Scott Benner 11/10/25 Scott Benner 11/10/25

#1676 Eli’s Vibe

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Sixteen-year-old Eli shares how type 1 diabetes shaped his outlook on life, sports, and empathy—turning challenge into motivation and inspiring his dream of becoming an endocrinologist.

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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.

Eli 0:15
Hello, I'm Eli. I'm a junior in high school living with type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 0:19
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. 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. 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. I've got my morning routine down, and now I'm optimizing my nighttime routine with ag one. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ag one, Learn more at drink a G one.com/juicebox, later in the episode, I'm going to tell you about a g1 and a G Z, Z, like sleep you go. 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. 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, hello.

Eli 2:36
I'm Eli. I'm a junior in high school living with type one diabetes. How old are you? I'm 16 right

Scott Benner 2:42
now. Nice. I want everybody to know that we do a little preamble before we start the podcast. I say things. I should probably do it one time so people know. But I ask some questions. Make sure you don't have any questions. I love the way young people do it. You have any questions? No, I'm good. You sure you and yeah, I'm fine. I sometimes people get on there like, Well, I'm a little worried about this, and I'm wondering about that. And I'm like, it's just a podcast. We're not moving everyone to Mars, like it's gonna be okay, so doesn't need that much attention. Eli, that's very cool of you to do this. I appreciate it. What made you want to come on the podcast? How'd you find

Eli 3:15
out about it? I got was introduced to this podcast by my parents, because they heard about it, probably through Instagram or Facebook. And yeah, they told me about the podcast, and figured like I didn't know that it could be an opportunity, but I reached out knowing that hopefully my story would be interesting and worth sharing. Yeah, so yeah, I'm happy to be on here. Very

Scott Benner 3:40
cool. Tell me a little bit about you being 16. Your parents come to you and say, like, Hey, I found a podcast I want you to listen to. You don't just immediately think they must be out of their mind. There's no way you're gonna listen to the podcast that they want you to

Eli 3:53
Yeah, well, I'm not really a big podcast listener, which maybe you could expect. I feel like this podcast is different because, well, obviously it's something that I'm very passionate about, and I care about, and something I live with. So it definitely, like made me more interested in this podcast, and I spent time listening to some episodes, especially the Noah gray episode, because I play football, so Okay, I just started listening to it, and it's really interesting.

Scott Benner 4:20
Um, yeah, oh, it's awesome. It's nice of you to take your parents suggestion to heart too, and not just assume that they must not know what they're talking about. But yeah, young people aren't listening to podcasts, right?

Eli 4:32
No, it's not really a big thing between, at least between me and my friends, I

Scott Benner 4:38
wouldn't imagine what you guys do. YouTube. More. What do you where do you get your like,

Eli 4:42
mostly, YouTube, Instagram, Tiktok, the basic social media is now

Scott Benner 4:47
the core social Yes, yeah, that you old people don't know about. I'm going to show off for a second. I have a premium YouTube account. I use YouTube so much that I don't want to watch the ads, and it's worth $20 a month for me, not. The door.

Eli 5:00
So that's how I feel about Spotify. I listen to music all the time, so it's definitely worth having ultimate like unlimited skips and no ads.

Scott Benner 5:07
Yeah, no, I'm with you. Okay, so how old were you when you were diagnosed?

Eli 5:11
I was diagnosed when I was 13 years old in April of I think it was the 2021 or 2022

Scott Benner 5:20
Yeah, yeah, I love that. You don't know, it's kind of awesome.

Eli 5:24
I mean, it's, obviously, I know what day it was, actually April Fool's Day, which is a little bit ironic within

Scott Benner 5:28
itself. But, yeah, well, that's, that's why you know that

Eli 5:30
part, yeah, but I know that I've been a type one diabetic for four years, but it's not always the first thing I'm always thinking about when it comes to it's part of my identity, but it's not, you know what defines who I am? Yeah.

Scott Benner 5:45
So Eli, if you and I met somewhere, let's say I was at a I don't know, would you say you were 16? Yeah, let's say I was a cute 16 year old girl. We're play acting now, and we're out somewhere, and I'm like, Oh, hey, Eli, tell me about yourself. What would you tell her?

Eli 5:58
Like I talked mostly about that I play sports, that I love, people that are funny. I don't know what point I'd mention that I'm a type one. I think once I get to know them a little bit more, and I can trust them a little more, but it's not something that I'm afraid to share. Okay, what do

Scott Benner 6:16
you mean trust? Why would it take trust to share with them that you have type one?

Eli 6:21
Well, I feel like a lot of people don't really know what type one is. I mean, they've obviously heard about diabetes, but they don't know, and that could either lead to like, awkwardness between us, especially if, like, I want a relationship to foster, but I feel if I'm able to trust them, that that relationship would foster either way, no matter what I tell them, so them being able to understand what type one diabetes is or not, and give me the opportunity for, like, teach them about it. Yeah, then I think that adds a lot

Scott Benner 6:52
more. You just talked about fostering a relationship. Are your parents therapists? No. Where did that come from?

Eli 6:58
I don't know. I my school was big on kind of community engagement, so I feel like I've, I'm surrounded by a lot of people trying to build personal connections,

Scott Benner 7:10
I guess. Wow, and it's sticking to you, yeah, definitely is. It was pretty awesome. Just now, you're like, you know, we're trying to foster relationships. I'm like, What is this kid? What's going on here? So you think that that's your I'm sorry, I know this is probably not what you thought we'd talk about, but you believe that your your school is helping you to think more deeply about personal relationships,

Eli 7:30
in a way they encourage community engagement. And it's a smaller school, so I've been in this with the same friends since like kindergarten, so I've definitely had a lot of time to it gives the school user an opportunity to get to know people a lot

Scott Benner 7:45
I see, okay, so you have some long held, close friends that you've had for a lot of years. Yeah, those people know all about your diabetes.

Eli 7:55
Yeah, I would say anyone who I know for like, more than a day knows about my diabetes, either because they asked about my alarms, or they see my Dexcom on my arm, and then at that point, can't really avoid

Scott Benner 8:08
it, but if you have some romantic interest in that person, then you think it would take long. I know it's a weird word, but it would take longer for you to share that stuff. I

Eli 8:16
think it'd be the same. It depends, like if they if they noticed it before it would come up in a conversation,

Scott Benner 8:21
yeah, so you wouldn't make any effort to hide it. No, definitely not. Okay. Do you have devices or you MDI? How do you do your diabetes? Yeah, I

Eli 8:29
have a Dexcom g7 that I normally like to keep on my arm, and then I have the Omnipod that I normally like to keep on my stomach.

Scott Benner 8:37
Okay, let's go back to being diagnosed. So I like that you're not exactly sure how old you are, but you were probably 13 ish. And do you recall how it manifested? How you know, Were you sick? Did your parents notice something about you? How did all that work?

