EP. 59 "Breakfast with Ben"....Birthdays! Birthdays! Birthdays!

How does an unforgettable father-son birthday celebration sound? Picture waking up to "Breakfast with Ben," where I share the joyous occasion of turning 59 alongside my son Jake, who fortuitously shares the same birthday and turns 37 today. From the nostalgic tale of Jake’s C-section birth on my 22nd birthday to our beloved tradition of homemade tacos, this episode brims with heartfelt family memories. Don’t miss out on the heartwarming details, and make sure you’re subscribed so you can keep up with all our latest content.

In "Global Chatter," we dive into the profound themes of George Orwell's "Animal Farm" and highlight the daring 1978 transatlantic balloon flight by the Double Eagle II crew. We also discuss the earth-shattering 1999 Izmit quake in Turkey, and the relentless tremors that shake Southern California. To add a global perspective, a listener from the Philippines joins us to chat about natural disasters and their regional impacts. We wrap up this segment with birthday wishes and celebrate the podcast's international listeners.

Remembering the legacies of Greg Kihn and Jack Russell, we pay tribute to their incredible contributions to music. From Greg Kihn's hit songs and inventive album titles to Jack Russell's enduring career despite numerous challenges, their stories are both inspiring and poignant. We also share personal updates, including my niece Anita's health journey and my resilient friend Eddie’s uplifting spirit in the face of terminal cancer. This episode is a blend of celebration, reflection, and heartfelt connection that you won’t want to miss.#tellyourstory #familymatters #thebenmaynardprogram #podcast #superman #cancersucks #lovetoeddie #livertransplant #lovetoanita #bithdaycelebration #newsubscribers  

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram
and subscribe to my YouTube channel: THE BEN MAYNARD PROGRAM
I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hey there, everyone, good morning. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. I greatly appreciate it. This is something different, right? Let me fix some stuff here. I'm just working on the. Let me see, there we go All right. Yeah, I was working on a couple things here. This is something different, right? Yeah, breakfast with Ben. So, welcome into the Ben Maynard program. As I said, something different, just trying it, not really trying it. There's been a lot of stuff going on and we'll get into it in a little bit, but before we do that, we have some housekeeping to take care of, so let's get through it.

Speaker 1: 0:53

As you know, this podcast is available on multiple outlets streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, amazon Music, spotify and iHeart. Yeah, isn't that great. I might have to stop doing that, because you know what? Really, this program is available everywhere. Podcasts are available anywhere, pretty much anywhere, and everywhere you can stream your podcasts. That's where you can find the Ben Maynard program, so I'm going to have to work on that. Revise that a little bit, right? Or look, just search the Ben Maynard program and you'll have plenty of options to choose from. Again, like I said, it's available everywhere. Pick your option and just go with it and, like I said, it's available everywhere. Pick your option and just go with it. However, if, like today, you cannot resist all this right here, this beauty, and you're watching on YouTube, then please subscribe to the channel, give me a thumbs up and leave a comment, because you know I like your comments, you know I read your comments and you know I reply to them as well. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram. Ben Maynard Program all one word. So there are plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure, and with that, it's breakfast with Ben.

Speaker 1: 2:25

What do you know? Who'd have thought? Right, come on, who thought of that one? So here's the deal. Let me move this, let me turn this over. I did a little bit of show prep, not a ton, but a little bit and we'll go through some of that.

Speaker 1: 2:52

First and foremost, hey, it's my birthday today. Yeah, how's that happen? That's great. So, yes, it's my birthday today. That is actually not why we're doing the live stream, just kind of worked out that way and, as I said, we're going to get into some of that. But yeah, it's my birthday. So happy birthday to me. I came into this world 59 years ago. Isn't that great. That's special. Uh-oh, what's happening here on the phone? Nah, everything's good, but I thought this was kind of cool. So, oh, before we get into any content.

Speaker 1: 3:34

So, look, the rundown normally when we go live is we've got the Malort Challenge, we've got Stump the Chump. We've got the Malort Challenge, we've got Stump the Chump. Being that it's 7 in the morning here, pacific Coast time. Yeah, I know it's 12 o'clock somewhere, but no, I'm not drinking Malort at 7 am, not because I have anything against it, but I have to drive later on. So, yeah, normally, when we're doing Friday Night Live and we're going through the Malort Challenge and some of you abuse that a little bit yeah, I'm at home, of course, and I'm not going anywhere afterwards. So if I get a little buzz going and you guys mess me up, then it doesn't matter. So, yeah, all right.

Speaker 1: 4:38

So it's my birthday today. It's also my son, jake's birthday today. That's cool, right, I know, I think that's so awesome. Jake is 37 years old today, yeah, so happy birthday to Jake. Uh-huh, happy birthday, son. I see you out there. Yeah. Yeah, he was born on my 22nd birthday. That was cool. That was a cool day. That was a cool day.

Speaker 1: 5:24

I got to actually sit or not sit Jake's mother, my ex-wife. She had a C-section and so I got to stand right there in the OR and I mean right next to the doctors, to the surgeon, as he's, you know, making that, that cut right there on the lower abdomen and I was blown away. It was. I don't know if any of you have experienced the C-section I mean seen it besides on television, but it was something. So you know, they make the incision and then they get the clamps and hold everything open and they basically take everything inside my ex-wife and they put it on top of her and then they go in and they grab the baby, they grab Jake and get him out of there. It was weird, but I had my camera. I got to take pictures. It was pretty cool. Yeah, they didn't shield me from too much, so that was quite an experience. But yeah, happy birthday to you, son. Happy 37th birthday birthday. I love you. We're gonna try, we're supposed to.

