#1866 Beyond the Cure
Filmmaker Rebecca Hodges joins Scott to discuss her documentary, "Beyond the Diagnosis," which explores the emotional weight, caretaker fatigue, and the ongoing race for a Type 1 diabetes cure.
Key Takeaways
- Filmmaker Rebecca Hodges is creating "Beyond the Diagnosis," a documentary exploring the unseen emotional weight and resilience of people living with Type 1 Diabetes.
- The journey toward a Type 1 Diabetes cure is advancing rapidly with new transplantation research, though bringing these therapies to the general public will involve regulatory and systemic hurdles.
- Caretaker fatigue is a significant but often overlooked aspect of the disease, profoundly affecting parents and advocates who fight for a cure 365 days a year.
- Sharing authentic, gritty, and real stories about Type 1 Diabetes is crucial for building a deeper baseline of empathy and awareness among the general public.
- Touched by Type 1 and similar advocacy groups play an essential role in providing community, support, and necessary funding for ongoing diabetes research.
Resources Mentioned
Introduction and Sponsors
Scott BennerWelcome back, friends.
You are listening to the Juice Box podcast.
RebeccaMy name is Rebecca Hodges.
I am a filmmaker.
And, yeah, my goal is just to to tell impactful stories and hopefully create some positive change in the world.
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Go to juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu and look for bold beginnings, the diabetes pro tip series, and much more.
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While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise.
Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.
This episode is sponsored by ABLE Now, tax advantaged savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.
If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify for an ABLE account because of ongoing medical needs, and many people in the diabetes community do.
Scott BennerWith ABLE now, you can save for future expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid.
Learn more and check your eligibility at ABLE now dot com.
You spell that ablenow.com.
Today's episode is also sponsored by Medtronic Diabetes, who is making life with diabetes easier with the MiniMed seven eighty g system and their new sensor options, which include the Instinct sensor made by Abbott.
Would you like to unleash the full potential of the MiniMed seven eighty g system?
Scott BennerYou can do that at my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
The podcast is also sponsored today by the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter.
This is the meter that my daughter has on her person right now.
It is incredibly accurate and waiting for you at kontoornext.com/juicebox.
Rebecca's Journey into Filmmaking
RebeccaMy name is Rebecca Hodges.
I am a filmmaker.
I started my own company, which is called Hodges Film in 2016.
I started it in Orlando, but now I am Boston based.
And, yeah, my goal is just to to tell impactful stories and hopefully create some positive change in the world.
Scott BennerOh, that's awesome.
How do you make a decision like that?
Like, when most of us are just thinking about paycheck, I wanna maybe get me some health insurance.
I'd like to have a place to live.
How do you land on something that sounds to an outsider?
Scott BennerI'm an outsider.
It sounds like what you just said was, I decided to waste my time and not make any money.
And so, like but but but, obviously, ten years later, you're still doing it.
So what's the path that gets you to that?
RebeccaWell, the funny thing is that I I started off with a scholarship to college, and I went thinking that I was gonna go pre med.
And when I got there, my second semester, I went into a film class, and I stopped going to all of my other classes so that I could just go to my film class and spend all of my time working on my project there.
And when I finished it, the professor of the class took me aside, and he said, I think that you're quite talented, and I think that this is something that you might actually want to pursue.
And when I told my dad, I don't think I'm going premed anymore.
I think I wanna go into film.
RebeccaAnd he was like, thank god.
We didn't think you wanted to be a doctor anyway.
Oh,
Scott Bennerreally?
Well, that's nice.
Are your parents, hippies?
What what's the how come they were so accepting?
RebeccaNo.
My dad was a lawyer and my mom was a nurse, but I think that they just saw in me that I'm a very creative person.
And even though I thought going down one path, you know, to have insurance and to have
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaMoney to buy a house, you know, they saw that, and they were like, we still think that that's the wrong path for you.
Scott BennerIsn't that awesome?
Oh, it's wonderful.
RebeccaYeah.
Scott BennerAnd then when you're done with your education, how do you get into the business?
Do you end up working for somebody?
You try something on your own?
What's the first step?
RebeccaYes.
So I I finished my degree actually at Full Sail in Orlando.
Mhmm.
And out of that, I was, hired into an internship.
And from the internship, I was hired to become an assistant editor.
RebeccaAnd then I told my boss, I don't just wanna be an assistant editor.
I want you to give me some more production work.
So we at the facility, we bought a camera, I started going out and producing my own projects.
Then within the next two years, I was a producer, director, and editor at that same facility.
And I when I left there in 2016 and started my own company, it was because I wanted to, you know, curate the projects that I was working on.
RebeccaAnd that's, you know, again, the storytelling that I like to be involved in is stories that are creating change.
Scott BennerOkay.
Well, that's really awesome.
You're a bit of a go getter then.
RebeccaI am.
Yeah.
I think so.
Scott BennerNo.
It sound I mean, it sounds like it.
You're like, I I have a job in the thing I like.
Not enough.
Give me more.
Scott BennerThis was fun.
I gotta get out of here.
You know, that's great.
That's good energy.
RebeccaYeah.
Scott BennerListen.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
When I was a young person, I used to think I wanted to write for movies.
I didn't do what you did.
I started I finally had an idea that I liked and I sat down and I wrote all day.
Scott BennerAnd I remember I just I think I had just been married.
We were really young.
And I showed it to my wife when she got home.
She read the whole thing, you know, and she's like, this is really very good.
And I was like, thank you.
Scott BennerAnd she goes, have you ever read A Bridge to Terabithia?
And I said, no.
Why?
And she goes, well, you're writing it.
And I was like and I went, oh.
Scott BennerBut what I took Rebecca, instead of taking from that, that the first time I had an idea, it was it was reasonable.
You you know what I mean?
Instead of taking that, I thought, oh, everybody's already had all those ideas.
I'm never gonna have a new idea.
And I let it make me, like, disenchanted with the whole idea of the whole thing.
RebeccaYeah.
Scott BennerIt threw me.
So
RebeccaFinding new ways to tell an old story is, I think, something that every creator has to face.
The Genesis of "Beyond the Diagnosis"
Scott BennerYeah.
Well, now I do that with people who live with diabetes.
So it it worked out well, and I brought it up so I could say that so I could segue into k.
I just like to pull the curtain back so everybody knows how they're being manipulated.
Can you tell me what you're working on right now?
RebeccaYeah.
So the film is called Beyond the Diagnosis.
It's a film that follows real people living with type one diabetes and explores the parts of the disease that I don't think a lot of people get to see.
So the constant decision making, the emotional weight, and then at the end of the day, the resilience that these people are taking with them to live their life every single day.
Scott BennerOkay.
How long have you been working on it?
RebeccaOh, boy.
The film is focused on Elizabeth Forth, who you know well, but she is the founder of Touched by Type one and Dancing for Diabetes.
I started working with her in 2014, and we worked on different stories, different awareness campaigns for years.
And I think probably after five years, I said, you know, I think that this is a bigger story.
I think that we should be making a feature film.
RebeccaMhmm.
So we kinda talked about it for a while.
And then a year and a half ago, I said, Elizabeth, I'm going to put together a board to help get this film up and running.
And so at that point, we said, this is go time, and we put together a team.
She came on as my executive producer.
RebeccaI'm producing and directing.
Touched by Type one is a partner.
Film is in association with them.
We then brought on the Diabetes Research Institute.
So it's been growing and getting momentum ever since.
Scott BennerThat's awesome.
How did you know Elizabeth back then?
Do you have diabetes in your family or your life?
RebeccaNo.
I actually knew nothing about type one when I met her.
I met her through an intern at my previous job.
My intern came to me and said, I'm shooting a live dance show, and I really need some help.
And so I started working with her on that.
RebeccaAnd then she was like, I think you need to meet Elizabeth, and you need to take over.
So I met Elizabeth, and the rest is history.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
No.
She's wonderful.
She's another go getter with a lot of good energy.
RebeccaShe sure is.
Scott BennerYeah.
I love the interns.
Like, I took a job I shouldn't have taken.
Was that about the vibe?
Like, I need help.
Scott BennerOr just because that dance show is huge.
Yeah.
But, yeah, it's quite an undertaking.
RebeccaBigger and bigger every year.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, and that's something else.
Understanding the Emotional Weight of T1D
Scott BennerI want you to remind me when we're done that I have a question I wanna ask you while we're being recorded, but it's about me.
It's not about this.
So don't I wanna be greedy at the end.
Okay.
So tell me then in your time with Dancing for Diabetes and with Elizabeth and Touched by Type one, the time you've been around it, how did your understanding of diabetes grow?
Scott BennerAnd then I wanna know how it maybe moved again after you started making the film.
RebeccaWhen I started in 2014, I knew absolutely nothing.
And I actually, my very first interview, I was interviewing a little girl who was part of the Elizabeth has this program called the kids and teens dance program
Scott BennerMhmm.
RebeccaWhere she gets together groups of children and teenagers who have type one diabetes so that they can all just be, you know, normal kids together in a dance.
And I was interviewing one of the girls, and we asked her a question about how does it feel like when when you're overwhelmed, what do you do?
And she said, I talked to my sister, and then she got really quiet.
And I we said, how are you feeling now?
Are you gonna cry?
RebeccaAnd she just completely broke down.
I guess that right before she had come into class, she and her mom were reading about the search for a cure and how it's right around the corner, and she was so excited.
But, you know, you get excited, then you're waiting, waiting, waiting, and it's like this never ending journey.
And when she started crying, I just emotionally broke inside.
And I was like, I want to help these people.
RebeccaYou know?
I'm not gonna be the one to cure this disease.
But if I can tell stories to create more awareness or to engage people with the scientific community.
Like, that's what I can do.
That's what my part will be.
RebeccaSo I started learning with every person that we interview, with every project that we tackle.
I learn more.
Now I feel like I'm quite educated about type one diabetes.
And when I'm talking to, you know, people who don't know so much, I'm able to tell them a lot about the disease.
I will say that when we started filming, which we started filming around the the twenty fifth annual Dancing for Diabetes show this past November.
RebeccaAnd when we were filming that, what hit me really hard was caretaker fatigue and getting to know one of our protagonists, Lindsay Kiser, who has the Life on Sweet Street Facebook and Instagram for a social platform.
Mhmm.
She doesn't have type one diabetes herself, but she has three children who all have type one diabetes.
Mhmm.
And so in her sharing her stories about, you know, watching these kids grow and and taking care of them, hearing about the caretaker fatigue, and then also hearing Elizabeth give her interview the day after the Dancing for Diabetes show, and she was feeling, like, really low that day.
RebeccaShe had you know, she works all year round for this show, and she's on such a high that night, and she's collecting dollars to go towards curing this disease.
And then the next day, she was so low, and she was saying, well, we're gonna start again for next year because we still don't have a cure for this disease.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaSo we're celebrating twenty five years of this show, but we're also twenty five years without a cure.
Mhmm.
So it wasn't so much the knowledge about the disease, but really seeing, you know, how impacting it is on emotional welfare of everybody involved.
Scott BennerYeah.
Rebecca, striking me how similar the decision you made was to the one I made and how Elizabeth's experience is similar to mine as well.
I you know, for context, my daughter is 22 now, but she was diagnosed, like, right after her second birthday.
And I remember thinking a year later, like, I I should help somehow.
I can't.
Scott BennerI'm not gonna cure this.
I'm not a doctor.
I'm not a scientist.
I don't understand any of it.
I wonder what I could do.
Scott BennerAnd and I started doing I mean, what was the beginnings of all this?
And Right.
I see it help people immensely every day.
And yet, I can really relate to Elizabeth because it's hard not to it's hard to fight off the feeling that you haven't done enough.
That that it's very real.
Scott BennerAnd you actually have to find a way to compartmentalize it or it'll take you over.
So I yeah.
But I know how and I also know how hard she works and how like, she and I probably text.
I would say we probably text a dozen times a year, you know, about something.
And she's just always thinking about how to help, how to do, how to create, you you know, it's really admirable is Yeah.
Scott BennerIs a word.
Anyway, I, it's nice that you fell into that feeling after having that experience.
Hard not to.
Right?
Like, not to be around another person feeling that way and not have more than just a little bit of, I don't know, of a reaction to them.
Scott BennerAnd you had a way you felt like to what?
What did you think?
Shine a light on it?
Help other people understand?
Like, when you said I'm gonna help, like, how did you feel like like, where did you think your talent would help?
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RebeccaYeah.
So I think shining a light on it, helping other people understand was the beginning, and then that grew.
So a few years later, we had interviewed Josh and Jamie Terry, who are the parents of Kisi Terry.
Scott BennerMhmm.
RebeccaKisi had a misdiagnosis when she was five years old, and she had strokes and cerebral edema and ended up passing away from complications of of being misdiagnosed and not diagnosed with type one diabetes on time.
And so when I when we created a story around that, what I could do at that point is share the the signs of what type one diabetes looks like.
And every year on on Kisi's birthday, we actually reshare those posts of of things to look for.
So, you know, talking about misdiagnosis, talking about signs and symptoms.
And then that shifted to, again, the the emotional health.
RebeccaWhat does it look like to be taking care of one another and and growing a community?
So every year, the goal changes, the project changes, the interviews change, but it's it's constantly shifting and just trying to figure out how to better support the community
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaAnd how to share those stories to engage a wider audience.
Scott BennerYou ever get I get sullen sometimes when I think of all the stuff that I've created that is sitting somewhere not doing anything anymore, but I know it would still be valuable if I could find a way to repurpose it.
Do you does that I mean, after you've been at this for a while, do you have those thoughts sometimes?
RebeccaWell, no.
Because this project's all about repurposing.
Scott BennerYes.
But that's what you're doing really.
Right?
Is you're taking everything you've learned and putting it into one place.
RebeccaYeah.
And and because this documentary is focused around Elizabeth, and I've been working with her for, you know, going on eleven years now.
We're taking footage that we've collected.
So it's a big undertaking as a filmmaker to to go through all of this, but repurposing everything that we've already created and merging it with all of the new content that we're gathering.
But I think that that's one of the powerful things is, like, look at look at how far we've come, but look at how far we still have to go.
Scott BennerYeah.
Tell me something.
Don't give me a a shiny answer.
Right?
Just really like, what have you learned about Elizabeth making the film that you didn't know before?
RebeccaThat she puts on a brave face, but that she can be sad too.
Scott BennerYou didn't know that prior to that?
RebeccaNo.
Because she she's so stoic.
And I tell this to her all the time because whenever I interview her, I say, you gotta let me in.
And she she always does have the shiny answers.
And it's because she's running all of these programs, and she is the go getter, and she's trying to help so many people that she doesn't let people in.
RebeccaBut she can be sad, and she it's a type one diabetes.
It's a very lonely disease.
I think when she actually let me in and she showed me that sadness and she showed me how hard it is to fight for this twenty four seven, three hundred and sixty five days a year.
Honestly, after we filmed that day, I when I flew home, I felt like I needed to take a few days for myself because, you know, when you see people sad, it it impacts you.
Yeah.
RebeccaAnd this was, like, a very deep I don't wanna say she's depressed because not appropriate.
I
Scott Bennerunderstand what you're saying.
RebeccaBut it it was it was heavy.
It was really heavy.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaYou know, she she doesn't show that to many people and being able to see that and really seeing the reality.
And that was the same thing.
Another person who's involved in this film is Chris Rudin, and he's a public speaker, and he's a go getter, and he's very positive, positive, positive.
And when I talked to him, said, I don't want all of the positivity.
Like, of course, we're gonna talk about that, and I wanna hear about all of the things that you've done to turn this disease into something that works for you every day or something that you can share, something that you can be useful with to other people.
RebeccaBut I said at the end of the day, I also wanna hear about the the underlying challenges and everything that you're up against.
And he was like, oh, I can talk about that all day because it's every day all of the time.
Scott BennerYeah.
That's not hard to find.
I've I've interviewed Chris a few times.
He's good at sharing how he feels.
Yeah.
Scott BennerWhen you talk about, like, the heaviness that came from Elizabeth, was it heaviness around what she's doing, the mission of it, or did any of her personal experience with diabetes come through?
Because she has type one.
And you're you know, it just occurs to me that you're out there pointing a camera at other people and talking to them about what it's like to live with diabetes while you're, you know, showing what Elizabeth is trying to do for those people and for type one in general.
But do we get to talk about what it's like for her personally?
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RebeccaYes.
We do.
And that is one of the the main parts of this documentary is we're we're going behind the scenes.
So while the main through line of the doc is about Elizabeth putting together this twenty fifth annual dancing for diabetes show, we really get to see the different things that are happening.
Like, for instance, we see her having to do a a pod change in the car because she something was faulty, and she was getting errors.
RebeccaAnd so she had to go into her car in between interviewing other people to go and change her her sight on her body.
Mhmm.
And then, you know, we're going to interview somebody else, and she's going low.
And she keeps dropping, dropping, dropping.
Alarms are going off, and she's like, oh, well, I left my fruit snacks in the car.
RebeccaDoes anybody have anything?
And everybody's running around looking for sugar, and it was right around Halloween.
So we were in a school, and the teacher opened up the door, and she's like, kids, we need candy.
So but, yeah, I think that there are so many little vignette that are happening here where it is focusing on what's happening behind the curtain.
That is where that sadness lies.
RebeccaIt's in these these individual moments that are happening all of the time that people don't necessarily see.
Documentary Production and Storytelling
Scott BennerI'm constantly faced with the idea that the online digital world today is not the same as it was when I started all this.
And I usually tell people, like, there was a time I could have written a blog post, and it could have been read by 40,000 people in twenty four hours.
Mhmm.
And now I arguably have a a much larger platform, and it's a thousand times harder to get something in someone's hands.
Mhmm.
Scott BennerSo what's the distribution like for this?
How are you expecting to to get it into people's hands and get them to see it?
And is it do you have a I would imagine more of a macro view of what success looks like.
Right?
This isn't it's it's not a Mission Impossible nine or something like that.
Scott BennerYou don't expect everybody to go the first day.
Right?
Like, how so what's the do you have a plan, or is that a thing you haven't put together yet?
RebeccaWe do have a plan.
We definitely want it to be seen, in festivals.
We're planning a premiere in a theater.
The larger distribution plan is something that I'm working out now.
I'm going to bring on a sales agent.
RebeccaSo in the film world, working with a sales agent is where you're able to connect with distributors and and make sure that your film gets seen by a large group of people, which is the goal here.
Yeah.
But, yes, we're working on distribution plans.
The goal of the film is really to to engage the type one diabetes community because a lot of people say that this is an invisible disease, and we want those people to feel seen and feel understood.
