In this episode, Cole shares three stories about his family and emphasizes the importance of loving and celebrating family. This episode ends with a song from IROH who is receiving 60% of your Satoshi Donation in a modern podcast app.
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[00:00:00]
Unknown:
It broke my leg.
[00:00:07] Cole McCormick:
What's up, everyone? It's America
[00:00:11] Unknown:
What's everyone? It's America Plus. I'm your host, Cole McCormick. It's another week another episode. What's going on everybody? It's Sunday night.
[00:00:14] Cole McCormick:
Or Saturday night. Saturday night. I'm recording this Saturday night. A little early recording. April 6 right now, folks. At 9:56 in the PM on a beautiful Saturday evening, man. Coming to you a little bit of a different vibe right now, but it, the podcast is on time. I'm feeling good about that. By the time you're hearing this, I will be in Las Vegas. I will be with my family. I am visiting my cousins in Viva Las Vegas, and, I'm going there to see my cousin, Mackenzie. She is preggos, Preggers. She's doing a little baby shower, so I'm super excited to see her. So yeah. I'm just with her. I'm I'm in Vegas right now with my family, just hanging out with them, and I wanted to dedicate this episode to family.
Family matters, man. And that's really that's the main narrative. I feel like that's one of the main, narratives that America needs, and like the world needs. You know? I don't see too many podcast talking about the importance of family, you know, maybe there might be some individuals here and there, but in terms of celebrating, and in terms of laughing with the family, you know, no other podcast is doing that. So, this is America Plus man. Like this is where we innovate. This is where we bring the most important narratives to the world. For a more beautiful world, of course, that our hearts know is possible. And, with that, I have 3 stories of my family that I wanna share today.
3 specific stories revolving around, some family members of mine. And I wanna begin with my sister. Okay? My sister, Lauren. Shout out to Lauren.
[00:01:56] Unknown:
What up? What up, Lauren?
[00:01:59] Cole McCormick:
Lauren, first of all, the first the the best thing about Lauren One of the best things about my sister, Lauren. First of all, she's the youngest. So she has that going for her, and, she's like in her early twenties, and she has a boyfriend. She spells her name differently. Our mom chose to spell Lauren the most insane way ever. So like, what's the normal way to spell Lauren, first of all? Is it l a u r e n? Okay? Maybe that's a normal spelling, but our mother chose to go with laurran.
[00:02:41] Unknown:
Excuse me, mom? Excuse
[00:02:42] Cole McCormick:
What's kind of a What kind of a spelling b are you, mom? Like, what's going on with that dude? What's up with that spelling? Everyone has always, like, said, like, that like, that's such an interesting way to spell your name. That's so interesting, Lauren. And I just know that it's like a backhanded compliment, because people think that people think it's weird, but Lauren's cool. Lauren's name is cool. I think Lauren's name is awesome. Okay? No matter what. No matter what anyone says. And, this story revolves around that little clip you just heard in the very beginning, the opener of of this episode. Let me rewind back to last week to Easter. Okay? I had a really fun Easter, by the way, if you didn't. If you weren't around last week, I got drunk y'all. I drink a whole bottle of copola wine by myself, and we were just partying up with, with the Lord and savior.
And, I was at work that day. Right? I worked the full shift in the kitchen on Easter day, and midway through, I get a call from my family, and you know, I'm I'm usually expecting a call on the holidays, you know, especially when I'm not home. My family usually calls me. We're pretty communicative, and I'm in the bathroom, and I'm listening to this, and I'm I I missed a phone call. Right? I missed it. So they send in a voicemail, and I get this voicemail while I'm, like, taking a piss.
[00:04:11] Unknown:
Happy Easter.
[00:04:14] Cole McCormick:
Happy Easter. Happy Easter.
[00:04:17] Unknown:
We love you, honey. We miss you. Spent a little bit of time in the ER this morning with Lauren. She I broke my leg, and she broke her fibula skiing yesterday. She's good. She's in the car. We're all going to church together. But yeah. So, anyways, love you. Oh, here's Colt or here's Wyatt, her danger. It's a message. It's a message. I'm glad you're here. Bye, baby. Buddy. Love you.
[00:04:50] Cole McCormick:
Yeah, dude. So so they said it is nice thing. Hey. Doing great. Doing great. And then, oh, yeah. Lauren. We're in the ER. We just came back from the ER. We're going to church straight from the hospital. Lauren broke her fibula. Like, come on, Lauren. What are you doing now? What are you doing? What are you doing, girl? And I'm I'm texting her afterwards. I'm like, what is happening? Like, are you okay? And if you're looking If you'll see this in a modern podcasting app right now, you're seeing the pictures of all this. She sent me the photos. I got the x-ray up right up right now. It was it's a clean break. Let me just say that. It's a clean break, just smooth smooth as all can get out, but I guess she was skiing. She was skiing in Northern Arizona with her boyfriend, and she just fell.
That's all I have to say. She just fell. And I'm texting her, I'm like, were you trying to impress your boyfriend? And she goes, I fucking wish. That'd be a lot cooler if I was, but no. I just fell. I just don't know how to ski, and I fell, and I ended up like breaking my my fibula, and that's like your shin. She broke one of the bones in her shin, which is super rough dude, and then she also screwed up her knee. Her knee on her other side. So one leg on one side is busted, the other leg, the knee, the doctor thinks they don't know yet. They don't know for sure yet, but the doctor thinks that she tore her ACL, or her MCL, or her meniscus, or all of it. It could be all of it. We don't know yet.
But that's my sister Lauren in a nutshell. She she she's your own individual. She's living her best life. She's a manager at a at a tractor supply, so she's making fairly good money right now, and, but she just she goes through these mishaps. She has these little moments, these little Lauren moments. It's her first bone broken, but, on, like, the night before Easter, dude. Like, the the Saturday before Easter. Can you believe that? Does anyone else know anyone like that? Like, who's gonna break a bone the day before a holiday? Anyone? Anyone? I just that blew my mind, dude. And I I was laughing my ass off with that voicemail. It's so good. I'm just gonna go back to that real quick, like It broke my leg. That's the funniest part, dude.
That's the funniest part. So that's the story number 1. Story number 2. Story number 2 is about my my father. My Faiza. Faesha. The guy with cancer. Okay? Let's talk about him real quick. So, I've already been open about about his diagnosis. You know, he has colon cancer. It's okay. We're moving through it. He's he's getting healthier. He's focusing on the positive vibes, and the positive thoughts on the healthy foods. He's, he's able to do like a chemo pill now. He's not getting the injected chemo anymore. He's able to just take a pill, so, hopefully, that's still working for him. It's a new medicine, so, hopefully, it's all going well, but as far as I can tell, I spent the weekend with him on my birthday and he was like pretty lively. He was cracking jokes still. And that's really the focus of this next story because my father's humor, I believe, is quite possibly the strongest medicine for himself, and just humor in general. You know, they always say, laughter is the best medicine, and, I think this story really really solidifies that.
So taking it back to to 2023 when he first got diagnosed, and him and I are on the phone, and we're just talking about, you know, just general stuff. Like, hey, like, how are you feeling today? You know, like like, how's it been going? Like, are you still like in shock? Like, the this sort of a thing. And I remember him telling me that he was worried throughout this process that he wouldn't be able to do everything that he usually does, like and that involves him being involved in the community. Okay? Because he would he volunteers at his church as security and as a business owner for the for over a decade now, my dad has been a part of this community, this community what do you I'm not sure what to call it. This like this organization puts on t ball, and soccer games, and, flag football, and it's like a sports organization for the community, and, and it's mainly like funded by, like, the group of friends that, like, that I grew up with, or like the group of family friends that I grew up with. And my dad has always been a part of this, and and one way that this organization that they fundraise and they get money is they put on this annual gala.
