Podcasts about Act

It's an action-packed day at the History of Literature! First, Jacke recounts the story of Dr. Johnson racing to the aid of his friend, the playwright Oliver Goldsmith, whose landlady was threatening him with debtor's prison. Naturally, the great critic and dictionary author Johnson found a very literary way to help. Then Jacke is joined by author Ken Krimstein, whose graphic novel Einstein in Kafkaland: How Albert Fell Down the Rabbit Hole and Came Up with the Universe looks at the critical year that Albert Einstein spent in Kafka's Prague. How did these men - one a scientist, the other an artist - approach the world's biggest questions? And finally, Bartholomew Ryan, a scholar who's devoted his life to Fernando Pessoa, stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Will he choose something by Pessoa? Special Announcement: The History of Literature Podcast Tour is happening in May 2026! Act now to join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. Find out more by emailing jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or masahiko@johnshorstravel.com, or by contacting us through our website ⁠historyofliterature.com⁠. Or visit the ⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠ at ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at ⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠or ⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

LightSpeed VT: https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ Dropping Bombs Podcast: https://www.droppingbombs.com/⁣ ⁣ You're here because you want to win—big. Brad Lea doesn't mess around. In this⁣ episode, he sits down with Jerry Acuff to tear into what it takes to become one of the top salesmen in the world, delivering the unfiltered truth you won't find anywhere else. No fluff, just real talk and actionable steps to crush it in business and life.⁣ ⁣ Jerry's links⁣ https://jerryacuff.com/success/⁣ https://www.instagram.com/jerry.acuff/⁣ ⁣ Brad Lea is a self-made entrepreneur who turned small-town grit into a⁣ multi-million-dollar empire. With over 25 years dominating sales and leadership, he's mentored thousands to outsmart, outwork, and out win their competition. His top-rated podcast, Dropping Bombs, brings raw, game-changing insights from the biggest names in business.⁣ ⁣ LightSpeed VT is Brad's brainchild—the world's leading interactive training platform. It's built to make your team sharper, faster, and more effective, without wasting time or money. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, LightSpeed VT is how you scale success and dominate your industry. Curious? Check it out:⁣ https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ ⁣ Brad's also behind Closer School, the go-to program for mastering sales and closing deals like a pro. Want to 10x your income? This is where you start. His book, The Hard Way, lays out the brutal, honest lessons he learned building his empire—your blueprint to winning the game. Get it here: https://bradlea.com/product/the-hard-way/⁣ ⁣ This isn't just a video. It's a wake-up call. Watch it. Share it. Act on it.⁣ Closer School: https://www.closerschool.com/cs

This week, Ash is joined by Dana Frank, a nationally best-selling author and powerhouse real estate investor with a decades-long family legacy in the industry. Dana and Ash dive into the origins of her real estate journey, starting with her father's visionary approach to investing in the 1950s without traditional bank loans. She shares how she expanded that legacy using her signature framework, REAL (Research, Excel, Act, Leverage), and how creativity, grit, and relationship-building can unlock long-term financial freedom. Dana offers a behind-the-scenes look at the real-world challenges of managing rental properties, from natural disasters to tenant emergencies (including a bee infestation!). She speaks candidly about balancing compassion with business in landlord-tenant relationships, and how staying grounded in purpose can create lasting success. Whether you're just getting started or scaling your investments, Dana's wisdom and stories including real-life inspiration from success stories like Rosemarie Francis will empower you to grow a thriving, values-driven real estate business.   In This Episode, You'll Learn: How Dana grew a multigenerational real estate empire without relying on banks. Why the REAL framework is key to long-term investment success. How to navigate landlord-tenant dynamics with compassion and clarity. Practical ways to evaluate rental potential and make properties more appealing. Real-life stories that prove real estate can be a path from poverty to prosperity. Why adaptability and mindset are essential for long-term wealth-building.   Visit shopify.com/youturn and only pay $1 for your first month's trial. Connect with Dana Frank Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealdanafrank/?hl=en Get up and Get on it Book: https://www.therealdanafrank.com/book Website: https://www.therealdanafrank.com/   Connect with Ash: https://www.instagram.com/ashleystahl/ Want to become a professional speaker and skyrocket your personal brand?  Ashley's team at Wise Whisper Agency offers a done-with-you method to get your signature talk written and booked and it's helped more than 100 clients onto the TEDx stage! Head over to WiseWhisperAgency.com/speak  

Congress Launches ‘Epstein Files Transparency Act' As Trump Deems Case ‘Boring' & Claims Only ‘Bad People' Or ‘Fake News' Are Concerned

(08:20) Best new music Friday (34:00) Wireless Fest recap(41:10) UK vs US(55:30) Love Island recap(1:17:55) Arguing styles(1:26:00) We need All Age parties back(1:30:00) Rogers Stadium is a disaster?(1:34:50) Beyonce's Act 3 was stolen?(1:40:10) OVOFest in October? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Choices and consequences for college student health is a real thing! Dr. Glen Robison is a Diplomate of the American Board of Multiple Specialties in Podiatry, Board Certified in Primary Care in Podiatric Medicine. Dr. Robison is a Jin Shin Jyutsu practitioner and certified Myopractor, trained in releasing deep restrictions of motion in the body that resides at the root of our symptoms and ailments. Having applied the principles found in his book called “Healthy Dad Sick Dad” for over fifteen years, he has expanded his practice to include dietary approaches that address everything from fungal infections to diabetes. In episode 588 of the Fraternity Foodie Podcast, we find out how Dr. Robison kept going towards college even though he only scored a combined 7 points on the ACT exam, how he was able to improve his test-taking skills and study habits, what are some practical tips for college students to adapt and build strong relationships with their professors, what are the top 3 study strategies to improve your academics, what drew him to medicine as a career, what are the differences in health outcomes from the two dads in his book called "Healthy Dad, Sick Dad", and what are the choices in diet, exercise, and stress management in college that can impact our health decades later. Enjoy!

LightSpeed VT: https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ Dropping Bombs Podcast: https://www.droppingbombs.com/⁣ ⁣ You're here because you want to win—big. Brad Lea doesn't mess around. In this⁣ episode, he sits down with Toby Potter to tear into how anyone can break into real estate investing by mastering mindset, daily discipline, and finding the right deals with the backing of Global Integrity Finance, delivering the unfiltered truth you won't find anywhere else. No fluff, just real talk and actionable steps to crush it in business and life.⁣ ⁣ Toby's links⁣ http://www.globalintegrityfinance.com⁣ https://www.instagram.com/tobypotterofficial/⁣ https://a.co/d/gmfcd8A⁣ ⁣ Brad Lea is a self-made entrepreneur who turned small-town grit into a⁣ multi-million-dollar empire. With over 25 years dominating sales and leadership, he's mentored thousands to outsmart, outwork, and out win their competition. His top-rated podcast, Dropping Bombs, brings raw, game-changing insights from the biggest names in business.⁣ ⁣ LightSpeed VT is Brad's brainchild—the world's leading interactive training platform. It's built to make your team sharper, faster, and more effective, without wasting time or money. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, LightSpeed VT is how you scale success and dominate your industry. Curious? Check it out:⁣ https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ ⁣ Brad's also behind Closer School, the go-to program for mastering sales and closing deals like a pro. Want to 10x your income? This is where you start. His book, The Hard Way, lays out the brutal, honest lessons he learned building his empire—your blueprint to winning the game. Get it here: https://bradlea.com/product/the-hard-way/⁣ ⁣ This isn't just a video. It's a wake-up call. Watch it. Share it. Act on it.⁣ Closer School: https://www.closerschool.com/cs

“Can non-Catholics receive Communion?” This episode explores the nuances of this question while also addressing topics such as the inclusion of the apocrypha in the canon, the Church’s approach to blending faith with different cultures, and the authorship of the Acts of the Apostles. Tune in for a thoughtful examination of these important issues. Join The CA Live Club Newsletter: Click Here Invite our apologists to speak at your parish! Visit Catholicanswersspeakers.com Questions Covered: 02:05 – I'm LDS. How do you justify including the apocrypha in the canon? 05:45 – How does the Church justify mixing the faith with foreign cultures? 11:40 – What is your view on the authorship of Acts of the Apostles? Act 2:1-11 What was the atmosphere in the room on Pentecost? 17:43 – How do I explain to a Protestant why they can’t receive communion in a Catholic Church? 23:33 – How do you really know God is real? 32:47 – how do protestants ignore the obvious verse in the New Testament where Jesus says Peter is the rock? 37:10 – When a non-Catholic attends mass, can the person receive a blessing? 44:25 – What exactly happens at a consecration? When the priest consecrates the host, what do believe is the range for consecration? Can the host be across the room for it to be validly consecrated? 50:02 – How do I learn to properly read the Bible?

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Exciting news!  We're extending a $500 savings on our coaching programs until this Friday. Due to the wonderful services and support our coaching clients receive and the fact that we have maintained our coaching programs for 4 years though our services, technology, and results have improved, we are having to increase our coaching prices.  But before we do, we'd like to give you a chance to get in at the lowest opportunity it'll ever! This is your chance to transform your marriage with our proven system before prices increase. Sign up for a clarity call at delightym.com/cc and be part of the next transformation story. Don't miss out on this opportunity to invest in your relationship and witness the miracles happening every day. Act now and take the first step towards a thriving marriage! Until THIS Friday 7/14/25 sign up at: delightym.com/cc (Or if you know someone who needs this, send it to them!)

Note: "Act 1" was a separate published audio podcast.*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.comTopics:*More "Ask Me Anything" questions.*Local losers "fucked around and found out."*EZ with his judicial opinion about loser kid from previous story.*Absurd hate crime*Asshole of the DaySponsors:Adam Casari Realty, Impact Power Sports, Frank Fuss / My Policy Shop Insurance, Kings Room Barbershop, The Mario Flores Lakeshore Team of VanDyk Mortgage, Shoreliners Striping, Ervines Auto Repair Grand Rapids Hybrid & EV, TC PaintballInterested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.com and let me design a marketing plan for you.Contact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Note: "Act 2" will be a separate published audio podcast.*Check out EZ's morning radio show "The InZane Asylum Q100 Michigan with Eric Zane" Click here*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.comTopics:*EZ opened up with a crazy, amazing health update from our pal, Jeremy (down over 113 pounds in 46 weeks)*Audience member Nick the Black Belt also tells us in an email how he quit being disgusting.*It definitely was a slow news day, so the thought was thrown out in the audience about EZ doing an "Ask Me Anything."Sponsors:Pinball Land, Berlin Raceway, Impact Power Sports,, Frank Fuss/ My Policy Shop Insurance, The Mario Flores Lakeshore Team of VanDyk Mortgage, Shoreliners Striping, Blue Frost IT,Interested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.comContact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Michelle Young is an award-winning writer and journalist, and the author of the narrative non-fiction book The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, which is longlisted for the 2025 American Library in Paris Book Award. In today's episode, Annmarie and Michelle talk about Rose Valland, an unsung hero of the French war effort, and how an unlikely heroine infiltrated the Nazi leadership to save the world's most treasured masterpieces. Episode Sponsors: McNally Jackson – Independent booksellers with locations in Nolita, Williamsburg, Seaport, Rockefeller, and Downtown Brooklyn. To find your next great read, drop by or shop online at www.mcnallyjackson.com Bluestockings – A collectively-run NYC activist center, community space and feminist bookstore that offers mutual aid, harm reduction support,    non-judgemental resources, and a warming/cooling place that is radically inclusive of all genders, cultures, expansive sexualities and identities. Bluestockings seeks to empower all people to challenge oppression and participate in creating a society which is equitable, cooperative, and free, and we strive to empower our worker-owners through non-hierarchy,   cooperation, and consensus-based decision making, providing an example of the society we are working toward. Stop by or shop online at bluestockings.com. Titles Mentioned in This Episode: The Art Spy: The Extraordinary Untold Tale of WWII Resistance Hero Rose Valland, by Michelle Young The Aviator and the Showman: Amelia Earhart, George Putnam, and the Marriage that Made an American Icon, by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, the aviator and the showman Here's the trailer for the 1964 film, The Train, starring Burt Lancaster.  Follow Michelle Young: Instagram: @michelleyoungwriter Threads: @michelleyoungwriter Twitter/X: @michelleyoungny Bluesky: @‪michelleyoung.bsky.social michelleyoungwriter.com **Writing Workshops and Wish Fulfillment:  If you liked this conversation and are interested in writing abroad, consider joining Annmarie for a writing retreat in Italy in September, 2025. You can travel to a beautiful place, meet other wise women, and write your own stories. We'd love to help you make your wishes come true.  This will sell out. Act now and join us! Or for women interested in an online Saturday morning writing circle, you can sign up here or message Annmarie to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 15th, 2025 - We welcome back Edward Clancy to talk the attacks on Christians in the Holy Land and what the bishops there are doing about it. Then we're joined again by Katherine Bennett of Catholic Unscripted to discuss her article on Lily Allen and the culture that failed her. TheStationOfTheCross.com/ACT  

Tim Dyck is the founder of Best Culture Solutions and a seasoned expert in leadership development, employee engagement, and culture transformation. With a strong background in designing meaningful customer and team experiences, Tim is passionate about helping businesses thrive through intentional design and fractional leadership. "Leadership starts with self. Leaders build leaders." – Highlighting the importance of designing a process that begins with personal discipline. "If you don't have a process, how can you expect to achieve repeatable results?" – Emphasizing the foundational role of process in business and leadership success. Mike and Tim explore how fractional work can help businesses fill critical gaps fast, manage uncertainty, and create memorable customer experiences. They break down leadership mindset, designing for success, and why managing expectations matters. This episode helps leaders rethink how they structure their team, processes, and strategy with clarity and intent.