We also wanna educate the general public and build a deeper baseline of awareness and empathy around the disease.
RebeccaThen we also wanna translate that awareness into meaningful change, whether that's stronger advocacy, whether it's legislative progress or, money going towards research and innovation, because we're in a global race for a cure, and so we want to also bring that to the front lines.
So I would say that those are our goals.
We also want people who are involved in the the making of the film to be able to share it with all of their followers.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaAnd hopefully, it just gets to gets to the people that really need to see it whether they have type one diabetes or not.
Scott BennerMakes its way around.
Do you think that it will resonate outside of people with type one?
Like, I mean, how much of it do have shot already?
Is it I mean, are you in the editing phase now?
Are you still shooting?
Scott BennerWhere is it at?
And and who do you think who do you think the real audience is for it?
RebeccaSo we're working in three phases.
We had preproduction and the production of phase one where we shot around the the twenty fifth annual Dancing for Diabetes in November.
So I would say that that's about 65 or 75% of the film that's in the can.
Scott BennerMhmm.
RebeccaAnd then we're going to go around and shoot with the rest of the people who are involved in the film.
So that's Chris Rudin, Gary Forbes, the Terry family, Lindsay Kiser, Camilo Ricordi at the Diabetes Research Institute, and then Penelope Polly, who's an endocrinologist in Orlando.
Yeah.
So we're going to go and shoot we're gonna get some scientific background and some education for those who don't necessarily understand the disease.
Mhmm.
RebeccaAnd then we're going to do all of the vignettes where we explore all of those individuals' lives and what they're doing to impact people living with type one diabetes.
Scott BennerOh, that's cool.
You'll do the vignettes, then the doctors will kinda be like whiteboard and explainers and then move people into another story.
Is that the idea?
RebeccaYeah.
And especially, there's so much going on in this race towards a cure right now.
So, you know, I'm gonna get doctor Camilo Ricordi to explain in layman's terms what's happening, because it's really fascinating.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaSo once we have all of that, that will be phase two, and then post production will be phase three.
And we're looking to premiere the film.
Our target date right now is February 2027.
So although it seems far away, it's not.
Scott BennerIt doesn't seem far away to me.
I'm old now.
I time moves so quickly.
I just I can't believe how fast.
I have something coming up next week that I keep looking out on the counter.
Scott BennerI'm like, that can't be right.
I'm not so that was, like, a year away when I said yes to that.
So it's Wednesday.
I gotta go on Wednesday?
So I should probably think about this for half a minute before I head over there.
Scott BennerNo.
No.
That's really it's really lovely.
So when you're setting, do you kind of like I don't know.
Do you do you imagine it in your head before you shoot it, or do you start talking to people and then see what you get?
Scott BennerAnd then do you fit the pieces together then?
Like, do you know what I mean?
Like, is it a puzzle in a box when you start, or do you open up the pieces and go, I wonder if I can make something out of this?
RebeccaOh, it's for sure a puzzle.
The way that I work is I love note cards.
Scott BennerMhmm.
RebeccaAnd I'll write out ideas of of different things that are happening.
Again, in working very closely with Elizabeth, we were talking about different events that she had going on, and she wanted to go back to her high school where the actually, it was her middle school where her first Dancing for Diabetes was ever held.
So we create looking at events, different things that are going on.
I make different scene index cards.
And then I put them all up on a whiteboard, and I start shuffling them around.
RebeccaWhat leads from one scene to the next?
And then how do we get every scene should lead into the following scene.
And then if you need more explanation of something, where does that fall in?
And so, yes, it becomes this giant puzzle, and you're constantly shifting things around.
And then once you film, it shifts all over again because you have things that happen while you're filming that you didn't anticipate were going to happen.
RebeccaSo then you kind of add those in, and and it becomes this giant shuffle.
But when you're you're focused on a through line of where you need to go, everything will eventually fall into place.
But the shifting and the the tossing out of ideas, it's it's a beautiful creative meh.
Do
Scott Benneryou edit as you go?
RebeccaI don't typically edit as I go.
I have had to for this project because we we needed to create a a pitch deck, which you use to, you know, launch out to investors.
We needed to create a trailer for we just had a a big gala event that we held in Orlando at the doctor Phillips Center.
So I've had to edit my way through this because we're trying to show individuals different scenes that are happening and and why they would either want to watch it or get involved and invest in.
I have a really great idea of what we've collected so far because I'm always there during all of the filming.
RebeccaBut I typically like to collect everything and then sit down and immerse myself in the edit.
Because once I get into the edit, I I like to be sitting here for, you know, eight to ten to twelve hours because everything starts flowing and you just you're very present in the edit.
Scott BennerHow many hours of film do you have so far?
RebeccaI wanna say thirty.
Scott BennerOkay.
That's a lot.
Are you gonna be at the thing on that next week for for Elizabeth in Atlanta?
RebeccaI will not be in Atlanta.
No.
Scott BennerOkay.
Because you have similar coverage already.
Is that the idea?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Scott BennerYeah.
It's so interesting.
How do you keep it from feeling Pollyanna?
Do you know what I mean?
Like, I've seen stuff in the past where it's just like, wow.
Scott BennerWhy is this all, like, big smile lady where everything's great?
And, like, like, how do you, like, how do you get to the grittiness of it without making it a bummer?
But making it real enough that it doesn't feel like it's does that make sense?
Like Yeah.
Yeah.
Scott BennerHave you had concerns like that?
Line there.
Yeah.
RebeccaYeah.
There's a fine line, and you actually asked me earlier, and I don't even think that I answered it.
You said, why would somebody who doesn't have type one be interested in watching this?
I think that there's a fine line here of telling the grittiness because people who don't see type one don't get it.
I'm just they don't get it.
Scott BennerFor sure.
RebeccaAnd when they, you know, see a kid who's checking their blood sugar and they're like, oh, well, you just shouldn't have had that soda.
You know?
All of the the misconceptions that are out there, they're so real, and they impact these people every single day.
I think that the vignettes will be focused on on underlying issues of what each protagonist deals with.
And then through those issues and through facing that adversity, they've all come out on the other side to do something, to create something.
RebeccaSo, like, Gary Forbes, he is a former NBA player, and he is now working on a comic platform, where he turns kids with chronic conditions into superheroes.
And, specifically, one of those characters has type one diabetes.
But it's through his journey of you know, he had all sorts of things that he came up against going into DKA, going into he had two car accidents because he was low.
So there are all of these things that build up his story.
And now what are the actions that he's doing to to share that story and to better the lives of others?
RebeccaSo I don't think that it's ever going to be Pollyanna because there are so many, you know, complex emotions that are the underlying drivers of of the positive outcomes.
Yeah.
So I wanna share all of that.
And I think that that's intriguing to anybody whether you have type one diabetes or not.
I would love to watch a movie where, you know, you see somebody who's dealing with this disease, something that you don't truly understand.
RebeccaYou're like, wow.
I didn't know that, you know, people are afraid to go to sleep because they might not wake up in the morning.
I didn't know that somebody could be misdiagnosed at five years old and and then pass away.
I didn't know that parents who, you know, just like you, have a two year old who is diagnosed.
It's like taking care of a baby.
RebeccaYou need to be checking them all the time.
So I think that there are fascinating stories that need to be told to people who have no idea about what's going on, people who have type one who can watch this film and be like, yes.
Somebody really gets what this is like.
And finally, there's a story that that everybody can watch that kind of explains what's going on.
Scott BennerDo you think it it's helpful, like, in your ability to be dispassionate about it that you don't have type one or a personal connection to it, but you have context?
RebeccaYeah.
Probably.
Scott BennerYeah.
I'll tell you because what I've I've I've been around I don't wanna call it the space.
That feels weird.
But I've been doing stuff in diabetes for a really long time.
When I'm dissatisfied with how people are doing things and I'm, you know, I'm I'm busy acting like the king of the world in my own mind or in this room.
Scott BennerI don't like it when people come off like the, I don't know, the secretary from Ferris Bueller.
You know what I mean?
Where it's just like, oh, gosh.
Golly.
Everything's awesome.
Scott BennerYou know?
Right?
Like, that stuff.
And I don't like it when people are like, I almost died today for the want of a cookie.
And I'm like, there's a middle there's a middle in there that's not so, like, either dramatic or and and ham fisted or, you know, dismissive of the seriousness of it and trying to make it all be like, oh, no.
Scott BennerI'm good.
Everything's good.
Like, there's a reality in the blend there, and I I'm I'm super excited to see you to get ahold of that.
That that is just a to me, we don't have enough of that around diabetes.
If you want people to really understand it, then you have to let people talk, but you have to also mix in, you know, real life and some levity.
Scott BennerAnd it's gotta be a full blend of what it means to be a human being, not just, you know, not just a a slice of it that makes it seem all one way or the other.
I don't know if that makes sense.
But
RebeccaNo.
Definitely.
And I think exactly what you just said, the reality holds both truths.
Like, it's an awful daily it's a horrible disease.
And the reality of of having to deal with that all of the time while also trying to live out your dreams and do amazing things.
RebeccaI mean, the fine line exists in everyday life.
Scott BennerI just I find too with interviewing people.
So I I don't have the benefit of looking at people, which I think has sort of made me better at this over time because No.
There's a lot of intimating that has to happen, and I can't be wrong or it it comes off as false pretty quickly.
And I was just listening to an interview I did recently with, like, a 25 year old type one.
And you could tell that she had there was stuff right under the surface she wanted to let out, but she didn't have the words or the reason to let it out.
Scott BennerAnd then if you just ask the right question, it it opens a floodgate for them.
And they they can unburden themselves, but in a but not in a, a distasteful way.
It's just very real.
And, you can tell how the better they feel when I'm done speaking to them, the more sure I am that the conversation was valuable for someone else to hear.
Does that make sense?
RebeccaYeah.
Yeah.
For sure.
Scott BennerSo it's a really interesting job.
I much rather what I'm doing than the stuff I've done previous in my life.
It's a it's a great job if you can get it, is is what I'm saying.
Will you miss it when it's over, or do you think you'll have had enough of the immersiveness of of the process?
Like, how because you've done other things in the past.
Scott BennerLike, do you find yourself, like, does one job just build your humanity for the next one?
I mean, do you lose it completely?
Like, is there a world where you'll wake up six years from now and, like, have not thought about diabetes for a while?
Is it a thing that you process, or how does that all work for you personally?
RebeccaNo.
Elizabeth can't get rid of me.
I'm on I'm on the board of touched by type one now.
I don't ever foresee a day where I'm not working with touched by type one and Elizabeth.
I know that this documentary film will come to an end, and I do think that I'll be sad when when it's over.
RebeccaBut like you said, this is this will just build up to the next project, and I've gotta find something else that I think is interesting and that I feel passionate about and think that people should know about and keep the ball rolling.
Scott BennerIt's interesting.
So you don't really know what you'll do after this?
RebeccaI have a few ideas.
Scott BennerOkay.
RebeccaBecause you should always have something in production and post production and in development.
So
Scott BennerIs it about a a a little too old, not that handsome podcaster?
Is that what's happening right now?
I'm just kidding.
Please don't
RebeccaYou you know how to find me.
Scott BennerIf you pointed a camera at me, I would be either I don't know what would happen.
I is is one of two things would happen, Rebecca.
Either the fat kid inside of me would put his head down, or I would be absolutely unbearable.
Would I would pontificate forever.
RebeccaI have filmed you at at
Scott BennerOh, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
RebeccaMy goodness.
Scott BennerAt Touched by Type one.
RebeccaAt the the Touched by Type one oh gosh.
What is it called?
The annual Yeah.
Scott BennerThe the conference.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The conference.
RebeccaThe conference.
Thank you.
Scott BennerThe conference.
Stand up there.
That was that was is that right?
Is that where it was?
RebeccaWell, I've seen you there, like, three or four times.
And one time you were over talking to a child at a table, and I went running over with my camera, and you were like, get out of here.
Don't tell me.
Scott BennerWas that a couple of years ago?
RebeccaYeah.
Scott BennerYeah.
I was worried about my weight back then.
Now you can point it at me if you want to.
It's different.
But, no.
Scott BennerI I just know that I'll like, there was I I did this thing for JDRF.
It was huge in, Georgia one year.
I mean, there was a room.
It was 650 people in that room.
And there was this part of me inside.
Scott BennerIt was like, please get a nice wide shot of me talking to 600 people.
Like, that and then there was the rest of me that was like, but could you shoot it from the roof?
And I actually said to the cameraman, I was like, do not point that thing at me from down there.
I was like, you better go find a ladder and climb, my friend.
I used to think of my I didn't think of myself as caring about that.
Scott BennerBut when push came to shove and a camera came out, I was aware of it.
And now I've actually, you know, with the help of a GLP medication, Rebecca, I've lost, like, 70 pounds.
Like, and now I don't think about it anymore.
It's very freeing, actually.
I actually just did some content for Omnipod recently.
Scott BennerMhmm.
And it was one of those things like, you know, show up at a studio, stand in front of a big, you know, high def camera with a lot of light and nowhere to hide.
And Yeah.
And I and I was like
RebeccaIt's terrifying.
Scott BennerAnd well, the the terrifying part was how not terrified I was, which is why I think that if you pointed the camera at me, you would just be like, this guy's insufferable.
He has a lot of thoughts.
But I had this nice moment afterwards when, I mean, when they got done with it, obviously, some very talented people, you know, do the editing and and, you know, do the color and all that stuff.
It looks so it looks amazing when it's done.
But I had a few people online tell me that I was really natural at that format.
Scott BennerAnd I thought, oh, I've been avoiding doing that my whole life.
And then somebody said, I think this would be a great way for you to get some of your information out.
And all I thought was, who's gonna do that?
Like, how am I I don't know how to light that.
I don't have I'm not I don't wanna get involved editing video.
Scott BennerLike, it all just seemed, like, overwhelming.
And I know that's ridiculous because most of the world just holds up their phone and just puts out whatever they do and doesn't worry about the rest of it.
Mhmm.
But I think I might be a bit of a princess now that I've seen myself color matched.
I think it's I think maybe that's how I prefer to look.
Scott BennerEven even today, I'm I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about it.
But do you do any of that?
Like, I'm not asking you for me.
I'm actually my my bigger question is is, how do you make a living doing what you're doing?
Like, it sounds like this project's taking years.
Scott BennerRight?
So,
Rebeccalike And this project will take years.
Scott BennerYeah.
So do you do do you intersperse with, like do you do other work?
Like
RebeccaYeah.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaSo my production company, Hodges Film, I take on smaller projects that I work on throughout the year.
This past year, I I was very limiting to that.
I wanted to solely work on this documentary.
Scott BennerMhmm.
RebeccaI obviously get paid for for the documentary.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
RebeccaI have a a line budget item for myself.
But, hopefully, when this documentary gets seen by people, then this will propel another documentary.
My goal is to continue to continue to work on feature film.
And then I think everybody takes commercial or PSA small smaller work in between, but feature film is where I wanna live.
Scott BennerGot it.
That's awesome.
And you're and you've been doing this for how long now?
How I don't know how old you are.
I didn't ask you.
Rebecca2016 is when I started my own company.
I got into the industry in 2012.
Scott BennerOkay.
Wow.
That's a long it feels like a long time.
How did you find the nerve for it?
Because I recall feeling like the where I grew up, no one did the thing.
Scott BennerLike, so when I was young and people was like, what do you wanna do?
I'm like, I think I could write a movie script.
People would look at me like, you might wanna just get a job in a factory and shut your mouth.
Yeah.
There was no one around me to, like, say, oh, I know a guy who did that to kinda expand on that for a second.
Scott BennerLike, my son played baseball right through college, and I think he thought that was possible because he knew other people who played baseball in college.
And he also knew a guy who played professional baseball, so the whole thing seemed reasonable.
RebeccaMhmm.
Scott BennerYou know, whereas when I started talking about it, people were like, no.
That's not a thing that's not a thing people do.
Was it your enthusiasm and what you found at college that made you incapable of ignoring it?
Was it a little bit of that mixed with your parents being like, oh, thank god.
We did not think you were gonna be a good doctor?
Scott BennerOr, you know, like, what was by the way, they didn't say that.
I I added that.
What made you feel like it was possible?
RebeccaYeah.
I think I'm just a very passionate person.
Mhmm.
When I when I get my hands on something that I wanna do, I'm full steam ahead.
So I think that it really just took me and I'm a firm believer that if you're doing something that you love, that, you know, everything else will follow.
RebeccaSo
Scott BennerOh, okay.
RebeccaIt didn't really matter to me that I was going into the arts because I was like, well, I'm gonna make something amazing.
And, you know, everything else, insurance will come after.
Scott BennerAnd you did have a little bit of like, said your father was a professional.
Right?
So you there was some comfort.
Not comfort.
There was some security there.
Scott BennerI mean, I'm just saying I was broke.
Like, I I I was I had a really terrible job.
Yeah.
RebeccaI wouldn't say that because No?
I was broken, actually, as much as it was nice of my parents to say, you don't wanna do that.
My dad passed away when I was 22.
Oh.
And my my mom I you know, this is going deep now.
RebeccaBut my I moved out of my mom's house when I was 14.
So it's kind of like a a broken home.
And maybe that's one of the reasons why, you know, I had to grow up at a very early age.
And so, you know, helping to tell these stories that can that can, you know, impact people, and I can do my part in the world of of bringing positivity and and making the world a better place.
I think that there's a lot of deeply ingrained feeling in in me of needing to help others, I think, because I I needed help myself, and I had people that gave that to me.
RebeccaAnd so I wanna be that person for other people.
Scott BennerOh, that's awesome.
Also, I think it would be wrong of me to point out that I have now done the thing that I've been describing for the whole hour by getting you to say something deeper that was real, and and that was nice.
Look at me.
I'm really good at this.
That's all I wanted to say, Rebecca.
Scott BennerThere's no way in hell you thought you were gonna talk that today when we started recording this.
Right?
No.
Tell the people how good I am, Rebecca.
No.
Scott BennerI'm just kidding.
RebeccaYou didn't.
No.
You're amazing.
Scott BennerPeople like, do people cry on the podcast all the time?
I'm like, no.
But I know they say a lot of things they didn't expect to
Rebeccasay.
Yeah.
Scott BennerJust because there has to be a reason for that.
Just the same way I mean, listen.
It's pretty obvious.
Right?
You see a lot of people, who grow up with type one diabetes get into medicine, or you see Elizabeth who is absolutely propelled to help people because she needed somebody to help her.
