477. Podcasthon: When Podcasting Becomes Bigger Than Content

0:05 Good morning, podcasting. Morning Chat. Today is Thursday, March 19th, 2026, and today it's podcast on a worldwide initiative celebrating charities and nonprofits around the world through podcasting as each of us shares who are spotlighting and the personal story behind it. So if you're listening live on Clubhouse, hit the share button, bottom left hand side of the screen and share it. However, Clubhouse lets you. And if you're catching us via podcast, YouTube, LinkedIn, etcetera, please share this with a fellow podcaster. And now give us about 30 seconds and we'll get things rolling. Thanks for being here.

0:51 The Podcasting Morning Chat is powered by Ironic Media, helping podcasters launch, Polish and grow great shows, and by Content Creators Accountant, helping creators build real business behind their content. Good morning again podcasting morning Chat. Thank you so much for being here. I am your host Mark Ronik and currently on stage with me we have my Co hosts Dr. Faye, Ralph, Estep. We also have Janaeed and Tide AKA Nikki joining us from the audience, our regulars here on stage. Awesome to have you guys there and I know it's usually a much longer list.

1:44 Quite frankly, I don't know where the whole team is today, but I know that BC Babbles will be joining us a little bit later. He gave me the heads up this morning that he was going to be a little late and we'll find out where the rest of the crew is momentarily. But I am really excited to get into today's topic and I'll first share about that and then we're going to talk a little podcasting for a moment. But first, like I said, today we're joining this global podcast movement that encourages hosts to use their platform to shine a light on a 'cause that they care about. Podcast on dot org. By the way, spelled with one T is about convincing as many hosts as possible to dedicate one episode of their show to a charity of their choice and to release these episodes simultaneously in a coordinated effort this very week, creating a massive and international wave of inspiring content.

2:42 The objective to raise awareness for a huge number of charities worldwide. So you can learn more about Podcast Thon. Check them out at Podcast thon.org. Like I said, one T in Podcast Thon, even though it should be too, but it's one T. So today what we'll do is I'm going to go around the room and if you are listening in the audience, John, Mike, Dave, Austin, Tim, come up and share a nonprofit, a charity, an organization that you support or would like others to support. I've got to believe that even if there isn't one that's maybe a go to for yours, you could probably think of 1 and come up and share it and share why you chose it.

3:28 But let's be a part of this awesome initiative. I think there's somewhere around 3000 different podcasts that are actually participating in this. So I really want us to do our part as well and really shine. And I think that's the beauty of this show is that we have so many voices that we can do something special like this together. Yes, Ralph, you had something. Go ahead. Yeah. I just want to let everybody know that if you want to support one of the charities we're going to be talking about today, we actually have built a website, part of our website, and you can get that at Podcasting Morning chat dot com slash charity. And if you want to send me over a link to your charity, we'll make sure we put it up on the website. But again, that's Podcasting. Morning chat.com/charity. Thank you, Ralph for putting that together and thank you, Tim, for joining us on stage as well. Love that.

4:17 OK, so before we dig into that. Look, we're a show about podcasting. It feels weird to me if we don't talk at all about podcasting in any way, shape or form, even though I know we're doing something special today. And side note, by the way, stick around. Fingers crossed. 7:30-ish AM. My best friend Jonah Berger is joining us. Jonah has a disease called CMT Shark O Marie Tooth, and I am supporting the CMTA who raises money and awareness to cure CMT. But first you heard it, that wheel of jargon. We also have had a wheel of topics here in the past. The wheel of jargon.

5:05 I'm going to ask, I'm going to put someone on the spot. Dr. Would you mind sharing what the wheel of jargon is while I put it up on screen for our visual audience? OK, sure. So we realized that our audience is made-up not only of seasoned podcasters, but also new podcasters just coming on board, basically. And there are a lot of just like any profession, they have their own jargon, their own words that mean something just within that group of people. And podcasting is no different. We have our own jargon, and it could be very intimidating for new people coming on board. And they don't know what an RSS feed is. They don't.

5:53 They know what a host is, they don't know what any of these words mean. And sometimes it really is very deflating. So we have this wheel of jargon to help you out a little bit. That was a perfect on the spot explanation. Thank you DRI, appreciate you filling that time for me and doing it with purpose. I love it. All right, so I am going to spin the wheel and if for some reason you don't hear it live, don't worry. We're capturing the audio here on my Rd. caster and on Riverside. So, spinning this wheel of jargon, we'll see who wants to answer the question that it lands on or the thing that it lands on. Oh, I might have to go to you, Dr. 'cause I have in parentheses here.

