The Ben Maynard Program

EP. 75 New Year's Eve Special: Celebrating 2024's Milestones and Welcoming 2025 Adventures!

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What a whirlwind of a year it has been! As we stand on the brink of 2025, join me, Ben Maynard, for a special New Year's Eve edition where we reminisce about the monumental moments from 2024. From reaching the 50th episode milestone around Father's Day to celebrating our 75th episode just in time for New Year's Eve, it's been an incredible journey. Whether you're partying the night away or enjoying a quiet evening at home, this episode promises to be a delightful companion as we reflect on the past and eagerly anticipate the future.

Looking ahead, I'm thrilled to share some exciting news—I'll be broadcasting from Seattle for most of January! With my essentials packed, expect more engaging content and maybe a few surprises along the way. Your support and engagement have been the cornerstone of this journey, so whether you've been with us from the start or are just tuning in, thank you for being a part of this community. Here’s to a fantastic year ahead, brimming with new adventures and milestones. Let's take on 2025 together!#tellyourstory #familymatters #thebenmaynardprogram #podcast #happynewyear2025

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Speaker 1:

Hey there, welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. Guess what today is? Today is December 31st, 2024. 2024, people, you know what that means? New Year's Eve. Wow, it's crazy.

Speaker 1:

Let's change something here. Right out of the gate. I got to change something. There we go. Oh yeah, yes, I'm not going to keep you long. Okay, this will be a quick one. Let's do this. There we go. Yeah, this will be a quick one. Let's do this. There we go. Yeah, this will be a quick one tonight.

Speaker 1:

I just wanted to go live for just a short bit. You've got things to do. I'm sure most of you are going to just go out and whoop it up. Maybe not. Maybe you'll stay home, stay in, watch a movie, sit by the fire, drink some hot cocoa, I don't know, something like that. But anyway, listen.

Speaker 1:

Before we get started, I just want to remind everybody that this program is available wherever you get your podcasts. Ok, wherever you listen to your podcast, whatever your favorite streaming services, this program is available there. All right, just search the Ben Maynard program. But if you are watching it live and you probably are not, because I gave no one any warning that we were going live tonight, but just in case you are and you cannot resist all this right here. Well, thanks for watching on YouTube and if you are, please subscribe to the channel. Hit the little notification bell. Alright, give me a thumbs up. Please look, if anything, even if you don't subscribe, give me a thumbs up, but subscribe anyway. Okay, the, the likes, the likes. They really mean a lot. They truly do. They truly truly do. So give me a thumbs up. Leave a comment.

Speaker 1:

I'm still getting comments on episodes that are almost a year old. It's great, I love it. I get a notification when someone comments and then I just reply right back to them as soon as I get a chance. It's all good. Last but not least, follow me on Instagram. Simply, ben Maynard program all one word All right, short, sweet, just like tonight's show.

Speaker 1:

I wasn't even going to do it and I'm at work today and I thought you know what. We're just going to hit them with a live one. Keep it short, keep it simple, keep it sweet, and that's what I'm going to do tonight. So there you are for the opening. How's that 2024. Wow, what else can be said? I mean, we always get to New Year's Eve and we say, oh my gosh, where did it go? The time went by so fast and it kind of seems like it did. But we're right here, new Year's Eve, we're just a few hours away from it being midnight, and 2025, you know, coming in saying hello to us. And 2025, you know, coming in saying hello to us, oh, catherine's sending me stuff. She knows I'm up here, she's downstairs and she's sending me stuff.

Speaker 1:

So, look, yeah, a lot of stuff happened this last year. Right, a lot of stuff. But instead of getting into everything that happened throughout the year that is not really related to the show I just want to hit you with a couple of highlights from this past year on the show. Let's see what did we do? Well, hit 50 episodes. So we hit our 50th. I think that was around Father's Day and seems like we may have slowed down a little bit, but tonight, tonight is 75 episodes, so we've done. You know, we're at 75 episodes and we are just over a year old I don't know what 14 months, something like that. So, not bad, not bad. I'll definitely gonna try to pick it up here coming into the new year and, I'm hoping, crossing my fingers again, just like I did earlier in this year.

