An Army of Normal Folks - Steve Tybor: When 6 Volunteers Turned Into 60,000 (Pt 1)

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

Steve’s 70 year-old dad told him that they should grab a couple buddies and respond to Hurricane Katrina. The next thing you know 6 guys turned into 684 volunteers, and 20 disasters later their 60,000 volunteers have rebuilt 7,000 homes! Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You know, I was living in Tupelo. My dad calls me. He's like 70 years old at the time and he's in Buffalo, New York and he's a doer. He's a worker. He said, Hey Steve, you know, I saw your state got really hit by that, that hurricane. What are you thinking about doing? I said, I don't know. What do you, what do you think? And he goes, well, why don't you find a couple of buddies? I'll get a couple of buddies and maybe six of us could go down there. You know, find a town. It's your state, I don't live there, I live in New York, but you find a town, let's find a widow, an elderly couple or a single mom,

let's help one family with their house. And I'm like, dad. Just like fix a roof or something? Yeah, fix a roof, painting, whatever. I said, dad, you have seven kids, including five daughters, and if you rank us from the handiest, from one to seven, I'm like number seven. I said, so, he goes, Steve, he goes, Steve,

you could carry the shingles and you can carry the drywall. And he goes, I know you can paint and I can't paint a little bit. He goes, don't worry, we'll keep you busy. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm an entrepreneur

and I've been a football coach in inner city Memphis. And that last part somehow led to an Oscar for a film they made about our team. It's called Undefeated. Y'all, 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 an army

of normal folks, us, just you and me deciding, hey, I can help. That's what Steve Tiber, the voice you just heard, has done. His dad's idea of six of them helping with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina led to 684 volunteers going, which led to them to keep going. And today, Steve's charity, 8 Days of Hope, has had 40,000 volunteers respond to 60 different disasters and they've rebuilt 7,000 homes for free. I cannot wait for you to meet Steve right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. This election season, the stakes are higher than ever.

I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne the God, for We the People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back. Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat Station. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. 25 years ago, I wrote my first book called The Tipping Point, all

about the moments when an idea or trend crosses a certain threshold and spreads like wildfire. I've had a lot of time to think about that book, and the way I thought about Tipping Points changed. So now I'm releasing the sequel, Revenge of the Tipping Point, where I return to the subjects of social epidemics and the dark side of contagious phenomena. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my podcast, Revisionist History. Plus, we'll dive into a duo of narrative episodes about my favorite trial in American history and a reevaluation of the broken windows theory I explored in my first book.

Find Revenge of the Tipping Point wherever you get your audiobooks and listen to revisionist history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 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. 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-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 an even 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 Pinyo Colada from Puerto Rico. So all of these, we have, we thank Latin culture.

There's a mention 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. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. or wherever you get your podcasts. for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out, like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Astead Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days, fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends,

like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlemagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart

radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Steve Diber, welcome to Memphis. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It was a little bit interesting getting here, but I'm here and I appreciate the invitation. Yeah, you got to see like three cities on the way here. I mean, they messed your flights up. That's terrible. You know, I've got about two million miles with Delta. I've flown for decades, but today was an interesting one where my bag made it before me.

Usually it's the other way around, but I'm here. Yeah, so your bag made the transfer and you didn't. That's too bad. Well, Detroit needs to get their world together. But you got to see Detroit, you got to see Atlanta. I hope you got to do some work on the 19 hour trip to Memphis from Buffalo. I did, I did, thank you, I did.

Steve is the founder and CEO of Eight Days of Hope, which is grown to be kind of phenomenal. And we're certainly gonna get into all of that. But your world, in what I know, starts in 93. But I wanna go back before 93 even. Sure. Where are you from? How'd you grow up?

Yeah, you know, I grew up in the inner city of Buffalo. My family and I, we had seven kids. I was one of two boys, five sisters. We grew up with not a lot. One bathroom in a house of nine people and four bedrooms, you make it work, right? Cause you only know what you know. But I went to an inner city school in the city of Buffalo.

I was a minority and I knew nothing other than that. It was just, it was, I felt like I had everything I needed. My mom and dad modeled loving people well. Even though at that point in my journey, I was still a selfish person, a kid. You just think of yourself and what you want and need. I was starting to see some things, especially for my mom, who really went out of her way to love and serve people. That was just really, it was so cool that everyone knew, you know, my mom

was such a loving person. And so, you know, you grow up without much, but your heart's full and you feel loved. And you know, I ran track, didn't play high school ball, but I ran track. I was pretty quick and enjoyed it and loved it and thought I would stay in Buffalo for, you know, till till from the beginning to the end but got out of other plans. Did you what'd your dad do? You know my dad was a contractor he did concrete work neither

of them finished school my mom didn't even finish high school so they weren't educated but very hard workers and so they modeled that for me and my six siblings. It's interesting I have five sisters and a brother, and one of us is adopted, but the one that was not adopted, the other six were all type A's, all six of us. Everyone's a type A, it is crazy. And we're doers, and we love to see things happen, and people in sales, and managers, and owners of companies.

