An Army of Normal Folks - The 36 Year-Old Single Woman Who's Fostered 67 Kids—And Will Change Your Life Pt. 1

Episode Date: July 14, 2026

At 25 years old, while many young people are still trying to way their way in life, MK Hill made one of the most mature decisions you can make—to foster a child. Today, at just 36 years old, the single woman has fostered 67 children, adopted six, and has built a home where kids who have experienced unimaginable trauma can find safety, love, and belonging. Even if we never reach MK’s level of righteous craziness, her story will show you how we’re far more capable than we allow ourselves to believe. And support foster and adoptive families like hers.  Check out and support MK's nonprofit, Many Arrows, here! Follow MK on socials @manyarrowsmama Subscribe to the podcast, join the Army at NormalFolks.org, and follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolksSupport the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When someone hears 36-year-old single-white Christian adoptive parent, I don't think would necessarily imagine what I'm looking at. A bright, but pretty edgy. Yeah. I think it's kind of edgy. Yeah. You got tats up your arm. I do. I just got the kid's names.

You got a small nose ring. Your right hands, fingers are tatted up. I mean, all tasteful. Yes, thank you. You got pretty fingernail polish on and all that. You're not what you would imagine when you first hear the story. So what do we do with that stereotype? I don't know.

What do you want to do? 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, well, it's somehow. led to an Oscar for the film about one of my teams. It's called Undefeated. Guys, I believe our country's problems are never going to 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 what M.K. Hill, the voice you just heard, has done. This 36-year-old single woman has fostered 67 kids and adopted six, and it's about to adopt another. Even if we never reach MK.'s level of righteous craziness, her story will show how we're far more capable than we all allow ourselves to believe.

I can't wait for you to meet MK. Right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Listen And you're there For heart-wrenching knockouts The world's biggest stage And breathtaking triumph In 2020-26 FIFA World Cup

The knockout stage Every match, every moment Listen on TSN Radio Join the globe On the road to the July 19th final 2026 FIFA World Cup Stream it all live on TSN Radio Available on TSN Radio.

Available on I Heart Radio. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your

entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week, we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. We'll give you our tapes. are debates and probably a few disagreements. We'll talk to athletes, celebrate big moments, and get into what's happening on and off the field, court, track, and beyond. Because we're not just interested in what happened.

We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. So if you're already a fan, you're just getting into the game, there's a seat for you right here. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

The Declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs about Enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it. Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself. I'm Rebecca Nagel. Gohine, Dawadol, Jalike Yatliqa, citizen of Cherokee Nation.

Are you guys big Chiefs fans? Hell yeah. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists,

policymakers, and performers like composer Mark Schaman. Once you've established that you have the talent, it's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. We would sit in kibbets for hours

and then eventually get around to the music. That's what I mostly think of when I think of him, the time together laughing. Lawyer, Rob, Kaplan. The great gift of being a lawyer is the ability to actually change things in our society in a way that very few people can. You can really make a difference to causes in the United States if you bring the right case at the right time. Marriage equality. Yeah, Windsor's the perfect example. Director Morgan Neville. Film school teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary.

What do you want to say? Documentary is all about your ear. What do you hear? I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. Listen to here's the thing. on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Mary Catherine Hill, welcome to an Army of Normal folks. Thank you. M.K.

How, when they start calling you MK? Oh, probably middle school. I think my horse trainer started it. I used to ride horses and he had to yell, Mary Catherine, turn this way. And he just started saying MK. It was shorter. I coached an MK.,

and her name was Mary Catherine. Oh, sweet. And I think she was my point guard, and I'm sure M.K. was much better than screaming Mary Catherine run this. So everybody, M.K. is the founder of Arrow's Nest here in Memphis, and is one of the more interesting stories that you're going to hear ever. because MK is a foster and adoptive mom who is single. Yes. And dove into this at an age where most kids are still trying to figure out what they want to be when they grow up, which is really interesting. And we'll get into that.

We'll get into all of it. But just kind of out of the box, you know, you're a 36 now? Yes. You're a 36-year-old single mom, and you have fostered 50 kids? Over 60 now. Over, you've fostered 60 kids. I think we're at 67, right on trend. 67?

Are you kidding? All right. 67 kids and adopted six. Yes. Adopted six as a 36-year-old single woman. You know, I'm just trying to. figure out how to get through the day right now, and I'm 57. I just don't understand how a 36-year-old young lady can even manage it. So what is it that you know that I don't? One day at a time.

