#1664 Turning Tables
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A young listener turns the tables, interviewing Juicebox Podcast host Scott Benner about "fame", family, and 20 million downloads — a heartfelt, funny look at what he’s learned along the way.
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DISCLAIMER: This text is the output of AI based transcribing from an audio recording. Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it is incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription errors and should not be treated as an authoritative record. Nothing that you read here constitutes advice medical or otherwise. Always consult with a healthcare professional before making changes to a healthcare plan.
Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of The Juicebox podcast.
Arisha 0:14
Welcome to the show. I'm so excited about today's guest, his name is Scott Benner, and he is the voice behind Juicebox podcast. If you have ever listened to a conversation around type one diabetes that feel real funny and human, you've probably come across his work. Ice last spoke to him around two years ago, and so much has changed since then, from launching collaborations to new series to even a Juicebox cruise. So there's a lot to cover today, and I'm so glad that we get this opportunity.
Scott Benner 0:42
If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcast or Spotify, really, any audio app at all, look for the Juicebox podcast and follow or subscribe. We put out new content every day that you'll enjoy. Want to learn more about your diabetes management, go to Juicebox podcast.com. Up in the menu and look for bold Beginnings The Diabetes Pro Tip series and much more. This podcast is full of collections and series of information that will help you to live better with insulin. Nothing you hear on the Juicebox podcast should be considered advice medical or otherwise, always consult a physician before making any changes to your healthcare plan or becoming bold with insulin. Today's podcast is sponsored by skin grip. Your devices, they can fall off, but with skin grip, they stay secure for the full life of the device. Juicebox podcast listeners will save 20% on their first order at my link, skin grip.com/juicebox, if you want a durable skin safe adhesive that lasts you want, skin grip, Dexcom sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Learn more about the Dexcom g7 at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube, free, automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox at my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox
Arisha 2:33
Welcome to the show. I'm so excited about today's guest. His name is Scott Benner, and he is the voice behind Juicebox podcast. If you have ever listened to a conversation around type one diabetes that feel real funny and human, you've probably come across his work. Ice last spoke to him around two years ago, and so much has changed since then, from launching collaborations to new series to even a Juicebox cruise. So there's a lot to cover today, and I'm so glad that we get this opportunity.
Scott Benner 3:01
Oh, hi. I'm smiling from this. It's interesting to hear somebody else talk about it good, because I'm talking about it too much usually. So go ahead, please.
Arisha 3:11
So how have you been since our last
Scott Benner 3:13
conversation? It's been two years. You're telling me, Yes,
Arisha 3:17
last time I think I interviewed you, I was a freshman, and now I'm a junior,
Scott Benner 3:23
a lot has changed for me personally with my health. So two years is about the length of time it's been a little longer, but about the length of time that I've been using a GLP, one medication to lose weight. So I don't know the exact number, but so one way that I'm different is I weigh 70 pounds less than I did the last time you talked to me.
Arisha 3:47
Wow, that's crazy. It is
Scott Benner 3:48
really insane. I'm wearing a I'm sitting here in a medium t shirt, and the last time you talked to me, I would have been the two XL t shirt.
Arisha 3:55
Dang. That's, that's crazy. That's a lot of determination. Well,
Scott Benner 3:59
you know, I think some people would think that it isn't, because they think that the shot just does the whole thing, but it really doesn't. There's still a lot to do and a lot to stick to while you're using it. It does make a misstep easier sometimes, but now, no, I've learned a lot about, I guess, what I used to tell myself versus what might be true and just overall, the difference that the weight loss has made and how I feel every day and how healthy I am, it's been a really big influence for me.
Arisha 4:30
Yeah, I think that's great. And I just think it's amazing overall. Thank
Scott Benner 4:34
you. What have you been up to
Unknown Speaker 4:36
school? Just going to
Arisha 4:38
school, yeah, I guess that's like the main one to school.
Scott Benner 4:42
Have you been making your podcast regularly? Yeah,
Arisha 4:45
I'm doing like, once a month, sometimes very nice, sometimes twice a month. Sometimes I skip a month whenever I can.
Scott Benner 4:52
What are you learning while you're doing it? So I think
Arisha 4:55
I'm learning like, better, like how to talk better, if that makes sense. And how to like respond to like in between questions and things like that.
Scott Benner 5:04
Yeah, you think it's more fluid when you're having conversations than it
was before? Yeah, I think it is. Is it
I know I'm already interviewing you, I apologize. Is it bleeding over into your regular life?
Arisha 5:16
See, I don't know about that, because I think it's very different when you're interviewing someone versus like a normal conversation, you
Scott Benner 5:23
don't think any of the skills are overlaying over top of the regular like, what about, like, the quality of the questions you ask when you're in personal situations?
Arisha 5:31
I think it could, but I don't think I've been putting enough time for it too, if that makes sense,
Scott Benner 5:36
it's made me a better listener.
Arisha 5:38
Yeah, see, but you do this a lot like every day. You're like a pro now
Scott Benner 5:43
you are the third person I'm recording with today. I know it's a lot of people, so I do have a lot of practice. I guess I could pull it up and tell you for sure about this week, because today's Friday. So 123456, I've recorded nine times this week. I've probably had about 11 or 12 hours worth of conversations with people this week. Wow, you're not wrong. Like, the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. But I think it really does help me in my regular life. I'm not kidding. I think I listen better, I think I ask better questions. I'm definitely more focused on what someone's trying to tell me, or maybe even what they're not saying, but maybe we could figure out what they mean, like, you know, if we just ask the right questions and poke around a little bit. Yeah, it's been a big deal for me. I really enjoy it.
Arisha 6:35
Yeah, so I know these are all very like, expected developments, and I guess your like personal journey as a host, but what's the most unexpected development in your journey as being a host,
Scott Benner 6:48
specific to making the podcast or bigger picture even, like in the diabetes space, I guess both. I can't believe 100 people came on a cruise ship with me. That's crazy the level of I went to my first friends for life this year, and my wife came with me. She never travels with me when I do speaking stuff. It was the very first time. And we were there for a couple of days, and she remarked to me. She said, Everyone here knows who you are. Am I? And my wife's not like a fan. She's not fan growing for me or anything like that. She was making a real, a real observation. Like, I've been married a very, a very long time. My wife's not exactly running around looking for like, fun, happy things to say to me all the time. She was making a real observation. She's like every person we walk past. She's like, they're looking and they have a look on their face. They recognize you, and then you can see them look as you walk by. And every third person would wave or smile or stop or say hello. And I think she thought maybe I was joking about that, like, you know, we're over blowing it maybe when I shared with her in the past, but it was interesting to hear it from another person's perspective, that the podcast has reached so many people that there's that kind of awareness about it, I guess because I am not nearly like the face of the podcast, you know what? I mean, like I don't It's not like I'm all over the social media or, you know, or this is even video. So it's been very surprising to me, I guess, that not just as far as it's gotten and how many people it's reached, but I guess that it's been going so long. Think that's another part of it that's in my head this year, as I don't know, what am I halfway, two thirds of the way through the 11th full season of making the podcast. You know, in a calendar year, I usually record, I don't know, I put out 220, episodes, usually a year. I just, I can't believe it's still going, I guess. And then it seems to be growing, not stagnant or falling off.
Arisha 8:50
Yeah. So when I saw your post and, like, about the cruise ship, I was like, wow, he's like, really famous.