But it's been a lot of fun, and boy, I tell you, I have some great memories growing up, I really do. Well, I guess in Buffalo, when you have 19,000 people in a small house, at least you stay warm in the winter. I tell you what. Body heat. Oh, the blizzard of 78, I was a senior in high school and I was stuck at my girlfriend's house for like four days because you couldn't travel

and thank God, our city recovered. But yeah, we get some epic snowstorms up there, but Buffalo's a great place because you're right near the water, Lake Erie, Lake Ontario. People think of New York of just being concrete. You have the Adirondack Mountains. You have the Finger Lakes. I mean, there's a ski resort 35 minutes from my house called Holiday Valley and Kissing Bridge that a lot of Canadians from Toronto come down and a lot of people in Western New

York use. So definitely get four seasons, definitely a little bit longer of a winter, maybe summer down here in Memphis, maybe a little bit longer summer, but it's all good. Man, it just sounds like a middle, low to middle income, blue collar coming up with a lot of love and a lot of direction and frankly, a normal childhood. You only know what you know. And so, my mom and dad, they loved each other and they really tried hard to provide.

But it was no big deal for seeing a bike being handed down three times or my brother and I sharing clothes or watching my sisters. I mean, you just, you make what you have to make out of it. And you don't know no better. You just don't. So you don't know about Disneyland and you don't maybe you know about it But you don't even think like that I mean you're just you're enjoying life you know back in the day and maybe this is when you grew up as well

I think it probably a little bit older than you but you played until the lights came on and you and you played with all The neighborhood kids there were no electronics and a mom went out on the porch and screamed your name Absolutely, he went home at dinner time all the time neighborhood kids, there were no electronics. And a mom went out on the porch and screamed your name. Absolutely. And everybody went home at dinner time. All the time. We played board games on the porch and we played football on the street, we played kickball, we played hide and seek,

just simple things, but man, we had a blast. Normal, simpler times, some would argue, and I would, that maybe those were better times, but we'll digress from that. Sure. You go to college? You know, I did. I went to a school in Ottawa, Kansas,

a small Division II school. I went there on a track scholarship. My sister picked it out of a book, and this is back, yeah, and she was there. She was a year ahead of me, and the track coach heard that I could run, and so they threw a couple dollars in my way, and I went out there.

It was a little bit unique for me, being a lot different from Buffalo, New York to go to Ottawa, Kansas. It's about 40 miles southwest of Kansas City. And it was a lot slower. People made fun the way I dressed and the way I talked, but it was a lot of fun. All right, so you graduate.

I do. And you get married. Yeah, I met my wife. Start the life. You know, in 1984, And you get married? Yeah. Start the life. You know, 1984, my wife and I got married and after dating for about 12 months and just, she hung the moon, you know, I'm still hung. What's her name? Her name is Charmaine. Charmaine and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in November. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. You know, marriage is hard work and yet we're committed and you know, she's an amazing young lady and we have five kids now. All of them adopted.

The only reason I'm bringing that up because through a couple of adoptions, we learned about some things that end up changing the ministry that we're going to talk about eventually. But just love my kids. They're amazing. They're all doing well. And you know And we've got one in the military. My fourth daughter or my number four is in the Marines as we speak. She's amazing. My youngest is at Liberty College. So after having kids in my house for 33 and a half years, my wife and I 10 days ago looked around and it was just her and I. And that was a little bit weird,

but we're enjoying the season. but yeah, it's been fun. So, we've established a yore. You come from a blue collar family in Buffalo, you get your degree, you marry Charmaine, you adopt five children, you're actually three at this point, but eventually five, and you're rolling, and what are you doing for a living? You know, so I was living in upstate New York. I lived there until I was 39, and you're rolling, and what are you doing for a living?

So I was living in upstate New York. I lived there until I was 39, but I was working for my wife's family business. He owned the building material distributor in upstate New York, in Buffalo. They had multiple locations, sold vinyl siding, windows, doors. I was working for a roofing manufacturer

when my wife and I got married, but her dad died unexpectedly like 44 and They asked if I'd come sell and I reported to my dad So working for my wife was great working for my wife's brother was great working my dad was a little bit interesting About because every time you do something in the family. It's it's not hey, how you doing? And you know, how's how's your kid? It's hey, did you open that account? Did you pick up that check? Are they placing that big order? What do you got going on tomorrow?

