Celebrity Interviews

Leeza Gibbons, Walking Miracles' Brett Wilson, and GildaGram with Dr. Gilda Carle

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with Emmy winner, New York Times bestselling author, and Celebrity Apprentice champion Leeza Gibbons about her passion for seniors and their caregivers. Gibbons said too few people pay attention to an aging population, and that she wants to shine a light on how adult children can honor the senior loved ones who deserve it. She traced her advocacy back to caring for her own mother through Alzheimer's, and described how her mission has broadened beyond that one disease to seniors more generally. Gibbons spoke about her work with Senior Helpers, whose in-home caregivers are specially trained to work with cognitive impairments and to educate families on what to expect, and stressed how much easier the road becomes when a family has a plan in place before a crisis hits rather than scrambling afterward. She framed it as awareness for families rather than one-size-fits-all advice, encouraging loved ones to start the conversation early. Warm and grateful, she framed the whole effort as making sure our elders are seen and valued, and reflected on how winning Celebrity Apprentice let her pour a spotlight, and real resources, onto a cause the culture too often overlooks.

Neil then welcomed Brett Wilson, CEO of The Unspoken Cost of Cancer and founder of the Walking Miracles Family Foundation, to launch a new podcast the two are producing together. Wilson, a two-time childhood cancer survivor who has spent years building the resources she and her mother never had, explained that after their first interview she and Neil hit it off and decided to join forces, with Neil lending his media network and contacts to grow her foundation and her patient-education work. The Unspoken Cost of Cancer, she said, addresses the toll cancer takes not only on patients but on the caregivers, families, and communities around them, a burden she believes goes largely unspoken. She recounted how she and her mother faced her own childhood cancers with little guidance in rural West Virginia, the experience that fuels the mission, and said the new show is a way to reach far more families than she ever could alone. She continues to give overlooked cancer families navigation, resources, and a voice.

The program closes with a series of GildaGram simulcasts featuring Dr. Gilda Carle. In one, she returned to the backlash she gets whenever she calls men fragile, clarifying that she is not insulting men but pointing to real warning signs, from a widening gap in which women now outpace men in earning college degrees to the disproportionately high rate of male suicide, and urging support and mentorship over defensiveness. In another, aimed at her professional audience, she warned about over-functioning, the trap of overpromising and burning yourself out to impress higher-ups, and the toll it quietly takes. In a lighter final segment, she reacted to a proposed United Kingdom law that could grant a long-term cohabiting partner rights to a person's assets even without marriage, using it to talk through the modern anxieties reshaping how people approach dating and commitment, and cautioning listeners against letting resentment harden into writing off an entire gender. Find Brett Wilson's Walking Miracles at walkingmiracles.org.

Author Susan Hall, Real Estate Star Ryan Serhant, Author Daniel Fazzina, and a Testimony from Owen Wilson

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a lively cross-continental simulcast, joining Fernando and Sergio Bravo of InfoRadio in Madrid, live from Callao Square during their marathon World Radio Challenge, before turning to author Susan Hall, sister of the late Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss. Calling in from Phoenix, Hall discussed her book, I Laugh in the Face of Cancer, a title Neil and the Spanish hosts loved. She explained that she wrote it because there is so much fear around cancer, much of it understandable, and she wanted to hand people a more hopeful, resilient way to face a diagnosis, drawing on her own family's experience. Warm and upbeat across the language barrier, she made the case that courage, faith, and even humor can be powerful medicine, and thanked the Spanish hosts for staying up through their overnight marathon to include her. She framed the book as encouragement for anyone walking that frightening road, or loving someone who is.

Neil then joined a Caregiver Dave celebrity segment, co-hosted by caregiver advocate Dave Nassaney, welcoming Ryan Serhant of Bravo's Million Dollar Listing New York. Serhant discussed the honor of being named the American Cancer Society's 2021 National Ambassador for the Real Men Wear Pink program, part of his family's and his company's commitment to giving back. He said he was moved to act after reading that a large share of Americans, some forty-one percent, delayed medical care in 2020 amid the pandemic out of fear of doctors and hospitals, and used his platform to urge people, especially men, not to put off screenings and checkups. His message, offered as encouragement rather than medical advice, was simple: showing up matters, and early detection saves lives, so book the appointment you have been avoiding. Neil praised the philanthropic streak behind a career better known for luxury listings.

