Podcasts about aaas

For years, scientists thought nothing could live above 73℃/163℉.  At that temperature, everything boiled to death. But scientists Tom Brock and Hudson Freeze weren't convinced. What began as their simple quest to trawl for life in some of the hottest natural springs on Earth would, decades later, change the trajectory of biological science forever, saving millions of lives—possibly even yours.This seismic, totally unpredictable discovery, was funded by the U.S. government. This week, as the Trump administration slashes scientific research budgets en masse, we tell one story, a parable about the unforeseeable miracles that basic research can yield. After that, a familiar voice raises some essential questions: what are we risking with these cuts? And can we recover?Special thanks to Joanne Padrón Carney, Erin Heath, Valeria Sabate, Gwendolyn Bogard, Meredith Asbury and Megan Cantwell at AAAS. Thank you as well to Gregor Čavlović and Derek Muller and the rest of the Veritasium team.EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasserwith help from - Maria Paz GutiérrezProduced by - Sarah Qari and Maria Paz GutiérrezOriginal music and sound design and mixing from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Emily Kreigerand Edited by  - Alex Neason with help from Sarah QariEPISODE CITATIONS:Videos - Latif also helped make a version of this story with the YouTube channel Veritasium. Articles - Hudson Freeze NYT OPED: Undercutting the Progress of American ScienceBooks -Thomas Brock, A Scientist in Yellowstone National ParkPaul Rabinow's Making PCR: A Story of BiotechnologyPodcasts Episodes:If you haven't heard, listen to our first episode about the Golden Goose awards. Signup for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.Leadership support for Radiolab's science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Since the start of the second Trump Administration, a wave of executive actions has frozen research funding, slashed the federal science workforce, and erased publicly available data. What does this mean for the future of U.S. research—and the scientists caught in the crossfire? In this episode of Sci on the Fly, host Angela Cleri sits down with Marisa Vertrees from the Union of Concerned Scientists to break down the threats facing the scientific enterprise, the historical importance of funding research, and what can be done to fight back.  This podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute endorsement by the association.

Not to get too big-headed or anything, but I think it's fair to say that here at Indieventure we knew about Blue Prince before almost anyone. The demo that sparked obsessions in both Rachel and Rebecca over the past few months has now transformed into 2025's most highly-rated game release so far, garnering early GOTY predictions not just within the indie space, but even when compared to this year's roster of Triple-As (which let's be honest, is so far pretty muted due to everyone and their mum being afraid of launching up against GTA6). So, naturally, we're dedicating this episode to Blue Prince now that it's out. And once again, we have a minority report situation on our hands, because while Rebecca and Rachel remain captivated, Liam has some thoughts that go against the general consensus on this game. But it's us, so of course we have a kind and respectful discussion that only goes off the rails through incidental chatter. There's only so much you can say about a game that's really best encountered with minimal spoilers, though, so we use Blue Prince as a jumping-off point to talk about houses in games generally. It sounds straightforward enough, but when you stop to think about it, a quite staggering number of video games touch on domestic spaces – for everything from humanising characters who might otherwise be difficult to identify with, to creating a sense of dread as the familiar turns sinister. We talk about a lot of games – including quite a few illegal AAAs who provide some vital context for the discussion – but for those of you who like to keep track, the indie game houses we touch on here include the essentials like the ones found in Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch, as well as The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood, The Crush House, Devotion, Go-Go Town, Layers of Fear, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Lost Records, Mouthwashing, PowerWash Simulator, The Room, Rusty Lake, Stardew Valley, Sucker for Love, Tangle Tower, Thank Goodness You're Here, Unpacking, and Visage. As always and ever, we end on our current hyperfixations. Liam has been playing Promise Mascot Agency – which launched on the same day as Blue Prince and will surely be coming up on the pod again – and has been as delighted by it as you'd expect the person who inducted Paradise Killer into the vault to be with its long-anticipated follow-up. Rebecca has been reading Elphie: A Wicked Childhood, the latest book by Gregory Maguire that staunchly refuses to make concessions to the stage/film version of Wicked compared to the much weirder original novel series that she's loved for decades. And while it's maybe not her usual genre, Rachel has been surprised to find herself really, really enjoying newly-released tower defense RTS Cataclismo. Our music was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts, and don't forget that you can now join our dedicated Discord too!

Welcome to AAAS STPF Sci on the Fly, a blog and podcast run by fellows of the Science & Technology Policy Fellowships! Sci on the Fly promotes public understanding of science and policy. It provides STPF current and alumni fellows an opportunity to gain vital experience in writing and podcasting for lay audiences.  Launched in 2013, Sci on the Fly is the brain child of fellows Lynn Adams, Judy Keen and Lynn Hull. The first podcast was published by fellow Beth Linas in 2016. Fellows are all about communicating science! 

What if filmmakers took their cameras to space? Prepare for a world of zero-G cinematography! From weather-sealed cameras designed to handle unexpected astronaut vomit to the perpetual hum of life-support systems ruining your audio, documentary filmmaking in orbit presents unique challenges. Discover why the International Space Station's lighting is "just awful," how playing a guitar in microgravity sends you spinning in unexpected directions, and why the first task in every Mars simulation is fixing the eternally broken toilet. Explore how future space workers will need specialized trade skills—from plumbers to welders—as humanity expands beyond Earth. This thought-provoking "what if" scenario features insights from documentary filmmaker Sam Burbank and Explore Mars CEO Chris Carberry. —— Chris Carberry is the CEO and co-founder of Explore Mars, Inc. (Explore Mars), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit space advocacy organization that was created to advance the goal of sending humans to Mars by the mid-2030s. Carberry is a well-respected expert and influential director of strategic alliances in the space community as well as with non-traditional organizations. Carberry has presented oral (and written) testimony to both the United States Senate as well as the United States House of Representatives and has been active in all levels of policy engagement with both the Executive and Legislative branches of government. In recent years, he has overseen Explore Mars' annual Humans to Mars Summit, the largest annual conference focused on sending humans to Mars. He has also spearheaded dozens of programs including the Mars Innovation Forum, the annual Community Workshops for the Achievability and Sustainability of Human Exploration of Mars series, the AR/VR and Space workshop series, the ISS and Mars Conference in Washington, D.C. and in Strasbourg, France, and the Women and Mars Conference in Washington, D.C. He has also conducted programs overseas, in such countries as the United Arab Emirates, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Carberry is also the creator, and one of the senior editors, of the annual publication known as the Humans to Mars Report that was highlighted in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017. In 2013, Carberry was awarded a NASA Group Achievement award. Carberry is the author of the 2019 book, Alcohol in Space: Past, Present and Future, and the upcoming book, The Music of Space (to be released in 2022). Both volumes are being adapted into documentary films.Learn more about Chris at https://exploremars.orgCheck out his books at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chris-Carberry/author/B0CZWN4JNF?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1743558561&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true Watch his film at https://www.amazon.com/Alcohol-Space-Movie-Sam-Burbank/dp/B0DJQZGLG2 —— Sam Burbank is a science-writer and science-documentary filmmaker. Mr. Burbank has worked with PBS, Discovery Channel, and has produced and written two dozen programs for the National Geographic, ranging from renewable energy to the X-Prize. Sam studied creative writing at San Francisco State University, and is a long time member of AAAS. He has spent three summers on Devon Island, near the magnetic north pole, and was a member of the founding crew of the Mars Society FMARS station in 2001. In 2002 he joined a crew at the MDRS station for the one-of-a-kind ICoMP experiment Sam loves snowboarding, journal writing, and dancing a fast 1930's swing step, the Balboa. In 1995, he and wife Linda spent their honeymoon riding a motorcycle to the arctic circle. Some notable quotes about Mr. Burbank include the following: "Sam Burbank is elevating the video-journal to an art genre." Kim Stanley Robinson, author Antarctica, Red Mars. "Sam is a true artist, who makes visible to the eye what before could only be seen by the mind." Robert Zubrin, author The Case for Mars, Entering Space. Learn more about Sam at https://www.samburbank.com/

In the fifth episode of season 4, guest host Faryal Popal, LMFT, Doctor of Behavioral Health (DBH) program student at Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI), sits down with Jes Aced, BA, EdSpec-MM, CLAD, AAAS, ELAE to explore how schools are uniquely positioned to address the complex relationship between teen mental health and social media use. Together, they discuss strategies educators can implement to support students navigating digital spaces, as well as innovative approaches for integrating mental health practices into classrooms. The conversation highlights the importance of collaborative efforts between educators, mental health professionals, and families in building resilience and emotional well-being among adolescents. Tune in to learn how an integrated care model can transform the future of youth mental health in education.About the Special Host:Faryal Popal, LMFT, began her academic journey at California State University, East Bay, in 2005, earning a bachelor's degree in psychology in 2009. She then pursued a Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy, which she completed in 2011. Since then, she has been dedicated to the mental health field, providing therapeutic services and advocating for comprehensive mental health support. Faryal began her career at Union City Youth and Family Services, working with families, children, and court-mandated youth. She later transitioned to school-based mental health, focusing on delivering counseling services, consulting with educators, and supporting families in East San Jose. In her current role at Campbell Union School District, she serves as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) and an integral member of the IEP team, collaborating to develop treatment goals that align with students' educational plans while providing crisis intervention. As a member of the District Crisis Team, she plays a critical role in responding to crises, including suicide and homicide risk assessments. Additionally, she provides training to administrators and staff on suicide prevention protocols. She remains actively engaged in improving mental health services within the district, working alongside leadership to implement strategies that enhance student well-being. In addition to her extensive experience, she is trained in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and is a certified Parent Project Facilitator.About the Guest:Jes Aced, BA, EdSpec-MM, CLAD, AAAS, ELAE, as an experienced educator dedicated to creating equitable opportunities for all learners, I have built my career advocating for accessible and inclusive learning environments. My work centers on empowering students by ensuring the curriculum is accessible to those with learning disabilities, integrating innovative teaching strategies, and utilizing tools such as speech-to-text and other assistive technologies to support diverse learning needs. I have witnessed the profound influence of social media on the mental health of teens, particularly those navigating depression. By fostering healthy boundaries and promoting collaboration between schools and families, I aim to equip students with the skills to thoughtfully navigate the complexities of technology and digital spaces. My perspective as an educator is enriched by my lived experience as a neurodivergent individual. Managing ADHD, dyslexia, and auditory and gross motor processing disorders has given me a unique understanding of the challenges students face in today's educational landscape. Growing up with the support of an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in the public education system sparked my passion for advocacy and innovation. These experiences drive my commitment to contributing to meaningful conversations about supporting neurodivergent individuals and addressing the evolving challenges faced by today's youth.

Executive Officer of the National Academy of Engineering, Dr. Al Romig joins this special edition of AMSEcast, recorded at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington. Dr. Romig has led a distinguished career including leadership roles at Sandia National Lab, Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, and now as Executive Officer of the National Academy of Engineering. He and Alan discuss key innovations from national laboratories and the Skunk Works. He also discusses the importance of risk-taking to foster innovation and why he's skeptical about the future of American innovation. It's not a totally negative outlook. Dr. Roming still thinks the U.S. can thrive by emphasizing talent cultivation, investment in R&D, and a culture that embraces failure as part of success.     Guest Bio As executive officer of the National Academy of Engineering, Al Romig is the chief operating officer responsible for the program, financial, and membership operations of the Academy, reporting to the president. Before joining the Academy, he was vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company Advanced Development Programs, better known as the Skunk Works®. Dr. Romig spent most of his career at Sandia National Laboratories, operated by the Lockheed Martin Corporation. He joined Sandia as a member of the technical staff in 1979 and moved through a succession of R&D management positions before his appointment as executive vice president in 2005. He served as deputy laboratories director and chief operating officer until 2010, when he transferred to the Skunk Works.     Dr. Romig is a fellow of ASM International, TMS, IEEE, AIAA, and AAAS, and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2003 and the Council of Foreign Relations in 2008. He was awarded the ASM Silver Medal for Materials Research in 1988. He earned BS (1975), MS (1977), and PhD (1979) degrees in materials science and engineering from Lehigh University.     Show Highlights (1:59) The innovations that Al saw during his time with Sandia (9:04) How to inspire a culture of innovation at a lab (10:27) The history of Skunk Works (18:29) Explaining Al's role at the National Academy of Engineering (23:27) The challenges American innovation will face in the future (27:22)  Where Al thinks we'll see the most innovation in the coming years

Sarah Gottlieb's Gold Kavli award in the Children's Science News section was for her coverage of the surprising ways primates use plants and insects for medicinal purposes in a piece aimed at younger readers published in Muse magazine.

Kate Evans of New Zealand Geographic won the Kavli Gold award in the magazine section for her piece on the red-billed gull, once considered a pest it has become a threatened species.

Just over a month into the second Trump Administration, there is a lot of uncertainty in the energy sector around how the new policy landscape may affect the momentum of the clean energy transition. In this episode, current AAAS STPF fellow Mark Feuer DiTusa speaks with Danielle Lemmon, a current energy consultant and former AAAS Executive Branch Fellow, about the impact of the new administration and Congress on the clean energy sector, and what we should be paying attention to moving forward. This podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute endorsement by the association.  

House Finches are familiar birds all across North America. Researchers have shown that the red coloration of males is produced from carotenoid pigments in the birds' diet. Male House Finches develop brighter plumage when they are growing in new feathers, if they eat more fruits containing carotenoids. Females prefer more brightly colored males. Redder males also attract females in better condition, and such a pair raises, on the average, more young. You can learn more at AAAS.org.More info and transcript at BirdNote.org. Want more BirdNote? Subscribe to our weekly newsletter. Sign up for BirdNote+ to get ad-free listening and other perks. BirdNote is a nonprofit. Your tax-deductible gift makes these shows possible.  

Last week, some 3,500 people from across scientific fields gathered in Boston for the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). The organization's CEO, Dr. Sudip Parikh, gave a rousing speech to attendees.“Destruction for the ill-conceived notion of cutting costs didn't put an American on the moon, and it didn't wipe smallpox from the face of the Earth,” Parikh said in opening remarks.He was referring, of course, to the huge funding cuts and mass firings happening across federal science and health agencies under the Trump administration. Over the last few weeks, news of these cuts has been frequent—along with the cancellation of grants that include certain prohibited words and the disappearance of data from agency websites.So what's happening, and how should the scientific community respond? Host Flora Lichtman sat down with Dr. Sudip Parikh to discuss the importance of this point in time for American science and technology, what cuts for “efficiency” are getting wrong, and what's at stake in the next few weeks.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

AI Agent as a Service (AaaS) is reshaping automation by providing intelligent, on-demand AI agents for businesses. From customer support to data processing, AaaS enhances efficiency and scalability. Discover how companies leverage AI-driven agents to streamline operations and stay competitive in a fast-evolving market. AI Software Systems City: Austin Address: Falcon Head Blvd Website: https://aisoftwaresystems.com/

In "Responding to Shock, Awe, and Censorship" Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall provide updates on the latest news in the federal government and how it is impacting public health locally and globally. Dr. Osterholm also discusses the latest developments in H5N1 avian flu and answers an ID query about the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas.  Anatomy of a Failure: Why This Latest Vaccine-Autism Paper is Dead Wrong (Jess Steier and Bertha Hidalgo, Unbiased Science, Substack) Making PEPFAR: A Triumph of Medical Diplomacy (Harold Varmus, AAAS)   Follow us on Bluesky: Dr. Michael Osterholm (@mtosterholm.bsky.social) and CIDRAP (cidrap.bsky.social) Sign up for CIDRAP's daily newsletter MORE EPISODES      

Subscribe, Rate, & Review on YouTube • Spotify • Apple PodcastsThis week I speak with author, futurist, and strategist Jessica Clark of Dot Connector Studio today. Jessica has honed her skills for decades on a path that's carried her from AAAS to The Library of Congress to The Encyclopedia Britannica to the Center for Media and Social Impact to The New America Foundation to The Association of Independents in Radio and beyond, and now she oversees a refuge for social innovators working at the intersections of philanthropy, media, arts and culture, and futurism. We need dot connectors more than ever if we are to trace the shape of what's emerging, and I look to Jessica as an example of how to weave research, experience design, production, strategy, and culture-building into something like the raft we need to make our way through vast uncertainty to thriving futures just over the horizon. In this episode we discuss the ideas shared in her book with Kamal Sinclair, Making A New Reality: A Toolkit for Inclusive Futures and how to rethink storytelling in new media.Project LinksPitch and planning documentHire me to help you make senseMake tax-deductible donations to Humans On The LoopBrowse the HOTL reading list and support local booksellersJoin the Wisdom x Technology Discord Server + Bluesky List + X CommunityChapters0:00:00 - Teaser0:01:40 - Intro0:07:51 - Who is Jessica Clark?0:10:42 - “New Media” Means New Kinds of “Reality”0:15:18 - Storytelling & Social Power0:25:07 - Overcoming Groupthink / Problems in The Creative Economy0:32:39 - Fairness in New Media0:40:38 - What Do We Measure While Incubating Creativity?0:48:32 - Post-Institutional Credentials0:55:01 - How Do We Support “The Interstitionaries”?1:02:14 - Intergenerational Wisdom & The Value of Conflict to Truth1:08:59 - What Biases Do We Want?1:14:29 - The Future Voice of Fandom1:18:03 - Acknowledgements & Next Guest(Most) MentionsMaking A New Reality's Toolkit for Change ResourcesKamal Sinclair & Jessica Clark discuss Making A New RealityVictor Pickard's “We Need a Media System That Serves People's Needs, Not Corporations'”William Deresiewicz's “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur”Ward Shelley's Who Invented The Avant Garde Redux, 2020Michael Garfield's “An Oral History of The End of ‘Reality'”Doug RushkoffSep KamvarJulie Ann CrommettStephanie LeppAri KuschnirMaureen FanEugene ChungZebras UniteMetalabel Maureen GiovanniniShannon GilmartinNicole AnandEd CatmullLeslie Fields CruzDavid JayCenter for Humane TechnologyWilliam Irwin Thompson's The American Replacement of NatureC Thi NguyenThomas FrankJennifer BrandelBrian EnoTracy Van SlykeThe Center for Media & Social ImpactMIT Open Documentary LabTrista HarrisPatricia AufderheideInternet ArchiveWikimedia FoundationMalka OlderGlobal VoicesDark Trek This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit michaelgarfield.substack.com/subscribe

Building skyscrapers is an incredibly complex task. From the complexities of designing foundations to considering wind forces, and working with multi-disciplinary teams in busy urban areas. Today we're joined by an engineer who worked on the design of Western Europe's tallest tower, The Shard. We delve into the unique challenges she came across and the top-down construction method that was used for maximum efficiency, along with what she learned about the importance of relationships in the engineering space. Our guest is an engineer, physicist, author and presenter with almost 15 years experience in the industry. It's a pleasure to have Roma Agrawal, MBE. THINGS WE SPOKE ABOUTThe historical significance of The Shard design Challenges of building a skyscrapers foundations Considering factors such a local disruption and wind force Collaboration and team-work across multiple disciplinesWhy we need to shout louder about engineering success GUEST DETAILSRoma Agrawal is an engineer, author and presenter who is best known for working on the design of The Shard, Western Europe's tallest tower. She studied at Imperial College London and the University of Oxford. Roma has given lectures to thousands at universities, schools and organisations around the world, including TEDx talks. She has also presented numerous TV shows for the BBC, Channel 4 and Discovery, and hosts her own podcast, Building Stories.Her first book, BUILT (2018) won an AAAS science book award and has been translated into eight languages. Roma is passionate about promoting engineering and technical careers to young people, particularly those from minority groups, and has won international awards for her technical prowess and for her advocacy for the profession, including the prestigious Royal Academy of Engineering's Rooke Award. She was appointed an MBE in 2018 for services to engineering.https://www.romatheengineer.com/MORE INFORMATIONLooking for ways to explore or advance a career in the field of engineering? Visit Engineers Ireland to learn more about the many programs and resources on offer. https://www.engineersireland.ie/   Engineers Journal AMPLIFIED is produced by DustPod.io for Engineers Ireland.QUOTESI really love the idea of responding to what's there. This building could only have been on this particular site. - Roma Agrawal There's lots of different systems that have to work together to make sure that a big skyscraper stays stable. - Roma Agrawal A building like The Shard, we predict might move about half a metre. What's key as a structural engineer is to make sure that we don't feel that. - Roma Agrawal As a student, I don't think I ever understood how essential the skill of being able to work with other people is to be an engineer - Roma Agrawal I think being enthusiastic about what you do is a big thing. I think we're all too modest. - Roma Agrawal KEYWORDS#construction #theshard #site #management #wind #design #collaboration #engineering