Speaker 1: 6:34

You know, we've been invited over to his house for for tacos. Tacos has always been a gosh. I can't even tell you for how long tacos has been a tradition on our birthdays for so many years, and I say I guess it's been a tradition, hold on here. Let me get to the comments. Boom, there we go. And actually what it used to be was like okay, it's your birthday, you can have whatever you want for dinner, it's your choice. Well, being that Jake was younger well, he still is he always got to choose. It's like oh, because the kid gets to choose right. So he always liked homemade tacos. So it's been homemade tacos for I don't know how many years Homemade tacos, refried beans, which we make ourselves, and video yeah, not rice video.

Speaker 1: 7:35

So it's really good. And a lot of places will make video, kind of like a soup. Well, we make it where it's not brothy at all, it's more, it's almost it's like Mexican spaghetti, you know. So that's how we would do it, good stuff. So I'm hoping we can make it over there, because there's a lot going on and, as I said, we'll get into that. But I'm going to get into that with you later.

Speaker 1: 8:07

First things first, happy birthday to me, and if it's your birthday out there, happy birthday to you too. Let's put these on so that I can see what I'm doing. Oh, you know what? I can get this out of the way. I don't need it. Move that keyboard there. It gives me a little more room. So I always like this. I'm cheesy, you guys know that I'm an idiot, I'm corny, but I dig this stuff. So, celebrity birthdays, celebrities who share my birthday All right, it's my birthday birthday. All right, it's my birthday. I didn't go through and look for a whole long list, but I did find four. So let's see.

Speaker 1: 8:56

Actor Robert De Niro was born on this day. I think he's like I don't know, he's pushing 80 years old. Donnie Wahlberg everybody remembers Donnie Wahlberg right From New Kids on the Block and all that good stuff. Of course, yes, of course, he's done some acting and he's been on Blue Bloods, the entire run of the show. Sean Penn everybody knows Jeff Spicoli, right, come on.

Speaker 1: 9:26

And Dean Castronovo, the drummer from Journey yeah, happy birthday, dean. We are yes, we are buddies on Facebook. One of these days I'm going to have him on this podcast, but he doesn't know it yet. But one of these days he's a little busy right now out on tour with the band. But it is his birthday today and I found that out. It was my gosh. It was my gosh. It was over 20 years ago. I think it was around 2001, 2000, 2001. We had gone to see Journey and it was on my birthday, and that night they bring out a cake and sing. Happy birthday to Dean. So that's how I found out it was his birthday. So I thought that was really cool. So, yeah, happy birthday to you, dean.

Speaker 1: 10:31

Fabulous drummer, fabulous singer. I mean gosh, his skills on the drums he really is. He's just a tremendous drummer and with that he might be a better singer. It's crazy, I mean gosh. It's crazy how great he sings Anyhow. So, happy birthday to you, celebs out there.

Speaker 1: 10:59

And today is also National Honey Bee Day. Yeah, honey bees. Right, we all like bees, unless you're allergic to bee stings. But yeah, bees are really, really, really important to our, I guess, to our environment and things of that nature. You're always reading something great about bees and how important they are. So happy National Honey Bee Day. And hey, look, they make honey too. Right, honey's good, I like honey.

Speaker 1: 11:32

Put these back. I don't know why I take them off. Put them on, take them off. This is stupid.

Speaker 1: 11:36

But again, thanks for being here this morning and having breakfast with Ben. Thanks for being here this morning and having breakfast with Ben. Yeah, as I'm putting the notification out yesterday. I didn't put a notification out on Instagram because I forgot to ask Catherine to do that, because she runs the Instagram, but I put the notification out on Facebook to everybody, letting them know that we're going to do a show this morning and as I'm typing I'm going. I don't even know what to call it. Well, it's in the morning. Okay, breakfast, what goes good with breakfast? Well, ben goes good with breakfast. So it was that quick, it didn't take a lot of thinking. It's not like the most genius or name to come up with, but that's how it works. So, yes, thanks for having breakfast with Ben, and if you're having breakfast in bed, great, that's good too. I hope you're having something good. Maybe some oatmeal, some cream of wheat, maybe a bowl of cereal. I don't know. If I were eating cereal right now, I would probably reach for the chocolate Frosted Flakes. Yeah, in case you're not aware, it's kind of new Frosted Flakes or Kellogg's. A few months back they came out with chocolate and strawberry Frosted Flakes and they're actually really good, and for me I'm just a big kid, so I love my kid cereals. So, yeah, I probably would be reaching for chocolate Frosted Flakes right now. I just bought a box yesterday at the store, so I'm ready to go. So if you're enjoying your oatmeal, or if you're enjoying your cream of wheat I love gosh cream of wheat's so good Enjoying your toast, coffee, eggs, bacon, whatever it is you're having for breakfast, even if you're having some donuts or, even better than donuts cronuts, whatever it is you're enjoying for breakfast, even if you're having some donuts or, even better than donuts, cronuts, whatever it is you're enjoying for breakfast, have at it and thanks for being here and having breakfast with Ben. Yes, I feel like I'm talking about myself in the third person, but sorry, I don't mean to do that Anyway. So how about if we go through a few things that happened today in history? So, this day in history? All right, let's see, let's move this out of the way. All right, this day in history, let's go back to 1945.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Author George Orwell. Everybody remembers, right, george Orwell. Everybody remembers, right, george Orwell. In 1984, he published Animal Farm, an anti-utopian book that became a classic. I think most of us had to read it in high school, although I don't recall reading it. But anyway, yeah, good stuff, right, I don't recall reading it, but anyway, yeah, good stuff, right.