6:38 If you're looking at us on screen, it says Dr. Suggested this one. Oh boy, AIB. I hope it's one that I know. AIB, Do you know it? AIB. Oh, AIB it is. I'm not good at it, but I know that it's like they're number one. It costs an enormous amount of money for podcast hosts, hosting platforms, distribution platforms to belong to the AIB. And it is a set of no, you go ahead. Because the wheel of jargon stumped the person who actually put the thing on it.

7:20 Well, maybe I put it on there because I don't know what the hell. It is Mark. Mark. I think it's actually the I it's. IAB it's. IAB. It's the IAB. OK, well, there you go. Maybe there was a typo on the wheel, I don't know. So here's. What I That's what screwed me up. Yeah. Do you know what it is or would you like me to share? I would love for you to share. So when people in podcasting talk about stats or downloads or ad measurement, they almost always mean IAB, short for Interactive Advertising Bureau, IAB sets widely used podcast measurements standards, including how downloads are counted and filtered. If you saw AIAB, well, IABAIB, it's IAB. So the practical answer is in podcasting. Yeah, I think I explained it.

8:09 It's a measurement for. It's a standard for measurements measuring different analytics. Right now I will tell you that there are some distribution platforms, also known as hosting platforms that will not join the IAB just because it is so cost prohibited. And where will you find it on Lipson? Lipson has a little IAB link. If you go up into, I think it's the top right hand corner that you can click on it and find out about it. But there's some, like I said, there are some distributing platforms that say we follow IAB protocols, but we don't belong to them. All right.

8:56 Thank you. Dr. Ralph, did you want to ask or add something? Yeah, I just want to add one thing and we have to understand what this is, what the real purpose of this is. And the real purpose is as the money guy on the show, this is so advertisers have a benchmark to know that the stats you're giving them about your content are certified. That's the whole point of this IAB. So because there was a sort of AI got my cowboy hat on today and it was kind of a Wild West mentality to the downloads thing before this IAB came along. But it was really a way to have a standard way to measure the downloads and all that sort of thing. And Dr. is absolutely right. There are certain hosting providers that are agreeing or they're, I think the actual term is certified. There's actually a certification process. But again, as the money guy on the show, I want to go to the the why of this.

9:45 The why of this is to have some non Wild West standards to measurement. That is a great point. Thank you Ralph. Does anyone else want to comment or add something? I appreciate Janae putting in the chatiab.com. That's where you can learn more about it. OK, so it is like I said, podcast thon. I don't need to go into a full explanation again. And if you want more information, again, that URL is podcast thon.org with one T in podcast thon. So here's how I want to do it. I'm going to go down the line and again, I want to encourage you in the live audience to please come up, there's Alex Baelish, just in time. Please come up and be prepared to talk about your charity. I'll ask you a bunch of questions, so don't feel like you have to do a whole monologue here, right? But I'll ask you some questions about what the charity is that you're highlighting today.

10:40 I'll ask you to tell us a little bit about it and what made you choose it. And we might have some follow-ups along the way. We'll see how many of these we can get through. And 1st, let's go to Ralph. Ralph, good morning again to you. What charity or nonprofit are you highlighting today? All. Right, so today I want to talk about an anniversary. And today is actually the three-year anniversary of my mother passing away. And yeah, it's been a rough morning. You don't realize until you're an adult how much mom means to you. And the reason I picked the charity I picked is the Glioblastoma Foundation. And I want to give you a little background. So my mother was 76 and my sister and I just, the two of us noticed that mom was slipping a little bit.

11:27 And like, I remember 1 morning, she was on her way to church and she forgot how to get there. And it's about a mile from her house. And my sister and I sort of thought, well, you know, this is, you know, this is getting older. She's starting to get forgetful. And I kind of, we have kind of said, OK, well, you know, we'll get her some testing. We'll see how things go. And it kind of got put on the wayside. Then for my mother's birthday, my sister took her on a cruise. And right before she left for the cruise, she came to our house for Thanksgiving. And I could look in my mom's eyes and see something wasn't right. You could just tell like she was looking off in a direction. It just didn't make any sense. But I, again, I chalked it up to maybe she's tired, maybe something's going on. And so she went on the cruise. When she got back, she was completely different. And my sister said, you know, she wouldn't get up in the morning.

12:11 My, my mom has always been an early riser. She raised my sister and I as a single mom. My sister's name is Renee. I said, Renee, we got to figure out what's going on here. So she took her to the ER right away. And the ER says, well, I think she has COVID. This was all during the, you know, the, the, the back end of COVID things. And I said, OK, I end up spending a night with her in the ER And, and the doctors made sense what they were saying. You know, your mom's a little dehydrated. She's get, you know, she's older, she's getting forgetful. And I said, OK, I'll, I'll that's fine. That sounds reasonable. So we took her home and, and again, like my mom wouldn't get out of bed. She wouldn't, she wanted to do the normal things that she did. And so I guess it was about a week later from that Mark, my sister said again, she took her to the ER and and I'm going to apologize ahead of time. I might get a little emotional, but this is just, this is Ralph. I have a feeling this is going to be common for many of us. And so I didn't go with her that night to the ER. And finally an ER doctor said, you know, I think we should run a CAT scan or some kind of scan here to, to really understand what's going on.

