Hope Mississippi
A bimonthly podcast educating Mississippians about the needs of fellow citizens, encouraging residents to work together to change the trajectory of our families and children, and sharing success stories.
Hope Mississippi
Stories Change Us More Than Success Ever Could
Big goals don’t require every skill—just the courage to start and the wisdom to ask for help. That’s the heartbeat of our year: we moved from an idea to two living, breathing podcasts by teaming up with people who knew what we didn’t, and the result unlocked stories that changed how we see Mississippi and each other.
We share the unlikely chain of events that took us from a conference hallway to a working show, highlighting how tech guidance and brave marketing made the difference. Hillary’s production savvy and Amanda’s fearless approach to promoting Stephen's books gave us a blueprint for consistent publishing and thoughtful outreach. Along the way, we learned that collaboration isn’t a shortcut; it’s the engine. If you’re dreaming up a project—a book, a clinic, a neighborhood event—there’s someone out there who loves the part you dread.
The stories themselves re-centered our purpose. A priest with Irish farm roots mirrored the rhythms of Southern life. A man who journeyed from prison to a governor’s stage showed that redemption can ripple for decades. Lorie's path through addiction, homelessness, and drug court reminded us that recovery often starts when one person believes in you at the right moment. These conversations exposed the quiet power of ordinary kindness: a text sent on a hard day, a blanket handed off in winter, a clinic appointment that keeps a family steady. We reflect on a hometown park turned amphitheater, on adoptions finalized years ago, and on the simple practice of asking better questions in everyday places.
If you need a nudge, take this one: begin with what you have, invite others to bring what you don’t, and let small acts stack up. Subscribe to the show, share this episode with a friend who could use a lift, and leave a review so more people can find these stories of hope and possibility.
Join us for new episodes on the 1st and 15th of each month as we continue sharing stories of transformation from across Mississippi. Each story reminds us that when we contribute our unique gifts, Mississippi rises together.
Hope Mississippi's Mission: The sobering reality remains: one in four Mississippi children lives in poverty, and one in five experiences food insecurity. These statistics aren't just numbers—they're our collective challenge. Through these conversations, we discover that Mississippi's transformation occurs through individual commitments to mentor, encourage, and be present for others. The small acts of hope accumulate into the broader "miracles" we celebrate.
Mississippi is yourself. Hello and welcome to another edition of Hope, Mississippi. I'm Dawn Beam, and I'm so glad that you are joining us today. I have with me my husband, Stephen Beam, and we are just here to kind of reflect on the year. Hey, Steven.
SPEAKER_00:Hey, Dawn. Thanks for asking me to be on your podcast. I'm honored.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I remember I wouldn't even be doing this if it weren't for you. You have thought about doing a podcast, and the next thing we know, we're in Orlando, learning about podcasts, right?
SPEAKER_00:As an author, I was trying to think of ways to get the word out there about my books. And I read somewhere that a lot of people did podcasts. A lot of authors do. Shouldn't say a lot, but some do. And so it occurred to me, I would like to try that. Well, I guess first what I really thought was I'd like to find out more about that. And so it involved going to Orlando to learn more about it. And mentioned to Dawn I wanted to do that, and I said, You might even want to do a podcast. And to my great joy, she said, I think that would be very interesting. Let's do it.
SPEAKER_01:You know, we started the year and I had been on the Supreme Court for nine years and didn't win the election, which was such a blessing, but that's a another hope story, was looking at what we might would do. And I had been involved with Hope Rising, which is an effort to spread hope all across Mississippi. So I came up with the idea of doing hope stories, and then your podcast tells different stories all over Mississippi.
SPEAKER_00:My original idea was to invite writers and talk about their writing. Then it occurred to me, I don't know many writers. So let's change that a little bit to stories and people who are creative in many different ways. So we came up with the title Stories from Cold Springs, which has to do with creativity and storytelling, and that's what I settled on. I've met so many interesting, wonderful people who are not writers as we think of that, but they do have stories to tell.
SPEAKER_01:You know, one very interesting person is Hillary Kane, who we met in Orlando, and she's a lawyer, she's creative, she knows lots about technology, and she's really helped us make this happen.
