An Army of Normal Folks - Gaby Laurent: Adopting A Baby Withdrawing From Opioids (Pt 1)

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Right after surviving a life and death battle with cancer, while pregnant, Gaby and her husband decided to adopt a baby that was experiencing withdrawal from opioids in their mother’s womb. Her story that’s chronicled in her new book “Wrinkles Welcome” is an extraordinary one of perseverance, love, and forgiveness.  Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Then you know this child, this woman has done drugs and stuff while pregnant. There are inherent risks and danger in the developmental possibilities and deficiencies for this child. Are you wide-eyed to that at this point? At that point, yes. I was like, this is happening. The term for this is NAS. It stands for neonatal abstinence syndrome.

So this is kind of the umbrella term that covers any child that's exposed to opioids and utero. And there's not a ton of research on that either. And we had this feeling in our heart that... So you're willingly adopting a child that might be messed up. Yeah. He needs a home somehow.

Why? Why wouldn't you want... This is a little rhetorical, but why wouldn't you want a baby that you know is gonna have all 10 fingers, all 10 toes, and no problems. Wouldn't that be easier? You never know what's going to happen. Welcome to an army of normal folks.

I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis and somehow that last part, well, it led to an Oscar for the film about our team. That movie's called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits

using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather by an army of normal folks, us, people like you and me just saying, you know what? I can help. That's what Gabby Lerent, the voice you just heard, has done. You just heard her incredible adoption story, but wait until you hear about her life and death battle right before this, and yet,

she still adopted a child in need after it I cannot wait for you to meet Gabby right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors When you think of Mexican culture you think of avocado mariachi delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport

and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance. Its tradition is culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12 episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre. And I'm your host Santos Escobar, the emperor of lucha libre and a WWE superstar.

Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of my Cultura podcast network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you stream podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Former Packer star Kabir Vajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation

Hey GB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play a family man former NFL player devout Christian Now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron, and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked

Voila you got straightway. I felt like I was living in North Korea But worse if that's possible listen to spiraled on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from and like what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season two, season two. Are we recording?

Are we good? Oh, we push record, right? And this season, we're taking a bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba and the Pinyucolada from Puerto Rico. So all of these, we thank Latin culture.

There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the ninth century BC. BC? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the MyCultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We think of Franklin as the dodging dude flying a kite in the rain, but those experiments

are the most important scientific discoveries of the time. I'm Evan Ratliff. Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk with biographer Walter Isaacson. This time, we're diving into the story of Benjamin Franklin, another genius who's desperate to be dusted off from history. His media empire makes him the most successful self-made business person in America. I mean, he was never early to bed and early to rise type person. He's enormously famous. Women start wearing their hair

in what was called the coiffure a la Franklin. And who's more relevant now than ever. The only other person who could have possibly been the first president would have been Benjamin Franklin. But he's too old and once Washington to do it Listen to on Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts It's 4 a.m Monday and you're literally sucking baby snot through a tube because she's congested man

That's love and if you love her that much love her enough to make sure she's buckled in the right car seat. To make sure your child's in the right seat for their age and size, visit NHTSA.gov slash the right seat. Show them you love them. Keep them safe. Visit NHTSA.gov slash the right seat.

Brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council. So it could be Laurent, but you say Laurent. We like to say, I should have paid Laurent. Well, I went to school in Oxford, which is in the county L-A-F-A-Y-E-T-T-E. Now, how would you say that word? Lafayette. Right, it's Lafayette. Oh no.

Right. Sorry. Oh my gosh, right? Right. So you gotta be careful with these Frenchy words when they become American because we will screw them up. But I'm really thankful for it

because my maiden name, you wanna know? Yeah. Hooker. Who? Hooker. H-O-O-K-E-R, as in Gabby. If it was French, it'd be Gabby the Hooker. That would be bad.

Yeah. Okay, we're not gonna go there. No. And clearly that is- Duhooker. That would be bad. Yeah. Okay, we're not gonna go there. No. And clearly that is not. That was my life. That was your life. I bet, ooh, I bet high school was rough, wasn't it? Mm-hmm, yeah.

I bet the dudes were coming up with all kinds of fun. More middle school. More middle school? Yeah. Yeah, well, y'all are probably more mature than us. We would have been doing it all the way through college. All right, Gabby Lerent, you are from Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Why does Oak Ridge, Tennessee ring a bell to me?

Oak Ridge, what about Oak Ridge do I wanna know? There's something about Oak Ridge. It's a secret. It's a secret city. The secret city, part of the Manhattan Project. Yeah, what part of it? It is where they do some things with some different elements and and has to do with

nuclear things and all of my friends have released secret jobs that- Do they really? Is that for real? They really do. Currently. Currently. And they won't talk about it? They cannot.

They cannot talk about the secret thing. Why Oak Ridge of all places, I wonder? Because there was nothing there. Nobody? So the government came- they said, we're going to buy your land from you old farmers. You don't have a choice. They bought the land and because it was close enough to Knoxville that they could get to the railroad to ship things out to like Los Alamos in New Mexico and back. Really?

