An Army of Normal Folks - Erin Steele: When Seniors and Children Help Each Other (Pt 2)

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

When Erin Steele saw seniors light up around children, she had an idea for combining a senior living facility and a childcare center into one place! And there's all kinds of benefits for both generations by being with one another everyday. Meet The Heritage Home in Alma, Kansas.   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 Aaron Steele right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the MeatEater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams

and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come

to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on Good Company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream

gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen.

Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos.

It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet

and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville.

This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg, and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens when we come face to face with death? My truck was blown up by a 20-pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel.

I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying. We step beyond the edge of what we know. To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that Western box. In return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating. Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes. My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple. To find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor.

You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again. A podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit, and what it means to truly live.

Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In 1978, Roger Caron's first book was published, and he was unlike any first-time author Canada had ever seen. Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. I spent 24 of those years in jail.

12 years in solitary. He went from an ex-con to a literary darling almost overnight. He was instantly a celebrity. He was an adrenaline junkie and he was the star of the show. Go-Boy is the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places imaginable. I had a knife go in my stomach, puncture my screen, break my ribs, I had my fex all in my hands. Only to find himself back where he started. Rodger's saying this, I've never hurt anybody but myself.

And I said, oh, you're so wrong. You're so wrong on that one, Rob. From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to GoBoy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, you hawked everything, borrowed family money, and did child labor and got this 26,000 square foot building in Alma. Yeah. Right? And this is in 2023. Yeah.

So, July of 23 is when we purchased it and then we started renovating. Our plan was to open the senior living first just because that's kind of my forte, but the community really needed childcare. So they kind of came to us and said, well, you do the childcare first. Like we really need it. So we opened everything kind of in phases. So we opened our childcare facility in October of 23. We opened our first senior living in January of 24 and our second in November of 24. All the same building, but

it's kind of separated by wings. So the kids have their wing. Yes. And the senior living facility is its own wing. Yeah, they have two wings in the senior and then kind of in between is the kitchen, the dining room. So the seniors can come down to the child care center We they can volunteer or we have what we call a combined area where the kids rotate out each day one of the classes Or a combined activity with the seniors how old are the kids well six weeks clear to school age so clear to fifth grade

I think is our oh So we do before and after school care and then in in the summer, we do all day and spring break, Christmas break, which that part's really cool. I mean, all of them are super cool. But the school age, the relationships is a little bit different because they obviously have a the ability to, to remember people and form those bonds. And so that parts, it's cool. Remember people and form those bonds and so that parts it's cool. Okay

so this is young I mean You're still just in it get that going. Absolutely. We get we are full as of Wednesday of this week Congratulations, you fool Residents yeah, and how many is that 24? Okay So for me personally serving in a way God has taught us kindness compassion treating others with respect That's our big mission. I say it's being God's hands and feet I'm gonna read that again because those are your words For me personally serving in in a way God taught us kindness compassion and treating others with respect. That's our big mission I find it so interesting that when you were talking about

Growing up in a home of 18 that you use the word selflessness and respect It just feels like you were groomed for this. I mean, I definitely, I mean, again, I'm kind of a believer like this is what I was made to do. I do feel that way and I feel like from the beginning, that's, but I grew up with great examples.

I mean, my mom was the most selfless person you'll ever, I mean, you'll ever meet. Nothing was ever about her. Yeah, yeah, her body, her, I mean, everything was for someone else. So, you know, it took me a long time to figure out what that purpose was. You know, I kind of wanted it to be to have 18 kids. My husband did not. You know, and as my kids got older and you know, like what is that I'm supposed to do to serve other people and then it became very evident and yeah, this is just, what is it I'm supposed to do to serve other people? And then it became very evident. And yeah, this is just what I'm, and I think also like inspiring and calling

other people to do that. So, you know, like those words, for me, you know, the Bible tells us we're supposed to love and serve others the way that God taught us. Like, that's what it is to me. But you know, whatever it is for you, it may not be the Bible or God, but whatever it is that inspires you to help other people. So I want to say this. This is not a nonprofit. This is your business. This is what you do to make your living.

And you know, our listeners are so used to us talking to people who have a job and then do something else as a way to give back to their community or fill areas in need. Only about a month ago, I sat across this table from a guy named Alan Barnhart. Alan Barnhart owns a business who that will do, I thought, what was it? Two, a billion in sales this year, a billion. And at the very beginning, he and his brothers, his partner decided that they would live a middle income life and they have not given themselves a raise above middle income.

And they also determined that every year they would give away half of every dime the company made and they have. And that's one thing when you're doing 250,000 a year in sales. It's a whole nother when you're doing a billion. And then recently, he gave the whole company away, gave. What that enlightened me to is that being a part of the army of normal folks and serving and filling areas in need and making profound differences in the lives of people around us does not just have to be philanthropic.

