An Army of Normal Folks - Sam Fledderjohann: The Kidney Transplant Chain That Saved 10 Lives (Pt 1)

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

While 94.6% of kidney donors give them to someone they know, Sam Fledderjohann felt called to give a kidney to anyone who needed it. Her being what is called an “altruistic donor” enabled a whole chain of kidney donations to be unlocked, resulting in 20 transplant surgeries over 2 days that saved the lives of 10 recipients!  Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're watching a video that says we're going to cut your body open. Well, they're cartoon characters. What's that? They're cartoon characters. It doesn't matter. It's still your body. And you're going to be down for two weeks. You're going to have to be away from work and somebody's going to have to take care

of you. And you're going to have to go through all of this for someone that you have never met don't know don't love or don't care about Okay, but yet you're down for three weeks. You're down Somebody gets their life back Yeah, but you're giving up so much of your life, but they're getting their life back. How is that? How is that comparable? How is that comparable? I? just How is that comparable? How is that comparable? I just, somebody's child. Is it painful?

What? Getting your kidney taken out. Uh-huh. Worth it, I do it. If I had five more, I'd do all of them. 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've been a football coach in inner city Memphis and somehow that last part led to an Oscar for the film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated. Y'all, I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in 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 exactly what Sam Flutterjohn, the voice you just heard, has done.

Sam donated her kidney to a complete stranger. And because she was what they call an altruistic donor, it enabled an entire chain of kidney donations to be unlocked, which ultimately meant that 10 people who needed kidneys got them and are alive because of her. I cannot wait for you to meet Sam right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. ["The Daily Show Theme"] Snakes, zombies, public speaking, the list of fears is endless.

But the real danger is in your hand when you're behind the wheel. Distracted driving is what's really scary and even deadly. Eyes forward, don't drive distracted. Brought to you is what's really scary and even deadly. Eyes forward, don't drive distracted. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I speak with musician, photographer and philanthropist, Julian Lennon. One of the really important things that happened to me in my relationship with photography

and the images was that I would have people write to me, people that couldn't financially afford to travel the world or go anywhere, couldn't or were disabled and couldn't travel the world or go anywhere. And what they had all said to me is that you bring these stories to us, you bring the truth, you bring life to us of cultures that we would never necessarily know anything about. Photography really does allow me to do that. Have empathy for people on the other side of the world that you'll never ever meet, but you'll at least have some understanding of what their life is and what they went through or are still going through. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm Mark Seale. And I'm Nathan King. This is Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli. The five families did not want us to shoot that picture. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli is based on my co-host, Mark's best-selling book of the same title. And on this show, we call upon his years of research to help unpack the story behind the

Godfather's birth from start to finish. This is really the first interview I've done in bed. We sift through innumerable accounts, many of them conflicting, and try to get to the truth of what really happened. And they said, we're finished, this is over. The gun is not going to work. We gotta get rid of those guys. This is a disaster.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Cobla, Robert Evans, James Kahn, Talia Shire, and many others. Yes, that was a real horse's head. Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli starting February 19th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins, exactly. Oh man, this is fun. I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler.

Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French dressing. Exactly. Oh, that's good. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen,

Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lots more. Listen to the Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful. And I should have seen it coming. Samantha Fledder, y'all got a good guy. That's your last name. Close. I'm gonna spell it. Okay. F le D D er j o h a n n flutter john flutter john where I come from that is normal.

We're all over. What is the what what's what? What is that? Is that Swedish? It's German, I didn't choose it, I married into it. It's German and they are all over in our small town. When I hear a name like that, I picture your husband looks like a Viking or a lumberjack, Fletcher John. My husband's like 5'8". Okay, well I misread that.

You did. But welcome to Memphis. Thank you. From where do you hail, Sam? We are from a small farm town in Ohio, New Bremen. And your husband, Mr. Flutterjohn, is a farmer. He farms, yeah. That's awesome.

So did you grow up there? In that town, yep, I grew up in the area. So everything's so small, so if you grew up there, it's like four different towns. Got it, but that's where you grew up. Yes. So, did you just got to Memphis last night? We did, well, yesterday afternoon.

What'd y'all do? We ate, and ate. We, that's what we did. One thing you can do in Memphis is eat and eat well. Yeah, so we walked down Beale Street and found some barbecue, and then we made our way over to Elvis's house, Graceland. We didn't do the tour,

but we just looked at everything from the outside, saw the planes, and then we came back and ate again. They wanted to eat a tuna, Bill. We did. Where'd you get your barbecue? Do you remember the place? Some kind of pig, dirty pig, mad pig. Dirty pig.

Yeah, it won the 2023 May barbecue thing. Possibly Pig and Whistle? Okay. Okay, you don't know. But was it good? Yeah, it was. And the streets are pretty empty right now because it's crazy cold.

And where do we go? It had been there. Yeah, they said it different than we were saying it, but we ain't there. And then we picked up a Grizzly game last night. Yeah, they said it different than we were saying it, but we ate there and then we picked up a Grizzly game last night. Oh cool. So we could walk over there. Yeah, we won.

