rallying the troops, galvanizing, making relationships, building this network and sustaining it. There's all kinds of distractions that can happen, right? So the technology is a component,

but that technology is only 25% of our expenses. 75% is the boots on the ground, which is why we have so many staff across the country. They're the ones who build the network city by city. And so that's what the money is used for, 25% platform, 75% implementation. Where does the money come from? About half of it comes from government relationships,

where they're paying for access and use and implementation in their cities or counties or state, right? So we've got statewide arrangements with eight or 10 different states across the country. Some are just county-based in this place or that place. Have you gotten any crap because they're so closely related with churches? So have there been barriers to make that hard? Yes, there's been barriers, but far less than you would expect.

Good. Right? We have some very clear tenants. I told you where the three are. Vetted needs coming in from caseworkers. Anybody can help. Church of the Point of Care, non-negotiables. They have to be there.

And if the church, if the state says no, then you're out. Ah, that's right. Like if you're going to be there. And if the state says no, then you're out. Ah, that's right. Like if you're gonna tell us. But if a state's stupid enough to say no, you're out. We just don't play. And that slows down our process, right? Because it is a process to work with the government about any particular thing.

It's slow and hard and so we don't move super fast. And then the other 50% is mostly through major donors who say, I want this in my city. What's your budget annually? Last year, we were just under 10 million. This year will probably be around 14. I'll be honest with you, 14 million, that's a big number for anybody.

14 million is a lot of money, but the impact you're having for 14 million dollars versus the hundreds of millions our government blows on this crap and doesn't get anything done to drop in the bucket. Yeah, the ROI, if we want to talk business, I was a business guy, the ROI is multiple factors, right? We have cost avoidance numbers, we have economic impact numbers, we know based on the type of request that was met, the value of that to the ecosystem that's around us. And in some markets, it's a 10x of value, some markets, it's a 3x of value, it depends

on what's going on there. But there's no question that what we're doing is not only more effective in ways we can measure, it's more effective in ways we can't even measure. It's also effective in reducing taxpayer expense on caring for the needy. Because when you take kids out of the system and put them with their parent, the taxpayers no longer caring for the kid. It's there's a return on that investment, a legitimate financial return on that investment. It is almost-

Can you qualify that? Do you guys qualify that? Yes, we do. Yeah, so $38,000 is what the average number is for one year of a child being in foster care. 38 grand a year. Is what it costs the taxpayer. Taxpayer. Not the foster care. 38 grand a year. Is what it costs the taxpayer. Taxpayer.

Not the foster parent. Nope. What the foster parent's getting and just the tax? Taxpayer. Okay. Caseworkers, this legal system. What's that times 400,000? That's a big number.

That's a big number. 30 billion is the child welfare number annually. It's 30 billion. Gosh. Right. So when we have a request that's met and the caseworker says, the purpose of this is to help prevent a child from going to foster care,

then we apply an allocation of one month of cost avoidance. That's it. That's it. That's not even. One month. You're slow playing your own numbers. And why am I doing that? Because the last thing I wanna do.

You don't wanna add, you wanna be above reproach. Above reproach, that's right. So one month. One month. That's all you categorize. That's what we count, one month. And then that's where you get your three or five or 10 times return on the investment

where if you did it three months, which is probably more accurate, your numbers are even exponentially better than what you're selling. That's right. That's right. And we're okay with that for right now. There may be a day where we do some more extensive research

and we get to a place where we can say, these folks over there did their thing and this is the conclusion they came up with, and now we're gonna use that number, right? We have our own ways of doing data, but we've not yet had that thing done. And so we're not going to stretch it because we don't need to stretch it.

It's still super, it's actually, it'd be wrong for us to stretch it. And it isn't necessary, right? Both of those things are true. And we haven't even talked about what we're doing for the child. Yeah. I mean, when you say, what can we measure, there's a little

bit we can measure. But what happens when that child is now home instead of somewhere else? And being loved by their parent. By their parent. And what happens when that parent is now in in relationship with someone who cares for them? And they're not desperate. They don't feel hopeless. The transfer of hope is actually the thing. And when your army of normal folks can transfer hope,

they change the world. It's phenomenal to you. Phenomenal. We'll be right back. I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast NBA DNA with Hannah Storm digs deep into the history of professional basketball, along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters. Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today. We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with from Dr. J to Charles Barkley and recap iconic moments.