It does not just have to be philanthropic. It does not just have to be helping people in the inner city. It can also be what you do for a living. And Alan Barnhart really taught me that. Now, I own a business, and there's no way I'm giving it away. And there's no way I'm giving half of my profits away. I'm just telling you, I'm not that guy.

I try to be generous, but I ain't there. there's extremes for sure and he's extreme and when he was sitting here also called him crazy Which he is but crazy in the most Unbelievable way, but now you're number two after a couple of years of interviewing people of folks who are doing something for Their living for their income but have found a way to use their profession to also serve. What was your purpose? What was your goal in starting this thing? So it's kind of a little bit of a joke when we went when we would go to the bank or whatever

and my husband would say, you should never say that to a banker because I'd say, I'm not doing this to get rich. He's like, will you quit telling bankers that or you know what I mean? And I mean really, I need to make a living, but I need to make a purposeful living. And you also have to pay your employees a fair wage. Absolutely. But that's also part of it. I worked for places that they weren't getting paid fair or treated fair or the money was not going back to the residents, the people that are, you know what I mean? Like it wasn't being invested back into those people, which to me, paying your employees well and treating them well and, you know, having reliable employees, consistent

employees is giving back to those seniors that live there. I was going to say, I bet the standard of care improves when you actually pay the employees well and treat them well. Absolutely. Because they're happy to be here. It's my frustration kind of being under that is it should go back to them

and not be padding someone else's pocket. And so that's kind of my goal. Obviously, we put everything we have into it, so we have to pay that off. But to give back to those people, I would love to eventually be able to do charity care. My husband has a line of when I can do that. He's like, no free beds till this day or whatever. That's definitely something we have.

You want to do charity care? I would love to be. You could do that on both ends of the generation too. I'm sure there's some needy single mothers out there that would love. Absolutely, and there's state programs for people, but certainly to me, you know, and we do accept Medicaid, which would be like the program available for seniors

that don't have any, you know, resources or income. But most of the time those people get substandard care and to me that's everybody deserves, you know what I mean, to have good care, especially at the end of your life. I would let them all come in and never charge, but my husband says I can't. We have to eat and pay our bills. Profits are a necessary measure of any business's success. The level of profits is what you can manipulate. Your motto is loving every generation, which is insane.

So, the benefits of intergenerational care, you say, are improved quality of life for both generation, multiple opportunities for shared activities and celebrations that bring joy, love, and laughter to each generation. Children provide an endless source of joy for seniors. Children learn and demonstrate empathy, character, and acceptance on your website, Psalm 71 18.

Even when I'm old and gray, do not forsake me by God till I declare your power to the next generation, your mighty acts to all who are to come. That's beautiful. Yeah. And so, you know, that's what the Bible calls us to do. And I think if you can teach children and start, you know, at young age, and maybe they'll grow up to do the same thing and value that generation. Maybe my infants will be the ones taking care of you when you're 76 in a nursing home. I always tease the infants in our facility. They just think it's normal to grow up in a nursing home.

They started coming here when they're six weeks old, and they've just grown up in this environment. I mean, I've only been going two years, but I'm like, think of those kids when they're in high school or college or an adult. We'll be right back. We'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Ronella.

I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the ice age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today.

Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures and your guide on Good Company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary.

We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Angelique are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most

crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we come face to face with death. My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying. We step beyond the edge of what we know. To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that Western box.

In return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating. Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes. My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple, to find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor.

You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again, a podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit, and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts

on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this? This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law

and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1978, Roger Caron's first book was published and he was unlike any first-time author Canada had ever seen. Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. I spent 24 of those years in jail. 12 years in solitary. He went from an ex-con

to a literary darling almost overnight. He was instantly a celebrity. He was an adrenaline junkie, and he was the star of the show. Go-Boy is the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places imaginable. I had a knife go in my stomach, puncture my screen, break my ribs. I had my fetus all in my hands. Only to find himself back where he started. Roger's saying this, I've never hurt anybody but myself. And I said, oh, you're so wrong. You're so wrong on that one, Rod.

From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to Go Boy on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. or wherever you get your podcasts. So tell me what a day looks like. I want to understand how it works for these kids and these seniors hang out together, what they do together, what the anticipation is, what it's like when they separate. I mean, give me the, how do I get the idea that it's intergenerational care and each are really sharing for one another, but how does it work? What's the schedule look like? Sure.

