Latest / The UNWavering Podcast / Behind the Mic, Behind the Red Glasses | Andy Youso '05

Transcript

Behind the Mic, Behind the Red Glasses | Andy Youso '05 · The UNWavering Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, this is Monty and Cassie.
0:02
SPEAKER_01: And welcome to another episode of the Unwavering podcast.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: Really excited for the guest that we have today, Andy Uso.
0:09
SPEAKER_01: But Cassie, before we get into this, do you have something that is like trademark Cassie?
0:15
SPEAKER_01: Like what is something that would be your trademark?
0:18
SPEAKER_03: Well, that's a great question and one I like to answer often.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
0:22
SPEAKER_03: Um, I would say I like a borderline ugly sweater.
0:26
SPEAKER_03: So fall and winter are really my jam.
0:29
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
0:29
SPEAKER_03: If I want people to question if I meant for it to be ugly or not.
0:34
SPEAKER_03: And that's when I feel most comfortable.
0:35
SPEAKER_03: So I'd say that's one of them.
0:37
SPEAKER_01: That's your trademark move.
0:38
SPEAKER_03: I think so.
0:39
SPEAKER_03: As Reliant K says.
0:41
SPEAKER_03: My trademark move.
0:42
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
0:42
SPEAKER_03: What do you have one?
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Really bad puns, I would say, works for me.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: Or optimism, maybe, is a trademark of mine.
0:48
SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure that I have any like physical traits that would be trademark other than just wearing purple all the time.
0:55
SPEAKER_01: It kind of comes with the domain of being one of my director.
0:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
0:59
SPEAKER_01: But you will understand why I asked you that question as we get to know our guest, Andy.
1:03
SPEAKER_01: There's a certain trademark about him that has come to stick.
1:06
SPEAKER_01: We'll ask him about that and so much more.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: Let's get into this episode.
1:10
SPEAKER_02: Join as we highlight the people, the purpose, and the pulse of Northwestern.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: This is the Unwavering Podcast.
1:35
SPEAKER_01: Andy is a 2005 graduate of the University of Northwestern St.
1:39
SPEAKER_01: Paul and an award-winning broadcaster who currently serves as the afternoon host on 98.5 KTIS.
1:46
SPEAKER_01: After beginning his radio career in South Dakota and Oklahoma, Andy returned to Minnesota and has spent more than a decade encouraging listeners through Christian radio, combining humor, authenticity, and a deep passion for helping people experience God's love.
2:01
SPEAKER_01: In addition to his work on air, Andy created and hosted Manly with Andy, Pursuing Biblical Manhood, a podcast featuring more than 140 conversations exploring faith, leadership, family, and what it means to pursue biblical manhood.
2:15
SPEAKER_01: Andy and his wife live in Minnesota with their three children.
2:18
SPEAKER_01: And when he's not behind a microphone, you can often find him enjoying sports, pinball, and investing in the people God has placed in his life.
2:26
SPEAKER_01: Andy, thank you so much for joining us today.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: It's great to be here.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: I I love how you sounded confused.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Pinball.
2:32
SPEAKER_04: Pinball just love it.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: You don't hear that every day.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: That might be my brand.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just honored to be here.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: God has just done some incredible things through Northwestern, and it's just, it's so much a part of my life and my story.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: Do you know how to use a microphone or do you need any uh orientation?
2:50
SPEAKER_00: I've had more time, I've had uh microphone in my face uh more of my life than not now, which is pretty crazy to think.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: Because when you said uh I graduated in 2005, I had to do the math.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: I go, well, that was 21 years ago, and I've been doing radio ever since.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a lot of times hours and you know, what do they say?
3:07
SPEAKER_00: The expert, you become an expert after 10,000 hours of something.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure I've talked into a microphone for 10,000 hours at least.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
3:15
SPEAKER_01: So is it more awkward for you to talk to somebody when there's actually a face in front of you or when it's when there's no face with just a microphone?
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's more awkward in person right now.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: Do you feel the awkwardness in the room?
3:26
SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
3:27
SPEAKER_03: You could cut it with a knife.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm used to being I'm used to being in a small padded room by myself.
3:33
SPEAKER_03: And it shows.
3:35
SPEAKER_03: Thank you.
3:36
unknown: Thank you.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: We joked with Andy before he came in here that uh Screech is not hiding somewhere in this room.
3:41
SPEAKER_01: The past couple homecomings.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: Screech has kind of attacked Andy to make sure to get the word out about homecoming, but this year they are friends, we can confirm.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: Okay, fr okay, so we've gone from friend enemies to friends.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Or at least getting along.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're still doing the whole uh Northwestern college student thing where you know you define the relationship.
3:58
SPEAKER_00: So we're still doing a D the DTR.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure about Screech yet.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: Let us know when you go on your walk.
4:03
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: I was gonna say next next homecoming we have to take a walk down a certain trail by the lake over there.
4:08
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but I think we need a whole episode on DTRs and the ones that we did as students.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I remember it.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: We didn't I didn't do the walk down the the nice.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: That would have been better.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Ours, mine was uh on the steps at the right in front of the student center.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Oh you know, I feel like there's a lot because those steps are so big, and you know, on the side there, no one's walking down that.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I may have seen other people sit on the steps and thank thought, boy, they're having the talk.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
4:32
SPEAKER_01: Was it right in front of the RA lounge?
4:34
SPEAKER_01: Because that could be kind of epic.
4:35
SPEAKER_01: Like this whole scene is going down and RAs are like rooting for you.
4:39
SPEAKER_03: Thankfully, there were no cell phone cameras back then to record it.
4:43
SPEAKER_03: But I can see where my DTR was.
4:45
SPEAKER_03: We're we're here at the KTIS building, the Mell, and I had my DTR with my husband across Snelling in those old apartments.
4:54
SPEAKER_01: And it went well, right?