Yes, he's got it. Here he comes. Way rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk. As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like, what? What are we in for? The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off. Today, the NBA is a global sports and entertainment

giant. Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. Igadala to Curry. Back to Igadala. Up for the layup. Oh, blocked by James. LeBron James. And these stories are about how we got here, both on and off the court. And what's next?

Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. More than a movie is back with season two of the award winning film podcast and this time with a lot more movies. I'm your host, Alex Fumero, and each week I'm going to talk to the people behind some of my favorite movies. From the Godfather, Andy Garcia. He has the smarts of Vito, the temper of Sonny, the warmth of Fredo and the coldness of Michael. To the OG spy kid, Alexa PenaVega. You had Carlo Gugino, who's the coolest mom ever.

You had Antonio, who's handsome, amazing, charismatic, and then Carmen and Juni. I felt like a lot of other kids felt like this could be me. To the legend behind La Bamba, Lou Diamond Phillips. When I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot at Richie because John Stamos' picture was already up on the wall. Every episode will feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers and producers behind your favorite films and tap into the history of Latinos in film.

Listen to more than a movie as part of the MyCultura Podcast Network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Johnny B. Goode, and I'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of VidCon. Over this nine-part series, I'll explore the life and crimes of my best friend, Ray Trapani.

I always wanted to be a criminal. If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money? I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme. You see, Ray has this unique ability to find loopholes and exploit them. They collected $30 million. There were headlines about it. His company, Centratec,

was one of the hottest crypto startups in 2017. It was gonna change the world until it didn't. I came into my office, opened my email, and the subject heading was FBI request. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out. You can only fake it till you make it for so long before they find out that your Harvard degree is not so crimson. How could you sit there and do something that you know will objectively cause more harm

in the world. Listen to Creating a Con, the story of Bitcoin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you take stock of where you are versus where you started and how this thing has happened? I mean, do you allow yourself that? I'm driving to work last week and I am not confused at all, Bill, that this is my assignment. I know that I know that I know this is what I'm supposed to be doing. But what I couldn't quite figure out, what overwhelmed me was why? Why is, why did you choose me?

Why is this my assignment? And I don't know the answer. There's nothing that I've done to deserve There's nothing that I've done to deserve to be in the spot that I'm in. I have said yes to opportunities that have been put before me that I believe were divine. And I keep slugging it out day after day after day. But I'm grateful that I was asked, invited to change the world in my unique way. And so if I can inspire and empower thousands of other people to see and serve their neighbor, well done, my good and faithful servant. You know, I asked you, do you take stock?

And I ask a lot of people that because frankly, it's a personal thing because I take stock of me and knowing my background and where I came from and minding my own business and then the movie and the Academy Award and the book and the speeches and all, I really honest to goodness never looked for it. But it gave me this platform. And I do sometimes I wake up and I look at the mirror and when I look in the mirror, I know what I'm looking at. I'm looking at a broken guy who had did daddy issues until he was in his 40s, who dealt with a lot of insecurity,

who was blessed with Lisa and then my children. And now all of this. And I do often ask myself, you know, how come this, you know, and, but anyway, that's why I ask people all the time if they take stock because I don't even know if people really listening to us even understand it. It's probably just my own personal interest in people's stories. take stock, you have to reminisce about near and dear stories that really um, reinforced to you how awesome the work that you found yourself doing is. Do you have like a, do you have like a favorite story that, that the portal

has actually provided for someone that you want to share with us? You know, there are many stories. It's probably not fair to say a, but share one of your favorite ones. That will let our listeners understand just how profoundly important this work is. Yeah, I can give you one.

So there's a young girl named Makasha and she's 17. She is pregnant and she's about to age out of foster care. Oh gosh. A pregnant 17 year old in foster care. In foster care. And does it get worse? About to age out, right? She's about to be on her own.