So how we do it is each day on our activity calendar at 930, one class rotates out. So Mondays it's toddlers, Tuesdays it's preschool, Wednesdays it's, you know, a different class. And based on the age of that class will be what the activity is. The seniors are invited to that. So it might be play dough, might be coloring, it might be music, it might be anything, but the teachers and the childcare plan that activity and then the class comes out and the seniors join them or can choose to join them because not all seniors want to be around kids or maybe you have a day you don't feel good. So it's definitely a choice thing. And so they, you know, I kind of use the example like in a nursing home,

you have the activities and you try to get seniors to come, but they think it's childish to color or to, you know, if you put Play-Doh on an activity calendar, no seniors going to show up. But if you do that next to a kid, it's all a sudden fun. And we have seniors that- Or if you teach a kid how to make something out of Play-Doh or teach a kid how to color in the world. Sure. And you're doing it with them. It's no longer childish. Well, you're a mentor. Yeah, and some of our seniors have cognitive deficits

and so the kids are actually mentors to them. Are you kidding? So like our preschool class just a few weeks ago did an Easter egg where they had to match the colors and we have a lady that isn't able to do that anymore. And these preschoolers go and they're helping her. I mean, it's like completely flipped, but like that empathy and compassion,

and they don't question that, because they know her and they know that she can no longer do that. They also know that she has a story where she used to be able to do that. Do you know what I mean? She used to be a teacher. And- Do you know what I mean? She used to be a teacher. Do you choke up when you watch this?

Oh, I do. I do a lot, actually. How could you not? That is beautiful. To watch it come to... It is. It is. And it's natural.

It's very natural. A lot of those things I don't plan, they just happen. And even in my sketchbooks, I didn't sketch those things. They just are... When you put people together and they're actually building relationships, beautiful things happen. One of our best things, our school-age kids serve or take orders and serve the seniors during the summer for lunch once a week. And they're learning so much from doing that, you know It's a basic thing learning to take an order and serve somebody

So it seems but that's a lesson that I can't teach out of a textbook have you had a real especially with like a seven eight nine year old kid Does you said that they go up through like fifth grade? Right? Sure Uh-huh. Have you had like real relationships develop where they're like a senior and one of those kids like those two really like to have? Absolutely.

Yeah. And some of them, like I have a lady that likes the one-on-one. And so the kid goes down to her room to visit her because she doesn't like all the- But the kid enjoys it? Absolutely. And even like the infants and the toddlers, you know, they call them their grandmas and grandpas. I mean, you know, that's kind of what we coin, you know, our grandmas and grandpas.

So I don't know, and you can never have too many people to love a kid, you know? You never know. Maybe they don't have a grandma or a grandpa. Maybe they don't... Too many people to love a senior. True. Absolutely, yeah. How have you handled that relationship with death gums? You know, it happened sooner than what we anticipated

and so we have a chaplain who taught them early on, you know, this is what happens and it's hard for all of us, you know, but certainly those are natural life lessons. So our first senior that died, it was fairly early on and I hadn't quite, I knew it was, you know? But certainly those are natural life lessons. So our first senior that died, it was fairly early on and I hadn't quite, I knew it was, you know, that I'd have to teach them, but we just did it naturally. You know, the Bible tells us that this person's going to heaven. But that person, she was our second resident and she was, it was maybe three days before she died and they took the infants. So they have this four person stroller and they'll kind of wheel around the facility

sometimes just to go visit people. And they went in her room and she said, I didn't know there were angels here. And it was the little babies and the joy that brought her. That was three days before she died, you know, and that just, yeah, I can't do that, but a cute little baby can so Sandy Bonsack, huh? This is what she says She says she feels spoiled by her senior citizens home

we just talked about people having a senior citizens home where clinical depression and Isolationism and loneliness is is one of the biggest scourges. This lady says she feels spoiled by her senior citizen's home where she gets to spend time regularly with children. She talked with the Capital Journal on Thursday, the intergenerational senior living facility and childcare center. Minutes earlier, she'd watched 13 of the center's children sing songs and draw with crayons. The Capital Journal newspaper interviewed her in a room and four kids came

with an employee to visit. And her quote was, these kids keep life going. Amen. Yeah. Yeah. And that's- Is Sandy still around? No, Sandy passed. Yep. Did she? Mm hmm. No longer with us. She was our first, our very first resident, actually. Did the kids know her? Old enough kids to know her? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. How did the kids handle that? You know, kids are pretty resilient. I think us as employees struggled with it more than them.

They have a better understanding too. You say they're going to heaven, so why is this sad kind of thing. Really? That's awesome, actually. And also, I mean, it is a reality. So someday they're going to lose someone. So teaching them about it early on is... The thing I couldn't help but think when I read that in Alex's prep that it gives me to know what's going on.