Eli 8:53
Yeah, I remember it was right after spring break for us, for my school, and we went on a ski vacation to Vermont, and I remember always being extremely thirsty. That was one of the like first things that always sticks out to me that I remember obviously, I didn't know that could be a sign for type one, but I would always go to the bathroom. And then my parents noticed that I was always kind of cranky and lethargic, and they at first assumed that's just what a normal teenager is going to be. But I went for my physical, and we mentioned this to the doctor, and they took my blood sugar and did all those tests, and I remember later that day, I was playing Minecraft with my friends on my computer in like, seventh grade or sixth grade, and my dad comes in and tells me, can you hang up the phone? Can we talk about something? And he tells me, based like, basically the news, that I could be a type one, and that we have to go to the we have to go to the Children's Hospital, which is a hospital around us. And I went there on March 31 and then spent the night into April 1 in the. Hospital. Did that ruin Minecraft for you? No, I mean, I don't really play much anymore,

Scott Benner 10:05
but if you had, like, a bad experience with it, now, you're like, oh, geez, it's kind

Eli 10:09
of more of a funny memory, because, like, the cannot be more unrelated.

Scott Benner 10:13
Do you wonder? You're too young to wonder, like, if your dad stood outside of that door and thought, like, when am I gonna say this to Him? Like, how's he gonna remember this? Or if he just, he just blasted, and he was like, oh, we gotta go. You have diabetes.

Eli 10:24
He's definitely as, like, nice about it as he could be, like he because he also didn't really know too much like about it at that point, like and like, neither did either my parents. So okay, they were kind of going through it the same way I was. I see,

Scott Benner 10:42
when is the first time you think it wasn't in that moment? But when do you think you start, I don't know, coming to terms with the idea that something happened and it's not going to go backwards. It's going to be like this. Now.

Eli 10:55
Yeah, I remember it was the first night I came back from the hospital and my grandparents came over, and we were all eating dinner, and this was before I got all of my it's before I had a pump. And I did have a Dexcom on my arm, but so I was able to continuously, like see my sugars. But we had sushi for dinner, which wasn't the probably the brightest, especially because my numbers still weren't 100% in range or in control. And I remember the sushi didn't help that I skyrocketed. I remember pricking, and I went for a walk with my mom after just the talk and to help because, like, we read that that would help, like, lower blood sugar. And I remember talking to her about how there's actually no way to go back now. And I think it took me, it didn't take me long, to realize how much my life was going to change, but I probably assumed that it was going to change more than I

Scott Benner 11:49
actually did. Your worry was bigger than the reality. Yeah,

Eli 11:53
like thinking about it now, yeah. But I think it makes sense because I didn't really know anything about it at the time, sure I had, I didn't have, really any friends that were diabetic,

Scott Benner 12:04
so, right? No, you just kind of knew, to me, imagine the worst, but it's a good takeaway that you know, not to worry too much until you really know what it is you're worried about, right? Like it's yeah, you know I'm saying yeah, how long you've been listening to podcast? I haven't

Eli 12:20
even listen to the podcast for too long, but as soon as I found out about this opportunity, I listened to the no grade podcast, and I tried my best to listen to as many as possible. But

Scott Benner 12:30
do you like more management stuff? Or you like conversations with people that you find interesting?

Eli 12:35
I think conversations with people are more interesting because especially people that are older than me, because I get to see like, either how they handled it when they were my age or as they got older. So it gives me, like, a sense of what I'm like, going to have to do when I get older.

Scott Benner 12:52
Yeah, yeah. No, that makes sense. Do you have any brothers or sisters?

Eli 12:56
I do. I have two younger siblings. I have a younger sister, and that's a freshman in high school and a younger brother who's in seventh grade.

Scott Benner 13:03
Any of you have other autoimmune issues besides type one diabetes, like celiac? No, no thyroid? None

Eli 13:09
of us do, and I don't know that anyone in my family really did either.

Scott Benner 13:14
Okay, you're not related to anybody who has type one that you know of. No, yeah, both sides, mom's side, Dad side,

Eli 13:22
yeah, both sides. My entire family. There is no medical history of

Scott Benner 13:26
type one. Does that make you feel alone in ways? Or how does it strike

Eli 13:32
you? I don't know. It makes me feel special, like I don't think of it as a negative thing at all. It's being it makes me unique. So that's what I that's how I like to think

Scott Benner 13:41
about it. Explain to me the parts of your personality that allow you to think of this positively.

Eli 13:47
Well, it gives me more opportunities the benefit, especially like I noticed within my health and understanding nutrition, I feel like a lot of people would never really understand how carbs and sugars kind of work with your body the same way that I will. Yeah, I think that gives me an advantage when I'm trying to eat healthier, or when I'm working out, I feel like I understand my body reacts to certain things more than other

Scott Benner 14:13
people would. Why do you care about that? Though, at your age, you know what I mean? Like, you know, other kids, like, that's not a thing everybody would care about. 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 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 the Dexcom g7 is sponsoring this episode of The Juicebox podcast, and it features a lightning fast 30 minute warm up time that's right from the time you put on the Dexcom g7 till the time you're getting readings. 30 minutes. That's pretty great. It also has a 12 hour grace period so you can swap your sensor when it's convenient for you. All that on top of it being small, accurate, incredibly wearable and light these things, in my opinion, make the Dexcom g7 a no brainer. The Dexcom g7 comes with way more than just this, up to 10 people can follow you. You can use it with type one, type two, or gestational diabetes. It's covered by all sorts of insurances, and this might be the best part, it might be the best part, alerts and alarms that are customizable, so that you can be alerted at the levels that make sense to you. Dexcom.com/juicebox, links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com, to Dexcom and all the sponsors. When you use my links, you're supporting the production of the podcast and helping to keep it free and plentiful.

Eli 16:22
Well, I care about my health a lot, obviously, and I know that being in shape is obviously important. And I play sports, I play football and I run track, so keep myself like at the best. Like performance level that I can be makes me not only like feel better, but helps me perform.

Scott Benner 16:41
How long have you been playing sports, since you were little? Yeah, my entire life. Which ones do you prefer? Like, if I took all them away, except one? Which one would you keep football for sure? Football, what position?

Eli 16:53
Yeah, I play receiver and dB.

Scott Benner 16:57
Okay, you're lean. You can run, yeah, what else does your body style like, impact like, lean into basketball. What else do you do?

Eli 17:07
Definitely not basal. I'm a little bit shorter, but I'm a sprinter, so I'm pretty fast, and I feel like I have good hands. I can catch

Scott Benner 17:16
Well, yeah, you don't mind the hitting.

Eli 17:19
No, I like it. You like that? It's fun. Yeah, that's that's what makes football, football, and not any other sport, is getting to, like, smack somebody, yeah, yeah. It gives me a chance to take out some pent up frustration.

Scott Benner 17:32
Would you prefer to catch a ball and get hit or watch somebody catch a ball and hit them? That's a good question. Yeah, right, because there's the excitement of catching the ball and the idea that you could score, but you're going to get popped, or the other side of it, where you get to kind of take out your frustration on somebody so good, which is better? I

Eli 17:50
think I like catching and then hopefully getting a chance to score. I mean, I like being control, so if I got the ball in my hands and I can hopefully either dodge that hit or make a

Scott Benner 17:59
play, it's actually very telling about your personality. It all lines up with your personality. Yeah, you're young. You don't know that yet, but we'll figure it out as we go. Why are you so nice? I end up asking people this all the time, did your parents do an incredibly good job? Are they missionaries? Like, why are you so thoughtful at 16?