Scott BennerAnd, you know, and you are trying desperately to tell people stories, and I recognize that because I'm doing the same thing.
Right?
Like, I grew up very poorly, in case you're wondering, Rebecca.
You know, my parents were divorced when I was 13.
I ended up raising my brothers.
Scott BennerYou know, my mom was working most of the time.
We were completely broke.
And when I talk to people, all I wonder inside, always I'm also adopted in case you needed, like, a a double whammy on this.
Everything I do when I'm speaking to somebody is, like, the the kernel of the seed of the idea behind what I'm thinking is, why are you doing that?
Like, why do people do those things?
Scott BennerAnd not good or bad, by the way.
Anything at all.
Like, what is motivation?
What motivates somebody to do something?
What allows them to ignore common sense and become a filmmaker?
Scott BennerWhat ignores them to ignore common sense and treat a child poorly?
Everything in between.
Like, I am utterly fascinated basically about why did someone abandon me.
And, like, why do people do what they do?
And that's what I do when I talk to people.
Scott BennerI just try to figure out where their motivation comes from and where the motivation came from for the people surrounding them that, you know, in essence, were the, you know, the ones who propelled them in the direction their life took them.
So I just I'm very interested in why people do what they do all the time.
But probably any reasonable Freudian therapist would tell you it's because I'm adopted, and then my adopted family got divorced.
Right?
Pretty simple.
RebeccaWell yeah.
I mean, your identity your identity has shaped you know, the identity of now your podcast of how you're reaching out to people.
Scott BennerSo Yeah.
RebeccaFor it and for it, I think that searching for that nugget is it's an important nugget to look for.
Scott BennerWell, more importantly, I think, at some point, I was like, well, I can't just keep doing this for myself.
Like, I pretty much have my answers.
I know where I'm at.
So, like, how do you take that then, like, combined skill and use it for good, basically, which is what you're doing, by the way.
It's what Elizabeth is doing.
Scott BennerIt's what you're doing.
It's what I'm doing.
It hopefully, what a lot of people are doing.
And and maybe one one day, we'll all get to see it, you know, come to fruition somehow.
The Global Race for a Cure
Scott BennerWhat would you say your feeling is about the chase for a cure, like, an outsider to it?
Does it feel hopeful?
Is it interesting?
Does it feel tangible?
Does it feel like you'll see it in your lifetime, or is it just great to know it's happening?
Like, what information have you pulled together on all that so far for yourself?
RebeccaSo I am incredibly optimistic, and I am one of the people who continues to believe that the cure is five years or closer away, especially with the transplantations, everything that's happening right now.
I just did a tour at the DRI recently, and I got to see the three main avenues that they're working on in their search for a cure.
Scott BennerMhmm.
RebeccaAnd I was blown away.
So I feel like it's right around the corner.
And in my talks with doctor Camilo Ricordi, he continues to tell me that this is a very, very exciting time to be in this search, but there are a lot of things that he and the the community are up against.
He was actually just talking about how The United States is not competitive globally because of the standards that they're facing here.
And so they have to treat everything like they're clearing it by the FDA instead of instead of just being able to research and and push everything that they're working on forward.
Scott BennerI just interviewed doctor Wachowski the other day Yes.
From Chicago.
And, yeah, he was talking about all this as well.
RebeccaSo it feels it feels like a very exciting time.
And I'm not the only one thinking that.
I think a lot of people feel that way.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaBut Elizabeth often tells me, you know, calm down a little bit, Rebecca.
We've all been waiting for this cure for a really long time.
So I try to limit my excitement because I feel like I'm I'm very invested now.
You know?
I want this cure for all of the people that I know who have type one, and so I hope that I see it in my lifetime.
RebeccaAgain, I'm very optimistic that it's it's close.
How do you feel?
You have somebody that
Scott BennerFirst of all, Elizabeth is probably on her fifth or sixth five year journey with the cure is coming, I would imagine.
And I would tell you that I felt prior to talking to doctor Wieckowski and and even more so after speaking to him that, you know, there are regulatory hurdles.
There are hurdles of, you know, even being able to source islet cells.
There's hurdles about how many people can actually do the procedure, who the hell is gonna pay for it.
RebeccaYou know,
Scott Bennerhow do you administer the medication that comes afterwards?
You know, is it really reasonable to ask somebody to do something like that every twenty one days?
And in the case of his research, you know, are they gonna have to make the the anti rejection meds something you can take at home eventually?
I think that when I hear you talk about it, I agree with you that, like, it feels like they're on the precipice of something.
And yet that I think the reality of life and commerce and everything else, even if they had it today, even if somebody stepped up right now and said, here it is.
Scott BennerIt is the thing.
I have it.
I don't think that means that my daughter's getting it for twenty years maybe.
RebeccaRight.
Scott BennerAnd then, you know, and that makes her 50.
So does she care by then?
Like, I don't even know.
It's one of those things that I think I don't know how to explain this exactly, but I think it'll exist at some point, But it won't be for the people who are paying attention to it right now in mass.
Maybe some of them, probably some of them, not all of them.
Scott BennerMhmm.
But there might be a day in the future where it just isn't as prevalent as it is now because of the thing that was learned and grew and and, you know, changed and and reformatted itself over and over again till it becomes what it ends up being.
And I don't know how long that takes.
Yeah.
You know?
Scott BennerBut that feels like it
Rebeccais one of the biggest biggest questions is when there is a cure developed, how long does it take to get from high end research out to
Scott BennerEverybody.
RebeccaYour everyday Jill?
How how does that transition happen?
How many years does it take for that to happen?
And and that's a that's a real journey right there.
Scott BennerI sort of separate the medicine and the research from the reality, and I think and then I start thinking about, like, well, I look at how the world works, and we can't get my garbage collected on the right day.
Like, we're gonna do this.
Like, it's crazy.
That's why I think it's just a thing that slowly matriculates until it doesn't exist anymore.
And then one day, people just don't even realize it was ever a thing and but you can't quantify the day it happened.
Scott BennerI don't think there's gonna be a a cure day.
I don't think there's gonna be a line people get into, and they come out the other side of the factory, and they're okay.
I think it's just gonna happen slowly.
It'll probably start with the sickest people who can tolerate it.
And then or and, also, I'm gonna assume some of the richest people.
Scott BennerAnd then it will, you know, hopefully spread out over then, maybe eventually be covered by insurance in a way that, you know, you get diagnosed with type one diabetes and someone instead of sending you to the hospital, they send you somewhere and they go, oh, we're just gonna give you some of these cells and give you a little of this juice and you're all set.
Like, I don't know.
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Scott BennerBut I love your attitude.
So seriously.
No.
Seriously.
RebeccaThis reminds me of Elizabeth was just recounting a story that she was told.
I can't remember who told it to her.
But the gist of it is that there was a boy in Africa when he urinated, their ants would come to the urine.
Mhmm.
And it was because of the sugar in the urine.
Scott BennerSure.
RebeccaAnd so the the diabetes test is the ants come to your urine, and then that means that you have type one diabetes.
And for them, it's still a death sentence.
And so the you are almost like the sooner that you pass, the the easier it is for them to get help to other people instead of caring for you.
Okay.
So very morbid.
Scott BennerYeah.
RebeccaBut it's like you are taxing our health care system with a disease that we don't have a cure for, and so you're prolonging the inevitable.
Scott BennerOkay.
What a way to think of it.
Jeez.
RebeccaWhen you hear that and it it puts this disease into a different light.
So I hope that, you know, whether it's a cure that comes around, you know, no cure day or what, I hope that the development of of getting to the cure, like you said, maybe there's something in between that can that can slow down, that can I don't know?
Something in all of these instances that can can help people who are in those kind of situations that aren't lucky enough to live in The United States, that aren't lucky enough to have access to to care.
So that's kind of my hope in in all of these situations is that we can get something to people who don't have immediate access to to, you know, the greater health care loop.
Scott BennerYou know how I feel about it?
I just realized you know that scene in the Incredibles with the little boy in the driveway?
And mister Incredible goes, what are you looking at?
He goes, what are you waiting for or something like that?
He goes, I don't know.
Scott BennerSomething amazing.
That's how I feel sometimes.
Like, I don't I don't know what's coming exactly, but, I'd like it to be something amazing.
You know?
Like, I think it's kinda it's a little like, it's academic to sit around and pontificate about what you think it might be or how it's gonna look or whatnot, but I don't really care.
Scott BennerI just as long as it's something beneficial for people and it feels like a leap, that would be nice.
You know?
Yeah.
Like, give people some hope and real momentum.
Just a leap, I think, would be awesome.
Supporting the Film and Final Thoughts
Scott BennerI don't even care what it looks like.
Yeah.
I I don't understand what people argue about.
I mean, I I I'll help people make the point if they come on the on the podcast, and they're like, well, that's not a cure.
Like, doctor Wikowski right there.
Scott BennerHe's got 12 patients.
He put islet cells in their liver.
He gave them something called tegoprobar, and they're they seem like they're okay.
Right?
And then there are people like, well, that's not a cure.
Scott BennerAnd I'm like, yeah.
I I mean, is that what you wanna argue about?
Like, you you know what I mean?
Like, they don't need they don't they don't need insulin anymore.
It's pretty awesome.
RebeccaRight.
Scott BennerYou know, they're not gonna have a low blood sugar in a movie theater or crash their car or something like that.
There's a lot of, you know, value there.
I take your point.
It's not a light switch.
They didn't just flip the switch and go, hey.
Scott BennerNo more I know that's how people's minds wanna think about it.
But Yeah.
I would always ask those people, why don't you go sit down and Google how many things has mankind cured?
Because you're gonna find out that it is a shockingly short list.
I don't think we're at that place yet.
Scott BennerLike, I don't think we're advanced enough to just throw a light switch and change how your body does something.
We don't even understand inflammation.
You you know what I mean?
Like, it's you know?
Anyway, be happy for whatever you got.
RebeccaI think everybody's waiting for something amazing and waiting for that leap.
And I don't feel like that leap is far away.
Scott BennerYeah.
No.
I'm glad.
I I'm glad you feel that way, and I'm glad you understood what I was saying.
I am really disappointed.
Scott BennerI couldn't remember the quote from The Incredibles, but, you know, I got a lot in my head.
It's hard to remember.
Rebecca, where can people go to learn more about the film?
RebeccaBeyondthediagnosisfilm.com.
That's the website.
We're on Instagram.
We are on YouTube.
We are on Facebook.
RebeccaYou can reach out to myself, which is Hodges Film.
You can reach out to Elizabeth Forrest at touched by type one.
But, yeah, I think that we want people to to get involved and to follow along with the story.
And when it comes to supporting the film and going out and seeing it, going to premieres, that's we want to drive this through the community and get this movie seen.
Scott BennerYeah.
What are you asking people to do right now?
Anything?
Just start following so they know more?
Do would you like them sharing stuff or telling folks?
Scott BennerIs there something they could be doing to help them tell you?
RebeccaFollow, share.
We have a platform for donations, which you there's a link to on the website.
But we are in phase two of filming, and we're still looking for funding to to go into, post production.
But I think mainly getting in there, sharing, talking about it, and just staying in touch.
Scott BennerYeah.
Yeah.
Hey.
Listen.
Everybody remember, Elizabeth is running a it's a charity.
Scott BennerIt's yeah.
Touched by Toughbun is not a it's not a money making business.
It's a thing she does to try to help people live easier with type one diabetes, and she's raising money to give to, those out there looking for a cure.
She's hustling her, her butt off.
So
RebeccaShe is hustling.
Scott BennerRebecca, I really appreciate you doing this with me.
And, also, I appreciate you coming on a half an hour early when I bugged you late last night and said, you do this earlier today?
So thank you very, very much.
RebeccaThat is a okay.
Scott BennerAwesome.
Hold on one second for me.
I'd like to remind you again about the MiniMed seven eighty g automated insulin delivery system, which of course anticipates, adjusts, and corrects every five minutes 20 four seven.
It works around the clock so you can focus on what matters.
The Juice Box community knows the importance of using technology to simplify managing diabetes.
Scott BennerTo learn more about how you can spend less time and effort managing your diabetes, visit my link, medtronicdiabetes.com/juicebox.
I'd like to thank the blood glucose meter that my daughter carries, the Kontoor Next Gen blood glucose meter.
Learn more and get started today at kontoornext.com/juicebox.
And don't forget, you may be paying more through your insurance right now for the meter you have than you would pay for the Kontoor next gen in cash.
There are links in the show notes of the audio app you're listening in right now and links at juiceboxpodcast.com to Kontoor and all of the sponsors.
Scott BennerA huge thanks to today's sponsor, AbleNow.
AbleNow offers tax advantaged Able accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.
If you or your child lives with diabetes, you may qualify because of ongoing medical needs.
With Able Now, you can save for a wide range of disability related expenses without affecting eligibility for certain disability benefits such as Medicaid.
And thanks to recent federal law updates, more people are eligible than ever before.
Scott BennerLearn more and check your eligibility at ablenow.com.
You spell that ablenow.com.
There's links in the show notes and links at juiceboxpodcast.com.
I can't thank you enough for listening.
Please make sure you're subscribed or following in your audio app.
Scott BennerI'll be back tomorrow with another episode of the juice box podcast.
If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast private Facebook group.
Juice Box Podcast, type one diabetes.
But everybody is welcome.
Type one, type two, gestational, loved ones, it doesn't matter to me.
Scott BennerIf you're impacted by diabetes and you're looking for support, comfort, or community, check out Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
The Juice Box podcast is edited by Wrong Way Recording.
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#1865 Bolus 4 Mexican Food
Scott and Jenny talk about bolusing 4 Mexican food favorites.
Key Takeaways
- Factor in Fat and Protein: When bolusing for complex restaurant meals like Mexican food, counting carbohydrates alone is insufficient. High fat and protein content delay digestion and cause extended blood sugar rises that require extended insulin coverage.
- Pre-Bolusing is Essential: Fast-acting items such as chips and sugary margaritas can cause immediate blood sugar spikes, making dynamic pre-bolusing strategies critical before the main course arrives.
- Account for Hidden Fats: Restaurant cooking heavily features unseen fats from frying chips or sautéing vegetables with heavy oils, adding significant fat grams that aren't typical in home-cooked versions.
- Leverage AI with Specificity: When using AI models like Gemini or ChatGPT to analyze food macros, provide specific instructions (e.g., requesting standard USDA references) to secure the most precise data and counter model variances.
- Understand Individual Insulin Timing: Successfully managing complex meals relies on continuous real-world tracking, using personal historical experience and data trends rather than a single static calculation.
Resources Mentioned
- Omnipod: Explore the Omnipod 5 and check eligibility for a free starter kit at omnipod.com/juicebox
- US Med: Get your diabetes testing supplies and free benefit check at usmed.com/juicebox or call (888) 721-1514
- Juicebox Podcast: Listen to the Diabetes Pro Tip Series (Episodes 1000–1025) and explore the menu at juiceboxpodcast.com
- Wrong Way Recording: Make your podcast sound fantastic at wrongwayrecording.com
Introduction and Community Engagement
Scott BennerHello, friends, and welcome back to another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
My diabetes pro tip series is about cutting through the clutter of diabetes management to give you the straightforward practical insights that truly make a difference.
This series is all about mastering the fundamentals, whether it's the basics of insulin, dosing adjustments, or everyday management strategies that will empower you to take control.
I'm joined by Jenny Smith, who is a diabetes educator with over thirty five years of personal experience, and we break down complex concepts into simple actionable tips.
The diabetes pro tip series runs between episode one thousand and one thousand twenty five in your podcast player, or you can listen to it at juiceboxpodcast.com by going up into the menu.
Scott BennerIf you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast private Facebook group.
Juice Box 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 Juice Box podcast, type one diabetes on Facebook.
Scott BennerNothing you hear on the Juice Box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise.
Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan.
This episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by US Med, usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514.
US Med is where my daughter gets her diabetes supplies from, and you could too.
Use the link or number to get your free benefit check and get started today with US Med.
Scott BennerA huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod.
Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox.
You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link.
Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox.
Scott BennerTerms and conditions apply.
Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox.
Jenny, we're gonna start in a second with bolusing for a Mexican meal that someone has sent in. But I found myself getting ready to ask you right before I hit record. Is this getting boring for you?
Are you enjoying this? You're okay?
Jenny SmithI always like talking about food.
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithI say that as if, like, I eat hoards and not like I kinda feel like I just said, gosh. Jenny eats a lot of food. I I really enjoy the science of food and understanding how to explain it and break it down.
Speaker 3Break it down.
Jenny SmithIt's very interesting to me. So, no, I'm not bored.
Scott BennerOkay. I'm glad. Because I am finding a ton of value in this, and I think the listeners are as well.
I don't imagine there won't be a day where we might just say, like, we can't do this anymore.
There's just we've covered everything.
But at the moment, I'm I'm very happy with it.
So I'm gonna keep going. Unless I hear otherwise from people and not just three looky loos, but, like, it would have to be like a you know?
Jenny SmithI had a thought the other day actually about this whole series of bolusing for a specific kind of food.
And I was curious because I feel like a lot of the foods that we've actually gone through have been very, I guess, more like Americanized.
Yeah. Right? They're more US based, and I'm curious how many because I know you have so many listeners, and they're all over the world, which is awesome.
But I'm curious how many people from other countries have questions about their typical cuisine.
Scott BennerMaybe something will come
Jenny Smithbe super awesome to just try to do something that's more atypical for
Scott BennerYeah. We could do bolusing for wallaby and bolusing for elk because that's all people in Canada eat, I would imagine, is grizzly bear and elk something like that.
I don't know exactly what they do.
Jenny SmithThat's not really true.
Scott BennerI don't know anything about that. You don't and by the way, don't either.
So, like, you're just guessing, much like me.
Jenny SmithHave you ever been to Canada?
Scott BennerNo. No. No.
Jenny SmithNot ever?
Scott BennerI don't do anything that requires a plane transfer.
Transfer. I one flight, I get on and I get off, and that I'm okay with.
I actually am heading out to I'll be able to say this here because by the time it's done, I'm heading out to San Diego to be part of a a commercial shoot for Omnipod.
Jenny SmithAwesome.
Scott BennerAnd well, it's awesome except in a forty eight hour window, I'm gonna fly to San Diego and fly back again.
Yeah. So I'm gonna do twelve I think I'm doing, like, twelve hours in the air over forty eight hours.
So I I fly in, go to sleep, wake up, work all day, leave the set, get on a plane, and fly home overnight.
Like, that's how I'm doing it.
Nevertheless, when they asked me to do it, I was like, look. I only have a couple of asks. I need an aisle or a window, and I am not getting on and off of a plane.
