On-Air with Dr. Pete

Grandma's Wisdom on Every Corner with The Viral Grandma Stand

• Peter Economou

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For many of us, 2025 was a heavy one. Every year brings its own challenges, but this year, we’re really looking forward to celebrating all that’s good in the world.

And what better way to do that than with a few beloved grandmas?

Join Dr. Pete & Mike Matthews, Founder of the the viral phenomenon taking over the streets of New York City and Worldwide- the Grandma Stand!  You might be wondering—what is a Grandma Stand? Imagine a lemonade stand… but with an extra-special and incredibly meaningful twist.

Mike Matthews came up with the idea for The Grandma Stand back in 2012, honoring his beloved Grandma Eileen. Since then, this simple idea of spreading joy has truly taken off—and I can’t wait to share this episode with all of you! 

Learn more about Mike & his invaluable nonprofit here: 

https://www.grandmastand.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQMMjU2MjgxMDQwNTU4AAGnk49KJL1aLIFqMc1350uWqpJdt0ozUhOUBwYlSYR4GfjR6D0mtnvivUiTsXg_aem_HB-Itv4JHZ0jhVZgv_ZiGA

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What The Grandma Stand Is

SPEAKER_00

Happy New Year. Welcome to On Air with Dr. Pete and welcome to 2026. It is hard to believe that it's a brand new year already, but who cares? Because each moment is a new moment anyway. It doesn't matter what year it is or what day it is. Uh 2025 may have been heavy, uh, but each year brings its own challenges, and this year hopefully things will go the way you want them to go. And if not, that's okay. But what better way to do that than with beloved grandmas? Uh and that's going to make sense in a minute. You might be like, wait, what am I talking about? But we are thrilled to have the creator and one and only of the one and only grandma stand to the show. Uh, you might be wondering what is the grandma stand if you don't know what it is, but imagine a lemonade stand, but with an extra special and incredibly meaningful twist. Mike Matthews came up with this idea for the grandma stand back in 2012, honoring his beloved grandma Eileen. Since then, the simple idea of spreading joy has truly taken off. And I can't wait to hear more about this. Welcome to the show, Mike.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_00

This is so cool. The grandma stand. Uh so I mean, just explain it for somebody who's like, what is that?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, you did you did a pretty good job, but basically, like it's a lemonade stand on a street corner where a grandma sits on one side and there's an empty chair on the other, and then anyone that's walking by can literally just sit down and talk to a grandma.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

Meet Grandma Eileen

SPEAKER_00

And so how like how did that start? Like maybe that's tell me about Eileen. Like, tell me about Grandma Eileen.

SPEAKER_02

Oh man. Yeah. I thought about her a lot actually this week. Um Grandma Eileen lived until she lived until she was 102 years old. And so from uh 2012 to 2018, she did the grandma stand with me. She was the only grandmother. It was just me and her. Okay. So she lived with my parents in the Seattle area. And Grandma Eileen is one of those people. If you know um, I often if you know someone in your life where um they can kind of meet you at any emotion. So if you're feeling sad, spiritual, happy, joyous, uh, depressed, she meets you in wherever you're at. And even in the same kind of conversation, she can be crying with you and laughing with you. And she had that unique ability that we've seen in um, especially in grandmothers, which is like she would just be uh full of empathy, yeah, um, ask you really good questions, and she'd be present with you. Yeah, and so she's just one of those people that I knew kind of was for the world and not just for our family. We didn't deserve her in some ways. Oh, come on. Yeah, I mean, you know what I mean? Like I just I saw how my friends reacted to her. I saw how the neighbors, people that are 40 years old, you know, mothers of three kids would come over and spend time with her, and you would think, oh, that's nicer spending time with my grandma to you know, taking care of this kind of widow. It's the opposite. They were getting so much more out of it than her. She was exhausted by the time they leave. And um, and so I noticed this about her. I'm like, this is a really special grandma, and um um, yeah, she's tiny, she was so small, and she looked so she's kind of radiant skin. Everyone always would always comment on how young she looks and everything else. And she just wasn't one of those people that you just wanted to hear her giggle, like she had the most unique giggle. Yeah, and I have that recorded in all these conversations with people that I love to just like replay on like just voicemails that I still have of her and that kind of sound.

SPEAKER_00

So she so she was in Seattle and then and then because you're in New York, so we're on the East Coast. We were talking about that a little bit. So so eventually, like she came to you, and that's how this all started, or like can you give us a little bit more about that?