Okay? This annual, like, little get together, and, they they got company sponsoring tables, and my dad's company was always one of those, and then they also have an auction, and the auction always has like a a pretty good array of of items, you know, whether it be like a vacation spot in Hawaii, you know, or you you get some some weekend in a cabin in in Northern Arizona. Just like one of those things. Right? Or or you get like a coupon, or whatever, you know? And you do auctions with it. My dad was worried that he wouldn't be able to participate in that because of the amount of money that goes into cancer treatment, you know, he wasn't sure how much money the company would be making, but luckily and that's always like in the beginning of the years. Right?
Luckily, the finances have been okay. My dad's been pretty solid. My parents have been good with money, and they've been they were able to go to this event, and it's called Paladin. Okay? So we'll just say, the Paladin event, and he was super happy about that, and this year was like a themed year. It was like, come as like, every table was able to pick a theme. Okay? So people come in, and some of the tables that were sponsored, some of them were like, let's just say, like, I don't I I I don't know for certain, but let's just say Hot Wheels themed, whatever, let's just say NASCAR themed, another one was like, like football sports themed, and then my dad's table, where he was at, that was Barbie themed. Okay? Barbie theme. Barbie was the biggest movie of course. Let's go as Barbie. Barbie and Ken, come on.
And everyone gets dressed up. My my mom's her own Barbie, and the thing with the Barbie movie, like, like, you know, they got like nurse Barbie, they have like beach Barbie, they got beach Ken, they have Doctor Ken whatever, Smart Ken, Business Ken, and, my mom went as Nurse Barbie, of course, because she's taking care of my dad, and what does my dad go as? My dad go at goes as chemo Ken. Chemo Ken, folks. Come on now. When I heard that, I literally couldn't stop laughing. My father literally got a fake IV, and he was rolling it around, and it looked like it was, like, inserted in his vein, and he's rolling around as chemo Ken. Okay? Living his best life. Living his best life, dude.
And, they're just hanging out. People thought it was hilarious. Like, oh my God, Kevin. Like, you're so like, Kevin. That that's so many people's reactions to my father's humor. It's always, Kevin, and, that's been a lot of my life, just like witnessing my father make people say his name in a very certain tone, And, during the auction part, there's a few different things on the auction that they were going for. My dad put down money for like, a boat or something. There is this cabin that you could get a weekend at, and that this other thing that my dad put money on, and he actually he he he won it, so my dad won the cabin. Okay? He he put $500 for the auction on the cabin. He won it, and then he put $500 on a 2 for 1 cremation deal.
Folks, I'm not kidding. A 2 for 1 cremation coupon. There was a cremation company that they had some sort of a coupon situation. I don't they were able to give this organization their coupon, and no one else wanted to get it, because nobody else wants to die. But my dad has no no no trouble putting money on on on a good deal. And when they called his name so, like, they called the names. Right? And they go, and for the 2 for 1 cremation, it's Kevin McCormick. And my dad walks up to the stage with his IV as chemo can, and he goes to the mic, and he just says, like, hey everyone. I just want to thank everyone for this great opportunity.
Hopefully, I never have to use it. Maybe I can resell them on the black market, if anyone else out there is looking for something like this. But I'm just really glad I got this. Thank you. And people were like clapping, and like like, you know, like their their hands are over their mouths, like, oh my god. Look. What, Kevin? What? And my dad's friend, he goes up to him, and my dad's friend, his wife recently passed away from cancer. Right? And, my dad's friend goes up to him and he goes, Kevin, dude, I don't know if you know this, but that is $500 for 2 cremations.
$500 is like a third of the price I pay for my wife. Dude, like, Kevin, you got a sick deal, dude. You got a sick deal, Kevin, And, so for pretty much, my dad got my dad got an awesome deal on 2 cremations. Hopefully, he'll never have to use them, but he was grateful for it. He was grateful for to just have that opportunity, man. And that's my dad. That's my dad, and that makes me happy. That story makes me happy because, in this moment in his life, he's able to just stare death in the face and be like, give me the sick deal. Like, let's make a joke out of it. I don't care. I don't care. Like, he cares, of course. He wants to live. He's told me multiple times, he wants to live a long life, but there's this other end of my observation at least and it's it's like like, let's put money on red, dude. Like, let's let's put money on the cremation.
Like, let's just lean into it. Okay? You gotta lean into it, and that's sort of been a lesson for me. Right? And I'm just thankful for my dad. I'm thankful for everyone who was there, able to support him. Support chemo Ken. Come on now. Just ridiculous, dude. Just ridiculous. And the third story here's a third story I wanted to I wanna I wanna share. It's it's about me. It's about my experience earlier in this year. As we're going through all this, this past January, I get a my dad tells me that his stepsister okay. He we have family up in Idaho.
My dad's stepsister wanted to do a big surprise for their mom. My dad's stepmother, my grandmother, you know, she's just naturally my grandmother. She turned 80. My grandma Cheryl turned 80 this year. This past this past March 12th was her birthday. And my dad's stepsister, she wanted to do something special for him, And she, but she didn't know, like, what, but she wanted to do, like, a little, like, video. Something. Just some sort of, like, the whole family gets together and says, hey, grandma, like, happy birthday. We love you so much. Hey, grandma. Happy birthday. Like like and it'd be like this like big, like, you know, like better than Zoom. You know? Like it's the entire family in one video saying, happy birthday, and like talk about something that they love about her, and she didn't know how to do it and she approached my dad about approaching me to to editing this video and to collecting all the all the footage, and editing it together, and figuring out how it should all all go together.
And immediately, I was I was so down. I was so into it. A, because I just I've never done something like that before, like, I've only made a few videos. You know, I've only done podcast videos. I've never done like a little montage for the family video. That sounds fun to me, and it just felt right. Like, it just really felt right in my soul. I can't really explain it any much more, but I just know that in the moment of life that I am in now, the opportunity to give something to my family, to to pull in footage from my family, and to direct that towards my grandmother, whom we all love very much, it just seemed like a real a real opportunity to do that, and, so I had like over a month, to edit and and to pull in everything, and to figure out how how it should go.
And at first, I was just editing to just one song, I pulled up this, the song from Up. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Pixar movie, Up. The opening, like, sequence the opening song that plays, there's, like, this, like, montage of of the old couple, like like, finding each other and falling in love and getting married and all this. That song, I I edited to that song, and it it makes you cry. Every time you listen to it, like, it gets emotional dude. Like, that movie just gets everyone emotional, and and the goal was to make everyone cry. That was my goal. That was my intention with this with this movie, with this video.
And, it it was incredible to see so many different faces of my family that I wasn't really familiar with. Like, some of them, I of course, I I was, like, the family I'm seeing in in Vegas, like, they were in the video, but there's, like, other people that I had no concept of. I was, like, I've never I've literally never met you in my life, but somehow we are related. Like, that's wild, dude. Like, I don't see the resemblance, and it made me emotional, because I got some of my grandma's kid photos, you know, when she was, like, a little girl in the fifties, like, oh my god. Like, first of all, the photographs from back in the fifties are beautiful. Like, they're just like, that's real photography, you know, like, the real authentic film. I've already discussed this. Like, the the physical film, like, there's such a different look with that, man.