Speaker 1: 14:44

1978, ben L Abruzzo, maxi Anderson and Larry Newman completed the first transatlantic balloon flight in Double Eagle 2. So let's see, I'm assuming Double Eagle is the name of the balloon, that they made the trip in no-transcript. Maybe he crashed, right? I don't know what. Do you think Somebody should look it up and find out? Look it up, find out and put it in the comments, or call in. You can call in. Oh, you know what. Speaking of calling in, let me do this, let me do this right here for the newbies, and they can boom, call into the show. We all know it's breakfast with Ben now anyway, so it's good, we don't need it rolling across the screen.

Speaker 1: 15:47

All right, let's see 1999. Oh my gosh. In 1999, a 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck near Izmit, turkey, killing more than 17,000 and leaving over 50,000 homeless. That's bananas, that's bananas. And if you live here in California, like I do, we know all about earthquakes here in California. As a matter of fact, it's so bizarre that I bring this up on this day because in the last I don't know 10 days yeah, maybe about the last 10 days I think we've had and, okay, let me back up for a second. Well, no, let me go forward. Then I'll back up.

Speaker 1: 16:45

In the last 10 days or so, we've had some I don't want to say sizable earthquakes, but measurable, let's put it that way. They've been like 4.0 or above in Southern California. So it's just, you know, for us really here, 4.0 or above in Southern California. So it's just, you know, for us really here, if it's not like a five or above, we just like shrug it off.

Speaker 1: 17:08

Okay, did you feel that? No, and I'll be honest with you, I felt none of them. I didn't feel one. But I don't know if you just get used to it or what it is. But again, for for those that don't live here in, in California, we get earthquakes every single day. In California they're just on such a small level that you never feel them, you know. So that's just the way it is here. It's not a big deal. But I'll tell you what I love. I love America. It's the greatest country in the world.

Speaker 1: 17:49

But you know, I would rather have earthquakes than be like in Florida and have to worry about hurricanes. Earthquakes than be like in Florida and have to worry about hurricanes. No, thanks, no, because those things come around every year, multiple times a year, you know, during the summer, during the hurricane season. No thanks, I don't need to be worrying about my house getting wiped out every single year. Same thing like living in Texas, living anywhere near the Gulf of Mexico. I don't want to live in the Midwest either Oklahoma, missouri, tennessee, in that Arkansas, in that region, come on Tornadoes all the time. I don't need it. No thanks, no thanks, wait, what what's that? Say, okay, who's Pop, wait, really, who's Pop.

Speaker 1: 18:48

Somebody left a comment. Pop, talk to me, leave me another comment, call in. You know the phone number. Yeah, just said, wait, really, yeah, really, really, I don't know what. Come on, explain yourself, let's have a conversation. Oh, hello, but yeah, I would rather have earthquakes because, as I said, we have them every day here in California. But, um, oh, I'm not from America. What? Oh, that is awesome. Where are you from? I'm, I'm, I'm okay. Everybody who's watching. I'm going through the comments here. Where are you from pop? Where are you from Pop? Tell me where you're from. So we do. We have them every day. They're just really not measurable that much and nobody feels them. But I would rather have earthquakes than tornadoes and hurricanes and that kind of stuff.

Speaker 1: 19:54

From the Philippines, oh well, welcome in from the Philippines. That's awesome. No way, oh, that's great. That's great. Well, you know about earthquakes in the Philippines. Yeah, you guys have some pretty good ones in that region. In fact, didn't Japan just have one recently, I think so why is this episode called the Birthday Show?

Speaker 1: 20:23

Uh-oh, this episode's called the Birthday Show, pop, because today is my birthday. Are you just checking in? Let's see. I just came across your live when I opened the app. Oh well, listen, listen, pop. Thanks for watching. Stick around, we'll be here. Let's see how long we've been on. Right now, we've been on for 20 minutes. We usually go maybe about an hour, so stick around, have some fun. We got some good stuff. Thank you very much for the birthday wish. That's great. This is awesome. Somebody from the Philippines? That that's great.

Speaker 1: 20:59

I told you people, I told you that this podcast was worldwide, did I not? I did. I told you that you didn't believe me, but I told you, um, but uh, no, that's great. Stick around, pop, enjoy yourself. You know? Uh, what time is it there? Anyway, I'm gonna wait for the response.

Speaker 1: 21:20

This is great. This is great. This is great. I love it. I love it. Let's see. Yeah, japan had a, really. But yeah, yeah, they did. It was pretty bad. But you know what? They do such a great job with their architecture, their buildings and stuff, their engineering, that they're you know they're able to withstand a lot of that stuff. Let's see oh, 10 pm. Wow, wow, you're up late. That's awesome. I'm digging this so much. I'm digging this. This is great. This is really great. Well, stick around. Okay, bob, Stick around.

Speaker 1: 21:58

Like I said, we've got about another. You know, about a half hour or so, 40 minutes, whatever it is. Like I said, we'll be here for about an hour. When we live stream, we usually go for about an hour. So depends on how much I can talk, depends on how much interaction from everybody that there is. And, yeah, but I got a little bit more show to get through some more content. Let's see Pop says I saw your stream and thought if you had a real life statue of Superman next to you, no, no, that's a cardboard cutout, life-size cutout of Superman.