SPEAKER_00:Well, she has, she's an interesting personality. We fell in love with her. She's done many things in her life, and she's learned about podcasts, how to produce them and get them out there, and she has contacts. So she was just fell into our laps at the podcast convention. She actually did a presentation, Don said we need to talk to her, and invited her to lunch, and it just clicked for us.
SPEAKER_01:You know, so I think as we talk about the year, one thing that I I learned from the year is that you don't have to be good at everything. There are lots of people that have gifts that you just need to connect with and collaborate with. And so if you're thinking, well, maybe I'd like to do a podcast or just whatever your goals are for the coming year, you don't have to be good at everything. There are lots of people around that are ready and willing to help.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's true, and thank goodness for that, because I'm so limited technologically. To be frank, I I don't care to learn all of that stuff if I can help it. I guess if I had to, I'd try. But there are people from many walks of life that do a lot of uh different things. I'm sure we'll talk more later about our goals with marketing that we don't know much about. So there are people who do that for a living. In my case, there are people who know how to edit books. I'm not a great editor or format them, put them in the shape to be sent to a publisher. You need those people, and they're out there and want to help you, want to work with you. So all you have to do is come up with the idea, it's your idea, and contact some of those people, and before you know it, you're doing some things you never thought you could do.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, you opened the door about marketing, so I'm gonna give a shout-out to Amanda Williamson, who has been such an incredible blessing to both of us. Both of us are technology challenged. Amanda has an incredible gift of marketing and understanding algorithms and all those things with regard to the internet. So if you have a talent or a gift or a service that you're trying to let the public know about, find folks like Amanda Williamson to help you to get the word out. I'll tell you, there's some days I think she just needs to turn it down. Um I opened my law office this year and she started marketing and she's about to work me to death.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and then later, not a whole lot later, she agreed to work with me and marked in my books. And she was very upfront about it. She said, I've never done this before, but I find the idea interesting. And so she did the proper research. She's fearless when it comes to looking for ways to get your name out there, and she has such a good understanding of it. If she doesn't understand it, she will learn it quickly, just like with the books. And uh, she has brought me so far along in the things that we've been able to do marketing-wise, a place that I would never have been by myself. I was doing the basic things of posting on Facebook, and that was really about it. She has brought it uh much further along than that.
SPEAKER_01:So, Dad and Chip, and a lot of folks in my family are preachers, so I tend to think in points, and the first point is you don't have to do everything, you don't have to be good at everything, but connect with people that are, and they can help you to further your own talents. Another thing that I have learned through the year with these podcasts is that sometimes we're so busy doing life that we don't stop and get to know people. And it has been incredible to slow down, invite guests, and to hear their stories. Hasn't that been a blessing to you too, babe?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it has, and I can name names, and I will name one name, Father Tommy from one of the Catholic churches here in this area, been around for years, and I I've known him for years, but didn't know much about him as far as where he came from. He's Irish. I knew he was Irish, but he came on my podcast and and talked about how he grew up. And one of the listeners of that podcast texted me and said, It's truly amazing that he grew up on a farm in Ireland, much like the way that you and I grew up. I grew up on a farm uh in North Mississippi. By doing those kinds of things you learn about people, but you also learn that the world is smaller than we sometimes think, especially people say with a foreign accent, and we think they don't understand at all where I'm coming from. Father Tommy does, for example, because he grew up much the same as I did, raised on a farm, I think, with better check myself with this, but I think there were thirteen children, he was somewhere in the middle. And he grew up working that farm with his family, family farm. So the stories he told about that really made me appreciate him so much more, and it's really true. You can not that this would ever be the case with with him, but there may be someone that you really don't get along with very well. Then if you find out more about him, sometimes you find you have more in common with them than you thought.