The hour continued with a Mike Vilardi Show simulcast featuring award-winning author, broadcaster, and media professional Daniel Fazzina, host of Divine Intervention Radio. A native New Yorker now living in Virginia, Fazzina traced a Long Island Lutheran upbringing and a media career spanning radio, music videos, and film before sharing the testimony that changed his path: healings he attributes to God, from a chronic back condition in 2001 and a massive cancerous tumor in 2002. Those experiences, he said, inspired him to launch Divine Intervention Radio in 2007 and a book series collecting firsthand accounts of people who believe they have witnessed the hand of God, from healings to transformed lives, all offered, in his telling, as encouragement for believers and skeptics alike. He is gathering many of those voices for the Power of Testimony event at Shelter Rock Church in Syosset, New York, on September 12th.

The program closes with a return testimony from Owen Wilson, a New Zealand aircraft mechanic and pilot, not the actor, also featured in Fazzina's work. Wilson recounted a birthday flight over the rugged Marlborough coast in a small plane he had flown for years when the engine fell silent with nowhere to land; as he and his passenger prayed, it sputtered back to life just long enough to clear a ridge and reveal a hidden airfield he had never known existed, where he landed safely, a rescue he credits to divine intervention. Tickets for the September 12th event are at events.artofheaven.com. Find Susan Hall's I Laugh in the Face of Cancer and Daniel Fazzina's Divine Intervention wherever books are sold.

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with an AI Office Hours simulcast, where Neil and co-host Pat Riley traded their weekly love-hate notes on artificial intelligence, the tools that dazzle one minute and frustrate the next. Riley, juggling a packed weekend of work, described the grind of the end of the month and his ongoing struggle to funnel feedback to a ghostwriting team that keeps sending material through scattered channels, some by email, some posted to a shared site, with several contacts instead of one, a reminder of how much a single point of contact matters. He recounted riding out a multi-day outage when one assistant tool went down for an update, forcing him to back everything up and lean on another, and the pair returned to their steady theme that these systems are powerful when a human stays in charge and organized, and maddening when workflows get tangled. Neil admitted he can swing from hating AI five minutes in to praising it for the next three hours, and the two agreed the real skill now is building clean, repeatable systems, then keeping a person watching over them, so a stray glitch or an update does not derail a whole week. They read a few listener comments and encouraged people to keep experimenting while guarding their time and budget.

Neil then turned to a J. Len Sciuto Show simulcast, where the retired Coast Guard officer and thriller author opened, as always, with a disclaimer that his remarks are opinion and discussion drawn from public reporting, with certain claims disputed or unverified. Sciuto noted his novel Hades Crypt has now spent forty-one weeks on the Kindle bestseller list, thanking readers, then offered his own high-level geopolitical assessment of ongoing tensions abroad, framing the range of scenarios he sees strictly as personal speculation rather than settled fact. He was careful to keep the discussion at the level of broad strategy and possibility rather than operational specifics, presenting the whole of it as one veteran's informed opinion. He again reminded listeners that a portion of his book proceeds supports junior enlisted service members, the reason, he said, he writes at all.

The program closes with two GildaGram simulcasts featuring Dr. Gilda Carle. In the first, aimed at her professional audience, she spotlighted what she called the cost nobody puts on the balance sheet, arguing that as layoffs mount, whether from AI, mergers, or shrinking need, companies overlook the hidden price of turnover, absenteeism, and unresolved conflict, and the toll all of it takes on the morale and productivity of the people who remain. In the second, drawing on her background as a former celebrity gossip columnist, she reflected with compassion on Kate Beckinsale, who has spoken publicly about the grief and trauma of losing her mother and, years earlier, the stepfather she adored, a reminder, Carle said, that all that glitters is not gold and that we never truly know what someone is carrying beneath a polished surface. Find J. Len Sciuto's Hades Crypt wherever books are sold.

