Podcasts about Airmail

Margaret talks with Mangesh Hattikudur about the antifascist who invented table soccer and the socialist photographer who invented air mail. Sources: https://spainonthisday.com/alejandro-finisterre-the-inventor-of-table-football https://www.theguardian.com/news/2007/feb/24/guardianobituaries.spain https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alejandro_Finisterre https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/50737-alejandro-campos-ramirez https://raicesalaire.com/alejandro-finisterre/ https://www.revistadefrente.cl/el-poeta-anarquista-que-invento-el-taca-taca-para-la-ninez-victima-de-la-guerra-civil-espanola/ https://www.adiantegalicia.es/reportaxes/2019/09/08/alejandro-finisterre-la-historia-jamas-contada-del-genio-del-futbolin-en-el-ano-del-centenario-de-su-natalicio.html https://www.lambiek.net/artists/n/nadar.htmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ready to conquer your cluttered inbox? Discover the unsung tricks, automation tools, and next-level email clients that can actually make email work for you, no matter how many unread messages you're hiding. iOS Mail app walkthrough: categories, filters, unmatched features Tips for managing mail with filtering, VIPs, and privacy options Undo Send, reminders, and key Mail settings for better management Fastmail, rule-based headless filters, and automation Spark email client deep dive: pros, cons, and why it sticks The feature race: mail rules, snoozes, and why client choice matters Feedback: Soundcheck in iTunes/Apple Music and why volume normalization fails Shortcuts Corner: NFC tags and logging medications via automation and Capsule app App Caps: Notify for website change alerts, NetNewsWire for RSS news aggregation Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Ready to conquer your cluttered inbox? Discover the unsung tricks, automation tools, and next-level email clients that can actually make email work for you, no matter how many unread messages you're hiding. iOS Mail app walkthrough: categories, filters, unmatched features Tips for managing mail with filtering, VIPs, and privacy options Undo Send, reminders, and key Mail settings for better management Fastmail, rule-based headless filters, and automation Spark email client deep dive: pros, cons, and why it sticks The feature race: mail rules, snoozes, and why client choice matters Feedback: Soundcheck in iTunes/Apple Music and why volume normalization fails Shortcuts Corner: NFC tags and logging medications via automation and Capsule app App Caps: Notify for website change alerts, NetNewsWire for RSS news aggregation Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Ready to conquer your cluttered inbox? Discover the unsung tricks, automation tools, and next-level email clients that can actually make email work for you, no matter how many unread messages you're hiding. iOS Mail app walkthrough: categories, filters, unmatched features Tips for managing mail with filtering, VIPs, and privacy options Undo Send, reminders, and key Mail settings for better management Fastmail, rule-based headless filters, and automation Spark email client deep dive: pros, cons, and why it sticks The feature race: mail rules, snoozes, and why client choice matters Feedback: Soundcheck in iTunes/Apple Music and why volume normalization fails Shortcuts Corner: NFC tags and logging medications via automation and Capsule app App Caps: Notify for website change alerts, NetNewsWire for RSS news aggregation Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Ready to conquer your cluttered inbox? Discover the unsung tricks, automation tools, and next-level email clients that can actually make email work for you, no matter how many unread messages you're hiding. iOS Mail app walkthrough: categories, filters, unmatched features Tips for managing mail with filtering, VIPs, and privacy options Undo Send, reminders, and key Mail settings for better management Fastmail, rule-based headless filters, and automation Spark email client deep dive: pros, cons, and why it sticks The feature race: mail rules, snoozes, and why client choice matters Feedback: Soundcheck in iTunes/Apple Music and why volume normalization fails Shortcuts Corner: NFC tags and logging medications via automation and Capsule app App Caps: Notify for website change alerts, NetNewsWire for RSS news aggregation Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Ready to conquer your cluttered inbox? Discover the unsung tricks, automation tools, and next-level email clients that can actually make email work for you, no matter how many unread messages you're hiding. iOS Mail app walkthrough: categories, filters, unmatched features Tips for managing mail with filtering, VIPs, and privacy options Undo Send, reminders, and key Mail settings for better management Fastmail, rule-based headless filters, and automation Spark email client deep dive: pros, cons, and why it sticks The feature race: mail rules, snoozes, and why client choice matters Feedback: Soundcheck in iTunes/Apple Music and why volume normalization fails Shortcuts Corner: NFC tags and logging medications via automation and Capsule app App Caps: Notify for website change alerts, NetNewsWire for RSS news aggregation Hosts: Mikah Sargent and Rosemary Orchard Contact iOS Today at iOSToday@twit.tv. Download or subscribe to iOS Today at https://twit.tv/shows/ios-today Want access to the ad-free video and exclusive features? Become a member of Club TWiT today! https://twit.tv/clubtwit Club TWiT members can discuss this episode and leave feedback in the Club TWiT Discord.

Schreib mir gern dein Feedback!Meine heutigen Gäste sind Ralf Schröder und Thomas Herget, beides Trompeter bei Colours of Brass. Sie feiern dieses Jahr 10 Jahre und wir sprechen über ihre Wurzeln im Posaunenchor, Eigenkompositionen und natürlich ihre neuste CD.Instagram: @coloursofbrass@andyschreck_Stücke:1) Herbal Suite - Pepperoni Party2) Kunterbunt3) Maxglaner Reloaded4) FunFareCDs können hier bestellt werden.Newsletter "Air-Mail" abonnierenUm diesen Podcast weiterhin so regelmäßig machen zu können, würde ich mich über eure Unterstützung bei Patreon freuen.

Schreib mir gern dein Feedback!2022 habe ich das Buch "Geführtes Hören für Blasorchester" in die Finger bekommen. Ich fand den Ansatz total spannend, wie man, gerade im Laienbereich, Musikerinnen und Musiker noch mehr zum Hören bekommt. Christoph Breithack hat mir seinen Einblick und Denkweise gegeben. Sehr aufschlussreich war für mich der kleine Eindruck in die Ausbildung in Amerika. Viel SpaßInstagram: @andyschreck_Newsletter "Air-Mail" abonnierenUm diesen Podcast weiterhin so regelmäßig machen zu können, würde ich mich über eure Unterstützung bei Patreon freuen.

Three Big Conversations: The “Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge” encourages influencers to film themselves balancing on one stiletto-clad foot. - 05:50 OpenAI released GPT-5 and users hate it. - 16:08 Why time (unfortunately) flies when we're using social media. - 43:22 Slang of the Week - "Dogwater" - 01:25 Elsewhere in culture: - 53:06 Taylor Swift announced (on her boyfriend's football podcast) that her 12th album will be titled The Life of a Showgirl, and available for pre-order soon. Popular TikTok couple Nick and Cassie, featured on @cassiesbooktok, are breaking up—and the video announcing it has almost 8 million likes and numerous comments, each with hundreds of thousands of likes. An article in Airmail connects the trend of brides planning wedding proposals for themselves to the fact that proposal content tends to get more likes on social media. The phrase “just found out I'm chopped and also unc” is trending, and jokingly refers to someone being both unattractive (chopped) and old (unc). Chappell Roan's new song “The Subway” is about struggling to get over a breakup (language and sexual content). For more Axis resources, go to axis.org.

OpenAI released GPT-5 and users hate it, the “Nicki Minaj stiletto challenge” encourages influencers to film themselves balancing on one stiletto-clad foot, and why time (unfortunately) flies when we're using social media. Slang of the Week - "Dogwater" Elsewhere in culture: Taylor Swift announced (on her boyfriend's football podcast) that her 12th album will be titled The Life of a Showgirl, and available for pre-order soon. Popular TikTok couple Nick and Cassie, featured on @cassiesbooktok, are breaking up—and the video announcing it has almost 8 million likes and numerous comments, each with hundreds of thousands of likes. An article in Airmail connects the trend of brides planning wedding proposals for themselves to the fact that proposal content tends to get more likes on social media. The phrase “just found out I'm chopped and also unc” is trending, and jokingly refers to someone being both unattractive (chopped) and old (unc). Chappell Roan's new song “The Subway” is about struggling to get over a breakup (language and sexual content).

Schreib mir gern dein Feedback!Sie gehören mittlerweile zu den großen Namen der Blasmusikzene: Die Kaiser Musikanten. Sie haben durch ihre Besetzung nochmals einen anderen Standard gesetzt und sind Stammgäste der großen Blasmusikfestivals.Ein Grund mehr das Gespräch mit Schlagzeuger und Chef Patrick Prammer für den Sommer nochmals zu hören. Viel Spaß!Instagram: @patrick_prammer@andyschreck_Newsletter "Air-Mail" abonnierenUm diesen Podcast weiterhin so regelmäßig machen zu können, würde ich mich über eure Unterstützung bei Patreon freuen.

We are diving deep into wealth, class, and privilege with Sanibel, author of the novel To Have and Have More and an expert on the subtle—and not-so-subtle—ways the ultra-wealthy wield their status. If you've ever been curious about the behaviors and dynamics that go beyond “quiet luxury” or the “nepo baby” conversation, you'll enjoy this conversation. Sanibel breaks down concepts like stealth privilege, coattail riders, and what she calls the rich person's “cheat code.” We'll also unpack the history of our cultural obsession with wealth in the U.S., why some believe wealth is a poison to our culture and explore why being “too rich” might just make you less empathetic.More about Sanibel: She is a writer based in NYC. She grew up in Princeton, NJ and studied Classics at the University of Pennsylvania before getting her MFA at The New School. Her essays appear in New York, Air Mail, ELLE, and Lit Hub. You can follow Sanibel on TikTok and Instagram.

Cartoonist, Rose Anne Prevec joins us on the second half of the podcast this week. Rose Anne has been creating cartoons since she was young, but has only recently been having them published, most notably in Airmail, Alta Journal, Narrative, Reader's Digest, The Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Humorist. The New Yorker has been elusive, but we think she'll get in there in the near future.You can find her cartoons at her website:https://www.groundhoghill.caRose Anne also has a book of her cartoons, "CHUCKLINGS" and has also appeared in the cartoon compilation, "HOLD THAT THOUGHT". Both can be found here:https://www.groundhoghill.ca/chucklingsShe can be found on facebook at:https://www.facebook.com/groundhoghill/aboutAnd on Instagram at:https://www.instagram.com/groundhog_hill/ Rose Anne also mentions attending Amy Kurzweil's cartooning class. You can check it out here:https://amykurzweil.com/classes-and-public-engagement/On Part 1 of the episode, we discuss the current contests:Winning captions for New Yorker contest #951 (Dante's nine channels of hell).Finalists for contest #953 (Safari, so good).Current New Yorker contest #955 (Stooped, stooped rat creatures). We also talk about our favorite cartoons from the current issue of the New Yorker.You can buy original New Yorker cartoon art at Curated Cartoons:https://www.curatedcartoons.comSend us questions or comments to:  Cartooncaptioncontestpodcast@gmail.com

Schreib mir gern dein Feedback!Ich durfte schon früh in diesem Podcast Ernst Hutter interviewen. Damals 2020 gab es durch Buffet Crampon die Möglichkeit dies auch live vor Ort zu machen. Nicht nur, dass es mein erstes Live-Interview war, sondern auch die Tatsache, dass einer der großen Namen in der Szene sehr früh im Podcast zu Gast war, liegt mir dieses Gespräch immer noch sehr am Herzen. Mittlerweile sind fünf Jahre vergangen und Ernst wird in ein paar Wochen die Leitung der Egerländer Musikanten an Alexander Wurz abgeben. Deshalb fand ich es einen guten Zeitpunkt, nochmals reinzuhören, denn wir haben damals nicht nur über Stilistik, seinen Zugang zu Egerländer Blasmusik, sondern auch über die Zukunft der Egerländer Musikanten, Ernst Mosch und sein letztes Konzert gesprochen. Instagram: @originalegerlaendermusikanten@andyschreck_Newsletter "Air-Mail" abonnierenUm diesen Podcast weiterhin so regelmäßig machen zu können, würde ich mich über eure Unterstützung bei Patreon freuen.

Schreib mir gern dein Feedback!Eigentlich wollte ich mich mit Georg schon länger treffen, da er Anfang des Jahres eine neue CD mit dem Titel "Looking for Telemann" veröffentlicht hat. Es hat jetzt eine Zeit gebraucht, bis wir einen Termin gefunden haben, so, dass wir auch über seine Erfahrung als Dirigent bei den European Brass Championships in Stwanger (Norwegen) sprechen. Instagram:georgpranger_euphonium1standyschreck_Hörbeispiele:1) A Gabrieli Fantasy - Bert Appermont gespielt Brass Band 13 Etoiles (live November 2024 Lucern)2) Looking for Telemann3) Erinnerung aus Lieder und Gesänge - Gustav Mahler4) La Folia - Variation 5CD bestellen: https://euphonium.at/medien/cds/ oder auf allen Streaming-PlattformenNewsletter "Air-Mail" abonnierenUm diesen Podcast weiterhin so regelmäßig machen zu können, würde ich mich über eure Unterstützung bei Patreon freuen.

