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Scott Benner 0:00
Hello friends and welcome to episode 1198 of the Juicebox Podcast.

Today I'll be speaking with 26 year old Dakota who has had type one diabetes for a little over a year, Dakota has struggled with anxiety and depression, and today we're going to be talking about his story. Please don't forget that nothing you hear on the Juicebox 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 of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by cozy Earth cozy earth.com use the offer code juicebox at checkout to save 40% off of the clothing, towels sheets off of everything they have at cozy earth.com If you're looking for community around type one diabetes, check out the Juicebox Podcast private Facebook group Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes, but everybody is welcome type one type two gestational loved ones. It doesn't matter to me. If you're impacted by diabetes, and you're looking for support, comfort or community check out Juicebox Podcast type one diabetes on Facebook. And please don't forget to take the survey AT T one D exchange.org/juicebox. That's US residents who have type one or are the caregivers of someone who does T one D exchange.org/juice Box. Today's episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omni pod and the Omni pod five. Learn more and get started today at Omni pod.com/juice box. This episode of The Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by the ever sent CGM and implantable six month sensor is what you get with ever since. But you get so much more exceptional and consistent accuracy over six months, and distinct on body vibe alerts when you're higher low on body vibe alerts. You don't even know what that means. Do you? Ever since cgm.com/juice box, go find out. Hi,

Dakota 2:13
my name is Dakota. And I've had type one diabetes for almost a year and a half now.

Unknown Speaker 2:20
How old? Are you? 26.

Scott Benner 2:23
Let's see. You're 26. Now you've had diabetes for about a year or so. Yep. And is that diagnosis your first or it's something come before that?

Dakota 2:34
That was my first diagnosis. Okay,

Scott Benner 2:38
so prior to a year ago, you were not living with any, like health issues.

Dakota 2:43
I mean, I have a history of migraines and some mental health conditions.

Scott Benner 2:47
But other than that know how far back to the migraines go. Sixth grade, sixth grade. Sixth grade, what does that make you like? 11? Ish.

Dakota 3:00
I'm not I'm not a math person either.

Scott Benner 3:02
Don't get caught on the techno in the details. Second, around 11 years old mental health issues like

Dakota 3:07
depression, anxiety. I have been in like a psychiatric unit for a couple days and

just off and on different kinds of medications since I was about 14. Okay,

Scott Benner 3:26
so around 14. How did it start? Depression, anxiety, depression, depression started with Yeah, any in your family?

Speaker 1 3:33
dad and sister. Sister,

Speaker 1 3:37
I believe has bipolar. Okay.

Scott Benner 3:44
Can you tell me how you're not sure if your sister has bipolar? It

Unknown Speaker 3:47
was a diagnosis

Dakota 3:48
when she was younger. I know she was misdiagnosed. At one point. I don't know if it was that or ADHD or what? But

Scott Benner 3:58
that seems to happen a lot, by the way. Yeah. A lot of people are told they're bipolar. And then they get to a different doctor or a better doctor or something like that. And then they hear well, no, it's not that it's more like this. And, you know, I wonder if that's just the medical community's understanding or if they're changing terms, or I guess I'm never gonna I hopefully I'll figure it out one day. But she was okay. She was like 14 You said your dad is depressed.

Dakota 4:25
Not currently, but he has gone through. gone through it addiction. I've seen him suicidal, but he's never been diagnosed with anything. He's never gone to the doctor for

Scott Benner 4:38
Dakota. You've seen your father suicidal. What does that mean? Like

Dakota 4:42
him talking to me about how he wanted to take his own life

Scott Benner 4:47
when you were how old 16 Oh, that's fun. Yeah, yeah. Geez. So at that point, you were had shown signs of depression already by 16. Yeah. Did the anxiety come when your father started talking about taking his own life or did that come? Yeah,

Dakota 5:05
I remember. Yep, definitely about around that time. That's when my parents got divorced.

Unknown Speaker 5:11
Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner 5:14
Did you go with your mom?

Dakota 5:15
We tried to do, like 5050. Kind of I ended up just staying with my mom because of the condition that my dad was in. Sure. Yeah. How

Scott Benner 5:24
long did the 5050 trial go for? Four months? It's not bad. Yeah. And he good memories from those four months? Yeah.

Dakota 5:32
Yeah. And me and my father have a really good relationship now. Yeah,

Scott Benner 5:37
what sort of addiction? And do you think the addiction was him trying to self medicate? Or do you think the addiction came first?

Dakota 5:43
I do believe probably it was self medicating. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 5:48
But it's he's been

Dakota 5:50
sober for, like six or seven years now. I want to say good for him. Yeah, yeah. Before, like, throughout my childhood, he was,

Speaker 1 5:57
like, on and off, like harder drugs. Do you have examples? meth and cocaine.

Scott Benner 6:05
And you saw that done in the house?

Dakota 6:08
I never saw it done. I just after I heard my argument, or heard my parents arguing about it, and knew about it afterwards.

Scott Benner 6:17
Your mom pretty upset that she married guy doing meth? And, yeah, and everything that came with it. You know, how was your mom with substances that she is?

Dakota 6:26
So my mother, she was good for a long time. Now? I'm not sure.

Scott Benner 6:32
Dakota not sure. Because you don't live with it any longer? Because you don't have contact? I

Dakota 6:37
don't I don't see it happening. I don't hear about it. But my mother does live with me. Yes, she moved in with me. A year and a half ago. Oh, right. Before I got diabetes, she moved in with me. So

Scott Benner 6:49
you were off on your own and then your mom moved in with you for your needs or hers? For her needs. To code. I don't know how you're not supposed to be anxious. Right? You haven't said anything yet that I'm like, oh, that doesn't make sense at all. At all adds up. Yeah, that all adds up for certain. My gosh, okay, well, we'll likely get back to that. But let me hear about your diagnosis. What was your first sign? I see a lot of people in my private Facebook group talking about their love for Omnipod five. If you've seen those posts and thought that you wish you could have the same experience with an insulin pump? Well, you can there's no reason to experience Fuu any longer fumo you say what is that? It's the fear of missing out on Omni pod. If you have FOMO you may be experiencing symptoms like wishing you could wear outfits without pockets or dreaming about walking past that doorknob without getting your tubing caught. But don't worry, you don't have to experience foo any longer. Because you can go to Omni pod.com/juice box and get started right now with the Omni pod five on the pod.com/juicebox there is no reason for you to fear missing out on anything. How many times have you thought it's time to change my CGM. I just changed it. And then you look and realize I got it's been 14 days already a week, week and a half. Feels like I just did this. Well, you'll never feel like that with the Eversense CGM. Because ever since is the only long term CGM with six months of real time glucose readings giving you more convenience, confidence and flexibility. So if you're one of those people who has that thought that I just did this, didn't I? Why? Well I don't have to do this again right now. If you don't like that feeling, give Eversense a try. Because we've ever since you will replace the sensor just once every six months via a simple in office visit ever since cgm.com/juice box to learn more and get started today. Would you like to take a break? Take a shower you can with ever since without wasting a sensor. don't want anybody to know for your big day. Take it off. No one has to know have your sensor has been failing before 10 or 14 days. That won't happen with ever since. Have you ever had a sensor get torn off while you're pulling off your shirt? That won't happen with ever since. So no sensor to get knocked off. It's as discreet as you want it to be. It's incredibly accurate. And you only have to change it once every six months. Ever since cgm.com/juice box drinking

Dakota 9:31
a lot of water constantly. Like I felt like I could always chug a gallon of water

Speaker 1 9:38
all day. How long would that go for? Maybe a month. Okay, and then

Dakota 9:43
going to the bathroom constantly. Like every hour. Intense leg cramps was sleeping. The blurred vision. I woke up one morning and my vision was just blurrier than normal. And I remember I made an appointment at the IDI After and I told them that and they didn't think it was like out of the ordinary or anything.

Scott Benner 10:04
They didn't think blurry vision out of nowhere was out of the ordinary. Right, exactly. So I could see yesterday I can't see today and you're like, oh, maybe you need a script.