The Breakup Call That Sparked It

SPEAKER_02

Sure, yeah. Like the origin story was I I my grandma was at a point in her life, she was 96, and she couldn't really travel anymore, and she hadn't been in New York and to visit me, and she really wanted to, and she wanted to meet New Yorkers and everything else. And so I had that in the back of my mind. I'm like, how can I get my grandma? I was trying to convince her for years. I'm like, I'll pick you up in a taxi, I'll rent a car, I'll drive you everywhere. We'll literally walk outside the car, get outside the car, look at Rockefeller Center, and then get right back in the car. Like, I'll make it so easy. And um couldn't do it, and I understood it. She's 96. And so what I ended up doing was um I had that in my mind. And then one day I was um I was in my office and I had a coworker from Brooklyn. She's just like hipster, like wore all gold jewelry, like she was just so cool, and she never really showed a lot of underbelly. You didn't really know who she was because she was cool. Yeah, she came into my office and she said I had a she broken up with her boyfriend after five years, and she started to cry. And I've never seen her like that, and I didn't have the right things to say to her. And I just had this thought of like, I said, I know this sounds crazy, but my grandma lives in Seattle. She is um, she's a really good listener, and I put down her landline, and then I looked across the desk to her, and the coworker just said, like, that's the weirdest thing that anyone has ever like asked me to do. Like, call your grandmother who I've never met and talk about a breakup. Yeah, and I just said, like, I know it sounds crazy, just like I don't know, maybe give it a try if you're up to it. And it just so happened that was on a Friday, and it just so happened that over the course of the weekend she got to a place where she called her and um called me.

SPEAKER_00

Did you warn your grandma? Did you like grandma?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I had zero expectation that it would happen. Yeah, and I also um and the funny thing is my grandma never told me she called.

SPEAKER_00

No, like I I never heard because my grandma secrets too.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's a lock that she will not share. And so another incredible thing about my grandma, she doesn't get in the middle of a lot of what's going on. And so um so my coworker comes in on Monday morning, kind of beboping into my office, and just says, like, I feel lifted. I feel I feel like everything's gonna be okay. Like, I talking talking to my friends, my 30-year-old friends in Brooklyn, about a breakup is helpful, and my friends are great. It just wasn't the same as talking to your grandma Eileen. Yeah, there's just something about the disarming nature of a grandmother and the perspective that they have. And so she and she and my grandmother talked uh for like six months, like an hour every week. Yeah, and so they formulated this really cool friendship. And I'm like, who would have thought this 30-year-old Brooklyn hipster and a 96-year-old grandmother across the country would become so connected? Yeah, but I thought I've met, I know Eileen, I think it's possible. And so that was a little of the um the genesis of like I literally could go on Etsy, buy a lemonade stand, put it on a street.

SPEAKER_00

That was your first thought? Yeah, one of, yeah. Wait, what what industry, what industry are you in when you're in this office that she walks into? I'm curious about that now.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, I do social media marketing full time. That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00

Okay, well, I I think that helps though. That's why you saw a lemonade stand. Okay, that helps. Yeah, yeah. You have a creative brain.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'd like to think so. I like me, like it. I I'm really good at um maybe you feel this way, like I can't market anything about me very well.

unknown

Like nothing.

SPEAKER_02

But when it comes to other people, individuals that are good for the world or can do something, you just your mind kind of explodes with creativity on like they need to be heard or seen or kind of experienced. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Was Grandma Eileen, wait, was Grandma Eileen? Was she born? Where was she born?

SPEAKER_02

Uh she was both uh born in um in Maryland. Okay. So yeah.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. I'm I'm curious if there's any kind of like because you called her like so the brain creates all these stories. So you said she was really small with this like really vibrant skin. So I'm like, is she like a little old Italian lady? Is she a little old like Jewish grandmother? Like, sort of what would her cultural identity be in that?

SPEAKER_02

Very proper English, kind of English parents, and then has that kind of East Coast, you dress up nice, you look presentable when you go outside. So moving to the West Coast to live with my parents later in her life, this is like her uh late 80s, she moved in with my parents. Definitely like uh, oh wow, everyone's wearing Kirkland signature shirts. And like there is a little like Grandma Eileen is imperfect, a little judgment there on like casual nature of the West Coast, if you will. And um, but that's very much her.

SPEAKER_00

Wait, so from this co-worker, then at some point Grandma Eileen was like, Okay, Mike, I will come to New York. Or did that ever not happen? Or like, how did that not happen?

SPEAKER_02

It never happened.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, so my brain created that stuff. Okay.