In the first segment, a returning Michael Koresky ("Films of Endearment"), the Museum of the Moving Image's editorial director, with his latest book "Sick and Dirty: Hollywood's Gay Golden Age and the Making of Modern Queerness" (Bloomsbury, 2025). The book is an original history celebrating the persistence of queerness onscreen, behind the camera, and between the lines during the dark days of the Hollywood Production Code. From the 1930s to the 1960s, the Motion Picture Production Code severely restricted what Hollywood cinema could depict. This included 'any inference' of the lives of homosexuals. Gay activist Vito Russo famously condemned Hollywood's censorship regime, lambasting many midcentury­ films as the bigoted products of his titular “Celluloid Closet.” Koresky reexamines these scorned films to tell the story of how filmmakers, straight and queer, in-the-closet and out-in-the-open, smuggled queer themes and ideas into their work, incrementally paving the way for recognition and representation. There is more to the movies during this period of popular filmmaking than meets the eye: The Golden Age set in motion many of the ways we still talk about queerness in the twenty-first century. In this insightful, wildly entertaining book, cinema historian Michael Koresky ­finds new meaning in 'problematic”' classics of the Code era like Hitchcock's "Rope," Minnelli's "Tea and Sympathy", and—bookending the period and anchoring Koresky's narrative—William Wyler's two adaptations of "The Children's Hour," Lillian Hellman's provocative hit play about a pair of schoolteachers accused of lesbianism. Lifting up the under-appreciated queer filmmakers, writers, and actors of the era, Koresky finds artists who are long overdue for reevaluation. Through his brilliant analysis, "Sick and Dirty" reveals the 'bad seeds' of queer cinema to be surprisingly, even gleefully subversive, reminding us, in an age of book bans and gag laws, that nothing makes queerness speak louder than its opponents' bids to silence it. In the second segment, Filmwax friend Josh Karp returns once again to discuss his latest article for the online magazine, Air Mail: "The Miracle at the Truck Stop", about the long shuttered Burt Reynolds Theater in Jupiter, Florida. At the height of his fame, Burt Reynolds had a dream: to open a dinner theater in the middle of nowhere! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szjlaU00vKw

On the morning of May 24, 2019, Jennifer Dulos dropped her kids off at New Canaan Country School. And then minutes later, she vanished. Her presumed murder quickly became a national story. This hour, Wall Street Journal columnist Rich Cohen joins us to talk about his new book, Murder in the Dollhouse: The Jennifer Dulos Story. Plus: a look at our ongoing obsession with these true crime stories. GUESTS: Rich Cohen: Writer at large at Air Mail and a columnist at The Wall Street Journal; his new book is Murder in the Dollhouse Bethany Usher: A journalist and academic and the author of Journalism and Crime Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I try not to write about Substack itself on Substack too often—I know it can feel a bit too meta. But as a writer in this space, I'm invested in how the platform evolves, especially as more writers are finding both a community and livelihood here. At a time when authors' salaries are shrinking, AI technologies are rapidly advancing, and many people I care about in publishing are being made redundant, it's hard to ignore how much the landscape is shifting.Yesterday, I was offered some interview time with the co-founders of Substack Hamish McKenzie and Chris Best. I don't interview many people these days—it's been years since I swapped my podcasting and journalism work to focus on writing more fiction and nonfiction books—but Substack is an interesting place, and they had some news to share.Today, Substack announced $100 million in new funding. I don't know much about the running of big companies—I'm a solo worker, and I like it that way—but I've always assumed big investment means big targets and more pressure. Still, this feels like a turning point for the platform. Clearly they're aiming to go big or go home. During the interview, I kept my focus simple: What does this mean for us writers?In their blog post today: they assure us that they want to help people build “livelihoods based on trust, quality, and creative freedom.” They want to help us protect our “independence, amplify [our] voices, and foster deep and direct relationships.”I asked them some direct questions: What do you do with $100 million investment? How do you plan to grow? What lessons are you taking from what went wrong at Twitter (X)? Are Notes cannibalizing the Substack newsletter model? And ultimately—what are you hoping to achieve longterm? How will you help writers and artists make their stuff and get paid?There are plenty of writers who are more interested in the business side of things than me and will continue to watch it all unfold—I just want to use this platform to write and live my quiet, happy life. But I'm glad I had the chance to have this conversation and share it with you, because I care deeply about the empowerment of writers and artists—and right now, we're in the middle of something pretty exciting. Hope you enjoy the interview! Big thanks to Hamish and Chris for their time xoxoInterviewing the co-founders of Substack, Hamish McKenzie and Chris Best:EMMA GANNON: First of all, I want to say thank you, because, you know, the media industry was quite demoralising before you guys came along. CHRIS BEST: Thanks, and thank you for using Substack.EMMA: Never a dull day in your offices. On that note, you've got some quite big news.CHRIS: Yeah, we're announcing $100 million in Series C funding led by investors at Bond and The Chernin Group with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and Rich Paul. You know who Rich Paul is? The CEO of Klutch Sports Group.EMMA: As in, Adele's Rich Paul? I saw her in Las Vegas last year, and then went deep into Google. CHRIS: Funny the many different paths to knowing who Rich Paul is. Also Jens Grede who's the CEO co-founder of SKIMS, and Mood Rowghani from BOND is joining the board. Basically, we're just thrilled. It's very exciting. There's something kind of special happening on Substack. We're building the plumbing for it. We're building the tools, technology and network and the bits that enable it, but it's really sort of you and everybody that's using the platform that's willing this thing into the world. Now we have this massive set of resources to make this thing the biggest and best version that it can possibly be.EMMA: Lots of people who follow my newsletter are solo entrepreneurs. They don't have teams, they don't necessarily have targets, they don't build the platforms but want to make things. For you, what happens next? Where do you put the money? I'm assuming you hire more people and make a better platform?CHRIS: Yeah, this gives us a chance to look really long term at what the biggest and best version of this thing that we're building can be. To build a company that can move fast enough and well enough to realise the biggest version of that. And so it means investing in the teams who are building the tools, building the network, helping writers and creators succeed.EMMA: What about learnings from other tech companies and learning from the past? In 2013, I was in Twitter HQ in London with my little mug with the bird on, and having an amazing time. And, well, we all know what happened to that. I was so sad about the decline of a great place. Do you keep that in mind? All of the stuff that other social networks got wrong?CHRIS: Yeah, we try to learn from what other people have done. We've learned what other people have got wrong and what other people have got right. You know, one of our core theories we have at Substack is, ultimately, you want to have a business model that's aligned with the values of what you're building. We make money when writers and creators on Substack make money. They make money when they're doing the work they believe in. I think that's maybe one of the most important lessons we've taken from some of the first generation social networks: they had these really lofty ambitions (and in many cases, quite good goals) but then wound up with these business models, which, on the one hand, were massively successful, but on the other hand, kind of pulled against the interests of the human beings who are using the networks.EMMA: How do you maintain that human element that makes everything so special at the beginning, when something grows? Because on one hand, it's like, I want everyone to know what Substack is, and on the other hand, it's like the cool band that I feel like I discovered, and I don't want people to come in and dilute it!CHRIS: We're trying to make something that is, essentially, a positive sum game. Some people have this feeling like, oh, man, if some well known person comes to Substack, or somebody else on Substack is really succeeding, that must be taking away from me, because there's this limited set of attention and money and universe. I think people (especially coming from from media over the past few decades) have this feeling of like, Alright, there's a declining share of resources, and I need to grab my piece of it. But the thing that I think is special about Substack is that it's positive, right? As more people come in, more people participate. It's this pie that's actually growing, and the more that it grows, the more benefit it can throw off for everybody. HAMISH MCKENZIE: And the better the pie tastes. It's not just a crappy pie, it's gonna be a delicious, nutritious pie.CHRIS: And it can't be just for cool people. It can't just be for any sort of one group. Not for Substack to be the place that's like, Oh, this is where the cool literary scene is, or this is where the in the know politics people hang out, or this is where the musicians are making something interesting, but rather, for us to build a platform that has enough structure that all those spaces can exist.EMMA: Yeah, that's so well put. I love that. Because even though I'm sure there is a small top percentage of people earning the most on Substack, wouldn't it be amazing if there is the ability for everyone to maybe have a lovely income stream through Substack, if they want to?CHRIS: Yeah. I mean, you want the tools to take payments, and then you want to be able to grow. We sometimes joke that the product proposition for Substack is, we'll do everything for you, except the hard part.EMMA: The hard part as in coming up with the ideas?CHRIS: Making the creative work that is actually valuable.EMMA: It's also the joyful part.CHRIS: We want to make like a machine that makes everything else magically work.EMMA: The recommendations network within Substack is the best thing. I talk about it all the time. So many of my new readers come from the inner network of Substack, and that's incredible. I have noticed a little bit of a plateau though. I know things can't grow like crazy forever. Are you working on more tools to foster this growth within the Substack eco-system?CHRIS: This is a huge focus for us. This is why the Substack app is a crucial part of the strategy. We think a lot about not just the volume of growth, but the quality of growth. Like, are you getting subscribers that are going to want to read you? Are you getting subscribers that want to pay? You know, the core of the Substack is really the value of that subscription relationship. EMMA: I do love the app, but I also want to make sure that I write and I sit at my desk and I think about things deeply. And I want to sit at my desk and write, and think about the world. On the app, sometimes I do end up mindlessly scrolling, and I'm like, ‘Oh, this is what I wanted to escape from on other social media.' Do you think Notes takes attention away from the deeper essays or long reads that we want to read?CHRIS: You know, originally the Substack app was just a quiet reader app. Instead of reading things in your inbox, you can read them in this quiet, nice space. That was kind of like a cool tool. But what it didn't do is help you discover new things, and it didn't help you grow. It just meant that you had to go to other places, like Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Reddit, and you were sort of dependent on these other networks to actually fill that need of discovering and reaching out and being part of the discourse. So the real advantage of the Substack Notes feed, is: we want to make something that's fun and engaging, that you actually want to go to and spend some time on—but so that you discover things that you fall in love with, enough that you might want to pay for them.EMMA: I love following you on Notes and what you're up to. You also get so many people being like “add this/do this/change this.” Is it cool to be in a position now where you've got, like, a shopping list of things to upgrade?HAMISH: Yeah, our build list is just going to be determined by the things that people tag us about in Notes. [laughs]EMMA: It must be annoying. [laughs]CHRIS: Well, I always appreciate getting feedback, and I always appreciate people telling us what they're feeling and how it's working. I will say that lobbying for things on Notes is not effective.EMMA: That's a good tip. Is there anything that you're excited about personally right now? To do with Substack?CHRIS: There are lots of things. One thing is this Live product that we've been building. The idea of the Live product is I can have something that basically feels like a FaceTime call. It's as simple as just calling somebody up, but it magically turns into a collaborative Live moment where we can both grow and then have a longform podcast artefact that can go in a podcast app or on YouTube. HAMISH: I'm really excited about the development of this network that is now established. It's not the largest network on the internet, but it's established, and it's growing, and it has so much potential, that could serve as the core for an entirely new cultural ecosystem (a challenger to the ones that have dominated for the last 10 years). We had high hopes for them, but they've ended up—in most cases—disappointing us or dividing us. And so that this is now established, and we get a ton of resources now to go and recruit more and more people to this revolution. That is thrilling to me.EMMA: At the Substack summer party in London, I looked around and it was full of TV presenters and radio DJs and documentary makers and authors, these amazing people. And I think it was Ted Gioia who said “the talent base of Substack is the impressive thing”. Do you want to focus on that retention of these types of people on the platform?CHRIS: Yes, it's very exciting when established names come to Substack, but it's also very exciting when a new generation of people can make those names for themselves and get their start. You know, who did not come from having some famous media job or having some being a bestselling author. If you're a young person right now who has the ambition to make something great, I think it would be very easy to look at the world and think: how can I find my way into that (media) world? EMMA: I think that's so true, and that's why the engine that you're building is so important, because we all know the feeling of starting something and then it's just in a vacuum. No one sees it, no one's engaging with it. So yeah, I love that you're focusing on making things discoverable for people. HAMISH: Yeah, that's the game. That's the game we're trying to play here. Bring people together, convene about culture, and then help them find each other.EMMA: I saw the Airmail piece about Sophia and Matt in your events team — it very cool, very chic — essentially profiling members of your team. It's basically saying “this is the cool place to be”. I love that Substack do events, is that something you want to continue doing?HAMISH: I think representing the Substack culture and values in the real world, as well as just on the internet (not that the internet's not the real world), but having a place where people come together and enjoy culture together and have these meaningful shared experiences, there's very much a continuation of the ethos that lies at the heart of the platform. Sophia Efthimiatou and Matt Starr (who have been responsible for the incredible events a large number of them, at least in New York) in particular embody the spirit of people who really value culture.EMMA: I sense a deep rooted motivation from you both, I always have, from the start, that this platform feels slightly different. There's an integrity and a really great energy. What is your ultimate goal for Substack? Is it just to continue on being a great place, or do you have a specific moment that you are hoping to reach in the next few years?CHRIS: I think we're living through a period of profound change right now. I think there's new technology coming online that's changing everything. I think there is social and cultural and geopolitical change, and those things come with problems and peril. You know, when you have massive technological shifts, there's always downsides, there's always things that come up, but there are also massive opportunity. I think of it as like building the plumbing that enables a renaissance. We want to build a successful, independent company that can power that thing to be the biggest and best version of itself.HAMISH: It's not about a particular moment. Just every day that the network gets bigger and better and then more and more people can succeed as a result is a next celebration for us. This is a long term work in progress where we're not looking for a specific business outcome or a specific even ecosystem outcome. It is a living and breathing culture.EMMA: Thanks so much for your time. I feel very invigorated at the moment, and a large part of that is the empowerment I feel to be paid for my work in such a direct way via Substack. As much as I love being traditionally published as a writer, I think one day I'm going to look back and think it is kind of crazy that I have to go into a building to record an audiobook, be ‘picked' as a person that's allowed to do that, and then be paid money in royalties. I don't think we're quite grasping how revolutionary life is for writers/creators right now. I hope you have a good week and look forward to seeing you again soon.HAMISH. Thank you, Emma. Thanks for showing the way for others as well. You're a huge leader on the Substack platform and an advocate for a different way of thinking about things. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thehyphen.substack.com/subscribe