They just really need a lot of space to maybe do experiments that it wouldn't be near a large group of people. Do you think that the aliens are in Oak Ridge? Not in Oak Ridge. You don't think so? No, no, no, no. You sure?

Even the underwater ones are talking about nowadays. No, not here. There's underwater aliens in UFOs. You sure they're not in Oak Ridge? I'm sure. How do you know? I don't know. I mean, it could be like area 54 in Oak Ridge

that we don't even know about the area. So I'm really not from Oak Ridge. I've only lived there for four years. And when I moved there, all of my friends that I made grew up there, they always joke about it. They think it's so funny. When they were in high school, they would always say, we're from Oak Ridge, we glow.

Because the secret stuff. All right, so we got Gabby Laurent from Oak Ridge living under a veil of government secrecy. Yes. But that's not why you're here. No. You wrote a book, Wrinkle, oh gosh, Wrinkle's Welcome, a Cancer Survivors Memoir.

And when I look at you, I don't see someone that looks like they're old enough to be a cancer survivor. So we got to get into that a little. Yeah. Yeah, but first, before we go there and why you're here, which is really an uplifting story that I'm going to get to. You didn't grow up in Oak Ridge. Where did you grow up? Tell me about you.

So I grew up in Madison, North Carolina. You've never heard of it. Sounds a lot like Oak Ridge. Like Oak Ridge. Except no secrets and glowing. No secrets. It's a town of about 2000. So very working class, lower to upper middle class. Everybody there was involved in farming, tobacco, just not a lot going on. Just country roads.

Mom and dad? Mom and dad. So my dad grew up in Stokes County, North Carolina. Of course he did, why would he? Right, so there's towns called like Rural Hall and Fancy Gap, you know, these cute little names. Also, have you ever heard of- Any place called Possum Trot by any chance?

We don't have a possum trot. There's a possum trot in Texas, and we're gonna do a story on that. Spoiler alert, about a church that had 200 people that adopted 77 children from foster care in Possum Trot, Texas. Beautiful. And basically eradicated the need for foster care in their little town, but it was possum trot.

So I'm feeling a lot like Madison, North Carolina. Right. And my grandparents, they lived in Stokes County and they lived really close to, have you ever heard of like Mayberry? Oh no. Oh yes. Like the real Mayberry?

Mount Airy, North Carolina. Mount Airy, North Carolina. Is what Mayberry's based on. Right. So I was always- But in Andy Griffith's show, they sometimes refer to Mount Airy. Oh yeah.

As if it's another city near Mayberry, right? Right. That's awesome. Yeah, it's really sweet. And I really, as a child, was confused because everybody there was so kind. Everybody in that area was just like on the show and I thought I was there.

I thought I was in the show. Really? It felt that way. It felt that way. Did Gomer change your tires or your oil? No, but you could go to the Snappy Lunch. Really? There's a real Snappy Lunch there.

No, come on. Yes! No kidding. That's the best pork chop sandwich you'll ever have. Did the sheriff wear a gun? You remember? I don't remember. But you can go there now, and you gotta go one day.

But you can ride in like the sheriff truck or the car around town. Oh, are you kidding? And go on a tour, it's so cute. That's awesome. So you grew up small town, Norman Rockwell painting. Well, everybody else was like that, but my home was really different

because I don't know if you can tell, I am a Latina lady. My mom is from Costa Rica. My dad, instead of going to college, he got into Western Carolina and he was going to go to college. But all of a sudden he took a diversion and said, I'm going to buy this old retired tobacco farm for nothing and just have a house there and work at this coal powered steam station in North Carolina.

And that's right. That's where I grew up. A buddy of his said, Hey, I'm going to go on a short-term mission trip. And your my grandpa was a plumber electrician can fix anything. My dad followed in his footsteps can do anything. One of those guys, he said, you would be really useful. Can you come? And my dad was like, what? Okay. So you just, you know, when you're young and you just have no responsibility. Yeah, I'll go to Costa Rica and build a roof or something. Well, here's the thing.

First he goes to Guatemala, then he goes to Honduras. When he's in Honduras, he meets this family and they say, we love you. If you ever go to Costa Rica, let us know because we think that you would just love our family there and especially our cousin. No kidding. No kidding. This is late 70 cousin. No kidding. No kidding. This is late 70s. For real.

For real. So this is like letter writing time. This is how they had to communicate. So finally he gets the opportunity to go to Costa Rica. He remembers these people. He sends them a letter and it's like, I'm going to Costa Rica. And they say, great, we're gonna hook you up.

Somehow they arranged it to where my mother goes to the church where he's working. They're like putting electrical in and putting a roof on and comes to pick him up to bring him to my grandparents' house because you can't get around. There's not even road signs. It's impossible. She brings him back, sits down, has a meal with his family. My mom's kind of the only one that can really speak English.