Dakota 10:14
Exactly. Got some stronger glasses. Yeah, we'll

Scott Benner 10:17
get you some reading glasses. Would you like to wear driving goggles Dakota? Oh, my God. Well, after you bought glasses, you didn't need what happened next. Funny. I'm

Dakota 10:28
still actually using those glasses because they're expensive. Right? But no, I can see through them fine. There was like an adjustment period where I didn't need glasses at all for a little bit.

Scott Benner 10:38
Interesting. Did you need them prior to the diagnosis? I

Dakota 10:40
did. Yeah. I got them. Because the migraines in middle school. Were from like eyestrain at first I say. Yeah,

Scott Benner 10:48
at first. Do you think they're they became more about mental health at some point?

Dakota 10:52
I don't know. Have you heard? TMJ temporomandibular joint disorder?

Scott Benner 10:58
Hold on. I thought you're gonna say that thing that. Actually Dakota you're too young for me to make that joke about what my wife said about TMJ. So let's just go past that. And let the older people laugh while I'm looking up. TMJ, it's not something with the jaw and your muscles. Okay, nevermind. Sorry. So

Dakota 11:16
I think after I got my wisdom teeth pulled when I was 17. No out of 16. When I got my listen to fold, I was awake for the entire thing, which was terrifying

Scott Benner 11:27
to coda, you and I have something in common? I remember hearing you talk about that. Yeah, I had them yanked out of my head. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about your story, though.

Dakota 11:36
The put like a five inch needle into the roof of my mouth. Okay,

Scott Benner 11:40
hold on, let's slow down to go to give me the sweats. It's early. Okay. Go ahead. I'm

Dakota 11:46
like grasping onto the chair. One doctor holding my head down to the chair, and the other one pulling out my teeth. And

Scott Benner 11:54
did this happen to you for the same reason that happened to me? I couldn't afford to go to a surgeon.

Dakota 11:58
This was the nearest place that my insurance would cover? Because I was on medic, kid. Okay. state funded insurance.

Scott Benner 12:07
Are you in the middle of nowhere?

Dakota 12:08
Iowa? Midwest,

Unknown Speaker 12:10
you could have just said yes. Yeah.

Scott Benner 12:13
Sorry, no disrespect to the people in Iowa or the Midwest. I'm just saying like when you have to drive when my brother tells me that it's 45 minutes to go buy something. I'm like, Dude, where do you

Dakota 12:24
live? That's how it used to be until I moved to the city. Yeah,

Scott Benner 12:28
I would imagine. Yeah, for reasons of insurance. You got sent to what I'm gonna call a horse doctor who took out your wisdom teeth. And so, so yeah, basically, the answer is, yeah, you and I had the same thing done for the same reasons. Oh, yeah. I had a big city doctor, but I didn't. But I couldn't have I didn't have insurance. And I couldn't afford it. And you know, I'm sitting there, and he's telling me Look, these wisdom teeth, and I was like, 19 by them. He's like, they have to come out. And I said, Okay, how do I do that? He starts telling me, you go to this guy, and they're gonna put you out, blah, blah. I'm like, I don't have insurance. I'm like, What's that gonna cost? And I forget at the time, what he told me but whatever number he said, sounded like $8 billion, because I couldn't have come up with it to save my life. And so I said, Well, what do you charge to pull a tooth, and he just kind of like, he wasn't listening to me. At first, he was 50 bucks, and I can give you $200 to take them out. I can do that. And he looked at me like, What are you talking about? And I was like, I'm like, man, if they have to come out, this is the only way it's gonna happen. And so he went, got his assistant. They numbed me up. And his assistant literally stood over my head with both palms on my forehead holding my head down to the chair so they could yank out my wisdom teeth. Yep. Yeah, that happened to you.

Dakota 13:47
Yeah. And then a couple of years later, I had a cracked tooth from like clenching my teeth while I sleep. And they had to pull that one out, too. Yeah. And I was terrified. I was like having a panic attack in the dentist's chair

Scott Benner 14:00
Dakota is it possible were each other's doppelganger because I had a cracked tooth I had to have taken out and it was it came out in pieces and I sat there for like a half an hour while the guy was like mining it out of my face going what is happening but I don't have anxiety. So not the same story. I just sat there being annoyed by it you obviously a you know, or in another situation. I wish that on no one ever by the way. Yeah. Yeah, it was was not not pleasant. Anyway, Jesus, that's terrible. I don't even remember how we got to that I'm sorry. I was so like, enamored by the idea of like this happened to someone else. But I guess we have broke people's stories. Right? That's a strong like, we keep going in this direction. That's a good title for the episode I'll chop down broke people's stories isn't bad, although, part of me that thinks this is going to turn into an after dark if we keep talking. So let's wait and see what happens. Yeah,

Dakota 14:54
there's a possibility.

Scott Benner 14:57
Okay, so you're, you know, all that stuff's going on. Is your mom having now lived with you again? Does she say you gotta go the hospital? Did you figure it out? How did you make it to medical care?

Dakota 15:07
You know, it's just these little things. So maybe I'll just get better if I waited out is what I was thinking. Eventually, I made an appointment with my primary care and gotten to see her. And once I told her my symptoms, she left and she came back in with a, like a glucose meter. And they prick my finger. And my fasting was 327. Yeah, it might even see it was 11.7. I'm

Scott Benner 15:34
gonna say the vision made me think your agency would be in double digits. Yeah. She did not stick that needle in the roof of your mouth and come at you with a pair of pliers. That's good. Not that time. Thanks. Thanks for getting better already. See? You just got to put it the right perspective to go to Thanks for looking. They put you in the hospital? Did they manage it from the office?

Dakota 15:53
They managed it from the office, I left with Lantis and a meter. Okay. Pins, but they didn't give me a script for needle tips. Perfect. Right. So the first day I didn't take my injection. But when I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, they were so short staffed that it was drive thru only. So no one had, like shown me how to even do it. Oh,

Scott Benner 16:21
you couldn't even look the pharmacist the face and be like, I don't know what I'm doing. Right. Because yeah, because you're in the drive thru line. Yeah. Oh, my gosh, did they think you had type one does that? Or did they say you have diabetes? We don't know what it was. She said.

Dakota 16:34
It was most likely type one. But she was gonna run labs, like the C peptide and GA D antibodies again,

Scott Benner 16:42
look at you like, you know, yeah, I

Dakota 16:44
have a good doctor.

Scott Benner 16:45
Gonna say that's amazing. Like, all your stories happened, and now made me feel like you went into a barn to get your doctrine. And like instead, boom, person does exact right thing. All right, finally. All right, again, thanks for looking on. Except now you have diabetes. So you go home to your mom with you. It's interesting at your age, does she go with you for that? Or do you just go on your own? I think I went on my own for that. Yeah. Is your mom, not the kind of person I'd want in that situation? Or just you're an adult? You feel like I'll take care

Dakota 17:16
of it. I'm an adult, and I can take care of it. Okay,

Scott Benner 17:19
okay. Cool. Yeah. All right. So they give you some Lantis and a meter send you home, you have no idea what you're doing. You don't even know how to inject it. How do you start to get your information?

Dakota 17:28
I think I went on YouTube and like looked up, like how to inject insulin. I mean, it couldn't be that hard. Brown, but still poke, but not knowing anything about it. I have no idea where to start. And then I'm a podcast listener. I listen to a bunch of other podcasts. So I searched diabetes. In the podcasts, there was a different one I listened to first. And I had mentioned to my educator about that other one. And then she asked me, because I couldn't remember the name of it. And she was like, was it the Juicebox? Podcast?

Scott Benner 17:59
Oh, see your inability to remember the name of the podcast you tried? Got you to mind? Yes, it's excellent. Also, Dakota, we shouldn't tell the other people that there might be other podcasts about diabetes, because they could go looking for them and abandoned me, like my parents did when I was younger. No, I'm just kidding. You guys can listen to other stuff. If you want to. Listen, I'm just going to ask you, you've now listened to two different diabetes podcasts. I do not want to know what the other one was. Please don't tell me. Where does mine rank with the other one that you heard? Above it? You want to say significantly decode or anything like any use any modifying words? Go ahead, try again.

