Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In this episode of Simple Joe, I’m digging into one of the strangest stories I’ve seen in a while: the weird trash Yellowstone geologists retrieve from geysers, hot springs, and other hydrothermal areas. We’re talking about more than 20,000 pieces of trash this year, including hundreds of hats, AirPods, retainers, fake fingernails, toys, Pokémon cards, an Uno card, hotel key cards, and even a tiny copy of The Vampire Diaries. Some of it gets blown or dropped in accidentally, but coins, rocks, and other objects can actually interfere with these delicate thermal features, and Morning Glory Pool is a great example of how debris can change what happens below the surface. The whole thing got me thinking about that awful feeling when you drop something somewhere you can see it but absolutely cannot reach it, including a friend who lost a phone from a roller coaster and a recent stop at a pier restaurant where the spaces between the boards are apparently just wide enough to swallow a credit card. Along the way, I also talk about Paul Hogan, R. L. Stine, Sigourney Weaver, Matt Damon, Bruno Mars, the Great Chicago Fire, the first enclosed shopping mall, National Pierogi Day, World Octopus Day, and a pair of cowboy boots I’ve owned for about 35 years and even wore when I got married. I also spend a little time on World Dyslexia Day and how sometimes simply understanding why something has always been difficult can give us a little peace and help us figure out how to work around it. If you’ve ever dropped or lost something in a place where you knew it was gone for good, I’d love to hear the story. Email me at joe@thesimplejoe.com or send me a text at 513.399.6468. Just say hi, I would love to hear from you. You can get Simple Joe T-Shirts and other cool stuff at thesimplejoe.com/store Check out what I'm reading at thesimplejoe.com/reading If you share the show on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, please use #simplejoeismyfriend; you might get a free t-shirt!
Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In this Wildcard Wednesday episode of Simple Joe, I’m asking you to prove me wrong: is it okay to work a little bit while you’re on vacation? I just got back from vacation, and while I recorded Simple Joe every day, I don’t really think of the podcast as work because it’s something I genuinely enjoy and a creative outlet for me. The harder question is what happens when I open the laptop for “just 45 minutes,” check email, answer a few questions, and convince myself that staying connected actually helps me relax. We look at research on psychological detachment from work, the importance of real recovery time, and the uncomfortable possibility that sometimes I’m checking in because I want people to notice that I’m still engaged. That gets even more complicated because I’m a leader who tells my own team to disconnect completely when they’re on vacation. I talk through boundaries, why we work when we’re supposedly off, whether helping a coworker is really so different from helping a friend, and whether a little intentional work can coexist with a real vacation. I’m still not sure there’s a perfect answer, but I do know this: if I believe the people who work for me deserve a real vacation, maybe I need to give myself permission to take one too. Email me at joe@thesimplejoe.com or send me a text at 513.399.6468. Just say hi, I would love to hear from you. You can get Simple Joe T-Shirts and other cool stuff at thesimplejoe.com/store Check out what I'm reading at thesimplejoe.com/reading If you share the show on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, please use #simplejoeismyfriend; you might get a free t-shirt!
Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. In today’s Simple Joe, I start with the wild story of Daniel Boone’s 14-year-old daughter Jemima being kidnapped in 1776 and leaving clues through the wilderness that helped her father find and rescue her. From there, we check in on Melbourne, Australia, celebrate birthdays including wrestling legend Bruno Sammartino, Super Soaker inventor Lonnie Johnson, Tony Dungy, Elisabeth Shue, and Trevor Lawrence, and look back at the first widely recognized robbery of a moving train, the founding of the American Library Association, and the launch of Instagram. We also celebrate National Taco Day, National Noodle Day, World Cerebral Palsy Day, and National Badger Day before getting into Tuesday’s Random Questions. Along the way, I talk about why I wish I had started saving money much younger, what I learned from buying a bar and grill in my twenties, the infamous Christmas gravy burn my kids and I still laugh about, a couple of strange body-measurement facts that have been stuck in my head for years, and why I think what often looks like confidence is really bravery. I also come back to one of the biggest financial lessons I’ve learned: be careful who you trust with your money, do your due diligence, and remember that sometimes the most expensive lessons are the ones that stick with you the longest. Tuesday’s Random Questions What is the best advice you ignored? What is your funniest cooking failure? What completely random fact has stayed in your brain for years? What is something people often misunderstand about confidence? What is the best financial lesson you learned the hard way? Email me at joe@thesimplejoe.com or send me a text at 513.399.6468. Just say hi, I would love to hear from you. You can get Simple Joe T-Shirts and other cool stuff at thesimplejoe.com/store Check out what I'm reading at thesimplejoe.com/reading If you share the show on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, please use #simplejoeismyfriend; you might get a free t-shirt!
Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. I’m back home in Cincinnati after vacation, running on a little post-vacation exhaustion but happy to be behind the microphone again. Today we check the weather in West Milford, New Jersey, celebrate a huge list of October 5 birthdays including Ray Kroc, Steve Miller, Brian Johnson, Bernie Mac, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mario Lemieux, Kate Winslet, Jesse Eisenberg, and Travis Kelce, and look back at the Beatles releasing “Love Me Do,” the debut of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and the beginning of PBS. We also recognize Rhode Island Day, National Child Health Day, World Meningitis Day, World Teachers’ Day, and World Space Week. That last one hits especially close to home after I got to witness two SpaceX launches during vacation, including an incredible nighttime launch visible from Daytona Beach. Then it’s Monday’s Interesting Headlines, with weird discoveries in Yellowstone geysers, a towering charitable stack of canned goods, skydivers coming to the aid of plane-crash victims, Venus flytrap-inspired robotics, and SpaceX launching three rockets in a single day. Pick the story you want me to explore for Thursday and let me know by text or email. Monday Interesting Headlines “The weird trash that Yellowstone geologists retrieve from geysers” “Tower of canned goods sets unofficial record to mark Hunger Action Day” “These skydivers parachuted 3,000 feet to help people in a plane crash” “Venus flytrap-inspired robot hand material senses objects and grasps them under light” “SpaceX flies three rockets in one day, including a record trip to the station” Email me at joe@thesimplejoe.com or send me a text at 513.399.6468. Just say hi, I would love to hear from you. You can get Simple Joe T-Shirts and other cool stuff at thesimplejoe.com/store Check out what I'm reading at thesimplejoe.com/reading If you share the show on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, please use #simplejoeismyfriend; you might get a free t-shirt!
Welcome to Simple Joe. I’m glad you’re here. I’m a little over a month into the return of Simple Joe, and today’s episode is really about one thing: gratitude. I talk about why I brought the podcast back after a seven-month break, including needing the creative outlet, wanting to stay active in podcasting and coaching, and wondering whether anybody would still be there when I turned the microphone back on. The answer has been incredibly encouraging. Longtime listeners have returned, new listeners are showing up in cities around the United States and around the world, and many of you continue to text, email, argue with my Top 10 lists, suggest ideas, and remind me that there are real people behind those podcast analytics. I also talk about what I mean when I call you my friend, why disagreement doesn’t have to get weird, and what I hope Simple Joe can continue to be: something interesting, funny, encouraging, thoughtful, occasionally completely weird, and sometimes just a little company during your day. Most of all, this episode is my thank-you to the people who came back, the people who just found the show, the people who regularly reach out, and the quiet listeners who may never contact me but keep pressing play. I know you’re there, I appreciate you, and I hope we keep doing this together for a long time. Email me at joe@thesimplejoe.com or send me a text at 513.399.6468. Just say hi, I would love to hear from you. You can get Simple Joe T-Shirts and other cool stuff at thesimplejoe.com/store Check out what I'm reading at thesimplejoe.com/reading If you share the show on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, please use #simplejoeismyfriend; you might get a free t-shirt!