I’m thrilled to spend a few minutes with the inspiring Bill Mott, Hall of Fame, award-winning Thoroughbred trainer. Bill has had a long and successful career training race horses since he was 15 years old in South Dakota. In 1978, he struck out on his own after riding and training for Jack Van Berg, and by the time Bill was 45 years old, he was the youngest trainer ever to be inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame. Bill has won the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Trainer four times across three decades. And if those stats don’t impress you, on June 20, 2020, Moon Over Miami won at Churchill Downs, giving Bill his five thousandth win. To date, Bill Mott has had over 28,670 starts with 5,513 first places and almost 9,000 2nds and 3rds with gross earnings of roughly $361 million.

Most recent was Bill’s training of 2023 Horse of the Year Cody’s Wish, and to top it all off, he just won the Kentucky Derby and the Belmont in 2025 with power duo Sovereignty and jockey Junior Alvarado.

Bill is an inspiration professionally and personally. He’s a reliable and dedicated boss, husband, father, and friend to many. He’s also generally a man of few words, so I am excited to have him here today to hear his story from horse’s mouth as they say.

What we covered:

1. Bill's 55-year career training race horses
2. Which does he like best, horses or people?
3. Hobbies and favorite places
4. Cigar
5. Cody’s Wish
6. Who will play him in the Cody's Wish movie?
7. The 2025 Derby/Belmont Double
8. Sovereignty
9. Who inspired him and how?

You can find Bill in Saratoga this summer doing what he loves best.

You can find me online:

https://www.bethpride.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bprideauthor/

https://www.facebook.com/bprideauthor

Today, I'm excited to spend time with my inspiring friend, Trisha Addicks, whom I knew in an early chapter of my life at the University of Georgia as Trisha Grode, friend and Chi Omega sorority pledge sister. I didn't know then that Trisha would go on to make Greek Life her purpose, but her passion for helping young women all over the country manage the rush process and beyond truly inspires me.

Trisha created the Rush consulting space in 2017 and owns It's All Greek to Me Rush consulting. She's also a weekly podcast host, has a book coming out, The Rush Bible, coming out next spring, and is in feature film development with Elizabeth Banks and Brownstone Productions.

Trisha inspires me for many reasons we discuss in the podcast, but mainly because she is an excellent example of the power of the pivot. Her story turned into a thriving business thirty years later where she helps young women all over the country navigate the now ramped-up universe of sorority rush. Join Trisha and me in a fun conversation about life's pivots and inspiration.

Where you can find Trisha:

https://itsallgreektome.org/

https://www.instagram.com/rushwithconfidence/?hl=en

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mad-rush-with-trisha-addicks/id1754276948

Where you can find Beth:

https://www.bethpride.com/

https://www.instagram.com/bprideauthor/

Back to Blue Holly: A Novel

Our first connection is with our mothers. We all have one, and they all influence and inspire us in ways we may not recognize until something pops up, like an expression they used that we just said, a recipe we crave, or a moment of courage when we pull from the memory of her showing us how to find it.

In this oral history montage pulled from the interviews with Kentuckians as they sat for artist Kelly Brewer while she painted their portraits for the Common Wealth of Kentucky Project, you will hear a collection of mom moments--specific and universal--in honor of those who brought us in and taught us to live.

In order of voice:
Betty Spain
Shelby Bale
Kate Harper
Jim Gray
Marcos Valdes
Jon Carloftis
Brian McCarty
Shannon Latham
Bill Samuel, Jr.
Gentille Ntakarutimana
Clayton Mullins

Isabel was a participant in our Common Wealth of Kentucky Project. We interviewed her when she was 97 years old. She drove herself to Kelly's studio and told us not to tell her children. Isabel passed away at 100 years old on February 26, 2025. We published her soundbite so people could continue to hear her strong voice.

Judge Goodwine is now Justice Goodwine, the first woman of African heritage to be elected to the Kentucky Supreme Court. Her story is one of incredible resilience. We published her soundbite in celebration of her grand accomplishment. It was what she most wanted and she made it happen.