And to juxtapose, like, this authentic, real film with my grandmother, whom I know is alive in that photo, like, she is just like, a just a beautiful young girl. Like, she's, like, 5 years old. Like, look how cute you are. Like, dude, like, look at your little cheeks. Like, I turned into the grandma looking at my grandma as a kid. Like, look at your little cheeks. Oh my god. I just wanna squeeze them. And, to to figure out the sequence of the video, you know, that was, like, the biggest deal, and I gotta, like, combine these photos and these videos, and everyone has like a different length of video, and everyone is like sending in in sending in stuff late, and I gotta like, I'm literally sorting through, like, I don't know, like, it felt like it felt like well over like 300 photos. I don't know. It it was a lot of photos. Maybe it was less, but it was a lot. And, it got to the point where I did, like, a little, like, like, preview with with that side of the family, and I did some editing. Like, I like, I as in, like, I I didn't use all the footage that I had. I didn't use all the all the photos.
And it got to a point where they were like, okay, Cole. This is a great video. It's a great 5 minutes. We need it to be longer though. We need it to be longer. Just please use all the photos, all the footage, like do whatever you gotta do. Just make it longer. We wanna see everyone in it. And I was like, okay. Cool. Let's do it. And so what that means is I had to get more music, and, I didn't know what music to grab, and then it got into a moment of, like, okay, well, what are what are grandma's, like, favorite musicians? Like like, does she have a favorite song or something? And and then I was told she loves my grandma loves Neil Diamond, and she loves Elvis.
I was like, okay. I like Elvis. Let's go for it. So I found a Neil Diamond song. The song is called Hello Again. Hello. It's like this it's a suit dude. Again, the goal was to make you cry, and the song Hello Again by Neil Diamond, like, that's another tear jerker, dude. That's insane. That was insane, and I was like, I I was crying while I'm editing, like, constantly. I'm crying while I'm editing, And, I'm just pulling in all these grandkid photos, and, like, these old photos of her and my grandpa, and, like, it's just, like, it it it's the eighties. It's the nineties. It's the thousands. Like, oh my god. Like, look at all these kids. Look at all these people. Look at all this life. It's life.
Life. Like, I'm freaking out in my in my kitchen because of all this life on my computer screen, and, to wrap up the video, I had to I was I was like, alright. What is the what is the best song? I have this Neil Diamond song. I have this Pixar song. How am I gonna end it? What song is gonna bring us home? And then I and then I remembered. Elvis. Elvis. Elvis brings us home. Elvis brings it home, dude. And I played that song, I don't wanna play too much of it, because I feel like I get I would get like copy written, but, yeah, dude. Like, do does anyone know this song from Elvis?
[00:23:23] Unknown:
Oh, my love. My darling, my darling. I hunger for your
[00:23:32] Cole McCormick:
Like that song, dude. That song wrapped up the video, dude. And it's like a boom boom boom. Like like like quick succession of, like, grandkid, grandkid, like, husband, wife, like, boom boom boom. Like like step kid, baby me, baby like, so many babies. I put so many baby photos juxtaposed to that Elvis song, and it's just like, it's again, you're gonna cry, dude. I wanted to, like, create a magnet of tears coming out of your face, and, I'm happy to say that that happened. That totally happened. I was super proud of it. I was super happy for the video. I sent it in. They rented out a movie theater in Idaho, so they actually saw it on the big screen, which is incredible. My literal I I was literally, here's a ironic thing, like, I'm I'm trying to make movies, and I literally have a movie in the movie theater, like, that's like, okay. Let's go for it, dude. Let's go for it.
They're in the movie theater, and it's it's a surprise. Right? My grandma doesn't know. My grandma doesn't know, like, they lied to her actually. My the stepsister who initiated this whole thing, she tells this fib of, hey, so it looks like, no one's available for your birthday party. So and so's working. They're out of town. But you and I can get lunch for your birthday. Like she does this whole sham of a story, and then she brings them she brings her to the movie theater, and like, the whole family in Idaho is there, first of all. And then like, hey, surprise. We're gonna go see a movie with you, grandma. Happy birthday. And then they all sit down in the theater, and then all of a sudden it's, happy birthday, grandma. Oh my god. And it's like and it's the video, and it's like, the whole family is on the big screen, and like, and there's photos of my of my grandma, Cheryl, just crying, dude. Crying.
Bawling, dude. Bawling her eyes out, and I I'm happy she didn't have a heart attack. She's 80 years old, so shout out to shout out to Cheryl. No one like you, Cheryl. No one like you, grandma. I love you so much, and to know that that happened. To know to to first of all, to finish a project as a creative person, that was a good thing, and along with that to put in so much love for my family. To see my sister say, happy birthday. I love you. To see my dad say, happy almost like I'm almost getting emotional now just thinking about it dude, like it's just it's heavy. It's a heavy project, and it that's sort of how I sort of kicked off the year, man. Like I kicked off the year with just celebrating my family, and I just wanna lead with that love, dude. I want that love to fill me up, and I want that love to fill up everyone, to fill up the whole world.
The the love for your family should fill up the world, man. And I'm so fortunate to to love my family, and I'm fortunate to be in a family that is loving. You know, I'm not sure how many families are loving or are together. You know, like, I I I don't have those statistics, but I I know that just the fact that my grandparent I all of my grandparents first of all, I have a lot of grandparents. Second of all, none of them died during the pandemic. So, like, that right there, like, I I I've always known I was lucky because no one has died. Just that sheer fact, and now I get to celebrate that, and celebrating 20 like, going into 2024, celebrating that was just a huge, like, eye opener for me. Eye opener and heart opener.
Heart filler upper. Clear eyes, full hearts, dude. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. You know? That that like, that's the real lesson, dude. That's the real takeaway, and I'm just happy I I could share that love. I mean, I was happy that I could give that love. And to sort of wrap up the story section of this episode, I wanna just encourage you, like, the message of today the lesson of the day is to is is to love your family. Like, you have to find a way to love your family. You have to find a way to love your neighbor. You have to find a way to love yourself.
Like that is the most important thing, dude. I am going to hammer that as much as I possibly freaking can. You must follow these things. These are the 2 things that Jesus said to do. You know, these are Jesus' only 2 commandments. Love the lord your god with all your all your soul, heart, strength, and mind. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Your family are your neighbors. Your family are your neighbors, dude, and your family brought you into this world. And whether that means you gotta go through some sort of forgiveness situation, whether that means you gotta just make a phone call that you haven't made in in a long time, maybe it's a text message, like, you gotta love your family. Maybe maybe you just pray for someone, like, quietly to yourself.
You know, just open your heart up to them and try to send some love to them. Like, that's the biggest thing, man. Like, when it comes to a more beautiful world that my heart knows is possible, a part of that better world is loving everyone around you, loving your family, and trying to mend the broken pieces. And that's possible. It's so possible. And trying and and laughing through the heartache. Laughing through the fear. You know, I just saw Dune a couple times in the movie theater. The the famous line within Dune is fear is the mind killer.
Let the fear pass through. What's left? Me. You know, like, to laugh, to love. And now now I'm becoming one of those cheesy signs in your mom's house.
[00:29:40] Unknown:
Live, laugh, love.
[00:29:45] Cole McCormick:
Ridiculous, dude. But that's it it's important. It's important, dude. And that's and and that it's valuable.
[00:29:52] Unknown:
Ultimately. It's valuable, folks. It's valuable. And that's what America Plus is. America Plus is all about the value.
