Honoring Stories: Our Year of Connections and Music in 2023

Join us, your hosts Mark and Joe, as we look back on a year where Stories in Life shared  tales of human spirit and determination. We reflect on connections made across 20 countries and bonds with over a thousand followers who've become part of our journey.  We relive the moments of courage, goodwill, and determination that have echoed through our show, celebrating the power of storytelling.

Picture yourself nestled by Lake Superior or walking rain-soaked streets as stories and music play, capturing that rush of love, nature and life. That's the essence of our upcoming narratives, aiming to touch your heart and stir your soul. We'll bring you more entertaining stories to the airwaves and share more tales of adventure.

 With a heartfelt thank you for your unwavering support and feedback, we embrace the diversity of our listeners, and we can't wait to embark on this new chapter with you all. Here's to the stories and songs that unite us, uplift us, and lead us fearlessly into the future.

Transcript

Joe Boyle 0:08

Welcome to Stories in Life. You're on the radio with Mark and Joe. We share stories that affirm your belief in the goodwill, courage, determination, commitment and vision of everyday people.

Mark Wolak 0:22

Our goal is that through another person's story you may find connection. No matter your place in life. The stories we select will be inspiring and maybe help you laugh, cry, think or change your mind about something important in your life.

Joe Boyle 0:40

Join us for this episode of Stories in Life.

Mark Wolak 2:20

I thought we should probably take a little time and reflect on 2023. We had quite a year. We can look back and we can look forward to. Yeah, what was your biggest?

Joe Boyle 2:32

surprise Of our podcast. Our biggest surprise for me, I think, is the fact that we launched and had the confidence to keep right on going. We worked through things, we played with things, we laughed about stuff and a little crude in the beginning, but it's working.

Mark Wolak 2:56

Yeah, I think so too. One of my big surprises is how quickly we were listened to in 20 countries. I think we're close to 200 towns and cities now on five continents.

Joe Boyle 3:11

Over a thousand followers.

Mark Wolak 3:12

Yeah.

Joe Boyle 3:13

Yeah, so that's really cool. We covered a lot of ground, we did our introduction episode and that seemed to go pretty well, but then we got right into some pretty good stories.

Mark Wolak 3:29

Yes, our most listened to program is our vision for the program, but then, right in second place is the story on dirt candy designs. Yep, the trail blazers, the trail blazers, and I think sometime in 2024, we should probably have them join us again and give us an update on where they are now, because they were traveling all over building trails.

Favorites from the Year

Joe Boyle 3:55

Well, they're fun people. They're obviously a very happy couple. They're excited about what they do and that rubbed off on the listeners, I think.

Mark Wolak 4:07

Yeah, did you have a favorite episode?

Joe Boyle 4:11

Yeah, I did, and I it's the three parter prisoner of war and that's. You know, I'm a, I'm an ex-army guy, I was up in airplanes, I was airborne, I jumped and I just thought that story was fascinating. I listened to it now or re now and then, just because it's so good and it's so real. You know, and his dialect, I was just there with him the whole time.

Mark Wolak 4:45

Yeah, I I think that's my favorite episode out of 2023 as well, and I was talking to one of our listeners who happens to be a neighbor and he grew up in that culture and he recognized the dialect. But he also said that story is so good that could be a movie.

Joe Boyle 5:07

Yeah, they've made worse movies about World War II than that story.

Mark Wolak 5:11

Yeah, yeah, that was really interesting.

Joe Boyle 5:15

I just think how many times he dodged death. You know, like first off he he wakes up on the way down, you know.

Mark Wolak 5:21

You mean in the aircraft that's floating like a leaf? Yeah, yeah.

Joe Boyle 5:27

He wakes up, coming down and floating and he comes down right into a pot of Germans that could have just shot the heck out of him. Right, he's a lot of Americans there, and then there might be a garbage at anytime. He's walking back with the group and they all have to take cover and he picks up the Germans gun.

Mark Wolak 5:50

Here. You're gonna need this.

Joe Boyle 5:52

You can't make that stuff up.

Mark Wolak 5:53

No, that was really remarkable. What else do we want to reflect on in 2023? Those episodes we had what we have 15 episodes, that's not bad in about starting in June. Yeah, in about six months.

Joe Boyle 6:07

Yeah, so well you are kind of a slave driver.

Favorite Music from Year

Mark Wolak 6:10

Yeah, I like to drive us a little bit. Keep pushing, keep pushing. My favorite music from the whole series, I would say, was Discovering and replaying Dave Brubeck. Take five.

Joe Boyle 6:25

Yeah, that was, that was right up there. Yeah, that was right up there.

