An Army of Normal Folks - Lisa Steven: The Former Teen Mom Empowering Teen Moms (Pt 1)

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Lisa Steven is a former teen mom who went on to build the only home for teen moms in the entire state of Colorado. Their resource center serves over 280 teen moms per year with free empowerment programming and early childhood education. And now 3 other communities have adopted their model!Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc. And send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you.

Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein, and we used to host a show called Planet Money.

And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History, about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, How Southwest Airlines Use Cheap Seats and Free Whiskey to fight its way into the airline. The most Texas story ever. Listen to Business History on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconics it comes of all time? You get Desi Arness. On the podcast star in Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life,

how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting.

Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartPodcastawards.com. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News keeps you on top of the biggest stories of the day.

My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day. Stories that move markets. Chair Powell opened the door to this first interest rate cut. Impact politics, change businesses. This is a really stunning development for the AI world and how you think about your bottom line. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Tragically, one of our moms ended up being killed by an ex-boyfriend in a domestic violence incident. And it was just a terrible situation that I'm mad at God. I'm mad at our community. I'm like, who's doing anything about this? Why isn't there somebody doing something about this? John will say, that was kind of the moment when God's like, well, what have somebody is you. Oh, you mean, who is somebody? I think we say that a lot. Who is somebody

got to do something about that? What if you're that somebody? And I knew it was a calling. I was super excited about this whole idea of what if we start something for teen moms? Because there isn't a place for teen moms to go in the Denver metro area. After 23 years, we're the only residential program that a parenting teenage mom can go to. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband. I'm a father, I'm an entrepreneur, and I'm a football coach in inner city Memphis. And that last part unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about one of my teams. That movie's called Undefeated.

I believe our country's problems are never going to be solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us. Just you and me deciding, hey, you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Lisa Stephen, the voice you just heard, has done. Lisa is a former teen mom who went on to build the only home for team moms in the entire state of Colorado. And their resource center serves over 280 teen moms per year with free empowerment programs and early childhood education.

and now three other communities have adopted their model. I cannot wait for you to meet Lisa right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one. page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI

CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before. for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan.

Good to have you join us. I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shell Game on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News

dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown. means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich, reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsized indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back.

He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith.

This is Jacob Goldstein. And we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back. this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history and some of the worst people, horrible ideas, and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all.

It's a very simple, elegant lesson. Make something people want. First episode, How Southwest Airlines Use Cheap Seats and Free Whiskey to Fight Its Way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons.

So many robber barons. And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the electric chair. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What do you get when you mix 1950s?

is Hollywood, a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time. You get Desi Arnaz, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe, most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story. From plening canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama, I'll take it.

you in a journey to Desi's life. The moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television, and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one man's spotlight lit the path for so many others

and how we carry his legacy today. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama. That's part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026.

Got a mic? Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it.

Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards. Lisa Stephen, welcome to Memphis. Well, thank you. Where are you from? Arvada, Colorado, just west of Denver, just a suburb of Denver. Suburb of Denver. Got it. Well, thanks for being here.

Thanks for coming all that way. You've got somebody hitched to your post over there. Who's that? I do. My husband, almost 40 years. in February. This is my husband, John. Congratulations. That's awesome. Hey, John, thanks for, thanks for making the trek with her. It's good to meet you. So, you guys got here about three days ago. We did. Well, if we're going to get invited to Memphis, we got to see Memphis.

It might as well see what's going on in Memphis. Then Alex offered to do a potluck and give us pulled porky made all by himself was amazing. That's, you know, it's almost sacrilegious that a dude from Chicago comes to Memphis and cooks pork. But maybe the culture's worn off on them. How was it? I think so. It was the best meal we've had. Really? Really good. Hey, good for you. You slow cook it for 12 hours. You beat any restaurant. That's it. You slow cook it. What'd you basted? Did you season it or baste it? What'd you do? Yeah, it's got a rub. So one of my best friends is like an expert chef. So he's like really figured out this special rub. And he gave it to you? Oh, yeah. So I bet it was good. Yeah, well, that's good. Thanks for not screwing it up for our guest.

I invited you to come. You missed out on my barbecue. I feel like there was a game, like Old Miss game. Yeah, there was. Is that where you were with Max? We got the game? Yeah. And we took care of South Carolina, as we should.

All right. So where are you staying in Memphis? We were at the Arrive Hotel, which was fabulous. I told them both options to be clear, Bill. And they chose the Arroy. And I said it's my favorite, though, but they chose. He did. And he had a discount.

That sealed the deal. So what did you do in Memphis? What did you drag John around doing? Well, we took all the advice of the people at the potluck. So we went to the Bass Pro Shop and went in that freestanding elevator, scared me to death. People think Bass Pro Shop, but this is a different experience. It is a different experience. It's like an amusement park in there.