[00:29:58] Cole McCormick:
And with that, we're gonna head on into the the value for value section, the boost agrams, everybody. America Plus is a value for value show. What that means is I present this content upfront for you to ingest, and you have the opportunity to reciprocate whatever value you are getting from me in 4 different ways. You can just listen, you can clip, you can share, and you can boost. Okay? Those are the 4 main ways. Listen, Share, Clip, and boost. You can if if you're just listening, like that's super valuable to me. Thank you so much. Just share share the episode. Share the show.
If you're enjoying what I talk about, if you think this is important, share this with somebody. Share this on social media. I really encourage you to do that because I'm doing the podcast for a long time, and I'm always I will be speaking positively towards a better world for my entire life. For as long as this earth is around, I will be speaking into this new world, dude. And, next thing is is, clipping. By the way, if you didn't know about fountain.fm
[00:31:03] Unknown:
Go to value 4 value dot info for more info, then download the fountain.fm
[00:31:08] Cole McCormick:
app. It's the best way to support the show. Value number 4, value dot info. That's like a breakdown of the whole model that I'm doing, and then the fountain.fmapp is my favorite podcasting 2.0 app. If you're listening to it now, you're you've been able to see all the images, all the chapter images, and you're also able to listen to the full song, dude. You can see where I get the song. I'm playing a song at the end, right after I read these boostograms, dude. And, and the last thing is boosting. Boostogramming, that is the money portion of how you can support the show.
Within Fountain, you're able to send in a boost, that's that means that you send in a message with a little bit of Bitcoin, like itty bitty bits of Bitcoin. We call them Satoshis here, and, you can send in whatever amount you want, or you can support the show with PayPal. I need the dollars, because I need to pay for the hosting service, and I'll just be collecting dollars. I'm trying to make a living here, folks. I'm trying to do I'm trying to not chop potatoes for life, so support the show. I encourage you heavily too. And we're gonna be reading the boostograms right now from the lowest to the highest. This is from last week, number 116, political wait.
[00:32:21] Unknown:
Political
[00:32:22] Cole McCormick:
god. Wait. What's is that not intimidating?
[00:32:25] Unknown:
Political god.
[00:32:27] Cole McCormick:
Last week was fun, dude. Easter was wild. You gotta listen to that episode, dude. Played a bunch of clips. This first one, this first boostagram comes in from at Shannon P. What up, Shannon? She sends in a beautiful 100 satoshis, and she has to say, cracking up at Trump's, I drink a little wine and eat a little cracker, which I think is Catholic too. So he's all over the place. He's very religious. Yes, he is. Boosting is loving. Yes, he is, Shannon. Yeah. I played a Trump clip of him of how religious he is. Like, you be the judge. Is Trump a religious guy? We got another one coming in from at saint sandat saint Saintsandsats.
Sorry. It's all one word. At saintsandsats. They sent in a 325, 325 Sat. That was for my birthday. Birthday's on March 25th. Thank you for that numerology, Saints and Sat. And, they got to say, the American religious scene is just nuts these days. I agree. I had no idea how wild it is getting until hearing your podcast. In general, American culture is good at engineering, but really, really bad at theology and philosophy. Stay sane out there.
[00:33:47] Unknown:
And now as the French say, it is time for
[00:33:50] Cole McCormick:
Le Boost. Saints and SATs, I agree with you fully. It's getting wild out there. America's has America ever been religious? Like, some people wanna say it's a Christian country, or it's a Judeo but what's religious about America? Business? I don't know, dude. Next one comes in from oh, we got a bigger one from at shannonp, whopping 333 sets. She says, we are living in some of the wildest political times. I'm going to continue research, research people's character and their politics, which I'm not sure how many people really do that anymore. Great insight into some of them on the podcast. Thank you so much, Shan.
Boost. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I went into, like, RFK Jr, his VP pick. What what's the philosophy of RFK Jr's VP pick? What does she believe in? Some really important stuff I I think, and I think you'll find it interesting. And then this last boostagram comes in from our friend at Joel w. He sends in his regular 1,111 sats. That's a Satchel of Richards, by the way. Send in that number, why don't you? If you're listening right now, send in 1,000 sats right now. He has to say, Matthew 2112 through 13, and Matthew 23 is who Jesus is to me.
Speaking truth to power. Hashtag no king but Christ also. Find the show Black Jesus if you never saw it. Funny ass show. Boostar. Boostar. Thank you very much, Joel. One more thing. Because basically, you put Bitcoin with anything, and all of a sudden, that is more efficient. Yeah. That's legit. Let me go to that real quick. Let me just let me do an impromptu copy and paste on the Google search, dude. Let's go. What is this verse? What is this verse? Let me go to bible gateway dotcom. Jesus at the temple. Jesus this is Matthew 2112 through 13.
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money chargers, and the benches of those selling doves. It is written, he said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. You're making it a den of robbers. No. I can't do that. I can't do that voice with Jesus. Joel, that's legit, dude. And then, wait. What's the other one? It was 23. Right? Let's just type in 23. 23. What is this 1? A warning against hypocrisy. Oh, yeah. He's speaking truth to power. Jesus said to the crowds, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, so you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Oh, Joel. Come on in with the truth, Joel. Come on, dude. I'm all fired up, dude. You're getting me fired up at 10:30 at night, bro. Come on, dude. Thank you so much, Joel. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in a boostagram. Thank you so much, everybody. That's value for value. That's value for value. Okay? Get involved with value for value. This is the innovation I'm talking about, man. It's powerful, dude. It's powerful. And I and the last thing I wanna do, in terms of value, I got a huge I wanna give another shout out to 1 Podfather himself last week. He was streaming in sats.
Sir Adam Curry was streaming he streamed in 3,682 Satoshis, dude. Boosting is loving. Because, basically, you put Bitcoin with anything, and all of a sudden, that is more efficient. I saw Adam Curry, the creator, the inventor of podcasting, was streaming in money to me, to my show, to number 116. He was listening for like 10 minutes, but like, that means that those 10 minutes, he got value out of those 10 minutes, and like, that's what I gotta do better at. I'm trying to, like, give the best value for longer durations of time. So thank you Adam Curry for streaming in those sats. That that's a huge signal to me to like, to continue to do what I'm doing. Like, whatever I was doing in those 10 minutes, I gotta keep doing it. So thank you so much, dude. Send in some more sachs. Why don't you? Please. Please. Please. Please.
And that's everyone who sent in some money, dude. Thank you so much. Oh, shout out to Frillis as well. I saw Frillis streaming in some satoshis. I don't think for some reason, FOUND didn't count all of the sats Frillis was sending in, but Frillis, shout out to Frillis. I I saw you streaming, sir. So you're a good man for it. And you can be a part of that too if you download found.fm and be a part of the America Plus community. What I wanna do now, guys, we're gonna end it with a song. I love to end it with a song. We're gonna play from a band I've played before, but it's a different song from them. This band is called IROH. I've been really gravitating towards, like, the rock and roll songs, and the value for value sphere, and the value verse.
And this band, IROH, I played them a few weeks ago or, like, maybe over a month ago. I just love their music. I'm just I vibe out to it. I like the rock and roll vibe. I I like the heavy metal vibe right now. And, this song is called Crash and Burn. If you didn't know this, when it comes to Crash and Burn in any song on the podcast, the artist is always getting 60% of your boostograms or your streaming while the song plays. Okay? That's the whole thing about Value for Value. I'm able to interact with different podcasters, and different artists, and and bring in their RSS feed into mine, and bring in their work, and I can play their music on my show, and you can support them if you're getting value from them. Okay? That's it's radically important, and it's the future of making content. Okay? So just be involved it, dude. Just just be just get involved. That's all I have to say about that.