Scott Benner 8:57
No, it's diabetes famous. But yeah, I mean, it's, uh, it surprised me too, because that was the thing that, you know, I was approached by other people about doing it, so not a thing I would have known how to set up or how to run on my own. And I immediately was like, No, you got the wrong guy. Like, nobody's gonna want to come, you know. And that person said, No, I think you're wrong. And so I kind of put it in their hands, and I'll be honest with you, like, I didn't do it for money. Yeah, I didn't make a cent doing it, and it wasn't the intention of it. And I guess, you know, if we're looking for things that have really surprised me, that that was a mix of people on that ship. They were some parents of children with type one, with their kids. There were some parents in their 60s that were there with their 30 year olds. There were 20 year olds and 30 year olds and 40 and 50 and 60 and 70 year old people with type one diabetes, all gathered together and really just enjoying each other and enjoying being around each other. So for as much as I can kind of intellectually talk. Talk about that. I know community is important and how much it means to people to spend a full five days in that kind of close quarter situation. Of it was like I would give a talk every day. I made sure to eat dinner with every person that was with me, and to really watch what it meant to them
Unknown Speaker 10:19
to meet each other was
Scott Benner 10:21
was special and a little transformative for
Arisha 10:24
me. So do you plan on doing this, like, as a yearly thing?
Scott Benner 10:28
Well, it's a lot of work for me, not just that week, but, you know, leading up to it, it's sort of on, on me to, like, I don't want to use the word push it, but like, keep it out there on, like, social media. Make sure keep it in people's minds, but yeah, we're doing it again 2026 this year coming up, it'll go out of Miami, and we're going through the Virgin Islands and making a bunch of stops, seven day cruise. It's gonna be awesome. And we'll, yeah, do the same thing one more time, and then we'll see where it goes from there.
Arisha 10:57
So keeping on the topic, I guess, of like, partnerships and stuff besides the cruise. Do you have any other, like, big collaborations that you really remember?
Scott Benner 11:09
Yeah, I did something with tandem this year at friends for life, where the content from. That's not out yet, but I sat with kids from, gosh, like five to 15 who were all Moby or tandem users, and I basically did like, a short 45 minute conversation with each of them, and they filmed it for their social media. And that was really awesome. Because, I mean, I've been doing this a very long time, right? This podcast has been up since January of 2015, and before that, I wrote a blog for gosh, seven, 2008 910, 1112, 13. I wrote a blog for nine years. Now. I have a podcast for 11 years. I've been in this for you know, coming up on 20 years now, yeah, but companies, they're always very like, I probably work with every company you can think of that's around diabetes. They, you know, they purchase ads on the podcast, and we do stuff online, and no one really ever invites me to speak at anything or be somewhere. Tandem did, and I thought that was really awesome night. And I'll tell you, like, between you and I don't know why that is, but it makes a lot of sense to me that it's I don't have diabetes. So, yeah, I'd be a weird person to, like, I don't know, at a diabetes conference, to stand up on stage and say, this person's here representing the company. You know, I've always thought that that was the reason that that didn't happen. And so I've never really gone to things like that beyond touched by type one, which I speak at every year. I've never been to Ada, I've never been to ADCs or friends for life or any of that. And part of me was wondering how it would go. But, you know, after being there for a week, it was awesome. I felt welcomed by people. There were a number of people that came with me and said, I've been waiting for you to be at this forever. And some people thanked me for coming, almost as if they thought that I wasn't going on purpose. It was very, very interesting. I don't know if that answers your question. I'm sorry,
Arisha 13:10
no, it does answer my question. Do you think you're going to be speaking more at these events? Or
Scott Benner 13:17
Well, yeah, that one, I got an offer while I was there to speak at something else. So, and it's private, so it's not a public thing. Yeah, and that'll, actually, I'll be in Ohio
Speaker 1 13:27
for that. Oh, really, where in Ohio? I don't really
Scott Benner 13:31
know exactly where yet. It's not, it's not till October. Okay, it's still two months away. I don't have all the details yet, but I'll be speaking it at a poor company to their behind the scenes workers. So they're looking, you know, just for me to give a talk. So I'm doing a little like public speaking thing there. I have committed to going to friends for life, Ada and ad ces next year in 2026 and I'll be doing that with a partner. Do you know the sugar pixel? Do you know what that is? Yeah, yeah. So at those events, you see these big kind of booths, sugar pixel and I will be in one kind of giant booth together at those events, yeah, yeah, that's happening. And touch by type one is in the Investigation Phase of doing some diabetes talks with me around the country. They're trying to figure out ways to, you know, fund it right now, but the idea is for me to go to, I think, Chicago, Nashville, Austin and Philadelphia, and do, like, sit down Q and A's with people for a number of hours. And we're hoping to bring Jenny to some of that stuff too. Yeah, yeah. So that's what may be on the horizon
Arisha 14:42
for next. Year. Even though you don't have type one diabetes, you have a lot experience to talk from, especially being like a dad for someone who has type one diabetes, I think that is just as valuable, or even sometimes more valuable, than someone who has type one diabetes.
Scott Benner 14:58
Yeah. Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. We talk a lot about ways to lower your a 1c on this podcast, did you know that the Omnipod five was shown to lower a 1c that's right. Omnipod five is a tube, free automated insulin delivery system, and it was shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they switched from daily injections. My daughter is about to turn 21 years old, and she has been wearing an Omnipod every day since she was four. It has been a friend to our family, and I think it could be a friend to yours. If you're ready to try Omnipod five for yourself or your family, use my link now to get started omnipod.com/juicebox omnipod.com/juicebox get that free, Omnipod five Starter Kit today, Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox you can manage diabetes confidently with the powerfully simple Dexcom g7 dexcom.com/juicebox dexcom.com/juicebox the Dexcom g7 is the CGM that my daughter is wearing. The g7 is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone or smart watch. The g7 is made for all types of diabetes, type one and type two, but also people experiencing gestational diabetes, the Dexcom g7 can help you spend more time in range, which is proven to lower a 1c The more time you spend in range, the better and healthier you feel. And with the Dexcom clarity app, you can track your glucose trends, and the app will also provide you with a projected a 1c in as little as two weeks. If you're looking for clarity around your diabetes, you're looking for Dexcom, dexcom.com/juicebox when you use my link, you're supporting the podcast, dexcom.com/juicebox head over there now. Well, it's definitely a perspective that I think has a lot of value. Actually, I was talking about this with Jenny this afternoon. We were talking kind of privately, and she talked about having me out to an event to speak that she's going to be at. And I said, Yeah, I think I could do a good job of maybe being a conduit for people's conversations. If I have, I don't know, a superpower in this space, it would be that I've had so many conversations with so many different people, like, I don't know what to call it exactly, like, maybe I'm the book where the conversation I've had all those conversations, and I've dug through people's lives, and my real goal is to just get better information out in the world for my daughter, right? So I don't have, you know, I try very hard not to be biased about things that I hear. I try very hard to hear your story and an adult story, and, you know, a parent story, and just hear what they're saying and try to figure out what it is that they're being motivated by. And then, in the end, you're looking for commonality, right? Like, yeah, yeah, you find something that a parent of a type one says that could be very valuable for an adult with type one diabetes to hear and then vice versa, there's adults have great experiences that parents should hear about. And I was saying, I think maybe I could be a conduit for those stories. Because, again, I'm kind of at a loss for the right word. But, I mean, I'm sure there's people out there, but I don't know who they are, and they, if they, if they're out there, they don't, they don't have the ability to reach as many people as I do. Yeah, I think that those are stories are very valuable, that I've been at the center of each one of them, and that hopefully I'm trying very hard to learn something, to hear something, to share something that will be valuable for everybody. Doesn't matter if they're adults or children, if they're 70 or 10, I'm trying to be the place where all this information can get dumped and be regurgitated out into the world. Because I think that is the thing that beyond my podcast, that other there really just is no other space in type one where somebody is able to to give this much time and to hearing those stories and is making the effort to record them and put them out as much, I mean, volume. Honestly, as anyone else, there are people who have podcasts about type one who, in a year, won't put up as many episodes as I'll put up in two weeks. Yeah, you know that's true. So anyway, somewhere in there, I think I'm able to let people tell their stories and record them for other people to hear, and hopefully that those stories are broadening other people's perspectives and ideas. I guess is would have been a short way to say it.