I've always loved adventure, and we wake up and we go for it every day. Well, I mean, take me back a little bit. How does this even start? Really started in high school when I started going on trips to Guatemala to a big orphanage there. There were over 600 kids at the time at the orphanage that I went to. And the first time I got there, I was 16. 16. And the day I got there, I saw those kids and heard some of their stories and said, this is what I want to do with my life.

I knew I had always loved working with kids at church and stuff and different camps. But as soon as I saw and heard their stories and saw that, need, I was ready to move there that day. Well, another thing that's striking, everybody in case from Memphis, and for those of you you've seen the blind side, that movie was born out of a very large, very well-to-do, I would say affluent private school in Memphis called Briarcrest Christian School, which is where Jenny. Manguno, you know Jenny?

Oh, yes. Well, where she teaches. And we've actually recorded an episode out there with some of her students. Oh, yeah. They've done some things to help us. Okay. I don't even know this, Bill. I've spoken to her classes twice, too, like Career Day.

That's great. Yeah, they've done their, they do a great day of service every year. And they've come out to my house to clean up, paint, yard work, a lot of stuff like that. And it's a great place. But the kids that go there are largely from, largely from really affluent areas and wealthy, children and wealthy families. And I don't think the typical career track is to be single at 36, having fostered 57 kids and adopted 6. Right. 67.

Yeah, 67. So I get your 16, but your frontal lobes not developed. You're still a kid. Yeah. You go to Guatemala, and you have this sense of, oh, this tugs on my heart, which I is part of the design of some of these tropes. Yeah. To help form service and awareness of people in need, which is great. Yes. But not very many come back and say, no, I'm really serious. This is what I want to do.

Yeah. So take us from that trip through the rest of high school and into college and how it continued to manifest itself inside you. Yeah, I knew how I wanted to work with kids. some capacity. I wanted to be where the most need was. Even in elementary school, I was drawn to the kids that had special needs. I sat by a little boy on the bus that had Down syndrome, and I just loved being around him. So always was just drawn to the kids that needed a friend and needed someone to be their helper. And then, so after that first trip to Guatemala, I went back every spring break

and in the summer, then started going by myself, like Thanksgiving break, Christmas break. And whenever I could get down there. Your parents were cool with that. Yeah. They were a little hesitant. How bad. But I was like, I'm going. This is what I'm doing. So I went back as many times as I could, and then in college on the breaks, I would go down there, and I would stay in the dorms where the kids lived and see just how it worked. And so they have dorm parents that are over 30 to 60 kids in their house. It's like a big house with bunk beds in every room. And so seeing how that worked so well, and they have a great routine, they have their own school on property. And so I got to see the inside of how everything worked when I went on my own without a group.

So throughout college, I went back to the children's home, just fell in love with it. And my senior year of college, I found a trip called The World Race, and we went to 11 countries in 11 months. So I signed up for that trip and said, this is going to be my. decision maker to see if Guatemala is where I want to live long term or if it's somewhere else. So I went to 11 countries, three in Central America, three in Africa, and four in Asia. And we went all over these countries, carrying a backpack, lived out of a backpack for a year, slept on floors and villages, ate what the people eat, worked with them, whatever they were doing, we joined in and helped alongside the people.

out in like rural villages, and I loved every minute of it. And so I was like, okay, I just love the world. I love people. I love culture. I love getting to know the real side of things and not just the touristy side or what we see on TV, but getting to know the real people and how they really live day to day. And so on that trip, I realized I just want to be where the most need is. And came back from that trip and started working at my parents' church, because I

wanted to kind of bring back what I had learned to the students here in Memphis. Like you said, I was in the suburbs. And so those teenagers, they're dreaming about what they're going to do. And so I wanted to kind of invest in them and show them the world is bigger than this little bubble that we live in a lot of times. So I did that for a while and found the need right here. What did you find? Right after I got back from the World Race, I met a single mom who had aged out of foster care, and she was homeless, and she was at a Thanksgiving dinner that one of my mom's friends went to. And she had one of her babies with her and told her about her story and how she was currently 23, which was the same age as me at the time. She had six kids under six, and they were homeless.