And so I longed for that. So he wasn't aware of it. My wife was, of course, but I applied for a job for a company based in Boonville, Mississippi. They made vinyl siding. Buffalo to Boonville. Yeah, yeah, well I didn't move right away. I started as a salesman, but literally in 18 months

just was blessed, did like three steps in the corporate ladder. And when I was 39 in 1999 my wife and I moved to Tupelo Mississippi to become a vice president of a corporation and the rest is history my corporate my corporate career was off and running so there it is there's your life yeah Buffalo, kids, found your way up the corporate ladder and everything else. But 1993, you were an addict. I'm getting emotional, not because I'm sad, but for eight years every day, every single day,

I was involved in a self-destructive habit and it started very innocently. And so, you know, people know about drug addicts and alcoholics. Well, my addiction was gambling. And so I go down to Atlantic City actually for one of these jobs, got the job. But that one night I went to play cards. I knew nothing what I was doing, playing blackjack. I won a boatload of money and thought I had it figured out and a buddy of mine said hey you played college football let's just pretend

something pick six games here's the spreads tell me what you think and knocked all six of them out he's like dude man you need to be doing this I mean you're smart you played the game a lot of people don't understand football. So it started that innocently in 1985. But for every day, I mean every day, I didn't miss one. I left weddings. I left funerals. I left my wife's birthday party. I'd go to bed at night to play Spets.

I'd go to bed at night with a beautiful young lady next to me. Back in the day, there wasn't internet yet. You couldn't file on your phone if you were up or down. I'd have three TVs in our modest bedroom. We'd be going to bed and I have three TVs on top of each other so I could see the scores of all the games and it got out of control. It got so bad. I knew I was blown with Charmaine and we had just adopted Steven. He'd been with us for about a year. And here's the pivotal night.

I was rolling a ball back with my son, a plastic ball, and he was in front of the TV. And I had a huge bet on a game, and it came to the final play. And either I was gonna win a lot of money or I was gonna lose tens of thousands of dollars. And I- That kind of bet. Oh yeah, I was out of control the last fri and I'm not trying to please don't be

impressed if you're listening. No, this is not impressive. It's crazy. The Friday before the last of the final weekend, I bet 30 college basketball games, 3000 a game, three dimes. That's what you call it. Just on one night in basketball and you know, an addict is always looking for the next high And I was looking for the next thing all the time and so it's actually 99,000 right because the big 10% if you lose So you had a hundred thousand dollars on the line in one night on college basketball

I was betting on games, you know, my wife would say, name one person that plays at VCU. What do you know about St. Bonaventure? You know, what do you care about Georgia? You know, you live in Buffalo. You've never even been to Georgia. And you know, I would reason away and I'd always throw a little money or a way to keep her happy, but she didn't know we had loans. I was doing stupid things. You were borrowing money? Oh my gosh. I mean you have to. I don't care how good you are. You can get a little hot streak, but any addiction, it will just rob you of your joy. It consumes you.

I'd wake up in the morning and I'm watching the weather channel to see if it's going to be windy in Chicago. Is it going to rain? Should I bet the over or under? It became my god. And so that Sunday night when Steven stopped in front of that TV and we were rolling a plastic ball, I had the ball in my hand and he stopped right in front of the TV and I couldn't see if I won or lost and I screamed Stephen and I threw the ball at him. It was a plastic

hard ball. And I'm thankful that I missed, but my wife was looking down from the foyer of our house and she was screaming at me. He was screaming because I screamed his name and threw the ball at him. She said, get out. I'm done. I'm done. I've been praying for you. I've been hoping the best, but I can't do this anymore.

She said, I love you, but I don't like you. You've got to go. I don't care where you go, but you got to leave. Man, I was at rock bottom. I went upstairs to get my car keys. This is so stupid, I didn't own a gun. But I went into the bathroom and I'm thinking, I couldn't stop gambling.

I mean, I just couldn't stop. I remember going to the bathroom, I was looking in the mirror, it was just me in the mirror, and she's down there screaming, crying, Steven's crying, I'm crying, and I take my fist and I punch myself in the mirror and she's down there screaming, crying, Stephen's crying, I'm crying and I take my fist and I punch myself in the face. It sounds so stupid, but I just hated myself so much that I blew it with Charmaine, that I was a terrible father, terrible husband, I was a terrible person, I was selfish, I

was out of control and I was an addict. So I left my house and I thought thought I can't stop. I can't keep moving. I just lost my wife. I lost my kid. Why live? So I pulled our car in Western New York. I pulled it on a railroad track and back in 93 I had a car. You had to roll down the window and I parked the car on the railroad track so when the train would come around the corner, he wouldn't be able to stop because I couldn't do anything right but I was going to get this one right. I was going to get this one right.

So I parked the car so when the train comes by it can't stop and I roll down the window I throw the key so I don't chicken out you know at the last minute and I'm waiting for the train. You threw the keys out the window. Yes. So I won't even be tempted. You are committed. I'm done. Bro, I couldn't go on.

I was out of control. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first I got something really cool to tell you about We're hosting our second ever live interview. We're doing it in Memphis on November 7th with Todd Comer Nikki this guy is the director of one of the most thought-provoking Inspiring deep movies ever made. One of my favorites, Elf. But he's also the writer of Sully,

and now he is the director of Angel Studios' upcoming film, Bonhoeffer, Pastor, Spy, Assassin. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor who tried to rally the church to stop Hitler. He was involved in Operation 7, which was an operation to smuggle Jews into neutral Switzerland to ultimately save their life. And then he joined the famous Valkyrie Plot, which was the plot to assassinate Hitler.