With the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, also known as the Big Beautiful Bill, significant changes are coming to both solar panel and electric vehicle tax credits.  I break down what these changes mean, how they can affect your savings, and what steps you might want to take before these credits disappear. From figuring out if solar panels make sense for your home to understanding how electric vehicle credits work (and when they're expiring), this episode is packed with actionable insights and tips, especially for those planning for retirement or looking to cut down on monthly expenses. You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in... [01:31] Residential solar panels are popular for reducing electric bills, offering significant savings, especially for retirees. [05:23] Solar tax credits are expiring soon. [09:07] Solar investments offset electric costs and protect against future rate hikes, beneficial long term. [11:28] Costs and break-even of electric cars. [13:08] Act now if you want to take advantage of solar tax credits. The Solar Panel Tax Credit is a Fading Opportunity One of the biggest draws for homeowners considering solar panels has been the significant federal tax credit, currently set at 30% of the total installation cost. This credit has made solar an appealing investment for many, offering a direct dollar-for-dollar reduction in the taxes owed. In high-cost electricity states like Connecticut, this can mean hundreds of dollars in monthly savings on your utility bill. However, the Big Beautiful Bill brings an unfortunate change: the solar tax credit is set to disappear at the end of this year. That means if you've been thinking about going solar, now is the time to act. If you don't install solar panels before the deadline could add years to your payback period, undermining the investment's attractiveness and putting it out of reach for many. Energy Savings of Battery Storage and EVs While solar panels are great for energy savings, adding a battery storage system further enhances their benefits. A battery can store excess solar power for use during peak times or outages, which is particularly helpful for retirees planning to stay in their homes for decades and looking to insulate themselves from rising electricity rates. Electric vehicles (EVs) also offer savings for households with high transportation costs. The federal EV tax credit, worth up to $7,500 on new cars and up to $4,000 for used EVs, has also been a strong motivator for those considering a switch from gas-powered vehicles. The Big Beautiful Bill also changes the EV tax credit, which will disappear even sooner than the solar incentive. Although there are several important limitations: only vehicles assembled in North America qualify, and there's a cap on purchase price ($55,000 for sedans, $80,000 for SUVs). Income limitations apply as well; single filers must earn less than $150,000 ($300,000 for married couples) to claim the new vehicle credit. The used EV credit comes with lower income caps ($75,000 for singles, $150,000 for couples) and is worth up to $4,000.  Should You Act Now?  Before making any big investment, think about the following: Timing: Both solar and EV credits will soon vanish. If you want the tax break, don't wait. Financial Health: The best return comes from paying cash, not financing or tapping retirement accounts. Long-term Plans: Solar and EV investments make the most sense if you plan to stay in your home and keep your vehicle for years to come. Manufacturers may eventually lower prices as credits disappear, but there are no guarantees. With energy incentives set to change dramatically, the window to maximize savings is closing fast. For homeowners and future retirees, the time to act is now, whether that means installing solar, purchasing an EV, or both. Consult with a financial advisor to consider how these decisions fit into your overall retirement and financial readiness strategy. The Treasury Department's official list of eligible vehicles shows that the cars, trucks, minivans, and SUVs listed below qualify for a full $7,500 tax credit if placed in service between January 1 and September 30 of 2025.   In some cases, only certain trim levels or model years qualify. More vehicles may be added to or removed from this list as manufacturers continue to submit information on whether their vehicles are eligible. Acura ZDX EV (2024-2025 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Cadillac Lyriq (2024-2025 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Cadillac Optiq (2025 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Cadillac Vistiq (2026 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Chevrolet Blazer EV (2024-2026 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Chevrolet Equinox EV (2024-2026 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Chevrolet Silverado EV (2025-2026 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid PHEV (2024-2025 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Ford F-150 Lightning (2024-2025 model years for Flash trim, 2023-2025 model years for Lariat and XLT trims; MSRP $80,000 or below) Genesis Electrified GV70 (2026 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Honda Prologue (2024-2025 model years; MSRP $80,000 or below) Hyundai Ioniq 5 (2025 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Hyundai Ioniq 9 (2026 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Jeep Wagoneer S (2025 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Kia EV6 (2026 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Kia EV9 (2026 model year; MSRP $80,000 or below) Tesla Cybertruck (2025 model year for Dual Motor, Long Range, and Single Motor trims; MSRP $80,000 or below) Tesla Model 3 (2025 model year for Long Range AWD, Long Range RWD, and Performance trims; MSRP $55,000 or below) Tesla Model X (2025 model year for AWD trim; MSRP $80,000 or below) Tesla Model Y (2025-2026 model years for Long Range AWD and Long Range RWD trims; 2025 model year for Performance trims; MSRP $80,000 or below) Resources Mentioned Retirement Readiness Review Subscribe to the Retire with Ryan YouTube Channel Download my entire book for FREE  Connect With Morrissey Wealth Management  www.MorrisseyWealthManagement.com/contact   Subscribe to Retire With Ryan

