An Army of Normal Folks - The Secret Coffee Club That Can Heal Your Community (Pt 1)

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

What if one of the biggest solutions to loneliness, toxic division, and disconnection isn't another app or social media platform—but a simple cup of coffee? Ron Sparks and his friend Adam Foster started inviting small groups of people to semi-secret coffee gatherings in beautiful outdoor spaces. There was no agenda. No networking. No politics. Just coffee, conversation, and community. What began as a quirky idea has grown into a movement, inspiring over 60 people from across the world to apply to host a "Hush Hush Nomadic Cafe" in their community.  In this conversation with Ron, you'll discover: Why small gatherings are often more powerful than big events How to create genuine community wherever you live That crazy things can sometimes happen—if you just start  If you've ever wished your community felt more connected, welcoming, or your own life had more meaningful relationships, this episode is for you. 🔗 Learn more about Hush Hush Coffee and the Nomadic Café movement: https://hushhushcoffee.comSupport the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Joy is essential and it's also elusive. But now, there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kot me. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Listen to Joy 101 on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby is presented by CVS. American soccer is exploded. The knockout rounds are here. The U.S. won their group, and now every match is winner go home. I'm Tad Ramos. And I'm Tom Boger. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, we'll talk about the real storylines. Discuss the tactics that actually decide matches.

And give you the truth about the U.S. national team from inside the program. Whether you're a lifelong fan or this is your first World Cup. We've got you covered. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tab Ramos on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. 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, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know, and we're submitting our most sciencey episodes for your peer review with our new stuff you should know doing science playlist.

Out now. You want to know about Occam's Razor? Simplest explanation is usually the right one? We got you covered. Wondered what chaos theory is ever since the first time you saw Jurassic Park. Well, come on down. So distill a nice pot of tea every day. everybody, turn down the gas on your Bunsen burner, and slip into your most comfortable lab coat and listen to the stuff you should know doing science playlist on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'll get a little emotional because I can think of some things I don't really want to talk about, but I can see that there's people in the group that, like, whoa, I don't know where that's coming from, but, like, they need a place to be. I get it. You're saying they need a place to belong and it's safe, regardless of how they think, vote, love, worship, whatever. 100%. Is it that by definition what a health community is? The community is whoever's there. That's who's there. So it's got to work for everybody.

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 the last part unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about one of my teams.

It's called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems are never going to be solved by a bunch of fancy people and nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us. Just you and me deciding, hey, you know what, maybe I can help. That's what Ron Sparks. The voice you just heard is done. Ron is the co-founder of a semi-secret coffee gathering called Hush Hush Nomadic Cafe,

which you don't find out the outdoor location of until you RSVP. And even though Ron was just trying to have coffee with some of his friends, it exploded in Bend, Oregon. and it's now exploding everywhere with 50 different people applying to start a hush-hush nomadic cafe in their place. This may sound crazy, but semi-secret coffee gatherings could solve the loneliness epidemic, toxic polarization, and even save our republic if we just let them. I cannot wait for you to meet Ron right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. and you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts. Breath-taking triumph.

In 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 IHeart Radio. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast. Podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Cotney. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy. So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming.

I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer. and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartum depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast. There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it.

Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American soccer is exploded. The knockout rounds are here. The U.S. won their group, and now every match is winner go home. I'm Tad Ramos. And I'm Tom Boger. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, we'll talk about the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic.

I'm not worried about Balagan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. And give you the truth about the U.S. national team from inside the program. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the last. quarterfinals or potentially a great run into the semifinals. Whether you're a lifelong fan or this is your first World Cup. We've got you covered.

Listen, inside American soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramus and the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. The declaration, which is full of these beautifully rendered, you know, 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, Taoadon, Jalaka 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 podcasts. Rod Sparks from Bend, Oregon.

What's up? Hey, just visiting you here in Memphis. Thanks for being here. Ron Sparks is a co-founder of hush-hush coffee and nomadic cafes. He's from Bend, Oregon. First, thanks for being here and all the trials and tribulations it took to get here. Your story is interesting, and you're kind of groovy. Okay.

I'll take it. You're kind of a groovy little coffee dude. He's not hitting out here on. A groovy big coffee dude. And you co-founded something called Nomadic Cafe, which I found interesting since when I hear Nomadic, I think Crow Magnons and beaten things over the head and eating meat. Okay. Yeah. So what nomadic?