Speaker 1: 22:40

Brandon Routh yeah, I like Brandon Routh. He did a great job as Superman. It's a shame that he was only in the one movie. And I have nothing against Henry Cavill either. He does a fabulous job as well. But my Superman, my Superman, is Christopher Reeve. That's my Superman, he's Christopher Reeve. That's my Superman, he's Christopher Reeve and he always will be. He just did a tremendous job. But I think that's another reason why I like Brandon Ralph so much as Superman is. I think it's the way he portrayed Clark Kent and Superman. He kind of did it very much like Christopher Reeve did Very mild-mannered Clark Kent, you know, and he did a great job and honestly, kind of resembles him a little bit in the face. So he just did a great job.

Speaker 1: 23:43

Ah, yes, you know I'm right, pop, you know I'm right, good job. So anyway, I'm getting a couple of text messages here as well. So if you see me looking at the iPad, you know what's going on. I got family texting me, which is nice. Thanks, family, because it's what it's almost 724 here in California, all right. So that was this day in history.

Speaker 1: 24:21

You know, I like rock docs and my music documentaries and there's so many of them and I don't even have time to catch up on them. But there's one that it actually came out two years ago and I didn't even know it. I didn't even know it but I heard about it and everyone knows I love my Eddie trunk. Eddie is, I love Eddie and I'm going to get Eddie on this show too. Got to get Eddie here, but he was talking about a documentary he had seen called 11 Minutes. Now maybe some of you have seen it. I hadn't seen it. Documentary he had seen called 11 Minutes. Now maybe some of you have seen it. I hadn't seen it.

Speaker 1: 25:16

It's a four-part doc, about 45 or 50 minutes an episode, and I'm only one part into it. I've only seen the first part. So I'm looking forward to the next three. It's really, really good and I mean I was aware of the festival, I was aware of the shoot. I mean, everybody was. It's the largest mass shooting in United States history. Over 50 people were killed and I think there was something like 800 injured. But you're starting to right now. In the first part you're kind of getting the setup and you're starting to towards the end you're starting to hear some stories of the basically the heroes on this day. So it's good stuff so far. I can't wait for the next three.

Speaker 1: 26:11

And I actually have a connection to that festival. I have two cousins, dino and Yvette, that were at the festival that day. They were there when the shooting was taking place. I also have an aunt and uncle, that were at the festival that day as well. They were both okay, they both parties. So all four of them they came away with it uninjured, but to be there, yeah, boy, I can't even imagine, especially after just seeing the first episode. I can't even imagine what those people were going through and what was going through their minds. And yeah, crazy, crazy. But it's really good so far.

Speaker 1: 27:03

So if you haven't seen it, then I do encourage you to check it out. It's 11 minutes and it's on Paramount Plus if you have that streaming service. Okay. So yeah, you know I don't want to bring the room down, but this has been a tough week in rock music and yeah, it's okay. Let me back up. I think it was. I didn't hear about it until Thursday, but on August the 13th, so four days ago, what was that? Tuesday Greg Kin passed away. I think he was 75.

Speaker 1: 27:49

Does everybody know Greg Kin? Okay, you may not recognize the name. If you're a big music junkie and a hunk, like I am, then you know Greg Kin. But he was the leader of the Greg Kin band. He was like, I mean big time in the Bay Area. You know, he's just like a hero in the Bay Area. They love him in that area. He actually after I won't say after, because he still continued his music career, but he was a radio talk show host. He had a morning show up in the Bay Area as well for a while. He just, yeah, big time in the Bay Area. But he had two top 40 hits, one in 1981 called the Breakup Song Breakup Song they Don't Write them is the official title of that song. And then in 1983, and I think that song, I think that one broke the top 20. I don't remember, I'd have to check my math on that. I don't remember I'd have to check my math on that. But in 1983, he had another hit, big hit, went to number two on the top 40 with Jeopardy. I know everybody remembers that one because it was such a big hit.

Speaker 1: 29:18

What I always thought was cool about the Greg Kin band and I don't go deep, I don't go deep, but is that on all the album titles he worked in his last name, kin Like shoot? Oh, I had a couple of the titles. I looked them up and I had a couple of them, but the one that had Jeopardy in 1983, the name of that album was called Inspiracy, get it, yeah. So it's kind of cool how he made a play. He made a play on his name in all the the uh, the album titles. In fact, he did release an album as late as 2017. That was the last album that he that that the band released, and that one was called rekindled.

Speaker 1: 30:16

So, yeah, it's just. I just thought that was really cool, was quite clever, um, but, yeah, I think he had some complications, and not complications, I'm sorry, I think he was suffering from, uh, alzheimer's, so I think that's really what. What got him. So, um, god bless you. Rest in peace, greg Kin. And then, what was it? Yesterday was Friday, so I guess it was Thursday.

Speaker 1: 30:47

Yeah, son of a gun, jack Russell passed away at 63. Not old at all, jack Russell. Thank you, pop. Yeah, rest in peace, jack Russell. Thank you, pop. Yeah, rest in peace.

Speaker 1: 31:05

So if you don't know Jack Russell, remember I'm a big music honk and this kind of fits right into my wheelhouse too. Jack Russell was the. There you go. Yeah, jack Russell was the lead singer of Great White, the 80s hard rock band, their biggest song, once Bitten Twice Shy. And yeah, stick around, I'll get into it Pop.