I was like, I get on at my house, and I get off in San Diego, or I'm not doing this.
I was like, I'm Scotty doesn't do a transfer.
I'm a bit of a princess. Okay?
Jenny SmithDo do you not like transfers just because of the navigation of that?
Speaker 3Or No. I don't care about any that. Curious.
Scott BennerI don't like to be put out. I'm a bit of a princess.
Jenny SmithOkay. That's interesting.
Scott BennerLike, they said to me, you can take an Uber to the airport, and I went I was I was like, because I have to go to Newark.
And it is a pain in the it's a pain to, like, you have to drive to Newark.
Usually, you park off-site, then you get on, like, some, like, little, like, rattly bus that takes you from the parking lot to to the Newark Airport, and it's a bit of a it's a bit of a harangue.
Right?
Jenny SmithRight.
Scott BennerAnd they were like, oh, but just feel free to take an Uber. I'm not taking an Uber. I was, like, an hour long ride on a highway and, like, I'm like, I don't like and then I found myself stopping myself.
Jenny SmithIn the car with somebody that I don't know and right.
Scott BennerAnd what if their car is not great?
And then I when mean, when they get there, I can't go, oh, no. Thank you.
There's where I'm a a, like, a a little bit of a princess. I'm like, have a car.
I'm comfortable in my car. I'll drive. Don't worry about it.
Anyway, I'm not I'm not a pain in ass. Not a pain in the ass on big things.
Analyzing Appetizers: Chips, Guacamole, and Salsa
Scott BennerNevertheless, let's talk about someone sent in a Mexican meal.
It says tortilla chips with guacamole, sour cream and salsa, steak, peppers, onion fajitas, side of rice and refried beans, and what would happen if I put a margarita with all this?
And then also, could you talk about tacos and enchiladas?
So I think this is gonna be a lot more maybe art than science in this one.
So I'm interested to hear how you pick through all this.
But you wanna start with tortilla chips with guacamole, sour cream, and salsa?
Jenny SmithSure.
Scott BennerCan we, like, break them down separately and then lump them together?
Speaker 3Yes. Would that work?
Jenny SmithBecause usually, for this type of a meal, you're going to start with I mean, they would consider an appetizer as the tortilla chips and probably guacamole yummier if they make it at your table.
Mhmm. And you can see them making it.
Scott BennerThey do it right there? They squish it up?
Jenny SmithSome really good places make it, like, table side, and it's super yum then.
Scott BennerYes. Well, as you know from a previous bolus for, I've only ever had salsa once.
Jenny SmithSo Oh, that's right. Yes. Yes. Because I made you have some.
Scott BennerYou made me eat salsa.
Jenny SmithSour cream and salsa, you said.
So guac, sour cream, salsa, and the tortilla chips. Right?
Scott BennerWhat are we gonna do here?
So chips, I mean, the breakdown I have here is that two ounces of chips is about 20 chips.
This has it broken out as four protein, 36 carbs, 14 fat.
Does that seem right to you or close?
Jenny SmithSay the carbs again? Thirty twenty chips.
Scott BennerYeah. 20 chips, 36 carbs.
Jenny SmithIt's a I usually tell people as an estimation tool for tortilla chips, they're about two grams of carb a chip.
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithMakes it easy to carb count, put on your little side plate.
If you're gonna have another handful, then you carb count more and put them on your side plate.
Scott BennerMhmm. A little bit of protein. I mean, we'll we'll factor it in because we're gonna do the whole thing, but does 14 grams of fat sound right to you?
Jenny SmithIf they are made at the restaurant, they are fried.
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithAnd they are fatty. Yes.
Scott BennerAnd then that's 20 chips.
Now what happens when what happens when I dip them into stuff? How does that change?
Because I'm gonna I'm gonna set the calculator up right now. Excuse me.
Scott BennerThe bolus estimator up right now. And so the carb ratio, 10. Insulin sensitivity, 50. I'm gonna put in these 36 carbs.
I'm gonna put in the 14 fat.
Jenny SmithAnd then is the 36 just for the chips?
Scott BennerYes. So I'm saying for right now, I just wanna say, if you ate 20 chips with those settings
Jenny SmithWith the okay.
Scott Benner3.6 up front, point seven over three hours.
Now let's figure out about the dipping and the and the slurping. There's slurping. Right?
Jenny SmithAnd the slurry
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. But that doesn't sometimes like, the the salsa, I see people, and it starts to fall off the chip, and they go after it.
I know what's happening. Okay.
Jenny SmithSo salsa.
I think if when I have chips and salsa
Scott BennerVery happy.
Jenny SmithChips are just a method of getting like, I would just happily eat the bowl of salsa.
The hotter, the better. Like, I love salsa. It's y'all.
Speaker 3Don't take Jenny to dinner.
Scott BennerShe'll eat out of your salsa bowl with a spoon.
So guacamole is just avocados, or do they put stuff in it?
Jenny SmithThere would be usually, depending on the recipe, guacamole is gonna have some type of spicy pepper in it.
Could be jalapeno. Could be other type of pepper.
Again, pretty pretty low carb there in terms of an addition.
Usually, it's gonna have garlic, probably lemon or lime juice, salt.
It's not outside of the avocados.
It wouldn't usually have another carbohydrate source added to it.
So, really, the avocado is the main carb source in the guacamole, and it's also really, really high in fat.
Scott BennerYeah. This has a quarter of a cup.
It says nine grams of fat, five carbs, one protein.
Let's go with a cool let's all just imagine you had a quarter of a cup.
So now it takes our carbs up to 41.
It takes
Jenny Smithour I think that the person whoever sent this to you is now listening and is like, a quarter cup?
Scott BennerThey're like, they are they are ruining Really? Ruining my chips for me. That's okay.
So I'm adding in the protein, the carbs, and everything, recalculating it, takes the 3.6 up to 4.1, and now it's a 1.14, and and it stretched out over four hours instead of three hours as the cover.
So it's gone up now from adding the guacamole.
Now we're gonna also add sour cream.
That sounds like it. It's fatter.
Jenny SmithAbout the sour. Yeah.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithThat's pretty much all fat.
Scott BennerOkay. So it's telling you two tablespoon.
Good luck having two tablespoons of sour cream.
Jenny SmithRight.
It's it's like all of it's the salsa. It's the guacamole.
It's the sour cream that we can look at portions. Mhmm.
Jenny SmithAnd what we should well, I should should say we can look at serving and what a serving has.
Then you have to consider what's your portion.
Scott BennerYeah. I don't wanna out Arden, but I've seen her make a baked potato, and I can't find the baked potato under the sour cream.
So
Jenny SmithThere you go.
Scott BennerAnd they make it in a squeeze thing now.
Have you noticed this? You
Jenny Smithdon't buy sour cream.
Scott BennerOh, well, trust me. It comes in a squeezy thing. Sour cream's in my house constantly.
I've never had it in my life. Wouldn't know what it is.
Scott BennerIf you put it in my mouth, I would it just I don't know.
Something about the consistency of it I'm not good with.
Nevertheless, I like all the people out there like now are like, hey. He's probably has autism.
So it's one protein, one carb, and six fat.
Scott BennerSo we're gonna add that one protein, six fat carb, and that takes us to 42 carbs, 29 fat, five protein.
Didn't change a ton about that. Okay?
So put up the Warsaw wave a little more. It gave us a little more back end insulin.
Mhmm. Okay.
Now salsa has gotta be tomatoes. Right?
Jenny SmithIt is. It's usually tomatoes, peppers, garlic, onion.
Again, it can be made many it could have pineapple in. It could have mango in. Mhmm.
Jenny SmithIf it's just regular, like, spicy salsa Yeah.
Then probably isn't gonna have the fruity stuff in it.
Scott BennerIs it fair here quarter a cup, four carbs?
Jenny SmithAbout.
Scott BennerAbout? Okay.
No. And it has four carbs. The listing here, I'm using Gemini today.
Scott BennerProtein one, no fat. So let's see what we're back to now.
Jenny SmithAnd as a reference, most often, the little dishes or ramekins that these side items or these dipping pieces usually come typically flat topped, not scooped and heaped into it, but flat top.
Usually, those little ramekins are about a half a cup just for visual reference.
Scott BennerThe ones that if I was fancy and I made a souffle and are about the size of my fist, maybe two inches high on the side?
Speaker 3Yep. That's nice. Okay.
Jenny SmithAbout a half a cup. Exactly.
Scott BennerSo now in what world you're gonna eat 20 chips and all this, I don't know.
You know? But maybe that's gonna happen to you.
But keep in mind, 4.6 up front, 1.43, stretch out over four hours. Go ahead and have 80 chip or or 40 chips.
Scott BennerThis turns into nine units up front and three over probably more hours because you had more fat. It would probably, right, tack the hours on too. Right. Uh-huh. Okay.
Jenny SmithAnd this is just let's remember. We are starting at the beginning of sitting down at your table.
This is your appetizer.
Scott BennerIf you don't pre bolus this meal coming in the door, I don't see how you catch up unless you really crush it hard, or it takes a while for them to bring the food one or the other.
This episode is brought to you by Omnipod.
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Scott BennerPlus, you can get started with a free thirty day trial to be sure it's the right choice for you or your family.
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Find my link in the show notes of this podcast player or at juiceboxpodcast.com.
Diabetes comes with a lot of things to remember, so it's nice when someone takes something off of your plate.
US Med has done that for us.
When it's time for Arden's supplies to be refreshed, we get an email.
Rolls up and in your inbox says, hi, Arden. This is your friendly reorder email from US Med.
You open up the email. It's a big button that says click here to reorder, and you're done.
Scott BennerFinally, somebody taking away a responsibility instead of adding one. US Med has done that for us.
An email arrives, we click on a link, and the next thing you know, your products are at the front door.
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US Med carries everything from insulin pumps and diabetes testing supplies to the latest CGMs like the Libre three and the Dexcom g seven.
Scott BennerThey accept Medicare nationwide, over 800 private insurers, and all you have to do to get started is call (888) 721-1514 or go to my link, usmed.com/juicebox.
Using that number or my link helps to support the production of the juice box podcast.
Jenny SmithRight. You know, and the question there is we've talked through before is really how are you coming in the door?
Mhmm. Are you coming in pretty stable, insulin on board, is just really your basal rate, you're right where you want, then what was the total carbon fat breakdown again?
Scott Benner46 carbs, 29 fat, six protein.
Jenny SmithRight. So you're looking at also something that has a fair amount of initial carbs, not even talking about the meal part of it yet.
Mhmm. But the carbs in this are also thirty thirty grams of fat.
Scott BennerYep.
Jenny SmithAnd you're not I mean, most people chat and talk and laugh.
And if this is a meal out at a restaurant, you're grabbing your chips and salsa.
You're grabbing your chips and guac. You might be maybe you're making a slurry of this on your plate. I don't know what you're doing, and dipping.
But this is also something that you're I don't say grazing, but grazing in a shorter amount of time before you actually order and put your food for the total entree in. Right.
Jenny SmithAnd so my expectation from experience is that while it has a fair amount of carb, you're also looking at the fat behind it.
Scott BennerYeah. So you're That's You're probably come I, by the way, set it up as a stable line, but we can look at it another way before we move on.
But to your point, you're gonna come in, probably hort this down pretty quickly in the beginning, and then that fat's gonna just slow your digestion down.
And then you're just going to literally shovel carbs on top of it later in the form of wraps and tortilla shells and rice.
Jenny SmithAnd maybe rice.
Scott BennerYeah. Okay. I'm writing down the chips, 46, 29, and six.
But before we move on to the next step, let me just show you.
I don't have a current BG set into the estimator right now. There's none there, but it says there's a stable line.
But try to imagine you walked in the door one forty four arrow up or or rising slow. Let's give it a diagonal arrow. Right? When you resimulate that strategy, now suddenly the initial is 5.6.
Scott BennerThe Warsaw is still 1.43. But it's now asking you for, like, a fifteen minute pre bolus with a stable line and the number.
It's still asking for for that pre bolus. But if you take if you take the this the current BG and take it to 90, the pre bolus goes down by, like, five minutes maybe.
Like, it not that it I'm I'm guessing with this food, you could pre ball us as far out as you wanted to and you you know, as long as you catch it, you're gonna be good.
Scott BennerBut the point is is that I don't know how many people are, like, wandering into a restaurant thinking about, am I one forty diagonal up? Am I 90 and I'm stable? Like, it's you know what I mean? It's
Jenny SmithI think it does depend on the person.
Scott BennerSure.
Jenny SmithIt really does. Right? In Jenny's brain?
Scott BennerYou'd be thinking about it.
Jenny SmithI'd be thinking about it.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithBecause we don't eat out very often.
It always, in my mind, a little more consideration about where am I. Do I need to make an adjustment already, or am I pretty good?
Just that I can be ready for that order and what I expect I'm going to need to do once I figure out what I'm actually going to eat. Yeah. Right?
The Impact of Alcohol: Bolusing for a Margarita
Jenny SmithWhat I think is honestly next fair to consider almost along with this appetizer type of food Mhmm Is the drink. Because we don't typically wait to drink our fancy drink when the meal comes.
Scott BennerThe margarita comes in right away.
Jenny SmithIt comes along with your appetizer unless you've said no. Right?
Scott BennerOkay. A margarita so I don't drink, so I had to look this up.
One classic on the rocks, eight ounces, margarita, 24 carbs, you know, no fat, no protein. Yeah.
Is that about fair? That's fair? Mhmm.
So and that's gonna hit fast, like sugary fast. Right?
Jenny SmithIt is.
Scott BennerYeah. So okay. So so now the pre now now you I mean, listen. Arden's older now. I I'm not in charge of how she lives her life.
Scott BennerBut if this was us walking into a restaurant when she was nine years old, I would have probably just, like, blindly thrown I would have looked at her blood sugar and then blindly just thrown some insulin in and then worked the rest of it out when we got in and started sitting down and figuring out what was going on just to get get the insulin on my side.
We can tack it on real quick just to say the chips with the margarita. So if we're gonna That'd be great. Yeah. If we're gonna say margarita 24, we had 46 already.
Scott BennerThat's seven that takes our carbs to 70. The fat stays 29, and the protein six.
By the way, this is juiceboxpodcast.com/bolusfour, bolusfour. Simulate the strategy. Wow. Okay.
So now it goes to seven up front, 1.4, stretched over four, and and the pre bolus, of course, is now down to nine minutes.
But, I mean, honestly, you could you could quite easily say to yourself, there's an like, I'm gonna eat 30 chips. You know? Like or I don't know how many chips I'm gonna have.
Scott BennerAnd what if I get going and I'm talking and I love what if I get going and I'm talking and I don't eat? Like, you know what I mean? Like, I take people's other side of the conversation.
Jenny SmithA 100%. And so that's where you have to know you have to know yourself pretty well Mhmm Or you have
Jenny Smithto know your child, right, or be directional to your teen who might be doing this, and you're just trying to give them some adjustment while they're half listening. Right?
Scott BennerWhile they're half listening. While while they're ignoring you and making you sad you had a baby. Okay.
Jenny SmithMy yeah.
The Main Course: Breakdown of Fajitas, Rice, and Beans
When you sit down then, a meal like this, many people do have in mind what their what their taste buds usually like.
Scott BennerMhmm.
Jenny SmithRight? Unless you're truly coming in blind to this type of cuisine and you've never ever had it before, you likely know what you like about what your portion is, and this is where that it's not a blind estimate that you throw in.
But you sit down at the table, and you may throw in 30 grams.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithAnd maybe you do that because that's your pre bolus. You have no idea even what the chips look like at this place, but you have had a margarita before. Mhmm. You know the hit impact of it. So you put in, and then once you can see, then you can always go back and you can add more even before your entree comes.
Jenny SmithBut you've gotten that ahead of time kick that you're going to need.
Scott BennerThe delightful part about these conversations to me is that I think it just if you're gonna listen, then it's you're gonna realize, like, oh, there's way more protein in steak than I think about. I don't even bolus for protein. Like, you know, like, that kind of thing. Like so let's look at the rest of this because the breakdown I have in front of me is six ounces of skirt flank, 40 protein, and 20 fat.
Peppers have carbs, 15 carbs in a cup of peppers, two proteins, seven fat in the peppers because they're sauteed. Mhmm. Flour tortilla, three fajita size, 45 grams of carbs, eight protein, seven fat.
Mexican rice, half a cup, 28 grams of carbs, three protein, three fat.
Refried beans, 20 grams of carbs, seven protein, four grams of fat.
Scott BennerSo everything that we've just talked about here, it totals up to a 154 carbs, 67 protein, and 70 fat. I'm just gonna put in a 154 carbs. Okay? Same settings, nothing else.
154 carbs, stable blood sugar. I'll even make the current BG 99. 15.58 units, wait ten minutes to pre bolus.
That's just the carbs. Now I'll put in the protein and the carbs. 67 protein, resimulate. Now you're 15.58 up front, 1.3 over four hours.
Now you put in the fat. Get ready. So 70 grams here we go. 70 grams of fat. Boom.
Scott BennerThis now 15.58 up front, four and a half over now eight hour window, and this whole bolus goes to 20 units.
But my point would be, again, if I just take out the fat and the protein, it goes from 20 with all these things considered down to 15 without the other things considered.
This is, I think, how it happens. Like, it's some, you know, mixture of I didn't pre bolus long enough. It got ahead of me, and I didn't consider the fat and protein. So I'm five units of insulin or by the way Sure.
Five, ten, fifteen, twenty five percent of the insulin I needed, I didn't use. Correct. You know?
And then you're never gonna have the nerve to do more than, a unit when you see, oh my god. Am I two eighty? Like, here's a unit. Let's see what happens. Like, even if you're on an AID system, if you don't tell it about that impact, it's just gonna push it's push slowly, but it's never gonna get ahead of anything.
Jenny SmithAnd then you're gonna end up maybe after this one meal despite the recommendation being to follow a trend before you make a setting adjustment. Mhmm. You may go in and be like, something's clearly wrong. I I must have but, really, it it does. It boils down to our our eyes always or our brains kind of calculate less than is truly there.
Scott BennerYeah.
Jenny SmithWe always boil it down a little bit compared to their true count, and that then gets us in trouble.
And despite us talking about fat and protein for quite a long time already in many of the things that we've recorded, right, Fat and protein still gets forgotten.
Scott BennerYeah. Well, I think it also leads to this more, like, kinda, like, plain language conversations where people say, like, I don't know. Like, I I don't know how to bowl this for Mexican food. Or every time I go out, it goes wrong. Or that because by the way, Mexican food, any restaurant really worth its, you know, worth its salt is gonna fill your food up with salt and fat.