Father Norman Fischer, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Lexington, Kentucky, passed away suddenly on July 15, 2024. He was and is beloved and his voice was beautiful and meant to always be heard.

Abridged narrative from the CWKY Project book, published 2022:

Norman attended Centre College, where he majored in Art and Psychology. Elected Chaplain of his fraternity, it was during this time at Centre that Norman heard the first whisper of God's calling. He began to explore.

His parents had different expectations for him, not the priesthood. They wanted grandchildren. So for a year, he did not consult with them. Instead, he dialogued with art and statistics teachers, bounced ideas off his brothers, and prayed and listened. Then, when he joined the Big Brother organization and mentored young people, he realized he could parent without having children of his own.

In 1995, the Diocese of Lexington accepted Norman Fischer. For the next five years, he studied for his Master of Divinity at the picturesque University of St. Mary of the Lake, Mundelein Seminary. He was learning to become a parish priest while meeting others from across the globe, including the Philippines. The experience would change his life as he came to know more about his heritage and culture. In addition, he was the only African American man in the seminary for at least four years, so he developed an urgency to connect with the black Catholic experience. When he found the National Black Catholic Seminary Association, he joined, soon to lead. And Father Tom McQuaid, one of his mentors in Chicago, taught him about understanding one's value in a vocation with diversity. Finally, Norman found his place in the Catholic church.

Ordained on May 27, 2000, he was the first priest of African American and Filipino heritage in the Lexington Diocese. His ordination was a symbol of the universal church. African drums and Filipino and gospel choruses represented a celebration of diversity and unity and a Father Norman Fischer who would serve to heal and bring joy to those in despair.

He started his priesthood serving Lexington's only predominantly black Catholic church, St. Peter Claver, but moved to the Winchester/Mt. Sterling parish within two years. The church was in crisis, and the mission was to provide healing. Norman felt the challenge of mistrust at first, but he laughs and says kickball changed everything. He showed them his way to celebrate at church, and joy brought people back. They began to fill the pews and classrooms, and they renovated "the steeple falling on the people," literally rebuilding the parish community.

Bishop Gainer asked Father Norman to become the first full-time Chaplain at Lexington Catholic High School, where he has served for seventeen years in tandem with leading St. Peter Claver church downtown. "Father Norm" connects seamlessly with teenagers and faculty alike; his optimism and creative energy are contagious and healing.

His work at St. Peter Claver has taken a small church with a big heart and made it bigger. Raising friends and funds for a new fellowship hall, they will soon begin rebuilding a church that will seat 400 people, doubling the capacity of the tiny hall where they double-stacked chairs to squeeze them all in.

He is planning the artwork for when the church is complete. For him, art, in every form, can show the beauty of God's love.

Norman sat at the kitchen table late during his junior year of college and finished his homemade Christmas cards. His parents were asleep, and he heard a whisper in the quiet. "Come and follow me, and I will care for you." As the hair on his arms stood on end, he wrote the words down. It was then that he knew it was real.

After Norman's Deacon ordination, Father Bill Spalding, who was retired and living in a nursing home, knocked on his door. Spalding's brother had dri

Join artist Kelly Brewer, storyteller Beth Pride, and advocate Jill Johnson as they travel to Shaker Village where, in a simple living space on the second floor of a shop, they retreated to reflect on the inspiration, the process, and a few takeaways of this year-long passion project about the common wealth of Kentucky. Kelly starts the conversation with her story of inspiration, and Beth and Jill join in for a bounce around. Grab a glass of wine (or bourbon, of course), and help celebrate the inspiration, the organic process, a couple of stories on their 70 new friends, and the beautiful state we all call home.

For more information, visit The Common Wealth of Kentucky Project website.

Lee Kiefer is an American foil fencer and three-time Olympic champion in women's foil, having won the individual event at the 2020 Summer Olympics, and the individual and team events at the 2024 Summer Olympics. She is the most decorated women's foil fencer in American history. Also a participant in our Common Wealth of Kentucky Project, Lee's story is both remarkable and inspiring.