Speaker 1: 31:35

So, yeah, he passed away, and it was, I guess, in the last let's see, we're 2024. So probably the last 15 years at least 15 to 20 years Jack had a lot of health issues, a lot of health issues. I don't even remember all of them, but you know he dealt with them. Some took him down for a little while and then he would bounce back and I saw Jack well, let's put it this way Around 2004, 2005, 2006,. Somewhere around there, he parted ways unceremoniously with the rest of the band in Great White and they fought for a few years over the name of that band, because there's a lot of value in a band name, a lot of value in that when you're out there booking shows and touring that kind of thing. So Jack did win the right to use the name Great White, but he had to put his name in front of it. So basically, you had two Great Whites, you had the band Great White and then you had Jack Russell's Great White.

Speaker 1: 32:50

Now, for me, I would always go see Jack Russell's Great White, because I'm going to go see the man who wrote the songs, I'm going to go see the man who was singing those songs, and he had one former member of the original Great White in his band as well, and that was guitarist Tony Montana, so it wasn't like it was just a bunch of brand new guys, but man, they were so talented Robbie Lochner on lead guitar, tony was on rhythm guitar. Man, they did a great job. I saw him a few times and you know Jack even talked about a lot of his, his struggles health-wise. I think he had said something that he had a few, a few back surgeries and through those surgeries he actually was like an inch or an inch and a half shorter than than he was, because I think they had removed some discs in his back or something like that. But he had some other more pressing health issues that he was dealing with over the years and I would say I don't remember if I ever heard him say this or not, so it's just purely speculation. But if you know anything about Great White and you know anything about Jack Russell, he was pretty abusive to his body in regards to drugs and alcohol for a long time and so that probably I shouldn't say probably, but it could have had an effect on his health. I mean, like I said, I'm just speculating here because I don't remember, but he did, he dealt with a lot of health issues.

Speaker 1: 34:23

And what was funny is that he would be backstage before a show, basically looking like you know, how is this guy going to go out and perform? I mean, he's walking with a cane and, you know, can barely stand up. And as soon as the music starts and the lights go on, man, he's out there dancing around, using his microphone, stand and just getting down and that's all it took to really get him picked up and get him pumped up. Was was the music and knowing the show was going on, but he still sounded so good. Oh man, what a great voice, what a great voice. Another reason why I always leaned towards going to see Jack Russell's great white versus the original great white, because I want to hear that voice there. He always sounded good, always sounded good man. But yeah, god bless you, jack Russell, and rest in peace as well.

Speaker 1: 35:36

It was sad when I heard the news. I was like no way, but you had to know something was up, because in the last month or so, six weeks I know, jack, he had some shows booked and he actually had to put out a press release saying that he wasn't going to be able to make the shows. But the show would go on. They would have a fill in singer, I think, andrew Freeman. If anyone's familiar with Andrew Freeman you may or may not be he was actually the lead singer for all of about a month in the original Great White a couple of years back. But he also is the lead singer in a band called Last in Line, which is a Dio tribute band, and then they also do a lot of their own original material as well. That band features Vivian Campbell, but from yes, from Def Leppard, but Vivian began his his career in Dio Gosh. I'm going all over the place with this, but anyway. So Andrew Freeman had filled in, I think, on a couple of shows and I think they're going to try to move forward with a different singer, and I think they're going to try to move forward with a different singer. And I think they're going to change the name of the band and I think I saw something where they may call it Bitten for or Once Bitten, I mean for Once Bitten. Twice Shy. It's a great band. It's a great band and it's sad that Jack passed away. But, yeah, rest in peace, jack. So let's see Now.

Speaker 1: 37:25

Yesterday was August 16th and one of the biggest ever, one of the biggest ever passed away. On August 16th. The big E, the king of rock and roll, elvis Presley, yeah, passed away. I remember where I was. I remember walking into the house I'm what, 12 years old, almost 12. I would have been 12 the following day. Walking into the house, my mom said Elvis Presley passed away, or Elvis Presley died, whatever. She said, it had just been announced or something. It's like whoa, whoa, yeah, really, what she said, it had just been announced or something. It's like whoa, whoa, yeah, Really, really sad. Big E, uh-huh, love me some, elvis, yeah, but um, yeah, so I, I, elvis, has been resting in peace for many, many years. So I don't need to, I don't need to do that, but uh, yeah, so that was a, that was a big one there.

Speaker 1: 38:24

Um, okay, so here's kind of what's been going on and for those who are regulars to the podcast um, yeah, it's been a little up and down the last couple of weeks and I explained the last time we were together that we're having a lot of work done around the house, catherine and I, and so it made for a tough way to do the show. No time to put one together, that kind of thing show. No time to put one together, that kind of thing, and so we skipped a week and then I came back two weeks ago and did a show and we talked about that a little bit. There's been a lot of other stuff going on as well, more on a human level, and I talked about my buddy, eddie, and if you're new to the podcast, which you are, pop, go back and watch. It's probably around episode 11 or 12. It's my good friend, eddie, but, as you know and so I apologize for those who are regulars for repeating myself, but we've got some new folks coming in as well, so I need to catch them up. But I had my.

Speaker 1: 39:42

I had my friend Eddie on early on, early on in the podcast to really get down and talk seriously about his battle with cancer and at that time, at that time he was coming up on two years, he was over beyond a year and a half battling it, he was coming close to two years and now he's two and a half years into this fight and I mentioned the last time we were together that Eddie was in the hospital and that he just was having a rough go of it. Um, it was um, sorry about this. I know we're live and if you're watching it's okay to see. But if you go back and listen to this and you hear these pauses, you know dead air is not great for for a podcast or in radio or anything like that. But um, so about 10 days ago Eddie got notification from his doctor. He was supposed to go in and have a procedure done to fix his esophagus and the procedure went three hours. It was only supposed to be 45 minutes and it went three hours. It was only supposed to be 45 minutes and it went three hours. And then the doctor came in and talked to his brother, hav.

