This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human. The countdown is on for the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light. Catch all seven rounds three days live from Pittsburgh, April 23rd through 25th. Watch every pick live on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC.
NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus. It all starts Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern. Visit NFL.com slash draft for more information. Subscription required for NFL Plus.
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EBGLIS, Libriquizumab, LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EBGLIS. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur.
Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with EBGLIS. Before starting EBGLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Ask your doctor about EBGLIS and visit ebglis.lily.com or call 1-800-LILIRX or 1-800-545-5979. And we return to our American stories.
Up next, another story from our regular contributor from Kodiak Island in Alaska. Leslie Leland Fields. Today, Leslie shares a deeply personal story entitled, forgiving my worthless father. Take it away, Leslie. I never called my father worthless.
That was his own word for himself. But in a way, He was right. I was on the phone with him. He had had a stroke. I told him I was flying down to see him from my home in Alaska.
to a rehab facility in Florida. I'll be seeing you in about three weeks, I said to him. I spoke loudly and tried to make my voice cheerful. to infuse some kind of joy into his life. And that's what he said.
I'm Not. Worth it. Of course you're worth it. I answer back instantly. But you know, in some ways.
He wasn't wrong. Yeah. Uh In the whole human balances of justice and fairness. He hadn't done anything. To deserve this kind of sacrifice and attention from his children.
He couldn't or wouldn't hold a job. Which left us deeply impoverished and ashamed throughout our childhood. Our food was sparse. Our homemade clothes were worn out. We got one pair of shoes a year, all that.
But even more than that, they didn't seem to be able to form relationships, and they treated us as children as though we were invisible. And soon after, we grew up and left our house. My parents divorced. He moved to Florida to live by himself, thousands of miles from all of us. I was glad.
Over the next 30 years, I saw my father maybe three times. And it was always me traveling thousands of miles to see him. He would never have come to see me. And every time I flew down, I went needy and hopeful. But he would see me.
Expressed interest in me, show some kind of affirmation, but It never came. He would barely speak to me. And when he did, sometimes he just ridiculed my faith. He claimed to be an atheist. The last time I saw him, I decided I'm done.
I'm never going back. But Then he had a stroke. He was maybe eighty four then. And in spite of my vow, I did go back. I flew down from Kodiak to be with him.
Just the two of us. He was in a rehab facility by then, so I flew into Orlando. rented a car, drove to the facility. Ugh, my stomach fluttering. wondering who I would find, what would be left.
The last time I saw him, he had all his faculties. Yeah, he walked painfully slowly with a walker, but he was upright and cogent. even though we never said very much. But that was normal. and I knew something was wrong with him, even as a child.
but it took me many years to find the name for his detachment. His inability to love others even his own children. This day, I walked through the automatic doors of the rehab facility. I stopped at the front desk, found his room number, And I started down the hallway so slowly, just inching down, dreading what was next. Um I found his room.
Then I peered around the doorway. It was a room for two. There was one figure I could see lying curled on the bed. And then through a half-open curtain, I could see another man in a wheelchair.
So I walked in. Trembling. It was my father on the bed. He was lying on his side, curled knees to chest. He was wearing shorts.
His jaw hung open. I could see that all his teeth were gone now. He was much thinner than the last time I saw him, but his legs were still solid and muscular. But what do I do? What do I know about this?
Visiting the sick, the elderly, a father. I felt like I was supposed to know. But I didn't. He was sleeping. I had come 5,000 miles and my time was short.
I didn't want to wait. I inched closer to the bed, deciding then I would wake him if I could.
So I touched his shoulder through his thin shirt. and watched his face. I held my fingers there for a moment and he blinked. Then his eyes opened. He was looking directly at me without moving his head.
And when he saw me, his eyes filled with tears. And still looking right at me, he began to weep. his whole body shuddering as he sobbed. his head still lying on his hands. I froze.
I'd never seen my father weep. Or even teary or sad, he seldom showed any emotion. I felt torn in half, my own face crumpled. And I kept my hand on his shoulder to comfort his racking body. And there we were.
both shaking in silent sobs. Uh I knew he couldn't speak or name all the sorrows that shook him, but it seemed to me that we wept. for his long, sad life, for his breaking body. His tangled mind and a tongue that was now nearly stilled. And I cried that I had not seen him sooner.
I cried for 30 years of absence from his life. We were crying for all that was lost to us both. And even in that moment, I realized. The stroke. Had rendered him more fully human than I'd ever seen him.
And in that moment, I saw my father through eyes of mercy. and kindness. And I was sad as well. Did it really take a stroke? to render him worthy of compassion?
The next day, I was gently pushing his wheelchair down the hall. I shared meals with him, watched TV with him in his room, read to him. And do all of that. I couldn't shake the injustice and inequity of it that every gift and kindness I gave to him. He had never shown to me.
But Something else was stronger. A desire to forgive. Hmm. I could see him through eyes of compassion now, rather than through my own needs as a daughter. A few days later, I had to leave and return home, but after that visit, I began to pray for him, to call him regularly.
and to send him letters and even gifts. We often think that the cost of forgiving is too high. But we don't consider the cost of not forgiving. I found relief in releasing his debts against me. Especially as I realized that my father could not pay what he owed me.
Nor can many parents. You can't shake money. Or love. out of someone who is bankrupt themselves. And I found the yoke of forgiveness.
was lighter. and the yoke of hurt. And you know what happened? Love came back. One day, he called me amazing.
On one of my birthdays. He called me. When I came to visit, He didn't want me to leave. Forgiving my father changed me. And one forgiveness has led to others and to my own apologies to those I know I have hurt.
And all of this is moving me toward. The person I want to be. My father was touched as well. And in the last two years of his life, my worthless father. was surrounded and blessed.
by the very ones he had harmed. And I believe that he felt loved. Perhaps for the first time even. I know. We cannot heal all the broken families of the world.
But we can begin here. with ourselves. and our own families. With God's forgiveness and love. Anything.
is possible. The story of Leslie Leland Fields and her father. A love story in the end here. on Our American Stories. The countdown is on for the 2026 NFL Draft presented by Bud Light.
Catch all seven rounds three days live from Pittsburgh, April 23rd through 25th. Watch every pick live on NFL Network, ESPN, and ABC. NFL Network is also streaming with NFL Plus. It all starts Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Visit nfl.com/slash draft for more information. Subscription required for NFL Plus. Visit plus.nfl.com for terms. We've been duped, hoodwinked, conned for 50 years. The lawn care industry sold us toxins in a bag and made our yards more toxic than a bad relationship.
Sunday helps you ditch the chemicals and feed your lawn the good stuff: soybean proteins, iron, seaweed, molasses, ingredients that get your soil giggling like an overserved mom at the block party. Sunday uses clean ingredients in real science for thicker, greener grass. Order today and get your custom Sunday yard plan for the season ahead. Sunday for a smarter, healthier yard. GetSunday.com.
Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from EBGLIS. After an initial dosing phase, about 4 in 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing. EBGLIS Libricizumab LBKZ, a 250 milligram per 2 milliliter injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema.
Also called atopic dermatitis that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to EBGLIS. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur.
Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting EBGLIS, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. Searching for real relief? Ask your doctor about EBGLIS and visit ebglis.lily.com or call 1-800-LILLIRX or 1-800-545-5979.
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