And when age out happens, there is no safety net, right? There is no family, right? There are some things that you could tap into resource wise, but they're part of a system and that's very- Or systematic stuff. Like family, right? The family that she was with, they weren't gonna be with her anymore. She was family, right? The family that she was with, they weren't gonna be with her anymore.

She was terrified, right? She's 17, pregnant, about to be alone. She does not want the same life for her baby that she had. But she's got nothing. And when I say nothing, I don't just mean financially. Like she's got, where do I even go? What do I do? Who are my people?

No family. What she did have was a caseworker. And that caseworker had care portal. And so the caseworker goes to care portal and says, I have a 17 year old pregnant young lady who's aging out of foster care, and she needs a crib to keep her baby safe. Any help you can provide would be appreciated.

Submit. I cannot imagine that 50 cribs didn't show up or 50 responses to that. This is right, yeah. So how does this work? Well, it goes to the closest churches in the area. Oh, is that, so it's even used as proximity to the closest churches in the area. Oh, is that so it's even uses proximity? Boom, proximity all the time.

That is amazing. So the Denbo family at people's church get this request. And they're like, we could help out with the crib. So they respond. So the caseworker and the Denbo family get connected. Makasia gives permission for the Denbos to show up at her house and the Denbos show up. And they're at Makasia's house. And they start a conversation.

And they see the beauty and the brokenness and the fear in this little girl. And they think, we can do something else. And so they do. They throw her a baby shower. They start taking her to driver's ed. They invite her to church with them. And the next thing you know,

the Denbo family becomes like family because they treated her that way. Makasia has her baby and she's not alone. And her baby is not going into foster care. Why? and she's not alone. And her baby is not going into foster care. Why? Because she's not alone. She ends up getting married, gets into full-time ministry with her husband,

serving kids aging out of foster care just like her. This is the power of relationship. Which wouldn't have happened without a crib. A crib. Care portal, putting a need for a crib. And somebody who said, I can see and serve my neighbor, changed life, changed. Which is exactly what you're talking about.

It's not just about the stuff, it's about the community that gets built. It's a meaningful connection. It's a transfer of hope. And she is now in the ministry. She's now in full-time ministry, serving kids just like her. Wow. Isn't that what you want?

Yeah, that's not only what you want, but that is a beautiful illustration of exactly what all this does. An army of normal folks. Okay. Is this thing in Memphis? We had this talk this morning with the folks. But it's not. Barely in Memphis. Oh, it needs to get barely out of the way.

Give me your sales guy, your development guy. All right. You took your, your great storyteller. You know how to develop relationships. You are so warm, but your sales guy. So I know, you know, there's markets that are targeted right now. What are your target markets? We're getting to strategy now, right?

So we learned a few years ago, we did some research. 50% of the kids in foster care are concentrated in 5% of the counties. Whoa, say that again. Yes, sir. So 50% of all, so 200,000 of these kids in false care annually are in only 5% of the counties in the country.

That's correct. So you know where you gotta go. We know where we gotta go. Well, where aren't you that you gotta be? All right, so there's 96 unique markets that make up that 5%. Those 5%. Is 96 markets, right?

There are places you'd think, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles. I would also think Louisville, Memphis, Little Rock, I'm thinking about my footprints, and Albuquerque, Denver. Albuquerque, Denver, absolutely. All those places are on the list. It's just amazing that it's actually 50%. It's not amazing that there's higher number, but half?

Half, in 5%? In 5% of the counties. So we are in 64 of those markets. 64 of those, how many? Of those 96 markets. We're in 64 of those 96 markets. Memphis is one of them. And in some markets, things are going amazing.

Los Angeles, amazing. Killing it. Dallas, amazing. Colorado Springs, amazing. Los Angeles, amazing. Killing it. Dallas, amazing. Colorado Springs, amazing. Kansas City, amazing. Many markets like that. Memphis, not so much. What are the 32 that you're not in?

Give me a few of those. Do you know them off the top of your head? That's a good question. I may be putting you in a bind there. Yeah. But so you call yourself in Memphis because it's there, but it's not being utilized. It is anemic in Memphis.

