Podcasts about AirPods

Apple makes a lot of gadgets. You've probably heard of some of them. Most of them are very good! Few companies in tech, or anywhere, can claim a track record as impressive and consistent as the folks in Cupertino. But only one Apple product can be the best Apple product. The Verge's Victoria Song and Allison Johnson join David to rank Apple's nine product categories — iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, Vision Pro, AirPods, AirTags, HomePod, and Apple TV — in order of their best-ness. The gang agrees on a few, disagrees on a few, and gets in one argument that threatens to end the show forever.We want to hear what you think of our ranking! If you have thoughts, on Apple gadgets or anything, you can always call the Vergecast Hotline at 866-VERGE11 or email us at vergecast@theverge.com. Further reading: Apple Vision Pro review: magic, until it's not Apple HomePod (second-gen) review: playing it safe Apple TV 4K (2022) review: unmatched power, unrealized potential Apple Watch SE 3 review: major glow-up Apple iPad Pro (2025) review: fast, faster, fastest AirTag location trackers are smart, capable, and very Apple Apple iPhone 17 review: the one to get Apple iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max review Apple AirPods (third-gen) review: new design, same appeal Apple MacBook Air M4 review: a little more for a little less Subscribe to The Verge for unlimited access to theverge.com, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ad-free podcast feed.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to vergecast@theverge.com or call us at 866-VERGE11. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

1. Intro SegmentIntroduce the theme: “99.5 QYK buys your Christmas!”Mention partnership with Kemp Law Group.Introduce the fun nickname: “Stacy Kemp, now known as Stacy Claus!”Brief overview of the holiday giveaway:Daily name callouts at 8 AM.Listeners can sign up at 995QYK.com. 2. Today's Featured Listener: Introducing Melissa GoodmanAnnounce the first selected name for the day: Melissa Goodman from Oldsmar.Read Melissa's submission:Newly single mom raising two boys.Boys in baseball; oldest in high school marching band.Struggling financially: late rent, living paycheck-to-paycheck.Birthdays around the holidays.Wants to provide a special Christmas after a tough year.Winning $1,000 would make a huge difference. 3. Call to ActionEncourage listeners:“If you know Melissa, text her now!”Give the call-in number: 800-992-1099.Remind her she has 9 minutes to call back. 4. Live Call Segment – Melissa Calls InHosts celebrate that Melissa called back in time.Conversation highlights:Melissa confirms she heard her name.Hosts acknowledge her tough year and her love for her kids.The big news: QYK and Kemp Law Group are buying her Christmas!Melissa receives $1,000.Emotional gratitude from Melissa. 5. What the Boys Want for ChristmasMelissa shares:Oldest wants top-tier AirPods.Youngest wants the “coolest sneakers like his big brother.”Hosts react to expensive wish lists.Melissa relieved that the prize will help make it possible. 6. Closing the CallHosts thank Melissa for being a loyal listener.Melissa expresses appreciation for the show.Transition to next segment: “Hang on so we can get your info!”See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

As the Thanksgiving weekend passes, let's look at some technology things that we're thankful for and excited about. SHOW: 980SHOW TRANSCRIPT: The Cloudcast #980 TranscriptSHOW VIDEO: https://youtube.com/@TheCloudcastNET CLOUD NEWS OF THE WEEK: http://bit.ly/cloudcast-cnotwCHECK OUT OUR NEW PODCAST: "CLOUDCAST BASICS"SHOW SPONSORS:[Mailtrap] Try Mailtrap for free[Interconnected] Interconnected is a new series from Equinix diving into the infrastructure that keeps our digital world running. With expert guests and real-world insights, we explore the systems driving AI, automation, quantum, and more. Just search “Interconnected by Equinix”.[TestKube] TestKube is Kubernetes-native testing platform, orchestrating all your test tools, environments, and pipelines into scalable workflows empowering Continuous Testing. Check it out at TestKube.io/cloudcastSHOW NOTESTHINGS TO BE THANKFUL FOR:Thankful for healthHappy Birthday to ChatGPTThe feature on an iPhone that remembers the code sent in an SMS messageRole playing, brain storming, scenario planning on ChatGPT/GeminiTools like Vercel that let non-programmers use AI to build apps (the future of PaaS)Tools like NotebookLM making complex stuff like LLM training, RAG patterns,  True competition in the cloud market as differentiation emergesThe beginnings of alternatives to NVIDIA in the AI HW Acceleration marketThe evolution of wearables like fitness trackers, or AirPods (better sound quality, noise cancelling, language translation, etc.) FEEDBACK?Email: show at the cloudcast dot netTwitter/X: @cloudcastpodBlueSky: @cloudcastpod.bsky.socialInstagram: @cloudcastpodTikTok: @cloudcastpod

Podcastエピソード288、今回もYouTubeにてLIVEをしながら収録をしました。

BONUS: When AI Knows Your Emotional Triggers Better Than You Do — Navigating Mindfulness in the AI Age In this thought-provoking conversation, former computer engineer and mindfulness leader Mo Edjlali explores how AI is reshaping human meaning, attention, and decision-making. We examine the critical question: what happens when AI knows your emotional triggers better than you know yourself? Mo shares insights on remaining sovereign over our attention, avoiding dependency in both mindfulness and technology, and preparing for a world where AI may outperform us in nearly every domain. From Technology Pioneer to Mindfulness Leader "I've been very heavily influenced by technology, computer engineering, software development. I introduced DevOps to the federal government. But I have never seen anything change the way in which human beings work together like Agile." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's journey began in the tech world — graduating in 1998, he was on the front line of the internet explosion. He remembers the days before the internet, watched online multiplayer games emerge in 1994, and worked on some of the most complicated tech projects in federal government. Technology felt almost like magic, advancing at a logarithmic rate faster than anything else. But when Mo discovered mindfulness practices 12-15 years ago, he found something equally transformative: actual exercises to develop emotional intelligence and soft skills that the tech world talked about but never taught. Mindfulness provided logical, practical methods that didn't require "woo-woo" beliefs — just practice that fundamentally changed his relationship with his mind. This dual perspective — tech innovator and mindfulness teacher — gives Mo a unique lens for understanding where we're headed. The Shift from Liberation to Dependency "I was fortunate enough, the teachers I was exposed to, the mentality was very much: you're gonna learn how to meditate on your own, in silence. There is no guru. There is no cult of personality." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies a dangerous drift in the mindfulness movement: from teaching independence to creating dependency. His early training, particularly a Vipassana retreat led by S.N. Goenka, modeled true liberation — you show up for 10 days, pay nothing, receive food and lodging, learn to meditate, then donate what you can at the end. Critically, you leave being able to meditate on your own without worshiping a teacher or subscribing to guided meditations. But today's commercialized mindfulness often creates the opposite: powerful figures leading fiefdoms, consumers taught to listen to guided meditations rather than meditate independently. This dependency model mirrors exactly what's happening with AI — systems designed to make us rely on them rather than empower our own capabilities. Recognizing this parallel is essential for navigating both fields wisely. AI as a New Human Age, Not Just Another Tool "With AI, this is different. This isn't like mobile computing, this isn't like the internet. We're entering a new age. We had the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Age. When you enter a new age, it's almost like knocking the chess board over, flipping the pieces upside down. We're playing a new game." — Mo Edjlali   Mo frames AI not as another technology upgrade but as the beginning of an entirely new human age. In a new age, everything shifts: currency, economies, government, technology, even religions. The documentary about the Bronze Age collapse taught him that when ages turn over, the old rules no longer apply. This perspective explains why AI feels fundamentally different from previous innovations. ChatGPT 2.0 was interesting; ChatGPT 3 blew Mo's mind and made him realize we're witnessing something unprecedented. While he's optimistic about the potential for sustainable abundance and extraordinary breakthroughs, he's also aware we're entering both the most exciting and most frightening time to be alive. Everything we learned in high school might be proven wrong as AI rewrites human knowledge, translates animal languages, extends longevity, and achieves things we can't even imagine. The Mental Health Tsunami and Loss of Purpose "If we do enter the age of abundance, where AI could do anything that human beings could do and do it better, suddenly the system we have set up — where our purpose is often tied to our income and our job — suddenly, we don't need to work. So what is our purpose?" — Mo Edjlali   Mo offers a provocative vision of the future: a world where people might pay for jobs rather than get paid to work. It sounds crazy until you realize it's already happening — people pay $100,000-$200,000 for college just to get a job, politicians spend millions to get elected. If AI handles most work and we enter an age of abundance, jobs won't be about survival or income — they'll be about meaning, identity, and social connection. This creates three major crises Mo sees accelerating: attacks on our focus and attention (technology hijacking our awareness), polarization (forcing black-and-white thinking), and