My dad is like an amateur photographer and he's taking pictures of all the flowers and at the end of this meal he says, hey I would love to send you these photos that I took. Could I have your mailing address? So he did. He sent her the photos and my mom opened them and loved them so she wrote him a note back and then they just started writing love letters back and forth, which finally turned into long distance phone calls, which was expensive back then, very expensive early eighties. And eventually they were like, this is the one, this is my person. And they went through so much to be able to get married. And then she eventually moved to North Carolina to be with him.

That is a beautiful love story, but here's the question. What does a woman from Costa Rica think when she arrives in Mount Airy, North Carolina? That had to have been culture shock. Huge. And did people in that area look at your dad and your mom and go like, well, that's not normal? Yes.

Was that an issue? It was hard. It was really hard for my mom because everyone in Madison, so the town where I grew up and where they lived is Madison. And it was very much, there's white people and there's black people and there's nothing else. So to bring a Latina woman there, that's just so different. And my dad was like the sweetheart of the area and everybody loved him. And the vibe was a little bit like, maybe they wanted a hometown girl to have one

of the sweethearts of the area. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, I get it. But it was love and it was meant to be and they have the most precious marriage you would ever encounter. To this day. To this day. What was Costa Rica back then? It's still, I mean they have cities, but there's a large portion of that place

that's still undeveloped. I've never been there, but I'm told it is absolutely beautiful. Do you and your parents and your family go back and forth? Yes, we would go a lot as kids. We would try to go. That had to be so cool. So cool. I couldn't see it as cool because I wanted to do the things that the cool kids at school did, like go to the beach with all my friends and my parents were like, we need to save money to fly five people to Central America.

And I couldn't see that for the beauty that it was until I was older. Because you know, you never want what you have, you want the other things. But yeah, their love was just so, so pure and beautiful. And really the bedrock of our life, you know, as a little family to see what my mom went through and that transition culturally. Like you said, she gave up everything, her language, her culture, her food. She didn't know what her last name meant for years. She didn't know what her last name meant? Right.

Because it doesn't translate really in Spanish. It's another word. Yeah. So she was just like, oh, that's what this last name is. Cool. Wow. Yeah. So that's how you grew up.

That's how I grew up. Did do you see yourself as biracial? Yes. OK. So was that an issue there for you? It was really hard. And I write about that in the book that probably the hardest thing was in middle school.

Boys would walk up behind me and they would touch my back and say, oh, I thought it was going to be wet. Are you kidding? And they would run behind me and go pesos, pesos, pesos. Through all the way to school? Probably six through seventh grade was the worst time. What, how'd that affect you? It made me work so hard. Really?

Yes, I was like, y'all are gonna be mean to me and I'm gonna be the best student in the class. So I was top dog. They would touch your back and say, I thought I was going to be wet. You know, it's a shame because kids in late elementary, middle school, I'm pretty convinced they don't intrinsically think that, but they get it at the dinner table, which indicates that your parents probably felt some of that too from their peers.

It's really sad. But I couldn't hear them. I could only hear my mom's voice in my head. Which was? She would always tell me I was the most beautiful girl in the world. That's awesome. So that's how you grew up. That's how I grew up. And my dad was also a pastor. So he worked at the coal plant and he- Was he a pastor before he went to Costa Rica? No, no, no. So he became a pastor? He became a bivocational pastor. So he pastored a small church and he went to work,

you know, the normal 40 hours a week. What denomination? Just independent, just- No kidding. Yeah. Wow. So that's how you come up. That's how I grew up. You go to college? What do you do? So I even though I lived in North Carolina and have all these

great universities to choose from, I chose to go to like a tiny liberal arts school named Gardner Webb University. Yeah, I've heard of Gardner Webb. Yeah. Really really small and my parents were super kind and they I worked really hard to get a lot of scholarships And they said every semester if I did not get a C like if I only made A's and B's they would pay my student loans back So, of course, I was gonna make a seat. What a gift. I'm so thankful for that I mean my dad was like cutting timber off of the farm to pay for my school And what's your degree in? Psychology.

Of course it is, why wouldn't it be? All right, so, and then you graduate and go back or go where? So again, I meet my husband at college, of course. At Gardner Webb. He was a couple years older than me. Joseph. Joseph.

And his, what's Joseph's story? So Joseph's the only child and he's from Seymour, Tennessee. So once we started dating, got married, we both completed master's programs at Gardner Web so that we could go for free, which was really nice. And his was in an MBA and mine was school counseling. Great.

Great. And where do you go to? So then he gets a really great job offer from someone that he worked for at a Toyota dealership in Knoxville. And he said he's opening up a new dealership. He really wants Joseph to come work there. And so he drove me across the mountains because I am a Carolina girl and I wanted to live there.

So we had to make that move, you know, when there's opportunity and where he's an only child, it was great to be closer to his parents. I think now's a good time. That sets up. Sets us up perfect. That's who you are. Yes. That's a good time. That sets up. Sets us up perfect. That's who you are. Yes.