2024 is officially in the rearview mirror, which can only mean one thing: We're now in the exciting "next year" of video game releases on PlayStation 5 (and 4, too, to an extent). As is tradition here on Sacred Symbols, we cap-off our dueling annual end-of-year shows with a look ahead, each selecting five 2025 releases we're most amped about. This of course allows us to widely chat about 15 exciting upcoming games with only two rules in mind: Selections have to be slated for (or at least conceivably coming in) '25, and they must be on PlayStation hardware. Thus, we touch on just about everything you can imagine, from the biggest AAAs to our darling indies, and so much in between. Please enjoy, and Happy New Year to you and yours! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Original Release Date November 19, 2024: On the second part of a two-part roundtable, our panel gives its 2025 preview for the housing and mortgage landscape, the US Treasury yield curve and currency markets.----- Transcript -----Andrew Sheets: 2024 was a year of transition for economies and global markets. Central banks began easing interest rates, U.S. elections signaled significant policy change, and Generative AI made a quantum leap in adoption and development.Thank you for listening throughout 2024, as we navigated the issues and events that shaped financial markets, and society. We hope you'll join us next year as we continue to bring you the most up to date information on the financial world. This week, please enjoy some encores of episodes over the last few months and we'll be back with all new episodes in January. From all of us on Thoughts on the Market, Happy Holidays, and a very Happy New Year. Vishy Tirupattur: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I am Vishy Tirupattur, Morgan Stanley's Chief Fixed Income Strategist. This is part two of our special roundtable discussion on what's ahead for the global economy and markets in 2025.Today we will cover what is ahead for government bonds, currencies, and housing. I'm joined by Matt Hornbach, our Chief Macro Strategist; James Lord, Global Head of Currency and Emerging Market Strategy; Jay Bacow, our co-head of Securitized Product Strategy; and Jim Egan, the other co-head of Securitized Product Strategy.It's Tuesday, November 19th, at 10am in New York.Matt, I'd like to go to you first. 2024 was a fascinating year for government bond yields globally. We started with a deeply inverted US yield curve at the beginning of the year, and we are ending the year with a much steeper curve – with much of that inversion gone. We have seen both meaningful sell offs and rallies over the course of the year as markets negotiated hard landing, soft landing, and no landing scenarios.With the election behind us and a significant change of policy ahead of us, how do you see the outlook for global government bond yields in 2025?Matt Hornbach: With the US election outcome known, global rate markets can march to the beat of its consequences. Central banks around the world continue to lower policy rates in our economist baseline projection, with much lower policy rates taking hold in their hard landing scenario versus higher rates in their scenarios for re-acceleration.This skew towards more dovish outcomes alongside the baseline for lower policy rates than captured in current market prices ultimately leads to lower government bond yields and steeper yield curves across most of the G10 through next year. Summarizing the regions, we expect treasury yields to move lower over the forecast horizon, helped by 75 [basis points] worth of Fed rate cuts, more than markets currently price.We forecast 10-year Treasury yields reaching 3 and 3.75 per cent by the middle of next year and ending the year just above 3.5 per cent.Our economists are forecasting a pause in the easing cycle in the second half of the year from the Fed. That would leave the Fed funds rate still above the median longer run dot.The rationale for the pause involves Fed uncertainty over the ultimate effects of tariffs and immigration reform on growth and inflation.We also see the treasury curve bull steepening throughout the forecast horizon with most of the steepening in the first half of the year, when most of the fall in yields occur.Finally, on break even inflation rates, we see five- and 10-year break evens tightening slightly by the middle of 2025 as inflation risks cool. However, as the Trump administration starts implementing tariffs, break evens widen in our forecast with the five- and 10-year maturities reaching 2.55 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively by the end of next year.As such, we think real yields will lead the bulk of the decline in nominal yields in our forecasting with the 10-year real yield around 1.45 per cent by the middle of next year; and ending the year at 1.15 per cent.Vishy Tirupattur: That's very helpful, Matt. James, clearly the incoming administration has policy choices, and their sequencing and severity will have major implications for the strength of the dollar that has rallied substantially in the last few months. Against this backdrop, how do you assess 2025 to be? What differences do you expect to see between DM and EM currency markets?James Lord: The incoming administration's proposed policies could have far-reaching impacts on currency markets, some of which are already being reflected in the price of the dollar today. We had argued ahead of the election that a Republican sweep was probably the most bullish dollar outcome, and we are now seeing that being reflected.We do think the dollar rally continues for a little bit longer as markets price in a higher likelihood of tariffs being implemented against trading partners and there being a risk of additional deficit expansion in 2025. However, we don't really see that dollar strength persisting for long throughout 2025.So, I think that is – compared to the current debate, compared to the current market pricing – a negative dollar catalyst that should get priced into markets.And to your question, Vishy, that there will be differences with EM and also within EM as well. Probably the most notable one is the renminbi. We have the renminbi as the weakest currency within all of our forecasts for 2025, really reflecting the impact of tariffs.We expect tariffs against China to be more consequential than against other countries, thus requiring a bigger adjustment on the FX side. We see dollar China, or dollar renminbi ending next year at 7.6. So that represents a very sharp divergence versus dollar yen and the broader DXY moves – and is a consequence of tariffs.And that does imply that the Fed's broad dollar index only has a pretty modest decline next year, despite the bigger move in the DXY. The rest of Asia will likely follow dollar China more closely than dollar yen, in our view, causing AXJ currencies to generally underperform; versus CMEA and Latin America, which on the whole do a bit better.Vishy Tirupattur: Jay, in contrast to corporate credit, mortgage spreads are at or about their long-term average levels. How do you expect 2025 to pan out for mortgages? What are the key drivers of your expectations, and which potential policy changes you are most focused on?Jay Bacow: As you point out, mortgage spreads do look wide to corporate spreads, but there are good reasons for that. We all know that the Fed is reducing their holdings of mortgages, and they're the largest holder of mortgages in the world.We don't expect Fed balance sheet reduction of mortgages to change, even if they do NQT, as is our forecast in the first quarter of 2025. When they NQT, we expect mortgage runoff to continue to go into treasuries. What we do expect to change next year is that bank demand function will shift. We are working under the assumption that the Basel III endgame either stalls under the next administration or gets released in a way that is capital neutral. And that's going to free up excess capital for banks and reduce regulatory uncertainty for them in how they deploy the cash in their portfolios.The one thing that we've been waiting for is this clarity around regulations. When that changes, we think that's going to be a positive, but it's not just banks returning to the market.We think that there's going to be tailwinds from overseas investors that are going to be hedging out their FX risks as the Fed cuts rates, and the Bank of Japan hikes, so we expect more demand from Japanese life insurance companies.A steeper yield curve is going to be good for REIT demand. And these buyers, banks, overseas REITs, they typically buy CUSIPs, and that's going to help not just from a demand side, but it's going to help funding on mortgages improve as well. And all of those things are going to take mortgage spreads tighter, and that's why we are bullish.I also want to mention agency CMBS for a moment. The technical pressure there is even better than in single family mortgages. The supply story is still constrained, but there is no Fed QT in multifamily. And then also the capital that's going to be available for banks from the deregulation will allow them – in combination with the portfolio layer hedging – to add agency CMBS in a way that they haven't really been adding in the last few years. So that could take spreads tighter as well.Now, Vishy, you also mentioned policy changes. We think discussions around GSE reform are likely to become more prevalent under the new administration.And we think that given that improved capitalization, depending on the path of their earnings and any plans to raise capital, we could see an attempt to exit conservatorship during this administration.But we will simply state our view that any plan that results in a meaningful change to the capital treatment – or credit risk – to the investors of conventional mortgages is going to be too destabilizing for the housing finance markets to implement. And so, we don't think that path could go forward.Vishy Tirupattur: Thanks, Jay. Jim, it was a challenging year for the housing market with historically high levels of unaffordability and continued headwinds of limited supply. How do you see 2025 to be for the US housing market? And going beyond housing, what is your outlook for the opportunity set in securitized credit for 2025?James Egan: For the housing market, the 2025 narrative is going to be one about absolute level versus the direction and rate of change. For instance, Vishy, you mentioned affordability. Mortgage rates have increased significantly since the beginning of September, but it's also true that they're down roughly a hundred basis points from the fourth quarter of 2023 and we're forecasting pretty healthy decreases in the 10-year Treasury throughout 2025. So, we expect affordability to improve over the coming year. Supply? It remains near historic lows, but it's been increasing year to date.So similar to the affordability narrative, it's more challenged than it's been in decades; but it's also less challenged than it was a year ago.So, what does all this mean for the housing market as we look through 2025? Despite the improvements in affordability, sales volumes have been pretty stagnant this year. Total volumes – so existing plus new volumes – are actually down about 3 per cent year to date. And look, that isn't unusual. It typically takes about a year for sales volumes to pick up when you see this kind of significant affordability improvement that we've witnessed over the past year, even with the recent backup in mortgage rates.And that means we think we're kind of entering that sweet spot for increased sales now. We've seen purchase applications turn positive year over year. We've seen pending home sales turn positive year over year. That's the first time both of those things have happened since 2021. But when we think about how much sales 2025, we think it's going to be a little bit more curtailed. There are a whole host of reasons for that – but one of them the lock in effect has been a very popular talking point in the housing market this year. If we look at just the difference between the effective mortgage rate on the outstanding universe and where you can take out a mortgage rate today, the universe is still over 200 basis points out of the money.To the upside, you're not going to get 10 per cent growth there, but you're going to get more than 5 per cent growth in new home sales. And what I really want to emphasize here is – yes, mortgage rates have increased recently. We expect them to come down in 2025; but even if they don't, we don't think there's a lot of room for downside to existing home sales from here.There's some level of housing activity that has to happen, regardless of where mortgage rates or affordability are. We think we're there. Turnover measured as the number of transactions – existing transactions – as a share of the outstanding housing market is lower now than it was during the great financial crisis. It's as low as it's been in a little bit over 40 years. We just don't think it can fall that much further from here.But as we go through 2025, we do think it dips negative. We have a negative 2 per cent HPA call next year, not significantly down. We don't think there's a lot of room to the downside given the healthy foundation, the low supply, the strong credit standards in the housing market. But there is a little bit of negativity next year before home prices reaccelerate.This leaves us generically constructive on securitized products across the board. Given how much of the capital structure has flattened this year, we think CLO AAAs actually offer the best value amongst the debt tranches there. We think non-QM triple AAAs and agency MBS is going to tighten. They look cheap to IG corporates. Consumer ABS, we also think still looks pretty cheap to IG corporates. Even in the CMBS pace, we think there's opportunities. CMBS has really outperformed this year as rates have come down. Now our bull bear spread differentials are much wider in CMBS than they are elsewhere, but in our base case, conduit BBB minuses still offer attractive value.That being said, if we're going to go down the capital structure, our favorite expression in the securitized credit space is US CLO equity.Vishy Tirupattur: Thank you, Jay and Jim, and also Matt and James.We'll close it out here. As a reminder, if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.

This week, things get heated when Professor and DJ talk about the reasons AAA games have to play it safe and take no risks.Disney is remaking Snow White and it looks AWFUL. They really should stop doing this, but they won't as long as people keep watching them.There's been a lot of news about birdflu lately. So why hasn't it become a pandemic?Playing it safe Triple A style- Borderlands 3 and The Elder Scrolls Online director says AAA game studios are playing it safe since "you have people who get nervous because big money is involved" First Snow White movie trailer released- Disney's Snow White Trailer Highlights The Biggest Problem With Rachel Zegler's Live-Action Remake Why no birdflu- Why hasn't the bird flu pandemic started? | Science | AAAS Full Show Notes : https://docs.google.com/document/d/13Yx4UKAA6WrVq-fdfQPWoosqEMOPJKEbcj-YjMRN12k/edit?usp=sharing Follow us onFacebook Page - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamatedSpotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrSiTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nerds_amalgamated/Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@nerdsamalgamated142TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@nerdsamalgamated Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Send us a textDr. Sudip Parikh, Ph.D. ( https://www.aaas.org/person/sudip-parikh ), is the Chief Executive Officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Executive Publisher of the Science family of journals and has spent the last two decades at the nexus of science, policy, and business.Prior to joining AAAS, Dr. Parikh was senior vice president and managing director at Drug Information Association (DIA Global), a neutral, multidisciplinary organization for healthcare product development where he led strategy in the Americas and oversaw DIA programs that catalyzed progress globally toward novel regulatory frameworks for advanced therapies.Prior to DIA, Dr. Parikh was a vice president at Battelle, a multibillion-dollar research and development organization, where he led two business units with over 500 scientific, technical, and computing experts performing basic and applied research, developing medicines and healthcare devices, developing agricultural products, and creating advanced analytics and artificial intelligence applications to improve human health.From 2001 to 2009, Dr. Parikh served as science advisor to the Republican leadership of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, where he was responsible for negotiating budgets for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), and other scientific and health agencies.As a key legislative liaison to the research and development ecosystem, Dr. Parikh was on the frontlines of many science policy issues debated during that time, including embryonic stem cell research, cloning, disease surveillance, bioterrorism, cyber security, and doubling the NIH budget.An active member of the scientific advocacy community, Dr. Parikh serves as a board member and officer for several impactful organizations, including Research!America ( https://www.researchamerica.org/ ), which he has chaired since 2023, Friends of Cancer Research, and ACT for NIH.  He also serves as co-chair of the Science and Technology Action Committee ( https://sciencetechaction.org/ ), Science CEO Group, and the Coalition for Trust in Health and Science ( https://trustinhealthandscience.org/ ).  He is also a member of the Board of Life Sciences of the U.S. National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.Dr. Parikh is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Council on Foreign Relations. He has also received multiple public service awards, including recognition from the Society for Women's Health Research, the American Association of Immunologists, the National AIDS Alliance, the Coalition for Health Services Research, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.Early in his career, Dr. Parikh was a Presidential Management Intern at the NIH. He was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship while earning his Ph.D. in macromolecular structure and chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.  There, he used structural biology and biochemistry techniques to probe the mechanisms of DNA repair enzymes.  Dr. Parikh completed undergraduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first as a journalism major before switching into materials science. #SudipParikh #AAAS #AmericanAssociationForTheAdvancementOfScience #Science #Policy #Business #DrugInformationAssociation #Battelle #ResearchAmerica  #ScienceAndTechnologyActionCommittee #CoalitionForTrustInHealthAndScience #Appropriations #Congress #ArtificialIntelligence #DrugDevelopment #ProgressPotentialAndPossibilitSupport the show

On the second part of a two-part roundtable, our panel gives its 2025 preview for the housing and mortgage landscape, the US Treasury yield curve and currency markets.----- Transcript -----Vishy Tirupattur: Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I am Vishy Tirupattur, Morgan Stanley's Chief Fixed Income Strategist. This is part two of our special roundtable discussion on what's ahead for the global economy and markets in 2025.Today we will cover what is ahead for government bonds, currencies, and housing. I'm joined by Matt Hornbach, our Chief Macro Strategist; James Lord, Global Head of Currency and Emerging Market Strategy; Jay Bacow, our co-head of Securitized Product Strategy; and Jim Egan, the other co-head of Securitized Product Strategy.It's Tuesday, November 19th, at 10am in New York.Matt, I'd like to go to you first. 2024 was a fascinating year for government bond yields globally. We started with a deeply inverted US yield curve at the beginning of the year, and we are ending the year with a much steeper curve – with much of that inversion gone. We have seen both meaningful sell offs and rallies over the course of the year as markets negotiated hard landing, soft landing, and no landing scenarios.With the election behind us and a significant change of policy ahead of us, how do you see the outlook for global government bond yields in 2025?Matt Hornbach: With the US election outcome known, global rate markets can march to the beat of its consequences. Central banks around the world continue to lower policy rates in our economist baseline projection, with much lower policy rates taking hold in their hard landing scenario versus higher rates in their scenarios for re-acceleration.This skew towards more dovish outcomes alongside the baseline for lower policy rates than captured in current market prices ultimately leads to lower government bond yields and steeper yield curves across most of the G10 through next year. Summarizing the regions, we expect treasury yields to move lower over the forecast horizon, helped by 75 [basis points] worth of Fed rate cuts, more than markets currently price.We forecast 10-year Treasury yields reaching 3 and 3.75 per cent by the middle of next year and ending the year just above 3.5 per cent.Our economists are forecasting a pause in the easing cycle in the second half of the year from the Fed. That would leave the Fed funds rate still above the median longer run dot.The rationale for the pause involves Fed uncertainty over the ultimate effects of tariffs and immigration reform on growth and inflation.We also see the treasury curve bull steepening throughout the forecast horizon with most of the steepening in the first half of the year, when most of the fall in yields occur.Finally, on break even inflation rates, we see five- and 10-year break evens tightening slightly by the middle of 2025 as inflation risks cool. However, as the Trump administration starts implementing tariffs, break evens widen in our forecast with the five- and 10-year maturities reaching 2.55 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively by the end of next year.As such, we think real yields will lead the bulk of the decline in nominal yields in our forecasting with the 10-year real yield around 1.45 per cent by the middle of next year; and ending the year at 1.15 per cent.Vishy Tirupattur: That's very helpful, Matt. James, clearly the incoming administration has policy choices, and their sequencing and severity will have major implications for the strength of the dollar that has rallied substantially in the last few months. Against this backdrop, how do you assess 2025 to be? What differences do you expect to see between DM and EM currency markets?James Lord: The incoming administration's proposed policies could have far-reaching impacts on currency markets, some of which are already being reflected in the price of the dollar today. We had argued ahead of the election that a Republican sweep was probably the most bullish dollar outcome, and we are now seeing that being reflected.We do think the dollar rally continues for a little bit longer as markets price in a higher likelihood of tariffs being implemented against trading partners and there being a risk of additional deficit expansion in 2025. However, we don't really see that dollar strength persisting for long throughout 2025.So, I think that is – compared to the current debate, compared to the current market pricing – a negative dollar catalyst that should get priced into markets.And to your question, Vishy, that there will be differences with EM and also within EM as well. Probably the most notable one is the renminbi. We have the renminbi as the weakest currency within all of our forecasts for 2025, really reflecting the impact of tariffs.We expect tariffs against China to be more consequential than against other countries, thus requiring a bigger adjustment on the FX side. We see dollar China, or dollar renminbi ending next year at 7.6. So that represents a very sharp divergence versus dollar yen and the broader DXY moves – and is a consequence of tariffs.And that does imply that the Fed's broad dollar index only has a pretty modest decline next year, despite the bigger move in the DXY. The rest of Asia will likely follow dollar China more closely than dollar yen, in our view, causing AXJ currencies to generally underperform; versus CMEA and Latin America, which on the whole do a bit better.Vishy Tirupattur: Jay, in contrast to corporate credit, mortgage spreads are at or about their long-term average levels. How do you expect 2025 to pan out for mortgages? What are the key drivers of your expectations, and which potential policy changes you are most focused on?Jay Bacow: As you point out, mortgage spreads do look wide to corporate spreads, but there are good reasons for that. We all know that the Fed is reducing their holdings of mortgages, and they're the largest holder of mortgages in the world.We don't expect Fed balance sheet reduction of mortgages to change, even if they do NQT, as is our forecast in the first quarter of 2025. When they NQT, we expect mortgage runoff to continue to go into treasuries. What we do expect to change next year is that bank demand function will shift. We are working under the assumption that the Basel III endgame either stalls under the next administration or gets released in a way that is capital neutral. And that's going to free up excess capital for banks and reduce regulatory uncertainty for them in how they deploy the cash in their portfolios.The one thing that we've been waiting for is this clarity around regulations. When that changes, we think that's going to be a positive, but it's not just banks returning to the market.We think that there's going to be tailwinds from overseas investors that are going to be hedging out their FX risks as the Fed cuts rates, and the Bank of Japan hikes, so we expect more demand from Japanese life insurance companies.A steeper yield curve is going to be good for REIT demand. And these buyers, banks, overseas REITs, they typically buy CUSIPs, and that's going to help not just from a demand side, but it's going to help funding on mortgages improve as well. And all of those things are going to take mortgage spreads tighter, and that's why we are bullish.I also want to mention agency CMBS for a moment. The technical pressure there is even better than in single family mortgages. The supply story is still constrained, but there is no Fed QT in multifamily. And then also the capital that's going to be available for banks from the deregulation will allow them – in combination with the portfolio layer hedging – to add agency CMBS in a way that they haven't really been adding in the last few years. So that could take spreads tighter as well.Now, Vishy, you also mentioned policy changes. We think discussions around GSE reform are likely to become more prevalent under the new administration.And we think that given that improved capitalization, depending on the path of their earnings and any plans to raise capital, we could see an attempt to exit conservatorship during this administration.But we will simply state our view that any plan that results in a meaningful change to the capital treatment – or credit risk – to the investors of conventional mortgages is going to be too destabilizing for the housing finance markets to implement. And so, we don't think that path could go forward.Vishy Tirupattur: Thanks, Jay. Jim, it was a challenging year for the housing market with historically high levels of unaffordability and continued headwinds of limited supply. How do you see 2025 to be for the US housing market? And going beyond housing, what is your outlook for the opportunity set in securitized credit for 2025?James Egan: For the housing market, the 2025 narrative is going to be one about absolute level versus the direction and rate of change. For instance, Vishy, you mentioned affordability. Mortgage rates have increased significantly since the beginning of September, but it's also true that they're down roughly a hundred basis points from the fourth quarter of 2023 and we're forecasting pretty healthy decreases in the 10-year Treasury throughout 2025. So, we expect affordability to improve over the coming year. Supply? It remains near historic lows, but it's been increasing year to date.So similar to the affordability narrative, it's more challenged than it's been in decades; but it's also less challenged than it was a year ago.So, what does all this mean for the housing market as we look through 2025? Despite the improvements in affordability, sales volumes have been pretty stagnant this year. Total volumes – so existing plus new volumes – are actually down about 3 per cent year to date. And look, that isn't unusual. It typically takes about a year for sales volumes to pick up when you see this kind of significant affordability improvement that we've witnessed over the past year, even with the recent backup in mortgage rates.And that means we think we're kind of entering that sweet spot for increased sales now. We've seen purchase applications turn positive year over year. We've seen pending home sales turn positive year over year. That's the first time both of those things have happened since 2021. But when we think about how much sales 2025, we think it's going to be a little bit more curtailed. There are a whole host of reasons for that – but one of them the lock in effect has been a very popular talking point in the housing market this year. If we look at just the difference between the effective mortgage rate on the outstanding universe and where you can take out a mortgage rate today, the universe is still over 200 basis points out of the money.To the upside, you're not going to get 10 per cent growth there, but you're going to get more than 5 per cent growth in new home sales. And what I really want to emphasize here is – yes, mortgage rates have increased recently. We expect them to come down in 2025; but even if they don't, we don't think there's a lot of room for downside to existing home sales from here.There's some level of housing activity that has to happen, regardless of where mortgage rates or affordability are. We think we're there. Turnover measured as the number of transactions – existing transactions – as a share of the outstanding housing market is lower now than it was during the great financial crisis. It's as low as it's been in a little bit over 40 years. We just don't think it can fall that much further from here.But as we go through 2025, we do think it dips negative. We have a negative 2 per cent HPA call next year, not significantly down. We don't think there's a lot of room to the downside given the healthy foundation, the low supply, the strong credit standards in the housing market. But there is a little bit of negativity next year before home prices reaccelerate.This leaves us generically constructive on securitized products across the board. Given how much of the capital structure has flattened this year, we think CLO AAAs actually offer the best value amongst the debt tranches there. We think non-QM triple AAAs and agency MBS is going to tighten. They look cheap to IG corporates. Consumer ABS, we also think still looks pretty cheap to IG corporates. Even in the CMBS pace, we think there's opportunities. CMBS has really outperformed this year as rates have come down. Now our bull bear spread differentials are much wider in CMBS than they are elsewhere, but in our base case, conduit BBB minuses still offer attractive value.That being said, if we're going to go down the capital structure, our favorite expression in the securitized credit space is US CLO equity.Vishy Tirupattur: Thank you, Jay and Jim, and also Matt and James.We'll close it out here. As a reminder, if you enjoyed the show, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.

YDS is supported by Microcosm Coaching and Fly Nutrition. How influential are influencers, anyway? Studies show that the folks we interact with (or don't!) virtually on social media can have a real impact on our mental and even physical health.  From ancient Roman gladiators shilling olive oil and wine to today's #fitspo influencers shilling supplements and diet hacks, everyone has the capacity to be influenced. In this episode of Your Diet Sucks, Kylee and Zoë unpack why misinformation spreads so quickly online, who is the most susceptible to influence - and the potential harms that mindless scrolling through idealized and heavily doctored images can have on athletes. References National Research Council (US); Institute of Medicine (US); Woolf SH, Aron L, editors. U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2013. 4, Public Health and Medical Care Systems. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK154484/ Suciu, P. (2024, June 3). History of influencer marketing predates social media by centuries – but is there enough transparency in the 21st century?. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petersuciu/2020/12/07/history-of-influencer-marketing-predates-social-media-by-centuries--but-is-there-enough-transparency-in-the-21st-century/  Ivanka Prichard, Eliza Kavanagh, Kate E. Mulgrew, Megan S.C. Lim, Marika Tiggemann, The effect of Instagram #fitspiration images on young women's mood, body image, and exercise behaviour, Body Image, Volume 33, 2020, Pages 1-6, ISSN 1740-1445, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.02.002. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144519302578) Lup K, Trub L, Rosenthal L. Instagram #instasad?: exploring associations among instagram use, depressive symptoms, negative social comparison, and strangers followed. Cyberpsychol Behav Soc Netw. 2015 May;18(5):247-52. doi: 10.1089/cyber.2014.0560. PMID: 25965859. Pilgrim, K., Bohnet-Joschko, S. Selling health and happiness how influencers communicate on Instagram about dieting and exercise: mixed methods research. BMC Public Health 19, 1054 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7387-8 Yu Wu, Jane Harford, Jasmine Petersen, Ivanka Prichard, “Eat clean, train mean, get lean”: Body image and health behaviours of women who engage with fitspiration and clean eating imagery on Instagram, Body Image, Volume 42, 2022, Pages 25-31,ISSN 1740-1445, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2022.05.003. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1740144522000821) Langin, K. (2018, March 8). Fake news spreads faster than true news on Twitter—thanks to people, not bots | science | AAAS. Science.org. https://www.science.org/content/article/fake-news-spreads-faster-true-news-twitter-thanks-people-not-bots  Tagliaferro, L. (2024, March 5). 50+ essential fitness statistics, facts and trends (2024). Future Fit. https://www.futurefit.co.uk/blog/fitness-statistics/#:~:text=Instagram%20and%20YouTube%20are%20among,326%2C863%20and%20on%20Instagram%20232%2C502. 

