Scott Benner (3:01)

Oh, hi. I'm smiling from this. It's interesting to hear somebody else talk about it. Go ahead. Because I'm talking about it too much usually. So go ahead, please.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (3:11)

So how have you been since our last conversation?

Scott Benner (3:14)

It's been two years. You're telling me.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (3:17)

Yes. Last time I think I interviewed you, I was a freshman, and now I'm a junior.

Scott Benner (3:23)

A lot has changed for me personally with my health. So two years is about the length of time. It's been a little longer, but about the length of time that I've been using a GLP1 medication to lose weight. So I don't know the exact number, but. So one way that I'm different is I weigh 70 pounds less than I did the last time you talked to me.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (3:47)

Wow, that's crazy.

Scott Benner (3:48)

It is really insane. I'm wearing a. I'm sitting here in a medium T shirt, and the last time you talked to me, I would have been in a 2 XL T shirt.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (3:55)

Dang, that's. That's crazy. That's a lot of determination.

Scott Benner (3:59)

Well, you know, I think some people would think that it isn't because they think that this shot just does the whole thing, but it really doesn't. There's still a lot to do and a lot to stick to while you're using it. It does make a misstep easier sometimes. But now I've learned a lot about, I guess, what I used to tell myself versus what might be true. And just overall, the difference that the weight loss has made in how I feel every day and how healthy I am. It's been a really big influence for me.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (4:30)

Yeah, I think that's great, and I just think it's amazing overall.

Scott Benner (4:34)

Thank you. What have you been up to?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (4:36)

School.

Scott Benner (4:37)

Just going to school.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (4:39)

Yeah, I guess that's like the main one to school.

Scott Benner (4:42)

Have you been making your podcast regularly?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (4:44)

Yeah, I'm doing, like, once a month sometimes.

Scott Benner (4:47)

Very nice.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (4:48)

Sometimes twice a month. Sometimes I skip a month whenever I can.

Scott Benner (4:52)

What are you learning while you're doing it?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (4:53)

So I think I'm learning, like, better. Like, how to talk better, if that makes sense, and how to, like, respond to, like, in between questions and things like that.

Scott Benner (5:04)

Yeah. Think it's more fluid when you're having conversations than it was before.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (5:09)

Yeah, I think it Is.

Scott Benner (5:10)

Is it? I know I'm already interviewing you. I apologize. Is it bleeding over into your regular life?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (5:16)

See, I don't know about that because I think it's very different when you're interviewing someone versus, like, a normal conversation.

Scott Benner (5:23)

You don't think any of the skills are overlaying over top of the regular. Like, what about, like, the quality of the questions you ask when you're in personal situations?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (5:31)

I think it could, but I don't think I've been putting enough time for it too, if that makes sense.

Scott Benner (5:36)

It's made me a better listener.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (5:38)

Yeah, see, but you do this a lot. Like, every day. You're like a pro now.

Scott Benner (5:43)

You are the third person I'm recording with today.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (5:46)

I know that's a lot of people.

Scott Benner (5:47)

So I do have a lot of practice. I guess I could pull it up and tell you for sure about this week, because Today's Friday, so. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I've recorded nine times this week.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (6:01)

I know it's a lot.

Scott Benner (6:03)

I've probably had about 11 or 12 hours worth of conversations with people this week.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (6:07)

Wow.

Scott Benner (6:08)

You're not wrong. Like, the more you do it, the better you'll get at it. But I think it really does help me in my regular life. I'm not kidding. I think I listen better. I think I ask better questions. I'm definitely more focused on what someone's trying to tell me or maybe even what they're not saying, but maybe we could figure out what they mean, like, you know, if we just ask the right questions and poke around a little bit. Yeah, it's been a big deal for me. I really enjoy it.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (6:35)

Yeah. So I know these are all very, like, expected developments and I guess your, like, personal journey as a host, but what's the most unexpected development in your journey as being a host.

Scott Benner (6:50)

Specific to making the podcast or bigger picture, even, like, in the diabetes space?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (6:55)

I guess both.

Scott Benner (6:56)

I can't believe a hundred people came on a cruise ship with me. That's crazy. The level of. I went to my first friends for life this year, and my wife came with me. She never travels with me when I do speaking stuff. It was the very first time, and we were there for a couple of days, and she remarked to me, she said, everyone here knows who you are. And my wife's not, like, a fan. She's not fangirling for me or anything like that. She was making a real observation, like, I've been married a very long time. My wife's not exactly running around looking, looking for Fun, happy things to say to me all the time. She was making a real observation. She's like every person we walk past, she's like, they're looking and they have a look on their face. They recognize you and then you can see them look as you walk by. And every third person would wave or smile or stop or say hello. And I think she thought maybe I was joking about that. We're overblowing it, maybe when I shared with her in the past. But it was interesting to hear it from another person's perspective that the podcast has reached so many people that there's that kind of awareness about it, I guess, because I am not nearly like the face of the podcast, you know what I mean? Like, I don't. It's not like I'm all over the social media or, you know, or this is even video. So it's been very surprising to me, I guess that not just as far as it's gotten and how many people it's reached, but I guess that it's been going so long. I think that's another part of it that's in my head this year as I. I don't know, what AM I halfway 2/3 of the way through the 11th full season of making the podcast. You know, in a calendar year, I usually record, I don't know, I put out 220 episodes usually a year. I just, I can't believe it's still going, I guess. And then it seems to be growing, not stagnant or falling off.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (8:50)

Yeah. So when I saw your post about the cruise ship, I was like, wow, he's like really famous.

Scott Benner (8:57)

Yeah, it's diabetes famous. But yeah, I mean, it surprised me too because that was a thing that, you know, I was approached by other people about doing it. It's not a thing I would have known how to set up or how to run on my own. And I immediately was like, no, you got the wrong guy. Like nobody's gonna want to come, you know. And that person said, no, I think you're wrong. And so I kind of put it in their hands. And I'll be honest with you, I didn't do it for money. I didn't make a cent doing it and it wasn't the intention of it. And I guess if we're looking for things that have really surprised me that that was a mix of people on that ship. They were some parents of children with type 1 with their kids. There were some parents in their 60s that were there with their 30 year olds. There were 20 year olds and 30 year olds and 40 and 50 and 60 and 70 year old people, type 1 diabetes, all gathered together and really just enjoying each other and enjoying being around each other. So for as much as I can kind of intellectually talk about that, I know community is important and how much it means to people to spend a full five days in that kind of close quarter situation, there was like I would give a talk every day. I made sure to eat dinner with every person that was with me and to really watch what it meant to them to meet each other was special and a little transformative for me.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (10:25)

So do you plan on doing this as a yearly thing?

Scott Benner (10:28)

Well, it's a lot of work for me. Not just that week, but leading up to it. It's sort of on me to, I don't want to use the word push it, but keep it out there on social media. Make sure you keep it in people's minds. But yeah, we're doing it again 2026 this year coming up. It'll go out of Miami and I think we're going through the Virgin Islands and making a bunch of stops. Seven day cruise. It's going to be awesome and we'll do the same thing one more time and then we'll see where it goes from there.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (10:57)

So keeping on the topic, I guess, of like partnerships and stuff, besides the cruise, do you have any other, like big collaborations that you really remember?

