More than One Way to Live a Principled Life

Dee Dee Vicino
  • 3.0 (2)
  • Kids & Family

This podcast is about conversations — long ones. With mothers. Fathers. Economists. Therapists. Religious leaders. Skeptics. People from the left and the right. People who agree with me. People who don’t. Not to prove a point. But to explore what it actually means to live a principled life in a messy world. If you’re here for outrage, this probably won’t be your show. But if you’re here for honest conversation — and maybe to reconsider a few assumptions along the way — I’m really glad you’re here.

  1. Jul 4

    250 Years and I'm Just Getting Started

    Two hundred and fifty years ago, a group of imperfect people signed a document that changed everything. They didn't agree on everything. They signed it anyway. Today I have some news that fits the moment.

    250 Years and I'm Just Getting Started

  2. Jul 1

    The Fertility Crisis Is Already Here | Lyman Stone on Fertility, Forecasting, and the Future America Isn't Ready For

    Lyman Stone is a demographer and senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies. He is also the founder of Demographic Intelligence, which produces fertility and population forecasting models for organizations that need to plan beyondwhat government reports are willing to model.   His headline finding: the Social Security trustees are not modeling the worst-case. Their baseline assumes the US returns to near-replacement fertility in the 2040s. Their worst-case holds flat at 1.6 children per woman. Lyman believesfertility could go lower. He has tried to notify them. They haven't changed the model.   In this conversation Lyman and Dee Dee talk about the low fertility trap — what it looks like when a society loses its muscle memory for having children, and how hard it is to climb back out. About what the iPhone did to socialization, and why marriage and fertility are just two items on a long list of social activities that are declining. About the girl boss myth — why women's labor force participation is not the primary driver of low fertility. About what actually shapes whether a young person wants children: not policy, not economics, but the rating they give their friends.   They also talk about the crowbar model of pronatal policy, why he wants to pay Taylor Swift a billion dollars to make a lullaby album, and what four moms in his basement sounded like while they were recording. Lyman Stone on X @lymanstoneky Lyman Stone on Substack lymanstonky.substack.com Institute for Family Studies ifstudies.org Demographic Intelligence https://www.demographicintel.com/ IFS Survey: Supportive Friends and Fertility Intentions ifstudies.org IFS Report: What Makes Parents Feel Supported? https://ifstudies.org/blog/what-makes-parents-feel-supported-money-not-babysitting IFS Report: Open Floor Plans and Family-Friendly Housing https://www.city-journal.org/article/family-homes-real-estate-bedrooms-apartments Lyman's appearance on Christopher Rufo's podcast https://christopherrufo.com/p/whats-fueling-americas-fertility   Topics:Demography  |  US Fertility Crisis  |  Social SecurityProjections  |  Pronatal Policy  |  Low FertilityTrap  |  Institute for Family Studies  |  Marriage andFamily  |  Religious Community  |  Housing Design |  Gen X Women  |  Principled Living   More Than One Way to Live a Principled Life  |  Fort Collins, CO

    The Fertility Crisis Is Already Here | Lyman Stone on Fertility, Forecasting, and the Future America Isn't Ready For

  3. Jul 1

    The Fertility Crisis Is Already Here | Lyman Stone on Fertility, Forecasting, and the Future America Isn't Ready For

    What does a demographer do when the government's official forecast is built on wishful thinking? Lyman Stone is a senior fellow at the Institute for Family Studies and the founder of Demographic Intelligence. He studies why people have babies, why they stop, and what happens to a civilization that stops having them. He has made good-faith efforts to notify the Social Security trustees that their baseline fertility assumption has no credible basis. They have not changed the model. Dee Dee came in expecting a policy conversation. She got something more personal. They talk about the low fertility trap: once a society spends thirty years at 1.4 or 1.5 children per woman, the minivan market collapses, the family pass at the zoo gets relabeled, and the infrastructure of family life quietly disappears. About what the iPhone did to social life — how everything humans do together is declining, and marriage and fertility are just two items on that list. About why mommy dates have fallen by sixty or seventy percent since the early 2000s, and what that isolation is costing mothers and their families. They also talk about the crowbar model: pronatal policy that gives leverage to the people who already want to help, rather than coercing anyone into anything. About why your friends' opinion of your having another baby is one of the biggest predictors of whether you will. And about whether there is still time to turn this around. Lyman thinks there is. He is not performing optimism. He has three daughters and an eight-month-old son. He works from home. His wife homeschools. There were four moms in his basement while they recorded. He is living the argument. "If we want a new era of robust family formation, we can have it. We just have to decide." — Lyman Stone More Than One Way to Live a Principled Life | Fort Collins, CO