What do you think in there? What's that all about? Yeah. It's like, at least in the West, like right now there's like there became that like no. nomadic lifestyle. So you've got nomadic remote workers, nomadic people in their vans. But it's that idea of like moving, right? So the nomad moving across the land, that kind of thing. And it's a popular thing in the outdoor space, this idea of being a person who's going to different places. And so that's where the nomadic part came from. And it came out of my buddy Adam, who is the other co-founder who runs this with me. We actually originally call it pourovers in the park because we like the alliteration. And then we realize like we're not just in the park. Like we're really getting out there. And so nomatics. seemed like a cooler turn of phrase at the time. So when I hear that, instead of people coming to a cafe to drink coffee, you're just setting up a coffee cafe wherever. Yeah. So what we do, very Oregonian, by the way. Yeah, it gets weird out there sometimes. Yeah, yeah. That's groovy.

Yeah, yeah. So there's, we call it semi-secret. And so the idea is like that we basically send out an invite. If you want to come find us, like everybody's invited. You've got to ask. So, and then, And then when you ask like, hey, I would like to come, here's the date, general area. Then we say, great, this is the exact spot. Now you're in, in. But that exact spot, like where we are, there's a bunch of beautiful nature in town. And so sometimes it's in a park and it feels like it's nowhere. Sometimes it's cozy under a gazebo like today.

And then other times, because of where we are in Oregon, we can go 20 minutes out and literally be in the wilderness, somewhere amazing. And then we hike all the coffee gear in. So we bring 90-liter packs and we tote the water out. And if it's a big group, then we'll have a friend help, the care. crew and we try and scout out like beautiful spots that we love that when the sun comes up it's going to be an amazing little moment and then when people show up like we've set up a nice table we've got our bougie pourovers out there like we're doing it up like it's it's unnecessary you could just hike out coffee in a thing right it's not a big deal but it's like that whole experience is cool

it's just it's just different so yeah that's what we're doing with the nomadic cafe so i mean you're setting up legit we ain't pouring some folks just crystals in a bag. No, no, I mean, that would be what Julia, my wife would enjoy sometimes. Sorry, Julia, calling you out. She buys the, sometimes, I think, despite me sometimes, as like a funny joke. She's like, oh, I've got decaf, you know, crystals. But, you know, we take all kinds.

At which point you curl up in a corner. Yeah, it's fine. You're like, oh, what are you doing? It's fine. It's fine, it's fine, in quotes. That's just fine. But, yeah, we, so, yeah, so we take the bougie coffee out. We also roast coffee.

We're really passionate about it, me and Adam. So that's, like, part of where it comes from. And then it's fun to share that passion with other people. It's contagious. It creates curiosity, and it's like a cool, it's a cool thing to share. Well, I mean, we're going to get to, you're like a coffee geek nerd guy that's like, really gotten deep into the coffee thing. We'll get to that in a second.

But this starts to feel like it's just not about the coffee. It seems like it's about outside. And when you're in these beautiful places, when the sun comes up, all of a sudden you forget distractions. And it's kind of a little mysterious to it. And it feels like it just slows down and allows people to just meet people as people. I mean, that's what this feels like. Am I missing it or am I getting it? That's like right in the main thing.

Like we started with the idea that we didn't know what it was going to be. And so we were like, okay, we love coffee. but we also wanted some connection. And we wanted to make something, but we didn't want to just, like, what I was telling Alex earlier, and what we often think of as early on, we had the mantra of, like, just invite people and don't build a ghost city.

Like, we don't want to build one of these, like, big, idealized things in our image of what we think we should make. And so we were like, let's just invite people in and see what it becomes and start small. And so that is, at first we thought, like, we would learn, like, I actually don't know what I thought we would learn. but what was reflected back, like within a couple months

of doing one of these a month as just for fun was people would say like, oh, this really feels like a community or I feel like I'm part of a community because I'm here with these people. And I remember having the tinge of like a little pushback on that.

