Episodes

Hello again, I hope you are doing well today. I’m sharing this post because I want as many people as possible to benefit from the experiences and life lessons I share in my latest song. You could say I’ve been writing this song my whole life. Because everything I sing about in this song is part of my life. And today the whole thing is finally out in the world, all six verses, sung the only way I know how to sing it, which is acapella and with no editing. Watch What's Your Excuse? on YouTube http...

Hello again, I hope you are having a good week so far. I'm blessed to be speaking with JenniferGasner on the latest episode of my podcast What's Your Excuse? We discussed her life and how it changed as she was being diagnosed with Friedreich’s Ataxia,. Including her gradual transition to using a walker full time and eventually living in a wheel chair. She shared about how joining a support group lead to big changes in her life but not how I or you would have expected. And it was wonderful hearin...

Hello again, I hope you and the people you care about are doing well as we start the last month of 2025. Today, I'm excited to share a wonderful milestone in my professional writing career. I have had an article published in Consumer Reports. The Article The article is titled Clever Hacks to Maintain Independence With Vision Loss or Blindness. The article is about suggestions for people and their families adjusting to living with vision loss. I was encouraged to address the whole family as many ...

Hello again, I hope you have had a good weekend. Today, I'm sharing the first new episode of The What's Your Excuse? Show in over a year. This time I had the pleasure of speaking with Teri M. Brown a long-time award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, and even a Children's picture book. At first we talked about her writing and how being a novelist was a life long ambition that she finally got to do a few years ago. That lead to talking about her children's picture book because Little Lola and...

Hello again friends. I'm sorry to have been scarce over the last little while. So far this year I lost a laptop and had to have a Go Fund Me campaign to replace it. Then we had the Deraycho wind storms followed by hurricane Beryl. But during all that time I continued to sing and play around with writing songs. And I think I have come up with a really powerful song this time. In my first book I wrote about not waiting until tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, or that mythical time known a...

Hello again, I hope you and your family are all doing well. Personally, I have been struggling with some chronic pain in my right knee. Things are improving thanks to some physical therapy, but I'm still a work in progress. Today, I'm bringing you another great interview on What's Your Excuse. This time a return visit with my friends Anthony Saldana and Jason Figueira. And they will be talking more about Jason's experience with obsessive compulsive disorder and their work to raise money for a fi...

Hello again, I hope you and your family enjoyed the weekend together. And I hope that my latest What’s Your Excuse? with my new friend Donna Jodhan will educate, entertain, and motivate you to overcome your own excuses. Donna is an award-winning vision loss coach, crime fiction author, disability advocate, and host of two podcasts. In Ask Donna she uses her lived experience to answer people’s questions about life in general and about living with vision loss in particular. You can even send her y...

Hello again, I hope you and your family are doing as well as possible given all the challenges in the world these days. In this latest episode of What's Your Excuse? I sat down with Tyler Watson Vice President of Sales for Dan-O's Seasonings. I met Tyler as part of being an affiliate and advocate for Dan-O's. Mainly because their seasonings are no-salt, low sodium, and packed with flavor. Discovering their products allowed me to give my younger brother Patrick, an arrhythmia surviver, the gift o...

Hello again, I hope you and your family are doing as well as you possibly can. And I hope this post and the accompanying video will encourage you. I have written a second song called What's Your Excuse? I share some of my life's accomplishments in a way that I hope will challenge people to overcome the excuses that are holding them back. When you listen, please remember that I am not a professional singer, song writer, arranger, editor, or performer. I'm a guy who does the best he can at the mom...

Hello again, I hope you are doing well. I have to once again apologize for falling short on my podcast release schedule. In this case this episode of What’s Your Excuse? Was delayed by my trip to Washington DC to attend the national conference and Blind Leader Development Training Program of the American Foundation of the Blind. Not having been anywhere in person since the beginning of Covid, it took me much longer to get prepared to leave. Then the day before I ws scheduled to leave I fell in m...

Hello again, I hope you have had a good week so far. And I hope you are looking forward to a fun, relaxing, and maybe even fruitful weekend. This time on What’s Your Excuse? I’m lucky to be sharing an inspiring conversation I had with my wonderful friend and fellow author Amy Bovaird. We originally met through our volunteer work for the Vision Aware Peers Group. She is a very strong woman who has had to overcome so many setbacks in her life. We talked about her education as a teacher specializin...

Hello again, I hope you have all had a good weekend. I'm here to get your week off to a great start with the latest episode of What's Your Excuse? This time my guest is the awesome Jeff Smith. He is known as the KPI Guy, and I must confess that when we first met I wasn't sure he was a great fit for the show. Wow, am I glad that I exchanged emails with him and got to know him before deciding. He is one of those millions of kids who struggled in school because it wasn't his focus in life. He playe...