You are in for a real treat on this episode. My guest this time is Greg Schwem. Greg is a corporate comedian. What is a corporate comedian? You probably can imagine that his work has to do with corporations, and you would be right. Greg will explain much better than I can. Mr. Schwem began his career as a TV journalist but eventually decided to take up what he really wanted to do, be a comedian. The story of how he evolved is quite fascinating by any standard. Greg has done comedy professionally since 1989. He speaks today mostly to corporate audiences. He will tell us how he does his work. It is quite interesting to hear how he has learned to relate to his audiences. As you will discover as Greg and I talk, we often work in the same way to learn about our audiences and thus how we get to relate to them. Greg has written three books. His latest one is entitled “Turning Gut Punches into Punch Lines: A Comedian's Journey Through Cancer, Divorce and Other Hilarious Stuff”. As Greg says, “Don't worry, it's not one of those whiny, ‘woe is me,' self- serving books. Instead, it's a hilarious account of me living the words I've been preaching to my audiences: You can always find humor in every situation, even the tough ones. Greg offers many interesting observations as he discusses his career and how he works. I think we all can find significant lessons we can use from his remarks. About the Guest: Hi! I'm Greg Schwem. a Chicago-based business humor speaker and MC who HuffPost calls “Your boss's favorite comedian.” I've traveled the world providing clean, customized laughs to clients such as Microsoft, IBM, McDonald's and even the CIA. I also write the bi-weekly Humor Hotel column for the Chicago Tribune syndicate. I believe every corporate event needs humor. As I often tell clients, “When times are good, people want to laugh. When times are bad, people need to laugh.” One Fortune 500 client summed things up perfectly, saying “You were fantastic and just what everybody needed during these times.” In September 2024 I released my third and most personal book, Turning Gut Punches into Punch Lines: A Comedian's Journey Through Cancer, Divorce and Other Hilarious Stuff. Don't worry, it's not one of those whiny, “woe is me,” self-serving books. Instead, it's a hilarious account of me living the words I've been preaching to my audiences: You can always find humor in every situation, even the tough ones. You can pick up a copy at Amazon or select book stores. Ways to connect with Greg: Website: www.gregschwem.com YouTube: www.youtube.com/gregschwem LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/gregschwem Instagram: www.instagram.com/gregschwem X: www.x.com/gregschwem About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:16 Hi everyone, and welcome to unstoppable mindset. Today we are going to definitely have some fun. I'll tell you about our guests in a moment, but first, I want to tell you about me. That'll take an hour or so. I am Michael Hingson, your host, and you're listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. And I don't know, we may get inclusion or diversity into this, but our guest is Greg Schwem. Greg used to be a TV reporter, now he's a comedian, not sure which is funnier, but given some of the reporters I've seen on TV, they really should go into tonight club business. But anyway, Greg, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're really glad you're here. I really appreciate you being here and taking the time   Greg Schwem ** 02:04 Well, Michael, it is an honor to be included on your show. I'm really looking forward to the next hour of conversation. I   Speaker 1 ** 02:10 told Greg a little while ago, one of my major life ambitions that I never got to do was to go to a Don Rickles concert and sit in the front row so that hopefully he would pick on me, so that I could say, Yeah, I saw you once on TV, and I haven't been able to see since. What do you think of that? You hockey puck, but I never got to do it. So very disappointed. But everybody has bucket list moments, everybody has, but they don't get around to I'm sorry. Yeah, I know. Well, the other one is, I love to pick on Mike Wallace. I did a radio show for six years opposite him in 60 minutes, and I always love to say that Wallace really had criminal tendencies, because he started out being an announcer in radio and he announced things like The Green Hornet and the Sky King and other shows where they had a lot of criminals. So I just figured he had to be associated with criminals somewhere in his life. Of course, everybody picked on him, and he had broad shoulders. And I again, I regret I never got to to meet him, which is sort of disappointing. But I did get to meet Peter Falk. That was kind of fun.   Greg Schwem ** 03:15 Mike Wallace to Peter Falk. Nice transition there. I know.   Michael Hingson ** 03:21 Well I am really glad you're with us. So why don't we start? We'll start with the serious part. Why don't you tell us, kind of about the early Greg schwim and growing up and all that sort of stuff, just to set the stage, as it were,   Greg Schwem ** 03:34 how far back you want to go? You want to go back to Little League, or you want to   Speaker 1 ** 03:37 just, oh, start at the beginning, a long time ago, right? I was a   Greg Schwem ** 03:41 very strange child. No, I you. You obviously introduced me as a as a comedian, and that is my full time job. And you also said that I was a former journalist, and that is my professional career. Yes, I went from, as I always like to say, I went from depressing people all day long, to making them laugh. And that's, that's kind of what I did. I always did want to be I majored in Journalism at Northwestern University, good journalism school. Originally, I always wanted to be a television reporter. That was as a professional career I was, I dabbled in comedy. Started when I was 16. That is the first time I ever got on stage at my school, my high school, and then at a comedy club. I was there one of the first comedy clubs in Chicago, a place called the comedy cottage. It was in the suburb of beautiful, beautiful suburb of Rosemont, Illinois, and they were one of the very, very first full time comedy clubs in the nation. And as a 16 year old kid, I actually got on stage and did five minutes here and five minutes there. And thought I was, I was hot stuff, but I never, ever thought I would do it for a living. I thought comedy would always be just a hobby. And I. Especially when I went to college, and I thought, okay, Northwestern is pretty good school, pretty expensive school. I should actually use my degree. And I did. I moved down to Florida, wrote for a newspaper called The Palm Beach post, which, don't let that title fool you. It's Palm Beach was a very small segment of of the area that it was, that it served, but I did comedy on the side, and just because I moved down there, I didn't know anybody, so I hung out at comedy clubs just to have something to do. And little by little, comedy in the late 80s, it exploded. Exploded. There were suddenly clubs popping up everywhere, and you were starting to get to know guys that were doing these clubs and were starting to get recognition for just being comedians. And one of them opened up a very, very good Club opened up about 10 minutes from my apartment in West Palm Beach, and I hung out there and started to get more stage time, and eventually started to realize at the same time that I was getting better as a comedian, I was becoming more disillusioned as a journalist in terms of what my bosses wanted me to report on and the tone they wanted me to use. And I just decided that I would I would just never be able to live with myself if I didn't try it, if I didn't take the the plunge into comedy, and that's what I did in 1989 and I've been doing it ever since. And my career has gone in multiple directions, as I think it needs to. If you're going to be in show business and sustain a career in show business, you have to wear a lot of different hats, which I feel like I've done.   Michael Hingson ** 06:40 So tell me more about that. What does that mean exactly?   Greg Schwem ** 06:43 Well, I mean, I started out as a what you would pretty much if somebody said, If you heard somebody say, I'm a comedian, they would envision some guy that just went to comedy clubs all the time, and that's what I did. I was just a guy that traveled by car all over the Midwest and the Southeast primarily, and did comedy clubs, but I quickly realized that was kind of a going nowhere way to attack it, to do comedy unless you were incredibly lucky, because there were so many guys doing it and so many clubs, and I just didn't see a future in it, and I felt like I had to separate myself from the pack a little bit. And I was living in Chicago, which is where I'm from, and still, still exist. Still reside in Chicago, and I started to get involved with a company that did live trade show presentations. So if you've ever been on a trade show floor and you see people, they're mostly actors and actresses that wear a headset and deliver a spiel, a pitch, like every, every twice an hour, about some company, some new product, and so forth. And I did that, and I started to write material about what I was seeing on trade show floors and putting it into my stand up act, stuff about business, stuff about technology, because I was Hawking a lot of new computers and things like that. This was the mid 90s when technology was exploding, and I started to put this into my stand up act. And then I'd have people come up to me afterwards and say, hey, you know those jokes you did about computers and tech support, if you could come down to our office, you know, we're having a golf tournament, we're having a Christmas party, we would love to hear that material. And little by little, I started transitioning my act into doing shows for the corporate market. I hooked up with a corporate agent, or the corporate agent heard about me, and started to open a lot of doors for me in terms of working for very large corporations, and that's pretty much what I've been doing. I stopped working clubs, and I transitioned, instead of being a comedian, I became a corporate humor speaker. And that's what I do, primarily to this day, is to speak at business conferences. Just kind of get people to loosen up, get them to laugh about what they do all day without without making it sound like I'm belittling what they do. And also when I'm not doing that, I work about eight to 10 weeks a year on cruise ships, performing for cruise audiences. So that's a nice getaway.   Speaker 1 ** 09:18 It's interesting since I mentioned Don Rickles earlier, years ago, I saw an interview that he did with Donahue, and one of the things that Don Rickles said, and after he said it, I thought about it. He said, I really don't want to pick on anyone who's going to be offended by me picking on them. He said, I try to watch really carefully, so that if it looks like somebody's getting offended, I'll leave them alone, because that's not what this is all about. It isn't about abusing people. It's about trying to get people to have fun, and if somebody's offended, I don't want to to pick on them, and I've heard a number of albums and other things with him and just. Noticed that that was really true. He wouldn't pick on someone unless they could take it and had a lot of fun with it. And I thought that was absolutely interesting, because that certainly wasn't, of course, the rep that he had and no, but it was   Greg Schwem ** 10:16 true. It is, and it doesn't take long to see as a as a comedian, when you're looking at an audience member and you're talking to them, it, you can tell very quickly, Are they enjoying this? Are they enjoying being the center of attention? A lot of people are, or are they uncomfortable with it? Now, I don't know that going in. I mean, I you know, of course. And again, that's a very small portion of my show is to talk to the audience, but it is something particularly today. I think audiences want to be more involved. I think they enjoy you talk you. Some of these, the new comedians in their 20s and 30s and so forth. Them, some of them are doing nothing, but what they call crowd work. So they're just doing 45 minutes of talking to the audience, which can be good and can be rough too, because you're working without a net. But I'm happy to give an audience a little bit of that. But I also have a lot of stuff that I want to say too. I mean, I work very hard coming up with material and and refining it, and I want to talk about what's going on in my life, too. So I don't want the audience to be the entire show, right?   Speaker 1 ** 11:26 And and they shouldn't be, because it isn't about that. But at the same time, it is nice to involve them. I find that as a keynote and public speaker, I find that true as well, though, is that audiences do like to be involved. And I do some things right at the outset of most talks to involve people, and also in involving them. I want to get them to last so that I start to draw them in, because later, when I tell the September 11 story, which isn't really a humorous thing. Directly,   Greg Schwem ** 12:04 i know i Good luck. I'm spinning 911 to make it I don't think I've ever heard anybody say, by the way, I was trapped in a building. Stick with me. It's kind of cute. It's got a funny ending. And   Speaker 1 ** 12:20 that's right, and it is hard I can, I can say humorous things along the way in telling the story, but, sure, right, but, but clearly it's not a story that, in of itself, is humorous. But what I realized over the years, and it's really dawned on me in the last four or five years is we now have a whole generation of people who have absolutely no memory of September 11 because they were children or they weren't even born yet. And I believe that my job is to not only talk about it, but literally to draw them into the building and have them walk down the stairs with me, and I have to be descriptive in a very positive way, so that they really are part of what's going on. And the reality is that I do hear people or people come up and say, we were with you when you were going down the stairs. And I think that's my job, because the reality is that we've got to get people to understand there are lessons to be learned from September 11, right? And the only real way to do that is to attract the audience and bring them in. And I think probably mostly, I'm in a better position to do that than most people, because I'm kind of a curious soul, being blind and all that, but it allows me to to draw them in and and it's fun to do that, actually. And I, and   Greg Schwem ** 13:52 I gotta believe, I mean, obviously I wasn't there, Michael, but I gotta believe there were moments of humor in people, a bunch of people going down the stairs. Sure, me, you put people get it's like, it's like when a bunch of people are in an elevator together, you know, I mean, there's I, when I look around and I try to find something humorous in a crowded and it's probably the same thing now, obviously it, you know, you got out in time. But I and, you know, don't that's the hotel phone, which I just hung up so but I think that I can totally see where you're going from, where, if you're if you're talking to people who have no recollection of this, have no memory where you're basically educating them on the whole event. I think you then you have the opportunity to tell the story in whatever way you see fit. And I think that however you choose to do it is there's no wrong way to do it, I guess is what I'm trying to get at.   Speaker 1 ** 14:55 Well, yeah, I think the wrong way is to be two. Graphic and morbid and morbid, but one of the things that I talk about, for example, is that a colleague of mine who was with me, David Frank, at about the 50th floor, suddenly said, Mike, we're going to die. We're not going to make it out of here. And as as I tell the audience, typically, I as as you heard my introduction at the beginning, I have a secondary teaching credential. And one of the things that you probably don't know about teachers is that there's a secret course that every teacher takes called Voice 101, how to yell at students and and so what I tell people is that when David said that, I just said in my best teacher voice, stop it, David, if Roselle and I can go down these stairs, so can you. And he told me later that that brought him out of his funk, and he ended up walking a floor below me and shouting up to me everything he saw. And it was just mainly, everything is clear, like I'm on floor 48 he's on 47/47 floor. Everything is good here, and what I have done for the past several years in telling that part of the story is to say David, in reality, probably did more to keep people calm and focused as we went down the stairs than anyone else, because anyone within the sound of his voice heard someone who was focused and sounded okay. You know, hey, I'm on the 44th floor. This is where the Port Authority cafeteria is not stopping. And it it helps people understand that we all had to do what we could to keep everyone from not panicking. And it almost happened a few times that people did, but we worked at it. But the i The idea is that it helps draw people in, and I think that's so important to do for my particular story is to draw them in and have them walk down the stairs with me, which is what I do, absolutely, yeah, yeah. Now I'm curious about something that keeps coming up. I hear it every so often, public speaker, Speaker experts and people who are supposedly the great gurus of public speaking say you shouldn't really start out with a joke. And I've heard that so often, and I'm going give me a break. Well, I think, I think it depends, yeah, I think   Greg Schwem ** 17:33 there's two schools of thought to that. I think if you're going to start out with a joke, it better be a really good one, or something that you either has been battle tested, because if it doesn't work now, you, you know, if you're hoping for a big laugh, now you're saying, Well, you're a comedian, what do you do? You know, I mean, I, I even, I just sort of work my way into it a little bit. Yeah, and I'm a comedian, so, and, you know, it's funny, Michael, I will get, I will get. I've had CEOs before say to me, Hey, you know, I've got to give this presentation next week. Give me a joke I can tell to everybody. And I always decline. I always it's like, I don't need that kind of pressure. And it's like, I can, I can, I can tell you a funny joke, but,   Michael Hingson ** 18:22 but you telling the   Greg Schwem ** 18:23 work? Yeah, deliver it. You know, I can't deliver it for you. Yeah? And I think that's what I also, you know, on that note, I've never been a big fan of Stand Up Comedy classes, and you see them all popping up all over the place. Now, a lot of comedy clubs will have them, and usually the you take the class, and the carrot at the end is you get to do five minutes at a comedy club right now, if that is your goal, if you're somebody who always like, Gosh, I wonder what it would like be like to stand up on stage and and be a comedian for five minutes. That's something I really like to try. By all means, take the class, all right. But if you think that you're going to take this class and you're going to emerge a much funnier person, like all of a sudden you you weren't funny, but now you are, don't take the class, yeah? And I think, sadly, I think that a lot of people sign up for these classes thinking the latter, thinking that they will all of a sudden become, you know, a comedian. And it doesn't work that way. I'm sorry you cannot teach unfunny people to be funny. Yeah, some of us have the gift of it, and some of us don't. Some of us are really good with our hands, and just know how to build stuff and how to look at things and say, I can do that. And some of us, myself included, definitely do not. You know, I think you can teach people to be more comfortable, more comfortable in front of an audience and. Correct. I think that is definitely a teachable thing, but I don't think that you can teach people to be funnier   Speaker 1 ** 20:10 and funnier, and I agree with that. I tend to be amazed when I keep hearing that one of the top fears in our world is getting up in front of an audience and talking with them, because people really don't understand that audiences, whatever you're doing, want you to succeed, and they're not against you, but we have just conditioned ourselves collectively that speaking is something to be afraid of?   Greg Schwem ** 20:41 Yes, I think, though it's, I'm sure, that fear, though, of getting up in front of people has only probably been exacerbated and been made more intense because now everybody in the audience has a cell phone and to and to be looking out at people and to see them on their phones. Yeah, you're and yet, you prepped all day long. You've been nervous. You've been you probably didn't sleep the night before. If you're one of these people who are afraid of speaking in public, yeah, and then to see people on their phones. You know, it used to bother me. It doesn't anymore, because it's just the society we live in. I just, I wish, I wish people could put their phones down and just enjoy laughing for 45 minutes. But unfortunately, our society can't do that anymore, so I just hope that I can get most of them to stop looking at it.   Speaker 1 ** 21:32 I don't make any comments about it at the beginning, but I have, on a number of occasions, been delivering a speech, and I hear a cell phone ring, and I'll stop and go, Hello. And I don't know for sure what the person with the cell phone does, but by the same token, you know they really shouldn't be on their phone and and it works out, okay, nobody's ever complained about it. And when I just say hello, or I'll go Hello, you don't say, you know, and things like that, but, but I don't, I don't prolong it. I'll just go back to what I was talking about. But I remember, when I lived in New Jersey, Sandy Duncan was Peter Pan in New York. One night she was flying over the audience, and there was somebody on his cell phone, and she happened to be going near him, and she just kicked the phone out of his hand. And I think that's one of the things that started Broadway in saying, if you have a cell phone, turn it off. And those are the announcements that you hear at the beginning of any Broadway performance today.   Greg Schwem ** 22:39 Unfortunately, people don't abide by that. I know you're still hearing cell phones go off, yeah, you know, in Broadway productions at the opera or wherever, so people just can't and there you go. There that just shows you're fighting a losing battle.   Speaker 1 ** 22:53 Yeah, it's just one of those things, and you got to cope with it.   Greg Schwem ** 22:58 What on that note, though, there was, I will say, if I can interrupt real quick, there was one show I did where nobody had their phone. It was a few years ago. I spoke at the CIA. I spoke for some employees of the CIA. And this might, this might freak people out, because you think, how is it that America's covert intelligence agency, you think they would be on their phones all the time. No, if you work there, you cannot have your phone on you. And so I had an audience of about 300 people who I had their total attention because there was no other way to they had no choice but to listen to me, and it was wonderful. It was just a great show, and I it was just so refreshing. Yeah,   Speaker 1 ** 23:52 and mostly I don't hear cell phones, but they do come up from time to time. And if they do, then you know it happens. Now my one of my favorite stories is I once spoke in Maryland at the Department of Defense, which anybody who knows anything knows that's the National Security Agency, but they call it the Department of Defense, as if we don't know. And my favorite story is that I had, at the time, a micro cassette recorder, and it died that morning before I traveled to Fort Meade, and I forgot to just throw it away, and it was in my briefcase. So I got to the fort, they searched, apparently, didn't find it, but on the way out, someone found it. They had to get a bird Colonel to come to decide what to do with it. I said, throw it away. And they said, No, we can't do that. It's yours. And they they decided it didn't work, and they let me take it and I threw it away. But it was so, so funny to to be at the fort and see everybody running around crazy. See, what do we do with this micro cassette recorder? This guy's been here for an hour. Yeah. So it's it. You know, all sorts of things happen. What do you think about you know, there's a lot of discussion about comedians who use a lot of foul language in their shows, and then there are those who don't, and people seem to like the shock value of that.   Greg Schwem ** 25:25 Yeah, I'm very old school in that. I guess my short answer is, No, I've never, ever been one of those comedians. Ever I do a clean show, I actually learned my lesson very early on. I think I think that I think comedians tend to swear because when they first start out, out of nerves, because I will tell you that profanity does get laughter. And I've always said, if you want to, if you want to experiment on that, have a comedian write a joke, and let's say he's got two shows that night. Let's say he's got an eight o'clock show and a 10 o'clock show. So let's say he does the joke in the eight o'clock and it's, you know, the cadence is bumper, bump up, bump up, bump up, punch line. Okay, now let's and let's see how that plays. Now let's now he does the 10 o'clock show and it's bumper, bump up, bump up F and Okay, yeah, I pretty much guarantee you the 10 o'clock show will get a bigger laugh. Okay? Because he's sort of, it's like the audience is programmed like, oh, okay, we're supposed to laugh at that now. And I think a lot of comedians think, Aha, I have just discovered how to be successful as a comedian. I will just insert the F word in front of every punch line, and you can kind of tell what comedians do that and what comedians I mean. I am fine with foul language, but have some jokes in there too. Don't make them. Don't make the foul word, the joke, the joke, right? And I can say another thing nobody has ever said to me, I cannot hire you because you're too clean. I've never gotten that. And all the years I've been doing this, and I know there's lots of comedians who who do work blue, who have said, you know, who have been turned down for that very reason. So I believe, if you're a comedian, the only way to get better is to work any place that will have you. Yeah, and you can't, so you might as well work clean so you can work any place that will have you, as opposed to being turned away.   Speaker 1 ** 27:30 Well, and I, and I know what, what happened to him and all that, but at the same time, I grew up listening to Bill Cosby and the fact that he was always clean. And, yeah, I understand everything that happened, but you can't deny and you can't forget so many years of humor and all the things that that he brought to the world, and the joy he brought to the world in so many ways.   Greg Schwem ** 27:57 Oh, yeah, no, I agree. I agree. And he Yeah, he worked everywhere. Jay Leno is another one. I mean, Jay Leno is kind of on the same wavelength as me, as far as don't let the profanity become the joke. You know, Eddie Murphy was, you know, was very foul. Richard Pryor, extremely foul. I but they also, prior, especially, had very intelligent material. I mean, you can tell and then if you want to insert your F bombs and so forth, that's fine, but at least show me that you're trying. At least show me that you came in with material in addition to the   Speaker 1 ** 28:36 foul language. The only thing I really have to say about all that is it? Jay Leno should just stay away from cars, but that's another story.   Greg Schwem ** 28:43 Oh, yeah, it's starting to   Greg Schwem ** 28:47 look that way. Yeah, it   Michael Hingson ** 28:49 was. It was fun for a while, Jay, but yeah, there's just two. It's like, Harrison Ford and plains. Yeah, same concept. At some point you're like, this isn't working out. Now I submit that living here in Victorville and just being out on the streets and being driven around and all that, I am firmly convinced, given the way most people drive here, that the bigoted DMV should let me have a license, because I am sure I can drive as well as most of the clowns around here. Yeah, so when they drive, I have no doubt. Oh, gosh. Well, you know, you switched from being a TV journalist and so on to to comedy. Was it a hard choice? Was it really difficult to do, or did it just seem like this is the time and this is the right thing to do. I was   Greg Schwem ** 29:41 both, you know, it was hard, because I really did enjoy my job and I liked, I liked being a TV news reporter. I liked, I liked a job that was different every day once you got in there, because you didn't know what they were going to send you out to do. Yes, you had. To get up and go to work every day and so forth. So there's a little bit of, you know, there's a little bit of the mundane, just like there is in any job, but once you were there, I liked, just never known what the day would bring, right? And and I, I think if I'd stayed with it, I think I think I could have gone pretty far, particularly now, because the now it's more people on TV are becoming more entertainers news people are becoming, yeah, they are. A lot of would be, want to be comedians and so forth. And I don't particularly think that's appropriate, but I agree. But so it was hard to leave, but it gets back to what I said earlier. At some point, you got to say, I was seeing comedians making money, and I was thinking, gosh, you know, if they're making money at this I I'm not hilarious, but I know I'm funnier than that guy. Yeah, I'm funnier than her, so why not? And I was young, and I was single, and I thought, if I if I don't try it now, I never will. And, and I'll bet there's just some hilarious people out there, yeah, who who didn't ever, who just were afraid   Michael Hingson ** 31:14 to take that chance, and they wouldn't take the leap, yeah,   Greg Schwem ** 31:16 right. And now they're probably kicking themselves, and I'm sure maybe they're very successful at what they do, but they're always going to say, what if, if I only done this? I don't ever, I don't, ever, I never, ever wanted to say that. Yeah,   Speaker 1 ** 31:31 well, and there's, there's something to be said for being brave and stepping out and doing something that you don't expect, or that you didn't expect, or that you weren't sure how it was going to go, but if you don't try, then you're never going to know just how, how much you could really accomplish and how much you can really do. And I think that the creative people, whatever they're being creative about, are the people who do step out and are willing to take a chance.   Greg Schwem ** 31:59 Yeah, yeah. And I told my kids that too. You know, it's just like, if it's something that you're passionate about, do it. Just try it. If it doesn't work out, then at least you can say I tried   Speaker 1 ** 32:09 it and and if it doesn't work out, then you can decide, what do I need to do to figure out why it didn't work out, or is it just not me? I want   Greg Schwem ** 32:18 to keep going? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.   Speaker 1 ** 32:21 So what is the difference between being a nightclub comedian and a corporate comedian? Because they are somewhat different. I think I know the answer. But what would you say that the differences between them? I think   Greg Schwem ** 32:33 the biggest thing is the audiences. I think when you when you are a nightclub comedian, you are working in front of people who are there to be entertained. Yeah, they, they paid money for that. That's what they're expecting. They, they, at some point during the day, they said, Hey, let's, let's go laugh tonight. That's what we really want to do when you're working in front of a corporate audiences. That's not necessarily the case. They are there. I primarily do business conferences and, you know, association meetings and so forth. And I'm just one cog in the wheel of a whole day's worth of meetings are, for the most part, very dry and boring, maybe certainly necessary educational. They're learning how to do their job better or something. And then you have a guy like me come in, and people aren't always ready to laugh, yeah, despite the fact that they probably need to, but they just they're not always in that mindset. And also the time of day. I mean, I do a lot of shows at nine in the morning. I do shows after lunch, right before lunch. I actually do very few shows in the evening, believe it or not. And so then you you have to, you kind of have to, in the while you're doing your act or your presentation or your speech, as I call it, you kind of have to let them know that it is okay. What you're doing is okay, and they should be okay with laughing. They shouldn't be looking around the whole time wondering if other people are laughing. You know, can I, can I? Can I tell you a quick story about how I drive that point home. Why not? Yeah, it's, I'll condense it into like five minutes. I mentioned that I worked on that I work on cruise ships occasionally, and I one night I was performing, and it was the first night of the cruise. And if anybody's ever been on a cruise, note, the first night, first night entertainers don't like the first night because people are tired. You know, they're they're a little edgy because they've been traveling all day. They're they're confused because they're not really sure where they're going on a ship. And the ones that have got it figured out usually over serve themselves because they're on vacation. So you put all that, so I'm doing my show on the first. Night, and it's going very well. And about five, six minutes in, I do a joke. Everybody laughs. Everybody shuts up. And from the back of the room in total darkness, I hear hat just like that. And I'm like, All right, you know, probably over served. So the rule of comedy is that everybody gets like. I was like, I'll let it go once, yeah. So I just kind of looked off in that direction, didn't say anything. Kept going with my active going with my act. About 10 minutes later, same thing happens. I tell a joke. Everybody laughs. Everybody shuts up. Hat now I'm like, Okay, I have got to, I've got to address the elephant in the room. So I think I just made some comment, like, you know, I didn't know Roseanne Barr was on this cruise, you know, because that was like the sound of the Yeah. Okay, everybody laugh. Nothing happened about five minutes later. It happens a third time. And now I'm just like, this is gonna stop. I'm going to put a stop to this. And I just fired off. I can't remember, like, three just like, hey man, you know you're you're just a little behind everybody else in this show and probably in life too, that, you know, things like that, and it never happened again. So I'm like, okay, mission accomplished on my part. Comedians love it when we can shut up somebody like that. Anyway. Show's over, I am out doing a meet and greet. Some guy comes up to me and he goes, hey, hey, you know that kid you were making fun of is mentally handicapped. And now, of course, I don't know this, but out of the corner of my eye, I see from the other exit a man pushing a son, his son in a wheelchair out of the showroom. And I'm just like, Oh, what have I done? And yeah. And of course, when you're on a cruise, you're you're on a cruise. When you're a cruise ship entertainer, you have to live with your audience. So I couldn't hide. I spent like the next three days, and it seemed like wherever I was, the man and his son in the wheelchair were nearby. And finally, on the fourth day, I think was, I was waiting for an elevator. Again, 3500 people on this ship, okay, I'm waiting for an elevator. The elevator door opens. Guess who are the only two people the elevator, the man and his son. And I can't really say I'll wait for the next one. So I get on, and I said to this the father, I said, I just want you to know I had no idea. You know, I'm so sorry. I can't see back there, this kind of thing. And the dad looks at me. He puts his hand up to stop me, and he points to me, and he goes, I thought you were hysterical. And it was, not only was it relief, but it kind of, it's sort of a lesson that if you think something is funny, you should laugh at it. Yeah. And I think sometimes in corporate America, my point in this. I think sometimes when you do these corporate shows, I think that audience members forget that. I think very busy looking around to see if their immediate boss thinks it's funny, and eventually everybody's looking at the CEO to see if they're like, you know, I think if you're doing it that way, if that's the way you're you're approaching humor. You're doing yourself a disservice, if right, stopping yourself from laughing at something that you think is funny.   Speaker 1 ** 38:09 I do think that that all too often the problem with meetings is that we as a as a country, we in corporations, don't do meetings, right anyway, for example, early on, I heard someone at a convention of the National Federation of the Blind say he was the new executive director of the American Foundation for the Blind, and he said, I have instituted a policy, no Braille, no meetings. And what that was all about was to say, if you're going to have a meeting, you need to make sure that all the documentation is accessible to those who aren't going to read the print. I take it further and say you shouldn't be giving out documentation during the meeting. And you can use the excuse, well, I got to get the latest numbers and all that. And my point is, you shouldn't be giving out documentation at a meeting, because the meeting is for people to communicate and interact with each other. And if you're giving out papers and so on, what are people going to do? They're going to read that, and they're not going to listen to the speakers. They're not going to listen to the other people. And we do so many things like that, we've gotten into a habit of doing things that become so predictable, but also make meetings very boring, because who wants to look at the papers where you can be listening to people who have a lot more constructive and interesting things to say anyway?   Greg Schwem ** 39:36 Yeah, yeah. I think, I think COVID definitely changed, some for the some for the better and some for the worse. I think that a lot of things that were done at meetings COVID and made us realize a lot of that stuff could be done virtually, that you didn't have to just have everybody sit and listen to people over and over and over again.   Speaker 1 ** 39:58 But unless you're Donald Trump. Up. Yeah, that's another story.   Greg Schwem ** 40:02 Yes, exactly another podcast episode. But, yeah, I do think also that. I think COVID changed audiences. I think, you know, we talked a little bit earlier about crowd work, right, and audiences wanting to be more involved. I think COVID precipitated that, because, if you think about it, Michael, for two and a half years during COVID, our sole source of entertainment was our phone, right? Which meant that we were in charge of the entertainment experience. You don't like something, swipe left, scroll down, scroll, scroll, scroll, find something else. You know, that kind of thing. I'm not I'm not entertained in the next four or five seconds. So I'm going to do this. And I think when live entertainment returned, audiences kind of had to be retrained a little bit, where they had to learn to sit and listen and wait for the entertainment to come to them. And granted, it might not happen immediately. It might not happen in the first five seconds, but you have to just give give people like me a chance. It will come to you. It will happen, but it might not be on your timetable,   Speaker 1 ** 41:13 right? Well, and I think that is all too true for me. I didn't find didn't find COVID to be a great inconvenience, because I don't look at the screen anyway, right? So in a sense, for me, COVID wasn't that much of a change, other than not being in an office or not being physically at a meeting, and so I was listening to the meeting on the computer, and that has its nuances. Like you don't necessarily get the same information about how everyone around you is reacting, but, but it didn't bother me, I think, nearly as much as it did everyone else who has to look at everyone. Of course, I have no problems picking on all those people as well, because what I point out is that that disabilities has to be redefined, because every one of you guys has your own disability. You're light dependent, and you don't do well when there's dark, when, when the dark shows up and and we now have an environment where Thomas Edison invented the electric light bulb, and we've spent the last 147 years doing everything we can to make sure that light is pretty ubiquitous, but it doesn't change a thing when suddenly the power goes out and you don't have immediate access to light. So that's as much a disability as us light, independent people who don't   Greg Schwem ** 42:36 care about that, right? Right? I hear, I agree, but it is but   Speaker 1 ** 42:41 it is interesting and and it is also important that we all understand each other and are willing to tolerate the fact that there are differences in people, and we need to recognize that with whatever we're doing.   42:53 Yeah, I agree.   Speaker 1 ** 42:57 What do you think about so today, we have obviously a really fractured environment and fractured country, and everyone's got their own opinions, and nobody wants to talk about anything, especially politics wise. How do you think that's all affecting comedy and what you get to do and what other people are doing?   Greg Schwem ** 43:18 Well, I think Pete, I think there's, there's multiple answers to that question too. I think, I think it makes people nervous, wondering what the minute a comedian on stage brings up politics, the minute he starts talking about a politician, whether it's our president, whether it's somebody else, you can sense a tension in the room a little bit, and it's, it's, I mean, it's funny. I, one of my best friends in comedy, got to open for another comedian at Carnegie Hall a couple of years ago, and I went to see him, and I'm sitting way up in the top, and he is just crushing it. And then at one point he he brought up, he decided to do an impression of Mitch McConnell, which he does very well. However, the minute he said, Mitch McConnell, I you could just sense this is Carnegie freaking Hall, and after the show, you know, he and I always like to dissect each other's shows. That's what comedians do. And I just said to him, I go. Why did you decide to insert Mitch McConnell in there? And I, and I didn't say it like, you moron, that was stupid, yeah, but I was genuinely curious. And he just goes, well, I just really like doing that bit, and I like doing that voice and so forth, but, and it's not like the show crashed and burned afterwards. No, he did the joke, and then he got out of it, and he went on to other stuff, and it was fine, but I think that people are just so on their guard now, yeah, and, and that's why, you know, you know Jay Leno always said he was an equal opportunity offender. I think you will do better with politics if you really want. Insert politics into your act. I think he would be better making fun of both sides. Yeah, it's true. Yeah. And I think too often comedians now use the the stage as kind of a Bully, bully pulpit, like I have microphone and you don't. I am now going to give you my take on Donald Trump or the Democrats or whatever, and I've always said, talk about anything you want on stage, but just remember, you're at a comedy club. People came to laugh. So is there a joke in here? Yeah, or are you just ranting because you gotta be careful. You have to get this off your chest, and your way is right. It's, it's, you know, I hate to say it, but that's, that's why podcast, no offense, Michael, yours, is not like this. But I think one of the reasons podcasters have gotten so popular is a lot of people, just a lot of podcast hosts see a podcast is a chance to just rant about whatever's on their mind. And it's amazing to me how many podcast hosts that are hosted by comedians have a second guy have a sidekick to basically laugh and agree with whatever that person says. I think Joe Rogan is a classic example, and he's one of the most popular ones. But, and I don't quite understand that, because you know, if you're a comedian, you you made the choice to work solo, right? So why do you need somebody else with you?   Speaker 1 ** 46:33 I'm I'm fairly close to Leno. My remark is a little bit different. I'm not so much an equal opportunity offender as I am an equal opportunity abuser. I'll pick on both sides if politics comes into it at all, and it's and it's fun, and I remember when George W Bush was leaving the White House, Letterman said, Now we're not going to have anybody to joke about anymore. And everyone loved it. But still, I recognize that in the world today, people don't want to hear anything else. Don't confuse me with the facts or any of that, and it's so unfortunate, but it is the way it is, and so it's wiser to stay away from a lot of that, unless you can really break through the barrier,   Greg Schwem ** 47:21 I think so. And I also think that people, one thing you have to remember, I think, is when people come to a comedy show, they are coming to be entertained. Yeah, they are coming to kind of escape from the gloom and doom that unfortunately permeates our world right now. You know? I mean, I've always said that if you, if you walked up to a comedy club on a Saturday night, and let's say there were 50 people waiting outside, waiting to get in, and you asked all 50 of them, what do you hope happens tonight? Or or, Why are you here? All right, I think from all 50 you would get I would just like to laugh, yeah, I don't think one of them is going to say, you know, I really hope that my opinions on what's happening in the Middle East get challenged right now, but he's a comedian. No one is going to say that. No, no. It's like, I hope I get into it with the comedian on stage, because he thinks this way about a woman's right to choose, and I think the other way. And I really, really hope that he and I will get into an argument about to the middle of the   Speaker 1 ** 48:37 show. Yeah, yeah. That's not why people come?   Greg Schwem ** 48:40 No, it's not. And I, unfortunately, I think again, I think that there's a lot of comedians that don't understand that. Yeah, again, talk about whatever you want on stage, but just remember that your your surroundings, you if you build yourself as a comedian,   48:56 make it funny. Yeah, be funny.   Speaker 1 ** 49:00 Well, and nowadays, especially for for you, for me and so on, we're we're growing older and and I think you point out audiences are getting younger. How do you deal with that?   Greg Schwem ** 49:12 Well, what I try to do is I a couple of things. I try to talk as much as I can about topics that are relevant to a younger generation. Ai being one, I, one of the things I do in my my show is I say, oh, you know, I I really wasn't sure how to start off. And when you're confused these days, you you turn to answer your questions. You turn to chat GPT, and I've actually written, you know, said to chat GPT, you know, I'm doing a show tonight for a group of construction workers who work in the Midwest. It's a $350 million company, and it says, try to be very specific. Give me a funny opening line. And of course, chat GPT always comes up with some. Something kind of stupid, which I then relate to the audience, and they love that, you know, they love that concept. So I think there's, obviously, there's a lot of material that you can do on generational differences, but I, I will say I am very, very aware that my audience is, for the most part, younger than me now, unless I want to spend the rest of my career doing you know, over 55 communities, not that they're not great laughers, but I also think there's a real challenge in being older than your audience and still being able to make them laugh. But I think you have to remember, like you said, there's there's people now that don't remember 911 that have no concept of it, yeah, so don't be doing references from, say, the 1980s or the early 1990s and then come off stage and go, Man, nobody that didn't hit at all. No one, no one. They're stupid. They don't get it. Well, no, they, they, it sounds they don't get it. It's just that they weren't around. They weren't around, right? So that's on you.   Speaker 1 ** 51:01 One of the things that you know people ask me is if I will do virtual events, and I'll do virtual events, but I also tell people, the reason I prefer to do in person events is that I can sense what the audience is doing, how they're reacting and what they feel. If I'm in a room speaking to people, and I don't have that same sense if I'm doing something virtually, agreed same way. Now for me, at the same time, I've been doing this now for 23 years, so I have a pretty good idea in general, how to interact with an audience, to draw them in, even in a virtual environment, but I still tend to be a little bit more careful about it, and it's just kind of the way it is, you know, and you and you learn to deal with it well for you, have you ever had writer's block, and how did you deal with it?   Greg Schwem ** 51:57 Yes, I have had writer's block. I don't I can't think of a single comedian who's never had writer's block, and if they say they haven't, I think they're lying when I have writer's block, the best way for me to deal with this and just so you know, I'm not the kind of comedian that can go that can sit down and write jokes. I can write stories. I've written three books, but I can't sit down and just be funny for an hour all by myself. I need interaction. I need communication. And I think when I have writer's block, I tend to go out and try and meet strangers and can engage them in conversation and find out what's going on with them. I mean, you mentioned about dealing with the younger audience. I am a big believer right now in talking to people who are half my age. I like doing that in social settings, because I just, I'm curious. I'm curious as to how they think. I'm curious as to, you know, how they spend money, how they save money, how what their hopes and dreams are for the future, what that kind of thing, and that's the kind of stuff that then I'll take back and try and write material about. And I think that, I think it's fun for me, and it's really fun to meet somebody who I'll give you a great example just last night. Last night, I was I there's a there's a bar that I have that's about 10 a stone's throw from my condo, and I love to stop in there and and every now and then, sometimes I'll sit there and I won't meet anybody, and sometimes different. So there was a guy, I'd say he's probably in his early 30s, sitting too over, and he was reading, which I find intriguing, that people come to a bar and read, yeah, people do it, I mean. And I just said to him, I go, and he was getting ready to pay his bill, and I just said, if you don't mind me asking, What are you reading? And he's like, Oh, it's by Ezra Klein. And I go, you know, I've listened to Ezra Klein before. And he goes, Yeah, you know? He says, I'm a big fan. And debt to debt to dad. Next thing, you know, we're just, we're just riffing back and forth. And I ended up staying. He put it this way, Michael, it took him a very long time to pay his bill because we had a conversation, and it was just such a pleasure to to people like that, and I think that, and it's a hard thing. It's a hard thing for me to do, because I think people are on their guard, a little bit like, why is this guy who's twice my age talking to me at a bar? That's that seems a little weird. And I would get that. I can see that. But as I mentioned in my latest book, I don't mean because I don't a whole chapter to this, and I I say in the book, I don't mean you any harm. I'm not trying to hit on you, or I'm not creepy old guy at the bar. I am genuinely interested in your story. And. In your life, and and I just, I want to be the least interesting guy in the room, and that's kind of how I go about my writing, too. Is just you, you drive the story. And even though I'm the comedian, I'll just fill in the gaps and make them funny.   Speaker 1 ** 55:15 Well, I know that I have often been invited to speak at places, and I wondered, What am I going to say to this particular audience? How am I going to deal with them? They're they're different than what I'm used to. What I found, I guess you could call that writer's block, but what I found is, if I can go early and interact with them, even if I'm the very first speaker, if I can interact with them beforehand, or if there are other people speaking before me, invariably, I will hear things that will allow me to be able to move on and give a relevant presentation specifically to that group, which is what it's really all about. And so I'm with you, and I appreciate it, and it's good to get to the point where you don't worry about the block, but rather you look at ways to move forward and interact with people and make it fun, right,   Greg Schwem ** 56:13 right? And I do think people, I think COVID, took that away from us a little bit, yeah, obviously, but I but, and I do think people missed that. I think that people, once you get them talking, are more inclined to not think that you're you have ulterior motives. I think people do enjoy putting their phones down a little bit, but it's, it's kind of a two way street when I, when I do meet people, if it's if it's only me asking the questions, eventually I'm going to get tired of that. Yeah, I think there's a, there has to be a reciprocity thing a little bit. And one thing I find is, is with the Gen Z's and maybe millennials. They're not, they're not as good at that as I think they could be. They're more they're they're happy to talk about themselves, but they're not really good at saying so what do you do for a living? Or what you know, tell me about you. And I mean, that's how you learn about other people. Yeah,   Speaker 1 ** 57:19 tell me about your your latest book, Turning gut punches into punchlines. That's a interesting title, yeah, well, the more   Greg Schwem ** 57:26 interesting is the subtitle. So it's turning gut punches into punch punch lines, A Comedian's journey through cancer, divorce and other hilarious stuff.   Speaker 1 ** 57:35 No, like you haven't done anything in the world. Okay, right? So   Greg Schwem ** 57:38 other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln. Yeah, exactly. See, now you get that reference. I don't know if I could use that on stage, but anyway, depend on your audience. But yeah, they're like, What's he talking   Speaker 1 ** 57:50 who's Lincoln? And I've been to Ford theater too, so that's okay, yes, as have I. So it was much later than, than, well, than Lincoln, but that's okay.   Greg Schwem ** 57:58 You're not that old, right? No. Well, okay, so as the title, as the title implies, I did have sort of a double, double gut punch, it just in the last two years. So I, I got divorced late in life, after 29 years of marriage. And while that was going on, I got a colon cancer diagnosis and and at this end, I was dealing with all this while also continuing work as a humor speaker, okay, as a comedian. And I just decided I got it. First of all, I got a very clean bill of health. I'm cancer free. I am finally divorced so and I, I started to think, I wonder if there's some humor in this. I I would, I would, you know, Michael, I've been on stage for like, 25 years telling people that, you know, you can find something funny to laugh at. You can find humor in any situation. It's kind of like what you're talking about all the people going down the stairs in the building in the world trade center. All right, if you look around enough, you know, maybe there's something funny, and I've been preaching that, but I never really had to live that until now. And I thought, you know, maybe there's something here. Maybe I can this is my chance now to embrace new experiences. It was kind of when I got divorced, when you've been married half your life and all of a sudden you get divorced, everything's new to you, yeah, you're, you're, you're living alone, you you're doing things that your spouse did, oh, so many years. And you're having to do those, and you're having to make new friends, yeah, and all of that, I think, is very humorous. So the more I saw a book in there that I started writing before the cancer diagnosis, and I thought was there enough here? Just like, okay, a guy at 60 years old gets divorced now what's going to happen to him? The diagnosis? Kind. Made it just added another wrinkle to the book, because now I have to deal with this, and I have to find another subject to to make light of a little bit. So the book is not a memoir, you know, I don't start it off. And, you know, when I was seven, you know, I played, you know, I was, I went to this school night. It's not that. It's more just about reinvention and just seeing that you can be happy later in life, even though you have to kind of rewrite your your story a little   Speaker 1 ** 1:00:33 bit. And I would assume, and I would assume, you bring some of that into your ACT every so   Greg Schwem ** 1:00:38 very much. So yeah, I created a whole new speech called Turning gut punches into punchlines. And I some of the stuff that I, that I did, but, you know, there's a chapter in the book about, I about gig work, actually three chapters I, you know, I went to work for Amazon during the Christmas holiday rush, just scanning packages. I wanted to see what that was like. I drove for Uber I which I did for a while. And to tell you the truth, I miss it. I ended up selling my car, but I miss it because of the what we just talked about. It was a great way to communicate with people. It was a great way to talk to people, find out about them, be the least interesting person in the car, anyway. And there's a chapter about dating and online dating, which I had not had to do in 30 years. There's a lot of humor in that. I went to therapy. I'd never gone to therapy before. I wrote a chapter about that. So I think people really respond to this book, because they I think they see a lot of themselves in it. You know, lots of people have been divorced. There's lots of cancer survivors out there, and there's lots of people who just suddenly have hit a speed bump in their life, and they're not really sure how to deal with it, right? And my way, this book is just about deal with it through laughter. And I'm the perfect example.   Speaker 1 ** 1:01:56 I hear you, Oh, I I know, and I've been through the same sort of thing as you not a divorce, but my wife and I were married for 40 years, and she passed away in November of 2022 after 40 years of marriage. And as I tell people, as I tell people, I got to be really careful, because she's monitoring me from somewhere, and if I misbehave, I'm going to hear about it, so I got to be a good kid, and I don't even chase the women so. But I also point out that none of them have been chasing me either, so I guess I just do what we got to do. But the reality is, I think there are always ways to find some sort of a connection with other people, and then, of course, that's what what you do. It's all about creating a connection, creating a relationship, even if it's only for a couple of hours or an hour or 45 minutes, but, but you do it, which is what it's all about?   Greg Schwem ** 1:02:49 Yeah, exactly. And I think the funniest stuff is real life experience. Oh, absolutely, you know. And if people can see themselves in in what I've written, then I've done my job as a writer.   Speaker 1 ** 1:03:03 So do you have any plans to retire?   Greg Schwem ** 1:03:06 Never. I mean, good for you retire from what   1:03:09 I know right, making fun of people   Greg Schwem ** 1:03:12 and making them laugh. I mean, I don't know what I would do with myself, and even if I there's always going to be I don't care how technology, technologically advanced our society gets. People will always want and need to laugh. Yeah, they're always going to want to do that. And if they're want, if they're wanting to do that, then I will find, I will find a way to get to them. And that's why I, as I said, That's why, like working on cruise ships has become, like a new, sort of a new avenue for me to make people laugh. And so, yeah, I don't I there's, there's no way. I don't know what else I would do with   Speaker 1 ** 1:03:53 myself, well and from my perspective, as long as I can inspire people, yes, I can make people think a little bit and feel better about themselves. I'm going to do it right. And, and, and I do. And I wrote a book during COVID that was published last August called Live like a guide dog. And it's all about helping people learn to control fear. And I use lessons I learned from eight guide dogs and my wife service dog to do that. My wife was in a wheelchair her whole life. Great marriage. She read, I pushed worked out well, but, but the but the but the bottom line is that dogs can teach us so many lessons, and there's so much that we can learn from them. So I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to create this book and and get it out there. And I think that again, as long as I can continue to inspire people, I'm going to do it. Because   Greg Schwem ** 1:04:47 why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't I exactly right? Yeah, yeah. So,   Speaker 1 ** 1:04:51 I mean, I think if I, if I stopped, I think my wife would beat up on me, so I gotta be nice exactly. She's monitoring from somewhere