And he was executed in a concentration camp for his involvement in that. He's one of the most epic examples of what we're looking for. An ordinary person who lived an extraordinary life of service all the way to the point of death and I hope you can join us to get inspired and meet the incredible director that is now telling Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer's story. You can RSVP for free tickets, free tickets, at bonhoefferdirector.eventbrite.com. That's B-O-N-H-O-E-F-F-E-R, director.eventbrite.com. In Memphis on November 7th. information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at

the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at

the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at

the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis. You can find the information at the state of Memphis.. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne the God, for We the People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back. Don't miss this powerful conversation

with Vice President Kamala Harris. Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat station. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. 25 years ago, I wrote my first book called The Tipping Point, all about the moments when an idea or trend crosses a certain threshold and spreads like wildfire.

I've had a lot of time to think about that book, and the way I thought about Tipping Points changed. So now I'm releasing the sequel, Revenge of the Tipping Point, where I return to the subjects of social epidemics and the dark side of contagious phenomena. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my podcast, Revisionist History. Plus, we'll dive into a duo of narrative episodes about my favorite trial in American history and a re-evaluation of the broken windows theory I explored in my first book. Find Revenge of the Tipping Point wherever you get your audiobooks and listen to revisionist history on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 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. 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 an even 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. 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 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. Hey everyone, it's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch and I'm exhausted. But turns out the end is near,

right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Astead Herndon. But we're also gonna have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my

friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on, this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeart Radio

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The train came every night at 10 o'clock. We'd lived there for multiple years and I'm waiting for this train. It's like 958, 959 and I'm listening for the train. I don't hear this train and it's 10 o'clock and then it's 1001 and now I'm waiting for this train. It's like 9 58 9 59 and I'm listening for the train. I don't hear this train and it's 10 o'clock and then it's 10 or one and now I'm crying even more. I'm like, where's this train? It comes every single night. And it was 10 or five, 10 or eight. And I thought, you gotta be kidding me. This train's not coming tonight. It comes every night.

So at this point, now what do I do? I can't go home. Can't find my keys. I was about to say you can't drive your car. So I get on my hands and knees. I finally find my keys. I drive back to the house. It's about a mile away and Charmin came downstairs. So what are you doing here? I said, you know, my mom and dad live 40 minutes away. It's 11 o'clock at night. Let me just sleep here for the night. I'll sleep downstairs. I promise I'll be gone in the morning."

She said, okay. The next morning I heard her getting her things together and she was moving around around 8, 8, 30 and I said, where are you headed? She said, I'm going to church. And she had been going to this Bible believing church for a little bit. I'd gone a couple of times with her just to kind of keep her happy, right? But she says, I'm taking Stephen to church. When I come back, I want you to

be gone. I said, I will be. So she's getting ready and I'm thinking to myself, I said, Charmaine, could I come to church with you today? And she's 115 pounds of spit and fire this day because she said, you're such a manipulator. I was just about to say, she had to have felt like this was all manipulation. Exactly she said I'll tell you what you can come take a separate car but afterwards you go right to your parents. I said okay should I go to this church it's a Bible-leaving church and the pastor is preaching on Joshua 1 9, heaven I command you to be strong be courageous do not be discouraged do not be terrified for the Lord, the God's with you wherever you go. Would you say that one more time?

Have I not commanded you to be strong, be courageous, do not be discouraged, do not be terrified for the Lord, the God will be with you wherever you go. And he said, you know, I believe there's someone here tonight who feels like they're scared and they have nowhere to turn and you want to give up and you feel alone. And man, I'm telling you, he was preaching to me and he said, you know what, we're going to open up the altars and if that's you and you want to come forward for prayer and talk about your relationship with Jesus, come on forward. And I'm telling you what, you thought I could run in college, man. I ran, I mean I before even finished

I'm at the altar on the right side on my knees. I was there for about 45 minutes. Just crying out to God I remember saying please forgive me. I said it 5,000 times. Please forgive me. Please restore my marriage Take this addiction from me. Please forgive me. Please restore my marriage. Let me be the man you want me to be Please take this addiction from me and I would just do it over and over again. And it was an attorney changing moment for me. Was Charmaine having to have seen her husband do this while she's sitting in church? I can't imagine she's not having a reaction to it. Was her reaction, is this more BS or is her reaction maybe this is real?

Her mind was going 8,000 miles an hour because the pastor said, Charmaine, don't let this just play out. He knew what was going on. He said, it doesn't mean that he can't go to his parents for a little bit, but let's just see what God's doing here. And I went and lived with my... So he encouraged her to at least have an open mind. Right. She wasn't like, oh, you're such a liar again. Again.

Right. She was hoping for the best. I mean, you hope... Of course. If you know an addict, a lot of us know addicts. You always hope for the best. There's always that glimpse of hope. You also struggle between hope and encouragement, but also you don't want to be in a neighbor.