isolation (pushing us toward solo experiences). The mental health tsunami is coming as people struggle to find purpose in a world where AI outperforms them in domain after domain. The jobs will change, the value systems will shift, and those without tools for navigating this transformation will suffer most. When AI Reads Your Mind "Researchers at Duke University had hooked up fMRI brain scanning technology and took that data and fed it into GPT 2. They were able to translate brain signals into written narrative. So the implications are that we could read people's minds using AI." — Mo Edjlali   The future Mo describes isn't science fiction — it's already beginning. Three years ago, researchers used early GPT to translate brain signals into written text by scanning people's minds with fMRI and training AI on the patterns. Today, AI knows a lot about heavy users like Mo through chat conversations. Tomorrow, AI will have video input of everything we see, sensory input from our biometrics (pulse, heart rate, health indicators), and potentially direct connection to our minds. This symbiotic relationship is coming whether we're ready or not. Mo demonstrates this with a personal experiment: he asked his AI to tell him about himself, describe his personality, identify his strengths, and most powerfully — reveal his blind spots. The AI's response was outstanding, better than what any human (even his therapist or himself) could have articulated. This is the reality we're moving toward: AI that knows our emotional triggers, blind spots, and patterns better than we do ourselves. Using AI as a Mirror for Self-Discovery "I asked my AI, 'What are my blind spots?' Human beings usually won't always tell you what your blind spots are, they might not see them. A therapist might not exactly see them. But the AI has... I've had the most intimate kind of conversations about everything. And the response was outstanding." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's approach to AI is both pragmatic and experimental. He uses it extensively — at the level of teenagers and early college students who are on it all the time. But rather than just using AI as a tool, he treats it as a mirror for understanding himself. Asking AI to identify your blind spots is a powerful exercise because AI has observed all your conversations, patterns, and tendencies without the human limitations of forgetfulness or social politeness. Vasco shares a similar experience using AI as a therapy companion — not replacing his human therapist, but preparing for sessions and processing afterward. This reveals an essential truth: most of us don't understand ourselves that well. We're blind navigators using an increasingly powerful tool. The question isn't whether AI will know us better than we know ourselves — that's already happening. The question is how we use that knowledge wisely. The Danger of AI Hijacking Our Agency "There's this real danger. I saw that South Park episode about ChatGPT where his wife is like, 'Come on, put the AI down, talk to me,' and he's got this crazy business idea, and the AI keeps encouraging him along. It's a point where he's relying way too heavily on the AI and making really poor decisions." — Mo Edjlali   Not all AI use is beneficial. Mo candidly admits his own mistakes — sometimes leaning into AI feedback over his actual users' feedback for his Meditate Together app because "I like what the AI is saying." This mirrors the South Park episode's warning about AI dependency, where the character's AI encourages increasingly poor decisions while his relationships suffer. Social media demonstrates this danger at scale: AI algorithms tuned to steal our attention and hijack our agency, preventing us from thinking about what truly matters — relationships and human connection. Mo shares a disturbing story about Zoom bombers disrupting Meditate Together sessions, filming it, posting it on YouTube where it got 90,000 views, with comments thanking the disruptors for "making my day better." Technology created a cannibalistic dynamic where teenagers watched videos of their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers being harassed during meditation. When Mo tried to contact Google, the company's incentive structure prioritized views and revenue over human decency. Technology combined with capitalism creates these dangerous momentum toward monetizing attention at any cost. Remaining Sovereign Over Your Attention "Traditionally, mindfulness does an extraordinary job, if you practice right, to help you regain your agency of your focus and concentration. It takes practice. But reading is now becoming a concentration practice. It's an actual practice." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies three major symptoms affecting us: attacks on focus/attention, polarization into black-and-white thinking, and isolation. Mindfulness practices directly counter all three — but only if practiced correctly. Training attention, focus, and concentration requires actual practice, not just listening to guided meditations. Mo offers practical strategies: reading as concentration practice (asking "does anyone read anymore?" recognizing that sustained reading now requires deliberate effort), turning off AirPods while jogging or driving to find silence, spending time alone with your thoughts, and recognizing that we were given extraordinary power (smartphones) with zero training on how to be aware of it. Older generations remember having to rewind VHS tapes — forced moments of patience and stillness that no longer exist. We need to deliberately recreate those spaces where we're not constantly consuming entertainment and input. Dialectic Thinking: Beyond Polarization "I saw someone the other day wear a shirt that said, 'I'm perfect the way I am.' That's one-dimensional thinking. Two-dimensional thinking is: you're perfect the way that you are, and you could be a little better." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's book OpenMBSR specifically addresses polarization by introducing dialectic thinking — the ability to hold paradoxes and seeming contradictions simultaneously. Social media and algorithms push us toward one-dimensional, black-and-white thinking: good/bad, right/wrong, with me/against me. But reality is far more nuanced. The ability to think "I'm perfect as I am AND I can improve" or "AI is extraordinary AND dangerous" is essential for navigating complexity. This mirrors the tech world's embrace of continuous improvement in Agile — accepting where you are while always pushing for better. Chess players learned this years ago when AI defeated humans — they didn't freak out, they accepted it and adapted. Now AI in chess doesn't just give answers; it helps humans understand how it arrived at those answers. This partnership model, where AI coaches us through complexity rather than simply replacing us, represents the healthiest path forward. Building Community, Not Dependency "When people think to meditate, unfortunately, they think, I have to do this by myself and listen to guided meditation. I'm saying no. Do it in silence. If you listen to guided meditation, listen to guided meditation that teaches you how to meditate in silence. And do it with other people, with intentional community." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's OpenMBSR initiative explicitly borrows from the Agile movement's success: grassroots, community-centric, open source, transparent. Rather than creating fiefdoms around cult personalities, he wants mindfulness to spread organically through communities helping communities. This directly counters the isolation trend that technology accelerates. Meditate Together exists specifically to create spaces where people meditate with other human beings around the world, with volunteer hosts holding sessions. The model isn't about dependency on a teacher or platform — it's about building connection and shared practice. This aligns perfectly with how the tech world revolutionized collaborative work through Agile and Scrum: transparent, iterative, valuing individuals and interactions. The question for both mindfulness and AI adoption is whether we'll create systems that empower independence and community, or ones that foster dependency and isolation. Preparing for a World Where AI Outperforms Humans "AI is going to need to kind of coach us and ease us into it, right? There's some really dark, ugly things about ourselves that could be jarring without it being properly shared, exposed, and explained." — Mo Edjlali   Looking at his children, Mo wonders what tools they'll need in a world where AI may outperform humans in nearly every domain. The answer isn't trying to compete with AI in calculation, memory, or analysis — that battle is already lost. Instead, the essential human skills become self-awareness, emotional intelligence, dialectic thinking, community building, and maintaining agency over attention and decision-making. AI will need to become a coach, helping humans understand not just answers but how it arrived at those answers. This requires AI development that prioritizes human growth over profit maximization. It also requires humans willing to do the hard work of understanding themselves — confronting blind spots, managing emotional triggers, practicing concentration, and building genuine relationships. The mental health tsunami Mo predicts isn't inevitable if we prepare now by teaching these skills widely, building community-centric systems, and designing AI that empowers rather than replaces human wisdom and connection.   About Mo Edjlali   Mo Edjlali is a former computer engineer, and also the founder and CEO of Mindful Leader, the world's largest provider of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training. Mo's new book Open MBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness explores how ancient practices can help us navigate the AI revolution with awareness and resilience.   You can learn more about Mo and his work at MindfulLeader.org, check out Meditate Together, and read his articles on AI's Mind-Reading Breakthrough and AI: Not Another Tool, but a New Human Age.