Dakota 18:34
You post five times a week, and that is a lot better than what is

Scott Benner 18:39
a Dakota? Let's take an off like a little off ramp here for a half a second. Yeah. First of all, I want to thank you, because I make a podcast that is largely heard by people who are not podcast listeners. And so they're not people who used to listen to a radio show every day, or want content given to them constantly. But you do right? Yeah, yeah. There's more of you out there than I think there are. I don't have anxiety. But the closest I come to anxiety Dakota, is trying to produce, make and keep going a podcast, it is not easy. And I know that there are podcast listeners out there. And I know that some of my new listeners who are people are just maybe looking for information. I do think that some of them will become the kind of people who get up in the morning and do what I do. In my free time. I pick my phone up and I go to the podcasts that I listen to. And I'm like, and I put them in my ears while I'm cooking my breakfast or driving the car stuff on. Yeah, yeah, I know you guys are out there. I love and appreciate all of you. I know you're not the people I hear from usually I hear mostly from management oriented people on Facebook. You know, people are really looking for like nuts and bolts answers or community type stuff. But I all the time I actually just reminded Are you in the Facebook group? Oh, yes, I actually, you know, Isabelle helps me with the Facebook group. Yep. Yeah. I just reminded her last night, I was like, I can't make decisions just based on what Facebook says that there are only a portion of the people who are listening to the podcast. She knows, but we were having one of those back and forth conversations. And I just, I ended up thinking that a lot. But so this is touching to me. I appreciate that. Do you think it's an age thing? I gotta get more young people listening?

Dakota 20:25
I'm not sure. Honestly. I don't know. Yeah, probably. I don't know, many older adults who listen to podcasts frequently. I

Scott Benner 20:36
saw my Spotify wrap up for the podcasts I listened to. And I was like, Oh my God. There's a lot of minutes. You know, the I'm not gonna say the name but the the show I listen to the most. Currently, I listened to for 13,000 minutes last year. Wow. And I was like, That's felt insane to me. But I wish I had the device with me that I did the screen capture on. But someone shared with me their Spotify wrap up if people don't know what that is, at the end of the year, your Spotify listener, they give you this little thing like this is your top podcasts, your top music and stuff. And here's how many minutes you listened to it. A person who I'm now going to call the person I love the most in the whole world sent me their Spotify wrap up. And they had listened to the show for 40,000 minutes this year. I have to tell you, like it made me feel like Oh, good. I'm not wasting my time. Like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yep. Yeah. So it's, uh, let's do it together, though. Real quick. i You said you weren't good at math. But I think we could still figure this out and earn their 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours in a day. Right? So let's do 60 times 24. And we're gonna get 14 140. So if they listened to 40,000 minutes of the show, divided by 14 140, I'm using a calculator.

Dakota 21:58
I think I can hear that. Thank

Scott Benner 21:59
you. I pray I didn't, I just didn't want people to think I was like, trying to like pass off that I was doing math in my head. That means that they listened to the podcast last year for almost 28 days. Well, I love that person. I don't know who you are. But thank you, and anybody else out there doing that you complete me. So I don't want to go into it to go to but a ton of work. And mostly you're blinded to who's listening, how much they're listening, what they enjoy, like that kind of stuff. It's all just dumb luck. You know, sometimes you just make the podcast you make and it it, it resonates or doesn't. Anyway, okay, so you found the podcast, then you start learning about taking care of yourself for me? Pretty

Dakota 22:40
much because the soonest, so I was diagnosed in July. And as soon as I could get into the endocrinologist was the end of October. So I was working with my primary care, and then one of the diabetic educators over at the endocrinologist where I started up

Scott Benner 22:57
for months to get you in to see them. Okay. And for those four months, you know, it's funny, I was gonna make fun of I was gonna make fun of doctors and you said, I had to go to YouTube to learn how to inject insulin, I was gonna be like, you're sending people out in the world to get their information from God knows where and then you're like, but I listen to the podcast. I'm like, oh, nevermind, I won't say that. God knows where maybe that's the episode title. So,

Unknown Speaker 23:22
wow. Do you

Scott Benner 23:24
start with conversations and just pick bits and pieces out of them? Or do you find the Pro Tip series or something like

Speaker 1 23:30
that? I don't remember. If I started on conversation. Eventually, I

Dakota 23:38
found the bulk beginnings. Okay. And then I found the pro tips.

Scott Benner 23:44
Do they work the way I hoped that bold beginnings feels like a light but not too light overview, and then the Pro Tip series brings it all together?

Dakota 23:53
Yes. Excellent. Good. The defining diabetes thrown it in there too.

Unknown Speaker 23:57
How helpful was that?

Dakota 23:59
It explained some of the terminology that's used in the other episodes. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 24:05
which I liked. As a podcast listener and a younger person to go to, is the format like is the way I set it up? It works or did you find it clunky? Did you think oh, I wish it was more like something or other?

Dakota 24:18
Oh, I like the way it's set up. Just like searching for episode topics can be hard, like searching through the podcast app? Because the names are not, and there's no description really.

Scott Benner 24:31
So Well, first of all to go to let's have fun.

Dakota 24:35
Games are funny. I liked the names. Okay.

Scott Benner 24:39
It's my consideration that if every episode was like, you know, in this one, we talked about diabetes, you'd be like, Yeah, that's what they're all about, but they're not and like and how would I ever do description of your episode so far? You know what I mean? It's impossible. So yeah, and let us put the blame firmly where it belongs on the podcast that They're not set up well, like, and that's none of them. They're all kind of set up with the idea of podcasts are really just radio shows, you don't have to listen to it a certain time, and that you go to the most recent one, and that nobody's going to listen back. But that's not true of my podcasts. And others. By the way, there. I'm not the only one who has a deep back catalogue of evergreen material that you would find interesting and valuable two years after it was out. But the apps are set up for the lifestyle that they think people have, which is just give me the next thing, I'm probably not going to listen to the whole thing, like and then it's disposable and it goes away. And that's the problem is the apps aren't set up for how my audience needs the information. But there's nothing I can do about that.

Dakota 25:50
Yeah. And like Spotify, can you create podcast playlists? Yes,

Scott Benner 25:55
we have them. But ironically, my show is so overwhelmingly listened to in Apple podcasts.

Unknown Speaker 26:03
That's yeah, that's

Scott Benner 26:04
what I use. Yeah, that I just don't have it. That's not ironic. A lot of people have iPhones, right, that I don't have as many listeners in Spotify as I do an apple podcast. So the so they're all there. Like, there's great actually, playlist. I think all the series have a playlist in Spotify, but I just, I don't even know I can look, but I don't know what the breakdown is between Apple and Spotify, but it's a pretty big. It's a pretty big gap. Actually, though, Dakota what you know, what's happening to me right now?

Dakota 26:38
What's up?

Scott Benner 26:39
The man is give me, I don't know if you know this phrase. But

iOS 17.

Yeah, it's, it's gonna kill me. So iOS 17 changed the podcast app. And instead of, I think it's defaulting to just downloading the five most previous episodes. So, you know, everyone doesn't listen, every day, they don't get up every morning and open up the app and go, I wonder what Scott made today. Like, everyone doesn't do that. If they did, I'd get all my downloads on Monday. And like, quite literally, you know, just get one download for person, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. But instead, people like open up an app, they go, Oh, cool. There's, you know, I'll get these last four episodes, let me download these bang, bang, bang, and then I'll listen to them. And while they're listening to them, I put out four more episodes. And then they open up the app again. And then now they have to go in and decide, give me this one, give me this one, give me this one, which might sound to you like, Oh, that makes sense. But before it would kind of take like the last 10 and put them in your player for you. And that way they were there for you and available. And from my perspective, that means that every time somebody opened up an app, they would get like 10 episodes. And now they're opening up the app and getting five. Oh, it's like cut in half. Yeah, my downloads are cut in half. Even though my downloads for new material, first 30 days, first 45 days for 60 days, that all actually is absolutely strong. It hasn't changed at all. And it's still growing. So the people are still there. But they're not being served as many downloads. Now. You say, Well, why does that matter? They can go find them when they need them. And maybe they were downloading some that they never listened to all fair. But at the end of the year, when I go back to the advertisers, who are the complete and utter reason that Dakota knows how to take care of his blood sugar. I know that sounds disjointed, but it's 1,000,000% True. Right? They're gonna go Hey, what happened to your downloads, and then I'm gonna have to explain the new podcast app to them, they're gonna have to believe me, I'm gonna have to show them the new numbers like look, first day numbers are still good first 30 numbers. So all these numbers, everything you care about is still good. But someone's gonna get focused on the big number and say, I don't know that when dropped. And when we're out, and if that happens, then I'm screwed. And then if I'm screwed, then the next Dakota is screwed. And like so that at the moment is the thing that are keeps me up at night and makes me bang my head on this wooden desk right here. So don't worry, Dakota, I will figure it out. But I'm gonna cry while I'm doing it. I'm very, I'm very pissed about it. Like I swear to God. I don't know why Apple did that. It's it's a thing that impacts so few podcasts. Like there was no reason to do this. Like most podcasts don't put up an episode five times a week. Right? But can you imagine as a podcast like it, can you work your way through it? Why did they make the change? Because I know why. But I wonder if it's obvious to you, like a

Dakota 29:42
storage issue on people's phones.