She had aged out of foster care, and they were just barely surviving. And so my mom's friend connected me with them and said, I know you just got back from this trip. You want to invest here. Your students can help you do this. And so we met that mom and started helping her with job applications by uniforms for schools, read to school, sign up for WIC, apply for housing vouchers, all the things that you don't know how to do when you age out of foster care. you don't have parents, you don't have people telling you how to navigate all these systems and things. And so walking alongside her, I just realized the needs right here and how many gaps there are that people don't even know.

I have to ask the hard question. And we've been doing this now three and a half years. I have been educated by many guests on what aging out of foster care looks like. for, I guess you call them a young adult, but I don't think an 18 or 21-year-old person's really an adult yet. They're just, especially that are bouncing foster care to foster care to foster care home. They don't feel love. They don't feel they belong to anything,

and they certainly really don't have support. And then when they fall out of the foster care system, it can get ugly quickly. And anybody who listens regularly, but, you know, the data is very clear. that people that age out of foster care are three times more likely to have a substance abuse problem, four times more likely to be incarcerated during their life,

two and a half times more likely to be homeless. I mean, ageing out of foster care is not a, you're not sentenced to poverty because there's certainly people who have aged out of foster care who manage, but it's a precursor for a lot of people. So I get it. Mm-hmm.

And now a few messages from our gender sponsors, but first, we launched something new that I cannot wait to tell you about. The 10-level challenge is a personal service journey that you can go on with clear, actionable steps, that's the 10 levels, to deepen your service over time. It's like the hero's journey for service. And no matter which level you get to, I think you'll find that your community will be somewhat better and you will be a whole lot better as service transforms ourselves more than anyone. And get this, if you're among the first 1,000 people to complete the 10 levels,

we'll even mail you a free and exclusive t-shirt about crushing the challenge. Check it out and sign up today at 10-levelchallenge.org. Just the number 10-level challenge. I hope you guys will check it out. We'll be right back. Listen. And you're there. For heart-wrenching knockouts.

Breath-taking triumph. 2026 FIFA World Cup. The knockout stage. Every match. Every moment. Listen on TSN Radio. Join the globe. On the road to the July 19th final.

2026 FIFA World Cup. Stream it all live on TSN Radio. Available on I Heart Radio. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real.

Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments that take over your entire timeline. And the conversations that start during the game and somehow keep going all week. Every week we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. We'll give you our takes, our debates, and probably a few disagreements. We'll talk to athletes, celebrate big moments and get into what's happening on and off the field, sport, track, and beyond.

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. So if you're already a fan, you're just getting into the game, there's a seat for you right here. Listen to everyone watches women's sports. It's on the IHeart Radio app. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. The Declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs about

enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it. Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself. I'm Rebecca Nagel. Gohine, Dawadol, Jalike Yatliqa, citizen of Cherokee Nation. Are you guys big Chiefs fans?

Hell yeah. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin, this season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like composer Mark Shaman.

Once you've established that you have the talent, it's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. We would sit in kibbets for hours and then eventually get around to the music. That's what I mostly think of when I think of him, the time together laughing.

lawyer of Robbie Kaplan. The great gift of being a lawyer is the ability to actually change things in our society in a way that very few people can. You can really make a difference to causes in the United States if you bring the right case

at the right time. Marriage equality. Yeah, Windsor's the perfect example. Director Morgan Neville. Film school teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary. What do you want to say? Documentary is all by your ear.

What do you hear? I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The six kids by 23. Here's the hard question. Isn't there some personal responsibility in this thing?

Yeah, but I don't know. I mean, once the kids are here, I feel like, you know, people are always like, well, they shouldn't have that many kids. And I'm like, but the kids are here. So. I was wondering if you're going to say that. Right. The kids are here.

I had one text me just while I was on the one here. one of my girls, she lived with me when she was 17, and she's 23 now. She has three, and she just texted me on the way here and said, are you busy? I said, I'm on the way to an interview. She probably, the other day she ran out a formula for her baby. She needs a ride to apply for a new birth certificate so she can register the five-year-old for kindergarten. Things like that, she still asked me two or three times a week for help with. And she lived, she only lived with me for a couple months when she was 17. and she's 23 now and I am still her most consistent supporter. Three kids? Mm-hmm.

Why? How? I mean, even if you've aged out of foster care, you certainly know what that looks like in life, right? Yeah. I mean, I think it's normal to want to be a mom. And she does, and she does take care of them. She tries her hardest, and she's not out partying and no substance abuse issues. But it is just survival day to day.