Horror Star Bill Moseley, Entrepreneur Ed Chaffin, Walking Miracles' Brett Wilson, and Cheryl Lovell of Vassia Care

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with horror icon Bill Moseley of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and much more. A lifelong horror fan spooked as a young man by the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Moseley recounted the delightfully unlikely break that made his career: while working on a Wyoming ranch, a coworker's random outburst inspired him to write and film a short spoof called The Texas Chainsaw Manicure, in which he also appeared. He got a copy to director Tobe Hooper, who was so tickled that he cast Moseley as the unforgettable Chop Top in the sequel, launching a run that would later include Otis in Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. Moseley, who lives in Los Angeles, spoke warmly about Halloween as a celebration of monsters, admitting that he happily stays in on the big night, calling it amateur hour, and stocks up on the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups he loves. His affection for the genre and its fans was unmistakable.

Neil then welcomed entrepreneur, author, and executive coach Ed Chaffin for a Storehouse Media Group simulcast about his remarkable business journey. Chaffin clarified that the company was publicly traded rather than his own, but that he ran its largest division, some 1,200 employees and roughly 150 million dollars in revenue, part of an operation built through a dozen acquisitions from five million to three hundred million and sold for 1.4 billion dollars in 2007. In 2008 he reinvented himself as an international leadership consultant and executive coach, and, a storyteller at heart, he described printing out the flood of farewell emails he received at retirement, tucking them in a folder, and using them as the seed for the next chapter of his work helping leaders grow. He drew a sharp line between the many self-styled gurus who have never actually built or sold anything and the hard-won credibility of having done it, a distinction Neil underscored in introducing him.

The hour continued with a moving conversation with Brett Wilson, CEO and survivorship navigator of the Walking Miracles Family Foundation. A two-time childhood cancer survivor, diagnosed with leukemia as a toddler and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at nine, Wilson has spent fourteen years building the resources she and her mother never had. She explained that because she and her family faced the disease in rural West Virginia with little guidance, often driving two to three hours each way for treatment, she vowed as a child to create a center so others would not have to navigate cancer alone. Through Walking Miracles she connects families with patient navigation, travel help, counseling, and survivorship plans that link people to specialists who watch for the long-term effects of treatment, effects she still lives with today. Her book, I Am A Walking Miracle, carries the same mission, and the foundation can be found at walkingmiracles.org.

The program closes with a Storehouse Media Group simulcast hosted by Sherrie Price Clark, welcoming returning guest Cheryl Lovell to announce the launch of Vassia Care. Drawing on a background in health consulting, Lovell explained that the venture came together after she connected with an entrepreneur from a healthcare-technology background who wanted to bring real innovation to the way care is actually delivered. Together, she said, they are building Vassia Care to modernize the provider space and bring technology-driven innovation to the actual delivery of care, a story she had been eager to share since her first appearance.

Music Icon KC of KC and the Sunshine Band, Actor Kristoffer Polaha, NFL-Veteran-Turned-Author Andre Hardy, and Boxing Legend Butterbean

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Celebrity Interviews simulcast live from the grotto, co-hosted by Greg Hanna, welcoming music icon KC of KC and the Sunshine Band. KC reflected on a life steeped in music, growing up in a family where relatives cut radio commercials and gospel records and everyone gathered around the piano to sing and dance. He recalled an almost premonitory certainty that music was his path, and traced his break to a Miami record store that put him near where records were being made, where he crossed paths with Steve Alaimo of Dick Clark's Where the Action Is and found a mentor and father figure in the legendary Henry Stone, soaking up publicity, sales, marketing, and studio work while doing whatever it took to learn. Decades on, with hits like Get Down Tonight, That's the Way I Like It, and Shake Your Booty still filling dance floors, he marveled that his music simply lives on and on, and said he remains grateful for the whole ride.

Neil then welcomed actor Kristoffer Polaha to talk about both his humanitarian work and a new series. A World Vision ambassador since 2020, inspired by Bono and by Meghan Markle, Polaha described the organization's disaster response, rushing food, clean water, books, and trauma kits into devastated communities and staying to rebuild long after the news cameras leave, and pointed viewers to the gift catalog at worldvision.org, where the bracelets he and his wife design help fund the work. He then previewed American Hostage, in which he plays mortgage-company president Dick Hall, taken hostage for sixty-three hours by Tony Kiritsis in a harrowing true 1977 Indianapolis standoff that unfolded live on the radio through reporter Fred Heckman, played by Jon Hamm, opposite Giovanni Ribisi. Polaha praised the Shawn Ryan series and director Adam Arkin's choice to film it in real time like a play, and noted he prepared by reading Hall's own long-delayed memoir. He also shared his directorial debut, Mimics, a Goonies-style romp with Stephen Tobolowsky and Chris Parnell, on Tubi.