So we went to the Grizzly game by a landslide, yeah. Yeah, the Grizzly game funded. Yeah, it was a good time. We had a good time. That was just a random thing. We're in Memphis, let's go to the Grizzly game. Hey, we're in Memphis, let's go. Yeah, so.

Well good, welcome to our fair city. We had a good time. Usually when we introduce guests, we will say Sam, Flet Flutter John with an organization. All we're doing tonight, today is saying, Hey, Sam Flutter, John, dash no organization, no organization. But your story may be one of the most inspirational, uplifting examples of kindness, empathy, and giving that I think I've ever seen. Thank you for saying that. It's true. Thank you. I

genuinely feel like I'm in the presence of just one of the finest people I've ever read about and I cannot wait to dive in to your story. Before we do, I have a lot of personal connections to your story in odd ways. So as you tell your story, I will anecdotally say to you, Sam, you're not going to believe this, but, and I'll tell you why your story is so personal to me in a number of steps. One of which, ultimately, which we're not, we're gonna do a spoiler alert here, we're not, we're gonna get there everybody, but ultimately the persons whose life you really saved is the son of a dear, dear friend of mine. Which is the weirdest thing in the world that a dear friend of mine from Memphis as a son

in Ohio whose life was changed by your selfless generosity. And it's just so weird that we're sitting across from each other and I'm just can't wait to get into it. So I just read briefly that Your mom was 17 when you were born and you were child number two. I was tell me about that So my mother was 15 when she got pregnant with my sister

She then that relationship didn't work out. They were obviously children. My mom had her own interesting upbringing. She was the daughter of a German immigrant who married an American soldier. And that was a difficult upbringing. Let's put it that way. My grandfather was not the easiest man.

And then she met my father, who at the time was 26. And he was the My sister was just a few months old and no ten months old when she got pregnant with me with my father We have different fathers so You said they officially divorced from year 14. They did end up marrying. Yes, and they split Yeah, they did end up marrying for a bit and then they I was 14. They had two more children. My younger siblings are significantly younger than me.

Well, significantly six years. But um, so they had us to had a gap. And then they had two more. And then they split officially when I was 14. My mom left finally. So I can't imagine in an atmosphere like that, that there was any affluence. There wasn't. There wasn't. I wouldn't say it was bottom poverty.

My paternal grandparents were very, they were farmers and they were very, very good people and were helping some in that. Yeah, there was nothing. Before it became cool to shop at Goodwill, that's when we were doing it. Now it's what everybody does. It is kind of cool to shop at Goodwill, that's when we were doing it. Now it's what everybody does. It is kind of cool to shop at Goodwill now. Isn't that weird? Yeah, thrift storing is like up there on the cool thing,

but back then you were shopping there. You had to, it was a necessity. So your mom then married again, and I just read that it was an abusive relationship and then I read somewhere it said Alex found it that you saved your mom several times. What does that even mean? It does So my mom which my mom was um left my father who was not physically abusive But has his own mental health issues, and it was not a good marriage. So then she Rebounded and married pretty quickly

into a marriage that was very physically and mentally abusive. So I would come, I would be sitting at school and I would just have this gut feeling like you need to go home, you need to go home now. No, it was for cell phones because I'm not young. And I would go up to the office and I'd say, I need to go home, I'm sick. Okay, you have to go ahead and home, I could walk. And I would go home and find that he was in a rage. And I'd say, I need to go home. I'm sick. Okay, you have to go ahead and home. I could walk. And I would go home and find that he was in a rage and I would have to end, but for some reason when I would walk in, he wouldn't, it would stop.

He would leave. He wanted nothing to do with me. So he would leave. There were times when I did, I would wake up at the middle of the night and my mom would jump in my bed and say, tell him I'm not here. And she'd crawl to the bottom of my bed

and he would come in my room looking for her. And I would pretend it was pillows. I've hidden her in my bed and say tell him I'm not here and she'd crawl to the bottom of my bed and he would come in my room looking for her and I would pretend it was pillows. I've hidden her in my closet. He used to do things like in the middle of the night he'd get really mad at her and take all of her clothes and throw them in the yard. We lived in town so all the neighbors could see all these clothes and I would get up at four o'clock in the morning and pick up her clothes and bring them back in the house and clean all of the broken things outside so nobody would see. He would try to duct tape her and I would, you know, take the duct tape.

For some reason, he wasn't like this with my other siblings, but when I would come present to him, he would back off, not screaming, not yelling. How old were you? This time 16, 15, 16. That is traumatic yeah how how do you know 46 looking back 30 years on that now as an adult sure when once you get kind of self-actualized and you think back on your childhood I think we all as we grow things about ourselves reveal themselves to us when we're really thinking about our lives and then we kind of connect dots you know. How now do you look back

on your own childhood and process who you are now against what that was then? Only recently do I have a little more grace with myself. Grace with yourself? Yeah. Wow. I kind of feel like mom and I grew up together and I've always been her protector. She was a kid.

