This episode comes with a content warning. The story includes discussion of sexual assault, addiction, and suicide. Stephen Covey is a popular author, and he wrote the best-selling book titled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Great book, highly recommended. In that book, Covey tells a personal story that has come back to my mind many times in the years since I first read that book. This is what he wrote:“I remember a mini-paradigm shift I experienced one Sunday morning on a subway in New York. People were sitting quietly – some reading newspapers, some lost in thought, some resting with their eyes closed. It was a calm, peaceful scene.Then suddenly, a man and his children entered the subway car. The children were so loud and rambunctious that instantly the whole climate changed.The man sat down next to me and closed his eyes, apparently oblivious to the situation. The children were yelling back and forth, throwing things, even grabbing people’s papers. It was very disturbing. And yet, the man sitting next to me did nothing.It was difficult not to feel irritated. I could not believe that he could be so insensitive as to let his children run wild like that and do nothing about it, taking no responsibility at all. It was easy to see that everyone else on the subway felt irritated, too. So finally, with what I felt like was unusual patience and restraint, I turned to him and said, “Sir, your children are really disturbing a lot of people. I wonder if you couldn’t control them a little more?”The man lifted his gaze as if to come to a consciousness of the situation for the first time and said softly, “Oh, you’re right. I guess I should do something about it. We just came from the hospital where their mother died about an hour ago. I don’t know what do think, and I guess they don’t know who to handle it either.”Can you imagine what I felt at that moment? My paradigm shifted. Suddenly I saw things differently, and because I saw differently, I thought differently, I felt differently, I behaved differently. My irritation vanished. I didn’t have to worry about controlling my attitude or my behavior; my heart was filled with the man’s pain. Feelings of sympathy and compassion flowed freely. “Your wife just died? Oh I’m so sorry! Can you tell me about it? What can I do to help?” Everything changed in an instant.” I’ve never forgotten that story. All the people we encounter while we’re just going through our day to day lives…they’re going through things that we know nothing about. It’s easy to judge someone or form an opinion based on what we observe, but there are always other factors that we can’t see. I think, in a lot of cases, if we knew what was really going on, our anger or impatience might be replaced with empathy and compassion.My guest today is Kylie. She’s been through some trauma, and you’ll hear it in her voice as she talks with the 911 dispatcher. I think her story can help all of us to perhaps see things from a perspective other than our own.Resources:If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, you can get help immediately by calling the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Just dial 988 anytime day or night.Kylie used the AFSP (American Foundation for Suicide Prevention) website to find a support group for people who have suffered loss. You can get more information about this at:https://afsp.org/find-a-support-group/Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:https://WhatWasThatLike.com/125Kylie is in our podcast Facebook group. If you have a question for her, join the group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the other podcast guests are there as well). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Almost since the day I had the idea to start this podcast, I’ve wanted to talk to someone who has been struck by lightning.I mean, the thought that you could just be going about your day, maybe walking through a parking lot to go get some groceries, or even at home, maybe in your kitchen – and suddenly you could be hit by 300 million volts. And you never saw it coming. You might wake up a few minutes later – or maybe several hours later – and still not know what exactly happened, until someone tells you.But the reality is, a human being getting struck by lightning overall is pretty rare. I live in Florida, which is considered the lightning capital of the country. We average around 40 lightning injuries each year, which is still not many. And then there’s the fact that some lightning strike victims don’t survive, so they aren’t around to tell that story. So I’ve been looking around for a while, for someone with this experience to come on the podcast. And then, I connected with Josh. He lives not far from me, here in the Tampa Bay area. In the summer of 2022, just a few months ago, he was struck by lightning. A few people were with him at the time, and they saw it happen. But getting help was kind of difficult, because when Josh was struck by a bolt of lightning, he was on a boat – 100 miles offshore, in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.Josh’s video:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/UEltkDTBmrsCoast Guard rescue video:https://youtu.be/BDwMojzvJoEJosh’s website:https://www.thenautiviking.com/Full show notes and pictures for this episode are here:https://WhatWasThatLike.com/124This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp – professional online