From Virtual To Street Corner

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, so what I ended up doing was I she did this virtually. So I put a laptop on top of the lemonade stand and noise cancellation headphones because it was New York City, and then an empty chair, so just one side, and then just had my grandma on FaceTime and a big sign that just said talk to my 96-year-old grandmother. And I had these little discussion prompts in a little bowl, and then that was it.

SPEAKER_00

That is really, really you know, listening is such an important part of daily conversations, and I think in today's world we don't get as much of that, you know, we're we're all just like pushing away distractions, you know, because it's hard to truly listen. So, how do the grandma so like where where is this at today? Because now it's grandma lean, it's not right, she's not like so how there are multiple grandmas, or like how do they show up and like what is it like how do they do this with the booths today?

Building A Network Of Grandmas

SPEAKER_02

So today it's all in person. Yeah, um, so kind of retired the grandma stand in 2018, and then about two years ago, kind of revitalized the the the grandma stand, painted it bright purple, which is my grandma's favorite color. And then um, I just asked a grandma that I knew in my community here in New York, who I had those same kind of qualities, and this grandma was very nervous about doing this. I showed her a video and then she was like, okay, I'll try it. And we went out, we went out to Central Park, and then she was in love. She's like, This is I will do this every day if you ask me. She loved me so much, and she was so good for people. So Grandma Connie is her name. Yeah. And then since then, people will come up and just say, Hey, my grandma will be perfect for this. And then we'll get on Zoom with the grandkid and the grandma and just discuss, answer their questions, and then we'll just set up a time for them to come and do it. And so now there's about, I'd say about 20 or so grandmas in New York City that are kind of on rotation. And then we're always always new grandmas. Bring up always take care of grandmas.

SPEAKER_00

So if you're listening and you have a grandma, contact Mike or we'll get that to the end. So how how does that scheduling work? Because you know, I'll this this is a little my Zen teacher is 93, and he still sits down on Zen cushions, and it's like really amazing. Like, I am always impressed by uh, and I've always I was raised to respect the elder, and like I just think it's um, and I'll tell I'll tell you about my grandma a little bit, but um, you know, how technology is not his friend. So I'm thinking like computer noise cancelling, head headphones, and schedules of 20 grandmas at the grandma stand. How does that work?

SPEAKER_02

They do a pretty good job. I mean, the New York grandmas especially are pretty resilient, like of course, even with weather. I mean, we're outside, right? So it's like I gotta make sure these grandmas are safe and warm and all those things. And so when they're out there, like the grandmas in New York are like, if it's uh if it's below like 30 degrees, we'll talk about it. But otherwise, I'm good to go. I got a parka. And they have no issues going out. And I'm like, are you sure you're okay with this? So um so yeah, I mean, when I just I a lot of times I'll text with like the grand one of the grandkids to correct a lot of the schedules of things. Um but the really and then of course, you know, we'll, you know, I have a 501c3 nonprofit, so I'll pay for the Ubers to kind of get them locations and back to home. Um but they just have to show up for two, you know, two to three hours and so cool. And it's all set up for them. They don't have to worry about the technology, they don't have to worry about anything else, just sit down and talk. The beautiful thing that's whoever's in front of them is all they care about. They don't care about anything else.

Weather, Logistics, And Safety

SPEAKER_00

So this is is it all is it always in the same spot in New York?

SPEAKER_02

No, always a different location. So that's the fun part.

SPEAKER_00

I love that.

SPEAKER_02

So I'll go on Instagram and I'll post a story and I'll just say our location will be wherever. And it can be in a park, it can be in a plaza, it can be on the street corner, subway, it can just kind of be anywhere.

SPEAKER_00

So you started in New York, but now you're in how many cities?

SPEAKER_02

Uh we're in Denver, Colorado, McKinney, Texas, Omaha, Nebraska, Larchmont, New York. And then in the process, like literally like materials are like ordered and on the way. Um, is let's see, Irvine, California, Salem, Massachusetts, College Station, Texas, Mazadon, Mexico, Victoria, BC, Canada, and Berlin, Germany. Um, those are all that is really cool.