So all of this stuff I'm quoting Diana McAve, Alex did, but I did read it and study it and watch videos and everything else. But what I felt when I read that, I stopped when she said the kids life keep going and I just kind of thought about that for a few seconds is this. For whatever time she was in your facility with those kids, it enriched the end of her life rather than it being lonely, sad and scary. And those are all things that I've tried to do throughout my career, but I can't always do. that I've tried to do throughout my career, but I can't always do but again a kids just have a

Way of bringing joy to people that is different. I mean you can't but you're doing it Thank you, baby, but you're doing it because you put it together Yes, but I'm only as good as the people I'm surrounded with you know what I mean without all of the people that make it happen Day to day it wouldn't be a reality. I gotta believe the parents of these children that are enrolling them in the daycare in this multi-generational weird thing that you've started that nobody's ever heard of.

They absolutely know what's going on where they're putting their children. What has been the parents' reaction to the children's stories when they come home? We've had- There's nothing in here that tells them about that, but I got to believe these kids are coming home telling them about their day and the day that they spent with Matilda drawing or whatever. Are you getting any feedback from the parents' reactions to their kids' exposure?

We have so much positive feedback from the parents. In the beginning, people would say, I mean, just skeptics, I guess, well, there's going to be people that think that's weird. And I said, well, then they're not the right people to come to us. You know what I mean? They can think that and that's totally fine. But then this isn't a good fit for them. Why would it be weird?

I think there's a world of, I mean, there's seniors that we do a background check on everybody and everything, but unfortunately there are people in the world that maybe, you know, you wouldn't wanna trust with your kid. They're never left alone or anything like that, but I think there's people that are just paranoid about it.

Oh, for goodness sake. But anyway, for the most part, I mean, the parents are, we get so much positive feedback. And I think they're learning things again that they're not gonna learn anywhere else. You can't teach them those things. Deep meaningful tenets like empathy and understanding and respect and kindness.

And sometimes it's as simple as what's that tube in that person's nose and what does that do? Someone that's on oxygen, you know, but those, I think if you expose them to that early on, it's not different. We'll be right back. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West.

I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Rannella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday May May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures, and your guide on Good Company, wherever you get your podcasts. of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there, and if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content, the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen.

Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Anjali are carving out space and shaking things up a bit in the most crowded of markets. Listen to Good Company on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare. Someone was posting photos.

It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this?

This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. What happens when we come face to face with death? My truck was blown up by a 20 pound anti-tank mine. My parachute did not deploy. I was kidnapped by a drug cartel. I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying. We step beyond the edge of what we know.

To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that Western box. In return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating. Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes. My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple.

To find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor. You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off, but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again. A podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit,

and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In 1978, Roger Caron's first book was published, and he was unlike any first-time author Canada had ever seen. Roger Caron was unlike any first-time author Canada had ever seen. Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. I spent 24 of those years in jail. 12 years in solitary. He went from an ex-con to a literary darling almost overnight.

He was instantly a celebrity. He was an adrenaline junkie, and he was the star of the show. Go-Boy is the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places imaginable. I had a knife go in my stomach, puncture my spleen, break my ribs. I had my guts all in my hands. Only to find himself back where he started. Rod, you're saying this, I've never hurt anybody but myself.

And I said, oh, you're so wrong. You're so wrong on that one, Rod. From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to GoBoy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Jimmy Neal, the maintenance man. Why don't you tell us about Jimmy Neal? So Jimmy is actually my oldest brother. Oh. And he was our maintenance supervisor. He actually moved to Arkansas. But Pagan Neal is our maintenance man and he's the youngest brother. And he has always wanted to be a maintenance man.

And so then I have a facility and he does that. He does a lot of schedules. He hands out schedules to everybody, like stacks of schedules. Your whole place is the land, the beautiful land of the misfit toys. You know that? It's gorgeous though.

I'm ahead of it. I mean, I won't. But I mean that in a great sense. I think that's, yeah. It's just though. I'm ahead of it. I mean, I won't. But I mean that in a right and sense. I think that's, yeah. It's just open door. We're going to do this a different way. Absolutely. And I think, yeah, those are all kind of things I'm passionate about, which is why I kind

of wanted my own. I wanted to be able to, in a corporate world, you can't just bring your brother in to be the maintenance man, but I can. So he does a lot of measuring. He has this tape measure that he goes around and measures things and fixes things. He takes call 24-7. He gives everybody his business card and says he's on call. He's kind of a fan favorite.

He unloads boxes. Our favorite thing he does is around lunchtime, he usually has to measure the kitchen window to peek in to see what's for lunch. It's like an open window so he takes his tape measure. So he's measuring the window. He's quote measuring the window to see what's going on for lunch. But he has his own phone line. He yeah, he's a huge part of the facility.

How many employees do you have? I have about 45 employees. Holy crap. Some of those are part-time or PR in. It started in 23. You have 26, is that right? Adult. 24.