And let me give you some reasons why, right? And I'm only saying Memphis, because we're sitting in Memphis, but we're also talking about, there's gotta be other places like Memphis where it's there, but not being used. And then there's 32 of those 96 counties that is not even in.

Boston. So we got a lot, Boston's not in it? Portland, not in it for sure. I'll come up with some more as time goes on. Yeah, but okay, so the point is, there's massive scale and opportunity here still. That's right. We're nine years in.

We're not like the new kids at the block, but we have so much room to grow. Okay, tell me why it gets quote anemic. Okay. What's the barriers that gotta be overcome in these growth markets? So one of the barriers is how do we get requests? Right, where do they come from?

Child welfare is the number one, like 90% of requests that come in come from child welfare. In Tennessee, we have yet to land the plane with the state on the state really using Care Portal in their child welfare department. So it's not just Memphis, it's really a state thing. In Tennessee, it's a state thing. In some other places, it goes,

the doors can open in a particular market and not be statewide. But in this state, it hasn't opened yet at the state level. And so therefore we're hindered in these major markets, Memphis being one of them, but we're close. So how could somebody- Tennesseans, call your representative today. I can tell you my friend's name,

but I'm not gonna say it on the radio. Wow. All right, so that's very number one. And we're close. I am confident. You call me back here in six months and we'll be there. Good. Right, so that's number one.

So we have a few vetting organizations in Memphis who are submitting requests, but it's really a small number of requests. And we've got 15 or so churches who have signed up to join the network. And we have a couple of businesses who have signed up to join the network, but it's just anemic.

We have not had the boost in this city that we really need. Some of it's awareness. Some of it's awareness, some of it's the gatekeeping of not having the volume of requests, because if you don't have a high volume, you can't go build a huge network.

Because if you have a bunch of people sitting and saying, I thought there was a problem. Yeah. Well, that's a bummer. That makes sense. Right, so supply and demand is actually a very strategic thing that we have to balance. But when this door gets opened at the state level,

and now we have more demand, like we got more requests coming in, then we need to figure out how to service them. And that's what you do. You build out the requests, then you build out those. And that's what you do in all of these markets. And these 32 that you're on in, and the anemic of the 64 that you are,

and so that's what you're just doing. That's what we're doing. So you're building that and the anemic of the 64 that you are that you and so that's what you're just doing. That's what we're doing. You're building that on the development side while your staff is doing the, I don't know, programming work to support all of that. And in the middle of all of this, you're reuniting children with families who otherwise would end up in foster care who would lead to the demographics of 75% of our prison population and all of the other things we've talked about. That's right. That's right. It's freaking incredible, dude It's a god thing, bro. It is an amazing god thing God's thing. We'll be right back. I'm Hannah Storm and my podcast, NBA DNA with Hannah Storm digs deep into the history of professional basketball, along with my own as one of the first female sportscasters.

Now let's get you up to speed on what else happened around the NBA today. We talked to all sorts of people I interacted with, from Dr. J to Charles Barkley, and recap iconic moments. Yes, he's got it. Here he comes. Way rock the baby to sleep and slam dunk. As well as some of the wild stories behind the scenes. We were like, what? What are we in for?

The scoreboard crashes before we even tip a game off. Today, the NBA is a global sports and entertainment giant. Players are multimillionaires and cultural icons. Igadala to Curry, back to Igadala, up for the layup. Oh, blocked by James. LeBron James. And these stories are about how we got here, both on and off the court. And what's next? Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

More Than a Movie is back with season two of the award-winning film podcast, and this time with a lot more movies. I'm your host, Alex Fumero, and each week I'm going to talk to the people behind some of my favorite movies. From the Godfather, Andy Garcia. He has the smarts of Vito, the temper of Sonny, the warmth of Fredo, and the coldness of Michael. To the OG spy kid, Alexa PenaVega. You had Carlo Gugino, who's the coolest mom ever. You had Antonio, who's handsome, amazing, charismatic,

and then Carmen and Juni. I felt like a lot of other kids felt like this could be me. To the legend behind La Bamba, Lou Diamond Phillips. When I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot at Richie because John Stamos' picture was already up on the wall. Every episode will feature interviews with the biggest actors, directors, writers, and producers behind your favorite films and tap into the

history of Latinos in film. Listen to more than a movie as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Johnny B. Good, and I'm the host of the new podcast, Creating a Con, the story of VidCon. Over this nine-part series, I'll explore the life and crimes of my best friend, Ray Tripani.