The 2025 Holiday Gift Guide #4 continues in Part 2 with Norbert Frassa, Rosemary Orchard, Mike Schmitz, and Chuck Joiner sharing standout tech picks. Highlights include gear for iPhone photography, an overhead camera, an automation pick, protective AirPods cases, audio gear, and an AI-focused book recommendation.   In the Take Control Books Black Friday sale, you can save 25% on all full-price titles. Or, save 50% on all ebooks, including upgrades, for a full year with a Take Control Premium membership for $14.99. Plus, if your order total including Premium is at least $34.99, you'll get a free ebook of your choice! The sale runs through December 3. For complete details, go to takecontrolbooks.com/blackfriday25. Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Introduction and Take Control Books Black Friday details [0:54] Norbert's next pick: ShiftCam iPhone case and lens system [2:29] Macro photography, telephoto options, and lens ecosystem [3:37] Why ShiftCam makes a great gift and add-on system [5:13] Rosemary's pick: Logitech Reach document camera [6:19] Features, 1080p clarity, and flexible desk mounting [7:33] Book scanning and overhead camera uses [9:09] Mike's pick: Stream Deck Neo for creators and automation [10:26] How Stream Deck enhances workflows and setups [11:21] Chuck's pick: Audioengine A5 speakers overview [13:41] Audioengine S6 desktop subwoofer as companion pick [16:19] Norbert's final pick: "The Rest Is History" membership [19:33] Rosemary's AirPods Pro case by ESR with lock and MagSafe [23:34] Rugged design, secure latch, and charging stability [24:56] Mike's book pick: Co-Intelligence by Ethan Mollick [26:21] AI mindset, disruption, and student use cases [28:10] Chuck's final pick: Audioengine S6 subwoofer [30:45] Closing remarks and where to find the panel online Links:   Norbert Frassa: Shiftcam iPhone 17 case https://amzn.to/48jsEo1 Shiftcam Lenses https://amzn.to/48h19eD Shiftcam Full Lens Kit https://www.shiftcam.com/collections/lensultra-bundles Rest is History Club Annual Membership https://therestishistory.com/join-the-club-2/ Rosemary Orchard: Logitech Reach overhead content camera https://www.logitech.com/en-gb/shop/p/reach-overhead-content-camera ESR for AirPods Pro 3 Case (2025), Compatible with Airpods Pro 3rd Generation Case (USB-C Cable), Effortless MagSafe, Drop-Proof Lock, Easy Open, Cyber Series https://amzn.to/4rksyFv Mike Schmitz: Elgato Stream Deck Neo https://amzn.to/3JYgDML Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick https://amzn.to/3XoUVV8 Chuck Joiner: White Noise App (full version) https://www.tmsoft.com/white-noise/ OWC Thunderbolt Hub Docking Station https://amzn.to/4pEl4eQ Audioengine A5+ Wireless Bluetooth Bookshelf Speakers - Premium 150W Stereo Speakers https://amzn.to/487Qmop Audioengine S6 210W Compact Powered Mini Subwooferhttps://amzn.to/3KgHrrC Guests: Norbert Frassa is a technology "man about town". Follow him on Twitter and see what he's up to. Rosemary Orchard is a nerd, automator, and chocaholic. When she's not making Shortcuts or podcasting about them, you'll frequently find her discussing her love of iPads and other Apple technology on RosemaryOrchard.com, Automators, Nested Folders, The Sweet Setup, and ScreenCastsOnline. She is runs WhenWorks to help you schedule appointments more efficiently. Originally from the UK she now calls Vienna, Austria, home…until she returns to the U.K. Follow her on Twitter.  Mike Schmitz is a nerd and an independent creator who talks about the intersection of faith, productivity, and tech He's a YouTuber, screencaster (ScreenCastsOnline), writer (The Sweet Setup), and co-hosts the Focused, Bookworm, and Intentional Family podcasts. Follow him on Twitter as _MikeSchmitz. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Benjamin and Chance give their opinion on the 2025 Apple holiday ad ‘A Critter Carol', and talk about some of the Apple tech deals they've found this Black Friday. Also, there's more clarity on the Apple Watch WiFi sync changes coming to the EU next month, and Google pulls off an impressive stunt to make AirDrop work on Android. Finally, Benjamin installed macOS Tahoe for the first time and has some thoughts to share. And in Happy Hour Plus, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman delivers the first details about what to expect from iOS 27. Subscribe at 9to5mac.com/join.  Sponsored by Roborock: Save up to 50% on Roborock's flagship vacuums during their Black Friday event — but hurry, these deals won't last long! Sponsored by NordStellar: Protect your business today at nordstellar.com/happyhourand use code blackfriday20 to save 20%. Sponsored by Shopify: Grow your business no matter what stage you're in. Sign up for a $1 per month trial at shopify.com/happyhour. Sponsored by Framer: The only free design tool that brings your ideas to the web. Visit framer.com/design and use code HAPPYHOUR for a free month. Hosts Chance Miller @chancemiller.me on Bluesky @chancehmiller@mastodon.social @ChanceHMiller on Instagram @ChanceHMiller on Threads Benjamin Mayo @bzamayo on Twitter @bzamayo@mastodon.social @bzamayo on Threads Subscribe, Rate, and Review Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus Subscribe to 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus! Support Benjamin and Chance directly with Happy Hour Plus! 9to5Mac Happy Hour Plus includes:  Ad-free versions of every episode  Pre- and post-show content Bonus episodes Join for $5 per month or $50 a year at 9to5mac.com/join.  Feedback Submit #Ask9to5Mac questions on Twitter, Mastodon, or Threads Email us feedback and questions to happyhour@9to5mac.com Links Watch Apple's new musical holiday ad 'A Critter Carol', featuring iPhone 17 Pro Best Black Friday Apple deals – AirPods, MacBook, iPhone, more 9to5Mac Apple kicks off its official 2025 Black Friday Shopping Event Why iOS 26.2 restricts iPhone and Apple Watch Wi-Fi sync in the EU Android Quick Share now works with AirDrop on iPhone, starting on Pixel 10 How to use Pixel 10 Quick Share with iPhone AirDrop Another Apple TV show has been pulled from the release schedule at the last minute Here's likely reason why latest Apple TV drama was abruptly pulled before premiere iOS 27 new features: Everything we know so far Apple to focus on 'quality and underlying performance' with iOS 27 next year: report

We discuss the best Black Friday XR deals including steep Quest 3S discounts with Horizon+ perks and PS VR2's limited-time price cut, as well as Meta's new smart glasses trade-in program that even gives credit for AirPods. We also cover Godot's upgraded XR support with a universal OpenXR APK, the latest Horizon OS v83 features like system-level positional TimeWarp and temporal dimming, and the reportedly upcoming 2026 Pico headset with 4K micro-OLED displays and an R1-style chip. Finally, we dive into the latest AI tools for 3D layout and reconstruction including Meta's WorldGen, systems that bring real-world objects and images into VR in seconds, and the new Horizon Hyperscape update that lets you invite friends as Meta avatars, along with our hands-on impressions of visiting Hyperscape worlds.