24 adults. How many kids? We're licensed for 66 kids. And what do you have? We have 66. I mean, we're a waiting list. You have 66 kids, 24 adults, 45. Yeah, and that's including part-time. Your brother measuring the windows. Yeah. All in two years. How far away are people coming from to come to your place?

We have some from, well, we have one from Nebraska, but they had family there in Topeka and Manhattan. But most of them, a lot of them are local. How far are they from Topeka? They're around the area. Wamigo, Topeka area and Alma. How far is that? 30 minutes, 30 miles, 30 minutes.

So, I mean, this is a regional thing now. It's not just Alma. How far is that? 30 minutes, 30 miles, 30 minutes. So I mean this is a regional thing now. It's not just Alma, it's Alma and the whole surrounding. Yeah, which really we haven't done a lot of advertising. So I mean, you know, I really. Well, you better not you don't have any room for anybody else. Well, true, true. But I think, you know, having the 66 kids in a waiting list probably speaks for itself on the parent side, you know. But also we do provide quality childcare. Like that's kind of my thing too. We're not just an intergenerational facility.

We also provide quality childcare and quality care to the seniors, you know, in addition to that, which I'm very passionate about. Does it have your playground? It does have a playground. Yes? It does have a playground. Yes, it does have a playground. You're right about the playground. Yep, yep, yep. And who doesn't want to see a kid play?

You haven't done much marketing. I assume locally people know what's going on. But I don't think you've done a whole lot of national press or anything around this, right? I'm probably the closest thing to that. Yes, you are. National Press or anything around this right? I'm probably the closest thing to that. Yes, you are I Cannot fathom

somebody With some sense and business savvy hearing this story and saying that is a better way to slay the cat What are your goals because if your goal only two years ago was to use your children as child labor, drive your husband crazy, spend his parents' money and hawk your house, if that was your goal to build this thing and then fill it up, you've done that and you're too young and the business is only two years old to have reached its pinnacle. What next? You know, I have other, you know, local people kind of touring.

My goal is not to be big. I mean, I want to be able to do the work every day. You know, that's why I only have 24 residents. I have a whole other wing I could add. I don't, that's not my goal. It never has been. So if I can show someone else how to do it or you know what I mean?

Or. See, now the businessman is coming out of me. Well, two things. One, by not opening that second wing with a waiting list, think of the carrier denying somebody who really wants it. I mean, that is something you got to consider. Here's the second thing. You don't have to run 40 facilities to franchise them, generating income that you can turn around then and not just stick in your pocket, but also use to enhance your deal.

I challenge you to think about that maybe in another. Well, because what you're doing is revolutionary. It truly is in my mind. Is there anything else like this in the country that you're aware of? There is, and actually kind of when I started delving into it You know in other countries like Japan for example there

They all live kind of intergenerational. You know what I mean like families. Yes, they're families So then they're nursing homes. They actually I watched a documentary where they Children are paid to come to the nursing home like their employees They're paid to come visit this. Yeah No, I don't either but I'm just saying like that was something they at least recognized the importance of youth Yeah, and a senior. Yes that documentary was about the kids getting paid But but yeah, I think I think there are some I I don't know You know much about them. Why Heritage Home?

Why the name Heritage Home? So, in the Bible, it says we're all a heritage of the Lord. And so that's kind of where I, yeah, that was one of my little sketches. It should I be here. Yeah. That was it. Uh-huh. Yeah.

I just absolutely, you know, look, I like all of my guests. I love all of their stories. And, you know, the entrepreneur in me is just always there. I started a business, you know, and that's just the way it is. Your concept. I think in only two years has been proven. And gosh, I think there's opportunity here not to make money, certainly to make some money. Offits are necessary measure of very business success, like I said. But

I think there's opportunity here to change an industry that, to use your words, nobody wants to go to, doesn't pay well, is smelly and rot with depression. An entire industry that is really genuinely like that, and I know there's some really good facilities and there's somebody here in us right now that works in assisted living facilities, is like, come on, Bill, we do better than that. I know I'm painting with a broad brush, but this concept can add value to two generations of

lives and you're bearing it out and And I just got to believe there's Opportunity gonna come knocking We'll be prepared. That may be my Well, I'm just this normal person just kind of wanting to serve other people. So I mean, like, to me, that's, I don't know, that's like out here. But also, at one point, this idea was out here, you're this dream, you know, and I just kind of, but yes, I'm a very normal person from Kansas. So

person bill who's wrestling similar to what you're saying, Erin, this Marva Collins started one of the best schools in inner city Chicago, and she got approached by this donor saying, I want you to start a hundred and more of a common schools across the country and I'll pay for it. And she said, no, because she said, I can't guarantee that those kids are going to be successful in those other schools because I'm not there. So I do understand where you're coming from with that, but at the same time, hopefully somebody picks up this ball