Arisha 19:48
So you spoke as your role just now as being like the connector from a bunch of different people's stories, but you must be hearing a lot of contradicting information. Question, how do you deal with that
Scott Benner 20:03
contradicting mean, like, management wise, like, or even like, you know, when, like, a late night host makes a joke and one person's like, I think it's funny and the other person is insulted by it. Like, what do you mean by contradictory?
Arisha 20:15
More like, I guess, information for type one diabetes. So maybe if someone says, like, this works really well for me, and then this one set, and then another person says, Oh, that doesn't really work for me. And like, I mean, there's always like, gaps in information. Like, I'm kind of talking about
Scott Benner 20:32
that, yeah, I guess the place that's taught me the best about how to deal with that is, actually, is Facebook. So for people who don't know my Facebook group, I have a private group and a public page, and I think my public page has 25,000 or so followers, but that's tough, because social media followers are it's a weird abstract, right? Because I've been around this for 20 years, like, I'm sure there are people following me on Facebook who are dead, you know what I mean? Or, yeah, don't go on Facebook anymore. Same thing with Instagram, like it's, I think I have 25,000 Instagram followers, but that doesn't mean 25,000 people are seeing something that I post. It's far from that the people fall off. But in the private group on Facebook, you have access to a lot more data about people who are actively following and participating. So in my private Facebook group, I think today there's about 70 I'm going to lose like 74,000 members, and in every 24 hour period, 45,000 of them are active in the group. They make 125 to 160 new posts every 24 hours and counting, likes, like, little hearts, little thumbs ups and comments. So likes, hearts and comments almost 9000 a day. Wow. So it's a big group of people, and it's split pretty evenly between caregivers and adults, even though people will tell you they don't think so. But what I've learned is that the adults don't talk as much as the caregivers do, but I can see them there, and it's a little weighted towards women. Maybe, I would say maybe, maybe there's 35% men. The other side is women, usually, and all of them, and a ton of different countries, and you, where you see that most is the time of day. There is no downtime on the Facebook group, meaning that if you ask a question at any point, a 24 hour clock, somebody is there, like there's always at least a few 100 people on which is, it's insane, actually. But my point is that all these different countries, all these different ages of people, all these different, you know, genders, you know, there's somebody who has every experience in life that you can imagine. You're not wrong. They're not all going to agree about everything. Right? Yes, but as the person running the group, my goal is for that group to be valuable for everybody, and that generally means as many people as possible, and we're putting aside people who are just trying to make problems, or maybe honestly, a little mentally ill or something like that. Like there's always going to be people like on the fringes of this conversation, but for the most part, the group is incredibly supportive and valuable, right? Yeah, but it becomes that when you let everybody speak, everybody gets to say what they think, and everybody gets to say their experiences, and then it's up to smart people to look at all of that, and coalesce it together and come up with some sort of a an idea chain, or a roadmap for themselves, and find the things that they want to look into and, you know, like, so that they can decide that's an interesting idea. I'd like to find out more about that and or that sounds insane to me. I'm not going to listen to that. So if somebody there was a post the other day where somebody was like, I saw this Tiktok, and this lady said she took this cinnamon and she mixed it with something else, and her blood sugar was stable. You know what? I don't know if that's right or not, but go ahead and tell go ahead and tell me. You know what I mean, like, and, you know, 10 years ago, I would have been like, cinnamon doesn't cure diabetes. That's what everybody would have ran. But now I'm like, I don't know. Like, if this helps somebody find out more and learn something that helps them great, and if it teaches them it's bullshit, then fine, too. You got to let people talk. Yes, you know. And so I mean, in the end, if somebody disagrees with something, what I like to say is, like, let them talk. That's been their experience. Take it or leave it, like, who cares? You know what I mean? Like, just let them say what they want to say, and that's it. Now, if somebody says something insane or hurtful that I have a problem with, like, I don't allow I have, like, pretty simple rules in the in the group, I don't let people proselytize. You. So like, if you think, I don't know, it doesn't matter if you think, oh, a form of eating is a good idea, right on, you should share what you think. But if everybody that posts gets the same answer back from you, you should try eating like this. Well, then you're proselytizing. But please don't do that. Yeah, you know you please stay and continue to add your thoughts. But this incredible drive to make sure that to answer every question with, like, you know, eat like this. That's not okay. And pushing people around, I'm not okay with. But sometimes you see people who are just, I don't know, like, sometimes we call it, I know you're young still, but sometimes we call it drunk o'clock, certain time of the day where people are a little feistier. There are plenty of people who will later come back and apologize and say, Hey, I answered that question when my blood sugar had been high for hours. And to be honest with you, I think I was being a little salty, and I'm sorry. I've had people say, Hey, I realized that I was flippant with somebody, but my blood sugar was low. If we can't understand that in our type one diabetes Facebook group, then, like, where else are you going to get that kind of understanding? So yeah, of course, we're very understanding about that. If you're being terrible on purpose, that's not okay. And if you're just trying to sell something, that's not okay too. I give you, I think, which is a great example, is that not long ago, this gentleman came on and he was like, I'm a tattoo artist, and I'd like to give type ones free tattoos. Now on that face, that's lovely. And I took this person at their word. They were just trying to be kind. But at the same time, Marisha that is marketing for their business. And so I said to the person, I'm sorry, but you can't self promote a business here. Yeah. And so, you know, please don't do that. And the person just pushed back. And they were like, I'm not promoting, I'm giving it away for free. And I'm like, Well, yes, but then that person now knows where your business is. The next time they need a tattoo, they're going to come back to you and spend money. It's marketing, yeah, and he didn't see it that way. At some point, it couldn't matter to me that he didn't see it that way. Like, even if that's not his intention, it doesn't matter, because now I'm if I let that go on, then the next person and the next one and the next one, and I'm not lying to you, and 500 more are like, Oh my god, I have an Etsy where I take insulin bottles and I turn them into Christmas tree ornaments, and then ornaments, and then the next thing you know, the whole group is full of ads for people and what they're trying to sell. And then they sell some of them. And then that allure is very, very strong. And now they know that that group sells stuff, and they will not stop till you stop them. And so I try to get ahead of it. And you know, with the case of the guy with the tattoo place, I felt bad. I explained it to him, he wouldn't stop. I suspended him. He wouldn't stop. And I finally had to ban him out of the group. And I feel terrible about it, because he's got a kid with diabetes, and I wish he was in there, yeah, but, you know, like, so anyway, like, that stuff stinks, because in the end, I end up being the bad guy, and I was just trying to stick up for something. I was trying to stick up for the entire group and keep it what it is and what it is, you know, is a pretty amazing support system for people. Yeah,
Arisha 28:12
so would you say like your the community and like your Facebook group, or any like reviews or anything you get like? Do you think that shapes the direction of your content, or is it more like what
Scott Benner 28:24
like the people you interview? I think there's three things that shape the content. It's what I'm interested in and what I what I think is happening. You know, good example, I'm proud to say that I think I was out ahead by a couple of years on what GLP one medication might do for people with type one diabetes, and so I was having conversations about that back when I was getting yelled at for having those conversations. Does is not for type ones, it's for type twos. It's not it's not labels, you know, like that whole thing. Yeah, I felt like I saw the writing on the wall. And I thought it was valuable to let people tell their stories around that my expectation of what people need to hear is part of it. I think that what I see people talking about online, that's part of it too. You can learn a lot about what people need, yes, by what they're asking for, but oftentimes you can learn more about what they need by seeing the things they don't know to ask for, if that makes sense, yeah, right, those are two big ways. And then the third way that the content kind of gets brought up is, like you said, you have people on, and they tell their story. And eventually, in every episode, someone says something that makes me think, Wow, I never would have thought of that, or what a great perspective that I didn't hear or, you know, like they say something, and then someone online will comment, I'll go. I never put those two things together. And now I did. If you treat the podcast and the community like the real, like gem, the asset that they are for or can be for people, and you focus on it, you. It is a never ending engine of it's a me. It holds a mirror up to people, right? And it lets you see. It lets them see what they need to see in that mirror. It's, it's, it's almost like a magic mirror, you know what I mean? Like you just, you hold it up, and it reflects back to them the thing they need only if it's shepherded by somebody who's not trying to turn it into something else, like, I'm not trying to turn my podcast into a bigger podcast, or I'm very sure that it is doing a good thing, and my only goal every day is to keep it fresh and and viable, so that it can continue to do that thing for people.