She was a child, trying to figure out life, right? And I've always been her protector in a sense or I felt the responsibility of protecting her. I was born with a protective empathetic soul, I think. And there's nothing I regret. There's nothing I would go back and change, except for, of course, for my mother, but for myself. I am who I am because I lived that life. I don't know how to explain or articulate that properly. It was scary. It was, you know, there were times where she would, he was left to go. My mom, my first, when I came back from college the first year, she was in a women's shelter

because the abuse I got I was gone so the abuse had gotten bad and she was in a shelter and I came home and we were in night from college that first semester and Christmas break and I stayed in that shelter with my two siblings the older was gone already my two siblings and my mom in this women's shelter in a basement and um she said well the dog the dog is still back at the house. Will you go? Will you go feed the dog? And I was like, Yeah, I'll go feed the dog. So I went drove to the other town where because the shelter was at the county seat and then we're down in a different town. And I went to feed the dog. And then I went to unlock the house to get inside to get some things she needed. And he was there. And it was not a good it was terrifying. That's probably the most terrifying for me because I wasn't in protective mode.

I wasn't defending my siblings. I wasn't protecting my mom. It was just me by myself. And that's the one that sticks out to me as the scariest because I had nobody to protect but myself. And I cared more about protecting them. I didn't, I just wasn't thinking and that didn't go great. And then, so then I drove as fast as I could to the next,

you know, I jumped in my car, ran, and because he just went to the door and just slammed his hands on the door and was just screaming at me. And so he just scared me. He didn't touch me, he didn't do anything. So then I drove to the police, I went to my mom, was working,

she worked as a bank teller at that time, and I went and I said, mommy's there, his is what happened, I'm shaking. And she said, you need to go to the police station. Well, I'm embarrassed to go to the police station. I'm not. That's embarrassing to me. I'm in college.

Look at me. I made it. And I was all of 18. And then it was a trespassing for him. And he was arrested and put in jail for the final time. for him and he was arrested and put in jail for the final time. I just it's just not natural for a 15 year old to be the person that is actually the roles were reversed. For sure for sure for long before that though. Yeah but I think the only reason I'm talking about this is I think it's germane to your

story. I just feel like the way you grew up conditioned you to be a person who always felt like they needed to offer help. Right. I think you're probably right. However, not I don't think as you mature and grow, not at the expense of completely of yourself. So my mom, you know, I don't want to make her this person who wasn't teaching and helping, you know what I mean? She really was. We did, my mom, like I told Alex, my mom learned to can from my paternal grandma. And we'd have all these cans. And as a child, she would take these, these, this canned cans and as a child she would take these these this canned Vegetables and things and she would take us we had nothing right?

So she would take us to the nursing home and we'd follow her along and she'd go in the rooms where nobody had they didn't Have visitors and she'd take them things. My mom was also a giver. That's that's how I grew up That's all you knew, you know, so this to me is As far as the giving part is just how you're raised in some sense, you know. That's beautiful. And the image of this horror story of your home against this feels like just, you know, German immigrant farming family who garden and canned and took canned goods when they didn't have anything at

all to old folks homes to give I mean it's it's such a dichotomy yeah yeah and just I think it shows like no matter what you see on the outside there's different things going on inside man it was you know, her heart was always she wasn't dealt the best hand mom wasn't but at the time she's she's a survivor and she's amazing. But she really instilled in us and it wasn't even about taking them the gift it was about time. You know, they just need somebody to talk to somebody to have a conversation with and she for what she had I think I think she did pretty well.

for what she had. I think she did pretty well. Oddly, we just had a we just had a listener send us an email. And we just did a shop talk on it that will be released. It may be released before or after this episode gets released. But it was her saying that she volunteers her times at retired communities. And that what she's learned is many old folks are just lonely. And she said, encourage your listeners for a lonely widow or widowed neighbor or someone in a retirement community, or your great grandmother or grandmother or grandfather that's there to spend extra time with them because they're just lonely. And she wanted us and we did, we took it up on shop, talk and did it. And it's interesting talking to you that your grandmother and mother and you as a kid did that very thing.

Yeah. It was just my mom, but she was only 23 years old, but she picked up on that. She knew that and she would drag us along with her and you know, cause we were. So sweet. Yeah. She was, she was, she just, um, my Yeah, she was she was she just my mama. I always say my mom wasn't raised. My mom survived and she did the best she could.