Went to Shelby Farms, to have dinner there. Biggest municipal park in the United States. Yes. Most people don't know either. We went to the Civil Rights Museum. We were staying right across from, that was very educational. Yeah, that was amazing. Yeah, that was amazing.

Super educational. Just did some driving around, went to a brewery. Good, cool. Well, I'm glad. I hope you've enjoyed Memphis. Oh, man, it's so cool. It's very different than anywhere I've been before. Very cool.

Oh, we went to Beale Street, too. It wasn't crowded. It was, like, quiet. Friday or Saturday. On Saturday night. Saturday during the fall, we don't have a lot of professional football here. Okay. You got Atlanta, and you've got Tennessee Titans in Nashville.

But that's it. The next team's Dallas. So the mid-south, the deep delta south, We're college people. Yes, you are. So on Saturdays. Ah, there was football. That's why it's quite.

We're in Athens or Oxford or Starkville or Vandy or up at Columbia, Missouri, or Fayetteville in Arkansas, or down at Baton Rouge, or we're going over to Auburn or Tuscaloosa for Alabama. So the city, and then, so it's Friday and Sunday on the weekends or the fall that are busy. But then after the fall, it's to set it on. But anyway, did you go in any of the bars? Did you check out Rumbugby? Well, we didn't go in there. We went into Absinthe, and it was, like, dead.

So we sat at the bar and just talked to the bartender. It was so fun. Yeah. He had played basketball. He was telling us about his basketball career. It was great. It was a cool place. Yeah, it was cool.

Well, good. And Memphis is different because we're such an old city. Not many people know, like in 1960, Memphis was the fifth largest city in the country. So it's a big city, a cool downtown, and there's a lot to do. But it's got this kind of old. school vibe to it and people are all everybody who goes enjoys it says yeah the exact same thing i've just never been in a place like it it's cool the architecture is crazy it's really cool it's pretty a lot a lot of cool national historical register buildings yeah that we walked by

actually live in one oh really my house is on the register of historic places so i live in a place called central gardens which is back in the late 1800s early 1900s was the country now it's center city. Okay. And so while all those houses were built 100 years ago, there's a bunch of them that were protected on the National Register back in the 70s when people were trying to rip old stuff down and put up apartments. Yep.

So to protect the area, they put a ton of the houses on the National Register. And, yeah. Very cool. Lot of upkeep probably 100-year-old houses. It's horrible. But Lisa likes it, so I do as I say. That's good. That's good.

All right. So I'm so glad you got to enjoy. city, and I could sit and talk about, I'm a native mempian, and I love my town, and the press does a really good job of trying to highlight all the bad things about every city, right? And everybody who comes here, feels safe, loves the people, loves architecture, loves the vibe, loves energy in the culture, and leave saying, hey, Memphis is a cool place, and it just takes more people to get here to see it. Come on, people. Come on down to Memphis. Yeah, that's right. If you ever come back, come in May. Okay. The World Championship barbecue.

cooking contest and one weekend. And then the next weekend is River Beat, which is along Tom Lee Park along the river. Our stages set up, and there's five or six acts going on, and then it ends with the Memphis Symphony, and it's just really cool. So I'm going to come to back. All right. So enough of that. Let's get into you. You are the founder of Hope House, Colorado, and the author of a place to belong, the true story of a teen mom, a humbling leadership journey, and a house called hope.

When I read it, when Alex sent me your prep, and I read that, I immediately knew, okay, I'm going to enjoy this one. Okay, I got to be careful. I enjoy all of our guests. Some of them I dive into more personally,

and I knew I was going to like this. So we'll get to it. Okay. But germane to all of that is absolutely how you grew up, how you met John. And honestly, the person I'm going to call the hero of your life, which might have been your mother-in-law, which I find really interesting. For sure. But I don't believe none of what you do now happens without how you grew up and what your world was. So I think it's important to kind of briefly explain your back.

where you came from, how he came up, why. And then we'll get into what evolved, and then now what you're doing, which is phenomenal. So tell me about you. Yeah. Tell me about young Lisa. By the way, my wife's name's Lisa. So if I say Lisa, right, so.

That's good name. John, I'm not talking about your wife. I'm talking about mine, all right? So there we go. I love it. All right. Well, I will say writing the book, a good bit of writing the book was about, what happens when you say yes to God, and I didn't want to write the book. So saying yes to God

to write the book was a biggie for me because I didn't ever talk about my background or my past. I talked about being a two mom. Yeah, this is the first time ever. Shame? Yeah. It just felt so personal and kind of private. I didn't talk about my upbringing openly until probably my mid-30s. Well, so you get it. Yeah. It just It's so funny. For me, it was shame. Yeah. I was ashamed.