Hello again, I hope you are having a good week so far. On this week's episode of What's Your Excuse? I'm happy to be speaking with Gary Foster. He is the outreach advocate for Esight. It feels like Gary's life is like a song in three movements. He grew up an active outdoorsman who loved being in nature. He was totally healthy, and was active in his community. Then, he experienced vision loss. And for a while he was a bit lost. He talks about not feeling like himself. And then he discovered the E...

Hello again, I hope your week is going well so far. This time on What's Your Excuse? I'm honored to be speaking with The host of The Lowe Down Kevin Lowe. This interview happened as a result of my reaching out to be a guest on his podcast. I will share that wonderful interview with you in the very near future. If you want to know how I get on so many podcasts, or if you want to hire me to get you booked; then please schedule a call via my scheduling link. Kevin lost his vision suddenly after hav...

Hello again; I hope you are in good spirits today. On this episode of ">What's Your Excuse I'm lucky to be speaking with Angus Baskerville Angus had no trouble reaching out to me via linked in about coming on my show. With me being the if you don't ask guy, I had to respect him for that. But if you want some help putting yourself out there, I hope you will consider hiring me to be your online media publicist. Schedule an exploratory call at https://calendly.com/justask Topics We Covered We talke...

Hello again; I hope you have had a good week so far. This week on What's Your Excuse? I'm blessed to be able to speak with Charlene Norman. She shared about how she recovered from streptococcal meningitis that caused two seizures, two strokes, and left her in a coma for a week. Prior to this event in 2015 she was a very successful international business woman at the highest levels of the corporate world. She shared about how being thankful for being better off than many of the others in the same...

Hello again; I hope you have had a good weekend. And for those caught up in the conflict in Ukraine, my prayers are with you. Like I said at the beginning of this week of interviews, it's time like this when I feel the need to do even more to entertain, inspire, and uplift others. My last conversation as part of the 2022 Mobility Matters Conference was with it's organizer Amy Parker. We talked about the beginnings of Portland State's programs to train orientation & mobility teachers and their pr...

Hello again; I hope you have been enjoying these conversations. And while the event will be over by the time you hear this, maybe these conversations will encourage you to reach out to or start following these fine folks at PSU. This time I am speaking with Samantha Stephan a current student in the COMMS program at Portland State University. She is half-way through her masters certification in orientation and mobility instruction. I loved the obvious passion and energy that Samantha has for her ...

Hello again; I hope you are taking steps to care for yourself and your family while moving forward to your goals. I trust you were impressed by the progress that Mike May, his team, and others are doing to improve accessibility. You can Check out Mike's interview here. Just in case you haven't heard it yet. Please visit https://sites.google.com/pdx.edu/mobilitymatters2022 for more information about the event or to register to attend. Today, I'm speaking with Walt Marchbanks. He is the director o...

Hello again; I hope my conversation with Áine got your week off to a great start. For day two of my five posts in five days to honor Mobility Matters 2022 Today you will hear my conversation with Mike May. Mike is Chief Evangelist for Good Maps, Inc., a pedestrian navigation company with an emphasis on accessible navigation for people who are blind or visually impaired including indoor navigation. We talked about the progress that has been made in technology that allows people with disabilities,...

Hello again; I hope your week gets off to or has already gotten off to a great start. As promised here is my first interview with one of the primary presenters from Mobility Matters 2022 In fact this first conversation is with The keynote speaker Áine Kelly-Costello Áine is a former Paralympian, a journalist, an activist, and podcaster who happens to be blind. She is currently living with the long-term effects of Covid. Which include relocating to be with her family so she could get help with da...

Hello again; I hope you are having a good week so far. This time on What's Your Excuse? I'm happy to bring you a very inspiring woman named Linda Bjork. I was impressed with ow she handled not only one life-crushing event but a string of experiences that should have finished her. She first shared with me about the ancient Japanese art of Kintsugi. Kintsugi is the Japanese art of putting broken pottery pieces back together with gold — built on the idea that in embracing flaws and imperfections, y...

Hello again; I hope you are staying safe. Today, I'm bringing you a bonus episode of the podcast. I say that because I recently decided to move the release date of my show to Wednesdays to make it easier on me to help my friend Emily Trepanier with her podcast Shredding For Gold. I interviewed Emily back in September to coincide with the launch of her podcast on the What's Your Excuse? Network. Sadly, I ran into some computer troubles and allowed them to keep me from sharing this amazing convers...

Hello again; I hope that you are doing well in spite of all the world's challenges. One of the reasons that I bring you these interviews is to help keep you from being overwhelmed by all the bad news out there. And today I have a wonderful person to share with you. Jenna Ashlyn, is a real story of overcoming so much of the worst that one person can be subjected to by another. She endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from her husband. She went away to a city far from her home to support ...