It's summer, and that means more time outside—and for me, that means time with trees. In this episode, I dive deep into how trees, those quiet giants of our world, can actually help us and our kids develop healthier minds and deeper self-awareness. I unpack some fascinating science behind what nature, especially time spent among trees, does for our brains, our stress levels, and even our test scores.Inspired by Peter Wohlleben's The Hidden Life of Trees, I explore not just the hidden life of trees, but the hidden life in trees—and what it can teach us about connection, cooperation, and the power of downtime. Whether you're a fellow tree-lover, a parent looking for ways to support your child's mental health, or just someone who needs a reason to unplug and take a walk, this episode is for you. Episode Highlights:[0:00] - Why we fall back into old habits and the launch of our new workbook, The Seven Principles for Raising a Self-Driven Child [1:20] - Introducing the episode theme: my love for trees and what they offer us mentally and emotionally [3:14] - What Peter Wohlleben teaches us about trees' communication, cooperation, and support systems [5:55] - Why intergenerational connections matter—and how forests model this beautifully [7:03] - Green spaces and mental health: insights from Denmark and beyond [9:02] - Understanding the default mode network and why downtime is vital for brain development [12:25] - How nature improves test performance: the Johns Hopkins study and real-life results [14:30] - A personal story of helping a student prep for the ACT with a walk in the woods [16:08] - The danger of overscheduling our kids and the need for daily unstructured time [17:40] - My son's dreamy daydreaming as a child and how it shaped his path as a composer [18:50] - How to gently support kids in managing phone use and embracing digital downtime [19:46] - Final reflections and a call to get out in nature and enjoy a moment of peace and connection Links & Resources:The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben: https://www.peterwohllebenbooks.com/ ·         Article: "Rest Is Not Idleness" by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26168472/ If this episode has helped you, remember to rate, follow, and share the Self-Driven Child Podcast. Your support helps us reach more people and create more content that makes a difference.  If you have a high school aged student and would like to talk about putting a tutoring or college plan together, reach out to Ned's company, PrepMatters at www.prepmatters.com