And she wants to be a mom. She loves her kids. She's trying, but it's hard, even the ones that are trying. But like you say, even in the case of the first one you talked about, we can have this social argument about how somebody 23 has six kids. And I definitely don't want to toss stones as somebody who's aged out of foster care, but there is some personal responsibility that's just not being adhered to. I do feel that.

Yeah. I mean, and there's hundreds of. Thousands of them. Right. And that does not mean that my heart doesn't break for the person there because aging out of foster care is for child coming up. It's horrific. It really is in most cases. But to your point, it really don't matter.

Yeah. There's six children here. And unless you want those six children to be the next six that have six kids at 23, somebody's got to step in. Exactly. So you're 23. You meet her. You get involved and you help her out, which is beautiful. And then while most 25-year-olds are trying to avoid responsibility, I have a 30, 29,

28, and 27-year-old, and they're all now just starting to fully grasp what responsibility in the world looks like. So in 25, most are being dumb. And I can say that about my own kids. but you started fostering kids, and then you volunteered for more of it. Yes. How at that age and single, what are you doing for a living, by the way, at this point? I have a nonprofit, and I'm also, I started dog sitting.

My kids love helping with that. No, at this point. Oh, then I was a developmental therapist at Labonner, and so I worked at Labonner and did house visits all over South Memphis. So you're all in. LeBonner is LeBoner's children's health care for everybody to listen to us. It's not from Memphis, which is most for audience. So that's what that is.

So, I mean, you've got a degree and a real job, and you're doing life. And then you decide it's time to foster. Is that how that works? I'm asking, I don't know. Yeah, I signed up for the classes and said, I'm going to do this. I'm going to be available. I wanted my home to be open to the kids in the most need. And so I signed up to take the classes.

There's about eight weeks of training classes. to cover things like you get CPR certified, how to navigate the school system, court system, different things like that, safety concerns, how to work with birth families. And so after those classes, they'll come out and do a home study, do safety checks of your home. And a few weeks after that, you can be open and start getting phone calls and say, hey, we have a six-month-old boy at the hospital that needs a family tonight. And you drop everything and go to the hospital. don't take this the wrong way.

I grew up with a single mom my whole life. All right, men in and out, but it was basically a single mom. So two people can be a family. Yeah. But a 25-year-old kid with no husband. I mean, did it ever give you pause? It's like, is this going to be too much? I still have a job.

I have. I think because I had been to the children's home so much and seen their 600 kids there. and these dorm parents have 30 to 60 kids, and they're all, I mean, it's not perfect. They all come from trauma too, and it's a lot to handle. But seeing how well they did it and how I thought for a long time I was going to live there, and I would have 30 to 60 kids. So having four or five here didn't seem like a lot compared. You're nuts.

I know. You're certifiable. that, listen, I'm, first of all, I'm in awe of what I think is a lot of courage. Yeah. But I just, I cannot imagine at that age, willfully making that decision and not being scared. Yeah, I don't know. I had traveled the world and seen so many things. And so I think I had support here.

I knew more than I would in another country. And so that kind of felt like a little bit of a cushion. But just like we talked about Bill and Shop Talk. She had a taste of it, right? Yeah. She got a taste of it. So tell me about what it was like fostering that first time at 25 years old. My first call was for a six-month-old baby who was at the hospital.

I didn't know anything about him. I walked in the hospital room and looked at him and I said he's Guatemalan. And I had no idea. No way. I had no idea. He's a Guatemalan baby. That's kind of divine intervention. Insane, yes.

So I walked in the hospital, picked up a Guatemalan baby, and he's now my son. He just turned 10. You adopted. So you adopted your first kid. Yes. Yes. And so he's 10 years old. We're going to be on YouTube soon as soon as Alad gets his crue together.

I guess it's on YouTube. So you only get to see clips of this, but we'll be on YouTube eventually. but M.K. is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned, very Anglican-looking young lady. Yes. And the first kid you adopt is Guatemala. Yes. So that's interesting in and of itself. Yeah.

Everyone should follow their on social media, though. You got good content. So they go to Instagram, it's many arrows mama. And they could see it all. Many arrows, Mama. Many, all right. So how long did you foster before you just decided this is my son and it's going to be mine? Well, we had to go to the court system.