Scott Benner 29:43
Well, that's what they're gonna say. They're gonna say it's a storage issue, but it's not a storage issue. It's between them and the advertising community, probably Madison Avenue, who is probably getting ripped off by podcasts that are putting up 30 seconds, two minute episodes with no content in them. So what kind of unscrupulous people will do? Like imagine you have 100 listeners, and you put out an episode once a week, then you get 100 downloads about if all 100 of them like download, but if I put out, you know, one episode and then on Tuesday, like a blurb that's like, Hey everybody, don't forget to check out the website, you know. And then the next day it's like, you know, some like crap that after you listen to it, you're like, This is a complete waste of my time, right? If they do that four times a week, then they get 500 downloads a week from 100 people. But that contents meaningless those those other like shorts, right? They don't actually, they don't actually provide content to the listeners and and if there's an ad on it, nobody's hearing it. And so they're ripping off the advertisers by making kind of fake content, and then saying, No, I get 500 downloads this week, not 100. So they can charge five times as much for their ads. The difference between them and me is that is my humble opinion. You could listen to just one episode this week, and throw darts at a wall and choose what day you're gonna get a quality episode of this podcast. Yeah, right. And so I'm not doing that thing that they're guarding against, but I'm getting screwed for it. So like everything else in life, somebody else went out there and, and stood on the rules and acted in bad faith, and the people who aren't are gonna get hurt by it. So anyway, I'll figure it out. But it really makes me mad.

Dakota 31:30
Maybe you need to write a strongly worded letter to Tim Cook,

Scott Benner 31:35
the or Tim Cook. To me? Is that what you're trying to do? No, I do honestly, like joking aside, like, I do wish I could explain to them that there's a method to this. Like, I don't expect everyone to listen to five episodes a week, 20 episodes a month, I genuinely do not expect that. The reason it's there is because if somebody wants to listen to all of them, it's available for them. Be because there's enough of a mixture throughout the week that you can find something that you would enjoy, right? And see it keeps you in the ecosystem. And I know that we think of that sometimes it's like a bad thing, like advertisers are trying to keep you in there in their app or something like that. Yes, but not for the reasons you think. I'm trying to keep you here so that you keep listening to episodes. So you keep learning something that you're able to see in your time and range keep getting better so that your life is better so that your health is better than that so that I can keep making the podcast for the next kid named Dakota who gets diabetes out of nowhere, when he's 25. or somebody's kid who's two or a 60 year old lady who's like I can't I got diabetes, like what the hell I've been alive all this time. Now. I haven't said it like this in a while Dakota. But if you're not involved and making content on the internet, here's what it's like. It's like taking a stone. And bringing it just setting it down in front of you. And it's freezing cold. And you hold a lighter to the stone. And you hold it and hold it and hold it and hold it and eventually very slowly the stone warms up, right. The minute you take the flame off the stone, it's ice cold again. And that's making content on the internet. It takes forever to get warm. And once you're warm. If you look away for five seconds, you're a cold stone, and it's almost impossible to heat it back up. So, you know people not my position would know this. But making a diabetes podcast that's popular for nine years is the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. It is not easy to accomplish, and it is not easy to maintain. And one of the ways I maintain it is by growing the show growing the downloads, selling those downloads, for advertising so that I can afford to come in here every day sit down, probably get coronary artery disease from not moving around so much, and making all this content to help people with diabetes. Now, you know, if somebody were to whisk in here one day and be like Scott, here's a, you know, an amount of money that would keep you going for five years, just make the podcast for people. You know, at the end of the year, I tell them my advertisers Hey, guess what? I don't do advertising anymore. And sorry, good luck. So that's the situation that arises from all this, but I'm sorry, it has nothing to do with your diabetes. Hopefully people found that interesting. But I want to I want to get kind of back into your stuff here. So picking through your mental health you you know, I've mentioned the anxiety and the depression but in your note, I have suicidal ideation but I haven't heard that from you yet.

Speaker 1 34:36
Back in 2018 December,

Dakota 34:41
I was just in a really rough place, stressed out about a lot of different things I didn't know what to do. I didn't know who I could turn to so I took myself to the emergency room one day after work and told them how I was feeling and

Speaker 1 34:59
They got a, like a telehealth, psychologist or psychiatrist on this phone to do like my emergency

Dakota 35:13
room eval for that thing.

Unknown Speaker 35:16
How was it that you were feeling?

Dakota 35:19
I didn't want to be alive anymore. I don't want to wake up.

Speaker 1 35:23
I was crying all the time. Yeah.

Scott Benner 35:26
What kind of work were you doing at that point?

Dakota 35:28
I was a cook at a nursing home. Okay.

Scott Benner 35:32
And you went to high school? Did you finish high school?

Dakota 35:35
I grew up okay. And I have a associate's degree. Graphic Design,

Scott Benner 35:40
Oh, you went off to college to try to learn a thing. And turns out they don't have computers in Iowa. So you can't do graphic design there. That's probably the that's probably the problem. And you probably have a lot of similar problems as Canadians, but I don't want to get into that right now. So you ended up with a job that I'm not very fulfilling, I guess.

Unknown Speaker 35:58
Yeah.

Dakota 36:00
Yeah. It could be more fulfilling, but, you know, making connections with the residents. There is

Scott Benner 36:07
a good part of this. Yeah, definitely. So you know, enough that you need help. But you don't feel like there's anyone in your life to ask me. So you

Speaker 1 36:18
aid. I don't want to be a burden. Oh, you think

Scott Benner 36:21
there are people in your life? You could have asked? Yes.

Dakota 36:24
Okay, there's a few people I could have turned to. But

Scott Benner 36:28
instead of feeling like you were gonna burden them you went, at least you went and like did something about it. So I mean, did you really? I mean, do you look back on it now and think if I really wanted to die, I wouldn't have gone until somebody? I'm

Unknown Speaker 36:41
not sure.

Dakota 36:43
I look back at it as a very positive experience. I was only there for three days in the psychiatric unit. But those three days I learned a lot. They got me on an anti psychotic while I was there, which actually I want to talk about a little bit. It's called olanzapine, the name brand is Zyprexa. But at the time, they told me, you know, could mess with your cholesterol a little bit. You'll have to get regular bloodwork done. It's like okay, I don't know much else about the side effects. A little, I don't know, maybe nine months ago, I was reading up about it, and it causes weight gain due to raising blood glucose. Okay, and that can accelerate the onset of type one diabetes.

Scott Benner 37:34
Do you have any other autoimmune in your family?