So everybody just keep listening. You'll get why. For Sam, for you that that that experience I think matters. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, we've launched a new written series called Normal Folks Wisdom. I think Alex came up with that. But first we've launched a new written series called Normal folks wisdom. I think Alex came up with that Did you come up with that and an army of normal dead folks people have strong feelings on that one already? So we'll see what they think about this. I

Don't know about these titles. But anyway, we've got this thing called normal folks wisdom. Come on. You like it I do like it. Actually, I like it better than dead folks, but whatever. What normal folks wisdom is, is it's the heroic normal folks we interview. And when they share poignant, cutting, practical, and oftentimes hilarious wisdom with us. So we want to make it digestible for Army members, especially if you don't get a chance to listen to every single episode, with shame on you, you should, or all the way through. So, we think everybody can find it valuable. The best way to start getting normal folks wisdom is to follow us on Instagram at Army of Normal Folks, or by signing up to join the Army at NormalFolks.us

as we're going to start emailing these things out as well. There's some fancy folks with some wisdom, but Normal Folks got a whole bunch of it and are often overlooked. So I hope you'll check it out. We'll be right back. and even deadly. Eyes forward, don't drive distracted. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I speak with musician, photographer, and philanthropist, Julian Lennon. One of the really important things that happened to me

in my relationship with photography and the images was that I would have people write to me, people that couldn't financially afford to travel the world or go anywhere, couldn't or were disabled and couldn't travel the world or go anywhere. And what they had all said to me is that you bring these stories to us, you bring the truth, you bring life to us of cultures that we would never necessarily know anything about. Photography really does allow me to do that.

Have empathy for people on the other side of the world that you'll never ever meet, but you'll at least have some understanding of what their life is and what they went through or are still going through. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mark Seale. And I'm Nathan King. This is Leave the Gun, Take the Canole.

The five families did not want us to shoot that picture. Leave the Gun, Take the Canole is based on my co-host Mark's best-selling book of the same title. And on this show, we call upon his years of research to help unpack the story behind the godfather's birth from start to finish. This is really the first interview I've done in bed. Ha ha ha ha! We sift through innumerable accounts. That is 35 pages isn't it? Many of them conflicting.

That's nonsense. There were 60 pages. And try to get to the truth of what really happened. And they said, we're finished, this is over. The only stuff gonna work is to get rid of those guys. This is just that. Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Cobla,

Robert Evans, James Kahn, Talia Shire, and many others. Yes, that was a real horse's head. Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli starting February 19th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins. Exactly. Oh man, this is fun. I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff.

And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast the puzzler. Dressing. Dressing. French dressing. Exactly. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself I bet I know what this is and now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun. Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen,

Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lots more. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful. And I should have seen it coming. So you go to college? I did. I didn't finish. Where do you meet the lumberjack farmer Fetter John guy? Well I met him later into adulthood. So I used to make

pies for a restaurant. So like I said my grandparents were farmers. I grew up, my grandma taught me to make pies. So I used to make pies for a restaurant and he was in that restaurant and the rest is history. Okay, so well, what you do for a living is interesting. Yeah. How did that? How did you wind into that? Yep. So I've been in the DD world for four years. I'm sorry, developmental disability for years. And I started years ago, I worked at an ICF, which an end where they were individuals with developmental disabilities Live in one home. Those have kind of gone the way where they don't do that anymore

But I worked there as their activities director and are we talking about? Downs kids and yeah, usually if they were if they live in an ICF They're usually a little higher or sorry, their needs are a little higher than just somebody with Down syndrome. So it could be, but it would be in correlation with something else. So. Okay.

So special needs. Special needs, for sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And then, so I did that, and then I worked for the Medicaid system doing some for the older folks who needed help in their homes, and then that kind of,

and I've always volunteered for Special Olympics since I was golly, I guess, when I was 30 when I moved back to the area. There's anybody in your family ever been special? No, what's your heart? Where's the? Why do you have a heart for that? Yeah, so come from? Yeah, I, I love people like I just love humanity and the humanity in that world and the culture of that world is so beautiful. And it's a demographic that a lot of people just kind of count out.

Well they don't understand. They don't, yeah, they do. And I just, I've always, you do it once and it's easy to get addicted. So I volunteered for the track team in the county that I live in. And then you're just sucked in because it's a beautiful beautiful complicated exhausting wonderful demographic of people I married Lisa when She was I guess 22 and I was 24. Okay, and so I met Lisa

Year and a half prior to that. So I'm 56 now. So that was 34 years ago. And when I went to pick up Lisa for our first date, I walked into, and I grew up with nothing, and I went to pick her up at this beautiful house. And already I was intimidated. You know, I'm like, first of all, she's drop dead gorgeous

and I am as some viewers have aptly pointed out on Facebook, according to Alex, kind of fat. Sorry, I feel guilty I said that, Bill. I'll find a handle on this, really you can't. Yeah, I mean, just a small intermission here, Alex informed me right before the thing. I actually feel guilty over it. That someone was kind enough to post on Facebook that he's a coach but he's fat is that what they said Alex? Yeah actually Ann Malam, you remember

she kind of actually made fun of you for that too in the first episode she said clearly did you made your players run but you didn't run? Yeah I mean a guest even called me fat. Yeah, I mean, and one though, that's the unique. Well, but Anne runs like 17 miles a day, but whatever, I can make fun of Ann too. She wants to start it up. But the point is just today we got a post about how fat I am. Didn't we? Yeah, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you. You should have. I'm over here. I mean, years and years of therapy to get over my inferiority complexes,

and that set me back at least four or five months. Do you want me to give you a hug? No, I do not want a hug. You probably couldn't get your arms around me. I'm so fat. I'm actually fat too. I need to lose some weight. You're not near fat.