A lot of my kids have come to me with severe abuse, physical abuse. At six months? Yes. Broken bones, everything. I've had multiple that have come to me with skull fractures, broken bones. What is this little boy's time? My son is Luca. L-U-C-A-H.

Okay, Luca. And was Luca, had Luca had been abused at six months? I don't give details to specific kids' stories. Had Luca had trauma? He had, yes. Yeah, all of them have had the worst things you can imagine. I mean, they come from... Does that trauma at six months, do they...

Does that have an effect? Even at six months? Are they young enough to overcome that? Yes. They're all thriving right now. my kids, they all have great behavior, great grades in school. I have several that are truly miracles to be thriving the way that they are right now. So, Luke is 10.

So he's like in fourth grade? He's going to fourth. Today he's at a camp at the Humane Society. He loves animals. And so he's there right now working with the animals. Unbelievable. Yes. All right.

So you adopt Luca how long after you start fostered? Two and a half years. We were in court. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. The parents have to give up rights, I guess, or the state takes rights. They terminate them, yeah, usually, depending on the case, but they had to wait on medical records and criminal history. I mean, criminal charges and all the things have to be processed so that the court has enough proof to say that he can't return to parents. And meanwhile, you're just fostering.

Yes. And so during that time, I kept taking in several, yeah. How many more? Oh, I've had 10 at a time was my most. Ten foster children in your home at once. Yes, from all different birth families and situations. How are you doing this and working? Well, I ended up not quitting my job because I had to do it full time because they had court dates, therapy appointments, caseworker visits, birth family visits. What do you drive?

A 12 passenger van. We call it a party bus. You got to go see it after, Bill. I'll give you a tour. It's our party bus. You, you, so you're driving around at 12, look, again, most kids at that age want something sporty. They want to go out and have a drink with their friends and all that. You didn't hear anything about it.

Nope. I said, you know what? I'm doing the same going all in, driving the party bus. Wow. All right. So by the time Luca, two and a half years later, which you're now at that point, 27, when you're adopting him. How many foster kids have you taken it over that same period of time problem?

Oh, probably 15 in and out. Are you kidding me? No. And then two younger than him. So by the time Luca was two, I had two more baby boys that were six months and eight months that came to me close to each other. So I ended up with three boys under two and they all are adopted now. And they're like triplets. Luca, Judah, and Ezra.

Yes. All three of them ended up being adopted. Where were they from? Ezra is African American and Judah is Puerto Rican. And the three of them are just like triplets. The party bus must look like the rolling United Nations. It does. It does.

We're all different colors. Unbelievable. Yep. We're like a parade everywhere we go. Did you ever sleep? Yeah. Because somebody had to have been screaming at all times. They all sleep good.

Everyone, I'm scared to say it because I think the next baby I get. It's going to be the one that doesn't sleep. But I have had the best sleepers always. You've been able to sleep? Yes. We'll be right back. We're the host of the podcast, Encore. Check out our brand new episodes featuring music from the show that everyone is reheating as we speak.

Heated rivalry. Join me as I go behind the songs that brought Shane and Elia together. I'll tell you the stories of Fice, My Moon, My Man, Wolf Parades, I'll Believe in Anything, and tattoos all the things she said, and how they all be. became a part of this global phenomenon. Stream encore on IHeart Radio, crave, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist, Ari Chambers.

Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your girl, Sam J. And we're the host of everyone watches women's sports, a new podcast from Together in Iheart Women's Sports. Because let's be real. Women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. The highlights, the rivalries, the breakout stars, the moments to take over your entire timeline. in the conversations that start during the game

and somehow keep going all week. Every week we're breaking down the biggest stories across women's sports. We'll give you our takes, our debates, and probably a few disagreements. We'll talk to athletes, celebrate big moments and get into what's happening on and off the field, court, track, and beyond.

Because we're not just interested in what happened. We're interested in why everyone's talking about it. Because everyone watches women's sports. So if you're already a fan, you're just getting into the game, there's a seat. for you right here. Listen to everyone watches women's sports on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcast. The Declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered sentences and paragraphs about enlightenment ideals, does also have this darker history to it. Why is it important for the darker part of the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution? Why is it important that Americans know about it? Well, if we don't understand the full context in which our nation was founded, we won't understand the full context in which our nation now finds itself.