Scott BennerYou know, like, so you're gonna have way more fat. No one's counting the fat. Like and and this is I mean, look. I'm not always gonna be right, and and there's gonna be times where it doesn't go this way or maybe it doesn't work for some people the way it works for others. God bless you. Like, you know, do your own, you know, do your own personal research and everything.
Jenny SmithBut
Scott Bennerif you're not thinking about the fat and the protein in these high, like, meat, like, situations, you are not using enough insulin very likely.
And all that comes after it that turns into that, like, I don't understand that diabetes is so unpredictable. I do the same thing every day, and then something different happens. Well, no. Yesterday, you actually had a 154 carbs. It didn't have any fat in it. Like, today, there's fat in it. You're saying, I don't know what happened. Diabetes. You you know what I mean? So Right.
Jenny SmithI think it's good to just know this stuff. It's it's absolutely fair, and I think another piece of this meal, which is a little bit of a lengthier intake over time than a lot of the other meals that we've actually put together. Right? This is more of a sit down restaurant. This comes, then this comes, then this comes. And if you think about that appetizer, it's just like bread that comes to the table at something like an Italian restaurant.
Jenny SmithRight? Comes to the table. You didn't even order it. They just plop it down. They're like, here's your loaf of bread and butter. Right?
Scott BennerAnd you're like, oh, thank
Speaker 3you. Right.
Jenny SmithYou thank you. And maybe maybe it's like the meal of the day that you're, like, looking forward to. So you'll be really lean in the other parts of or meals of the day. Mhmm. And so the bread comes to the table and the chips come to the table, you're like, man, I am hungry.
Jenny SmithAnd down it goes, and then you were planning on this lovely steak fajita vegetable kind of meal. And you had planned ahead. You counted the carbs. You knew. And then you got to the meal, and you're like, I can make one fajita. Maybe. Yeah. Because that's what happens. Mhmm. Right?
Scott BennerAnd so then you have to backtrack in your plan for what you're going to do because now all the nutrients that are there, those macros, they're now different. Yeah. No. I've and by the way, now with GLP in my life, they bring the bread out. I go, plea please take the bread away, or I might as well just eat the bread and leave you a tip and go because I'm not gonna be able to I'm not gonna be able to eat what I order.
Hey. Just for you know, because it was brought up, and then I wanna say something. Beef tacos, two hard shells, beef cheese lettuce, 28 carbs, 18 protein, 22 fat seem reasonable. How many tortillas?
Two hard shelled beef cheese lettuce tacos.
Jenny SmithYeah.
Scott BennerThat seem light?
Jenny SmithSo the shells are usually depending package to package, each hard shell is usually about eight or nine grams of carb per shell.
Comparison of AI Macronutrient Estimations
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithAnd depending on it doesn't sound like there are other car there's no rice in this. Right?
Scott BennerNo. Not not in the way it's set up right here.
Jenny SmithOkay. So it might be a little heavy in carbohydrate.
Scott BennerOkay.
Jenny SmithIf it's 28 grams, I'd say two is more probably closer to maybe 18 to 20.
Scott BennerOkay. I that's another reason I think the conversation is important because more and more people are gonna do what I just did, which is Mhmm Like, I don't know. I just I I use Gemini. I could've used ChatGPT. Sure.
It's very possible, and maybe we should do that before we go, that if we just use a different model, we might have got back a different answer. You know?
Jenny SmithWe might have. And that is I mean, it brings in I think we talked about it, and the last time we talked about food is really using AI can be a good starting place, but you have to give it as much direction as you possibly can, or possibly, hey. Can you give me the macro breakdown and use the USDA information to source this data? Right? It more direction. You can give it more direction and get more specific and precise details about those macros.
Scott BennerYeah. Let me do this just because it's interesting. So the the first time we did the big meal, it was with Gemini, Google Gemini, and now I'm doing it with ChatGPT. And let's just see, like, what comes up different.
Jenny SmithThe difference?
Scott BennerYeah. So okay. So tortilla chips, it used the same measurements, two ounces, 20 chips. It got the calories the same, the protein the same, the carbs were too heavier on ChatGPT than they were on Gemini. The fat, it got the same. Guacamole, one carb heavier on ChatGPT than than on Gemini. The fat was the same. The protein was off by one, and off's the wrong word. Like, they disagree by one. Steak steak fajitas.
In ChatGPT says 420 calories, 45 protein, 25 fat. In Gemini, it says 350 calories, 40 protein, 20 fat. So it's interesting. They they disagree, but it's possible that bolus wise, taking five off the fat and adding it to this or the protein or it might kinda balance out. Balance out. Yeah. To some degree.
Also, listening to you talk about it is where the real value is because you're like, yeah. That's about right. Also, when you use that language, when I tell people how to estimate it, that's you saying, you don't know how much is in that. And we're not gonna find out. Like, so Right. Like, about this.
Jenny SmithAbout the and especially for the fat content in a restaurant meal that's not a chain that truly has all of the nutrition facts figured out because their recipes are standardized. Mhmm. Right? When you have a restaurant from mom and pop Mexican restaurant or the bistro or whatever it is Yeah. You don't mind. Homemade. Right. Right. I mean, when I cook food and I know what I usually use, like, the olive oil goes in. I'm like, it could be a teaspoon today. It could be a teaspoon and a half or two tomorrow, and I, like, throw it. I mean, I eyeball. Right? Yep.
And so that eyeballing in these type of meals gives a little bit of shuffle, so to speak, to the amount of especially fat.
Scott BennerWell, I'm comforted by this actually because Gemini total for that meal, 70 fat, ChatGPT total 74.
Jenny SmithNice.
Historical Perspectives and Closing Remarks
Scott BennerCarbs, Gemini, one fifty four. ChatGPT, one sixty six. Protein, Gemini, 67. Protein, ChatGPT, 74. I honestly don't think this would change the bolus by more than maybe, like, a quarter or half a unit maybe. Like, it's so They're very similar enough. And people are gonna be using this stuff more and
Speaker 3Mhmm.
Scott Bennermore you know, like, to figure this stuff out. Anyway, to kinda, like, dovetail back around again, chicken enchilada, 42 grams of carbs for two rolls, sauce and cheese, protein 26, fat 24, and, of course, the margarita. So if you just did the two two hard shell tacos, two enchiladas, the margarita, it's 94 carbs, 44 protein, 46 fat. I would bet you this is the thing I wanted to say at the end, that the person who sent in this request did not get the answer back they were expecting. Because I think people think there's like a I I say this to Jenny, like, when we're done sometimes.
I'm like, I wonder how much longer we can do this because all we're really telling you is count the fat, the carbs, the protein, and understand the timing of the insulin to have your settings right.
Jenny SmithIt is.
Scott BennerIt's not lost on you and I that we are just finding different ways to explain the pro tip series. Right?
Jenny SmithThat's correct. Yeah. And it's also what does it boil down to? It boils down to the standard of understanding how insulin works for you. Mhmm. And because you usually, as I said earlier, you come into a meal like this with some historical experience of what you like, you're gonna pick similar. If you don't like chicken, you're gonna and you like steak, you're gonna choose steak something. Yeah. Right? If you like a fajita because you can pick and add rather than the gooey insides of, you know, something that's baked or fried or whatever, great. So you have something based on your previous preference for a similar kind of meal. You always can you can also then gauge how much you're gonna eat. Yeah. Now I Which helps.
Scott BennerThere is there is a part of me that realizes that 1,800 episodes into the podcast, it really only needs to be about 25 episodes long. But to reexplain it or find ways to get into different ways that people learn or even just to say it one way where you're like, oh, that makes sense. Like, basically, this is just, again, seriously, this is just what we talked about in the pro tip series, like, from a slightly different perspective. And there'll be another series after this,
Speaker 3but we'll shift it around again and find a different way to say it to
Scott Benneryou so that it covers as many people as possible. But in the end, it's timing and amount. That's it. It used the right amount of insulin at the right time.
Jenny SmithI wish I had had I mean, my first experience well, historical Jenny story. My historical, purse I guess, experience with a Mexican kind of dish eaten out was in high school.
Scott BennerOkay. By yourself?
Jenny SmithYou know? No. Oh, no. This was, like, a dance. Right? So a dance experience where you go out either with your date or with, like, a group of other people. Right? And it was twerp, so that you know what twerp is? It's where the girl asks the guy to the dance.
Scott BennerThat's never happened to me. So, no, I don't know about that. But go ahead.
Jenny SmithWell, that's that's that's what this was.
Scott BennerI have what they call a face for podcasting. Go ahead.
Jenny SmithAnyway, we went out, and I ordered a a taco salad. Mhmm. Because I thought from my perspective that that at that age, right, I was like, a salad. I know how to do a salad. And I didn't have any of these fancy tools. None of them. I took two mixed injections per day Yeah. Still. Right? That was what I got, and I had a blood glucose meter. Yeah. And so I order it only do you know what a taco salad is in that kind of restaurant? So It's not a lovely salad.
Scott BennerThere's probably a lot of sour cream and sauce and stuff. Like, it's like it's the reason why I don't order that stuff when I get it because it looks soupy to me. Sorry.
Jenny SmithAnd it it wasn't soupy, but what does a taco salad usually come in?
Scott BennerLike A big tortilla shell. Right?
Jenny SmithA gigantic. I was mortified when they brought me my plate at the table with, like, eight others of my friends, including, like, their write their dates. My meal was the largest on the entire table.
Scott BennerAnd he's like, I asked this boy out, and now I'm like, give me all the food. And this and so it comes in a bowl that's actually made out of, like, a tortilla. Right?
Jenny SmithA tortilla shell. Yeah. Exactly.
Scott BennerAnd then there's let I mean, there's shredded lettuce, but then there's sour cream, probably beef. Right? Like
Jenny SmithWell, I don't eat meat, so it was beans.
Scott BennerI ordered a a bean one. Yeah. Yeah. It was probably it was probably a 150 grams of carbs.
Jenny SmithOh, I'm and I was so like I said, I was so mortified. And at that point, I still only had dosing based on a a sliding scale. It was this amount of insulin based on your blood sugar and what your meal would cover. And I mean, my appetite was pretty well controlled, so I knew I wasn't gonna eat this gigantic, like Clamshell salad. So I kinda picked at through the meal. Right?
Scott BennerTrying to be dainty with your giant sloppy salad.
Jenny SmithAnd then what follows a meal like this as a high school dance? You're you're gonna go and you're gonna move your body. Yeah. Right? So, like, I had all of this. I am still alive after my taco salad.
Scott BennerYou made it. You guys get Jenny's like, look. With a CGM and all these algorithms, you'll be okay.
Jenny SmithYou will be okay. That's the base of the story. Yes. Yeah. Well, I listen. For me, it's always the same. Like, don't ignore the fat and protein. Don't ignore the timing. Get your settings right. You know? Right. And, you should be okay. Well, thank you very much. I do appreciate you doing this with me.
Jenny SmithNo. It's always fun.
Scott BennerThanks.
A huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. The conversation you just enjoyed was brought to you by US Med. US Med dot com slash juice box or call (888) 721-1514.
Scott BennerGet started today and get your supplies from US Med. Okay. Well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me? Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribed in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me or Instagram, TikTok. Oh, gosh. Here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. You don't wanna miss please, do you not know about the private group? You have to join the private group. As of this recording, it has 74,000 members.
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#1863 Expert Testimony
Cory discusses his harrowing 1998 Type 1 diabetes diagnosis , overcoming clinical barriers to pumping and thyroid care , using GLP-1 therapy , and finding fulfillment as a community group expert.
Key Takeaways
- Misdiagnosis & Triage Vulnerabilities: Acute onset symptoms of Type 1 diabetes can easily be misidentified by primary clinicians as minor environmental parasites, demonstrating why immediate emergency evaluation and symptom recognition (like ketones on the breath) are critical to preventing severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA).
- The Power of Clinical Self-Advocacy: Drowning under rigid baseline management parameters or clinical restrictions requires persistent patient self-advocacy. Finding progressive clinicians who will provide advanced tools without requiring a "perfect" early tracking history is key to long-term success.
- The Actionable Practicality of Pre-Bolusing: Effective diabetes care moves past basic carb counting to highlight active timing strategies. Implementing specific waiting windows between an insulin dose and meal consumption acts as a key element in smoothing out postprandial glucose spikes.
- Metabolic Stability via Modern GLP-1 Therapy: Utilizing advanced GLP-1 medications alongside standard Type 1 insulin therapy can lead to up to a 40–45% reduction in total daily insulin needs. This optimizes metabolic parameters and heavily dampens volatile high-low glycemic rollercoasters.
- Community Safety Nets and Peer Support: Moderated digital forums and specialized support networks serve as necessary psychological secondary spaces. They help families and advocates seamlessly process daily medical burdens, layout clinical boundaries, and share life-saving resources.
Resources Mentioned
- Juicebox Podcast Official Site: juiceboxpodcast.com
- US Med Diabetes Supply: usmed.com/juicebox (Or call 888-721-1514)
- Omnipod 5 Automated Insulin Delivery: omnipod.com/juicebox
- Wrong Way Recording Audio Services: wrongwayrecording.com
Introduction and Behind-the-Scenes Insights
Scott BennerHere we are back together again, friends, for another episode of the Juice Box podcast.
CoreyHey. My name is Corey. I'm a type one diabetic. I was diagnosed at 19 about twenty seven years ago.
Scott BennerMy grand rounds series was designed by listeners to tell doctors what they need, and it also helps you to understand what to ask for. There's a mental wellness series that addresses the emotional side of diabetes and practical ways to stay balanced. And when we talk about GLP medications, well, we'll break down what they are, how they may help you, and if they fit into your diabetes management plan. What do these three things have in common? They're all available at juiceboxpodcast.com up in the menu.
Scott BennerI know it can be hard to find these things in a podcast app, so we've collected them all for you at juice box podcast dot com. While you're listening, please remember that nothing you hear on the juice box podcast should be considered advice, medical or otherwise. Always consult a physician before making any changes to your health care plan or becoming bold with insulin.
Scott BennerThis episode of the Juice Box podcast is sponsored by US Med, usmed.com/juicebox, or call (888) 721-1514. Get your supplies the same way we do from US Med.
Scott BennerToday's episode is also sponsored by Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox.
CoreyHey. My name is Corey. I'm a type one diabetic. I was diagnosed at 19 about twenty seven years ago.
Scott BennerWow. And, Corey, just before we started to record, you said you were a little nervous, but tell me why you were nervous?
CoreyYeah. So not nervous to talk to you, Scott, but nervous in that I I just hope that my story will help even one person, you know, to do something a little better or to have a small positive change in their life. Yeah. That's what I'm hoping for here.
Scott BennerI want to start with that just so I could tell you the same thing I would tell anybody and have told people in the past when they say that is that in now over 1,800 recordings, I mean, I haven't deleted any of them. Like, I think people are always like, oh, my story isn't gonna be valuable. But, I mean, you find everybody's stories valuable. Right?
CoreyTotally. Right.
Scott BennerYeah. That's it. We don't edit out content. We don't take the thing you said at three minutes and move it to ten minutes and move stuff around. These are straight through recordings. You know, they get bleeped a little if somebody curses or something like that. But other than that, nothing gets taken out of them. And I think I've maybe only recorded three in twelve years that you guys haven't heard. And those weren't for reasons of you know, it's not like I recorded them, and I was like, oh god. That's horrible. I don't want anybody to hear it.
Scott BennerAs a matter of fact, I'll tell you this. I won't give you the exact details, but the three that I've recorded that you haven't heard, one was just a technical issue where one of the voices didn't get recorded. One was where there was such a significant shift in the tone of the conversation. It was this upbeat conversation that was going on for I think we were forty five minutes into it. And just out of nowhere, the person I was talking to said something that was, like, a such a significant like, a violent thing that happened to them, and it just felt strange after that. And we were joking one second, and the next second, they said this thing, and I didn't feel like I pivoted quickly enough. Do you know what I mean? It would be like I don't know. If we were at a stand up concert together and the comedian's been talking for forty five minutes, and then you just turn to me and, like, tell me some atrocity that happened to you, and I'm laughing about the thing that happened five seconds before that.
Scott BennerWe never found our footing again, and the two of us agreed when we were done just to delete it. And then I don't even remember what the third one was, But what I can tell you is that I've recorded a handful of conversations that I would tell you that when I'm done with them, they're not my cup of tea. Like, if I had to go back and listen to them, I wouldn't. And there was this one time I finished with this person. I would never say who it is, but I finished and I just really didn't like it. I did not have a good time talking to them. I did not enjoy the conversation. It felt boring to me. The whole thing turned me off about it. And it was the only time in and again, twelve years that I thought, I'm just gonna lose this one. Like, I'll send her an email and tell her something technical happened and I lost the file because I don't wanna put this out. And then I thought about it a little longer, and I said, Scott, you're not the only one listening to the podcast. Right? Like, other people have different sensibilities than you. I put it together just like I put out every other one, and it's incredibly popular. And I can't tell you which one it is, but Sure.
CoreyNo. I understand.
Scott BennerI didn't hate the person. I just I didn't like their voice. I didn't like the story. Like, the whole thing just maybe I was in a bit. I couldn't even begin to tell you. But people find it incredibly valuable. So, you know, I appreciate you being concerned, but I think we'll be okay.
CoreyYeah. Well, let's give it a shot and see what happens. Absolutely.
The 1998 Misdiagnosis and Emergency Triage
Scott BennerSo you were diagnosed when you were 19 years old?
CoreyYeah. I was 19 back in October '98.
Scott BennerAnd how did you figure it out?