When I was in circles of people that I respected and I heard the stories of their beaver, cleaver, wonderfully organic lives, I felt ashamed. Yeah. And so I hid that part of me until I started to understand that the reason I am who I am is because that's such a big part of me. And then I had to embrace it. So true. Well, and I think there was a lot of, like, just, my dad died in 2016, and there was a lot that I couldn't have written the book when he was alive because even when you grew up in a home that's, you know, an abusive home life, you still love your parents. You still want your parents to be proud of you.

So hard for people to understand that. Yeah. Yeah. Like, there was a lot of stuff I just couldn't have said while he was still alive because it would have been so hard for him to hear and hurtful for him. And, you know, even when you don't have a great relationship, you don't want to, you don't want to step on your folks. And not if you have empathy. Not, yeah, I guess not if you have empathy. But yeah, I grew up in a pretty chaotic household. My dad was an alcoholic. Didn't work a lot of the time.

He and my mom had pretty major, you know, big blowups. And I pretty much felt like I was the kind of the protector and provider for my younger siblings. I was the oldest of four. And two, the twins or a year behind you? Yep. Yeah, really close. My poor mom, I look back now, I'm like, you do not have empathy until you have your own children, but she had four kids under the age of three. So she had me a year later, almost to the day, had twins. And then a year after that, had another baby. That's the worst I've heard beyond ours. Our kids are four, three, two, and one. Oh, man. Yeah, you did it right in row. So we had four and four years, and your mom had four and three. And it is, what a challenge. I wouldn't change anything in our life with our kids. children and what it end up being. But boy, when you're young, it's rough.

I can only imagine your mom. Yeah, me too. You know, you don't have any, you don't think about it when you're a kid. But then when you grow up and you have children, it's like, how did, no wonder she yelled a lot. Yeah. We must have driven her bananas. But yeah, so it was a, typically I say I grew up feeling like I was walking on eggshells. You were kind of just always waiting for, you know, something not good to happen.

And then very unfortunately, my little. brother. So there were myself, and then my brother and sister were twins, and then our youngest sister, Jenny. And my brother, Chris, died in a backyard accident. He tied my jump rope to our swing set and got his neck caught in it somehow. And unfortunately, passed away when he was six, and I was about seven, a little over seven. Yeah, it was a, it was a defining moment in our family's life. I think my parents were pretty, they were rough before that, but they were really broken after that and just pretty much no hope for their marriage. What did your dad do when he worked?

You know, the crazy thing was my dad was so smart. He was such a, you know, waste of talent and brainpower. He went to school of minds to become a geologist. And unfortunately, when my brother died, he was about, I think he was maybe a year away from graduating and he dropped out of school at that point. So he kind of, I mean, honestly, he didn't do something. in the, you know, in quotation marks, there was no, like, career path that he had. It was kind of sometimes he worked at a, once he worked at a paint store, another time he was

working at a, I think it was like a linens doing laundry at a linens place. Like, you just kind of did jobs. So we never earned well. No, we never earned well. Yeah, we were on what you called food stamps back then. And my mom would make, we called it, she called it magic milk, but it was essentially powdered milk, which tasted terrible. So she would put like a little drop of food coloring in the, and the mom.

bottom of your cup and then pour the water into the milk, and so it would turn color while you, you know, while she was pouring it. So she got us to drink our milk by calling it magic milk. But, but yeah, we were, you know, off and on on, you know, food stamps, and they were just borrowing money from their folks all the time. I'm assuming to pay the rent. Did, what did the argument stem from that you grew up constantly barraged with? And was it ever taken out on you or more just your mom? And I don't mean it just your mom. Yeah, no.

No, that's, I mean, actually, that's really intuitive question. It was, my dad primarily was, he was just an angry guy. And when they were together, it was pretty much directed at my mom. After they got divorced, it was directed primarily at me, sometimes my sisters. But someone who's just got, you know, those kinds of anger issues, they're kind of always aiming at somewhere. But the funny thing was, like, when he was in public, he was. charming like people loved him he could talk to anybody and uh and i think that's maybe not that uncommon it's but behind closed doors it was kind of a different different story um like a lot of

the things that make you such an engaging and energetic person can also be things that can be turned differently when you're when you're at home and something set you off and you kind of never knew um and actually that was one of the things that was hard when we first got married because john's parents didn't really fight ever in front of the kids almost never fought in front of the kids. And so he grew up thinking that parents don't fight. And I grew up thinking you fought over who put the mayonnaise on what shelf in the refrigerator. So I would start these fights and he'd be like, why are we fighting about this? We had to figure out you didn't have to fight about where the mayonnaise does. That's an interesting part of the story is that folks who haven't

grown up in trauma don't understand that that trauma becomes common and normal. And then it's kind of how you expect to act in life when you become an adult and the very thing that you hate the most you can become if you're not careful. Yeah, man, we talk about that all the time at Hope House because, I mean, you do what you've seen done. You behave in a way that you've seen modeled. So if you have a monkey do. Exactly. If you haven't seen something modeled, which is why my mother-in-law is such a hero in my life because my in-law is modeled for us something different. And they modeled healthy parenting and healthy relationship and healthy marriage and faith. And that was different than how I had grown up.

