Let's Talk with Mark & Michelle

A tragic accident in Zion National Park. Authorities say a hiker fell to his death April 17th from the popular Angels Landing trail.  Angels Landing is considered one of the most dangerous hikes in America. To get there, hikers need to navigate Hogsback, a narrow, knife-edge ridge with chains for a handhold. Since 2000, there have been at least 18 confirmed fatalities on the trail. Michelle and I hiked it a couple years ago. It's not for the faint of heart. Here's a re-podcast of our adventure.

When we moved from Las Vegas to Tulsa almost 30 years ago, Michelle told friends and family we were headed for full-on ranch life. Chickens, cows, pigs, maybe a prairie dog or two. We’d raise our own beef and pork, and Bessie would handle the fresh milk. Because that’s what everyone in Oklahoma does… right?Turns out, not so much. We never “bought the farm,” so to speak. But the idea of living off the land still has its pull - and watching Yellowstone over the years definitely didn’t help.We do have a friend who’s actually living the dream. Greg Ganzkow, his wife Rachel, and their three kids run a working ranch in Osage County. A couple years back, we toured Keystone Ranch for an episode of American Dream TV. Let me tell you… it’s the real deal. And Greg? He looks a lot like Rip from Yellowstone. He even told us there is a train station nearby - thankfully he didn’t take us to it.We also recorded a podcast with Greg in 2023. He shared some eye-opening stories about real ranch life - the highs, the lows, the life-and-death moments, and rescuing calves in sub-zero temperatures. Ranching is tough, but it’s meaningful work.I tip my rarely worn Stetson to the ranchers and farmers who do it every day. Plenty of people romanticize the lifestyle, just like we did. But how many are truly built for it?Watch this and ask yourself: Is this for me?

Do you need  a home warranty? Michelle and I welcome Lindsay Padilla of On Call  to our podcast to talk about what a home warranty is, how much it costs, what it covers and why most (but not all) homeowners should buy one. We've had one that covers the big ticket items in our homes, like major appliances and pool pumps, for decades and it's really paid off.https://oncallhomewarranty.com/

I can't express enough how important sound is to a podcast. You say, but don't all podcasts have sound? I'm talking about good sound. Sound you can hear. How many times have your tried to listen to a video or podcast and can't understand what they're saying? That detracts from the experience. Michelle and I use mics whenever we're out fishing, hiking, etc. And because of that we capture some great moments. In this podcast from Rocky Mountain National Park, I include some of those great moments. And all because we use mics. https://bit.ly/RodeWirelessGoiihttps://bit.ly/MicMiniDJI

We love a good adventure and are always on the search for wildlife in and around our national parks. We witnessed a rare sighting in Rocky Mountain National Park this spring ... a mother moose with her twin calves that were less than 24 hours old. It was quite a sight to see them take some of their first wobbly steps in this world. Enjoy it with us.  You can watch this podcast here: https://bit.ly/Dayoldtwinmoosecalves

How many of us invite suffering into our life? I mean go out of our way to bring on real hurt and pain that takes our breath away. Not many of us, right? We’d rather run from it if we can. But not Phil Lakin. Phil’s not like most of us. He actually loves to suffer … as long as it helps him reach the top. Many Tulsans know Phil as a long-time city councilor, civic leader and CEO of the Tulsa Community Foundation. But did you know he’s also an adventurer, thrill-seeker, climber, mountaineer? Ever heard of the Matterhorn? And not the one at Disney World. The one in the Swiss Alps. He’s climbed that. How about Cotopaxi? You may have one of its colorful backpacks. But this Cotopaxi is in Ecuador. It’s almost 20 thousand feet high, and he’s climbed that too. Do you know what a 14er is? There are more than 70 of them in the continental U.S.  Phil’s been to the top of ALL of them … and many more than once? In this podcast, Michelle and I talk with Phil about his crazy adventures, his dances with danger and his motivation to reach breathtaking (in more ways than one) summits when the pain is almost unbearable. No doubt about it, Phil Lakin suffers for what he does. But don’t feel sorry for him. Not when you see his view from the top!https://tulsacf.orghttps://www.melissaarnot.com/enoughhttps://www.justtravelposters.com