Since the first permanent settlers landed there more than a thousand years ago, Iceland has been perhaps the most unique and enchanting place in all of Europe. How fitting, then, for its people to have developed unique, enchanting, and captivating stories involving hidden people, trolls, ghosts, sea monsters, and more. In this episode, Jacke talks to Dagrún Ósk Jónsdóttir about the tales of love, revenge, and conflict gathered in her book Ghosts, Trolls, and the Hidden People: An Anthology of Icelandic Folk Legends. PLUS Jacke takes a look at a new exhibit devoted to the life and works of John le Carré. Special Announcement: The History of Literature Podcast Tour is happening in May 2026! Act now to join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. Find out more by emailing jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or masahiko@johnshorstravel.com, or by contacting us through our website ⁠historyofliterature.com⁠. Or visit the ⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠ at ⁠John Shors Travel⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠gabrielruizbernal.com ⁠. Help support the show at ⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠or ⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature ⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally Aired July 14, 2025: Act like a bitch, get treated like a bitch. Baby on board. Everything you wanna know about Ashley's sex playlist. Listen & subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Amazon Music. For more, visit https://www.93x.com/half-assed-morning-show/Follow the Half-Assed Morning Show:Twitter/X: @93XHAMSFacebook: @93XHAMSInstagram: @93XHAMSEmail the show: HAMS93X@gmail.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Note: "Act 2" will be a separate published audio podcast.*Check out EZ's morning radio show "The InZane Asylum Q100 Michigan with Eric Zane" Click here*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.comTopics:*EZ reviews his most successful troll weekend in history.*Video of Free Beer sounding like a douchebag. This is the video that wound everybody up on the Segment 18 page.*EZ details three Facebook convos with audience members. Two of which are brainwashed FBHW fans who needed to be humbled by EZ. The third convo was with a convert to the EZ universe.Sponsors:Jenison Pool and Spa Depot. Adam Casari Realty. Impact Power Sports, Kuiper Tree Care, Frank Fuss / My Policy Shop Insurance, Kings Room Barbershop, Shoreliners Striping, Ervines Auto Repair Grand Rapids Hybrid & EV, Berlin Raceway, Dump-A-HaulicsInterested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.com and let me design a marketing plan for you.Contact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Note: "Act 2" will be a separate published audio podcast.*Check out EZ's morning radio show "The InZane Asylum Q100 Michigan with Eric Zane" Click here*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.comTopics:*Some lady in one of the local "Hard Livin' Line" areas is pissed off about her neighbor shooting guns.*EZ is a now legend at making smash-burgers. Apparently there's some chemistry involved when making smash-burgers.*EZ's Slaughter the Turks Smash Burgers recipe.*Fat-A-Thon update.*Asshole of the DaySponsors:Jenison Pool and Spa Depot. Adam Casari Realty. Impact Power Sports, Kuiper Tree Care, Frank Fuss / My Policy Shop Insurance, Kings Room Barbershop, Shoreliners Striping, Ervines Auto Repair Grand Rapids Hybrid & EV, Berlin Raceway, Dump-A-HaulicsInterested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.com and let me design a marketing plan for you.Contact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Discover what's inside the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) that has real estate investors buzzing—and CPAs scrambling to update their playbooks. In this special episode, Tim Mai sits down with tax strategist Jennifer Semien, CPA, to break down the powerful new tax advantages real estate investors can leverage immediately. From massive deductions on vehicles and equipment to changes in depreciation and cost segregation rules, Jennifer explains exactly how to structure your strategy to maximize write-offs, reduce taxable income, and stay compliant. If you invest in real estate and want to legally minimize your tax bill, this is a must-listen breakdown of the OBBBA—direct from the frontlines of tax law. 5 Key Takeaways from Jennifer Semien's Episode:Bonus Depreciation Is Back (And Bigger): The OBBBA reintroduces 100% bonus depreciation for certain asset classes—giving investors immediate write-offs.Vehicle and Equipment Deductions Expanded: Business-use trucks and machinery now qualify for larger deductions under the updated Section 179 limits.Cost Segregation Just Got More Powerful: The Act enhances the value of cost seg studies by accelerating more components into shorter life categories.OBBBA Applies Retroactively: Some provisions of the Act are retroactive, meaning investors can refile or amend to capture missed deductions.Real Estate Investors Must Act Fast: Jennifer emphasizes that timing and proper documentation are key to fully benefiting from OBBBA's provisions.About Tim MaiTim Mai is a real estate investor, fund manager, mentor, and founder of HERO Mastermind for REI coaches.He has helped many real estate investors and coaches become millionaires. Tim continues to help busy professionals earn income and build wealth through passive investing.He is also a creative marketer and promoter with incredible knowledge and experience, which he freely shares. He has lifted himself from the aftermath of war, achieving technical expertise in computers, followed by investment success in real estate, management skills, and a lofty position among real estate educators and internet marketers.Tim is an industry leader who has acquired and exited well over $50 million worth of real estate and is currently an investor in over 2700 units of multifamily apartments.Connect with TimWebsite: Capital Raising PartyFacebook: Tim Mai | Capital Raising Nation Instagram: @timmaicomTwitter: @timmaiLinkedIn: Tim MaiYouTube: Tim Mai