Eli 18:17
Well, I guess my parents have always taught me like being nice is the best way to like, go through life. There's no like, why wouldn't you be nice when you can be right? Like, even when you're frustrated, it's just important that like, being nice is the top priority, and because that that will only take you further in life, if, like, you would so much rather be friends with someone who's nice, or have a connection with them, or a long term relationship, if they're nice, then if they're mean, which is, like, seems like it's common sense, but you're like, actually applying that every day is a little bit more

Scott Benner 18:53
challenging. Yeah. But how about your brothers and sister? Are there is anybody a problem? Are you like, you got like, you know, I mean, no one's

Eli 18:59
a serious problem. I mean, we get into our fights and stuff, like every sibling pair does, but I don't feel like any of us are a serious problem. If

Scott Benner 19:07
I asked them about being kind, you think they would say something similar?

Eli 19:11
Yeah, definitely, yeah. I think especially my sister would say it would care something about being nice. My brother is a little bit younger, is still a little bit more hyper, but he like, he definitely thinks the same way as I do.

Scott Benner 19:26
Okay, all right, do your parents model this to you? Like, do you see your parents being similar? Are they kind people in general? Yeah, definitely. My mom,

Eli 19:33
she's probably the nicest person, so never seen her be mean to someone else, when, in any case, really

Scott Benner 19:42
not even to your dad.

Eli 19:44
Well, I feel like that's different. It

Scott Benner 19:47
is different. Do both your parents work or No,

Eli 19:51
yeah, my dad, he works kind of within the government in the patent office, and my mom, she's a elementary school teacher. Oh, your

Scott Benner 19:59
mom's a teacher. Okay. All right. All this makes sense now. All right, I'm good. What makes you want to come on the podcast? Like, what did you think when you thought like, there's an opportunity here? I can what you all know that I drink ag one every morning, so I'm excited to let you know about something new from ag one. It's called ag Z. Ag Z helps to improve your sleep quality and supports the central nervous system. Not only does it help with your sleep quality optimization, but it will help you to fall asleep and wake up refreshed. This episode of The Juicebox podcast is sponsored by ag one, and if you're interested, check out ag one and ag Z with my link, drink ag one.com/juicebox, one.com/juicebox, start taking your sleep seriously with a G Z head now to my link, drink, a G one.com/juicebox, to get a free welcome kit with the flavor of your choice that includes a 30 day supply of a G Z and a free frother. A frother. What is that like? A whisk drink, a G one.com/juicebox, to find out what a frother is. And did you know that a g1 now comes in different flavors? It does for in fact, original citrus Berry and tropical drink. A G one.com/juicebox, links in the show notes, links at Juicebox podcast.com.

Eli 21:19
This podcast, it made me feel like that I can share my story that I know people might benefit from, like another podcast is directed towards families that either just are going through diagnosis, are looking for advice, and I know that I feel like I live with it for a decent amount of time now, and I feel like that it's definitely affected my life, but I feel like it's important to share how and that it could actually end up helping people and like this is one of the best ways to kind of get that out there. Okay, Eli, then

Scott Benner 21:48
what's your story? Like?

Eli 21:50
My story is just trying to connect all like aspects of my life into just building to building my character to like what I want it to be, and knowing that I'm in control. So I feel like my story is surrounding trying to be the best person I can despite my situation and not letting like other people's actions define who I am or what I

Scott Benner 22:16
do. Yeah, are there specific actions from others that come to mind when you say that. I

Eli 22:21
don't know, I can't really name any specific things that people might say or do, but it's more of a collective either opinion, like a collective opinion on me, or something that I identify as as a whole kind of or a community that I'm a part of, kind of not letting like a stereotype define me.

Scott Benner 22:40
Yeah, you want you ready for a deeper question? Sure. Do you think that's how some people think about you, or do you think that's your concern about what they're thinking?

Eli 22:50
I think it's different from person to person. Yeah, that some people will think will just categorize, for example, all diabetics is people who couldn't manage themselves or lost control of their eating, which obviously that could be because they're uneducated in the genre. But I also think that with some people that I want to impress more, I will be more conscious of how they think of me versus how they think of something like a category that I'm a part of.

Scott Benner 23:24
Okay, so you're worried that people will have pre conceived notions of you before they even meet you or get to know you?

Eli 23:30
Yeah, well, I wouldn't say that necessarily worried about that, but always in the back of my mind, especially when I'm maybe introducing myself and I'm like, what does this person know about me already? What do they know about how I act and how I feel, or

Scott Benner 23:43
what do they misunderstand about diabetes that they're going to apply to me now? Yeah, exactly. And so you live your life in a way that that becomes less possible because you're out front with concern for your own health, positivity, activity and and sharing with people, so you kind of try to be ahead of it, to take away their opportunity to misunderstand.

Eli 24:07
Yeah, I think that yeah, like avoiding misunderstanding is what's going to help see a bigger picture that either I'm trying to achieve or trying to talk to them about, I guess,

Scott Benner 24:17
is it frustrating to have to do that? Because without diabetes, would you really need to do

Eli 24:21
that? I feel like not to the same level. So in a sense, that's frustrating, but I feel over time, I've definitely learned how to deal with it when talking to people and how certain people will react, especially people that I've known for a longer time, when something happens and I know how they'll react to it, versus someone I've never talked to before, and I kind of have to start with basics, and they ask questions about my diagnosis, or what are signs that I might be diabetic, and it's kind of more basic when it comes to teaching people, but people that I know I feel like I've learned how to. Adapt to their questions or their

Scott Benner 25:01
reactions? Do they mostly have the same questions and reactions

Eli 25:05
like, the same questions and reactions to people that don't know? Are

Scott Benner 25:09
the things that you run into out in the world, whether it's with your friends or with people you don't know? Are the things that you hear repeated like, over and over again, or do you sometimes hear new questions? Yeah,

Eli 25:21
every I feel like there's like, a basic set of questions that everyone asks, especially when they first learn that I'm diabetic. And normally it comes with like, and I'm sorry first, like, I'm sorry for you. And then it will follow with questions about, like, what was your diagnosis? Like, can you eat sugar? Very like, basic questions that someone who's uneducated in diabetes

Scott Benner 25:45
would ask, yeah, does that bother you that people ask you that over and over?

Eli 25:49
No, especially because I, like, tried to understand where they're coming from. Like, I might have been the same way before I was diagnosed. Like, I could have been thinking the same stereotypes about old diabetics. And so I can't always put like, a blame on them. It's just, it's not necessarily their

Scott Benner 26:05
fault. Yeah, what do you think 10 years from now, 20 years from now, you'll say, Do you think you'll be like, No, it's okay. I would misunderstand too. Or do you think you'd be like, I'm sick of this? Like,

Eli 26:13
eventually I'll get sick of it, but I'll try to turn into like, good humor. Like, either I'll make a joke out of it, or try to make people laugh, or either, like, trick, like, push their buttons a little

Scott Benner 26:24
bit. Yeah, I gotcha. What did you enjoy about Noah Gray's interview?

