In this thought-provoking episode, Angie Austin brings forth conversations that challenge us to rethink the way we view our lives. Jim Stovall shares his insights on breaking free from a mediocre existence and what it means to truly live a fulfilling life. Through poignant anecdotes, including the tale of a man planning a new chapter post-incarceration, listeners are invited to reconsider the power of a single life-altering decision. Moreover, Angie’s conversation with Dr. Scott Adzick explores pioneering work in fetal surgery, offering hope and insights into life-saving medical advancements. As Dr. Adzick talks about training future specialists, the episode
00:00:00 Introduction to The Good News with Angie Austin
Welcome to The Good News with Angie Austin. Now, with The Good News, here’s Angie.
SPEAKER 03 :
Hello there, friend. Angie Austin, Jim Stovall with The Good News. And today we are talking about your best life. Sounds like the best column. I love this, Jim.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, thank you. It’s a phrase we all kind of borrow from Oprah. And she probably got it from somewhere else. But, you know, and the premise is that… we have a choice. We can live our best life. We can live our worst life. And, you know, I’m well aware of the fact that bad things happen to good people. And, you know, it can either be a something that defeats you or a springboard to greater success. And Walt Whitman said, I am not one person. I am many persons. You know, I’m a giant. I’m a dwarf. I’m wealthy. I’m poor. I’m you know, successful, I’m a failure, all these things, because he realized that inside of each of us is the potential to be all of those things. And, you know, we all have those moments, those days, those periods of time that change that. I had a gentleman in my office last week who I met at a fundraiser event I was doing for a Oh, a faith-based group that helps people getting out of prison. Okay. And he had made a horrible series of decisions when he was 15 years old, and it ended up with him killing a guy, and he spent the next 35 years of his life in the penitentiary. So I met him at age 50 when he just got out, and he had been in prison every day since he was 15. And, you know, and it’s just amazing. He recounted what happened to him that morning. And he made a couple of dumb decisions and put himself in a bad place. And there you go. I mean, it wasn’t some big conspiracy plan or something. It was a momentary thing. And his life is there. So he talked to me about the fact that, okay, that’s been your life up to now. But now you’re 50. For the next 35 years, you can decide what do you want your life to be. And you have to have a double good life from here on out to make up for that first part. So you’ve got to come back. You’re like a team. You’re two touchdowns behind. You’ve got to make up for this. And he’s making plans to do that. And we all have the ability to live a great life or a poor life. Unfortunately, most people… live right in the middle. They live a mediocre existence. And in our country today, Angie, it doesn’t take much to be mediocre. You can just kind of drift through life if you want to, and that’s where it is. Or you can change your life by changing your mind, and you can live a great life. And it’s all about making a decision. And you can have one moment right now today that changes that, just like the guy I told you about, When he was 15 years old, he had one moment he did something really stupid and ruined his life. Well, the contrary is true. We can all have one moment where we make our mind to change. I remember a moment like that for me, and my life will never be the same. I just don’t want to live like this anymore. I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired, and that’s it. And, you know, many things go back to that. And I just decided that’s it. We’re not living like this anymore.
SPEAKER 03 :
Was that the loaf of bread?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yes, indeed. Yeah, we miscalculated our groceries as we were going through the grocery store. And Crystal had to go put back a loaf of bread. And it was embarrassing and frustrating. And I just said there is no reason I should ever live like this. I’m just not going to live like this anymore. And that changed my world.
SPEAKER 03 :
And you two, weren’t you first and second in your college class when you graduated?
SPEAKER 05 :
We were indeed. We were indeed. But we had gotten way in debt, and I was blind. And at that point, I thought disabilities means you couldn’t do stuff.
SPEAKER 03 :
Oh, interesting.