Like not in a bad way, just like, oh, I don't know, it felt like too much for this like little coffee thing that that's what was being created. I can get how that might feel like, okay. Like I'm not doing a thing. Like we're just like inviting people

to hang out outside coffee. We're just being a little silly and mysterious and having a good time. At the same time, though, it happened to be like the thing everybody's craving, which is like real connection, disconnecting from the digital fog machine, you know, the device in your hand. And it's really hard to just do that. But if you have like this replacement, that's really cool, then like suddenly that moment becomes magic because you have these people connecting in this place. And so we started hearing people like, I mean, making friends very quickly and feeling like they were part of a community. And we would get to have these moments where we could see people connect in a really cool way,

and it just started to feel like magic. And so, yeah, that kept us going because it was like, cool, the coffee is really fun, but paired with the outside mystery and this really cool, like, community thing we saw happening. It was like, okay, we'll just keep pulling on the thread and keep doing this because it's fun and seems to mean something to people. I love that. As a side note, this is not part of the prop that Alex provides me with, but I am wondering because I'm a little intolerant to coffee.

I think the overabundance of caffeine in the morning, I have to be very near a place to be private to let the coffee do its thing inside my body. It does feel, I mean, it's cool, and I get it. And today, my day started at 6th this morning, and I have not stopped. And pretty much every day feels like that. And the idea, just me kind of close my eyes and hearing you of sitting somewhere watching the sun come up, slowing down, turning my phone off and drinking coffee and just hanging out with some people and having chats, actually just hearing that makes me exhale a little. You should come to our next one, Bill. Yeah, but it feels a little cultish. I mean, it does. I mean, I don't think the FBI is going to start.

up. I'm not saying branched of vidians here, but I am saying, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so why do you think it's become kind of all the rage in your world? I mean, it, sometimes it feels like a small world. That's interesting. Like, because I'm hearing this reflected back in tidbits, like the world, like Alex was saying earlier, like I tend to downplay what we're doing in a way because I'm like, oh, it's very small and local and where we are. And at the same time, Yesterday I got messages as I was traveling here from people in Cape Town, in Finland, in the Netherlands, in five different states. And so it's like people are craving this connection. So I think that's cool that for whatever you see online, the thing that's happening is like in the real world, people are taking a minute to just be people.

There's literally zero agenda. And we also do a weekly thing at the bike. My wife has a bike shop. And so we do a weekly like two hour Friday morning before work like hang out. And it's the same concept we just wanted to do it more frequently. But the through line is that it's become a space where when you show up, like, yes, there's coffee. But you're there to just connect in some way. And some people show up, they don't know that that's exactly what's going to happen.

But it's just an atmosphere where there's enough people that have come before where they say hi. You make people feel like they matter because they've been invited. you're then giving them the gift of like listening to them and then you're like calling out what's good in them and connecting them. And that whole experience I think is something that you're just doing it because you want to do it because it's a good thing to do as a human.

And I think that ends up being cool and resonates with a bunch of people. And it's like for whatever content we put online, the real world thing is like so satisfying that like I think people can like taste it a little bit and then they want that. And so that's why it's becoming hopefully something cool that more people do. I think there's another little magic to the recipe that it's kind of semi, what'd you call it, semi-my mysterious?

Yeah, semi-secret. Yeah. Because when you get let in on the secret, now you're part of the club. Yeah. I mean, that's a little goofy, but it's awesome at the same time. It's super fun. It's super fun. And like, originally, as we've been talking to people over the last couple weeks, it's like, you, like, don't

just go to the park and tell people where you're going. Like, you can. I mean, do whatever you want to do. But if you want people to lean in, if you want to play the game of hush, and you want to be, like, even with your friends, even with my friends, I will tell them like, hey, are you around this week? Yeah, okay, cool. We're thinking about doing something, you know? Like, hey, like. What are you doing?

Yeah, I mean, they know what we're doing. I get it. But I hope you play the game. Yeah, exactly. And it's, it's fun. Like, so is the hush, hush about the secret? Or is the hush, hush about shutting out the outside? world just being quiet and present.

What is the hush-hush? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I don't know if I'm allowed to tell you, but yeah. Oh. There it is right there. Yeah, yeah. You can't know unless you show up, right? But if I came to one, could you tell me what hush-hush?

Yeah, really. Also, there's some people out there still, like, they've come to events and we hand out cards without much description. And, like, you know, there's a little mystery here and there. So, yeah. And then, like, if you want to know what that means or what that is, like, okay. I mean, I almost feel like I'm in an escape room that if you get out, there's a guy with a cup of coffee. Yeah, yeah.