Neil next joined a simulcast, co-hosted by Michael, welcoming Andre Hardy, an NFL veteran reinvented as a crime novelist with his debut, Tear the City Down. Hardy, a lifelong reader sparked in third grade by a Bob Gibson biography and later by Walter Mosley's Devil in a Blue Dress, drew on his work for the Los Angeles Review of Books and a ghostwritten memoir to craft a layered protagonist, a fixer for a crooked power broker who longs to get out and be present for his daughter, only to be pulled into the disappearance of a star running back. He called the book both a love letter to and a critique of San Diego, and teased a next novel built around an NIL deal gone bad. Find him at andrehardy.com.

The program closes with another Celebrity Interviews simulcast from the grotto, with Greg Hanna, featuring boxing legend Butterbean. He recounted rising from the Toughman circuit, where he won all he was allowed to before turning pro, named Larry Holmes as the most famous fighter he faced, and rattled off knockouts including a roughly eight-second finish, a memorable stoppage of Lewis Monaco, and the wrestler he flattened at WrestleMania. His philosophy was simple: skip the dancing and strategizing, give the fans who came for a real fight their money's worth, and try to knock somebody out, which he said is exactly how a fighter earns a following. Asked about dream bouts, he said he always wanted Mike Tyson and would relish shutting up Jake Paul, while calling the on-again Tyson-Paul talk a scam. Catch KC and the Sunshine Band on tour, Kristoffer Polaha in American Hostage, Andre Hardy's Tear the City Down at booksellers, and Butterbean wherever the fights are.

NFL Legend Barry Sanders, Actors Mariette Hartley and Jerry Sroka, Author George Goodsaid, and Dr. Paul Corona

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with Pro Football Hall of Famer Barry Sanders and his advocacy campaign, Tackle PBA. Sanders explained that PBA stands for pseudobulbar affect, a little-known neurological condition that triggers sudden, uncontrollable episodes of laughing or crying that do not match how a person feels, and noted the effort was spurred in part by a Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund survey linking head injuries among former players to PBA-like symptoms. Stressing that the condition is treatable and that the goal is awareness, he encouraged anyone who recognizes the signs to take the self-assessment at tacklepba.org and speak with their doctor.

Neil then welcomed a Celebrity Interviews simulcast from the grotto, co-hosted by Greg Hanna, with married actors Mariette Hartley, an Emmy winner remembered for The Incredible Hulk and her classic Polaroid ads with James Garner, and Jerry Sroka, a veteran actor and comic. The couple, who married in 2005, wrote and star in the romantic comedy Our (Almost Completely True) Love Story, directed by Don Scardino, a warm, wisecracking, largely autobiographical look at finding love later in life, though they cheerfully admitted the on-screen bird-store meet-cute was invented. Trading affectionate banter, they spoke about the vulnerability of opening their lives to audiences and the labor of love it took to bring the film to the screen with friends and family.

The hour continued with author and educator George Goodsaid, whose book Catholic Positive Energy shares the same name as the YouTube channel he launched during the pandemic. Goodsaid, who holds a master's degree in Catholic theology from Catholic International University, described a personal journey of leaving the church as a boy and returning at nineteen, when mentors reignited a passion for the faith that he had never fully explored. He said he wrote the book to tell that backstory and to use his faith to spread joy, hope, and encouragement, describing his mission, with a smile, as trying to be a kind of Catholic Mr. Rogers who reminds people of their worth as children of God. He credited the amazing people he has met in recent years with changing his life for the better and drawing him out of a season that was not always filled with positive energy. Warm and upbeat, he framed the book, his first step into Catholic writing and speaking, as an invitation to find hope and joy in everyday life and to remember one's own significance, no matter what challenges arise.