SPEAKER 05 :
Everything I knew about being blind, I learned from people that told me what that meant. And it’s no different than all of us going through life if we’re mediocre. Someone told us this is how you live. And people that live a pinnacle existence, a mountaintop existence, they either had somebody amazing tell them how they could live life, they read a book, or they just got a vision of who they could be, and they just decided, I’m not going to be that way anymore. And I read about once this bald eagle had fallen out of the nest and had been taken in through a set of circumstances. It ends up with a bunch of ducks that have just hatched. And this eagle, you know, was raised by this mama duck and, you know, and took on the character. This eagle thought he was a duck. And he walked like a duck, talked like a duck, you know, even started quacking like a duck. I mean, and took on those characteristics. Oh, my gosh. we have a tendency to become like our environment or the people around us, and we can change that. And any time we don’t like it, we can change the channel. Sometimes we act like it’s a wired-in broadcast and we’re stuck with this. No, you’ve got 500 channels. You can do anything with your life you want, and you change your life when you change your mind. And that’s why every once in a while you need somebody to come along And think, what would your best life look like? I mean, what would you do if you could do anything you wanted to do? Because the reality is that’s where we all live.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, what did you tell this guy? So he made a mistake, killed somebody when he was 15, didn’t plan it. And all these years later, he’s 50. What did you tell him to do in order to live his best life?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, I told him, first, we’ve all got to decide what it is we want. What do we want the end to look like? And he’s working on that right now. We’re going to have another meeting next month. But I said, then you got to look at what talents, abilities and experiences do you have? And he said, well, I don’t have any. I said, that’s where you’re wrong. There are people going into prison, getting out of prison. There are people who need to make quality decisions to stay out of prison. And you have a unique life. You can speak to those people. And you know what it’s like on the inside. You know what it’s like out here. And more than anybody I know, you can speak to that issue. And, you know, we talked about him, you know, consulting with people, writing a book, helping young people in high schools. I mean, you know, when you have a guy walk in and say, I’m 50 years old. I mean, you know, I’m as old as your parents and almost your grandparents standing here. And when I was your age that you are right now, I did something really stupid and I ended up this way. And, you know, and maybe you could help a handful of kids from avoiding that. And, uh, that would be a good life. You, you, you would be living your best life when you use the talents and abilities and experiences you’ve had to help other people. So he and I talked about that and, um, You know, and he’s got a job. He’s the place that I help raise money for. They help people get jobs, and it’s not a great job, but it’s a job. And he has an apartment, and it’s not a great apartment, but it’s a good place to start. And as he pointed out, it’s better than a jail cell, and the neighborhood’s better. So he’s feeling pretty good about it.
SPEAKER 03 :
Whenever I talk to interviewees that I find particularly interesting, I figure out where they got their passion for what they do. And one of the doctors that I’ve interviewed that is coming up again is Dr. Adzik, and he does fetal surgery. And he told me, I’ll never forget, of all the thousands of interviews, I’ll never forget, he said, what’s the most satisfying thing about your work? Or when have you felt like, wow, I’m really doing something that makes a difference? He goes, well, every year when I go to the big party for the kids that I’ve done fetal surgery on, so it might be heart surgery while the baby’s in the womb that saves its life. He goes, I see him throwing the football and having a great time together, enjoying the party, eating their hot dogs or whatever they’re having. And he said, and I think, wow, this is really great work that I do. This is this is really I’m making a difference. This is very satisfying. I thought, wow, what a cool thing, because he’s working on cleft palates and club feet, heart surgeries, spina bifida, you know, all these things that we never would have operated on a baby in the womb. Right. It’s just so fascinating to me. And so I started talking more recently about like finding your passion. Like you said, what are you interested in? What are your skills like? you know, what are your values, where do you think you could add, whether it’s, you know, a job where you’re going to get paid, or whether it’s going to be volunteer work, because I’ve been writing all this down myself, trying to figure out, you know, what I’m going to do next, as my kids are, one, another one’s leaving this year, you know, Riley just went up to, moved up to campus just recently, because he’d been commuting, and then the next one goes to Tennessee in about six months, and then I’ll have one left at home, so really just thinking about, you know, what’s next, so I like, you know, how you are kind of setting him on the right path to what he wants to do next after all those years in prison and knowing that he can still make a difference.
SPEAKER 05 :
Oh, absolutely. We all have the ability to do that. And then sometimes we forget, like you were talking about your doctor. I met a young lady the other day, a young lady, and she’s probably in her mid-40s, and I was speaking at a university. And she’s the dean of admissions and teaches at the university, and she came up and introduced herself. I said, it’s nice to meet you. And she said, you don’t know who I am, do you? And I said, well, you just told me who you are. And she said, no, no, no, no. 1988, I’m a college freshman. I ran out of money. I was getting ready to drop out of the university and go back to my job as a waitress. I went to the mailbox there on campus to turn in my key. I had one envelope left there, and it was a letter from you telling me I got a scholarship. And I finished college and got a graduate degree, and now I’m dean of this university. And she said, it all started because you made that envelope happen. And I said, well, thank you, but no, you made all that happen. You did every bit of that. But I said, I will tell you, from time to time, it’s a hassle running a scholarship, and you just gave me plenty of motivation for the next 10 years. I’m good to go.
