Stuff I Learned Yesterday
About Stuff I Learned Yesterday
Stuff I Learned Yesterday is a podcast that aims to encourage, inspire, challenge, motivate, and improve the lives of those who listen to it. Stuff I Learned Yesterday is released each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Each episode ranges from 5-15 minutes long and contain short stories based on real events and lessons learned by the hosts. Friday episodes are called the Friday Forum and are filled with inspirational and motivational thoughts submitted by Stuff I Learned Yesterday listeners. Submit your story for a Friday Forum episode by calling 304-837-2278, visiting our feedback page, or click on the Send a Voice Message button on the left hand side of this page.
155- Friday Forum
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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, my favorite soda is cherry coke, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I’m pleased to bring you another installment of the Friday Forum.
Friday Forum
Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Justina and Mike. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More…
154- Battle for the Pink Bowl
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Meal times at my house are becoming predictable. Not because we eat the same meals every day, but because just as dinner is being served, at any given meal we know we will probably hear the words “I want the pink bowl”. We bought a stack of brightly colored bowls and plates for the kids at IKEA some time ago. When we moved into the new home, I triumphantly unpacked the bowls and plates expecting my children to be excited about their new fun dinnerware. That lasted for a little while, as Renna was still developing her likes and dislikes. Marin has always favored pink, and I am used to her constant hunt for pink things and insistence that pink be somewhere on every outfit that she wears or at least on a bow in her hair, as if she will suddenly forget what pink looks like if she goes a day without it. Read More…
153- The Obstacle Is the Way
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I’m reading a book called The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. Author Ryan Holiday. It’s a great read and I highly recommend it. As you can gather from the title, it’s a book about facing down and dealing with obstacles in life. Let me bring us into the books concept by telling two stories, the first being historical and the second personal. Listen to this episode…
152- Share What You Know
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John F. Kennedy once said, “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” The name of this podcast is Stuff I Learned Yesterday and I begin each episode with the phrase, “I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living.” Learning is incredibly important.
Learning comes from a myriad of sources. It comes through formal classroom instruction. It comes from laboratory environments. It comes through mentoring or tutoring. It comes from experience. It comes from making mistakes. It comes from observation. It comes by asking questions. Read More…
151- Getting a Second Pair of Eyes
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I don’t know if you heard or not, but my family and I just returned from a trip to Hawaii. Don’t worry, I won’t be talking about our time there again today. Instead, I want to tell you about something that happened as we were preparing to make the trip.
Before we get to that part of this story, let me give you a little backstory. I was born at a very young age. When I was 11 years old my 6th grade teacher noticed that I was having trouble seeing the chalkboard and told my parents that I should have my eyes checked.
The eye exam revealed that I not only needed glasses, but I needed them badly. I don’t know what my vision score is, but based on the thickness of my lenses, it’s bad. Without my glasses the whole world is a massive blur. One time when I was in 9th grade a kid pushed me down and my glasses came off my face. I was literally crawling around on my hands and knees fumbling around for them like you’ve seen on TV shows. Finally someone else came along and they were kind enough to find my glasses and give them to me. Read More…
150- Friday Forum
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Today is the Friday Forum!! In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share contributions from Bryan. You can participate in Friday Forum by visiting our Feedback Page or calling our voice feedback line at 304-837-2278. Read More…
149- Purpose
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On the playground at soccer practice the other evening, my daughter met a new friend. She was one of Jonas’ teammates younger sisters, and because I was on playground duty – I was able to overhear their entire conversation. They were not fast friends. In fact, though they played together well, and from a distance seemed to really enjoy each other’s company, their conversation was pretty heated. It started in a very typical, “My dad is stronger than your dad” sort of way. The little girl coolly proclaimed while swinging back and forth from the monkey bars “I am the best at everything!” To which Marin replied, “No, My Bubby is. He’s really good at everything.” I didn’t intervene, because I was enjoying for a moment how highly Marin was speaking of her brother.
Then, the littler girl again repeated her proclamation, that she was the best at everything, to which Marin replied, “ Actually, did you know that everyone is special and good at something? We are all created for different things with different purposes.” The little girl said, “Yeah! I knew that!” and by the end of the night, they were calling each other best friends. Their resiliency and ability to get over their own egos so quickly to become fast friends was impressive and admirable.
Read More…
148- Father and Daugther
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Years before I met my wife and we had our baby I heard a song about being a parent that stuck with me. The song is by Paul Simon and its called father and daughter. I really liked the song right away and I was still years away from being a father myself.
The chorus goes like this… Read more and listen to this episode…
147- Inspired By Remembrance
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I have a confession to make. I’m making this episode up as I write. Yes, I normally write out each of these episodes and record my reading of them. Before I put fingers to my keyboard, I typically have a mental outline of where I want to take the story. Not today. I thought I did. But then that outline was abandoned.
I had what I thought was a pretty good angle on the attack on Pearl Harbor, the ensuing US involvement in WWII, the bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the rebuilding of Japan after the war. However, I decided that there were a lot of things about those events that I don’t know so it would be good for me to do some research first. That research led to more research, which led to more research, which led to even more research. For nearly three hours now I’ve been reading articles looking at photographs, and watching videos. Here’s what I learned: There are a lot of complex, controversial, and debated issues within these topics. Read More…
146 -Don’t Honk if You Love Hawaii
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We are a busy people. Life fills up with stuff and overflows with the rush of going from place to place, responsibility to responsibility. It’s difficult to find a time of peace and quiet. When I was a kid I would watch reruns of the Andy Griffith Show. I don’t know if life ever was truly that simple, but I’d like to think it was.
Before we headed out for our Hawaiian vacation, I spent some time researching various things about Hawaii in general and Oahu, the island we would be on. I came across an article from the Huffington Post called “11 Things That Are Weirdly Missing In Hawaii…And What They Can Teach You.” Here’s a brief rundown of the 11 things. Read More…