Schreib mir gern dein Feedback!Ralf Wittmann hat für den Musikverein Busenbach die Erwachsenenbläserklasse ins Leben gerufen. Welche positiven Auswirkungen das auf den ganzen Verein hat, wie man das organisatorisch macht und vieles mehr, erfahrt ihr hier. Instagram:@mvedelweissbusenbach@andyschreck_http://www.musikverein-busenbach.de/Newsletter "Air-Mail" abonnierenUm diesen Podcast weiterhin so regelmäßig machen zu können, würde ich mich über eure Unterstützung bei Patreon freuen.

Air Mail Mystery 32xxxx 04 Tear Gas

THE GOING WAS VERY, VERY GOOD—I'm a writer and the former deputy editor of Vanity Fair. Now if you know anything about me, which statistically you don't, unless—shameless plug—you read my memoir, Dilettante, about my time at Vanity Fair and the golden age of the magazine business. Which, statistically, you didn't.The only reason I have a career at all is because of today's guest on Print Is Dead (Long Live Print). He hired me in the mid-nineties to be his assistant. Or as he likes to say, “rescued me off the scrap heap” and then, like gum on the bottom of his shoe, he could never seem to get rid of me.I'm talking of course about Graydon Carter, former editor of Vanity Fair, Spy, The New York Observer, and now co-editor and co-founder of Air Mail.He's here to talk about his memoir When the Going was Good—a title that, with signature understatement, suggests things were once better than they are now, which feels correct. But his book isn't just about magazines. It's about a time when media was glamorous and powerful and vital. When New York was still New York. When the world he had a hand in shaping still existed.It's not nostalgia, it's a public service, because Graydon didn't just edit and create magazines. He built worlds. He predicted the cultural weather. He made journalism feel essential, and more importantly, cool. I was lucky enough to work for him at Vanity Fair for almost 25 years, back when magazines mattered, when people still returned phone calls, and parties had seating charts instead of hashtags, when the media wasn't just people making videos about sandwiches, and when style wasn't a “brand CoLab,” and when you could still smoke indoors without a visit from HR.You know what? Hold on one second. “Hey! You kids get off my lawn!”Sorry. Graydon began as my boss, but quickly became a mentor, then a friend, and it's a friendship that continues to this day. So enjoy this conversation with Graydon Carter as he looks back on the chaos, the glamour, and the thrill of a better time. Back when, yes, the going was very, very good.—This episode is made possible by our friends at Commercial Type and Freeport Press. A production of Magazeum LLC ©2021–2025

Today the Pugs discuss a provocative essay in the English publication, AirMail by Tara Isabella Burton. In this article she explores a new and very self-conscious religious disposition that is taking hold among tech elites in Silicon Valley. While there has been some buzz about a revival of interest in Christianity there, this is something very different, somewhat Gnostic, and very neopagan. Join the pugs as they reflect on it. Article Referenced: https://airmail.news/issues/2025-5-24/the-view-from-herefbclid=IwY2xjawKsh8NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEyVnZXc29rSGpwaEFsQjRsAR5DHSu0LY04GYS7rDcYlDWzeZXQYiZ7OxvHCNAxLWdcqmfN05x5VHG8P2U6Ww_aem_Oj0e41ftR3pRfMQGqMQrhA Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8

Today the Pugs discuss a provocative essay in the English publication, AirMail by Tara Isabella Burton. In this article she explores a new and very self-conscious religious disposition that is taking hold among tech elites in Silicon Valley. While there has been some buzz about a revival of interest in Christianity there, this is something very different, somewhat Gnostic, and very neopagan. Join the pugs as they reflect on it.Article Referenced: https://airmail.news/issues/2025-5-24/the-view-from-herefbclid=IwY2xjawKsh8NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEyVnZXc29rSGpwaEFsQjRsAR5DHSu0LY04GYS7rDcYlDWzeZXQYiZ7OxvHCNAxLWdcqmfN05x5VHG8P2U6Ww_aem_Oj0e41ftR3pRfMQGqMQrhASupport the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8

Today the Pugs discuss a provocative essay in the English publication, AirMail by Tara Isabella Burton. In this article she explores a new and very self-conscious religious disposition that is taking hold among tech elites in Silicon Valley. While there has been some buzz about a revival of interest in Christianity there, this is something very different, somewhat Gnostic, and very neopagan. Join the pugs as they reflect on it. Article Referenced: https://airmail.news/issues/2025-5-24/the-view-from-herefbclid=IwY2xjawKsh8NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEyVnZXc29rSGpwaEFsQjRsAR5DHSu0LY04GYS7rDcYlDWzeZXQYiZ7OxvHCNAxLWdcqmfN05x5VHG8P2U6Ww_aem_Oj0e41ftR3pRfMQGqMQrhA Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8

Jared Leto, an actor and the frontman for the band 30 Seconds to Mars, is facing renewed allegations of grooming and sexual assault. Multiple women spoke with the outlet “Air Mail” about their experiences with Leto over the past several years. Law&Crime's Jesse Weber sat down with criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Melba Pearson to discuss the allegations.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Check out americanfinancing.net/onthecase or call 866-891-3262 to learn how homeowners are saving $800 a month on average. NMLS 182334, www.nmlsconsumeraccess.org HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:AYouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael Deininger, Christina O'Shea & Jay CruzScript Writing & Producing - Savannah Williamson & Juliana BattagliaGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today the Pugs discuss a provocative essay in the English publication, AirMail by Tara Isabella Burton. In this article she explores a new and very self-conscious religious disposition that is taking hold among tech elites in Silicon Valley. While there has been some buzz about a revival of interest in Christianity there, this is something very different, somewhat Gnostic, and very neopagan. Join the pugs as they reflect on it. Article Referenced: https://airmail.news/issues/2025-5-24/the-view-from-herefbclid=IwY2xjawKsh8NleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEyVnZXc29rSGpwaEFsQjRsAR5DHSu0LY04GYS7rDcYlDWzeZXQYiZ7OxvHCNAxLWdcqmfN05x5VHG8P2U6Ww_aem_Oj0e41ftR3pRfMQGqMQrhA Support the Pugcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thetheologypugcast?fbclid=IwAR17UHhfzjphO52C_kkZfursA_C784t0ldFix0wyB4fd-YOJpmOQ3dyqGf8

Johanna Berkman, Writer at Large for Air Mail. Also writes for The Free Press, The Cut, Tablet Magazine, The New York Times, and New York Magazine joins to talk about her latest piece “Attacking Jews at Harvard Doesn't Just Go Unpunished. It Gets Rewarded”

This Thursday starts with Mark talking about Jake Tapper.Johanna Berkman, Writer at Large for Air Mail. Also writes for The Free Press, The Cut, Tablet Magazine, The New York Times, and New York Magazine joins to talk about her latest piece “Attacking Jews at Harvard Doesn't Just Go Unpunished. It Gets Rewarded.” Finally, is the government shrinking.

Today on the Mark Reardon Show, Johanna Berkman, Writer at Large for Air Mail. Also writes for The Free Press, The Cut, Tablet Magazine, The New York Times, and New York Magazine joins to talk about her latest piece “Attacking Jews at Harvard Doesn't Just Go Unpunished. It Gets Rewarded.” Scott Jennings, 97-1 political insider and CNN Political contributor, former special assistant to President Bush and Senator McConnell joins to talk about Elon Musk and the big beautiful bill. Duane Patterson, HotAir.com and host of Duane's World Podcast talk about Big Beautiful Bill, DOGE cuts and more. Bob Onder, Congressman from Missouri's 3rd District joins to talk about the latest with the Big Beautiful Bill.

In this conversation, Anthony Scaramucci interviews Graydon Carter, founder of Airmail and former Vanity Fair editor, about his journey in magazine publishing. They discuss the golden age of magazines, the editor's role, and the decline of print. Carter reflects on his time at Vanity Fair, the post-9/11 political landscape, media's influence on Hollywood and Wall Street, and the cultural power of iconic photography, especially by Annie Leibovitz. He highlights the value of an outsider's view in journalism and shares thoughts on power and responsibility, culminating in a reflection on media's evolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

[Win coaching with me! I'm giving away 4x working with me for those who filled out this survey. Open till Sunday May 4th].Life back home in The Hague was fine but I realized I was in “meh” energy for quite some time. And when I found myself crying on the plane - AGAIN - I knew it was time for a change. In my energy & actions, to be precise.In this episode I open up and share personal reflections during & after my trip to the US, that led to my Great Reset project that I have embodied since. I hope my story inspires you!Want more?For expats, sign up for my weekly Air Mail where I share personal stories, insights and practical tips.Or if you want to assess your life and make changes too, get my free tool The Wheel of Expat Life.For (aspiring) global entrepreneurs, this is my mentor I keep raving about.