SPEAKER 02 :
Wow.
SPEAKER 03 :
That is, that’s, whew. Well, speaking of making an impact, there you did, but I want to tell you one other thing. You know my friend Dr. Cheryl Lynch, she’s a professor and just a really neat lady, and she writes books as well, and she wrote me a note the other day, and she said, she I’m reading Jim Stovall’s book, The Gift of a Day, 100 Doses of Winner’s Wisdom. And this quote from Chapter 7, Crystallize What I Do. Could we do a segment on this sometime? I’d really like to talk about it because Jim has such a way with words. And here’s what he said that brought me to tears. And the quote, I’ll start with the whole thing, but then I’ll highlight what you said that made her cry. Influence can be either good or bad, and it can be overt or subtle. We are all being influenced, and we are all influencing others every day. And here’s the part that got her. If we learn something, we change our world. If we teach something, we change another person’s world. But if we teach people to teach, we change the whole world. And she said that really encapsulates what she does as a professor, and that made her cry.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, that is good. I think we ought to laugh some every day, cry some every day, have good memories. And, you know, that needs to be a regular part of our day. And it’s a good thing. And please tell her I am greatly honored.
SPEAKER 03 :
She’s a good one. All right. So in your best life, we’ve got about a minute left. What’s our takeaway here?
SPEAKER 05 :
Examine the life you’re living right now. We spend very little time. We spend our lives worrying about stuff that happened in the past we can’t do anything about or fretting about stuff in the future that may or may not even happen. And we never take a look at what am I doing right now and is this really what I want to do or did I just kind of end up here? You know, someone told me to get in that line and here I am. And really take it, do it on purpose and, you know, really start living your best life.
SPEAKER 03 :
And I love it. You always say, today’s the day. And it says, you and I are much the same, and our best lives await. As you go through your day today, trade your ordinary life for your best life, because today’s the day. And that’s jimstovall.com, jimstovall.com. Thank you, my friend.
SPEAKER 05 :
Thank you. Be well.
SPEAKER 03 :
You be well. Brighton is tuned to the mighty 670 KLT Denver.
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Hey there, friend. Angie Austin here with the good news. Well, I’m really excited about our next interview. Did you know that nearly 150,000 babies every year are born in the U.S. with birth defects, many with conditions so rare that some of the parents and clinicians have never even heard of them? approximately 5,000 fetal surgeries done worldwide to treat these birth defects. A quarter of them had been performed at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Scott Adzick is a fetal surgeon who specializes in treating these babies’ unique needs. And today we’re discussing advancements that will save even more lives. And we’ve had Dr. Adzik on the show before and over 30 years in TV news and radio news. I worked at NBC for many years. I’ve interviewed thousands of people. And Dr. Adzik is one of my all time favorite interviews, which he doesn’t even know this. His work is fascinating and lifesaving. Welcome back, doctor.
SPEAKER 06 :
Geez, thanks for the introduction, Angie. That was awesome.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I’m fascinated by people’s passion for what they do. And I asked you once, hey, what’s satisfying about your work? You know, what gives you great, you know, satisfaction? And you said these kids come back for this like party that you have to celebrate the kids who’ve been saved, you know, in, you know, you’ve operated on them before they’ve even been born and you’re like and here they are like teenagers and they’re throwing the football and you know I mean not you’re humble but they’re alive because in some cases you did this surgery on them and you’re watching all of these kids playing that really I mean you kind of help save their lives I mean that’s so cool that’s very cool and you’re right and that sort of sounds a little bit like me I don’t even need to do the interview I mean you the line look
SPEAKER 06 :
It is true that each year in June, actually this year is on June 1st, Sunday at the Philadelphia Zoo, you’re invited. Oh, I’d love to go. I have a fetal family reunion and patients, children and their families come back. And last year we had over 3,000 people there. And that’s usually for the most part just folks who are local and regional, not just who are national since the program was started. It was started in 1995. This is 30 years for us. We’ve had more than 33,000 pregnant women carrying babies with birth defects referred to us from all 50 states and from more than 70 countries. So that is inspiring. There’s so many children whose babies likely could have died running around and growing up healthy and strong. Actually, there’s nothing better. Nothing better.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I want to talk a little bit about some of the advancements, because this is so fascinating to me anyway, that you can operate on a baby while it’s still in the mom’s tummy. I mean, to put it down to the basics of what you do, but I mean, it’s so technical and they’re so tiny. Talk about some of the birth defects that you can help via this surgery.