Eli 26:28
He gave great advice related to life with football, and I've, like, definitely tried applying it to my life with football. And he also gives good advice on how to deal with it, kind of socially, because he talked to me, he talked about his diagnosis and his experience in the hospital, and that, in a way, kind of connected to mine, because he didn't his entire family didn't really know what was going on, and in the same way that happened to my family. Okay, so it felt nice having to like a connection. You know, this is interesting. I'm

Scott Benner 27:01
gonna ask you a couple of questions. Of questions that are going to seem odd, but stick with me. Okay, are you or your family particularly religious?

Eli 27:10
We're Jewish. We identify as Jewish, and we're not super religious, but it's definitely part of our identity.

Scott Benner 27:16
Oh, Eli, this is even more interesting. Now wait, do you see where the rest of my questions go when you think about the interview you listen to with Noah, do you think of it as being particularly a religious conversation? I remember

Eli 27:29
some of his conversation, some of his answers were related to God and Christianity and having trust in God, which is a little bit different for me, but I think that it's just so I feel like someone else's opinion, like, who am I to judge about that? And I still listen to it, and I listen to what else he has to say also, and try to pick apart what other important information he shared. I

Scott Benner 27:55
think this is awesome, and I love that you brought him up organically, and we got to talk about it because I also thought His conversation was really good. I loved how I thought he was talking about being active with type one and giving, like, real life examples and being honest. Like, you know, when he says, for instance, like, you know, if the game goes into overtime, I might be in trouble a little bit, because his system really works for four quarters of football, yeah, that kind of stuff. And at the same time, I heard back from some people. They were like, Wow, that guy talked about God a lot, and I thought, Oh, I didn't, like, really notice, I mean, I did not notice that I'm not an idiot, right? But like, I never, like, when I was talking to him, I never thought, like, oh, this seems like a sermon. And at the same time, I don't have any religious holdings, so, like, you know, but I'm also like, you like, I just think everybody should just do the thing that they like, Yeah, I'm a pretty live and let live person, but it's interesting to hear you like, there was part of me that wondered, you're kind and you're thoughtful, and for your age especially, and I kept thinking, like, oh, well, the reason he liked Noah, the reason he brought it up, is they're probably both Christians, and he probably really related to what he was saying. But then when you talked about what you found important about his conversation had nothing to do with that, you blew my mind a little bit.

Eli 29:10
Yeah. I mean, I see it, yeah. I understand what you're saying. Thank you for those compliments, but I feel like what he had to say was more valuable relating to type one more than anything.

Scott Benner 29:21
I agree. Yeah, I think so too. But that's really great to hear. And you don't have to thank me for the guy. It's just a conversation. I mean, if every time I say something awesome to you thank me, it would just be you thanking me for an hour because I'm awesome constantly. Eli, you said you like funny people. Am I one of those people or not particularly to you?

Unknown Speaker 29:40
No, yeah, you're pretty funny. I'll give it to you. I appreciate it.

Scott Benner 29:43
I don't know where, like, how young. I don't know where my bullshit stops working. You know what I

Eli 29:47
mean? Yeah, I don't know. I haven't been able to pick up on much, so you must be doing a

Scott Benner 29:53
good job. Awesome. Good. Thank you. Are you the funny person in your group, or is there somebody else I'd like

Eli 29:59
to think I'm. One of the fun year, but I think my friend group of the combination is pretty hilarious.

Scott Benner 30:04
Yeah, that's awesome. When I made up earlier that, you know, you were talking to some cute girl, did an actual person pop into your head? No, no, you're

Eli 30:13
putting me on the spot here. But no, yeah, are you dating? Not right now? No, do you want to it's on my mind, but it's not something that's a top priority.

Scott Benner 30:23
Okay, have you thought about how that will integrate diabetes will integrate into your dating situation when it starts to happen? Is that like a out front concern or thought for you right now? Or is that not something you're talking worrying

Eli 30:35
about? Like it's it's definitely not a concern. But I feel like getting to more like intimate relationships, I feel as if it'll be more important to bring it up, because obviously I'll be with them more so they would be surrounded by more that bet they'll have more questions and giving them more explanation and have them have a better understanding. Will only like add more.

Scott Benner 30:57
Do a lot of your friends have girlfriends and boyfriends? Or is that not a thing at your age right now,

Eli 31:02
a couple of my friends do. It's, I mean, it's definitely a thing in high school, but some people do. Some people don't,

Scott Benner 31:09
yeah. Do you think it's really about relationships, or do you think it's more like social and just having that being, you know what I'm saying. Do you think it's like, I don't mean performative, but maybe I do what do you think like? Do you think some people are just like, I want to have a boyfriend or a boyfriend or a girlfriend and it's a thing and I show off? Or do you think they actually enjoy the time they're spending together?

Eli 31:28
Probably depends on their relationship, but definitely, some are definitely, I feel like performative is a good word to use for that. I feel like some relationships are a bit more performative, but then also, some people actually do really like, like or love their partners. So, yeah,

Scott Benner 31:42
you see it going both ways. Yeah. Definitely Gotcha. When you hear older people talking about your generation and they feel worried about them, do you know what the hell they're talking about? Older people are worried that you guys are on your phones too much, that you know your self confidence lacks, that you're there. People are more depressed at your age now, like all these things that you hear talked about in the zeitgeist, I feel like I could use Zeitgeist with you. Seem like a pretty smart kid, like all these things that are kind of out in the world and everything. Do you think those are real concerns? Or do you think that's just old people looking back and seeing and misunderstanding who you guys are as a whole? Yeah,

Eli 32:22
I think it's definitely some misunderstanding, because our generation is extremely different. Definitely with technology, other generations didn't necessarily get AI. We're not necessarily behind or kind of screwed, but I think we're going to learn how to integrate better than anyone else, which is going to be kind of the best advantage we're going to get.

Scott Benner 32:41
You brought it up, so I'll keep going with AI. When you think about AI, do you think, oh, it's going to kill us all?

Eli 32:48
No, definitely not. I think AI is a great thing. It probably helps so many people, not just within school, but I know there's integration into health and AI is taking over the world, but not in a bad way.