Arisha 30:39
Yeah, so you mentioned that you were really into, like, the GLP one medication for type one diabetics for the last two years. What would you say? Like, you're interested now in,
Scott Benner 30:51
ooh, well, that's good of you. Look at you. You are really good at this. Well, this year, I spent a fair amount of time on talking about nutrition more, and I don't know if it's as much about me seeing the tip of the spear right or being out at the edge of the surfboard or anything like that. What it was more about was that when I started the podcast, I hold this belief still very strongly, even if I was a perfect person and I knew exactly how to eat perfectly, and I did it every day, and I exercised exactly like I was supposed to, and I was a perfect person. And I made a podcast about being I'm so perfect. I do all these things perfectly. If you do all these things perfectly too, you'll be I don't think that actually motivates anybody, right? And I'm not that person to begin with. But even if I was, I don't think that helps anyone. I don't think people like to be told how to eat or what to do, and so when I saw the big picture, I thought, to help most people with type one. What would help them most? I think, is a firm understanding of how insulin works and how to use it, and to give them that information in a way that is incredibly easy to understand, no matter who you are in the conversation. And I did that, and I continue to do that. I don't want to over blow the number, but I'm about to celebrate 20 million downloads on the podcast. That's great for you, and you make a podcast, yeah? That's really cool. That's really good something. Yeah, I'm about to celebrate these 20 million downloads, and I think, Okay, well, I've given people a very clean like foundation for how to, like, think about their their insulin. I can't tell them exactly what to do. I kind of lay it out for them, and they take it back into their own life, and they apply it and figure out how it works best for them, right? And this is working over and over again, day after day, week after week, year after year. Now it's been a decade, and the proof comes back every day. I could sit here, I could sit here for 24 hours and read you reviews and personal notes from people about how the podcast has helped them. So I know my initial idea is good, but these people would be better off if they knew a little more about nutrition, if they knew a little more about what they were eating. And so I think I've finally been doing this long enough that we can talk about a little bit without insulting people like they know I'm not here to tell them how to eat. I'm just sort of doing with food the same thing that I do with diabetes, which I think is to talk about it from a very middle ground perspective, you know, like, I know in politics, it's some some people hate it if you're in the middle, right? If they say it means you don't stand for anything, like take a stand, they want you to take a stand. Yeah, in thinking about your health and diabetes, it's more important if you have tools, and then you apply those tools to your life. But I would like for people to have some tools around understanding, you know, that what they're eating has a lot to do with what their blood sugar is doing. Yeah, you know. So I've been doing more with that this year with Jenny. And Jenny is, of course, like a CDE, and she's she's had diabetes for over 35 years. She's been in like, a ton of my episodes about management stuff. Yeah, so I don't know that that means that I see where things are going. I think it more means that I saw what I was able to talk about without pissing people off. I guess. Yeah, that makes sense, and thusly giving myself the best opportunity possible to grow their toolbox
Arisha 34:23
a little more. Yeah. I mean, since you have so many listeners, I mean, do you ever get like, fan mail or like, PR boxes?
Scott Benner 34:31
Oh, yeah, it's embarrassing. Are you trying to embarrass me? No, I'm just curious. People write every day, really, yes, I receive multiple emails, DMS, Instagram messages, Facebook messages, Tiktok messages. And I got to tell the people at Tiktok, your app is very, very confusing to use, so please, like do better with that. I don't like to say it because I think everybody says it like I've watched. People with like, 200 Tiktok followers. Like, I hear from everybody all the time. Like, well, you're hearing from fewer than 200 people. But okay, yeah. And so I don't like to say it, because I think it comes off as just, really, it makes me feel weird to say it, like, like, yeah, people. People write all the time. But I'm, you know, I'm, here's one from today. I wanted to reach out to say a big thank you for your episodes that focus on GLP one with type one. My 14 year old started one about three months ago. A 1c has gone from six nine to six. Daily insulin use is down from 60 units a day to 40. She's lost 20 pounds. She's been much happier, more energetic, and generally feels better. I'm also grateful for your podcast. I feel pretty anxious about trying these meds, but listening to the info from Dr belevens that you had on and from the mom whose daughter had such a positive experience, made me feel so much better. I appreciate that you are hopefully changing some of the stigma around these medications. I honestly have only told my best friends that we're even using the meds, because people are just so judgmental. Anyway, I want to say thank you very much. That one came today, and that's in my email today. It's very it's very touching. Is like, it's not a strong enough word, right? Because so that email came today. Yesterday, I interviewed a gentleman who told me that his daughter is off at college safely and happy because of me, and then at the end of the interview, told me how, you know, just as an aside, he's like, also, I listened to your weight loss stuff, and I've lost 36 pounds now, and told me how his life is better now because of it. The DMS are like, pretty endless. And the thing that I think I've been tracking, tracking sounds like the wrong word, but like, I'm gonna, I'll pull something up for you here. Like, it's lovely to hear from people like, you know, and to hear their stories one on one. I have this day once a month where I sit down I answer all of my emails. Takes about four hours. Usually, I sit down and answer my emails every month, but respond to them. I do. I respond to all my emails. Oh, that's very nice, yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, like, I want to Yeah, but it is. It's an overwhelming process, like, I'm exhausted by the time I'm done with it, because you're really trying to hear, like, what is this person telling me, yeah, what has motivated them to to reach out like this? I mean, it's time off of their life too, to write this email. Yeah. I want to figure out what it is that impacted them so much. To see is like, is that a thing I did on purpose? Is that a happenstance thing? Is it something I could be learning from? Yeah, but anyway, I do this thing. When people come into the Facebook group, it asks you a few questions. It's mainly to make sure you're like a real person. But one of them is, how did you hear about the podcast or this group? Like it's a little slash thing, the one that I don't keep every one of them, but every once in a while, I copy and paste one of them out, and I put it in a document. I hold on to it because it ranges from like the doctor in the ER to, more specifically, like the East Tennessee Children's Hospital endocrinology clinic. Told me about it. I saw an ad for a nootropic, and inside of that nootropic, somebody commented about the Juicebox Podcast. I'm trying to figure out, like, how do people learn about this? Right? I had a nurse in the ER ask me if I wanted something that might make my diabetes situation better. And then she told me about this, but the one that came today, this one happens more than I would have imagined. You are mentioned on every Facebook group I'm a part of that relates to diabetes. And you can take that a couple of different ways, you know, and you mean, certain people might hear that from a marketing standpoint and be like, That's awesome. Good for you. That's that's what you're going for. What I hear is that there are countless people who have been helped by it. Yeah, so much so that they're taking the time to tell somebody else, and I think that it's the big deal. There's plenty of things in my life that helped me, but how many of them helped me so much that I feel compelled to make sure other people know about it? I'm proud to be somebody that people are compelled to share, I guess. Yeah.