It's such us. Yeah. I love that. I mean, I really do. It just adds a little fun to it. Yeah. And admittedly, you're even saying it tongue and cheek and kind of, you got a little slight grin when you talk about it. That even makes it fun.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, it's also a creative outlet, right? So for us, it's like a really fun expression. It's not our full-time jobs or anything. Like it's a side project that's kind of getting slightly out of control at this point for people to connect. So if we're going to do something, it's like let's have some fun with it. Let's make it enjoyable for us. And like sometimes that means like invites are super last minute or we get crazy ideas.

Like, you know, we'll do the river stuff where we go on the river. And I realize as I say this, you might not have any context. So we'll just find fun ways to express the cat. in different places, but also, like, we like to get creative with, like, how we might do events to keep them mysterious or something you have to come find so that, like, that whole experience is, I don't know, a fun part of being a human. And then, yeah, like you said, like, once you get the invite and get there and get in, then, like, cool, you're in. Like, that's the way in. Let's be honest. Everybody likes a treasure hunt. I mean, yeah, I do. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, that's very, very cool. And now, a few messages from our generous sponsors, but first, Alex, finally, after a year of people begging, has gotten off his rear end, and we now have our merchandise store is alive. All you got to do is you go to normalfokes. us and click merch, and you'll see all kinds of cool stuff, shirts, hoodies, hats, magnets, bags, banners, and all of this for each of our six local service clubs, too. So you can get a generic one that just says an Army and Normal Folks, or you can get one that says an Army and Normal Folks, Memphis, an Army and Normal Folks, Wichita. So you can get it for your service club, but you can get it just for listening, you know, wearing your normal stuff. The other

thing we've done is we really did want people to wear it, so we've priced every item at the cost to make them $0 in profit for us. So we figured the more folks that can afford this stuff and the more items they can buy, it's just helping spread an Army and normal folks across the country, So we're trying to make it as inexpensive as possible for all of you. So get yours at normalfokes. Us today. Help us grow the Army and your community and look cool representing the Army and Normal Folks brand. We'll see you wearing that stuff when you send us pictures and we get to post it on our social media. We'll be right back.

Listen. And you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts. Our world's biggest stage. And breathtaking 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 IHeard Radio. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Okay, if you know me, you know this. I'm always searching for inspiration, for support, and useful tools to help maximize joy.

So this podcast lets us uncover all of that together. We're going to have these meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people. Like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges that she never saw coming. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer. And that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner retaragement. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Olympic champ Sean Johnson revealed why she had no choice but to be a gymnast.

There was something about gymnastics that was intoxicating to me. It's given me a belief that we all have one of those treasures inside of us. We just have to find it. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American soccer is exploded. The knockout rounds are here. The U.S. won their group, and now every match is winner go home. I'm Tad Ramos.

And I'm Tom Boger. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, we'll talk about the real storylines. I'm not worried about Policic. I'm not worried about Balagan. I'm not worried about McKinney. My only concern is what happens in the back. And give you the truth about the U.S. national team from inside the program. It wouldn't be a huge surprise if our team ends up in the quarterfinals

are potentially a great run into the semifinals. Whether you're a lifelong fan or this is your first World Cup. We've got you covered. Listen, Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos in the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcast. Hey, this is Chuck from Stuff You Should Know,

and we're submitting our most sciencey episodes for your peer review with our new stuff you should know doing science playlist. Out now. You want to know about Occam's Razor? Simplest explanation is usually the right one, we got you covered. Wondered what chaos theory is ever since the first time you saw Jurassic Park? Well, come on down. So distill a nice pot of tea, everybody, turn down the gas on your

Bunsen burner, and slip into your most comfortable lab coat and listen to the stuff you should know doing science playlist on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A little data 30 years ago, only 3%. Now listen to this, 3% 30 years ago of American men said they had no close friends. Three percent. Good grief. One out of 30 had no close friends. Three percent said that. Now it's 15 percent. So 30 years ago, only one out of 30 said I didn't have a close friend, meaning almost everybody did. And I would argue one out of 30 maybe didn't want any close friends, right? It's true. Yeah. Sometimes I get that too. But it 15 percent today say they don't have close friends.

What do you think happened to us? I think we all know what happened in a way. Like, I think it's obvious. I think we live in the age of the attention economy. We're post-attention economy, basically. So the average person now has three to five friends in the U.S., but we get 6,000 ads a day. So, like, where's my time?