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Cognitive architecture deals in models of how the brain - or AI - does its magic. A challenging discipline to say the least, and we are lucky to have a foremost cognitive architect on the show in the person of John Laird. Is cognitive architecture the gateway to artificial general intelligence? John is Principal Cognitive Architect and co-director of the Center for Integrated Cognition. He received his PhD from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985, working with famed early AI pioneer Allen Newell. He is the John L. Tishman Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he was a faculty member for 36 years. He is a Fellow of AAAI, ACM, AAAS, and the Cognitive Science Society. In 2018, he was co-winner of the Herbert A. Simon Prize for Advances in Cognitive Systems. We talk about relationships between cognitive architectures and AGI, where explainability and transparency come in, Turing tests, where we could be in 10 years, how to recognize AGI, metacognition, and the SOAR architecture. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.          

Today on Speaking Out of Place we talk with scholar-activists Naomi Paik and Ashley Dawson about the close connection between abolition and environmental activism from below. How are the twin projects raising profound questions about borders, carcerality, enclosures, and the separation of humans from each other and all other forms of life, including supposedly “inanimate” objects?  How can we create “sanctuary for all” in a radical rethinking of notions like “the commons”? Ashley Dawson is Professor of English at the Graduate Center / City University of New York and the College of Staten Island. Recently published books of his focus on key topics in the Environmental Humanities, and include People's Power: Reclaiming the Energy Commons (O/R, 2020), Extreme Cities: The Peril and Promise of Urban Life in the Age of Climate Change (Verso, 2017), and Extinction: A Radical History (O/R, 2016). Dawson is the author of a forthcoming book entitled Environmentalism from Below (Haymarket) and the co-editor of Decolonize Conservation! (Common Notions, 2023). For the past 20 years Ashley has been engaged in public higher education as our nation's largest urban university CUNY helps transform the lives of huge numbers of students from relatively disadvantaged backgrounds.  Ashley believes deeply in the mission of public institutions such as CUNY to provide a quality education to such students and his teaching and pedagogy philosophy has been shaped by this commitmentNaomi Paik is the author of Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the 21st Century (2020, University of California Press) and Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in U.S. Prison Camps since World War II (2016, UNC Press; winner, Best Book in History, AAAS 2018; runner-up, John Hope Franklin prize for best book in American Studies, ASA, 2017), as well as articles, opinion pieces, and interviews in a range of academic and public-facing venues. Her next book-length project, "Sanctuary for All," calls for the most capacious conception of sanctuary that brings together migrant and environmental justice. A member of the Radical History Review editorial collective, she has co-edited four special issues of the journal—“Militarism and Capitalism (Winter 2019), “Radical Histories of Sanctuary” (Fall 2019), “Policing, Justice, and the Radical Imagination” (Spring 2020), and “Alternatives to the Anthropocene” with Ashley Dawson (Winter 2023). She coedits the “Borderlands” section of Public Books alongside Cat Ramirez, as well as “The Politics of Sanctuary” blog of the Smithsonian Institution with Sam Vong. She is an associate professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, and a member of the Migration Scholars Collaborative and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, UIC. Her research and teaching interests include comparative ethnic studies; U.S. imperialism; U.S. militarism; social and cultural approaches to legal studies; transnational and women of color feminisms; carceral spaces; and labor, race, and migration.

This and all episodes at: https://aiandyou.net/ . Cognitive architecture deals in models of how the brain - or AI - does its magic. A challenging discipline to say the least, and we are lucky to have a foremost cognitive architect on the show in the person of John Laird. Is cognitive architecture the gateway to artificial general intelligence? John is Principal Cognitive Architect and co-director of the Center for Integrated Cognition. He received his Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985, working with famed early AI pioneer Allen Newell. He is the John L. Tishman Emeritus Professor of Engineering at the University of Michigan, where he was a faculty member for 36 years. He is a Fellow of AAAI, ACM, AAAS, and the Cognitive Science Society. In 2018, he was co-winner of the Herbert A. Simon Prize for Advances in Cognitive Systems. We talk about decision loops, models of the mind, symbolic versus neural models, and how large language models do reasoning. All this plus our usual look at today's AI headlines. Transcript and URLs referenced at HumanCusp Blog.          

…where we talk parasites, motorbikes, and digital twins. Professor Reinhard Laubenbacher is: the Director of Laboratory for Systems Medicine at the University of Florida, an AAAS fellow (American Association for the Advancement of Science), and a scientist interested in using math to understand human disease and more specifically fungal infections in the lungs. When not at work, Reinhard and his wife enjoy motorbiking everywhere from the swamps of Florida, to the plains of Patagonia. Find out more about Reinhard's work on the following websites: https://systemsmedicine.pulmonary.medicine.ufl.edu/ https://systemsmedicine.pulmonary.medicine.ufl.edu/profile/laubenbacher-reinhard/ Find out more about SMB on: The website: smb.org Twitter: @smb_mathbiology Facebook: @smb.org Linkedin: @smb_mathbiology The Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

Music is undeniably a huge part of what makes video games special, both individually and on an industry-wide level. Not only is no gaming award show complete without a gong for the year's best soundtrack, but even the Proms have started acknowledging that video game scores have come a long way since the 8-bit days (without throwing any shade on chiptune, a legitimate genre in and of itself with some stone-cold classics). That's probably why, from huge AAAs to smaller indies, music can account for a significant chunk of any game's budget — and it's definitely worth the investment. For this episode, the Indieventure trio have pooled our vinyl collection to talk about some of our personal favourite indie game music highlights. I know you guys say you love long show notes but there's seriously no way I'm going to be able to list every track we talk about here — which is why we've put together [a YouTube playlist] that should cover everything instead! A quick overview, though, sees us talking about the music from games including Balatro, Bombrush Cyberfunk, Braid, Celeste, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Dear Esther, Death's Door, Dicey Dungeons, Disco Elysium, Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, Fields of Mistria, Firewatch, Hades, Hades II, Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Hollow Knight, Hotline Miami, Hypnospace Outlaw, Journey, Kentucky Route Zero, Monster Prom 2: Monster Camp, Minecraft, No Straight Roads, Paradise Killer, Pizza Tower, Pyre, Return of the Obra Dinn, Stardew Valley, A Tower Full of Cats, Trombone Champ, Undertale, Unravel, and We Happy Few. If you'd like to hear every track we discuss in this episode in its entirety, we've added them all to a convenient YouTube playlist that you can find here. During the course of this chat we also promise you a couple of specific links, so go here for Bombrush Cyberfunk soundtrack memes, and here for one of the Ace Attorney x Danganronpa musical mashup channels on YouTube that Rebecca (and now Rachel too) is so very fond of.   Finally, as ever, are our current hyperfixations! Rebecca has discovered an accidentally awesome double-bill of horror novels with a timely social message in Chuck Tingle's Bury Your Gays and Grady Hendrix's The Final Girl Support Group; Liam's been having a whimsical time in recently-released indie platformer The Plucky Squire; and Rachel is having a moment with girly pop in general, and Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter in particular, thanks to the recent VMAs award show.   Our music, meanwhile, was written and performed by Ollie Newbury! Find him on Instagram at @newbsmusic. Meanwhile, you can find us at indieventurepodcast.co.uk or wherever you listen to podcasts.  