I'm fat. I'm fat. Sam, is Mr. Lumberjack fat or is he in good shape? He works really hard. He's okay. Sorry, man. Good looking dude. Sorry. Not fat, I'm fat.

He's not in an office like us. Hey, Cassius, our videographer, he's fat. Aren't you fat, Cassius? Yep, all right. Just spreading it, okay. All right, sorry, that's a diversion. The point is, my not very unattractive fat ran pulled up to pick up this girl

who is gorgeous in this big old house unlike anything I've ever seen. And then this lady comes in to the door, her mother, who is beautiful and all this nice furniture and stuff. And as I'm waiting Lisa to come downstairs, take her out on her first date, around comes this corner, this interesting kid named Ben Lisa's little brother. He was eight at the time. And so loving wanted to he asked me 17 and a half thousand questions in the four minutes that I was standing there in the foyer and that was my introduction to special needs people and Ben has been part of my life obviously for the last 35 years. I have watched Ben play special office basketball. I've gone to bowling. I have visited him when he went to a large campus home in both Kentucky and Texas.

I have watched with extreme joy the way he still rips into Christmas presents when he gets them. I have also watched him get so angry that he will throw stuff through windows because of his frustration, because he is low enough functioning, it's probably third grade, maybe second or third grade, but he's had enough functioning to know he's not right. And the frustration that's inside of him because he can't communicate what's going on in his head and his heart because he is a human being. Still to this moment bristle when somebody talking about somebody who does something stupid says the words oh you're so retarded. I find it offensive and I have also been very angry when

we're out at Walmart or somewhere and watched people look or hear Ben and then or move away as fast as possible. And I also am embarrassed to say that my first, once Lisa and I started dating after that first date, and we became an item before getting married. I mean, we took Ben everywhere with us. And it took me a few months to get over my own insecurities about what people were looking at and saying about me being with Ben until I decided that was cheap and gross and I needed

to be a champion for Ben. So I have a very personal relationship with challenge folks. It takes a really special mindset to want to work with people like Ben. And just talk about a little bit. Yeah, so everything you say hits home. Why I don't have a family connection. These these guys, you know, my phone's nonstop. I'm sure I have text right now since we've sat down. They're they're I'm a part of their family.

They're all parts of mine. So I have I'm the coordinator for our county Special Olympics. And we have 67 registered athletes in a little old place like that. Yeah. How far of a geographical area do these 67 people come from? It's one county. Just one county? One county. Yeah. One small rural county. It's a rural county. 67 special needs and special Olympics. Go ahead. And so we have all kinds of different sports and when I first started all they had was bowling and once in a while

they had a basketball team, but so we have lots of things to my thought was We've got to offer more because right bowling is not right for everybody you know, you have eight-year-olds coming in who want to do things and So we just added sport after sport after sport so that we can be more inclusive because that's what we're trying to do Right have inclusive inclusivity and we've added um unified sports, which for us has been phenomenal unified meeting your traditional athletes from high school or college or adulthood, your traditional athletes play with alongside our Special Olympics athletes. And that is where we get, we have so much fun because friendships are built in, communities

built in. You're not just marked into one spot, right? So you have, then you see out in public and you see these in, it just brings awareness to the community with our unified sports, which has been, oh, just, I'm just so proud of them. I'm proud of all of our sports with the unified ones, because you see the high school kids come in and get it and they under, oh, okay. You know, and it's been, um, that's been one of the biggest joys of my life.

What I get back from this is 10 times more than I'll ever given. And when people are like, it's amazing that you do that, it shocks me because what I get is almost selfish. It just so so much into my life. It's phenomenal. Do you, I'd like you to speak to what happens viscerally inside you when you see people who are blessed with all of their faculties, 10 fingers, 10 toes, and a good sound mind, decide it's okay to belittle someone who's special needs because it happens. It does. And needs because it happens

And I forget it happens in jokes. It happens in language It'll happen in the old curl up your hands and you know act like that stuff It it absolutely is revolting to me What happens inside you when you see that given that you spend your life around? Special needs people caring for them and building relationships with them? Like I said, in because there's so much joy in there's I see the work that goes in with our folks and they're doing all the things right they're going to they're doing all the things right that I forget that it happens. And I just had it happen. I had a

populated email that came to me that someone can go in and fill out a form if they're interested and they don't know anything about our program. So I was like, oh, so I got it populated to my email. I called them and it was a high school kid whose friends had played a joke on him because they said, haha, he qualifies. And he's like, my friends are playing a joke. I'm really sorry.