therapy. Get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS.This episode is also sponsored by StoryWorth – the easiest way for someone to write their life story! Save $10 on your first purchase at StoryWorth.com/WHAT.Check out the Compelled podcast – inspiring stories of people who have overcome – at CompelledPodcast.com.Want to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well)  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Content warning – this episode includes discussion of self-harm, addiction, and suicide.Have you ever had to deal with the problem of someone you know, like a family member or a friend, who’s gone missing?There’s this weird mixture of emotions, like frustration, because you just don’t know where this person is. And it’s also scary, because you don’t know what happened.My mom got a little taste of what that’s like years ago. And the person that was missing was me. I was 5 years old, and it was my very first day of school. You can hear my mom talking about what happened, in the opening moments of this episode.But not all missing person stories are resolved quickly or easily.The story you’re about to hear is from Alice, and it’s about the time when her brother, Jake, disappeared. Their whole family was worried, and they reported Jake to the police as a missing person. But eventually even the police gave up looking for Jake, and Alice knew it was up to her and the rest of the family to find him.Full show notes for this episode:https://WhatWasThatLike.com/123Western States Aerial Search:https://wsasearch.org/https://www.facebook.com/WesternStatesAerialSearchThis episode is sponsored by Uncommon Goods – your secret source for unique gifts! Get 15% off your first gift at UncommonGoods.com/WHAT.This episode is also sponsored by the Jordan Harbinger Show podcast – conversations with amazing people! Search for the Jordan Harbinger Show on any app including SpotifyAnd check out the podcast titled Some of My Best Friends Are – critical conversations about race in America. Just search for Some of My Best Friends Are, wherever you get podcasts.Get the full transcript for this episode and ALL previous episodes in a single digital download:WhatWasThatLike.com/transcriptsWant to discuss this episode and other things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I love all animals, but one of my favorites is the elephant.Couple of things you might not know about elephants:When you see a herd of elephants, the leader of that family group is one of the females. When a male elephant is born, he sticks around with the family until he’s around 12 years old, then he heads off on his own. The female elephants will usually stay with the family herd their whole lives.And even though elephants are the largest land mammal, they’re actually pretty fast – they can run up to 25 miles per hour (or about 40 kilometers per hour).And they’re incredibly intelligent (maybe that’s why they put the females in charge!). Elephants are one of the few species to recognize themselves in a mirror. And they have really complex emotions and compassion. They mourn the death of their loved ones, much like we do as humans.Today we’re going to hear from Ella, about the time she had an encounter with an elephant. For a while it was great – she felt like she was really connecting with this amazing creature. But suddenly things went very wrong.If you’d like to contact Ella:Instagram: @smella_freshWebsite: PlantBestie.comThis episode is sponsored by Storyworth, where your loved one’s memories are turned into a keepsake book. Save $10 on your first purchase at StoryWorth.com/WHAT.This episode is also sponsored by BetterHelp online therapy – save 10% on your first month at BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS.I know you like hearing stories, so you’ll want to check out the podcast called The Compulsive Storyteller at TheCompulsiveStoryteller.com.Get the full transcript for this episode and ALL previous episodes in a single digital download:WhatWasThatLike.com/transcriptsWant to discuss this episode and other interesting things with thousands of other WWTL listeners? Join our podcast Facebook group at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook (many of the podcast guests are there as well). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s time for a bonus episode!You’ve heard me talking about the Raw Audio episodes, and today you’ll hear a full, extra Raw Audio episode for yourself.Here’s the deal. If you like the What Was That Like podcast, you’re welcome to support the show, and like a lot of podcasters, that’s done through Patreon. All the details are at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.There are different levels of support, so you can do whatever you’re comfortable with. But if you sign up for $5 a month, you get access to all of the Raw Audio episodes. At the moment there are 27 of those, and Raw Audio 28 will be released later this month.What you’ll hear in these episodes are actual 911 calls. There are no scripts, there are no actors or re-enactments. This is real life - the actual phone calls made right then when the emergency was happening. And I’ll also tell you the story that goes with it – who was involved, what happened, and how it turned out. Most Raw Audio episodes cover 3 different stories.So today, in this extra bonus episode, you’ll hear 3 of those calls. If you decide you want to sign up and binge the other 27 episodes, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.So let’s get on with today’s show! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No matter where you live, there’s the possibility of experiencing some kind of bad weather.We lived in Maine for about 13 years. And since I was self employed and could pretty much dictate my own schedule, I decided to work part-time for my town’s EMS service. So I got trained in emergency response, and was often called out when someone called 911 with a medical emergency or an injury. And usually I was working with a paramedic, who was pretty much in charge of the situation because they were more experienced. I would do whatever was needed to assist them and the patient, and a lot of times that meant I was driving the ambulance to the hospital while they took care of the patient in the back.There’s one call I remember pretty clearly. This was in the winter, at night, and we had just had a big snowstorm so the driving conditions were pretty bad. We got a call about a car accident. This was just a single vehicle crash – the person had lost control and run into a tree. We got there and found just one person, the driver, and she was still in the car with some broken bones. Her worst injury was her broken pelvis – she had what’s called an “open book” fracture, where the pelvis is broken into right and left halves. It’s really painful, and she was conscious and experiencing all of it.We got her out of the car and into the ambulance, and I was not looking forward to this trip. It was still snowing pretty hard, and it was dark, so the visibility was poor, and the roads were slippery. And this is rural Maine, so the hospital was not close by – we had to get to the hospital down in Portland. In perfect weather, it was about a 30 minute drive. On this night, it took more than an hour.And that was some high-stress driving. I had to kind of creep along and make sure I stayed on the road and didn’t slide off into the ditch. And there was the added pressure that this poor girl in the back was depending on my driving to get her to the emergency room. On top of that, she’s lying on her back with a badly broken pelvis, and every time I hit a bump in the road she would scream in pain and I would feel terrible because I hit that bump. We eventually got there, but that ride seemed to take forever.My guest today is Todd. He lives in Canada, and he has seen his share of bad winter weather. He’s also a truck driver, so in a lot of cases he finds himself driving his tractor trailer in those conditions. Most of the time, it’s no big deal. He’s used to it. With poor visibility and slippery roads, everyone on the highway just keeps moving forward, slowly and carefully, and eventually you get there. But there was one time he was driving during a bad snowstorm, and that slow forward movement came to a full stop. And that’s where he stayed.If you’d like to message Todd, you can email him at v8ed_s-10@hotmail.comJose sent in a voice mail, and you can see his tattoo work on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/gordotaub/Get the full transcript for this episode and ALL previous episodes in a single digital download:WhatWasThatLike.com/transcriptsThis episode is sponsored by Field of Greens – get your fruits and vegetables the easy way, and use the promo code WHAT for 15% off your first order – FieldofGreens.com.This episode is sponsored by Uncommon Goods – unique gifts from around the world for everyone on your list – get 15% off by visiting UncommonGoods.com/WHAT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I want you to take a moment, and think about the concept of trust.Often, trust is based on experience. When you go to a restaurant you really like, and you order your favorite dish, you trust that the ingredients they use aren’t outdated and spoiled. This is an easy thing, because you’ve done it hundreds of times before, at lots of different restaurants.When I need to have some work done on my car, I’m fortunate to have a mechanic who I can trust. I need to know that not only the repair was done properly, but that the car is also safe to drive when I get it back.And one of the places where we all have to place our trust is in our healthcare professionals. Whether you’re at your doctor for an annual checkup, or in the Emergency Room for something more serious, you have to trust that the doctors, and nurses, and the other medical people know what they’re doing.My guest today is Ashley. She went to the hospital one day, because she was about to give birth to her first child. She and her husband, Alden, were very excited about becoming parents. And when things started happening that were outside the norm, they trusted that the people in charge could figure it out.That’s not what happened.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp online therapy – get 10% off your first month at BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS.Check out the Compelled podcast – inspiring stories of people who have overcome – at CompelledPodcast.comPatrick Jones (Listener Story from September 9, 2022 episode):Website – pojones.comPodcast – whyillnevermakeit.