Speaker 1:

Just found out this morning that I'm headed to Seattle for at least the next two weeks, probably going to be the entire month of January. So I'm leaving Sunday morning. I'll be up there for a bit, taking the laptop. I have a USB microphone sitting over there across the studio. I'm going to take that microphone. I'll probably take instead of using the FaceTime camera maybe I'll take. I've got another camera around here that it's not great for being all the way across the studio, but I think for being just a couple of feet away from the laptop and not having to use the camera on the computer. I'd rather do. I'd rather take that one with me. So I think I'll do that. So, unlike Portland, I'm going to really work out the kinks with the Wi-Fi and getting all that stuff hammered out and I want to try to bring you a couple shows from there and get some good stuff done. But so I'm excited about that. Maybe we'll finally really and truly take this show on the road. We're going to try that one more time, but getting into some of the highlights of the show or just kind of getting into some of the past guests from the year 2024.

Speaker 1:

Going all the way back to January, we had Pauly Z on the show, pauly Z from ZO2. Remember that? Oh my gosh, that was such a great time, great interview, a man that was truly generous with his time and, as a matter of fact, pauly made two. Pauly made two appearances on the show this year and he was the first one first returning guest that is not one of my friends or family members Okay, truly the first one that I had to go out and book to get on the program here. That was just a ton of fun. Both times he was on was great. And then, oh gosh, remember Fab and Big Sexy. Oh, that was a ton of fun. That was another just a great time.

Speaker 1:

They came into the studio and we spent about an hour and 20 minutes or so and we just talked about a lot of stuff and we got into some music. I think we even broke into song once or twice. So it was just good stuff, really really good stuff. How about, let's see? Oh, I had former LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva on the program. He was running for county Board of Supervisor position and we had him on just a couple of weeks prior to the election and, yeah, that was some very interesting stuff that he brought to the table, brought to the show. He brought to the table, brought to the show some very interesting stuff. Then I had my pastor, brian Benson Great, great stuff. It's always good when you can talk about your faith a little bit, yeah, and share about that stuff.

Speaker 1:

Then, oh, how about the great Kobe Reese? Remember? He was 13 at the time, 13 years old, and I haven't spoken to him since. He's been on the program. But I do follow him on Facebook and we'll send a little message back and forth to each other from time to time. But I need to get him back on. He was fun, he was a lot of fun and I'm excited about him. He's got a lot of good stuff. He's had such a busy year we talked about it a little bit and he's got a very, very bright future in the music business. Yeah, so I'd like to get him back on.

Speaker 1:

And, oh, adam Holland, oh my gosh, oh my goodness. That was so much fun having him on. Just the stories that we talked about, going all the way back to the beginning of his music career, beginning of his, of his music career. And, uh, I'm still listening to his, his album that he put out. It's called rapture, by the way, okay, still listening to it, still great, still great, so good.

Speaker 1:

And then, uh, we had pepper ann, and pepper anna is a returning guest to the show. She was on the Christmas show. Yeah, if you missed it, you got to go back and watch it, but that was great. That was great to have a returning guest on, and Pepper Ann was great and I look forward to having her on. Just, if you didn't see when she was on the Christmas show, check it out, because she says anytime you want me, ben, just let me know, I'm on, I'm coming on, we'll talk about whatever. So she's, she's working on another book. She's definitely going to come on and plug that. But you know what? Just call her on the phone and say, hey, what's Pepper? And she'll come on, just talk about anything. Maybe we'll talk about all things Texas, how's that? But then where do we go after that?

