The Neil Haley Show, Neil “The Media Giant” Haley, and David Hollenbach interview Ken McMullen. The Neil Haley Show is heard in over 180 countries and has over 3 million listeners a week. The Neil Haley Show is syndicated on 150+ stations.
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We're back to the O'haley show and I'm excited first to welcome
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Mike Cohost, David Holland back and Holland Back leadership.
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David, how are you? And I know you're excited about
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our guest and he's a podcaster growing but a great setup and a
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great mission. How are you, David?
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Yeah, I'm doing well. Thanks for having me again.
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Our our guest today is podcaster Ken McMullen.
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And Ken, you're going to talk about your journey as a
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podcaster and how you're using your faith to grow things to a
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level and your mission. Ken, thanks for stopping by,
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man. Yeah.
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Hey, thanks for having me. This is fun.
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Tell me how this whole thing, podcasting thing started.
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You have the great setup. I love it.
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I love your background. Everything Podcast.
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Thanks everything. How did it all start for you?
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Yeah, well, I haven't been doing it all that long, but back in
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the day, in my early youth, quarter century ago, I used to
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do radio. Then I went into VJ ING.
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So kind of music, television hosting and the television
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world. And I did that 8 to 10 years or
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so. That's what my major in school
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was, broadcaster and it was faith-based.
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I did all Christian pop music and I didn't do talking other
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than coming up the latest from Michael W.
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Smith, you know, it was kind of bad thing.
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So I did it locally. I did it in Nashville, Florida.
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And Long story short with that is, I kind of decided to go more
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hands on. Ministry then kind of went off
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into the family world and business world and and in the
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meantime this podcast world had developed and I got my hands in
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it a little bit through corporate kind of work and
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literally I was sitting on my couch in the a while back and I
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thought you know what I've got a a little bit of experience.
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In the past I used to interview people.
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I used to talk behind a mic. I have miss it.
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And now I know how this podcast I'm just gonna.
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I put up a web page that basically said, you know what,
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I've had an interesting life. I've met interesting people, and
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I'm just going to pop on not for YouTube fame or anything or
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monetization at first. I'm just going to bring on some
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of my old friends as an excuse to contact them and let some of
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my other friends hear their crazy stories and.
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So it started out as becoming outlaw stories of divine
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encounters. So it was kind of geared towards
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come and tell me your God story, like a ghost story, but from
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celebrities to everyday people to people you wouldn't even
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maybe know. We're Christian, but they've had
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some profound spiritual experience.
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Let's just put it out there and and it kind of it took off from
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there and getting great guests and it's morphed into.
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More of conversational theological scholars on We'll
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talk about the latest happenings in the Pentagon, what's going on
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with some guy saying that there's UF O's and the
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government's hiding it and I'll have a Hugh Ross Christians
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astrophysicist give his take on it.
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Or, or maybe I've had recently Frankie Ballard, a Christian
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music. Or excuse me, a country music
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star who in the last two years became a born Again believer and
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now is. Figuring out what that means for
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his country music career. And we'll just talk about it,
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you know, live on a podcast and that's really how it developed.
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And I I've just taken one episode at a time and it's kind
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of morphed into to where I'm at today and I kind of like where
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it's at. It's got a good vibe.
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Wow. Unbelievable how the Internet
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works, how we find each other. But go ahead, David, with a
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question you have for him. Yeah, no, I was checking out
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your website earlier. And you know the the path that
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you've been on has has led you well, has developed this passion
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for really being a a student of of religion and not just not
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just Christianity but you know, learning about.
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Various faiths, cults and that kind of thing.
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And and I like what you said on your website where it says that
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you're not looking for other truths but wanted to learn about
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these other faiths to improve the conversations that you've
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been having with people. And that, I mean that struck me
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as really interesting now from all these different
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conversations that you've been having.
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What would you say is the most profound conversation that
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you've had that was not a a Christian guest that you had?
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Yeah, so the answer is a doctor, Richard B Spence, who just
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retired as a professor of a history of the occult, Russian
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espionage. And secret societies from the
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University of Utah. And he hosts several history
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channel shows in other documentary type channels where
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it would be if you see secrets of the Masons, he could be
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hosting it. Secrets of the occult and it'd
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be like a 24 episode series and he does all the research and he
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hosts them. So his voice to me is iconic
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because I I watch all that kind of stuff.
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So he's a good example. The majority of people I have on
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the Becoming Outlaws is becoming Christian, basically.
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So there's stories of conversion, but it's expanded a
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little beyond that in that it's always, I'm a Christian, so I
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never take it out of that. But like what you were pointing
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out in the website is, I've always been interested in
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beliefs, systems, religions, cults.
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Not because I'm fascinated by the darkness of it or want to
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join them. It's because all society has
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been built on beliefs. And if you ignore that, you
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really don't know what's going on in the world and politics or
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government or society. Ancient cultures to moderning
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cultures they're built on. What do we believe as a human
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and then our community and our society.
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So I do enjoy and I will do more of it.
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But to get back to the answer of Doctor Spence is I asked if he
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would come on and after. He's not an occultist himself,
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he's an expert. However, he's a selfproclaimed
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agnostic, and in his view that would mean that he knows enough,
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has studied enough and has experienced enough to know that
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there's something spiritual out there and it's unknown and he's
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not sure what it is. But something's happening and he
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puts all religion and beliefs under the occult because.