This is receiving 60% of your satoshi donation, this is I r o h, crash and burn. Enjoy. That's America Plus, bitch. Stay free.
It broke my leg.
[00:00:07] Cole McCormick:
What's up, everyone? It's America
[00:00:11] Unknown:
What's everyone? It's America Plus. I'm your host, Cole McCormick. It's another week another episode. What's going on everybody? It's Sunday night.
[00:00:14] Cole McCormick:
Or Saturday night. Saturday night. I'm recording this Saturday night. A little early recording. April 6 right now, folks. At 9:56 in the PM on a beautiful Saturday evening, man. Coming to you a little bit of a different vibe right now, but it, the podcast is on time. I'm feeling good about that. By the time you're hearing this, I will be in Las Vegas. I will be with my family. I am visiting my cousins in Viva Las Vegas, and, I'm going there to see my cousin, Mackenzie. She is preggos, Preggers. She's doing a little baby shower, so I'm super excited to see her. So yeah. I'm just with her. I'm I'm in Vegas right now with my family, just hanging out with them, and I wanted to dedicate this episode to family.
Family matters, man. And that's really that's the main narrative. I feel like that's one of the main, narratives that America needs, and like the world needs. You know? I don't see too many podcast talking about the importance of family, you know, maybe there might be some individuals here and there, but in terms of celebrating, and in terms of laughing with the family, you know, no other podcast is doing that. So, this is America Plus man. Like this is where we innovate. This is where we bring the most important narratives to the world. For a more beautiful world, of course, that our hearts know is possible. And, with that, I have 3 stories of my family that I wanna share today.
3 specific stories revolving around, some family members of mine. And I wanna begin with my sister. Okay? My sister, Lauren. Shout out to Lauren.
[00:01:56] Unknown:
What up? What up, Lauren?
[00:01:59] Cole McCormick:
Lauren, first of all, the first the the best thing about Lauren One of the best things about my sister, Lauren. First of all, she's the youngest. So she has that going for her, and, she's like in her early twenties, and she has a boyfriend. She spells her name differently. Our mom chose to spell Lauren the most insane way ever. So like, what's the normal way to spell Lauren, first of all? Is it l a u r e n? Okay? Maybe that's a normal spelling, but our mother chose to go with laurran.
[00:02:41] Unknown:
Excuse me, mom? Excuse
[00:02:42] Cole McCormick:
What's kind of a What kind of a spelling b are you, mom? Like, what's going on with that dude? What's up with that spelling? Everyone has always, like, said, like, that like, that's such an interesting way to spell your name. That's so interesting, Lauren. And I just know that it's like a backhanded compliment, because people think that people think it's weird, but Lauren's cool. Lauren's name is cool. I think Lauren's name is awesome. Okay? No matter what. No matter what anyone says. And, this story revolves around that little clip you just heard in the very beginning, the opener of of this episode. Let me rewind back to last week to Easter. Okay? I had a really fun Easter, by the way, if you didn't. If you weren't around last week, I got drunk y'all. I drink a whole bottle of copola wine by myself, and we were just partying up with, with the Lord and savior.
And, I was at work that day. Right? I worked the full shift in the kitchen on Easter day, and midway through, I get a call from my family, and you know, I'm I'm usually expecting a call on the holidays, you know, especially when I'm not home. My family usually calls me. We're pretty communicative, and I'm in the bathroom, and I'm listening to this, and I'm I I missed a phone call. Right? I missed it. So they send in a voicemail, and I get this voicemail while I'm, like, taking a piss.
[00:04:11] Unknown:
Happy Easter.
[00:04:14] Cole McCormick:
Happy Easter. Happy Easter.
[00:04:17] Unknown:
We love you, honey. We miss you. Spent a little bit of time in the ER this morning with Lauren. She I broke my leg, and she broke her fibula skiing yesterday. She's good. She's in the car. We're all going to church together. But yeah. So, anyways, love you. Oh, here's Colt or here's Wyatt, her danger. It's a message. It's a message. I'm glad you're here. Bye, baby. Buddy. Love you.
[00:04:50] Cole McCormick:
Yeah, dude. So so they said it is nice thing. Hey. Doing great. Doing great. And then, oh, yeah. Lauren. We're in the ER. We just came back from the ER. We're going to church straight from the hospital. Lauren broke her fibula. Like, come on, Lauren. What are you doing now? What are you doing? What are you doing, girl? And I'm I'm texting her afterwards. I'm like, what is happening? Like, are you okay? And if you're looking If you'll see this in a modern podcasting app right now, you're seeing the pictures of all this. She sent me the photos. I got the x-ray up right up right now. It was it's a clean break. Let me just say that. It's a clean break, just smooth smooth as all can get out, but I guess she was skiing. She was skiing in Northern Arizona with her boyfriend, and she just fell.
That's all I have to say. She just fell. And I'm texting her, I'm like, were you trying to impress your boyfriend? And she goes, I fucking wish. That'd be a lot cooler if I was, but no. I just fell. I just don't know how to ski, and I fell, and I ended up like breaking my my fibula, and that's like your shin. She broke one of the bones in her shin, which is super rough dude, and then she also screwed up her knee. Her knee on her other side. So one leg on one side is busted, the other leg, the knee, the doctor thinks they don't know yet. They don't know for sure yet, but the doctor thinks that she tore her ACL, or her MCL, or her meniscus, or all of it. It could be all of it. We don't know yet.
But that's my sister Lauren in a nutshell. She she she's your own individual. She's living her best life. She's a manager at a at a tractor supply, so she's making fairly good money right now, and, but she just she goes through these mishaps. She has these little moments, these little Lauren moments. It's her first bone broken, but, on, like, the night before Easter, dude. Like, the the Saturday before Easter. Can you believe that? Does anyone else know anyone like that? Like, who's gonna break a bone the day before a holiday? Anyone? Anyone? I just that blew my mind, dude. And I I was laughing my ass off with that voicemail. It's so good. I'm just gonna go back to that real quick, like It broke my leg. That's the funniest part, dude.
That's the funniest part. So that's the story number 1. Story number 2. Story number 2 is about my my father. My Faiza. Faesha. The guy with cancer. Okay? Let's talk about him real quick. So, I've already been open about about his diagnosis. You know, he has colon cancer. It's okay. We're moving through it. He's he's getting healthier. He's focusing on the positive vibes, and the positive thoughts on the healthy foods. He's, he's able to do like a chemo pill now. He's not getting the injected chemo anymore. He's able to just take a pill, so, hopefully, that's still working for him. It's a new medicine, so, hopefully, it's all going well, but as far as I can tell, I spent the weekend with him on my birthday and he was like pretty lively. He was cracking jokes still. And that's really the focus of this next story because my father's humor, I believe, is quite possibly the strongest medicine for himself, and just humor in general. You know, they always say, laughter is the best medicine, and, I think this story really really solidifies that.
So taking it back to to 2023 when he first got diagnosed, and him and I are on the phone, and we're just talking about, you know, just general stuff. Like, hey, like, how are you feeling today? You know, like like, how's it been going? Like, are you still like in shock? Like, the this sort of a thing. And I remember him telling me that he was worried throughout this process that he wouldn't be able to do everything that he usually does, like and that involves him being involved in the community. Okay? Because he would he volunteers at his church as security and as a business owner for the for over a decade now, my dad has been a part of this community, this community what do you I'm not sure what to call it. This like this organization puts on t ball, and soccer games, and, flag football, and it's like a sports organization for the community, and, and it's mainly like funded by, like, the group of friends that, like, that I grew up with, or like the group of family friends that I grew up with. And my dad has always been a part of this, and and one way that this organization that they fundraise and they get money is they put on this annual gala.