Speaker 1:

Oh, wow, this one was a heavy one. Rachel Thompson, yes, real heavy, so good, though. So good, but heavy. We got into some heavy stuff, yeah, but that was a good one, she's awesome. And, uh, I'll, I'll be reaching out to her again too. I just really liked, liked talking with her, Um, just, yeah, so open and, and just you know, all these people have been so great this past year. They really honestly have, and so I look forward to having you know any or all of them on again coming in in the new year After let's see, let's see, let's see.

Speaker 1:

We had, oh, veterans Day weekend, we had Ronnie Geyer and we had Larry Reedy Back-to-back shows celebrating our veterans, giving thanks to them, and Larry, another returner to the program yeah, he called in the night of the Christmas show out of the blue. He was just watching the show and called in. So that was good stuff. Then what would we have after? Oh, gwen and Alicia from Canada, from the Great White North, with their poetry and art book. That was so good, that was so good. Their episode's doing really well and it's doing great on the streaming services. It's doing good here on YouTube. If you haven't seen it, check it out. If you haven't seen any of these shows, you just got to go back and look at them, go back, listen to them, watch them. Whatever it is, however, you want to take them in Then, early this month, that's right.

Speaker 1:

First week of December, I had Garrett Biss, another veteran, but we talked about some pretty heavy stuff getting veterans through addiction and some dark stuff and Garrett just does great work, so he was a pleasure to have on as well. And not to mention my good buddies Matt and Spaz and brother Jim and Tess and my beautiful wife Catherine. Just so much fun to have people engage in the program, come in studio, just mix it up a little bit, have some fun, especially when we're doing a Friday night live. And as far as guests, that's a pretty extensive list of guests that we had on throughout the year. All good stuff truly is, and I look forward to 2025.

Speaker 1:

We've got some good stuff coming up without giving a big giant shout out, and a thank you to each and every one of you out there in the listening and viewing audience of the Ben Maynard program. Some of you have been here right from the start. A lot of you have come aboard as we've moved along through late 23 and this entire year of 24. So I thank each and every one of you for doing that, taking time out of your day, your evening, whatever it might be, to spend a little bit of time with me. And if we've got a guest in, whatever it is or whatever the topic is that we have going on that particular episode. I look forward to doing a lot more of that.

Speaker 1:

I'm hoping to get some time now that I'm going to get away for at least a couple of weeks, I think it's. I honestly I think it's going to pretty much be the entire month of January, but I look forward to getting a little bit of time to uh, to prepare, uh, some shows, do some show writing anyway, prepare some material stuff like that. We'll probably bust out a Friday night live or two and just see how that goes, and if I'm going to be in Seattle, I guess we may as well talk about what's going on in Seattle while I'm there, right? So just some stuff to look forward to going into 2025.

Speaker 1:

Again, I can't say enough thanks to all of you. I truly do love each and every one of you, because without you there is no program, there's no podcast, and I'd just be doing it for myself. I suppose I would still do it because I like sitting up here in the studio and just talking and I can look into the camera. I could see myself across the studio and, I don't know, admire myself, I suppose. But it's been great. Like I said, I'm not going to take up a bunch of your time. I'm going to get you out of here so that you can carry on with your evening. In closing, I want to say again thank you.

Speaker 1:

I love each and every one of you and whatever you do tonight, whether you stay home, whether you go out and celebrate with family and friends just be careful. Just be careful, be safe. Go out and have a great time indoors, outdoors, whatever it is. Do your thing, have fun, be safe and, like mom always says, don't drink and drive right, yeah, don't do that. Do not do that. Call yourself an Uber or call yourself a Lyft or whatever. All right, have a designated driver. Be smart, because I want to see you right back here again next year. And with that, listen, goodbye 2024. Happy New Year, welcome in 2025. All right, so be safe. I love you all. Enjoy yourselves. I'll see you back here again next year, for the last time in 2024,. This is the Ben Maynard Program. Tell 10,000 of your family and friends, do it. I'm telling you All right, happy New Year. God bless you.