That's where you are. And so now you and your husband have started your lives with your degree from good blue collar, loving backgrounds and you're on the road. Yes. So here is what you wrote me. Okay. Which I want you to know throat-lumped my big goofy self when I first read it. Hey Bill, I wrote a memoir to inspire hope and remind people that miracles happen daily

and to reiterate your message that no one goes at it alone. I was diagnosed with AML leukemia in 2015. When were you married? 2012. 2012, three years after getting married, far too young for whatever that is. I was diagnosed with AML leukemia in 2015. I was 26 years old. The cancer made itself known and blood work completed by your OB-GYN. I went from graduating with a master's degree to pregnant with cancer in a month.

No doctors knew what to do with me, so we took the only course of action that could lead to life for both of us. I started chemotherapy at 17 weeks of pregnancy. God carried us through. Louis is a healthy eight-year-old, and I am in remission, vibrant, and full of life. We grew our family through adoption and brought home our Jack. He is the collateral damage of the opioid crisis exposed in utero to a plethora of substances. I fought many feelings of hate in my heart for the damage done to his brain because of the choices his birth mom made. I realized through writing my book Wrinkles Welcome, a cancer survivor's memoir, that we were both fighting our separate battles in the pregnancies of our children. Leukemia for me, addiction for her.

Wow. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, the Army currently has 34 premium members and we're hoping to grow it to 100 and we hope you'd be open to becoming one by becoming one for 10 bucks a month or a thousand dollars a year you can get access to cool benefits like bonus episodes a yearly group call and even a one-on-one call with me you're so lucky but frankly guys premium memberships really are about helping us to grow this army

that we believe our country desperately needs right now. So I hope you'll think about it. We'll be right back. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance.

Its tradition is culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12 episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of lucha libre and a WWE superstar. Santos! Santos! Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about

some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of my cultura podcast network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you stream podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Former Packer star Kabir Vajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. Hey, GB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family

and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked, voila, you got straight away.

I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? And like what's the history behind bacon wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rajon.

Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season two, season two. Are we recording? Are we good? Oh, we push record, right? Okay. And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita,

followed by the Mojito from Cuba, and the piñu colada from Puerto Rico. So all of these things we think Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the ninth century BC. BC? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History

as part of the My Kultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We think of Franklin as the doddering dude flying a kite in the rain, but those experiments are the most important scientific discoveries of the time. I'm Evan Ratliff.

Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk with biographer Walter Isaacson. This time, we're diving into the story of Benjamin Franklin, another genius who's desperate to be dusted off from history. His media empire makes him the most successful self-made business person in America. I mean, he was never early to bed and early to rise type person. He's enormously famous. Women start wearing their hair in what was called the coiffure a la Franklin. And who's more relevant now than ever.

The only other person who could have possibly been the first president would have been Benjamin Franklin. But he's too old, and wants Washington to do it. Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I spoke no English and I struggled finding job opportunities. Everything I have, I owe to the Adult Literacy Center and getting my high school diploma at age 22. It was an honor helping you achieve your greatness. Now you're helping others achieve theirs. It inspires me. When you graduate, they graduate.

Find free and supportive adult education centers near you at finishyourdiploma.org. Brought to you by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and the Ad Council. So, we're going to unpack this and there's a lot to unpack. First, what happens when a young pregnant woman gets cancer? What are your choices? Because I gotta believe whatever the treatment

for cancer is affects the embryo or the baby, right? So how's that, I mean, I would imagine very few listeners right now have ever experienced or even know anybody because you're too young to get cancer at that age and then to be pregnant and all of that. So when that happened, I can only fathom the shock and the tears and the call of mom and dad and your new husband and now your wonderful new life

is completely thrown up on its edge. You go from an expectant parents to your first child to all the excitement of life and the richness that has to offer to, wham. Okay, so I can only imagine that. But then you have to deal with it and you're not only dealing with it for yourself, but now you have a human being inside of you. So I'm just curious, what are the choices? So it depends on where you are in the pregnancy when you get the diagnosis.

And they couldn't, we caught it as early as humanly possible. We watched it go from weird blood work to, okay, this is leukemia to now we know it's AML leukemia, which is like the bad one. That's my question. AML, they got a lot of acronyms for leukemia. AML is the one. It's the one. You really don't want to get that one. What's the survival rate? So here's the problem. Like you said, the average person that gets AML is a 70-year-old white man. So the statistics on that are a five-year life expectancy. But they're already 70.

They're 70. So the data's probably skewed. Yeah, and we can talk about it later. There's new data that's come out in the last two years that. You're not a 70-year-old white man. You're a 26-year-old, half Hispanic, half white. I guess that's what you call it. That's weird.