And now a few messages from our gender sponsors. But first, I hope you'll consider signing up to join the Army at normalfolks. By signing up, you'll receive a weekly email with short episode summaries in case you happen to miss an episode or If you prefer reading about our incredible guests, we'll be right back. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder.

after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen. I got to thinking, could I be that one person? I'd made AI agents before for my award-winning podcast, Shell Game. This season on Shell Game, I'm trying to build a real company with a real product run by fake people. Oh, hey, Evan. Good to have you join us.

I found some really interesting data on adoption rates for AI agents and small to medium businesses. Listen to Shellgame on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. The Big Take podcast from Bloomberg News dives deep into one big global business story every weekday. A shutdown means we don't get the data, but it also means for President Trump that there's no chance of bad news on the labor market. What does a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich reveal about the economy? Our breakfast foods are consistent consumer staples, and so they sort of become outsize indicators of inflation. What's behind Elon Musk's trillion dollar payout? There's a sort of concerted effort to message that Musk is coming back.

He's putting politics aside. He's left the White House. And what can the PCE tell you that the CPI can't? CPI tries to measure out-of-pocket costs that consumers are paying for things, whereas the PCE index that the Fed targets is a little bit broader of a measure. Listen to the big take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith.

This is Jacob Goldstein. And we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people. horrible ideas and destructive companies in the history of business. Having a genius idea without a need for it is nothing. It's like not having it at all.

It's a very simple, elegant lesson. Make something people want. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline business. The most Texas story ever. There's a lot of mavericks in that story. We're going to have mavericks on the show. We're going to have plenty of robber barons. So many robber barons.

And you know what? They're not all bad. And we'll talk about some of the classic great moments of famous business geniuses, along with some of the darker moments that often get overlooked. Like Thomas Edison and the Electives Chess. Listen to business history on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What do you get when you mix 1950s Hollywood,

a Cuban musician with a dream, and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time? You get Desi Arnest, a trailblazer, a businessman, a husband, and maybe most importantly, the first Latino to break prime time wide open. I'm Wilmer Valderrama, and yes, I grew up watching him, probably just like you and millions of others. But for me, I saw myself in his story.

From plenty canary cages to this night here in New York, it's a long ways. On the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderama, I'll take you in a journey to Desi's life, the moments it has overlapped with mine, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines. for a face like hours on screen. This is the story of how one-man's spotlight lit the path for so many others and how we carry his legacy today.

Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama as part of the MyCultura podcast network available on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHard Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic?

Then you've got a shot. Every year, we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeartPodcastawards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. One night that I think really matters, after your brother died, you guys moved to Wyoming, I think, and there was a night that your dad chased your mom around your house trailer because he was jealous. And that kind of set off a string of events that changed things.

Tell us about that. Yeah, he, you know, when he was not drinking, he was not maybe the most friendly, but when he was drinking, but when he was drinking, he kind of didn't even know what he was doing. And by the time we moved to Wyoming, after my brother died, he was working on a... Where did your brother die? Where were you living? We lived in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, so another suburb of Denver. Did you go to Wyoming for work?

Yeah, he got a job on an oil rig, which he hated. He didn't like the work. He didn't love the people that he was around. I think he was just generally unhappy. And honestly, he was just sad. I mean, my brother's death just was... I figured out later in life, you know, how terribly devastating that was for him.

And I think he wrapped in a... Did he blame your mom since she was watching? He didn't. You know, the interesting thing is I actually never heard them fight about my brother's death. Like, they fought about dumb stuff, but they never, they really kind of managed to get through the, the briefly there for, you know, maybe six months after his passing. They managed to get through that without, I think they kind of retreated into their separate corners and just were trying to breathe. and survive, but once we moved to Wyoming, it was kind of all bets were off. He was just kind of off his rocker by the time we got there. Yeah, he, so he never wanted my mom to work,

even though, I mean, he had a real issue with jealousy, and I think he thought if my mom worked, she'd meet somebody else or something like that. So he never wanted her to work. But when we moved to Wyoming, we were in a situation where they needed the two incomes. And so she got a job at the elementary school. And I don't know what he was thinking or, I mean, I don't think my mom ever cheated on my dad, but he had something in his head about something that was going on at the school and decided to, you know, start a big fight about it. And there was one in particular night where he brought, I was helping my mom peel potatoes at the kitchen table.

