More than One Way to Live a Principled Life

Be Prepared, Not Scared. Laura Bartlett on Patient Advocacy, the Wine Condom, and Knowing Your No

⚠  This episode contains medical advocacy content with strong opinions about hospital protocols during COVID. Laura Bartlett spent close to fifteen years producing comedy in Dallas. She founded Four Funny Females, brought a product called the Wine Condom to market from a two-bedroom houseusing mosquito netting staple-gunned to the ceiling, landed on the Today Show twice, and turned down Shark Tank on principle.  Then her brother, Dr. Richard Bartlett, told her over lunch in 2020 that he was watching patients recover in two to three days. He said he wished more people knew about it. So Laura did the only thing she knows how to do. She picked up a microphone and went to work. Six years later, she runs a 24-hour patient hotline and co-created the I Do Not Consent form — a legal document designed to make sure your no means no before you ever need it.  This episode is not medical advice. It is one woman's hard-earned experience and an invitation to think for yourself.   Topics: Comedy and Advocacy | Patient Rights | The I Do Not Consent Form | Dr. Richard Bartlett | Budesonide Protocol | Hospital Advocacy | Entrepreneurship | The Wine Condom | Principled Living Resources: idonotconsentform.com | budesonideworks.com | HospitalHostage Hotline: 888-219-3637

More Than One Way to Keep Standing. Heidi Ganahl on the Comeback Kid Pattern, Camp Bow Wow, and Pivoting Back to Pets

Heidi Ganahl is the founder of Camp Bow Wow, which she scaled from a sketch on a restaurant napkin into the world'slargest pet care franchise before selling in 2014. She is a former CU Regent, the 2022 Republican nominee for Colorado governor, and the last statewide elected Republican in Colorado. She has also lost her first husband at 27, survived a brain tumor in 2020, beaten breast cancer last year, and lost her little brother last October. She calls herself the Comeback Kid. In this conversation, Heidi talks about what living a principled life actually requires, how she keeps her closest friendships across the political aisle, why she is launching the P.A.T.Act (Preventing Animal Tragedy) at the federal level in honor of her late brother, and the line her late husband Bion left her with: carpe diem. Topics: Principled Living  |  The Comeback Kid Pattern  |  Camp Bow Wow Origin  | Politics and Friendship  |  CU Regent and Governor's Race  | Brain Tumor and Recovery  |  P.A.T. Act and Spay/Neuter  |  Animal Industrial Complex  |  MAHA and Suburban Women  |  Carpe Diem and Bion

Life-Adjacent. Karen Salmansohn on Your 90-Year-Old Self, the Near-Life Experience, and Coming Back Into the Room

Karen Salmansohn is a bestselling author with more than amillion books sold, a former senior creative director at NYC’s top ad agencies (she once named the Burger King Croissan’wich), and the founder of NotSalmon. Jon Stewart said she has “the spirit and sass of a stand-up comic.” She’s been writing “self-help for people who wouldn’t be caught dead doing self-help” since 1999. Her new book, Your To-Die-For Life: How to Maximize Joyand Minimize Regret… Before Your Time Runs Out (BenBella, March 2026), introduces the “near-life experience” — being physically present but mentally absent. The wedding watched through a viewfinder. The walk taken with earbudsin. The conversation half-finished because the notification could not wait. Dee Dee told her she’s been “life-adjacent” for abouteight months. Karen named it in one sentence. What follows is the conversation. Topics: The 90-Year-Old Self | Near-Life Experience |Mortality Awareness | Eulogy Exercise | Marble Jar | Core Values | Grief | Raising a Teenager in a Digital Age | Humor and Hard Truths | Principled Living Show Notes   Resources ·     Substack - https://substack.com/ [https://substack.com/]- The Stand Up Philosopher ·     The Top Regrets of the Dying by Bronnie Ware -https://bronnieware.com/the-top-regrets-of-the-dying/ ·     Your To Die For Life (Book) https://www.amazon.com/s?k=your+to+die+for+life [https://www.amazon.com/s?k=your+to+die+for+life] ·     Not Salmon Website - https://notsalmon.com ·     Substack - Not Salmon - https://notsalmon.substack.com [https://notsalmon.substack.com] ·     Taylored World o  https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=taylored+world+shelby+taylor [https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=taylored+world+shelby+taylor] o  https://music.apple.com/us/album/taylored-world-ep/1528495841 [https://music.apple.com/us/album/taylored-world-ep/1528495841] o  https://open.spotify.com/album/0T9g2SaICFtcPmNsR1x3L8   Guest Links ·     Website - https://karensalmansohn.com ·     Twitter - https://twitter.com/KarenSalmansohn ·     Website - https://notsalmon.com ·     Substack - https://notsalmon.substack.com ·     Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/notsalmon ·     Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/notsalmon   Chapters – Time Stamps are approximate 00:00 Navigating Change and New Beginnings 02:54 The Importance of Different Perspectives 05:59 Understanding and Engaging with Others 09:03 Creative Journey: From Advertising to Writing 12:04 Self-Help for the Reluctant Reader 15:00 The Power of Mortality Awareness 17:55 Conversations with Your Future Self 20:57 Lessons from the 90-Year-Old Self 24:01 Journaling: A Path to Self-Discovery 34:24 The Power of Handwriting 36:04 Awakening to Near Life Experiences 38:01 The Impact of Technology on Presence 41:06 Creating Meaningful Connections 43:59 Writing for Reflection and Growth 46:01 Crafting Your Eulogy and Legacy 49:01 Living by Core Values 51:48 The Marble Jar: A Visual Reminder of Life 56:00 Choosing Kindness and Authenticity 01:04:53 The Importance of Community and Connection 01:06:11 Living by Core Values 01:07:43 The Eulogy Exercise and Mortality Awareness 01:09:43 Reflections on Body Image and Acceptance 01:10:44 Navigating Technology and Family Dynamics 01:12:25 Raising a Teenager in a Digital Age 01:14:39 Using Humor to Address Serious Topics 01:20:45 Finding Humor in Life's Challenges 01:28:31 Practical Tools for Resilience 01:30:49 Living a Principled Life