Speaker 1: 41:35

Hav has been with Eddie through this whole entire ordeal, and I mean the rest of the family has been with him through the whole entire ordeal. But what I mean is doctor's appointments. Well, ed would drive himself to the doctor a lot, but this whole hospital stay which is going on like three weeks, hav's been there sleeping every night at the hospital. Hav is Ed there sleeping every night at the hospital. Hav is edge ride or die. They are like they're inseparable and like Hav tells me, he says that's my best friend right there, that is my best friend and they are like freaking frack. And so about 10 days ago. Like I said, the procedure the doctor walks into the room and lets Eddie and Hav know that there's nothing they can do, and they gave Eddie three weeks. So it's been about nine days. I think today might be day 10 since they gave him that.

Speaker 1: 42:49

And, um, I know, like you know, catherine and I we were there a week ago on what we were there. We were there the night. They told Eddie had three, three weeks, um, so we went to the hospital, we went to visit Eddie. He's at Keck Medical and we visited with him and so he's just, he's doing his thing, he's hanging in there. I will say this he where I'm kind of getting bummed out about this, he where I'm kind of getting bummed out about this, he, he is so positive about this. It's amazing. I you know, when we were there Thursday night he was completely out of it because he was coming out of his surgical procedure. But then Catherine and I went down last Saturday and we visited. We were there all day and there was a parade of people coming in and out. It was great, it was great. But Eddie puts everybody so much at ease and it's basically he tells everyone why are you sad. Look, I'm good with this, I am okay with this. He has such a positive outlook on this and we're not talking about just family and friends, like he makes the staff cry because of his positive attitude and outlook on all this. And it's absolutely I said it it's amazing, I can't believe it. When we left the hospital last Saturday, I looked at Catherine and I said you know, I hope that if I'm ever in that situation, I am going to have the same attitude as Eddie, because he, like, picks everybody up. It's amazing, it's amazing. So, yeah, well, we're actually going to go see him later on today as well.

Speaker 1: 45:11

For those that are that are new, eddie and I, like I said, we've known each other for many, many years and have we all went to school together. We've known each other since junior high school. We've known each other since junior high school and, even though we didn't really hang out in high school, we really got to become buddies and become close within the last 20 years, and so we're always at the same family parties and have been for close to 40 years. But, yeah, we have this gathering. It's a luncheon once a month. Once a month it's for our high school alumni. What are your high school cardinals? That's right. What are your high school cardinals? It's anybody. Any class doesn't matter, and we get together for lunch once a month and the group rotates in and out. Some people are there every single month and some people are every couple months or so. I'm not there every month, but some of those folks were actually in the hospital visiting Eddie. That's how much they care about him, and we've got a lunch schedule for today. So we're going to be there and I talked to Hav yesterday. He gave me permission to give everybody an update what's going on for those who may not know, and fill them in. And we're just going to go celebrate them. So we're going to have a good time, so we'll do that. Then we're going to um, then we're going to go visit Eddie. We're also crazy.

Speaker 1: 46:54

You all know my niece Anita. I've spoken about her as well. I've spoken that she's on a on the liver transplant list. She, she ended up in the hospital last Saturday while we were all visiting Eddie. She was there too, her and my nephew, danny, and she had a hernia and it really got to her on Saturday night. So what does Danny have to do? Danny has to take her into the ER and she has surgery two o'clock in the morning to repair her hernia. My gosh, I don't know what's going on. So we'll be visiting Anita as well, as she waits for her liver transplant. Can't wait for that. We're going to go see her. She's at home resting well and we've got a busy schedule. So we're going to try to make tacos tonight. We'll see how it goes. I don't know.

Speaker 1: 47:47

I was hoping that. You know, I have the ringer off on my phone, but I have been getting text messages from family, so let me see what I got here. I was hoping that somebody would call in. Let's see. Let's go here, let's open that up. Oh, there's a group text going on. Let's see.

Speaker 1: 48:14

Oh, from my niece Brenda Happy birthday, benny boy. From my niece Lisa Happy birthday, uncle Ben. From my nephew Bart it's your birthday, yay. And then my daughter Erin. She says happy birthday, sending you love from the city of love, which must be in Paris, gay Paris. So, yeah, well, that means they're probably not watching this, and that's okay, because if you're with me, any, if you've been with me any amount of time, you know my family doesn't watch this podcast or listen to it.

Speaker 1: 48:57

Um. So, uh, yeah, um, but thank you for the birthday wishes. It's great. Uh, oh, got another comment. Let me see if I can see it from here. Let's see, just found you in my recommended. Tell me about yourself and your channel. Man would be glad to know a bit about yourself.

Speaker 1: 49:22

Yeah, that's from Dan. Is that Danny? I think it's Danny, it's D, and I'm looking across the room at my laptop. If it's Danny, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, hold it, timeout, timeout. I'll get to you in a second, danny.

Speaker 1: 49:38

Guess what I got, guess what, guess what I? Yeah, you can guess it, cause, come on, let me get that on the camera. Oh, bring it in. Yeah, birthday cake, birthday cake. Oh yeah, with a little 59 candle right there. Uh-huh, yeah, happy birthday. Yeah, and the cake said that, by the way.