So I saw him come into the trailer from the shed outside with, I think it was my grandpa's shotgun and it was wrapped up in a blank, or like a towel, and took it in the bedroom, and stuck it in the bedroom. And that next morning, my mom essentially didn't let us go to school, and we got on a bus and left Lyman, Wyoming. Do you think he was capable in that state? I think, unfortunately, the truth would have been, like, we would have been one of those headlines where somebody does something terrible and then turns the gun on themselves. Because he was, he could get, he would be in a state of mind where he didn't. really know what he was doing, and anger was really kind of run in the show. And so that was, yeah, unfortunately, I think probably my mom was right to pack us up and get us out of there.

How old were you? I was 13, and then my sister was 12, 12 and 11, so. 11 and 12-year-old little girls. Yep. Trying to get through life, living with nothing but chaos and arguments. Yeah. I can't imagine at that age you didn't share with your sister's dad walked in with a gun. No, I did not tell them. Really? No, I mean, again, I was sort of the, I was probably more of the mom figure than my mom was in a lot of ways. Oh, you were protecting them.

Yeah. I mean, there were, it was not infrequent for me to hide them in the closet and play dolls and stuff just to, you know, don't ignore whatever's going on out there. How the argument was going on outside? Yeah, yeah, just here. Did it get physical? they did not it wasn't you know like some of my poor mamas have grown up with very major physical abuse in their childhoods both for themselves and between their mom and might not have been their dad whatever guy um my parents were not incredibly physical with each other but there were definitely times where it got physical and was more scary when they you know got going so the gun in the shed wrapped up in the corner of the bedroom that was enough yeah that was enough your mom had happened She said, okay, this is going on too long. Yep, we're out.

He runs off to work, I assume. Yep, he went to work. She just got us on a bus, and we went to her parents who lived in Longmont, Colorado, which is about, I don't know, half an hour, 45 minutes north of Denver. Lived there for a couple of years, and then my mom got a job. Did your grandparents know what was going on? Your grandparents? They did.

Yeah, they knew what was going on. Then they must have hated your father. They were not fans. Yeah. So, they. They were probably relieved to see y'all show up because they're thinking, okay, she's getting herself and the girls out of this most. Yeah, I think so.

But I think there was also a period of, you know, looking back now as an adult, I'm like, man, I kind of feel bad for my grandma and grandpa on some level because they ended up sort of taking on raising us a little bit for that year and a half or so that we stayed there, which kind of robs you of getting to be grandparents when you're the one. It also robs you of working your butt off your whole life to actually have some U-Time, and now all the U-Times are gone. Yep. I figured with four kids, I'm going to have one show back up at our doorstep, and the odds,

the statistics say it. Yes. Good news is we have a guest house at our house because these old houses, you know, they have carriage houses out back. So we call that the future loser house. Oh, there you go. Because which one of these jerk shows up and as a loser will just stick them out there and we'll still be able to walk around and have naked pizza Tuesday inside the main house.

There you can't believe you just said that. That's awesome. Oh, thanks. He said that to me before, but I don't think you said that on the podcast yet. Naked Pizza Tuesday? I thought it was Naked Taco Tuesday. It's the greatest day of the week, Naked Pizza Tuesday. What's the kids like?

We're not going to ask Lisa whether they got an equivalent. You just need to make sure your kids know that, and then they won't come home. We don't want to be there for Naked Tuesday. You talk about being scarred, walking on your 50-year-old parents eating pizza naked in the living room. You won't ever come back over. What do you think about that, John? Yep. Okay.

So, Filarious. Let's get back on to the story. I can believe, by the way, what's today? Tuesday. Yay. And Lisa's been out of town and she lands at 7 o'clock tonight. I'm going to have Papa John's waiting when she wants in the door.

Okay. All right. So I'm sorry. I'm a little off script. I can't remember. Okay. So you move to your grandparents in. Long, Colorado.

Which is a suburb of Denver, 30 minutes outside. Okay. So you're 13. Yeah. Chaos everywhere. Yeah. I've got to believe that at least at your grandparents' house, you could breathe a little. There wasn't any hiding in the closet playing dolls.

Yeah. No, that was, I mean, definitely there was a lot more order in their household for sure. Unfortunately, I mean, you know, I know now working with kiddos who are coming out of trauma, but you come out of trauma and you're, you know, you're just kind of not normal. So I didn't do great at school, had some bullying at school, had a hard time making friends. I don't think I was, I don't think I did a great job of making friends. I wasn't very, I wasn't in a good space, and neither were my sisters. And my mom was working all the time.