And it just my gut. It just in my heart, like what I don't even know how to put into words. The disrespect is so real. And it's, it's just heartening. It's it's you're talking about some really good people, but they're they're they're human, right? So they're human. Sometimes they're not like you and I sometimes we're jerks, right? Well, these are you. But these are human beings living their best life doing their best, you know and to see somebody so minimize what they bring to this world is Makes me physically ill me too and physically and What kind of crap do you have in your own life that you feel like it's a valuable use of your time to denigrate someone who is not as blessed as you are?

Yeah. I honestly feel sorry for them. I do too. You know, to be so uncomfortable with who you are that that makes you feel better. Yeah, that's a tough life to live. You know what we say in the South? No. Bless your heart.

Bless their hearts for being so small. OK. I got that off my chest and I enjoyed it. Did you enjoy it? I did. I did. I hope somebody listening here is taking stock of that and make sure that.

I went to, I was involved in an organization who said obviously you can't lie, state or chill. Why state or chill lie cheat or steal? Yeah. And then it was just as big of an infraction against the rules. If you knew somebody was lying, cheating and stealing and didn't speak up. I think in this little conversation we have, great if you don't do that, but if you suffer people who do it and are unwilling to speak up against it on the behalf of someone who is not as fortunate as you, I

think it's just as bad. And so that's why I'm saying this is I don't think everybody listen to us makes fun of special needs people. But if you're around people that make fun of special needs people and you turn a blind eye to it, in my opinion, you're just as guilty. Speak up on behalf of the most needy among us. For sure. For sure. We'll be right back. For sure. For sure.

We'll be right back. Snakes, zombies, public speaking, the list of fears is endless. But the real danger is in your hand when you're behind the wheel. Distracted driving is what's really scary and even deadly. Eyes forward, don't drive distracted. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here't drive distracted. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing,

I speak with musician, photographer, and philanthropist, Julian Lennon. One of the really important things that happened to me in my relationship with photography and the images was that I would have people write to me, people that couldn't financially afford to travel the world or go anywhere, couldn't or were disabled and couldn't travel the world or go anywhere. And what they had all said to me is that you bring these stories to us, you bring the truth, you bring life to us, of cultures that we would never necessarily know anything about.

Photography really does allow me to do that. Have empathy for people on the other side of the world that you'll never ever meet but you'll you'll at least have some understanding of what their life is and what they went through or are still going through. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mark Seale. And I'm Nathan King. This is Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli. The five families did not want us to shoot that picture.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli is based on my co-host, Mark's best-selling book of the same title. And on this show, we call upon his years of research to help unpack the story behind the godfather's birth from start to finish. This is really the first interview I've done in bed. Ha ha ha ha! We sift through innumerable counts.

There's 35 pages, isn't there, very much? Many of them conflicting. That's nonsense. There were 60 pages. And try to get to the truth of what really happened. And they said, we're finished, this is over. The gun is not gonna work. You gotta get rid of those guys, this is a disaster.

Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli features new and archival interviews with Francis Ford Kobla, Robert Evans, James Kahn, Talia Shire, and many others. Yes, that was a real horse's head. Listen and subscribe to Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli starting February 19th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Something about Mary Poppins? Something about Mary Poppins, exactly. Oh man, this is fun.

I'm AJ Jacobs and I am an author and a journalist and I tend to get obsessed with stuff. And my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Dressing, dressing Puzzler. Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French dressing. Exactly.

Ha ha ha! Oh, that was good. Now you can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. I thought to myself, I bet I know what this is. And now I definitely know what this is. This is so weird. This is fun.

Let's try this one. Our brand new season features special guests like Chuck Bryant, Mayim Bialik, Julie Bowen, Sam Sanders, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and lots more. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's awful. And I should have seen it coming. So you spend your life when you showed up, they had bowling, and now they have like 16 sports. No, well we have not 16 we have Two different basketball teams. We have flag football. We have bowling

Football. Yeah, we just started this past year. It was a huge hit And our coaches, you know all of our coaches are volunteers, so I'm surrounded by these humans who are All of our coaches are volunteers. I'm surrounded by these humans who are on the same page as me. They're there to just love their athletes and to coach. Our coaches don't mess around. They're there to coach. We have unified cheer and a traditional cheer team,

which are both competitive teams. We have unified volleyball. We have unified golf. I don't know if I named them all, but we just keep our athletes really busy. Well, you said not 16, but you're already up to nine. Yeah, since, yeah. Oh, equestrian, we start equestrian too, which is-

Equestrian, really? Yeah, which is really neat. We were able to, I knew continuing to do this, we know we're, I don't wanna miss a demographic. And so our higher needs, we keep that for them, that that's, because it's very expensive, that's where they're a place to be. And it's been life changing.

I have families. What this does for our athletes is amazing and I never want to go away, but what it does for their families, they get to watch their child be the star, to do the things that traditional parents get to see their kids do, and which I lived for when my kids were growing up.