Speaker 1: 49:59

By the way, because we have some newbies watching today, this is my beautiful wife, catherine. Yes, she is, she's just the best, prettiest girl in the world. Uh-huh, was that Kate? Oh, yeah, no, it is good, I hope. Well, I hope it's good, well, thank you. Thank you for the happy birthday.

Speaker 1: 50:20

Yeah, is it Danny? Tell me if it is Danny, yes or no, because phonetically it's spelled Danny, but I don't think that's right. It doesn't sound right. So just tell me yes or no. Oh Pop says hi, catherine Pop's new Pop's from the Philippines.

Speaker 1: 50:41

Yeah, did you make a wish? Well, I wish for love, okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, pop said hi, kathy, wait, wait, I actually not done that before. Oh yeah, no, I see that that's great. Do you want me to cut it for you? Wait, wait, yes, it's spelled. Oh yeah, okay, so it is Danny, okay, great.

Speaker 1: 50:59

Oh no, no, a piece. I'm just going to stick my fork in there and go. I don't know. Yeah, how did you know? Here, we go right here. All right, let's see.

Speaker 1: 51:15

It's vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, and he loves frosting. I love buttercream, I love buttercream. It's actually delicious. So so, danny, yeah, not only does it look good, but it tastes good too. Hang on, let's see.

Speaker 1: 51:31

And the studio doors opens. I bet we're getting some echo now. So hang on. Oh Mmm. Oh yeah, put it away. Oh yeah, you're going to have to put it away, because eating on the air is not good. Yeah, it's not helpful. Okay, well, thank you, my love. You're welcome. You're so great. Oh, that was so good. Mm-hmm. Yeah, wait, when you stream it? Oh, okay, danny. So thanks for checking into the show. I really appreciate it. So hang on, let me read your comment first, and then I'm going to reply.

Speaker 1: 52:17

Okay, where are you streaming from? And then, good to know, it tastes good. It's been a while since I had some cake, all right. So I'm right here in Southern California and that's where I stream from. Well, when I stream, I don't always do this podcast live. Most of the time it's recorded, but I have a studio right here in my home and that's where we're from.

Speaker 1: 52:41

Where are you from, danny, and that's where we're from. Where are you from, danny? We know Papa's from the Philippines. I love this. This is so awesome. I love this. Yeah, let me know where you're from and then I'll continue. But you know I started this podcast.

Speaker 1: 53:03

Well, this is episode 59, danny, and so there are 58 other episodes for you to check out. They're either here on YouTube or they're on all the streaming platforms. Okay, I haven't been to the Philippines before. I have not. Let me see. What topics do you? Oh, what topics do I cover? All right, so here we're going to get into it now. We're going to get into it. One of these days who knows, who knows Pop. I may get to the Philippines, you never know. Okay, so you live in India. Oh my gosh. People I said were worldwide. Oh my gosh, wow, I do. Like tropical weather, I do. Wow, that is awesome. That is awesome. That is awesome. This is going to turn out to be like the best episode ever. Okay, so here's the thing, danny, here. Here's what I do, like I said, I started this podcast. It'll be a year. In October, we're 59 episodes counting today.

Speaker 1: 54:23

What I like to talk about, what this show is, when this show is over and we'll wrap up in a little bit and I apologize to the rest of the audience that I'm speaking to, but so here's a thing if you read the description on this show, basically it says tell your story. Everyone has a story, not just the famous, which I truly believe in and I like to hear. I like to hear human stories. But I also talk a lot about music and I talk about my music and the music that I enjoy, which I'm a classic rock, hard rock fan to my core, but I love top 40 music, pop music, disco from the late 70s, early 80s. I love all that stuff. So I'll talk a lot about that as well, I'll do some themed shows where I'll take one of my favorite bands and I'll rank their studio albums or I'll give my top 20 songs, that type of stuff.

Speaker 1: 55:43

I've had guests on the show, some musicians, I've had a couple authors on the show and we just get down and talk about real stuff. We get to know their story a little bit and then talk about what it is that they're doing and how they came about doing what it is that they do, whether they're a musician or, like I said, an author came about doing what it is that they do, whether they're a musician or, like I said, an author. So that's kind of what it is. And I've had family and friends on this program as well and we, like I said, we talk about our stories and that's really what it is. It's just a. You know, it's nothing great. I don't play music on the podcast. One of these days I hope to do it.

Speaker 1: 56:29

I don't edit anything out of this podcast. Obviously, I'm not going to edit anything from a live stream, but because I want it to go out real, as I always say, I want this podcast to go out warts and all. If I flub something, I flub it. You know if I misspeak, I misspeak whatever. It doesn't matter. I don't edit a thing because I record it live. No editing. When I live stream, it's live and and to to bring it back around to live streaming.

Speaker 1: 57:05

This was a special one today, danny, because it well, it is my birthday, but that's not why it was special. Just with things going on in my personal life and around the house you know the household stuff it made it easier to just go to just do a show today and do it this morning and I decided, well, why not? Why do I have to record it? Let's just go live and whoever watches it, they watch it, and I'm glad I did, because I've got you, danny, I've got you Pop from the Philippines, from India. I think that's awesome.

Speaker 1: 57:46

But I do put out, I try to put out one episode a week. I promised my audience that they would get one episode a week Because when I started this podcast almost a year ago, I was rehabilitating from shoulder surgery, so I was off work at the time, debilitating from shoulder surgery, so I wasn't I was off work at the time and I think before I went back to work, I had 25, I think I had like 25 episodes done because I would do them sometimes two or three a week just to give the audience a lot of content, before I went back to work. But I promised everybody they would get a minimum of one episode a week after I went back to work and I've been good on that outside of the last two, two of the last three weeks, and I explained the situation on that. So, yeah, that's, that's just what it is. This is just a podcast, with people just being people talking about themselves and we're just here having a good time. That's all it is. So that's really kind of the topics that I talk about. Let me see. I'm now going to catch up Now that I got through my whole dissertation there.