13:09 And I'll never forget the phone call. My sister called me and she said, Ralph, she says mom has brain tumor. And it was like 11 O clock at night and I was not in the right frame of mind. And I just said, how is that possible? And she says, well, I'm going to send you a a picture of what this looks like. And, and Mark and the rest of the crew, man, it looked like a golf ball. And my mother in the front of my mother's brain. And the only thing I could think of is, OK, how do we fix this? Yeah. And my sister said, well, you know, she's going to have to meet with a neurologist and all this kind of thing. And it's a blur, Mark. But I remember going in with my mom.

13:52 They kept her in the hospital because they were like, this is a problem. And it was a day or two. I think it was the next day, she had some more testing and the neurologist came in and I was sitting there with my mom. And neurologist says, I think what we're dealing with here is called a glioblastoma. And I'd heard the term before, but didn't really, it didn't really make a connection with me. And he kind of said, he said, listen, this is not good. And I said, wait a second. I said there's all kinds of technology. There's all kinds of great things. I hear people, I have clients who have had brain surgery and they're like, it's no big deal. He goes, no, Ralph, you got to understand something. This is one of the most aggressive tumors that you can get. And he said the really interesting thing, and I'm not going to take a sidetrack, is we don't usually see those in older people. We used to see those with people in their 50s. Now I'm 50 at the time and I'm thinking, oh, great, what have I got to deal with?

14:40 And it's still in the back of my mind today, you know, is this a genetic thing? So anyway, so my mother had same mind. She goes, all right, well, what can we do? And the doctor says, well, we can go in and operate and see what we can do to to see what's going on. So they did the operation and eight hours later, bleeding, there was 7 or 8 surgeons called in and, you know, they came to us in the waiting room and said, listen, we did everything we can, but we got as much of as we can. But your mom did not do well. And so we went, you know, they, they, they did the best they can. You know, they did the surgery. She they actually left the piece of her cranium off because of the swelling in the brain. And I remember going back to the room, Mark, and to to say that my mother never really gained functionality again would be an understatement.

15:29 It just totally ravaged her. And the good news about all of this is that she had made a decision that she didn't want to have a life sustained on tubes and all this kind of stuff. And which was a blessing because it was easier for my sister and I to make the hard decision we had to make. And that hard decision was, you know, we we're going to see and, and, and doctor said, listen, there's really no help. There's no hope here. And that's the reason I'm sporting this charity, because they're really working to find hope. But just to continue the end of the story here, we got to a point we were sitting there having a conference with the surgeon trying to decide what was the next step. And he says, you know, we can go in and try to do some more operation. He says, Ralph, but we're not going to be successful with this. This is the type of tumor that it kind of spiders out. It goes out in all directions within the brain. So there's really no way to get it. And he said if it were my mother, I would let her go. And just to attribute to how my mom is a fighter, we took her off all life support.

16:24 She lived for eight days with no life support. And it was Sunday, March 19th, 2023. And they had put her into Hospice in the hospital. And I had the honor mark of letting her go. I held her hand. Listen, I'm Christian guy, I'll see her again, but it changed me. And if we can find a way for families that not have to endure this, that's why I'm supporting this charity, Mark. Thank you, Ralph. I appreciate you sharing. I appreciate, I appreciate you being comfortable enough to share your emotions around this. I can only imagine how it feels.

17:13 I am grateful that I have both my parents and I've had I'm getting emotional just because I don't know if it's because you're emotional or not, but I have parents that have both gone through cancer. My mom breast cancer twice. My father actually had lymphoma on his brain, which is very rare with lymphoma and it's changed him. He's still with us. He's still a functioning human being and it's changed him. He's definitely got some brain damage from that. So I certainly can relate in some ways. But in others, you know, I haven't lost a parent and I can only imagine what it's like to say goodbye in that way. So thank you for for sharing.

18:02 And we want to talk for a little bit a moment about the actual charity. So if anybody wants to support them and what they do, I think this is a good time to to share about them. Yeah, Thank you, Mark. And the whole point of the foundation is to really understand a disease which is just about, you know, they can go in and operate and they do a lot of things. But the problem with this particular disease, it usually strikes people in their late 40s and 50s, and it's honestly a death sentence. I've known several people sense this, who have gotten this. And yeah, they can sustain your life. They go in and they go and take the tumor out what they can. But it just doesn't resolve the issue. And, and I love what this organization is doing because they're trying to find a way to give people hope. And, you know, if we can find a way to give people hope, I, I don't know that there's a solution. I don't know that there's a cure, but to just give a family because if you think about it, Mark, you and I are about that age, right?

