Life 2.0

It's been just about a week since I had a "life-threatening event" (the official term nowadays for a heart attack), and as you can imagine, this has been a serious time of reflection on what is and what isn't important in my life. If you have ever been in this position, I'm sure you understand the feeling of a "2nd chance" at sticking around for a while longer, and the fact that 51,000 humans die every day from some heart-related malady. Add to that an incredible outpouring of love and support, and once again-I've won the lottery of life. Special shout-out to Scott Miller, my longtime radio brother and mainstay at WJBC Radio in Bloomington, for his original composition "Hey, John!" that made me both laugh and cry in the span of just a 4 minute song.

Just 48 hours after he suffered a "life-threatening event," John is back on track and chatting with Garry about the ins and outs of the "heart attack experience." But it's not all about his ticker, as the guys find their way into "Shark Tank" infested waters, the unfortunate priest who was felled by a giant crucifix at the altar, and walk down Oprah memory lane as it pertains to why television and radio people are not the same creatures.

This episode of Saints & Sinners is brought to you by the great med pros that transported John in record time to the ER at Hines VA and the Cath-Lab at Loyola.

Digging into the vast Aurora Media Productions audio archives, the magic arrow led me to my conversation with the late, great Christopher Reeve for the Saturday Morning Rewind episode. This was a live show from back in 2002, the day before he and his now-late wife, Dana, were opening a national paralysis center that was created as a result of his equestrian incident in 1995, rendering him paralyzed from the neck down. The night before our conversation, I watched Chris on "Larry King Live" and wanted to make sure that he was a comfortable on my radio show with thousands of listeners as he was in front the camera to a nationwide audience of millions. Great wisdom from "Superman" all these years later. 

So, what happens when the police find a body on the railroad tracks? A million extra people flood the Chicago area expressways heading downtown (John is one of them), and then there's the unfortunate person who got launched from a rollercoaster, and the less-than-intelligent guy who became lunch for a tiger. How about the growing interest in having raccoons as pets? Did you know that a rat's favorite meal is dog droppings? It's another outing in semi-audio excellence, as Garry and John debate all that and much more.

29 years ago today, John Denver lost his life in a plane crash in Monterey Bay, California. He was just 53 years old. In the nearly three decades since his death, I have been able to put together a "connect-the-dots" map showing how crossing paths with John in the early 90s set me on a trajectory that continues today. This remembrance for John includes some of the many conversations about the man, his work, and his music over the years, with John's brother Ron Deutschendorf, Inge Kaminski, Dr. Cheryl Charles, Bill Kurtis, Richard Kaufman, Annie Denver, John Berry, as well as a few words from John himself, about the state of the human family. 

The average cost for a family of 4 to attend Da Bears game is over $2K (tickets/parking/food/beers), which is well over the NFL average of $1400 bucks per gridiron match. Too much? Not enough? Is there an end in sight to the bloated games that humans will pay for as entertainment? And hey, didya hear that Da Pope came out with a statement that fouling the Earth as us humans do is a sin? Garry and John dissect all of that and more, with the ever-popular "quote of the pod" coming this week from Da Duke, pilgrim! 

I can count on one hand the people who have influenced my life. Coach Frank Preo is on that list. He passed away last week at the age of 88, leaving a legacy of leadership, character, and a voice and presence that I have seen in very few people. I played for him in high school, and later coached football with him and the late Ray Smith in Coach Preo's final year as the head coach at Schurz High School- serious full-circle stuff. I went back and found an interview I did with Coach Preo at his home in 2018, and as always, his insights about the game, players, and coaching strategy on the football field, is also a game plan for life.

So, what do John Hinkley Jr's podcast, Burt Reynolds toupee, Broderick Crawford, Chuck Connors, Case Keenum, Casey Kasem, Rudy Ruettiger, Da Bears, the NCAA, the NFL, Bill Kurtis, and George Washington Carver have in common? They are all part and parcel of another outing in audio excellence with Garry and John as they attempt to find common sense during very uncommon times.

Thirty years ago, this past week, I walked from the little town of Rapid River, Michigan, to Chicago (where we had just moved from) with Duane Kinnart and Joe Johnson. I barely knew Duane and had never met Joe. But they were part of a much bigger puzzle that started months earlier, when a business deal with a couple of pro wrestling friends of mine fell through because of some incredible circumstances, all of which were designed to guide me in a new direction. As it's been said, chaos always precedes change, and the fall of 1996 was filled with both. However, if I hadn't walked the return trip north alone from Chicago, none of what I have accomplished with regard to being behind a microphone for all these years would exist. Truly an incredible journey, one that has been and continues to be, an ongoing lesson of what it means to walk by faith, and not by sight. A little musical back up from my brother, Mark Cleveland on this one.

After a two-week hiatus, Garry and John are back at it, this time dissecting John's recent foray to Egypt, his ongoing challenge with "Travelers' Gut" that was only made bearable by Dude Wipes (and a $5 tip to a guy at a public toilet). After descending 450 below the desert in searing heat to take a picture of King Tut (cue Steve Martin) and cruising up and down the Nile River, as well as being a witness to man-made pyramids of plastic bottles, the G-Man has only one question...Was it worth it?" The recent shark attack in Australia prompts Bill Kurtis with an Earth Matters segment regarding the human slaughter of sharks (100 million per year) compared to the number of people sharks grab (8-10) and how you are more likely to be killed by Bambi, than JAWS.