I'm Rebecca Nagel. Gohyn, Taoadol, Julykai, Etliqa, Leigh, Leigh, citizen of Cherokee Nation. Are you guys big Chiefs fans? Hell yeah. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment.

Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like composer Mark Schaman.

Once you've established that you have the talent, it's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. We would sit in kibbitts for hours and then eventually get around to the music. That's what I mostly think of when I think of him,

the time together laughing. Lawyer of Robbie Kaplan. The great gift of being a lawyer is the ability to actually change things in our society in a way that very few people can. You can really make a difference to causes in the United States if you bring the right case at the right time. Marriage equality.

Yeah, Windsor's the perfect example. Director Morgan Neville. Film School teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary. What do you want to say? documentary is all by your ear. What do you hear? I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you ever feel unsafe? No. I had a lot of teenagers. I used to do like short-term weekends. And so I would have several that were almost 18 and they just needed a home for a few weeks.

I had one that came to me at 17 and 10 months, and she was about to turn 18. She came to me, and I ended up letting her stay for two more years because she was so sweet. She was so helpful. She loved the kids. One day she went out and took all the car seats out of the car and just started cleaning the car seats, vacuuming out the car, just because they want to feel like they have a purpose and they belong to something. And she did that so well. And she worked the other day.

We went to Sonic, and I was ordering on the microphone at Sonic. And I said, can I have two blue raspberry slashes and two? And the girl on the microphone went, MK? No. And I said, Tasia. And she came running out, and it was her. She recognized my voice on the microphone at Sonic. And so I hadn't seen her in seven years probably.

With the numbers you fostered, that would happen at one of five different places you go to it. point. I mean, my goodness. All right, so I read, well, you decided to move into the inner city, yeah? Why? Yeah, I had my nonprofit, and I got connected with a ministry in Binghampton. Being Hampton, everybody is dead center of the city. And actually, there's been a lot of redevelopment in that area. Yeah. And so I got connected there and saw a lot of those developments in different networks and things that they had. And I lived in that neighborhood for a while. Then I moved to a bigger house and wanted to continue my neighborhood ministry there where there weren't any programs for the kids. And on my street alone, there were about 60 kids that were just outside playing basketball. A lot of the

parents are in gangs, dealing drugs, in and out of prison. And I met a few of their dads. And I just walk up and talk to them. I'm like, hey, are there a lot of kids around here? And I'm like, hey, are there a lot of kids around here, and they were like, yeah? Like, why are you asking? I mean, I'm the only white person on the street. And they just embraced me completely. I felt so protected on that street. They were watching out for me. I had teenage boys in and out playing basketball in my backyard. If they ever got into an argument, those dads were over there breaking it up immediately. They were watching out for me. A baseball broke a window one time. The dads went to the store, bought the stuff, came over and fixed my window.

immediately. And those kids just hung out at my house every day. All right, let's back up. There's the non-profit. How did that start? And what is it? It's called Arrow's Nest. And it started out as a neighborhood ministry. And I also... For the Binghampton kids. Yes. Got it? Yep. And the kids, the family that I was helping, the mom with six kids, they started staying with me a lot. And so helping. buy diapers, pay for daycare, buy bubbles and chalk and snacks for the neighborhood kids. And we started having block parties. Every holiday, we would have like a Halloween party, and people would buy costumes and come to

my house and help me do the parties and take them trick-or-treating. And then Easter, I had schools and groups that would pack Easter eggs and bring them down to the neighborhood and hide all over the neighborhood. And so we were planning block parties basically for these kids that have never experienced anything like that. Do before we move on, and I got a lot more to ask, but you have this infectious smile. Thank you. And you're great laugh, right? And you're bright.

In the midst of this feel good story, there's so much pain. I know that you don't walk past that. You seem to aware not to recognize it. Yeah. Well, the truth is, some of these very adults in these neighborhoods are the root of that pain. Yeah. Yet you have to embrace them to embrace the kids. How do you balance that?

Yeah. I mean, and they all remain so positive to me, but, I mean, there were shootings on the next street over of people that I knew of their cousin, their dad, their uncle. And being so close to those things, I grew up in the private school suburbs, and I moved to gang. Yeah, the gang territory, like, known they're not hiding it. Like, there was two different, very big gangs in the neighborhood where I lived. And I went, I mean, I watched boys go from playing basketball

and playing Uno on my front porch to the next year. They're stealing cars, and they've got criminal charges. and it's really hard watching how fast that they just get sucked into it because it's all they know. How do you balance that? I don't know. I love them as much as I can. And I mean, a lot of those boys, even after they're in that world, they're still, I mean, they're still people. They still have hearts and they still contact me and tell me, I miss those days back on McNeil.