Scott Benner (11:09)

Yeah, I did something with Tandem this year at Friends for Life, where the content from that's not out yet, but I sat with kids from gosh, like 5 to 15 who were all Moby or Tandem users. And I basically did a short 45 minute conversation with each of them and they filmed it for their social media and that was really awesome because, I mean, I've been doing this a very long time. This podcast has been up since January of 2015. And before that I wrote a blog for GOSH 7, 2008, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13. I wrote a blog for nine years now I have a podcast for 11 years. I've been in this for coming up on 20 years now. Yeah, but companies, they're always very like, I probably work with every company you can think of that's around diabetes. They purchase ads on the podcast and we do stuff online and. But no one really ever invites me to speak at anything or be somewhere. Tandem did and I thought that was really awesome. And I'll tell you, between you and I, I don't know why that is, but it makes a lot of sense to me that it's I don't have diabetes, so I'd be a weird person to like, I don't know, at a diabetes conference to stand up on stage and say, this person's here representing the company. You know, I've always thought that that was the reason that that didn't happen. And so I've never really gone to things like that Beyond Touched by Type 1, which I speak at every year. I've never been to ada. I've never been to ADC ES or Friends for Life or any of that. And part of me was wondering how it would go. But, you know, after being there for a week, it was awesome. I felt welcomed by people. There were a number of people that came up to me and said, oh, I've been waiting for you to be at this forever. And some people thanked me for coming, almost as if they thought that I wasn't going on purpose. It was very, very interesting. I don't know if that answers your question. I'm sorry.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (13:10)

No, it does answer my question. Do you think you're going to be speaking more at these events or.

Scott Benner (13:17)

Well, yeah, that one. I got an offer while I was there to speak at something else, so. And it's private, so it's not a public thing.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (13:25)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (13:25)

And that'll actually. I'll be in Ohio for that. Oh, really?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (13:29)

Where in Ohio?

Scott Benner (13:30)

I don't really know exactly where yet. It's not. It's not till October.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (13:35)

Oh, okay. It's in a while.

Scott Benner (13:36)

It's still two months away. I don't have all the details yet, but I'll be speaking at A4 company to their behind the scenes workers. So they're looking, you know, just for me to give a talk. So I'm doing a little like public speaking thing there. I have committed to going to friends for life Ada and Adces next year in 2026. And I'll be doing that with a partner. Do you know the Sugar Pixel? Do you know what that is? Yeah, yeah. So at those events, you see these big kind of booths. Sugar Pixel and I will be in one kind of giant booth together at those events. Yeah, yeah, that's happening. And touched by type 1 is in the investigation phase of doing some diabetes talks with me around the country. They're trying to figure out ways to fund it right now, but the idea is for me to go to, I think, Chicago, Nashville, Austin and Philadelphia and do like sit down Q&As with people for a number of hours and we're hoping to bring Jenny to some of that stuff too.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (14:38)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (14:38)

Yeah. So that's what's maybe on the horizon for next year.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (14:43)

Even though you don't have type 1 diabetes, you have a lot experience to talk from, especially being like a dad for someone who has type 1 diabetes. I think that is just as valuable or even sometimes more valuable than someone who has type 1 diabetes.

Scott Benner (15:00)

Today's episode is brought to you by Omnipod. We talk a lot about ways to lower your A1C on this podcast. Did you know that the Omnipod 5 was shown to lower A1C? That's right. Omnipod 5 is a tube free automated insulin delivery system and it was shown to significantly improve A1C and time and range for people with type 1 diabetes when they switched from daily injections. My daughter is about to turn 21 years old and she has been wearing an Omnipod every day since she was four. It has been a friend to our family and I think it could be a friend to yours. If you're ready to try Omnipod 5 for yourself or your family, use my link now to get started. Omnipod.com juicebox get that free Omnipod 5 starter kit today. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found@ omnipod.com juicebox you can manage diabetes confidently with the powerfully simple Dexcom G7. Dexcom.com juicebox the Dexcom G7 is the CGM that my daughter is wearing. The G7 is a simple CGM system that delivers real time glucose numbers to your smartphone or smartwatch. The G7 is made for all types of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, but also people experiencing gestational diabetes. The Dexcom G7 can help you spend more time in range, which is proven to lower a 1C. The more time you spend in range, the better and healthier you feel. And with the Dexcom Clarity app, you can track your glucose trends. And the app will also provide you with a projected A1C in as little as two weeks. If you're looking for clarity around your diabetes, you're looking for Dexcom. Dexcom.com juicebox when you use my link, you're supporting the podcast Dexcom.com juicebox head over there now. Well, it's definitely a perspective that I think has a lot of value. Actually, I was talking about this with Jenny this afternoon. We were talking kind of privately and she talked about having me out to an event to speak that she's going to be at. And I said, yeah, I think I could do a good job of maybe Being a conduit for people's conversations. If I have, I don't know, a superpower in this space, it would be that I've had so many conversations with so many different people. Like, I don't know what to call it exactly. Like, maybe I'm the book where the conversation. I've had all those conversations and I've dug through people's lives, and my real goal is to just get better information out in the world for my daughter. Right. So I don't have. You know, I try very hard not to be biased about things that I hear. I try very hard to hear your story and an adult story and, you know, a parent's story and just hear what they're saying and try to figure out what it is that they're being motivated by. And then in the end, you're looking for commonality. Right. Like, yeah, yeah. You find something that a parent of a Type one says that could be very valuable for an adult with type 1 diabetes to hear, and then vice versa. There's. Adults have great experiences that parents should hear about. And I was saying I think maybe I could be a conduit for those stories, because, again, I'm kind of at a loss for the right word. But, I mean, I'm sure there's people out there, but I don't know who they are. And if they're out there, they don't. They don't have the ability to reach as many people as I do. I think that those stories are very valuable, that I've been at the center of each one of them, and that hopefully I'm trying very hard to learn something, to hear something, to share something that will be valuable for everybody. Doesn't matter if they're adults or children, if they're 70 or 10. I'm trying to be the place where all this information can get dumped and be. Regurgitate it out into the world. Because I think that is the thing that beyond my podcast, that other. There really just is no other space in Type one where somebody's able to give this much time to hearing those stories and is making the effort to record them and put them out as much, I mean, volume, honestly, as anyone else. There are people who have podcasts about Type one who in a year won't put up as many episodes as I'll put up in two weeks.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (19:30)

Yeah, that's true. You are very consistent.

Scott Benner (19:33)

So, anyway, somewhere in there, I think I'm able to let people tell their stories and record them for other people to hear, and hopefully that Those stories are broadening other people's perspectives and ideas, I guess would have been a short way to say it.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (19:49)

So you spoke as your role just now as being like the connector from a bunch of different people's stories. But you must be hearing a lot of contradicting information. How do you deal with that?

Scott Benner (20:03)

Contradicting mean like management wise. Like, or even like, you know when like a late night host makes a joke and one person's like, I think it's funny and the other person is insulted by it. Like, what do you mean by contradictory?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (20:15)

More like, I guess information for type 1 diabetes. So maybe if someone says like this works really well for me and then this one, and then another person says, oh, that doesn't really work for me. And like, I mean there's always like gaps in information. Like I'm kind of talking about that.

Scott Benner (20:32)

Yeah, I guess that the place that's taught me the best about how to deal with that is actually is Facebook. So for people who don't know my Facebook group, I have a private group and a public page and I think my public page has 25,000 or so followers. But that's tough because social media followers are. It's a weird abstract, right? Because I've been around this for 20 years. Like I'm sure there are people following me on Facebook who are dead, you know what I mean? Or don't go on Facebook anymore. Same thing with Instagram. I think I have 25,000 Instagram followers. But that doesn't mean 25,000 people are seeing something that I post. It's far from that. The people fall off. But in the private group on Facebook you have access to a lot more data about people who are actively following and participating. So in my private Facebook group, I think today there's about 70. I'm going to lose like 74,000 members. And in every 24 hour period, 45,000 of them are active in the group. They make 125 to 160 new posts every, oh my gosh, 24 hours and counting. Likes like little hearts, little thumbs ups and comments. So likes hearts and comments, almost 9,000 a day.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (21:57)

Wow.