4:56
SPEAKER_03: I think so.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
4:57
SPEAKER_03: Yep.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Good DTR.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
4:59
SPEAKER_03: Going on about 20 years, so I think we might make it.
5:02
SPEAKER_03: We might.
5:03
SPEAKER_03: Okay, well, we were talking about trademarks, a brand, if you will.
5:06
SPEAKER_03: And Andy, you have some red glasses.
5:09
SPEAKER_03: How did that how did that come about?
5:10
SPEAKER_03: Why red glasses?
5:11
SPEAKER_00: And why?
5:12
SPEAKER_00: That's a good question.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: So I I got to a point where I realized I can't see anymore.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: So I had to choose glasses, and yeah, I was looking online, and I thought, well, I could go for just kind of the classic whatever.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: But then there was a pair of red glasses that just stood out to me.
5:29
SPEAKER_00: And my wife goes, why don't you try it?
5:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're so cheap.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: And so I tried it, I got a few different colors too, just to kind of try some stuff out.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: And I kept gravitating to the giant red glasses because these are bigger than any other glasses.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: Like all the other ones were much smaller.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: And I I can't I wasn't quite sure yet.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: So I tried different ones, and then people started going, Where are your red glasses?
5:52
SPEAKER_03: Oh, interesting.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the glasses kind of chose me, and everyone else chose it that that's your brand.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: So uh it's it's been this way now for I don't know, 10 years.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, the website I go to, they still keep them in stock.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: So once they stop supplying, it's the same kind.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: And once they once it goes out of stock or style, I I don't know what I'm gonna do.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: I'll have to I I stop.
6:17
SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
6:18
SPEAKER_01: So you didn't choose the glass.
6:19
SPEAKER_01: The glasses chose you.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: It's like a wand situation going on here.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: Really?
6:22
SPEAKER_00: It did, it did, and then everyone else chose it for me too.
6:25
SPEAKER_00: So you know, and and and being being part of media and social media and radio and all that, it's like you gotta give the people what they want.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: So you want the red glasses, all right.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: You get the red glasses.
6:36
SPEAKER_03: Oh, and today you have shoes to match.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: I do.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: No, that's part of it too.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: It's it's the red shoes with the red glasses, and that's just to distract from everything else.
6:44
SPEAKER_03: Okay, I'm gonna get some then.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: That's great.
6:47
SPEAKER_03: Oh, that's great.
6:49
SPEAKER_03: Well, okay, so in your in the intro, Monty was confused.
6:53
SPEAKER_03: Maybe a question mark pinball.
6:55
SPEAKER_03: That's probably something people don't know about you.
6:57
SPEAKER_03: Is that the thing people don't know about you, or is there something else that we'd be surprised about?
7:01
SPEAKER_00: Oh, pinball, yeah.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: Whatever that that part of that little corner of the local bowling alley that's got like three machines, that's where I would be.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And that's where I do go.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: I I go to uh anytime I can find a pinball machine, I go.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: Love it.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: I actually compete competitively too.
7:16
SPEAKER_03: I did not know that was a thing.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: It is a thing.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm not great.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: At one point when I really when I really went for it, there was one year I thought I'm gonna go for it.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: I got up to rank, I was ranked to uh I think 50, 52 in Minnesota.
7:30
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
7:31
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: But now I play very rarely, so I'm not I'm I'm embarrassed of my rank.
7:36
SPEAKER_01: And so but well, and the and the Minnesota Pinball magazine only honors the top 50.
7:41
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: I I never made the cutoff, and you know, but I do know I have some friends that are much better than me.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh but other than that, I love outdoors.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: So I I like to hammock.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: And so I've hammocked in multiple countries.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh my most recent country I hammocked in was Kenya.
8:02
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: That was pretty cool.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, wherever I go, I bring my my camping travel hammock, and so I find a spot to hammock.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: So the the year before I hammocked in Iceland and Germany and Austria.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: So I always find a place to hammock wherever I go.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: It's like I gotta I gotta check it on the list.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
8:21
SPEAKER_01: What are the odds that you hammocked by a Neuschwinstein castle?
8:24
SPEAKER_01: Neuschwinstein in Germany.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: Multiple spots.
8:27
SPEAKER_01: Really?
8:28
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
8:29
SPEAKER_01: Dude, we we have that in common.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: You went there?
8:31
SPEAKER_00: We both hammocked by that castle.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: What?
8:33
SPEAKER_00: We stayed in Fusen, which is just down the hill from Neuschwinstein.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: So I hammocked in in Fusen, and then it's right on the border of Austria.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: So I just hiked, you know, just one of those little backpack trails.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: Uh to our to our room.
8:48
SPEAKER_03: Well, now I feel left out.
8:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, this is a bonding moment.
8:51
SPEAKER_03: Would you say that you spent 10,000 hours hammocking?
8:53
SPEAKER_03: I know you said you it's an expert after that.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: No, because I still don't know the best way to tie my rope between two trees and the hammock.
9:02
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: That's there's there's like there's a science to that, and I haven't figured it out.
9:05
SPEAKER_03: Sure, you're gonna need to bring stakes soon just to like put it on the ground.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a lot of work.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, whatever you do, like it's it says it's it's more impressive than it sounds.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, you just put up a hammock.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Well, yes, you have to find the two perfect distance hammocks, and then you gotta set it up.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: And anyway, it's it's it's an art.
9:21
SPEAKER_00: It is, and then and then by that point you think I am I I put a lot of work into this and now I'm gonna relax.
9:27
SPEAKER_03: So yeah.
9:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, it's a lot that sounds like too much work to relax and just gotta flop on the couch.
9:33
SPEAKER_03: That's fair.
9:34
SPEAKER_03: My method.
9:34
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
9:35
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
9:35
SPEAKER_03: Well, we're all learning, that's great.
9:38
SPEAKER_03: So okay, switching gears, what is the Lord teaching you these days?