I always wanted to be a criminal. If someone's like, oh, what's your best way of making money? I'm like, oh, we should start some sort of scheme. You see, Ray has this unique ability to find loopholes and exploit them. They collected $30 million. There were headlines about it. His company, Centratec, was one of the hottest crypto startups in 2017. It was going to change the world until it didn't.

I came into my office, opened my email, and the subject heading was FBI request. It was only a matter of time before the truth came out. You can only fake it till you make it for so long before they find out that your Harvard degree is not so crimson. How could you sit there and do something that you know will objectively cause more harm in the world? Listen to Creating a a con the story of

Bitcoin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. So someone is it are you in Topeka? Yes. Dern, I always use the word Topeka because I think it's fun. Oh, you're not in Portland. Someone's sitting in Portland right now saying,

this is stupid. Yeah. How do they reach out and say, I want this in my town. Who do they, how do they call? Who do they reach? What do they go to? Yeah.

So the best channel is careportal.org. Careportal.org. O-R-G, right? You go to the careportal.org and you will find yourself either as someone who wants to meet needs, someone who might want to have their organizations submit needs, and there's pathways for you to plug in exactly who you are, a business owner, a church,

an agency, an individual, it doesn't matter, you plug in. And then our team will be able to be in contact with you to say, we're gonna help you move forward. And if you're in a market that we're not in yet, then there's a different path, right? We need influencers to bring about favor in a market before we can actually really get off the ground. And we need influencers to bring resources in a market. Okay. Use words that people like me understand. What do you mean by influencers to bring resources? Yeah. So plane

talk. Plane talk. This morning we're at a table with some folks who put together, right? Some of them are business owners. Some of them have relationships with government leaders and with state people and city people and so on and so on. And if those people said, Hey, I'm going to invest in getting this off the ground financially, because it costs 75% of our expenses are market specific. That's a lot of money. You bring in two, three, four people into a market. You got to pay those people. So can people invest financially to help get this off the ground and their market? That's one clear need.

And can people use their influence to either bring about other investors or to bring about people who can remove barriers to create awareness, to get people excited about this is coming to our city. Do you want to be part of it? And when you can set a table like that, now we have the ingredients that we need in order to build a team and go hard. And you can get help to start down that path at your website. can get help to start down that path at your website.

So if you are a church, a business leader, an individual, an agency, website does all those things. But if you're like, I want to invest in bringing this to my city, then you should email me. How do you do that? It's adrian.lewis at careportal.org, A-D-R-I-E-N.L-E-W-I-S. And you will respond. And I will respond.

Are you in Atlanta? Yes. Is it active there? Yeah, it's active. Yeah, it's active. I would say it's medium in Atlanta. We've got some markets crushing it. It's not at full bore. There's work to do still, but it's medium in Atlanta. We've got some markets crushing it. It's not at full bore.

There's work to do still, but it's medium in Atlanta. I just, you know, the guy who grew up not fitting and with all of the different stuff you had going on to end up where you are now with a sassy Cuban Mother Teresa and doing what you're doing, it just is the American dream really.

It's also a real testament to the power of faith in a person's life. But if that weren't enough, there's a movie, there's a movie about Care Portal, how's that work? Yeah, so. In production or in development, I don't even know where it is. It's not out, yeah. so. In production or in development. I don't even know where it is. It's not out.

Yeah. It's coming to a theater soon. Oh, tell me about it. All right, so, back in the late 90s, there was this family, pastor and his wife, who really felt like they were supposed to adopt kids out of foster care.