Scott Benner 33:04
So if I said to you, I could easily bring on some person here to tell you that, like we're gonna have to build more data centers and knock down trees for power plants, and we're gonna need way more electricity. And is that not a thing you would think about? Probably, yeah,

Eli 33:19
I don't know 100% how AI works, but I mean, I know it's horrible for the environment, so obviously that's a concern, especially with global warming, warming, but over time, there's going to be better ways to integrate it, and people are going to learn how to make it more environmentally friendly. Okay, see,

Scott Benner 33:38
that's what I wanted people to hear. I wanted to hear I wanted to hear a young I wanted them to hear a young perspective, because I'm an older person. But, like, it's a big bet to make right thinking globally. But I generally believe that too, that, you know, things improve, and we tend to figure out how to mitigate the bad parts of them as we go. Like, part of me thinks that sitting here saying, like, well, AI is going to, like, ruin everything. Like, I'm sure there was somebody back then, like, with a horse, who was like, this car is going to ruin everything, you know what I mean? Or this thing is going to it changes it for your perspective on the planet and on life, because you're going to run into something too one day. It sounds crazy, man, but like, 20 years from now, something's going to happen, and you're going to be like, I'm worried about this. And if you can step back far enough, you'll realize it's just different than what you're expecting your a lot of your worry and concern will be for nothing most of the time. But it doesn't mean it's not worth thinking about or again, trying to, like, plan for, you know, or mitigate somehow, to go back to just the idea of using it. You're 16. My daughter is now in college, right? And she had a professor tell them her class the other day. I know you're hearing people say, don't use AI. It's cheating, but you better be using it, and I want you to use it. How is it being talked about in high school?

Eli 34:58
Certainly. School, it's a very strict no policy related to writing essays for us or direct copy and pasting from chat GBT into homework assignments, sure, but it's definitely, there's definitely some uses for it. Like to help study, or if there's a concept I don't necessarily understand after a longer or harder class, I'll go home and I'll have it explain it explain it to me at a simpler level until I can understand it that the class wants me to. And maybe it'll help me make flashcards for finals or any vocab quizzes. So there's definitely some uses, but the schools are pretty strict on at least high schools in my area are pretty strict on using it to submit homework or write essays for you. They don't want AI doing the work, but using AI to help you get to do the work, I think is okay.

Scott Benner 35:46
I think that's the balance we're looking for, too. And do you succeed at that, or do you use it and, you know, quote, unquote, cheat? Yeah.

Eli 35:55
I mean, I definitely don't cheat, because they'd catch us and the consequences would 100% not be worth it, but I feel like I do a good job of integrating it into my study.

Scott Benner 36:06
Okay, that's awesome. And do you think that that's generally speaking, everyone's opinion, or do you think there are a lot of people using it incorrectly?

Eli 36:14
Think there's some people using it incorrectly, but I know most people are using it just to help them study and kind of do the same things that I'm trying to do with

Scott Benner 36:23
it. That's what you're hearing from friends. You don't have a lot of friends who are like, Oh my god, I found a way around that. I'm cheating like hell with this thing.

Eli 36:29
Well, there definitely are some things like that where people use it to make shortcuts, but I know none of us, I can speak for most people, none of us use AI to directly submit, yeah, work. When I

Scott Benner 36:42
was in school, there were things I was good at and things that I wasn't, and the things that I wasn't that I wasn't good at, apparently, talking is one of them. But the things that I weren't, why can't I find the the connecting, or anyway, the things that I struggled with, I would have just skipped, I wouldn't have taken the time to, like, cheat. And I wonder if like, even that isn't valuable for somebody like, you know, I would have just taken a poor grade, like, I wouldn't have cheated to get to get better. But maybe now people are going to be like, Look, I don't really understand this, but I can ask this thing a couple of questions, it's going to tell me the answer. Like, hopefully they'll read it. Maybe it'll bring them a little closer to it, even the maybe even the poor side of this might have some benefit. I have no idea. It also could end up being a crutch for people, and they don't learn a damn thing because they're not actually learning anything. But again, like you said it a couple of times this one already, like, I think that's gonna be a person to person outcome. It's not, it's not gonna be the same for everybody.

Eli 37:37
Yeah, definitely. Eli, do you have any pets? I do. I have a dog

Scott Benner 37:41
I'm watching right now while I'm talking to you. I don't know how much of this you listen to, you know, but I have a couple of chameleons. I have a blue eye and Bonjour Panther chameleon, and he eats so strangely. Most of them just like they, you know, the tongue shoots out and they grab the bugs, yeah. So, you know, I have one tongue shoots out, grabs the bugs, chews it up, swallows it. He's done. I have another one. She's an assassin. I don't even know if she chews honestly. But the third one, the blue and banjo, who I got from fram's camps, who ironically, has a type one connection, but that's neither here nor there, he grabs the bugs and then squeezes them in his mouth and holds them for such a long time before he chews them up. And it's so I just want to say it's so creepy. And right now he has a horn worm in his mouth. It's the big green worms he might see on a tomato plant. I don't know where you live. You maybe never saw a tomato before. He's just pinching it and just looking around the room to make sure that nothing's gonna murder him while he's trying to eat. If I had five seconds where I could, like, talk to this thing and it would, it would believe me, and it could understand me, you know, if I had a magic wand kind of a situation, I'd be like, dude, tell me why. Why do you do that? Like, why don't you just eat the damn thing? I just want to know so badly, like, he's just eyeballing me and squeezing this worm. It's not great. He's very pretty, though, so and he's active and he's fun to watch, nevertheless, that's not what we're talking about. I actually want to talk a little more about AI. Do you have anticipation that it's going to be involved in your diabetes care moving forward, I think 100%

Eli 39:24
I think that there's already some. I don't know if it's technically AI, but the ability for the Dexcom talk to the pump, and then the pump understand what the Dexcom is showing, then using that information to then auto correct for me or adjust my basal and Bolus. I think that's very interesting, and that might not technically be considered AI, but I think that anything automated is definitely getting further along within medical ideas, and I think the incorporation of AI is only going to take that so much further,

Scott Benner 39:56
right? What do you want to do when you say, grow up, but you're pretty grown up. But. Do you want to do when

Eli 40:01
you're out in the world? I'm actually interested in being an entrepreneurologist. Are you? Yeah, I think that's something I

Scott Benner 40:08
would love to do. Is that since your diagnosis, or

Eli 40:11
Yeah, definitely, I had no interest in many things, but, like, I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up, but once I got diagnosed, it kind of slowly crept into like, the back of my mind, yeah,

Scott Benner 40:21
no. I mean, you were playing Minecraft before you're diagnosed. You're just, you were, you were building a thing for your cows. You weren't really, yeah, yeah. So what's the experience that you've had that's moved you towards

Eli 40:33
that having a good endocrinologist myself is really something that kind of gave me an idea, and then kind of slowly understanding more about how an endocrinologist can help others, and that's something that I'm really interested in. Over time I've spent, like last summer, I did some research in a lab, kind of, I did, like, an internship with MedStar related to endocrinology. And while, like, I was kind of held back, they wouldn't let me do too much with patients, I was able to sit in on some doctor's appointments. And it really gave me more like perspective on what being an endocrinologist is like, and it only inspired me more to want to be one.

Scott Benner 41:20
How are you with your stem stuff? Science, Math, you good.

Eli 41:23
I feel like I'm more of a stem guy than I am a humanities so it's that that played into it.

Scott Benner 41:29
Okay, that's good. So it leans a little more into your into your strength. Yeah, yeah. How did you end up with the opportunity with MedStar?