SPEAKER_01:You know, that's true, and also we see folks and we have no idea the struggles that they're going through. Um we say how you're doing, and you naturally say, Oh, great. You know, you don't stop and say, Well, you have no idea. I've enjoyed interviewing Dwight Owens and learning his story and just appreciating all that he does for Mississippi, spreading the hope that he has. Reflect back over the bar convention. And many of the folks I just happened to see in the hallway and say, Hey, can I interview you about your hope story? And had no idea what the answers to their the questions I gave would be. They say good lawyers are not supposed to ask a question that they don't know the answer to, but boy, did I enjoy finding out who influenced them in their lives. You know, none of us have gotten to where we are on our own. It is from teachers and Sunday school teachers and other folks that believed in us and encouraged us along the way. And it's just fun to reflect on that and to appreciate my own heritage and those that have encouraged me along the way. I'm reminded of Scotty Tyrone and what a blessing he was when he came and an incredible blessing to my family as my mother was passing for him to come and minister to us. Just a great story of faith. Lori Sanford, I just stumbled on her. You may remember Lori if you heard that. If you didn't hear that podcast, you need to go back and hear that podcast. I just stumbled on her story, and she has a story that is just heartbreaking. She came from a very dysfunctional family. She started drinking early on, then started doing drugs, ended up homeless, losing children through CPS. But she ended up in drug court, and that was the turning point in her life, and how different individuals encouraged her along the way. You know, this time of season in particular, we see homeless folks and we think, is there hope? Lori Sanford reminded me, everybody, everybody has hope. Tomorrow can be brighter for all of us, and oftentimes it just takes that person. They say everybody needs one person to believe in them, whether that be a teacher or just somebody that you work with along the way.
SPEAKER_00:That's true, and everyone has a story. I I don't know of anyone that I've talked to that thinks that their story is that interesting. I think we're all a lot like that. Well, I guess a narcissist are not that way, but uh most folks live their lives and they have their struggles. They get through them successfully, most folks do, but many times they don't realize their stories can be a blessing to other people to lift them up and to understand that that just because they may be down right now doesn't mean they're going to be down forever if they can just keep working forward. We uh know someone who we've met recently who had has in the middle of some difficulties now because of the theft of a lot of his property. We've tried to encourage him, well I think we have encouraged him, uh, to keep moving forward, and I think he will in a positive way, but we wouldn't have known about him and his story had we not met him and talked with him and found out more about him personally. I think the stories, Don, that you do and that I do as well, uh help us to meet those people and see those people in a totally different way than we would have a year ago when we weren't doing these podcasts, for example.
SPEAKER_01:You know, too, Stephen, it's helped me to be a better person to slow down just a little bit and and talk to folks, engage them, see what's going on in their lives, because until I experienced this of stopping, I didn't realize how rewarding it is to hear somebody's story and to really get to know them in a more personal way.
SPEAKER_00:Uh what you need to know about Dawn and me is we have different personalities. She's much more extroverted than I am. I'm more of an introvert. I tell people I'm a constructed extrovert because of things I've done over the years, I've had to be more extroverted. But it is so important to take the time, as Dawn just said, to hear people's stories. And you can be extroverted, you can be introverted, you can still find those stories in people. So I would encourage you to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And you know, finally, as I think about the wonderful year, oh wait, we need to talk about one more story before we go to the next point, and that would be Reverend Eddie Spencer. You know, um, we memorialized his story. He had cancer and had just fought an incredible battle. And if you heard his story, you know that he has led a life of hope. Went from prison where there was no hope to Christ changing his life, and he ended up receiving clemency by a governor, and 10 years or 20 years to the day, he ended up doing the invocation at Governor Reeves' inauguration the first time. And that that's just a story of of hope. But I reflect on his life and just the wonderful humility and godly man that that he was, and I'm so glad that we could memorialize his story on this podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I I remember that uh day for that inauguration, and you had known him and did know him much better than I did, but he was an amazing fellow. Those stories are out there. The thing is, many of them can be right next door to you. So one of the things that I learned as a practical physician for all those many years was that people who retire and go home and stay in their house many times wither away and die. So one must always be active, even in their neighborhood, of uh getting to know people, being sociable, being interactive with people, learning about them, because they they've had struggles too, but they also have so many positive things. And many people who have struggled have the most positive stories and the most positive outlooks of all of us.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And okay, we'll go on to our final point, and and I think this uh certainly plays right into what you were saying and what we were the point we were making about Pastor Spencer, and that is when we talk about hope, Mississippi, we all, each one of us, have an opportunity to leave Mississippi better than we found it, to take steps, whether that be just an individual thing to help someone or bigger things in order to leave our mark and to make a difference.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, obviously. And there's something for all of us to do. Many times people do amazing things when they don't think they're so amazing themselves, simply because they're moving forward, living in hope that uh they can make the world a better place. I know that you and I don't try to do that. We intentionally try to do that here in our our little town, and especially you across the state. There are many folks who don't necessarily intentionally try to do it, they just do it because that's who they are.