Have you ever stopped to think about what role you play in your own biopic?  Do you have the rights to your story? Are you taking charge of the direction and casting so that your movie turns out in a way that makes you happy?  Or are you sitting on the sidelines, watching others direct the narrative and take over the show and your movie winds up going straight to Tubi? (shade, but no shade!)This week I talk about what it looks like to be intentional about who we let into our lives and how it's critical that we assign them their roles - this include our role as well.  And I thought the movie analogy was the perfect way to do it!So pop in those Air Pods or turn up that Bluetooth and let's dive in!Support the show

Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 1. Cousins reconnect over the winter holidays. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. I was driving back from Boise, to be with family for Christmas. That semester had been my most challenging yet. I was exhausted and ready for some time relaxing with my family. We usually had the holidays at my grandparents' house in Boulder, Colorado. Being raised in the Arizona desert, I wasn't used to driving in the snow, so the last one hundred miles were slow going for me. It didn't help that it had started to snow again, adding even more snow to the roads. Initially, I planned to get to the family party hours early, but now I would be lucky if I got there before dinner. It was supposed to be less than a 12 hour drive, but that doesn't take in the factors of road conditions and holiday traffic. The snow kept falling, but I managed to make it to the house just ahead of the snowstorm's main bulk. It seemed like everyone was there already from all the cars parked in front of the house. I got out of my car shivering. My jacket barely reduced the cutting chill from icy cold wind. I walked awkwardly to the trunk and pulled out the gifts that I had for gotten. No matter how many times I was in the snow, which wasn't often, I doubted I would ever get used to it. When I was at the door, I took a deep breath. I regretted it immediately because of the frigid air. I quickly opened the door. I was hit by an immediate warmth and brightness as I stepped inside. "Let me help you with that cousin," a silky-smooth voice said to me as I walked in. My cousin Liz walked towards me from the mini sitting area that overlooked the front yard. Just looking at her filled me with warmth. Liz was the cousin that I was the closest to. We were both the only child in our immediate family. Since we were nearly the same age, we had been inseparable at family events, basically since we were born. Liz helped me put my presents under the large Christmas tree near where she had been sitting. As soon as I put the gifts down, she threw her arms around me in a tight hug. I squeezed her back. Out of my family, she had been the one I was looking forward the most to seeing. I hadn't seen her in person in a year, as we had both missed the thanksgiving get-together, this year. We texted infrequently and were friends on Facebook, but she rarely used it. "You look great," I told her. She had her blonde hair in a cute pixie cut, and it was dyed several bright colors going down to the tips. She was wearing a black jacket with a black dress under. Her ears were heavily pierced, and she had a single stud in her nose. Her parents were the extreme religious ones in the family, so they had seemed to stifle Liz her whole life with their beliefs. The moment Liz could, she got out of their household and moved in with some friends. "You're looking great too," Liz said, squeezing my broad shoulders as she pulled away from my hug. I felt my body go warm at her compliment. Liz kept her hand on my shoulders and started to guide me towards the kitchen where most of the family had gathered. "Come on, everyone's been dying to talk to Chris, the golden boy." I felt a little guilty at that, but I knew that Liz didn't mean that as an insult. She was the black sheep, and I was the golden boy. My family were happy to see me, and everyone wanted to spend the entire evening catching up. I enjoyed spending time with them, but it was Liz who I really wanted to catch up with. She spent a lot of the night around me, often raising an eyebrow or giving me a deadpan look when one of my family said something that they shouldn't have. Liz sat next to me at the dinner table, and I finally got some time to talk to her. I tried to ask her about herself, but she seemed to avoid talking about herself and gave me vague answers. We had always been close, so I started to feel confused by this, wondering if maybe in the last year we had finally grown apart. I began to get the hint and stopped bugging her about her personal life. We talked about other things, mostly books and TV shows that we had a shared interest in. Still, it seemed superficial compared to our usual winding conversations that had no limits. Taboo Topics. After dinner, we found ourselves hanging out in the garage. Liz was smoking a cigarette, blowing the smoke through a cracked door that lead to the side of the backyard. This was always the place we would run off to when we wanted to escape the rest of the family. We were doing what we always did, teasing each other. "Come on, you were the one who used to have a crush on me when we were kids," Liz said. That was something that I doubted she was ever going to let me forget about. "Hey, if I remember correctly, you were the one who always wanted to play house and insisted on being husband and wife," I said. "Only so I could kick your lazy ass out when you burned dinner or didn't wash the dishes." "The food was plastic, and we didn't have running water in our playhouse. You didn't have to make me literally sleep in the doghouse!" I said. That was before we had a firm grasp that it was a saying and not literal. "Yes, I did," She said, leaning towards me. I leaned forward. "Why?" "Because it was funny," Liz said. We were leaning so close together, and we both became quiet, which was rare for Liz once she started teasing me. I looked into her beautiful eyes, thinking thoughts that I had been suppressing for years. I couldn't look into her eyes anymore. I thought the year away from her would be enough for me finally to get over my crush on my cousin, but instead, that absence seemed to make those feelings even stronger. I looked up, and my eyes went wide at what I saw nailed above us. Liz looked up and saw what I was looking at. "Mistletoe," Liz said and looked back into my eyes. The part of my brain that held my impulses in check must have been frozen from the cold weather. There was the briefest hesitation, and then we kissed. We wrapped our arms around each other, and the kiss deepened. This is it. It's finally happening. I was surprised by how right something that was supposed to be wrong felt. Now that my urges were finally free, I slid my hand down her back and squeezed her ass through her dress. Liz let out a surprised little moan at that, and she jumped away from my hand and against me. When she settled back down, I started to massage her ass. She moaned and leaned her head back against the wall while arching her lower body towards me and pressing her pelvis into mine. I kissed down her chin and started to kiss her pale neck. With each kiss, she let out tiny little exhales that were both cute and sexy. When I reached the hollow of her neck, I sucked hard. Liz moaned louder this time and ground her snatch into me. I kissed across the front of her neck and repeated the same thing on the other side with the same result. With a finger on my chin, she guided my lips back up to hers. Her succulent lips felt better than I could have ever imagined. Liz lowered a hand down my chest. I thought she was just going to rub my chest, but her hand kept on going lower. I had only a few seconds to realize what she was doing when she grasped my erection through my jeans and rubbed it. I faltered in kissing her because of the unexpected touch. Liz used my distraction to suck on my lip. It all felt so good, and I didn't want it to end. No sooner than when I thought that then I heard one of our family members approaching. We pulled apart quickly and caught our breath as our grandma walked into the garage to get something out of the fridge in there. She said one of our uncles was leaving for the night and for us to say goodbye. "Okay