The program closes with a return visit from Dr. Paul Corona, physician and author of The Corona Protocol: 3 Secrets to Success and its companion Prescriber's Guide, two of his six books written to teach other doctors his method. He laid out the three principles at the heart of the protocol: understanding the mind-body connection and how stress produces real physical, or somatic, symptoms; grasping the full spectrum of bipolar disorder rather than the manic caricature many picture; and treating patients toward genuine remission. He framed the approach as decades in the making and rooted in getting to root causes rather than settling for surface fixes, and noted that his recent books are written as training manuals to pass that method along to fellow physicians. Neil, who admitted he could not resist a little teasing about the Corona name given the beer and the later virus, kept the focus on the doctor's work and his platforms, including his reality series and website. Find George Goodsaid's Catholic Positive Energy at georgegoodsaid.com and Dr. Paul Corona at drpaulcoronamd.com.

Actor Corbin Bernsen, Novelist Leah Harper Bowron, AI Entrepreneur Arturo Del Rio Jr., and Jesus and Ugly Jody with Jody Corbett

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with actor Corbin Bernsen, familiar from L.A. Law and Psych, about his heartwarming family film When We Last Spoke. Bernsen reflected candidly on navigating a strange, uncertain season, restoring his longtime Los Angeles family home and pouring himself into writing, and said that without his faith he might have thrown in the towel. Turning to the movie, based on Marci Henna's novel, he described playing Walt, a grandfather who, alongside his wife Ruby, played by Melissa Gilbert, takes in their two young granddaughters after the girls' father is sent to Vietnam and their mother leaves to chase a singing career, with Cloris Leachman appearing as Walt's eccentric, poetry-quoting mother. Bernsen said he is a sucker for a simple, well-told story about redemption and the human spirit, and related deeply to Walt as a father of four sons at the settle-down stage of life who is suddenly pulled back into raising children. He praised his young co-stars and his decades-long friendship with Gilbert, whom he joked he has known since the two were puppies, and reflected that a book and its film adaptation are really different universes, two distinct ways of telling the same story. He called it a touching, tender film full of the human spirit and kindness.

Neil then welcomed author Leah Harper Bowron to discuss her novel Colorblind, newly re-released. A lawyer who handled real estate, wills and trusts, and bankruptcy work before turning to fiction, Bowron explained that the writing bug she developed drafting legal documents eventually led her to novels. Colorblind, she said, is deeply autobiographical, drawn from what she witnessed as a child when her all-white sixth-grade class in Montgomery, Alabama was integrated in 1968. She recalled an openly segregated society of separate drinking fountains and restrooms, and how the city first brought an African American teacher into the white school before busing any students, based on fact but reshaped, she noted, to make the story richer for readers. Bowron, who also spent time teaching in a special education classroom, said the experience shaped her lens on difference, and she opened each chapter with a line from Maya Angelou, whose words meant a great deal to her. Written years ago and only now finding fresh readers, the book, she said, is a hopeful reflection on empathy and learning to see past color.

The hour continued with a Storehouse Media Group simulcast featuring Arturo Del Rio Jr., founder of Lakeside Growth and its Stack Growth platform, on artificial intelligence and automation. A serial founder on his third AI company, Del Rio argued that as powerful as AI has become, it is the humans running the machines who matter most, cautioning that the costliest mistake is trusting an automated system to run unchecked. He explained that general chatbots and purpose-built automation are different tools, that large models can drift toward average output or lose the thread of a long exchange, and that success comes from matching the right tool to each task and keeping a knowledgeable person in the loop.

The program closes with a Jesus and Ugly Jody simulcast, where host Jody Corbett shared the story behind his Five Stones Ministry. Rooted in David gathering five smooth stones to face Goliath and refusing Saul's armor so he could fight the way he knew how, the ministry, a vision Corbett said came to him while he was still with the FBI, reflects his belief that God works through the willing and the humble. Find Corbin Bernsen's When We Last Spoke on Amazon and Leah Harper Bowron's Colorblind wherever books are sold.