Dakota 37:36
My mom has thyroid? She takes a level of thyroxin

Scott Benner 37:41
Okay, she she has hypothyroidism. Do you know if it's Hashimotos? Or if they it wasn't

Dakota 37:46
Hashimotos? She tells me that they just told her that her thyroid died. Yeah,

Scott Benner 37:50
pretty much. I don't think people get very good care around their thyroid problems either. So

Speaker 1 37:54
what was the name of the meddigan? Level? Say roxham? No,

Scott Benner 37:58
no, I'm sorry for the the anti psychotic. Oh,

Dakota 38:01
olanzapine. Zyprexa,

Scott Benner 38:05
olanzapine is used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia and mental illness it can cause disturbed or unusual thinking of loss of interest in life or strong inappropriate emotions and adults and teenagers 13 years and older. But it sounds like it was like written by a sad PR person. Imagine that your life. You gotta get up every morning and go try to make olanzapine sound fun. So let's go olanzapine and type one it's a second generation anti psychotic medication that has a relatively low risk of inducing. Wow, X trap a miracle side effects chronic treatment with those Lanza pain has been associated with weight gain hyperglycemia insulin resistance inducing or aggravating diabetes mellitus

Speaker 1 38:50
and metabolic syndrome. Well, you

Scott Benner 38:53
don't want to kill yourself anymore. But you have diabetes. Yep. Yay. Okay. So is that has a doctor ever said to you, they think that's what happened. No. Just you it's your, your your thinking and kind of Google

Dakota 39:07
is my thinking. Yeah. Okay. Because I wasn't ever, like sit around.

Unknown Speaker 39:15
Like leading up to my diagnosis.

Scott Benner 39:17
No other I mean, maybe maybe you just had the is it possible you had the markers and this move things along?

Dakota 39:24
That's what I'm thinking. Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 39:26
That's what I mean, that makes the most sense to me. I always just want to make sure people don't think that like diabetes magically appears like you're you likely had, you know,

Dakota 39:36
they wave a wand and bam. Yeah, yeah. Karma,

Scott Benner 39:39
by the way comes around. By the way, if karma is in charge of giving away things, you did not need diabetes. You

Dakota 39:45
already heard anything else about that. Yeah. I

Scott Benner 39:49
also don't know like how, how a 14 year old deserves bad karma. So are 11 year old so. Okay, so Jesus, are you still on that medication?

Dakota 39:58
So I was off of it for a while. But but I'm back on it now amongst the lowest dose that you can be on

Speaker 1 40:04
what to do for you. Oh my gosh. Sorry. What happened?

Dakota 40:10
My Music app popped up, and it started playing music in the air. If

Scott Benner 40:14
something pops up, I want it to be my podcast, not the music.

Dakota 40:18
Sorry, what was your question before that? What

Scott Benner 40:20
does the medication do for you?

Dakota 40:21
I feel like

other medications like regular antidepressants weren't working. So they got me on that. levels. Now I'd say. I found this on the web. No serious talking to me. She's

Scott Benner 40:35
worried about it happens to me while I'm making the podcast sometimes. So I wonder what you said it levels me out. Yeah, that's interesting.

levels you out meaning? Like,

Dakota 40:46
I don't get as angry or I'm not as irritable. Okay.

Speaker 1 40:49
But I'm also on to antidepressants, and anti anxiety meds,

Scott Benner 40:58
Dakota, has anybody checked your thyroid? So I have had

Dakota 41:01
it checked multiple, like, every time I go to the doctor for labs, they run it just because of my mom. And now my diabetes. My last value, it was under two, but in the past, it has been like between three and four before

Scott Benner 41:14
it's popped up. jumped around a little bit. Yeah. You know, I mean, listen, I'm not trying to say that thyroid condition gives you like some of the things that you're dealing with, but it is attached to anxiety, depression, like that kind of stuff. Like if your thyroids bouncing around. It would make sense that it's impacting you, at least I'm not saying it's the cause the root cause, but it would make things worse at times. Yeah. You know, so keep on top of that, please. Yeah, definitely. Good. When's the last time you thought I don't want to be here anymore.

Dakota 41:49
Shortly after I got diagnosed probably. Okay.

Scott Benner 41:53
Were you on the med at that point? I was yes. Yeah. And it didn't get rid of that thought?

Dakota 41:58
No. Okay. But I started going back to therapy more regularly. Good. And

Scott Benner 42:03
that helped a lot. Yeah. It's just talk therapy, right? You're not seeing a psychiatrist.

Dakota 42:08
Just talk therapy and EMDR. How do you find that? I like that, actually. And we've done it through telehealth before. Okay,

Speaker 1 42:19
I didn't think it would work. Because,

Dakota 42:23
you know, before they were either having their fingers up in front of your face, moving on side to side, or holding on to these like buzzers that vibrate in your hands. Okay. And then when you're over the phone, you're tapping your knees, or your shoulders. And it works. It worked. Yeah, I really made me realize some things.

Scott Benner 42:42
Wow, what can you share with me something that made you realize

Dakota 42:46
some of the like, it brought up a lot of memories from my childhood. Okay. And a lot of those memories kind of explained why I feel the way I do. Like nowadays. I remember, when I was in middle school, I couldn't get a hold of my mom when, like, I was texting her. So my mind instantly went to Oh, no, the house is on fire. And she's

Speaker 1 43:09
trapped inside. That's a leap. Yeah, yeah.

Dakota 43:13
Yeah. Like, I didn't realize I had anxiety as a child. But looking back at it after doing the EMDR.

Unknown Speaker 43:20
Yeah.

Scott Benner 43:22
No kidding. Yeah. Yeah. Well, obviously, because that's such a, you know, it's such an odd leap to make the most people wouldn't think like, oh, it's probably because my house is on fire that my mom's not me. You might think like, oh, maybe she doesn't have her phone with her. Right. Yeah, right. Oh, that's interesting. Now, when you have that realization, to the process, does it help you? Or is it just a question answered?

Dakota 43:46
It's a question answered, it kind of takes a little bit of weight off of my

Speaker 1 43:53
shoulders from time to date to go to No, I'm not currently dating.

Scott Benner 43:59
Is that lack of interest or lack of opportunity? Lack of interest. Okay. So there's people out there, but you're not up for it right now. Right? Do you not want to be a burden to them?

Dakota 44:11
I don't like people, I'd say. You like, yeah, you're fun to listen to. I like you. You're a good guy.

Scott Benner 44:19
But if we hung out, you'd get sick of me pretty quick. You thank my wife says that's what what happens by the way.

Dakota 44:26
I'm not sure other

Scott Benner 44:28
people seem to like me just fine. I actually have a text here from one of my daughter's friends. It says you're the best person I know. I'm gonna have a friend. Put it on the fridge. You put it on the fridge. You're hanging around my wife. Sure, she'll be able to take it off if she wants to. But okay. You don't like people? What does I hear people say that sometimes. What does that mean? Large

Dakota 44:47
crowds, social anxiety to large crowds, strangers, small talk, those kinds of things I don't like so that makes me not want to interact with people. So much.

Scott Benner 45:00
Are you having trouble doing this with me right now? No,

Unknown Speaker 45:03
no. So

Dakota 45:05
it's hard to tell the difference between too much caffeine anxiety and a low blood sugar for me.

Scott Benner 45:11
Too much caffeine anxiety and a low blood sugar. Because they all kind of make me shaky. They make you shaky. Yeah. Anxiety, like physically moves you. Yes. So when when the shake comes? How do you discern, discern what to do first. First, I check my blood sugar.

Dakota 45:31
If it's like, not low, I'll check my graph and see if I dropped fast. Because I'll happen like after I wake up and get in the shower. Sometimes I'll drop fast after my shower.

Scott Benner 45:42
Right? You think that's because you relax in the shower? Honestly, I

Dakota 45:46
thought it was because of the hot water. You know, exercise can increase insulin sensitivity. But originally it was because when I was I was taking my Atlantis before I'd get in the shower. And I think it would peak too quick. Now I'm on Omnipod five, index kanji six. Nice. So that doesn't happen as often good. But so after I checked my blood sugar, then I'm like, Did I have caffeine on an empty stomach? Which that's my issue. Right now. I'm drinking a cup of coffee for breakfast.

Scott Benner 46:15
You're a little shaky right now? Yeah. Okay. Well, the first thing I would say is try to wrap your head around the idea that maybe you're just relaxing in the shower. And that if your anxiety goes away, maybe you're using a lot of insulin to combat the anxiety. Right? And so if you're, you see, you've got this act of insulin going because you're always anxious. And that plus you have diabetes. So you have diabetes, you're anxious, whatever. And that's all happening. And then you get in that shower and just chill out a little bit. And then maybe that anxiety lifts a little and you drop. It's a possibility that that's what happens. I never considered that. Yeah, no, you have to listen to more of the podcast that would have come up. By the way, I I wanted to very beautiful. I'm not trying to give you things to do like, the last thing I need is for me to be part of your anxiety. And I don't want to be that's not what I want to be for you. But yeah, I mean, it's a consideration. Like, honestly, like maybe you just have hot water hits you and the world goes away a little bit. Maybe you like the sound of the waterfall. Like who knows. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, okay, well, that's interesting. And how long you got to Omnipod five and G six pretty quickly. How long until you get to CGM I imagined that came first.

Dakota 47:26
Yeah, so first, I got the libre to, like trial through my educator. Got one and worked good. I didn't like scanning it with my phone. Yeah, as a bummer. And then they gave me another one. And it failed. Like right after I put it on. So then we tried Dexcom. And I knew I wanted to be on a pump eventually. So I just went with Dexcom from that point, okay. Because the integration, right? Yeah. And then I got on Omnipod, five in about six months after I was diagnosed. Is

Scott Benner 47:56
that suggested to you? Or was that a thing you you sought after?

Dakota 48:00
That was the thing I sought after? Because of the podcast? Oh,

Scott Benner 48:03
cool. Great. Omni pod.com/juicebox? There you go. Dakota keep going. You should have just slipped, you should have slipped right into that. Well, they

Dakota 48:12
you don't get credit when you order through the doctor like that.

Scott Benner 48:15
I know it. Yeah. Trust me. Advertisers, they know the situation. They understand that I'm Yeah, yeah, we're pushing links. But that mostly, whatever the podcast, my guess is that a significant part of what the podcast drives through advertising is not directly attributed to me. So you count on having partners who understand the umbrella effect of the podcast and, and give you credit for it, which everyone I work with is, is very, I think they all understand the impact of the podcast. So, you know, I don't have a lot of trouble with that. But it does suck because, you know, when it comes down to like, you know, brass tacks, everybody points the numbers and goes on Oh, no, no, right. I'm not complaining. They advertise. I'm being genuine. The advertisers are terrific. The the reason that the podcast exists, I said it earlier. Absolutely mean, it's the reason why when you looked for it, it was there. It's why your diabetes educator knew about it. This is not a thing. I don't know what people expect, even at five episodes a week. And I don't want to act like I'm complaining because I'm certainly not. This is not just my job. It's like a large portion of my life. Like last night I stopped working at like 930 And that was because Arden's like, Hey, do you want to watch all the murders in the building with me? And I was like, Yeah, cool. Let's do that. I recorded twice yesterday. I did editing I banged my head right here on the desk for an hour thinking about my apple podcast problem. I made content. I had two different conversations with two different advertisers about things that they want to do with their messaging. I backed up a computer I learned how to use that NAS drive better, which is boring as hell but as to do with backups. I spoke with my editor. We made this Decisions about stuff. I'm trying to decide about new content for 2024. I just I compiled a list yesterday, Dakota, because the world wants shorter content. I'm going to make some shorter content next year. And I compiled a document. Hold on a second. By the way, I'm being texted right now about something going wrong on the website that somebody needs help with. So you're

Dakota 50:24
very busy adult energies is appreciated. No sugar. Oh, no, dude,

Scott Benner 50:29
I talked to enough people who listen, I know people appreciate it. I'm saying that. It's why there's ads. It's why like, you gotta click on the damn link. Like it just if that I hate

Unknown Speaker 50:40
hates a strong word Dakota.

Scott Benner 50:43
I wish there was another way to go about it. Not because I have problems with the advertisers, I don't. But because I have two jobs, basically, that and I don't know if that makes sense. Or not like I make a diabetes podcast for people, I would like that to be my only job. But I have another full time job, which is keeping the diabetes podcast going. And that's a ton of like, not fun stuff. But anyway, I've got this great document here that I spent yesterday putting together like most of the afternoon, and I've basically taken like key takeaway points from each of the Pro Tip series. And I'm going to do short content, probably two to five minutes for each takeaway.

Unknown Speaker 51:30
Okay, like a like a summary.

Scott Benner 51:32
Yeah, almost like almost like, summaries tough. Like, I'll just like pick one here. You're off scroll, randomly scroll. Here's the bump and nudge episode, it's episode 1007. One of the one of the things is your timing and amount are key factors in managing blood sugar levels. It's a takeaway from that episode. So my thought is, is that, you know, one of these takeaways, or maybe a combination of a couple of them are thought, and that if you ever stopped and heard me like, speak, live somewhere, or when I do like an online thing, or something like that, I'm basically just regurgitating all this information, you know, on over an hour and a half or two hours while you're speaking. But what if you said, Hey, here's a rock solid takeaway about diabetes that will help you with something. Here's the thought, let me talk about it for two minutes. You understand it in context? And if you want to learn more, go back to Episode 1007. And then bang, you're in and out? And what if that went up every day, and acted as a reminder for people about a little thing they could do that would help themselves? You know what I mean? Like, wouldn't it be easy to hear a three minute episode every day? And then go? Oh, that's right. I need to do this. Or Oh, for sure. Yeah, like, so. I don't want to call them affirmations. Because that sounds

Dakota 52:47
very, that was what was popping? Yeah, it

Scott Benner 52:52
sounds crunchy. So um, I won't say that, when I when I find a way to name it. But I do think there's a ton of value for people there. And so what I did was I looked for ways to find what people want with content. Some people want short, fast, but not just a throwaway thing that makes a download, but actually gives you like, actual like, like usable information and value. So now, after I put in, however, many dozens of hours into making the first 20 of these or so I'll be able to put them out and see if there's something that people like there. And if it catches on, then I'll just keep making them. That would be a job in and

Unknown Speaker 53:32
of itself. Oh, for sure. Yeah,

Dakota 53:35
no, um, but I liked that idea.

Scott Benner 53:36
Thank you. I'm glad that's why random past you because I'm like, You're like an actual podcast person, you might like, have some, like, if you went, that's a bad idea. It's gotta be like that was my best idea. Also, by the way, this coming up this year, in 2024, which by the time people hear yours could have been months ago, a whistleblower series. So that's going to be doctors, pharmacists, nurses, other professionals around health, who speak anonymously and get their voice change so they can tell you like the real stuff that's going on. In their professions. I've recorded six of them so far, they are shocking. And a grand rounds series which is Jenny and I basically talking directly to doctors about what people need. Okay, so that's other stuff is coming next year anyway, that the thing that happens is you guys like open up your podcast app, and you go, Oh, whistleblower, that's nice. And then you make this blind decision to listen or not listen, but I've been working on that for 18 months. Wow. Yeah, by the time you get it, so anyway, not a lot of fun. I need three producers and five more hands. I think. What else do we need to talk about here to cut or what have we not hit? I see marijuana use? Are you self medicating? Alright,

Speaker 1 54:57
yeah, self medicate. How How does it help you? calms me down shows me a little bit. How often? daily, hourly? No, not

Dakota 55:09
hourly,

Scott Benner 55:10
you're not hitting a pan and walking away. No, I don't have

Speaker 1 55:13
a pen. You smoke. You don't smoke at work.

Scott Benner 55:17
You roll like weed though, like you're not doing like a vaporizer, or one of those things.

Dakota 55:22
No, I use a, what's called a water pipe. That's that's the technical term, a bomb.

Scott Benner 55:29
The technical term.

Dakota 55:32
That's what they make you say in the shop when you go buy one.

Scott Benner 55:34
I need a water pipe plays. Okay, so you Okay, so you're only smoking at home. This is not something you can take with you. That's correct. Right. Have you ever considered one of those dry vapes?

Unknown Speaker 55:45
I have used one before.

Scott Benner 55:47
What do you think of those?

Dakota 55:48
I don't like the ones where you put the dry herb in it. I like via oil. Okay. That one is that one will be vaporizer,

Scott Benner 55:58
tell me the difference between the oil and the dry. The oil

Dakota 56:02
is more concentrated.

Speaker 1 56:03
So you need less of it. Get hit? Does it hit you harder? Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Benner 56:09
So you're looking to get knocked off your ass a little bit?

Speaker 1 56:13
Every once in a while? Yeah. Okay. For how long? A couple hours. So,

Scott Benner 56:20
how do you manage being out of it and your diabetes? I

Speaker 1 56:25
haven't really had an issue with weed

Dakota 56:29
and diabetes. Besides getting the munchies and not

Speaker 1 56:33
dosing correctly, and then go into go into bed.

Dakota 56:36
That is an issue sometimes.

Scott Benner 56:39
Oh, it's just falling asleep. Yeah. So the the algorithms looking out for you while you're high? Yeah, it's trying to it's doing its best to pick on the bottle. work that into their PR. Have a button on there for it. Actually, listen, obviously, they're not going to but a lot of the world's smoking weed at this point. Yeah, I might. I might find a way to say it. Like, you know, should you disappear for a little bit. The Omnipod five will be on your side. By the way, we're only three years away from like marketing people being like, Yeah, let's do it. Like oh my gosh. So when does the weed smoking start? At what age?

Dakota 57:20
I dabbled in it when I was starting. Teen maybe 15. And then it became a regular thing.

Speaker 1 57:27
Probably when I was 18.

Dakota 57:31
Because that's when my migraines were getting real bad. That's what I was trying to use to help that

Scott Benner 57:37
is weed legal legal in Iowa. So

Dakota 57:40
they just passed it for medicinal use only. Do you have a card? No.

Scott Benner 57:45
What are you doing? Dakota Come on. From what I understand here in New Jersey. The medical weed is stronger than the

Dakota 57:53
not here in Iowa. They limit the strength in the amount of stuff that you can get

Scott Benner 57:59
how much THC what percentage are you looking for?

Dakota 58:01
I'm not sure like I've been to Colorado and been to dispensary before, and it'll be like 60% 80% Okay. And then this stuff, like through the medical shops here in Iowa. It's like, less than 5% 5%

Speaker 2 58:18
That doesn't sound okay. Yeah, I think from what

Scott Benner 58:22
I understand, like weaker weed in Jersey is more like 18 to 21% thc right now, but 60

Speaker 1 58:31
Jesus Dakota. Yeah, that's strong stuff. No kidding. I mean,

Scott Benner 58:36
what is it like? Wow, that would

Dakota 58:38
be Yeah, that's for like, like wax. Oh, okay.

Scott Benner 58:42
Like for them. The flower though. Is

Dakota 58:45
the flowers. Probably not that strong.

Scott Benner 58:48
I was gonna say I don't think you can get it. It's probably like 30 at the

Unknown Speaker 58:50
most.

Scott Benner 58:51
Do you smoke with people? Is that a social thing for you are now

Dakota 58:55
there's a few people as smokeless? Yeah.

Scott Benner 58:57
Are you like people then?

Unknown Speaker 58:58
Yep.

Dakota 59:00
They're my I have a few good friends that stuck next to me since high school.

Unknown Speaker 59:04
Okay. As to how valuable

Scott Benner 59:05
is that been for you?

Unknown Speaker 59:07
Very. I'm glad I have them. Yeah.

Scott Benner 59:10
They know everything you're going through.

Unknown Speaker 59:13
And they're supportive. Yes.

Scott Benner 59:15
Do they have problems issues? worries too, or are they doing are they like you're

Dakota 59:21
your own set of problems?

Speaker 1 59:23
I'd say. Yeah. We're like a big support team for each other. How much you This is where you live? Do you think? How much of what is where you live? The math

Scott Benner 59:33
with your dad?

Dakota 59:34
Oh, okay. I feel like it's very prominent in my hometown where I grew up where I grew up for sure. And where I live now?

Speaker 1 59:42
Yeah, it's still pretty prominent.

Dakota 59:46
So I work overnight at a gas station and I get kind of all the crazy people.

Speaker 1 59:52
I've seen it. Yeah. Yeah, it triggers me sometimes. Tell me what do you mean when you see I like the way they're acting. Just carrying themselves or talking to people who are altered or, or mentally unstable. That's triggering to you. When I can tell that they've been using our drugs, yeah. Makes think your dad

Scott Benner 1:00:19
or just brings you back to a bad time.

Dakota 1:00:21
Just brings me back to a bedtime. Yeah, I

Scott Benner 1:00:23
would, I would imagine. Okay.

Unknown Speaker 1:00:25
Yeah, that's sad.

Scott Benner 1:00:28
But you see your dad's doing better now, right? Oh, yeah. Have you shared all this with him? Hey, doing meth in front of me wasn't a good idea. I'm kind of stopped. Now. What do you know?

Dakota 1:00:37
We don't Yeah, we don't really talk about her feelings much.

Scott Benner 1:00:42
He's saving that for when you're dead? Probably yeah. Do you want to tell him or do you think it would hurt him? Or? Or maybe knock him off his path?

Speaker 1 1:00:53
It might like, take him by shock. Okay, I would bring it up. Are you protecting him? Or? No, it's just kind of like a thing of the past.

Scott Benner 1:01:05
You don't think it would be valuable for you to share with him? What happened to you? I don't think so. Okay, you handle that in therapy? Yeah, yep.

Unknown Speaker 1:01:15
I got it. Okay. Yeah, I don't

Scott Benner 1:01:18
know. Trust me. I don't know what I'm talking about. I don't know if it helps or doesn't help. I'm just asking questions. So yeah, you get that from listening to the podcast, right? Like, I'm just inquisitive. I don't actually actually know what I'm talking about.

Dakota 1:01:33
You got to learn somehow.

Scott Benner 1:01:34
Well, look at all I learned about weed. I know about dry vapes. And I know about like THC levels. And like, I've learned a lot make up this podcast. For sure. I would like to see you use the dry. Vape just said, I don't want to see you smoking. I don't like the idea of smoke in your lungs. You're not gonna listen to me. It's okay to go. I'll give it a thought. You're like what happens when it's not charged? And I want to smoke? What do I do then? Scott.

Dakota 1:02:00
That's the power goes out.

Scott Benner 1:02:03
I gotta be able to get high if there's an electrical problem. Now you got me buying battery packs in case something happens. I need a solar panel is too much of a financial outlay. Do you do beings being serious? I don't know if we've been serious or not, or maybe have been the whole time. But you don't worry about fentanyl, things like that shown up in drugs. You're buying off the streets? No,

Dakota 1:02:29
I've never even considered that.

Scott Benner 1:02:31
I think I would like you to consider that.

Dakota 1:02:35
I have heard about people putting it in. Like at raves. I've never been to one like

Unknown Speaker 1:02:40
LSD. I think

Dakota 1:02:42
we're Molly. I don't know much about that stuff.

Scott Benner 1:02:45
Yeah. Well, you don't want to find out about it by mistake.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:48
Right? Exactly. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:02:51
I don't know. Like there's something about being able to buy illegally that makes you feel like it won't be tainted. And then I think if you were my kid, I'd be like, please buy it legally. So that you don't have to, like I don't if I could, oh, I would offend. Like you get in a car and I don't see how you look like a walking talking medical marijuana card to me. Just walk in there and be like, hey, when I was 11 and before you get off,

Dakota 1:03:16
you're you're done. Yeah, you're

Scott Benner 1:03:17
good man here. It's all good. Dude, you said you were diagnosed at like an 11? A once a year. So where are you now?

Dakota 1:03:26
My last one was 6.8 I believe my first agency after I got on Omnipod was down to 6.3. And that would have been

Scott Benner 1:03:38
only five five 6.3. Yep. And then why do you think it went up recently? Before

Unknown Speaker 1:03:43
I because I was like,

Dakota 1:03:47
kind of learning. You know? So I was eating lower carb.

Unknown Speaker 1:03:50
Oh, okay. Yeah. You're

Scott Benner 1:03:53
asking more of that insulin now? Yep. Right. What's your what's your favorite snacks?

Unknown Speaker 1:03:57
Like ice cream?

Dakota 1:04:00
Peach rings. Oh, peach. gummy candies?

Scott Benner 1:04:03
Dakota you and I do have a lot in common. Like you put your gun to my head. I want simple sugar if I'm gonna snack. All right. Yeah, yeah, about that. Look at you. You and I can get together. Yeah, did the

Dakota 1:04:17
dark chocolate chip thing I heard you talking about for a while. Did that help? It did but then I ran out of chocolate

Scott Benner 1:04:23
chips. Yeah, they're expensive too. Yeah, I know. That's the other problem. Is that like the bad stuff is cheap?

Dakota 1:04:30
Yeah, yeah. It's yeah, it's definitely more expensive to eat healthy. I tried to buy like fresh foods, meal prep and then freeze it. Good for you. Rather than buy in like stuff. I can stick in the microwave and warm up.

Scott Benner 1:04:44
My son went off to be honest zone this year. One of the like, most proud things, like moments I had was when he said, like really early on. He goes everybody's spending so much money on food. And I'm like, great. He goes I'm not going to do that. I want to save money while I'm here. And I was like Okay, so he's stedfastly goes out goes grocery shopping buys his food preps it packages it up and eats it all week long. Yep. Yeah, it saves him. He was actually with a job that wasn't paying, you know, a ton of money. He was able to save a significant amount of it because of that. Yeah, I was really proud of them. And if you if you do that, that's that's excellent. All right. Let's test how like we are. Dakota, then I'll let you get out of here. Ready? Okay. Swedish Fish better.

Unknown Speaker 1:05:27
Fresh.

Scott Benner 1:05:28
We're a little stale.

Speaker 1 1:05:29
I think I'm a little still because they're a little harder. Yeah, you're right. Okay. The

Scott Benner 1:05:33
peach rings. You bite them or you stuck on them? To go to where the same person this is fastening? Yeah. Cuz you like the texture better. Right? Yeah. You like where the sugar crunches through the soft stuff? Yep. Dakota, you might be my son. But yeah, it's very possible that I have ever met your mother. You know, I'm saying?

Speaker 1 1:05:56
I don't think so. No, okay. You ever been to Iowa?

Scott Benner 1:06:00
Not so far. Although I did find myself saying the word Iowa out loud recently, when I was talking to an organization that has chapters on college campuses. And I said, I hear there's a really big chapter in Iowa. I'd love to go talk there. So I don't know if that'll ever happen or not. But I did say the word Iowa in the last 24 hours before I talk to you. So you guys got airport, right? I'm not gonna walk there. I think yeah, I'm not writing a cow to Iowa or whatever the hell has to happen. You know what I mean? Seriously,

Dakota 1:06:31
speaking of cows, just random fact. My cousin has hit a cow three times. Like, you know, people hit near

Scott Benner 1:06:36
the same cow. No. Okay. Three different cows. How does it car? Well, I have a lot of questions. Now. I'm gonna let you go. How does a car hold up striking a cow? How does the cow hold up?

Dakota 1:06:49
Neither hold up very well.

Scott Benner 1:06:51
You kill a cow if you hit it with your car. So did they cook it after that? What do they do?

Dakota 1:06:57
I don't know what they did. I mean, maybe the farmer. You know, it'd be property.

Speaker 1 1:07:05
Your owns the cow you'd butchered right. Thanks. So

Scott Benner 1:07:10
she is I don't want to go down this rabbit hole. But I do want to Google that. But I'm not going to. Is he Hi, the friend. How do you hit a cow three times a night at night? It feels like it's on purpose. After the second time.

Dakota 1:07:24
I think someone wants their gate open.

Scott Benner 1:07:26
So if you leave the barn door open a cow will escape. Yes. And then your buddy will find it with a card god damn for sure and hit it.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:32
Yep.

Dakota 1:07:34
Why is he? Six? It's a sixth sense.

Scott Benner 1:07:36
What I like him home. Why is he out after dark? What do you think he's out there doing?

Dakota 1:07:40
Oh, hidden cows.

Scott Benner 1:07:45
All right. Well, I'm not gonna lie to you Dakota. This episode is called Hidden cows. And, and we're done. I like it. I don't know why you waited till the very end. But God bless you because anybody doesn't work. Dakota when I pick the title from later in the episode. Do you hang in to wait?

Dakota 1:08:01
I do. Yep. And I'm like paying attention the entire time waiting for

Scott Benner 1:08:06
it is my marketing genius of all marketing genius. Thanks. So I came up with that on my own by the way, nobody steal it. By the way, do you think anybody else would steal it? Like my podcast episodes are ridiculous. Even I when I'm typing them in, I'm like, What the hell am I doing? Did you enjoy the frozen urine of diabetes? I don't think I heard that. Well, it's the title. Go find it.

Dakota 1:08:33
I heard like butthole adjacent butthole

Scott Benner 1:08:35
Jason is the guy to be it's got I toyed with the idea Dakota of starting another podcast and calling it butthole. Jason. Oh, God. Well, I would talk about my the guy that does the editing for me who will hear this has to be talked into. He's talked me into me believing that I'm I'm a good podcast or not just a good diabetes. podcaster. And he's like, I would listen to other stuff if you did it. And I started thinking I was like, I started the podcast. I will call it but Hola, Jason. I've listened to it. Because are we talking about generals? Are we talking about me basically being in DC? I'm saying like, see how it works? Yeah. Like, are you being a J? Are you adjacent to the butthole? And am I the butthole? Or you get it its own way? Yeah. See? Yeah, it's not bad. Did you check out Bork Bork Bork from last week.

Dakota 1:09:23
I have listened. Yes. I liked that one. Let's

Scott Benner 1:09:26
roll through for a second. Let me just click a couple here. We'll come up with the stiff person is like

Dakota 1:09:32
oh, I liked that one too stiff person. wasn't that interesting? Yeah. I've never heard of stiff person syndrome.

Scott Benner 1:09:39
I hadn't either. Until I talked to her time is a construct, which is fantastic. Because it has nothing to do with the episode. Exactly.

Dakota 1:09:46
Yeah.

Scott Benner 1:09:49
It's a thing I said the Arden ones that I bring up like 45 minutes into the podcast. Kick. The goat will probably end up on a list somewhere with hitting cows. Whack a Mole.

Dakota 1:09:58
Yeah, there you go. Here's another one that is on the same line. Some

Scott Benner 1:10:01
people call me, Maurice.

Dakota 1:10:04
These are just recently I did hear the mortgage one.

Scott Benner 1:10:07
Yep. Fancy tractor. That one was his. I don't think she said I have a fancy tractor. I'm just like, What the hell does that mean? Then some of them like see like comparison and blame diabetes pro tip like my brains like boring. But I like the other ones. Do you like Arden on the podcast?

Dakota 1:10:26
I do. I like hearing her. She's fine. Okay.

Scott Benner 1:10:29
All right. Truthful. Yeah, yeah, she doesn't seem to have a filter.

Dakota 1:10:33
You guys are a lot of light. So it's fun listening to you bicker back and forth. Yeah,

Scott Benner 1:10:38
I appreciate that. Okay, by the way, nice day from for a mo is a line from a Steve Martin movie from the 80s. And I don't know, though. Yeah, of course you don't 25 You might not even know Steve Martin is I do know

Dakota 1:10:51
the Pink Panther. That's how you know Steve Martin. Yep. Oh, and Cheaper by the Dozen. And you mentioned the murders in the building earlier. I've never I've never seen that show.

Scott Benner 1:11:02
There are 100 years old that but it is funny. Okay, so I'll keep making silly names for the podcast. And you'll keep listening. And I appreciate you very much. Thank you for coming on and doing this.

Dakota 1:11:12
Thank you, of course.

Scott Benner 1:11:20
A huge thanks to Omni pod. Not just my longest sponsor, but my first one Omni pod.com/juicebox. If you love the podcast, and you love to Bolus insulin pumps, this link is for you omnipod.com/juice bar. I want to thank the ever since CGM for sponsoring this episode of Juicebox Podcast and invite you to go to ever since cgm.com/juice box to learn more about this terrific device. You can head over now and just absorb everything that the website has to offer. And that way you'll know if ever sense feels right for you. Ever since cgm.com/juice box Diaby diabetes diagnosis comes with a lot of new terms, and you're not going to understand most of them. That's why we made defining diabetes. Go to juicebox podcast.com up into the menu and click on defining diabetes to find the series that will tell you what all of those words mean. Short, fun and informative. That's the finding diabetes. Thank you so much for listening. I'll be back soon with another episode of The Juicebox Podcast. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording. Wrong way recording.com