It's weird. it's real weird. So the truth is because 70 year old white guys get this and they have a five-year life expectancy, well even if they didn't have this, they probably have a five-year life expectancy, so there's no data. There's no data and there's no data. I am the only person who has had the, and within AML there are like five different subty the only person who has had that in within AML There are like five different subtypes So for the one that I have is technically called a MML and I really am the only person to have ever had This cancer with pregnancy at the same time so like in the history of medicine, yes Aren't you special?

history of medicine? Yes. Well aren't you special? I know. My parents always told me. So you know we lived near Knoxville. Well that means that the doctors don't know what the hell to do either. They're lost. Exactly. So I mean you're a unicorn. A unicorn. A true unicorn. So the doctors they say listen we cannot treat you here. Like there is no one in Knoxville that is even remotely able to help you. You're gonna need to go to Emory or Vandy. And I was like, I don't even, you know, I'm new to Tennessee. I'm like, what are you talking about? And I said, is there any way that I can go to Wake Forest?

Because I'm hearing these names and I'm thinking, must be a university. Nashville is Nashville, Vandy is Nashville. Emory is Atlanta, I think. but Wake Forest is back home to Carolinas Really close to our grew up. I'm curious. Did anybody ever bring up st. Jude in Memphis? No, I was too old. Oh That makes sense. Okay, go ahead. So because they specialize in like cancers Nobody even has ever heard of that no one ever supposed to get.

Which all my oncologists were saying, you know, I was at 26 closer to 18 than the 70 year olds. Right. So maybe it would have been, I don't know. But anyway. Anyway. Wake Forest. Wake Forest, they call, they say, yes, we have a leukemia floor.

Bring her on. So I get this call from a nurse and she's like, bring enough stuff for a week. Bring a book, bring shoes. A week? A week. And I'm thinking, okay, I'm there for seven months. What's she supposed to say? A week?

I know that deal, right? No. So we pack up all our stuff. We take our dog to my in-laws and we go to North Carolina and we check in and we're in this room, smaller than this room, with my intake oncologist, my husband and my parents. And she says, listen, we reached out to 10 different special, like the most high up leukemia doctors you can think of, 10 different people.

We said, this is the case. What do you recommend? And they gave 10 different answers. Because nobody knew. Right. Because you're a unicorn. Because nobody knew. Right. Because you're a unicorn. Because I'm a unicorn. Because if a unicorn showed up out here, we wouldn't know what to do with you.

No, you wouldn't. So, this sweet, sweet oncologist who had previously been a pediatrician, which that does not happen. That's a miracle because you're pregnant. Because I'm pregnant. She says, you've got three options. One, we can terminate the pregnancy. Two, you can forgo chemo, which means like you don't have any, and deliver the baby as soon as we can. He'll be fine and you will probably die a month later because leukemia will have progressed so far. Because

that's a problem with AML. It's too fast. Oh, it rolls. It's on. Or the third option was start chemo and hope for the best. When you do chemo and you're pregnant, that's your baby's getting chemo too. So they said they're, they couldn't even tell me what could happen to him. The closest thing they could say is maybe he'll have heart problems. Maybe his appendages won't exactly be right, but they didn't know. And she said, you have five minutes to make your decision. That I would, I'm so glad I was just decision. That, I would, I'm so glad, I was just about to say,

I'm putting myself in your shoes and I'm like, okay, is it now time to gather a family circle of kumbaya and all have a decision? But it- So I sat there on the table and I closed my eyes. Where's your husband? My husband's right next to me. My parents are over here sitting down.

I can hear my mom crying. Cause I'm her princess. You know, I've got two brothers. I'm in the middle. I'm the princess of the family. And this is, think about your daughter. I mean, this is the worst case. I can't. I don't, I will start crying. Just, I'm not doing that. Yeah. So I closed my eyes and I prayed. And the only reason we found out that I had leukemia is because of the pregnancy and going to the doctor and having blood work. Yeah if you wouldn't have that you'd have never known and as fast as this thing goes you probably would have died. Probably. So I had to give him a chance because he saved my life already so I had to give him a chance. So one was off the table.

One's off the table and he deserves a mother. So I wasn't going to just die. I was going to fight. I know now that he is healthy. Yes. I can't help but go back to that minute and think, this doctor just said his appendages could be messed up, his heart could be messed up. What if you had survived? I know this had to have been part of the calculus.

Okay, I do this, I survived, but now I have damaged this human being. I was not a safe place. The guilt? Guilt, yeah. I still think about it. Do you? That you made a selfish decision? That maybe something's gonna pop up, you know?

Oh, that he's not through it? Yeah. So you carry concern and worry? Yeah. Bless your heart. So, when you made this decision and, hey, here's your life, here's your baby's life, everything was good a day ago, now you have to make a life and death decision for both you and this child in five minutes.

I mean, that's a nightmare. I have a recurring weird dream. I can't even believe I'm thinking about this, I'm going to tell you, but I am. I have this recurring weird, I'm a puzzle guy. I love puzzles. I do three puzzles every morning before I get out of bed. One is a Wurdle. You ever do Wurdle?

I did, but not- It's on New York Times thing. I love it. Another is a CrossFit puzzle that is only six by six styles, but it has a clock and you try to do it. You try to solve it with one minute. And then another is this new word puzzle that they give you all kind of jumbled up pieces of words and you got to make five words out of them. You make little words.