Mark Wolak 6:28

I was at my father-in-law's home, which is a community home, and they're just right after we publish that episode, and the kitchen staff were listening to Dave Brubeck take five Take five, yeah, and cranked it up too. It's great, that's wonderful stuff.

Joe Boyle 6:49

I enjoyed that. I kind of enjoyed the reflection on Springsteen. I Like Bruce Springsteen. I've been to Bruce Springsteen concerts. I Just don't listen. I don't put them on that much until recently. He's one of his recent albums what's that one called oh?

Mark Wolak 7:12

Yeah, yeah, all the old music from Detroit, yeah, yeah, we should only the only the proud, only the brave, or only the proud. I know, I don't know if I know that anyway.

Joe Boyle 7:23

Anyway, I really enjoy that. Yeah, that is a great album and the fact that we kind of dug into some of his old stuff was kind of fun.

Mark Wolak 7:31

Yeah, so 2023 was a pretty eventful year in this country. We weren't the only people podcasting there are lots of podcasters but I think we stayed true to our vision in keeping a good selection of interesting stories every day people with a great story to share.

Joe Boyle 7:52

I think we gave the essence of who they were, yet kept at light and fun. Yeah you know, I Think that's key Keep them laughing.

Joe Boyle 10:19

I'll tell you, I lost my mother in July. I had surgery. This last fall we launched our podcast. I took a trip to Boston with my wife and daughter, Took a trip to Florida with you guys, Stayed with you guys for a while. That was great. We love that. My wife and I went to Santa Fe and had a great week out there. You do a lot of stuff. You chalk a lot of things up. I got to know my son-in-law's parents better. Little things like that. And then the big things, of course the Russian invasion of Ukraine and Israeli Hamas war and we got our former president indicted. All that stuff, Constant news.

Mark Wolak 11:19

Yeah, it's funny how close to home all of that is. Our oldest son has a tour of duty in the Ukraine Working with USAID. Would love to have him do a podcast but he can't do that in the job he's in. But he's working right in Kiev where all the drones and he's right in the thick of it then, he's in the thick of it, so it hits pretty close to home. Our daughter had a baby boy.

Joe Boyle 11:48

Congratulations on that.

Mark Wolak 11:50

Yeah, so another October baby, so that's fun. He's three months old now. Yeah, he's a fun little guy.

Joe Boyle 12:00

I got a chance to get to know him a little bit too.

Mark Wolak 12:04

So it was a fast year, a good year, but we also had a lot of things that happened to us, that happened to people every day, which is family things happen, work, things happen.

Joe Boyle 12:17

I got to see my oldest daughter's band perform a few times. Crazy Larry, they're fun.

Stories in 2024

Mark Wolak 12:24

That sounds like a good thing to do. And she's a lead singer, right? Well, she's the lead female singer. Okay, okay, that's great. So, yeah, it's quite a year. We're anticipating at least to our best effort, a couple episodes each month. So maybe this year we'll hit 20-24 episodes. We'll see how life, what life, allows for us, but this is a very creative process and it's been a tremendous amount of fun doing this with you, joe.

Joe Boyle 12:58

Well, it's been a privilege to do this with you, mark. It was kind of our mutual brainchild, but again, you're the one that kind of pushed it along.

Mark Wolak 13:12

So what should we do for 2024? We've got a couple ideas. What are some of your favorite ideas for the year?

Joe Boyle 13:19

Well, we're talking about doing male friendships and everything that goes along with that. That could be kind of neat.

Mark Wolak 13:28

Yeah, you know, the thing that I'm struck by is this is not just men, but the level of loneliness and despair in our country. Yeah, all age groups, people who are connected by technology and disconnected emotionally and spiritually with the people around them.

Joe Boyle 13:50

Yeah, you can be on social media all day long and be as lonely as can be.

Mark Wolak 13:54

Yeah. So I think that's kind of an inspiring maybe let's say a need for change. The other thing is we came across I believe it's a Harvard study the New York Times reported on the level of happiness in people, and one of the things that connects to our podcast and the theme of happiness is people need connection, absolutely, People need intimacy and they need to be able to talk to somebody when they need to talk to somebody, right, and so we're going to feature that a little bit. If we can bring some research in and bring some guests in, see, if we can't get a conversation going, not just for men Although I think we can do a series on male friendships and male relationships but, I think, just for people in general, our listeners in general what should they do to maybe do a little bit more connection in their life?

Joe Boyle 14:55

Women have that down, I think, much better than men do.

Mark Wolak 14:59

Better than men.

Joe Boyle 15:00

And we can learn from them. And you know men have to get by. The whole thing about being stoic all the time and that sort of thing, it doesn't get anybody anywhere.