Author and liver of life absolutely describes our guest this episode, Pat Backley. As Pat says, she was an English woman until the age of 59 when she decided to become a Kiwi and moved full time to New Zealand. Pat grew up in a poor household, but she will tell you that she never regrets not having as much money as many of the people around her. However it happened, Pat grew up with a various curious oriented mind and a desire to explore the world.   During her life which today spans 73 years, Pat has held a number of jobs. She also has been married twice, but clearly really is not bitter over being divorced from both husbands, although the 2nd one simply wasn't ready to be as adventurous as Pat and live in New Zealand.   Pat wrote her first book at the age of 70. Over the past three years she has written eight books and has a number of future books inside her. As with other authors I have met over the years, Pat's characters essentially write their stories. Pat has plans and ideas, but the characters take over and create the stories.   I find Pat to be extremely articulate and personable to converse with. I think you too will enjoy her and what she has to say. So, sit back, or walk or do whatever you are doing, but get ready to hear a most enjoyable and thought-provoking conversation.       About the Guest:   Pat Backley is an English woman who, at the age of 59 , decided to become a Kiwi and she now lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Passionate about people and travelling the world, she has spent the last 73 years living a colourful and interesting life and her books reflect these passions.   She published her first book DAISY in late 2020, just before her 70th birthday, and now says that she intends to write till she dies!   She has published eight books and contributed to several anthologies, as well as writing articles and short stories for various magazines and has several more books in the pipeline.   Ways to connect Pat:   www.patbackley.com I am on Facebook and Instagram @patbackleyauthor. Also on X (Twitter) @Pat Backley Books. And LinkedIn @Pat Backley   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:   ichael 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 ** 01:20 Well, hi everyone, and I want to welcome you to another edition of unstoppable mindset. And today we are going to chat with Pat Backley. Pat is a British woman, as she will tell you, but at the age of 59 which has now been some what, 1314, years ago, 13 years ago, she decided to become a kiwi and moved to New Zealand. We'll have to find out what brought that about. I've been to New Zealand. It's a fun place. I'd love to go back. But anyway, and of late, certainly much later in her life, Pat decided to become an author. She wrote her first book at the age of 70, and that is another fascinating story, I am sure. So we will delve into all of that, and we're going to grill Pat until she's tired of us. Pat, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Pat Backley ** 02:20 Thank you so much, Michael, I can assure you, I won't be tired of being grilled by you. I'm I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 02:29 we're really glad that you're here. What time is it in New Zealand right now? It's 10 o'clock   02:33 in the morning. Yeah, it's about what I thought.   Michael Hingson ** 02:38 So you're 21 hours ahead of us. Yeah, yes.   Pat Backley ** 02:42 And I have to say, I have to say that tomorrow is looking very good. You'll be glad to know, Oh, good.   Michael Hingson ** 02:49 Should be good. It Well, I'm glad to hear that it's going to look good, and it's actually going to warm up a little bit. Here. We're only getting up to about 65 Fahrenheit, so that's what about 17 Celsius or so. But tomorrow it's supposed to start getting a little bit warmer. We're approaching our winter as you approach your summer, which is kind of interesting.   Pat Backley ** 03:14 Yes, very interesting. When I first moved to New Zealand, that was one of the things I found very strange to have Christmas in the sunshine, because obviously I was, I was born with Christmas in the cook.   Michael Hingson ** 03:29 Yeah. Well, and you could have moved to Australia, where they use kangaroos to pull Santa slay.   Pat Backley ** 03:38 I could have done. I could have done. But Australia didn't have the same appeal for me as No, I   Michael Hingson ** 03:43 like New Zealand. I haven't been to Australia. I'd like to go, but I really enjoyed being in New Zealand. I've been to both the North and the South Island. I spent almost three weeks there, back in 2003 and gave something like 17 or 18 speaking opportunities in 15 days. And I only had one day that I had mostly off and that we spent. What is the the town on the South Island, the the tourist town, oh, Queenstown. Queenstown. Yeah, and so but that only lasted until about six that evening, and then I had to go off and speak again. But it was a lot of fun.   Pat Backley ** 04:28 You must have been exhausted because it's quite a lot of distance. I was I'm what I'm about to say is going to sound ridiculous now, because I've just been to America, and I know about your distances I was going to say, because you have a lot of driving distance between the towns you would have had to speak at. But then, as I was about to verbalize it, I thought, Pat, that's stupid. In America, the distances are far greater   Michael Hingson ** 04:51 well, and also a number of airplane flights between the North and the South Island to make it go faster as well.   Pat Backley ** 04:57 Yes, absolutely, yes. So. It was fun. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 05:01 why don't we start by you telling us a little bit kind of about the early Pat growing up and all that. We'll start with that. Okay,   Pat Backley ** 05:08 well, I, I was born in 1951 so it was just after the war, and England was still suffering from the effects of the war. You know, there was a lot of it was a bit of a gray place, so my parents couldn't afford to buy their own home, so I lived with my parent, my paternal grandparents, for the first three and a half years of my life. And of course, I had a lovely time because I had four adults doting on me. Then we moved out to the country. We were given a council house, which is like a state house. I'm not sure what they called in in the in America, you know, where the government provides them, right? Which, at that time was very acceptable, because there wasn't much housing, because it had all been bombed out, because we lived in London. So, so I grew up in the country. I didn't realize we were poor until I was 11, and went to secondary school, and suddenly I was the because I was quite bright, I was put in a grammar stream class, so I was suddenly with all these rich kids. One girl was driven to school in a chauffeur driven rolls, Royce and I lived in the little government house opposite the school, so everyone knew I was poor. So yeah, it was, it was tough. I would say it was tough my teenage years, but I   Michael Hingson ** 06:26 did, they teach you a lot about that. Oh, yeah,   Pat Backley ** 06:28 I got, I got, I mean, these days they would call it bullying, bullying. I just, I just, it was just, what my luck you know that I remember one time, and I actually did write about this in my memoirs, because it's still in my head after 60 odd years, one time I was the only kid in the class that went home for school lunches, and one because mum couldn't afford to pay for school lunches, so I used to go home because we lived just opposite. And I remember one day I came back to school and it was raining, so all the kids were back in the classroom early, and the teacher wasn't there yet. And there was this one girl whose name will live in my memory forever. She's etched on my soul, Angela Barrett. And she was standing at the front of the class, pretending to be the teacher, writing on the blackboard, and then wiping it off with this black cloth. And then she said, this is all this rag is fit for. And it was actually my school raincoat, which until then I'd been very proud of, but it was second hand, it'd be my cousins. And I can remember that afternoon thinking, I don't want to be here anymore. I hate it here. Everyone hates me. And I went home and I told mom, and I cried, and she said, Look, love, just because they've got more money than you doesn't make them any better people. And at 11, I could not see that at all like that. I just thought, why don't you just get more money? Why don't you buy me a nicer and go blah, blah, blah. But now in hindsight, I just think she that was the wisest thing she could say, because the time I rebelled, it made me realize that actually it's not an equal playing field in the world. You know, you're going to have people that are on this side and down at the bottom and up at the top, and you just have to grit your teeth and fight your way through it,   Michael Hingson ** 08:13 yeah, and, and the reality is, there are only so many things that you can truly control, and what you what you can control is how you dealt with that situation and situations like that. Yes, that's   Pat Backley ** 08:25 right. Um, and then I think I was a, I was definitely a product of the 60s. You know, we had all the lovely pop music and the short skirts and burning out bras and all that sort of stuff. But when I was just two weeks after my 20th birthday, I got married for the first time, which was ridiculous in hindsight, but at the time, you think you know everything when you're that age, don't you? My parents begged me not to marry him, but of course, I knew best, so that marriage lasted 14 years, and he wasn't always very kind. So then I left, then I was on my own for a beer. Then I had a living boyfriend, and I was desperate to have a child, Michael, but I'm not. I'm I'm old fashioned. I only would have a child if I had a husband. And so I didn't. I got married again when I was 41 and we had a child. I had a child when I was 43 my daughter, and that was that I thought life was going to be great. And then 26 years later, he decided he didn't love me anymore, didn't want to live in New Zealand anymore, and that was that so. So I kind of found myself living in New Zealand on my own, having we emigrated here together just before my 59th birthday. But anyway, I've picked up the pieces. It's been six years now, and because of COVID and because of him leaving me, that's how my life changed, really. And your daughter, my and my beloved daughter, my only child, yes, she's 30 now, and she is the love of my life. Yes, and I'm sorry. I've just realized I probably. Probably haven't answered your question very well. You must always pull me back, because I tend to get very excited and passionate and you know, don't necessarily toe the line with question answering. So forgive me, not   Michael Hingson ** 10:11 a problem. That's why this is a conversation and not a big deal. So is your daughter in New Zealand? She   Pat Backley ** 10:20 is now. When her dad she she was 16 when we came to New Zealand, so she did her last bit of school here, then she went to university in Auckland, and then she decided she wanted to do her master's degree back in London. So she went back to London, and then she got a job there, and she was away for five and a half years, which nearly broke my heart, but she's home now. She's been back four years, and she's got a lovely Kiwi boyfriend, and she's here to stay, so I'm   Michael Hingson ** 10:49 thrilled. What did she get? Her degree in art history. Ah, now, do you? Did you go to college? No, sadly,   Pat Backley ** 10:57 I because we were poor, I just had to leave school at 16, and so now I never went to college. I would have loved to, I would have liked to have been a teacher, but, you know, it wasn't to be and and I've had a great life, regardless of that.   Michael Hingson ** 11:13 So did you during all your married life and then the time in between and so on. What kind of work did you   Pat Backley ** 11:20 do? Well, I started work. I started work in the bank when I was 16. Barclays Bank was a really good place to work, so I spent 10 years working there. Then I lived for two years in the Fiji Islands and just did voluntary work back to the UK. My first husband and I started a furniture business, and then when I left him. Obviously I needed a job, because I didn't claim anything in the divorce. And so I got a job with bernardo's, the children's charity, as a general fundraiser. And that was great, because I just traveled all around the south of England supporting all the fundraising groups and things which I loved. And then I moved on to after a few years, I moved on to cancer research, um, again, as a fundraiser, but this time, setting up all their charity shops in the south, and that was a wonderful thing as well, because during the course of both those jobs, I met so many interesting people. You know, now that I'm an old gray haired lady, well, not actually Gray, because I color it, but now that I'm an old gray head lady. I feel very bad that the 35 year old me went to my new job with with Barnardos and sat there looking at these hundreds of gray head old ladies. And I thought, Oh, I'm too young to deal with all these old people. What on earth am I going to talk to them about? And of course, within a couple of days, I've realized that all these gray head old people were fabulous, that most of them had had really interesting, fascinating lives, and that I could learn an awful lot from them. So now the old gray head me looks back and feels very guilty at how I was at that age. But I guess that's what happens when you're young. You just think anyone over the age of 50 is is past it, don't you really well, but   Michael Hingson ** 13:03 you did learn a lot, I bet, from them, which is, oh, wow,   Pat Backley ** 13:07 oh, I learned so much, and I had so much fun, so much fun. Yeah, in fact, when I got married for the second time, a whole bunch of those ladies and a few of the men came to my, like, hen party the night before I got married, we went to the local, very smart hotel and had cocktails, and I just smiled to myself, thinking, oh, and I thought you were all so boring at the beginning, and actually, you're fabulous. So, yeah. So then, then my then I, then I stopped working, had my daughter, and I desperately didn't want to go back to my well paid job with cancer research. I wanted to be home with my baby because I was 43 I'd lost two children in the year before, with miscarriages, and so I stayed at home for four months, and then my husband said, oh, we need more money. You need to get a job. So I ended up doing having other people's children at my house, looking after them so doing like child minding. And that was when I look back. I don't know how I managed, because sometimes I had five under four year olds running around the house, which was quite a challenge. But we survived. I did that, I think, for seven years altogether, and oh, and in between that time, we came and lived in New Zealand for a year because my husband was a teacher, and he got a year's teaching exchange. So we basically swapped lives with a New Zealand teacher. He and his family moved into our house in England, and we moved into their house here in New Zealand. So for a whole year, we lived like a proper Kiwi family, which was wonderful. Lucy was only two, so it was the ideal time to do it. And I just, I just fell in love with New Zealand and desperately wanted to emigrate there. And then it took me 14 years to persuade him to get back here eventually. And in hindsight, I've probably pushed it too much, because. After he left, he said, I didn't like living in New Zealand. I didn't ever really settle there. So I have to hold up my hand and say, probably I persuaded him to do something that he really didn't want to do. But anyway, it's easy to be wise in hindsight, isn't it, as always, yeah. And then so we went back after our year here, we went back to the UK and we set up a business training and assessing construction workers, because the government realized, the UK government realized that, because they'd stopped formal apprenticeships some 20 odd years earlier, that there were now hundreds of 1000s of men working on construction sites who had all the necessary skills, but no paper qualifications. And so they wanted to redress that, but they realized that these men would not be willing to go back to college for three years to learn, learn their trade that they could already do. So they started this fast track program, and we used to go onto sites. We obviously, I had to get lots of qualifications and things to do it, trainers and assessors, qualifications. But then we used to go on two sites and watch the men working ask them loads of questions. We obviously had trade specific instructor assessors, and they could get that qualification that they would have taken three years to get going to college, they could then get in in a matter of six months or so, just by being observed doing their job. So it was a really, really good system, and it was very rewarding for me personally, because I used to go onto the sites and do the initial talks and whatever. And I've always liked men. I've always enjoyed their company, so I could cope with all the banter, you know, all the right, darling, what you're going to do after work, that kind of thing. I enjoyed all that. The bit I hated was wearing a hard hat, because they're very unflattering and they squash your hair do. But the most rewarding thing for me, we did that, that business for 20 years. The most rewarding thing was when a guy who I'd met on site who didn't even want to do it because he felt inadequate, which I later discovered was because he couldn't read or write, but he'd hidden it from all his colleagues. The most satisfying thing was once he'd passed, which obviously he sailed through. I sent him his certificate in the post, and the next day he phoned me, and he said, Pat. Thank you so much for that certificate. He said, it's the only thing I've ever had in my whole life that says I'm good at anything. He said, My wife is framing it and putting it on the living room wall. And that just made me cry, because I thought, this is, this is a man who's 45 who's gone through his whole life thinking he's stupid, and suddenly, just that one action can give him something to be proud of. So that was, I loved doing that, and we made that's how we made our money. For a few years, it was incredibly successful, and then it tailed off, and that's when we immigrated to New Zealand, and since I've been here, I've just basically been having a lovely time, doing a bit of voluntary work, lots of socializing and becoming an author. So   Michael Hingson ** 18:10 what, what attracted you to New Zealand? Why did you fall in love so much with New Zealand? Do you think   Pat Backley ** 18:19 it's a it's a hard question to answer. Michael, it was something deep inside me after I'd been here for a year, or when I'd been here probably only for a few weeks, I got this real feeling deep inside, inside me that I needed to be here. I just think sometimes places in the world draw you in for whatever reason. Who knows? You don't know if it's because perhaps you've got some association with it through an ancestor or I don't know, but I felt very, very drawn to New Zealand, and once we went back to the UK, we were back there for 14 years. Whenever I spoke to friends from New Zealand, whenever they'd phone me, I would end up in tears for hours. I want to go back to New Zealand. So it was a need rather than a desire, almost. And it's not something I've ever regretted. Even after he even after he abandoned me, we were back in England when he announced he didn't want to be married anymore, and he never came back to New Zealand. I just had to come back alone. Even then my friends in England were saying to me, oh, Pat, just stay in England. You know, we're all here. We'll, you know, we'll all be here for you. And I said, No, no, home is just New Zealand, even though I knew I was coming back all alone because Lucy was still living in London, I had, I've got no family here, so, but there was something that pulled me back.   Michael Hingson ** 19:45 I understand that I really enjoyed New Zealand a lot. And if there's when people ask me a place in the world that I regard as my favorite place to visit, New Zealand always comes out first, but I enjoy. Way wherever I go. I actually took my first trip to London in late October of this year. I was only there for a couple of days, but it was to do a speech. And, you know, it was pretty similar to being here. It just wasn't the same feeling as as being in New Zealand, which I had the opportunity to do, as I said before, for a little over three weeks. So it was really a lot of fun and and the the environment is just so different.   Pat Backley ** 20:28 Yes, I think New Zealand, I think one of the, I mean, obviously it's an incredibly beautiful country, but I think one of the main differences is that we, we've got a land mass pretty similar to the UK, but we we've only got like 5 million people, and the UK has got more than 70 million. And I think that's the thing. You know, the more people you try to cram into a small space, the more the social problems are, are enlarged, don't they? You know, we have exactly the same social problems here that are anywhere else in the world, but because our population is relatively small, it's not such a such such a huge feature of life, I think, yeah. Mm,   Michael Hingson ** 21:10 well, I haven't explained to everyone listening that Pat and I met through the RV Book Festival, virtual book festival, which both of us being authors, we spoke at and participated in, gosh, a little over a month ago now. Mm,   Pat Backley ** 21:28 yes, time flies, doesn't it does. It does.   Michael Hingson ** 21:32 And one of the things that I said, as I usually do when I get a chance to meet with people, is we'd love to have you all come on the podcast. And Pat is the second of the three people who were there. And so I'm glad that that that we got to do this. But let's talk about you being an author. So you started being an author. What, just three years ago or four years ago? Yes, yes. What? Yeah. Go ahead. Oh,   22:01 no, sorry, you carry on. Well, so   Michael Hingson ** 22:03 what just caused you to decide that you're going to try to write a book?   Pat Backley ** 22:09 Okay? Well, when I was a little girl, I had a massive list of things I wanted to be when I was growing up, I wanted to be a nurse, a missionary, a writer, a teacher, a ballerina. They were all my that was my list. So when I was about eight, I edited my first magazine. Is I have one limited copy of it. It was a limited, very limited edition. It only lasted one, one time. But so I guess probably I've always had that desire deep inside me, but because of circumstances, and not coming from, you know, a very privileged background, it meant that I didn't have the opportunity. But in the days when we used to write letters, I always love to write long, long letters to all my friends, my family. And when I lived in Fiji for two years, I wrote, there was no other way of communicating with my parents. They had no telephone. So for two years, I wrote them letters and when my when, when they died, and I had to clear out their house, I found this enormous pile of blue Air Mail, letters that I'd written to my parents over a two year period. They'd kept every single one. So I think I'd always loved writing, but it never occurred to me that I would ever have the chance to write a book. And then we get to COVID, and we, here in New Zealand, went into lockdown on the day of my 69th birthday. It was a beautifully sunny day, and I was all alone because Lucy was in England, and I made myself chocolate brownies, stuck a candle in it, sat in the garden and cried because my marriage was over. My daughter was gone. We had COVID. There were, you know, there were lots of things to cry about. And I then spent the next three weeks lying on my sofa watching rubbish on Netflix, eating too much chocolate, drinking too much red wine. And then I thought to myself, Pat, this is ridiculous. This could go on for a few more weeks, because at the time, we thought COVID was going to be quite short lived, didn't we, and I thought, why don't you do something practical? Why don't you write a book? So I just got out some paper and pen and started writing, and stayed up, probably mostly day and night, for two weeks, and then within two weeks, my first book, Daisy was done, and that was that really the rest is history. Since then I have so I published it self. Published it just before my 70th birthday, and in the three years since then, I've written and published eight more. Contributed to five anthologies, written a little Yes, so yeah, written articles for magazines and been interviewed by lovely people like you, and the rest is history. Are you alright? Have I sent you to sleep? Talking?   Michael Hingson ** 24:58 No, I. Well, I'm just listening. I didn't know whether you were done. You know, it's, it's fascinating to to listen to the story and to hear you talk about what, what brought you to it, what made you decide what kind of books to write. I   Pat Backley ** 25:18 don't think I really did decide, um, my daughter for my birth, for the previous Christmas, had sent me a very dry little textbook, which she knew I love, called, I can't think exactly what it's called, something like the history of architecture, of council houses in the UK, something very boring like that. And it was, it was basically a textbook, because I love architecture as well. It was basically a textbook with just a few pictures in so I'd kind of put it on my coffee table, but not but ignored it. You know how you do when there's books? You know, you should, you kind of don't get around to it. So at the beginning of COVID, I picked it up one day, or a couple of days before I started writing, I picked it up, and within five minutes, I was enthralled. I got out post it notes. I'd stuck those all over little bits and written quotes, and I think that was kind of an inspiration. So I expected the book to be more about, have more of a theme of architecture. And in fact, the book doesn't. There is one guy who becomes an architect in it towards the end. But I think that kind of just just pushed something in my head into gear, because I firmly believe Michael. I mean, they always say that everyone has a book inside them, and I, when I do my talks now, I'm often photographed at a very funny stage where I'm going like this, because I'm just saying how somebody's it feels as though somebody's taken off the top of my head, and 70 years worth of words are just flying out. Because I find writing incredibly easy. The first book Daisy wrote itself pretty much, you know, I just kind of had an idea and and I wrote down a few things about possible people, and then they just wrote their own story, really, which I'm, you know, I know, as an author, you will understand that. And I would say, for all my other books, I've had an idea, but they've kind of, they've kind of written themselves, themselves   Michael Hingson ** 27:17 as well. Yeah. Well, you know, you talk about textbooks. I've been an advocate for some time about the concept that people should rewrite textbooks or make textbooks different than they are, and technical manuals, the same way, as you said, they're very boring and and they don't need to be in textbooks could draw people in a lot more than they than they do. For example, my master's degree is in physics, and when you're looking at a physics textbook, there are lots of mathematical equations and so on, and that's fine, but think of how much more interesting the book might be, and think of how much more you might draw the interest of people to the science by including in the book some stories about the the author. Their their, I don't want to necessarily say adventures, but their experience is why they became a physicist, why they do what they do, and bringing some humanity to the textbook, I think would make a significant difference to textbooks in general, but we don't see that, because people just want to get the facts out there.   Pat Backley ** 28:32 I couldn't agree more. I absolutely, totally agree. When I was at school, I hated doing research because it was boring. You had to learn the names of all the kings of England, and King, you know, Henry, the eighth wives, and when their heads got chopped off and all that stuff. And apart from the really scandalous bits, I wasn't really interested. But now I absolutely adore research. I discovered that my first book, Daisy is is a historical fiction, and so I had to do lots of research to make sure it was accurate, because you you know, if you write something in a book and it's not right, people are going to pick holes in it. I mean, they're going to pick holes in your work anyway, so you don't want to give them extra ammunition, right? But I discovered that I absolutely loved doing research. And of course, these days it's so easy because you just click a button on your computer and you can find out what cold scuttles were used in 1871 whereas in my youth, we had to trudge to the library get out all the encyclopedias. And so because of I've discovered that love of research, all my all my novels, are now historical because it's almost it gives me an excuse to go researching and finding out stuff. So it's opened up a whole new world to me, Michael and I just realized now that that expression education is wasted on the young is so true, because now in my seven. Is I am so open to learning new things, whereas in my teens, I was bored to death and just wanted to go home and play.   Michael Hingson ** 30:09 So what was Daisy about? Oh, well,   Pat Backley ** 30:11 Daisy, I'll just, I'll just read you a little bit on the back to give you an idea. Um, Daisy is a gentle family saga spanning almost 100 years, from 1887 to 1974 It is set in Alabama, Harlem and London, and incorporate some of the evils of society, poverty, racism and snobbery, as well as some of the greatest that life has to offer, family, friendship and love and a couple of quotes, being born poor was a scar that never faded, and she had never experienced racial hatred first hand, so had no real idea of how it could erode a person's whole life. So basically, it's just a story of a young woman born in the slums of London and a young man born into an affluent lifestyle on an Alabama plantation in 1871 and how their lives interwove, they never got together, but, you know, or all their extended people did, so it's right, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 31:14 right. Well, the thing about about that kind of a story is, again, it draws you in. I I would would say something slightly different. Being poor is a scar that that never fades. On the other hand, being poor also gave you, or would give Daisy the life that she had, which was, was so I would suspect so very invaluable to her overall life experiences.   