Rudy's Dan Ruettiger, Author Benton Savage, and Bestselling Novelist Grace Lynx Jenkins

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Just Two Choices celebrity segment, co-hosted by Rico Rokowski, welcoming Dan "Rudy" Ruettiger, the real-life inspiration behind the classic sports film Rudy. Ruettiger, who grew up the thirteenth of fourteen children, shared warm, funny memories of a household so full his fiercely organized mother once kept a chain and lock on the refrigerator to keep track of the food, and reflected on the years of setbacks and the sheer determination that carried him against long odds to suit up for Notre Dame and, in the final moments of a game, get onto the field for a single, unforgettable play. He framed his story around what he calls the power of the dream, the choice to chase what others say is impossible, and the discipline and faith it takes to keep going when the door keeps closing. Decades after the movie made his name a byword for perseverance, Ruettiger said his mission now is to help others believe their own dreams are worth the fight. He spoke about the two choices he believes everyone faces every day, to move toward a dream or away from it, and about surrounding yourself with people who lift you rather than hold you back. His enthusiasm, Neil noted, is as genuine as the story that inspired millions, and Ruettiger encouraged listeners to stop waiting for permission and take the first small step toward whatever they have been putting off.

Neil then welcomed author Benton Savage to discuss his book The Stoic Alcoholic: It's Not Only About Counting Days. Savage, who has published four books in the last few years after two decades of writing, explained that he began the project as a daily sobriety journal titled around the first 366 days, wrote productively for about a hundred days, then stumbled, set it aside, and eventually returned to it, deciding his own recovery mattered more than the book and that finishing it could help others. Its core message, he said, is that while staying sober and the day count genuinely matter, a single bad day does not erase months or years of progress, and no one should treat a slip as total failure or a reason to give up, since tomorrow is simply another day to begin again. He also offered candid advice to fellow writers, that a book is only a tool and that no PR team or talk-show appearance replaces an author getting out and speaking to people directly, adding that the shift toward flexible, independent publishing had finally opened doors that the traditional houses kept closed for years. Throughout, he framed the work less as a memoir than as encouragement for anyone in the same fight.

The hour closes with a conversation with bestselling author Grace Lynx Jenkins about her thriller Sight and her first book signing, held at a Barnes & Noble on Alabama's Eastern Shore. Jenkins recalled arriving expecting to sell only three or four copies, bringing thirty-nine, and walking out with just three, and said what warmed her heart most was meeting fellow authors and reviewers and, above all, watching parents bring their young children into the store, a reminder of how much early reading and critical-thinking skills matter. One little girl, she delighted to report, proudly announced she had already written three books of her own, the kind of moment, Jenkins said, that makes the work worthwhile. She encouraged aspiring writers to keep going and to champion reading in the next generation

Shark Tank's Robert Herjavec, Author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., and AI Office Hours with Pat Riley

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with Robert Herjavec of ABC's Shark Tank. Herjavec reflected that none of the Sharks expected a show about five people talking business to become a hit, and were amazed to find it embraced above all as a family show, one that gives viewers hope and inspiration. Even after nine seasons, he said, the creativity of the entrepreneurs who walk in, and the dreams and stories behind their products, never cease to astonish him. He described the experience as a pressure cooker on both sides of the pitch, with far more happening behind the scenes than makes the edit, and spoke fondly of the very different personalities on the panel, some sharp with numbers and some not, and the spirited Shark fights that give the show its spark. Drawing on his own journey from an immigrant who arrived with next to nothing to building a major cybersecurity company, Herjavec framed the program as a celebration of passion, persistence, and the belief that a great idea and a compelling story can change a life. He said he is proud to be part of a platform that, more than anything, gives people permission to chase what they believe in, and reflected that the same qualities the Sharks look for in a pitch, resilience, clarity, and heart, are the ones that carry entrepreneurs through the hard years after the cameras stop rolling.

Neil then welcomed author Todd R. Mitchell Jr., joined by his fiancee, to talk about his book Never Gave Up. A gifted athlete who earned a college basketball scholarship and went on to arena football, Mitchell described how alcoholism shadowed every opportunity, and said that had he reached the pros, the money would have arrived long before he reached the root of the problem, likely leaving him broke, homeless, or worse. He traced a hard road through homelessness, incarceration, and car accidents, and credited his turnaround to faith and to a partner who visited him daily in rehab and stood by him through relapse, understanding that recovery is a process rather than a single decision. The look on his daughter's face one difficult day became another anchor, and he spoke of the patience it took his fiancee to walk beside him without giving up. Today Mitchell has earned a film production degree from Miami Dade College and launched Born From The Ashes Mitchell Production Studios in Jacksonville. Never Gave Up is available on Amazon, where it has been a number-one new release.