CoreyYeah. So it was probably about a six week onset from what I'll call normal to, you know, in the ER. And with that, it was a lot of the same stuff you've heard over and over. But for me, it was just mostly fatigue. And then about a week before the actual diagnosis, I'd gone to an air show with a friend and her family, and, her mother was a nurse, and we were all staying in, a small hotel room, anyway, out in West Texas. And she commented to me the next morning, do you know you got up four times, you know, in the night to use the restroom? And I said, no. I didn't realize that. And, anyway, she's like, yeah. You should probably have that looked into. And that was pretty much the end of that conversation. When I got back home, I ended up going to the doctor. I wasn't feeling well and gave him all of that and told him what what she had said, gave him my whole rundown. I'm really tired. I'm very thirsty. Obviously, urinating a lot. Everything that we now, you know, you know is classic symptoms. But told him all that. He said, well, you went out to West Texas. You probably got a some kind of a bug or a parasite or something in the water out there. So here's a pill for that, and then go home and drink as much Gatorade as you can to stay hydrated. Well, as you know, Gatorade is sugar water with some electrolytes. It has its place, but at that point I mean, I went to him probably around noon. By 10PM, I was in a whole another place. So my mom drove me down to the ER. I'm 19, lived at home still. We get into the ER, and this has actually been referenced on your podcast before. But in in that '98, and I live in the DFW area of Texas, there was, like, a heroin epidemic of young people, teenagers. And so when I walked in, barely walked into that there was a nurse there, a guy, and there was a cop. And, you know, what are you doing here? My mom's trying to tell him what's going on. I could barely talk. I was so dehydrated. Sitting there, the cop was very interested in me and why I was there. And the nurse was like, hey. We gotta take your temperature. And I'm like, I don't know if you can. And it kind of escalated, and I'm like, I don't think I can get the thermometer under my tongue. I'm so dehydrated. And he's like, well, if I can't put it under your tongue, I'm gonna shove it up your ass. That was pretty crazy. And right about that moment, a wonderful ER doctor walked through there and she stopped. I mean, right in her tracks. It was like, hey. What's going on here? And the guy's like, well, he just came in. And she's like, well, I can smell on his breath that he's diabetic. She literally grabbed me by the arm and said, come with me, put me in a bed. They got an insulin drip going, and that's about all I remember.
Scott BennerYeah. Saved you from having a personal relationship with a thermometer too.
CoreyCorrect. No doubt.
Scott BennerWho said that to you about the—
CoreySo he was like the triage nurse at the ER.
Scott BennerWhat's wrong with everybody, Corey? What do you think?
CoreyI he was having a day, and so was I.
Scott BennerYour ass was almost having a day. And so He's like—
CoreyI was like, wow. Okay. And ironically, I I never did get my temperature taken that day. But anyway so then the next morning, I was in the ER. Well, not in the ER. They had moved me to ICU. Mhmm. My dad showed up. At that point, we had not talked in a couple of years, just different stuff, but he was right there, which was awesome to find out, you know, what's going on with my son and everything. And so he's in there sitting with me and talking, and the doctor who I had gone to the previous day that told me I had a parasite, he was doing rounds in that hospital. He was like, what are you doing here? And I said, well, it wasn't a parasite. That was kinda fun. And, of course, he didn't apologize or anything. He just kinda, you know, was—
Scott BennerMhmm.
CoreyPlayed it cool. Next morning, off we went. So then go through the normal, what I'll call normal diabetes education. I was, a few weeks later, put into a room, you know, with a lot of nice folks, but mostly type twos. In fact, I think they all were. And the person was just kinda going over, you know, here's a what a banana is and how to count a carb and, you know, what is a protein, those kinds of things. So it was very basic education. Was given a sliding scale with, I guess, the clear and cloudy back then. So taking, you know, shots, syringes, and I had a tester, you know, a blood glucose tester, and that was pretty much it.
Living with Syringes, Pumps, and Clinical Friction
Scott BennerI'm sorry to ask you, but at 19, were you living at home with your mom?
CoreySo I was living up with my mom. My parents are divorced.
Scott BennerOkay. And what does support look like when you're diagnosed at that age in that situation as far as family goes?
CoreyYeah. So it was, this is yours. Yeah. There was no—
Scott BennerLet me understand this for you.
CoreyLet me understand or or whatever. It was pretty much like, what's the diet look like? Okay. Eat a healthy diet. Take, you know, the insulin per the sliding scale. And, of course, there was no CGM, anything like that. So you just test every couple hours. Of course, it was all on me at that point as a 19 year old.
Scott BennerOkay. And were you in college or going to college?
CoreyYeah. Going to school, working full time. So trying to keep a job, of course, and going to school in the evenings. And then—
Scott BennerDoing all this.
CoreyTrying to live a life on top of that too.
Scott BennerYou know, it's funny. I I ask people, like, how long does it take you to pull it altogether, ignoring the fact that maybe you don't feel like you have it altogether. Uh-huh. Yeah. How long did it take to feel like you had a, I don't know, a rhythm?
CoreySo that's a good question. Probably, I had a follow-up appointment with the doctor, not the same one, by the way, that had diagnosed me before, a new doctor. And at that point, yeah, it was a good amount of time. And and honestly, I thought I had it together. Right? I was alive. I was doing the things. Even way back then, I don't remember what my a one c's would have been, but they weren't where I would want them to be now for sure. Probably the eights, the nine, somewhere in there.
Scott BennerOkay.
CoreyWithout having all that data in between the tests, it's just hard to know what was all going on. And then being 19 and all the things I worked different hours and and all, it was a lot of, you know, take the basal. Once I moved to I did finally move to Lantus and Humalog pens. Take the basal, whatever they tell you to take, and then, you know, inject insulin before you eat. I didn't go low a lot, and that's probably because my a one c was higher. So it must be working. So I don't know if I ever really felt like it was together, but I felt like I wasn't dying and I was still moving forward.
Scott BennerAre those expectations set up by you or by physicians? Or I mean, how long ago was this?
CoreyThat would have been 98 in the, you know, like, 2000, somewhere in there at that point.
Scott BennerThe Internet exists. Like, you have the ability to go out into the world and try to find out more about your situation. So do you do that or you just kinda take the—
CoreyNo. No. I never did. Not at that point.
Scott BennerNope. Can you put into words did you know the a one c where it was wasn't optimal, or did you feel like it was more than acceptable?
CoreyI felt that it was acceptable. Acceptable. There was never—I don't wanna say more than acceptable, but there was never discussion from the doctor or any of the other medical type folks that things were going in a way that were suboptimal. Mhmm. It just was like, okay. You're doing the things. You're doing the things. Check your feet. You know?
Scott BennerCheck your feet.
CoreyGo to the eye doctor once a year and—Right. Yeah. You're doing all that in your twenties, so you must be fine. And that was the situation. So I, you know, always took insulin when I ate, but never—you know, it—it—it's certainly not like it is today for me.
Scott BennerNo. Well, I know you modern day to be a thoughtful person. So I wanna know, like, what tipped you from that stasis to, you know, looking deeper.
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CoreyThat's a great question. So in 2011, I moved to a pump. I was finally was able to, I say, talk a doctor into that. I—I got a better endo at a much better place. The one before was basically, like, if you don't test your blood eight times a day, you don't get a pump. And it was like, okay. You know?
Scott BennerAwesome. Thanks. Yeah.
CoreyYou know, thanks. So, you know, it was basically, like, we're not gonna give you the tools. And I know you've certainly talked about this before. We're not gonna give you the tools until you don't need them is how it felt. Mhmm. And so, you know, just wasn't set up for a whole lot of success with that doctor. There was would give me type two medications. So I don't even know if the doctor thought, you know, I was actually a type one or if I had type two or a little bit of both or whatever.
Scott BennerWhat other medications was this guy who wouldn't give you a lifeboat till you stop drowning?
CoreySo he—there was a pill like Actos. He gave me that, which was kinda like a metformin type pill.
Scott BennerUh-huh.
CoreyHe wanted me on that. He did give me all the way back then Victoza, which I know is like a GLP one.
Scott BennerJust a—
Coreymuch earlier version of one. That was helpful, actually. You know? But, again, not a lot of help as far as the the technology and any of that goes.
Scott BennerTell me how the Victoza help before we move on.
CoreyA bit more stable blood sugars, probably not as high highs Mhmm is what I would say about that.
Scott BennerOkay. Okay.
CoreyDidn't lose a lot of weight or anything. It wasn't where GLPs are today, but it was minor—you know, a little bit helpful.
Scott BennerSaw some improvements. Yeah. I love the idea of, like, you're drowning, and I have a lifeboat. But when you stop drowning, I'll give it to you.
CoreyThat's how it felt at the time.
Scott BennerCorey, just in case, like, did you just say it took thirteen years to give you a pump?
CoreyThat's right.
Scott BennerOkay. So That's right. Again, I know you as an adult. Did you code differently back then? Was somebody look. I'm sorry. Is that what young people say?
CoreyI don't know. I'm not a young people.
Scott BennerAre you a much different person today than you were back then?
CoreyNo. I would say I'm not. I would say I'm not.
Scott BennerJust a bad clinician you had?
CoreyYes. Yeah. Okay. That's right. And also, I—I try to be kind to people. But so to me, insulin was you get insulin, you get a tester. That was kind of, you know, the way it was. Pumps and all of that, that was fancy stuff, and and it was pretty new. Well, at least to me, was a new thought, it was just kinda—it was just out of reach at that point. Not due to finances or anything, just it wasn't available. And—and, again, hearing from that doctor and "you don't test enough," that sort of thing. And it felt like you have to be a perfect diabetic in order to, you know, to get the tools. So was referred by a friend of my wife's. She was more of an acquaintance, but she worked in an Endo's office, recommended I go change doctors, go there. That was a huge step forward for me. Okay. That would have been in about 2012. And a large teaching hospital, he's an ENDO there and, you know, more at the forefront of the things that are happening, what's going on. He was like, yeah. You need a pump. We need to get you on one as soon as we can. Got on a a Medtronic. I don't remember the version, but it was the one that looks like a beeper and they had different colors. But anyway, you know, it was a dumb pump, but it was still a pump. That was a lot better, just easier, you know, to be able to give myself insulin and have a square bolus for a pizza or those kinds of things. That was definitely helpful. At that point, my a one c was probably running around an eight before going and seeing him, and we were able to get it down to to the low sevens. That was good. That was definitely moving in the right direction. Well, I'll never forget seeing the paperwork after one of the visits, and it said I was a noncompliant diabetic.
Scott BennerOh.
CoreyAnd that was the first time I'd ever heard of that. And and I just felt like, what? You know, he didn't say you're doing anything wrong or you're not listening or you're not doing. Why am I being coded that way? And that was not a wake up call, but it was just something that got my brain thinking, like, what am I not doing? Mhmm. What is—you know, and this was, again, 2012. So this is still quite a while back. But—
An Unplanned Adoption and the Motivation to Heal
Scott BennerIs there any shame attached to that? Like, when—
CoreyYes. For sure. Right.
Scott BennerDid reading that make you think, oh, that's right. I don't do a good job. Or did it make you think, what does that mean? Like, I'm trying as hard as I can. I thought I was doing well. Like, where do you fall in that spectrum?
CoreySo reading that, I would say I wasn't trying as very hard as I could at that point. Like, it was more, okay. I'm doing it, but I'm not doing everything that I need to be doing. I need to be, you know, checking my blood sugar more often or—or really thinking more about the foods that I'm eating. You know, how old was I at that point? 30, something like that.固定 Right? Like, I need to dial this in. I need to get better at this. So that all coincided with the adoption of our daughter, my wife and I, in 2013. That's another story for a different podcast, but we more or less had a baby fall in our lap. And, you know, you ask people all the time, like, why do you do these things for other people that you don't do for yourself? And every time I hear those episodes, I think of myself that way because my wife and I, we wanted this child. We wanted this baby. And I felt like if my blood sugars aren't good or if I'm not managing this well Mhmm will there be a hiccup in the adoption process? Will they say, you know, we'll find a different parent? Think something like that. And that—that really got me on the train to better at that point.
Scott BennerOkay. Hey. You said a baby fell into your laps. Why did a baby not fall out of a lap? Were you having trouble conceiving? Or—
CoreyWell yeah. So well, we just, for whatever reason, never did have a natural child or a child on our own. Could be. We never really dug into it. It didn't happen. But through that, a woman basically told my wife at one point, very random, but a friend of mine is pregnant and not gonna be able to keep the child. Do you know of anybody who would be interested in adopting? Mhmm. And she came home and told me about that, and it was like, wow. You know, first of all, you know, generally, people aren't talking to people they don't know all that well about, like, you know, somebody who wants a baby. Like, that's just not typical, but that must mean that they're in a place where they they don't have any other option. Anyway, we both thought and prayed about that and both got a yes answer in our hearts and decided this is our life and and this is what we're going to do.
Scott BennerThat's lovely.
CoreyIt is. And best decision. It was a wonderful and we now have a lovely 12 year old daughter who is—who is just amazing.
Scott BennerExcellent. That's wonderful.
CoreyYes. But with that, you know, it was like, okay. I've got this baby. I mean, she's 2 days old. She's in my arms, and I gotta be here for her.
Scott BennerBut, Corey, before that, the thought process was if I'm not taking care of myself as well as I should be or could be, then maybe the adoption process will reflect that. We won't get the baby. Was that a concern of yours? Correct.
CoreyThat was a concern of mine. Yes. Okay. It was. Whether it was a valid concern or not, I don't know.
Scott BennerYeah. Whatever. But it—it popped into your head that way.
CoreyThat's right.
Scott BennerDid you share that with your wife at the time?
CoreyYes. You did.
Scott BennerDid she say, Corey, you take great care of yourself. What are you talking about? Or did she say, yeah. I was wondering when you were gonna get around to that.
CoreyProbably somewhere in the middle. In the middle. Like, let's make some changes, and let's let's do the things. You know, what do we need to do to, you know, to make this better? She was supportive.
Scott BennerBut She was supportive. But—but so you—but you guys were married for how long at that point?
CoreyWhat? Eight years, nine years?
Scott BennerFair amount of time. Yep. Does she have any involvement or understanding of your diabetes at eight years in?
CoreyShe knows obviously knows I have it. She knows I have insulin that I take before I eat, but no. Not really.
Scott BennerWho's doing is that? Is it—is it her not being interested or you not being forthcoming, or is it like a quiet understanding?
CoreyProbably quiet. It was never that I didn't want her to know or didn't want her to be a part of it. It was just like, hey. I got this. You know, it's just my thing. And Yeah. yeah. And I—I just—it's just an extra little thing I have to manage on the side of—of everything.
Scott BennerJust a little extra little thing. Is that the case today?
CoreyMostly. She probably has—I mean, I would say a little more involvement or at least a little more understanding. We've had more conversations around—I haven't even talked about kind of our home life and where we are today. But if we eat dinner and then I need to be active immediately after, that—that's not the best scenario because of all the insulin that might be on board Mhmm I'm gonna go low. So it's better to do the activity first and then do the eating, you know, so she has a bit more understanding around things like that than—than maybe before. She couldn't operate my pump or anything like that, but she knows when she hears the sounds, you know, oh, low blood sugar. Do you need some Skittles or whatever? So she's involved in that way, but—but not—I mean, she if I was an invalid, she wouldn't be able to just take over and—
Scott BennerYeah.
Coreyyou know, manage my insulin or anything.
Scott BennerOkay. Is that a thing you want? Or, like, do you—do you wish that somebody knew more about—
CoreyNo. I don't think so. I—I no. I mean, it's fine that she knows what she knows, obviously, but I—I don't—I don't really think so. I—I'm—I'm good with it. And at this point, I take pride almost in, you know, how well I'm able to manage it and—and what I do. And—and so I try to have it not be a burden for myself and—and also for—for her or for anybody else.
Challenging the System: Thyroid Diagnostics and GLP-1 Breakthroughs
Scott BennerIs that a bit of a, like, a manly thing? Like, I won't put this on somebody else. I don't know if that's the right way to think of it. But, like, are you trying—are you trying to save people from having to be concerned about it? Do you think that they'd think differently about you if they understood it completely?
CoreyNo. And especially not her. I don't think she'd think differently about me at all. More of not being a burden. You know, I'd—I'd prefer just to handle it myself and—
Scott BennerNo. I—
Coreyunderstand.
Scott BennerI yeah. It's just interesting.
CoreyTo just kinda live. Yeah. No.
Scott BennerIt's good. It's interesting to hear your pick through it, really. Do you have any other autoimmune issues?
CoreyGreat question. I thought you'd never ask. I do. I have a touch, if you will, of the Vitilago. It's not real apparent, but—but you can see it especially in the summer if I'm a little tan. Also thyroid, I don't know if it's Hashimoto's. We never—we haven't done any kind of antibody test for that, but definitely thyroid issues there.
Scott BennerAre they very impactful or—or is it manageable?
CoreyThe thyroid? It is. And—so to kinda jump to that, to the thyroid. So I started listening to your podcast about three years ago. It was April '23. And at that point, I found the podcast really through other Facebook groups and through you're looking at Apple podcasts and just trying to find, you know, okay. Is there something I can be listening to that might help, you know, with my a one c and that kind of thing to get that dialed in? Anyway, found your podcast. And at that point in time, I can't remember the exact episodes, but there were a number of them on thyroid. And just hearing those stories and hearing the talk about the different, symptoms that people were having, it was like, hey. That sounds like me. Yeah. And so I was like, hey. I need to get that checked out. That was, you know, important. I was already doing better on the—with the diabetes, but I—but I—that was—that was like, okay. So I went in to the—the endo, talked to him about that. He did a thyroid check, a blood test. I don't remember the exact number. It might have come back at a seven or an eight. And he said for the TSH, he said, well, you're not a 10 or higher, so you're—you're fine. You don't need anything.
Scott BennerBut, Corey, you must have had symptoms at a seven or—
Coreyan eight. I did. I did. I totally did. I—I had tired, chronic fatigue, waking up feeling more tired than when I had gone to bed. Like, I knew if I had just stayed up all night, I would be better off this morning than if I had gone to bed.
Scott BennerGone through this ruse of sleeping.
CoreyCorrect. It was just awful. Yeah. Cold feet, especially in the winter, just, you know, all of this. And I remember at that time, I know you don't, but I reached out to you. I sent you a—a message in Facebook or somewhere and was just like, hey. And you're like, you just gotta keep pushing. You gotta keep pushing. And so that's what I did. And went back six months later, gave the same story. He's like, well, you're at a four or five or six something. It was a little lighter, a little better, but it wasn't any better. You're fine. He wouldn't do it. So then kept pushing, kept being tired, all that, but—but kept pushing. And so every appointment, I'd bring it up. And then you had more discussions about, you know, about the thyroid. If you're two or—or more and you've got symptoms, you need—you know, you—you most likely need medication or it's definitely good to—to look into. And I'm like, this—he's—he's totally describing me. You were describing me at that point in these—in these conversations. And I'm like, I've gotta keep pushing. Know? He wouldn't budge while it's still at the same teaching hospital, a nurse practitioner or PA, whatever. She was in there. I went to her, and I was talking to her about it. And I'm like, look. Is it gonna hurt me to take the pill? You know? Is it gonna hurt? If I do it and I don't need it, is this gonna hurt me? She's like, no. I'm like, then why can't I just give it a shot? You know, a low dose levothyroxine, whatever. Can I not, you know, give it a shot? Fine. I think she—I just was being such a pain in the—in the butt that she was like, you know what? If I just give him this, he'll go away. So I started taking it. That was a year ago, just about a year ago. And I—I felt better. I—not perfect, certainly, but I—I felt like, okay. This is making a difference for me.