On today's show we are talking about access to US Federal low income housing tax credits. This is something that frankly has not made headlines. The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the primary federal program for encouraging the development and preservation of affordable rental housing in the United States. Here's how bonding capacity links to LIHTC and how recent legislation has changed the requirements.The Act permanently reduces the threshold for private activity bond financing from 50% to 25% of the aggregate basis of the building and land costs. They effectively doubled the impact of bonding capacity and therefore they doubled the low income housing tax credits that are possible for the same amount of bonding.-----------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

In today's episode of Psych Talk I discuss Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). I provide a brief overview of the history of ACT, its main goals, and what mental health conditions it is effective for. I then discuss the primary goal of ACT, cognitive flexibility, and discuss in depth the opposite of this, cognitive rigidity, and six ways cognitive rigidity may manifest. I then discuss the Hexa-Flex, which includes the six core components of ACT - contact with the present moment, cognitive defusion, experiential acceptance, self as context, values, and committed action - and discuss what each of these is, their goals, and some interventions for each. Resources:The ACT Hexaflex — Nesh NikolicACT MatrixValues Card Sort https://stevenchayes.com/Connect with Me:Follow me on IG ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jessicaleighphd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow the podcast on IG ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@psych.talk.podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow me on TikTok ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jessicaleighphd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Youtube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow me on Threads ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@jessicaleighphd⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Welcome to Group Therapy Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join my Facebook community: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Grow Through What You Go Through⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ways to Work With Me:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Mind Over Matter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LGBTQ+ Affirming Masterclass⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Be a guest on my podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Resources:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Anti-Racism Resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LGBTQ+ Affirming Resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Helping Professional's Guide to Boundary Setting⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Intro/Outro Music⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Life of Riley⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ by Kevin MacLeod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Music License⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

How do you harness your mind to perform at your best — even if you think differently? In this episode, I speak with leading sports psychologist Dr. Josephine Perry, author of ADHD in Sport: Strategies for Success. We explore how understanding your unique brain wiring — whether you have ADHD or not — can unlock better focus, sleep, and performance. Dr. Perry shares why many high achievers struggle with racing thoughts, perfectionism, or anxiety — and how tools like mindfulness, movement, and understanding your natural rhythms can help. We discuss practical ways to work with your mind, manage distractions, and develop habits that stick. If you're curious about peak performance, mental health, or simply getting the best from your brain — this one's for you. Dr. Josephine Perry is a sports psychologist & author: https://performanceinmind.co.uk/ Topics: ADHD traits in sport, perfectionism, sleep rhythms, managing distraction, ACT & mindfulness strategies Book a free coaching consultation call with me: https://calendly.com/simon-wgw/find-your-flow-intro-chat My other links: Book: https://www.simonmundie.com/book YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/YouTubeSimonMundie Website: simonmundie.com Substack Newsletter: https://simonmundie.substack.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

July 14th, 2025 - We welcome back Mike Koeniger to talk the fallout from the Trump admin's Epstein files decisions. Then we're joined by Elisa Gestri to discuss the plight of Christians in the Middle East. TheStationOfTheCross.com/ACT  

Send me a messageIn this episode of the Sustainable Supply Chain podcast, I sat down with Dr Erik Garcell, Director of Quantum Enterprise Development at Classiq, to explore how quantum computing is moving from theoretical buzz to practical tool, and what that means for supply chains.We talked about why quantum's real strength lies in optimisation: solving incredibly complex problems like route planning, inventory management, or energy grid design far faster than classical systems ever could. Erik explained how quantum is already being used via cloud platforms (yes, even on AWS), and why enterprises, from BMW to Mitsubishi Chemicals, are experimenting with it now, not later.We got into real-world use cases too: dynamic logistics recalculations in response to disruptions, quantum-enhanced digital twins for EV battery design, and how this tech might support real-time, low-carbon decision-making across vast supplier networks.This isn't about replacing classical computing, it's about adding a powerful new tool to the box. Erik also gave practical advice for supply chain leaders: how to start engaging with quantum now, when upskilling your existing team makes more sense than hiring PhDs, and what pitfalls to avoid.If you're wondering when, or even if, quantum computing will matter to your business, this is the episode for you.

How can you develop deep resilience? That's the focus of this insightful episode with Dr. Michael Kearney. Dr. Diana Hill and Dr. Kearney explore the concept of deep resilience, emphasizing the importance of community, interconnectedness, and natural metaphors to navigate life's challenges. Dr. Kearney shares five vital lessons for building deep resilience, inspired by his experiences and the profound vitality of a redwood tree in Big Sur. This episode invites listeners to delve into self-care, healing connections, and the profound wisdom found within nature and our interconnected human existence.In This Episode, We Explore:Burnout and the Need for Deep ResilienceLesson #1: Take Care, Know What Feeds You and Restores YouLesson #2: Healing ConnectionsLesson #3: You Are Not Who You Think You AreLesson #4: All You Have to Do Is RestLesson #5: We Thrive Because of Each Other.Suggested Next Episode:Episode 131: What We Can Learn From Nature's Genius With Dayna BaumeisterRelated ResourcesGet enhanced show notes for this episodePre-order my upcoming book, Wise Effort: How to Focus Your Genius Energy on What Matters Most, and receive special pre-order bonus gifts.Want to become more psychologically flexible? Take Diana's "Foundations of ACT" course.Diana's EventsReserve your spot in Diana's Costa Rica retreat in 2026!See Diana at an upcoming eventConnecting With DianaSubscribe for free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Leave a 5-star review on Apple so people like you can find the show.Sign up for the free Wise Effort Newsletter.Become a Wise Effort member to support the show.Follow Diana on YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Diana's website.Thanks to the team, Craig and Ashley Hiatt, and Benjamin Gould of

Audio Download Questions Covered: 02:05 – I'm LDS. How do you justify including the apocrypha in the canon? 05:45 – How does the Church justify mixing the faith with foreign cultures? 11:40 – What is your view on the authorship of Acts of the Apostles? Act 2:1-11 What was the atmosphere in the room on […]

Cancellations and no-shows will always happen. But how well are you filling those gaps? In this episode of Metric Mondays, Kirk Behrendt brings back Miranda Beeson, ACT's director of education, to break down capacity percentage. They share the keys to maintaining a productive and efficient schedule even when your patients fall out. Don't settle for 84%! To learn how to proactively fill your schedule, listen to Episode 916 of The Best Practices Show!Learn More About Miranda:Send Miranda an email: miranda@actdental.com Follow Miranda on ACT's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/actdentalSend Courtney an email to learn more about ACT: courtney@actdental.com More Helpful Links for a Better Practice & a Better Life:Subscribe to The Best Practices Show: https://the-best-practices-show.captivate.fm/listenJoin The Best Practices Association: https://www.actdental.com/bpaDownload ACT's BPA app on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/best-practices-association/id6738960360Download ACT's BPA app on the Google Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actdental.join&hl=en_USJoin ACT's To The Top Study Club: https://www.actdental.com/tttGet The Best Practices Magazine for free: https://www.actdental.com/magazinePlease leave us a review on the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-practices-show-with-kirk-behrendt/id1223838218Episode Resources:Watch the video version of Episode 916: https://www.youtube.com/@actdental/videosRegister for ACT's To The Top Study Club (July 18th, 2025): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climb-with-us-register-for-july-18-2025-ttt-study-club-tickets-1205460116659Register for ACT's To The Top Study Club (July 25, 2025): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/climb-with-us-register-for-july-25-2025-ttt-study-club-tickets-1205497959849Main Takeaways:Your capacity percentage benchmark is 94% or higher.Pre-schedule your patients' next appointments before they leave.Utilize ideal day or block scheduling. Protect your high-value time blocks.Have someone own and review your schedule two days to two weeks in advance.When you have cancellations and no-shows, quickly fill those gaps using priority lists.Utilize...