and runs with it if it's not earned. Yeah. There's gotta be. Yeah. It's just too cool an idea. Not for people listening to us right now. Well, I'm just gonna be real candid. I think the quality of care in a place like wherever Kansas I think the quality of care in a place like wherever Kansas is probably way different than the standard of care in inner city or Louisville or Memphis or wherever just because

of the challenges that exist in a living facility and that environment. And boy, I just think about how this could enrich the lives of two generations. Anyway. No, I agree. And I think too, like, when you talk about kids, just relationships in general, you know, taking the phones and all the other stuff, just really building that. And if you can do that in your everyday, you know, eight hours a day at school, you know, because some of those kids don't have that at home. They don't

have a person that doesn't sit on their phone when you're talking to them. That's an interesting thought. But this generation doesn't do that. You know, the generation of seniors that I serve, they don't sit on their phone when you're talking to them. Love that. The generation of seniors that I serve, they don't sit on their phone when you're talking to them. Love that. We'll be right back. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck.

This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams, and bestselling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here and I'll say it seems like the Ice Age

people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday May 6th where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures, and your guide on Good Company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next.

In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi, for a conversation that's anything but ordinary. We dive into the competitive world of streaming, how she's turning so-called niche into mainstream gold, connecting audiences with stories that truly make them feel seen. What others dismiss as niche niche we embrace as core. It's this idea that there are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content,

the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Get a front row seat to where media, marketing, technology, entertainment, and sports collide. And hear how leaders like Anjali are they feel seen. get your podcasts. I just remember everything getting dark. I'm dying. We step beyond the edge of what we know. To open our consciousness to something more than just what's in that Western box. And return. I clinically died. The heart stopped beating.

Which I was dead for 11.5 minutes. My name is Dan Bush. My mission is simple. To find, explore, and share these stories. I'm not a victim, I'm a survivor. You're strongest when you're the most vulnerable. To remind us what it means to be alive. Not just that I was the guy that cut his arm off,

but I'm the guy who is smiling when he cut his arm off. Alive Again, a podcast about the fragility of life, the strength of the human spirit, and what it means to truly live. Listen to Alive Again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. In 2020, a group of young women in a tidy suburb of New York City found themselves in an AI-fueled nightmare.

Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked. Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts that looked exactly like my own. I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream. It happened in Levittown, New York. But reporting the series took us through the darkest corners of the internet and to the front lines of a global battle against deepfake pornography. This should be illegal, but what is this?

This is a story about a technology that's moving faster than the law and about vigilantes trying to stem the tide. I'm Margie Murphy. And I'm Olivia Carville. This is Levertown, a new podcast from iHeart Podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope. Listen to Levertown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In 1978, Roger Caron's first book was published, and he was unlike any first-time author Canada had ever seen. Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. Has spent 24 of those years in jail. 12 years in solitary. He went from an ex-con to a literary darling almost overnight. He was instantly a celebrity.

He was an adrenaline junkie, and he was the star of the show. Go-Boy is the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places imaginable. I had a knife go in my stomach, puncture my skin, break my ribs, I had my guts all in my hands. Only to find himself back where he started. Roger's saying this, I've never hurt anybody but myself. And I said, oh, you're so wrong.

You're so wrong on that one, Roger. From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to GoBoy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Aaron, what do your kids and your husband think? I gotta be a pro. I think so. Yeah. What do your kids and your husband think? They've got to be proud. I think so. Yeah. I think when we're done with renovations, I think they'll be prouder.

Oh, are you still renovating parts? We have another wing. Our plan for that wing is to kind of have a chapel and a salon, kind of some extra amenities for our seniors. So there's still some work to be done. And my youngest son said he's only inheriting it if he doesn't ever have to do anything. But in all actuality, I've worked in this field for a long time and my kids have always, you know, hey, we have something for you. We'll be standing outside. They don't want to go in. They don't want to, you know,

because it's a nursing home and it's smelly. Here I have to like kick them off the couch, you know, like this is not your home go. Like you know, they're very comfortable. They love our people. My son that's graduating said, can I invite so and so and so and so our residents? So they're learning that too, just because they're a part of it. It is a, you know, they love the people there. I was pausing, but I got gotta ask you, are you profitable? Is this thing self-sustaining?