Going Mobile Across The City

SPEAKER_00

So I have another thought, and uh so Lee didn't write this up, so she might be mad at me, and I hope it's okay if I go off script a little bit. Uh, but you know, I'm thinking, so my my grandma was Chicky, and that was my old, younger uh Italian grandma. You know, she was just sounds a lot like Eileen, like she was non-judgmental, she was uh, you know, this really small, like loving, just you know, you're not you're you know, throwing food in your face, listening, caring. Um and the other, and so the other grandma, uh Nana, was also in the same way, but like very different, you know, a little bit more cold. And she was actually called the boss. So I'm sitting here thinking, like, you know, was your other, you know, was there another grandma in your life? Were they very different? You know, because you know, families are complicated. And grandma Eileen had this thing, and I wonder like what were other grandmas like that you've experienced?

Expansion To New Cities

SPEAKER_02

That's a really good observation and in common. Because I I only had one grandmother alive during Grandma Eileen's period of this. Sure. But I do have another grandmother who had passed who is a lot more like the latter. It's a little more strict, a lot more just you know, just buck it up, just a little more of a latitude that you're like, okay. Yeah. And so um, but what I often hear from people is I have a grandmother who's alive right now. I can call her, but I got a lot out of this. And I'm like, and I asked some questions about that, like, tell me about your grandmother, and how come you don't ask them these questions or have these discussions? And they said, Well, I'll always, you know, I'll often hear it's it's it's uh there's judgment, yeah, there's lectures, um, and there's just listening. There's just the art of listening, it's just not there. I love my grandmother. She we have amazing meals, I love going there for the holidays, but as far as like really going in depth on her listening to me and vice versa, it's really, really difficult. And so that's a really cool challenge, I think, for us, because I think there's sometimes, and this is why we have these discussion prompts too that we uh bring up, is maybe give it a try. Ask your grandma some questions beyond just how's the weather, how are you doing? Yeah, maybe just dig a little bit more and see there's more there once the trust is there. But uh having said that, I understand that not all grandmas are perfect, not all grandma eileen's there, you know, there there is some difficulty there. But I do think that having that intergenerational connection is so critically important. So whoever can serve in that role for you of a certain age is is important. You have to sneak them out sometimes when they're not bled.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and there's a lot of great projects around that, like at uh assisted living facilities where you bring in like high school kids. And uh I know like in um in the church, you'll have like so at Ford University, you know, not far, well, not that far from you, but they they'll have the college kids come to talk to the old priest, you know, in the in the nursing home there. And so those are all it's it's really it's important for everybody, you know. That's my Zen teacher is a Jesuit, so he's up in Fordham, and that's why I know that. So it's like um I think that's part of what keeps them going too. Yeah, like you said, grandma Eileen was tired after, but she had purpose, and that's important to have purpose. And so these grandmas, you're sort of you're giving them purpose. So, like, I don't know if you actually said this, but like, how do you you have about 20 in New York that are in a like and switching around, but how do you find them, these incredible grandmas?

Not Every Grandma Listens The Same

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I really I think people will come up and they'll just say, like, my goodness, my grandma would love this. And you yeah, they're filtering for you, they're kind of qualifying the grandma a little bit, and then it's pretty evident within you know the first two minutes of a Zoom call with the grandkid and the grandma, if it's like a good fit, you know, like I'm these are volunteer grandmas. I'm not so overly particular. This isn't like a strict process of things, um, but a lot of it is I notice that if they're asking me questions and kind of um not they're not defaulting on just talking the whole time, and yeah, you know, I'm like, that's not what New Yorkers are looking for because of those discussions. Um this is what my grandma does, where I'm just like, I just wanted to tell you about this new job or this breakup or something, and then you went right into telling me about your life, and I appreciate that. And so, so that's the qualifying nature of the grandkid seeing how this works and then saying the ground would be perfect. So most of the time it's always been like a natural fit. Um and the other cities that are now hosting the grandma stands, they kind of do it their own way. Yeah, so um, one in uh in McKinney, Texas, they actually work with like assisted living and they bring in people from the assisted living facility. Yeah, in Denver, it's a grandmother who literally started the grandma stand and carries it into, which I keep telling her, please get help, but she carries it into the park in Denver, and she's the only grandma. So each one she does it as the kind of staple grandma there. And so everyone kind of does it a little bit differently.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, which is nice. It's nice to have diversity in that. I really love that. I mean, this is obviously you know from your heart, and uh you also have a full-time job, you know, and so uh I'm curious, you know, why is it so important then just to keep you know the grandma stand going, you know, since grandma Eileen passed in 2018?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that yeah, my wife and I talk about it a lot. It does take some time. My wife runs a hospital and we have you know, we have kids, and so it's just it can be a little time intensive. I try and balance things out by going out once a week at least. Okay. So we'll go out once a week, make sure we're balanced with things, sometimes twice if the weather's really nice. And yeah, um, and I'm starting to be more open to like people that want to help with things, so that's been nice too. But um, but I think the motivation for me is my grandma said it extended her life, like it just gave me a purpose, like you said. She said it's it's really fun, but I just have values sitting and she had a really good social network, not like most grandmas don't. Yeah, she had a really good social network, and even with that, it was really isolating to be sitting in you know, her room with my parents' house and they're working, and you know, there was this yeah, I saw the value in that. And so I felt that from my grandma Eileen. Just how many grandmas could you get involved to make me feel like this? Yeah, that aren't in this great situation where they're being taken care of by, you know, the my you know, their kids and that kind of thing. Um, but and then on the flip side of that, for the not beyond the grandma's value, which is which is also just like why I started it again two years ago, which is I think every friend of mine I was feeling had like um conflict in their some rupture in their family. Uh political discourse was not going over great. Um, you know, job loss, job insurance. All those things. And I just had I was walking in Central Park and I just thought, wow, every one of my friends is struggling. And I have some hard things going on too. And I just thought, I either I can sit back and kind of wallow in the darkness and we just talk about it, or just push back with some light and some good. Yes. And so I'm like, all right, the grandma stands perfect for that. It really is. When you think the world's going to end, you didn't live through World War II. And you thought the world was going to end and you're here and you're okay, right? Like those things. And so bringing it back and the motivation to continue doing that, I think is just that. The more grandmas that are involved and then the amount of the thousands of people that it touches too is pretty incredible and very satisfying for me.