9:44
SPEAKER_00: God's teaching me that you can get to a point of your life where you feel like you've arrived and you've never arrived.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: Also, you can get to that same point, and it's ironic because I'm at this point right now where I've had some success in my career and in my life, but then I also look at other people and I go, but I don't have what they have.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: It's like that meme you see of the like the old, like the the old TV passer that says, Lord, I've seen what you've done for other people.
10:13
SPEAKER_04: I want you to do that for me.
10:15
SPEAKER_00: That's my prayer a lot.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: Unironically.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh so that's what God's been teaching me, just in this like this season.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I was just reading this uh in my daughter, my youngest uh daughter is my youngest child's eight, and she has this book of just nature and what insects, whatever inside.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: She had it open to the page about monarch butterflies.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And there's this one little blurb that talks about how scientists it's they don't understand monarch butterflies and what they do because every year they mate in California, Mexico, then the male dies, then the female like flies north up to Minnesota pretty much.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Like just that's crazy too, because there's these little butterflies, and they just and as she's flying lays her eggs, she dies off.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: So that what they don't understand is how these new butterflies when they hatch, how they know where to go.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: But it said, and I thought it was such a cool way of saying it, but it said the scientists believe that there's gotta be some sort of internal GPS that gets the get this that guides them to the right place in the right season.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's god, that's God.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is God.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: And and if if if God can do that with a little monarch butterfly, how much more does he do that for you and for me?
11:35
SPEAKER_00: The right the the internal GPS that puts us at the right season at the right time.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So I mean, like after reading that, I go, okay, God, this is where I'm supposed to be.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: I it's not where I think I should be at this point in my life, but it's the right season at the right time.
11:51
SPEAKER_03: Wow.
11:52
SPEAKER_03: That was a beautiful tangent.
11:53
SPEAKER_01: That's a beautiful metaphor.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
11:55
SPEAKER_01: Like he's he's guiding us, and our journeys all look different for what that is.
12:00
SPEAKER_01: Like you just we just get to trust him one step at a time and stay in sync with where is he leading us in this season?
12:07
SPEAKER_01: And this time, how we say yes, right?
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and and you think of those butterflies, little wings, if there's a big wind, they can't go anywhere.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: You know, the myth.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: I mean, all the time, every day they're at the mercy of the wind because that's what's gonna get them all the way from Mexico up to Canada.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: That's where they built.
12:24
SPEAKER_03: And I bet they're just like, where am I going?
12:26
SPEAKER_03: Why are we doing this?
12:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm going backwards some days, forwards other days.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's kind of what God's been teaching me of that this is the season for you, Andy, and uh just you know, ride the wind.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to we don't have to fight against the wind.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: Just you just ride that current of God's grace.
12:43
SPEAKER_01: Well, it reminds me of what Jesus was teaching too with the sparrows.
12:46
SPEAKER_01: You know, do not be anxious about anything.
12:48
SPEAKER_01: If he cares for the sparrow, would he not also care for you?
12:52
SPEAKER_01: If he is going to guide the butterfly and cares about butterflies, does he not also care about your life and where he's calling you to?
12:59
SPEAKER_01: That's a good word, Andy.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that.
13:01
SPEAKER_01: Encouragement and uh praying that encourages somebody, including us.
13:04
SPEAKER_01: It's already encouraging us today.
13:05
SPEAKER_01: Um well, Andy, take us back to your Northwestern story because you're an alum from Northwestern as well.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: How did you end up at Northwestern in the first place?
13:12
SPEAKER_01: And then what happened from there?
13:14
SPEAKER_00: So uh my family's from Minnesota, but when I was uh a teenager, we moved from the Twin Cities out to Utah for my dad's job.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: So I was lived in the mountains, loved it, miss it.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: But my dad's wanted to get me back here for college.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to go to a place with a broadcast department because I I thought I was gonna become uh a TV weather guy because I grew up here, Carolyn, Paul Douglas.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: If you if you were growing up in that era, like he was, I don't know why I liked him, but I loved him.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: I thought, I want to do that.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: So uh this was the option.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: I said, I don't care where I go, I just need a place where I can do broadcast.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And my dad said, Well, Northwestern's got it, great.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: So then I came here in 2001 and freshman orientation.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: There was a breakout session for broadcast students, and they said, if you want to try the radio track, you can just sign up to have a radio show.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: And I thought, well, I'll just give it a go because that sounds kind of fun.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: And then I had my very first radio show a few weeks later, and I just I didn't look back.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: I just thought this was so much fun.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And I just that's what I've been doing ever since.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: So 2001 to today, so 25 years, just about.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: You locked in that first, that first week.
14:25
SPEAKER_01: You're like, yep, this is it.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm just like I'm a weird creature of habit, and and so I just thought, I don't know.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, like God just put that desire in my heart.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I would always tell people that I'm I'm one of those weird people that actually went to college for the thing that I'm doing my whole life.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, that was my major, that was what I did, and I'm still doing it to this day.
14:45
SPEAKER_03: And if they had said weathermen this way, you might have gone that direction.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, maybe.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: And that's good.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And I still get to do weather stuff.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if I really want to, but I mean what I get to do is so much more than just telling people the weather.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: So I love it.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: God, God used it, used my talents and abilities in a way that only I could.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: And only he could have done, and I ended up losing my hair anyway.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, you've got to have the TV thing, is you and if you look at the TV guys, they all have great hair.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: So I don't I couldn't have done it.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: I could God was saving me from that path of getting halfway through it and then somebody telling me, buddy, well, the hair's gone.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: So there goes your career.
15:22
SPEAKER_04: Shoot.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want to get more into your career in just a second and kind of how you arrived where you are and how the Lord led you.
15:30
SPEAKER_01: Um but before we let's just stick around with your Northwestern story just a little bit longer.