Yeah, that's a big one, right? I mean, we all fight that when you know somebody who's really struggling. I guess you're torn. Right, right, right. You're hoping for the best, but you're also, you know, time will tell. You got to remember, I had gambled every day for eight years. And so it was Sunday. I left church. I went to my parents' house and for the next two weeks I lived there.

And that night was the first night I had not gambled in eight years. And then Monday I went to Gamerslers anonymous and I went to my job and you know the second night I didn't gamble and You know literally for like three four years multiple times a week. I would send the gamblers anonymous But God changed me that Sunday morning and I know it doesn't always work that way for everybody. I get it I don't know why he delivered me that morning, but I can look in the eyes, look the world in the eyes, and say my last bet was January 31st 1993. You know, I've been clean 31 years and I could care less about any of that garbage. You know, I promised God that I would serve Him to

the day I die. Man, I'm still imperfect. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm learning things at 63 years of age every single day, but I'm still imperfect. I'm a sinner saved by grace. I'm learning things at 63 years of age every single day, but I'm going to serve him to the day I die. He rescued me at my lowest point. He restored my marriage. He blessed us with four more kids. He's allowed me now to be a part of some things that are way bigger than, I mean, who am I? I'm just a sinner saved by, I'm just some guy from the inner city of Buffalo. That, you know, what was out of control. And now, you know, things are going in the right direction. And again, so thankful that, you know,

God met me at my lowest point. First of all, your, your nakedness, that's the only word I can come up with, but your willingness to be so transparent about all of it. Oh man. Well there's people out there, you know, maybe you're listening and you're an addict, maybe you overeat, maybe you shop, maybe alcohol, drugs, pornography.

That's a big one these days. A lot of pornography is out of control. Don't give up. If you know somebody who's struggling, keep praying for them. Love on them, but don't enable them. Find a support group for yourself. I'm thankful that after eight years, January 31st is a date I'll always remember and I'm thankful for that day. It was a really tough eight years, but that's behind me. I'm thankful for that day. It was a really tough eight years, but that's behind me. So,

now you have this job, I assume you're winning back your family. Oh yes, yeah. And you're dealing with, any addiction has a grip, and it takes a while, even when you're doing well, that grip will tend you every once in a while.

I gotta believe every once in a while, you'd look over to TV and see a game and you'd have to catch yourself or something. You know, in the beginning, yes. I'm telling you right now, I don't care. I really don't care. No, I mean at the beginning, for sure. Oh yeah, right, of course.

You know, it is a journey. It's a battle and I really dove into a local church. I took up running again. I did some marathons. So I kind of switched my time because it takes a lot of time when you're watching all these ballgames. Oh, you have time on your hands. And I went to Bible college for a couple of years. I thought I was being called in ministry and literally the last week just felt like it wasn't the step, even though I had completed my education. So there was, yeah, it was, it has been a journey. I'll tell you, just in the building material industry that I've worked in for 35 years,

a lot of things happen in Las Vegas, the Builder Show. I can go into those areas now. I'm telling you, I don't care. I just, I have seen what God has done in me and through me and with my family the last 31 years I have no desire to endanger any of that I mean, I mean, it's not perfect. Our life's not perfect. But my gosh, you know, what's joy my family has You know when you're around an addict, it just sucks the life of your family and that's what I was doing so you go to bible college and uh,

this uh This guy named frank Kind of gives you some advice. How do you know that? Frank Reich? Man, I told you. You know your homework. Alex does his homework. I just read Alex's homework.

I love it. Yeah. So in 1993, I gave my heart to the Lord and Frank Reich was attending a Christian music festival in Buffalo. Tell us who Frank Reich. For those I knew immediately, but I'm a football guy. Backup quarterback of the Buffalo Bills

in our four Super Bowl years that we lost that, yes, I went to two of them and cried my eyes out. But Frank is a dear friend. But we met in 1994. And he was asked just to come to this festival and throw some footballs around. And Frank and I just, we just connected. And you know, after he kind of left playing football,

he went to seminary and he was a pastor. And you know, I brought him in for corporate events. I brought him in to some other events to speak, encourage people. I mean, he is the quarterback of what the greatest comeback or now the second greatest comeback ever. So there you go. Yeah. And I was there.

Now I was there. That's not in this. So it was halftime. It was halftime. We were down 35 to three of the Houston Oilers in Buffalo. And I said, dad, I'm out of here. He goes, Steve, we paid $45 for these tickets. I'm not leaving until the game's over. Of course I sat right back down. I'm so glad I did. Can I tell you something? What's that off script? Sure. Do you know, uh, of course the, uh, immaculate reception was Pittsburgh Franco. Sure. All right.

The Tennessee one where the tight end Frank, why check the miracle? It was for the music. It was for, I was at that game. Of course you were. Hold it. Oh gosh. They scored. I knew it was over. It was. And my buddy and I left and we heard it from outside the stadium. Oh my gosh.

I was there and missed the Music City variable. I'm sorry. Yeah. I'm sorry. But it's not near as bad as losing four Super Bowls in four years. So you've got the football misery on me. I know.