The hour closes with an AI Office Hours simulcast, where Neil and co-host Pat Riley traded practical lessons from their week of experimenting with artificial intelligence assistants and agents. Neil opened by joking that his own AI assistant had been running him through a drill-sergeant week. Riley's hard-won takeaway was simple: when a setup is working well and running cheaply, do not tinker with it, recounting how a small change quietly burned through his budget faster than expected before he reined it back in and returned to what had worked. He also shared a favorite story making the rounds, of a traveler abroad who set an AI agent to keep scanning a shelter's listings until it flagged the person's lost cat. The pair returned to their recurring theme that AI is a powerful multiplier for a human who stays in charge, watching the costs and keeping a hand on the wheel, rather than a set-and-forget replacement. Find Robert Herjavec on Shark Tank and Todd R. Mitchell Jr.'s Never Gave Up on Amazon.

Stan Against Evil's John C. McGinley, Children's Author Laure Stack, and Investigator Melissa Sandberg

This edition of The Neil Haley Show opens with a Total Celebrity conversation with actor John C. McGinley, beloved as Dr. Cox on Scrubs, about the comedy-horror series Stan Against Evil and its second season. McGinley pitched the show, in which he plays a cantankerous small-town sheriff who discovers his New England home sits atop a witch's curse, as essentially Archie Bunker fighting witches, and said he was pleasantly caught off guard when The New York Times named the first season one of its ten best new shows, a stamp of validation for a scrappy genre comedy. He explained that the hardest and most important thing the team guards is tone, aiming for the sweet spot between the pure terror of The Exorcist and the pure fun of Scooby-Doo, landing somewhere near An American Werewolf in London, funny without ever declawing the monsters. McGinley noted that horror fans at Comic-Cons in San Diego, New York, and Silicon Valley will not forgive a show that softens its creatures, so the production respects them, tapping the department heads of The Walking Dead during their hiatus in Atlanta to make the effects look as good as they do. That discipline, he said, is finally paying real dividends, both with critics and with the loyal genre fans who make the difference. He spoke about relishing a role that lets him blend his comedic timing with the darker, sharper edges of his craft in a single character.

Neil then welcomed author Laure Stack to discuss her bestselling children's book Howie the Unusual Bear: The Heartwarming Journey of Courage, Friendship, and Embracing What Makes You Different. A lifelong educator, mainly a special education teacher and resource specialist who helped kids with learning disabilities keep pace with their classrooms, Stack now lives in the mountains, substitute teaches from kindergarten through high school, and stays busy skiing, hiking, and even skydiving. She traced her writing back to childhood, when she made her own little books about animals and plants, a dream she finally had time to pursue after retiring. Stack said Howie grew out of watching how wonderfully different today's kids are, and how much they need to feel that what sets them apart is a strength rather than something to hide. She reads the books to students herself, delighting in the moments a child connects with the message, and, alongside three more published titles and several on the way, is exploring stories drawn from her own animals and adventures. Her wish is simply for young readers to see their differences as a gift.

The hour closes with a Criminally Good with Sherrie and Jen simulcast, presented by Storehouse Media Group, welcoming Melissa Sandberg, host of the Dog With a Bone podcast. A self-described civil investigator rather than a police officer or private eye, Sandberg takes on overlooked, low-profile cold cases to give victims and their families a voice, affectionately calling her listeners the Dog Pound. She traced a path from a childhood love of solving mysteries and two decades in hospice care to the investigative work that became her passion, noting that not being in law enforcement makes people more comfortable opening up to her. She shared a chilling reminder to trust one's instincts, recounting how, while gathering information on a case, she unknowingly crossed paths with a man later charged in a young woman's death, and said her mission is simply to keep pushing until families get their answers. Find John C. McGinley on Stan Against Evil, Laure Stack's Howie the Unusual Bear at booksellers, and Melissa Sandberg's Dog With a Bone wherever you get podcasts.