19:01 And we have children, we have spouses, we have all those things. And, you know, I guess my mom had lived a full life. So I, I don't want to diminish that, you know, so there was part of it was like, you know, OK, she got to see kids and grandkids and, and all that sort of thing. But if we can give somebody hope, that's why I really want to support this organization 'cause I think they're at the forefront of trying to find ways to to solve this problem. So I appreciate you giving me the time today on the show. I apologize for getting a little emotional. It's. Just. With, with today being three years that it her, her picture hangs in my office and I know I've shared with the group I write songs and I wrote a song about that feeling of letting her go.

19:46 And yeah, it it is interesting as an adult. Like you just don't realize how much you miss your mom until you do miss her. So here's my 1 take away for today. Call your mom today. Yeah, speak to your mom today. I would love to have that opportunity again. If so, if nothing else, if maybe you aren't able to donate and you do have a mom or a mom figure in your life, that's a great way to honor Ralph the charity, his mom as well. And just as what a surprising coincidence that this is the three-year anniversary today on a day that we are recognizing different charities and nonprofits supporting causes that are very close to us, especially in this case, close to you, Ralph.

20:31 Thank you again for sharing that. I know Jonah is going to be joining us here shortly and I don't want to cut anyone else short. So I'm going to go to one of our guests on stage. Guests, meaning guests from the audience, not guests of the community by any stretch. Janae, welcome. Good morning. Do you have a charity, a nonprofit, an organization that you'd like to highlight today? What charity or nonprofit would that be? Good morning, everyone. After that one, I don't think. We don't all have to get emotional. That's not the point of this. Yeah, but it but it, but it was reminding me of my grandmother's who had to, you know, go through some of these similar situations.

21:15 Not as crazy, but one of my grandmother's she, she went in, she was perfectly fine. She goes in for a routine checkup and they're like, oh, we need to do a bypass surgery because you're some of the blockages. They do the surgery and then accidentally they pinprick her lungs when they're closing her up. So she ends up being in the hospital for 10 years, 10 years, yes. Whoa. Because because she was in her 70s when she went in seeing, seeing my grandmothers in that situation. It's it's there's no, there's no charity for such thing like that. I mean, if, if they can just do a better job at treating patients.

21:59 If there's a charity for that. I don't know. But for many years, since I've came out to the States, I worked and volunteered with Islamic Relief for many, many years and they provide support all over the world. So that's the charity that I'm, I'm going to be supporting some other charities and, and other organizations that I work with that are local. One of them is care. They're the Council on American Islamic Relations providing legal support for Muslims who might have been, you know, wrongly accused or, you know, whatever, whatever have you. And they're fighting on the behalf of the civil rights of people in the US. So those are some of the organizations that I would highlight because they're doing the work that most people, they don't know where to go right when you have a lawyer issue who you're going to go to.

22:53 So those are the some of the organizations that I support. Awesome. And if you want to put, if there's any link that you can provide, put it in the chat. We will make sure it's in the show notes. We'll try to get it on our podcasting morning chat.com/charitypage. And Janae, back to the first thing that you were sharing. There are organizations that I, I, they wouldn't put it as fighting malpractice. That's just my terminology. But there are some out there. There's the Patient Advocate Foundation that helps patients navigate care insurance access issues. There's also the National Patient Advocate Foundation. There's the Patient Safety Movement Foundation as well.

23:36 So there are several that you could probably indirectly support that specific cause. But Janae, thank you for sharing both of those this morning. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. And Janae, do you want to share anything about your website while we're chatting about your new product coming out? Sure. So the the new product coming out is called pod glue. It's the podcasters operating system to focus on building relationships over episodes because as podcasters, we think that our episodes are the product, but the episode are just a vehicle. Just like here and on Podcasting Morning Chat. Every episode we come closer, we become friends over life.

24:20 It's an amazing way to start a relationship, start a friendship, start a partnership, whatever have you. I mean, just six months ago we had our good friend Ralph join Podcasting Morning Chat every single day. And now where we at he's, you know, he's executive producer and as well as being the the title sponsor for Empire Podcasting conference coming later year. So again, podcasting is not a product. We talk about it monetizing, we talk about it making money for us, but that's not the point. The point is to build relationships, build communication and use it as a vehicle to connect deeper with other people.

25:03 I think, and I think that's the thing that we all miss with podcasting and a lot of people see that. And if anybody's on the fence of starting a podcast, don't because you're going to build so many more connections, so many more people over the world. It's going to it's going to be a game changer. So PRM is the book that's coming out same day. I've got prmbook.com. So if you want to go on the list and then Pod Glue is the implementation of that philosophy. Thank you so much. You are welcome, Janae. Thank you. Pod, glue.com, prm.com, that's what you said. Prmbook.com, right?