    The Fertility Crisis Is Already Here | Lyman Stone on Fertility, Forecasting, and the Future America Isn't Ready For

  4. Jun 24

    AI Has Principles. Do You? | Anthony Franco on Frameworks, Failure, and Building AI That Works

    Anthony Franco has started eight companies and sold six of them. One sale — a user experience agency calledEffective — went to WPP, the largest advertising conglomerate in the world. He also helped develop Airstrip, one of the first iPhone apps, which Steve Jobs introduced at an Apple developer keynote.  He is now the founder of First Strategies AI and the author of The Wiser Method Master Playbook — a design thinking framework for organizations that want to move AI from pilot project to actual operation. He focuses on companies with 50 to 500 employees. He says enterprise is where good ideas go to die slowly. In this conversation Anthony and Dee Dee talk about the twelve principles of AI that every organization needs before it touches a model. About what it actually means to use AI as a thoughtpartner. About why AI gives you a C+ on the first pass and what you have to do to get to an A. About why English majors are currently outperforming engineers at prompting, and what that says about the moment we are in.   He also talks about the time he used ChatGPT to resolve an argument with his wife — and realized, an hour in, that he was wrong.   Topics: AI Frameworks  |  The Wiser Method  |  12 Principles of Operational AI  | Entrepreneurship  |  CoBuilder |  UX Design  |  AI Adoption  | Principled Leadership | AI operationalization principles | The Wiser Method framework | AI in political campaigns and organizations AI in customerservice and ethics | Resource consumption and environmental impact of AI | Principles for responsible AI use | AI in political campaigns and marketing | Practical steps for AI adoption in business Resources The Wiser Method Book -https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXYZ1234AI First Principles GitHub Repository -https://github.com/AI-First-PrinciplesAnthony Franco's LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfrancoFirst Strategies AI Website -https://firststrategiesai.comWiser: The Wiser Method Master Playbook -https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0XXXXXXFirstStrategy.ai - https://firststrategy.aiCursor Tool for Knowledge Management -https://cursor.com   Guest links LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco

    AI Has Principles. Do You? | Anthony Franco on Frameworks, Failure, and Building AI That Works

  5. Jun 23

    AI Has Principles. Do You? | Anthony Franco on Frameworks, Failure, and Building AI That Works

    What does it actually look like to build AI into a real organization? Anthony Franco has built and sold eight companies. One of them — Effective, the world's first user experience agency — sold to WPP, a 150,000-person global conglomerate. He helped develop Airstrip, one of the first iPhone apps, introduced by Steve Jobs at an Apple keynote. He now runs First Strategies AI, serving businesses with 50 to 500 employees who want to move AI from experiment to operation. Dee Dee went in expecting a conversation about tools. She got a conversation about principles. They talk about the twelve principles Anthony believes every organization needs before it touches AI. About people owning objectives — meaning a human being is always accountable for what AI produces. About deception destroying trust — meaning if your customers don't know they're talking to AI, that is a problem. About discovery before disruption — meaning Chesterton's fence exists for a reason. They also talk about AI failing silently. About why AI gives you a C+ on the first pass. About what 'we are thought partners looking for the truth' does to a conversation that 'give me an answer' cannot. And about the time Anthony used ChatGPT to figure out he was wrong in a fight with his wife. "AI isn't coming for jobs. It's coming for the bureaucracy that makes work miserable." — Anthony Franco More Than One Way to Live a Principled Life | Fort Collins, CO Resources • The Wiser Method Book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXYZ1234 • AI First Principles GitHub Repository - https://github.com/AI-First-Principles • Anthony Franco's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco • First Strategies AI Website - https://firststrategiesai.com • Wiser: The Wiser Method Master Playbook - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0XXXXXX • FirstStrategy.ai - https://firststrategy.ai • Cursor Tool for Knowledge Management - https://cursor.com Guest links LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/anthonyfranco Titles Mastering AI: The Wiser Method for Organizational Success AI Principles Unveiled: How to Deploy AI Responsibly

