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We're going to go out on a light note after so many heavy episodes...mostly because I didn't want to cry in front of my father-in-law Rob Hood!
He is a person I genuinely like and enjoy being around and not just because he's my wife's dad. We share a very similar sense of humor. He's a wonderful, self made, hard working provider too. I'm incredibly lucky to have him as a dad.
Thank you for listening to this little journey with me. I do feel like the luckiest person in the world that I have such a wonderful family and so many top notch friends.
So long and thanks for all the fish.

This is going to be the penultimate episode for awhile at least. I sit down with my wife to review what I learned over the first 24 episodes of talking to my friends about parenting.
I would like to return to this show every couple of years and check in with my guests to see where they're at and what's changed. So I hope you'll come back for that. Next week I'll be talking to my silly Father-in-Law Rob Hood and finally solve the mystery of why Allyson and her brother Kevin were able to watch Caddyshack, but not Beavis and Butthead as kids.
Thank you again to Rob Bentley for letting me use the song he wrote titled "He's Me" from our old band together Exploded Toad as the theme song for this podcast. Autism Awareness is very important to the Bentley family, so I want to take a second to play the charity Autism Speaks. Please donate if you are able.
https://www.autismspeaks.org/

I didn't know comedian and photographer very well before this interview, but she posted something on Facebook that I found really moving about how resourcefulness in her childhood contributed to the artist she is an adult. So I reached out to her to talk about that and the challenges of being a stepmom.
I haven't really been putting links to my guests in these show notes, but if you would like to see Kara's amazing photography, check out her website:
https://www.alcamophotography.com/

For as long as I've known him, my friend Jay has had a real strength of character where he will be completely honest with you no matter how much it may hurt your feelings. He's stoic. He's hard to crack too, which always made his approval at his job at the Ann Arbor Comedy Showcase the Holy Grail.
When we became Facebook friends, I got to see a completely different side of him. I got to see him as a dad with so much love for his daughter. Every weekend they'd go on movie adventures and Jay would post pictures of the two of them side by side, him looking poker faced, unless about to watch a Marvel movie, and her hidden beneath her hoodie.
I told Jay last year that one of the things I was most looking forward to with being a dad was getting to have the same tradition that he and his daughter have. He and Copilot aka Kasey aka Slamby aka Bubbles came over to talk about their relationship.
I hope you enjoy this conversation.

Eric Haenke told me a wonderful story about a year and a half ago that stuck with me as the ultimate goal I had to strive for as a dad. I wanted him and his wife to share that story on this episode, which they do, in addition to giving me so much more to contemplate and digest.
If there's one thing I'm really learning about successful parenting it's that often times it takes a team. The Haenkes are certainly no exception to that.
Oh yeah, and we also talk about That Thing You Do, so there's a little movie talk too!

My depression gets the best of me sometimes and I get horribly intrusive thoughts and I worry about losing Benji. My friend JD Marshall had those nightmares become his reality when he lost his daughter Stephanie to Cancer. Somehow JD found the strength to carry on and develop A Mission of Love which helps other families who have kids fighting Cancer. One of the fundraising arms of that is Comedy 4 Cancer, which is how I met him.
JD is a kind and selfless man. He's a strong and humble man. I am thankful I know people like him because it reaffirms there is strength and kindness in the world.
Obviously with a pandemic right now, there aren't Comedy 4 Cancer fundraisers currently, but the disease is not taking a hiatus unfortunately. If you would like to help other families facing this nightmare you can either by following JD on Facebook and seeing when he links directly to families seeking donations, or by donating to A Mission of Love. Links below:
https://amissionoflove.com/
https://www.facebook.com/amissionofluv