Scott Benner (21:58)

So it's a big group of people and it's split pretty evenly between caregivers and adults, even though people will tell you they don't think so. But what I've learned is that the adults don't talk as much as the caregivers do. But I can see them there. And it's a little weighted towards women, maybe, I would say maybe, maybe there's 35% men. The other side is women, usually, and all of them. And a ton of different countries. And where you see that most is the time of day. There is no downtime on the Facebook group, meaning that if you ask a question at any point in a 24 hour clock, somebody is there. Like, there's always at least a few hundred people on, which is. It's insane, actually. But my point is that all these different countries, all these different ages of people, all these different, you know, genders, you know, there's somebody who has every experience in life that you can imagine. You're not wrong. They're not all going to agree about everything. Right?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (23:00)

Yes.

Scott Benner (23:01)

But as the person running the group, my goal is for that group to be valuable for everybody. And that generally means as many people as possible. And we're putting aside people who are just trying to make problems or maybe honestly a little mentally ill or something like that. There's always going to be people on the fringes of this conversation, but for the most part, the group is incredibly supportive and valuable. Right?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (23:26)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (23:27)

But it becomes that when you let everybody speak, everybody gets to say what they think and everybody gets to say their experiences. And then it's up to smart people to look at all of that and coalesce it together and come up with some sort of an idea chain or a roadmap for themselves and find the things that they want to look into and, you know, like, so that they can decide, that's an interesting idea. I'd like to find out more about that. Or. That sounds insane to me. I'm not going to listen to that. So if somebody. There was a post the other day where somebody was like, I saw this TikTok and this lady said she took this cinnamon and she mixed it with something else and her blood sugar was stable. You know what? I don't know if that's right or not, but go ahead and tell. Go ahead and tell me. You know what I mean? And you know, 10 years ago I would have been like, cinnamon doesn't cure diabetes. That's what everybody would have ranted and raved. But now I'm like, I don't know if this helps somebody. Find out more and learn something that helps them, great. And if it teaches them, it's bullshit, then fine, too. You gotta let people talk.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (24:32)

Yes.

Scott Benner (24:33)

You know, and so, I mean, in the end, if somebody disagrees with something, what I like to say is like, let them talk. That's been their experience. Take it or leave it. Like, who cares? You know what I mean? Like, just let them say what they want to say and that's it. Now, if somebody says something insane or hurtful that I have a problem with, like, I don't allow. I have, like, pretty simple rules in the, in the group. I don't let people proselytize. So, like, if you think, I don't know, it doesn't matter if you think, oh, a form of eating is a good idea. Right on. You should share what you think. But if everybody that posts gets the same answer back from you, you should try eating like this. Well, then you're proselytizing. Please don't do that. Please stay and continue to add your thoughts. But this incredible drive to make sure that to answer every question with eat like this, that's not okay. And pushing people around, I'm not okay with. But sometimes you see people who are just, I don't know, like, sometimes we call it, I know you're young still, but sometimes we call it drunk o' clock certain time of the day where people are a little feistier. There are plenty of people who will later come back and apologize and say, hey, I answered that question when my blood sugar had been high for hours. And to be honest with you, I think I was being a little salty. And I'm sorry, I've had people say, hey, I realized that I was flippant with somebody, but my blood sugar was low. If we can't understand that in our type 1 diabetes Facebook group, then where else are you going to get that kind of understanding? So, yeah, of course, we're very understanding about that. If you're being terrible on purpose, that's not okay. And if you're just trying to sell something, that's not okay too. I'll give you, I think, which is a great example, is that not long ago, this gentleman came on and he was like, I'm a tattoo artist and I'd like to give type 1s free tattoos now on that face. That's lovely. And I took this person at their word. They were just trying to be kind, but at the same time, Arisha, that is marketing for their business. And so I said to the person, I'm sorry, but you can't self promote a business here. Yeah. And so, you know, please don't do that. And the person just pushed back and they were like, I'm not promoting, I'm giving it away for free. And I'm like, well, yes. But then that person now knows where your business is the next time they need a tattoo they're going to come back to you and spend money. It's marketing.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (27:00)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (27:01)

And he didn't see it that way. At some point, it couldn't matter to me that he didn't see it that way. Like, even if that's not his intention, it doesn't matter, because now I'm. If. If I let that go on, then the next person and the next one and the next one, and I'm not lying to you. And 500 more of them are like, oh, my God, I have an Etsy where I take insulin bottles and I turn them into Christmas tree ornaments. And then the next thing you know, the whole group is full of ads for people and what they're trying to sell, and then they sell some of them, and then that allure is very, very strong. And now they know that that group sells stuff, and they will not stop till you stop them. And so I try to get ahead of it. And with the case of the guy with the tattoo place, I felt bad. I explained it to him. He wouldn't stop. I suspended him. He wouldn't stop. And I finally had to ban him out of the group. And I feel terrible about it because he's got a kid with diabetes and I wish he was in there.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (27:54)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (27:54)

But, you know, like. So anyway, like, that stuff stinks because in the end, I end up being the bad guy. And I was just trying to stick up for something. I was trying to stick up for the entire group and keep it what it is. And what it is, you know, is. Is a pretty amazing support system for people.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (28:11)

Yeah. So would you say, like, you're the community and, like, your Facebook group or any, like, reviews or anything you get, like, do you think that shapes the direction of your content or is it more like, what, like, the people you inter.

Scott Benner (28:27)

I think there's three things that shape the content. It's what I'm interested in and what I think is happening. Good example. I'm proud to say that I think I was out ahead by a couple of years on what GLP1 medication might do for people with type 1 diabetes. And so I was having conversations about that back when I was getting yelled at for having those conversations. Dose is not for type ones, it's for type twos. It's not labels. Like, that whole thing.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (28:54)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (28:55)

I felt like I saw the writing on the wall and I thought it was valuable to let people tell their stories around that. My expectation of what people need to hear is part of it. I think that what I see people talking about online that's part of it, too. You can learn a lot about what people need. Yes. By what they're asking for. But oftentimes you can learn more about what they need by seeing the things they don't know to ask for. If that makes sense.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (29:21)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (29:22)

Right. Those are two big ways. And then the third way that the content kind of gets brought up is, like you said, you have people on and they tell their story and eventually in every episode, someone says something that makes me think, wow, I never would have thought of that. Or what a great perspective that I didn't hear. Or, you know, like, they say something and then someone online will comment. I'll go, I never put those two things together. And now I did. If you treat the podcast and the community like the real, like gem, the asset that they are for or can be for people and you focus on is a never ending engine of. It holds a mirror up to people. Right. And it lets you see. It lets them see what they need to see in that mirror. It's almost like a magic mirror. You know what I mean? Like, you hold it up and it reflects back to them the thing they need only if it's shepherded by somebody who's not trying to turn it into something else. Like, I'm not trying to turn my podcast into a bigger podcast or I'm very sure that it is doing a good thing and my only goal every day is to keep it fresh and viable so that it can continue to do that thing for people.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (30:40)

Yeah. So you mentioned that you were really into like the GLP1 medication for type 1 diabetics for the last two years. What would you say, like, you're interested now in.