25:43 Prmbook.com Thank you, Janae. And now I know that my buddy Jonah, who is the reason for my support of the CMTAI know he is. He just texted me. He's heading to his office. So I'm trying to think of what should I do here while we wait. All right, I know what we're going to do here. We're going to spin the wheel once more. Yes, I know it might feel a little jarring after we're having some deeper conversation. Then all of a sudden I played the silly Jingle and now I'm spinning the silly wheel. But the silly wheel has good value to bring us, so let's see where this lands while we're killing.

26:28 Time for Jonah to join us. This is a good one. I have a feeling we could hear from Jinnade on this one, as well as one of our tech members of the community. ID 3 tags. What are ID 3 tags? Now I have a very sloppy definition I could give, but I'm curious if anybody would be willing to give a little more clear and concise 1. I'll take that. I've edited ID 3 tags for over 30 years and that's specifically because when Napster was coming on you, you'd get these music and and all of the data would be all over the place. And do you discover ID 2 tags? Essentially it's a metadata container embedded within audio files, mostly MP threes.

27:17 So you can store content such as artist, title, album, genre, track number and cover art. So I would be sitting there on iTunes and different apps and editing ID 3 tags, attaching a cover art to it. So it brings a lot of joy. Thank you, Janae. I think you got a little cut off there at the end. All right, So Jonah, there is some good echo going on. Well, welcome, Jonah Berger. Thank you. OK, well, let's get into it. So Jonah is here, as I've shared multiple times this week and today, Jonah is my closest, dearest friend. We've been friends since I was about 14 years old, Jonah about 50 or he was 15 years old at the time.

28:01 We met at summer camp, Camp Ramblewood. And that has been a big part of our lives for sure. And to this day, our some of our closest friends are all from camp. My wife is from camp and Jonah married someone not from our camp, but somebody he met at camp. So it's very special to us and I wanted to highlight CMT because yes, Jonah was born with CMT. It is a hereditary disease in most cases. I know that there can be spontaneous cases as well, but in the majority of the cases it is passed down South. Jonah, for anyone hearing about CMT for the first time today, can you tell us what it is and what daily life with it can look like? OK.

28:47 CMT is a condition where in what's called the periphery of our bodies. So from our elbows to our fingers and our knees to our toes, the nerves that are coated in a myelin sheath, that's the coating on your nerves. Our myelin sheath in those parts of our bodies are not functioning the way that they're supposed to. They're too thin, whatever. So the messages from our brain to the muscles between our elbows and fingers and knees and toes don't get there as clearly and as fast as they need to. And they're the messages slowing down 'cause the muscles to be weak. And mostly my wrists and hands and ankles and feet. And what that looks like day-to-day is that when I get up in the morning I have to have a instead of pop my shoes and socks on.

29:33 I have a 5 minute process to put on leg braces and shoes and I need some help buttoning my shirts. I need some help with fine motor, little things with my hands and the other thing is tripping. I fall a good bit, I trip a good bit. I'm clumsier than most just because of lack of balance and that has proven over the years to be the biggest frustration I would say. Yeah, I hear you. And the the fine motor skills is something that I know I'm always very sensitive to. I know that and about you, and I know how it always reminds me when I see you dealing with it, just how challenging CMT is because the way you operate, great. People quickly forget that you have CMT, right? So when I see you struggling, putting, you know, buttoning a shirt, for example, it's like, Oh yeah, that's right, Jonah has CMT.

30:33 You can't do that. I'm proud. I'm a big personality and I'm a very kind of dominant personality, and I think that that echoes in strength. And so when you see a big personality deal with weakness, it's kind of a yeah, a difference. It's a little shocking. Almost totally. So Jonah, this was a question that I know Dr. Who's with us here today. She had asked the other day. It was just about when did you first started started noticing CMT? When did you first realize it was going to affect your life in a lasting way? And can you share how living with CMT has shaped you over your lifetime? Good morning, Dr. Good question.

31:13 I I remember the moment actually because it's the first page in the book that I wrote about my life with CMT. I was in gym class one day, I think it was the 6th grade, and I hit the ball over the second baseman and I ran towards first and I was like, I hit it over the second baseman, man. I got plenty of time and I ran as fast as I could, as hard as I could. And I remember for the first time consciously feeling like I, the way I phrase it in my book, my spirit was running faster than my legs were. And that was such a real feeling. And I write in the book, I wish my 50 year old self could be there in that moment to be like, don't worry kid, you're going to be OK. Like it's all going to be fine.