Didn't know much about the system, but they just knew that it was clear in God's Word that we are to care for the most vulnerable, and this was a way they could do it. They inspired their little congregation in a place called Possum Trot, Texas. Possum. Possum Trot, Texas. East Texas, all the way out there in the woods, real small poor community. Possum Trot, Texas, East Texas, all the way out there in the woods, real small poor community. Oh my gosh. Possum Trot, Texas. And of course it's a small congregation

in a place called, that's like Key Hall salute, right? Wow. Possum Trot, Texas, yeah. So 22 families adopted 77 of the hardest to place kids in the foster care system. How many people were in the congregation that had to be a massive percentage of the congregation? Most of them. 22 families, two families adopted 77 kids.

Holy crully. That's right. And it was beautiful and a bloodbath. Really? It's so hard. I mean, three of my six kids are adopted through foster care. I can tell you some stories, bro. It is really, really hard. And it's really, really good. It's both beautiful and a bloodbath at the same time. And I personally think that's where the best things are born. So this community does this thing. This movie is about that community. Josh and Rebecca Weigel are the writers

and producers of this film. We've been really connected to them for five or six years now. We've been connected to the Martin family. This is the pastor and his wife in Possum Trot, Texas. Are they still there? No kidding. Yeah, we've been with them,

connected to them for at least a decade. And so when Josh and Rebecca brought this script to Joe, he read it and felt like this is not just a movie. This is about a movement. This is something that we can do to end the foster care crisis in our country if we can show the power of one little community, normal folks, what's possible that they did.

How crazy would that be if the world got to see and got inspired to do what they can do where they are? And so we came alongside of them. And it's taken a while. It's a 100% donor funded film. It's a pretty significant budget. And when we say pretty significant, we're in the millions, we're not in a hundred stocks.

We're talking about a real movie. Over 10 million. Yeah. So produce the film and then have to figure out what's the real purpose here? Is it just make a movie? No, it's about a movement, which means action. And so Care Portal is not in the movie,

but Care Portal is part of the backend campaign. For when somebody wants to take action, what do they do? Care Portal is stewarding the backend campaign to plug people into opportunities, to be foster adoptive parents, or to see and meet needs in their community through their church or their business or as an individual. We want to say you're not just going to a movie and you're done. You go to a movie and then you take action.

And we're helping to make that happen. So Angel Studios pick this up as a distributor. Which is a big deal. They're not some fly by night group. So, Angel Studios picked this up as a distributor. Which is a big deal. They're not some fly by night group. They are not. Sound of Freedom is a movie they put out last July 4th. It's had over 20 million people see the film. There was no real clear impact campaign

on the back end of that. They are super excited that now we have another round of inspirational move the needle kind of film Coming out July 4th Over 1200 theaters and on the back end of that there'll be a clear call to action for you to take action and Care portal is gonna help make that happen It's pretty special. Did you ever have imagined? I? Mean really It's pretty special. Did you ever have imagined? I mean, really.

Bro, there's so many things in my life that if you... Listen, the guy I was 15 years ago couldn't even be in this room. I couldn't even be in this room. The person I am today is not who I used to be. And all of that came from saying yes to opportunities to serve. You want to go ahead and give everybody the recognition of the payoff as you get a thousand more times out of it than you ever put into it? People know that.

You know that. You know that. You know that when you serve and love somebody, that it changes you. You actually become a better version of you. Doesn't everybody wanna be a better version of themselves? Seems pretty obvious, doesn't it? My brother, I am, you know, when you start down this path of this conversation, you're talking with a guy named Adrian who started Care Portal, which is an online thing to help kids.

But the depth of it is absolutely phenomenal. And I am a big guy about being proactive rather than reactive because reactive is usually looks like a bandaid and band-aids eventually come off and scabs fester. That's what reactionary stuff typically looks like proactive stuff though keeps you from ever getting the cut on your arm in the first place. And to me, that is so much of what you're doing. And. You know, the movie just just recently, we did a podcast on farm link, and you need to go listen to it from this perspective. It has nothing to do with foster care.

It's about linking food that gets thrown away every day with food banks who don't have enough food. And why are we throwing away food when people need food, let's link them. And these college kids got together and figured it out and they've moved over 150 million pounds of food in three years. That's amazing.