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Occult means hidden knowledge, so probably my favorite.
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So he even puts Christianity under the occult.
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So my favorite was to invite him and he was surprised to be
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invited. But that's what I I don't want
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to be in the Christian culture clique, and I have lots of
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Christians that listen. But I also have New Agers.
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I have Buddhists. I have a cultist.
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I have some Satanist I know. And I get this is, it sounds
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like I shouldn't be proud of this, but I get the best
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feedback from them, and I'm the most proud of that because I
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don't back down on my faith at all.
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But I'm not judging where they're at.
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I'm trying to have conversations they might be interested in and
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treat them with respect because they're smart people and I
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respect them in the more than people that don't have a
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viewpoint in the spiritual world.
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So what? Richard B Spence.
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He was brave enough and kind enough to come on and share
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enlightening things about the occultic history of Santa Claus
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or whatever. It's pretty interesting
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actually. And I would.
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He then allowed me to ask him, what do you believe and why do
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you believe it? And he went into stories of like
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when he was younger and they were playing with the Ouija
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board. It spelt out that.
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It felt like it went by itself and it said this person,
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somebody in the room, was going to lose their head.
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And it wasn't soon after one of the group got decapitated in a
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car accident. And that directed his whole life
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and career to become a historian in the occult.
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Because he's fascinated in spiritual stories, because he
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knows that couldn't have been a coincidence.
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Something dark happened. So then I'm able to say.
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And listen respectfully to his viewpoint because he's a smart
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man and he has a viewpoint for a reason and he even he even grew
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up in a Christian Church. But that doesn't mean it took
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and and I'd say you like to hear spiritual stories.
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Would you like to hear mine. And then I'm able to, with a
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History Channel guy, sit in one-on-one, tell him what you
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would call my testimony and I feel like in.
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What I didn't want to start is just another church Bible study
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thing where the only people hearing me are the same people
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that already know this stuff. Yeah, exactly.
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You're going out and speaking it.
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So the What celebrities have you interviewed that are in the
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Christian world? Let's see who's on there.
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Oh, probably. I don't know if you call a
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celebrity. One of my most honored who came
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on early on was Dr. Elvita King. OK, I've had her on my show,
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too. She's in you.
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Yeah, back in the day. Just video audio back in the day
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when she was really popular and I reached out and all that.
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She's amazing, isn't she? Yep.
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Yeah, what she talked about. I asked her about her dad.
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Her dad's assassination. He was a civil rights leader
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just as much as her uncle. Side by side, just one guy has
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to be the front guy. But her dad was just as much.
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He got murdered in a pool soon after.
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After he it's she heard a phone conversation.
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Last thing she ever heard her dad say was yelling on the
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phone. I know you did it.
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And. He was like the next day found
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floating in his pool and he was an expert swimmer, stuff like
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that. But yeah, I have her on there
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singing a cappella. This little light of mine that
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was probably one of my highlights of everything I've
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ever done is having her sing that.
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So any of the other ones you said that you worked with back
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in the day in the Christian world, have you not had any of
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them on yet or not? Yeah, some people like Michael
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Card that I consider an icon and a founder of.
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Well, he comes out of the Jesus movement, music, folk music, and
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I'll probably have him and I again soon.
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He was one of my first ones. I'd like to go back to nostalgic
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to like when I was a kid in the 70s, I think of who was like a
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rock star to me, and now I can probably talk to them.
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So I go back and I got Don Francisco, the guy who did.
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He's alive, you hear like every. Easter Do you remember that
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song? It was in 1980.
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It was the song of the year. And Don Francisco, he's, he's
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still alive. Found him, brought him on.
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There's a lot of people that you'll be bringing on to have
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those conversations with, especially with the Christian
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world outs, populator, larity and all that stuff.
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And potentially to work with me because I do also interview a
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lot of people from the Chosen and all those places and all
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that stuff. So really trying to put some
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things together that could be a Co Co collaboration.
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Where's the best place people can find information on your
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podcast? Where can they go?
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Yeah, well, Dave was just on the website.
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I would go there. It's becoming outlaws.com and
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then you can find all the places you can follow on the podcast,
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which is pretty much every major podcast outlet I do have.
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I do throw out the reels on TikTok.
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This stuff is crazy. I probably get the most
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activity. You put a real out on TikTok on
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something of UFO thing. They go nuts on that stuff.
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TikTok, you know, I do put the stuff on YouTube, Spotify
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because it has video and I really hang out on Facebook a
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lot. I know the youngsters say all
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the old people are there, but I'm there and I have a I have a
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Becoming Outlaws community and I post everything there, blogs and
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in every episode. So well, it was great stuff.
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We appreciate you coming by and a great, great idea branding,
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right David with becoming Outlaws it's really good
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branding I I think. Yeah.
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And he's putting the time and then he's got some opportunities
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going. So we appreciate you coming on
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the show and thanks again all. Right.
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Thanks, Neil. Thanks.
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You're listening. I'm watching the Neil Haley show
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and we'll be back in just a moment.