Arisha 39:12
I mean, I think it's so great that you respond to everything I know. When I reached out to you in the beginning, you responded really quickly, and especially being with, like, having such a big audience and taking the time to respond, I'm sure that's really like meaningful for everyone who, like, wrote something to you, and it was definitely, like, really meaningful when you responded to me. So these were very like, uplifting, like stories, but or like feedback that you kind of get. Do you have like, a really big, motivating or like, moving stories that you've heard from listeners, like, oh, maybe in your podcast?
Scott Benner 39:49
Oh yeah. Oh my gosh, all the time. Yesterday, a gentleman sent me a picture of a tattoo he got on his calf of a Juicebox with a microphone. Synthesis bolt with insulin on it. And I know that that gentleman would tell you that he believes that his eyesight was saved by the podcast. There's a guy out in California named Mike who came on and shared his story, and if you go listen to his episode called complications are complicated. You'll hear a decades long tale of a person who was diagnosed with type one diabetes before management was great, and that his health was failing in multiple ways, and how much the podcast helped him. There is an episode called do hard things where a mom comes on and shares that she had found the podcast for her type one child, and it's going really, really well, and she's super excited to take him to his next endo appointment. And it's very sad, but there was a snow storm that kind of, like, broke out while she was traveling to the endo appointment, lost control of the car, and the kid, the child, passed away in the car accident. And that she continues to listen to the podcast because she said it makes her feel closer to him. And she said that when he once he was gone, you know, like that whole process of doing the diabetes thing was such a big part of her connection with him that it helped her to hear other people talking about doing it for themselves or with their own kids. There was a woman on an after dark episode that while I was interviewing her, she was describing her life, and it was just a lot of alcohol and drugs, and she wrote to me many, many, many months later to say that she finally listened to her episode, hurt herself and decided that it's not the kind of person she wanted to be, and made a big change for herself. And I'm just telling you the ones that are popping into my head, yeah, but I'm pretty sure that in every episode when I'm interviewing a person who's been a listener for a while, you know, if you go into that Facebook group and just look for people who have tagged me, they are there to tell you, like, it gets focused on me, which is not right. Like, I really do believe I might I'm just the person having the conversations. Like I'm the, I don't know what to call it exactly, like, maybe the magnet in the middle that pulls everything together. And it's you can't ignore the fact that, like, in this day and age, like you have to be if they have a big enough following so that people can find you like, that's how like, I'm booked right it's August right now. If you wanted to get on the podcast right now, you can't get on till March of 2026, yes, and at some point in October this year, I will open up that schedule out to like July, and it's going to fill up in a day. In a day, it'll I will have an interview set up every day between March and July, just in one day. To accomplish this thing, like, you have to have a certain size and kind of, like gravity, right? Like you almost have to be a small moon, like holding everything together. But at the same time, it's not me, like you could maybe make the argument that I'm conversational and chatty, and I don't fall into the traps that people fall into when they start talking about stuff, like this niggas. They talk very on, you know, very professionally and soft, and make sure that the, you know, like diabetes, is very like, they start sounding like, you know, the like the JDRF or ADA or something like that, or sounds like a PR person came on from a from a pump company, and they're talking, and I'm just talking like a person in the end, like, without all these people and their stories, then I don't you don't I mean, like you're writing to me to say that I helped, but all I did was I just gave you all a place to go to hear the thing really, you know? So I'll take credit for making it, but I think that you all are what helped. I'm just the guy who pushes a record that makes sense?
Arisha 44:02
Yeah? So you see yourself as more of like an educator, like a storyteller or like a community builder? Is there any one of those that you like see yourself more as or think of yourself as?
Unknown Speaker 44:19
You know? What's funny, if you would
Scott Benner 44:22
have just asked me to describe myself, I never would have said any of those things. But you're not wrong. I'm probably all those things. Am I one more than the other? I don't know. I guess depends on who you are and what you need. From the podcast, for the people who need community, they see me as a community organizer for the people who don't know how to Bolus. They see me as an educator, right? And like and so on and so forth. It depends on like your need is how you see me and you know, and that's on the positive side again, on the negative side, there are plenty of people. I just wanna say that plenty of people don't like me, right? I mean, that's always gonna be, but, you know, there are plenty of people who are, I don't know, tried to do something in this space, and it didn't work out for them, and now they're just mad at me. Yeah, now they're gonna tell you they're mad at me because I'm bad at it, or dangerous, or whatever. They're gonna say, like, right? Like, whatever reason they're gonna have, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna tell you that, from my perspective, they seem mad at me because they seem jealous, yeah, and like, they tried to do a thing and it didn't work out. And my thing did work out. So now let's go figure out what it is about me you don't like and say, Oh, see, he shouldn't be doing this because he thinks this, or he said that, or whatever. Yeah, you know, like, so there's the, you know, the other side of it is, it's consistent. Is, my point is, like, whether you like me or you don't like me, what you think of me has very little to do with me and a lot to do with who you are. Yeah, that's one of the things I have 100% learned making this podcast that I no longer joke about famous people's lives, sports figures, actors, politicians, I no longer make judgments about them, like, you know, because everybody you know what I mean, like, people joke around all the time about like, you know, like somebody that people, these people feel bigger than life to you like they're not real people. It's okay to like, it's okay to them, or it's okay to like, you know, tell people you know, you know what they're thinking, or whatever. But what I've learned by watching people who both hate me and love me talk about me is that they don't really know me. Yeah, they just have an idea, and I'm over here like a static target to help them complete their circle, and most of the time, and I mean, like 99.9% of the time, I'm having a great one way conversation with those people. I interviewed a great lady today who, you know, just came on to say that she just had a really healthy pregnancy because of me and the podcast. That's awesome, you know what I mean. And you could tell as I was talking to her, like she feels like she's all like, starstruck talking to me, which is insane, because I'm in an extra room in my house. You know what? I mean? Yeah, you know, I'm in this room with a couple of chameleons and a desk and a microphone and like, you know, and she's treating me like she's meeting somebody famous, right? But that feeling she's having, again, has very little to do with me, and more to do with who she is, where she was, and then how she intersected with this thing I'm doing, you know, and I forget what your question was. I'm so sorry, but I feel like I answered
Arisha 47:30
it. Yes, you did answer it. So you just briefly mentioned about all the roles you play, but I feel like one of the biggest roles you are like you are a dad to like. What roles do parents play like in shaping your podcast, especially since you started your experience as a dad,
Unknown Speaker 47:48
I think in the beginning,
Scott Benner 47:49
their concerns were my concerns. And as time goes on, you know, like I started out with other people who started out with me, yeah, and as time goes on, I'm still with the people who are just starting out, like, I would tell you that, you know, a lot of the listeners the podcast are more newly diagnosed people, or people who feel like they're starting over, right? You know, if there's a path we're all walking, I'm out ahead of them to some degree, on the path. And so when I was starting out, their concerns were my concerns. And now I would hear them and think, Oh, I'm worried about that too. How do we fix that? Like, how do I figure that out? But then once you get it all figured out, yeah, and I don't want to say, like, this whole thing feels easy to me, but most of the times, like diabetes, nuts and bolts wise, does feel pretty intuitive to me, because I've got so much time with it right? So now I'm out ahead. I've got that experience, and I'm still hearing people who are more newly diagnosed. Now I'm able to hear their concerns quickly, point them to stuff that will help them, but also spend time thinking about what bad places are they going to get led to by worrying about the things they're worrying right now, and how can I help them now so they don't end up in those bad places later. Yeah, there's one thing about being like, I know, super valuable to your seven year old who has type one diabetes, but it's hard to remember that that seven year old one day will be 15 and 18 and 20, and that you're still trying to have a relationship with that person, and that one day, they will not they will not listen to you anymore. You know what I mean, and you want them to leave with good information, but the good information is not enough if they're not willing to use it, or if they're busy rebelling against you and how you raise them. So I'm trying to see more of a bigger picture when the parents are there, and I think that's how they're helping me make the podcast?
