When I was in high school I would occasionally go camping with my friends Van and Jason. It was always a lot of fun just hanging out with my friends and goofing off. We'd find a good spot on one of the hundreds of acres owned by Van's parents, and make camp for the night. We'd build a campfire, stretch out our sleeping bags, and eventually we'd go to sleep right there under the stars. No RV. Not even a tent. Read More...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Angela, Therissa, Andrew, Jess, and No One Special. Read More...

My last story here on Stuff I Learned Yesterday occurred nearly 13 years ago. I’ve told this story a couple times over the last couple weeks, drawing out different applications each time I tell it. In hindsight, some experiences become more meaningful the older I get. At the time they’re awkward and hard, but time eases the pain of their acute sting and I draw more insight about who I was then because of who I am now. I want to set the stage for you a little bit before I tell you the...

Today I talk about the next steps. You see sometimes taking sabbaticals or even vacations are not enough. Sometimes we have give things up or step back. But there are right ways and wrong ways to transition. I know things happen for a reason. A lot of these transitions started earlier in the year. So when I sat down in August to write a SILY episode, transitioning well was fresh on my mind. I had no clue that the very podcast I was writing for would be transitioning away. But I’m thankful...

Here we are. We've arrived at what will be the final week, the final 5 episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Before I say goodbye on Friday, I want to spend some time today and reflect back on the stories that comprise this podcast. In taking a look at the stories of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, it's clear that the stories are nothing without the people who willingly shared them. So I want to take a moment and thank every single person who shared a piece of their story with the Stuff I...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a contribution from Jason. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

When I was five years old, I asked Santa for a car. It’s all I wanted. A convertible to be exact. Under my Christmas tree Christmas morning was a cream-colored Rolls Royce convertible with tan interior. It was the coolest Power Wheels I’d ever seen. Santa came through! That was the last Christmas gift I ever got from Santa. After that, all my Christmas gifts came from my family, and I knew about nearly every one of them in advance because I went to the store to pick them out. I don’t actually...

For me, SILY has given me the opportunity to look at life differently. Especially now that I’m a co-host I look and analyze the experiences of my life for teachable moments. I don’t think I did that very well before. It has been great sharing SILY with my family and friends and I know for certain that there are new folks in the facebook group that are there because I introduced the podcast to them. So, I want to say thank you to Darrell for giving me the opportunity to share in this...

“We don’t need to pay those invoices. We bought that inventory as a favor to your Chief Financial Officer to help him make his year end numbers, and we’re going to send it back.” What did he just say? I had been employed by my publically traded company for 8 months, and was already troubled by some of the business and financial practices I had seen. I was visiting one of our out-of-state customers and we were reviewing over $1 million dollars of old invoices that they had not paid. I...

The year was 1986. All I wanted for Christmas was a Hot Wheels toy called Dynamite Crossing. I told every member of my family that Dynamite Crossing was what I wanted and I probably told them each 10 times or more. It looked like one of the coolest toys I'd ever seen and I couldn't imagine life being any better than if I had one to play with. When our family gathered for Christmas that year, my uncle Johnny showed up with a large, flat box wrapped in white paper. Fortunately for me, I...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share a contribution from Joshua. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

Another student was picking on a smaller classmate in the back of the bus. I was only seven years old at the time, but someone told me what was occurring and then asked me to do something about it. So I got up and proclaimed in my strongest, and very childish voice that I would stop it. I did, but it must have been a “set-up” because the “friend” who was sitting next to me on the bus opened my metal lunchbox and threw my Christmas drawings out the window. I got off the bus crying, and my mom,...

What is your word? What is your calling? What do you strive for? A word cannot fully define us but it can help us capture our calling. Read more…

You may recall that I first started singing by mistake shortly after I graduated high school. I was hanging out with the youth pastor of my church one afternoon, sitting in the back seat of his car singing along quietly to the song on the stereo. I was looking out the window just minding my own business and in my own little world...or so I thought. It turned out that I was singing loud enough to be heard and by the end of the day I was the newest member of his vocal band. You can learn...

I tried to tell this story two years ago, but I couldn’t do it without crying. Now, I feel more confident in my abilities, but to be on the safe side, I have my Kleenex right here. But let me go back a little further into the history of this story. My story begins on October 25, 1977 when Ruth Anna Bonge was born to loving parents in Norman...wait, that was probably too far back. Let’s get to the good stuff. In January of 2003 I met Ruth at a Tae Kwon Do class taught by master instructor Ed...

Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Susan, Faith, Lillie, and Dani. You can participate in the Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More...

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Barb Rankin, and while I thoroughly enjoy gardening and yard work, I really don’t like the chore of cleaning the inside of my home, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I talk about being kind to yourself, and not expecting yourself to be perfect.  Read more...

December 5, 1973. Mom and Dad took their two-year-old son, me, to the hospital. Apparently I had become really, really ill after a few weeks of never finding enough water to drink, always going to the bathroom, and had gotten sick to my stomach and could not stop to the point of dehydration.Read More...

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Emilee O’Leary, I have a collection of Alice in Wonderland t-shirts, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday, I am going to share a little bit on what I’ve learned this summer concerning re-learning lessons I thought I learned a long time ago. Read more...

Believe it or not, I'm not a big TV watcher. It's true. But few things on TV have excited me as much as the first teaser trailer for Fringe. I thought it was exciting, mysterious, and jaw dropping (no pun intended). At work the next day I remember talking with some of my co-workers about how cool it was. So when one of those co-workers suggested that we do a podcast about the show, I loved the idea! That co-worker was named Jason and he soon had our other co-worker, Courtney, on...

Today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a Friday Flashback. Friday Flashback episodes feature some of the most popular episodes of Stuff I Learned Yesterday. Today we go back to an episode that originally aired on March 28, 2014. It just so happens that it's from Mark Des Cotes. Little did any of us know just how big a role Mark would play in the life of this podcast.Read More...

I got up in the middle of the night-at least what it felt like-and had myself at the store by 5:30 am. We all took our battle stations at our registers and the doors opened. The people had come, and they were savage.Read More...

Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday! My name is Emilee O’Leary, this week I reached the big 3-0 milestone, and I believe if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I am sharing a story about how my dad adapted the game of baseball so that we could play one-on-one in the backyard and taught me something, in the process, about how adaptation can make things more accessible. Read more...

Images go into your long-term memory where as words live in your short-term memory. Words are processed by our short-term memory where we can retain about 7 bits of information at a time. This is why we have 7 digit phone numbers. Read More...

On the floor in front of us was a folding game board. Printed on the board was the layout of a mansion. Each room of the mansion was labeled with names like, Study, Kitchen, Conservatory, Billiard Room, and Lounge. Scattered around the mansion were various items with which one could commit murder. In fact, someone had been murdered. I, along with my wife Kari and our two kids, Addison and Colby, were each challenged with being the first to piece together the clues and determine where the...