Eli 41:37
I have a friend whose mom kind of has connections to MedStar, so that, and then, just like reaching out through emails and talking to research like heads at MedStar, and that slowly just integrated me into finding the right person to talk to. So

Scott Benner 41:56
that's awesome. Do you think you're very interested in the hands on part of medicine, or do you think you're more back room?

Eli 42:02
Definitely. I feel like the backroom stuff. I know it's not always avoidable, but I feel like that can be more boring, and the fun part is actually talking to patients, seeing like what their lives and answering their questions.

Scott Benner 42:14
Yeah. Well, this is exciting because I think you might be exactly the kind of person we need. You're thoughtful, but you're not having trouble communicating how you think and feel, which I think maybe I don't want to be insulting, but, like, I think sometimes there's some doctors who struggle in the communication portion, yeah, you could be a good balance of those things. That's, that's, it's exciting to hear. What is your experience been with your positions and your outcomes? So I want to know, you know, you're three years into this, I guess I should just ask you, like, what's your a 1c what are your what's your variability?

Eli 42:45
Like, yeah, my a 1c is at a 5.5 last May, which is, I know is pretty good, and I think that I attribute a lot of that also to my parents and kind of all my doctors, that especially like endocrinologist who, whenever I need an adjustment to my ratio, my insulin, car ratios and all that stuff, like, he's pretty on top of it. And my parents are obviously the biggest help in the world. So yeah,

Scott Benner 43:12
so the doctor is good about keeping your settings moving with your needs, which is awesome. And yeah, when I find when people struggle, it's mainly because their their settings aren't keeping up with what their needs are, and then your parents are very involved. What does that mean?

Eli 43:27
My mom has always helped me carb count, especially what like when I'm at home, and let's say for breakfast, I have a pretty similar breakfast every day, but sometimes I'll have a bagel, and my mom will text me when I get out the shower and say, Tell me dose 80 or dose 25 for a piece of toast or whatever breakfast is, whatever she made for me that morning, and allows me to dose before I eat, to give a little bit of time for that instant to start working. And it just takes a little bit of stress off me. And same thing with my dad, who's always on top of the equi like getting making sure I have the right equipment and I'm not running out of supplies. And he always helps me change my pod if I if I need

Scott Benner 44:06
to help with that, you're aware that they're doing those things because they tell you they're doing them, or you are aware of those things, I mean, needing to be done, and you're seeing that it's being facilitated and handled by them. You know what I mean? Like, are

Eli 44:16
they? Like, yeah, well, both because, well, I don't know all the background stuff with my dad, kind of talking about getting supplies, but he tells me, he explains them to me, and then I obviously, I see both of them always helping me, like, dose the right amount, or, yeah, tell me what to do,

Scott Benner 44:32
yeah, without all that Pre-Bolus thing, you're not getting anyone seeing the fives. I'm assuming you eat like a regular kid. I mean, I

Eli 44:39
try to eat healthier, but I'm conscious about it, but I'm not on a keto diet.

Scott Benner 44:44
Okay, what level is your Judaism? Are you eating differently on the weekends for religious No, not, not to

Eli 44:50
that level, not that level. Okay,

Unknown Speaker 44:53
could you do it by yourself? Yeah,

Eli 44:55
I'm very independent when it comes to when my parents are. Young. They they love like they help me as much as they can. But I went to summer camp for seven years, but I was diagnosed for only three of those years, and that's without my parents. I go for eight weeks. I'm in the middle of the woods, and I'm fully self sufficient when I go up there. The first year there was, it was like probably three or four months after I got diagnosed. So I had a little bit more help from the nurses and the staff, but by the time I got to my last year at camp, I was kind of doing everything myself,

Scott Benner 45:30
okay, but you were willing to admit that your mom and your dad with the Pre-Bolus thing, the Pre-Bolus thing like that really does take a level of concern away from you. Is that right? Yeah, and

Eli 45:44
it just, it takes a also, like a level of thought, like high school is a lot and also, diabetes adds a lot more caught, like complex situations and having just something in the morning when I'm worried about a test that I have first or second period, or a big homework assignment that I forgot to do last night, just having them take that little bit of like, thinking off my mind just helps so much.

Scott Benner 46:07
You don't mind being told. I mean, for a lack of a better phrase, like, you don't mind being told what to do, being led. Yeah.

Eli 46:14
Well, when it comes to this stuff, I trust my parents, obviously, when I have people that don't really know much about diabetes, trying to tell me what to do, and I know that I know more than them. It does get a little bit of a little bit frustrating, but I feel like there's rare situations, because I feel like most people are good at recognizing when they're a little bit out of place and telling me how to manage myself.

Scott Benner 46:39
Yeah, so a couple years from now, you're out with that girl that we made up. Yeah, and your mom texts you and says, Don't forget the Bolus extra for popcorn. You're not gonna be like, Oh my god, like, lady,

Eli 46:49
well, I probably would, because as soon as I leave the house, I don't get texts from my parents at all about my diabetes. Okay, I'm completely self managed. Just only when I'm I'm around the house, and they're there to help me. They do an amazing job. How

Scott Benner 47:04
did they figure out the Pre-Bolus Thing? Thing is that from Doctor, is that from me? Is that like from experience? Where did they figure out that out?

Eli 47:11
At first, it was definitely from doctors. But then over time, I think experience was the best thing that they learned from because, because I like to keep my breakfast kind of consistent, for example, and over like they'll see how my body reacts. And I know, let's say, before I go to my finals week, every morning I'll have the same breakfast, because I know how my body will react, and my parents have figured that out to like to the science, basically. So yeah, I feel experience has helped them the most

Scott Benner 47:42
within that, okay, yeah, did they have any background in in diabetes, or is it just that they threw themselves into it and figured it all

Eli 47:50
out? Yeah, they threw themselves in and figured out this. I mean, that first year. I mean, it was just, probably just straight learning. So they didn't, yeah, we had, we didn't know anything about it, really, okay before I got diagnosed. Awesome.

Scott Benner 48:05
It's really, it's lovely of them to put their effort into it like that. Do you think your siblings are at all concerned that they might get type one one day?

Eli 48:13
I haven't talked to them much about it, but I hope that they would not be concerned at all, because they see that I'm a normal kid, it didn't completely change like, who I am. So hopefully that will give them confidence that, no matter like what if they get diagnosed or not, that it won't change their life

Scott Benner 48:34
100% Yeah, do they treat you differently or No,

Eli 48:39
still get blamed for everything, and, yeah, there's not really been a change in that they

Scott Benner 48:47
don't treat you differently. That's great. Do you think that there is any resentment from them that you get your parents attention so much?