We’re constantly amazed by how things are made. In this episode we’re blown away by something that we had no idea was even made by someone. The Gathering Place is a world-class park in Tulsa with so much to see and do. The 1000 foot whitewater flume on the Arkansas River is next to the park. The flume is made up of hundreds of rocks that look like they’ve been there forever. But in fact many of them were manufactured, carved and painted under the direction of Tulsan Carolyn Finch and her team. The rocks look like the real deal. Who would have thought someone had that job? Finch is well-known as a colorist, someone who’s an expert on using colors to decorate homes. She knows and keeps up on color trends. Recently she’s expanded her business to include rocks. Think about your outdated rock fireplace or rock facade on your home. She works wonders making the old and drab and outdated look fresh and new and trendy. And now she’s carving (quite literally) a new niche as she works in the middle of the Arkansas River. Amazing isn’t it? So here’s our conversation with Carolyn Finch, who we call Tulsa’s “rock” star!

Did you know there are no fewer than 25 national holidays for cats? March has Rescue Cat Day, Respect your Cat Day and Cuddly Kitten Day. In this podcast we ask "What is your cat's favorite place to hang out in your house?" Also, “What does your cat do to punish you?" The first day of spring is this week, and after a cold and snowy winter, we're ready for it. We recently went to the Greater Tulsa Home and Garden Show where we came away with some spring-time ideas. And our featured home of the week is a success story. It sold after just one day on the market.

Want to know the value of your home? Right away? In this podcast we talk about a free online home valuation tool. It's not the end all of what you could get for your home, but it's quick and easy. Sometimes it's spot on, but not always, and because of that we tell you what to do if you're serious about getting an estimate of your home's worth. For fun, Mark shows you what he got Michelle for Christmas because she's such a bird lover. It's a bird feeder that snaps pictures and records videos of what's eating the bird seed (and it's not always a bird)! And we show you our featured home of the week in a master planned community in Broken Arrow.https://bit.ly/YourFreeOnlineHomeValuationhttps://bit.ly/FeatherSnapBirdFeeder

Our daughter-in-law Ines, who's from Spain, officially became a U.S. citizen in February. The naturalization ceremony took place at the immigration office in Oklahoma City. 38 people from 18 countries took the oath in the patriotic ceremony. Ines told us what it means to her to become a U.S. citizen and what she plans to do first, including her first meal as an American. Michelle also talks real estate, as we go over four things you should do when in the market for a new home.

We have so much to unpack in this podcast ... or pack if you're getting your house ready to sell in the spring. Even though it's winter, there are some things you can do now to get ready to sell in a few months. We also talk about three mistakes Mark made in Valentine's Day past to help you avoid a similar embarrassment.  One faux pas includes the thigh master. Also find out how a stripper pole ended up in one of our open houses! And what happened to all of Mark's Channel 8 gear? 

If you're in the market for a new home, chances are you're touring a lot of properties before you make your final decision. In this podcast, we talk about what to look for when walking through a home, specifically the potential red flags that might help you make your decision. Michelle also has her featured home of the week, a beautiful home in the master-planned community of Forest Ridge in Broken Arrow. And we'll also tour some home on wheels. Mark went to the Tulsa Boat, Sport and Travel Show where there are hundreds of RVs and boats on display. We're in the market for some sort of RV, maybe not right now but in the future. We show you some of RVs we like.

Michelle and I talk about the home down payment and the pros and cons of how much you should put down when buying a home. Michelle also has her featured home of the week. And we talk to our daughter-in-law Ines after she passed her naturalization test to become a U.S. citizen.

Are you selling your home, or thinking about it? Here are some improvements that add value to your home, and a few that don't. We also show our feature home of the week. Plus, where do we go when it's cold and snowy at home? To the beach? Nope. We share a few of our favorite winter activities.

In our latest podcast, Michelle and I go over three home buying myths, our #1 most hated household chore and the featured home of the week.

Our latest adventure took us to Colorado this Fall. We timed the autumn colors perfectly in Aspen, the bull elk rutting season in Estes Park was in its prime and the fly fishing everywhere was superb!

Michelle and I once again traveled to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. We love to see the wildlife and gorgeous scenery. And we saw it all again, including a too close for comfort encounter with a mother grizzly and her two cubs while fishing in the Yellowstone's Lamar Valley. Michelle calls it the most terrifying thing in her life. This podcast is about our bear scare and what we learned from it. We also share some beautiful scenery and Michelle's fly fishing adventures. Enjoy.

Whether you buy or sell a home, the home inspection is part of the process. It's definitely a must. Here's what goes into a home inspection.