Mark Wolak 15:13

I've got some interest in doing a couple more Lake Superior stories. There's some avid listeners around Lake Superior that have paid attention to what we're doing, and I'm thinking we could do a number of stories that are connected with Lake Superior. So that's on my wish list. Let's see.

Joe Boyle 15:34

I also have an acquaintance, actually a really good friend, who is a rounding third and heading home in his tenure as a QVC host, a longtime QVC host, 25 plus years now, and QVC is television. Yeah, that's that home shopping thing. They kind of started the whole thing and he's probably the most optimistic guy I know and I think he would be a really good guest.

Mark Wolak 16:09

Yeah, he'd be a lot of fun. We have some people that your daughter Emily knows who've walked the Pacific Crest Trail right.

Joe Boyle 16:16

Yep, yep, two young people they're late 20s, recently married, no children, accountants, and they decided they were going to do the Pacific Crest Trail and off they went all the way from Mexico to Canada.

Mark Wolak 16:34

Yeah, that sounds like a great episode. You know the other one I'm kind of intrigued with and we haven't explored this yet, we'll see if this makes sense but you know, every once in a while you see an obituary that tells a story's, a life story that is so remarkable that I feel like it almost should get attention on this show, sure, sure. So there's a couple of those that I've thought about. You know, bring, bring that to the listeners and and tell that person's life story. Yeah we should do that yeah.

Joe Boyle 17:11

And now it's time for Stories in Life. Art from the Heart, deep Thoughts from the Shallow End. Each episode, we bring you a poem, a song or a reading, just for you.

Mark Wolak 21:26

and that was Taylor Swift. From her album 1989, the Song Fearless. She now has had more number one hits than Elvis Presley and we recognize her for her accomplishments to date in 2023. Thank you, taylor Swift. You know one thing, joe, we forgot to mention in our 2023 review is that you and I got to see Willie Nelson live.

Joe Boyle 21:56

With trampled by turtles, allison Krause. Yeah, what a show. That was a great concert and, by the way, trampled by turtles are going to be playing at Red Rock this summer.

Joe Boyle 22:08

July, I think sometime. Wow, that would be a great show. I'd be tempted.

Mark Wolak 22:13

Yes, so you know, some of our listeners have appreciated the music we bring in and layer into the show, and I think one of the things that I've always enjoyed is really great music and wanting to, you know, sometimes share what I'm listening to. So we're going to continue to do that in 2024.

Joe Boyle 22:36

We're both products of our own generation and that sort of thing, but we appreciate some older stuff, some newer stuff you know, and I think that's reflected in the choices that we've made.

Mark Wolak 22:47

Yeah, so one of my, one of the artists I listened to the most, I think in probably 2023, was Willie Nelson. He just produced so many great albums during COVID and at his age, with his support from his band, all those collaborations that he does, yes.

Joe Boyle 23:05

And he keeps doing it too. He's putting it out right now yeah, how about you? Oh, I like Willie a lot myself, but I also like Mark Knopfler. And looking back on 2023, I have a newly revised soft spot for Jimmy Buffett with his passing.

Mark Wolak 23:26

Yeah, absolutely.

Joe Boyle 23:28

And maybe even we could maybe even work that into this episode.

Mark Wolak 23:32

Yeah, yeah, it's something to think about. You know all the great artists that we were able to listen to Van Morrison.

Joe Boyle 23:40

I listened to a lot. I know they all. What about the new stuff? Well, they, they span a lot of time. Yes, they do Decades.

Mark Wolak 23:48

Yes, you know so. So we should thank our listeners for giving us feedback and also for supporting the show. We really appreciate some of the pressure off of us.

Mark Wolak 23:59

And you know the kinds of things that we can do with listener support is to broaden our topics, improve our equipment, yeah, and and grow our audience globally, because it takes a little bit of skill and effort and time to do that. So thank you, listeners, for supporting us. Thank you very much. So it's been a great, a great run of of in 2023, joe and it was fun.

Mark Wolak 24:30

We learned a lot, and I think we can improve upon it, and so 2024 will ultimately be better, I think one thing we did hear and learn from our listeners is how much people appreciate art from the heart, yep, and so you know a little tongue in cheek there with our deep thoughts from the shallow end but we're going to keep that part of our show. We may tweak our intro and our outro a little bit, but we're going to keep art from the heart. Oh, absolutely.

Joe Boyle 24:59

All right.

Mark Wolak 25:00

Well, look forward to 2024 with you, Joe.

Closing Music

Joe Boyle 25:02

Thanks a lot, mark. New artist Steven Sanchez off his Angel Face album from 2023 until I found you.

Mark Wolak 25:15

That was just beautiful music selections. Good job, joe. All right, well, thank you, it's a great episode. Thanks, listeners, for being with us. We'll see you next time.