Okay? This annual, like, little get together, and, they they got company sponsoring tables, and my dad's company was always one of those, and then they also have an auction, and the auction always has like a a pretty good array of of items, you know, whether it be like a vacation spot in Hawaii, you know, or you you get some some weekend in a cabin in in Northern Arizona. Just like one of those things. Right? Or or you get like a coupon, or whatever, you know? And you do auctions with it. My dad was worried that he wouldn't be able to participate in that because of the amount of money that goes into cancer treatment, you know, he wasn't sure how much money the company would be making, but luckily and that's always like in the beginning of the years. Right?
Luckily, the finances have been okay. My dad's been pretty solid. My parents have been good with money, and they've been they were able to go to this event, and it's called Paladin. Okay? So we'll just say, the Paladin event, and he was super happy about that, and this year was like a themed year. It was like, come as like, every table was able to pick a theme. Okay? So people come in, and some of the tables that were sponsored, some of them were like, let's just say, like, I don't I I I don't know for certain, but let's just say Hot Wheels themed, whatever, let's just say NASCAR themed, another one was like, like football sports themed, and then my dad's table, where he was at, that was Barbie themed. Okay? Barbie theme. Barbie was the biggest movie of course. Let's go as Barbie. Barbie and Ken, come on.
And everyone gets dressed up. My my mom's her own Barbie, and the thing with the Barbie movie, like, like, you know, they got like nurse Barbie, they have like beach Barbie, they got beach Ken, they have Doctor Ken whatever, Smart Ken, Business Ken, and, my mom went as Nurse Barbie, of course, because she's taking care of my dad, and what does my dad go as? My dad go at goes as chemo Ken. Chemo Ken, folks. Come on now. When I heard that, I literally couldn't stop laughing. My father literally got a fake IV, and he was rolling it around, and it looked like it was, like, inserted in his vein, and he's rolling around as chemo Ken. Okay? Living his best life. Living his best life, dude.
And, they're just hanging out. People thought it was hilarious. Like, oh my God, Kevin. Like, you're so like, Kevin. That that's so many people's reactions to my father's humor. It's always, Kevin, and, that's been a lot of my life, just like witnessing my father make people say his name in a very certain tone, And, during the auction part, there's a few different things on the auction that they were going for. My dad put down money for like, a boat or something. There is this cabin that you could get a weekend at, and that this other thing that my dad put money on, and he actually he he he won it, so my dad won the cabin. Okay? He he put $500 for the auction on the cabin. He won it, and then he put $500 on a 2 for 1 cremation deal.
Folks, I'm not kidding. A 2 for 1 cremation coupon. There was a cremation company that they had some sort of a coupon situation. I don't they were able to give this organization their coupon, and no one else wanted to get it, because nobody else wants to die. But my dad has no no no trouble putting money on on on a good deal. And when they called his name so, like, they called the names. Right? And they go, and for the 2 for 1 cremation, it's Kevin McCormick. And my dad walks up to the stage with his IV as chemo can, and he goes to the mic, and he just says, like, hey everyone. I just want to thank everyone for this great opportunity.
Hopefully, I never have to use it. Maybe I can resell them on the black market, if anyone else out there is looking for something like this. But I'm just really glad I got this. Thank you. And people were like clapping, and like like, you know, like their their hands are over their mouths, like, oh my god. Look. What, Kevin? What? And my dad's friend, he goes up to him, and my dad's friend, his wife recently passed away from cancer. Right? And, my dad's friend goes up to him and he goes, Kevin, dude, I don't know if you know this, but that is $500 for 2 cremations.
$500 is like a third of the price I pay for my wife. Dude, like, Kevin, you got a sick deal, dude. You got a sick deal, Kevin, And, so for pretty much, my dad got my dad got an awesome deal on 2 cremations. Hopefully, he'll never have to use them, but he was grateful for it. He was grateful for to just have that opportunity, man. And that's my dad. That's my dad, and that makes me happy. That story makes me happy because, in this moment in his life, he's able to just stare death in the face and be like, give me the sick deal. Like, let's make a joke out of it. I don't care. I don't care. Like, he cares, of course. He wants to live. He's told me multiple times, he wants to live a long life, but there's this other end of my observation at least and it's it's like like, let's put money on red, dude. Like, let's let's put money on the cremation.
Like, let's just lean into it. Okay? You gotta lean into it, and that's sort of been a lesson for me. Right? And I'm just thankful for my dad. I'm thankful for everyone who was there, able to support him. Support chemo Ken. Come on now. Just ridiculous, dude. Just ridiculous. And the third story here's a third story I wanted to I wanna I wanna share. It's it's about me. It's about my experience earlier in this year. As we're going through all this, this past January, I get a my dad tells me that his stepsister okay. He we have family up in Idaho.
My dad's stepsister wanted to do a big surprise for their mom. My dad's stepmother, my grandmother, you know, she's just naturally my grandmother. She turned 80. My grandma Cheryl turned 80 this year. This past this past March 12th was her birthday. And my dad's stepsister, she wanted to do something special for him, And she, but she didn't know, like, what, but she wanted to do, like, a little, like, video. Something. Just some sort of, like, the whole family gets together and says, hey, grandma, like, happy birthday. We love you so much. Hey, grandma. Happy birthday. Like like and it'd be like this like big, like, you know, like better than Zoom. You know? Like it's the entire family in one video saying, happy birthday, and like talk about something that they love about her, and she didn't know how to do it and she approached my dad about approaching me to to editing this video and to collecting all the all the footage, and editing it together, and figuring out how it should all all go together.
And immediately, I was I was so down. I was so into it. A, because I just I've never done something like that before, like, I've only made a few videos. You know, I've only done podcast videos. I've never done like a little montage for the family video. That sounds fun to me, and it just felt right. Like, it just really felt right in my soul. I can't really explain it any much more, but I just know that in the moment of life that I am in now, the opportunity to give something to my family, to to pull in footage from my family, and to direct that towards my grandmother, whom we all love very much, it just seemed like a real a real opportunity to do that, and, so I had like over a month, to edit and and to pull in everything, and to figure out how how it should go.
And at first, I was just editing to just one song, I pulled up this, the song from Up. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Pixar movie, Up. The opening, like, sequence the opening song that plays, there's, like, this, like, montage of of the old couple, like like, finding each other and falling in love and getting married and all this. That song, I I edited to that song, and it it makes you cry. Every time you listen to it, like, it gets emotional dude. Like, that movie just gets everyone emotional, and and the goal was to make everyone cry. That was my goal. That was my intention with this with this movie, with this video.
And, it it was incredible to see so many different faces of my family that I wasn't really familiar with. Like, some of them, I of course, I I was, like, the family I'm seeing in in Vegas, like, they were in the video, but there's, like, other people that I had no concept of. I was, like, I've never I've literally never met you in my life, but somehow we are related. Like, that's wild, dude. Like, I don't see the resemblance, and it made me emotional, because I got some of my grandma's kid photos, you know, when she was, like, a little girl in the fifties, like, oh my god. Like, first of all, the photographs from back in the fifties are beautiful. Like, they're just like, that's real photography, you know, like, the real authentic film. I've already discussed this. Like, the the physical film, like, there's such a different look with that, man.