It may be winter but the weather feels like spring. It's a great time to start preparing your house to sell. Michelle is a realtor with nearly 25 years experience. In this podcast, she has some things to think about if you're planning on putting your home on the market soon. 

What's the "in" paint color this year? How do you keep celery fresh in the refrigerator for a month? Just a couple ideas you'll learn in this episode. Michelle and I talk with interior designer Julia Kirkendall and restaurant owner and chef Nancy Bruce. We're on location at Studio by K/D in Tulsa. Kirkendall's new venue offers "a broad range of interactive workshops and nature-inspired experiences, while also imparting invaluable knowledge on living life to its utmost potential." Many of those interactive workshops include cooking demonstrations by Bruce who owns Lambrusco'z Deli. Today she gives us some helpful but simple food tips while making french onion soup. And Kirkendall shows us around her beautiful new design studio.

What's best? Crispy or chewy chocolate chip cookies? Michelle and I have a debate. She likes cookies that are gooey and chewy and I like them crispy. I baked some crispy cookies recently and Michelle challenged me to make ones she likes. So I did. But we needed an impartial judge. We found one. Our 8 month old grandson Jack was hanging out with us for a few days while his parents were on vacation. Perfect!

What are two favorite gifts on Valentine's Day? Diamonds and chocolates. We talk to a jeweler about the hottest gift this year and tour a chocolate factory.

Michelle and I usually hike in our national parks in the summer and fall. As we ended 2023 and began the new year we visited Estes Park, Colorado and nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. Hiking in the winter brings on a different set of challenges, namely the weather. It's cold and icy and snowy. But if you love to hike and explore, you make it work. We hiked up to Dream Lake, and later to Emerald Lake, which are around 10,000 feet elevation in the Rockies. And this time of year, all the lakes are frozen.  Our hike there and beyond to Sky Pond a few summers ago, when temps were in the 90's, was one of our hardest hikes ever. But boy it was sure beautiful! Would it be just a beautiful in the dead of winter?  We also run down our top 5 toughest hikes over the years. The hike to Sky Pond is definitely one of them. What other hikes are on our list? Come along on our adventure to find out.

Michelle has loved to fish practically her entire life. Only recently has she picked up fly fishing. And she's hooked! Every time we go to either Glacier or Grand Teton National Parks she packs her fishing gear with her, an Orvis rod and Simms waders and boots. Once again this summer we booked a guided trip down the Snake River in Jackson Hole, with the help of our friend Tom O'Brien. He set us up with Chip Hodlmair of Westbank Anglers. Just like her other fishing trips, Michelle had one goal: catch just one fish. In this case, the famous Snake River fine-spotted cutthroat trout. And as always, it was quite the adventure.

The entire world is watching what's going on with Israel and Hamas right now. But do we really understand what led up to this war? And what's it like to be Israeli and to be constantly defending yourself from hate and rockets? In this episode I talk with Avner Boskey who lives in the Beersheba region of Israel and oversees Final Frontier Ministries. It's a fascinating, informative and disturbing conversation about life in Israel with enemies at every border, and rockets aimed and often fired at their homes. I ask Avner how far his home is from Gaza. His reply surprised and astounded me. He tells me they measure distance in Israel not in miles, but how long it takes a rocket to reach them from Gaza. For Avner and his family, Gaza is 62 seconds away! 

What's it like to fish with a professional fisherman? Michelle and I met recently with Fred Roumbanis on Oklahoma's Lake Tenkiller to fish for small and large mouth bass. "Boom Boom" as he's called,  is on the Major League Fishing circuit. I shot Michelle and Fred fishing for a November segment on American Dream TV, and we made this podcast out of it.

We visit Grand Teton National Park every year, and sometimes twice. It's our favorite national park. But we also love going up into Yellowstone National Park when we're there. We make a beeline to the far northeastern corner of Yellowstone. The Lamar Valley is wild, rugged, remote and beautiful. It's often called the Serengeti of North America because it's teeming with wildlife. We love to stay in a remote campground called Slough Creek. This year it was called the hardest reservation to get in the country. I can see why. There are only 16 sites, many of them right on Slough Creek. Bears, bison, wolves, otters, ducks and antelope are just a few of the wild things you can see nearby. It's rustic, so it's not for everyone. There are pit toilets and no water at the campsite this summer. That's because Slough Creek and the entire Lamar Valley was devastated by the floods in June of 2022. Everything was closed down that summer and there will be road construction for summers to come.  We love it here, and we'll be back!