I'm always hoping. I just want one before I die. But back to Frank Wright, though. I brought Frank down to the Atlantis and the Bahamas to speak to 300 of our best customers. We took our best customers on a really nice trip and he and I were having lunch and said, Frank, I really think God's calling me to ministry. This is back now like in 2001. I was living in Tupelo, Mississippi, working in Booneville, Mississippi. I said,

you know, I really feel God's calling me in ministry. He said, what were you talking about? He goes, you are in ministry. I said, no, no, no. I mean, I think he's calling me like to be a pastor. He said, Steve, the business world needs people who can teach and model how to handle conflict on how to do the right thing, even if it hurts the bottom line, how to treat people. He goes, you're exactly where God wants you to be. You don't have to be a minister. You have to be a pastor. You don't have to have a pulpit.

Lead those hundreds and then thousands of employees and lead them in a way that would model Jesus. And he spoke truth into me. He's still a very, very dear friend. Him and Linda, they're amazing. And yeah, we love them. We love them dearly. So you got that. We love them dearly.

So you got that. So you got that advice. And now you're looking at yourself that you've redeemed yourself from your addiction. You've won your family back. You work in the corporate world. You have this new found very strong faith and you've been given advice by someone you respect

and love as a friend to serve where you are. Sure, be comfortable. Great. Yeah. And then a hurricane hits. Yeah, 2005, August 29th. Wow, that changed. And if you're looking around for something to do, let me give you this handy hurricane.

Oh, no, it's crazy. So, you know, I'm living in Tupelo, which is about four and a half hours from the Gulf Coast, and the storms come and it's called Katrina. You've probably heard of it, right? Yeah, you might've heard of Katrina. The most costliest storm ever to hit America still, even above Harvey and Michael and Ian and Ida and all the rest. I can name a bunch of them, but you know, I was living in Tupelo.

My dad calls me, he's like 70 years old at the time and he's in Buffalo, New York and he's a doer. He's a worker. He said, Hey Steve, you know, I saw your steak got really hit by that, that hurricane. What are you thinking about doing? I said, I don't know. a doer, he's a worker, and he said, hey Steve, you know, I saw your stake got really hit by that hurricane, what are you thinking about doing? I said, I don't know, what are you thinking? He goes, well why don't you find a couple buddies, I'll get a couple buddies, and maybe six of us could go down there,

you know, find a town, it's your state, I don't live there, I live in New York, but you find a town, let's find a widow, an elderly couple, or a single mom, let's help one family with their house. And I'm like, dad. Just like fix a roof or something? Yeah, fix a roof, painting, whatever. I'm like dad. Just like fix a roof or something?

Yeah, fix a roof to painting, whatever. I said, dad, you have seven kids, including five daughters, and if you rank us from the handiest, from one to seven, I'm like number seven. I said, so, he goes, Steve, he goes, Steve, you could carry the shingles and you can carry the drywall.

And he goes, I know you can paint, and I can't paint a little bit. He goes, don't worry, we'll keep you busy. We'll be right back. This election season, the stakes are higher than ever. I think the choice is clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne the God, for We the People, in Audio Town Hall with Vice President Kamala Harris and you live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on I Heart Radio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues and the future

of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back. Don't miss this powerful conversation with Vice President Kamala Harris. Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat station. I'm Malcolm Gladwell. 25 years ago, I wrote my first book called The Tipping Point, all about the moments when an idea or trend crosses a certain threshold and spreads like wildfire. I've had a lot of time to think about that book, and the way I thought about Tipping Points changed.

So now, I'm releasing the sequel, Revenge of the Tipping Point, where I return to the subjects of social epidemics and the dark side of contagious phenomena. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my podcast, Revisionist History. Plus, we'll dive into a duo of narrative episodes about my favorite trial in American history and a reevaluation of the broken windows theory I explored in my first book. Find Revenge of the Tipping Point wherever you get your audiobooks and listen to Revisionist History on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 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. 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. Oh, awesome. 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. Hey, everyone. It's Katie Couric. Well, the election is in the home stretch, and I'm exhausted.

But turns out the end is near, right in time for a new season of my podcast, Next Question. This podcast is for people like me who need a little perspective and insight. I'm bringing in some FOKs, friends of Katie's, to help me out like Ezra Klein, Van Jones, Jen Psaki, Ested Herndon. But we're also going to have some fun, even though these days fun and politics seems like an oxymoron. But we'll do that thanks to some of my friends like Samantha Bee, Roy Wood Jr., and Charlamagne the God. We're going to take some viewer questions as well. I mean, isn't that what democracy is all about? Power to the podcast for the people. So whether you're obsessed with the news or just trying to figure out what's going on,

this season of Next Question is for you. Check out our new season of Next Question with me, Katie Couric, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. to get your podcasts. So that was the plan. The six of us were going to go down to Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Mississippi is the area that I was looking at. Sounds like maybe your mom is not the only one with a servant's heart. You know, she modeled that for me at this time.