They also get to watch their kids smile and have relationships and they- We had one speak for the first time during equestrian for the first time. I mean, it is it is we had one girl who with the equestrian team she was called stemming, which I don't know if you're familiar with, but she holds stuffed animals and she just does this and these stuffed animals are at school, they never go down, they never go down. Now, a year later, when

she walks into that barn, her stuffies go down and she grabs her horse. And that's huge. It doesn't seem like a huge thing, right? But you have parents over sobbing because she put them down. And her horse is everything. It's just changed lives. I have parents tell me the only nights their child sleeps

for more than six hours are on the nights they have their Special Olympics event. It's life changing for families to not just not just our athletes. So people listen to us would think this is an episode about the Special Olympics and special needs people. I could talk about it all day. But guess what? It is not. That is just what you do. Yeah. And the story about your upbringing is just where you came from that I think all culminates into the crux of

why you're here today. Okay. And I want to tell you a little bit about why this story is so personal to me. When the Memphis Grizzlies moved to the FedEx Forum maybe 15 years ago, I was introduced to this guy named Mike who was a C level guy there and we formed a really good friendship. This Canadian guy moved to Memphis who was involved in professional sports at all kinds of levels and we really did.

We formed a really good friendship and then he moved off to Phoenix to become, I think, the chief administrative officer or financial officer or revenue officer or something for the Phoenix something coyotes. Were they hot? Yeah, so he's usually been chief revenue officer chief revenue, like the sons and the supersonics and the Columbus blue jackets. Yeah. I mean, he's been, Mike was all over the place, been a big executive in professional sports all over the place.

And then when he resigned from that, this cat moved back to Memphis and the reason moved back to Memphis is he loves Memphis. This Canadian that could probably live anywhere and I think he's got a masters and some stuff. He's really bright. Anyway, Mike and I became buddies and over the last few years Mike's been incredibly involved in Memphis. We have this new amazing tennis center that he kind of spearheaded happening and when

I say tennis center, the University of Memphis teams play in it. It's massive. It's one of the largest municipal tennis centers in the world. It's brand new. It's got indoor courts, outdoor. It's gorgeous.

And then I think the second largest municipal indoor, outdoor basketball arena that can host national AAU games was built in the middle of Memphis but it's a dual purpose or a multi-purpose place that you can host national chess championships you can host eSports championships which is a big deal. He's a multi-million dollar thing. He was the spearhead of that. The Liberty Bowl is now sponsored by Simmons Bank.

He was instrumental in that. The Cook Convention Center, a big convention center downtown, got renamed rights. He was center of that. I mean, he's just done stuff. He's a Memphis transplant who has done stuff literally all over our city to improve it and everywhere he goes he Improves our city and he is my buddy and I love the guy Mike Humes

so You know as you do when your friends and you go to dinner with your wives and stuff you talk about life and Mike told me about his kids and he told me about this one son he had that had some problems at birth and and because of the because of the treatment he had to have he lost his hearing and Had renal failure and whatever and so I knew about his son Scott and I don't know six months to a year ago we went to lunch

and he said that Scott's kidney had failed. He was being kept alive by dialysis. And this is after he told me that the guy got leukemia. And was I'm just like, how much can one father talk about how much his son had been dealt. I mean, deafness, then a kidney transplant as a young kid, and then renal failure again, and lymphoma, and he beat that. And I'm thinking this sickly boy in a bubble.

And what I find out is, despite all of this, this guy's going to college he's playing on US hockey teams they've won a national hockey something in Ohio and you know this kid despite having his hearing taken from him at a young age and having kidney transplants when he was like 13 or 14 or whatever and then having lymphoma and everything he still ends up playing hockey at a high level and competing in national everything and I'm just like what a testament to this guy that's the story for me that's it Mike my buddy who has this sick kid who's overcoming a ton of stuff and is just an impressive

kid. And then we're having lunch and he says he's in renal failure and if he doesn't get a kidney, he's gonna die. And you can see the con as any parent would have you can see the concern. But you could also see the fight and his and his eyes and you know, what do you say to a friend like that other than if there's anything I can do, let me know. I'll pray for you. I love you.

Do you need shoulder to cry on or just somebody to talk to holler? And then a short time long ago, he said he was going up to Ohio to be with Scott because he was getting his kidney and It was like wow amazing, you know and Then is And he didn't say anything else and then not too long ago He told me about this thing that the Medical Center at Ohio State did and this chain thing and how it all happened and that it wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for this innocuous, unknown woman who didn't have a single relationship to anybody in all of these ten people's lives who are saved by giving kidneys

who just out of the goodness of our heart said you know what i have two of these things i could donate one and save a life and i'm gonna do it and sam that's you wow i get tears even saying it sam it is the most selfless thing I've ever heard of. So I've revealed it. But I would love for you to take us through why I'm sure by now you're where versed in how this chain of events happens at Ohio State and explain that incredible work. How many lives were changed and saved? How many people were involved? I know that you believe in silent giving and I know you're not a

chest thumping look at me kind of girl. But you're gonna have to do that a little bit with me to tell this story and I am just in awe of your selflessness. So why in the world are you cutting your body open for people you don't know and how did all this work? You know, I've been asked that a lot in the last two months, not quite two months and I still fail to properly articulate unless you understand that still small voice and I don't know how to properly explain it to people who don't get it but maybe you will I'll do my best we've all see

online you know somebody knows somebody who needs a kidney right you see him when on backs of cars you see all those things and I've seen those for years just like everybody else has and I didn't have necessarily a person in mind But I remember I remember where I was and I felt it. I wasn't around any of those things, but Feeling it in my soul You need to get tested To donate your kidney and I don't know anybody in my family who has such things, but to explain that feeling is, I can't, except you know you have to.