She got a job in Denver, so she was driving like 45 minutes back and forth to work. And so we were mostly with our grandparents. You were traumatized shell-shot children. Yeah, yeah. Who got jerked out of whatever little home they had in the middle of the night. who've lost a brother who have a drunk father who's abusive. Yeah.

I mean, making friends. Picking friends isn't top of your list. It's really not. Yeah. But it was when we left, when my mom got to the point where she was making enough money and we moved to Wheatridge, Colorado,

another suburb, but closer to Denver. And that was the year I started high school. That was kind of a great, like, new start. Like, okay, new school, reset. Nobody knows. No one knows. And, you know, kind of had an opportunity to just, you know, be a different person. And that was great.

I made some good friends. I had a reset, too. Did you? Starting high school. And that was at the start of high school. Yeah. Again, I needed another reset after that because that didn't particularly work out, end up working out great. But I do know the feeling of these are new people.

This is a new place. It's far enough away from where I came from. that I can be me now, and let's see where that goes. You went to high school here in Memphis? Born and raised, yeah, but I went from the city to the county. And Memphis is a big enough place that 20 miles in the city is like two completely different places. And so I did. I had to reset.

I understand the feeling is all I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's liberating a little. It was. And high school is great from the perspective of there's new things to try. Like I joined the choir and joined at the drama club. And there were things to do to kind of keep you busy. My mom worked a ton, so she was just kind of never home.

And my sisters were doing better and making friends in their schools. So life isn't terrible. Yeah, life's not terrible. It's improved. Yeah, life's improved. And you know you have some grandparents that love you and you can fall back on too. so you have some feeling of security that you did not have before. Yeah, yeah, definitely a feeling of being a more normal teenager.

We'll be right back. Hi, Kyle. Could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Thanks. Hey, just finished drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you. Here's the link. But there was no link.

There was no business plan. It's not his fault. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. My name is Evan Ratliff. I decided to create Kyle, my AI co-founder, after hearing a lot of stuff like this from OpenAI CEO Sam Aldman. There's this betting pool for the first year that there's a one-person, billion-dollar company, which would have been like unimaginable without AI and now will happen.

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The title of this thing, you're, I mean, you're the founder of Hope, House, Colorado, but the title is the true story of a teen mom, and we're in high school. So I imagine something's happening here pretty soon. Pretty quick here. Yeah. Yeah, so. Naked Pizza Tuesday with John. Not in high school.

Naked Pizza Tuesday is not for high school. No. High school is, high school is naked back seat. That is, that's pretty much true, coach. We're making John soon.

All right, so take us through it. Poor John. Not the specifics, just take us through it. Yeah. Well, I laugh all the time because I... Was John a friend a drama or something? Oh my gosh. He went to a different high school.

Okay. So anyway. I was chasing him. So he, I had a friend named Liz who had this, like, her mom had this P. Green, like, 1974 Buick. It was enormous. It was a boat. And the kids would go, like, cruise around the high school, or around the mall, sorry.

The mall. This is, you had, you and I must be close to same age because some of the things you're saying, but I graduated high school in 86. Yeah, yeah. When did you graduate? Yeah, 86. Really? Yeah.

John, too. All right. We're all basic. You're a cradle robber. No, he's older than me. He's 10 days older than me. Okay, all right. So, anyway, when you say cruise in the mall, boy, does that bring back memories.

That's what you did on Friday night. Or the McDonald's. Yes. And, well, we had a square mall. And so the cars, all the cars would go one way around the mall in a circle and then another set of cars would go the other way around the mall in a circle. And every once I'd get in and go in the food court. Yep.

And, like, as you were passing these kind of two rows of, of rotating cars, you'd wave at someone if you thought they were cute, like to pull over. So I tell the story today, I'm like, y'all young people who have, what is it, swipe right and swipe left, we were doing that way before you. Like, we just, we would wave at someone, we were just doing physically. Yeah, that's right. So here comes this, like, we're in this very embarrassing P. Green Buick, and here comes this, like, totally souped up, like, Nova, Chevy Nova, I always get the year wrong, 1974.

1972. I get it wrong every time. You had a 72 fixed up Nova? Oh, yeah. I bet you were the towns clown in that thing. It was a fun car. It was a fun car. So was it John or the car that got your attention? Well, kind of both.

Yeah. So the car definitely got our attention. My friend Liz was driving every time we went cruising, she got the driver. So here comes this Nova and this guy's pretty cute. And I'm like, we're waving at them. and I'm like, they're never going to pull over, but they did. And I'm like, I get the driver this time. You always get to talk to the driver, so they get out.