Pat Backley ** 31:50 Yes, absolutely yes. And her life changes quite dramatically midway because of the people she meets. Yeah, it's I, it was in, it's interesting, because sometimes I reread it and I just think, Wow, this is quite a good story. And I then I feel bad for thinking that about my own writing, but I've written the second Daisy, which is obviously the follow up. And then I thought, actually I and then I wrote a little travel book and my life story and whatever. And then I thought, Oh, I really miss doing research. Perhaps I could write about my own family, my own ancestors. So I then wrote the ancestors series. I've done three in it, and wrote about my paternal grandparents, my maternal grandparents and my own parents. I've just published that book about them that was glorious, but very emotive, because obviously I knew certain bits about them. But delving back further and further into the family histories, you discover lots of things and very emotional to write, yeah, particularly one about my parents, because your parents are just your mom and dad, aren't they? You kind of don't think of them really, as people in their own right, but when you start writing their life story, you're living life through their shoes and and it, yeah, it made me very emotional. I cried every day writing my parents story, but now I'm really glad I did it, because it's kind of honored, honored their lives, and also it means they'll never die their even their photographs are on the cover. And my daughter said that she cried all the way reading it, and she said, Mom, it was wonderful, because I hardly knew them. You know, they died when she was quite young. Yeah, she's but now I understand, yeah, so because she's had, you know, she's had a reasonably nice upbringing. She hasn't had the upbringing that they had, or even I had. So, yeah, I think I try. I've become a bit I've become a bit of a pain now, because everyone I meet, I say, like last week, I did a talk at the local genealogy society, and I said to them, please write your story down or record it some way. Because once you die, your story dies with you, no one knows your life as well as you do. So, yeah, yeah. But I just love research. So now I'm thinking, oh, what else can I write about and do some research? I write about people. Michael, people are my passion. I love people and and ordinary people. I don't need to write about, you know, worthy things people, right?   Michael Hingson ** 34:24 But the other part about it is that you got, as you write about your parents, I'll bet you got to know them better, too, and it helps you understand the kind of life you had and they had. And I still bet overall, you could talk about wealth and all that, but you wouldn't trade your life for anything because it made you who you are today. Abs,   Pat Backley ** 34:49 you're absolutely right, and yes, you're right. Writing about their stories and all that they went through, it was Yeah. Just made me really, really realize that they were even. Special people than I knew they were. But no, I wouldn't trade anything. I mean, I had a wonderfully happy childhood, if you put aside that silly bit of bully in that, you know, I tend to know for the years. But, yeah, we I, I because I didn't know, really, that I got snippets of there being other kind of lives like, you know, I had rich friends who had lots of clothes, traveling all the time and stuff, but basically, my life was just my little nuclear family. In our little we had a little two bedroom house for six of us, and that was my life. We were very happy. There were very rarely raised voices, and that's why I didn't cope very well in my first marriage, when my husband, my first husband, suddenly showed me that he had a rather violent temper because I didn't know how to handle it, because I had never experienced that before in my whole life. So I in that way, I wasn't prepared. But yeah, I will always be grateful to my parents, because with very little, they gave us all a very happy childhood.   Michael Hingson ** 36:05 Well, so you started writing at the age of 70. Do you wish that you had started writing earlier? Or did you think about that? I   Pat Backley ** 36:17 think about it. I don't really, because I think I had to live through everything I've lived through get to the point now of being able to write in the way I do. And also, yeah, no, I don't really. I mean, the only thing I think is, oh, I hope I don't die before I before I get everything written, I want to write. That's my only thing. But no, I I've learned, Michael, not to regret anything in life, because if you do, the only person it hurts is yourself. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 36:47 because you are who you are, because of your life   Pat Backley ** 36:51 exactly, and you would understand that better than most. I mean, you cope so well with with being blind, which is absolutely remarkable, because most of us, if we suddenly can't see and need to wear a stronger pair of glasses, we just go down, you know, go down into a depressive state. So you're a wonderful beacon of hope. I think for an awful lot of people, of course,   Michael Hingson ** 37:15 the issue, and using that as an example, the issue is that you don't know anything about being blind or blindness, and people generally don't, and they make a lot of assumptions that are not necessarily true, but it is again, the lives that they live, and the reality is there's nothing wrong with being blind. We live in a world where most people are light dependent, that is, they can see. But the reality is, of course, in the perspective I try to oftentimes nowadays, to convey to people, is light dependence is just as much a disability as being light independent or blind, because as soon as the lights go out, you lose power, and if you don't have an immediate light source. You're in a world of hurt. And we really should think of disability as a characteristic that everyone has, except it manifests itself differently for different people. But unfortunately, people aren't ready to do that. And the reasons for bringing up the concept in that way is that I think that because disability is really a characteristic everyone has, it is also a way to help level the playing field. And that's something that is so hard to get people to do, because they really think, well, you're blind, you're not as good as I   Pat Backley ** 38:37 Oh, wow. Very profound. I love talking to you. Michael, this is fascinating stuff. Fascinating. I had, I had a little niece. Sadly, she died when she was 14. She had a dreadful genetic disease called battens, but she went blind for the last couple of years. It broke my heart. It broke my heart, but she seemed to just deal with it somehow. You know, it's, I guess we all get the strengths we need at the times we need them. Do you think   Michael Hingson ** 39:04 I think, I think that's true, or we can if, long as we accept it. But the reality is that, of course, she lost her her eyesight, but if she developed an attitude that I have other things that are available to me, so I'm going to be fine, then she would be fine. Yes,   Pat Backley ** 39:23 yeah, yeah. I mean, sadly, she lost all her faculties. She couldn't talk. She so everything went but, but it was when her eyes went and she was still able to understand, that was the hardest thing. So I remember years ago when I worked in Barclays Bank, when I was quite in my 20s, and we were, I worked in a big branch at the time, and we had a blind telephonist, because in those days, back in the 60s, I think it was kind of what they did. It was when there were all those great big telephonic boards, you know, press all the buttons. And we had a guy called Peter, and he had. His dog was called penny, and our branch was on the corner of this huge, wide road in a place called Kingston, just outside London. And to cross the road, there were like six lanes of traffic, and it was really, really dangerous. And we would come out of work in the afternoon, and we'd all be standing there hesitant to cross the road, and Peter would suddenly just march across the road with Penny, and we'd all be standing there in awe. And one day I crossed with I've got brave, and I crossed over with him, and we got to the other side, and I said, Peter, how can you do that? He said, Oh, well. He said, It's always useful being blind, because traffic feels sorry for you, so they all kind of slow down anyway. He said, But, but. He said, But Penny leads me. He said, she just, she just, she just knows it's fine, so she just the dog just, just takes me over. I was fascinated, but he had just recently married about two years earlier he'd been, he'd been fully sighted till he was 11, and then he and some friends were messing about on the railway lines, and he fell over and bashed his head, and he went blind. So he had been sighted and but now he he was married, he had a little baby, and I said, Oh, Peter, can you actually see your baby, or do you just kind of have to feel the outline? He said, Oh no. He said, I got a tiny, tiny bit of vision. He said, so I can see the shape of the baby. And I just always remember thinking you're so brave. That was, that was what I thought. I just felt he was so brave. Well, just remember   Michael Hingson ** 41:27 the dictionary, you know? Well, just remember the dictionary defines to see is to perceive. It doesn't necessarily need to be with the eyes and and there's so many other senses that give us this a lot of information as well. For me, I don't want my dog to decide when we cross the street in general, unless the dog refuses to go because there's a hybrid car or something coming that I don't hear. But it's my job to know when to go and and I know how to do that, and so I can listen for the traffic flow and and, and go accordingly. And at the same time, if I then tell the dog to go forward and the dog won't go my immediate assumption is there's a reason for that, and and, and usually there is because the dog and I have developed that kind of a relationship where the dog knows it's my job to tell the dog where to go, and it's the dog's job to make sure that we get there safely. It's a very close knit team. It's as close knit of a team as you can imagine, and it's what it's really all about. So the dog and I each do our jobs, and when we do them correctly together, what a wonderful world. It becomes   Pat Backley ** 42:47 fabulous. And it obviously works because you're still standing, you're still here,   Michael Hingson ** 42:54 and my and my dog is over here, breathing very deeply, asleep. Oh, so you you stick with historical fiction. Have you ever thought of writing other kinds of books, like adventures or novels or that are not historic in nature, fantasy or any of those? I   Pat Backley ** 43:17 don't think I've got the right brain set to do fantasy or horror or crime. I, I I'm writing historical because I've discovered a great love for it, but I've also, I also have a great love for travel. So I wrote a little travel book, and I've just done a big trip, so I'm going to write another travel book, because that's another great love I wrote. I wrote my memoirs, which was very satisfying, you know, to write my own story down so it's there forever, if you like. And I also wrote a little book called The abandoned wives handbook, which I didn't want to write. I just kept putting it off. And then one day, I woke up at three in the morning and this voice saying to me, Pat, you have to write this book to help other people. So I just wrote this. I cried all the time. Writing it, as you've probably deduced, I'm a great crier. I think crying is is the best way of getting stress out of your system, out of my system. So I wrote this book. It's just a tiny little book that you can pop into a handbag called the abandoned wives handbook. And I've just made it like a little dictionary. I call it a dictionary of distress, and it's just to I'll just just briefly read you the backseat and understand the pain of abandonment is huge. The partner you loved and cherished for so many years has decided you are no longer required past your sell by date of no use to them anymore, so tossed out like a piece of garbage, abandoned with barely a backward glance, in an attempt to keep this a gentle, light hearted read, each chapter is divided into letters of the alphabet, rather like a dictionary of distress, something you can dip into at any time. I am not an expert, merely someone who has survived one of life's great traumas and has come through. Is a stronger, more resilient person, so I didn't want to write it. I hated doing it. I've, I published it, and it's, ironically, one of my best selling books people buy   Michael Hingson ** 45:13 all the time. Do you publish your own books, or do you have a publisher? I   Pat Backley ** 45:17 have, I have done till this point, Michael, but simply because I'm feeling I'm too old to hang around waiting to get noticed. But I have just written, I have just finished another book, which I I just feel might be slightly more commercial, so I may try seeing if I can get an agent for that. But I will probably only try one or two, and then if they say no, I'll just give up and self publish. The only thing against self publishing for me now is that it because I want to do it properly. You know, I pay an editor, I pay a cover designer, I pay a formatter. It becomes quite expensive to pay people. So that's my that's my only downside. But I do like to be totally in control. You know, I can choose my own covers. I can choose when it's published. I can choose what the content is. And if you go with a traditional publisher, you often lose the ability to have the same control   Michael Hingson ** 46:11 well, or you you negotiate, but, but, yeah, I understand what you're saying. I also have to say I understand fully this whole concept of abandonment. When my seventh guide dog Africa retired, and she retired because she wasn't seeing well and she was slowing down, so I knew it was time to get a new guide dog. So it was February 9 of 2018, and we lived here, and her puppy raiser, the people who raised her, they call them, I think, in New Zealand, puppy walkers, but they live about 140 miles south, or about 120 miles in a town called Carlsbad. And they came and I, and I said that they could have Africa, and the only reason I gave her up was because we already had my wife's service dog and a cat, and I was going to get another dog, and Karen wasn't really going to be able to handle taking care of two dogs and a cat when I traveled to speak, so we agreed that Africa could go live with the bill And Peggy, and they came and picked her up, and she walked out the door without a backward glance. I was abandoned.   47:26 Oh, that's awful,   Michael Hingson ** 47:28 yeah. Well, we actually, we went. We went down and visited her several times. She was just excited. No, she's, she was a great dog. And, yes, yeah, you know. And they got to have her for two years before she passed. But she was, she was a good dog and and she had a good life. And I can't complain a bit, but it's fun to tease about how obviously we have abandoning issues here. Yes, yeah.   Pat Backley ** 47:53 And I think that's the secret in life, Michael, to always find something to be happy about and smile about, because life can be very tough, can't it? I mean, you know, it's, yeah, life is tough. And so I think if we don't find, try and seek a little joy, we might as well all give up, you know, yeah, yeah. And   Michael Hingson ** 48:14 there's no need to do that. I mean, God put us on this earth to live an adventure. And life is an adventure,   48:21 absolutely,   Michael Hingson ** 48:22 no matter what we do. Yes,   48:25 absolutely. Well, how do you   Michael Hingson ** 48:26 develop your characters? I mean, you're writing historical fiction, so you're you're using history and and periods of time as the the setting for your books, but you're creating your own characters primarily, I gather,   Pat Backley ** 48:39 yes, yes. To be honest, in my head, when I start writing, I almost have an exact picture of my characters. I know exactly what they look like. I mean, if I was to, if I was to suddenly get a film offer, I could easily say how these people should look, because I they're real for for example, a few months after I oh no, maybe a year or so after I published Daisy, I was talking to my daughter one day, and I just said, Oh, do you remember when Theo did whatever? And she looked me straight in the eye, and she said, Mum, I don't know your characters as well as you do. And I just, we both burst out laughing, because to me, they're real people. You know, I I can picture them. I know exactly what they look like. And I think even when I start a new book in my head, I already know what my characters look like. They may not as the plot goes on, behave in the way I want them to, but I know how I know who they are. I know how they how they look. Yeah, they're going   Michael Hingson ** 49:43 to write the book and they're going to tell you what you need to do. Yeah, totally. But you use, but you use, I assume, real places in your books. I always   Pat Backley ** 49:51 use real places, always Yeah, and always places I know, because I think you can write more authentically then, like in days. I wrote about Harlem and Alabama and New York and London, or not New York in that one, but London and because I know all those places, I've been there and you know, they're, they're familiar to me, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 50:13 yeah. So you, you, you let them do what they do, and out comes the book.   Pat Backley ** 50:21 Absolutely, that's right, yes, yeah, have you   Michael Hingson ** 50:25 written any yet in New Zealand?   Pat Backley ** 50:29 You mean, based in New Zealand? The funny thing is, Michael, being an immigrant is and I have spoken to lots of other immigrants about this. In fact, I co authored a book in lockdown called the warrior women project, a sisterhood of immigrant women, which is based in the States. And all the other women are are living in the States, except me, and I caught up with them when I came over to the states. Couple of months ago, we had a reunion, met for the first time, which was wonderful, but we all said, once you are an immigrant, you never truly belong anywhere. You know, when I go, I always feel a little bit of an outsider here. I've been here 14 years now, and that's nobody's that's nothing anybody does. That's just my feeling deep inside. I go back to England, and I feel like an outsider. I used to live in Fiji when I was in my 20s, and then I had a house there. Until my divorce, I go back there, and I've got a lot of extended friend family there, I go back there, and I always feel like an a bit of an outsider. So I think that's the price you pay for wanting a life less ordinary. You know, you somehow become like a little bit of a floating person. And I don't to answer your question, I don't really feel qualified to write about New Zealand. Obviously, I talk about it in my travel book and I talk about different places, but to base the whole story here, I don't feel qualified. There are enough fabulous New Zealand authors who are doing that already, who've been born here, who understand the country, who, you know, who, yeah, they're   Michael Hingson ** 52:07 just at the same time you wrote Daisy, which took place in part in Alabama. How much time did you spend, you know? So it may be, it may be something in the future where a character will pop out and say, I want to be in New Zealand, but that's something to look at.   Pat Backley ** 52:23 Yes, I love it when somebody like you calls me out on my own, my own things, because you're absolutely right. I That's That was a silly argument to say. I don't know it enough. So thank you for that. You've made me rethink. That's good.   Michael Hingson ** 52:37 Well, so I gather that when you're writing, you think you have the plot planned out, or you you try to have the plot planned out, but it doesn't necessarily go the way you plan it. Does it?   Pat Backley ** 52:49 No, not at all. I mean, I know roughly what I want to say. I think what I'm definitely, definitely know what I want to do is get certain little messages across. And that doesn't matter what my characters do, because I can weave that in, like in Daisy. I wanted to get across that slavery was dreadful, and racism is dreadful, and the way black people were treated when they went to England in the 1950s was dreadful. So I managed to we, and that's and that's snobbishness and stuff is dreadful. So I managed to always weave those kind of themes into my books. And apparently, it has been said by reviewers that I do it so well that people it just makes people think about what that how they think how Yeah, so, so those main themes, if you like, I managed to weave into my stories, regardless of how badly my characters behave.   Michael Hingson ** 53:45 So when you're writing, are you pretty disciplined? Do you have certain times that you write, or do you just sit down and write till you're ready to stop for the day? Or what I   Pat Backley ** 53:56 am very non disciplined, undisciplined, whatever the term is supposed to be. I have great intentions. I think, right, I'm going to spend tomorrow writing. I'll be at my desk by eight o'clock, and I'll sit little five. And then at nine o'clock, I get up to go make a cup of coffee. And at 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock, I'm out weeding the garden, and then I might come back in and do a little bit, and then I go off and do something else. So I am dreadfully undisciplined, but I work really well to deadlines. Just before I went away on my big trip in September, I was part way through a book, probably a third way through writing a new book, and I woke up one day and I thought, right, I'm going to get that book finished before I go. I had three weeks left. In that three weeks, I had masses of appointments. I had to sort out my wardrobe, which, as a woman, is a huge problem, one that you've probably never had, but you know, you have to decide what goes with what and how many dresses you should take, and it's a huge issue for a lot of women. So I had a lot of jobs to do in that three. Weeks instead of which, I decided to set myself as self imposed time to get the book finished. Crazy. Just, I mean, why? Why? Why crazy?   Michael Hingson ** 55:09 And did you the day   Pat Backley ** 55:11 before? There you are. I was so proud of myself because I just that was it. I decided I and what I did to make myself accountable, I actually put a post on Facebook and Instagram saying, why, and all these little yellow post it notes, and I'd written on their pack suitcase, Do this, do this, do this. And so I just said to everyone that I'd given myself this self pointed deadline so I had made myself publicly accountable. If I hadn't done that, I probably wouldn't have finished it, but I find, for me, that's the best way of disciplining myself is to have a deadline with everything in life, really, yeah. But the   Michael Hingson ** 55:49 other part about it is, even when you're as you would put it, being undisciplined, your brain is still working on the book, and the characters are are mulling things over, so it does pop out. Oh, totally,   Pat Backley ** 56:00 totally. And I end up with lots of little scrappy notes all over the house, you know, where I've just grabbed a piece of paper and written down something. And then, of course, I have to gather them all together. And when I was in the States recently, I spent two months, and I've got scrap I was doing a lot of research, and I've got scrappy notes everywhere. So I've now got to try and pull those all together while my brain still remembers what they were meant to be, you know, like lady in red dress in New Orleans. Well, what does that really mean? So, right? I'm, I'm my own worst enemy in many ways, but,   Michael Hingson ** 56:37 but she thought, and so you went through it exactly, exactly, yeah, that's okay. Where did you travel in September?   Pat Backley ** 56:45 I went to Atlanta first to meet up with these warrior women, which was truly fabulous. Then I went to New Orleans, and my friend who lives in Alabama, picked me up, and we went to New Orleans, and then we drove back to Alabama. She lives in Huntsville. So I was there for a week and was doing lots of research, because Daisy is partly based right and then we then she drove me back to Nashville, and I flew to New York, where I was meeting some friends from New Zealand who lived there six months of the year. So I spent six days there and went to Harlem for more research and stuff like that, and then flew to Canada, to Toronto, where two friends, a lady I'd met when we had our daughters together, and her daughter, they now live in France. They flew from France, met me in Toronto, we hired the biggest SUV I've ever seen in my life, and we drove across Canada for three weeks, which was such fun, such fun. And then I came home. So I've got millions of scrappy notes that I need to pull together to write a travel book and to use as inspiration for my novels.   Michael Hingson ** 58:01 So you so you're going to write another travel book? I   58:05 am going to write another travel book. Yeah, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 58:09 And the the abandoned wives handbook, that's kind of a self help book. That's a self help book, yes, yeah. Just you think you'll write another one of   Pat Backley ** 58:17 those? No, no, I'm done with that one's enough of those, huh? Yeah, that's right. I'm not an expert, Michael and the I just, I just, but the funny thing is, when I do talks, I always talk about all my books. And a few weeks ago, I was talking at this very smart meeting of ex business people, both ladies and gentlemen, and they were all over 60. Um, so quite a conservative audience. And at the end, or towards the end, I just mentioned this abandoned Wise Book, I tend to skim over it. I don't really, I don't really talk about it too much unless the audience is particularly relevant. But I just said to them, oh, and this is my little book. And someone said, Oh, could you read us an excerpt from it? So I said, Okay, I'll just open the book at random. And I opened the book and the title, what you won't be able to see here, the title of that chapter was K for kill. And I thought, no, no, I don't want to read about kill front of this audience. So I just made a joke of it and and I'll just read it to you, because it will make you laugh, as I have said previously under Section indecisive. You may, in your darkest moments, think about hurting him. This is not really a great idea, as you would undoubtedly be caught and end up in prison. Yeah, you so, you know, I and then I went on a bit more, but, you know, it's some yeah and no, I'm done with that book. I've, I've done my bit for humanity with that. It seems to be helping a lot of people. So that's that's enough.   Michael Hingson ** 59:45 Yeah, I would never make a good criminal, because I know I'd be caught and and I don't know how to keep from getting caught, and frankly, don't care about trying to get worry about getting caught or not getting caught. It's easier just not to be a criminal. So it works out fine. So. Yes,   1:00:00 exactly. Yeah, me too. Me too. So much   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:02 easier. So much easier. Absolutely, absolutely yes. Well, if people want to reach out to you and maybe learn a little bit more about you or meet you, how do they do that? Okay,   Pat Backley ** 1:00:12 well, my website is just patch back league com, so it's very easy. Um, I'm Can you spell that please? Yes, yes, of course, P, A, T, B, A, C, K, L, E, y.com.com, yeah, and I'm on all the channels, as you know, Facebook and Instagram and x and LinkedIn and stuff as Pat Backley author or pat Backley books. And my books are all available from Amazon, all the online retailers, Barnes and Noble stuff like that, as ebooks or paperbacks, or if someone desperately wanted a signed copy, I'm very happy to send them a signed copy, and you can get them from you can request them from libraries.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:59 Have you? Have you thought about making any of them an audio format?   Pat Backley ** 1:01:05 I have someone's. A few people have suggested that this year, when I've been doing talks, they've come up to me afterwards, and yes, I think I'm going to, as long as it's not too costly, because at the moment, my budget is extremely limited, but I'm going to do them myself, because everyone feels that my books will be come come across better in my own voice so well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:25 and you read well. So I think that makes a lot of sense to consider.   Pat Backley ** 1:01:29 Thank you, Michael, that's very kind of you. Well, Pat,   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:33 this has been fun, and I've enjoyed it. I've learned a lot of things as well, and I'm and I'm glad that we've had this chance. We need to do it again. When are you going to start a podcast?   Pat Backley ** 1:01:47 Well, funny, you should say that I've decided I'm going to I'm going to just dip my toes in very gently. I'm going to start it in the new year, and I'm going to call it and this makes everyone who knows me laugh. I'm going to call it just 10 minutes with Pat Backley. And everyone has said, Oh, don't be ridiculous. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:05 I agree, 10   Pat Backley ** 1:02:06 minutes, but I thought it's a way of just gently edging in. And then if people enjoy listening to me, they might want to listen for longer after a while. But I thought initially, just 10 minutes, little snippets, if they like what they hear, they might come back.   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:21 They'll come back. Oh, I don't think there would be a problem. Well, if you, if you ever need a guest to come and spend at least 10 minutes, just let me know. I   Pat Backley ** 1:02:30 certainly shall. I have absolutely loved talking to you. Michael, thank you so much for inviting me as well. This is a very joyful morning. I've really loved it. Thank you. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:39 this has been fun, and I want to thank all of you for listening. I hope you've enjoyed it and reach out to Pat. I'm sure she would love to communicate with you, and maybe in some way, you'll end up in a book, which is always a nice, good thing to think about as well. I'd love to hear what you think about our podcast today. So please feel free to email me. Michael, h, i, m, I, C H, A, E, L, H i at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I b, e.com, or go to our podcast page, which is at w, w, w, dot Michael hingson.com/podcast, and Michael hingson is spelled M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, S O n.com/podcast, wherever You're listening. We would really appreciate it if you would give us a five star rating. And we we value that. We value your thoughts and input. Pat for you and all of you listening. If you know an