31:58 Because in now from 54 years old, I can tell you not only has CMT turned out to be tolerable, it has molded who I am completely. Yesterday I spoke at the middle school in our town in Michigan to the 6th, 7th and 8th graders about appreciating each other's differences, not making fun of them, but understanding them and learning to talk to each other. And I just, there's something so profound about finding the positive in a negative. And my mom taught me to do that. And I have very, very consciously followed that lead because it has led me to this understanding that if your perspective is positive, your challenges can actually be positive. They can be shaping to your life and to your choices and your perspective.

32:47 If your perspective is negative, the exact same thing is true. Everything can feel negative. So we don't have control over what we are dealt often, but we have full control over what we do with it. Yeah, that's all about your reticular activating system. That's the thing that when you have a certain perspective, you see more of that perspective. Right. Right. So it's like, yeah, if you're going to be really down and negative about a situation like having CMT, that's right. That's what you're going to see more of. You're going to see a lot of negativity, a lot of struggle, right. But then Jonah, on the other side of that coin, being so positive, then you start to see all the positive stuff around CMT, like the CMTA, which I know now you are also employed by, you are, and I don't know your exact title. I say you're the youth director, but I'm not sure if that's actually.

33:38 Officially, I am the National Youth Youth Programs Manager. Got it. Yes, got it. And the big thing that Jonah does the the Super Bowl of his job is camp footprint, which I have shared with you all before. I've been I for the first time after 10 years of him doing it, I came and volunteered as a counselor there and I'm doing it twice this year. So really excited about that. We can talk a little bit more about that. But first, DRI, think you had another question. I do. So, Jonah, thank you so much for being with us today. So I know that CMT has been around for many, many, many, many years. And a lot of times when people give money to a charity, they think it's probably not doing any good because it's been around for so long. So I would like for you to talk about the advances that CMT has made in research, maybe in like simple hacks that we call hacks nowadays from the time that you got it to present. Yep, great question.

34:45 So up until the last 10 years or so, it's been all hacks. How can we help you to figure out life and navigate life with CMT? Because there is no treatment. There's still officially is no treatment, but about 10 to 15 years ago, the first half in curing a disease is to identify what's the problem. Then it becomes easier because you just have to learn how to fix that problem. We learned what the problem is, the overproduction of PMP 22, truth be told. And since that day, now we are literally in the home stretch of starting to find a cure. And the way I always phrase it to people who don't understand science like myself is that I met with Doctor Shy, who's the world's leading researcher for CMT, and I got up on his table.

35:37 This is like 1520 years ago now. I got up on his table and I was being a smart ass. And I said, Doc, when are you going to cure this thing already? And he looked me square in the eye with a straight face. And he said, in your lifetime, that's how close they are. And I'm 54 y'all. I'm getting older. So, you know, it's, it's that fast. The other thing I would tell you to that question, Dr. is that often times in curing a disease, different researchers, different countries researchers are competing with each other because whoever finds it first gets the money, gets the fame, blah, blah, blah. The world's researchers, when the CMTA researchers, Dr. Shai and his team reached out to them, all came together for a meeting.

36:19 And the Long story short is they said we are so close with this thing that if we work together, we can cure this thing 10 times faster. If we keep competing, it's going to be slower. And not only did everyone agree, but they agreed and signed on to what's called the Star Alliance. And the star is kind of the CMTA symbol. The Star Alliance means that all the world's leading researchers decided instead of the chance that we could get the credit, let's work together. Because if we do, we can genuinely cure this thing sooner than later. So it's a very exciting time. And we got a five star rating from national nonprofit, which means that we do everything right basically with the donations, 94% of donations go directly to research. Amazing.

37:07 Great question, Doctor, too. And I think that's a really good question to ask on a day like today when we were talking about all these different organizations and nonprofits that we're interested in supporting. All right, Jonah, I know you have a lot going on. This Ralph's question. Anyone in a 10 gallon hat gets gets to ask a question. This is Ralph's Thursday attire. He actually has a farm with cows, so that is a legitimate cowboy hat. Go for it, Ralph. Yeah. And Jonah, I just want to congratulate you, man. You work for a great organization. And as the money guy on the show, eyes look at the backside of this. And Jonah is telling the truth when he said they have an excellent reigning. One of the sites that I use is Charity Navigator. And Charity Navigator scores them a very high score for a great organization to work with.

37:51 So do your homework. But Jonah's organization is right on point. So Jonah, thank you so much for what you're doing for the organization, and thank you for having an organization that does it the right way. There's a lot of charities out there that don't. And Jonah, so I just commend you and I wish you well. Thank you, cowboy. Look, my the book that I wrote, he walks like a cowboy. That's that's me right there in my there it is. Very, very appropriate. We will have a link to that in the show notes as well, and I've shared it live here on Clubhouse. Joe, Now I'm going to ask you one final question. This is a question that I don't think we talk a lot about as best friends. You and I have been best friends, like I said, for a really long time.