Scott Benner (30:51)

Ooh, well, that's good of you. Look at you. You are really good at this. Well, this year I spent a fair amount of time on talking about nutrition more. And I don't know if it's as much about me seeing the tip of the spear. Right. Or being out at the edge of the surfboard or anything like that. What it was more about was that when I started the podcast, I hold this belief still very strongly. Even if I was a perfect person and I knew exactly how to eat perfectly and I did it every day and I exercised exactly like I was supposed to, and I was a perfect person and I made a podcast about being. I'm so perfect. I do all these things perfectly. If you do all these things perfectly too, you'll be. I don't think that actually motivates anybody. Right. And I'm not that person to begin with. But even if I was, I don't think that helps anyone. I don't think people like to be told how to eat or what to do. And so when I saw the big picture, I thought, to help most people with type one, what would help them most, I think, is a firm understanding of how insulin works and how to use it and to give them that information in a way that is incredibly easy to understand, no matter who you are in the conversation. And I did that, and I continue to do that. I don't want to overblow the number, but I'm about to celebrate 20 million downloads on the podcast.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (32:16)

That's crazy.

Scott Benner (32:17)

Yeah. And you make a podcast.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (32:18)

Yeah. That's really cool. That's really good.

Scott Benner (32:20)

It's something. Yeah.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (32:21)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (32:21)

I'm about to celebrate these 20 million downloads and I think, okay, well, I've given people a very clean foundation for how to think about their. Their insulin. I can't tell them exactly what to do. I kind of lay it out for them and they take it back into their own life and they apply it and figure out how it works best for them. Right. And this is working over and over again, day after day, week after week, year after year. Now it's been a decade, and the proof comes back every day. I could sit here for 24 hours and read you reviews and personal notes from people about how the podcast has helped them. So I know my initial idea is good, but these people would be better off if they knew a little more about nutrition, if they knew a little more about what they were eating. And so I think I've finally been doing this long enough that we can talk about it a little bit without insulting people. They know I'm not here to tell them how to eat. I'm just sort of doing with food the same thing that I do with diabetes, which I think is to talk about it from a very middle ground perspective. I know in politics, some people hate it if you're in the middle. Right. They say it means you don't stand for anything like take a stand. They want you to take a stand in thinking about your health and diabetes. It's more important if you have tools and then you apply those tools to your life. But I would like for people to have some tools around understanding that what they're eating has a lot to do with what their blood sugar's doing.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (33:52)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (33:54)

So I've been doing more with that this year with Jenny. And Jenny is of course, a CDE and she's. She's had diabetes for over 35 years. She's been in like a ton of my episodes about management stuff.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (34:06)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (34:07)

So I don't know that that means that I see where things are going. I think it more means that I saw what I was able to talk about without pissing people off, I guess. Yeah, that makes sense. And thusly giving myself the best opportunity possible to grow their toolbox a little more.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (34:25)

Yeah. I mean, since you have so many listeners, I mean, do you ever get, like, fan mail or like, PR boxes?

Scott Benner (34:31)

Oh, I. Yeah, it's embarrassing. Are you trying to embarrass me?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (34:36)

No, I'm just curious.

Scott Benner (34:37)

People write every day.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (34:39)

Really?

Scott Benner (34:40)

Yes. I received multiple emails, DMs, Instagram messages, Facebook messages, TikTok messages. And I gotta tell the people at TikTok, your app is very, very confusing to use, so please, like, do better with that. I don't like to say it because I think everybody says it. Like, I've watched people with like 200 TikTok followers. Like, I hear from everybody all the time. Like, well, you're hearing from fewer than 200 people, but okay.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (35:06)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (35:08)

And so I don't like to say it because I think it comes off as just really. It makes me feel weird to say it. Like, yeah, people. People write all the time, but I'm, you know, I'm. Here's one from today. I wanted to reach out to say a big thank you for your episodes that focus on GLP. One with type 1. My 14 year old started one about three months ago. A1C has gone from 6, 9 to 6. Daily insulin use is down from 60 units a day to 40. She's lost 20 pounds. She's been much happier, more energetic, and generally feels better. I'm also grateful for your podcast. I feel pretty anxious about trying these meds, but listening to the info from Dr. Blevins that you had on and from the mom whose daughter had such a positive experience made me feel so much better. I appreciate that you are hopefully changing some of the stigma around these medications. I honestly have only told my best friends that we're even using the meds because people are just so judgmental. Anyway, I want to say thank you very much. That one came today and that's in my email today.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (36:10)

It's very sweet.

Scott Benner (36:11)

It's very touching. It's like it's not a strong enough word. Right. Because. So that email came today. Yesterday I interviewed a gentleman who told me that his daughter is off at college safely and happy because of me. And then at the end of the Interview told me how, you know, just as an aside, he's like, also, I listened to your weight loss stuff, and I've lost 36 pounds now and told me how his life is better now because of it. The DMs are pretty endless. And the thing that I think I've been tracking. Tracking sounds like the wrong word, but, like, I'm gonna. I'll pull something up for you here. Like, it's lovely to hear from people like, you know, and to hear their stories one on one. I have this day once a month where I sit down, I answer all of my emails. Takes about four hours usually. I sit down and answer my emails every month.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (37:04)

But do you respond to them?

Scott Benner (37:05)

I do. I respond to all my emails.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (37:07)

Oh, that's very nice.

Scott Benner (37:08)

Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, like, I want to.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (37:12)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (37:12)

But it is. It's an overwhelming process. Like, I'm exhausted by the time I'm done with it. Because you're really trying to hear, like, what is this person telling me?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (37:21)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (37:22)

What has motivated them to reach out like this? I mean, it's time off of their life, too, to write this email.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (37:29)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (37:30)

I want to figure out what it is that impacted them so much. To see is like, is that a thing I did on purpose? Is that a happenstance thing? Is it something I could be learning from?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (37:39)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (37:40)

But anyway, I do this thing when people come into the Facebook group. It asks you a few questions. It's mainly to make sure you're like a real person. But one of them is, how did you hear about the podcast or this group? Like, it's a little slash thing. The one that I don't keep every one of them, but every once in a while, I copy and paste one of them out and I put it in a document and I hold onto it because it ranges from the doctor in the ER to more specifically the East Tennessee Children's Hospital Endocrinology Clinic told me about it. I saw an ad for a nootropic, and inside of that nootropic, somebody commented about the Juice Box podcast. I'm trying to figure out, how do people learn about this? Right. I had a nurse in the ER ask me if I wanted something that might make my diabetes situation better. And then she told me about this. But the one that came today, this one happens more than I would have imagined. You are mentioned on every Facebook group I'm a part of that relates to diabetes, and you can take that a couple of different ways. Certain people might hear that from a marketing standpoint, and be like, that's awesome. Good for you. That's what you're going for. What I hear is that there are countless people who have been helped by it.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (38:52)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (38:52)

So much so that they're taking the time to tell somebody else. And I think that's the big deal. There's plenty of things in my life that help me, but how many of them help me so much that I feel compelled to make sure other people know about it? I'm proud to be somebody that people are compelled to share, I guess.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (39:11)

Yeah. I mean, I think it's so great that you respond to everything. I know when I reached out to you in the beginning, you responded really quickly. And especially having such a big audience and taking the time to respond, I'm sure that's really meaningful for everyone who wrote something to you. And it was definitely really meaningful when you responded to me. These were very uplifting stories, but. Or like feedback that you kind of get. Do you have like a really big motivating or like moving stories that you've heard from listeners like, oh, maybe in your podcast.