GOOD GOING. Graydon Carter launched his enjoyable digital weekly newsletter Air Mail in 2019. He was the editor of Vanity Fair for twenty-five years, and under him Vanity Fair won numerous awards. Named to the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame, he is also an author and editor of books, a producer of plays and documentaries, and a restaurateur. In the newly published memoir When the Going Was Good Graydon recounts how he made his mark as one of society's most talented editors and shapers of culture. “I'm a very kind person, and I treat everybody the same.” “Every editor out there was working at the top of their game, and they were really good, so the competition was fierce.” “Always carry a handkerchief!”

People generally set out to write their memoirs in times of relative boredom or malaise—in other words, when they’ve retired. Not so for Graydon Carter. He began working on his new memoir, When the Going Was Good, just after leaving his post at the helm of Vanity Fair, where he was editor for 25 years, and as he was starting AIR MAIL. But then, whether Carter was lampooning the excesses of 1980s New Yorkers in Spy, hosting Oscar parties for the ages at Vanity Fair, or poring over the seating charts for his Greenwich Village restaurant The Waverly Inn, he never was one to loaf. On this episode of Table for Two, he joins host Bruce Bozzi to discuss his experience working as a railroad lineman in Canada, the moment he realized the golden age of print was nearing its end, and how he was able to effectively separate his work and family life.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Graydon Carter, the editor whose two decades at the helm of Vanity Fair transformed the publication, sure knows how to curate. He made the magazine into the cultural touchstone it is today (think: the much-photographed Vanity Fair Oscars Party, the viral celebrity lie-detector tests), though not without trial, error, and lots of nerves. He and I talk about his long tenure, the pitfalls of a project not having a “point,” and what he gets out of being at the head of a completely new enterprise, the digital magazine Air Mail. It’s a creative conversation I didn’t know I needed, and one I’m very glad I had. Graydon’s memoir, When the Going Was Good, is available now wherever books are sold. Follow me on Instagram at @davidduchovny. Stay up to date with Lemonada on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our shows and get bonus content. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The founder and Co-Editor of AIR MAIl, Graydon Carter, has written his long-awaited memoir, entitled When the Going Was Good: An Editor's Adventures During the Last Golden Age of Magazines, and we're excited to have him join us to talk about his book, the enduring magic of New York, and more. Then, for years Danny Elfman was one of the most sought-after composers in Hollywood, writing scores for movies such as Beetlejuice, Batman, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. But now his reputation is in tatters as he faces accusations of sexual harassment. Jacob Bernstein joins us to discuss the story that has riveted—and perplexed—Hollywood.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Graydon Carter is the co-founder of Spy Magazine and Air Mail, and for 25 years, he was the editor of Vanity Fair. His memoir, When The Going Was Good, chronicles a time when the going was extremely good for glossy magazines and their star editors. During the golden age of magazines, Vanity Fair combined celebrity profiles with deeply reported journalism to great acclaim, and Carter, arguably, became more famous than many of his extremely talented writers.  He and Kara discuss everything from office politics at Vanity Fair to Canadian politics, including President Trump's (possible) descent into madness, the artistry involved in making a restaurant cool (as opposed to hot), and why anxiety is an essential ingredient for editors.   Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram, TikTok, and Bluesky @onwithkaraswisher. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's episode of You Are What You Read, world-renowned journalist Graydon Carter joins us for a conversation about his memoir, When the Going Was Good, which hits shelves today. Graydon is the founder of Air Mail. Before this, he was a staff writer for both Time and Life. He cocreated Spy, edited The New York Observer, and for twenty-five years was the award-winning editor of Vanity Fair. He is also the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning producer of more than a dozen documentaries and one hit Broadway play.  Subscribe to AirMail: https://airmail.news/ Enter to win one of 30 advanced copies of The View from Lake Como now on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/404916-the-view-from-lake-como-a-novel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Elon Musk is all over Washington, D.C., these days. But did you know that before he became the emperor of DOGE, he was a needy recipient of government spending? Oz Woloshyn reveals all the details. Then Lesley M. M. Blume tells the riveting story of a woman who discovered her grandfather's secret history: he survived a Nazi death camp and was the subject of a powerful profile written by one of the great journalists of World War II. And finally, here at Air Mail, we have a new podcast. It's called Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli, and it is all about The Godfather, and co-hosts Mark Seal and Nathan King stop by to tell us about it.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Howard Blum is the author of New York Times bestsellers including Dark Invasion, the Edgar Award–winner American Lightning, as well as Wanted!, The Gold Exodus, Gangland, The Floor of Heaven and Night of the Assassins. Blum is a contributing editor at Airmail, his series of articles on The Idaho Murders were nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. While at the New York Times, he was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Read Howard Blum at Air Mail 