unknown

Yeah.

Why Keep It Going

SPEAKER_00

And you know, you mentioned that grandma lean mentioned to you that it was about gave her purpose. And why else is it important for you around seniors? You know, I I I could talk about the science around it, but for you, why, you know, why are you so focused on supporting and helping elders kind of grow and and go into that stage of their life?

SPEAKER_02

I've seen what it does mentally and physically when they have purpose. Um I've seen what it does when they I and I also think this the idea that when you have such a strong dichotomy of generations getting together where their phones are not out, they don't care about social media or fame. Yeah. They're not caring about all the things that we're caring about.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And they don't, and if literally like their phone's not going to ring, they're not going to get distracted, they're they're right there and present with you. Yeah. I think watching that and the value add for both is pretty incredible. And so that really, as much as I want to say I can be present, I still am thinking about 10 things right now. You know, you know what I mean? It's just impossible. Brains are programmed, whereas a grandmother will sit there and literally the only thing she cares about is who's in front of her and who they really are. That's it. There's nothing else. Yeah. And they don't care about any follow-up of things if they choose to follow up, but it's just that's it. It's just it's simple.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, we we really complicate it. You'll I've say that a lot in this podcast, like humans complicate it, and New Yorkers, we really complicate stuff. So I know uh the grandma stand is very active on social media, and you have this grandma topic of the day. So how do you pick that, you know, when the stand is out?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I what I'll do is I'll kind of just sit back and think of kind of what's going on in the world, how conversations with friends and family, and and I'll I'll go and I'll think of like four different discussion prompts and I'll put it on Instagram, like an Instagram story poll, and I'll let people choose which one do you want to do this week? And so they'll vote on their favorite prompt for that particular week, and then I'll handwrite the question prompt on these two big sandwich boards to the left and the gr and the right of the grandma stand, and um so people can see the question prompt and then they have time to process their response and then they share that with the grandmother. Um, and so that's that's it. I kind of like think of the four, and then people kind of vote on which one.

Presence Beats Distraction

SPEAKER_00

Well, it makes sense because of your marketing background, so I'm glad I asked that because you know it's it's nice, it's nice to see how we use all parts of our brain. And so um so Grandma Eileen, she lived till she was 102, like you said, and that's just so impressive and good genes, and it's incredible. Um, what do you think she would think of this today?

SPEAKER_02

Uh I think she would think um I know what she would think. I uh yeah, she would absolutely be embarrassed that her image is kind of used on the grandma stand itself. If you've seen a picture of an image of her, she'd be so embarrassed by that. Um and she'd be incredibly I think she'd be incredibly proud of me because she she knows what it's like to live in isolation, she knows what it's like gonna be disregarded by society is a really strong statement. Yeah, but I know that she has a lot of friends that felt a lot like that. And so we would say do this with as many grandmas as humanly possible.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's yeah, sorry, like I I just thought of like New York, you're walking the street and you're behind a grandma, and sometimes you're annoyed because you're late somewhere and you're trying to get, you know. And I for me, that's like that shared compassion of just trying to say, like, let me just take a deep breath and I'm late to where I'm going. Like, let me just not let this person feel my pressure.