Speaker 1: 59:03

Pop and Danny I'm going to get back to the comments. Let me see. Okay, so I left off with living in India, but all my family lives in the States. That's from Danny. Pop says you should, yeah, one of these days, you never know. Like I said, I like tropical weather. Let's see. Oh, okay, danny says I'm in touch with the culture from the States because all my family lives there, or lives, oh, yeah, lives, in the US, yeah, yeah. Well, when you get out here too, man, you gotta let me know about that.

Speaker 1: 59:41

May I suggest you look into horror stories? Oh, but true ones. Right, hang on, there's something, something popped up on my screen. Let me get rid of it. Okay, good, let's see. Come on, what happened here. Show that one. No, no, hide that. Oh, your comment popped up on the screen. That's great, okay, so let's see, catch up. Well, you never Wait. Where'd all the Wait? Where'd your comments go? Let me Sorry about this, sorry about this, I am. Oh man, what happened to my comments? Where'd they go? Let me get out of here really quick. Let me put this up and then let me go back and see if that brings them back. Okay, there we go. Yeah, that brought them back. Um, you never know.

Speaker 1: 1:00:56

I, the one of the authors I had on Danny, was a, um, a true crime author. Yeah, it was a true crime story within her own family. So that was real interesting. So, you never know, you never want to, and you see true crime right there. You never know I'll. You know I do a lot of different stuff, but let's see, I appreciate, I don't. I'm not. Okay, I'm not going to read your comments because they're complimentary and I don't want to yeah Well, thank you, I appreciate that you guys are so nice, you really are. You're so nice to say those things. You both are very, very complimentary. So thank you very much. You're embarrassing me now. So that's the crux of it, right there to all the newbies here and uh, I can't say thank you enough to Danny and pop for really like participating Maybe, gosh, I didn't even think about this.

Speaker 1: 1:01:59

Maybe I should do Saturday mornings more often because uh, it's you know, 10, 11, 12 o'clock where you guys are and you're up. Normally if I do a live stream, I'll do it on a. I think I'm shouting, hang on a second here. So normally if I do a live stream and I'll try to do one at least every couple of Fridays it just saves me time from having to write a whole show, because when I write a show it takes it takes me a couple, three hours to write it, to write a show before I even record it. But I like going live anyway on Friday nights. It'll be Friday night here in the United States and I and it's the title of that is is so original, it's the most original title anybody could ever think of uh, guys, it's friday night live, um, but, yeah, um, but you guys are making me think maybe we'll do some more breakfast with ben. You know that would be cool because I know, I know I've got a couple of uh, couple of new, new viewers right there. Um, yeah, we'll see how that goes. But look, I don't want to keep anybody any longer because I know there's a couple of folks here that need to go to bed and we got the rest of the day ahead of us. But that's the rundown of what's been happening. Thank you so much for having breakfast with Ben.

Speaker 1: 1:03:25

We're going to wrap it and with that I'm going to say this, and you need to listen to this Danny and Pop. This program is available on multiple podcast platforms. It's on all the streaming services. Okay, so I'm not even going to go through them anymore. We're going to start editing that out, but it's on all the streaming services. Start editing that out, but it's on all the streaming services. Wherever you can get your podcast, it's in the audio form there. All right, you don't even need to search the Ben Maynard program anymore, just go. Just go to one of those streaming platforms. It's there Spotify, apple, amazon, all of them, iheart. I just said them.

Speaker 1: 1:04:02

I said I wasn't going to do that, but again, if you're watching on YouTube and you just can't resist this right here I know I can't Then please subscribe to the channel. Do it, do it, fellas. Subscribe to the channel. Give me a thumbs up, leave a comment. You know I love your comments. I read them, I reply to them, so I just I dig it. I like the engagement. I got all your comments right here for today, so we're good. But yeah, for the newbies, go back and watch the old shows, go back and watch the old episodes. There's some great stuff and I have to say that it's my podcast. You know why would I want to steer you into something that isn't very good? But yeah, so do that favor for me when it comes to YouTube, just please subscribe to the channel. I think I have 101 subscribers, so if I can get two more, I'll be up to 103. And I love it and share this one, share this, share this podcast with your family and friends. All right, do me a favor, please do that.

Speaker 1: 1:05:21

I make no money on this. I am not getting paid to do this. I make zero, not one red cent. I pay to actually do this. It costs me money and I don't care. It's not a complaint. I'm not looking to make money. That's why I say that If I ever made any money, I hope it'll only be enough to just cover my expenses. That's it.

Speaker 1: 1:05:49

I'm not trying to be a big, giant celebrity who's known worldwide, although I am known worldwide. Now, right, I'm known. I can't even walk the streets in the Philippines anymore. I show up in the Philippines. I get mobbed. I can't walk the streets in India. There's what's a billion people in India. I would get mobbed. You guys would just mob me if I showed up. Forget it, that's great. So I am famous worldwide, all right, all right. So look. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram. Ben Maynard program. It's all one word, okay. Thank you again so much for being here. I greatly appreciate it. This is actually a lot of fun. So thanks, go about, enjoy your day, your week. I will see you guys next time. This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.