grandma, we will be right there," Liz said. Our grandma left. Liz rested her head on my shoulder, and I held her lightly as we calmed down. Once calmed down, Liz pulled back. Liz looked like she was about to say something but stopped. "Come on, let's go say good night." She didn't seem her usual confident self. I didn't blame her, what we just did had crossed a line that we shouldn't have, but she didn't seem to be upset at what just happened. As I followed her inside, I noticed more sway to her stride that drew attention to her ass. We walked back in and said goodbye to the first of the family to leave. It seemed like that was the cue for others to go because the others started to follow suit. Some of my family stayed at my grandparents' house, while the rest stayed at a nearby hotel. To keep it fair, my grandparents switched out every year who got to stay at their home. My family branch were the lucky ones who got to stay at my grandparents' house that year. Within a couple of hours, the only ones left at the house were my family and Liz's. They finally decided to leave for the night and told Liz that it was time to go now, interrupting her when she was in the middle of a conversation with me. Liz gave me a look and rolled her eyes. "I will be right back." When Liz came back, she told me how her family was leaving and then just stayed with me. "Aren't you going to leave with them?" I asked, confused. "No, I think I am going to stay here and hang out with my favorite cousin." "Okay, cool," I said and smiled. I had been afraid that maybe she was freaked out by our kiss and would want to get away from me as soon as possible. "But you have to give me a ride to the hotel later," Liz added. I did my best to keep my groan inward. After the drive I had, I didn't want to drive again for as long as possible, but if it was for Liz, then I would. "Okay." Liz and I sat in the downstairs living room on a wide loveseat, near the fireplace; as we continued to talk and reconnect after a year apart. She was still elusive when I asked her what she did for work. "It's just some dumb job that I don't like to think about. "So, Do the girls put out more in college?" she asked. "What?" I asked, even though I had heard her. I got flustered as I tried to answer. Liz laughed. "Relax, I was just joking." Around nine my grandparents said goodnight and went upstairs to their bedroom. My parents went up to bed a little later, leaving just Liz and me sitting downstairs alone. Liz asked me again about my dating life. "I don't really know. I am too busy with schoolwork and football. It doesn't really leave me much room for dating," I said. "But I bet girls are throwing themselves at you," Liz said. I thought about lying to her, but we had always told each other everything. "Yeah, there have been some girls that I have hooked up with that I met at parties, but dating never works out, since I am so busy." Liz leaned forward, pressing her hands on my thigh. "Why don't you tell me about one of those times," Liz said. "What; You mean," "Tell me about one of the last times that you hooked up with a girl," Liz said. Her voice became sultry. I hesitated. "Come on, we used to tell each other everything. I told you about what a train wreck the first time I tried to give a guy a blowjob." Liz was right. We used to tell each other everything that happened in our love and sex lives. It was one of the things that had lent so much concrete imagery to my fantasies about being with Liz. "Wasn't that when his pubes got stuck in your braces?" I asked. Liz took her hand off my thigh and hit me on the chest. "At least I didn't come instantly the first time a girl touched me between my legs." "Hey, that happens to a lot of people," I said, no longer enjoying this once I realized that if I wanted to go to war with her on this, that I had probably provided her with more than enough ammunition to take me down. "See. We used to tell each other everything, the good and the bad. I miss that." Liz took my hand and squeezed it. I had been thinking about it as well. "Okay," I said. "I went to one of the fraternity houses parties last year a few nights after we lost our chance of making it to the championship." "The match against the Aztecs?" Liz asked. "Yes, I am surprised you know that." Sports was never something we talked about. "I follow some college football and watched some games. Mostly because number 48 has such a cute ass," Liz said. I couldn't help but go red in the face at her compliment. "Yeah, that game. I was upset that we had lost, so the party was a great way to blow off steam, and I was drinking a bit more than I usually did." Liz laughed but didn't say what I knew she wanted to say. Those who knew me, knew that I couldn't hold my alcohol. Chris and the Sorority Girl. "I was messing around on the dance floor, and there was this beautiful girl out of nowhere dancing right up against me. I hadn't gotten much action for a bit since I was so busy, so when a hot girl started to grind against me, I didn't question it and grinded back." Liz's hand went back to my thigh and gently rubbed it as I told my story. "What happened next?" "The songs that kept on coming up were high energy ones, and we working up a sweat as we danced together. She would press herself right up against my erection and grind back into it, or work her hand down in between us, and she would grab and rub my shaft." Liz started to rub my thigh even harder. "I had my hands on her hips, and she grabbed them and guided them to where I wanted to touch the whole time, Down to her ass which was barely contained in the shorts she was wearing, up to her tits, she wasn't wearing a bra, and then back down, only this time she pressed my hand to the front of her shorts, and I could feel how warm she was and how her wetness was starting to soak through." Liz's hand inched closer towards my cock, but stopped just a couple inches short. "I will be right back," she said and got up, just when things were getting good. Liz came back a couple of minutes later and was holding her AirPods in her hands. "Here," She said, handing me one. "What?" I asked. Liz didn't answer; she just put her AirPod in. Liz had picked an EDM, electronic dance music song. Before I could ask her what she was doing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. I stood up, and she guided me up over to the center of the room. "Dance," Liz told me. Since I hadn't had much more than a couple of glasses of wine that night with the family, I was far from being drunk enough to dance without inhibitions, but I decided to indulge her and started to try and dance to the music. A moment later, Liz began to grind her ass against me. She turned around and looked me in the eye as she ran her hands down my broad chest and pressed her body against me. Re-enacting A Dance Scene. I realized that she was enacting my story with me. I danced with Liz, enjoying the songs that she was playing and how she moved her body. I kept my eyes on her, taking in every movement. She moved so perfectly, I wondered when she got so good at dancing. Liz used to be so uncoordinated back when we were kids. She reached down between us. She ran her fingers along my erection, squeezing gently as she did. When on the fourth or fifth song, the high beats per minute songs switched to something a bit slower, and we danced more sensually against each other. Liz guided my hands from her hips down to her ass. I squeezed. It felt as if there was no barrier between her ass and my hands with how soft the material was. I pulled her short dress up and was surprised when I didn't feel any panties on her. I felt her panty line when I had been lowering my hands, So I realized that she must have been wearing a thong. Liz's ass felt so soft and toned, she had always been skinny growing up, but now she seemed to have put on some layers of lean muscle. Liz let me play with her ass for an entire song while she rubbed my erection through my jeans. At the start of the next song, Liz grabbed one of my hands and to pulled it up and around to her front. I knew where she was taking my hand, and I tried to rush my touch along. She set the pace and made me slow down my approach to her tits. When she finally let me put my hand over one of her tits, I started to paw at it roughly in excitement but managed to get a hold of myself and begin to fondle them a bit more gently. As I enjoyed the feel of