Like, if you have a family and a job and a mortgage and a phone payment and and and whatever the thing is. Like you've got different things. Like, or all of the above. Yeah, so there's both like the replacement of connection with the appearance of connection from online. So you have this challenge of the facade of connection. Yeah, I think that's it.

I think it's like the internet did its thing and we all got this like the fast food version of connection. And then it's really hard to break away from that. I read something recently that said never, obviously, never in the history of the human race, have we been able to get more information and be more connected through digital sources? And at the same time, been so long. Yeah. That's the paradox.

Yeah. And so we, like, I call that the digital fog machine, which is- The digital fog machine. And so that's like, your little phone is putting out this more culty, deep understanding. But, like, your phone is putting out this fog. into the world and that's how you see the world right and you're part of it so you have the crank in your hand like you're also putting out that into the world but then it makes it harder to connect in real life with people and so we have to find like anecdotes to that and one of those things like

because we can't turn it all off anymore that's not going to happen either but if we can find small little pockets of places to connect then those things become extra meaningful i think right now because people are extra hungry for them and if we can make space where the stakes are low for people that are in that smaller percent. I mean, that's not the stated intention, but it's the thing that we happen to be doing, and now I'm very aware of it. So I'm playing the coffee game and the secret game,

but I also know that if people show up and they feel like they're part of the community, then they'll care about the community. And then, like, everything's, you know, there's just good to be had there when people know each other and feel like they're a part of it. We've done lots of research that said

when people feel like they're a stakeholder in the community and engaging community, the community improves. Yeah. And then your health, as a result of being part of that healthy community improves. So you get more out of it than you put into it. Yeah. But you keep using the word community.

And I think that's real. I have just kind of a chase of squirrel up a tree question here. I do a lot of business in Oregon. I sell lumber. Yeah, I mean, there's lumber in Oregon. Well, but I sell lumber to work. Oh, you sell it. Because the kind of lumber that grows out east doesn't grow out west.

You guys have ponderosa pine and all that. but we have oak and cherry and hard and all that kind of stuff anyway i do a lot of business out there companies called emerson hardwoods and many others and they're in and around portland which is what 30 minutes from bent uh plus three hours oh three three hours what i say 30 minutes three hours is what i'm ever met but it is that area right yeah yeah and socially and culturally that area is earthy out there Dorsey. Yeah, yeah.

Portland especially is the one town on the entire West Coast that I think you could plop down on the East Coast, it would look like it belonged because it has some of that old architecture and everything. I love Portland. I think Portland is just a cool town. There is also a lot of diversity in thought in Oregon. Yeah. Both.

This is not a political show, so I'm not going politically. But there is some diversity. When you get inside the cities in Oregon, it's typically very, very, very progressive and liberal. But there's parts of Oregon outside of those cities that are incredible. You might think you're in Middle Mississippi and so conservative, which is an interesting juxtaposition of people living together under one state flag. Yeah, yeah. My whole question of curiosity is, do you get a little bit of everything at these coffee things? And how cool must that be when we can turn our phones off and put all that horse crap aside that's dividing us and watch the sun come up and have coffee?

I'm just wondering, does so much of what divides us in our digital age melt away at these coffee things? Yeah, I think there's two honest answers to that. One is that there's a little bit of self-selection happening for people that are going to go outside and connect with other people. I bet. Yeah, that's fair. that makes sense. So I think the people that are showing up are open to that in some level.

It doesn't mean they're all extroverts, by the way. There are plenty of people who come hang out and I kind of want to pull them in and then I find out like, oh, you're okay just hanging here on the side and you just want to be like a part of it but not in it. And I love those people hanging out with us.

And I think they can, anyways, I have a sense that they understand and it's great. They can also just look at the sunrise as well and sip some coffee. And then I think the other thing is that, yeah like we're all the same in the ability to like enjoy beverage around people and and drink something and we literally have no agenda and where we're at we do get a diverse group of people there's also a

bunch of people that have become friends and are friends and so there is a mix of people who are already like in the group now that we've been doing it more the group the thing that they can show up to they feel like maybe already a part of it they know some people and there's new people and I love the balance of people that have never been and people that have been 10 times and people that are now really good friends all in the mix together. And I do think that where we are like, yeah, it's a wide diversity of people

and that's what I would hope would come and hang out. And that the thing that we model is like connect around what's going on that's... I mean, if you have something going on that's hard, that's going to happen. But I hope that also there's a place where the spark of the thing that you're excited about, like you can connect with other people around that

or the goodness in the moment, like whatever is going on. There's like, we're outside, we're humans. We're, like, disconnected from the stuff that's pulling at our minds for a minute. Yeah, that stuff this is fort your mind is just hush. Yeah, yeah, it's true. For real? No, I totally agree, yeah. I can't tell you how many times we've talked about it on the show,

but how many times you see people from different walks of life who Fox and CNN say, I'd hate each other. But when they start serving together, could care less about any of that anymore. Yeah, and it's a lot harder to hate people you know. It's so hard to hate somebody face-to-face. It's really easy to hate somebody or, and hates a really strong word. So it's not even quite hate, but it's.