And he's like, his car is loud and awesome and cool, and he's like not talking. He's like, totally shy. But so cute. So we got in the, yeah, we sat in the back seat and just chatted that night and then made plans to meet at the mall the next night. And, yeah, take it from there. About a year later, I was pregnant. What grade were you in? I was a sophomore.

junior. Wow. Junior. And he was a sophomore. I was a junior. He was a sophomore. And you said a year later, you were pregnant. Yeah, and a year later. I was a senior. He was a junior. I had started school at four and his parents held him a year. He started at five. Yeah, year later we're sitting in that same souped up Nova outside of the clinic getting the results of a pregnancy test. So we met here, we conceived here, and now we're considering our fortunes here. Yeah, yes. And yes, we were. And so, My wedding proposal was like... What's interesting to me is I think there's a lot of stories of teenage pregnancy.

I think few wind married 50 years later. It's pretty rare. You guys are special in that regard. Really special. Yeah, definitely beats the odds. Every once in a while we meet another couple that were teen parents and got married and are still married and we're like, dang, we've got to be friends. Because there are very few, very few married couples still. Yeah, so we were...

So literally high school, sweethearts. Yeah, literally high school, sweethearts. But now you're pregnant as a senior in high school. He's a junior. Yeah. And... Yeah, plans changed a little bit. I mean, we got parents to talk to and everything.

Yeah. Yeah, his proposal outside the clinic was, what are you doing a week from Friday? I'm like, well, I guess we're getting married a week from Friday. So I made him... I love you so much. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you. That was probably in there somewhere. Ten years later, he did it right.

Got down on one knee. We did the whole re-wetting thing. It doesn't matter the fact that a junior in high school at y'all's age felt that sense of responsibility and willingness speaks a lot about probably John and where he comes from. A lot about him. And a lot about his parents. And I say this. So when we telling my parents that I was pregnant was not that big. I mean, I was not that concerned about that.

my mom was not really active in my life. My dad was, I didn't really care what I thought. But telling his parents was a whole other thing, because I'd gotten to go to their house for dinner, I'd come to know their family, like, I did not want them to be disappointed in me and I didn't want them to be disappointed in him. And to top it off, his mom has a chronic kidney disease. She had gotten, this is my warning to anybody listening. She had gotten strep throat and didn't take care of it.

It was sick in bed for like two weeks and didn't go to the doctor. Well, strep throat goes to your, one of your organs. If you don't, you'll get better, but it will go somewhere in your body. So don't let a sore throat go forever. So she let a sore throat go really bad sickness and didn't do anything about it. Found out when she was pregnant with her fourth that her kidneys were shutting down. The strep had gone to her kidneys. So she's on dialysis and had been for most of John's life since he was like six years old.

So we're going to tell his parents that, you know, what the news is. And we're down in there. They had like a kind of a wreck room where his dad. dad would do, they would do dialysis at home and his dad would, you know, set it all up and put the needle in her arm and all that. It was really, really good at doing that, and they'd watch a movie. So we're down there standing on the, you know, yellow shag carpet, and just, they're watching a movie and we're just standing there for like an hour. What do you mean, standing? Standing in the room? Like, just, they know he has something to

say, but he just can't get it out. So they just let him stand? They just literally let you stand there. Yep, they sure did. And you know they, you know they knew what was coming. They had to have, at least it gave him time to think of what it's saying. Something was going. Something was coming. And so no one ever looked over and said, what's going on? Why are you two lurchers standing in the corner like that?

What is up with y'all? They just, they let you burn. Yes, they did. Yes, they did. That's good parenting. That was good parenting. I mean, honestly, I say this. It was probably what came next was to me the single greatest act of parenting that I got to be a part of or experience.

And that is when he was. He finally said, you know, we're pregnant. You know, there could have been recriminations and anger and tears. And I'm quite sure that there were. You all are so responsible. You're losers. Yeah. What are you going to do the rest of your life?

This is going to change the trajectory of everything. I can hear all of the snap things that I might have said to my daughter, candidly. Yeah, exactly. And instead was. Which I'm sad to say, but I probably would have. Well, and, you know, I'm sure. when they were, and that's the thing, probably later in private, those things might have been said between the two of them. We'll never know. They won't ever tell us that. But in that moment, what they did was say, all right, let's have a conversation about what parenting looks like and what marriage looks like and sat us down and said, you know. The two of them. Yeah. Both had the same reaction. I mean, I think his mom probably started, but isish, yeah. Like, I'm pretty sure his dad was not real thrilled, but he didn't show that. I mean, what he showed.

was, all right, you're going to be, you know, you're grownups now. Like, you're going to have to act like grownups, and this is what it's, what it looks like. They gave us some great marriage advice in that probably half hour that we sat and talked. They essentially, the way I remember it and what I experienced was that they didn't judge us, they didn't shame us, they didn't stigmatize us, which is the exact example of what we do now at Hope House. I was not to say, this is the reason all of this matters. The reason all of it matters is they modeled what healthy parenting looks like and support and concern and empathy and care and whatever internal feelings they were feeling, they didn't put those on us. They saved that for later.