This Day in Legal History: Sedition Act PassedOn this day in legal history, July 14, 1798, the United States Congress passed the Sedition Act, one of the most controversial laws in the nation's early political history. Part of the broader Alien and Sedition Acts, this law made it a crime to publish “any false, scandalous and malicious writing” against the federal government, Congress, or the President with the intent to defame or bring them into disrepute. Ostensibly aimed at quelling foreign influence and internal subversion during the quasi-war with France, the Act was also a clear weapon against domestic political opposition—particularly the Democratic-Republicans led by Thomas Jefferson.Federalist lawmakers, who dominated Congress and the presidency under John Adams, justified the law as necessary for national security. However, it was widely criticized as an assault on First Amendment rights and a means of silencing dissent. The law resulted in the prosecution of several Republican editors and even members of Congress, including Representative Matthew Lyon of Vermont, who was sentenced to four months in jail.The Sedition Act provoked a fierce backlash and spurred Jefferson and James Madison to draft the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, which introduced the doctrine of nullification—the idea that states could declare federal laws unconstitutional. Public outrage over the Act played a significant role in the Federalists' defeat in the election of 1800 and the subsequent repeal or expiration of most provisions of the Alien and Sedition Acts.The Sedition Act expired on March 3, 1801, the day before Jefferson assumed the presidency. Its legacy remains a cautionary tale about the tension between national security and civil liberties, and it is frequently cited in debates over the limits of free speech in times of political crisis.California tax authorities have flagged over 1,500 high-end vehicles sold by 500 dealerships as likely being registered through Montana LLCs in an attempt to avoid California sales tax and vehicle registration fees. These vehicles—worth more than $300 million collectively—are tied to a long-running strategy used by buyers of luxury assets like exotic cars, yachts, and RVs to exploit Montana's zero percent sales tax and minimal registration costs. Dealers and buyers now face possible penalties, audits, and investigations as California intensifies enforcement.The scheme works like this: a buyer sets up a Montana LLC, purchases and registers the vehicle under that entity, and keeps the car out-of-state on paper—even if it's garaged and driven daily in a state like California. That regulatory fiction is precisely what states are cracking down on. Bloomberg Tax recently highlighted the scale of the problem, noting that more than 600,000 vehicles are likely registered in Montana but used elsewhere, costing states billions annually in uncollected taxes.Montana LLCs have become a go-to workaround for the wealthy looking to sidestep their home-state tax obligations. While technically legal under Montana law, when the vehicle is used in another state without proper registration or tax payment, it becomes a form of tax evasion. States like Illinois and Utah are following California's lead, passing laws to “look through” LLCs and hold in-state beneficial owners accountable.This isn't just a niche tax dodge—it's a broader challenge to state tax enforcement. As wealthier individuals increasingly exploit differences between state tax codes, it's prompting legal reforms and inter-agency cooperation to close loopholes once thought too obscure or dispersed to address. California's latest enforcement push suggests these Montana LLC schemes are no longer flying under the radar—and that other states may soon follow with penalties and structural reforms of their own.California Finds 1,500 Vehicles Linked to Montana Tax SheltersNearly two-thirds of the U.S. Department of Justice's Federal Programs Branch—the unit charged with defending Trump administration policies in court—has resigned or announced plans to leave since Donald Trump's reelection. Out of roughly 110 attorneys, 69 have exited, according to a list reviewed by Reuters. The exodus includes nearly half the section's supervisors and is far greater than typical turnover seen in prior administrations. While the Trump administration maintains its legal actions are within constitutional bounds, current and former DOJ lawyers cite an overwhelming workload and ethical concerns as key drivers of the departures.Many career lawyers reportedly struggled to defend policies they saw as legally dubious or procedurally flawed, including efforts to revoke birthright citizenship and claw back federal funding from universities. Several feared they'd be pressured to make misleading or unethical arguments in court. In some cases, lawyers were expected to defend executive orders with minimal input from the agencies involved. A recent whistleblower complaint even alleged retaliation against a supervisor who refused to make unsupportable claims in immigration cases.Despite the mass departures, the Trump administration continues to rely heavily on the unit as it seeks to expand executive power following favorable Supreme Court rulings. The DOJ has reassigned attorneys from other divisions, brought in over a dozen political appointees, and exempted the unit from the federal hiring freeze to keep up with litigation demands. Critics argue the changes undermine DOJ independence, while supporters claim the administration is merely ensuring its policies get a fair defense in court.Two-thirds of the DOJ unit defending Trump policies in court have quit | ReutersAn $8 billion trial kicks off this week in Delaware where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and several current and former Facebook leaders are accused by shareholders of knowingly violating a 2012 FTC consent decree aimed at protecting user privacy. The lawsuit stems from the 2018 revelation that Cambridge Analytica accessed data from millions of Facebook users without their consent, ultimately leading to billions in fines and costs for Meta—including a $5 billion penalty from the FTC in 2019. Shareholders, including union pension funds like California's State Teachers' Retirement System, want Zuckerberg and others to reimburse the company, alleging they operated Facebook as a law-breaking enterprise.Defendants in the case include Sheryl Sandberg, Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel, and Reed Hastings. While Meta itself is not a defendant, the case focuses on the board's alleged failure to oversee privacy practices and enforce the 2012 agreement. The plaintiffs must prove what legal experts call the most difficult claim in corporate law: a total failure of oversight by directors. Delaware law gives leeway for poor business decisions—but not illegal ones, even if they're profitable.Zuckerberg is expected to testify, and plaintiffs argue he personally directed deceptive privacy practices and tried to offload stock ahead of the Cambridge Analytica scandal to avoid losses, allegedly netting $1 billion. Defendants deny wrongdoing, claiming the company took privacy seriously by investing in compliance and being deceived by Cambridge Analytica.Meta investors, Zuckerberg to square off at $8 billion trial over alleged privacy violations | Reuters This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

Interview de Thibaut Quintens d'Act in Games, maison d'édition belge, réalisée lors du Festival International des Jeux de Cannes 2025.

In this case, the court considered this issue: Does the First Step Act's sentencing reduction provision apply to a defendant whose original sentence was imposed before the Act's enactment, but was later vacated and resentenced after the Act took effect?The case was decided on June 26, 2025. The Supreme Court held that because a sentence “has...been imposed” for purposes of § 403(b) of the First Step Act only if the sentence is extant (i.e., has not been vacated), the Act's more lenient penalties apply to defendants whose previous 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) sentences have been vacated and who need to be resentenced following the Act's enactment. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored the 5-4 majority opinion of the Court.When Congress employs the present-perfect tense (“has been imposed”), it addresses whether something has continuing relevance to the present, not merely whether it occurred as a historical fact. The present-perfect tense can refer to either “an act, state, or condition that is now completed” or “a past action that comes up to and touches the present,” but in both senses it conveys that the event in question continues to be true or valid. A sentence has been imposed for § 403(b) purposes only if it remains extant—that is, has not been vacated. This interpretation aligns with background legal principles that vacated court orders are void ab initio and lack prospective legal effect.Background principles confirm this interpretation. When interpreting statutes, courts recognize that Congress legislates against certain unexpressed presumptions, including that vacated court orders are treated as though they never occurred. Just as defendants with vacated prior felony convictions are not precluded from possessing weapons under the federal felon-in-possession ban, § 403(b) retroactivity does not exclude those whose prior sentences have been vacated. The statute's use of present-perfect rather than past-perfect tense, especially when adjacent provisions use simple past tense, reinforces that only past sentences with continued validity preclude application of the Act's new penalties.Justice Samuel Alito authored a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, arguing that the present-perfect tense in §403(b) refers to the historical fact of whether a sentence had been imposed as of the Act's enactment date, regardless of subsequent vacatur.The opinion is presented here in its entirety, but with citations omitted. If you appreciate this episode, please subscribe. Thank you. 

LightSpeed VT: https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣⁣⁣ Dropping Bombs Podcast: https://www.droppingbombs.com/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ You're here because you want to win—big. Brad Lea doesn't mess around. In this⁣ episode, he sits down with Jon Briseno to tear into how he went from sitting in jail facing deportation as an undocumented immigrant to building a thriving life through fitness, sales, and mindset, delivering the unfiltered truth you won't find anywhere else. No fluff, just real talk and actionable steps to crush it in business and life.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Jon's links ⁣ https://www.instagram.com/realjonbriseno/⁣ https://www.closeracademy.co/⁣ ⁣ Brad Lea is a self-made entrepreneur who turned small-town grit into a⁣ multi-million-dollar empire. With over 25 years dominating sales and leadership, he's mentored thousands to outsmart, outwork, and out win their competition. His top-rated podcast, Dropping Bombs, brings raw, game-changing insights from the biggest names in business.⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ LightSpeed VT is Brad's brainchild—the world's leading interactive training platform. It's built to make your team sharper, faster, and more effective, without wasting time or money. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, LightSpeed VT is how you scale success and dominate your industry. Curious? Check it out:⁣⁣⁣ https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ Brad's also behind Closer School, the go-to program for mastering sales and closing deals like a pro. Want to 10x your income? This is where you start. His book, The Hard Way, lays out the brutal, honest lessons he learned building his empire—your blueprint to winning the game. Get it here: https://bradlea.com/product/the-hard-way/⁣⁣⁣ ⁣⁣⁣ This isn't just a video. It's a wake-up call. Watch it. Share it. Act on it.⁣⁣⁣ Closer School: https://www.closerschool.com/cs⁣

When emotions run high, it's easy to react in ways that escalate conflict—bitterness, blame, harsh words. But God calls us to a better way with Ground Rule #4—Act, don't react. This week, we'll learn how to respond with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness—even when it's hard. Don't let reactions rule you; let Christ lead you. Passage: Ephesians 4:31-32; Romans 5:8, 10 Speaker: Joel Garrison

When emotions run high, it's easy to react in ways that escalate conflict—bitterness, blame, harsh words. But God calls us to a better way with Ground Rule #4—Act, don't react. This week, we'll learn how to respond with kindness, compassion, and forgiveness—even when it's hard. Don't let reactions rule you; let Christ lead you. Passage: Ephesians 4:31-32; Romans 5:8, 10 Speaker: Kurt Goglin

Crime - What is it? (Part 1) Black Spy Podcast, 201, Season 21, Episode 0002 Over the next two weeks the black spy Podcast will look into what CRIME is navigating the undermentioned points. In the UK, the creation of criminal law is the responsibility of Parliament. A crime is not considered such unless it is defined in statute (an Act of Parliament) or recognised under common law (judicial precedent). For example, theft is defined under the Theft Act 1968, while murder is a common law offence. Parliament introduces new criminal offences or modifies existing ones in response to societal change, public concern, or evolving threats—such as terrorism or online abuse. The legislative process involves proposing a bill, debating it in both the House of Commons and House of Lords, and receiving Royal Assent before it becomes law. The judiciary then interprets these laws and ensures they are applied fairly and consistently. It is important to understand that not all harmful acts are criminal. For instance, a breach of contract may be serious but is dealt with in civil rather than criminal courts. Crime carries an element of public condemnation and involves the state acting against the accused on society's behalf. Once a law is in place, enforcement falls primarily to the police. In the UK, policing is carried out by local forces across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland, with the Metropolitan Police and other specialised units (such as the National Crime Agency) handling national and transnational threats. Police officers investigate crimes, protect the public, gather evidence, and arrest suspects where appropriate. However, their powers are bounded by legal and ethical frameworks, including the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), the Human Rights Act 1998, and codes of practice. The modern police role extends beyond reactive enforcement. Officers are also expected to prevent crime, engage with communities, and build trust. This includes neighbourhood policing, intelligence gathering, and working in partnership with local agencies to address root causes like poverty, drug misuse, or domestic abuse. Increasingly, police use data and technology—such as predictive analytics or body-worn cameras—to support transparency and efficiency. Ultimately, crime in the UK is a legal construct shaped by democratic processes. The police operate as agents of the law, balancing enforcement with public service, and must always act within the confines of legality and proportionality to maintain legitimacy and uphold justice. So, if you want to continue learning whilst being entertained this and next week's continuation of this subject are must listen episodes. Please don't forget to subscribe to the Black Spy Podcast for free, thereby you'll never miss another episode. To contact Firgas Esack of the DAPS Agency go to Linked In To contact Carlton King by utilising any of the following: To donate - Patreon.com/TheBlackSpyPodcast Email: carltonking2003@gmail.com Facebook: The Black Spy Podcast Facebook: Carlton King Author Twitter@Carlton_King Instagram@carltonkingauthor To read Carlton's Autobiography: “Black Ops – The incredible true story of a (Black) British secret agent” Click the link below: https://amzn.eu/d/fmzzq9h

The ACT party held its annual rally in Auckland on Sunday, celebrating policy wins, and encouraging its supporters to "keep the government" and look to ACT to "make it better." Political reporter Lillian Hanly was at the rally.