As the author of the bestselling Master Algorithm, University of Washington professor Pedro Domingos is one of the world's most respected AI experts. So I was a little surprised that his new book, 2040, is a science-fictional satire of American politics & Silicon Valley. In 2040, Domingos is, however, also using fiction to write a critique of the current Silicon Valley mania for AI. The book is both a warning about the technological limits of AI as well as an investigation of the way that it could truly democratize American politics. And so, by 2040, Domingos promised me, we really might be close to the reality of what he calls “an agora in a Presibot”. Pedro Domingos is a leading AI researcher and the author of the worldwide bestseller "The Master Algorithm", an introduction to machine learning for a general audience. He is a professor of computer science at the University of Washington in Seattle. He won the SIGKDD Innovation Award and the IJCAI John McCarthy Award, two of the highest honors in data science and AI, and is a Fellow of AAAS and AAAI. He has written for the Wall Street Journal, Scientific American, Wired, and others, and is a highly sought-after speaker.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Jonnie and Kev talk about the Dave the Diver Dredge DLC Timings 00:00:00: Theme Tune 00:00:30: Intro 00:01:53: What Have We Been Up To 00:16:41: Dave The Diver 00:23:02: Dredge DLC 00:44:17: Outro Links Dave the Diver Dredge DLC Contact Al on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheScotBot Al on Mastodon: https://mastodon.scot/@TheScotBot Email Us: https://harvestseason.club/contact/ Transcript (0:00:30) Jonnie: Hello Divers and welcome to another episode of The Harvest Season. My name is Jonny. (0:00:35) Kev: And my name is Kevin. (0:00:37) Jonnie: And we’re here today to talk about… Cottagecore games! (0:00:40) Kev: Are– no, or– well, is Dave Cottagecore? (0:00:43) Kev: I don’t know. (0:00:45) Kev: Maybe? (0:00:45) Jonnie: I’m pretty sure it’s Cottagecore. Like, it’s very… It’s very Cottagecore. (0:00:49) Kev: Yeah. (0:00:50) Kev: It’s Vibes, right? (0:00:51) Jonnie: Yeah, I think… Yeah, yeah. (0:00:53) Jonnie: I think this is gonna end up being episode 3 in Dave the Diver month, because, you know, I caused a bit of chaos for Al and… (0:01:00) Jonnie: We shuffled the episodes! (0:01:04) Jonnie: As always, transcripts are available… Transcripts are available in the show notes and on the website. (0:01:08) Jonnie: But today, the topic that we’re going to be talking about is the Dredge DLC. (0:01:14) Jonnie: Kiv, we’re a year on for when we first covered Dredge as a part of fishing month, which was this time last year. (0:01:17) Kev: Jeez, I guess it has been a year. (0:01:23) Jonnie: Dredge, definitely not Cottagecore. Dave the Diver, more Cottagecore than Dredge. (0:01:27) Jonnie: That’s what I’m going to say, even with the Dredge elements thrown in. (0:01:28) Kev: Yep, you know what, there is farming in Dave, so close enough. (0:01:30) Jonnie: So, as always, no news for this episode. There will be a bit of a catch-up in a couple of weeks (0:01:45) Jonnie: when we’re all back to recording at… Just a little bit ahead of when the episodes are released, (0:01:51) Jonnie: instead of a lot ahead of when the episodes are released. But what have we been up to? (0:01:55) Jonnie: Kiv, what have you been up to? (0:01:56) Kev: Um, so actually just this week, I actually hit credits on Dave the Diver, the whole thing. (0:02:03) Kev: Um, so I guess, you know, I’ll say that for a second when we get to the main topic, but (0:02:09) Kev: um, I spent a lot of time doing that, but other than that, um, the big one, have you (0:02:14) Kev: heard of Zenless Zone Zero? (0:02:16) Jonnie: I have not. (0:02:16) Kev: Okay. (0:02:17) Kev: Have you heard of miHoYo? (0:02:19) Kev: I sure hope you have. (0:02:21) Jonnie: No. (0:02:22) Kev: Okay. (0:02:23) Kev: Okay, um, have you heard of genshi? (0:02:23) Jonnie: I don’t know any of these words. (0:02:26) Kev: It may not work. (0:02:28) Jonnie: Yes, that’s like the… (0:02:30) Jonnie: That’s like the… (0:02:30) Kev: That may not work. (0:02:32) Jonnie: The big titty… (0:02:34) Jonnie: Gacha game, right? (0:02:38) Kev: That’s correct. Well, that descriptor might not be narrow enough, but yes, you’re on the right track. (0:02:44) Jonnie: Okay. (0:02:44) Jonnie: It’s the really popular big titty. (0:02:46) Kev: Yeah, the really popular one. Yeah, that one. It’s not nike. (0:02:52) Kev: So, miHoYo is the company/developer. (0:02:56) Kev: We’re behind Genshin Impact. (0:02:58) Kev: They have, since Genshin published a few other, released a few games. (0:03:04) Kev: One of them called Honkai Star Rail, which is very similar to Genshin, but that one’s turn-based while Genshin is a Breath of the Wild style game. (0:03:14) Kev: And then, just, I think at the start of July, they released a game called Zenless Zone Zero, which again, very similar. (0:03:23) Kev: Similar which has gotcha mechanics (0:03:26) Kev: Animes style type thing (0:03:28) Kev: the genre this time is more of a (0:03:32) Kev: Character action game for lack of a better word of putting it and think near automata that will make fry (0:03:38) Kev: The mash buttons and get hit lots of enemies basically (0:03:42) Kev: The game is free. I got it on my playstation, but you could even get it on mobile (0:03:49) Kev: It is terrifying how excellent the game is (0:03:55) Kev: the actual (0:03:56) Kev: combat portion is (0:03:59) Kev: simple compared to other games, but it is a (0:04:02) Kev: Very it feels good. It controls very well (0:04:06) Kev: the visual presentation is (0:04:09) Kev: Beyond stellar the it has a very it very strong aesthetic like a urban cyberpunk ish kind of thing (0:04:19) Kev: The the other colors are bright the music is (0:04:23) Kev: Phenomenal, even the UI feels Persona. (0:04:27) Kev: Very, very nice. (0:04:30) Kev: It is, as with the other ones, it does have the gacha mechanic for different characters you can play as. (0:04:37) Kev: But here’s the great thing, right? I don’t really care about most of the characters, so I’m okay. (0:04:44) Kev: I did a pull or two or whatever and got some characters, but I’m not hurtin’ like some other games might be. (0:04:52) Kev: Um… yeah. (0:04:53) Jonnie: So I’ve just looked this up in the background while you’ve been talking about it and like because I’m a bit of a sucker (0:04:58) Jonnie: for a for a gacha game (0:04:59) Jonnie: But there was something about like the Genshin impacts and Honkai star rails and never really pulled me and I was like (0:05:04) Jonnie: I don’t know I feel like this one’s this one and hearing me talk about it sounds pretty good because it’s been a sucker for (0:05:08) Jonnie: a long time and (0:05:11) Jonnie: Like so my first real experience with with gacha games was our Final Fantasy record keeper. I don’t know if you recall (0:05:18) Kev: Oh, that’s a deep thought. All right. (0:05:20) Jonnie: That one yeah, and I go really into (0:05:23) Jonnie: that one which was weird because like that’s like the only Final Fantasy game (0:05:26) Jonnie: I’ve ever played right so I have no connection to the characters it just (0:05:30) Kev: Hahaha! (0:05:30) Jonnie: turns out that I really like those sorts of games and then slightly more recently (0:05:33) Kev: Okay. (0:05:35) Jonnie: there was the Marvel Strike Force uh gotcha that was yeah I well I don’t know (0:05:38) Kev: Okay. (0:05:39) Kev: Oh, that was Gotcha? I didn’t realize that. (0:05:43) Jonnie: if it was exactly gotcha I can’t remember exactly the the recruitment (0:05:48) Jonnie: mechanics but it was kind of like enough of overlap where it was you know just (0:05:52) Jonnie: designed to get you to put money (0:05:53) Jonnie: in for absurd you know resource upgrading stuff to five stars (0:05:54) Kev: Sure. It’s designed, yeah, designed for the micro-generated action shirt. (0:06:00) Jonnie: exactly and so I kind of been feeling the pool and there was there was one (0:06:00) Kev: Um… (0:06:07) Jonnie: afk journey that was like all over ads on every platform like two or three (0:06:12) Kev: Yeah, oh, yeah. (0:06:12) Jonnie: months ago and I downloaded that tried that one that one that one didn’t quite (0:06:16) Jonnie: grab me it had some pretty cool mechanics going on but it just there (0:06:19) Jonnie: wasn’t maybe quite enough going on. But yeah, I guess given the (0:06:23) Jonnie: legacy of the developer and me maybe feeling like I’m ready to (0:06:27) Jonnie: be heard again by another Gachi game. I’ve just downloaded (0:06:28) Kev: Yeah (0:06:30) Jonnie: this one. (0:06:31) Kev: Okay, um well dang yeah, yeah, I’ve heard of afk journey. I think I heard you talk about it (0:06:39) Kev: but (0:06:40) Jonnie: I probably did. I probably talked about it on the show. (0:06:41) Kev: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s been a minute. But um, I (0:06:46) Kev: Mean like if you are in need of another gotcha to anyone else like I can heartily recommend this one (0:06:52) Kev: like you know, I’m still (0:06:55) Kev: early in pretty much. I don’t think I played a full week at this point. (0:06:59) Kev: Maybe. I haven’t hit any huge road blocks. What’s fun about this one is there’s a lot of skill to the component, right? (0:07:09) Kev: Because you can dodge attacks and parry and stuff like that, right? So, you know, you can, you don’t feel bottlenecked by not having S rank characters or whatever. (0:07:20) Kev: Yeah, I got through, they give you three starter characters and I got through most of it. (0:07:25) Kev: pretty much everything I played up to now with those three (0:07:28) Kev: because I enjoyed them. (0:07:30) Kev: I’m sure some people might dig some of the other characters, I don’t think there’s one or two that I think are cool, but I’m not dying to get them. (0:07:40) Kev: I haven’t wailed yet, as the term goes. (0:07:44) Kev: There is a bear, there’s a playable bear there, that’s kind of fun. (0:07:48) Kev: He’s a bear with a big cinder block, like cement blocking, I don’t know what it is, he works in a construction company. (0:07:56) Kev: company. (0:07:56) Kev: Anyways. (0:07:58) Kev: No, it’s great, it’s free, the biggest con I think it has, well, it’s free to download, (0:08:03) Jonnie: Kevin, you can’t keep saying a gacha game is free. We all know they’re not really free. They’re like fake-free. (0:08:10) Kev: free to start. (0:08:15) Kev: But the biggest knock I have against it aside from, you know, the trappings of the genre, (0:08:22) Kev: the gacha mechanics or whatever. (0:08:25) Kev: The game is just fake. (0:08:29) Kev: Filled to the brim with nonsense words and features and holy mackerel it is overwhelming. (0:08:38) Kev: Because they have to make up a name for every little thing, there’s bangboos and proxies and carrots and oh my goodness it’s beyond overwhelming. (0:08:51) Kev: But that’s okay because when I get to the actual little gameplay where I fight stage-full venomous, (0:08:58) Kev: none of that matters and I enjoy myself. (0:09:03) Kev: So yeah, if you can get past the wave of just overwhelming nonsense, jargon, techno-babble, I think it’s a great time. (0:09:15) Jonnie: Awesome, I am looking forward to getting sucked into this whole- (0:09:18) Kev: He’s sick. Let me know when you get in and we can… (0:09:22) Kev: Geez, I don’t know what multiplayer stuff there is but we can at least talk about our units. (0:09:28) Jonnie: Exactly exactly (0:09:30) Kev: What’s your favorite JPEG that you pulled? (0:09:32) Kev: Okay, but yeah, that’s all I’ve been really up to aside from Dave. What about you, Johnny? What’s been going on with you? (0:09:41) Jonnie: Nothing too much I kind of been dead for the last month (0:09:44) Jonnie: So I think last time I was on the show Al and I were talking about starstruck vagabond (0:09:50) Jonnie: and (0:09:51) Jonnie: The couple of days before we recorded that episode work called me and I said hey (0:09:55) Jonnie: We need someone to go on an international trip. (0:09:58) Jonnie: For like two weeks, in like three days, how would you like to be that person? (0:10:02) Jonnie: And I was like shocked, because it was an international trip, but it was an international trip home. (0:10:07) Jonnie: So I got up at 4am to record that episode with Al, and then immediately went to the airport to get on a flight to disappear for two weeks. (0:10:14) Jonnie: Which was great. (0:10:16) Jonnie: And then I got back, and as happens with international travel now, you sit on a plane with a bunch of other gross humans, and then you come back and you get really sick. (0:10:24) Jonnie: um and so that’s kind yeah (0:10:24) Kev: Oh, yeah, good time. (0:10:28) Jonnie: so that’s kind of what happened with me. I just got really sick and uh I feel like there’s two (0:10:34) Jonnie: there’s two versions of being sick right like there’s the version when you feel poorly you (0:10:40) Jonnie: probably shouldn’t be out in public but kind of mentally you’re fine right and like it’s one of (0:10:44) Jonnie: those great times of being sick where you can sit down you play video games (0:10:46) Kev: Yeah, sure the maybe more inconvenient time or what have you yeah, I get that (0:10:53) Jonnie: Then there’s the sort of sick where your brain just doesn’t work and all you want to do is sleep or do the most mindless activity possible. (0:11:05) Jonnie: And I was in the second category so I have literally not played anything for about a month and a half now. (0:11:05) Kev: And of course, jeez Louise, what did you have? (0:11:14) Kev: What took you out of that long? (0:11:15) Jonnie: I don’t know like it was well so was the travel like I didn’t get to put the time to play any game cells on the travel and then it was just. (0:11:23) Jonnie: What are those sicknesses that like it just kind of wiped me out for about a week it was probably covered if I’m being honest. (0:11:30) Jonnie: And then by the time I was kind of better work was then crazy enough that it was just like the brain space to actually sit down and play something was just not there. (0:11:39) Jonnie: So I literally have not played anything in a couple of weeks. (0:11:40) Kev: Mmm good times (0:11:42) Jonnie: And then as I started to feel better the Olympics started and I am very into watching the Olympics in Australia. (0:11:52) Jonnie: the olympic sta- (0:11:53) Jonnie: I really like they start their day at about 6 30 our time so you kind of get home and you’re (0:11:57) Jonnie: like making dinner and the olympics is just firing up for the day so you can get very sucked into (0:12:00) Kev: Oh, that’s nice, that’s good timing. (0:12:03) Jonnie: yeah it’s it’s really good timing um this week in particular i’ve got really into watching judo (0:12:09) Jonnie: uh which is a it’s so cool it’s such a cool sport uh not a sport that I have any interest in doing (0:12:09) Kev: Oh, Judo’s so cool. (0:12:16) Jonnie: like sometimes you watch an olympic sport and you think oh could I do that judo zero interest in (0:12:20) Jonnie: doing, but man it’s a cool sport. (0:12:22) Kev: Yeah, yeah, I haven’t followed Judo. (0:12:25) Kev: Have there been gold medalists yet? (0:12:28) Jonnie: - Yeah, there’s been medals, I think. (0:12:31) Jonnie: I think they’re through most of the judo now, (0:12:34) Jonnie: but it’s just been really interesting sort of, you know, (0:12:36) Jonnie: seeing like, it’s one of those martial arts (0:12:38) Jonnie: that’s very, like most martial arts, very technique driven. (0:12:42) Jonnie: But I guess it kind of being that more grapple (0:12:44) Jonnie: or throw style has been very interesting for me. (0:12:47) Jonnie: And it’s one of the things that I love about the Olympics (0:12:49) Jonnie: is learning about weird niche sports (0:12:52) Jonnie: that you don’t really see any other time (0:12:54) Kev: Yeah. Yeah. Well, first off, on Judo, I did Taekwondo when I was younger, for many, (0:12:55) Jonnie: and getting into it. (0:12:56) Jonnie: Have you watched any of the Olympics, kid? (0:13:02) Kev: many years, actually. So I love martial arts. Judo, obviously, is a different beast, because (0:13:08) Kev: it feels almost at times like one move, a touch of death sort of thing. So the, you know, the mental (0:13:16) Kev: dance, the standoff feels extra intense, in my opinion. But I… (0:13:24) Kev: Personally, I’ve caught up with a lot of the highlights and, you know, headlines and things (0:13:30) Kev: like that. I haven’t really sat down to watch many of the events themselves. I’ve watched (0:13:33) Kev: some of the gymnastics stuff, because out in the United States, we have, you know, it’s a mobile. (0:13:38) Kev: So, of course, that gets the, well, the press coverage. But I will say, this Olympics probably (0:13:45) Kev: the strongest memes to come out. Maybe all of them. Shooting in particular. Hats off to that (0:13:53) Kev: Turkish guy. (0:13:55) Jonnie: That Turkish guy is so cool. He makes every other shooter just look super friggin lame. (0:13:55) Kev: Okay. Okay. (0:14:00) Jonnie: Like I don’t like shooting. Like I hate it when they have all of the eye masks and everything (0:14:06) Jonnie: else. It’s the same with archery where it’s like to me the skill is meant to be in you the human (0:14:11) Jonnie: doing it. Not having all of this stuff to point you and having it be a good contest and like how (0:14:15) Jonnie: still can you hold your arm. So I think that dude makes the rest of the shooters look hella (0:14:16) Kev: The- (0:14:20) Kev: Oh, absolutely, the- like, the- you know, the picture, the picture once he- like, the part that kills me is his other hand’s just in his pocket. (0:14:28) Kev: Like, he’s not, you know, doing it to a hand at old or anything, just- just bam. (0:14:28) Jonnie: - Yeah, it’s (laughs) (0:14:33) Kev: Uh, I don’t know if you ever heard, but he- it turns out he actually did, in fact, serve in the Turkish military. (0:14:38) Kev: And he, uh, actually did the same thing like 10 years ago, where he got- I don’t- I don’t know if it was what, uh, event it was, (0:14:45) Kev: but he did some shooting and. (0:14:47) Kev: No, no, no equipment was over. (0:14:49) Kev: Wild, wild stuff. (0:14:50) Jonnie: Yeah, he won a world championship like 11 years ago or something like that, yeah (0:14:50) Kev: Um, okay. (0:14:53) Kev: That’s what it was. (0:14:54) Kev: Okay. (0:14:54) Kev: Yeah. (0:14:55) Kev: Um, oh yeah, good, good stuff. (0:14:58) Kev: Um, yeah, Olympics, good time. (0:15:01) Jonnie: The other spot I’m going to talk about briefly, because I find the acts mind-blowing and how they do it even more insane, but it’s synchronized diving. (0:15:10) Kev: Oh, oh, yeah, I saw I did see some of that (0:15:13) Kev: that’s (0:15:14) Kev: Insane insane. What was it? China that did the two women? I think I think there’s women that uh, (0:15:19) Jonnie: Yep, there’s that video of them diving side by side, and the first time you watch it you think there’s just one of them because they are that in sync. (0:15:20) Kev: Yeah, you know the one though with the red (0:15:27) Jonnie: It’s so good. And those people are so, they’re so impressive. It’s just the technique to do that individually combined with having to time that perfectly with another human being is insane. (0:15:33) Kev: Oh, yeah (0:15:41) Kev: it really is like holy moly it’s like specific rib they’re moving in sync they’re sharing the (0:15:48) Kev: same brain path that’s it’s oh man you’re right sync synchronized diving is is so cool so cool (0:15:54) Jonnie: Cool, um, the only other thing I want to bring up, it’s somewhat news, but I just (0:16:01) Jonnie: saw that the the hardy hank plush is now out on makeshift. I’m like really 50/50 on it if (0:16:08) Kev: Oh, it is really good. I’m yup. Yeah. Yeah, the good good call cuz well, I guess I don’t know when people are gonna listen to this one. It’ll probably still be up the campaign or whatever. But yeah, I think that thank thank from Baren breakfast as a makeshift plush. It’s really, really good. I’m I’m hurting cuz I’m hoping I can get it. I’m I’m doing the best the budgeting to do it, but it is really good. (0:16:08) Jonnie: I want to get it because it’s so cool. (0:16:36) Jonnie: All right, well shall we get into Dave the diver X (0:16:42) Kev: Let’s dive right in okay, so first off (0:16:45) Kev: I’m gonna update my thoughts because when I talked with Al we I don’t know if it’s like chapter 2 or 3 something like (0:16:51) Kev: That and like I said, I hate credits this week (0:16:55) Kev: So all the stuff I said in the episode maintains true I like the mechanics I (0:17:02) Kev: like the fish part of it (0:17:05) Kev: the I did more bosses and (0:17:08) Kev: It’s interesting how they approach bosses (0:17:12) Kev: some of them were fairly challenging, I think (0:17:16) Kev: Al was right that they add a lot of weird one-off mechanics later in the game (0:17:21) Kev: Which I didn’t mind as much as him, but it is an interesting design choice to say the least (0:17:28) Kev: The story was you know (0:17:31) Kev: Very basic or whatever, but it was for their fun characters (0:17:36) Kev: and (0:17:38) Kev: Seeing some of the the horrors of the deep good times good times (0:17:43) Kev: And I’m not even talking about the mutated dredge whores. I’m talking about the regular whores (0:17:47) Kev: Yeah, but I mean overall I really really enjoyed it. I did the Godzilla DLC as well (0:17:53) Kev: That was super fun and enjoyable (0:17:56) Kev: We have another episode on that so I won’t get into detail, but yeah two thumbs up for me on Dave the diver overall (0:18:03) Kev: What about you Johnny? (0:18:07) Jonnie: No, and I have to say I did not get into Dave the Diver that much, and so you kind of like roped into doing this diving, you know, thing, anyway, and then Goncho shows up and he’s like, he shows up and he’s like, you’re going to be my waitress now and like serve people, which you do did the tutorial of that, I got everything perfect, right, I put everyone’s tea perfectly. (0:18:33) Jonnie: And his immediate comment was “It was a bit sloppy.” (0:18:37) Jonnie: I was just like f*ck off and I turned the game off and I haven’t played it since. (0:18:38) Kev: Oh good times, that’s… (0:18:41) Jonnie: Like that, it really, it really annoyed me. (0:18:43) Jonnie: Yeah, okay, I need to do a version of that without Squirt. (0:18:45) Jonnie: I need to do a version of that without Squirt, it just like, it rained me so much. (0:18:52) Jonnie: Yeah, so I probably didn’t get into Dave the Diver that much. (0:18:56) Jonnie: I didn’t really like the start of the game, I guess to be blunt. (0:19:01) Jonnie: I didn’t like the serving aspect of the sushi side of things. (0:19:07) Jonnie: I want to play Dave the Diver, not Dave the Waitstaff. (0:19:09) Kev: Yeah, you know what, you’re right, it is, that’s a very minimal part of the game, like, you could probably skip that whole gameplay portion, like manage the restaurant maybe, but yeah, you know, that part is more or less negligible because the diving portion is absolutely the bread and butter, the main sell of the game. (0:19:11) Jonnie: I (0:19:30) Jonnie: Yeah, and so when they said like oh now and the way I feel like it’s done is where the the sushi chef (0:19:37) Jonnie: Just like forces you to (0:19:39) Jonnie: Serve the sushi. I just didn’t get why that was even in (0:19:44) Jonnie: The game like that to me like there’s nothing (0:19:48) Jonnie: fun or enjoyable about (0:19:50) Jonnie: That it’s not like I’m not playing Dave the server at a restaurant. I’m playing Dave the diver (0:19:57) Jonnie: I want to go diving and bring stuff back and have that yet (0:20:00) Jonnie: Do all of the upgrades and all of those sorts of things that that you and I talked about on the first episode (0:20:05) Jonnie: That sounded great, but I don’t want to have this (0:20:10) Jonnie: Stupid minigame. I have to do (0:20:12) Jonnie: Every you know after every couple of dives to go and do it and I didn’t like the way it was done (0:20:19) Jonnie: Like I thought the the goncho the the character the way he kind of forces you into doing it (0:20:26) Jonnie: Really brought to me the wrong way. I thought the whole approach of that character was really annoying (0:20:30) Jonnie: and off-putting and I kind of just turned off the game after that because I was like I’m just not (0:20:34) Jonnie: interested. Like if there was an option to just skip that entire portion of the game and just get (0:20:41) Jonnie: like you know from tonight’s you know sushi sales you get however much money that’s what I want. I (0:20:48) Jonnie: don’t want to do a timer based running and meeting people and you know fulfilling their orders to me (0:20:54) Jonnie: that’s just yeah it wasn’t something that appealed to me and so I kind of just didn’t… (0:21:01) Jonnie: I didn’t give the game a chance because I wasn’t interested in that. (0:21:03) Kev: Mm-hmm. Well, you know what I’ll agree that Dave needs to learn how to say no cuz he just goes with every single thing everyone requests him (0:21:12) Kev: You hadn’t seen half of it (0:21:15) Kev: Poor Dave he puts it way too much (0:21:16) Jonnie: Yeah, and like, I kind of get that that’s the character, which is fine, it just really (0:21:23) Jonnie: annoyed me in the context of the game being Dave the Diver, and that being the part of (0:21:29) Jonnie: the game that I was interested in, and it just kind of felt like this weird minigame (0:21:32) Kev: Yeah (0:21:33) Kev: Yeah, I’m surprised they don’t give you an option to just you know auto or skip it or whatever (0:21:38) Kev: Um, at least I don’t think so. I’m trying to think I mean later on they they give you tools to (0:21:46) Kev: Skip a lot of it if you want to but like there’s no just one button. I just want to you know, just (0:21:51) Kev: Skip the night or whatever (0:21:52) Jonnie: Yeah, so, you know, it’s a bit unfortunate because for me it doesn’t really feel connected to the rest of the game (0:22:00) Jonnie: In a way other than maybe they had this idea for this as a mechanic and they kind of weached it in because (0:22:07) Jonnie: Personally, it’s just I don’t find that I don’t find the mechanics that were inherent in that side of the game fun (0:22:14) Jonnie: I don’t really like rushing around (0:22:18) Jonnie: meeting orders (0:22:20) Jonnie: needing to do things perfectly. (0:22:23) Jonnie: In a game that to me is, I’m interested in the exploration and catching fish and finding stuff. (0:22:30) Kev: You’re right, it is super conally dissonant, right, just because the diving parts, they can get stressful, but they’re also very chill at the same time because you’re exploring, and it’s generally low pressure, unless you’re under attack by Narwhal, but yeah, you’re right, it is kind of awesome. (0:22:53) Jonnie: Yeah, so anyway, that’s kind of, you know, (0:22:56) Jonnie: my take on the game was like, (0:22:57) Jonnie: I liked what I saw from the diving side of things. (0:23:01) Jonnie: And I kind of just wish that that was what I could have done. (0:23:03) Jonnie: But let’s talk about the Dredge DLC. (0:23:06) Jonnie: And where I want to start this conversation, Kev, (0:23:08) Jonnie: is the thing that sort of stood out to me the most (0:23:12) Jonnie: when I was looking into the DLC is kind of how you engage (0:23:15) Jonnie: with the Dredge, yeah, the Dredge DLC, (0:23:19) Jonnie: where it can only happen on days that are foggy. (0:23:23) Jonnie: And that’s not every single day. (0:23:26) Jonnie: So there’s, you know, you can only do it once (0:23:28) Jonnie: every couple of days. (0:23:28) Jonnie: And how did you feel about that? (0:23:30) Kev: Yeah, this is probably the one of the biggest talking points about the DLC or at least the same negative talking points (0:23:40) Kev: So like I mentioned I just hit credits (0:23:45) Kev: It’s been I don’t remember how many weeks since I first started playing before I even sat down with Al to record it. Um, (0:23:51) Kev: The I hit the dredge DLC for the first time just last night (0:23:56) Jonnie: Wow. (0:23:56) Kev: Yeah, it’s it is (0:24:00) Kev: Random (0:24:01) Kev: Completely random. I got it post credits. I don’t think that’s nice. That’s a requirement (0:24:05) Kev: In fact, I I know it’s actually not you have to only hit like chapter 2 till that can unlock but yeah (0:24:12) Kev: it took that long for me to (0:24:15) Kev: To see it right and like I guess you could find a speed run through it by just skipping dives (0:24:20) Kev: Basically, you know just going in and out or whatever but obviously I was enjoying the game and playing it (0:24:25) Kev: So I wasn’t in a rush to do that per se (0:24:28) Kev: And I wanted to see how long it would take (0:24:30) Kev: Yeah, it took me many weeks to hit the DLC, which is absolutely wild and kind of an awful way to (0:24:37) Kev: To make it accessible, you know, it’d be nice if there’s a person you could just talk to say hey, I want to dredge it up (0:24:44) Jonnie: Yeah, that’s interesting, right? And it’s an interesting way of doing DLC, (0:24:50) Jonnie: particularly in a time where you expect that a lot of people have already completed a large (0:24:56) Jonnie: portion of the game, and so they’re having to play through multiple days just to engage with (0:25:01) Jonnie: the DLC content. So that kind of was the one thing that stood out to me that felt (0:25:05) Jonnie: a little bit interesting, and your idea of like, is there just someone that you could talk to to (0:25:09) Jonnie: be like, “Hey, up the fogginess so that we can engage more with this” would have been… (0:25:15) Jonnie: would have been a good little move. But maybe let’s talk about some of the new mechanics that (0:25:23) Jonnie: the Dredge DLC introduced. And starting with the biggest one, because it just seems like a huge (0:25:28) Jonnie: thing to add to the game, is the fact that you can drive the boat kind of like you can in Dredge. (0:25:31) Kev: Yep, yep, yeah, so that’s the first it’s the it’s really the first thing you do with the DLC. Obviously, you know, it gets foggy and some guy approaches you. And then when you start it, yeah, you’re driving the boat straight up to it’s like even the visual style is very dredge like it. I don’t know how the dredge ship, obviously, I have not played dredge myself right now. But I don’t know how it controls work and whatnot. But it feels fine. It looks a lot like what I’ve seen. (0:26:01) Kev: I don’t know how it works from dredges ship controlling. Granted, the map is a lot more simple. I don’t think there are at least I haven’t yet seen the threats in the overworld to attack the boat like in dredge. (0:26:16) Jonnie: No, and I don’t think there are any threats in the overall to attack the boat, but it (0:26:20) Jonnie: kind of is just crazy to me that that was like, you know, that’s a huge thing to add (0:26:24) Jonnie: to a game, right? (0:26:25) Kev: Yeah, it definitely is. (0:26:25) Jonnie: Where it’s not like, you know, movement mechanics and, like, there’s physics, like, there’s (0:26:31) Jonnie: a lot that has to go into adding something like that to a game like this where there’s (0:26:38) Jonnie: no, like, there’s the movement, obviously, of Dave, but that’s very different to the (0:26:43) Jonnie: movement of a ship. (0:26:44) Jonnie: So it kind of feels like a mini response. (0:26:46) Jonnie: Just a new big system to add and even particularly the way that the art assets work, right? (0:26:52) Jonnie: Because it’s, I don’t know, this was just one of those things. (0:26:54) Jonnie: It’s like, it’s awesome that they did it because it kind of really links the Dave, the diver to dredge in a, in a very clean, thematic, visually aligned way. (0:27:05) Jonnie: It just seems so crazy to add this to, to what Dave, the diver was. (0:27:10) Kev: Yeah, absolutely, right, because the second portion is, you know, the actual dive portion where you’re down in the water, hunting down the aberrations. (0:27:18) Kev: But yeah, it was really nice. They went the extra mile. Like this is what I’d call an A+ collaboration crossover because, you know, really blending the DNA of the two games. (0:27:29) Jonnie: Absolutely. And so, you know, from there, there was a few minigames that I saw that were added (0:27:35) Jonnie: that were very reminiscent of the Dretching minigames from Dretch. We’ve got sort of the (0:27:42) Jonnie: reticle moving around and it’s kind of like a little timing-based minigame. Did you get to try (0:27:50) Kev: Um, no, I didn’t because, uh, like I said, I just did last night. (0:27:54) Kev: I didn’t even get fully through the night or whatever, but I pretty, so you have to (0:27:58) Kev: hit a vortex to dive right in, to start the diving portion. (0:28:02) Kev: And I pretty much just did that right away. (0:28:04) Kev: I, like, I didn’t really, uh, I don’t know. (0:28:06) Kev: I just didn’t think about looking more. (0:28:08) Kev: Um, but that is fascinating. (0:28:09) Jonnie: Cool. Well, let’s, let’s, yeah, let’s talk about the diving then, how does it compare (0:28:15) Jonnie: tonally to the rest of Dave’s The Diving? (0:28:18) Kev: Okay, so it is a night dive which, so as we discussed with Al, or you know when we (0:28:28) Kev: talk about the episode Al, a regular night dive is already pretty dangerous because everything (0:28:33) Kev: is already aggressive and then will attack you. And so here it’s again the same time the ocean (0:28:41) Kev: looks darker. They do change the color scheme to better match dredge. (0:28:49) Kev: But other than that, I guess it’s kind of what you’d expect because yeah, it’s slightly dredge (0:28:57) Kev: colored but there’s the scary aberration fish and you’re just hunting them all a day of the (0:29:03) Kev: diver mechanics. Yeah, I’m kidding. (0:29:04) Jonnie: And so when you’ve kind of got that total, I’m assuming there’s a bunch of aberrant fish that you are now catching and that have been added. (0:29:14) Kev: Yeah, that’s correct. Yeah, they’re all, you know, well, I guess it’s kind of true and dredge that they’re normal fish, but just, just weird like there’s a three headed fish, some fish now have fangs, some have horns, so on and so forth, right. (0:29:28) Kev: There’s a, I saw Marlin with very scary eyes. So yeah, what’s nice is that in regular night dives, a lot of fish can be grouped together. (0:29:44) Kev: And they can attack you can be difficult to navigate that many aggressive fish at once, but at least from what I experienced the dredge fish were pretty spaced out so you could engage on them one on one with a little more room to breathe. (0:29:58) Jonnie: Nice, was there anything else that felt different about the dives, (0:30:02) Jonnie: or was it really kind of just like a different dive in a slightly different location with some (0:30:10) Kev: There’s also new weapons, which is interesting because the weapon is a big part of how you interact with the game, right? (0:30:23) Kev: So, for instance, one of them is called the… was it made rain gun? Yeah, it is… it can… yeah, so your oxygen is your health, right? So you can recover… (0:30:41) Kev: You can recover health using that gun, which is an interesting mechanic because, you know, over… well, I’d say it’s fairly grounded. (0:30:50) Kev: There’s CC people. Dave is generally fairly grounded with their mechanics, but this one’s a little more video game-y and whatnot, and they just explain it away because they’re aberrant fish and it works like that. (0:31:01) Kev: I’m trying to think… was the gravity gun you? Okay. (0:31:06) Jonnie: I think the only new weapon was the life force one. I think the gravity gun was (0:31:11) Kev: Oh, was it? Okay. Yeah, because I found that on the dive. I didn’t know if that was new. That might have been just my first time encountering it. (0:31:16) Kev: But yeah, I’m trying… again, I didn’t get the chance to play as much as I wanted, but at least when you first dive in, like, I didn’t… (0:31:28) Kev: It’s… I’m trying to think here, like, all the… like, so the fish will attack you. I can’t think of any of them doing super crazy and whatnot. I think some of them are pretty fast. (0:31:41) Kev: But that’s… yeah, no, otherwise it feels a lot like a night dive, which I think it’s not bad. (0:31:48) Kev: Oh, there are… so there are crabs in the game in standard, Dave. You unlock them pretty late in the game, and you can get aberrant crabs and whatnot as well. (0:32:01) Kev: And from what I understand from the DLC, there are, like, three areas. I didn’t get to all of them. There are… (0:32:10) Kev: I don’t know all of them. I’ve heard that they’re kind of samey, but… oh, one interesting thing about the aberrant fish. (0:32:19) Kev: You have to use them that night, or they’ll just disappear. You can sell them to a certain vendor, but unlike other fish, they cannot stay in your inventory or at the restaurant. (0:32:34) Jonnie: And I also read that they can only be sold to a certain character that comes in to specifically (0:32:42) Jonnie: eat that sushi. (0:32:43) Jonnie: It’s not like anyone that comes to the sushi restaurant will eat aberrant fish. (0:32:47) Jonnie: Which makes sense, right? (0:32:48) Kev: yep yep yep not everyone’s that adventurous I think would you eat a (0:32:49) Jonnie: Like, not everyone is about that aberrant fish. (0:32:53) Jonnie: Yeah. (0:32:54) Jonnie: I mean, probably. (0:32:55) Kev: three-headed cod I probably would too (0:32:56) Jonnie: Who knows? (0:32:58) Jonnie: Probably. (0:32:59) Jonnie: Who knows? (0:33:00) Jonnie: Hey, that’s how I become Codman. (0:33:05) Kev: but yeah I’m trying to think no I think one thing that is really unfortunate (0:33:13) Kev: From what I understand, there’s no new bosses in the dredge DLC. (0:33:18) Kev: And that’s really unfortunate, because the Godzilla DLC brought in a boss, and dredge has a good helping of monsters to choose from, right? (0:33:31) Kev: So it’s a shame we didn’t get a single one of them. (0:33:34) Jonnie: Yeah, it’s even maybe a shame that there wasn’t some, like, a madness-style mechanic. (0:33:40) Jonnie: You know, you could imagine it sort of sitting alongside the oxygen meter, and maybe rather (0:33:44) Jonnie: than a boss, you know, there’s just the risk that you get attacked by some Cthulian-inspired (0:33:54) Jonnie: creature or, you know, they didn’t really play with, I guess, that sort of madness-Cthulian (0:33:59) Kev: Ooh, yeah, that’s good. (0:34:00) Jonnie: side of things, which would have been really fascinating I think in the way data is set up. (0:34:05) Kev: I didn’t even think about that. (0:34:06) Kev: That would have been a great mechanic, right? (0:34:07) Kev: Like, obviously dredged tonally, you know, that’s very different, right? (0:34:11) Kev: The horrors and whatnot, but at least just a different meter. (0:34:15) Kev: We call it a fear meter, whatever you want to call it. (0:34:16) Kev: Like, uh, uh, it is a shame that they didn’t introduce something. (0:34:21) Jonnie: Yeah, and I think that’s probably the the biggest outside of the difficulty of interacting, (0:34:26) Jonnie: but the biggest criticism I’ve seen of the the the dredge DLC is just the the lack of those (0:34:32) Jonnie: you know bosses that you know are a decent portion of the game and to your point would have (0:34:40) Jonnie: made sense to add in the context of of dredge and what that brings to the day of the dive universe. (0:34:48) Jonnie: Anything else I guess about the DLC specifically? (0:34:51) Kev: so I will say that um there are there is a good amount of the fifth um gosh how many are there (0:35:00) Kev: there’s looking at at least 30 of them which is a pretty good amount to be quite frank um so I do (0:35:08) Kev: give them props for that like I said there are three smallish areas um so it is a fairly sizable (0:35:17) Kev: DLC, you know, at least compared to the Godzilla. (0:35:21) Kev: The Godzilla one, while a lot of fun, was relatively small in scale. (0:35:26) Kev: It’s like a couple of boss fights, really, and finding Godzilla, which is a very minor thing. (0:35:33) Kev: I do wonder if these aberrants are from Dredge directly, or if they made up new ones. (0:35:39) Kev: Like, I’m looking at this one called the Gazing Shark. It looks like a hammerhead, but with giant eyes at the end. (0:35:44) Kev: I don’t know. (0:35:45) Kev: But yeah, other than that, like, I can’t have any direct thoughts. (0:35:49) Kev: Or I don’t have any (0:35:51) Kev: More detailed thoughts. (0:35:53) Kev: Um, like I said that (0:35:54) Jonnie: Cool. Well, one thing I am keen to talk about a little bit is how cool the idea of this as a (0:36:01) Jonnie: DLC is. It’s really cool to see two indie developers teaming up and doing a cross-collaboration (0:36:10) Jonnie: like this. There hasn’t been a ton of these before. I’m probably struggling to think of any, (0:36:15) Jonnie: but I’m sure these sorts of collaborations have been done somewhat infrequently in the past. (0:36:21) Jonnie: But I think in the stage that really… (0:36:24) Jonnie: I would say popular within the niche of people that are following gaming stuff elsewhere, right? (0:36:36) Jonnie: They’re not getting to the level of AAAs, but within people that are engaging with gaming culture or gaming communities, (0:36:42) Jonnie: these games kind of get to a level of popularity. (0:36:44) Jonnie: It’s really nice to see this sort of collaboration coming through as a way to introduce people to other games (0:36:54) Jonnie: who haven’t played, but it’s probably been on their list and could be a little bit of a prompt to get them to do it. (0:37:04) Jonnie: So I would love to see more of the style of collaboration between games because I just think it’s such a cool concept. (0:37:12) Jonnie: The overlap really made sense, right? (0:37:14) Jonnie: It wasn’t just like, “Hey, we’re two indie developers that want to cross-promote our games.” (0:37:20) Jonnie: It’s like no there’s actually a way that we can do this that makes total sense in the (0:37:24) Jonnie: context of both of our games and I just think it’s really clever in that regard. (0:37:31) Kev: Okay, so, like, okay, I was going to say that, right? Like, this, like, I know we kind of covered it quickly, because it’s somewhat, so aside from the dredge, you know, the actual boat controls, like, a lot of it is just, you know, more stylized, Dave, the divering, right, and that’s not a bad thing, and so, but, like, overall, I do really enjoy this DLC, for a lot of the same reasons you said, I think is really, really successful. (0:37:57) Kev: I think I should put, we should put an asterisk though, Dave the Diver is… (0:38:01) Kev: not an indie game. It’s by Mint Rocket, which is a subdivision of Nexon, which is a huge Korean game. (0:38:11) Kev: They do MapleStory and other things. But, I mean, Dredge though, that one’s indie, and it’s very cool that they got to do such an in-depth collaboration, right? (0:38:25) Kev: I think it especially benefits Dredge, because Dredge got a lot of love for sure, but I think… (0:38:31) Kev: Dave had a little more lasting power, maybe because of these DLCs, so I agree. It is a great way to get people’s eyes on Dredge. (0:38:39) Kev: I’ve wanted to play Dredge for a while, and this certainly does motivate me to play it. (0:38:46) Jonnie: Yeah, absolutely. And I don’t know why, but for some reason, maybe I just assumed that (0:38:51) Jonnie: Dave the Diver was edgy because it gives big indie energy. (0:38:52) Kev: well I mean (0:38:56) Kev: yeah I mean it’s pixel right like first of all it’s the pixels and and it’s the (0:39:01) Kev: it’s doesn’t feel triple-a because it’s not you know big (0:39:05) Kev: high-five le graphics fast-action or whatever right (0:39:08) Kev: uh… it (0:39:09) Kev: and it’s not just you let’s not forget the game awards uh… nominated a the (0:39:13) Kev: doctor for the game of the year and uh… everyone got a (0:39:18) Kev: got a little upset at them for that uh… (0:39:21) Kev: But, uh, yeah. (0:39:22) Kev: Uh, uh, you know, but regardless of that, like, I think the points still stand. (0:39:27) Kev: Like it’s, it was a really good way to integrate the two together. (0:39:32) Kev: Um, like I, I struggled to think of the last cola, uh, crossover collaboration (0:39:38) Kev: that worked this well, because I’m obviously thematically to fish games or (0:39:42) Kev: whatever, but even the boat just worked really well, um, with, uh, Dave the (0:39:48) Kev: diverged like I know it’s a fridge mechanic or whatever but it (0:39:52) Kev: feels right at home and in Dave the Diver because of the setting in this (0:39:57) Kev: you know it’s special blue hole place and and they introduced a lot of one-off (0:40:04) Kev: things like that so it doesn’t stick out or any particular way which is I think a (0:40:10) Jonnie: Yeah, absolutely (0:40:12) Jonnie: One final question if they were gonna do a collab with David I was gonna do a collab with (0:40:18) Jonnie: another game property (0:40:21) Jonnie: Thing where would you want that color to come from? (0:40:24) Kev: Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking about because yeah, that’s that’s the next question right um (0:40:29) Kev: I’m just honestly I’m trying to think here um (0:40:35) Kev: Well see okay, are we talking about putting something in a day the diver or getting Dave the diver into something else? (0:40:42) Jonnie: Let’s say putting something into Dave the Diver. (0:40:42) Kev: because (0:40:45) Kev: Okay (0:40:47) Kev: Because I was about to bring up new kids gonna be tough to compete with that (0:40:52) Kev: Okay bringing something (0:40:54) Kev: Else into you know what you know what I I would be remiss if I didn’t bring up a big the cat DLC (0:41:08) Jonnie: Big the cat, oh, I love it. (0:41:10) Jonnie: That’s a real throwback for… (0:41:12) Kev: and you know they they kind of got that same body shape going on give them a little (0:41:17) Kev: you know when you complete the dlc a little big the cat so you can wear i’m down for this (0:41:22) Kev: i’m down for this help them uh help them fish for froggy way way down there and you yeah and (0:41:27) Kev: eggman has a machine down there yeah I mean there already were robots machines you have to fight in (0:41:32) Kev: read the diver yeah i’m down for this um yeah what about you you have any ideas (0:41:34) Jonnie: amazing amazing that sounds great um maybe slightly uh more grim but I would really love (0:41:44) Jonnie: to see kind of like a uh dave the diver final dlc that’s a collab with spirit thera (0:41:50) Kev: Darn it darn it. That’s perfect. I didn’t think about it. That’s perfect (0:41:57) Jonnie: like just the whole vibe of the game I feel like a closing moment that is somehow linked (0:42:01) Jonnie: into sphera would be yeah kind of kind of (0:42:04) Jonnie: amazing it feels like there’s a (0:42:05) Kev: Okay, hold on, but here’s the monkey paw you have (0:42:09) Kev: You know a big part of spirit fair is is taking care of the guests, right? (0:42:13) Kev: So now you have to do that with the bancho where it’s sushi restaurant (0:42:16) Jonnie: Look, I’m okay, if it was more like Spiritfare, I could suffer through that. (0:42:26) Jonnie: I would probably play through Dave the Diver just to experience a little bit more. (0:42:30) Kev: I can see it working. You have the spirit fair boat, you know, has the multiple levels so you’re doing the sushi portion (0:42:35) Jonnie: Yup (0:42:37) Kev: But you have to go up and down the levels (0:42:38) Jonnie: That’s a and or you could just have the restaurant be a new room on the Spiritfarer boat (0:42:43) Jonnie: Maybe Dave the diver needs to come to Spiritfarer mate. Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’m thinking about it the wrong way around (0:42:47) Kev: maybe does Dave die at the end of it yep there you go yeah you’re right that (0:42:49) Jonnie: Yes (0:42:51) Jonnie: That is that I feel like that is the natural that that is the natural ending (0:43:03) Kev: truly would be the final DLC there you go with perfect I love it ship it I’m (0:43:08) Kev: reaching out to mint rocket right now (0:43:10) Jonnie: - Amazing. (0:43:12) Jonnie: - Well, I think that was everything I had to cover. (0:43:18) Kev: Oh one thing not specifically to dredge something that I forgot to mention that I want to say since last episode (0:43:24) Kev: I don’t think I ever brought up that I am in fact a real certified scuba diver. So I (0:43:31) Kev: Very much appreciate this (0:43:34) Kev: obviously, I will not be diving to the (0:43:37) Kev: Abyss, you know (0:43:39) Kev: abyssal horror deaths sword and polar waters (0:43:41) Kev: But it is it is very cool to see that I love scuba diving. So it is very cool to see (0:43:48) Kev: game kind of capture that love up (0:43:51) Kev: Yeah, all right. Um, all right, I guess then (0:43:55) Kev: If that’s the case, I think that puts a nice little bow on day of the diver month (0:44:01) Kev: Like I know you weren’t (0:44:02) Jonnie: No, there’s still one more episode to go, Kim. One more episode to go. (0:44:05) Kev: Wait, there is oh, I thought we search the order. I’ve got all this out out cut it all out (0:44:07) Jonnie: Yeah, next- next- next week? (0:44:10) Kev: Never mind. Oh (0:44:11) Jonnie: Next- next week I believe there will be the story episode for the- (0:44:14) Kev: I thought that came out before I don’t know why thought never mind. Okay. Well (0:44:18) Kev: There you go. Well, okay (0:44:20) Kev: Well in that case, I think that covers the dredge DLC (0:44:24) Kev: It’s you know, like I still give it two thumbs up as DLC. Definitely. It’s great crossover (0:44:31) Kev: Like it’s hard to talk about because of it. It’s so much, you know, just kind of pointing out what’s great about David diver the base game (0:44:40) Kev: But it works really well, so, you know two thumbs up (0:44:44) Kev: Thanks for coming on to talk to me about it, John (0:44:48) Kev: Thank you, Al, for having us. Thank you listeners for listening and, Johnny, where should people go to find you and it’s probably not somewhere that personal, but I know there is one place. (0:45:02) Jonnie: If you want to chat about anything THS-related, the best way to do that is go to patreon.com/thspod (0:45:11) Jonnie: to support the show and get access to the Slack where we talk about all the sorts of games that (0:45:15) Jonnie: we’re playing. Kiv referenced Big the Cat a while back. There are some bonus episodes, one of which (0:45:24) Jonnie: is Kiv introducing me to various Sonic characters that I had not come across before. It came from (0:45:30) Jonnie: I think the cat coming up in just a- (0:45:32) Jonnie: I do that every single episode that Kev and I do together. (0:45:34) Kev: I put the effort we got to do around two at some point (0:45:35) Jonnie: Which, that was a lot of fun to record, and yeah, we absolutely do, we absolutely do. (0:45:42) Jonnie: But that’s the main place that you can find me, Kev, where can people find you? (0:45:45) Kev: Find to me at Koopa prez on my personal Twitter if you want to see me talk mostly repost other things (0:45:53) Kev: Find to me that’s right. It’s great. I don’t see my art or more importantly find me on Rainbow Road radio a (0:46:02) Kev: Mutual a show I do with our mutual friend Alex (0:46:05) Kev: discussing all thing Mario all things Mario, excuse me, um, I don’t know what episode will be out when this drops, but (0:46:12) Kev: most recently we talked about the (0:46:16) Kev: Mario cartoons or some of them (0:46:20) Kev: Boy boy, that was quite a trip (0:46:23) Kev: Due to my everyone, but yeah (0:46:26) Kev: If you want to see if you have any questions comments or mostly complaints about the show reach to al at the Scott pot (0:46:33) Kev: I’m or mess on Scott on Twitter and mess on respectively (0:46:39) Kev: Find the podcast at THS pod on Tumblr and Twitter (0:46:43) Kev: Go to harvest season club (0:46:45) Kev: for all the episodes, provide feedback, links to all the stuff we’re talking about (0:46:49) Kev: uhm, the patreon as Johnny mentioned, patreon.com/thspod (0:46:54) Kev: and uh, yeah, I think that covers it. (0:46:57) Kev: Until next time, dear diver farmer people, have a good harvest! (0:47:03) Theme Tune: The harvest season is created by Al McKinlay, with support from our patrons, including our (0:47:14) Theme Tune: pro farmers, Kevin, Stuart and Alisa. (0:47:18) Theme Tune: Our art is done by Micah the Brave, and our music is done by Nick Burgess. (0:47:22) Theme Tune: Feel free to visit our website, harvestseason.club, for show notes and links to things we discussed (0:47:28) Theme Tune: in this episode. (0:47:38) Kev: Uh, you know what? I forgot to mention that you didn’t reach it, but there’s a mermaid village and there’s a manatee helping far. Like, you don’t do anything with it, but it’s, it’s their farming. I wish I love manatees. Okay. That’s all.