Eli 48:55
Probably not, because what my parents like do a very good job of making sure, like they don't put me at the center of the attention always. So especially because I feel like I if they need to, they know I can self manage myself as as much as I need. Yeah, and so they can spend an equal amount of time with all of

Scott Benner 49:13
us. I'd be so interested to ask your siblings that question, yeah? I wonder. I wonder what they would say. Yeah. They'd be like, Oh my God, they're always talking to him about something. Yeah, my mom doesn't even look at me. She just looks at him. Are you the oldest too? Yeah, you're the oldest and you're a boy. They probably already hate you, you know what I mean? Because they're probably, oh, mom thinks he's a prince. Maybe you get older and you find out I was just I'm bringing it up for fun, but also because I think as you get older, you should be aware of that to some degree, that no matter how balanced your parents are, at some point, it's possible that your siblings are going to just see like, oh, we were always talking about diabetes, yeah. And it's gonna, even if it's not true, it could feel that way to them, yeah. Is it a little thing from me to you? Do? Just keep an eye on it. Don't worry about it, although you don't seem like a worrier about anything. Yeah, yeah. No, you don't have any anxiety right

Eli 50:06
now, I've got like a goldfish mentality. Something bad happens, learn from it. Move

Scott Benner 50:11
on, yeah, or forget about it. Move on. So your mom's not anxious. She's

Eli 50:15
definitely more anxious than me or my dad, but I think that's just because she cares, which makes sense.

Scott Benner 50:21
Is she just like, a mom anxious or is she like, Yeah, I think it's definitely a mom anxious thing. Not like, I think mom should take a pill, not that level. Yeah, no, no, gotcha. How old are your parents? Do you know

Eli 50:34
they're both in their 50s? Oh, my God, my mom. My mom's in her 40s. My dad's in her 50s.

Scott Benner 50:39
Sorry, yeah? Jeez, your grandparents alive?

Eli 50:42
Yeah, I'm lucky to have all four of them still

Scott Benner 50:44
very nice. Did they have any understanding of your diabetes? Or how does that work with them?

Eli 50:48
It definitely took a lot more explaining to them, because they really knew a lot less, especially with the like new technology, with Dexcom, like, all they know is like finger breaking and insulin shots. So explain to them how old that worked. Was new for them, but we basically had the same level of understanding before I got diagnosed. And just, I try to teach them as much as I can whenever they have questions,

Scott Benner 51:13
okay, well, yeah, I mean, I think there's a cut off. I haven't reached it yet, but I'm scared of when I get to it. When the world that age you get to where you're just like, You know what I know, all the stuff I care to know about, yeah, I hope I don't get that way. I try to keep up with music, I try to keep up with technology as best I can, how society seeing things, you know, like how politics is changing, like it's, you know, like all that. I I try my hardest, but I know I'm gonna get to an age where one day I'm just like, I don't care. It was better than when I was better than when I was young, and then I'll just never think about it again and just just off and die. You know what? I mean, hopefully a ways from that. Do you curse?

Eli 51:48
Eli, yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna go out my way to drop F bombs on every sentence, but I'm not at all like care it could happen, right?

Scott Benner 51:57
Yeah, I'm happy about that. You seem a little too perfect, so

Eli 52:03
try. I'm trying to be professional. You know, now you're doing a good job.

Scott Benner 52:07
Don't worry. I know you put something your notes. I want to ask you about still, but let me ask you a couple more questions about being young. Okay, drugs. Do you see a lot of drugs? Yeah.

Eli 52:15
I mean, I go, I go to parties a lot, and it's definitely like, alcohol and drugs are definitely a big part

Scott Benner 52:22
of it. What are you seeing right now? Weeds everywhere. Eli, I'm assuming that definitely. What are you seeing? Cocaine. What else are you seeing?

Eli 52:29
No, no, not definitely. I mean, I don't know about college or anything, but at least in where I'm from, and what I've seen within my school, like, that's come not a thing at all, and neither are any other, like, super harsh drugs like that. You're

Scott Benner 52:44
not seeing pills or stuff. No, definitely not. Nobody's using heroin. But like, Well, no, you're laughing, but you know,

Eli 52:52
yeah, no, I know what you mean. It just, it's just weird to think about like, because it's just not something we even like consider.

Scott Benner 52:58
You're not seeing it. But weed, yeah, everyone's got weed, is that, right?

Eli 53:01
Yeah, I would say that's probably the biggest drug. Okay, there is out. Is it legal where you are? Yeah, it's legal in DC and

Scott Benner 53:07
Maryland. Okay, oh, that's the area you're in. Okay, do your parents, I'm not asking you if you smoke weed, but do, generally speaking, do your your friend's parents know that they're smoking weed? I

Eli 53:18
would say my closest friends don't at all. So my parents, so their parents obviously, like, don't know that. They don't

Scott Benner 53:25
know everybody. You like, good job. Now, the people I know don't do it, but you're talking about other people. Scott, no, yeah, sure, those other people. Eli, that I'm talking about, do you think their parents know

Eli 53:34
I don't know? Because I feel like they wouldn't necessarily talk about it, and if they get in trouble, then maybe they would, like, I don't know if they would stop, but I feel like they wouldn't go out publicizing like that their parents found out they caught them smoking in the

Scott Benner 53:49
basement or something. Yeah, drinking is a big thing or no, it's definitely

Eli 53:53
bigger than smoking for you in your group.

Scott Benner 53:56
Yeah, okay. I mean, is that a thing your parents have talked to you about that they go up to you and say, Look, we expect at some point you're going to intersect alcohol. And here's how it works with

Eli 54:05
diabetes. Yeah, as soon as I, like, started talking about seeing it at parties like freshman year, they immediately started doing research on it and making sure that when I came across it, I know how to like, react to it and how to be safe with it. And I had to talk with my endocrinologist about it, also to understand more of the science behind it, which was really helpful. Okay, so it was definitely a huge topic that was brought up.

Scott Benner 54:29
And, you know, glucagon may be less effective when you're drunk, right?

Eli 54:33
Yeah, I know about all the effects it has on the liver. It delays insulin ability to work, and the long list of things that it does. Yeah,

Scott Benner 54:42
diabetes took the fun right out of beer, didn't it?

Eli 54:45
Yeah, gotta avoid those hard, high carby drinks. If I wanted

Scott Benner 54:50
to you're like, I thought this was gonna be fun, but it really like, now I know more about how the liver works, so this

Speaker 1 54:56
not as much fun as it could have been. Okay, all right, that's interesting. I appreciate this. What have I not asked you about that I should have? And then I want to look here in your notes, before we get to that. You are you wrote something advocacy projects. So tell me about that you're doing. You're doing type one advocacy. Let's go to

Eli 55:16
that. Yeah, I've been working with breakthrough T, 1d I started kind of last spring where I did they have a walk across the Capitol, and I was able to, like the all the funds, kind of go towards researching for a cure. And I was able to raise, I think it was around $18,000 between reaching out to people I know and connections to help fundraise all that, and that led me to this program in T 1d called the champions program, which is something that I just started this fall, where there's a it's like a leadership that is organized by area across The country. So I'm part of the Mid Atlantic region. So there's kind of eight Youth Ambassadors, and my title is one of those. And that's kind of something like, inspires me to push on, like, within leadership, within my own type one diabetes community around me.

Scott Benner 56:16
Wow, that's really lovely. How did you get involved in that? You just want to go for to one of the walks. Then it all kind of came out of that.