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When it comes to television game shows, there are just a few that have been around for a very long time.A couple of those are Wheel of Fortune, and Jeopardy!. These shows have really become a part of American culture. But there’s another one that’s been on the air even longer than those two, because it’s currently the longest running game show in American TV history. That show is The Price Is Right.Chances are, you’ve probably watched it at some point. Just about everyone has. But there are a few things you may not know about this show.The Price Is Right has been seen on all three major networks – NBC, ABC and CBS. Yeah, that’s a bit of trivia from back when there were pretty much 3 channels on television to choose from.One of the hosts for many years was Bob Barker. And for a long time, his hair was dyed black. But he didn’t like the way it looked. At one point, when he was on vacation, he stopped dying his hair and let it go full gray. The producers of the show were worried about how viewers would respond. But it turns out, people loved Bob’s new look. And ratings went through the roof.A couple of well-known celebrities were contestants on TPIR, before they became famous – Aaron Paul was once a contestant. He played Jesse Pinkman on the really popular series, Breaking Bad. He got all the way to the showcase, but ended up overbidding so he didn’t win.The other one was Vanna White. Long before she became the famous and highly paid letter-turner on Wheel of Fortune, she was just another person on Contestant Row, trying to win something. But she actually never made it up on stage.If you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you know that a lot of the stories we talk about are really intense, and the guest may have gone through a huge tragedy. So sometimes I like to talk to someone who has been through something that’s still really unusual, but happy. My guest today is Fabiana, and she was in the studio audience for The Price Is Right, and her name was called to “COME ON DOWN”, and she actually DID make it on stage. But there’s more to her story.Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Muchhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_Bid:_The_Contestant_Who_Knew_Too_MuchGet the full transcript for this episode and ALL previous episodes in a single digital download:WhatWasThatLike.com/transcriptsField of Greens – get your fruits and vegetables the easy way, and use the promo code WHAT for 15% off your first order – FieldofGreens.comJordan Harbinger Show – one of my favorite podcasts! Find it on any podcast app, or at JordanHarbinger.com/startProfoundly Pointless podcast – huge variety of interesting guests, and a great host! Find it on all podcast platforms, or at ProfoundlyPointless.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For a lot of Americans, the idea of traveling – being away from home – is just a routine part of life.Whether it’s a business trip or a vacation, getting on an airplane to go somewhere is pretty common. Most of us don’t think twice about it.But that’s not everyone. A recent survey of 2000 Americans revealed some interesting numbers.13% have never flown in an airplane.40% of those questioned said they have never left the country.And 11% of these people said they have never even been outside of the state where they were born.Those are some surprising statistics, but the fact remains that a lot of people here in the US still love to travel.And my guest today, Summer, was one of those people. She’s traveled all over the country, as well as internationally. And most of the time, it all went fine.What was scary was the time she left the United States, and couldn’t come back.Looking for a podcast that’s a lot like What Was That Like? Check out This is Actually Happening:https://wondery.com/shows/this-is-actually-happening/This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp – online counseling. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This weekend will mark the 21st anniversary of the terrorist attacks that happened on September 11, 2001.We all remember where we were when we first started to hear what was happening. It was such a big and horrible thing, the memory sticks with us. That might be why it seems like it wasn’t really that long ago. But think about it like this. A new baby that was born that year, is now a senior in college. There’s a whole generation who didn’t experience 9/11 in real time. They only know what they see on old news reports, or online articles, or documentaries. A big way we keep that memory alive is by hearing from people who were there – in New York City, or at the Pentagon, or in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.So, for the past few years on this podcast, around September 11, we’ve set aside a special episode to hear those stories. That’s what we’re doing today. You’re about to hear two ladies talk about what they experienced, and how they dealt with it.First is Siobhan. She was just 18 years old at the time. She has a YouTube channel, which I’ll link to in the show notes, and she told this story 10 years after it happened.The second story is from Jeanette. Her office was on the 16th floor, directly across the street from One World Trade. She told her story just last year, in 2021.At the end, I’ll have some important information about the 9/11 Tribute Museum, and a few other announcements.Never forget.Siobhan’s YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/LaDollyVita339/11 Tribute Museum:https://911TributeMuseum.orgSign the petition to save the museum:https://www.change.org/p/save-the-9-11-tribute-museumThis episode is sponsored by the Jordan Harbinger Show, a podcast I’ve subscribed to for years – JordanHarbinger.com/START. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices