The Mandy Connell Podcast

CHSAA settles on boy in girls sports, The Wine Yogi pops in to talk bubbles, and you need to sign these petitions!

Dad joke of the day, word of the day, Mandy's trivia question of the day & jeopardy! It's OF THE DAY! Today's opponent: The Wine Yogi.

THE WINE YOGI POPS IN TO TALK BUBBLES And she joins me at 2:30 to talk how to celebrate the holidays well. Find her blog and lots of great info on her website here, where she does a deep dive on the history of champagne that is super interesting.

YOU NEED TO SIGN THESE PETITIONS Erin Lee from Protect Kids Colorado is on today at 1:30 to talk about some pop up signing events for the three ballot initiatives they are gathering signatures for.

CHSAA SETTLES ON BOYS IN GIRLS SPORTS And this is just the first round as districts like D49 in Colorado Springs refuse to allow fundamental unfairness to harm girls. According to the settlement reached and announced yesterday, D49 and its co-plaintiffs will be allowed to do the following: • Maintain separate sports teams for biological boys and girls. • Keep locker rooms and overnight travel accommodations separated by biological sex. • Avoid CHSAA-imposed penalties for upholding these policies. • Comply with Title IX and the U.S. Constitution while rejecting mandates that put student privacy at risk. All of which is perfectly NORMAL (more on that later in the blog). They are still suing the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the Attorney General and will continue moving forward with that part of the suit. I've got D49 Superintendent Peter Hilts on at 12:30 to talk about it.

How hospitals are driving the cost of healthcare, helping people with developmental disabilities, and the progressive income tax is coming.

Dad joke of the day, word of the day, Mandy's trivia question of the day & jeopardy! It's OF THE DAY! Today's opponent: Ryan Edwards.

JERRY SCHEMMEL HAS A CAUSE And I love this one. Our friend Jerry is working with Best Day Ministries, an organization that works to provide support and life skills to help them achieve at their highest level. Find out more about it here, and Jerry joins me at 2:30 to discuss it!

HOW HOSPITALS ARE DRIVING UP HEALTHCARE COSTS The thing that makes health insurance so expensive is the COST of the healthcare being delivered, and as we try to fix health insurance we can't do so without acknowledging what is driving those costs. One bit thing is hospital consolidation. Hospitals are buying up private practices, surgical centers and more and then leveraging their monopoly powers to charge more to insurance companies, who then charge more to insurers. I've got Peter Pitts, former Associate FDA Commissioner and President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest on at 1pm to talk about it. He recently testified before Congress and in part had this to say: “Healthcare in the United States is in a crisis of affordability and accountability. In 2023, Americans spent more than $1.5 trillion at hospitals—nearly one-third of total health expenditures. Hospital systems, especially nonprofit institutions, are the primary driver of healthcare cost inflation and systemic inefficiency.” If we want to lower healthcare costs, we have to fix this broken system. Peter also has a book out about the process of creative destruction and how to leverage it and you can buy it here.

A perfect day for Weather Wednesday, Boca Raton is coming for our business, and more on the massive fraud in Minnesota

BOCA RATON WANTS YOUR BUSINESS And I've got Jessica Del Vecchio, Economic Development Manager for the City of Boca Raton on to talk about office vacancies here in Denver and how they are trying to woo our business away. If you're looking to be wooed you can check this out. She joins me at 1 to discuss it. Just how bad are our downtown occupancy rates? Really, really bad. Maybe everyone is moving to Boca already.

Dad joke of the day, word of the day, Mandy's trivia question of the day & jeopardy! It's OF THE DAY! Today's opponent: Grant Smith.

JON JUSTICE TALKS MINNESOTA At Twin Cities News Talk every morning so I thought I'd bring him on to talk about the fallout from the massive fraud taking place there. He's on at 2:30 today. I watched this interview with Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and was actually grateful that Jared Polis leads our state for a minute. I skipped the softball TRUMP BAD opening question so you can get to the meat of it.

FOX 31'S DAVE FRASER IS GONNA BE BUSY TODAY Counting snow totals and whatnot. Lucky for us he's joining us at 12:30 for Weather Wednesday to talk about it.

Our futurist looks at the destruction of systems we all relied on, Douglas County Schools is a new soap opera, and immigrants on the dole is just bad, and it's time for real talk on climate.

Dad joke of the day, word of the day, Mandy's trivia question of the day & jeopardy! It's OF THE DAY! Today's opponent: Ryan Edwards.

OUR FUTURIST THOMAS FREY TALKS THE DESTRUCTION OF SYSTEMS This article is quite alarming when you begin to realize that the systems you and I grew up with are trashed. Here he writes about the Great Systems Collapse, but it's not all gloom and doom. There is room for great improvement with today's technology. He also writes about the future of repopulation the world using robots and other such science fiction, but I have concerns about that. Read it here. He joins me at 1 to talk about it. Find out more about Thomas here.

Lots happened while I was gone, from the death of State Senator Faith Winters, to the escalation of our undeclared war with Venezuela, to Mayor Johnston's legal bills revealed. We'll dive in today.

Dad joke of the day, word of the day, Mandy's trivia question of the day & jeopardy! It's OF THE DAY! Today's opponent: Nick Ferguson.