I checked a hike off my bucket list recently. Michelle and I spent a week in Utah exploring Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. While in Zion we hiked Angels Landing. Everything I had heard and read about Angels Landing is how scary and dangerous it is. And how popular the hike has become. So popular that you have to enter a lottery drawing to get a permit. I did, and was fortunate to get one. Now the really difficult part … hiking Angels Landing! 

LIV Golf just finished a tournament in Oklahoma. The event was at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow. Some of the best golfers in the world teed off in our backyard ... Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson, Bubba Watson, Cam Smith, Talor Gooch, Brooks Koepka, Sergio Garcia. DJ won in a playoff. Lainey Wilson performed on Friday night after the first round. Michelle and I had a great time walking the course for three days and interacting with the players. And Cedar Ridge did a great job putting it on.

Many people have asked us how we get around our National Parks and get the photos and videos of the wildlife and beautiful scenery. Michelle and I still work full-time and get limited time for our adventures. So we haven't pulled the trigger yet on an RV or trailer. That'll come when we have a lot more time to explore the great outdoors.  Until then we rent. In this episode we talk to the co-owner of Moterra campervans. We met Trevor James five or six years ago when we first started renting one of his Mercedes Benz Sprinter vans in Jackson, Wyoming.  We researched the best way for us to spend a week or so in Grand Teton National Park and came up with this company called Moterra. Every year, and sometime twice a year, we rent from Moterra to explore Grand Teton, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks. And in June we'll add Zion and Bryce to the list. Moterra began with one van in 2016 out of Jackson. Today it has 70 in seven locations around the country. It's gone from a start-up to one of the most popular RV rental companies in the country, serving thousands of people just like us every year. 

As we anxiously wait for Yellowstone to return, Michelle and I tour an Oklahoma ranch for an upcoming episode of American Dream TV. Greg Ganzkow and his wife Rachel own and run (along with their three young children) the Keystone Ranch in Osage County. And you know what? Greg looks a lot like Rip on Yellowstone!! And he told us there IS a railroad station nearby! Fortunately he didn't take us there.Greg has some great stories of what real ranch life is like, including life and death on the ranch and saving calves during minus 15 degree temperatures. Ranching is difficult, but rewarding. So many people want the lifestyle. Watch this and ask yourself, "Is this for me?

Michelle and I have gone to Grand Teton National Park so many times, we know where and when to find the wild animals. We've seen grizzlies, black bears, bison, elk, moose and more up close. Sometimes too close. This will tell you where you have a good chance of spotting these animals and the stories behind our adventures (for example, when we ran TOWARDS a bear that came through our campsite).

2022 was a year of adventure for us. In Part One, we explored Vail, Jackson Hole, Oregon and Spain. We finish out the year with our trips to Cancun, Glacier National Park and Grand Teton National Park. In each of these epic adventures Michelle and I give you our tips for a better experience. We have advice on where to go or not go in Mexico, plus how to get around and the must-sees in Glacier and Grand Teton National Parks. From our unbelievable hikes, to where and how we camp, to advise on fly fishing guides, we’ve done a lot of research. We’ve also been very successful in finding and photographing bears, eagles, bison and many other wild animals. We also realize when we need help to learn more. Michelle has become an avid fly fisherwoman, and her “frustrations” to get better led to some awesome, and sometimes hilarious, guided fishing excursions.  You don’t want to miss her “flying” fish tale. Come along as we take you on our adventures of 2022 Part Two. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. 

Michelle and I love Glacier National Park! And we hiked the Highline Trail , which is widely considered the signature trail in Glacier. Here are 8 things we think are important to know if you hike Highline. 

As we near the end of January, Michelle and I are in a vacation holding pattern. We don't have any trips planned for a couple of months. So we're taking this time to look back on 2022. It was a year full of adventure! So much adventure we're splitting it up in two parts. In part one we review our trips to Vail, Jackson Hole, Oregon and the highlight of the first half of the year, and possibly the entire year, the Canary Islands. It was hard to top that, but the second half of 2022 came close. We'll dive into that soon in part two! Hope you enjoy! Check our our Youtube Channel for the video version. We're "Let's Talk with Mark and Michelle".