38:34 How do you think CMT has played a role in our friendship, whether in ways people might notice or ways they may not? Well, I would say that it played a role in our early days, in our teenage years because I was really starting to adjust to CMT and it was really starting to kick in. And man, those, those early friendships, especially as guys go at that age, to have people like you in my life who actually had a true heart and an open heart to it. You always just came along for the ride. You never once were phased. You just jumped right in. And I think that was without really knowing it in the moment, in retrospect, that was probably some of the biggest components of the foundation of a friendship that was going to last a lifetime. There's just no two ways about it. And as we grew older and we lived together for a chunk of years in our young adult days, that's when I got my first pair of braces.

39:33 That's when I was dealing with some of my biggest frustrations around adjusting to it and being comfortable with it. And man, anytime you saw I was struggling, you were there. Anytime you saw that I had accomplished something, even emotionally, you were there to back it up. And so like life, not just CMT life, we have always done it side by side man and CMT having a brother in arms to go through it with, especially someone who didn't. Understand it intrinsically. You didn't have it, and you were still there. Like you were in it with me, not just observing it. And so, yeah, there's not enough time in the world to talk about how much that means to someone who's dealing with a challenge like this.

40:19 Yeah, I can appreciate what you're saying. And it's funny because I don't know that I ever made any conscious effort like that. It wasn't a plan that I had like, OK, I'm going to handle this this way. It was just something natural. And I think it was really maybe more instinctively, because I think I probably approached it how I'd want to be approached if I were, if I had CMT or had some kind of disease, this is how I'd want to be treated. Thank you, Jonah, for being here. cmt.org is the place to go to donate to CMT and actually make a big difference toward this very close cure that we have here. So please go and support. And also, if you want to get Jonah's book, it's called He Walks Like a Cowboy.

41:04 Thanks Jonah, you're so welcome. Pleasure to meet you guys. Having a a quick chat during the craziness of my morning. It was really nice connecting so have a great day. Tell them about candy man. OK, I will they they've heard it before. OK, candy man. What he's referring to was from Camp Footprint, the camp that is designed for children with CMT to help them just feel like kids and not worry about what other people are thinking or doing. The candy man reference if you have been following us since last August, I was designated the Candy Man, which on the surface might sound a little creepy because here I am going around to camp with little kids handing out free candy.

41:48 But this was approved by the organization and yeah, basically everyday. Just think like the candy man. I'm sorry, Just think like the ice cream man or the ice cream person that comes down your neighborhood St. It was the same idea. I would drive around a golf cart going to different activities, stopping, and then the kids would line up and wait for their candy. And it was a great way for me to get to know the kids in such a fun way. So the CMTA is doing lots of great things and I really encourage you if any of this touch to you today to go to cmtausa.org, that is the website cmtausa.org and go donate today. Thanks again to Jonah for being here. I want to keep things moving.

42:36 Would anybody who would like to share about their organization that they'd like some support? All right, Dr. are you pointing to you? You got to go for it, Dr. OK so last week I shared with you that my husband and I celebrated 4 years of cancer being cancer free. He had colon cancer and you know, it's so funny when he was in the hospital during the surgery and everything, he spent about 3 days in the hospital and in between visiting him and doing my regular job with podcasting, I, I was kind of shut out. He was like, I'm the man, don't worry about me, everything is okay.

43:25 I thought, I'm, you know, this is, this is our life. So what I did was I dove in deep to all the Facebook pages that had anything to do with ostomy and colon cancer and things like that, and I read up on it. I did like a crash course in those three days and it was just an amazing thing. I, I learned a lot and stuff that he didn't even know he was coming to me for, you know, what should I do about this? And I had answers for him because I had studied. And so my charity is stand up for Cancer and and it's perfect because, you know, Brian and I are we kind of think of ourselves as so funny. So especially on Friday, you know, Twister twisted Jeopardy. Anyway, I kind of when I was living in LA, I kind of dipped my toe into the cesspool of comedy writing and things like that jerked it out real fast.

44:34 But that's okay. But that's why this charity is so perfect for us, because it's all about comedy and making people laugh and it's a feel good thing and also bringing awareness. So that's why I chose Stand Up for Comedy. I love that stand. Up for cancer, sorry. Stand up for cancer with comedy with comedy, Yeah. And they have a lot of big partners involved in this program as well. You can go to standuptocancer.org to learn more about that. And DRI think you had shared some news with us that your your husband got a good report recently, right? Yeah, last.