her tits and ass in my hands, I thought for a moment how this couldn't get any better. I was pleasantly wrong. When the next song started, Liz grabbed my hand from touching her ass. I found my hand pressing against her snatch through her thin dress. Warmth radiated from her cunt as she pressed her body into me. I rubbed at her cunt, and she rubbed my cock up and down, jerking me off through my pants. She began to kiss up my neck, alternating from licking gently to sucking hard. The drop in the song happened, and Liz pulled me down and kissed me deeply. As we made out while dancing, she started to grind against my erection. I felt amazing, but I knew that it was only a small sample of the pleasure she could give me. "What happened next?" Liz asked me after kissing me deeply again. "She grabbed my hand and led me to one of the empty bedrooms," I said. That's when Liz grabbed my hand and led me to the guest bedroom, locking the door behind us. It was the only bedroom on the ground level of the house. "She pushed me down onto the bed." Liz did so. "And then she took off my pants, and before I had time to even think, she had my cock in her mouth and started to blow me." I didn't know if Liz would keep up with following along with the story I was telling, but if she did, then I was going to be glad that I had chosen this one. I wondered if she would do this. Making out and grinding against your cousin was one thing, but a blowjob was crossing even further past that line that I had been staring at for years. Liz reached down and started to undo my pants. I couldn't believe this was really happening when she got my belt open and pulled my pants and boxers down. I raised my hips to make it easier. For a moment, I thought that this might all be for a prank. Liz had been teasing me for years. She had gone through some great lengths in the past to embarrass me. I knew this was a paranoid thought, but it held for a moment. My erection sprung free, close to Liz's mouth as she continued to pull my pants down. She looked down at my cock for a moment. This would be the time for her to stop before we did something that we maybe shouldn't. I wasn't going to voice any complaints, it had all felt so good and right so far, but if she was too scared to take things even further, then I wouldn't blame her. Liz leaned down and kissed the tip of my erection. She swirled her tongue around the top of my erection and then started to take me into her mouth. I let out a moan as she made it halfway down my cock and continued to take it all the way in. Liz was beautiful, and the added taboo of my cousin sucking my cock made it look and feel even better. I watched intently as Liz took my entire seven inches into her mouth. When she got to the end, she deepthroated my cock without even pausing. I moaned again. Liz slowly pulled her mouth back off it. Once back up to the top, Liz sucked deeply on my cock head, her cheeks hollowing inwards. Liz effortlessly sucked on my cock. This was the best blowjob I had ever had. She was not only skilled at doing this, but she also did it eagerly. Liz licked from the bottom to top, using her tongue piercing to trace a path up along my shaft. I shivered as she pressed the metal up along my shaft. I had always had fantasies of having a girl with a tongue piercing blow me. Liz made it to the top of my shaft and twirled her tongue around my cock again, holding eye contact with me as she did it. She then licked at the sensitive part at the bottom of my cock head. The alternating feeling of her soft, warm tongue and the smoothness of the metal there made me moan again, louder this time. "Quiet," Liz scolded me, but I could tell in her voice that she was happy that she could cause me to have such a reaction. Liz blew me to the frantic beat of the song we were listening to. It all felt and looked so good. I was getting close to cumming, but I tried to hold back. Liz started to massage my balls with one hand, jerking me off with the other. She bobbed her head and moved her hand in one motion, touching most of my cock at once. When she would stroke downward, she would let go with all but her thumb and forefinger so that she could still take nearly all of me into her mouth, and then in her upward motion would add back the fingers as she jerked me off.   Lips of Liz. "Liz, I'm getting close," I groaned. Liz redoubled her efforts at blowing me and somehow managed to blow me even better than before. A minute was all I could last with this increased stimulation, and I grunted that I was about to cum. Liz blew me even harder and took me back into her throat. The soft pressure was too much, and I started to cum. I shot my first couple of loads right into her throat. Liz swallowed a couple of times, something that felt amazing with me still in her throat. She pulled back a little so the last couple of loads filled her mouth. Liz continued to blow me while milking the last of my cum up and out before swallowing one last time. "So, how was that, compared to the girl in your story?" Liz asked as she wiped off her mouth. "That was the best blow job I ever had," I said. I was still feeling such strong bliss that I was unable to not tell the truth. I only hoped me saying that wouldn't get to her head. Liz pulled her dress over her head. She was wearing a matching lacey black bra and panties. The black lingerie looked great against her pale skin. She climbed on top of me, and we started to make out. I began to play with her tits through her bra. Liz reached back and unclipped it so that it fell off under my touch. I continued to play with her perky tits, amazed finally to be touching them directly. I played with her nipples and her nipple piercings, gently pulling on them. Liz moaned into our kiss. Liz broke off the kiss and straightened up over my mouth, bringing her tits in closer. I leaned up and latched onto one of her nipples. She moaned loudly and pulled my head against her tits. I sucked harder. Liz held my head against her tit, and I opened my mouth, sucking most of her perky tit into my mouth. I could feel the heat and wetness from her sex as she straddled against my chest. I switched over to her other nipple, sucking hard on it. Liz started to grind her cunt into my chest as I continued to suck hard on her tits. I swirled my tongue around her nipple, and she moaned loudly. I told Liz that she needed to be quiet, and she answered me by pushing me back down so that I was lying on my back. She climbed over the top of me until her snatch, in all its glory, was spread out above me. As she lowered, I eagerly leaned up and stuck my tongue in between her lips. I alternated between licking along her outer lips and slipping my tongue inside of her. Even her snatch tasted better than any other girl who I had gone down on before. I flicked my tongue up and along her clit after a couple of minutes of ignoring it on purpose. Liz's entire body shook when I finally licked it, and she pressed her snatch down onto my mouth. Each additional lick caused her a mini spasm. As I ate her out, Liz started to grind her snatch down onto my mouth, timing her movements against my licks so that there would be the most amount of contact between us. She to pressed her snatch down onto my mouth for increasing amounts of time, making it hard to breathe sometimes, but I loved having her snatch right up against my mouth. As she rode my face, I was able to stick my tongue even deeper inside of her. It seemed like the deeper my tongue went, the better her snatch tasted. Reluctantly, I pulled back to catch my breath. When I went to lick her clit, she was rubbing it. I pushed my tongue deep inside of her. I did my best to take my time and focus on how Liz responded to what I did. I wanted to make Liz cum, but I knew that this wouldn't feel good for her if I tried to rush it. She seemed to like it when I would lick along the top of her snatch, licking her clit when she moved her fingers away to let me have access to it. As her orgasm approached, I did something that I knew would surprise her. When I pulled my tongue out of her, I shifted down a little and flicked my tongue along her anus. It was a good thing that Liz had her face pushed down onto the pillow because when I flicked my tongue across it, she moaned loudly into the bedding. I licked along the edge of her anus, and she moaned again. I worked my tongue closer from the edge. When I finally pressed my