Survive Everyday
The Survive Everyday Podcast explores the stories and systems that shape our lives, focusing on resilience, inequality, and change. Through candid conversations with individuals, policymakers, and experts, we uncover the hidden barriers that keep people struggling and discuss solutions to dismantle them. Our mission is simple: to spark understanding, challenge the status quo, and inspire action toward a fairer, more equitable world.
Episodes
47 episodes
The Real Welfare Queens
Billionaires are rewriting the rules of democracy—should we be worried? Join us alongside my guest, Ohio State Representative Joe Miller, as we dissect the seismic shifts in political influence. We tackle complex questions about transpa...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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17:31
From Poverty to Policy Change
Growing up in a working-poor family, State Representative Joe Miller (OH-53) brings a gritty, firsthand perspective to the table that challenges the status quo. Our discussion weaves through Joe's life experiences and combines them with insight...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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35:12
Profiting from Poverty
Jerry’s expertise provides a rare window into the, sometimes, exclusive world of investment strategies, encouraging us to question who truly benefits from the current financial system and how we can make smarter choices on our financial journey...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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27:44
What is Poverty?
Every day, millions wake up to a cycle they didn’t choose—a system built to keep them struggling, surviving, but never truly living. Poverty isn’t just an empty wallet or a lack of opportunity. It’s a network of barriers: broken systems, his...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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22:41
The Path Forward
In Spark of Change: Anti-Poverty Conversations, join us on a road trip of deep reflection, raw family discussions, and unfiltered perspectives on politics, community, and the American struggle with poverty.Together, we'll explo...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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22:13
39: Mental Health Matters
May is mental health awareness month and on this podcast we’ve never shied away from talking about mental health. On this episode we are going discussing 6 topics that delve into the intricate workings of the human mind and explo...
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Episode 39
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21:36
38: My "I want" song
A little more than a week ago I asked a question on social media. If you’re a musical theater nerd like I am, there’s always a song early in the first act called, the “I want song”. This is the song the hero of the ...
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Episode 38
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22:14
37: Stop.Drop.Rewind - Music = Survival
In our previous episode, we explored the importance of literacy. Today, we'll be diving into another form of language that is also essential to our survival - music.From ancient times to the present day, music has been an integ...
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Episode 37
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1:04:04
36: The Literacy Avengers
Literacy is an essential tool for empowerment and change. So today we’ve assembled the literacy Avengers, to use a comic book reference, to talk about the power of literacy and the challenges we face in promoting it and what Cleveland is doi...
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Episode 36
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1:03:59
35: Here we go again
Here we go again. Yet another school shooting, in yet another school district, in the only developed country where this seems to be a problem. In february we had the shooting at Michigan State University, and now….this….
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Episode 35
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33:37
34: The Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis
From the beginning of this podcast I’ve wanted to focus on books that tell a compelling story about survival, and I find none so compelling as the search for what our response to the Pandemic really was. I’ve read so many things on the pande...
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Episode 34
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1:43:42
33: Tanisha Taylor - A Goal Without A Plan is A Wish
A goal without a plan is a wish. This week we are still talking to Tanisha, but this time we are talking about how she exactly goes about talking to young adults without sounding like an arrogant boomer. If you have no ide...
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Episode 33
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1:00:02
32: Tanisha Taylor - Financial Advice Doesn't Have To Suck
This is the Survive Everyday Podcast Episode 32 with me, Adam Gercak.Money. It makes the world go around. We need it to navigate our society. We need it to exchange services for goods. It is the center of our lives. Survival De...
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Episode 32
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54:18
31: Audrey - Surviving Childhood
Childhood is something everyone on the planet goes through, and the stories of our childhood are incredibly different. Today, we have a very special guest, my oldest daughter, Audrey. She just turned 21 yesterday, so I wanted to chat with he...
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Episode 31
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55:10
30: Ashley Capps - How Non-Profits Build Communities
According to the IRS, there are over 750,000 not for profit organizations in the United States. Organizations like the Red Cross, Susan G Komen Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and so many more. These missions fill mainstream r...
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Episode 30
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1:22:37
29: Meredyth Willits - It's Not Their Problem, It's Your Problem
Being a parent is hard. Being a parent doesn’t come with an instruction manual, and to this day I’m surprised as hell that I was allowed to take them home from the hospital. This year my oldest turns 21 marking my 21st year of beng a Dad. Li...
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Episode 29
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1:21:09
Bonus Episode: A Love Story + 3 Special Guests
Valentine's Day, named after St Valentine, who as a Priest in Rome performed secret marriages for soldiers who were not allowed to get married. Valentine's Day is an amalgamation of a few different mythologies. Like Cupid who was really Eros th...
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44:41
28: John Gareis - The American Red Cross
Survival and Preapredness look different to everyone. Today on the podcast we are diving into preparedness and really, where to start. John Gareis, Regional Preparedness Manager for the American Red Cross in Cleveland is joining us to talk a...
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Episode 28
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1:06:58
27: Rebecca Smolenski - The One About Cannabis
This week's episode does feature some bonus content which you can access HERE and at the link and become a member of the Coffee Club to unlockBefor...
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Episode 27
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1:09:18
26: Chris Piazza - Leading With Emotional Intelligence
January is a month where a lot of us hit a reset button. We are actively looking for ways to make us better. Those New Year’s resolutions to eat differently, workout more, learn more, whatever the case, we often try and start over. January 1...
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Episode 26
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57:53
25: Kristen Lorenz - Don't Yuck Someone's Yum
The holidays are stressful, there is no doubt about it. In America we have Thanksgiving quickly followed by Christmas and families get together and often talk about, eat, and critique food. Too much salt not enough salt, you get it. You have...
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Episode 25
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1:00:00
24: Ron Felgenhauer - Service Above Self
Earlier this year I became an insurance agent, and not too much longer after that I was recruited to join a project called Project YESS. The project was to get kids out on Lake Erie and on the water and teach them water safety. Over the cour...
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Episode 24
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54:22
23: Mikey B - The Value of Veterans
Veterans Day is intended to thank and honor all those who served honorably in the military – living and dead – whether in wartime or peace. In fact, Veterans Day is largely intended to thank living Veterans for their service, to acknowledge ...
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Episode 23
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1:29:58
22: Dr. Melissa Beare - Vulnerability Is Never Weakness
"I’ve often said that we have only one truly sacred obligation as Americans—to prepare and properly equip our women and men in uniform when we send them into harm’s way, and to care for them and their families when they return. ...
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Episode 22
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1:09:09