Arisha 49:41
Yeah, so I feel like you've been doing this well, not like, I feel like you have been doing this podcast for a really long time, and you've seen the technology like, especially for diabetes, like, grow. What are you like, most excited for in that and like, specifically with, like, the increase of A. Die in today's world.
Scott Benner 50:01
Yeah, right. So, yeah. So when my daughter was diagnosed 2006 that right, yeah, 2006 we got a freestyle meter syringes and a vial of two different kinds of insulin. I think they gave us the old Lily red box glucagon. Yeah, that's right, that's all we got. And those were our, the entirety of our tools, right? And test trips today, if you're have halfway decent insurance, you're going to have a CGM before you know it, you're going to have a pen, not a syringe, and you're going to have an opportunity to get a pump pretty quickly, and every one of those pumps has some sort of a manual setting and has an automated insulin delivery setting. On top of that, there's the awesome loop, the awesome Android APS trio, you know, all these Do It Yourself algorithms that are out there as well. Now there's more CGM, there's Dexcom, there's libre. What is it? Three plus, ever since has making an implantable CGM Crazy, right? Yeah, what else we got? Like Medtronic just came out with their more modern CGM, and people are using G you know, my daughter micro doses glps, which are significantly helpful with her insulin resistance. We're learning that there are type ones who who maybe could have a dual diagnosis. They have insulin resistance. If they didn't have type one diabetes, they probably still have insulin resistance. So now they have type one and they have insulin resistance. Glps are helping them with that. Half of it with the insulin resistance. You're seeing glps help people with inflammation, which is, of course, very tied to a type one and other autoimmune issues. Sooner than later, you're going to see those GLP ones that are all injectable now, hopefully be in, you know, in a daily pill, which should help spread out their effect effectiveness over, you know, a little better than just shooting them once a week. And we're all moving in that direction. There's the inhaled insulin, right a Fresno. I saw that there's a lot of stuff going on out there. What am I most excited about right now is that tandem said, Hey, we're going to go back and try to make our algorithm a little more aggressive, and then they did and then Omnipod. I don't know if people know this or not, but OmniPods in the middle of a trial right now where they're trying to make their Omnipod five more aggressive. I'm sure that's not how they would put it, but you know, yeah, they're working on a 2.0 version. Yeah, I love that. These companies have to compete with each other, that I think is always going to be the best thing for everybody, because then nobody sits on their butts and says, like, we're selling this thing good enough. Let's just go sell them now we you don't have to make these any better. You have to make them better. You have to make them you got to have a more of a cell phone mentality, where we you know, this stuff's got to get better and better and better. And on top of that, what are you seeing right now in the DIY community? Some of these, some people are working on, like, take a picture of your food. It estimates your carbs, that AI stuff like, where people who really understand AI is not, not me for certain, but and can program it like you got to think that there's not long before you're taking pictures of everything you're eating. It's getting logged the AI is remembering that when you eat it, you know, this restaurant versus this restaurant, that you have a fat rise two hours later and you don't at this one as much like that kind of learning has got to becoming, you know, I hope. And you know, in a situation where the next time you go back to that restaurant and you take another picture, the thing goes, Oh, I remember, like last time you needed more insulin an hour and 45 minutes after you ate. So, you know, maybe we'll start ramping it up then to get ahead of it this time. Like, who knows? Like, where any of that could possibly go outside of the devices, you know, just for me personally, like, I've, you know, amassed all these conversations with people. And you see, very easily, you can take the transcripts of the entire Pro Tip series, and if you asked me to go back and, like, you know, listen through everyone, write down every thoughtful thing that was said, you know, yeah, go out to the community and ask them if they agree that this was thoughtful. Like, you know, I mean, by the time I got all that done, I'd be, I'd be dead of old age, right? It's just me here, yeah. But instead, I can take those things, drop them into AI and say, Please just pull out all the key takeaways from this conversation, build a database of that. Take the database back to the community and say, hey, you know, before I show you this, just top of your head, what are things that were said in the podcast that were really helpful, and then they gave me back a ton of data, and then you put the two things together, and you tell the chat GPT, or whatever you're using there, like, Hey, this is what we think is key takeaways. This is what the community said were key takeaways. Where are the overlaps? Bang. Here's the overlaps. Great. This is really key information for people. Now I'll take that and find other ways to say it, because we've already reached all the people who jived with it the way I said it the first time. Let's find a different series to say it again in. Let's find a different way to say it. Let's learn to make it shorter content or longer content like I get to keep building my database of what's valuable for you guys, and then as I grow and learn and listen, hopefully, the next time I talk about it, something else will come out of that conversation that people will find either more helpful or maybe it'll reach a person who heard it the last time, and it didn't ring a bell for them, but in this time it did. Yeah, I think in general, that's what I'm hopeful about. You know, people used to say like, well, we need faster insulin, and then we got fiasp and lumbev, and nothing changed, because it doesn't, apparently work that fast to begin with. For some people, wasn't consistent enough. I've heard people say, like, we need better cannula tubing. Because, you know, if your body doesn't see it as a foreign invader, then the sites will be better for longer. Like that's all well and good. I don't see anybody doing that, yeah. What I see is that if those pump companies have to keep honing their algorithms, then hopefully people will have better and better outcomes. Now, what's the other side of that is that there's a reasonable concern that an entire generation of people will get type one diabetes and not fundamentally understand anything about it, because the machine is taking care of it for them, which will be fine as long as the machine is working. But what would they do? You know, if they had to go back to shots, I know they would learn it then, and hopefully they would learn it more quickly because they've seen it happen. But I do think there's a reasonable concern for people not having a fundamental understanding of timing and amount and how insulin works and when they need to put it in, and how certain foods act, that
Arisha 56:56
kind of stuff too. Yeah. So speaking on, like, your Pro Tip series, do you have, like, a dream series or, like, a really memorable series that you have posted or want to post?
