The Neil Haley Show Featuring Jenae Noonan, Mitchell S. Karnes, Dr. Gilda Carle, and Anthony McMahon

Neil opened with a celebrity simulcast of Live from the Grotto (with a shout out to host Greg Hannah) featuring actress, model, MMA champion, and entrepreneur Jenae Noonan. Jenae shared her remarkable journey from MySpace-era modeling to becoming one of the world's most decorated pankration fighters, with four gold medals at the World Games and a 2024 distinction as one of the world's most dangerous women. After retiring at the end of 2024 to focus on raising her adopted special needs son, she was diagnosed with both skin cancer and breast cancer two weeks apart in 2025, spending two terrifying weeks planning a funeral before learning her prognosis was good. On February 12, 2026, she rang the bell with no sign of disease. Out of that journey she rebranded her upcoming coffee brand as Rise, a community-driven platform where women with breast cancer can sell the coffee and keep the profits to help cover their medical journeys. Find her at JenaeNoonan.com, on Victory Book Publishing, and through her self-defense seminars at StaySafeEDU.org.Next up, the simulcast with author Mitchell S. Karnes touched on two important updates. Mitchell shared highlights from his Sunday morning book signing slot at Landmark Booksellers during Franklin, Tennessee's Main Street Festival, where he met readers, sparked conversations using a big candy cane giveaway tree, and connected with three other authors. Casting for his Water Grave series with Kim Petrosky Casting begins this week, with filming starting August 2 and potential cameo announcements coming through a Kickstarter campaign launching Saturday. Mitchell is also deep into research for his Brave Authors collection novella on sex trafficking, set inside a school where a Christian teacher and a Christian boy who defends the victim help identify warning signs. Book four of his Abbey series releases July 1. Visit MitchellSKarnesAuthor.com.Dr. Gilda Carle joined for two Gilda Gram segments. The first centered on a viral story about a 26-year-old wife and her 60-year-old husband in South Carolina whose 34-year age gap marriage thrives because of four non-negotiable rules: they pray together daily, they only drink with each other (never in mixed company where vulnerability could surface), they serve each other even through conflict, and they never keep score. Dr. Gilda emphasized that respect (Aretha was right: R-E-S-P-E-C-T) is the through line every marriage needs. Her second Gilda Gram tackled a devastating story of an 18-year-old who shot and killed a 15-year-old boy and a mother of eight in front of her own children, all over being rejected from a community soccer game. Dr. Gilda used the tragedy to illustrate the gap between IQ and EQ (emotional quotient), sharing a story from her own teaching career in the South Bronx when she stood firm on denying a student graduation after he threw a metal trash can across her classroom. She argued that when emotions are not kept in check, rejection produces violence rather than growth. Visit drgilda.com.Neil closed with the Cutting Edge Benefits podcast by ClaimLinx, welcoming Anthony McMahon filling in for Tom Quigley to tackle alternative group insurance, specifically ICHRAs (Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements). Anthony explained that as group health premiums spike, many brokers are pushing ICHRAs that give employees a fixed dollar contribution (often $300 to $400 a month) to buy their own individual policy. While the employer saves significantly, employees typically downgrade from gold-level group plans with $2,000 deductibles to catastrophic bronze plans with $7,000 deductibles, hurting recruitment and retention. Anthony walked through ClaimLinx's preferred alternative: pair a high-deductible PPO catastrophic plan with a MERP underneath to deliver gold-level benefits at roughly half the premium, with the employer self-financing the difference and the employee seeing real paycheck savings. Visit claimlinx.com.