Use hateful language about. Use hateful language about to have a stereotype in your mind about what that person thinks and does, et cetera. And like when you get to connect with somebody, it's this, again, it's not like what we're doing on our events or it's not what we're intended to do. It's not a agenda. But it's just some of the things that happen is like, when you show up with the thing you're excited about and have a shared experience,

that other stuff doesn't even enter into the picture a lot of times. You may notice some outward external signifiers about somebody's life for sure. And those people, it's great to have all kinds of people in the mix and have other people just accept them. And it's not part of what's happening. It's just you get to be there together and enjoy this space. And I'm like, I'll get a little emotional because I can think of some things I don't really want to talk about, but I can see that there's people in the group that,

Like, whoa, I don't know where that's coming from, but, um, wow. Crying at my own thoughts here. Like, they need a place to be. I get it. Yeah. So people. I think it's so cool that you're getting emotional about it. But you're saying they need a place to belong and it's safe, regardless of how they think, vote.

100%. love, worship, whatever. 100%. If it isn't that exactly what community, it's so, isn't that by definition what a health community is? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, making space for each other and showing up. Because it is, like, the community is whoever's there.

Like, that's who's there. So it's got to, like, work for everybody. I love that. As I was reading your story, I started in my mind's eye just trying to visualize these goofy cult coffee drinkers watching the sun come up at a secret location. And I did. I giggled. And I thought, that is absolutely something I would do. Right. And then I started thinking, especially in a place like Oregon, what must that collection of people look like? I mean, it's also a lot of my friends

at this point. Sometimes I worry that like, is this just my friends here? I'm like, oh, no, like, I hung out with enough of these people for a long enough time. Yeah, they are friends now. And there's pockets of them that are closer friends and then there's space for other people. So there is like this combination of hanging out with the people who are friends and also like having new people in the mix and feel like they totally fit, you know, for the morning and like that they get to be a part of that. And so yeah, it is a little bit of a goofy collection of people sometimes nerdily being outside, taking photos, being giddy that we get to be outside, like doing our outside things. But it's great, yeah. We'll be right back. Listen.

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Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. American soccer is exploding. The knockout rounds are here. The U.S. won their group, and now every match is winner go home. I'm Tad Ramos. And I'm Tom Boger. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer, we'll talk about the real storylines.

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Listen, inside American soccer with Tom Bogart and Tabramos and the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, 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, Tao a don't jaleika yetli kei la, 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. I just think that childness is healthy. I think it's awesome. All right, so I think that's what has happened to why men. and say they have fewer and fewer friends is because they've lost community.

And I think a lot of the loss of the community does have to do with the divisions that are put in front of us and it just feels like this potentially can as a side benefit, break down some of those divisions. Yeah. I mean, it's hard to not enjoy somebody watching the sun come up,

drinking a cup of coffee in a beautiful spot somewhere that is your own little spot for an hour. Totally. And it makes you feel small. Like you see how like, you know, in a good way, like where you fit in the whole thing. A lot of people when they hear about doing work to build community, this army of normal folks that we keep talking about, somehow think you've got to have 400 people showing up to something.

But you honestly are looking for 40. Yeah, yeah. It's more fun for us when it's 40. We'll do more. I mean, what are the rest of us missing there? Explain the power of 40 over 400 in your world. world. Yeah, I think, so there's different levels of gatherings. There's an author, Priya Parker, who wrote this book, like The Art of Gathering. And one of the things I... Say that again?

The Art of Gathering. That's a book or something? Yeah, it's a book. Really? I remember her. Who wrote it? I think her name is Priya Parker. And if I'm getting... The Art of Gathering. Yeah. I'll look into it for a shop talk or maybe having her on. Really? Yeah, she's awesome. I was honestly a little bit starstruck. She messaged me a while back about when we were doing it. I was just like, I have your book on my shelf. Are you like, So it's like, is this just your media person? And then she had some really thoughtful input about what we were doing. And I was just like, wow, this is really cool just through, you know, text.