15:34
SPEAKER_01: So you figured out your your lane really quickly, um, which is awesome.
15:38
SPEAKER_01: That was not my story, but looking back, how did your time in Northwestern shape you?
15:42
SPEAKER_01: So not just the professional side, but also spiritually and personally, the other aspects of you.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: I went um to Northwestern with a pretty uh gr surface level faith.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: Like I I I knew, I mean, I grew up in church, accepted Christ when I was like five or six, but never really had a deeper, deeper connection.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: And so coming to Northwestern, I got the tools, the you know, the Bible classes really helped.
16:10
SPEAKER_00: But then also being in an environment with other Christians and being encouraged and strengthened and challenged, uh, honestly, for a lot of that.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: And I just remember my Bible classes loving them, loving just the deeper things and going, Oh, these are things I just had no idea.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And I remember uh instantly connecting to the Bible in a way that I didn't ever connect with it growing up.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: And I remember going through Old Testament and Pentateuch and all that, and just the the rich stories that connected with me as a guy of like these battles and just these there's lots of blood and gore and guts in the Old Testament.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: And I just I never had, I never thought about reading it.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And and I just remember uh summers, I'd go back home to Utah and I was a camp counselor, and I remember telling, you know, these young boys and just being like, guys, just let's let's read about these awesome, epic battles in the Old Testament.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: Like there's so much there that as a young boy, I didn't really realize it.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: And so I was trying to open their eyes to that.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: So I mean I got to take what I learned and what I discovered at Northwester to just instantly apply it when I went home that summer and just had that connection of learning about it here and then living it out right away.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And so that was part of it.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: The other part was the connections with people I had.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Um instantly connected with some of my roommates that I had that that freshman year, which was great, and the guys in my hall.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: And the they're still the friendships I made there, uh my best friend to this day uh is one of the guys that uh was my roommate sophomore year and was also my co-host freshman year on my radio show.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Nice.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: So it all like it all worked out there.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: And then my other co-host, my freshman year, my radio show, when my my friend who is my became my roommate, he different quad, he had to, he couldn't be my co-host anymore, and I just needed somebody.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: So I told uh there were two girls with the the show before me that were together, and I'm like, can one of you just stake around for a little while?
18:08
SPEAKER_00: And one of them did and ended up becoming my wife.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh we fell in love on the air.
18:15
SPEAKER_00: I had no, I didn't know her at all.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: I didn't care.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I just need a warm body to talk to.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: We went there.
18:22
SPEAKER_03: And that's been the base of your relationship.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Well, really, it's a warm body to talk to, and she still talks to me at night, which is impressive.
18:28
SPEAKER_01: So have you written that song yet?
18:30
SPEAKER_01: That we've you fell in love in the air?
18:32
SPEAKER_01: Oh or fell in love on the air.
18:34
SPEAKER_01: I was in the air, but we were on the air.
18:37
SPEAKER_01: Something special happened there.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: What's that AI thing that you can make songs on now?
18:44
SPEAKER_03: Oh, yeah.
18:45
SPEAKER_03: Sona.
18:45
SPEAKER_03: Suno.
18:46
SPEAKER_03: Suno.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I use it all the time for my show, too.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: It's great.
18:49
SPEAKER_01: Well, now you know the one to we still have to write with that.
18:52
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is actually a good segue into your career, but you were talking about your student radio show.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: What was it called?
18:57
SPEAKER_01: What do you remember?
18:58
SPEAKER_00: So uh Flavor Country.
19:01
SPEAKER_00: And it's a joke.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: It's a joke.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: It's a joke.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: I remember going to uh a Christian radio convention with some Christian arts, and like, oh, like a country music show.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no, it's a it's a joke from The Simpsons.
19:12
SPEAKER_00: If you know it, you know it.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it's like uh so that was the name of it, just random whatever.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh and so that turned into doing radio for year, you know, for my student station years.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: And I had a show with a bunch of my friends later on, and then it kind of got all of this of learning how to do radio out of the way and doing it really poorly, and then to be able to go, okay, well, this doesn't work.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: And that's one the one thing I've learned in life is action produces information.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: So you can't try to juice say, I'm gonna I want all the my ducks in a row before I start doing it.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: No, you just gotta go do it.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: So that's what the great thing about here at Northwestern and where we're recording right now with the podcast is the student radio station, which has the same microphones that we have.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: I I say upstairs because literally right above this studio is where I broadcast every day.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: And when I was down here as a student, I wanted to go upstairs and now I am.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: It's the same microphones, it's the same board, it's the same equipment.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: So the only difference is you just learn how to do it and then you get better at it.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: So there's no there's no barrier to entry now where you just have to do it and you do it until you figure it out.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: And you figure out what's wrong or what what doesn't work to figure out what will work.
20:33
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
20:33
SPEAKER_03: Well, and for future students who are listening, that's great advice.
20:36
SPEAKER_03: I know when I was coming to Northwestern, my dad said, don't worry about not knowing things.
20:42
SPEAKER_03: That's why you're here to learn.
20:44
SPEAKER_03: Like people will think that they know a lot, but you're all dumb.
20:48
SPEAKER_03: So it's okay.
20:48
SPEAKER_01: And we've had several people on uh this podcast who have shared a similar thought, like in theater, for example.
20:55
SPEAKER_01: It's a safe place to fail.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: Like go try some stuff in theater and figure it out now before you get out in the real world.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like that's how it is in radio and video.
21:03
SPEAKER_01: Like, this is the time.
21:04
SPEAKER_01: So I love that you had that experience.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: Do that.
21:06
SPEAKER_01: And now welcome back down to our level.
21:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh thank you.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: I know this is probably where I belong more than upstairs.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: Again, you've never arrived.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: You've never arrived.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so you if you have to act like that and everything.
21:19
SPEAKER_01: That's good.
21:20
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for sharing that.