    AI Has Principles. Do You? | Anthony Franco on Frameworks, Failure, and Building AI That Works

  6. Jun 17

    Why Your Marriage Has to Die First | Virgil Walker on Faithful Husbands, Fatherlessness, and the Quiet Cost of Leading Well

    Virgil Walker spent a decade inpharmaceutical sales on track to become a vice president. He noticed that mostof the men ahead of him had been through at least one divorce. Something got sacrificed along the way. It was not always an affair. More often, it was the job. He made a different choice. Virgil is now a pastor and theologian at Redeemer Bible Church in Phoenix, co-host of Fearless with JasonWhitlock on Blaze Media, and host of the Just Thinking podcast. He has been married to Tamika for thirty years. He will tell you it nearly did not happen that way. In this conversation Virgil and Dee Dee talk about what it costs to lead a family well, why fatherlessness isthe crisis no one is being honest about, what the word submission actually meant before the culture got hold of it, and what happens when a woman finally reaches the end of her rope. Virgil also talks about the man in Augusta who waited in line at a men's conference until the room was empty,just to ask: I am doing everything right and nothing is working. What do I do now? And he answers. Topics: Marriage and Covenant  |  Faithful Leadership  | Fatherlessness and the Church  |  Submission in Ephesians 5  |  Holy Ambition  |  Generational Legacy  | Pharma to Pastoring More Than One Way to Live aPrincipled Life  |  Fort Collins, CO

    Why Your Marriage Has to Die First | Virgil Walker on Faithful Husbands, Fatherlessness, and the Quiet Cost of Leading Well

  7. Jun 16

    More Than One Way to Save a Life. Cree Knighton on Foster Care, Sacrifice, Recovery, and the Love That Waited Thirty Years

    What does it take to break a cycle you were born into? Cree Knighton was the first child Dee Dee Vicino ever represented as a guardian ad litem, thirty-three years ago in the Florida foster system. After three decades apart, Cree found her again, and this conversation became the most personal episode of the show. Cree speaks openly about foster care, the choice she made at seventeen to give her baby son a safe home, the addiction she inherited and is now in recovery from, the mother she forgave and went back to care for, and the childhood sweetheart who waved at her over Facebook at the lowest moment of her life and never left. “I might not be where I want to be. But I am right where I am supposed to be.” Cree Knighton A note for listeners: this episode discusses addiction and a moment of suicidal crisis. If you need support, call or text 988 in the US. More Than One Way to Live a Principled Life | Fort Collins, CO

    More Than One Way to Save a Life. Cree Knighton on Foster Care, Sacrifice, Recovery, and the Love That Waited Thirty Years

  8. Jun 10

    Broken but Brave: More Than One Way to Save a Life. Cree Knighton on Foster Care, Sacrifice, Recovery, and the Love That Waited Thirty Years

    Thirty-three years ago, Dee Dee Vicino was assigned as a guardian ad litem to a thirteen-year-old girl in the Florida foster system. Necrecha Knighton, known to everyone who loves her as Cree, was the first child Dee Dee ever represented. They lost touch for three decades. In 2022, Cree found her again. This is the most personal episode of More Than One Way to date, and Dee Dee is part of the story. Cree talks about growing up in foster care, the wrenching choice she made at seventeen to give her infant son a safe home, the generational addiction she has fought and is now in recovery from, forgiving her mother, raising six children, and reuniting with Tim, the boy she fell for at thirteen, after thirty years apart. A note for listeners: this conversation includes honest discussion of addiction, recovery, and a moment of suicidal crisis. If you are struggling, you can call or text 988 in the US to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

    Broken but Brave: More Than One Way to Save a Life. Cree Knighton on Foster Care, Sacrifice, Recovery, and the Love That Waited Thirty Years
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About

This podcast is about conversations — long ones. With mothers. Fathers. Economists. Therapists. Religious leaders. Skeptics. People from the left and the right. People who agree with me. People who don’t. Not to prove a point. But to explore what it actually means to live a principled life in a messy world. If you’re here for outrage, this probably won’t be your show. But if you’re here for honest conversation — and maybe to reconsider a few assumptions along the way — I’m really glad you’re here.

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