It was a first for Michelle and I. For the first time in more than 25 years, we went on a ski trip to Vail, Colorado without kids. Our youngest boy, Tommy and his wife Ines, went to Miami for the holidays. Jacob and wife Mandi took their two year old Ava to Disney World.  David and Ashley have three kids (including twins) under the age of 2 and a half. Need I say anymore? So Michelle and I packed up the car and our lab Baker. It was a week of plenty of snow, lots of skiing and even the unexpected Stetson for good measure. We hope you enjoy our latest travel adventure to Vail, Colorado.

Just about every home has color issues ... some minor, others major. The walls aren't the right color, maybe the trim doesn't match, or you're just tired of the brick and need a make-over. Don't just automatically call a painter for these jobs. What you may need is a colorist. We had a minor emergency with our outdated fireplace. The brick was boring so we had a painter paint it white. Big mistake! So Michelle called a friend who's been a colorist for years. Carolyn Finch fixed the problem in just an hour! In this episode, we show you what she did for us, and how a colorist can help you with colors in your home.

Here's quick announcement that Michelle will soon be on American Dream TV. ADTV has been around for a few years, and is streaming and airing in nearly every major city. And now it's coming to Tulsa. While the central focus is real estate and the people behind it, it's more than that. ADTV is a lifestyle show. Each program will feature something or someone that makes our community fascinating and stand out.

 Michelle and I decided at the last moment to take a quick trip up to Grand Teton National Park in late September. We usually visit in the summer, and went up to Glacier National Park instead. Early fall in Wyoming was beautiful. Michelle did a lot of fly fishing on the Snake River, and on the last day we decided to hire a local fishing guide, Ed Dutilly. We had quite the adventure, including a "flying" fish on the trip.

Michelle and I have taken up camping over the past five years.  It's more of a form of glamping. We rent a campervan every year and head up to one of our National Parks. We've actually become very good at getting around in the Mercedes Sprinter van we rent from a company based in Jackson, Wyoming called Moterra. We've been renting from owners Trevor, Gabe and Kevin practically since they started the business. They now have vans out of Wyoming, Montana (Whitefish), Utah (SLC), Nevada (LV) and California (SF).  Camping and getting around in our National Parks takes quite a bit of planning to get your campsite, where to find the wild animals, getting from point "A" to point "B", etc. We recently visited Glacier National Park for 10 days. Here's our adventure and advice. And our run-ins with bears!

With more than 700 miles of trails, Glacier National Park is known as a hiking park. Maybe the signature hike is The Highline Trail.  The trailhead is at Logan Pass and almost immediately cuts a narrow path along a granite wall high above the Going-To-The-Sun Road. For nearly 8 miles you're hiking with views of unsurpassed beauty. The Highline takes you the heart of Glacier National Park to the Granite Park Chalet, built more than a hundred years ago by the Great Northern Railway to provide "comfortable" back country accommodations.  The chalet is also where infamous and tragic history was made in the summer of 1967.It's where a young woman was killed by a grizzly bear, one of two fatal grizzly attracks on the same night in Glacier.  Never before had there been a documented death by a grizzly in Glacier until then. You can read about it in the book "Night of the Grizzlies".

In this episode Michelle and I tackle one of Glacier National Park's premiere trails. The hike up to Grinnell Glacier is quite a trek, especially on a hot summer day and when you take a wrong turn! We eventually make it, and it was certainly worth taking in one of the few remaining glaciers in America. We also talk about our exciting and scary encounters with black bears, grizzlies and park rangers in Glacier National Park. 

Michelle and I recently visited Glacier National Park. It's a trip we've been wanting to take for several years, and finally made it happen in late August. The first thing we did was book a guided fly fishing  trip down the wild and scenic Flathead River. Michelle fishes, I take pictures. It works out perfectly! We hired a guide from Glacier Guides. We had no idea what to expect. Cam Williams was awesome! He was a great teacher and knew a lot about his craft and the river. It was the beginning of a fantastic trip! 

Michelle and I took a quick trip to Cancun and the neighboring Isla Mujeres. We were told on social media that the seaweed/sargassum that's plagued the beaches wasn't a problem this summer. So we checked it out for ourselves. Spoiler alert: It's still a big problem! We spent most of our time at a resort called the Valentin Imperial in the Riviera Maya. One day we took the short ferry ride to Isla Mujeres, a tiny island just off the coast from Cancun. We wanted to stay at Zoetry, but it was sold out. Zoetry is a quaint, 35 room resort with a small but fabulous seaweed-free beach. We'll definitely be going back there! Instead we stayed a night at the Mia. Isla Mujeres is generally free of seaweed. In our latest podcast we explore the Isla Mujeres and Cancun's Valentin resort with its amazing grounds, pools, restaurants and wildlife. The coatis (think a cross between a raccoon and monkey) are everywhere. So are the iguana. We spend much of our time searching the Kevin, a legend at the Valentin.