Let's be honest—most men don't need more motivation.What we need is a real map. A battle-tested framework that'll wake us the hell up and walk us out of the fog of comfort, distraction, and passive living.That's what this episode is all about.I sat down with Rick Walker—entrepreneur, leader, and author of the new book 9 Steps to Build a Life of Meaning. Rick isn't just some mindset guru tossing around buzzwords. He's built companies with hundreds of employees, raised billions in capital, and helped create thousands of jobs. But what really makes him dangerous—in the best way—is what he's chosen to do with all that wisdom.This conversation is a straight-up call to arms. Rick breaks down the 9 essential steps that every man must walk if he wants to reclaim his mind, unlock his power, and finally live a life that means something. We talk generational pain, sacrifice, building legacy, and how to fight back against a world that wants men to stay weak, distracted, and small.This is one of those episodes you'll want to come back to again and again, especially when life hits. Let's get into it.Episode Highlights:00:00 - Introduction03:05 - Rick's origin story10:22 - The journey to the 9 steps13:17 - What does a "life of meaning" actually mean?20:08 - Step #1: Choose one worthy enemy24:53 - Step #2: Aim high - because aiming low is the only sin27:25 - Step #3: Pick a master, or one will be thrust upon you30:20 - Step #4: Revelation requires sacrifice32:45 - Step #5: Embrace the unknown37:51 - Step #6: Joy requires pain41:52 - Step #7: Give away what you want to keep46:08 - Step #8: Act like you'll live forever. Move like you only have today49:10 - Step #9: Seek beauty, and you may find truth

In this episode I chat with Claire McCreedy from the ACT. Claire grew up in an unpredictable and emotionally unsafe environment, with an alcoholic mother and parents who lived quite reclusively. From a young age, her nervous system was wired for survival. Social skills didn't come naturally, home life was isolating, and by fourteen, alcohol became her tool for managing social situations.As life progressed, Claire found herself in a domestic violence relationship and continued to use alcohol as a way to soothe anxiety and emotional overwhelm. After separating from her partner, the loneliness she felt on weekends without her children became unbearable, she describes those weekends as “one weekend I'm a mother, the next weekend I don't know who I am.” Alcohol became a numbing mechanism to cope with that disconnection.Her turning point came when a new partner gently but firmly reflected back the reality of her drinking, expressing that he couldn't have that level of alcohol around his daughter. It sparked a powerful wake-up call.Claire began to educate herself about alcohol and got sober-curious. Today, at 42, she's over two years sober and thriving. She walks daily, uses breathwork to calm her nervous system, and is creating a life that's grounded in clarity, health, and self-awareness.For more resources such as coaching or to join the next HIQA challenge or retreat go towww.iquitalcohol.com.auFollow HIQA insta @howiquitalcohol Music for Podcast intro and outro written by Danni Carr performed by Mr CassidyIf you are struggling with physical dependancy on alcohol consider contacting a local AA meeting or a drug and alcohol therapist. Always consult a GP before stopping alcohol. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LightSpeed VT: https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ Dropping Bombs Podcast: https://www.droppingbombs.com/⁣ ⁣ You're here because you want to win—big. Brad Lea doesn't mess around. In this⁣ episode, he sits down with Clark Bartram to tear into how men can take control of their health naturally with his his five pillars for maximizing manhood, delivering the unfiltered truth you won't find anywhere else. No fluff, just real talk and actionable steps to crush it in business and life.⁣ ⁣ Clark's links⁣ https://www.instagram.com/clarkbartram/?hl=en⁣ https://www.maximizedmanelite.com/90-days⁣ https://www.checkitlikeaman.org/⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Brad Lea is a self-made entrepreneur who turned small-town grit into a⁣ multi-million-dollar empire. With over 25 years dominating sales and leadership, he's mentored thousands to outsmart, outwork, and out win their competition. His top-rated podcast, Dropping Bombs, brings raw, game-changing insights from the biggest names in business.⁣ ⁣ LightSpeed VT is Brad's brainchild—the world's leading interactive training platform. It's built to make your team sharper, faster, and more effective, without wasting time or money. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, LightSpeed VT is how you scale success and dominate your industry. Curious? Check it out:⁣ https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ ⁣ Brad's also behind Closer School, the go-to program for mastering sales and closing deals like a pro. Want to 10x your income? This is where you start. His book, The Hard Way, lays out the brutal, honest lessons he learned building his empire—your blueprint to winning the game. Get it here: https://bradlea.com/product/the-hard-way/⁣ ⁣ This isn't just a video. It's a wake-up call. Watch it. Share it. Act on it.⁣ Closer School: https://www.closerschool.com/cs

In this episode, I dive into the hard truth about quitting when things get tough and how often we let fear and negative self-talk get in the way of our progress. I bring back “10 minutes of fire” to share a heartfelt, motivational message about facing adversity, embracing the simple fundamentals, and learning to pivot instead of giving up. I talk about the power of imperfect action, being impeccable with your word (especially to yourself), and why it's crucial to act better than you feel—no matter what life throws at you. My hope is that this message reminds you of your own strength and helps you break the cycle of quitting, so you can keep moving forward toward your goals. If you need a boost, replay this one whenever you hit a rough patch. You are not a quitter—you're a badass!   Free Guides: Eating Out Guide - Get The Guide Hight Protein Fast Food Orders - Get the Guide Macro Food Options Guide - Get The Guide   Join Us On Patreon - Join Here   Submit your questions to be featured on our Q&A episodes.   Order from Cured Supplement Order from Legion Supplements and get 20% off your first order by using discount code: keynutrition   Connect with us on Instagram Host Brad Jensen – @thesoberbodybuilder Next Level Nutrition – @mynextlevelnutrition   Episode Timestamps 00:00:00 – Brad introduces the return of "10 minutes of fire" and sets the intention for a motivating, no-nonsense episode. 00:01:02 – "Stop quitting when things get hard." Brad emphasizes the importance of not running from adversity and how purpose often comes from pain. 00:03:00 – Brad discusses how our minds create stories from fear and how recognizing this pattern helps break it. 00:04:51 – Key difference between pivoting on your goals and actually quitting; making intentional decisions is contrasted with giving up. 00:07:44 – Brad references “The Four Agreements” as simple yet life-changing principles. 00:10:54 – Always do your best, even if your best changes from day to day. "Act better than you feel" is emphasized. 00:13:19 – Importance of progress over perfection; evaluating daily best based on current circumstances. 00:15:00 – Pivoting vs. quitting in fitness, career, and relationships—growth often comes from adapting, not stopping. 00:16:01 – Empowerment and changing your identity by aligning actions with goals. 00:16:55 – Closing motivation.

Note: "Act 2" will be a separate published audio podcast.*Check out EZ's morning radio show "The InZane Asylum Q100 Michigan with Eric Zane" Click here*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.comTopics*EZ breaks down Steevigh's "Rage Quit" on tThe Ben and Eric Show*EZ further explains his foot fetish.*"Stuncle Rod Weber" now picking fights with FBHW audience members for talking about Daughter-Niece Kayla's massive nose*An idea is born for an amazing EZ Show podcast charity calendar based on these photos.Sponsors:Impact Powersports, Kuiper Tree Care, Adam Casari Realty, Frank Fuss / My Policy Shop Insurance, Kings Room Barbershop,  Berlin Raceway, Shoreliners, Dump A-Haulics,Striping, Ervines Auto Repair Grand Rapids Hybrid & EV, TC PaintballInterested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.com and let me design a marketing plan for you.Contact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Note: "Act 1" was a separate published audio podcast.*Check out EZ's morning radio show "The InZane Asylum Q100 Michigan with Eric Zane" Click here*Get a FREE 7 day trial to Patreon to "try it out."*Watch the show live, daily at 8AM EST on Twitch! Please click here to follow the page.Email the show on the Shoreliners Striping inbox: eric@ericzaneshow.comTopics:*Whacko Church in Indianapolis doubles down on hate talk.*Book Club controversy*It seems show ladies are having trouble listening.*EZ finished "Cabin at the End of the World" and was not at all pleased.*Maureen is the first book chooser in book club; doesn't have book.*Maureen finally comes up with book as first chooser of book club; has already read book; EZ annoyed.Asshole of the DaySponsors:Impact Powersports, Kuiper Tree Care, Adam Casari Realty, Frank Fuss / My Policy Shop Insurance, Kings Room Barbershop,  Berlin Raceway, Shoreliners, Dump A-Haulics,Striping, Ervines Auto Repair Grand Rapids Hybrid & EV, TC PaintballInterested in advertising? Email eric@ericzaneshow.com and let me design a marketing plan for you.Contact: Shoreliners Striping inbox eric@ericzaneshow.comDiscord LinkEZSP TikTokSubscribe to my YouTube channelHire me on Cameo!Tshirts available herePlease subscribe, rate & write a review on Apple Podcastspatreon.com/ericzaneInstagram: ericzaneshowTwitterSupport this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-eric-zane-show-podcast/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

LightSpeed VT: https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ Dropping Bombs Podcast: https://www.droppingbombs.com/⁣ ⁣ You're here because you want to win—big. Brad Lea doesn't mess around. In this⁣ episode, he sits down with Chuck McDowell, as he shares his wild ride from selling timeshares to helping over 48,000 families cancel theirs with Wesley Financial Group. Learn how he turned lawsuits and adversity into a $150M company, plus his lessons on entrepreneurship, leadership, and “touching the line”, delivering the unfiltered truth you won't find anywhere else. No fluff, just real talk and actionable steps to crush it in business and life.⁣ ⁣ Chuck's links ⁣ https://wesleyfinancialgroup.com/about-chuck/⁣ https://www.instagram.com/chuckmcdowell/   Brad Lea is a self-made entrepreneur who turned small-town grit into a⁣ multi-million-dollar empire. With over 25 years dominating sales and leadership, he's mentored thousands to outsmart, outwork, and out win their competition. His top-rated podcast, Dropping Bombs, brings raw, game-changing insights from the biggest names in business.⁣ ⁣ LightSpeed VT is Brad's brainchild—the world's leading interactive training platform. It's built to make your team sharper, faster, and more effective, without wasting time or money. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, LightSpeed VT is how you scale success and dominate your industry. Curious? Check it out:⁣ https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ ⁣ Brad's also behind Closer School, the go-to program for mastering sales and closing deals like a pro. Want to 10x your income? This is where you start. His book, The Hard Way, lays out the brutal, honest lessons he learned building his empire—your blueprint to winning the game. Get it here: https://bradlea.com/product/the-hard-way/⁣ ⁣ This isn't just a video. It's a wake-up call. Watch it. Share it. Act on it.⁣ Closer School: https://www.closerschool.com/cs

In episode 1893, Jack and Miles are joined by the host of RnR with Courtney Act, Courtney Act, to discuss… ICE And California National Guard Do a Military Display in MacArthur Park, MMMmmmmm That Ole BBL Smell, TSA Ending Shoe Removal At The Airport and more! ICE And California National Guard Do a Military Display in MacArthur Park Exclusive: Operation Excalibur in Los Angeles Was Show of Force MMMmmmmm That Ole BBL Smell TSA Ending Shoe Removal At The Airport Richard Reid Fast Facts Richard Reid's Shoes LISTEN: Nobody But You by BrainstorySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

LightSpeed VT: https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ Dropping Bombs Podcast: https://www.droppingbombs.com/⁣ ⁣ You're here because you want to win—big. Brad Lea doesn't mess around. In this episode, he sits down with Corrina Carter to talk about how she turned her early struggles into a life of leadership, growth, and helping others build real success, delivering the unfiltered truth you won't find anywhere else. No fluff, just real talk and actionable steps to crush it in business and life.⁣ ⁣ Corrina's links⁣ https://cmsmortgage.com⁣ https://corrinacarter.com⁣ https://www.instagram.com/corrina_carter_/⁣ ⁣ ⁣ Brad Lea is a self-made entrepreneur who turned small-town grit into a⁣ multi-million-dollar empire. With over 25 years dominating sales and leadership, he's mentored thousands to outsmart, outwork, and out win their competition. His top-rated podcast, Dropping Bombs, brings raw, game-changing insights from the biggest names in business.⁣ ⁣ LightSpeed VT is Brad's brainchild—the world's leading interactive training platform. It's built to make your team sharper, faster, and more effective, without wasting time or money. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, LightSpeed VT is how you scale success and dominate your industry. Curious? Check it out:⁣ https://www.lightspeedvt.com/⁣ ⁣ Brad's also behind Closer School, the go-to program for mastering sales and closing deals like a pro. Want to 10x your income? This is where you start. His book, The Hard Way, lays out the brutal, honest lessons he learned building his empire—your blueprint to winning the game. Get it here: https://bradlea.com/product/the-hard-way/⁣ ⁣ This isn't just a video. It's a wake-up call. Watch it. Share it. Act on it.⁣ Closer School: https://www.closerschool.com/cs.