Not yet. Wow. We just, we just got our 24th residence. So, or we will Wednesday and then, you know, we'll be. Childcare is not profitable. Can it be? I don't know. In this model. So when you talk about a business, like Kansas, I don't know other states, but

childcare is a very dying field because you don't make money and nobody wants to do it. It's hard work. So this is kind of a way to elevate childcare also because the seniors pay the mortgage on the building. We have a full-time cook. We have a business office. Oh, yeah. That's interesting. We have a nurse on site. All know, all those kind of extra things that most child cares

can't afford. We have all that for ours. So they get good food because we have a cook and seniors want good food. Again, my business office, she does all the billing and all that. Normally the childcare director has to do that. So that frees her up. So there's some economies of scale that elevate the child care business as a result of it being attached to a senior living system. Yes, yes. So, and they're obviously benefiting in other ways, but that's kind of the part that I've kind of, with legislation and stuff like this might be your ticket to getting child care

working in Kansas. Well, no, that's a whole nother. It is a whole nother aspect. No, it in Kansas. Well, now that's a whole nother. It is a whole nother aspect. No, it really is. It's very true because it's a very big struggle. And there's a whole nother reason somebody should want to be interested in scaling this idea.

Yeah, yeah. That makes so much sense because when you're just doing child care and you have to pay your people and facility and light bill and heat and air. How do you also have a kitchen and how do you also have some of these amenities? But when it's attached to the senior living facility that has to have these amenities, you get them by default, which elevates the level of childcare. Absolutely. So, I mean, that's a big, that's kind of a big thing I've been kind of chatting about because people say, how can you make childcare sustainable?

And being on the business side of it, it's not. I mean, without the other. What is a, so there has to be levels of childcare. There has to be the kind that stay there all day and then there's before and after school care. What does that cost? What does a parent have to pay? So in Kansas, I mean, our facility, an infant's $190 a week and then the preschool's $150. Is that all day?

Yep, that's full time. Okay, $190 a week. Five days a week, 6.45 a.m. to 5.30 p.m. Holy smokes. Yeah, but that's, I mean, that's cheap compared to- No, I get it. That that's cheap compared to snow. Yeah, that's almost 800 a month Yeah, but I get that a hundred ninety frankly I get both sides 190 does not sound like a lot of money I mean, it's you said five win about 45 to 6 45 a.m. To 5 30 p.m. Okay, so that's that's 11 hours

right so $190 190 divided by 11 You only get in $17.27 an hour for the care. How much do you have to pay the person watching the baby? Well, so there might well I pay our starting wages $16 an hour Which there's probably higher than those three kids. Yes, so the ratio is one to four one to four one to three they just change that because Okay, so one to four sixteen an hour. That's that's what taxes and all that's five bucks. So now you're down to 1227 per hour after the labor of profit to cover facility, maintenance, insurance, everything.

I can absolutely see how it does not work from a business perspective, but I can also see at $190 a week at $800 a month, which is $10,000 a year. How charging any more only makes it almost impossible for someone to actually send their kid to childcare. I mean, if you make $40,000 a year, you're paying 25% of your total income for your kid. So it's also really difficult to pay that. It is, yeah.

And when I was a parent paying childcare, I thought, oh my God, these people are getting rich off me, but they're not. I mean, when you really put all the numbers into it, it's not a problem. What about before care and after care, school? So we charge like $50 a week for them to come. I mean, they're only there a couple hours.

A couple hours before, a couple hours after. But still. But yeah, I mean, they're only there a couple hours. Before a couple hours. But still. But yeah, I mean, and that's. That's $12 an hour you're getting for that. If they're two hours before, two hours after, 50 bucks a week, that's 48, 12. It's $12.25 an hour you're making on that before labor. Yeah, but also you're asking a 20-year-old kid

to get paid $16 an hour to come take care of three infants. That's a big responsibility. Yikes. Yeah. Yeah. I guess child care doesn't work, does it? It's hard.

It's a, yeah. So, you know, again, it's that field. I don't know how anyone just does that. And it's hard work. It's not easy work. Yeah. They it's hard work. It's not easy work. Yeah. They're kids. Yeah. Kids are not. All day. Yeah. And they don't get a break. Like a lot of those people, you can't leave the room to go to the bathroom. You can't leave. I mean, you don't get any break. Ten hours. I mean, our people, we do because that is kind of my business philosophy.

You rotate through. Right. I want them to have a lunch break. I want them to be paid well. I want them to be, you know. So what you're saying is the income from the senior facility then supplements the childcare to make it all work. Sure. Yeah. Because again, the seniors, you know, the business model, you know, they're paying the mortgage on the facility and all of those things. And if you have a cook cooking for 24 seniors, then they just also make food for the children.

And, you know, there's a nurse on site, there's kind of extra bodies in the building. I am such a dope. I'm sitting here 20 minutes ago talking to you about what's next, and this whole concept and idea is just great for senior living business to look at things a different way, a different way to kill the cat. But what I completely missed is what you've just taught me is that what this really is, is a great way to look at it, a way to actually fund childcare in a way that it could be impactful and lasting and have a really high quality of care. It's actually really is a twofold answer to two different problems, combining them to make a solution. Yeah, for sure.