Scott Benner (39:49)

Oh, yeah. Oh my gosh, all the time. Yesterday a gentleman sent me a picture of a tattoo he got on his calf of a juice box with a microphone. And this is bolt with insulin on it. And I know that that gentleman would tell you that he believes that his eyesight was saved by the podcast. There's a guy out in California named Mike who came on and shared his story. And if you go listen to his episode called Complications Are Complicated, you'll hear a decades long tale of a person who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes before management was great and that his health was failing in multiple ways and how much the podcast helped him. There is an episode called Do Hard Things where a mom comes on and shares that she had found the podcast for her Type one child and it was going really, really well. And she's super excited to take him to his next endo appointment. And it's very sad, but there was a snowstorm that kind of broke out while she was traveling to the endo appointment, lost control of the car and the child passed away in the car accident. And that she continues to listen to the podcast because she said it makes her feel closer to him. And she said that once he was gone, that whole process of doing the diabetes thing was such a big part of her connection with him that it helped her to hear other people talking about doing it for themselves or their own kids. There was a woman on an After Dark episode that while I was interviewing Her. She was describing her life, and it was just a lot of alcohol and drugs. And she wrote to me many, many, many months later to say that she finally listened to her episode, hurt herself, and decided that is not the kind of person she wanted to be and made a big change for herself. And I'm just telling you the ones that are popping into my head.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (41:57)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (41:57)

But I'm pretty sure that in every episode, when I'm interviewing a person who's been a listener for a while, you know, if you go into that Facebook group and just look for people who have tagged me, they're there to tell you. Like, it gets focused on me, which is not right. Like, I really do believe I might. I'm just the person having the conversations. Like, I'm the. I don't know what to call it exactly. Like, maybe the magnet in the middle that pulls everything together. And it's. You can't ignore the fact that, like, in this day and age, like, you have to be. You have to have a big enough following so that people can find you. Like, that's how. Like, I'm booked, right? It's August right now. If you wanted to get on the podcast right now, you can't get on till March of 2026.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (42:40)

Yes, very long.

Scott Benner (42:41)

At some point in October this year, I will open up that schedule out to, like, July, and it's going to fill up in a day. In a day. I will have an interview set up every day between March and July, just in one day. To accomplish this thing, like, you have to have a certain size and kind of like gravity. Right. Like, you almost have to be a small moon, like, holding everything together, but at the same time, it's not me. You could maybe make the argument that I'm conversational and chatty and I don't fall into the traps that people fall into when they start talking about stuff like this. They talk very honestly, very professionally and soft, and make sure that the diabetes is very. And they start sounding like the JDRF or ADA or something like that, or sounds like a PR person came on from a pump company and they're talking, and I'm just talking like a person. In the end, without all these people and their stories, then I don't. You know what I mean? Like, you're writing to me to say that I helped, but all I did was I just gave you all a place to go to hear the thing, really, you know, so I'll take credit for making it, but I think that you all are what helped. I'm Just the guy who pushes record. That makes sense.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (44:02)

Yeah. So you see yourself as more of like an educator, like a storyteller, or like a community builder. Is there any one of those that you see yourself more as or think of yourself as?

Scott Benner (44:19)

You know what's funny? If you would have just asked me to describe myself, I never would have said any of those things. But you're not wrong. I'm probably all those things. Am I one more than the other? I don't know. I guess depends on who you are and what you need from the podcast. For the people who need community, they see me as a community organizer. For the people who don't know how to bolus, they see me as an educator. Right. And so on and so forth. It depends on, like, your need is how you see me. And, you know, and that's on the positive side. On the negative side. There are plenty of people. I just want to say, there are plenty of people who don't like me. Right. I mean, that's always going to be. But, you know, there are plenty of people who are, I don't know, tried to do something in this space and it didn't work out for them, and now they're just mad at me.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (45:13)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (45:14)

Now they're going to tell you they're mad at me because I'm bad at it or dangerous or whatever. They're going to say, like. Right. Like whatever reason they're going to have, I'm going to tell you that from my perspective, they seem mad at me because they seem jealous.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (45:25)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (45:26)

And they tried to do a thing and it didn't work out, and my thing did work out. So now let's go figure out what it is about me you don't like and say, oh, see, he shouldn't be doing this because he thinks this or he said that or whatever. So there's. The other side of it is it's consistent, is my point. It's like, whether you like me or you don't like me, what you think of me has very little to do with me and a lot to do with who you are.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (45:49)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (45:51)

That's one of the things I have 100% learned making this podcast, that I no longer joke about famous people's lives, sports figures, actors, politicians. I no longer make judgments about them. Like, you know, because everybody. You know what I mean? Like, people joke around all the time about, like, you know, like somebody that people. These people feel bigger than life to you. Like, they're not real people. It's okay to like. It's okay to them or it's okay to like, you know, tell people, you know, you know, what they're thinking or whatever. But what I've learned by watching people who both hate me and love me talk about me is that they don't really know me. They just have an idea. And I'm over here like a static target to help them complete their circle. And most of the time, and I mean, like 99.9% of the time, I'm having a great one way conversation with those people. I interviewed a great lady today who just came on to say that she just had a really healthy pregnancy because of me and the podcast. That's awesome. You know what I mean? And you could tell as I was talking to her, she feels like she's all starstruck talking to me, which is insane because I'm in an extra room in my house, you know what I mean? I'm in this room with a couple of chameleons and a desk and a microphone, and she's treating me like she's meeting somebody famous. But that feeling she's having again has very little to do with me and more to do with who she is, where she was and then how she intersected with this thing I'm doing, you know, And I forget what your question was. I'm so sorry, but I feel like I answered it.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (47:30)

Yes, you did answer it. So you just briefly mentioned about all the roles you play, but I feel like one of the biggest roles you are, like, you are a dad. So, like, what roles do parents play like in shaping your podcast, especially since you started your experience as a dad?

Scott Benner (47:48)

I think in the beginning their concerns were my concerns. And as time goes on, I started out with other people who started out with me. And as time goes on, I'm still with the people who are just starting out. I would tell you that a lot of the listeners of the podcast are more newly diagnosed people or people who feel like they're starting over. If there's a path we're all walking, I'm out ahead of them to some degree on the path. And so when I was starting out, their concerns were my concerns. And now I would hear them and think, oh, I'm worried about that too. How do we fix that? Like, how do I figure that out? But then once you get it all figured out, and I don't wanna say, like, this whole thing feels easy to me, but most of the times, like diabetes, nuts and bolts wise does feel pretty intuitive to me because I've got so much time with it. Right. So now I'm out ahead. I've got that experience and I'm still hearing people who are more newly diagnosed now. I'm able to hear their concerns quickly, point them to stuff that will help them, but also spend time thinking about what bad places are they gonna get led to by worrying about the things they're worrying right now and how can I help them now so they don't end up in those bad places later? Yeah. There's one thing about being like, I know, super valuable to your 7 year old who has type 1 diabetes, but it's hard to remember that that 7 year old one day will be 15 and 18 and 20 and. And that you're still trying to have a relationship with that person and that one day they will not listen to you anymore. You know what I mean? And you want them to leave with good information, but the good information's not enough if they're not willing to use it or if they're busy rebelling against you and how you raise them. So I'm trying to see more of a bigger picture when the parents are there, and I think that's how they're helping me make the podcast.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (49:41)

Yeah. So I feel like you've been doing this. Well, not like I feel like you have been doing this podcast for a really long time and you've seen the technology, like, especially for diabetes, like, grow. What are you, like, most excited for in that and like, specifically with like the increase of AI in today's world?

