Episode 82: Hurricanes Happen
In this solo episode of the Yes And podcast, the host reflects on recent natural disasters—Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma—and the collective kindness that emerged in their wake. He juxtaposes these external storms with personal upheavals, most notably the sudden passing of his mother, whom he affectionately calls "Juju" and describes as "Vibrant Joy." Using the improvisational "yes‑and" philosophy, he argues that while we cannot control the occurrence of crises, we can choose how to respond: first by accepting reality (the "yes"), then by acting purposefully and positively (the "and"). He critiques the tendency to personify disasters, urging listeners to see them as neutral forces rather than personal attacks. The episode also highlights community initiatives such as Rack Friday—random acts of kindness inspired by his mother—and outlines upcoming speaking engagements and collaborations. Throughout, the tone remains conversational, reflective, and uplifting, encouraging listeners to turn adversity into growth and to celebrate the goodwill that arises from storms, both literal and figurative.
In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet for just a moment. A yellow sky. When I was 17, a hurricane destroyed my town. I didn't drown. I couldn't swim.
And hello everyone, welcome to episode 82 of the weekly Yes And podcast. I have to admit, it hasn't been too weekly recently since for about the last month or so. I would say that I was on vacation, but it really wasn't on vacation. I was still up in Michigan, and with some circumstances that we'll talk a little bit about today, sort of got me off track. But you'll be happy to know that the frequency of the Weekly Yap will be continuing here soon. I've got some great guests' interviews lined up for the next couple of months that I'm really excited to share with all of you. But today is Another solo cast, and there's a lot to talk about. And today's episode is called Hurricanes Happen. And we're gonna talk about those hurricanes here in a little bit, the real ones like Harvey and Irma, as well as the other hurricanes that happen symbolically in our life. And how do we respond to them with a yes-and mindset? How do we respond to them with positivity? And how do we respond in a way with purpose that sets us up to be better and to actually grow and learn as a result. So that's what we're talking about here today, episode 82, Hurricanes Happen. And real quick, I think the last podcast that I was on, episode 81, I was talking about the work I was doing with UGA football. And I was gonna be speaking to the women's soccer team with Michigan State. And then I went to St. Louis and worked with all the sports teams and coaches with Principia College. And I just wanna say hello to all of them. I've been following them on social media. Obviously, UGA football got a huge win at Notre Dame this past weekend. So go Dawgs! And the women's soccer team, I've been following them along really well and watching how well the print athletic teams are doing as well. So love to share the Yes and with all those teams and really excited to go to Lakeville Schools in Michigan and, and share my Yes and message with their staff, as well as sharing the stage with Trevor Reagan from Train Ugly. He and I did the Growth Mindset Summit in Flint, Michigan a few weeks ago for Gear Up to Lead. And so a lot of great things have been going on, and I've got a lot of great ones that I'm looking forward to working with the Red Sox and the Cubs here in the coming weeks, and then going off to Colorado to work at the Lynx School and do some workshops. But because of Hurricane Irma down here in South Florida, the Creative Mornings that I was speaking at got postponed. So I'll let you know when, when that is coming back. And the Jove Improvisation. We are hoping to get back on stage here soon and really excited to bring some laughs back to everyone, especially down here in South Florida. So hurricanes happen. So yes, there have been a few hurricanes in our country this last month or so. Harvey and Irma. And of course, watching Harvey on the news and seeing the devastation and seeing the flooding. It was heartbreaking, absolutely heartbreaking to see what was going on in the city, to see the homes lost, to see the devastation. And it's almost this feeling of helplessness, especially to watch from afar. But what I'm always most amazed by in situations like this, and we see it all over the world, we see it, or we saw it at 9/11. Which obviously we just kind of had the 16th anniversary for recently. What I'm most impressed by are the people that go running towards, you know, running towards the tragedy, the people who share good, and you see the best of people in the worst of situations. And I think we have seen that with Harvey. We see that with all these different tragedies that happen around the world, and the people who win and saved people and saved animals and volunteered and opened up their stores. The furniture guy in Houston who just opened up his showroom for people to rest and sleep and recharge, and even though it was destroying everything in his furniture store. It's just so hopeful and inspiring to see that that's how people respond. And for those of us down here in South Florida, you know, I'm in Jupiter, Florida, where the eye of the storm, 2 days out, was projected to go right up 95 over Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Jupiter, up the coast. It tracked west and obviously came really and hit Naples hard and then up the west coast of Florida. So as grateful as I am that we didn't get hammered with the direct eye of the storm, obviously there's still a lot of devastation down here. I'm very grateful that Our house survived very well. We actually didn't even lose power in this hurricane, which we've lost in the past. But wanting to send, excuse me, prayers and thoughts to everyone in the Keys and in the islands who experienced sort of devastating damage. And again, there's so much good that is coming out of all of this, and it's And I think we need to be the ones who continually say, okay, what more can I do today? You know, what random act of kindness can I do? Can I take water somewhere? Can I just do a simple act of kindness that's going to make someone's day a little better? 