It's awesome. I love it. Anyway, I'm a puzzle guy. Um, and I think it's either really like when Ebenezer Scrooge thought the first ghost of Christmas price was in digestion. So maybe my dream is in digestion. I don't know. Or maybe I'm just weird, but I have absolutely had this dream many occasions that someone was holding either Lisa or my children captive. and I had a minute to solve a puzzle and if I didn't solve it by a minute, they would kill me.

And it's a stressor. I know where it comes from. It's stress, it's business, it's everything I've got going on in my life and feeling constantly under the gun to get things done. That's what's manifesting this nightmare's dream. But I do have that. Yours was real. You had a five minute decision to make a life and death decision about you and that child.

And when you made that decision, how did your parents and your husband react? They had to have felt the same stress. Yes. The feeling I was feeling for my baby, I mean my mom was having for me. It was just this big circle of tears. What did they say when you made your decision? And what did the doctors say what was the reaction to? None of these three options are good. I'm choosing this one because it's my personal decision for me and my baby, full well knowing the risk.

Did everybody, I mean. So what I said was, it was so strange. I closed my eyes to pray. And when I opened my eyes, everybody is just looking at me waiting because it was my decision and I said let's do it but I want everyone in this room, everyone in this hospital to go into this with a positive mind that this is gonna work and I don't want to hear any negativity from anyone that it's not gonna work. We all have to believe that this is going

to work for it to work. She said, this is going to be the framework that we go from. Let's get it. Let's go. Wow. That is too heavy for a 26 year old kid. We'll be right back. When you think of Mexican culture, you think of avocado, mariachi, delicious cuisine, and of course, lucha libre. It doesn't get more Mexican than this. Lucha libre is known globally because it is much more than just a sport and much more than just entertainment. Lucha libre is a type of storytelling. It's a dance.

It's tradition. It's a dance. Its tradition is culture. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of lucha libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, the emperor of lucha libre and a WWE superstar. Santos! Santos! Join me as we learn more about the history behind this spectacular sport from its inception

in the United States to how it became a global symbol of Mexican culture. We'll learn more about some of the most iconic heroes in the ring. This is Lucha Libre Behind the Mask. Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask as part of my Cultura podcast network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you stream podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like, what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejón. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. Season two, season two. Are we recording? Are we good?

Oh, we push record, right? And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Seeing that the most popular hot dog is the Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba and the Pinyo Calada from Puerto Rico. So all of these things, we thank Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey

that dates back to the 9th century B.C. B.C.! I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the 9th century BC. BC? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was. Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Kultura podcast network, available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It was December 2019 when the story blew up. In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packer star Kabir Vajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. Hey, GB, explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play.

A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron, and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked. Voila! You got straight away.

I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiral on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We think of Franklin as the doddering dude flying a kite in the rain, but those experiments are the most important scientific discoveries of the time. I'm Evan Ratliff. Last season, we tackled the ingenuity of Elon Musk with biographer Walter Isaacson. This time, we're diving into the story of Benjamin Franklin, another genius who's desperate to be dusted off from history.

His media empire makes him the most successful self-made business person in America. I mean, he was never early to bed and early to rise type person. He's enormously famous. Women start wearing their hair in what was called a coiffure a la Franklin. And who's more relevant now than ever. The only other person who could have possibly been the first president would have been Benjamin Franklin. But he's too old and wants Washington to do it.

Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My name is Ariel. I moved to the U.S. at 19. I spoke no English and I struggled finding job opportunities. Everything I have I owe to the Adult Literacy Center and getting my high school diploma at age 22. It was an honor helping you achieve your greatness. Now you're helping others achieve theirs. It inspires me.

When you graduate, they graduate. Find free and supportive adult education centers near you at finishyourdiploma.org. Brought to you by Dollar General Literacy Foundation and the Ad Council. So you roll. So we go up to the six o'clock. And you have clothes for a week. I got clothes for a week. Luckily, my parents went to Target and got me some more underwear and shirts and snacks.

And of course, people wanted to give us things. It was just an onslaught of crossword. You would have loved it. Crossword puzzles and Sudoku and all these things. And we get up to the room and my real main doctor on the floor comes in, Dr. Powell. And I said, it just something came over me and I said, tomorrow marks 17 weeks. Can we please wait till tomorrow? Please give me one more day where my baby is not going to be affected by chemo. When

they knew they needed to start it that second. He gave me that. I begged and he just saw this fear in my eyes, I think, and thought, let me give her a little control over this out of control situation. And it really just, I don't know, made me feel better. So then we started... It gave you time to prepare probably mentally. Yeah, yeah. It was a gift for me. So we started the next day, started this insane chemo that like a pregnant nurse can't even administer

because it's so dangerous. And you're pregnant. And I'm pregnant. And my husband, they hooked me up and he, every time they would start a new bag of chemo, he would pray over that bag. That that bag would do its job and nothing else. And it was a miracle.