tongue against the center, she shivered. I reached up and started to rub along her anus with my fingers while I went back to licking her cunt. I began to rub her rosebud right at the center and then pressed my finger inside of her. When I worked the tip of my finger inside of her, she froze up. I was afraid that I had overstepped in doing this to her. I started to pull my finger back out of her. "No, leave it in," Liz said, so I did. Liz began to hump again against my face. She moved slower as she pushed my finger slowly in and out of her ass. Liz built back up to speed, my finger working its way in and out of her. She must have done anal before because she seemed to get used to my finger inside of her quickly. Liz built back up to her orgasm and started to grind against my mouth and finger even harder. She let out a loud muffled moan, and then she shook on top of me as she came. She pressed her cunt against my mouth and her ass clenched around my finger. Liz let out one last moan, and then she went limp on top of me. Liz climbed off it and under the blankets. I didn't know what to do when she called me to join her in bed. Once I was under the covers, she pressed her naked body against me. I was grateful for her body warmth; this room was always coldest in the house. Sleep came easily to me with Liz in my arms. Christmas Morning. I woke up at five in the morning on Christmas Day, feeling incredibly warm. I wondered where the source of the warmth was coming from. As I moved my hand, I felt the suppleness of a tit. The memories of last night came flooding back. I was in bed with my cousin Liz! I knew that I should get up soon before anyone else in the house woke up and discovered Liz in bed with me. The door was locked, but if we emerged from a locked room together, that would look strange. I kept telling myself to get up and go lay on the couch, but then I would tell myself that another five minutes wouldn't hurt. Liz's naked and warm body pressed against me just felt too good. I had forgotten that Liz was a snorer, which I thought was cute but would be making fun of her for later. Finally, when it was close to six, I forced myself to get up. I grabbed a blanket from out of the closet and a pillow from the bed. It was a delicate maneuver since Liz was somehow on every pillow at once. After I managed to pull one pillow out from under her arm, I looked down on Liz's beautiful naked body; she had kicked off the covers as I went to grab a pillow. She wasn't covered in tattoos yet, but the ones she did have, looked cool and accented her pale, beautiful body. I pulled the blanket back over her and kissed her on her forehead. Her brow lost its furrow, she smiled, and stopped stirring in her sleep. I got dressed and went back to the living room with the fireplace. The couch was so plush that I fell asleep quickly. The smell of bacon frying and the sound of cooking in the kitchen woke me up. I wanted to get up and investigate, but it was so warm under the blanket. I decided to wait to get up until breakfast was fully ready. I felt someone standing over me, and then a moment later, I was being poked in the ribs. "Wake up sleepy head, breakfast is almost ready, and the whole family is almost here." I rolled out from the blanket and looked up. Liz was wearing a pink apron with white frills on the edges that contrasted with her black band t-shirt and ripped jeans that she knew drove her parents crazy. "Nice apron." "Are you sure you want to make fun of the person who is going to be serving your food?" Liz asked. "Point taken. It looks good on you." "Sure," Liz said and walked back towards the kitchen. I watched her walk, admiring the sway of her hips and the way her jeans clung to her ass. When Liz was nearly back into the kitchen, she looked around and caught me checking her out. She smiled at me, and then she was in the kitchen and then out of sight behind a counter. I had been worried that maybe things would be weird between us after what had happened between us the night before, but things seemed to be okay. I felt a weight lifted from inside as I realized what happened wouldn't drive a wedge between Liz and me. I folded up my blanket and returned it and the pillow back where they came from. Liz had left the bed unmade. I shook my head at her and made the bed back up, which was a struggle with how much she had kicked the blankets and under sheet around during the night. Once the bed was made, I used the restroom and walked into the kitchen. My entire family was there, seated at the small table or on the barstool chairs, drinking coffee or orange juice. "It's about time you are up. You never sleep in," my mom said, handing me a glass of orange juice. "It's my fault. I kept him up late last night catching up and talking," Liz said. "That's why you didn't come back to your hotel room last night?" Liz's mom asked. "Yeah, it got too late for Christo take me home, so he let me have the guest room and slept on the couch," Liz said. "We thought you went out," Liz's mom said. There was so much venom in her voice as she said that, as if going out for a night on the town was one of the vilest things she could imagine. "Geeze, mom, it's not like I am going to go out and fuck some random guy on Christmas Eve when I am in town to be with family. I spent all night with Chris, so unless you think I fucked my cousin last night, then you have nothing to worry about." The whole kitchen fell silent at this, and I nearly spit out my orange juice at what Liz just said. I guess what she said was technically true, we didn't have sex last night, but I still couldn't believe that she said that to her mom. Liz's mom did what she did whenever she got embarrassed by some vulgar thing Liz said, and she stormed away. Liz's dad gave her a look and followed his wife. It wasn't a family get together if Liz's mom didn't storm away at least once. It seemed good that the quota had been met so early in the day because the rest of the family went right back to what they were doing. When breakfast was ready, everyone grabbed a plate and went to the mountain of breakfast food to load up their plates. Christmas breakfast wasn't as formal as dinner, where we would all eat together in the dining room. The dining room and kitchen were full, so we went out to the heated porch to eat. "I still can't believe you said that to your mom," I said to Liz as we sat down. "Hey, technically, it was the truth. I am tired of her constantly trying to degrade me in front of the family just because I am not in college, not because I need to get an education, but in her words, that's where I need to be if I want to find a good man to settle down with. All she wants of me is to be some housewife. Don't even get me started on all of the times she told me I was going to be going to hell," Liz said exasperatedly. "Yeah, technically it was the truth, but still crazy that you said it," I said. I took a bite of perfectly crispy bacon. "Relax, they wouldn't put something crazy like that past me doing, but it's not like they are going to think bad of the family's golden boy," Liz said. I hated whenever she called me that, and it usually would get to me enough for me to call her something back, but I was in too good of a mood to let her goad me into one of our usual arguments. I started to talk lower and hated getting serious so suddenly, but I didn't want to leave things vague between us. If I didn't ask, I would worry all day, and I would rather face the issue than leave myself wondering about it all day. "So, you don't regret anything about what happened last night?" I asked. Liz looked like she was about to say another joke, but she seemed to change my mind when she saw how serious I was. "I don't have any regrets about last night. I enjoyed it, and you did too. What is there to regret?" "Nothing, I just wanted to make sure things are still okay between us." "Don't worry , cuz, I think things are more than okay between us." I nearly jumped when I felt Liz's hand on my thigh. Liz smiled at me, that same smile that she gave me last night when she was about to blow me. Liz rubbed her hand on my thigh. "What does that mean?" I asked. "I think you can figure it out," Liz said and pulled her hand away. "Wait, did you just use my pants as a napkin?" "Yep," Liz said as she grabbed our empty plates and got up to take them to the kitchen. After breakfast, we did the gift exchange under the