Scott BennerOkay.
CoreyStill in the winter, you know, like this past winter, my feet just for some reason, they just would get cold, especially if I was barefoot in the house, whatever. I probably need a higher dose of this stuff. Went back to the doctor. This would have been in the—in the 2025, so just a few months ago, and was talking to him and telling him all of this again. And he's like, well, you know, there are studies recently that have come out that say if you're at a two or higher and you have symptoms, you—you probably should be on—on levothyroxine. And I was like Yeah.
Scott BennerI heard that on a podcast.
CoreyI heard that on a podcast three years ago, dude. Where have you been? Like, come on. Shake my head, but, you know, like you—you say, you know, just smile and nod and okay. Great. So he upped the dose, and—and that has made a world of difference for me.
Scott BennerGreat.
CoreySo, yes, that—thank you for that.
Scott BennerOh. Please.
CoreyAnd—and really just the—the idea of keep pushing. Don't take the no for an answer. You know? Find—find the relief that you need. If you're having symptoms, get them—get them treated.
Scott BennerYeah. I've been talking about this a fair amount lately because it's just been in my head for a while since someone said it to me. So brief overview, someone described me to me as being direct, and it was off putting to me. And that, I guess, the people listening probably sounds silly, but I thought, oh, I'm not direct. Like, I know direct people. I'm not direct like that. And I realized that might be a spectrum as well. What I'm—I guess what I've taken from it now over time is that if a person like you who—I mean, you're just a very polite kind person. Like, if you can borrow a little bit of my—I don't know. Whatever what you wanna call it, being an asshole and, like, apply it to your own life and it helps you.
Scott BennerI'm all for that. I'm wondering how much of my attitude is actually a value in the podcast when it's sprinkled out across the country and across the world. I mean, there's—podcast is, you know, is pretty popular in a lot of different countries. So, I mean, how many people have just been born, raised, bred to just kinda put their eyes to the floor a little bit, say thank you, walk away even when they don't get what they need? It sounds like that might have been helpful to you.
CoreyIt was—so—I mean, it was totally helpful to me at that point.
Scott BennerOkay. Cool.
CoreyYes.
Scott BennerWell, I'm glad that me being like this is valuable to somebody. So—but I don't—but just so everyone knows, I don't—I don't see it. I am a—I'm a pretty quiet person in my—in the world I live in. I'm not boisterous. I don't think. And then I—I have moments where I step out of myself and I look and I realize that can't possibly be true. May I tell you a story real quick, Corey?
CoreyAbsolutely. I—
Scott Bennerwas in the grocery store last night, and I—I've—I've had two experiences now, one—one after the other. One was the day before the grocery store. Why is someone calling me? Do they not know I'm making a rather popular podcast? Hold on a second.
Scott BennerI was at a home store buying, like, bolts. You know what I mean? And Mhmm I I'm in an aisle by myself. And down the other end of the aisle, this man turns the aisle, starts walking up. I look and I go, oh, I know that guy. I don't just know him. Like, I really know him. Like, he's my brother in law's wife's sister's husband. Like, I really, really know him. You know what I mean? He's walking up the aisle, looking at me, and I'm looking at him. And I'm already thinking about, like, saying, hey, and all this stuff. And he just comes up to me, looks me in the face, and walks right past me. I was like, what in the heck? I went—I'll just say his name. Was like, Kenny. And he goes—he turns and looks at me, and I'm like, Kenny, hey. And then he's staring at me, I go, it's Scott. And he goes, oh, hey. And it just turns out, long story short, I've lost so much weight. He didn't recognize me. And I was like, oh, we talked a little bit. That's not the point. I go to the grocery store the next day, and I'm heading to check out.
Scott BennerAnd I'm sort of going down the main aisle at the front of the store, and this person two aisles ahead of me comes out, turns out of that aisle into the main aisle, walking towards me. It's a person I've known for twenty five years. Our kids played baseball together. Like, this whole thing. He looked at me. I looked at him. I started to smile. I started to say his name out loud. I went—I was like, he doesn't know who I am. And we just walked past each other. Now where does that come in with the whole being forward thing? I get in the line. There's a woman having trouble using a coupon. She's buying a baby formula. She's having trouble using the coupon. She has never—kids with her, and there are three kids behind the register trying to figure out how to make this coupon work. They are having an actual conversation about this. And I just walk up. Everyone looks up at me because I'm appearing. It's later at night. There's not many people at the store. And I went, hey. I'm sorry to, bother you, but I just got passed by a person who I've known for twenty five years, and they didn't recognize me because I've lost so much weight. And then we all started high five. And that—that actually happened. And then while they were working on the coupon, the lady and I were talking about, like, you know, she just had twins, and I was asking her about the formula and talking about—well, you were talking about the cost of kids and everything. We're embroiled in, like, a real conversation that she's not—for those of you out there who are, like, introverted, you're like, oh, she was probably mortified. She wasn't. We were having a nice time. Now that I think back on that as I'm talking to you, like, I guess that's what people mean when they say I'm direct. But, like, I just see that as, like, friendly. But I guess that's not it maybe for everybody. Anyway, whatever. As long as—as long as your thyroid's straight now, Corey, I don't really care. This is what's important. But this was just a year ago with the thyroid thing?
CoreyYeah. I—I wanna say a year, year and a half.
Scott BennerBut you've been listening to the show for three years?
The Evolution of Peer Advocacy and the Long-Term Mission
CoreyFor three, but it took that long to persuade him to—to write the prescription.
Scott BennerYeah. And how long have you—oh, you know, we've never met. Forty minutes in. You're a group expert in the Facebook group too. How long have you been doing that?
CoreyIt's been two, two and a half years.
Scott BennerOkay. So six months into listening to the podcast, we easily identified you as being just a very kind, valuable person in the Facebook group and—and approached you about this. Can you tell me from your perspective, what's it like to be at home and get a message from just a group that you participate in? And they're like, hey. Would you like to be more involved? Like, what was that like to—to hear that?
CoreyOh, very fulfilling. I—mean, even that, just knowing that I—I can help people and that I had been already helping them without any—I've called a title, I guess, group expert. It's not really—I mean, you know, it's what it is.
Scott BennerBut small—it's a small badge next to your name. Yeah. Yeah.
CoreyCorrect. Right. But, you know, I—I just wanted to be helpful to—to other folks. I learned so much in that short amount of time from just listening to episodes of the podcast and being in the group as well. I just wanted to lead people to the same success that I had been having, you know. And—and so then when I'm told, well, you're doing a good job of this. We wanna make this a bit more official. Awesome. It's working. That means this is hap—you know, that I'm making a difference. And that that's really been—been the goal of being, you know, a group expert. It's just really trying to not have all the answers, but at least point people in the right direction so that they can, you know, they can find the success they're looking for.
Scott BennerRight. What's the experience without giving away anybody's, you know, personal information? Like, there's, you know, pretty big—there can't be, like, 12 or 13 of you. There's a lot of you at this point.
CoreyYeah. We have a good number.
Scott BennerAnd so you guys all have, like, a, like, a private chat where you talk. I—I every time I bring this up, I set up very specifically. I'm not in it so that everybody feels comfortable talking and doesn't feel like they're talking—That's right. in front of the teacher or something like that, which it seems silly, but at the same time, I've—I've been assured it's important.
Scott BennerBy the way, I don't mean it seems silly like it seems silly to feel like you could misspeak in front of me. Like, I don't—I don't feel like I have—Right.
CoreyI agree.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't feel like I have any level of—anyway, I don't think there's a pecking system. I think we're just a bunch of people all trying to do the same thing, which is help those now, like, 82,000 members in there, you know, to find some, you know, comfort or—or—or connection, maybe an answer to. If anything, what has being involved in that small group meant to you? Those other group experts and you together.
CoreyThat's a great question. And I know you—it wasn't planted either. It's an amazing support. Just like the—the 82,000 Facebook, you know, members is an amazing support. It—it's sad. It's a little more personalized. Right? It's the same group of us that—that have that conversation going. I mentioned a few minutes ago, you know, when I was first diagnosed, my dad, we hadn't talked in a, you know, in, you know, a year or two for whatever reason, and who knows now what that even was. I was a kid. But five years ago, my dad was diagnosed with cancer. You know, with that, his—his wife and I were helping him. He was 71, 72 at the time. She was ten years older, 81, 82, helping him with getting the treatment, to doctor appointments, all those kinds of things. And then, you know, there was a lot of waiting, you know, in a waiting room or while he's getting the treatment, etcetera. When I was able to join that group, the group expert group, two and a half, whatever years ago, it—it was actually right—right as a lot of that treatment was happening for him.
Scott BennerMhmm.
CoreyAnd so they were like a support group for me whether they know it or not. And, because I didn't really wanna, again, to be a burden on them, but just being able to talk about, hey. There's this post. They're putting a GoFundMe in the group. Are we allowing that? Are we not? You know, whatever. Just having those kind of conversations or—or just general banter about things was a—was a great support to me. You know, also kept my mind off of the other things that were going on, you know, my dad and—and his health situation. You know, it—it just turned out to be a support that I didn't even know I needed or—or didn't even, you know, need whenever—whenever you guys ask for that. But—but it became a huge, huge help to me during that time.
Scott BennerI watched through an intermediary, basically. Right.
CoreySo Isabel first, does Isabel feel like a part of the group, one of the guys feeling, or does she feel like a school mom to you? Like, how does that work in there?
CoreySo she's one of us. She is, but she—I—I know of course, she has her own whole entire life, but then she also has the other duties that she's got within this—within this realm. So she's not as active in that chat. However, if we—if we add her or whatnot, you know, she's pretty quick to respond. And so she is there and—and definitely catches up, you know, once a day or—or more with the different messages. And if somebody posts, hey. You had my a one c today or—or whatever, you know, she'll, you know, love that or give it a thumb up or whatever.
Scott BennerYeah.
CoreyAnd she's definitely a part of the—the conversation, probably less than some of us, but she's great.
Scott BennerYeah. Yep. She keeps me apprised of—she's not copying and pasting or telling me exactly what's being said, but she'll say something like, I think Corey's having a—a hard time right now as an example because you brought it up or something like that. She might even say to me, like, you should reach out to somebody and see if they're okay. I've seen a lot of, like, great, like, ideas from them.
Scott BennerThey're doing such a good job managing things in the group or whatnot. Like, it makes me—like, watching you guys through that lens, I guess this is where I was starting. Watching you through that lens really gives me—it makes me think about what, like, small support systems would look like. And, like, it makes me—like, I dream about, like, one day the—the infrastructure on Facebook or somewhere else being able to create small groups of 10 or 20 people who are—are connected like that in smaller, like, online support groups. Like, right, like, I don't know if I could sever a thing I can make happen, but I wonder about it a lot.
Scott BennerLike, how valuable would it be to put together just a handful of people in a chat that could be helpful to each other? And I don't know how to do that really, but it feels like it's a good idea. I just don't—
CoreyIt does.
Scott BennerYeah.
CoreyI just wonder—like, we were not looking for, you know, a quote, unquote support group.
Scott BennerIt just happened for you that way.
CoreyIt just happened. You know, it's like, hey. We're just all kinda doing this thing together. We certainly have things in common with, you know, type one and whatnot. And then you just—you just kind of build a rapport and, you know, it just kinda happens. But, yeah, I don't know if you could do that.
Scott BennerYeah. In the end, I don't think it's a thing I would do because there are more unknowns. Like, you know, we're having a nice conversation that's upbeat, but, like, yeah, sometimes people are jerks and, you know, you could randomly grab one of those people. You guys are a—I know this is probably a weird way to think of yourselves, but you're a highly curated group of people. Like, you all have, like, a lot of attributes that over time impress themselves on me and—and—or—or Isabelle or sometimes each other.
Scott BennerLike, sometimes you guys will speak up and say, like, hey. You should add this person. We think this person would be great in the group, like that kind of thing. It's not a random pairing of 20 people, which I—I can imagine could easily turn into, like, blood sport somehow. If I had time to do a research project, I think I would do it on you all helping each other and helping the group and what value this has been for you having personal connections like this and what value have you had from helping other people.
Scott BennerLike, I think there's an entire—I think there's an entire ecosystem within the group of you that is incredibly interesting, you know, which is why I try to interview you all at some point or another if you're interested. Nobody's been forced to, obviously. It's just interesting to hear your thoughts about—about why you do it and because it's time. I mean, it is a—it's time too. Like, I listen.
Scott BennerFifteen minutes before you and I did this, I texted Isabelle, and I said, hey. I need a Omnipod five list pulled out of the algorithm list. I wanna separate them. She's a, like, an adult. You—you know what I mean? Like—like—
CoreyRight.
Scott BennerShe has things to do.
Scott BennerYeah. You guys aren't being paid. And twenty minutes later, she's like, it's in the—it's in our shared folder. She just went and did it real quick. You guys are never gonna, like, you know, realize, like—like, I couldn't get this all done without everybody. Building a website now that's just for doctors. Like, so I was, a hospital reached out to me, a couple actually, and said we need a cleaner way of sharing the podcast with people. And so I've been working on that. But so much of how the website comes together is, you know, links that are collected on lists, lists of episodes with links and to them and, like, all this stuff that—trust me. You don't know me that well, Corey, but I would not have done on my own.
Scott BennerSure.
Scott BennerThe update to, like, the—the end of—the end of page, the juice box docs where, you know, I think we have, like, over 200 doctors now that listeners have sent in and said, like, look. This is a really good clinician. I wish other people knew about them. And it's so incredibly searchable, and, you know, part of that is just that AI has allowed me to code without understanding how to code. But part of it is that that information was all collected somewhere. And it's, again, not a thing I would do. It's in a—I know this probably sounds so basic to, you know, most people have jobs, but, like, spreadsheets are set up. My brain's way more artistic than that. Like, do you know what I mean? Like, I would not have said, like, oh, I have all this information come in. This is data. I should, you know, do something with it. You have an idea how many people say to me, like, do you have an email list? You know, like, I'll get involved with, a sponsor and they'll be like, know, you know, do you ever send out an email? Like, could we put an ad in an email and, you know, or something like that? And I'll go like, oh, yeah. I mean, I have a list. There's not many people on it. And then they're like, well, how many people are on—I'm like, like, 10,000.
Scott BennerAnd they laughed. They're like, you think you have a 10,000 person email list? It's not a big email list. And I was like, I don't know. Doesn't sound like a lot of people. And they're like, well, how often do you use it? I'm like, I don't really. So, you know, like, is that—should I? Is that a thing? And then I just go, I don't wanna bother people. I don't know. Like, my—it just all doesn't work that way for me in my head. Like, I just think make the stuff, put it out, cover everybody's concerns, and then word-of-mouth. Like, I really genuinely believe word-of-mouth is the only thing that works. I think you can email people. You're gonna reach them at the wrong time of day, on the wrong day, not when they're interested, not when they're able, you know, two days before their kids are on spring break, whatever. I think I see the podcast and the space the way you may have heard me talk about, like, parenting where, like, I've said before, like, I think one of the best things I've ever done for my kids has been at home when they got home from school. This idea that I'm gonna open the door and the thing that I know is, like, supportive for me is going to be there, and there won't be any, like, hoops between me and that. I kinda think of all this that way. When they come to you, that's when you need to be there with—with the information or the answer or just the—the stability and chasing them around with it.
Scott BennerYou should know how to bolus for fat. Like, nobody wants to hear that. You know what I mean? But the day they realize they need the bolus for fat, they wanna know where to go to find out. And I think that's sort of what this is. It gets kind of like a—more of a long term idea than than a short term gains thing for me. So, anyway, well, there's a lot of talking about a podcast. What do you think? Do you think it's working? Do you—do you ever look up and go, you know what he should be doing, but it's not my place?
Scott BennerDo you have any—like, you guys would share stuff like that with me if you thought that way. Right?
CoreyWe would. Yeah. No. I—I think it's working. You know, you're coming at it with a lot of different topics from a lot of different angles. You know, the bolus four, that's great. Right? That's very tactical, very usable information. You've got the more mental health stuff, which is great, you know, for caregivers, for patients, whatever, for all of us. And then, you course, the pro tips, all of the—the different series that you have, and then even the—the things that are—that are kind of connected but not identical, like the thyroid stuff, the GLP. You know, I—I think you're covering the diabetes basis as well as things that if you have this, this other thing might be interesting to you, and—and I see that you're covering—covering those things all in doing it in an entertaining way as well. Like you said, it's not dry and—and boring.
Scott BennerOh, jeez. I mean, I don't know if there could be anything worse than—
CoreySo whenever that—I'll bring this up, the thyroid thing. Whenever I was hearing you talk about it, I—like, well, I wonder if there's any other podcasts on that specifically. Right? And I went and I listened one day to this, and it was terrible, Scott. It was so bad. It was so bad. It really was two—two people, and you could tell they were reading from a script. "Good afternoon, Corey." It was exactly like that. It really was. And it was like, I know they're—I know what they're trying to do. I know why they're trying to do it. I—you know, like, it's they're trying to add value to the conversation, but it was done in such a way that it was like, this—
Scott BennerNot how it works.
CoreyThis is not gonna work.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. It's not—it's not how people work, on the other side of it. And I just—I count myself lucky that I grew up listening to talk radio because I still see it. I mean, I've seen it for years of people, like, pop up and like, I—I try to say all the time. I—I—I don't know how, like, how it comes off, but I'm all for other people sharing their ideas and, like, getting good stuff out into the world. But, like, if you don't make it accessible, and by accessible, I don't mean just talking down to people or staying basic. I mean, making it interesting. If you don't do that, like, it doesn't matter. Like, I just think that you could hide the history to life forty five minutes deep into an episode of a podcast. And if the audio is bad or it's uninteresting, people are gonna go like, yeah. I don't need to know the secret to life that badly. And so, like, with something like this where you're already—people are already not super motivated to go out and learn more about their insulin and stuff like that, it has to just grab you in a different way. There's no world where people are going to willfully give of their time to listen to two people talk about thyroid in a way that makes you wanna jump out of a window while they're talking or in those big dumb voices they use sometimes or, you know, and they talk like, you know, weather ladies from, you know, from South Carolina or whatever the heck. Like, it's just like—it's all very—they don't get it because you see it professionally all the time from organizations like Breakthrough and ADA or, you know, I just saw—I just saw this thing.