Scott Benner 57:08
I mean, they all do something different. You know, we made pro tips first, and I think they're great if you're reasonably comfortable. So then we added bold beginnings, because it's sort of like Pro Tips for Beginners. Yeah, this year I did small sips, which were, I think, 17 or 20, like I told you. We went out to the out to the community and asked, like, what are like? I basically said, like, give me one sentence, takeaways that have been the most impactful for you. And we got back, I think I'm being honest about this 80. I'm just saying if I, if I the number wrong, it's not on purpose, 80 or 90 pages full of returns from the internet. Wow. And then we collated them, and it wasn't me, by the way, it was the person who volunteers their time on my Facebook group. They pulled it all together, and this person has kind of an encyclopedic knowledge of the podcast. And we pulled together the list of what people said was really valuable for them. Went and found what episodes they were on so I could refresh myself about how it was said in the time. And then we made short, like, 10 minutes episodes about them, thinking like, Okay, if you're not going to listen to the pro tips because they're too long, which is the thing people will complain about, like, 45 minutes or an hour. They're like, Oh, it's so long. And then I thought, well, maybe 1015, minutes will be shorter for them. So small sips is really like pro tips, super charged and small. I'm proud of those. I think those are really awesome. Yeah, I don't know. You just kind of keep looking for ways to reach people. You know, what am I trying to do in the I don't know, like in the future, I'm trying to find more people who are lost, and who could potentially spend an entire life lost, that you know, who could potentially have complications 1020, 30 years from now, for what? Not understanding how to Pre-Bolus, or, you know, the fat and french fries makes their blood sugar go up and they should Bolus again. Like, that's not a fair reason to need help, medical help in the future. Like, I'd like those people to just be as successful as early on as possible with, like, a set a good foundation of understanding. And I'm just looking for different ways to spark their imagination and get them to think about it. And also, I've learned that you can't really make anybody take care of themselves, like everybody has a moment when they decide, like, Okay, I'm gonna try harder now, or I'm gonna go back in again and try to figure this out, or whatever it is that ends up like lighting people's, you know, excitement for their own health. And what I like the most is that the podcast is there and it's current, because when they go to find it, it's there. Yeah, it's not like an old, dried up podcast that nobody posts in anymore. It's not a thing where they look up and they go, nobody's posting this in a week. You know what I mean? Like, how are you going to find the pro tip episode from a year ago if you're logging on today for the first time, if the podcast isn't fresh and moving constantly, and reminding you that those episodes exist and reminding you that there's. A community to go to, and you head over to that community. Imagine you head to that community and you see 160 new posts that day. Yeah, I don't know if you're on Facebook, but there's other type one groups like, you look at them, they go like, some of them say, three new posts a day, five new posts a day, 10 new posts a day. I'm like, Oh, how did that? How does that cover everything? Yeah, that's not even enough people to have a good conversation. Like, I want 20 people with 20 different opinions weighing in on things. And guess how? You kind of get to it. The one chameleon is staring right at me. How are your chameleons? They're doing well, but the blue one too. I don't I don't want to say how many I have, because I feel like that's weird. The blue one is eyeballing me big time right now, like in a ninja stance. He's back on his two legs. Are you hungry, buddy? I gave you a silkworm earlier. Did you eat it? Oh, hold on, a second. I think I'm I'm looking at the silk. Eat the silkworm, don't stick. It's very uncomfortable. I have three chameleons.
Arisha 1:01:07
Yeah, I thought you only had one from your
Speaker 2 1:01:09
things happen, and then other stuff happens. I don't know what to tell you. Okay, no, I have the one that my family got me, and then I have the one that I bought because it was really the one I wanted, and then the one that they got me wasn't the one I wanted, but I still take, I still take awesome care of all them. Yeah. And then I have a third one. Can I tell you a crazy story about two of my chameleons? Yes, of
Speaker 1 1:01:30
course. All right, so the big one
Speaker 2 1:01:36
I bought from a gentleman out in San Diego, and he's probably one of maybe two or three people in the whole country that breed these things successfully. They're expensive and they're, you know, there's not a lot of them. And so he doesn't just sell them to anybody who shows up with money, like he wants to really make sure you're, you know, gonna do a good job. So you get a little chance to get to know him. While we were getting to know each other, he asked me what I did for a living, and I said, Oh, it's gonna sound silly to a regular person, but I'm like, I make a podcast. And he's like, that's a thing you can do for a living. And I was like, Oh, enough people listen to this. And he asked what it was about, and I told him, and the next time I talked to him, he said, Hey, I didn't mention it last time, but my daughter listens to your podcast. She has type one diabetes, wow. And I was like, oh, that's crazy, right now, two years later, I buy the blue one, okay? And, you know, like, again, you message with people a little bit and get to know them, and but this is a company that breeds them, not just, you know, a guy like the other one. So I texted a couple of times with the with the owner, and I don't know how much longer after I bought this one, nine months later, I got a text from that person, and they were like, Hey, I'm in the emergency room with my son. I think he's about to be diagnosed with type one diabetes. And I remember you saying about your podcast, is there anything you can help me with here? So I have three chameleons, and two of them are bred by people who have kids with type one diabetes. It's like faith. It's very strange, is what it is. It's very, very, very strange, very cool too, yes, but I'll tell you this, they're very calming and help me be contemplative. I think maybe the closest I get to mindfulness watching them just sort of exist because they are so slow and deliberate. They seem wise when you look at them, even though I don't imagine they are. But there's something about keeping them that you can't be in a rush. They're the they're like growing a cactus, like if you plant a cactus, and you have to be happy that it grew three quarters of an inch this year, because it happens so slowly, and I think they keep my heart rate down.
Scott Benner 1:03:43
So I really appreciate them.
Arisha 1:03:45
So I know you mentioned that you had to leave in an hour, yes, and we talked longer, yes, I can conclude it right now. So it's been so incredible catching up and seeing all the new things you're doing with the Juicebox podcast, from collaborations with Omnipod to new series and even a cruise. Thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit of your journey with us.
Scott Benner 1:04:09
Oh, you're very welcome. Can I ask you a question? Yes, what if it was a terrible conversation? What would you have said at
Arisha 1:04:15
the end? I just I knew it wasn't going to be a terrible conversation. Can you
Speaker 2 1:04:18
imagine if you were like, Oh, wait, I can't read this. Did I do any better at letting you I just they talk so much like I realized that I don't really know another way to do this because I tried so hard to be quieter, but I wasn't. Was I?
Unknown Speaker 1:04:34
No, you were great. No, you're lying.
Arisha 1:04:37
No, you were great last time too. I think you're a very good speaker. I'm
Scott Benner 1:04:41
pretty awesome. I hear what you're saying. I'm just kidding. I was just joking. You think people listening and don't know me. Like, What a jerk. I'm just kidding. I mean, I'm not kidding that I'm great. I'm kidding that I said it to you. So what grade you in now? I'm a junior now. Wow, it's nuts. Yeah. It. Did you ever hear the episode From Russia with love? No, it's with a girl who, at the time was maybe, like 14. She had type one. She lives in Russia, and she, like, she got type one, and she went out and found the podcast and figured out everything she needed to take care of herself, then went back to her parents and demanded the stuff like CGM and like stuff like that. And then she was back on many years later, like, from college, and now she was like, at that point in college in Florida, I had the same feeling when she came back on as I did when you you were like, I'm in high school. And I was like, that's, no, you're not.