My mom had passed. You know, she had passed suddenly in 2000, a year after I moved. Very sick diagnosis of cancer, 16 days later, gone. Yeah, I know, crazy. I'm still thankful. You know, I was with her and gosh, I don't even know how to get emotional.

I've been, you know, all these years, but she was the most compassionate, loving person I've ever met in my life. And you know, to this day, at 63, I can still vividly remember her you know taking all of us kids. I mean we had next to nothing and we would you know she would model for us. We would raise money and go Christmas caroling and collect canned goods at stores. I mean we had clothes that didn't fit the holes in them. It's just so we can feed like 50 families a nice meal for Christmas and some of my siblings I was saying you know this is nicer than what we're gonna

get but she just modeled that for us that's all we knew that's all we knew so I thought it was really interesting so I said okay I'll call a couple buddies you call a couple buddies and that was the plan very simple and then being a man of faith God just showed me Steve you'd like to plan you like to think you got your birds all the ducks ducks in a row, but brother, get ready, hold on, because I got another plan and guess whose plan is going to win? It's going to be his and not mine. So I shared it.

American Family Radio is based in Tupelo. They have like 200 radio stations around the country. I was coaching the boys of Don Wallman's, his grandsons in Church League basketball, which I know nothing about but you're cheek basketball You have a kid on the team, you know, we play the two three Syracuse zone. That's all I knew And we actually did pretty good. I think we lost one game in like five years, but you can hollow the post other That's right. Yeah, that's right. And I asked him I said hey, would you play one local spot here in Tupelo? Cuz maybe we can get 20 or 30 people to go. I

Said that'd be really cool And he said well watch you meet me Tuesday morning and let 30 people to go. I said that'd be really cool. He said, well, why don't you meet me Tuesday morning and let's talk about it. I thought, okay, well, I mean, I didn't know one spot would be really expensive. It's a big decision, but he's the president of AFR, they're a large organization. So I met him and I walked in the room and there's like 10 people in the room. I thought to myself, what did I do wrong? What's going on here? There's no intervention needed. I've been clean for what did I do wrong? You know, what's going on here? Because something, you know, there's no intervention needed. I've been clean for years.

I'm like, what the heck is going on here? And so long story- This intervention should have happened eight years ago, guys. Yeah, there you go. So long story short, he said, hey, we want to help you to be successful. And if we want to play an ad for you, I said, thank you. He goes, back then they had 145 markets.

He goes, we're going to play them in all 145 markets. I go, really? I go, well, a lot. He goes back then they had 145 markets. He goes, we're gonna play them in all 145 markets. I go, really? I go, well, a lot of people might come then. I said, right now we've raised like $1,200 between some friends and it looks like we got about 12 people going now. And he designed a website page back in 2005, it was just a splash page.

There was a form you downloaded from the page and you faxed in the form to tell us you were coming. And that trip that was meant to be my dad and I and like five of our friends is our smallest trip ever, but we took 684 people with us. Holy smokes. It was crazy. And only 400 registered.

From where? All over the country. Literally all over. All over. And we told everyone we provide food and lodging. So we had 400. Whoops. You went from needing to feed 10 to 650 or so. And we have like $1,200 in the bank.

Ha ha ha. Everybody's eating crackers. Well, a half a cracker. And anyway, so at the end of that meeting, Don Wallerman, the founder of American Family Radio, says, who's overseeing your finances? I said, well, my buddy's the vice president of the bank, Renaissance Bank. He's going to join us. He's actually coming down and he's wanting to give you a hundred. I'm thinking, wow, we're at 1,300. This is great. He says, I want a ledger of how the

money was spent. I'm like, okay, $100 bill, that's a lot, but we'll do it for him and no big deal. We have nothing to hide. And he says, uh, I think God's going to move in a pretty big way here, Steve, um, buckle in. I said, all right, so I go to the parking lot and I'm calling Wayne and I said, Hey Wayne, I'm a drop off a check. We got another a hundred bucks. We're at 1300. They're going to play the ad at 145 cities. It looks like we're gonna have to raise some money to know how we're going to do this. And I opened up the envelope and the envelope was a $100,000 check. Wow.

At that moment, I realized that God had a much bigger plan than what my dad and I thought we were going to go do. December of 2005, we took 684 people to Bay St. Louis and Wave and we partnered with multiple churches, different denominations. And 112 grand. Yeah. At that point when we partnered with multiple churches, different denominations. And 112 grand. Yeah. At that point we had about 200 grand, thank God. Unbelievable.

And we were going to do one trip and so we helped 84 families rebuild their homes in eight days. It was like extreme makeover, but my hair's not cool and there's no bus to move. You know? And no cameras. That's right. Hold it, hold it. 84?

Okay. In eight days. Kind of describe to me what rebuilt a home in eight days looks like. So like on Esplanade in Bay St. Louis, a lady at eight feet of water, so you got to remove everything inside her house. You have to gut it out. Her roof stayed intact. We gave her new windows, new flooring, new electrical, new plumbing, new cabinets. We painted it inside and electrical, new plumbing, new cabinets. We painted it inside and out and she was able to go into her house on day number nine. You're kidding.

Oh, it's crazy. That all for 84 houses, that's a lot more than $200,000 of materials. Oh my gosh. Oh yeah. Where'd that come from? Well, we got some donated. I was working in the building material industry. Yeah, so you called the right guys.

And it was great. Her getting a trainer, the whole world was watching in the building material industry. Yeah, so you called the right guys. It was great. Hercang, a trainer, the whole world was watching and the whole world wanted to help. When I called a roofing company, hey, can you send down a truckload of roofing? Sure. They sent a truckload of roofing. We bought drywall for 20 cents on the dollar. We got paint donated by Sherwin. All these people said, we want to help.

Oh, you guys are going. We weren't even a nonprofit. We were going to go one time for eight days, do our thing, feel good that we made a difference, you know, and again, um How do these 690 something people populate? Yeah to get the job done. Yeah, that's that in and of itself is Yeah, so we stayed in picay unit, a Baptist camp, and we drove 45 minutes. There was no power on the Gulf Coast for months. People don't realize

because these other storms, Harvey, there was no power for a couple of weeks, Hurricane Ida and Laplace, maybe 20 some days. New Orleans was up in five days, but they didn't have power in December. There was no power. So you had to leave the area to drive 45 miles back to your home base because they've got So you sound like that summer camp or something we did we did with cottages and yeah bunked up Well, it was set up for 400 people We had people sleeping in hallways and lobbies in their cars and no one was mad because they didn't sign up They just showed up and I said we're not mad, you know, I think God's up to something big here

We're gonna find a way to feed you. We're going to make sure you stay busy. But sleeping was a little bit interesting on that first trip. Yeah. 80 how many? 84 families we served. Okay. You have to be calling Charmaine. Charmaine was there. And my three kids. Oh, you're kidding. Yeah. So we're family friendly. I'll have a rebuild trips. Familiesous income. My kids now they're, they're 33 now to 20. They've been on dozens of, they've been hurricane Ida, hurricane Harvey, Michael tornadoes flooding.

They've been from Nashville to tennis from Texas to Buffalo, New York, or snow storms to Florida with hurricanes. I mean, they've been, we do this together. I guess what I'm saying is, which is cool, but that first time y'all have to be, if you're not calling or you have to be looking at each other going, what? Oh my gosh.

What is this? So we were leaving, the last person to leave, and I'm leaving and we had money leftover, we had like 12,000 dollars left over. So we went to the churches we were partnering with and said, we're done, we were here for eight days, that was the plan. We never even thought about coming back,

so we split all the money equally. We had donors that gave us truckloads of furniture, we distributed all the furniture, we gave the building materials to other organizations, we left with nothing, zero. And on the way home, I came to a red light, and I saw a little kid kids doll hanging on a fence and the

clothes on the dow were waving and you know my daughter Hannah was seven she was daddy look someone's doll and then I looked to the left and someone's boat was in a tree and I looked to the right and there was a home totally destroyed and there was a tent because the people decided they had nowhere to go and they were living her tent I, wait a minute, God's up to something big here. Who am I to say we should go here or there, right? But I think, I mean, it hit Donomy. He wasn't done. He wanted us to go back.

There was more to do. More people needed to see a glimpse of hope. They were distraught, they were hopeless. And that concludes part one of my conversation with the amazing Steve Tyber. And you do not want to miss part two that's now available to listen to. As to the story of eight days of hope is really just getting going. Together guys, we can change this country, but it starts

with you. I'll see clear in this election. Join me, Charlemagne the God, for We the People, an audio town hall with Vice President Kamala Harris, and you live from Detroit, Michigan, exclusively on iHeartRadio. They'll tackle the tough questions, depressing issues, and the future of our nation. We may not see eye to eye on every issue, but America, we are not going back. Don't miss this powerful conversation

with Vice President Kamala Harris. Today at 5 p.m. Eastern, 2 p.m. Pacific on the free iHeartRadio app's Hip Hop Beat station. We think of Franklin as the dodging 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, a 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. What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why was Los Angeles the bank robbery capital of the world? What exactly happened in the Marriott Hotel in downtown Boston in March of 2020?

I'm Malcolm Gladwell. In my new audiobook, Revenge of the Tipping Point, I'm looking at these questions and exploring the dark side of contagious phenomenon. You can hear a sneak peek of the audiobook on my podcast, Revisionist History. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to 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. And this season we're're taking a 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 Pinyu Colada from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for History on the iHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, 1974. George Foreman was champion of the world. Ali was smart and he was handsome. Story behind the Rumble in the Jungle is like a Hollywood movie. But that is only half the story. There's also James Brown, Bill Withers,

BB King, Miriam Makeba. All the biggest slack artists on the planet. Together in Africa. It was a big deal. Listen to Rumble, Ali, Foreman, and the Soul of 74 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.