Scott Benner (50:01)

Yeah, yeah, right. So, yeah. So when my daughter was diagnosed, 2006, is that right? Yeah, 2006, we got a freestyle meter, syringes, and a vial of two different kinds of insulin. I think they gave us the old lily red box. Glucagon. Yeah, that's right. That's all we got. And those were the entirety of our tools. Right. Test strips today, if you have halfway decent insurance, you're going to have a cgm. Before you know it, you're going to have a pen, not a syringe. And you're going to have an opportunity to get a pump pretty quickly. And every one of those pumps has some sort of a manual setting and has an automated insulin delivery setting on top of that. There's the awesome loop, the awesome Android APS trio. You know, all these do it yourself algorithms that are out there as well. Now there's more CGMs, there's Dexcom, there's Libre. What is it? Three plus, ever since has making an implantable CGM crazy, right?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (51:08)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (51:08)

What Else we got, like Medtronic just came out with their more modern CGM and people are using, you know, my daughter microdoses GLPs, which are significantly helpful with her insulin resistance, where we're learning that there are type ones who, who may be could have a dual diagnosis. They have insulin resistance. If they didn't have type 1 diabetes, they'd probably still have insulin resistance. So now they have type one and they have insulin resistance. GLPs are helping them with that half of it. With the insulin resistance you're seeing, GLP is help people with inflammation, which is of course very tied to a type 1 and other autoimmune issues. Sooner than later, you're going to see those GLP1s that are all injectable now, hopefully be in, you know, in a daily pill, which should help spread out their effect effectiveness over, you know, a little better than just shooting them once a week. And we're all moving in that direction. There's the inhaled insulin. Right.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (52:05)

Afrezza, I saw that.

Scott Benner (52:07)

There's a lot of stuff going on out there. What am I most excited about right now is that Tandem said, hey, we're going to go back and try to make our algorithm a little more aggressive. And then they did. And then Omnipod. I don't know if people know this or not, but Omnipod's in the middle of a trial right now where they're trying to make their Omnipod 5 more aggressive. I'm sure that's not how they would put it, but, you know, they're working on a 2.0 version. Yeah, I love that these companies have to compete with each other. That I think is always going to be the best thing for everybody because then nobody sits on their butts and says, like, ah, we're selling this thing. Good enough, let's just go sell them now. We. You don't have to make these any better. You have to make them better. You have to make them. You gotta have a more of a cell phone mentality where, you know, this stuff's gotta get better and better and better. And on top of that, what are you seeing right now in the DIY community? Some of these, some people are working on, like, take a picture of your food. It estimates your carbs. That AI stuff. Like, where people who really understand AI, it's not me for certain, but and can program it. Like, you gotta think that there's not long before you're taking pictures of everything you're eating. It's getting logged. The AI is remembering that when you eat at this restaurant versus this restaurant, that you have a fat rise two hours later and you don't at this one as much, that kind of learning has got to becoming, I hope. And in a situation where the next time you go back to that restaurant and you take another picture, the thing goes, oh, I remember last time you needed more insulin an hour and 45 minutes after you ate. So maybe we'll start ramping it up then to get ahead of it this time. Who knows where any of that could possibly go outside of the devices. Just from me personally, I've amassed all these conversations with people and you see, very easily you can take the transcripts of the entire Pro Tip series, and if you asked me to go back and listen through everyone, write down every thoughtful thing that was said, go out to the community and ask them if they agree that this was thoughtful. Like, you know, I mean, by the time I got all that done, I'd be. I'd be dead of old age. Right. It's just me here.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (54:28)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (54:28)

But instead I can take those things, drop them into AI and say, please just pull out all the key takeaways from this conversation, build a database of that, take the database back to the community and say, hey, you know, before I show you this, just top of your head, what are things that were said in the podcast that were really helpful? And then they gave me back a ton of data. And then you put the two things together and you tell the chatgpt or whatever you're using there, like, hey, this is what we think is key takeaways. This is what the. The community said were key takeaways. Where are the overlaps? Bang. Here's the overlaps. Great. This is really key information for people. Now I'll take that and find other ways to say it, because we've already reached all the people who jived with it the way I said it the first time. Let's find a different series to say it again in. Let's find a different way to say it. Let's learn to make it shorter content or longer content. Like, I get to keep building my database of what's valuable for you guys. And then as I grow and learn and listen, hopefully the next time I talk about it, something else will come out of that conversation that people will find either more helpful or maybe you'll reach a person who heard it the last time and it didn't ring a bell for them, but in this time it did. Yeah, I think in general, that's what I'm hopeful about. You know, people used to say, like, well, we need faster insulin. And then we got fiasp and lumja, and nothing changed because it doesn't apparently work that fast to begin with for some people. Wasn't consistent enough. I've heard people say, like, we need better cannula tubing because, you know, if your body doesn't see it as a foreign invader, then the sites will be better for longer. Like, that's all well and good. I don't see anybody doing that.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (56:08)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (56:08)

What I see is that if those pump companies have to keep honing their algorithms, then hopefully people will have better and better outcomes. Now, what's the other side of that is that there's a reasonable concern that an entire generation of people will get type 1 diabetes and not fundamentally understand anything about it because the machine is taking care of it for them, which will be fine as long as the machine is working. But what would they do if they had to go back to shots? I know they would learn it then, and hopefully they would learn it more quickly because they've seen it happen. But I do think there's a reasonable concern for people not having a fundamental understanding of timing and amount and how insulin works and when they need to put it in and how certain foods act. That kind of stuff, too.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (56:57)

Yeah. So speaking on, like, your Pro Tip series, do you have, like, a dream series or, like, a really memorable series that you have posted or want to post?

Scott Benner (57:08)

I mean, they all do something different. You know, we made pro tips first, and I think they're great if you're reasonably comfortable. So then we added Bold Beginnings, because it's sort of like pro tips for beginners.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (57:19)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (57:20)

This year I did small sips, which were, I think, 17 or 20, like I told you. We went out to the community and asked, like, what are, like. I basically said, like, give me one sentence takeaways that have been the most impactful for you. And we got back. I think I'm being honest about this. 80. I'm just saying, if I have the number wrong, it's not on purpose. 80 or 90 pages full of returns from the Internet.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (57:43)

Wow.

