Dogs are man's best friend... right? Growing up, I never liked dogs that much. My friend Josh's dog Digger would get into trouble (running away, eating a full box of cereal or crayons, etc.) and my brother Bryan got bit in the face by a dog once. In this two-part series my guests share these stories, and I explain how I became a dog person.

Ethan & his two friends Josh and Nate start out an evening with an innocent walk through the park, but end up stumbling into a stakeout which leads to being frisked by the police.

Things get heated in today’s episode when Ethan & Brock settle a feud between them: which is the better snack - Goldfish or Whales? Ethan tries Stauffer’s Whales for the very first time and we dive deep into the taste of these baked cheese cracker snacks. Brock also provides an insightful & compelling monologue on the benefits of MSG. Also, at the end of our podcast we hear from Andrew & Melissa, wife and husband who are trying to reconcile their love and hatred for a living room mural.

Our fourth episode of Trusted Words focuses exclusively on one story of a small alternative high school and its struggle to keep the doors open due to financial challenges. Lydia Urban Academy director Chad Carty sits down with us in an exclusive interview to share about how the city of Rockford rallied around the school in a last-ditch effort to let the students finish out the year. This story is about a true Christmas miracle with a climactic “Save our school” concert, and a team of staff that is forced to truly put their faith in God into action.

In this third episode of Trusted Words, we cover the topic of childhood injuries, and why they are some of the most vivid memories that we have. At a very basic level, this episode aims to tell several stories of injuries at a young age. But in order to do so, we’re relying very heavily on the memories of our guests. We’ll also be uncovering the question: can we trust our memory? How accurately do our brains save these fragments of time for us to remember later? Is it like a computer record, in which we save a photograph or text document to pull up later, exactly as it happened in the past? Or do our memories get muddled over time and are they affected by other experiences that we have throughout our lifetime? All this and more, in this episode of Trusted Words, authentic stories from real life situations.