And the craziest thing is the whole time, so Lewis had three rounds in utero, three rounds of chemo. What do you mean Lewis did? My baby. I know who Lewis is. What do you mean he? Like when he's in utero. You had three I know who Louis is. What do you mean he? Like when he's in here.

You had three rounds while pregnant. Yes, yes. So you're saying he had them. He had three rounds. Y'all had them. We had them. Yeah. And I was just like this.

Like I was never throwing up. The things that you see in the movies about the girl that has the cancer in high school, a walk to remember, you know, all these things. I was not like that. I was like this. Like my husband and I were just hanging out, eating cheeseburgers, watching Gilmore Girls,

just in heaven. Everything about this story's been great until you said Gilmore Girls. That's terrible. Yeah. Yeah. You like Gilmore Girls too? You like Gilmore Girls too? All right well this afternoon me and Cassius are not Gilmore Girls. Did you ever watch Nashville? Yes. I watched it once and that was it.

You know what you remind me of is we watched a lot of Friday Night Lights. Oh for goodness goodness gracious. Okay, so anyway, how long did this go on? Seven months? It was all, my whole cancer experience was seven months. But you gave birth. Gave birth a month early. So the thing was, he could have come at any time. We didn't know what was gonna happen.

Because all this could like spur it. Yeah, the chemo, they don't know what it's going to, could it break down something in there that's holding them in and it just comes out. Who knows? But also when you have chemotherapy, you have chemo for like a week and then like a week later you bottom out with all your white blood cells and you have nothing. Yeah. Cause they're killing everything. They're killing everything.

So I would have no way to fight off an infection, any kind of germs. We had to be super careful. For the first month, like when I was, the word is neutropenic, when you don't have any neutrophils in your body to fight off any infection, I couldn't even touch anyone. I couldn't touch, no. If I went out into the hallway, I had to wear a mask. I couldn't have. No, I couldn't. If I went out into the hallway, I had to wear a mask. I couldn't have like live flowers in the room. I couldn't touch mail. I couldn't put my fingernails. I couldn't eat honey, black pepper, fruit with the seeds on the

outside because they're never clean. Like I had to make sure everything that I ate and everything I did was going to be safe for me and the baby. Wow. Yuck. Yuck, yeah. Because you think about- This is going to be a weird question, but since you said food, did you have cravings while you were pregnant like a lot of people do, even with chemo?

I really wanted to eat a lot of cheeseburgers. Is that right? I was like, there was a Wendy's right down the street. My husband would walk there, come back, and bring me a cheeseburger. I think it was maybe having low iron with all the chemotherapy maybe. When Lisa was pregnant with Max, our fourth, she had a big thing for Sonic cheeseburgers actually. I bet I ate Sonic two or three times a week for about four months to where I almost can't

stand the smell of a Sonic burger now because she overdid the Sonic thing. But I get the cheeseburger thing. I don't know why that was that, but boy, she was all about a cheeseburger. And I mean, multiple, she'd breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes with Sonic. It's disgusting. But anyway, so cheeseburgers. Cheap breakfast, lunch, and dinner sometimes with Sonic. Yes. It's disgusting. But anyway, so cheeseburgers. Cheeseburgers, but yeah, I was just bald and pregnant

and I lived in a... Were you bald? Did you lose your hair? I did. So I was a major unicorn at that point. Cause... A 26 year old bald pregnant chick. So you give birth.

Give birth. I have to ask you. You guys had to have been freaked out praying that this child came out right. Yes. And I was so tired. Oh, you were beating up and you had to go through birth. Yes, and here's the thing. We had to time, if you have AML, you have a certain number of chemotherapies you have to have in a certain window of time for it to work. If you don't get them in a certain amount of time, there's a high chance it's going to come back later. So we're working with this timeframe.

I can't deliver while I'm neutropenic, but what if he comes when I'm neutropenic on his own? You know, there are all these questions. Oh gosh. What if he comes at 26 weeks? I knew every stat in my head of, okay, if he comes at this time, he's probably gonna be blind. If he comes at this time,

he's probably gonna have these issues. Because any premature baby born at, you know. Was your husband prepared for all that too? I mean, we weren't at all. We just had to go one day at a time. No. I was a little oblivious as a young father, candidly. I didn't know what Lisa knew and felt.

I didn't understand it. I was too young, I was too immature, whatever. Do you think he was in the same mind? Or was he more, he's also worried about his wife. You see what I'm saying? Where was Joseph? I mean, there were times where the fear in his heart was like he was gonna lose both of us.