Scott Benner (57:44)

And then we collated them. And it wasn't me, by the way. It was the person who volunteers their time on my Facebook group. They pulled it all together, and this person has kind of an encyclopedic knowledge of the podcast. And we pulled together the list of what people said was really valuable for them, went and found what episodes they were on so I could refresh myself about how it was said. In the time. And then we made short, like 10 minute episodes about them thinking, like, okay, if you're not going to listen to the pro tips because they're too long, which is a thing people will complain about, like 45 minutes or an hour, they're like, oh, it's so long. And then I thought, well, maybe 10, 15 minutes will be shorter for them. So small sips is really like pro tips, supercharged and small. I'm proud of those. I think those are really awesome. Yeah, I don't know, you just kind of keep looking for ways to reach people. You know, what am I trying to do in the. I don't know, like in the future? I'm trying to find more people who are lost and who could potentially spend an entire life lost that, you know, who could potentially have complications 10, 20, 30 years from now for what? Not understanding how to pre bolus or, you know, the fat in french fries makes their blood sugar go up and they should bolus again. Like, that's not a fair reason to need help, medical help in the future. Like, I'd like those people to just be as successful as early on as possible with, like I said, a good foundation of understanding. And I'm just looking for different ways to spark their imagination and get them to think about it. And also I've learned that you can't really make anybody take care of themselves. Everybody has a moment when they decide, like, okay, I'm going to try harder now, or I'm going to go back in again and try to figure this out, or whatever it is that ends up lighting people's, you know, excitement for their own health. And what I like the most is that the podcast is there and it's current because when they go to find it, it's there. Yeah, it's not like an old, dried up podcast that nobody posts in anymore. It's not a thing where they look up and they go, oh, nobody's posting this in a week. You know what I mean? Like, how are you going to find the pro tip episode from a year ago if you're logging on today for the first time, if the podcast isn't fresh and moving constantly and reminding you that those episodes exist and reminding you that there's a, a community to go to and you head over to that community. Imagine you head to that community and you see 160 new posts that day. Yeah, I don't know if you're on Facebook, but there's other type one groups. Like, you look at them, they go like, some of them say, three new posts a day, five new posts a day, 10 new posts a day. I'm like, how did that. How does that cover everything? Yeah, that's not even enough people to have a good conversation. Like, I want 20 people with 20 different opinions weighing in on things. I think that's how you kind of get to it. The one chameleon is staring right at me.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (60:33)

How are your chameleons?

Scott Benner (60:35)

They're doing well. But the blue one.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (60:37)

2.

Scott Benner (60:38)

I don't want to say how many I have, because I feel like that's weird. The blue one is eyeballing me big time right now, like in a ninja stance. He's back on his two legs. Are you hungry, buddy? I gave you a silkworm earlier. Did you eat it? Oh, hold on a second. I think I'm. I'm looking at the silk. Eat the silkworm. Don't. It's very uncomfortable. I have three chameleons. I'll just. I'll just. Yeah.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (61:07)

I thought you only had one from your Instagram.

Scott Benner (61:10)

Things happen, and then other stuff happens. I don't know what to tell you. Okay. No, I have the one that my family got me, and then I have the one that I bought because it was really the one I wanted, and then the one that they got me wasn't the one I wanted, but I still take. I still take awesome care of all them. Yeah. And then I have a third one. Can I tell you a crazy story about two of my chameleons?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (61:29)

Yes, of course.

Scott Benner (61:31)

All right, so the big one I bought from a gentleman out in San Diego, and he's probably one of maybe two or three people in the whole country that breed these things successfully. They're expensive, and they're, you know, there's not a lot of them. And so he doesn't just sell them to anybody who shows up with money. Like, he wants to really make sure you're, you know, going to do a good job so you get a little chance to get to know him. While we were getting to know each other, he asked me what I did for a living. And I said, oh, it's going to sound silly to a regular person, but I'm like, I make a podcast. And he's like, that's a thing you can do for a living. And I was like, oh, enough people, listen. It is. And he asked what it was about, and I told him. And the next time I talked to him, he said, hey, I didn't mention it last time, but my daughter listens to your podcast. She has type 1 diabetes.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (62:21)

Wow.

Scott Benner (62:22)

And I was like, oh, that's crazy. Right? Now, two years later, I buy the blue one. Okay. And, you know, like, again, you message with people a little bit and get to know them, but this is a company that breeds them, not just, you know, a guy like the other one. So I texted a couple of times with the. With the owner, and I don't know how much longer after I bought this one, nine months later, I got a text from that person, and they were like, hey, I'm in the emergency room with my son. I think he's about to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. And I remember you saying about your podcast, is there anything you can help me with here? So I have three chameleons, and two of them are bred by people who have kids with type 1 diabetes.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (63:02)

It's like fate.

Scott Benner (63:04)

It's very strange, is what it is. It's very, very, very strange.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (63:08)

Very cool, too.

Scott Benner (63:09)

Yes. But I'll tell you this. They're very calming and help me be contemplative. I think maybe the closest I get to mindfulness, watching them just sort of exist because they are so slow and deliberate. They seem wise when you look at them, even though I don't imagine they are. But there's something about keeping them that you can't be in a rush. They're the. They're like growing a cactus. Like, if you plant a cactus and you have to be happy that it grew three quarters of an inch this year because it happens so slowly. And I think they. They keep my heart rate down. So I really appreciate them.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (63:45)

So I know you mentioned that you had to leave in an hour.

Scott Benner (63:49)

Yes. And we talked longer.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (63:51)

Yes. I can conclude it right now. So. It's been so incredible catching up and seeing all the new things you're doing with the Juicebox podcast, from collaborations with Omnipod to new series and even a cruise. Thank you so much for being here and sharing a little bit of your journey with us.

Scott Benner (64:09)

Oh, you're very welcome. Can I ask you a question?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (64:11)

Yes.

Scott Benner (64:11)

What if it was a terrible conversation? What would you have said at the end?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (64:15)

I just. I knew it wasn't going to be a terrible conversation.

Scott Benner (64:18)

Can you imagine if you were like, oh, wait, I can't read this. Did I do any better at letting you. I just. I talk so much. Like, I realized that I don't really know another way to do this because I tried so hard to be quieter, but I wasn't, was I?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (64:34)

No, you were great.

Scott Benner (64:36)

No, you're lying.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (64:37)

No, you were Great. Last time, too. I think you're a very good speaker.

Scott Benner (64:41)

I'm pretty awesome. I hear what you're saying. I'm just kidding. I was just joking. You think people listening don't know me are like, what a jerk, dude. I'm just kidding. I mean, I'm not kidding that I'm great. I'm kidding that I said it to you. So wait, what grade are you in now?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (64:56)

I'm a junior now.

Scott Benner (64:58)

Wow. It's nuts.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (64:59)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (65:00)

Did you ever hear the episode From Russia with Love?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (65:03)

No.

Scott Benner (65:04)

It's with a girl who at the time was maybe, like, 14. She had type one. She lives in Russia, and she. She got type one, and she went out and found the podcast and figured out everything she needed to take care of herself, then went back to her parents and demanded the stuff like CGMs and stuff like that. And then she was back on many years later from college, and now she was at that point in college in Florida. I had the same feeling when she came back on as I did when you were like, I'm in high school. And I was like, that's. No, you're not. That's weird. You're just going to keep getting older and older. Arden's 21.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (65:40)

I know. Well, I don't know, but that's crazy.

Scott Benner (65:42)

Yeah. No, that's. It's crazy. It really is. Can I ask you a question?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (65:47)

Yes, of course.

Scott Benner (65:48)

Why do you think I'm a good speaker?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (65:50)

I just think you're a great speaker. I feel like you don't have to look or like, words just come out naturally, and they're very clear, and like, there's fluid. I don't know if that makes sense. But connecting topics, when you say something and you say something else, like, the topics, they connect.

Scott Benner (66:11)

They feel like they flow.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (66:12)

The flow is there.

Scott Benner (66:13)

Yes, but doesn't that. When. When you're trying to interview me, though, doesn't that stop me from letting you talk? Like, aren't I. Like, it's. It's easy to say, like, I'm controlling the conversation, but isn't it more like I'm building a conversation that doesn't need.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (66:25)

Interruption A little bit, But I feel like.

Scott Benner (66:30)

Because I feel like that's the wrong thing for me to be doing while you're trying to interview me, but I don't know another way to do it.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (66:35)

I always feel like the person that you're, like, interviewing speaks more than the interviewee.