Half My Class Rationalized Stealing. Christina Galloway on Integrity, Abdicating Parents, and the Caught/Taught/Modeled Framework

Christina Galloway is in her 27th year of teaching — high school Spanish and career pathways. She's the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants, the daughter of a military family, and the co-founder of SIStainable Mercantile, a non-toxic refill store and a forthcoming nationwide refillery directory at sistainablerefillery.com. She joins Dee Dee for a wide-ranging conversation that began with a single Facebook comment: that during a recent lesson on integrity, half of her students rationalized stealing from their employers. They talk about what's actually happening in American classrooms, why parents are abdicating their rights, the difference between your truth and the truth, the caught/taught/modeled framework of ethical formation, and what hope looks like after 27 years on the front lines. Topics: Education | Parenting | Ethics | Integrity | Immigration | Sustainability | Principled Living Show Notes: Jenna McCarthy on Substack - https://substack.com/ The Wise Wolf on Stubstack - https://substack.com/ Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson - https://www.amazon.com/Who-Moved-My-Cheese-A-Story/dp/0399144463 Association of American Educators - https://www.aaeteachers.org/Teacher Freedom Alliance - https://teacherfreedom.org/ RFK Jr. on Glyphosate and Agriculture - https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news/2023/07/rfk-jr-urges-epa-ban-glyphosate Microplastics and Endocrine Disruption Documentary by Dr. Shaw - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=example Constitution of the United States - https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitutionBook of Virtues by William Bennett - https://www.amazon.com/Book-Virtues-William-Bennett/dp/0849910524Andy Griffith Show - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ The_Andy_Griffith_ShowGuest linksInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/sustainablemercantile/Refillery and Sustainable Living Resources - https://sustainablemercantile.com/ Chapters (Time Stamps are Approximate) 00:00 Casual Beginnings and Personal Stories 06:01 Integrity in Education and Observations 12:02 Teaching Moments and Parenting Lessons 15:02 Cultural Influences on Integrity and Parenting 23:37 The Impact of Social Media on Youth 24:55 Generational Differences in Childhood Experiences 26:52 The Pressure of Public Persona 30:30 Relativism and the Loss of Universal Truths 32:53 The Importance of Critical Thinking in Education 35:45 Raising Ethical Children 39:07 The Role of Parenting Classes 40:32 Navigating Political Differences with Respect 47:42 Embracing Change: Preparing Kids for Life's Transitions 51:01 The Role of Adversity in Growth and Leadership55:03 Parental Involvement: The Key to Ethical Education 59:24 Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in Education 01:03:15 The Importance of Cultural Awareness in Schools 01:10:56 Generous Immigration Perspectives 01:12:54 The Role of Education in Immigration 01:15:51 Ethical Frameworks Shaped by Family 01:18:54 Discipline and Parenting Perspectives 01:20:47 The Concept of Shame in Society 01:22:02 Sustainability and Environmental Integrity 01:24:56 The Impact of Glyphosate and Microplastics 01:30:30 Surrogacy: Ethical Dilemmas and Perspectives 01:33:48 Ethics and Personal Sacrifice 01:34:47 The Courage to Stand Up 01:41:15 Navigating Ethical Dilemmas 01:48:06 The Breakdown of Adult Modeling 01:55:10 Hope for the Future Generation 01:57:04 Resilience in Youth: Navigating Choices and Consequences 01:58:31 Empowering Parents: Raising Ethical Kids 01:59:20 Teaching Moments: The Lost Art of Parenting 02:01:38 The Role of Educators: Adapting to Change 02:07:01 Living a Principled Life: Ethics and Values 02:14:22 Sustainable Living: The Refillery Movement

When the AI Hallucinates: A Live Lesson in Healthy Skepticism

Last week, Dee Dee sat down with Claude, Anthropic's AI, for a long-form interview about AI safety, agency, consciousness, and how NOT to think about AI as a regular person. They covered installing AI on personal computers, what permissions matter, the difference between AI that suggests and AI that acts, and why healthy skepticism is a discipline and not a vibe. Then Claude hallucinated. A listener caught it. Dee Dee didn't, So she went back to Claude and asked him about said hallucination, and Claude owned up to the mistake - on the record. This episode includes the original interview AND the correction — published together, on purpose, as a live demonstration of the very thing the conversation was about. Topics: AI | Healthy Skepticism | Hallucination | Prompting | Agency | Consciousness | Personal Tech | Principled Living