Louis speaks to actor, podcast host and figure of some controversy, Armie Hammer. Dialing in from his new apartment in downtown LA, Armie and Louis discuss the allegations against him, being shunned by famous friends and his unconventional family history.   Warnings: Strong language and graphic sexual content, as well as discussions of sensitive themes, including sexual abuse. For further information and support, visit https://resources.byspotify.com/.  Links/Attachments: ‘Armie Hammer Breaks His Silence' – Air Mail  https://airmail.news/issues/2023-2-4/armie-hammer-breaks-his-silence    Podcast: ‘The Armie HammerTime Podcast' (2024 – present)  https://open.spotify.com/show/05ozD8G0kGIAwJj2PRCjl0    TV Show: ‘House of Hammer' (2022) – Discovery +  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQ80m7831I    Instagram Account: @armiehammervictims   https://www.instagram.com/armiehammervictims?igsh=MTVpbWw2OGMweGFleg==    TV Show: ‘The Offer' (2022) – Paramount+   https://www.paramountplus.com/gb/shows/the-offer/    Shotgun Wedding (2022) – Amazon Prime  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shotgun-Wedding-Jennifer-Lopez/dp/B0B76PXDYJ    ‘Victim of cannibal agreed to be eaten' – The Guardian  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/germany.lukeharding    Frontier Crucible (upcoming film)  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34370951/    ‘Armie Hammer Returns to Acting With ‘Frontier Crucible' Western' – The Hollywood Reporter   https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/armie-hammer-acting-return-western-frontier-crucible-1236048900/  Credits:  Producer: Millie Chu   Assistant Producer: Emilia Gill  Production Manager: Francesca Bassett   Music: Miguel D'Oliveira   Audio Mixer: Tom Guest  Video Mixer: Scott Edwards Shownotes compiled by Immie Webb   Executive Producer: Arron Fellows       A Mindhouse Production for Spotify   www.mindhouse.co.uk    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