But one of the things that she lays out in there is, like, how the different sizes of groups feel and how that changes, like, how you're hosting an event. And so, and some of it's pretty obvious. That's interesting. But, like, if you have 12 people, everyone, like, at the edge of 12, maybe it's like 10, everybody can kind of be together and feel like they're having the same conversation or be part of the same. thing. And maybe it's a little less than that. And at some point, then it breaks into a couple like subgroups. And so when you're at that 40 size, it starts to feel like a party and the groups are kind of broken up, but they're also intermingling. It's a really nice size. When you get to like 75, if it's a good event, and that's like the max that we will do at this point.

You've had 75 people show up to drink coffee. We've had more. Yeah, more. Are you kidding me? Tell them how much? How was your peak on? Well, I, yeah. I mean, That's hoping a lot of water up a mountain somewhere. Yeah, we won't do it again. But we had, I'll just say, over a hundred. You're going to hush us, mule to carry it in. We have our friends. They're not mules, okay?

You told me you have almost 140 people there was your peak. Yeah, yeah, by accident. That's unbelievable. The secret got out. The secret got out. So as the thing grows online or people want to participate more, we have to find ways to, you know, keep it small, but feel like people can be included

and find different ways for different people to be in it and for us to still enjoy it because it's also like the thing we're doing because we like to do it. So yeah, so at 75 people, if it's going well, it feels like this electric party where everybody kind of feels like they're part of the same thing. How long does this really go on?

People got jobs and stuff, right? I hope so, yeah. Do you hang out for like an hour or something? Yeah, yeah. It's basically like two hours. So we have like two different versions. One will be weekday before work, like, you know, 850 we're done. Like, we've got to go to work as well.

Like, we've got jobs. Somebody's got to pay for this coffee. Yeah, yeah. And usually those events actually dwindle a little bit sooner. So we'll, and we keep them simpler. And then sometimes on the weekend, they'll go same two hours, but maybe people hang out for 30 minutes longer. But yeah, yeah, that's it.

The art of gathering. Yeah. This is a personal thing for me. I still think America is the greatest country on the face of the earth. I do business in 40 different countries, and I've traveled all over this globe. And there are some great places and great countries and great people. I still think we have the best system. We have the best everything, really, at least potentially.

And, you know, people always talk about the freedom of the press, the freedom of this, are inalienable rights. I think people often forget that maybe the very most important freedom we have as Americans, one of our rights is the right to gather. Hush, hush coffee wouldn't even be legal in China. You can't get more than 12 people together without it being sanctioned by the government because I'm scared of death of what 40 people might talk about. I'm going to take notes because that tells me for the Chinese friends, you know,

okay, guys, max 11. We've got to do hard R's VK. They're in America. They figure it out. The whole point I'm saying is when I hear the thing, the art of gathering, there's a freedom in the art of gathering. There's a freedom in building community that I think we Americans need to not take for granted because there's people all over this planet right now that can't even do something as simple as having a cup of coffee with more than 10 friends. Yeah. What a beautiful opportunity is for us to grow our community and gather and us not take advantage of it.

And we just need not take that right for granted, I think. And I guess that's a diatribe of my own, but it is one. My son lives and works in D.C. And he and I've had that conversation a few times, and he's come back from being overseas from stuff. And he's been like, Tad, it is unbelievable. These folks can't even get together and just talk. Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah, there's an interesting correlation there of, like, some places it's not allowed and some places it doesn't happen.

And... It's also true. Yeah. So in our case, like, again, it's so strange to talk about it in this context sometimes for me because it's not, like, the thing that we are setting out to do. Like, maybe it's, like, leaning really hard into the normal side. But I am also very aware that that's the space we're making. And so if that's what people are doing, then, like, cool. we can be intentional in helping make that like a good open space for people.

My friend Jeffrey Davis says, open up, don't size up. And so we also are aware of like when you're showing up, don't size up, love it. Yeah. And it's just like the way that you're showing up in those spaces when you are gathering. And because we are like you said so fortunate to even be able to do that, that then like, cool, that's step one, step two is like how do we show up then? And everybody's got different capacities and abilities.