In this episode, Pedro Domingos - AI - 2040 - Lauren Hawker Zafer is joined by Pedro Domingos. This unique conversation explores AI's impact on politics, particularly in voter targeting and campaign strategies, and the concept of AI as a tool for enhancing collective intelligence. Domingos, with over 200 technical publications and numerous accolades, shares insights on the future of AI, its challenges, and opportunities. Who is Pedro Domingos? Pedro Domingos is a renowned AI researcher, tech industry insider, and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He is the author of the best-selling book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World (Basic Books, 2015), which has been translated into over twelve languages and sold over 300,000 copies. He won the SIGKDD Innovation Award and the IJCAI John McCarthy Award, two of the highest honors in data science and AI. Domingos is Fellow of the AAAS and AAAI and received an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, an IBM Faculty Award, several best paper awards, and other distinctions. Pedro received an undergraduate degree (1988) and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1992) from IST in Lisbon and an M.S. (1994) and Ph.D. (1997) in Information and Computer Science from the University of California at Irvine. Pedro is the author/co-author of over 200 technical publications in machine learning, data science, and other areas. He's a member of the editorial board of the Machine Learning journal, co-founder of the International Machine Learning Society, and past associate editor of JAIR. He was the program co-chair of KDD-2003 and SRL-2009, and I've served on the program committees of AAAI, ICML, IJCAI, KDD, NIPS, SIGMOD, UAI, WWW, and others. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Spectator, Scientific American, Wired, and elsewhere. Lastly, Domingos helped start the fields of statistical relational AI, data stream mining, adversarial learning, machine learning for information integration, and influence maximization in social networks. He lives in Seattle. #ai #techpodcast #redefiningai #squirro

Naomi Paik is the author of Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the 21st Century (2020, University of California Press) and Rightlessness: Testimony and Redress in U.S. Prison Camps since World War II (2016, UNC Press; winner, Best Book in History, AAAS 2018; runner-up, John Hope Franklin prize for best book in American Studies, ASA, 2017), as well as articles, opinion pieces, and interviews in a range of academic and public-facing venues. Her next book-length project, "Sanctuary for All," calls for the most capacious conception of sanctuary that brings together migrant and environmental justice. A member of the Radical History Review editorial collective, she has co-edited four special issues of the journal—“Militarism and Capitalism (Winter 2019), “Radical Histories of Sanctuary” (Fall 2019), “Policing, Justice, and the Radical Imagination” (Spring 2020), and “Alternatives to the Anthropocene” with Ashley Dawson (Winter 2023). She coedits the “Borderlands” section of Public Books alongside Cat Ramirez, as well as “The Politics of Sanctuary” blog of the Smithsonian Institution with Sam Vong. She is an associate professor of Criminology, Law, and Justice and Global Asian Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, and a member of the Migration Scholars Collaborative and Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine, UIC. Her research and teaching interests include comparative ethnic studies; U.S. imperialism; U.S. militarism; social and cultural approaches to legal studies; transnational and women of color feminisms; carceral spaces; and labor, race, and migration.Arianna Salgado is a queer immigrant who was born in Morelos, Mexico and arrived in the United States at the age of 6. She began organizing in high school with the West Suburban Action Project, Nuestra Voz, and the Immigrant Youth Justice League; undocumented-led organizations that sought to create safe spaces for undocumented people and resources for higher education. Arianna is a founding member of Organized Communities Against Deportations, a grassroots organization that fights against the criminalization, detention, and deportation of undocumented people. She currently lives in Chicago in the South Lawndale neighborhood with her two pups and is the executive director at Prison/ Neighborhood Arts and Education Project. 

Season Three - Spotlight Thirteen Our thirteenth spotlight of this season is a snippet of our upcoming episode: Pedro Domingos - AI - 2040 Join host Lauren Hawker Zafer as she engages with Pedro Domingos. This unique conversation explores AI's impact on politics, particularly in voter targeting and campaign strategies, and the concept of AI as a tool for enhancing collective intelligence. Domingos, with over 200 technical publications and numerous accolades, shares insights on the future of AI, its challenges, and opportunities. Who is Pedro Domingos? Pedro Domingos is a renowned AI researcher, tech industry insider, and Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington. He is the author of the best-selling book The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World (Basic Books, 2015), which has been translated into over twelve languages and sold over 300,000 copies. He won the SIGKDD Innovation Award and theIJCAI John McCarthy Award, two of the highesthonors in data science and AI. Domingos is Fellow of the AAAS and AAAI and received an NSF CAREER Award, a Sloan Fellowship, a Fulbright Scholarship, an IBM Faculty Award, several best paper awards, and other distinctions. Pedro received an undergraduate degree (1988) and M.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (1992) from IST in Lisbon and an M.S. (1994) and Ph.D. (1997) in Information and Computer Science from the University of California at Irvine. Pedro is the author/co-author of over 200 technical publications in machine learning, data science, and other areas. He's a member of the editorial board of the Machine Learning journal, co-founder of the International Machine Learning Society, and past associate editor of JAIR. He was the program co-chair of KDD-2003 and SRL-2009, and I've served on the program committees of AAAI, ICML, IJCAI, KDD, NIPS, SIGMOD, UAI, WWW, and others. His work has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Spectator, Scientific American, Wired, and elsewhere. Lastly, Domingos helped start the fields of statistical relational AI, data stream mining, adversarial learning, machine learning for information integration, and influence maximization in social networks. He lives in Seattle. #ai #techpodcast #redefiningai #squirro

Since 1973, the American Association for the Advancement of Science's (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellowship (STPF) has brought thousands of scientists and engineers into the policy world. The fellowship is a very popular pathway into science policy, and AAAS fellows have featured in several episodes of our Science Policy IRL series.  In this episode, we talk with the STPF fellowship director, Rashada Alexander. After completing a chemistry PhD and postdoc, she applied for an STPF fellowship that placed her inside the National Institutes of Health, where she worked for 10 years.  Alexander talks to us about how her fellowship experience helped her look up from the lab bench and find meaning in her life. In particular, she found ways to build relationships, learn how to read a room, and navigate organizational structures—skills that are not always valued in scientific labs. She explains why scientists and engineers should apply for this transformational experience.  Resources:  Learn more about the AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellowship.  Applications are now open for the 2025–2026 STPF cohort. Apply by November 1.  Want to hear more about how fellowships can help launch scientists into a career in policy? Listen to our episodes with Quinn Spadola (another AAAS fellow) and Zach Pirtle (a Presidential Management Fellow).  Are you doing science policy? Take our survey!

This special storytelling episode is filled with AAAS STPF fellows sharing personal, funny, enlightening, and science-based stories.  The STEAM Team Affinity Group and Sci on the Fly recently co-sponsored a workshop for current AAAS STPF fellows and alumni titled, “Storytelling: A Way to Rebuild Science in the Public Mind”. This event was designed to promote the use of storytelling as a means for public engagement in science. We hosted an interactive workshop geared toward helping fellows find their storytelling voice, beginning with a 90-minute interactive workshop led by the non-profit Story Collider, followed by breakout rooms where fellows worked with each other in crafting their unique short stories. At the end of the day, participants had the opportunity to share their story on stage to a live audience. In this episode, we present six stories from our workshop participants. You'll hear about women's work in ancient Athens, belief in the human capacity for growth, important life lessons from an Indian children's tale, learn that being volatile can be a good thing, understand how essential culturally relevant science communication can be, and maybe even finally learn the difference between left and right.  This podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute endorsement by the association.

In this podcast, we explore the rapidly evolving landscape of AI policy and ethics with Dr. Ravit Dotan. With AAAS STPF fellow Jose Hurtado, the two begin by discussing how AI policy has become a major topic in recent headlines, sharing insights on the importance of integrating ethics into AI development and policymaking. They delve into the challenges federal agencies and organizations face in defining AI and how existing laws can be adapted to cover AI advancements, and further address concerns about the dominance of organizations with extensive computing. Towards the end of the conversation, Dr. Dotan chats about the future of computer science and software engineering jobs, in light of AI advancements, emphasizing that addressing job displacement is a crucial part of AI ethics. Overall, this podcast underscores the pressing need for strategic and ethical approaches to AI policy and development, highlighting the critical role of clear definitions, inclusive practices, and proactive regulation. This podcast does not necessarily reflect the views of AAAS, its Council, Board of Directors, officers, or members. AAAS is not responsible for the accuracy of this material. AAAS has made this material available as a public service, but this does not constitute endorsement by the association.

On this installment of Science Policy IRL, Lisa Margonelli goes behind the scenes of Congressional policymaking with Brent Blevins. Blevins is a senior congressional staffer and staff director of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee, which is part of the US House of Representatives' Committee on Space, Science, and Technology.  Blevins talks about his unusual path into science policy (he didn't study science, and he wasn't a AAAS fellow!) and what staffers in the House and Senate do in the science policy world. He also talks about the incredible experience of getting to set policy for things like sending humans to Mars while also having a staff job that can end with any two-year election cycle. Resources: Want to learn more about what it's like to work as a congressional staffer? Check out our Science Policy IRL episode with Amanda Arnold.  Learn more about the House Science Committee by visiting the House Republicans Science Committee website and the House Democrats Science Committee website. The Senate version of this committee is called the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce and Transportation.  Have thoughts you want to share with Blevins? He tells us his email in the episode, and he really wants to hear from you! Listen to the end of the episode to get his email.

Community leaders regularly make decisions that impact the lives of community members. From where green space will be located to what businesses to approve to what public health interventions to put in place. There's a growing recognition that such decisions should be informed by data that come from the community itself. Community analytics are the focus of this episode of Stats and Stories with guest Kathy Ensor. Kathy Ensor is a leading national voice in statistics and data science and a recognized expert in the methodological development and application of statistics to advance wisdom, knowledge, and innovation. She is the Noah G. Harding Professor of Statistics at Rice University and director of the Center for Computational Finance and Economic Systems. She served as chair of the Department of Statistics from 1999 through 2013 and is the creator of the Kinder Institute's Urban Data Platform. Ensor's research specializes in understanding dependent data and developing computational statistical methods to solve practical problems. Ensor served as the 117th president of the American Statistical Association (ASA), heading the ASA board of directors, and has represented the statistics profession on numerous national boards. She is a fellow of the ASA and AAAS and was inducted into the Texas A&M College of Science Academy of Distinguished Former Students in 2021. Ensor holds a BSE and MS in mathematics from Arkansas State University and a PhD in statistics from Texas A&M University.