John, I got to ask you from way across the room over there. Hold on. Let them get on mic if you're going to do this. Well, I just, it'll be quick. I know, but people got to be able to hear it. All right. Well, sit over there real quick. Come stand over here by me.

I'm really, see, this is off script, but I'm just curious. Is that how you remember your parents even as an adolescent growing up, just those kind of folks? Yeah, they were very calm and loving and supportive of one another. And, I mean, I didn't always feel it when I was a kid growing up. But, like, I mean, I was scared to say something to something like that. I didn't think that it would go get out of the house, you know. I thought I would be supported, but you almost never know until you say it, you know. Did you know going in that after you said what you had to say, did you feel like ultimately you would be supported, or did you feel like they would lose their ever love and minds?

What was your expectation of their response to what you were going to tell them? I definitely thought they would be disappointed, you know. You know, the conversations, you know, we had about the birds and the bees was don't until you're married. So, you know, I'm sure they weren't not happy with this happening. But, I mean, I felt that they would be supportive, but you're still scared about it, too. Yeah. So, thank you. So.

Yeah. So they. What was your expectation of what his parents were going to do? You know, I don't know if I necessarily had an expectation. Mostly, like John said, I just didn't want them to be disappointed. Were you not scared? I didn't. I was, I wasn't really.

Really? No, no one's ever asked me that. I didn't ever really think about that. No, I wasn't really. I think I knew them enough by then, had spent enough time in their home that, like, they didn't yell about stuff. They didn't fly off the handle. So even then they felt safe. I think they felt safe, yeah, yeah.

That's what I'm trying to find out. Such a good question. I've never actually had it put that way. But yeah, I think they felt safe. The reason I'm asking is because I believe we are, as age and wisdom and experience makes us, continues to evolve us and mold us, I think we are a collection of the most important experiences of our life. It's what I believe. So true. Yeah.

And so even if you haven't fully recognized it, I would think that safety made a very big situation in your life manageable, which I would say translates to what you do today. Yeah, definitely. And that concludes part one of our conversation with Lisa. is Stephen, and guys, you do not want to miss part two. It's now available to listen to you. Together, guys, we can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see in part two.

If a Lenovo gaming computer is on your holiday list, don't shop around, just go directly to the source. You'll find exclusive deals on the gaming PCs you want, like the Lenovo Legion Tower 5 Gen 10 gaming desktop and Lenovo Locke gaming laptop. So avoid all that shopping chaos and price comparing and just go directly to the source, Lenovo.com, where PCs are up to 50% off. That's Lenovo.com. Hi, Kyle, could you draw up a quick document with the basic business plan? Just one page as a Google Doc and send me the link. Hey, just finish drawing up that quick one-page business plan for you.

Here's the link. But there was no link. There was no business plan. I hadn't programmed Kyle to be able to do that yet. I'm Evan Ratliff here with a story of entrepreneurship in the AI age. Listen as I attempt to build a real startup run by fake people. Check out the second season of my podcast, Shell Game, on the IHeart Radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Robert Smith, and this is Jacob Goldstein.

And we used to host a show called Planet Money. And now we're back making this new podcast called Business History about the best ideas and people and businesses in history. And some of the worst people, horrible ideas and destructive companies in the history of business. First episode, how Southwest Airlines use cheap seats and free whiskey to fight its way into the airline is. The most Texas story ever. Listen to Business History on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What do you get when you makes 1950s Hollywood? Cuban musician with a dream and one of the most iconic sitcoms of all time.

You get Desi Arness on the podcast starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama. I'll take you on a journey to Desi's life, how he redefined American television and what that meant for all of us watching from the sidelines, waiting for a face like hours on screen. Listen to starring Desi Arnaz and Wilmer Valderrama on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Podcasters, it's time to get the recognition you deserve. The IHeart Podcast Awards are coming back in 2026. Got a mic? Then you've got a shot.

Every year we celebrate the most creative, compelling, and game-changing voices in podcasting. Is that you? Submit now at iHeart Podcast Awards.com for a chance to be honored on the biggest stage in the industry. Deadline December 7th. This is your chance. Let's celebrate the power of podcasting and your place in it. Enter now at iHeartpodcastawards.com. This is an iHeart podcast, guaranteed human.