So if we're the ones hosting, then, you know, if we're having a good time, other people are going to have a good time, and then we can hopefully encourage people to show up that way too. I love at the very top, the very first thing you are extremely, you are going to point it out,

we have no agenda. It's coffee and the sunrise and just hanging out and having some community. What's amazing is all of these side benefits that oftentimes people start out

with that agenda and fail, you have no agenda, and kind of haplessly are being successful at some of these things. I think it's kind of cool. It's human beings being human beings is what it is. Yeah, it's like all the things that we're trying to do is get back to being healthy as a society or as a community, which ends up being like, okay, what do those things look like?

And it's like, okay, cool. Like, I can't do all of it, but we're literally just like, let's just behave that way. And then it seems like, oh, well, that's a shortcut to being that way. It's like, we didn't build another thing. We just made a little tiny space for that. It's not all the space, all the time, what you need, but it's part of the tapestry of what's needed, I guess. So yeah.

I love that. Our culture is all about speed, and I am the worst. I am every minute's planned out of every day, and I'm rolling, and I am six to seven during football season, 13 hours a day, and there's no way I get it all done if I don't go fast. But your thing, Nomadic Cafe, is all about slowing down. Is there health in that? Tell me about the slowdown effect.

I think it comes from the natural way that we're making coffee. So it's connected to like we're doing a thing called slow pour. So in the world of coffee, of coffee passion, me and Adam both come from the place of like, you know, going deep on like, okay, like pulling the thread and finding out like, oh, this coffee comes from like a farm somewhere. and by buying this coffee that's like one you know some percent of the world's coffee is specialty and that means like these farmers care about it and there's this whole journey like back in the day got popular state there's a hundred hands that touch the coffee before it comes to your cup like and then the barista is the last step so there's like this knowledge behind what we're doing that like this whole process takes a while it's an agricultural product and then when we make it sometimes you just got to

like make your coffee and get your caffeine and go but when we're making it out for people like in the best form, sometimes we'll pre-brew stuff, but in the best form, it is slow pour. So it's a coffee filter, and we grind the coffee by hand out in the woods, so we're grinding it. No kidding. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Alex saw it today.

We're just out there like, I'm just grinding coffee. I was grinding beans today. I handed him the grinder. And he's like, how does this work? I'm like, oh, I'll show you. Yeah, and so we grind the coffee, and there's like a ritual in that, right? So like, you get to. And the smell.

And the smell. And you get to enjoy the process of making. I think that's also why, like. Is that what's, slow pour is, is actually the grinding the beans. The slow pour is then like literally you're pouring, you put the grinds into the, often outside, there's a bunch of ways to make coffee, but it's a V60. So it's just a 60 degree filter.

And then you just slow pour the water, let it do its thing, slow pour. So that's the process. And so we would joke in town. We'd say like we're Ben's slowest coffee, like when we had our little like two hour thing in the morning. And it sets the expectation of like, we're, we just kind of kind of calm down. And so even for us, like when we start to go too fast and you feel rushed, it's like, hey, like, you know, if you slow down, you can be smooth, smooth as fast. Like, we just have to remind ourselves that that's okay.

And then that just permeates into the physical thing we're doing. It, like, mirrors what we want people to feel, right? And, like, the whole world is pulling us to go so much faster all the time. And so to have a place where it's like, oh, like, the thing we're trying to do is just chill out a bit. It's just nice reinforcement. And I think it's also why it resonates sometimes. online because people, they're literally seeing that in the moment on the fast thing. They see the slow thing.

And it's just a nice reminder of, yeah, I do, I do want that. Maybe I can do that in some way, whether it's going to an event or deciding to do something that's like, I'm not going to automate the thing. I'm going to do an analog thing because the process of making is satisfying. And it's true, like, with art too, right? Like, you don't just want the music. You want the making of the music because that's where the goodness, like, is in a lot of things. And that concludes part one of.

of our conversation with Ron Sparks, and you don't want to miss part two that's now available to listen to. Together, guys, we can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. Joy is essential, and it's also elusive, but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence, Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotbby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplift, and moving on-air chats. Listen to Joy 101 on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Joy 101 with Hoda Kotbe is presented by CVS. American Soccer has exploded. The knockout rounds are here. The U.S. won their group, and now every match is winner-go-home. I'm Tad Ramos. And I'm Tom Boger. On our podcast, Inside American Soccer,

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