We are excited to bring you this special podcast. It's the live recording from the very first AgEmerge Event that was held in Monterey California in 2019. It all began when Monte read a paper Dr. White had written about the rhizophagy cycle and he knew he needed to get this powerful research and information in the hands of farmers and ranchers. Dr. White had everyone on the edge of their seats as he shared this groundbreaking research. We've included Dr. White's main stage presentation along with his breakout session but first we bring you a special clip of Monte and Gabe Brown discussing that day because Gabe was both a presenter and listener when Dr. White was on the stage. Enjoy! Dr. James F. White is Professor of Plant Biology at Rutgers University where he and students conduct research on beneficial microbes that inhabit plant tissues. Dr. White obtained the M.S. in Mycology and Plant Pathology from Auburn University, Alabama, and the Ph.D. in Botany/Mycology from the University of Texas, Austin. Dr. White specializes in the study of endophytic microbes and how they affect plants. Dr. White is the author of more than 200 articles, and author and editor of reference books on the biology of endophytes, including Biotechnology of Acremonium Endophytes of Grasses (1994), Microbial Endophytes (2000), The Clavicipitalean Fungi (2004), The Fungal Community: Its Organization and Role in the Ecosystem (2005, 2017), Defensive Mutualism in Microbial Symbiosis (2009), and Seed Endophytes: Biology and Biotechnology (2019). Dr. White is a fellow of the AAAS, and Associate Editor for journals Fungal Ecology, Symbiosis, Mycoscience, and Scientific Reports. Got questions you want answered? Send them our way and we'll do our best to research and find answers. Know someone you think would be great on the AgEmerge stage or podcast? Send your questions or suggestions to kim@asn.farm we'd love to hear from you.

Harnessing the Sun: Dr. Severin Borenstein Unveils the Power and Politics of Rooftop Solar The Not Old Better Show, Inside Science Interview Series   Welcome to a very special episode of the Not Old Better Show Inside Science Interview Series on radio and podcast.  Today's episode is sponsord by Seed and Qualia Senolytic. I'm Paul Vogelzang and we're going to delve into a topic that touches our lives each day, yet remains shrouded in both mystery and opportunity: the power of the sun harnessed through rooftop solar panels.   Joining us is Dr. Severin Borenstein, a preeminent voice on the economics of renewable energy and a visionary in the field of electricity pricing and policy. Dr. Borenstein, a distinguished professor at the University of California, Berkeley, brings not only his expertise but also a passion for a sustainable future that benefits us all.   In this episode, we'll explore the significant implications of solar energy incentives offered through initiatives like the federal Inflation Reduction Act, and what these mean for you, our listeners. Dr. Borenstein will break down the complexities of "net metering" and why it has become a contentious issue in the fight for fair energy distribution. We'll also take a journey through the evolving landscape of California's solar incentive policies, gleaning insights that could guide other states in fostering their own sustainable futures.   But this isn't just about policies and abstract economics—it's about the real-world impact on individuals and communities. It's about understanding how adopting solar power can not only reduce our carbon footprint but also reshape our economic landscape, making energy more affordable and accessible for everyone. Through Dr. Borenstein's expertise, we will unveil how these changes affect our wallets, our environment, and our future.   Prepare to be enlightened, inspired, and equipped with the knowledge to make informed decisions about the energy that powers your home and life. We'll be talking climage change again soon with Meryl Davids Landau, as part of our Prevention Magazine Interview Series, so stay tuned. But today's episode promises to be not only an enlightening conversation but a call to action for us all to contribute to a more equitable and sustainable world.   My thanks to Dr. Severin Borenstein for joining us today.  My thanks to our sponsors  Seed and Qualia Senolytic.  Additional thanks to AAAS and SciLine for their help in arranging details of this episode.  My thanks always to Executive Producer Sam Heninger for all his work on the show and my thanks to you our wonderful audience here on radio and podcast.  Be well, be safe and Let's Talk About Better™ The Not Old Better on radio and podcast.  Thanks, everybody, and we'll see you next week.

This episode discusses three recent stories from NREL:   In 2017, Puerto Rico faced a devastating double blow as consecutive hurricanes decimated 80% of its electrical grid, resulting in the longest blackout in U.S. history. Determined to rebuild resiliently, Puerto Rico passed Act 17 in 2019, aiming for a 100% renewable energy system by 2050, which sparked the groundbreaking PR100 study—a collaborative effort between the Department of Energy and six national laboratories—to chart the territory's energy future through extensive community engagement and innovative scenarios.With the U.S. wind energy sector projected to grow substantially, a new NREL report highlights a potential shortage of over 124,000 workers by 2030, emphasizing the need for collaborative efforts to raise awareness, increase training opportunities, create connections, and emphasize inclusivity in the wind energy workforce. We delve into the report's findings and discuss actionable steps to bridge the wind workforce gap, essential for realizing America's clean energy future.Nancy Haegel, Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics at NREL, has been elected as a fellow of the AAAS, recognized for her distinguished contributions to materials science, particularly in semiconductor transport, infrared detectors, and renewable energy. She is the 12th person from NREL to receive this prestigious honor.Plus: NREL librarian Jason Youngstrom joins to discuss the essential role of NREL librarians, who play a crucial part in advancing renewable energy research by ensuring NREL researchers have access to the latest information and publications needed to drive innovation and maintain NREL's position as a leader in the field. This episode was hosted by Kerrin Jeromin and Taylor Mankle, written and produced by Allison Montroy and Kaitlyn Stottler, and edited by Joe DelNero and Brittany Falch. Graphics are by Brittnee Gayet. Our title music is written and performed by Ted Vaca and episode music by Chuck Kurnik, Jim Riley, and Mark Sanseverino of Drift BC. Transforming Energy: The NREL Podcast is created by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado. We express our gratitude and acknowledge that the land we are on is the traditional and ancestral homelands of the Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute peoples. Email us at podcast@nrel.gov. Follow NREL on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Facebook.

Navigating Through Discomfort to Achieve Your Dreams Discomfort can be experienced in many ways. I'm writing this blog to elaborate on a very insightful point Dedra and Garron made during our show earlier this week. It was full of value bombs, but to keep this blog from turning into a novel, I wanted to focus on one key point they discussed: Pushing past their discomforts to do what makes them happy. In this blog I'll share what resonated with me about this concept as well as share some things you can do to make those uncomfortable moments a little more comfortable. Define The Life You Want Before you take any sort of drastic leap in life, it is important to have some sort of grasp on what you want your future to look like. I'm not saying you need to know who you are going to marry, how many kids you'll have, or even where you want to live. What I have found helpful is to break it down into one, five, and ten year goals. For us, way back when it looked like this: One Year Goal: Buy a second investment property. Five Year Goal: Take a two-month long road trip. Ten Year Goal: Financial independence. We are still in pursuit of our ten-year goal and if you have paid attention to our blog so far you will have learned that we've picked up a few rental properties along the way. Let's focus on our five-year goal and some of the discomforts and obstacles we had to face to accomplish it. The Obstacle In most cases, the biggest obstacle that is interfering with someone reaching their goals is their job. Ironically, what do you need to be able to fund your goals? A job, or some other source of income. Most employers won't allow their workers to take two months off. Since you can't do both, at some point you'll have to pick. For many reasons, this will bring upon all sorts of discomfort, some coming from places you might not expect. Common Discomfort There will be thousands of questions buzzing around your head, coming from you and people you know before quitting your job. ·        How will I make money? ·        What if I fail? ·        What if the economy collapses? ·        What if I get burnt out? ·        What about my work benefits? ·        Am I making the right decision? I'll add some actions you can take at the end to reduce some of this discomfort, but I wanted to highlight one surprising area of discomfort I felt as I was exiting my job. Surprise Discomfort Actually doing it. There is a very subtle but impactful difference between these last two sections. You see, the common discomforts are obvious, and on paper you could answer them all and it would appear that you have it all figured out. I really didn't like what I was doing. I felt useless, overpaid, on a jobsite that was overstaffed, and it made me miserable feeling like I had no contribution to society (if you haven't already gotten the hint, yes, I worked for the government.) To anyone, it would seem like exiting this job would be easy. I felt like I had answered all the questions I just talked about and was fully prepared to be on my own. I had a burning desire on both ends: I deeply despised my job and had big dreams and a clear desire for what I wanted out of life. Why was I having so much doubt and discomfort about pulling the trigger? Listening to Garren and Dedra made me really think about this, and the best I can come up with is that it is human nature. Human Nature I heard somewhere that humans don't like change. We are creatures of habit, and we find comfort in routine. We resist change, and if our plans get screwed up it can bring on anxiety and discomfort. Just think about the slight discomfort you felt the last time your remote batteries died so you had to get off the couch to fetch two new AAAs. No multiply that by whatever factor would bring you to uprooting your entire life, routine, and removing your leading income source. It sounds obvious, but I may not have realized it at the time. If you are in a similar position, just know that it is normal to still have those doubts and discomforts even when those decisions should come so easy. Ways to Reduce the Discomfort Have Another Income Source In my case, we had rent checks from two other properties coming in. I also signed up with Uber and Lyft so that when times got slow (and they did) I had a straightforward way to make a small amount of money to make ends meet. And of course, having a spouse who was also working didn't hurt. Don't Burn Your Bridges Although it would nearly kill me to go back, I left my job with a good standing. I was clear with them on the issues I had working there, but there was peace of mind knowing that if I failed miserably, I could always go back. Find Something You Are Already Familiar With This may help answer the question about getting burnt out. Why did I choose to become a real estate agent? I was already familiar with it. I had been through two transactions through which I developed relationships with people in the business. I enjoyed it, and the scalable income factor was very appealing to me. Start Making Money First I made a deal with myself that I would not quit my job until I closed on my first deal as an agent. If you can find time while you are still working at your job to make some money with your next venture, that will add another spring to your launching pad. Thanks for reading, hopefully this article will bring you some ‘comfort' as you are making the adjustment towards the life you want. Go crush it! Below are links and topics mentioned during the podcast. Forest Gump Running Scene with Beaufort Bridge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=187trX0mo1o Tip of the Day Keep checking those campsites! Using state and national campground websites can be tough to navigate but if you are patient with it and constantly checking, you just might find something. Hope has been checking every single day and the other day we were able to snag a waterfront spot at Bahia Honda in the Florida Keys! Campgrounds Mentioned Bahia Honda: https://www.floridastateparks.org/BahiaHonda John Pennekamp: https://www.pennekamppark.com/ Podcast Mentioned Florida Keys with Laura and Jason: https://atravelpath.com/florid-keys/ Dedra and Garron's Show: https://atravelpath.com/the-route-to-happiness/ Ways You Can Support the Show Leave a Review on Apple or Spotify Etsy Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thepathbeyond/?etsrc=sdt Square Butte Arizona Delicioats: https://delicioats.com/discount/PATH  Use Code “PATH” Music Music from #Uppbeat https://uppbeat.io/t/sky-toes/ready-as-ever Disclaimer *All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to A Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts, and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

Read the full transcript here. What exactly is quantum computing? How much should we worry about the possibility that quantum computing will break existing cryptography tools? When will a quantum computer with enough horsepower to crack RSA likely appear? On what kinds of tasks will quantum computers likely perform better than classical computers? How legitimate are companies that are currently selling quantum computing solutions? How can scientists help to fight misinformation and misunderstandings about quantum computing? To what extent should the state of the art be exaggerated with the aim of getting people excited about the possibilities the technology might afford and encouraging them to invest in research or begin a career in the field? Is now a good time to go into the field (especially compared to other similar options, like going into the booming AI field)?Scott Aaronson is Schlumberger Chair of Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin and founding director of its Quantum Information Center, currently on leave at OpenAI to work on theoretical foundations of AI safety. He received his bachelor's from Cornell University and his PhD from UC Berkeley. Before coming to UT Austin, he spent nine years as a professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT. Aaronson's research in theoretical computer science has focused mainly on the capabilities and limits of quantum computers. His first book, Quantum Computing Since Democritus, was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press. He received the National Science Foundation's Alan T. Waterman Award, the United States PECASE Award, the Tomassoni-Chisesi Prize in Physics, and the ACM Prize in Computing; and he is a Fellow of the ACM and the AAAS. Find out more about him at scottaaronson.blog. StaffSpencer Greenberg — Host / DirectorJosh Castle — ProducerRyan Kessler — Audio EngineerUri Bram — FactotumWeAmplify — TranscriptionistsAlexandria D. — Research and Special Projects AssistantMusicBroke for FreeJosh WoodwardLee RosevereQuiet Music for Tiny Robotswowamusiczapsplat.comAffiliatesClearer ThinkingGuidedTrackMind EasePositlyUpLift[Read more]

Dr. Syatta Wallace is an advocate for women in STEM and Founder of Janisaw Company.  With over 15 years in developing gender-based programs, Dr. Wallace specializes in addressing the unique challenges women face in STEM careers. She shares her extensive experience in developing leadership and career development programs tailored for women in STEM. Her mission involves aiding companies in enhancing female leadership. As an award-winning scientist and professor, she draws from her own experiences as a woman of color in academia to empower the next generation. Dr. Wallace's initiatives include the wise-leadership series and the women of color STEM leadership lab, aiming to prepare diverse women for leadership roles. Recognized nationally, her work has been featured in Time, ABC News, CNN, and Essence. In this episode, she shares insights on advocating for women's success in STEM fields.What do we talk about in this episode?1.  Unique challenges women face in STEM fields, highlighting issues such as isolation, stereotype threat, and the high attrition rate among women.2. The importance of career readiness, leadership skills, and the need for proactive efforts from institutions and companies to support and advance women in STEM. 3. Systemic challenges in academia and the workforce, the importance of self-care, personal development, and creating supportive communities.4. Citing the active voices of the next generation and ongoing initiatives aimed at systemic change within STEM fields5. Finding Joy and Strength in Supporting OthersMusic used in the podcast: Higher Up, Silverman Sound StudioYou can support my podcast on Patreon here: https://patreon.com/user?u=72701887ResourcesYou can read Scyatta's book, Success in STEM Journal here! https://www.amazon.com/Success-STEM-Journal.../dp/B0CL4KK17KSTEMM Opportunity Alliance https://stemmopportunity.org/Reboot Representation: https://www.rebootrepresentation.org/You can read Scyatta's book, Success in STEM Journal here! https://www.amazon.com/Success-STEM-Journal.../dp/B0CL4KK17KSTEM Next Opportunity Fund is advancing the initial work of the Noyce Foundation, which invested $75 million over 25 years to launch out-of-school STEM learning and disrupt conventional thinking about how to get dramatic and sustainable results. (https://stemnext.org).American Advancement for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) The world's largest multidisciplinary scientific society and a leading publisher of cutting-edge research through its Science family of journals, AAAS has individual members in more than 91 countries around the globe. (https://www.aaas.org).Texas public universities and colleges are prohibited from having diversity, equity and inclusion offices and any units that perform DEI functions, with carve-outs only for registered student groups, data collection, academic instruction and research, guest speakers and student recruitment. (https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/state/2024/01/29/dei-ban-texas-sb17-law-meaning-guide-what-ut-public-universities-lost/72283717007/#:~:text=Texas%20public%20universities%20and%20colleges,guest%2

Tanya is back to talk PAX, Tum & Bum gaming/anti-congestion chairs, and the pros and cons of saying the lord's name. Guests Merritt K talks about LAN Party, her amazing new book, and Mouse Works Studio talk making music and her emotions-based RPG The Innerplains. 0:00:00 - Bad Bitches Won't Say The Lord's Name0:03:40 - Packing Nintendo Force0:05:30 - I Think Therefore I LAN w/ Merritt K0:32:30 - Hambergers & Lobster Rolls at PAX 20240:35:41 - Making Music and Videogames with Mouse Works Studios1:02:44 - An Unexpected Tangent1:04:35 - Is PAX For the Indies or the AAAs?1:09:07 - "Tum and Bum" Product Review1:14:31 - Wrap Up/Plugs/Thanks Patrons!1:19:50 - Tum and Bum Get Merritt's book here: https://www.thamesandhudsonusa.com/books/lan-party-inside-the-multiplayer-revolution-hardcover Check out her writing here: https://www.otherstrangeness.com/ Enjoy Mouse Works Studios games and music here: https://mouseworksstudios.itch.io/ Get your Tum & Bum here: https://tumandbum.com/ Support this podcast here: https://www.patreon.com/ttwav

On the latest Regional Roundup: the American Association for the Advancement of Science hosted its annual meeting in Denver this month. We speak with a rep about the work of AAAS, diversifying science and more. Plus: Black history in Colorado, and a Diné musician captures the sounds of the southwest.

On this week's show: Factors that pushed snakes to evolve so many different habitats and lifestyles, and news from the AAAS annual meeting   First up on the show this week, news from this year's annual meeting of AAAS (publisher of Science) in Denver. News intern Sean Cummings talks with Danielle Wood, director of the Space Enabled Research Group at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about the sustainable use of orbital space or how space exploration and research can benefit everyone.   And Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox joins host Sarah Crespi with an extravaganza of meeting stories including a chat with some of the authors of this year's Newcomb Cleveland Prize–winning Science paper on how horses spread across North America.   Voices in this segment:   William Taylor, assistant professor and curator of archaeology at the University of Colorado Boulder's Museum of Natural History   Ludovic Orlando, director of the Centre for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse   University of Oklahoma archaeologists Sarah Trabert and Brandi Bethke   Yvette Running Horse Collin, post-doctoral researcher Paul Sabatier University (Toulouse III)     Next on the show: What makes snakes so special? Freelance producer Ariana Remmel talks with Daniel Rabosky, professor in ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Michigan, about the drivers for all the different ways snakes have specialized—from spitting venom to sensing heat.   This week's episode was produced with help from Podigy.   About the Science Podcast   Authors: Sarah Crespi; Ariana Remmel; Christie Wilcox; Sean Cummings   Episode page: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.zabhbwe

Steve is an experienced executive, venture investor, entrepreneur, educator, scientist, and author. He is co-founder and CEO of Thynk, a digital health company advancing innovative brain training video games for children and adults.  Previously, Steve held various roles in academia and industry. He began his career as a professor at Harvard Medical School where he co-authored more than 130 scientific papers and was elected a member of AAAS and AHA. Subsequently, he co-founded and held senior positions in several private and public life science companies. In addition, he co-founded and was Managing Director at Excel Venture Management, which invested in over 40 innovative startups.  Steve loves innovation and has spoken widely, including at TED, TEDMED, and TEDx and, with Juan Enriquez, he co-authored ·Evolving Ourselves·. Throughout his career, he has focused on transformative technologies across many sectors of the economy and relishes opportunities to advance innovations that can help millions. He and his wife live in Boston and have 5 grandchildren who love doing STEM projects and playing Skylar·s Run.