Connecting farmers who are throwing food away with food banks and people who don't have food. Phenomenal story. three years. That's amazing. Connecting farmers who were throwing food away with, with food banks and people who don't have a phenomenal story. The reason they went from zero to a hundred so quickly is because one of the, one of the four kids that started in this thing was a documentary filmmaker and he filmed it. And through that filmmaking, he was able to do storytelling. That's right.

And through the storytelling, the New York Times printed an article in the paper and then ABC World News Tonight picked up that story and they called them three hours before going on air and saying, hey, we'd love to cover this, but we need pictures. The dude pulls over to Dairy Queen, uploads pictures from all the storytelling he'd been doing,

was able to help them tell a story, and by the next morning, boom, they had $150,000 in account, a PayPal account that was linked to some sophomore's checkbook. He was like, I have $150,000. And from that 30 days, it went nuts, to now they are like the biggest organization linking, wasting food with people who need it.

But it all happened because they were doing the work, but the work doesn't get scale without people knowing about it, and people don't know about it without really professional good storytelling. That's right. And to me, this movie is not about making money off ticket sales. It's about spreading your brand and letting others, these 32 counties

that represent the half of people that need to be served the most, find out about you. And so pairing the unbelievable work you do with fantastic storytelling in a metaphorical sense is exactly what an Army of Normal folks tries to do every Tuesday. And I just congratulate you on all of it because it all makes so much sense and it seems so comprehensive in terms of an effort.

I'm grateful for the invitation to be here. I've had a ton of fun talking with you. Me too. You make it easy. I don't know about all that. It's like, this is just natural for you. Just having a chat, bro. That's what we're doing.

How hard is it to talk somebody that you actually respect and you grow to like. Thank you for coming to Memphis. Appreciate it. More importantly, thank you for the amazing work you have done and continue to do and your whole group does to serve the neediest among us. And I just, I know without a shadow of a doubt,

this thing is gonna continue to grow. And those of you listening out there, you have a chance to change the world every day. And and I get not having the temerity to actually bring a foster kid into your house. But how about doing something with a portal that allows you to keep that foster kid from ever existing in the first place? Can't we just do that? Adrian Lewis, Care Portal, brother, thanks for the story. Can't wait to share it. Thank you, brother.

And thank you for joining us this week. If Adrian Lewis or other guests have inspired you in general or better yet, inspired you to take action by signing up to join the Care Portal by introducing Care Portal to your church, bringing the platform to your local community, donating to Care Portal, or something else entirely, please let me know. I really do want to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normal folks dot us and I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends on social subscribe to the podcast rate and review it. Become a premium member at normal folks dot us. Do all of these things that will help us grow an army of normal folks. Remember everyone, the more people, the more impact. I'm Bill Courtney. I'll see you next week. I'm Hannah Storm and my new podcast, NBA DNA with Hannah Storm, is brought to you by

NBA.TV. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow.

And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow.

And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. And we're here to help you grow. I'm Hannah Storm and my new podcast NBA DNA with Hannah Storm chronicles my six decades in professional basketball from growing up in the sport to becoming one of sports TV's first female broadcasters. Join me as I dig deep into the game's history, unearth some wild stories and talk to my friends from the world of basketball, from Dr. J to Charles Barkley. It's been a wild ride, and now I get to take you with me. Listen to NBA DNA with Hannah Storm

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. More than a movie is back with season two. I'm your host, Alex Fumero, and each week, I'm going to talk to the people behind your favorite movies. From the godfather, Andy Garcia. He has the smarts of Vito, the temper of Sonny, the warmth of Fredo, and the coldness of Michael.

To the legend behind La Bamba, Lou Diamond Phillips. When I walked in, I didn't think I had a shot at Richie because John Stamos' picture was already up on the wall. Listen to more than a movie on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to season nine of Next Question with me, Katie Couric. I've got some big news to share with you in our season premiere featuring the one and only Kris Jenner. Oh my gosh, cong

is very, very exciting. A beginning will also be jo jay Shetty, Hillary Clint Cheney and many more. So break from the incessant dose of fascinating convers I promise, will actually put you in a good mood. Listen to Next Question with me, Katie Couric,

on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.