And to juxtapose, like, this authentic, real film with my grandmother, whom I know is alive in that photo, like, she is just like, a just a beautiful young girl. Like, she's, like, 5 years old. Like, look how cute you are. Like, dude, like, look at your little cheeks. Like, I turned into the grandma looking at my grandma as a kid. Like, look at your little cheeks. Oh my god. I just wanna squeeze them. And, to to figure out the sequence of the video, you know, that was, like, the biggest deal, and I gotta, like, combine these photos and these videos, and everyone has like a different length of video, and everyone is like sending in in sending in stuff late, and I gotta like, I'm literally sorting through, like, I don't know, like, it felt like it felt like well over like 300 photos. I don't know. It it was a lot of photos. Maybe it was less, but it was a lot. And, it got to the point where I did, like, a little, like, like, preview with with that side of the family, and I did some editing. Like, I like, I as in, like, I I didn't use all the footage that I had. I didn't use all the all the photos.
And it got to a point where they were like, okay, Cole. This is a great video. It's a great 5 minutes. We need it to be longer though. We need it to be longer. Just please use all the photos, all the footage, like do whatever you gotta do. Just make it longer. We wanna see everyone in it. And I was like, okay. Cool. Let's do it. And so what that means is I had to get more music, and, I didn't know what music to grab, and then it got into a moment of, like, okay, well, what are what are grandma's, like, favorite musicians? Like like, does she have a favorite song or something? And and then I was told she loves my grandma loves Neil Diamond, and she loves Elvis.
I was like, okay. I like Elvis. Let's go for it. So I found a Neil Diamond song. The song is called Hello Again. Hello. It's like this it's a suit dude. Again, the goal was to make you cry, and the song Hello Again by Neil Diamond, like, that's another tear jerker, dude. That's insane. That was insane, and I was like, I I was crying while I'm editing, like, constantly. I'm crying while I'm editing, And, I'm just pulling in all these grandkid photos, and, like, these old photos of her and my grandpa, and, like, it's just, like, it it it's the eighties. It's the nineties. It's the thousands. Like, oh my god. Like, look at all these kids. Look at all these people. Look at all this life. It's life.
Life. Like, I'm freaking out in my in my kitchen because of all this life on my computer screen, and, to wrap up the video, I had to I was I was like, alright. What is the what is the best song? I have this Neil Diamond song. I have this Pixar song. How am I gonna end it? What song is gonna bring us home? And then I and then I remembered. Elvis. Elvis. Elvis brings us home. Elvis brings it home, dude. And I played that song, I don't wanna play too much of it, because I feel like I get I would get like copy written, but, yeah, dude. Like, do does anyone know this song from Elvis?
[00:23:23] Unknown:
Oh, my love. My darling, my darling. I hunger for your
[00:23:32] Cole McCormick:
Like that song, dude. That song wrapped up the video, dude. And it's like a boom boom boom. Like like like quick succession of, like, grandkid, grandkid, like, husband, wife, like, boom boom boom. Like like step kid, baby me, baby like, so many babies. I put so many baby photos juxtaposed to that Elvis song, and it's just like, it's again, you're gonna cry, dude. I wanted to, like, create a magnet of tears coming out of your face, and, I'm happy to say that that happened. That totally happened. I was super proud of it. I was super happy for the video. I sent it in. They rented out a movie theater in Idaho, so they actually saw it on the big screen, which is incredible. My literal I I was literally, here's a ironic thing, like, I'm I'm trying to make movies, and I literally have a movie in the movie theater, like, that's like, okay. Let's go for it, dude. Let's go for it.
They're in the movie theater, and it's it's a surprise. Right? My grandma doesn't know. My grandma doesn't know, like, they lied to her actually. My the stepsister who initiated this whole thing, she tells this fib of, hey, so it looks like, no one's available for your birthday party. So and so's working. They're out of town. But you and I can get lunch for your birthday. Like she does this whole sham of a story, and then she brings them she brings her to the movie theater, and like, the whole family in Idaho is there, first of all. And then like, hey, surprise. We're gonna go see a movie with you, grandma. Happy birthday. And then they all sit down in the theater, and then all of a sudden it's, happy birthday, grandma. Oh my god. And it's like and it's the video, and it's like, the whole family is on the big screen, and like, and there's photos of my of my grandma, Cheryl, just crying, dude. Crying.
Bawling, dude. Bawling her eyes out, and I I'm happy she didn't have a heart attack. She's 80 years old, so shout out to shout out to Cheryl. No one like you, Cheryl. No one like you, grandma. I love you so much, and to know that that happened. To know to to first of all, to finish a project as a creative person, that was a good thing, and along with that to put in so much love for my family. To see my sister say, happy birthday. I love you. To see my dad say, happy almost like I'm almost getting emotional now just thinking about it dude, like it's just it's heavy. It's a heavy project, and it that's sort of how I sort of kicked off the year, man. Like I kicked off the year with just celebrating my family, and I just wanna lead with that love, dude. I want that love to fill me up, and I want that love to fill up everyone, to fill up the whole world.
The the love for your family should fill up the world, man. And I'm so fortunate to to love my family, and I'm fortunate to be in a family that is loving. You know, I'm not sure how many families are loving or are together. You know, like, I I I don't have those statistics, but I I know that just the fact that my grandparent I all of my grandparents first of all, I have a lot of grandparents. Second of all, none of them died during the pandemic. So, like, that right there, like, I I I've always known I was lucky because no one has died. Just that sheer fact, and now I get to celebrate that, and celebrating 20 like, going into 2024, celebrating that was just a huge, like, eye opener for me. Eye opener and heart opener.
Heart filler upper. Clear eyes, full hearts, dude. Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose. You know? That that like, that's the real lesson, dude. That's the real takeaway, and I'm just happy I I could share that love. I mean, I was happy that I could give that love. And to sort of wrap up the story section of this episode, I wanna just encourage you, like, the message of today the lesson of the day is to is is to love your family. Like, you have to find a way to love your family. You have to find a way to love your neighbor. You have to find a way to love yourself.
Like that is the most important thing, dude. I am going to hammer that as much as I possibly freaking can. You must follow these things. These are the 2 things that Jesus said to do. You know, these are Jesus' only 2 commandments. Love the lord your god with all your all your soul, heart, strength, and mind. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Your family are your neighbors. Your family are your neighbors, dude, and your family brought you into this world. And whether that means you gotta go through some sort of forgiveness situation, whether that means you gotta just make a phone call that you haven't made in in a long time, maybe it's a text message, like, you gotta love your family. Maybe maybe you just pray for someone, like, quietly to yourself.
You know, just open your heart up to them and try to send some love to them. Like, that's the biggest thing, man. Like, when it comes to a more beautiful world that my heart knows is possible, a part of that better world is loving everyone around you, loving your family, and trying to mend the broken pieces. And that's possible. It's so possible. And trying and and laughing through the heartache. Laughing through the fear. You know, I just saw Dune a couple times in the movie theater. The the famous line within Dune is fear is the mind killer.
Let the fear pass through. What's left? Me. You know, like, to laugh, to love. And now now I'm becoming one of those cheesy signs in your mom's house.
[00:29:40] Unknown:
Live, laugh, love.
[00:29:45] Cole McCormick:
Ridiculous, dude. But that's it it's important. It's important, dude. And that's and and that it's valuable.
[00:29:52] Unknown:
Ultimately. It's valuable, folks. It's valuable. And that's what America Plus is. America Plus is all about the value.
[00:29:58] Cole McCormick:
And with that, we're gonna head on into the the value for value section, the boost agrams, everybody. America Plus is a value for value show. What that means is I present this content upfront for you to ingest, and you have the opportunity to reciprocate whatever value you are getting from me in 4 different ways. You can just listen, you can clip, you can share, and you can boost. Okay? Those are the 4 main ways. Listen, Share, Clip, and boost. You can if if you're just listening, like that's super valuable to me. Thank you so much. Just share share the episode. Share the show.