Scott Benner (66:40)

I'm better at that. Over the last couple years, right. In the beginning, I wasn't as good at that. Like, seriously, I would talk too much in the first couple years. But I also had, if I'm being fair, I had a lot of thoughts about diabetes that I had saved up by blogging about them, that I felt like I was trying to get into the podcast. Like I was pushing them into the conversations a little bit. Now I'm. I think you're right. I'm doing better at the conversations, at least being 50, 50. And actually, some of my transcripts, they come back and it's 60, 40, and I'm 40, and I'm like, oh, I'm getting better at shutting up.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (67:12)

That's awesome.

Scott Benner (67:13)

I'm grateful for you explaining it to me because I'm not doing a thing right now. This is just the only way I really know how to do. How to communicate. You know what I mean? I tell stories. I, I, you know, I try to blend in my experiences. I try to be a little big picture and try to see where things are headed. I try to be funny. Like, I, you know, because I think if this stuff's not interesting, like, who the hell is going to listen to it?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (67:41)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (67:41)

I genuinely think that that's a mistake that most people make with their podcasts.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (67:45)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (67:46)

Especially when they're around serious topics, is that they don't recognize that they need to be listenable, not just informative. Yeah. You know, and you can't be reading and you're still young. You are way better at this than you were when you started, too.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (68:00)

Yeah, I think I've gotten older, too. I feel like I've gained, like, common sense.

Scott Benner (68:05)

Do you think you'll keep doing it as you get older?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (68:07)

Yeah, I will.

Scott Benner (68:08)

Yeah. What are you getting out of it?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (68:09)

Personally, I just think it's really important to, like, have strong, like, soft skills. And personally, I feel like I'm getting that out of it, and I really want to continue and build a community when I get time. I really do try to, but doing a podcast episode, it takes much longer, and if you don't have a big audience, it doesn't reach as many people as if. Oh, I posted something on Instagram.

Scott Benner (68:41)

Yeah. Are you saying that it's a ton of work to make an episode and that when it doesn't reach as many people as it feels like the work took, you just feel like you're wasting your time a little bit?

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (68:53)

I just feel like when I, like, if I do this, like, this is when I do podcast episodes, I'm able to have, like, longer, more, like, I guess, better conversations. With people. Yeah, but like, if I post on Instagram or something, like, I'll get views. But I don't think, I don't even think people watch like that. Like, I think if you listen to an episode, like you're listening, but if you listen on Instagram, it's like 30 seconds. So it's not as much as like engagement or.

Scott Benner (69:23)

Yeah, I think social media to some degree is all just bullshit.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (69:27)

Mm. Yeah.

Scott Benner (69:28)

I don't think that people are watching every minute of your 35 minute YouTube video about you going to the dentist or some crap like that. I think people are like clicking on it and going, I'm done. Yeah. Maybe jump, jump forward a couple of times. I think the same thing about like, you know, there's youtubers who do diabetes content and somebody will say, well, like, well, your podcast got this many, you know, tens of thousands of downloads today, but you look at that video got, you know, got more.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (69:57)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (69:57)

I was like, you really think that somebody watched that entire video? Of course they didn't. Like, with the podcast, you can see where people stop listening.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (70:05)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (70:06)

You know what I mean? Like, I know how many percentage of people make it to certain like, milestones throughout every episode. My listen through rate is really good.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (70:15)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (70:15)

And like I'm, I'm proud of that. And I'm not even saying about diabetes. There's plenty, I love YouTube and there's plenty of stuff on YouTube that I watch. But, you know, this morning I put on an episode of, you know, some guy's YouTube thing and I, I jumped in the shower and three minutes into it, I was like, oh my God, I clicked on the wrong YouTube video. I want out of this. You know what I mean? But my hands kept touching the screen. It wouldn't work. So I stuck listening to him. And then I got done and like I. First thing I did when I was done, my show is dried my hands off to like get out of that video. That's a view for him.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (70:51)

Yeah.

Scott Benner (70:52)

You know what I mean? And I just wonder how often that happens where maybe some of those social media metrics are not as telling about what, what it means as, as what you're saying. It's like a long form conversation. I had to. By the way, I thought I knew what you meant and I did. But I had to real quick google soft skills to make sure I knew what they were.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:12)

Yeah, my parents use the word soft skills a lot, so that's where most of my vocabulary comes from.

Scott Benner (71:18)

They're banging that into your head for college.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:20)

No, Just in general. Yeah, yeah.

Scott Benner (71:23)

Communication, teamwork, collaboration, adaptability, problem solving, emotional intelligence, time management, and leadership. Yeah, I can see where making a podcast would help with that stuff.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:33)

Yeah, for sure.

Scott Benner (71:35)

Your questions coming out of my answers were very good this time around.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:40)

Oh, thank you. Thank you.

Scott Benner (71:41)

You didn't keyword me like you actually, you helped me keep the conversation flowing, so I hope you know that you did that.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:47)

Thank you.

Scott Benner (71:48)

No, you're welcome. It's my pleasure. Okay. I am going to go hang out with my son now.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:52)

Have fun.

Scott Benner (71:53)

I really appreciate this.

Interviewer (possibly a junior high or high school student) (71:54)

No, thank you so much for doing it with me.

Scott Benner (71:57)

Oh, that was my pleasure. Thank you. Today's episode of the Juice Box Podcast is sponsored by the Dexcom G7 and the Dexcom G7 warms up in just 30 minutes. Check it out now at Dexcom.com Juicebox this episode of the Juicebox Podcast is sponsored by Omnipod5. Omnipod5 is a tube free automated insulin delivery system that's been shown to significantly improve A1C and time and range for people with type 1 diabetes when they've switched from daily injections. Learn more and get started today@ omnipod.com juicebox@ my link you can get a free starter kit right now. Terms and conditions apply. Eligibility may vary. Full terms and conditions can be found@ omnipod.com juicebox Today's episode was sponsored by Skingrip and Skin Grip. They understand what life with diabetes is like and they know how infuriating it can be when a device falls off prematurely and they don't want that to happen to you. Juicebox podcast listeners save 20% off of their first order when you use the link. Skingrip.com juicebox links are also available in the show notes of your podcast player and@juicebox podcast.com thank you so much for listening. I'll be back very soon with another episode of the Juice Box Podcast. If you're not already subscribed or following the podcast in your favorite audio app like Spotify or Apple Podcasts, please do that now. Seriously, just to hit follow or subscribe will really help the show. If you go a little further in Apple Podcasts and set it up so that it downloads all new episodes, I'll be your best friend and if you leave a five star review, oh, I'll probably send you a Christmas card. Would you like a Christmas card? I am here to tell you About Juice Cruise 2026. We will be departing from Miami on June 21, 2026 for a seven night trip going to the Caribbean. That's right. We're going to leave Miami and then stop at Coco Cay in the Bahamas. After that it's on to St. Kitts St. Thomas and a beautiful cruise through the Virgin Islands. The first Juice Cruise was awesome. The second one's going to be bigger, better and bolder. This is your opportunity to relax while making lifelong friends who have type 1 diabetes. Expand your community and your knowledge on Juice Cruise 2026. Learn more right now at juicebox podcast.com juicecruise at that link. You'll also find photographs from the first cruise. If you're looking for community around type 1 diabetes, check out the Juice Box Podcast Private Facebook group juicebox podcast type 1 diabetes but everybody is welcome. Type 1 type 2 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 Juice Box podcast type 1 diabetes on Facebook. The episode you just heard was professionally edited by wrong way recording wrongwayrecording.com.