Man, somebody's going to call you. I know they are. Hell, I might call you. I don't know. I think it's really, really a creative, cool, inspirational idea. Thank you. I appreciate that. Like I said, it's all God-driven. A lot of prayer, a lot of things that came to me. And I have a really, really good team. And I have really good leadership team. I've kind of through my career, you know, handpicked people that have that same art, you know, kind of are doing it for the right reasons and love their people. And a few sisters that work for me. My dad picks up groceries. I mean, yeah, my mother-in-law works there. My father-in-law helped with all the renovations. I mean, yeah, my mother-in-law works there. My father-in-law helped with

all their renovations. I mean, it's definitely a family business. You know, I don't know how your relationship with your husband is, but I'm just going to speak up and say Joe's got to be the same. Well, yeah. Yeah. This is a lot. It is a lot. It is a lot. He probably just gets sick of hearing me talk. But he is. I think he just, he's just always been supportive of my dreams and my passion and I got drug

along the way. And he is very talented when it comes to like the renovation side. Like he's very good at stuff like that. And so he was able to, so he works his full-time job too. Yeah. And then he goes and does this. So all of his vacation, the first year was doing renovations. What a great story. Erin, I am, I'm so pleased you came to Memphis Story Story. And it really is an honor to meet you. And I really hope somebody out there either calls you or somebody who knows somebody will say,

you gotta hear this story. If anybody wants to get in touch with you, how do they reach you, email or whatever? Yeah, my email is eesteel, S-T-E-E-L-E at heritagehomefamily.com or my cell phone is 785-458-8473. Well, you just screwed up. But a lot of people do.

I know, but I give my cell phone to all the families, all the, I just feel like, I don't know, I wanna be accessible to people. And if I can help one person, it's fine. Is there a website? We do have a website. It's www.heritagehomefamily.com. And my sister-in-law built my website.

I mean, it's all very, like I said, we kind of, yeah. Well, when you have 18, when there's 18 of you, you got your own small army. You know, my dad's plan was to have a doctor, a lawyer, a mechanic, you know, he's like, and they'll never pay for anything. Yeah. It did not work that way. It did not work out.

It did not. He has a hairstyl hairstyle as a massage therapist. Well, he's got somewhere to go when he gets too old to walk. That is true. We actually teased that I have his room for him. Thank you, it's a great story. Thank you. And I really honestly, don't be surprised if

you don't get some people emailing you and calling you after this, because this is really a phenomenal thing. And I, you know, I love it that you found a way to make your living and serve people in need and come up with a creative idea that could really change two industries. I think it's phenomenal. And I'm really promised me if someone does reach out and things do start developing a different way, you'll just email me and let me know. I absolutely will. Yeah.

I'll be thinking about it. And thank you. It's a pleasure to meet you and I loved your story too. And yeah, you're an inspiration as well. So thank you. Thank you. And thank you for joining us this week. If Aaron still has inspired you in general or better yet to take action by starting an intergenerational

senior living and childcare center in your community or something else entirely. Please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. Y'all you can write me anytime at bill at normal folks dot us and I guarantee you I will respond. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends and on social, subscribe to the podcast, rate it, review it. Join the Army at NormalFolks.us. Consider becoming a premium member there. Any and all of these things that will help us grow an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney.

Until next time, do what you can. Hi, I'm Sam Mullins, and I've got a new podcast coming out called Go Boy, the gritty true story of how one man fought his way out of some of the darkest places imaginable. Roger Caron was 16 when first convicted. That spent 24 of those years in jail. But when Roger Caron picked up a pen and paper, he went from an ex-con to a literary darling.

From Campside Media and iHeart Podcasts, listen to Go Boy on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years, you know, some very despicable crime and things that are kind of tough to wrap your head around. And this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode Island fraudsters. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to deep cover, The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Why is a soap opera western like Yellowstone so wildly successful? The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 2020, a group of young women found themselves in an AI-fuelled nightmare. Someone was posting photos. It was just me naked.

Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts. This is Levittown, a new podcast from iHeart podcasts, Bloomberg and Kaleidoscope, about the rise of deepfake pornography and the battle to stop it. Listen to Levittown on Bloomberg's Big Take podcast. Find it on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Michael Kassin, founder and CEO of 3C Ventures

and your guide on Good Company, the podcast where I sit down with the boldest innovators shaping what's next. In this episode, I'm joined by Anjali Sood, CEO of Tubi. We dive into the competitive world of streaming. What others dismiss as niche, we embrace as core. There are so many stories out there. And if you can find a way to curate and help the right person discover the right content,

the term that we always hear from our audience is that they feel seen. Listen to Good Company on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're listening to an iHeart podcast.