This has been quite a summer for America’s first national park. It’s Yellowstone’s 150th birthday, and it’s reeling from devastating flooding in June. In this episode of Let’s Talk, Michelle and I learn more about what’s going on in Yellowstone, a place we visit every year. The flooding washed out roads, toppled bridges, sent thousands of tourists fleeing for safety and shut down the park for a while.  We talk with Teddy Garland, a long-time resident of West Yellowstone, who has a popular podcast and guidebook about Yellowstone National Park.  What’s open? What’s closed? What’s next? Is this a summer to avoid visiting the park? (Spoiler: this might be the best year to visit.) We also talk about the unusually high number of encounters that tourists are having with the wildlife, especially the bison. Despite repeated warnings, these tourons (tourist/morons) think they can get up close and personal with wild, unpredictable and dangerous wild animals. Michelle and I also share our encounters with bison, bears and wolves in Yellowstone. It’s a magical place, facing unprecedented challenges during the summer of ’22. 

This is a tale about a trip to Spain. In it, a fairytale wedding on an exotic island ... the marriage and meeting of two cultures. But there's also plenty of drama and intrigue. A fire on a runway, missed flight, car crash, the mysterious missing (maybe lost!) (possibly stolen!!) luggage, a late night theft and a striptease! If Ernest Hemingway was still alive it might be his next novel. Well he's not, so it's our latest podcast instead.

It's never easy saying goodbye to a parent. Michelle and I recently traveled to Oregon for my mother's memorial. Wilaura "Sue" Bradshaw lived a long and fruitful life. She passed away at the home of my sister at the age of 95. Mom and dad had been married nearly 74 years when he passed away in 2019. In this episode, Michelle and I talk about her legacy and numerous talents. She was a pianist, photographer, painter and Bible teacher to name just a few. We'll miss her but know she's in heaven re-united with dad!

It was certainly an entertaining first round of the PGA Championship at Southern Hills in Tulsa, OK. From a limping Tiger Woods to the eccentric John Daly running around in a golf cart.  Certainly there was a lot of great golf for the tens of thousands of fans. But there was also some shock and anger from a few of the fans who, after a long and hot day on the course, went back to the cars and discovered their cars were gone. So lots of drama on and off the course. 

The PGA Championship is this week at Southern Hills in Tulsa. The best golfers in the world are in town for golf's major. Tiger Woods is already here. But the defending champion will not be.. Late last week the PGA of America announced Phil Mickelson would not be playing. In this episode of Let's Talk! Michelle and I talk about the upcoming golf tournament, the absence of our favorite golfer, dropping hundreds of dollars at the PGA merchandise shop and a look back on a recent trip to California's Palm Desert to watch professional golfers on a PGA tour stop.

It may be a week late because of the lockout, but the Major League Baseball season is underway.  And we’re stoked! We’re baseball fans, but nothing like Robert Taylor. You could say he’s truly a baseball fanatic. When we heard about Taylor’s baseball memorabilia collection we had to check it out. It’s incredible!Like many young boys and girls, Taylor started collecting baseball cards at an early age. But he’s never stopped. Now in his mid-50’s Taylor has amassed quite a treasure trove of baseball memorabilia. Yes, he has hundreds of bats and balls, and by his estimate, 150,000 cards (that’s right, 150K) … but his massive collection is much more than sheer numbers. His collection is more about the friendships and meetings with many of the game’s greats. How he got to hang out with Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra as a kid, what led to his “bro-hug” with Aaron Judge, why Johnny Bench is one of his favorites, and his connection to what’s arguably the biggest publicity stunt in MLB history (Google Eddie Gaedel).What makes his collection so incredible, and in turn so valuable, are the signatures that accompany all the cards and bats and balls and pictures. Taylor has tens of thousands of autographs from the legends of baseball. And stories. Those he hasn’t met, he’s written to. And they write back. In this episode of Let’s Talk! we take a look at his connection and obsession with baseball and learn how he does it. It’s the perfect start to another baseball season!