21:57
SPEAKER_03: So you had a great experience at Northwestern, it sounds like but what happened after?
22:00
SPEAKER_03: What were your first years of broadcasting like?
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Well, just like every college senior, there was that what am I gonna do now?
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Especially that uh that spring semester.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Uh I started applying to jobs and I wasn't hearing back from anyone and anything.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: And the radio business, especially, and I think maybe mostly the int entertainment business overall is like this.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of one of those don't call us, we'll call you things.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: So I'd apply for jobs and I would never hear back.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And I go, all right, well, I guess that that option's out.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: And so I remember graduating.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: And not having a job, and so I just kept doing.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Oh, also, I should say I graduated May 14th, and then I got married May 21st.
22:47
SPEAKER_03: Oh, okay.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not sure.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: I was ready to get married before I graduated, but my dad said he was he was very, very insistent that you would need to graduate and then get married.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's this you know, there's a process.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: Did you get married on the air?
23:03
unknown: No, I did not.
23:04
SPEAKER_00: I did not.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: But you waited a good long week.
23:06
SPEAKER_03: Right.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: I said well, because they still lived in Utah.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: I said, all right, you guys are moving up or you're coming up for a graduation and a wedding.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: We're just gonna take care of it all in one week.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: We did.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: So I graduated, got married a week later, and still had no idea what I was gonna do.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, did not have a full-time job.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: My wife worked full-time in retail.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: I delivered pizzas part-time because that's what I did uh my senior year of high of college.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: So I would grab I would deliver pizzas, wonder, God, what are you doing?
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the radios.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: I was delivering pizzas, saying that's what I want to do, God.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Why am I doing this?
23:39
SPEAKER_00: This is not what I planned.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: But then a few months later, I got a call from our sister station in Sioux Falls, and they had an opening that just opened up and they said, Would you consider?
23:52
SPEAKER_00: And at first I said no, because I really wanted to be here and I really want to do stuff at KTIS.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: But then they called back and they said, Well, would you reconsider?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And that was the God whacking me upside the head with the two by four saying, This is it, Andy.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: Like this is this is your opportunity.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna get here without going there.
24:13
SPEAKER_03: That was your monarch wind.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize it at that point.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: It was blowing me west.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Blowing me west to South Dakota.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: So I was there for four years.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: And my wife was, you know, she wanted to be here too.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: She wanted to stay here.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: She was from Northwestern.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: And I just kept saying, We'll come back, we'll get here, I promise.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: And then I was there for four years and I felt the wind blowing me south to Oklahoma.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: And I said to my wife, you know how I said I would get you back to Minnesota?
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm gonna take you further away from Minnesota.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: We're going to uh Oklahoma.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh and so I was there for four years, and I kept every time, but every time there was a position open at KTIS, I'd apply.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: I would apply, I'd apply, and I would hear back and hear no and hear no.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, eight years of wandering in the desert, as I like to call it, the wilderness.
25:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh we finally got back up here to KTIS, where I've been now for I think 14 years now.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 14 years.
25:13
SPEAKER_03: Oh, nice.
25:13
SPEAKER_03: And no going back to Oklahoma.
25:16
unknown: No, no.
25:17
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: It's funny because I'm an upper Midwestern guy through and through, and in and they could tell I wasn't from around.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: You're not from around here.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: No.
25:27
SPEAKER_03: All those accents, that's great.
25:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, we're glad you're here and glad you've been here so long.
25:31
SPEAKER_03: I am a radio dummy, so I really have no idea what your day looks like.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
25:37
SPEAKER_03: What is it?
25:37
SPEAKER_03: What is it you do in your day?
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Well, you you'd like to think that I think some people would think that I would just show up for my show for four hours, and no, it's five hours now from five to seven, and just you start talking about, but there's a lot of stuff that happens in between preparing for it.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: Most of the things I do actually they might sound might sound like I'm just ad-living, but 90% of the stuff I do is scripted.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: I write everything out to make sure that it's said the right way, to hit the point the way I want to hit the point.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Like we were talking about that butterfly story.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: I actually wrote that out.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: I took a picture of it.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: So, so the first half of my sh my show, my day is prep.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: That's what we call it prep.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: So I took a picture of that, of the of the book, and then I emailed to myself.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: That's my to-do list, my email of inbox, my to-do list.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: And then I started writing out how I would say that on the radio.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: Because the written word is different than the spoken word, too.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: So I can't just type it out and go, oh, that's gonna sound good, and it's gonna sound awful when I read it out loud.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: So it's typing it up so I'm prepared and ready.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: But then the other challenge is going on the air and not reading it word for word, making it sound like it's ad-libbed, inviting moments for the Holy Spirit to come in and just kind of nudge me maybe a different direction or add a little personal thing just to make it a little more personal.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Natural.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
27:03
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, natural.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Because that's you know, talking like I'm not a robot, I'm not AI, this is me.
27:09
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that now more than ever, the personal part is important.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: So I do that prep, and then it's checking emails, it's meetings, it's a lot of social stuff too.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: I had this conversation the other day with one of my coworkers who she just graduated from Northwestern, I think a year or two ago.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: So by the way, that that's the great thing about being here in the building is we get, I have an intern every year or every semester, and they're great, and I help them succeed in ways that I never did at that age.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: So they're way better than me in college.
27:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you're gonna get a good job, no problem.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: I was I was horrible.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: But so I was talking to this student that just graduated, so she's much more into socials than I am, and I'm trying to learn.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: And she made the point that the people that follow us on social media, it's almost like a completely different radio station.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Your social feed when you're just swiping uh up on TikTok, Instagram, whatever, that's radio.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: That's the new radio.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: There's the old radio, which will always be going on, hopefully.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, I have a job.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: And that, but there's also a new radio.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: And it was interesting because she was talking about how they don't necessarily ever connect.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: People can follow us on like KTIS, the Facebook, the Instagram, and they may never ever, they might not ever listen to the radio or the app, but they follow us on socials.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: So I'm learning how to take the breaks I do on the air and turn them into social media things that I can share.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: And so I trim them, put captions on them and stuff.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: So that's the other part that I do during the first part of my day before I go on the air, figure that out, put them on socials, and get a lot of that stuff that I did maybe the day before that was recorded on the in the studio and get them on social media.