On the same token, I processed it for a couple of days, making sure it wasn't a same thing, making sure it wasn't a, you know, when you're in the social work world, you can be accused of wanting to save the world, wanted to make sure that that wasn't that feeling, that it was a God thing. So I waited about a week.

Hold on, hold on. You wanted to make sure that in the weirdest way, it wasn't selfish, but it was a God thing? Yeah, I want- How in the world can be giving a kidney away be selfish? I wanted to make sure that it wasn't a thing that just I wanted to do. I needed to make sure that it was a, God, are you telling me to do this? Because this came out of nowhere for me, absolutely nowhere. And so I really wanted to dissect it and to make things. I do other things

for other people that I, that I just feel like I want to, but this was going to affect more than just me. This was going to affect my job, my athletes, my family, you know. So I needed to make sure. So I presented it to my husband about a week after I'd been praying about it, like, but this was not going away. It was getting louder and louder and louder. It wasn't.

And I, you know, and he's so used to me saying, hey, I really feel like we need to do this. And to be clear, you knew nobody at this time. I knew nobody. I don't know these people exist. What you just told me about this, this is the first I've heard this Scott story, to that extent. Really?

Yeah. I'm glad to share that with you because hopefully it, hopefully it helps you understand the impact of your selflessness. Yeah, it's beautiful. It's not me, but the story is beautiful. My husband is pretty used to it. He's like, well, okay. So I was going to-

No, your husband did not say that that's you just- Okay. There's no way. Okay, Sam, I'm calling BS. Okay, okay, okay. There's no way you walked in and said, hey Hey honey, I hope the harvest is going well. I'm going to give away a kidney. And he goes, okay.

That's not how that happened. You're right. You're right. Okay. How did that happen? Okay. So I said, I'm going to reach out and get more information. And he's like, and he is like, okay, well, the good news is Ohio state sends this video

and not only you have to watch it, but your caretaker has to watch it. He would be my caretaker in this situation. And they do an excellent job with the video. Again, he didn't say, okay, he's, but he is very used to in these last few decades, me saying I've got this, I've got this feeling, I've got this. And he's so used to that that he takes it with a grain of salt. So because the things have happened before I was like,

okay, that's not going to work. That's not what we're supposed to do. So he just takes it with a grain of salt and says, okay, I'll watch the video with you. He's this mate. Yeah. Yeah. My, you know, we're going to regional basketball tournament next weekend and my basketball coaches can't be there for other reasons and by the way, I'm a coach of basketball. Okay. This is his life. He knows this. He knew what he signed up for.

And that concludes part one of my conversation with Sam Flutterjohn and guys you don't want to miss part two that's now available listen to where a special guest join Sam. Together guys we can change this country and it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers and so many other fascinating people, like writer and actor Dan Aykroyd. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone. You know, you do three hours in the morning,

you write three hours in the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school, and write at night. And after nine hours, you come out with seven pages, and then you're moving on. Listen to Here's the Thing on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Dressing.

Dressing. Dressing. Oh, French dressing. Exactly. Oh, that's good. I'm AJ Jacobs and my current obsession is puzzles. And that has given birth to my podcast, The Puzzler. Something about Mary Poppins?

Exactly. This is fun. You can get your daily puzzle nuggets delivered straight to your ears. Listen to The Puzzler every day on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Mary Kay McBrayer, host of the podcast, The Greatest True Crime Stories Ever Told. This season explores women from the 19th century to now. Women who were murderers and scammers, but also women who were photojournalists, lawyers, writers and more.

This podcast tells more than just the brutal gory details of horrific acts. I delve into the good, the bad, the difficult and all the nuance I can find. Because these are the stories that we need to know to understand the intersection of society, justice, and the fascinating workings of the human psyche. Join me every week as I tell some of the most enthralling true crime stories about women who are not just victims, but heroes or villains, or often somewhere in between.

Listen to the greatest true crime stories ever told on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if you asked two different people the same set of questions? Even if the questions are the same, our experiences can lead us to drastically different answers. I'm Minnie Driver, and I set out to explore this idea in my podcast, and now, Minnie

Questions is returning for another season. We've asked an entirely new set of guests our seven questions, including Jane Lynch, Delaney Rowe, and Cord Jefferson. Listen to Minnie Questions on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Seven questions, limitless answers.