45:15 That was my win last Friday. Oh God, Now I'm going to have to come up with a win for this week anyway, OK. It's not supposed to be something that you sigh about. OK, go ahead. OK. So yeah, four years since the operation, since all the cancer was cut out of them. And so we are celebrating. That's awesome. Congratulations to him. What a great cause. Stand up to cancer. So many of us have been affected by cancer, different types in so many different ways. And this is a wonderful way to support all the different causes as far as fighting cancer.

45:56 Yes, Ralph, go ahead. So I had a question for Dr. because Dr. My wife went through breast cancer froze on me. And my question for you is on the sidelines. Did you struggle the way I struggled? Oh man, there were. You're going to have to censor me, so get ready. Stand by there. Were so many times during when. After he came. That I wanted to say F you buddy. It's just a natural thing. He just got on my nerves so much. But you were in it together, you know, that's what that's what we go through. And a lot of that stuff he doesn't even remember. I mean, he was talking about stuff because of the medication that he was given. He was like I said that I did.

46:41 Really. Yeah. You did. Oh, man. So. Yeah. Yeah, I know. I just, I don't know about you and I don't want to take a big leap on this, but I just felt so powerless, Dr. Because, you know, I'm a fix it guy and I just wanted to fix this. And I remember two weeks after my wife had a mastectomy, you know, I was like, I I, I want you to start getting back to normal. And there was no normal. And I don't know if you felt that same thing. I felt so powerless. I felt so, yeah, lack of control. He shut me out, probably. I don't know if he realized he was doing that, but you know, he's like, I'm the man. I'm can, I can do this. And and so that's when I kind of went into OverDrive and started thinking, you know what, I'm going to make it so you can't shut me out.

47:31 You're I'm going to be your go to person. You're going to be asking me questions. And that's exactly what happened. Thank you for sharing, Dr. Great question, Ralph. Appreciate it. OK. I want to keep things going here. So who else would like to share about their organization? I'm going to go to Tim since Tim has joined us from the audience. Tim, good morning. Welcome back to the stage. Is there a charity, a nonprofit that you would like us to support? Oh, absolutely, Mark, thank you so much for doing this. Well, back in 2021, I was diagnosed with Ms., and I've seen a number of organizations in my time with my diagnosis, but the one organization that I really like is the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America, MSAA. They've provided a lot of great information, a lot of great support for me and my journey.

48:33 And even with Ms. I'm still, you know, doing podcasting for the federal government and for myself and kicking butt and taking names. I won't let it keep me down. I love that that's the Jonah Berger attitude as well with what he has to deal with. And I think that is the best attitude. And Tim, I don't know that I knew that. And if I did, please forgive me. I totally forgot. So thank you for sharing a little bit about your journey. What, if I may, what's, what's the, what would you say right now is the biggest challenge for you dealing with Ms. Fatigue is the biggest challenge right now. I mean, yeah, I've got twin 11 year olds, so that's even if I didn't have that mess, I'd be tired.

49:16 But yeah, fatigue, mental fog hits me. Sometimes I'm working on podcast episodes for my clients. Sometimes I'll be like, you know what, we're gonna give it an extra day to work on this. You know, it's, it's a thing. It's what I have. I have it. It doesn't have me. Yep, exactly right. I've said that. I think that might even be a quote in one of Jonah's books that I've actually said that I CMT yes, he has it, but he it doesn't have him. I think that's a wonderful attitude about it, Tim, and I'm so glad that you were able to share and I appreciate that you did share your journey with us. And yeah, again, what's the organization that we should support?

50:01 Sure. It's the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America. It's msaa.org. Awesome. We will absolutely support that because we love supporting you, Tim. You've been such a support to this community and to me personally, so we will do whatever we can. Thank you so much, Tim for sharing. Well, first, let me say again, podcast on dot org, what an amazing organization that they have put together here. The fact that we literally have thousands of podcasters talking this week about charitable causes, nonprofits that we all want to support it, it's just mind blowing.

50:42 And what a powerful thing that they've put together. And yeah, it was only, I think last year that it became a worldwide initiative. I think prior to that it was mainly being held in Europe. And they had just recently extended that to a worldwide initiative. And I couldn't be more more proud to be a part of it. So kudos to them at podcasts on with 1 T dot org. Tomorrow we're back celebrating our wins. As Dr. said, how so excited she is for that. So what we do is we share our wins from this past week and celebrate them together. And nothing is too big. Nothing is too small. It's your win and it deserves to be celebrated. So bring that tomorrow.

51:28 Of course, we'll be talking some podcasting as well. We'll probably dig into the mailbag a little bit and then we'll get into our win. So thank you all for being a part of this. Go to Podcasting Morning chat.com/charity to learn about the charities you've heard today and some others that you that you didn't get to hear today. Part of the team has shared some different organizations that they like to support and you can learn about that over there. So until tomorrow, make it a great day. Everybody take care.