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, well, there’s a whole long list. and we’ve been fortunate to be pioneers in many of them. The two most common, though, I’ll touch on are spina bifida and twin-twin transfusions. What’s spina bifida? Well, you know, but I’ll explain it to your listeners. That’s where, in the developing fetus, the tissues around the spinal cord don’t develop normally, so the spinal cord and the associated nerves are exposed to the in-utero environment, which is principally amniotic fluid, which in the third trimester is quite neurotoxic, destroy the developing spinal. These children, when they’re born, they’re likely to eventually be wheelchair-bound, have motor function problems, have hydrocephalus, fluid on the brain, require a ventricular peritoneal shunt to drain the fluid into the abdomen, and so on and so forth. We can now treat this condition in selected cases. Before birth, we’ve done about 500 of these operations since I think it was the first one in 1998. And the children who have the operation between 23 and 26 weeks gestation, in an operation, it’s on average about 70 minutes. The outcomes, this is not a cure completely for spondylobifida. Children that have this before birth are much more likely to walk, have much better motor functions. Much less likely to have hydrocephalus, much less likely to need one of those shunt tubes. That’s reporting and we’re now doing, obviously, the long-term follow-up. The first case was in 1998. We’re now doing the follow-up, which goes back almost 30 years.
SPEAKER 03 :
The condition is about… And I hate to interrupt you, but for people that aren’t as familiar with it, I had a girlfriend who was very young when she had her first baby. She’s now in her 20s. And they told her that her baby had spina bifida and said, when do you want to schedule the abortion, basically? And she was like, what? You know, she didn’t even know what it was. And so she, you know, did some research, et cetera. And this kid is amazing. They have four, five kids. And she’s like the light of their lives and helps with the other kids, et cetera. And, you know, she does have some issues with walking, et cetera, wears braces. But, you know, a high functioning mentally, you know, has graduated from high school and did really well. But I mean, that’s the option that some people are given and they don’t even know about you. So that’s another reason I think what you do is so amazing. Like people who would have not kept their baby… we’re letting people know that, hey, there’s this other option where they can have a much better, possibly, quality of life if they have this fetal surgery. So I just wanted to throw that in there.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and that’s one of the reasons why we’re doing the interview now, just for information so that folks can be knowledgeable and aware. The second most common operation we do is an operation for twin-twin transfusion syndromes called fetoscopic laser therapy. Well, what is that? Well, Twin-twin transfusion syndrome, TTTS for short, is identical twins in the uterus, of course, each within their own amniotic sac. As opposed to each of the two twins having their own placenta, which is the disc between the mother and the fetus’s umbilical cord, these twins share a placental disc, one placenta. And the setup is that there’s an imbalance of circulation such that there are abnormal crossing blood vessels from one side to the other, such that one twin, one identical twin, gets too much blood and develops congestive heart failure, and the other twin doesn’t get enough blood and goes into kidney failure, and both twins will go on to die, unless you do fetoscopic laser therapy. So what is that? Well, the mother has sedation, sedation, It’s a fetus coat placed through her abdominal wall, like laparoscopy, into the uterus. We visualize that the sona use a laser fiber that will coagulate or occlude those culprit vessels. And in most instances, both twins save.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, the work you do is so highly specialized. And I was reading about an award you received last year. And in the article I was reading, it said that you trained over 50 other or helped, you know, train 50 other doctors. And it talked about other people. So not only are you doing this groundbreaking surgery, but, you know, in Philadelphia, you’re also helping, you know, other younger people learn to do what you do, because obviously there will be a time when you’re not doing this anymore. So I think that’s pretty a pretty cool privilege as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
I think so, and it’s an important part of our mission, of course, to train future professors who now run fetal programs throughout North America, South America, Europe, Far East. That’s very gratifying, and it provides greater access for more patients, more unborn patients.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I could talk to you for another half an hour, but I know that I’ve got a time limit here, so we’ve got another minute. Besides giving us the website, what else do you want us to know?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, the future’s bright. Talked a little bit about the artificial womb, about in-utero gene editing. There’s a lot of other stuff going on. Very, very, very exciting. That’s three varies.