*Announcement for RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA!* ***Corey just got word that he's picked up a date at GOODNIGHTS COMEDY CLUB in RALEIGH January 16-18.... thats very soon! You can get tickets at GoodnightsComedy.com *** Sup, Airheads? After addressing the fires in California for a brief moment up top, This week, Lord Trae and Professor CHO start with a discussion that has intrigued southerners of all ages for quite some time: What REALLY counts as The South? And are some territories that claim residence there just a bit too fancy to fit in? After that the boys talk about the lost art of written correspondence, and Corey posits that fancy/rich people do a better job at maintaining it. Also from this discussion: Holiday cards and wedding invitations - can you really expect us stupid men to be on top of this? And finally, Professor CHO learns us about some of the differences in Shakespeare's Henry V and the actual King, Henry himself, including a weird omission concerning an injury King Henry V received in battle at the ripe age of 16!Also had some terrific Air Mail this week, so thanks to everyone who submitted theirs at PuttinOnAirs@gmail.comLove y'all... be safe! Go to TraeCrowder.com to see Trae on the road! Go to BlueChew.com and use promo code POA to try Blue Chew for free! Mando's Starter Pack is perfect for new customers. It comes with a Solid Stick Deodorant, Cream Tube Deodorant, two free products of your choice (like Mini Body Wash and Deodorant Wipes), and free shipping. As a special offer for listeners, new customers get $5 off a Starter Pack with our exclusive code. That equates to over 40% off your Starter Pack Use code POA at ShopMando.com Visit BetterHelp.com/POA today to get 10% off your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

*Announcement for RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA!* ***Corey just got word that he's picked up a date at GOODNIGHTS COMEDY CLUB in RALEIGH January 16-18.... thats very soon! You can get tickets at GoodnightsComedy.com *** Sup, Airheads? After addressing the fires in California for a brief moment up top, This week, Lord Trae and Professor CHO start with a discussion that has intrigued southerners of all ages for quite some time: What REALLY counts as The South? And are some territories that claim residence there just a bit too fancy to fit in? After that the boys talk about the lost art of written correspondence, and Corey posits that fancy/rich people do a better job at maintaining it. Also from this discussion: Holiday cards and wedding invitations - can you really expect us stupid men to be on top of this? And finally, Professor CHO learns us about some of the differences in Shakespeare's Henry V and the actual King, Henry himself, including a weird omission concerning an injury King Henry V received in battle at the ripe age of 16!Also had some terrific Air Mail this week, so thanks to everyone who submitted theirs at PuttinOnAirs@gmail.comLove y'all... be safe! Go to TraeCrowder.com to see Trae on the road! Go to BlueChew.com and use promo code POA to try Blue Chew for free! Mando's Starter Pack is perfect for new customers. It comes with a Solid Stick Deodorant, Cream Tube Deodorant, two free products of your choice (like Mini Body Wash and Deodorant Wipes), and free shipping. As a special offer for listeners, new customers get $5 off a Starter Pack with our exclusive code. That equates to over 40% off your Starter Pack Use code POA at ShopMando.com Visit BetterHelp.com/POA today to get 10% off your first month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode: 1309 The DH-4: a forgotten and terribly influential WW-I warplane.  Today, America tries to get off the ground in WW-I.

This week, Jeanne Malle reveals the winners and losers of Air Mail's 2024 Over-Under List, wherein we present the year's most overhyped (and underhyped) people and things. Then, on the subject of well-deserved hype, Alex Belth reports on a magazine from the 1970s called New Times. It's long forgotten, unfortunately, but Alex tells us how this short-lived publication's impact endures in today's media landscape. And finally, lots of people claim they can reform education in America, most recently Donald Trump. William D. Cohan joins us from New York with the cautionary tale of Chris Whittle, the charter-school entrepreneur who went from being one of the most acclaimed operators in the education sphere to losing everything. Can he make a comeback?See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

After a riveting edition of This Week In Fancy, Professor Cho quizzes Lord Trae in a game of The Price Is Right: Sears Roebuck 1908 Catalog Edition! (Yall ain't gonna believe some of these ridiculous price disparities)  Then Lord Trae reads a man's claim that he is indeed the most English man alive! Oh and yall, not that it's not always good, but Airmail is exceptional this week!  Go to TraeCrowder.com to see us at Zanies in Nashville Dec 12-14!  Please subscribe to WeLoveCorey.com for bonus “content” and to support the Cho!  Check out our sponsors!  EVERYPLATE: With affordable dinners for just $5.99 per serving, PLUS 50% off your first box, EveryPlate helps you save money for an stress-free holiday! Get this amazing deal by going to EveryPlate.com/PODCAST and entering code poa599.   LUMEN: if you want to stay on track with your health this holiday season, go to lumen.me/POA to get 15% off your Lumen. MANDO: Mando's Starter Pack is perfect for new customers, or to secure some last-minute stocking stuffers. It comes with a Solid Stick Deodorant, Cream Tube Deodorant, two free products of your choice (like Mini Body Wash and Deodorant Wipes), and free shipping.  Luckily we have a discount code to help you get hooked on my favorite smelling whole body deodorant on the market. New customers get $5 off a Starter Pack with our exclusive code. That equates to over 40% off your Starter Pack Use code POA at ShopMando.com. PLEASE support our show and tell them we sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a riveting edition of This Week In Fancy, Professor Cho quizzes Lord Trae in a game of The Price Is Right: Sears Roebuck 1908 Catalog Edition! (Yall ain't gonna believe some of these ridiculous price disparities)  Then Lord Trae reads a man's claim that he is indeed the most English man alive! Oh and yall, not that it's not always good, but Airmail is exceptional this week!  Go to TraeCrowder.com to see us at Zanies in Nashville Dec 12-14!  Please subscribe to WeLoveCorey.com for bonus “content” and to support the Cho!  Check out our sponsors!  EVERYPLATE: With affordable dinners for just $5.99 per serving, PLUS 50% off your first box, EveryPlate helps you save money for an stress-free holiday! Get this amazing deal by going to EveryPlate.com/PODCAST and entering code poa599.   LUMEN: if you want to stay on track with your health this holiday season, go to lumen.me/POA to get 15% off your Lumen. MANDO: Mando's Starter Pack is perfect for new customers, or to secure some last-minute stocking stuffers. It comes with a Solid Stick Deodorant, Cream Tube Deodorant, two free products of your choice (like Mini Body Wash and Deodorant Wipes), and free shipping.  Luckily we have a discount code to help you get hooked on my favorite smelling whole body deodorant on the market. New customers get $5 off a Starter Pack with our exclusive code. That equates to over 40% off your Starter Pack Use code POA at ShopMando.com. PLEASE support our show and tell them we sent you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A thousand facets sits with the incomparable Carol Woolton, Historian, Writer and jewelry editor of Vogue. In the season finale of A thousand facets we discuss about her ancestors in the gemology world, her beginnings on her career and some of the incredible projects she is spearheading. Hope you enjoy our conversation. About: Carol Woolton is a Jewellery Historian, Editor, Broadcaster, Stylist and Jewellery Editor at British Vogue for over twenty years where she remains as Contributing Jewellery Director. She was the first jewellery editor of Tatler Magazine and has contributed widely to magazines, newspapers and online supplements around the world including The Financial Times, Vanity Fair, Air Mail, American Vogue and the Daily Telegraph. She curates jewellery exhibitions she is the author of five books covering the broad spectrum of antique and historic jewels to contemporary styles. More recently, she explored a century of style in Vogue: The Jewellery and Ideas and inspiration for living with crystals in The New Stone Age. You can follow Carol Woolton on Instagram @carolwoolton , visit her website https://carolwoolton.com/ Listen to her podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/if-jewels-could-talk-with-carol-woolton/id1564034433 Leopards: https://www.theleopards.co.uk/ Please visit @athousandfacets on Instagram to see some of the work discussed in this episode. Music by @chris_keys__ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We don't think it's an exaggeration to say that we're standing at the precipice of what could be a third world war. At the very least, the thing that we refer to as the “Free World” is burning at its outer edges. Just a few weeks ago, Iran launched its largest-ever ballistic missile attack against Israel, while its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, continue to wage war against Israel, making use of the steady flow of weaponry and funding from Iran—which is ever closer to having nuclear weapons. The war in Ukraine continues to rage, with both sides engaged in intense fighting across multiple fronts. After over a year and a half of relentless Russian bombardment, Ukraine is barely holding the line as the grinding war of attrition drags on. According to The Wall Street Journal, more than one million people on both sides of the border have been killed or injured. And then there's China, which has lately been attacking Philippine and Vietnamese vessels in the South China Sea, terrorizing international waters with impunity as the world watches anxiously. Moscow, Beijing, and Tehran have solidified a new axis of autocracy, united in its goal to unravel the Pax Americana and undermine American dominance. The question on our minds tonight is: What should America do about it? Many Americans are saying they don't want the United States to continue leading the world order. A 2023 Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey revealed that 42 percent of Americans think that the U.S. should stay out of world affairs, which is the highest number recorded since 1974. It is easy to talk about foreign policy as an abstract idea because war, for us, is thousands of miles away. But foreign policy is a matter of life and death. Not just for people around the world, but for the more than two million Americans that serve in our armed forces. It's conventional wisdom that American voters don't prioritize foreign policy. But this year, given the state of the world, that might be different. Which is why we hosted a debate, live in NYC, on this very topic.  Arguing that, yes, the U.S. should still police the world is Bret Stephens. Stephens is an opinion columnist for The New York Times and editor in chief of Sapir. As a foreign affairs columnist of The Wall Street Journal, he was awarded the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. And he is the author of America in Retreat: The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder. Bret was joined by James Kirchick, contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, writer at large for Air Mail, and contributing writer for Tablet. He is the author of The End of Europe: Dictators, Demagogues, and the Coming Dark Age. He is also a senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. Arguing that no, the U.S. should not still police the world is none other than Matt Taibbi. Taibbi is a journalist, the founder of Racket News, and the author of 10 books, including four New York Times bestsellers. Matt was joined by Lee Fang. Lee is an independent investigative journalist, primarily writing on Substack at LeeFang.com. From 2015 to 2023, he was a reporter for The Intercept. Be it resolved: The U.S. should still police the world. If you liked what you heard from Honestly, the best way to support us is to go to TheFP.com and become a Free Press subscriber today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are diving deep into the world of wealth, class, and privilege with Sanibel, author of the forthcoming novel To Have and Have More and an expert on the subtle—and not-so-subtle—ways the ultra-wealthy wield their status. If you've ever been curious about the behaviors and dynamics that go beyond “quiet luxury” or the “nepo baby” conversation, you'll enjoy this conversation. Sanibel breaks down concepts like stealth privilege, coattail riders, and what she calls the rich person's “cheat code.” We'll also unpack the history of our cultural obsession with wealth in the U.S., why some believe wealth is a poison to our culture and explore why being "too rich" might just make you less empathetic.More about Sanibel: She is a writer based in NYC. She grew up in Princeton, NJ and studied Classics at the University of Pennsylvania before getting her MFA at The New School. Her essays appear in New York, Air Mail, ELLE, and Lit Hub. You can follow Sanibel on TikTok and Instagram.