Unknown Speaker 1:05:35
That's weird, but you're just
Scott Benner 1:05:37
gonna keep getting older and older. Arden's
Arisha 1:05:39
21 I know? Well, I don't know, but that's crazy. Yeah, no,
Scott Benner 1:05:43
that's it's crazy. It really is. Can I ask you a question? Yes, of course. Why do you think I'm a good speaker?
Arisha 1:05:49
I just think you're a great speaker. I feel like you don't have to look or like words just come out naturally, and they're very clear and like, there's fluid. I don't know if that makes sense, but connecting topics, when you say something and you say something else, like the topics they connect, they
Scott Benner 1:06:11
feel like they flow. The
Arisha 1:06:12
flow is there, yes,
Scott Benner 1:06:14
but doesn't that when, when you're trying to interview me, though, doesn't that stop me from letting you talk? Like, aren't I? Like, it's easy to say like I'm controlling the conversation, but isn't it more like I'm building a conversation that doesn't need interruption
Speaker 1 1:06:26
a little bit? But I feel like, because I feel
Scott Benner 1:06:30
like that's the wrong thing for me to be doing while you're trying to interview me, but I don't know another way to do it.
Arisha 1:06:35
I always feel like the person that you're like interviewing speaks more than the interviewee. I'm better
Scott Benner 1:06:40
at that over the last couple of years, right in the years. Right in the beginning I was, I wasn't as good at that. Like, seriously, I would talk too much in the first couple years. But I also had, if I'm being fair, I had a lot of thoughts about diabetes that I saved up by blogging about them, that I felt like I was trying to get into the podcast, like I was pushing them into the conversations a little bit. Now I'm, I think you're right. Like, I'm doing better at the conversations, at least being 5050, and actually, some of my transcripts, they come back and, like, it's 6040, and I'm 40, and I'm like, Oh, I'm getting better at shutting up. That's awesome. I'm grateful for you explaining it to me, because I'm not doing a thing right now. Like, this is just the only way I I really know how to do, like, how to communicate, you know what I mean? Like, I tell stories. I, I, you know, I try to blend in my experiences. I try to be a little big picture and try to see where things are headed. I try to be funny, like, I, you know, because I think this stuff's not interesting. Like, Who the hell is going to listen to it? Yeah, I genuinely think that that's a mistake that most people make with their podcasts. Yeah, especially when they're around serious topics, is that they don't recognize that they need to be listenable, not just informative. Yeah, yeah. You can't be reading. You're still young. You are way better at this than you are when you started too.
Arisha 1:08:00
Yeah, I think I've gotten older too. Feel like I've gained, like, common sense.
Scott Benner 1:08:04
Do you think you'll keep doing it as you get older? Yeah, I will. Yeah. What are you getting out of it? Personally,
Arisha 1:08:10
I just think it's really important to, like, have strong, like, soft skills. And personally, I feel like I'm getting that out of it. And I really want to, like, continue and, like, build a community. When I get time, I really do try to, but doing, like a podcast episode is it takes much longer, and if you don't have a big audience, like, it doesn't reach as many people as if, oh, like, I posted something on Instagram.
Unknown Speaker 1:08:40
So yeah,
Scott Benner 1:08:41
are you saying that it's a ton of work to make an episode, and that when it doesn't reach as many people as it feels like the work took you, just feel like you're wasting your time
Arisha 1:08:53
a little bit. I just feel like, when I like, if I do this, like, this is when I do podcast episodes I'm able to have like, longer, more like, I guess, better conversations with people, yeah. But like, if I post on Instagram or something like, I'll get used but I don't think, I don't even think people watch like that like, I think if you listen to an episode, like you're listening, but if you're listening on Instagram, it's like 30 seconds. So it's not as much as like, engagement or,
Scott Benner 1:09:23
yeah, I think social media, to some degree, is all just bullshit. Yeah, I don't think that people are watching every minute of your 35 minute YouTube video about you going to the dentist or some crap like that. I think people are, like, clicking on it and going, I'm done, yeah, maybe jump, jump forward a couple of times. I think the same thing about, like, you know, there's YouTubers who do diabetes content, and somebody will say, well, like, well, your podcast got this many, you know, 10s 1000s of downloads today. But you look at that video got, you know, got more. Yeah, I was like, You really think that somebody watched that? Entire video, of course, they didn't like with the podcast, you can see where people stop listening. Yeah, you know what I mean. Like, I know how many percentage of people make it to certain, like, milestones throughout every episode. My listen through rate is really good, yeah? And like, I'm proud of that, and I'm not even saying about diabetes. There's plenty I love YouTube, and there's plenty of stuff on YouTube that I watch, but, you know, this morning, I put on an episode of, you know, some guy's YouTube thing, and I jumped in the shower, and three minutes into it, I was like, oh my god, I clicked on the wrong YouTube video. I want out of this. You know what I mean. But my hands kept touching the screen. It wouldn't work. So I stuck listening to him, and then I got done. And like, I first thing I did when I was on my show is dried my hands off, though, like, get out of that video. That's a view for him. Yeah, you know what I mean. And I just wonder how often that happens, where maybe some of those social media metrics are not as telling about what, what it means as as what you're saying. It's like a long form conversation. I had to, by the way, I thought I knew what you meant, and I did, but I had to real quick google soft skills to make sure I knew what they were.
Yeah, my parents used the word soft skills a lot, so
Arisha 1:11:15
that's, that's where most of my vocabulary comes from.
Scott Benner 1:11:18
They're banging that into your head for college. No, just in general, yeah, yeah. Communication, teamwork, collaboration, adaptability, problem solving, emotional intelligence, time management, leadership, yeah, I can see where making a podcast would help with that stuff. Yeah, for sure, your questions coming out of my answers were very good this this time around. Oh, thank you. Thank you. You didn't keyword me like you actually you helped me keep the conversation flowing. So I hope you know that you did that. Thank you. No, you're welcome. It's my pleasure. Okay, I'm gonna go hang out with my son now. Have fun. I really appreciate this. No, thank you so much for doing it. That was my pleasure. Thank you. You you. Today's episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom g7 and the Dexcom g7 warms up in just 30 minutes. Check it out now at dexcom.com/juicebox this episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by Omnipod five. Omnipod five is a tube, free, automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve a 1c and time and range for people with type one diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today at omnipod.com/juicebox at my link, you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and Conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox, today's episode was sponsored by skin grip. And skin grip, they understand what life with diabetes is like, and they know How infuriating it can be when a device falls off prematurely, and they don't want that to happen to you. Juicebox podcast listeners save 20% off of their first order when you use the link skingrip.com/juicebox links are also available in the show notes of your podcast player and at Juicebox podcast.com thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of The Juicebox podcast if you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app, like Spotify or Apple podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend, and if you leave a five star review. Oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card?
Unknown Speaker 1:13:48
I am here to tell you about juice
Scott Benner 1:13:49
cruise. 2026 we will be departing from Miami on June 21 2026 for a seven night trip, going to the Caribbean. That's right, we're going to leave Miami and then stop at Coke. Okay, in the Bahamas. After that, it's on to St Kitts, St Thomas and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands. The first juice Cruise was awesome. The second one is going to be bigger, better and bolder. This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type one diabetes. Expand your community and your knowledge on juice cruise 2026 learn more right now at Juicebox podcast.com/juice. Cruise. At that link, you'll also find photographs from the first cruise. If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox podcast. Private Facebook group Juicebox podcast type one diabetes. But everybody is welcome type one type two, gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me, if you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort or community, check out Juicebox podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrongway recording.com.
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