SPEAKER_01:You know, we've had a lot of joy. We gave the town the park, and in the last few days they've opened up an amphitheater, and there's just a lot of joy in seeing that. I was at Edward Street earlier this week delivering blankets and saw the medical clinic that you helped with and are director emeritus of. So certainly you want to do big things, but there are also little things that you can do that you have no idea the lasting impact that you may have. I have enjoyed opening my law practice again after about 15 years and seeing folks that would tell me, 17 years ago you helped me adopt twins, and now they're doing great, or years ago you helped my parents, and we just think that we're doing an act, a service. We have no idea the long-term impact that it has on people.
SPEAKER_00:That's true, and I I I'm so glad that you're practicing law again, because it it's clear that that's it's what you want to be doing and where you want to be, rather than sitting on the court in Jackson. And I I see the happiness in you. And you tell me stories uh uh about people that you've been able to help and how much that means to you. And some of them are just small little stories. We're not talking about huge wins and victories, and sometimes even when you don't necessarily get what your client wanted, you've been able to help them see a way through it, regardless of whether or not they quote win the case, unquote.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely. And you know, I'm reminded, um both of us have lived long enough that we have experienced disappointments in life and struggles in life, and that gives us wisdom and knowledge to know that things are only temporary, that when we think about trying to give and to encourage others, we can use I I I love the verse, God comforts us so that we can yet be comforters, but we have experienced things in our lives that we can give hope to other folks because we know it really will work out.
SPEAKER_00:And you never know, you never ever know when you may say something or do something that helped someone, and you really don't think about it, especially if you try to live that life. We both have stories along those lines that people later tell us some of the things we might have said or done that meant a lot to them.
SPEAKER_01:And you know, the joy that comes from Making that effort to make a difference in an individual's life or even in your community is just invaluable. I call it that intrinsic value. This year, some friends of mine and I decided to cover Mississippi with love. We gave around 400 blankets all throughout the state. And as we've had some cold nights lately, there's just such joy in knowing I don't ever have to see that person that got that blanket. But I know that God used us to spread hope. And so as we think in closing about this podcast and as we approach the new year, uh we want you just to be encouraged that the Bible talks about how Jesus loves a cheerful giver and the blessing of giving. So you don't have to have big things in order to give. I have some elderly people that just call me periodically and encourage me. I've got several pastors that send me text messages. It may be little to them, but it's huge to me, and it's amazing how they arrive just at the right time.
SPEAKER_00:And it works both ways. There's a gentleman who's in poor health now, lives in the Hashburg area 35, 40 years ago on a trip, a weekend retreat trip. First I really met him and talked with him made a huge difference in my life. And I tell him that every time I see him, and he just seems surprised every time. And he he tries to shrug it off. But he did and still does.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I reminded that same individual periodically tells you when you see him, you know, I still pray for you every day. And so that that's an incredible gift, too.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, absolutely it is, and you can feel it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, be encouraged if you're listening. You don't have to have a lot to give. We all have 24 hours a day, and there are lots of ways that we can encourage one another. Stop, take some time to find out what's going on in someone's life and to hear their story. Don't let your mind tell you something can't be done. You have talent, but there are lots of people that are willing to connect with you to make your dreams come true. So, with the coming year, whatever your your dreams are, connect with other people and make them come true because they really can be a blessing. God wants to use each of us to to be a blessing and to make a difference in the world. And and finally, be a part of raising hope in Mississippi. We have lots of challenges, but we have the most generous people in our state, and we all have a a role to play in lifting one another up.
SPEAKER_00:And I personally wish you the very best coming year and a wonderful Christmas season. Just keep in mind that you may have an idea, it may be overwhelming, but as we've both said, look for other people to help you with your idea. Don't let negative people push you away from trying to do something that you want to do that is for the good of everyone. Uh, believe me, Don and I have faced that all along in things that we've done. So we know that that's there. Don't let it happen to you. Have a wonderful Christmas season and a wonderful 2026.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you for being such a wonderful encouragement to me, Stephen. I want you to know how much I appreciate that. I hope you all have a blessed holiday, Christmas, and coming new year, and we look forward to joining you again in 2026. God bless the bee is your celebration.
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