Eli 56:24
I was like researching with my parents about what I can do to raise awareness or anything, and then break through T 1d is always the first thing that pops up. So we were like, looking through the website, we see that they have walks and that you can fundraise and apply to be a fundraiser. So we did that, not knowing how far it would actually be able to take me into like this program and leadership, like roles,

Scott Benner 56:46
$18,000 that's an effort on your part. You were working hard on collecting those donations. It sounds like

Eli 56:52
Yeah. And I mean also, after my parents had helped me a lot. Also,

Scott Benner 56:58
yeah, I got some friends with better jobs and your friends, huh? Yeah, what have we not talked about that we should have? What seems like, if you listen back to this, you'd say, Oh, I can't believe I didn't get to this. This is important.

Eli 57:10
I think one of like, the more like, defining events I always think about when people ask, like, what is like, the worst experience you had with type one diabetes, or what's the most frustrating thing was my Canadian back country trip. So that was a trip that I took when I was 16, when I was 15, sorry, and I went to my sleep way camp. When you're the oldest camper, you get to go on this 10 day canoeing trip and back country trip through the Quetico National Park, which is right near the boundary waters up in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Okay, on that trip, we probably spent a month thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong with my supplies. I had two bags, one on separate canoes, in case one person flipped and I lost everything, and we had a backup plan for everything. And besides that, this it's a pretty hard trip. We're canoeing for 13 hours a day, and we have portages that are miles long and heavy gear, heavy tents. So adding on top of to like, the how hard it was, I had to obviously deal with my diabetes, which I wasn't afraid of at all. But on day two, I dropped. At this point, I still had a PDM, like, where Omnipod wasn't on the phone yet, yeah, and I dropped my PDM on a rock, and it shattered. I was like, Okay. I was as calm as possible. I went and I went to go open my next My we had a backup PDM. So I went to go open it. I had this sheet with all my ratios to set a new one up. And I open it, I type in my password, and it says, you need connection to set this up, which is, I think the one possible thing me and my parents didn't think of, because we're in the middle of nowhere, we have, we have to use satellite phones to reach back to anyone, right? And there was, at this point now, there's no way to put a new pod on, so I have to go to manual daily injections for the first time since, probably, I don't know, three months after I was diagnosed, okay, and I knew how to take care of myself, but it still was a little bit shocking, and it was like a very harsh reality like this is going to make this 100 times harder. And at first I was extremely frustrated, because I have to stop every five minutes, like, if I needed to, I need to give myself a shot. And we would stop for 50 less than, like, 15 minutes to eat, because the mosquitoes were insane, so we had to hurry up and add to give myself a shot when we wanted to eat, which would take time I felt like I was taking away from the group. But I'm lucky that I had such a great community, like those guys who went on the trip with me are still my best friends today, and the staff was very helpful, and the way the camp handled it was amazing, because they let me continue on the trip. There were talks about having to use a C plan to evac me, but I said that I wanted to do this. I'm like, There's. No way you're taking me out of this trip. Yeah, so my friends made it possible to not completely lose my mind. And because I feel like my camp friends, because I live with them for eight weeks a year, they understand my diabetes probably the best, because they hear my alarms through the night, and they understand just how it works a little bit more than other people sure they were trying to help me as much as I can. They understood that it's going to take me a little bit longer to do everything. I would say, my blood sugar was a little bit more chaotic after that, it was harder to keep it 100% in range, especially working with basal and Bolus, because, like, I'd be so tired after a long day, I'd get back, I'd just fall asleep, and sometimes I'd forget to do my basal, which is obviously horrible, and then I'd wake up in the middle of the night and wake up the entire camp my alarms. That'd be like a burden. But my friends kept, like, reminding me that that's not like we are. Like they understand, yeah. Like, what happened?

Scott Benner 1:00:56
So you've met a lot of nice people in your life so far? Sorry,

Eli 1:01:00
yeah. I don't know. I don't know if everyone can say that. No, I

Scott Benner 1:01:03
don't. I don't think everybody can. I think it's incredibly fortunate. Also, I'd be willing to adopt you as long as your parents kept doing the financial stuff, because I think you're pretty great. Like, I mean, you know what I mean? Like, I don't want to pay for college, is what I'm saying. You're definitely going to college. I can't thank you enough for doing this like this was really well done by you, and I'm so happy you reached out. I'm super impressed, obviously, by by everything you said here today. I think we'd all be happy if our kids were like, as together as you are. I love that. You don't really know why, just is sort of how you are, you know, yeah, I wish you a ton of luck. I hope that keeps going for you. I think it will. I also think, yeah, no, no, it's my pleasure. I also believe you could easily be an endocrinologist if you wanted to be. I think if you go to go that route, I think you're going to see a lot of the stuff that you said about AI come true. You know, I think there's a world where already there's products where people are going into their doctor's offices and just being recorded while they're talking, and then the notes are done automatically for the doctor. These notes are being saved and piled up on top of each other visit after visit. I think one day that that AI is going to go back in and be looking for other concerns or ideas that maybe adjustments or maybe other issues that you know cumulatively, these these conversations over time, maybe will will shine a light on, I think you're going to see algorithms not dislike the ones you're using now, you know, get better and better, and maybe lean More on, who knows? Maybe, you know, visual carb counting from Ai, maybe it's going to be, you know, AI making adjustments the settings on the fly. Who knows. But I think the world's going to look a lot different for people with diabetes in the next 20 years. And sounds like you might be involved in it, and it sounds more like you're going to be a good choice for that. So I hope that all works out for you the way you're hoping.

Eli 1:03:04
Yeah, me too. I'm doing everything I can to make that a reality. Yeah?

Scott Benner 1:03:09
And you're not pressure, like, you don't feel like an amazing amount of pressure about this either, right? It's just the thing you're doing.

Eli 1:03:14
Yeah? I think it's just, I don't get phased by pressure.

Scott Benner 1:03:18
Yeah, we could bottle Eli's vibe. We could sell it seriously and good for you, brother. All right. Well, I'm happy for you. Thank you. I don't hear enough positive stories sometimes so that this one's awesome. Just gonna say goodbye and thanks and hold on one second for me, I'd like to talk to you a little bit after the recording is over. Okay, all right,

Eli 1:03:36
yeah. Thank you so much. Bye.

Scott Benner 1:03:44
I Dexcom sponsored this episode of The Juicebox podcast. Learn more about the Dexcom g7 at my link, dexcom.com/juicebox a huge thanks to a g1 for sponsoring this episode of the podcast and for letting us know about ag Z, that's right. Today they introduced a GZ, a nighttime drink designed to support restful, restorative sleep with clinical studied key ingredients, including adaptogens, herbs and minerals. A GZ is a melatonin free formula that supports the body's natural sleep cycle. Use my link drink, ag one.com/juicebox, to get started right now. 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 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, ooh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? If this is your first time listening to the Juicebox podcast and you'd like to hear more, download Apple podcasts 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. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording, wrong way recording.com,

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