'Cause we have no idea what people are going through with this storm and how people have been impacted. But I think there is so much good going on. And, you know, today's episode is called Hurricanes Happen because, yeah, I mean, actual hurricanes happen. But there's also events in our life that feel like hurricanes when they're happening as well. So the question is really not why do these storms happen or why do these bad events happen, but how do we respond to them when they do? And I guess that's what the yes and mindset is all about. You know, I say this all the time, you don't have to like it, but you need to accept it. You know, you don't have to like that a hurricane's coming. You don't have to like tragic events, but you have to say yes to them. Yes is the acceptance. Okay, yeah, this is what's going on right now. The and is how am I going to respond with purpose? How am I going to respond to this situation from my absolute best, from my yes, your excellent self? And the hurricane that, that I'm still dealing with and my family is dealing with that right before I got home was my mom suddenly passed away at the end of the summer. And this is a woman who had just turned 71, but she was 71 going on 40. She worked out a couple times a week. She was just vibrant joy. And if I were to give my mom a spiritual name, and I still can, it would be Vibrant Joy because I can just see her smile. Even right now, I can see her smile. I can feel her joy and just see those dimples in those cheeks with her squinty eyes because of that smile. And so she was just vibrant joy. And so she passed down or she changed addresses, which I like to hear, at the end of the summer. And it all happened over sort of a 3-week timeframe, from complaining about some pain to things escalating very quickly to passing away. And as difficult as that was, again, I'm comforted by Family, just how everyone rallied to come together and to celebrate my mom and to celebrate her life, and and how we all comforted and celebrated each other. I'm grateful for everyone, all the family and friends who stepped up. I'm grateful for the doctors and the nurses, for that's their job to to actually bring their very best in trying to help and comfort people. And again, you don't have to like what's happening, but you have to accept what is happening. That yes, yes, this is what's happening. How are we going to respond to it? And everyone. Around the situation responded so beautifully, so peacefully, so graciously. And I know there'll probably be another podcast specifically about my mom at another time, probably not today. I often joked on the podcast that I always knew that there was one person who was listening. And so, and that was her, and that was Juju. And so all of you have a lot of work to do. To fill in for her because I could always count on her as being a listener to the weekly Sam Podcast and following everything that I did and reading everything that I wrote. And so I lost my biggest cheerleader. Well, I haven't lost her. Again, I just don't get to see her like I used to. But so much good, so much good to share, and there's just so much good there. And, you know, from a— these hurricanes, these tragedies, these awful events happen, and it's so easy to get caught up in the why and to get caught up in wanting to take these things personally, and they're just not personal. None of these tragedies are personal to any of us. You know, we give these hurricanes names like Harvey and Irma, and we start to think that they have this Human personification. We they they have this personality that is is going is attacking that it's it's trying to destroy certain areas. It's not. It's just a storm, right? It's just a storm. A disease is just a disease. It doesn't have a consciousness. It doesn't have. It's not trying to personally attack anyone or anything. It just is what it is, and and we we often give these things more power. By the personification of them. And the more power we give them and the more we personify them, the more personally we take them and the harder it is for us just to accept them for what they are, to accept the facts. And then what we need to focus on more than anything is our and response, right? How do we respond, right? In improvisation, you know, there's always the interruption of the routine. Right, you interrupt the normal, you interrupt the status quo, and you shift it, and you twist, you pivot, and that's what makes things interesting. And every storm, every hurricane, every tragedy that comes our way is a huge interruption of our routine. It completely throws us off from what we were used to or expecting, and then if we're not careful, that can really throw us into a funk. We can get stuck, and we can play the blame game, and we can play the victim game for so long until we just accept— It is what it is and adjust. And when we adjust and when we respond with our and on purpose and we move through the storm, right, we go through it, we go at it and we go through it, that is when we come out on the other side. Excuse me, my wife just made a delicious smoothie that I'm just burping for you guys now. Sorry about that. So we want to come out on the other side of the storm, and when we come out on the other side of the storm, That's when we're able to look back at the storm and go, wow, what did I learn? How am I stronger? How am I better? What am I going to do differently? You know, how am I going to celebrate the adversity that I just went through? That is having that yes and mindset. And the number one way I know how to celebrate my mom as we move through this is many of you know who listened that my mom was our biggest fan and cheerleader of Rack Friday, of Random Acts of Kindness. In fact, one of the last podcast I did a few podcasts ago was for, you know, Rack the 4th, and I called her impromptu and surprised her on the phone. But she was so impacted positively and so moved, and she was just the spirit of Rack Friday. And so this, this Rack Friday coming up, of course, that Friday after Thanksgiving, it's really going to be, you know, the Rack Juju version this year, where we're gonna be doing everything for Rack Friday in the spirit of my mom, June, Juju as we call her, and excited about that. And so that's what I wanted to get on. I know it'd been a while since the last podcast, but I wanted to talk about the hurricanes, and it just felt like Irma and Harvey and the passing of my mom and all these things, they're just storms. They're just storms that just move through.
Yeah.
They're not personally trying to attack us. And yes, they suck. And we don't have to like them, but we need to accept them. And through acceptance, by saying yes and then choosing our response, is how we grow, is how we move through it, and how it actually makes us stronger and better as a result. So there you have it. Episode 82. I love you, Mom. I love you. And I love all my family out there. And again, prayers to everyone being impacted by these hurricanes. Have a wonderful, wonderful. Oh, and hey, if you get inspired, you want to go to iTunes and write a review or give me a rating, or you want to share this podcast with others, that's always great too. So that's it, guys. Episode eighty-two. Hurricanes happen. Have a wonderful, wonderful yes and day. Love you, Juju.