28:52
unknown: Yeah.
28:53
SPEAKER_01: So do you catalog since you're already making the content?
28:55
SPEAKER_01: Like, are you are there future books coming out where you're gonna like revisit the lessons that the Lord has been showing you over these years that you've been sharing with people?
29:03
SPEAKER_01: Or like, oh, what are you gonna do with all that content?
29:06
SPEAKER_00: I I don't see the funny thing is I don't I and maybe I should save it, but every day I wipe the slate clean.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: I don't save the old stuff.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I I save the old audio, I don't save the old scripts.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: I think I at some point I I think I tried to start doing that, but I just realized it just was too much.
29:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh it's just it's so easy to keep everything and then not ever use it.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: You're like, you can be a digital hoarder of your stuff, right?
29:33
SPEAKER_00: I mean, just look, just look at your uh photo feed in your phone in your phone, right?
29:36
SPEAKER_00: It's just like I don't what am I gonna do with this picture of of a you know of a of a bucket of sweet Martha's from 10 years ago at the state fair?
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Like I get I take a bucket of the sweet Martha's every single year at the state fair.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: What am I gonna do with that?
29:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
29:49
SPEAKER_03: You might need that.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: You know, you might but I do save all of my audio because I can reuse it on the air.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Uh my rule of thumb, after doing this for 20 years, and I have a five-hour show on KTIS where I do probably about five content breaks an hour.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: So you think about that's five times five, twenty-five breaks an hour, six shows a week.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: So you're looking at what, a hundred and this is my northwestern math.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: 300 150?
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Right.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: 125.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, anyway.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Right.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 125.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh 125, 150, whatever uh breaks uh a week.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: Like how can I have 125 different thoughts a week?
30:32
SPEAKER_00: It just doesn't like it doesn't can't happen.
30:34
SPEAKER_03: And so Monty's wife can save it.
30:37
SPEAKER_03: Right.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Right.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: So what I do is I'll go back through my stuff and I save it all, and I see the last time I used it on the air, and my rule of thumb is if I don't remember it, I don't think the listener remembers it.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: So a lot of recycling, and I think that's important for you know a lot of people in in your job.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: You just you you just realize, I don't know.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: If you're a content in that content world at least.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: That's what that's that's what helps me just get through it so I'm not feeling like, oh, I gotta come up with new stuff every single day.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
31:04
SPEAKER_03: So that's a crazy amount of content between on the air, social media, everything.
31:09
SPEAKER_03: Where how do you get your ideas?
31:11
SPEAKER_03: Where do they come from?
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Well, I as I explained with that book, it's a lot of that.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: Right?
31:16
SPEAKER_00: I I'll see something and God will just go boom, like the butterfly thing.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Or today, uh it's a hot day in the summer as we're recording this, and I'm thinking I'm going to um give a shout out to the ice cream truck drivers today on the air.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Right.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Just like just those little things that just the thoughts that come to your mind, just random shower thoughts, I guess you'd call it.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: I go, I think I can make a break out of that.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: But it's also relationship stuff.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: It's also making sure that I'm I'm I'm in the word every single day.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: Like I can't, I can't go on the air and and fill other people spiritually, fill their cup, encourage them if I'm not being encouraged and filled.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: So that's where I gotta do every single morning, and I try.
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Some days I I miss out just because it's life, but and I and I don't have the time I want to, but I gotta start there, and that's where I just say, all right, God, you know, like if we believe that you're gonna supply all of our needs with everything, you're gonna also supply what you need me to say and encourage people with today.
32:17
unknown: Yeah.
32:17
SPEAKER_03: Sounds good.
32:18
SPEAKER_03: That's really good.
32:19
SPEAKER_03: So all right, so you've got your breaks and their songs.
32:22
SPEAKER_03: Do radio hosts get to pick the songs that play?
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh some might, but I don't.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: We have um somebody who is that's his job, our program director at a radio station.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: They help program the music and everything else.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: And he uses listeners and their input to decide what songs should play and what songs shouldn't.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: So I don't choose any of it.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And I'm actually okay with that because it's one less thing on my plate.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't have to worry about because here at when I was a student radio, I was like, I could do whatever.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: And this is before we had the computer automation, I was like right at the very beginning of that.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: So I literally every day I would do a show and I'd have to get a stack of CDs and I'd bring them and I'd be like put them in.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: So I'm glad I don't have to do that because that was enough where like every three minutes, like, oh, I gotta get a new CD to put in.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: No, I don't have to do that.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Just it plays, I talk, and that's good for both of us because you don't want to listen to the kind of music I like.
33:21
unknown: Okay.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I was into like early 2000s Christian ska.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: So if anyone knows Five Iron Frenzy or the Supertones or the Insiders or stuff like that.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of stuff that I still kind of listen to.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: So you know, like that's no one wants to listen to that.
33:38
SPEAKER_03: Like we all stick to what we loved as teenagers.
33:40
SPEAKER_03: Yes.
33:41
SPEAKER_03: Just love it.
33:42
SPEAKER_03: The W's.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Yep, you're the devil.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: The devil's bad.
33:45
SPEAKER_03: So good.
33:46
SPEAKER_03: The devil at you.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: So I love it.
33:48
SPEAKER_03: Find them anywhere.
33:49
SPEAKER_03: W's if you're listening, please put yourself on Spotify.
33:51
SPEAKER_03: Thanks.
33:52
SPEAKER_03: Um, that is awesome.
33:54
SPEAKER_03: Okay, so I'm a sucker for an embarrassing story.
33:56
SPEAKER_03: Do you have any embarrassing radio stories?
33:59
SPEAKER_00: A few.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: So my very first daily.
34:01
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Right.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Well, exactly exactly.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: If you listen, yeah, then then you know.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: But like my first show on the air.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: So I, you know, I had I had hoped to get on the air and didn't get the job and finally get down to South Dakota and Sioux Falls, and they put me on the air right away, and I think they thought that I was ready to be on the air right away.
34:19
SPEAKER_00: I really wasn't.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Especially because the very first day I was on the air was in the middle of the summer and there was severe weather.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: And if you know, you might not know the difference, but you know, there's a difference between a watch and a warning, right?
34:32
SPEAKER_00: Tornado watch means there's a potential for a tornado, be ready.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Tornado warning means there's a tornado on the ground, get in your basement right now.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: So, like one of my first breaks on the air, first day of radio, is I go on the air and I say, There is a tornado warning when it was only a watch.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: So I'm telling everybody listening, get in your basement right now.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: The tornado is coming.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: It was just a watch.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: There was no actual tornado.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: And so that was like I'll never forget that.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: That was like day one.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: And my my boss looks at me and goes, I'm gonna help you the first week while you're here.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: It gets you ready for on the air.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: Well, you had lots of people listening to you because they had nothing else they could do, right?
35:12
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's like a captive audience at that point.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Right.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: They think, oh, I'm in my basement.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: What's happening?
35:17
SPEAKER_00: What's happening, Andy?
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh so that was day one of just you gotta be humble.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: And and and that right after that, I had read in the Bible when Moses was talking to God, saying, I can't talk to Pharaoh, God, because he's all powerful, you know, he's like, he's Pharaoh.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: And God tells Moses, and this was a verse that was in my cube for years, as I was trying to get confidence, the word God says to Moses, go, you know, I who has given man to, you know, who has given you words to speak?
35:52
SPEAKER_00: Is it not I, the Lord?
35:53
SPEAKER_00: Now go, I will give you the words to speak.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: And so that was just the reminder to me every day.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: God's gonna give me the words to speak, God's gonna give me the words to speak so I can handle it.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: So that's how what helped get me through that first embarrassing moment.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: See what other embarrassing moments there was an embarrassing moment where uh for my podcast, I got some decently big names, nothing huge, but some cool guy, like some really cool guys I talked to.
36:17
SPEAKER_00: But I was so excited.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: I had a uh an interview set up with Louis Giglio.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Louis Giglio, right?
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Like passion, big preacher guy.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: And for whatever reason, I had the time wrong in my calendar.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: And so I'm I was like a half hour behind.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I get in, I get into work and I was come, I was late for some reason to work.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: But I was like, okay, I'm gonna interview Louie at 9:30, so it's fine.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: I'll get in at like 9.15 and get set up.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: And so I get in at 9.15 and I'm checking my email, and his publicist is, Where are you?
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Louis waiting for you.
36:53
SPEAKER_00: Did we get the wrong link?
36:54
SPEAKER_00: What's the phone?
36:55
SPEAKER_00: And then finally, I go, okay, I'm here, I'm here.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: We can interview.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Oh, we'll have to reschedule.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: Never got to reschedule.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: No, never got to reschedule.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: So that was like the one that got away.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Sad.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: I know, Louis Giglio.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Louis, I'm sorry.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: It's not you, it's literally it is definitely me.
37:13
SPEAKER_03: Well, he is a major listener of our podcast, so we'll get him back.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Louie, and and and if you want to make it up to me, Louie, don't come on my podcast.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: Go on the unwavering pod.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: There you go.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: Yes, right.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: We'll take him.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: We'll be here early.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Oh my goodness.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: So, Andy, you've spent you've spent years talking to thousands of people on the radio every day through a mic.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: Like at the heart of it, what is your passion as a broadcaster?
37:41
SPEAKER_01: Like, what drives you and gives you the fire for what you do?
37:46
SPEAKER_00: The fact that God it would be so nice if God could just tell us one time, hey, I love you, I've got a plan for your life, and we go, All right, we're good.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: But for whatever reason, and He wants us to have a relationship with them too.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: So that's part of it.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: We need that reminder every day.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: It's just like that's the reason it says no don't fear 365 times in the Bible.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: It's like God knew we needed that reminder every single day.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: And so that's just what I help provide.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: And I have people call me, and I just it breaks my heart the calls I get of people that just say, Andy, I I don't know.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Does God really love me?
38:22
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Yes, yes, yes.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: And so that's just what I say over and over again on the air, and it feels like I'm just repetitive and repeating myself, but you just can't ever hear it enough.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: So that that's what motivates me.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: If I need to hear that, and if I have listeners that say that, and that that's I gotta say it until the day that God takes this away from me.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: I just have to keep reminding people that God loves you and has a plan for your life.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: God loves you, has a plan for your life, and it starts when you follow Him.
38:50
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's so good.
38:51
SPEAKER_01: Was that was that a part of what was driving you way back when you were just starting at Northwestern?
38:56
SPEAKER_01: Or is that something that the Lord has continued to show you more and more clearly along the way?
39:00
SPEAKER_00: I was not a mature believer.
39:02
SPEAKER_00: Coming to Northwestern, Northwestern helped with that.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: But just even, you know, even after leaving Northwestern, I mean I applied everywhere.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: Like it I I've been in Christian radio my whole career.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: That was not the design.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: That was not my design.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: I would have taken anything.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: I I would have worked at any station, anytime, anywhere.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Just I loved radio that much.
39:23
SPEAKER_00: I love radio that much.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: But now God has put me in this place where I've just done Christian radio and I'm I'm honored and and glad to have that because I've uh my brother worked in uh non-Christian radio for a few years.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I got to kind of see what that side looked like just from his perspective and him complaining about it all the time, and to the point where he's done no longer in radio.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: He's doing something else because it chewed him up and spit him out, because that's it's a tough business anyway.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's really tough when you don't have Jesus as the center of everything you do because it's a lot of you know it's it's part of the entertainment business.
39:58
SPEAKER_00: And you might not look at it that way, but you know, that's it's it's showbiz, man.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: It's it's you know, and so that's always about people just trying to claw each other on their way to the top, and it doesn't matter how we get there and who we step on on the way, and you know, the ends just justify the means.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: So I I so God put the I didn't have the desire necessarily to just do Christian radio and encourage people to follow Jesus, and and that was my whole goal.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: But the more I've done it, the more God has put that desire in my heart and has showed me that people need the Lord, man, and and there's just no no my especially now more than ever.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: People are looking for something in a world of instant everything and just it's it's so plastic and bring happiness.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: That is what brings people to Jesus now, I think, more than ever.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Because the world, what the world promises and offers isn't cutting it.
40:48
SPEAKER_00: And so I think that there's this great revival that's coming and is here, I believe, too.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: That I'm just honored to be a part of it of just saying, I'm gonna share Jesus and more people are finding it.
41:01
SPEAKER_01: So, what would you share to the person listening to this episode right now?
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Whew.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: What do you want me to share?
41:07
SPEAKER_00: What do I want to share?
41:09
SPEAKER_00: That first God loves you and has a plan for your life.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: If he has a plan for my life, he's got a plan for yours.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that it's not gonna look probably the way you thought it was going to, because my life verse now, I'd say like for the first part of my life, it was probably that verse in in in Exodus where you know God just tells Moses, go and I will give you the words to say.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Like I needed to hear that.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: Like I just needed to go.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: But now where I am a little more planted, a little more confident, but still wondering, God, what's next?
41:37
SPEAKER_00: Is this it?
41:38
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm at that, you know, midlife crisis stage where I go, all right, is am I gonna be doing radio my the rest of my life?
41:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Is radio gonna be around the rest of my life?
41:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: But whatever it is, I gotta trust God for it.
41:48
SPEAKER_00: So now my life first, and and I'll I'll share this with you.
41:51
SPEAKER_00: I think this will be a good uh message for anyone, hopefully, uh, is Ephesians 3.20, which says that God is able to do infinitely more than you can ever ask or imagine.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: And that's according to his power working within you.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: So it's not up to us.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: It's up to us to just say, God, all right, your power's working in me.
42:11
SPEAKER_00: My hands are out here, I don't know what's gonna happen next, but I'm gonna believe that you're doing something that I can't even wrap my mind around.
42:18
SPEAKER_00: So that's what God's doing in your life, too.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: When it's especially in those moments where you think, this doesn't feel the way I wanted it to feel, God.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: This doesn't feel like this is where you want me to go.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Trust God, have your hands out, be ready for him to show up.
42:32
SPEAKER_01: That's a good word, all the way back to what you shared at the beginning of this conversation with the butterfly analogy, to trust him, to not be anxious, to ready your heart for what he's gonna do in you today and what is coming in the future.
42:45
SPEAKER_01: Well, you mentioned the embarrassing story with Louis Gigu, and it that was all connected to the the Manly with Andy podcast.
42:51
SPEAKER_01: And I want to bring you in here again another time and really unpack a lot of the lessons of what you learned throughout that series of of episodes, I think 140 of them, right?
43:01
SPEAKER_01: And for you listening, if you want to check out um Manly with Andy and dive into the topic of biblical manhood, the episodes will forever live out there on on wherever you can find your podcast.
43:12
SPEAKER_01: So go find Manly with Andy, we'll get him back in here again to dive into that topic.
43:16
SPEAKER_01: But Andy, there's a question that we ask all the guests who come on to this podcast because it is the unwavering podcast, after all.
43:22
SPEAKER_01: So what does it mean to you to live in a way that is unwavering?
43:27
SPEAKER_00: It's to be bold.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: It's just to be bolder than ever.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: The world, as I just said, you know, the world needs truth, and the world's been told that they can live their own truth.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: And I think now the world is realizing I'm living my own truth and it's not working.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: It's not working.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: And so to be unwavering is to be able to say this is biblical truth, this is what Jesus said, it might make you uncomfortable.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: It will make you uncomfortable.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: It makes me uncomfortable when I go through what Jesus said over and over again, even in my life.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: But uh we have to believe that when Jesus says the truth will set you free, I am the way, the truth, and the life, that that is true, and it wasn't just 2,000 years ago.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: It is today, more than ever.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: So the truth will set you free, but at first it'll make you a little uncomfortable.
44:19
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that's good.
44:20
SPEAKER_01: His word is unwavering and true, and we get to be unwavering to mimic and mirror what is actually unwavering, not the other way around, where the word now matches us being the unwavering thing, right?
44:30
SPEAKER_01: So it's a chance to stand by truth.
44:32
SPEAKER_01: Well, Andy, thank you for taking time to join us.
44:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure uh if we looked at your calendar, you probably have like a pinball competition to get to or something.
44:40
SPEAKER_01: Um, but thanks for being a part of Homecoming this year in a different way than the promo video.
44:44
SPEAKER_01: And uh, it's fun to hear more of your story and thanks again for joining us.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no problem.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for letting me be part of this and uh go and uh go and believe that God has something that is more far greater than you could ever possibly imagine.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: Let's do it.
45:02
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: Go eagle.
45:04
SPEAKER_04: Hold it on to your promises, hold it on to your promises.
45:09
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: To hear more, subscribe and leave a rating wherever you listen.
45:14
SPEAKER_02: And if you know an alum, faculty member, staff, or student of Northwestern doing amazing things out in the world, let us know at alumni at unwsp.edu.
45:26
SPEAKER_02: The unwavering podcast, highlighting the people, the purpose, and the pulse of Northwestern.