In today's episode of Backpacker Radio presented by The Trek, we are joined by Brady Geilenfeldt. Brady, known on trail as Undies, thru-hiked the Colorado Trail this year. What makes Undies story especially interesting is that he is deaf. We learn all about Brady's inspiring story, the incredible technology that is cochlear implants, what challenges a deaf hiker has to overcome, Brady's highlights from the CT, some of the non-obvious benefits of being a deaf hiker, Brady's future trail ambitions, and much more. Brady is an inspiring young man and we think you'll really enjoy this chat. We wrap the show with things we're convinced people pretend to enjoy, a triple crown of things that are the new black, some new poop news, and we finally have the details for our Denver holiday hiker meetup, and you are invited. Vargo Outdoors: Use code “BACKPACKERRADIO” for 20% off at vargooutdoors.com. RTIC Outdoors: Shop at rticoutdoors.com. Darn Tough: Use code “DTLOVE-BACKPACKERRADIO” for 10% off plus free shipping at darntough.com. Katabatic Gear: Use code “BPR15” for 15% off at katabaticgear.com. [divider] Interview with Brady Geilenfeldt Brady's Instagram Time stamps & Questions 00:04:52 - Reminders: Join us at Improper City for the Hiker Meetup on December 1st! Apply to be a blogger or the Trek's editorial intern. Check out our merch and support us on Patreon! 00:08:32 - Introducing Brady 00:12:40 - Tell us about your experience with deafness 00:15:10 - How did your mom get CMV? 00:16:50 - Were your parents on high alert knowing your mom had CMV? 00:17:55 - Would you trade being deaf for anything? 00:18:57 - How well does a cochlear implant approximate human hearing? 00:21:04 - How do the implants work? 00:24:10 - Did you ever learn American Sign Language? 00:26:00 - Are your other senses enhanced to make up for the loss of hearing? 00:27:10 - Does it help you sleep at night while backpacking? 00:28:14 - Are the implants comfortable to wear? 00:29:40 - Can you customize the volume based on different environments? 00:31:20 - Is it a satisfying feeling to take them off? 00:32:28 - Do the implants make hiking more interesting? 00:35:32 - What's your hiking background and what made you decide to hike the CT? 00:37:18 - What was your longest backpacking trip prior to the Colorado Trail? 00:37:40 - What do you have to consider when planning for the CT? 00:40:28 - Is it disorienting to have only one implant in? 00:44:14 - Did you have any role models that inspired you beforehand? 00:46:20 - Do you have tips for making hiking more stimulating or being comfortable with yourself? 00:49:10 - Do you have to be concerned about the implants getting wet? 00:52:00 - Discussion about technological features or upgrades 00:53:40 - Do people ever use cochlear implants that aren't deaf? 00:55:05 - Does the implant need to be replaced? 00:57:17 - Did deafness or CMV cause you to be immunocompromised? 00:58:30 - Discussion about losing balance and other impacts of deafness 01:01:18 - How did you handle the weather on the Colorado Trail? 01:04:38 - Did you have to be more careful when navigating while hiking? 01:07:00 - Do you want to do future hikes with a trail family? 01:08:03 - Do you have any standout stories from the CT? 01:10:09 - What's the origin of your trail name? 01:14:54 - Would you do other things differently to prepare for a future hike? 01:17:50 - What ratio of rechargeable to disposable batteries did you use? 01:18:57 - How bad is it if you were to lose or break them? 01:21:22 - How did you handle health insurance? 01:23:55 - Have you had other people reach out since your hike? 01:25:00 - How does playing music interface with your deafness? 01:27:50 - Is there something to be done to make the outdoors more accessible for someone with implants? 01:30:41 - Are some insurance plans better than others? 01:32:33 - Is there an actionable step the listeners can take to improve the situation? 01:38:00 - Harvest General Store 01:40:15 - Brady's parting words Segments Trek Propaganda: Broken on the AT: Gear That Breaks At 2,000 miles (And The Gear That Doesn't) by Abby Evans QOTD: What are you convinced people are pretending to enjoy? Stupid Thing of the Week Triple Crown of things that are the new black Poop News Mail Bag 5 Star Review [divider] Check out our sound guy @paulyboyshallcross. Leave us a voicemail! Subscribe to this podcast on iTunes (and please leave us a review)!  Find us on Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Support us on Patreon to get bonus content. Advertise on Backpacker Radio Follow The Trek, Chaunce, Badger, and Trail Correspondents on Instagram. Follow Backpacker Radio, The Trek and Chaunce on YouTube. Follow Backpacker Radio on Tik Tok.  Our theme song is Walking Slow by Animal Years. A super big thank you to our Chuck Norris Award winner(s) from Patreon: Alex & Misty with Navigators Crafting, Andrew, Austen McDaniel, Austin Ford, Brad & Blair (Thirteen Adventures), Brent Stenberg, Bryan Alsop, Christopher Marshburn, Coach from Marion Outdoors, Dayne, Derek Koch, Eric Casper, Greg McDaniel may he bring honor to his name, Ironhike endurance productions, Liz Seger, Matt Soukup, Mike Poisel, Patrick Cianciolo, Sawyer Products, SPAM, Timothy Hahn, and Tracy “Trigger” Fawns. A big thank you to our Cinnamon Connection Champions from Patreon: 12 Trees Farms, Dcnerdlet, Emily Galusha, Jeanne Latshaw, Jeff LaFranier, Joann Menzer, Keith Dobie Jr, Peter, and Ruth S. [divider] Transcript: In today's episode of Backpacker Radio, presented by The Trek, we are joined by Brady Geilenfeld. Brady, known on trail as Undies, through-hiked the Colorado Trail this year. What makes Undies' story especially interesting is that he's deaf. We learn all about Brady's inspiring story, the incredible technology that his cochlear implants, what challenges a deaf hiker has to overcome, Brady's highlights from the CT, some of the non-obvious benefits of being a deaf hiker, including a great night of sleep, future trail ambitions, and much more. Brady is an inspiring young man, and we think you'll really enjoy this chat. We wrap the show with things we're convinced people pretend to enjoy, a triple crown of things that are the new black, some new hoop news, and we finally have the details for our Denver Holiday Hiker Meetup, and you are invited. But first, I am thrilled to introduce our next sponsor, which is a brand that has been a part of my pack and through hikes, dating back to 2017. Vargo creates lightweight titanium backpacking gear that is simple, innovative, and functional. The Vargo Bot 700 was with me every step of the way during my through hike of the PCT and every backpacking trip since. The Vargo Bot is extremely lightweight, weighing less than 5 ounces, and transfers heat quickly and evenly, making it the perfect pot for your cookware setup. But this just scratches the surface for why the Bot kicks so much eff… butt. Because the Bot features a screw top lid, it's the ideal option for the cold soakers of this world. Dump your dehydrated meal and the appropriate amount of water into the Bot, screw the lid closed, insert time, and voila, dinner is ready. Also, I can't count all the times I've benefited from having an additional 700ml of emergency water storage when encountering an unexpected dry spell. In other words, this piece is incredibly versatile and may very well be the last pot you ever buy. The Bot comes in a variety of sizes, including the brand new Bot XL, which is designed to perfectly fit a full-size canister inside with extra room for a stove. I'm also a user and fan of Vargo's utensils, titanium long-handle spoon for the win, and their titanium stakes. You simply can't beat titanium's combination of strength and being lightweight, and no one does it better than Vargo. Discount time, backpacker radio listeners, head to vargooutdoors.com and use coupon code backpackerradio at checkout to score a 20% discount. Again, the code is backpackerradio, all one word, at vargooutdoors.com. This is a limited time deal, so do not wait. Whether it's a car camping trip, a bout of trail magic, or the summer road trip, a quality cooler and drinkware is essential. That's why we're thrilled to introduce our next sponsor, Artic Outdoors. Artic Outdoors makes products engineered for two things, performance and durability. And unlike other coolers on the market, Artic's high-quality coolers and tumblers won't cost you an arm and a leg. Artic's 52-quart ultralight hard cooler made the trip from backpacker radio's headquarters in Golden, Colorado, to Trail A's in Damascus, Virginia, keeping our spin drifts, root beers, and blue ribbons perfectly chilled. As the name would imply, the ultralight cooler is 30% lighter compared to other premium hard-sided coolers, which means you can be the group's beverage hero without developing a hernia in the process. And compromising on weight doesn't mean you're compromising on insulation. With up to three inches of post-self-roam insulation, your ice will remain as ice for days. For more portable adventures, Artic Outdoors soft pack coolers are the ticket. These are lightweight, durable, and ready to travel with you, keeping your drinks cold for up to 24 hours while avoiding the mess thanks to two inches of closed-cell foam and puncture and tear-resistant lining. Lastly, Artic's drinkware keeps your blue ribbons cold or your morning coffee hot for the long haul, utilizing double-wall vacuum insulation. The BPR team rocked Artic tumblers throughout the muggy afternoons of southern Appalachia, enjoying refreshingly cold beverages along the way. Head to ArticOutdoors.com to get your premium coolers and insulated drinkware at a fraction of the price of the competition today. Welcome to Backpacker Radio, presented by The Trek. Today is November 13th, World Kindness Day. Aww, that's nice. I am your co-host Zach Badger-Davis, sitting to my right is... Hi, I'm Juliana Chauncey, aka Chauncey... Reminders, yes. We have the deets, finally, for our Hiker Holiday Meetup Extravaganza Palooza Supreme. A-thon. Yes. This will take place, whatever I said previously, disregard that because I think a lot of the details have changed. You guys don't care about the reasons why. But this is going down on December 1st at Improper City in Denver, in Denver, not Golden, from 530 to 8 p.m. This will be co-hosted by Backpacker Radio slash The Trek and the CDTC, which means it'll be a fundraiser for them. We're going to have some sweet raffles, or as they say, door prizes. I had to look that up. Apparently, that's the vernacular for raffle prizes nowadays. Good hangs, solid vibes, memes. What else? Carnival barking. Carnival barking, yes. Sounds like there will be some of that happening. Give at least four drinks a chance and she will stand on a chair and yell at you. I haven't stood on a chair and yelled at Improper City yet, which is something that I'm excited to do. Yeah, let's see if they welcome us back after December 1st at 530 p.m. A couple other things quickly. One is if you're through hiking in 2024 and you want your journey featured on The Trek, we are currently accepting blogger applications. I did a link in the show notes. Lastly, this is the time of the year where we will likely be adding a new editorial intern to the team. This is a highly coveted position. We get lots of people reaching out for this, so if you're listening to this and you've got some serious editorial chops and you like long distance backpacking, head to the link in the show notes. Oh, also we are still selling our awesome vintage backpacker radio tees. We've gotten some nice compliments on them. Yes, we have. They look like Saved by the Bell goes outdoors. Yeah, or if you're slightly older, Miami Vice, if you're my age, both are sufficient. Yeah, I also think if you saw the Barbie movie, this would be like that in the form of a shirt and blue. There is pink hints. There's flavors of pink in there, but it's it's I could see it being worn as like a Ken costume. Yeah, I saw a couple people recommend or ask for us to turn these into sun hoodies, which I got to figure out. Where do we find a manufacturer? That's a good question, but maybe someday. OK, well, if you manufacture sun hoodies and you're listening to this slide in our DMS. Yes. Last thing is if you want to support the show and you want some additional backpacker radio content, head on over to our Patreon page, patreon.com slash backpacker radio, where we release a new episode the first Wednesday of every month. This current month's episode was a gift guide. We went through big ticket and small ticket items that you can either gift or be gifted in the holiday season, things that we've loved having as hikers and regular humans and as well as things that we wouldn't want or like, you know, some things to avoid if you want to give that thoughtful gift to a hiker, but also don't want to give them something that they're going to smile and say thank you for and then actually never use. Yes. To the non-backpacking gift recommendations, I tried my hardest to not make it too dad-centric and I think I failed. This will be a great one for anyone who wants to gift something to a hiker or who really likes being in the kitchen. Yes. Leave it at that. Or is training to be the all-time dad. Yeah. OK, we'll leave it at that. No more beating around the bush. Let's get right to today's interview with Brady Gielenfeldt. We'll figure out how badly I butchered that pretty soon. We are joined by today's guest, Brady Gielenfeldt, which I nailed the first time, I'm pretty sure. I'm sure the tape will say otherwise, who hiked the Colorado Trail this year in part to inspire people who are deaf or hard of hearing, that they are not limited by their abilities. Brady, thank you so much for joining us here on Backpacker Radio. Hey, it's great to be here. Yeah. Can we swing the mic a little bit closer your way? There we go. About that far from your mouth. How does that sound? Good. That sounds awesome. The closer the better. You can't be too close. Yeah. I would move yourself closer rather than close. Yeah. Typically, we do all this stuff before we hit record, but we're winging it here today. He brought us food. We got distracted and we brought him food. Yeah. It was a food exchange. Let's start there. Let's give a plug to this is your folks place, the Harvest General Store in Iowa, right? Yes, in Iowa. Yeah, they just do trade shows and stuff right now and they have a Facebook page. But I mean, really, yeah, they just go around doing those trade shows. They love it. Yeah. So we're about to bust open. There was a wide variety of goodies in this box. Chonce went with her top option, currently stabbing it open with the edge of her glasses. What do we have here, Chonce? This seemed the most on-brand for us, and this is freeze-dried gummy worms. I personally have been getting a lot of algorithm on socials showing me people freeze-drying skittles, gummies, things like that. And so this is right up my current algorithm. Yeah. They look like Cheetos. It looks unique. And I was unaware of freeze-drying candy up until about 10 minutes ago. So very excited to learn about this wild world. I will say the best part about this is seeing people's reaction, eating this for the first time. ASMR. Flavors. It tastes like, texture aside, it tastes just like a gummy worm. Tastes like jello. This is very interesting. Push it against the top of your mouth. Like, I don't like chewing these things. I like pushing them against the top of my mouth and letting them melt. If you just push it with your tongue against the top of your mouth, it does taste a little bit like jello. This is requiring a lot of unlearning because I'm expecting candy, but. All right. Take the red and push it against the roof of your mouth. I still got this. It's red jello. This is fantastic. Let me try the blue side now. I think I'm liking it more with each bite. The first one was a little bit of an exploration for me. I will say out of all the options, the gummy worms are not my favorite. What's your go-to? My go-to is definitely the skittles. They do the wild berry skittles and those ones are really good. The smoothie ones are awesome. Maybe we'll bust those out halfway through. Yeah, we could do that. I don't hate this. I feel like this. Setting myself up here. I'll just follow through. It kind of reminds me of corn dogs. Corn dogs? This is important. When I take a bite of a corn dog, I don't know if I want to continue that journey, but then after it sits there for a moment, I'm like, I need another bite. After you've sat there and you're like, where's that taste? I want that taste back. I feel like I can get a lot of miles out of these. It's the perfect intersection between candy and chips. It has a hearty chip texture to it. Very crunchy, as you could hear through the mics, but still tastes exactly like the flavor is exactly what you'd expect from a gummy worm. It's very interesting. I've never even had anything approximate to what I just put in my mouth. That's what she said. I feel like these would be good in shots. Oh, sure. You want to get the party started? Me saying shots are out for the last segment. Cool. These are fun. Okay. Let's talk about some backpacking stuff. The intro is short because that is essentially what we know about your journey. I'm assuming the bulk of the conversation for today. Give us the background because we've been chatting here for the last 10, 15 minutes or so. The conversation has been very easy. I wouldn't expect that you were hard of hearing. Give us your level or introduce your level of deafness and maybe any tech that's involved. I guess just give us the full background. Yeah, I can give you the full rundown. I was born with CMV. That's a congenital men-something virus. It's a very long word. I always butcher it. I was born with that. That basically meant that I could have been deaf, could have been blind, could have been anything. It could have been missing a leg. It turns out that I was just deaf. My mom, they knew what to look for since they had tested for CMV when my mom was pregnant with me. She was a nurse and she got pregnant. Well, she didn't get pregnant by one of her patients. She got CMV from one of her patients. She just kept on doing what she was doing. They knew what to look for. I was born and I passed a newborn hearing screen. At the time, the newborn hearing screen was just you look at the baby and you scream at it and see if it reacts. Any baby's going to pass a newborn hearing screen. Is that because the volume is loud enough that even if they are hard of hearing, it's still reaching a decibel that they can perceive? Yeah, that they register it basically. That's what they were basing it off of at the time. I was born in 2000. It was not that long ago. I slept through my first fireworks and my parents were like, well, no newborn baby is going to sleep through fireworks. They brought me home and sat me down in the living room and banged a bunch of pots and pans in front of my face. I didn't do anything. Didn't react. They were like, yeah, we have a deaf baby. They brought me back. Were they that calm about it? No. Guaranteed not. I know my mom. They probably sprinted to the hospital. Sure. They did that and then I did a couple of hearing screens and I would pass them again, but then they finally did a sedated one where I was hooked up to a machine and then that showed that I was fully deaf. I got my first cochlear implant when I was 13 months old and my second one when I was five years old. Before you go too far, because I'm going to have questions, cover my questions. I just know it. How did your mom get CMV? How does it get transmitted? Just through contact. She was working on a patient. She's an ER nurse and yeah, I think it was just through contact of, I think it was bodily fluids. So basically, if you're pregnant and you get CMV, then it just goes directly to the child. So she was pregnant when she got it? Yeah. It's not like she could get it and then she goes deaf? Yeah. That can happen? No, no, no. Oh, it can? Okay. Thank God. Yeah, no, that would not be the case. So it just, it went directly to me basically and she didn't see any of the repercussions of CMV. And so I still have it and I still live with it, but I can't transmit it to anybody. And so it's dormant, I guess. How did she know at the time that she contracted CMV? She didn't know right away because the doctor came in and was like, hey, this patient has CMV. And my mom was like, well, I guarantee I already have it now since I've already been working with the patient. So. How could the patient give it to your mom, but you can't give it to someone else? That's a good question. I think it's because it really develops predominantly when you're in the womb versus like, you know, you get it in the womb and it's in that development stages. I'm not a doctor, so, but that's my interpretation of it, I guess. And so, yeah, it just, that means I'm, you know, immunocompromised. I, everything else that comes along with being deaf, I can get into that in a second. But yeah, that's about it with CMV. Were your parents on the lookout for, were they on high alert knowing that she had contracted CMV when she was pregnant, thinking that there was a high likelihood that something could have gone awry? Yeah. I mean, they, the doctors literally had like percentages of the different types of disabilities that I could have. And so they had no idea. And so when I was born and I was just, you know, looked normal, you know, they were like, wow, that's amazing. That's a miracle. And so that was a really cool experience for them to go through. And then also, you know, in a way, it was kind of one of the best of the worst situations. Let me know if this sounds insensitive, because for me, it's purely curious, but I could see how this might not come out how I want it to knowing the array of different things that could have happened. Are you, would you trade being deaf for a different option? Or do you think that like, it's a really manageable, like, I don't know, like, would you trade it? I don't think so. I actually don't think I would trade it for anything. Because for one, I take them out when I sleep, you know, like nothing wakes me up noise wise, you know, I mean, I guess I'm sensitive to vibrations. That's actually how I wake up every day is my bed shakes and it connects to my alarm. And yeah, when I have a headache, I can just take them out, don't have to deal with anything, don't have to listen to anything. So I mean, there are some perks of it. I wouldn't change it now. Have you ever taken them out in a relationship when someone's mad at you? That didn't go over very well. That's amazing. That's the ultimate talk to the hand. Notting along. Yeah. So you mentioned that you wake up to an alarm that vibrates. Is this like an alarm specifically for people, for deaf people? Yeah. Yeah. Actually there's, I've had friends buy it just because they're heavy sleepers. I am ahead. You caught my interest when you said the bed vibrates. Yeah. It's just like a little toggle thing. I don't know. It's probably like three and a half, four inches in diameter. And like, you just put it underneath your mattress and it's just like, it's a sonic vibrator. Yeah. It's like a good April Fool's joke for Garrett. I don't know how to phrase this question. So you got the, your first cochlear implant when you said when you were 13 months old. Yes. And then the second one when you were five. Yes. Do you know how well the implant approximates normal human hearing? Like are you functioning at a hundred percent of what the average person functions at? Is it 75%? Can you, like, what is that, what is it supposed to approximate? Yeah. I mean, they basically say that I hear 15,000 tones and you guys hear 30,000 tones. So I guess that's more on a tonal level, but I don't even know. What does that mean? Like just in terms of different arrays of frequencies. Yeah. If you're listening to music, are you hearing half as much of the range as somebody else? Kind of, it's more like along the lines of, you know, I can't hear like white noise or like the, I guess it's the range of frequencies that I can hear. Okay. So like if it's super deep or like a whale call, that's probably not in my range to be able to hear. Got it. Or if it's like a dog whistle, I know most people can't hear that, but something along those high frequencies, I can't hear. Got it. So there's like that specific range. We used to make that our cell phone ring tone in I would say ninth grade because there was a dog whistle. It was a high pitched frequency because the age that your teachers are, like you start to not be able to hear those high sounds, but when you're super young, you can. I thought you were going to say you knew that the phone was ringing because the dogs were barking. No, no, no. People would set their phones to it because the teachers couldn't hear it. That's funny. Yeah. Okay. So, okay. So you hear at half the frequencies of the average human hearing, but for like this conversation, are you hearing everything perfectly normal? I mean, as normal as I can tell. I was going to say, because like I said, I haven't missed a beat. The conversation hasn't missed a beat since you walked in here. And I didn't know what to expect. And to see that your hearing functions at such a high level is just such a pat on the back to what we're able to achieve with Western medicine and all the technology and everything. If you take out the implants, can you like not hear at all? Zip, nothing. How do they make that work? I know you're not a doctor. We've established this, but how do they make that work? Like how do they just create something where there's nothing? I know that people listening can't actually see this, but so, I mean, what I have here is it's a cochlear implant. So I took my left side off. And so right now I can't hear anything on my left side. And so this part that kind of twists off, that's the battery. And so there's a processor that basically takes sound and it's basically like a camera microphone. And so you know how, when you take a video and you like hear the wind, like it's like, and it's annoying, right? I hear that. And so it's basically kind of like just a camera mic, but then this processor basically transfers those sound waves into electrodes, which are just little electrical pulses. And that goes through a magnet that's actually inside my head. And that magnet has a coil that runs through the cochlea. And so since my deafness comes from like not being able to hear, right? So basically what I'm getting at is I don't have the actual like hairs in the cochlea that stimulate the auditory nerve like you guys do. And so that coil that runs through the cochlea like stimulates it with those electrodes, like it would for you guys with those hairs. Two part question. One, based on what you just said, if I were to put that on, it wouldn't, like I wouldn't hear anything crazy because I don't have the part inside, right? Yeah, nothing would happen. Do you watch Harry Potter? Oh, I love it. The second time I've done this, Zach's out of this conversation. Is this like Fred's like extendable ears? Like could you take the implant and put it under like a door somewhere and go away and it would still go to the part in your head and you could hear really good? Like, can you eavesdrop on people with it? Yeah, actually, if I click on my phone, it connects to my phone and I can turn on live listen and then it just like connects right to my CIs and whatever's going through the microphone on the phone goes directly to my CI. So I could set my phone on this table, go to the other room and I'd hear everything you guys are saying. I feel like this is a superpower. Like this is like CIA shit. Yeah, I do think that's a feature you could do with your phone as well. And that's not as cool. I'm not hearing it in my head. True. You have to use the air pod. So yeah, I guess being able to disguise it, but I am blown away by the tech of that. Just hearing your explanation of it and the fact that you're able to function totally normally with it is amazing. Like, do you feel very blessed that this technology? Because how long has this been around? I mean, there were people who were getting implanted, you know, in the 80s and 90s, but you know, the technology just wasn't there. You know, I was one of the youngest in Iowa to be implanted. And so this was it was basically right when the FDA approved it. Like my mom was on the gun. She went for it. Yeah. Well, she sounds like she's on top of her stuff based on the testing and everything alone. Yeah. And the dehydrated candy. And the dehydrated candy. Wow. So did you ever have to learn ASL or was it just, I'm good with these? Yeah, I did ASL for a little bit. I did it until, I don't know, probably I was roughly kindergarten age and I stopped because I did auditory verbal therapy. And they actually went to the level to where like my audiologist, my auditory verbal therapist, I guess, would make me sit on my hands so that like I wouldn't use my hands to talk. And I just wanted to talk anyway. Like I just stopped using sign language. And my parents were like, well, why are we going to invest the time in learning sign language when he just wants to talk? Yeah. You know, so. So the videos that everyone has seen via social media, always a tearjerker when deaf people get an operation where they can hear like their spouse or their parent or whatever it might be for the first time, is that the operation that they're getting the cochlear implant? Yeah, most of the time. Yeah. So cochlear implant is that like cochlear is a brand. There can be other brands that they do. So there's like Advanced Bionic and that's another popular one. A few other ones that aren't as popular, but cochlear is definitely like the main brand. If someone can't hear and they mainly communicate using ASL, are they someone who hasn't tried a cochlear implant yet or do they not work on certain types of deafness? Yeah, it depends on how you become deaf. That's kind of why I stuttered there for a second when I said, you know, my deafness comes from CMB because if you have damage of the auditory nerve, then the cochlear implant is not going to work at all because that auditory nerve has to be able to sense that there's stuff in the cochlea. And so there's, there are people who have damaged auditory nerves and they're just kind of out of luck. So I don't know, I assume this is true, but this is something that I'm citing as an internet fact that when somebody loses a sense or doesn't have a sense to start with, that the other senses are enhanced. Is that one, an accurate description and two, do you feel like that's true for you? Like, do you have a superior sense of smell or because that you've had the cochlear implant at such a young age, do you feel like you haven't missed out in that capacity? Yeah, that's a great question. I get that one a lot, actually. You know, I do have glasses. I never wear them, but, and I don't think my sense of smell is supersonic or anything. You know, yeah, I don't think my senses are really all that great, to be honest. But yeah, I think it has something to do with the fact that I had my cochlear implants at such a young age. And so I did mention earlier that I was like really sensitive to vibrations when I'm sleeping. So that might be part of the sense that I'm gaining from losing my deafness. Yeah. So, but other than that, yeah, I mean, I don't think I really do. Okay. Does it pivot into backpacking quick? We're going to probably go on a lot of side tracks here, but does it help you sleep at night when you're on trail to be able to take them out? Because then you can't hear like the eerie sounds of nature, or does it make it worse because then you can't hear the eerie sounds of nature? A little bit of both. What I mean by that is because, you know, sometimes, okay, I'll be camping by myself. I do a lot of that and I just take them out and, you know, it just makes me not even think about it because, you know, if there's a bear outside my tent, he just jumps on by. I'm not going to care unless he comes into my tent. That's the other thing that kind of scares me is, you know, I'm in my tent and then a bear comes on in. I'm not going to know until it's on top of me. So, yeah. I think at that point, you're just like, well, God wanted me to go. Yeah, I'd rather not know at that point, I think. Yeah. So I think I lean more on the side of like it helps because then I'm just not thinking about it. Yeah. I don't even like using earplugs because I'm so sensitive to having the feeling of something in my ears, especially when I'm laying down on something. Do you actually feel like, are the implants uncomfortable for you or have you been using them for so long that it just feels second nature? Yeah, it kind of feels second nature. You know, like when I don't wear them, I almost feel naked, to be honest. It's like it's kind of the same concept of glasses. Because I'd imagine it would be so nice to have the option to just turn off all, especially on a windy night. It's not even necessarily the animal sounds, just like the constant inconsistent, almost white noise. That's kept me up so many nights to have the option to opt out of that. It sounds actually pretty sweet. Well, when I camp, like a lot of the times at night, if I can't fall asleep, I'll put in my earplugs and I'll just put them on noise canceling. Like I'm not even listening to music. I just use the noise canceling to try to help with like the twig crack sounds. Yeah. You know, I had people tell me multiple times that they loved camping next to me because then they could just roll around all they wanted in their tent and didn't have to worry about waking anyone else up. That's a good point. Yeah. I will say I can't, on the AT, I hiked for about 600 miles with someone who was deaf and it was hilarious. Like we had a great time. A lot of times it was kind of that where it was like, I know I'm not bothering you, but some of it was just like funny. Like he had a really great sense of humor and I think it just added like an extra element for us. Do you ever like go to a concert and turn the volume up? Because I'm getting to the age now where concerts are too loud for me to be able to control that. You're taking the baby headphones off the twins. To be able to control the volume at a concert, to be like, yeah, turn this racket down a little bit. Is that something that you ever do? I imagine you're controlling the volume on a regular basis. Actually, there's a different settings I can use for different like actual environments. So like when I'm on at a concert, there's a music setting that I can set it to. Wow. And then like if I'm, is that just turning the volume down or what other changes? Yeah. It's just kind of like changing the EQ a little bit to like optimize for music, I guess. Yeah. My audiologist loves it, but I will say the most tragic thing to happen for me at a concert is they die. Oh no. Has that happened? Yeah. Multiple times. Yeah. What concerts? There was a Def Leppard concert I went to in high school. That's a bad one to have. And so you haven't gotten to like the best songs yet because they're not closing and you can see it happen. Oh no. Yeah. At that point you're just people watching, huh? Yeah. Just people watching and then like you're just standing there like, well, this is fun. Do you keep like a set of spare batteries? Like can you, is that a thing? Yeah. I typically bring a spare set, but those of course are the times that I forgot. Yeah. Oh my God. How does one charge get you? Typically it'll get me like 15 hours. Okay. So it's just like, you know, if it's just been a long day, it'll be towards the end of the day that they'll die. Yeah. Is it like, like, let's say you go home. Is it like taking your bra? I know you don't probably take your bra off when you get home, but is it like taking your bra off to take them off? And like, I would imagine probably speak ASL to the people like in your home life to be able to not have to use them for a while. Or is it not like that kind of like, feeling that I'm attributing to taking a bra off? I will say that is something that I would do a lot towards like the first two weeks of school. So like, because if you think about it throughout the summer, you're not really intently listening. You're kind of just doing your own thing. You're having fun, right? And so when you write, when you go back to school, you have to like spend eight hours a day, like really trying to listen. And like for me to actually listen to things and hear things, it takes a lot more effort because I have to like differentiate between different sounds because a lot of the stuff comes in at the same volume. So my brain is kind of adjusted to just kind of focusing in on what I wanted to focus in on. By that, you mean like every background noise. Like if somebody shuffles their chair or you can hear the wind or whatever, a fan blowing, like all that's coming in at the same volume. So it's, you have to be able to discern what you're actually paying attention to. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. I mean, more what I'm getting at is like, you know, fluorescent lights. If it's like above me and it's like buzzing, this one's fine. But, and like someone's trying to talk to me right here and they're both coming in at the same volume. It doesn't, my brain doesn't differentiate it. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. So does this make hiking like the Colorado trail or any trail, does this make just like what might be a mundane making miles part of the hike, like just super wild for you? Cause I imagine being able to hear the leaf cracks, the like tree breeze, like every little thing at the same volume. I just watched all the twilights this past weekend and when Bella got turned to a vampire, she was going through the woods and she was seeing everything super hyper-focused and that was wild. Would it be like that where you're just like hiking and you're just like, whoa, to everything? Cause it's all coming in louder. Or is that just in my head? You know, I think that is, when I was younger, that was a thing. Because then I was like experiencing things for the first time, you know, and being able to like hear different sounds of nature when I was a lot younger was, you know, it was an experience, you know, I wish I could do that again, you know, but yeah, I don't really think so anymore. Just because, you know, I've had these for so long and I've been accustomed to it. It's just, it's just my normal life now. Is there an auditory setting for something like being in the wilderness? Like you mentioned how there's like a music setting. Is there something for being outdoors? I could make a setting. Yeah, probably good. Just basically turn the, you know, higher frequencies down a little bit on my phone and yeah, basically I could. I never have, I usually typically just stay with my everyday setting just because I'm used to it and that's basically the only reason. If you know the first thing about hiking socks, then you are already aware of our next sponsor. Darn Tough is the most trusted sock in hiking and the number one hike sock in the USA. Family owned and made in Vermont, Darn Tough offers the most durable socks guaranteed. In fact, their warranty is famous with hikers because they're unconditionally guaranteed for life. 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Again that code is dtlove-backpackerradioatdarntough.com to get 10% off plus free shipping. This deal is only good for a very limited time so do not wait. Okay let's talk hiking. Oh yeah. So when did the Colorado trail get put on your map? How long have you been hiking? Give us the full like outdoors background. Yeah I've just grown up being outdoors and my mom has taken me out on little day hikes when I was younger and growing up camping. My dad always took me camping a lot when I was growing up and yeah I've always enjoyed it and then I went to college and my buddies and I would go to the boundary waters every summer for a canoe fishing trip and that was always really fun. Did you go to school in Iowa, Minnesota? Yeah I went to school at Iowa State University. Go clones. They've had some good running backs and you weren't there during the Brice Hall years were you? Yes I was. Yeah he's killing it in the Jets. Yeah he's great. I'm watching the 49ers with Brock Purdy right now. Iowa State as well? Yeah. Oh I didn't know that. Yeah that's why. Yeah 49ers have a bad night yesterday or the day before. They've lost a couple games but they're still really good. Just making myself feel better. It was not a good game yesterday. Anyway sorry. Okay so boundary waters in college and then when did the CT get put on your map? Oh yeah so I had a buddy I was just work so I'll back up a second here so I was working in Iowa and I was just I was right after I had graduated college and I had a couple buddies who just went off and you know took like a gap year or I even what really inspired me was I had a buddy who did the PCT and I was like man yeah I really want to do something like that and that really is what inspired me and so I was just like I just googled places in Colorado to go hiking and that's literally all it was and then the Colorado trail came up. Colorado trails. Yeah so what was your longest backpacking trip prior to this? Actual backpacking trip prior to that one would have been like a week in the boundary waters but that was canoeing so I wouldn't even consider that backpacking. Sure. I'd say it was probably just a weekend trip. Okay. Like one or two weekend trips. So what considerations did you have to make for the Colorado trail that maybe someone who didn't have deafness wouldn't have to consider? Like what was it like for you to plan for this trip that set it apart from canoeing or anything different? Yeah I think it was really the battery situation. Trying to figure out how I'm going to keep these things charged because yeah because when I was in the boundary waters I had them dug out because it was so cold and like I forgot to sleep with them. That was a rookie mistake. Always sleep with your batteries. That's very important. Yeah. So is it like your phone where if you are in like my phone it'll do it when I'm at too high of an elevation and it's like exposed and there's cold the phone will just die even if it's fully charged. Yeah. Is it like that with your batteries because they're not really protected much from the elements in your ears. Yeah no that's totally that same thing. Yeah that same concept like I was talking more on like my disposable batteries. The ones I have on right now are my rechargeable batteries. Oh. And so I had a little fob that I could like connect to the portable battery charger and that's what I predominantly used but it broke on me and so I had to use the actual batteries and they dutted out in the boundary waters because it was so cold and that was one big thing that I was really worried about for planning and then yeah it actually happened to me again on the Colorado Trail and I just ended up having another resupply box that had extra batteries in it and so it worked out but I almost went a week without being able to hear on trail. So it gets so cold that the battery just breaks like it's not you can't warm it back up and recharge it. Yeah the so they're like zinc air batteries is what they're called and like when they're exposed to a certain temperature then it just like duds out. Hmm. Yeah it's super weird. When you're talking about disposable batteries are you talking about just like our standard AAAs or are there like how you just unclicked that battery from it? Is it that but you just toss it after each use? Yeah it's kind of like that so there's like a little sheath that comes out and then it holds you know those little like little little batteries. Yeah like the watch ones? Yeah kind of like those that's basically what they're used. So the disposable parts that little circle battery. Yeah. Got it. Yep. So what was it like you said it was a were you a week without proper battery for the? I almost was a week without it but then. It happened to happen at the your resupply. Yeah then I happened to find them at the bottom of my resupply box. Got it. Like thank you. Yeah so did you go imagine something like a half day from the time that it broke to get to town to actually get your resupply? Yeah actually one of them died and all the other so I had my right one which is my favorite one because I had it first and so I favor that side more and so I had that one working and then no more batteries left and then my left one was dead so I'm like well crap I know I have half a day before I can't hear at all. Is it really disorienting for it to only work in one ear because uh you know Apple AirPods sometimes the like the old ones like one of them just won't charge even if it's sitting in the dock so I've been at the gym before where I'm listening to music through one AirPod and for me it's really distracting like I feel like my workout sucks just because I'm so thrown off by having the inconsistent audio is that I imagine for you it's significantly worse. Is it pretty distracting for it only to be registering audio on one side? You know for like the first second it is and then it kind of just goes back to just all right well I know that that's the only side that sounds coming from so I got to tilt my head a little more that way and just kind of unconsciously adjust but yeah I mean other than that yeah I mean it's it just really does suck when that happens in inconvenient times like a concert. How do you handle that when it's on trail because there's a quote I was trying to look it up quick enough but there's a quote from a book I've mentioned on here countless times Spark the Revolutionary New Science Between Exercise and the Brain I highly recommend it still great book but they talk about people that are I think it was in this book they talked about it people that are left alone like to their own thoughts and how a percentage that's higher than I would have expected of these people would rather be like subjected to mild electric shocks than left alone with their own thoughts and like no other noise for you know a day longer you know it was 15 minutes I think is what the study was it was super small and it basically was just going to like back this evidence that like people aren't comfortable spending time with themselves like in their own thoughts that sort of thing to to lose hearing on a trail and to have to go like a day two days even when you were talking about the canoeing trip however long that was before getting it back how is your mental like overall wellness adjusting to I mean I assume in these settings where they're doing these studies they have the choice like I can quit the study I can leave the room I can go hear things and I've seen people on trail where they haven't talked to anyone in like five days and they look different how how do you see that happen and take something like that that happens to you on trail and a what does it do to you mentally and b how do you combat not being able to flip that back on yeah it's a really interesting thing because you know there's weekends that I'll go camping and I'll just not have messy eyes on and for me it's a place that I can really just think things through and be by myself and so I actually do enjoy that time and I you know I'm an introvert I'm an extrovert you know I guess I'm a little more of an introvert now just since COVID and everything else you know I do like being on my own now and just kind of taking them off and being in my own little world because that's really what it is I'm in my own little world and so I guess like on a trail sense you know it does get a little scary at first because then you're like when the first time that it happened where like they died on trail and I was just like almost a day without being able to hear outside I was just constantly like panning my surroundings just constantly because you know I don't know if there's another hiker coming along I don't know if there's you know I'm gonna run come up on something that might not be very friendly so yeah there's definitely times that it is a little scary but I've become accustomed to it. To that question did you have anyone that you could reach out to as a resource prior to the CT who was deaf that you could ask these questions to? I had nobody I just kind of figured it out figured out as I went nobody I knew who was deaf had ever done anything like this I guess and so I just I'm a big fan of just going for it. It's a good attitude. Is there any sort of community Facebook group whatever platform it might be where you have access to other people where you could ask this question and you're like hey has anyone done long-distance backpacking and everyone's just crickets? Yeah I mean there's actually a couple different Facebook groups where there's you know families who have cochlear implants they can like the parents can talk on there and I actually grew up attending a cochlear implant family camp and so I met a lot of people from all over the United States who also had cochlear implants because you know growing up in Iowa small town Iowa you're not going to have anybody in a 100 mile radius who's also deaf. You mentioned before we hit record that your graduating class was 23 people? 28. 28. No short you those five people yeah so you get a small town. What was the population of your town? Oh probably like a thousand people okay yeah it's small yeah it's pretty small I mean it was literally yeah like 30 minutes away from Des Moines. Are there any trail specific groups like Facebook groups that are long-distance focused for people that have like hearing disabilities? No not that I know of that's a good idea though I might do that tonight. Well I mean I hiked with Mr Perfect and he was deaf and then he had a friend that we spoke to several times that wasn't hiking but she came to trail day so I had met her too and I know there's a few others that have like come across the radar but I think that would be a great resource for like you guys to have with each other. Just before we move too far off the your your implants die while hiking how do you handle that topic? A lot of things that you'll hear when people aren't thriving at a long-distance hike like a lot of it comes down to all the alone time right like there's so much time with your own mind there's so much time where you're not stimulated by other things and I think when we're just constantly fed just like social feeds to scroll through content here and there a tv on in the background that's where like you start to see people like I mentioned the one who hadn't talked to someone for five days where they just seem unwell right like they're not doing good and I know that can bring a lot of people off trail as someone who will go weekends where you just take them out and actually enjoy it do you have tips for people for hiking without sounds to keep them stimulated while hiking or to make it seem less jarring for them like are there things they can do that make it better if they're not one that usually thrives in that setting? Yeah I mean I would say first off you gotta like your inner monologue you know you gotta be best friends with your inner monologue because otherwise it's gonna be a battle you know because if you aren't best friends with your inner monologue then you're gonna be just you know fighting each other and really what it comes down to is are you comfortable by yourself and if you're kind of uncomfortable in those settings and you know you just kind of gotta go back to you know why does it make you uncomfortable because there's probably a reason and there's probably something deeper that stems from that. How did you get comfortable with yourself? I assume based on my this is based on me but I assume not everyone's born comfortable with themselves I assume it takes effort assuming you're not just naturally comfortable with yourself how do you get there? Oh man that's a tough one. That's a deep question. That's very deep. Now you have to give us therapy. Making it easy for Zach's follow-up. I don't know it just seems like you're doing really well with it. Yeah well I appreciate it I appreciate it yeah I mean I um what I kind of did was I just you know took it step by step you know because I first day that happened to me and I just kind of you know I couldn't do anything about it you know I didn't have my garment yet and so you know that would happen a lot growing up you know I'd be at school and they would die and I wouldn't have batteries I have to go the rest of the day without being able to hear and so I guess just that those little moments of exposure of you know have being forced to be by yourself in your own little world that kind of culminated to an extended period of time that can happen. So like doing a shakedown hike but like a quiet yeah shakedown like a yeah like do do little shakedown hikes basically where you like maybe first day you go by yourself and then the second day you have a friend that comes out and meets you um that's that'd be a good way to do it or vice versa where you go out with two people and then you just you stay an extra day by yourself. I was thinking even smaller like just sitting on the couch without using my you know like before you even go outside just sit there and don't touch the phone for an hour you know yeah yeah yeah definitely don't touch the phone. Do you have to worry about them getting wet like is it a concern if it's raining outside? Oh yeah yeah yeah it's like they're more water resistant now but yeah back in the day like you had to take them off like it was super sensitive to water and one thing I'll say about that camp that I grew up going to is they had a pool party every year and if you imagine this scenario where you put a bunch of deaf people into a pool and they don't have waterproof stuff yet the lifeguards are gonna love you because they're blowing their whistles they're doing all that they can and you no one in the pool is even listening to you they can't hear you and so I mean like it's just crazy to see how technology has advanced because you know when you go to that camp now everyone has their waterproof stuff on and so like yeah now it's a little more waterproof or resistant than it was. What areas would you like to see improvement with the tech like you mentioned that it's advanced from like a waterproofness standpoint what areas do you see it could potentially still have room for improvement? Oh yeah I mean it's improving every year there's another upgrade that I could get and so basically what they're doing with their new upgrade now is you can go to an airport and it'll automatically connect to the bluetooth there and they'll tell you like when you're boarding and all that and you can connect to any bluetooth device basically. Can someone hack your mind then? I hope not. Can I just like how the airport would bluetooth to your sounds can I bluetooth to it and be like I'm in your head you know like is that a possibility? I'm not saying it's crazy I'm saying it's scary. I feel like that's very possible. Yeah yeah that's definitely possible I don't know I hope not but uh that'd be scary. Are you excited about those advancements or is that kind of like freaky because that kind of freaks me out a bit? Yeah I mean I'm excited because I mean they're doing it in the right mind I hope so. Yeah it seems out of kindness. Yeah I mean out of kindness I hope but yeah I mean other than that I mean I don't know because like it seems like each model that they make it gets smaller and smaller and they actually have one now where it's without the actual processor that goes on your head but the magnet and it's just the little magnet it's like that big. That's interesting because I'm thinking of this from the standpoint of like just getting you to the point where you can hear like the normal person the person with normal hearing but what you're describing are enhancements that are even beyond what somebody with that level of hearing has. I guess it opens up a whole train of ideas for ways that it could you could be enhanced beyond you mentioned being able to know when you're boarding but there's probably infinite possibilities in that standpoint. Yeah tons I mean like it would be really cool to just have like a little like basically you don't even have to wear your processor every day but it's like all internal then you like wear your processor to charge it kind of like air charge or like you know you have your little pod that you set your phone on and it automatically charges without having to plug in like that'd be kind of cool. Yeah because I remember for a while sorry to cut you off Jones but you're probably more relevant than mine. For a while the buzzword was augmented reality and we're seeing this now with like Google Glass and now Apple's got this too about like the way that you visually interface with the world and it giving you more context than you would otherwise have. From an auditory standpoint thinking of hiking like if you heard like a bird call and that's what I was saying about nature being wild. Yeah being able to have the implant be like oh that is the blue-footed booby. Oh that'd be so cool. That's that goes back to your Tony Stark stuff where you wanted the Iron Man suit. Totally. That's a feature the Iron Man suit. Well I was gonna ask on the same realm of wild like if there's any upgrades that have been made yet where it can hear different languages and it still transmits English to you. No there hasn't been one of those but there has been one I actually really don't like this setting. I currently have it but I don't have it turned on and what it does is it's called like zoom and so if there's like a crowd of people around me and I face this one person that I want to listen to it'll like zoom in on that person that I want to listen to and it'll kind of cut everyone else out but yeah it doesn't really work when you're like in a basement and like your mom or whoever screams from the first floor then because then it's like well it's listening to the air conditioner but then it doesn't quite know if that other sound coming from somewhere else. It doesn't know what to focus in on. Yeah then it just kind of screws it up. Right. This is going to be probably my dumbest question of the night. Yeah. I don't know it's hard to ever tell. The night is young. We got time. Do people ever use these that don't need them like if you're not hard of hearing is because I feel like some of the stuff you're saying sounds really like I'm kind of not like not jealous obviously I'm very grateful for the hearing I have but it sounds really cool to be able to zoom in on certain things and make things louder like I struggle when there's a lot of noises going on at once. Yeah. Are there people that use these things that don't need them because it's just like like really cool or strategic? I don't know. I just feel like that's it sounds like a superpower to me. It is you know I mean to an extent yeah it is a superpower. I mean with technology the way it is now if you told someone in the 1800s what I could do they'd be like what planet are you from? Yeah. So it's insane to think about but um no I haven't really known anyone just because the fact that insurance is such a battle um especially back in the day like when I first got them my mom was she's the rock star like she wrote letters on letters on letters just to get insurance approval. How much do they cost? I mean we were paying oh shoot I mean they're probably I probably have like I don't know half a million dollars in my head. Shut up. No. Just the part that's inside? Oh all of it like external internal surgery everything yeah. Wow. Does the implant itself I'm thinking like fake joints they have a lifespan of 20 years is this something that has to be refreshed on a on a bait on a consistent basis? Yeah the they gave the internal stuff like 18 years okay and I'm well past that I'm 23 um and so it's kind of like any day now I asked my audiologist like what she thought would be kind of when I'd need to be re-implanted um and she's just like you know it could be 10 years from now could be you know five years from now it could be next year. Is the only consideration that the sound part stops is it not like the the stuff that makes it like deteriorates the grades gets absorbed by brain goo? Yeah. I don't know how I don't know how a lot of things work. Oh it's all good it's all good yeah I mean it's just really like the lifespan of the technology if it is able to last that long um internally um because those internal devices don't get touched you know because you have surgery to get them put it in and then that's it. When you switch to a new one is it going to be like getting the same thing like you leave the same person as you entered or is it like upgrading like your you know 97 Toyota Camry to the newest Range Rover? It'll be like upgrading kind of like to a Range Rover because it'll be different technology there'll be because nowadays it's just an outpatient there like procedure when I got them like I had to stay in the hospital for a couple days and I had this big old bandage around me and like it was it did not look pretty I had like these big scars and now you know it's just a little slit behind the ear and then they slide the little magnet in and they're able to do everything with the cochlea all within an outpatient procedure. Can you feel it? Yeah I mean can I touch it? Yeah. So is that where the cochlea is like that far above the actual ear or is it I thought the cochlea was inside the ear? I don't feel it because it's right there yeah so it's it's it's like a slight little bump there but um yeah so that's how it's held on to my head is a magnet. Wow. Yeah you mentioned at the top of the interview that there were other um ramifications I'm not sure of being deaf or you say CMV was the yeah can you look that up yeah yeah it's bothering me so much. Cytomegalovirus? Yes that's it yes. Okay okay you mentioned that like um that your immune system is compromised because of is that because of the deafness or because of the virus itself? I'd say that one was because of the virus itself okay um and so like growing up like I would brush my teeth twice a day like every other kid right but I would get cavities on cavities yes I had to convince people growing up that I brushed my teeth twice a day and floss every day because I would just keep getting cavities and you know it just yeah so they think that has something to do with CMV like a weak um enamel basically um and then like the part that comes with the deafness is I don't have balance so I don't have the liquid in the semicircular canals that give people balance and so like how does that play out I'm very clumsy well there's some like steep I mean there's not like I don't like steep things there's not scary stuff on the Colorado trail but there's some there are some ridges yeah does that like screw you up well definitely um there was actually when we got to the high point of the Colorado trail we did an alpine start um and that was actually my first 30 mile day that was that was awesome my trail family is awesome for pushing me to do that but anyway so we woke up at like 2 30 in the morning and started hiking and it was complete darkness you know but the stars were out and that was kind of helpful but I had to have my headlamp on like the brightest it could go and even with that I was using my trekking poles side to side basically holding myself up walking on basically four legs just to stay up with the rest of the trail family yeah are there other so you mentioned the battery's dying you mentioned uh balance being a challenge are there other things that are not obvious that would be make something like this more challenging um yeah I think it would just be really the clumsiness um that's a really big thing and another one that a lot of people don't think about is swimming s