I miss those block parties. Like, those were good times. and they still talk about those positive memories. You know, as I'm listening to you, I've had kids that played ball for me that now are in their 20s and have done two or three times in jail, and I feel like I failed them.

Yeah. I feel like I'm like, didn't you listen to anything I was telling you about staying away from this once coaching and everything else? But then when they come up to me, they're still that 15 or 16-year-old kid. They're grown ass men now.

who've spent time in jail and been involved in some rough stuff. And it just is a reminder that, in large part, the environment and all they knew gobbled them up. But if I cannot see that and remember the 15, 14, 13-year-old sweet kid that I really loved at one time. Yeah. They love playing Uno. That just if they had a different chance, maybe it wouldn't have turned out like that. Yeah. A lot of it is the environment.

You were living that environment. Were you worried about your own kids that you were adopting, getting sucked into that? Not really. I mean, they were all pretty young at the time. The teenagers that I had that were short-term, I think they kind of felt like they were a part of me, of my family. And so they wanted to help. They started reaching out to the neighborhood kids, passing out snacks, passing out waters. They would answer the door when the kids came to the door.

a lot of the kids in the summertime, their power would get cut off. And they would come ask for a, they asked me to keep packs of baby wipes in my fridge so they could come get a wipe and have something cool. And that's all they had to cool them off. I never knew that was a thing, putting baby wipes in the fridge. But that was their way of staying cool. Of having, yeah, something cool. And if their lights are turned off, their water's probably turned off. That's also a bath.

Yeah. I remember one time I gave a 12-year-old boy arrived. home and he they lived at grandma's house his mom was working all day he had five younger siblings there and he was at my house playing basketball I gave him a ride home and he wanted me to come in and meet grandma so I had given him a bottle of water and he went to put the water in their fridge and he opened it and it was completely empty and I remember I wasn't even thinking about it but as soon as I saw him open that fridge I went wow right here nothing here not not a thing. And there were five younger kids in the house and grandma too. Not a thing in the

bridge. You know, it's funny. You talked about, you thought you were going to move to Guatemala and then you recognized, wow, there's deed here. I don't have to go to Guatemala. Yes. That level of poverty is not much different than what you would see in some third world countries right here and good old US of A. Yeah. I mean, there, and there they have farmland a lot more. So they I mean, they get tortillas and rice and beans in the villages that we go to. And I think sometimes they have more resourcefulness and accessibility than even the people here do. All right. So today, your 36-year-old single woman is fostered 56, no, 67 kids and adopted six.

what would you tell your 25-year-old self today that you didn't know then that was fostering for the first time that would be helpful to that 25-year-old self? Probably to stand my ground more because I've always been like a fighter for the underdog, but I think I tried to please everybody instead of really standing up for a lot of people that needed it. and just trying to keep everyone involved as much as I could.

And I think it's important just to be for those people when they need you to just be for them and stand up for them in situations that other people avoid. And that concludes part one of our conversation with M.K. Hill. And you do not want to miss part two. It's now available to listen to. Together, guys, we can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see you in Port 2. 150 years ago, they were hunting us down to kill us,

and now they're hunting down immigrants to deport them. This is First America, the true story of how the United States came to be, and how we got to this present moment. Listen to First America on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, Here's the Thing. I talk to composer Mark Shaman.

It's about the hang. It's the pleasure of hanging out with the people that you're with. You know, Rob and I was always a great hang. And director Morgan Neville. Film School teaches you all the wrong things about making documentary. What do you want to say? Documentary is all by your ear. What do you hear?

I feel like my job is listening really, really hard. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. On Raiders of the Lost Podcasts, we explore cinema like no one else, including huge interviews with stars like Ryan Gosling on Project Hail Mary. It was like the Jaws Shark. Didn't always work, came with its own problems. That's what made it great. The cast of obsession. On set, there was so much magic happening with each scene we were putting together. Deep dives into classics like 2001 A Space Odyssey or Fight Club, plus weekly episodes on all industry news. Listen to Raiders of the Lost podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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