SPEAKER 02 :
Would you give us the website so we can get more information, doctor? And I’d love to have you back. You’re always welcome on the good news.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you. Fetal surgery, one word, that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, always a pleasure. Dr. Scott Adzik, always a pleasure to have you on fetalsurgery.chop.edu. Thank you so much. A real blessing to have you on the show.
SPEAKER 06 :
Thank you.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, he is amazing. I just, like I said in the intro, I just was so, you know, I’ve interviewed him before. And when he told me the story about the kids, you know, getting together for that, you know, yearly party to kind of celebrate their lives, seeing those kids toss the football and play and do all those things and just be amazing. living their lives because of this fetal surgery that he has done on them for various issues. Some of the heart issues are obviously life-saving and the spina bifida surgery is life-changing. So, wow, I just think what he does is… I mean, not many people can do what he does. All right. So, and how cool that he’s training so many other physicians to, you know, do the kind of work that he does because it’s not that common. All right. So I started this last week where I told you, you know, let’s find our passions because I love to talk to all these people about how they, you know, got a passion for what they do in my 30 plus years now of interviewing thousands of people. I just love to hear why they chose what they do. And, You know, I’ve interviewed so many interesting people in, you know, politics or, you know, physicians always fascinate me. Their brains are so wonderful. And, you know, nonprofits, you know, my friend Lloyd Lewis that does work with kids with cognitive deficits. You know, kids are differently abled and, you know, maybe had a hard time getting through school. And, you know, he gives them benefits. jobs and they add so much to the organization. They have such big hearts. I mean, some of the kids that I’ve met with Down syndrome, his son has Down syndrome, are some of the most loving people I’ve ever met in my life. It’s like they have an extra gene for love, you know, and joy and happiness. So then that became his passion, you know, working with You know, young people, you know, who he employs over 500 now ambassadors. So how do we find our passion? And I’ve told you repeatedly, I’m looking for my next thing after my kids are raised. So what am I going to do? Am I going to volunteer with pets? You know, so as I mentioned last week, so number one, reflect on your interests, you know, minor animals, kids, older people. um being active hiking you know and then identify your strengths so you know i love ymca the rockies maybe i go up there you know in the summers and i lead hikes i knew a guy who did that and you live up there and you don’t really get paid much you just kind of get free room and board and spend the summer but you know ymca the rockies and that’s always kind of intrigued me how fun would that be um and then keep you know besides your strengths and you know what you’re interested in what do you spend your time on so pay attention to what you do in your free time you know what are you doing in your free time are you exercising are you Are you lifting? Are you spending time with your pets? Are you going for walks with your dogs? Are you volunteering at the local elementary school? Are you helping kids learn how to read? Are you volunteering? Like, you know, volunteering might be a great way too to figure out your next even career path, right? Because you can volunteer in an area of interest. Internships, I think, are great ways to really get your foot in the water. My daughter wants to be an attorney, and I’m like, you should definitely do an internship at a law office and really be with these attorneys and see what they do before you make that kind of a commitment to that kind of education. Explore new things. Try new activities. Meet new people. Connections. Meeting people is so important. Just getting out there, chatting with people. You can even ask for connections on social media. Hey, does anybody know anybody that works with animals? Does anybody know anyone that works in law? And people will connect you with people. It’s amazing what they do. I just had a really sweet friend of my daughter’s move to Colorado Springs and she was homeschooled and really involved in her church. And I knew a girl that I met at 10, who’s now close to 30. And I knew she was really involved in kids ministry, particularly working with young women. And I knew she’d have connections for her. So I just randomly connected them on text. And hopefully they’re going to be able to, you know, the older girls can be able to connect the younger girl to some other Christians in her community. So I’m very hopeful for that. And then journaling. I mentioned that last week to write down your thoughts, your feelings, your direction. I think sometimes we get direction when we kind of do prayer and journaling to kind of get an idea of, you know, where we want to go. And writing for me really helps me get those ideas out and put them on paper. And that kind of guides me. But then speaking of guidance, seek out someone, a mentor, a friend. I used to have an accountability partner, which was another newswoman in Los Angeles. She’s still the main anchor at Fox in L.A., And we would hold each other accountable every week. We’d go over, you know, what were your goals? Did you follow through on what you wanted to do? Did you do blah, blah, blah? So and then think about your values, you know, what might work for you, you know, in terms of your own values and what’s important to you. So, yeah, all of that. And, you know, of course, fears like get rid of those. Just go for it if you want to try something new. All right. This is Angie Austin. Thanks so much for listening to the good news.
SPEAKER 04 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