Choosing Weekly Conversation Prompts

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah. Until I mean, I just came from I was in uh just a couple weeks ago, I was in an assisted living home, actually my care center, and I just came from New York, and so I'm always on the rush, I'm always walking fast. And then I'm walking through this kind of long memory care center, kind of ping-ponging, like through a lot of different people. And at first I had that like going around people, and you don't realize even being 10 feet away from someone on a walker, that stresses them out. Totally. So day two, day three, day four, I was walking so slow and so calm.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

To just kind of slow down the positive aspects of that are only come from being around people at the same time.

SPEAKER_00

Well, Mike, I love that you said that too. Just about, you know, just that's what Grandma Stan does. You know, grandma's just there for that person that's sitting there. It made me just think of I don't know if you've seen the series, uh, A Man on the Inside with uh Ted Danson. Uh he's yeah, he's still uh so it's it's you know, he goes to a memory care and assisted living facility. Anyway, check it out. It's um because again, it's about purpose and like what happens in those communities. Um, you know, we there's a lot that can be done in these in these communities. Um this is awesome. I I could keep well. So you have any other good news to share with us or like other exciting things happening about the the grandma stand that you want to share?

SPEAKER_02

I mean, the expansion's been really exciting. I honestly in the last three weeks we've gotten at least 10 new cities that have at least reached out and said they want to start the grandma stand.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

What Eileen Would Think Today

SPEAKER_02

Um, and there's just really cool projects that are happening right now with it. Um that I can't share too much yet, unfortunately, but there's some really cool stuff that's it that's coming around that really expand the kind of the grandma goodness of the stand.

SPEAKER_00

So we'll we'll we'll we'll link it to it. And uh I you know I know it's a 501c3, like you said, so you know, maybe some donations or things like that. So, or or how can listeners learn more about getting involved or just the efforts of the grandma stand?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, just go to grandma stand.com, um, also on Instagram, just at grandma stand, and that's where people, if they want to volunteer grandmother to be part of it, um whether it's in New York or anywhere. If a grandma stand opens up in your respective city, then here's a grandma that can volunteer to be part of it. If you want to start a new grandma stand um in your city, that's also on the website. Okay, and then all the donations go to the materials and the taxis for the grandmas to get to and from uh the locations, and that's it. And so any support is always like appreciated. Um to keep it going.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it's my brain is very funny. Um it would never be the grandpa stand. I mean, no one would go.

SPEAKER_02

I know. I've had a lot of people ask me, what about the grandpas? And I'm like, I just it was my grandma Eileen, I don't know. Yeah, but they're like someone had a very New York comment. They just said, What if we had like a really like just a really grumpy grandpa? And you literally sat down and it was the opposite. It was just like a grandpa like saying, like, oh, you're complaining way too much. Like just suck it up and do and I'm like, that's kind of like a grumpy grandpa standing up. It's actually really funny.

Learning To Slow Down

SPEAKER_00

It would be. Well, there's a there's a few so I actually came across a social media account, it's called that, like grumpy old man or something like that. You'll you should check it out. But it's uh yeah, it would be a different feel. Um, also, well, also from New York is Albert Ellis, which is um rationally emotive behavioral therapy. So he's no longer with us, but he developed this thing called REBT, which is a cognitive behavioral therapy sort of strategy, which would basically just say get over it. You know, so if people were feeling certain kinds of way, uh he would just call them dysfunctional feelings and just uh label them as such and move on.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and I I will say this of the rotation of grandmas that do appear, some have those traits a little bit too. Sure. Like I think there's I found that there's a grandma for a particular person on that particular day on that street corner. Love it. They needed someone that was a little more just assertive and aggressive, whereas someone at the time just needed someone to listen and a little more passive. And so having the different personalities and backgrounds, and like it's been really nice because certain people connect with certain certain uh grandmas.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah, I love that. Well, you know, we all have a story, and uh the mission that you uh have created is uh really valued. I mean, I think it is I really wish you continued success. This grandma stand is super cool, it's such a great thing. So good luck and congrats on everything.

SPEAKER_02

Thank you, thank you. I appreciate you.

SPEAKER_00

Thanks for being here, Mike, and uh everyone. I hope you have a great 2026. What a way to start 2026 with the grandma stand. Uh so we will be back here next week. So until then, spread a little kindness and stay well.