Seemingly Ordinary

Once a TV reporter who survived and covered a hurricane (episode #182), Caroline Burkard has re-invented herself. How did she do it? Enjoy this fun update featuring love, photography, starting your own business, and--bonus--where she rates money, power, fame, love, growth, contribution, and Jesus in her life, these days, on a scale of 1 to 10. She's always up to something amazing!

For about 1750+ years, Christians thought charging interest was wicked and exploitative. From Jesus (Luke 6:34-35) to Augustine to Aquainus to others, they didn't like it.  But in the 18th Century, things started to change. Even so, many Christians today have severe misgivings about the morality of charging any interest. C.S. Lewis worried it was anti-Christian. And yet, we have it. Can anyth...

Adam Clement is a licensed marriage therapist who has worked with all kinds of hard cases, from addiction to trauma to spouses who say no to everything, young men who won't leave their rooms, and people suffering from identity crises (like teens who don't know what to do, or your classic 40 year old who feels lost). In this episode, I ask him about hard cases.

Every day, I notice more and more in many conversations: what isn't being said. It's often the most important part.

Michelle Downard - Birth Parent Peer Support / Birth Mother: "My name is Michelle Downard, and I am a birth mother who has been working for American Adoptions since 2003. My primary focus is peer support for all the birth mothers that we work with who want to know that they are not alone and that someone else understands how they feel. I placed my son for adoption in February of 1998. He is t...

And if so, how? Some people believe we have to change the system. Note: I am not saying this is his plan. But between President Trump's proposal that income taxes go away for everyone making under $150,000, and the tariffs--who knows just how creative the chief executive will get?

I'm not a great negotiator. But these five keys work. If you've ever wanted to get what you want, and stay 100% honest, this is probably the way to go.

What's fake? Maybe the food, our fuel, a bunch of people in government, the media, the money, the pharma, what some call "bu!!shlit jobs," some of the education, and much more.  People complain about conspiracy theories, but it would help if we got to the bottom of things, instead of just moving on. After all, most Americans don't believe what they've heard about JFK; RFK;...

How do you help people who isolate themselves? "Hikikomori" is a worldwide phenomena--where young men (usually ages 18 to 25) isolate themselves. They tend to talk to no one and not have jobs. In Japan, there are 1,200,000 people like this, and there are many in other nations, including the U.S. These people don't have goals and they don't have relationships. Can they be helped...

Debt on a personal level can easily damage your life, remove your opportunities, give you a spirit of fear and always saying no, and hurt your imagination. LIfe was not meant to be this way. In this episode, I give thoughts on: the psychology of debt, how debt keeps us from being our best, and I offer a few solutions.

The national debt is designed to never be paid off--and it costs us our health, prosperity, and many other good things. And it makes it easier for nations to go to war.   But there are two alternative systems that are worth discussing--a hard money system (like gold, silver, and/or Bitcoin), and something I never heard of until about last week: a Sovereign Monetary System. Join me for what may be...

In 1963, Eric Berne wrote a book that still sells well today: "Games People Play." It is about ridiculous, repetitive patterns that people fall into, like "I've Got You Now, You Little S.O.B.," and "Kick Me." In this episode (third in a series), I discuss several more of these self- and other-destructive games, as well as two of Dr. Berne's other insightful...

"(I've Got a) Wooden Leg"..."(You've Got a) Blemish"..."Kick Me"...and "Look What You Made Me Do!" These are four more Games that People Play.  In the 1960s, psychologist Eric Berne noticed that some people repeat the same silly arguments &/or patterns over & over again. He called these destructive patterns "games." But even thoug...

Spencer Steinert is a guide at Wonder, an Acton Academy which was featured on Jordan Peterson's podcast when Dr. Peterson interviewed Zach Lahn, the founder of Wonder. And now Spencer is opening his own Acton Academy, in Overland Park, Kansas, in August 2025.   Acton Academies are hard to describe—but they are catching on like wildfire, with over 300 of them in the U.S. and other countries, s...

"Games People Play" is a book that explains the social and relationship games that people play. These are no-win situations that we should avoid. I cover three: "I've Got You Now, You Little $$#@!," "Ain't It Awful," and "Yes, But." I also discuss the author, Dr. Eric Berne's solutions. Even though this book is sixty years old, it still sells...

Apparently, law school makes people strong, smart, and gives them mesmerizing stories to tell. Reed just completed his third semester; it was agonizing and exhilarating, and (in my view) it made him into a better man in every respect.  (This episode was recorded on Jan. 9, 2025.)

Law school is a stark adjustment for most people. How did Sam Dierberger fare? It lead him to question practically every aspect of his life, and also his beliefs. (This episode was recorded four days ago.)

Even though I've had a two-drink limit for myself for decades, I decided last March that maybe I'm done. Since then, life has gotten very interesting. Books & podcast resources included. (This episode was recorded Jan. 4, 2025.  The artwork features athletes drinking water.)

Awarded "Teacher of the Year" by his peers, Michael Consiglio is a teacher and a coach who, all his life, has been willing to take on brand new challenges. This is a replay of the very first episode of Seemingly Ordinary, which debuted in 2020.

I ask Lee Ann Oches, a smart lady with six kids, what she would do differently if she had $20M and unlimited help in educating her six kids. Plus, we discuss at least eight jobs that one or both of us think every person should have for six months or longer.  (We recorded this episode on Dec. 14, 2024.)

This is a new kind of school, although there are 300 of them, worldwide, and they've been around since 2009. They help kids perform 1, 2, or even 3 grade levels ahead, and they teach kids to start their own businesses, start their own charities, write their own plays, or otherwise build something that matters to the public. They are very different. Jacob & Caitlin McKnight are opening one...

Jacob McKnight is starting a brand new school, and he's also lived an incredible life. In this episode, I wanted to hear stories from his life--and what a shock! His two young daughters could have died. Not only that, if they lived, the chance that both would recover from what happened to them--nearly drowning--was under 4%. And yet...well, you'll just have to listen. Jacob also spent ti...

Money. Romance. Careers. Love. We all have opinions and attitudes on life's most important topics--but where did we get them? Chances are, we absorbed them when we were too young to do anything else, maybe from family, friends, enemies, the media, and more. And then, by the time were were 25, we have a whole range of beliefs that have shaped our lives--sometimes for greatness, and at other ti...