If you're enjoying what I talk about, if you think this is important, share this with somebody. Share this on social media. I really encourage you to do that because I'm doing the podcast for a long time, and I'm always I will be speaking positively towards a better world for my entire life. For as long as this earth is around, I will be speaking into this new world, dude. And, next thing is is, clipping. By the way, if you didn't know about fountain.fm
[00:31:03] Unknown:
Go to value 4 value dot info for more info, then download the fountain.fm
[00:31:08] Cole McCormick:
app. It's the best way to support the show. Value number 4, value dot info. That's like a breakdown of the whole model that I'm doing, and then the fountain.fmapp is my favorite podcasting 2.0 app. If you're listening to it now, you're you've been able to see all the images, all the chapter images, and you're also able to listen to the full song, dude. You can see where I get the song. I'm playing a song at the end, right after I read these boostograms, dude. And, and the last thing is boosting. Boostogramming, that is the money portion of how you can support the show.
Within Fountain, you're able to send in a boost, that's that means that you send in a message with a little bit of Bitcoin, like itty bitty bits of Bitcoin. We call them Satoshis here, and, you can send in whatever amount you want, or you can support the show with PayPal. I need the dollars, because I need to pay for the hosting service, and I'll just be collecting dollars. I'm trying to make a living here, folks. I'm trying to do I'm trying to not chop potatoes for life, so support the show. I encourage you heavily too. And we're gonna be reading the boostograms right now from the lowest to the highest. This is from last week, number 116, political wait.
[00:32:21] Unknown:
Political
[00:32:22] Cole McCormick:
god. Wait. What's is that not intimidating?
[00:32:25] Unknown:
Political god.
[00:32:27] Cole McCormick:
Last week was fun, dude. Easter was wild. You gotta listen to that episode, dude. Played a bunch of clips. This first one, this first boostagram comes in from at Shannon P. What up, Shannon? She sends in a beautiful 100 satoshis, and she has to say, cracking up at Trump's, I drink a little wine and eat a little cracker, which I think is Catholic too. So he's all over the place. He's very religious. Yes, he is. Boosting is loving. Yes, he is, Shannon. Yeah. I played a Trump clip of him of how religious he is. Like, you be the judge. Is Trump a religious guy? We got another one coming in from at saint sandat saint Saintsandsats.
Sorry. It's all one word. At saintsandsats. They sent in a 325, 325 Sat. That was for my birthday. Birthday's on March 25th. Thank you for that numerology, Saints and Sat. And, they got to say, the American religious scene is just nuts these days. I agree. I had no idea how wild it is getting until hearing your podcast. In general, American culture is good at engineering, but really, really bad at theology and philosophy. Stay sane out there.
[00:33:47] Unknown:
And now as the French say, it is time for
[00:33:50] Cole McCormick:
Le Boost. Saints and SATs, I agree with you fully. It's getting wild out there. America's has America ever been religious? Like, some people wanna say it's a Christian country, or it's a Judeo but what's religious about America? Business? I don't know, dude. Next one comes in from oh, we got a bigger one from at shannonp, whopping 333 sets. She says, we are living in some of the wildest political times. I'm going to continue research, research people's character and their politics, which I'm not sure how many people really do that anymore. Great insight into some of them on the podcast. Thank you so much, Shan.
Boost. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. I went into, like, RFK Jr, his VP pick. What what's the philosophy of RFK Jr's VP pick? What does she believe in? Some really important stuff I I think, and I think you'll find it interesting. And then this last boostagram comes in from our friend at Joel w. He sends in his regular 1,111 sats. That's a Satchel of Richards, by the way. Send in that number, why don't you? If you're listening right now, send in 1,000 sats right now. He has to say, Matthew 2112 through 13, and Matthew 23 is who Jesus is to me.
Speaking truth to power. Hashtag no king but Christ also. Find the show Black Jesus if you never saw it. Funny ass show. Boostar. Boostar. Thank you very much, Joel. One more thing. Because basically, you put Bitcoin with anything, and all of a sudden, that is more efficient. Yeah. That's legit. Let me go to that real quick. Let me just let me do an impromptu copy and paste on the Google search, dude. Let's go. What is this verse? What is this verse? Let me go to bible gateway dotcom. Jesus at the temple. Jesus this is Matthew 2112 through 13.
Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money chargers, and the benches of those selling doves. It is written, he said to them, my house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers. You're making it a den of robbers. No. I can't do that. I can't do that voice with Jesus. Joel, that's legit, dude. And then, wait. What's the other one? It was 23. Right? Let's just type in 23. 23. What is this 1? A warning against hypocrisy. Oh, yeah. He's speaking truth to power. Jesus said to the crowds, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat, so you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. Oh, Joel. Come on in with the truth, Joel. Come on, dude. I'm all fired up, dude. You're getting me fired up at 10:30 at night, bro. Come on, dude. Thank you so much, Joel. Thank you so much to everyone who sent in a boostagram. Thank you so much, everybody. That's value for value. That's value for value. Okay? Get involved with value for value. This is the innovation I'm talking about, man. It's powerful, dude. It's powerful. And I and the last thing I wanna do, in terms of value, I got a huge I wanna give another shout out to 1 Podfather himself last week. He was streaming in sats.
Sir Adam Curry was streaming he streamed in 3,682 Satoshis, dude. Boosting is loving. Because, basically, you put Bitcoin with anything, and all of a sudden, that is more efficient. I saw Adam Curry, the creator, the inventor of podcasting, was streaming in money to me, to my show, to number 116. He was listening for like 10 minutes, but like, that means that those 10 minutes, he got value out of those 10 minutes, and like, that's what I gotta do better at. I'm trying to, like, give the best value for longer durations of time. So thank you Adam Curry for streaming in those sats. That that's a huge signal to me to like, to continue to do what I'm doing. Like, whatever I was doing in those 10 minutes, I gotta keep doing it. So thank you so much, dude. Send in some more sachs. Why don't you? Please. Please. Please. Please.
And that's everyone who sent in some money, dude. Thank you so much. Oh, shout out to Frillis as well. I saw Frillis streaming in some satoshis. I don't think for some reason, FOUND didn't count all of the sats Frillis was sending in, but Frillis, shout out to Frillis. I I saw you streaming, sir. So you're a good man for it. And you can be a part of that too if you download found.fm and be a part of the America Plus community. What I wanna do now, guys, we're gonna end it with a song. I love to end it with a song. We're gonna play from a band I've played before, but it's a different song from them. This band is called IROH. I've been really gravitating towards, like, the rock and roll songs, and the value for value sphere, and the value verse.
And this band, IROH, I played them a few weeks ago or, like, maybe over a month ago. I just love their music. I'm just I vibe out to it. I like the rock and roll vibe. I I like the heavy metal vibe right now. And, this song is called Crash and Burn. If you didn't know this, when it comes to Crash and Burn in any song on the podcast, the artist is always getting 60% of your boostograms or your streaming while the song plays. Okay? That's the whole thing about Value for Value. I'm able to interact with different podcasters, and different artists, and and bring in their RSS feed into mine, and bring in their work, and I can play their music on my show, and you can support them if you're getting value from them. Okay? That's it's radically important, and it's the future of making content. Okay? So just be involved it, dude. Just just be just get involved. That's all I have to say about that.
This is receiving 60% of your satoshi donation, this is I r o h, crash and burn. Enjoy. That's America Plus, bitch. Stay free.