Scott BennerI won't say anybody's name, but I saw this thing the other day. This organization, I think, does really good work. And I looked at some of their social media, I was like, this is terrible. Like, no one's gonna listen to this, and it has two likes. And you know damn well they're the likes. They turn it out, and it looks expensive. And I'm like, you—you're wasting time and resources and money. Like, you can write it all down any way you want. This is not how people learn, and it's not how people wanna spend their free time. I think that I get frustrated sometimes watching these professional organizations pretty much break their own shoulder, patting each other on the back all the time about all the good stuff they're doing in the world. And I'm like, no one's seeing it. No one. Like, you're putting it out there and no one sees it. I saw somebody win, like, an educator award from the ADA today, and I thought, I bet you I don't ever win that. And I don't—by—by the way, let me be very clear. I don't need it. Don't want it. Not asking for it. Sure. They wouldn't think about someone like me in a million years for that, but I reach way more people than the person they decided to point to and say, oh, that person's really helping a lot of people. No. They're not. They're making stuff that would be really helpful to people if they could actually deliver it to them, which they don't seem to be able to do. Anyway, now you got me upset, Corey. I'm not upset. I'm like—I'm actually like, I feel really passionate about it because I don't imagine I know everything. And I bet you a lot of those people have great information. And I've had some of them on, and later, they'll be mad at me. "Oh, you didn't let me talk the way I wanted to." I'm like, yeah. The way you talk, no one cares about. You made it all the way to me. I seem to know how to capture people's attention. Why would you not follow my lead on this? Like, why would you default back to this boring list reading that you're doing? I don't know. No one's ever gonna figure it out. Got—you know? But—and by the way, good. It keeps my podcast popular. You know what I mean, Cor?
CoreyI do. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say, you know, in a slight way, you're a victim of your own success. You have 1,800 plus episodes, which are all good. Being able to find—and you've talked about this before too. Right? Being able to find the content that people need at that moment, that's—it's sometimes it's difficult. Right? Just because there's so many episodes. You know? And—and I certainly don't wanna take the human element out. I think that's great, especially in the Facebook group, you know, having a real—whether it's a group expert or a non group expert, just another member of the group, being able to answer a question or provide a—a link to a—to a podcast episode. I think that's so valuable. People—that they feel less alone right in the situation, whatever it is. But if there was a way to, you know, take their question and throw it in AI, and maybe I could do that. I haven't tried, but, you know, and say what episode do you recommend. I'm not Nico. You know? She's amazing at that. She's be better than AI when it comes to podcast episode recommendations, but, you know, that would be—that would be pretty cool. But—but in any case, you know, just being in the group, being able to share, you know, the information and Yeah. And then seeing people—just the other day, you know, somebody's like, hey. You know, my a one c was 11. Now it's eight. And it's like, what progress? That's so awesome. Keep going. You know? And, like, just seeing that, you know what you're doing is valuable, and that's why we're all here with you and behind you, you know, doing what we do because we wanna see that success happen—
Scott BennerThat's why I appreciate
Coreyit.
Scott Bennerwith others. Yeah. Yeah. I hope it's—I—I mean, I know we don't all talk very often, but even just the other day, like, I mean, a more direct, like, financial relationship with the editor. And just the other day, I was like, I don't know the last time I talked to him. I'm working. I'm sure you all—I assume you're all busy too. You're not looking to be involved with me all the time, but I hope it's obvious to everybody how much your involvement—and it means to me. It's—it's incredibly touching to see people put this kind of effort into something that they're, you know, only doing in—in—a—in a voluntary way. So it's—it's just, yeah, it's really great. Also, I'm—I have stuff like that coming for the website where it's gonna be more like keyword searchable. It's gonna pull stuff up. But you know what? I think it's nice and I think it's valuable and I'm gonna do it. But I also think that if you don't know what to type into the search bar, it doesn't matter.
CoreyRight.
Scott BennerAnd so if you're—if you're so lost that you're having spikes ninety minutes after a meal that persist for three hours and eventually end in a low, and you don't already know that the reason behind that might be that you didn't pre bolus and or your basil's wrong and or you've had fat or protein in your meal that are—or other, you know, impacts from food. If you don't know that stuff, how are you supposed to search for it?
CoreyRight.
Scott BennerRight? Is the search feature gonna have to be so robust that you can type in "why is my blood sugar high after a meal?" And it's gonna just say, hey. Try these episodes. And I think maybe that's gonna have to be it. Or—which is, part of the struggles. Like, I just put a struggles page together where you can kinda go see things that people say they classically struggle with with diabetes and they're already attached to an episode.
CoreyYeah. That's true.
Scott BennerYeah. Yeah. And so, like, because you don't know what you don't know, so you don't know what to ask. And, you know, and that's why you need somebody to look at your question and say, oh, you should be focusing your attention over here. And it's even difficult in Facebook sometimes too because, you know, the—the other side of that is you ask a question, and three or four people might get to you before we do and give you the wrong answer or say, oh, you know, that definitely sounds like this. And I'm like, that's not that. It's this. Mhmm. And now that person's faced with two different answers. How are they supposed to know which one's which? And, hopefully, there's enough gravitas coming from the—the—the—from the podcast that they'll maybe look in the direction we're pointing before the direction a stranger pointed in. But I also appreciate the stranger's perspective because they might be thinking of something that I haven't thought of, which is completely not just possible, but probable. You know? It's—it's just an imperfect way to do things. Mhmm. See, I don't see a better way to do it. And if somebody knows a better way, they should say immediately. That's why AI is not gonna fix it for everybody because they don't—they won't know what to ask it.
CoreyYeah. You know? That's a good point.
Scott BennerSo it's hard not to feel a little defeated by it because your earlier story is, you know, you're with a doctor who's not gonna help you. I mean, like, your first interaction with diabetes is in an ER where some guy is like, gonna just shove it up your ass if you don't put it in your mouth. That's right. Yeah. Awesome. And then thirteen years of somebody who says, test yourself eight times and maybe I'll let you have a pump. And then, you know, you don't end up really doing better for yourself until you start thinking like, oh, we're trying to have a baby and, you know, I need to be healthier. It's just the same damn thing for everybody. You you know? I don't think it's a thing you're gonna fix either. You're not—you're not gonna suddenly educate the entirety of the health care system or other people, you know, in your life that are gonna speak to you, you know, in a way that's gonna be valuable all the time. You either hope these people find a reason or a path or a mentor or something and can actually absorb it and make changes, or you're gonna assume that whatever—whatever initial path they got started on might be the journey they're set on now even though that's not the most valuable journey for them to have. Like, you know, if that person doesn't come into the room, smell your breath, I don't know which way. You know what I mean? It's like a choose your own adventure. Like, you don't know where you were headed till they walked by. Anyway, so we're just trying to do that. We're trying to intersect as many people as we can so that their choose their own adventure leads in a better direction for the lack of a better way of thinking about it.
CoreyYeah. Oh, god. I've had you on for over an hour already. Did you have anything you wanted to talk about that I didn't get to or bring up?
CoreyWell so I just wanted to—to let you know kinda since—since I've listened to your podcast and where I'm at today, listened to the pro tips way back before they were all at 1,000 to 1,026. Right? So I had to go find them all, but I did and listened and what a difference. You know? Educators, doctors, you know, pre bolus, they would say that. Pre bolus. You know, bolus before you eat. Well, okay. So I would bolus and then I would eat. You know, no one ever said wait fifteen minutes, wait twenty minutes, wait ten, whatever the number. Right? Nobody—nobody ever said that to me. So that was huge. I mean, what a small thing and what a difference that makes. Listening through those pro tip, you know, making those changes, learn—you know, bump and nudge, all that stuff, you know, took my a one c. It was probably in the upper sixes when I started listening to your podcast, six—six point seven to seven, somewhere in there. That went down to, you know, 5.5.
Scott BennerWow.
CoreyAnd now I've been, in the last three years, anywhere between five point five and five point nine. Consistently. I haven't been over that in that amount of time. And—and so—and—and this again goes back to the group expert thing or just being involved at all and—and telling people about the podcast. It's like the information is right here. You just, you know, just go and tell someone about it, and that's what I'm trying to do because it—it made such a difference for me, you know, in my—in my journey and listening in to the—the—other conversations that you've had on GLPs and—and all of that. I—I think, you know, my doctor and—and you, it kinda coincided as far as when I started taking the GLP and you were taking the GLP. It's what—been about three years ago, I think. But Yeah. Anyway, I had been doing, like, Victoza and—and some of those—those others, the older kinda stuff and—and moved to Ozempic and now Mounjaro for the last—Ozempic about it was three years ago and then changed over to the Mounjaro and lost 40 pounds. Something like that. I was—I'm about six foot. I was, like, two thirty, and now I'm sitting about one ninety. Feel a lot better with that. My insulin use has gone down, and this is no different than what you've already talked about before, but probably 40 to 45%, less insulin. And that has made a difference too just because, you know, it just doesn't take as much insulin to—to move the dial, and then I don't end up going low later and get on that whole roller coaster. So that has been extremely helpful. Awesome. You know, going through the journey, not—not exactly with you, but—but kind of at the same time, it's been great for me, you know, to have those—those episodes with your journal and your diary, should say, your weight loss diary.
Scott BennerI just started recording that again this week.
CoreyGood. I'm—I Yeah. I heard you recently speak on an episode about it, and I was like, wait. We haven't had one of those in a while.
Scott BennerI realized that journal, that diary was helping me too and I didn't—I don't think I knew it at—at the time. So I'm—I'm getting back to it.
CoreySo, you know, it's just the last three years have been great, you know, and—and so then I talk to people about it. They ask about, you know, "you look a little skinny" or whatever. And it's like, well, here's why. And, you know, it—it gets other conversations going for other people and their health and, you know, to make changes, small things, whatever. So, know, I just wanna say thank you to you and to, of course, all the other people you've spoken with over the last three years or longer, making these episodes because they've definitely been a—an impact to me.
Scott BennerOh, it's wonderful. I—I can only hope that, you know, that it continues on because I was just telling somebody the other day. I've been doing work with a company for a long time as the—they've been advertisers, but there's some shifts in the company. And so it's kind of a new group of people I'm working with within the company. And, you know, you kinda have to reintroduce yourself and, you know, you know, it's—it's—it's—it's a starting over process a little bit of explaining what you're doing to people, you know, for—you know, what you're doing for people. Correct. I ended up telling them all the time, like, look, you know, because one of them says, I—I don't think you're—I don't think you're valuing your—your downloads the right way. And I said, oh, no. I know what I'm doing. I was like, I could charge you more. I was like, I don't want to. And that I think threw off the group a little bit. And I said, I want, like, a little bit of your money forever, not all of it today. Like, I'm trying to keep this thing going. You know what I mean? Like, because you don't—until you get a note from somebody that talks about, like, my kid was diagnosed six months ago and, you know, this is what it was. It was terrible. And now look at it now and, you know, saying things similar to what you just said, like, it's a lot to do with the podcast and everything.
Scott BennerAnd then you have been doing it long enough to have six more months go by and get another note from a different person and then have two years go by and get another note. It's a pretty macro view I have. And I get to say to myself, like, this isn't done. And the making of the podcast is what keeps the information alive in the world. And so you can't just say, oh, I did it. We made a list. It's out there. They'll find it because, no, they won't. Not only are you continuing to, I think, add to the understanding that's baked into the podcast, which is added into my mind, which means I—I search out different guests or have different kinds of conversations that hopefully modernize things as we're going. Like, not only is that one of the reasons you wanted to go, but you want it to go so that when they, you know, they pop on and they've heard Juice Box might be helpful, they're not always gonna get directed to, like, the right episode. So you gotta get them in and get them interested and have them wonder about more and then hear a bumper that's like, hey. You know, if you start over, you might wanna try the bold beginnings episodes, like that kind of stuff. Like, it's all very important, and it doesn't work if it stops. So, you know, I said to them again, was like, I don't need all of it right now. Like I said, let's spread it out. And the one person on the call said, for how long? And I said, well, I'm 54. I think I could do it for ten more years. I said, hopefully, maybe ten years now, we won't need it anymore. You know? Like, let's—let's hope for that. I said, but I don't know how much longer I could go at this pace. But right now, I'm having no problem with it, and I don't wanna give away what I know it does for people. Somewhat ironically, I guess, although I since that Alanis Morissette song, I don't really know if I understand that word or not, but somewhat ironically Ironically. This person comes online the other day and I don't know. Some post I put up. I don't remember what it was. And they—they write this thing like, oh, I'm like, you know, I haven't been here in a while. This just popped up in front of me. Like, you know, I'm so glad you're still doing this and talked about how valuable it was for them. But then in the course of the conversation said, you know, I have to admit, I didn't think you'd be able to keep it going this long. And I understood what they meant. Like, it's a lot. You know? Like, it seems like a lot or, like, how long are you gonna talk about this, you know, over and over again? But I think we found a way for it not to be repetitive at the same time. But—but, nevertheless, like, I don't know how most people would feel about that being confronted with someone going, wow. You're still here? I didn't think that was gonna work out. I was just insulted by it. I was like, what? You think I can't do this? I was like, I could definitely do this. I think I can do it. Like, I think I can keep it going for another decade and bring information to people and hopefully be the one that reminds them that insulin doesn't start working as soon as you put it in and that your a one c really could go down a full point if you just prebolish your meals with consistency. That kind of simple stuff that needs to be repeated over and over and over again. I interviewed a woman this morning who's been on before. She's out in the world, like, trying to save Levemir. And, like, there's part of you that could hear that and be like, what is she doing? But, like, she's got real reasons, reasons and, like, she's out there changing things and, like—and making an impact on it. And I was—I was telling her that it's very cool to see that she stayed involved with it so long because I can—I've interviewed her before. I actually hear her getting better at talking about it. She's clear. She's more concise. She just clearly has more time in that space absorbing that—that like, the—the more granular parts of it. And it made me tell her after the recording was over, I'm happy that I do that too. Like, I—I've never grown this thing and went, okay. It's done that now. Let me go do something else, or let me, make it into something bigger or try to make more money with it or something like—like it does what it does right here, and I don't need to go anywhere else. Like, I'm happy with what this does. I'm good at it. I get more granular information all the time. I get better at it, and it helps the people. It helps. Like, there's no need to have, a grand—grandiose idea of, like, why could—you know, why don't I go get all of them or you know what I mean? Like, it just—this is—this is good. Like, getting people who are either wanting to start over or newly diagnosed and putting them on a better path and giving them a shot. Like, that's pretty much all I think of is what I do, but I'm very happy doing it, and I'm not looking to change it, I guess. Anyway.
CoreyGood. We need you to do this.
Scott BennerWell, thank you. I appreciate it. Yep. I'm so happy for how well you're doing. I can't thank you enough for all the effort you put into the thing that I'm doing. You guys don't get enough, you know, enough glory for sure. I do really appreciate it. People are genuinely and generally very nice to you guys online. Every once in a while, you get somebody comes at you a little bit. But for the most part, it—it's a very interesting place, very unlike Facebook—Facebook experience, I find.
CoreyIt's really the only reason why I'm still there.
Scott BennerYeah. No. Trust me.
CoreyIf—if—if this group wouldn't—wouldn't the thing, then—then I would have already deleted the app.
Scott BennerYeah. I feel—I feel—I feel very similarly.
CoreySo Mark—Mark Zuckerberg, really, owes you, I think, at this point.
Scott BennerMaybe he could just let people see my posts, but that'd be nice.
CoreyCould—That would be helpful. Right? No kidding.
Scott BennerMy gosh. If I—you know, people are like, he—he could have dinner with anybody. Somebody asked me that the other day, and I was like, oh, Tim Cook. And they were like, really? And I'm like, yeah. I'm like, I gotta explain to him how he's screwing up the podcast app. And so Right. I'm sure he doesn't know the first thing about it. But—but I'd love—I'd love to talk to somebody from Apple for five seconds and explain to them how what they do interferes with, like, my and other people's ability to reach communities that they've built. So, Corey, I can't thank you enough for doing this. I'm gonna—you've been going at this too long.
CoreyThank you.
Scott BennerI'll let you go. It's been a real pleasure. The opportunity to speak with you, and thanks for all that you've done for me and for all the 80,000 people in the group and all the people who listen every day. And a—and a shout out to the—all the group experts. You know who y'all are, and I appreciate each and every one of you.
Scott BennerWhy is it the first Texas thing you've done?
CoreyWell, I had—I was—I was put up to do that.
Scott BennerThe y'all?
CoreySylvia, she—yes. She said I had to say something Texan. And so—
Scott BennerYou saved till the very end?
CoreyI make her listen all the way through all the ads.
Scott BennerI was gonna say, Corey, good job. Way to tease it out. Perfect.
CoreyThere you go.
Scott BennerAlright, man. Hold on one second.
Scott BennerUS Med sponsored this episode of the Juice Box podcast. Check them out at usmed.com/juicebox or by calling (888) 721-1514. Get your free benefits check, and get started today with US Med.
Scott BennerA huge thanks to my longest sponsor, Omnipod. Check out the Omnipod five now with my link, omnipod.com/juicebox. You may be eligible for a free starter kit, a free Omnipod five starter kit at my link. Go check it out. Omnipod.com/juicebox. Terms and conditions apply. Full terms and conditions can be found at omnipod.com/juicebox. Okay. Well, here we are at the end of the episode. You're still with me? Thank you. I really do appreciate that. What else could you do for me? Why don't you tell a friend about the show or leave a five star review? Maybe you could make sure you're following or subscribed in your podcast app, go to YouTube and follow me or Instagram, TikTok. Oh, gosh. Here's one. Make sure you're following the podcast in the private Facebook group as well as the public Facebook page. You don't wanna miss—please, do you not know about the private group? You have to join the private group. As of this recording, it has 74,000 members. They're active talking about diabetes. Whatever you need to know, there's a conversation happening in there right now. And I'm there all the time. Tag me. I'll say hi.
Scott BennerCheck out my algorithm pumping series to help you make sense of automated insulin delivery systems like Omnipod five, Loop, Medtronic seven eighty g, Twist, Tandem Control IQ, and much more. Each episode will dive into the setup, features, and real world usage tips that can transform your daily type one diabetes management. We cut through the jargon, share personal experiences, and show you how these algorithms can simplify and streamline your care. If you're curious about automated insulin pumping, go find the algorithm pumping series in the Juice Box podcast. Easiest way, juiceboxpodcast.com, and go up into the menu. Click on series, It'll be right there. Have a podcast? Want it to sound fantastic? Wrongwayrecording.com.