Right. You know, so it was really hard for him. Had to have been. Yeah. But he, I mean, he was busy every day with like insurance, calling all these people on the phone, making sure that everything, because you can imagine that is a crazy world when you have cancer and insurance is pushing back. He had to have a strength, a different kind of strength than you did, but still an uncommon

strength. Very uncommon. And he's six foot four, and he had to sleep on this tiny little bed that we would make, he would make and you know take apart every morning. And he never complained once, he was just with me. Another love story. Another love story. So you give birth. I give birth. And Lewis pops out good. He's just, he's so soft. He's just the softest thing because he was a month early so he wasn't developed like his muscles, you know, that you would build up in that last month of pregnancy. And they let me hold him for a few seconds and then they had to whisk him away to the

NICU and he was there for six days. That's not too bad. Not bad. A blessing. NICU babies are a blessing because they learn how to sleep on the schedule and I was trying to take care of my body. I could not under any circumstances, I could not have a C-section. Because three weeks later I was not going to have an immune system.

Oh, stitches. The stitches. The whole thing. not going to have an immune system. Oh, stitches. So they were very much like, you have to get them out this way. We cannot cut you open. What if he was breached or something just the way it's going to be? I, he was OP, which means like he was sunny side up. Like his face was facing the wrong way and he really got stuck and had to use the salad tongs, you know,

to get him out. And they said, if you don't get him out in this push, you're gonna have to have a C-section and you cannot have a C-section. And I had remembered this one old friend had texted me the night before and she said, I'm praying that you have supernatural, superhuman strength tomorrow.

Because it was planned, The induction was planned. In that moment, I remembered her prayer for me and I pushed and he came out. It really is a miracle, isn't it? It is a miracle. Okay. So he went to Neku for six days. We take him back to my parents' house. We had decided that Joseph would be the like primary parent with him at

my parents house and take care of him and then I would go back to the hospital because you still had treatment I still had two more rounds of chemo to go after just having had a baby so he's jumping into fatherhood first child not alone I mean my parents are there support but that's not still alone. I'm sure he felt alone. Right and then we had organized like I had a friend for each session to come spend the night with me so that I wouldn't be alone in the hospital room alone and that was a huge blessing too. But it was the the dark and lonely time of my cancer journey because when I was

pregnant, I had this thing, this hope, this thing to fight for, this baby to think about. We just thought about this baby we're going to bring home and we weren't thinking about that we were in the hospital, that I was getting chemo. It was just, it almost, when we look back on it, it seems like it happened to someone else because we just, my body just protected Lewis. But when Lewis is gone. Once Lewis is gone, I'm alone. Um, I, I was going to nurse, I nursed. So I had to pump and dump every three hours giving, they, what they did was they held back a little bit on the previous two rounds of chemo.

They thought about Lewis. They were like, we are going to consider him. But once they got him out, they were like, we're going to blast you. You're about to get nuked. So I would get a bag of chemo by myself. Didn't have anyone there to pray with me. It was just me. And three hours later, I would just pass out.

I mean, it was the most exhausting feeling I've ever felt in my life. It would just literally make me go to sleep. And it worked. It worked. It worked, I'm here. And through this, you decided, from the letter you sent to me,

to write Wrinkles Welcome, a cancer survivor's memoir. How long after all of this did you write this? So I blogged because this was, you know, 2015, blogging was very popular. And I'm from this small town with a robust river mill. It was a really good way for you to tell everybody this is what's really going on. Yes, I was like, I'm gonna control the narrative here.

This is what's happening. And don't listen to what Barney's talking about. No, just this is real, this is what's happening. And it was like a really therapeutic outlet for me. And because I did that so much, everybody always said, you've gotta write a book, you've gotta write a book. And I'm thinking, when am I gonna write a book? I'm like knee deep in, you've got to write a book. You've got to write a book. And I'm thinking, when am I going to write a book? I'm like knee deep in, you know, dirty diapers.

So, yeah, so that was always in the back of my head. I never grew up thinking I'm going to write a book one day, but the story had to be told. I had to do it, you know? And that concludes part one of my conversation with Gabby. And you don't want to miss part two that's now available to listen to as we dive into her adoption story.

Together, guys, we can change this country, but it starts with you. I'll see you in part two. What happens when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on? I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church, voila, you got straight away.

You try to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? And like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejón. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back. And this season, we're taking a bigger bite

out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba and the Piñu Colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for History on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. There's so much beauty in Mexican culture,

like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre, Behind the Mask, a 12-ep episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, Emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Listen to Lucha Libre, Behind the Mask on the iHeartReyo app, Apple podcasts, or whatever you stream podcasts. We think of Franklin as the dodderging dude flying a kite in the rain.

Benjamin Franklin is our subject for a new season with Walter Isaacson. He's the most successful self-made business person in America. A printer, a scientist, founding father, but maybe not the guy we think we know. Franklin casts his lot on the side of revolution. And it's another thing that splits the family apart. Listen to On Benjamin Franklin with Walter Isaacson on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, y'all, Nimmini here. I'm the host of a brand new history podcast for kids and families called Historical Records. Executive produced by Questlove, The Story Pirates, and John Glickman, Historical Records brings history to life through hip hop. Get the kids in your life excited about history by tuning in to Historical Records.

Listen to Historical Records starting on September 27th on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.