In 1957, the Space Age began with the launch of Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Since then, the number of objects humans have hurled toward the stars has soared to the thousands. As those objects have collided with one another, they've created more space debris in Earth's orbit. According to some estimates, all of that debris and human-made space trash, the number of objects — from satellites to screws — could be in the millions. In this iteration of our AAAS live show series, Short Wave co-host Aaron Scott talks to Danielle Wood, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT, about the dangers of accumulating space debris, and how she and others are working to make space more sustainable. Have a story about space innovation you'd love us to share? Launch it our way at shortwave@npr.org.

After years of being publicly shamed for “fleecing” the taxpayers with their frivolous and obscure studies, scientists decided to hit back with  … an awards show?! This episode, we gate-crash the Grammys of government-funded research, a.k.a. the Golden Goose Awards. The twist of these awards is that they go to scientific research that at first sounds trivial or laughable but then turns out to change the world. We tell the story of one of the latest winners: a lonely Filipino boy who picked up an ice cream cone that was actually a covert vampire assassin. Decades later, that discovery leads to an even bigger one: an entire pharmacy's worth of new drugs hidden just below the surface of the ocean. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Latif Nasser and Maria Paz Gutierrezwith help from - Ekedi Fausther-KeeysProduced by - Maria Paz Gutierrez and Matt Kieltywith help from Ekedi Fausther-KeeysOriginal music and sound design contributed by Matt Kieltywith mixing help from Arianne Wack. Fact-checking by Emily KriegerEditing by Soren Wheeler who thought the whole episode should have been a little shorter.  Special thanks to Erin Heath, Haylie Swenson, Gwendolyn Bogard, Valeria Sabate and everyone else at AAAS who oversee the Golden Goose Awards. Also to Maggie Luddy, and former Congressman Jim Cooper, Terry Lee Merritt at University of Utah, Jim Tranquada, John McCormack, and the Cosman Shell Collection at Occidental College.  CITATIONS: Videos - Gorgeous slo mo video of cone snails hunting (https://zpr.io/uiWrS3J2BuZM). A recent segment from our down-the-hall neighbors at On The Media (https://zpr.io/VZHSLPdkdAxH) about breakthrough science featuring the late Senator William Proxmire. Check out dazzling documentary shorts on each of the Golden Goose Awards winners (https://zpr.io/Tpxxrzzuz6GS) on their website. Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!   Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.   Leadership support for Radiolab's science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.