large fake Christmas tree, like we always did. I thought it was a little weird that we still did this tradition even though the youngest in the family were too old for it, but no one so far had started to have kids yet. It was messed up, but most of my family had thought Liz would be the first to have a kid, from my cousins and me, most likely in high school, according to Liz's mom, but Liz seemed smart and stubborn enough to not prove them right. I loved my family, but some of them were really fucked up when it came to Liz. I always tried to be the mediator and hold the family together when there were fights, but it took a lot out of me. I had to admit that even though we were too old for some of these traditions, I still enjoyed them, even if they were also annoying. I had to be so much for so many people, back at school that it was nice to come home and just focus on how my family saw me and on myself. The version of myself that my family saw, was also tough to uphold, but it was sometimes the closest version of myself. Family Memories on video. After the present exchange, my grandparents got out the scrapbooks and home movies and reminisced about past holidays and events. Liz sat next to me, cramming me into the edge of the sofa. With so many of us in the living room with the fireplace, all the seats were full. Other chairs had been carried over from the kitchen. Liz was pressed right against me, her familiar warmth a constant reminder of last night. As the trips down the well-traveled memory lane were trodden down yet again, Liz initially tried to act like she was bored and didn't care. Before long, she joined in the retelling of family events, usually to defend herself when a story was brought up about something bad that she had done. Still, I could tell that she enjoyed spending this time with her family. Those conversations were some of the only times Liz and her mom talked to each other without any malice, as they remembered their stories. I got a warm feeling in my stomach from all of this. Some things had changed, but they were still close enough for me to be able to slip back into the nostalgia. Throughout the day, Liz would do little things to remind me of the previous night. When it was just us or when no one was looking, Liz would whisper filthy things into my ear and pat me on the ass or grab at my crotch. I would get red in the face. Every time I tried to say something to her, another family member would always pop up, so I would have to stop what I was about to say. I would give Liz a look, telling her that I would say something later, but she would just smile or shrug. She always seemed her happiest when she was messing with me. We had Christmas dinner early. This time everyone sat together at the dining room table. My grandparents said grace, and then we started to eat. I was surprised that Liz and her mom managed to get along the whole day after their argument in the morning. This second party was even better than the one the night before. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit. I wanted the day to last forever, so of course, time flew by. Before I knew it, family members started to go back to their hotels, and then everyone was off to bed again. Liz chose to stay longer and hang out with me again. We found ourselves on the couch again, watching TV together. We were originally sitting on opposite ends of the couch, but the moment the last of our family went up to go to bed, Liz scooted over and lay against me. Having her be close again, and us finally be alone, made my heart thump wildly from nerves. I wondered if anything was going to happen again between us, and if so, what? I hadn't felt this nervous around a girl in years. I wrapped an arm around her, and Liz snuggled up against me. To be continued. Based on a post by storyteller 19, for Literotica. Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 2. Liz has a present for Chris. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We watched TV together for an hour, mostly in silence, which was rare for Liz, who loved to talk during TV and movies. Nearly the whole time, I was hard, but as turned on as I was by having Liz close again, I also didn't want to try and force things by starting something with her prematurely. It felt right to be holding Liz, and I didn't want to rush things. When it was nearly ten, Liz turned off the TV. She reached up and grabbed at my face and gently caressed it. I looked down at her, and we looked into each other's eyes. Her face was lit by the warm glow of the fireplace. She looked so beautiful. I leaned in and we kissed each other, slowly and sensually. This seemed so different from how she was last night, but not better or worse. Last night, we acted like we satisfied a hunger after starving, but on that second night together, we started out slower and more sweetly. We sat on the couch, making out for nearly a half-hour. Liz broke the kiss, and we looked into each other's eyes in the dimly lit room. Liz stood up and grabbed the fireplace poker. she stirred the remnant pieces apart and the fire transformed to a red glow. She adjusted the damper to a slight ventilation and put the tool away. Turning to me, she smiled, then grabbed my hand. I got up and then she led me into her bedroom. Liz closed the door and locked it. She went back to kissing me, pressing me against the wall. Once we were behind closed doors, she continued our liplock while she swiftly unbuckled, unsnapped, and unzipped my jeans. Swiftly she reached down into my bozers and quickly found my straining erection, and started jerking me off. I kissed down Liz's neck, sucking hard on it and making her moan. I kissed down her collarbone and the top of her chest, pulling at her Aerosmith T-shirt to kiss more of her chest. Liz pulled off her shirt, and I kissed her cleavage. She swiftly unhooked her bra and shrugged it off so that I didn't even have to pause on my way down to her nipples. I licked around her areola and then flicked my tongue across one of her nipples. As she started to moan, I latched onto her tit and began to suck on it, causing her to moan even louder. Liz ran her free hand through my hair. I took nearly all of a tit into my mouth while lapping against it with my tongue and then sucked on it, pulling on her sensitive nipples. I switched back and forth between each of her tits. Liz pulled her hand out of my pants and slipped them down further. Once they were loose, she pulled me back up to kiss her. She flicked her tongue across my lip, and then I met her tongue with mine, and we started to french kiss. Liz pulled my college sweatshirt shirt up and over my head. Once my shirt was on the floor, she sucked and nibbled my lip, and then started to kiss down my neck, rougher than she was last night. I was afraid that she was intentionally trying to leave me a hickey from how hard she was sucking on my neck. Even though it would be so stupid, I wanted some physical mark to prove to myself that this was happening with my beautiful cousin a second night in a row. Liz kissed her way down my chest. When she got down to my stomach, she pulled my pants the rest of the way down, along with my boxers. My rock-hard cock sprung up, nearly smacking Liz on the mouth as she dropped down to her knees. I slipped my feet out of my pants and kicked them away. Liz grabbed my pants and kicked them against the crack in the door, hiding that the lamp light was on. She wrapped her hand around my rigid phallus and held it at its base. Her other hand cupped under my ball-sack and fondled the two boulders within. I shivered in pleasure when Liz looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and kissed the tip of my cock. She seemed to make out with it as she kissed, licked, and sucked on the top of my cock. Everything she did felt great, and being able to better see her doing it, made it feel even better. She skilfully rubbed her tongue along the sensitive frenulum while her lips locked tightly, to hold my glans ridge captive to her lustful intents. Then she leaned down and pressed her tongue onto my ball sack, licking against my balls. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help but moan. Liz took one of my balls into her mouth and sucked on it. It made me feel vulnerable to her passions, but it also felt so good that it almost hurt. Liz knew just the right amount of pressure to use. She stroked me in long slow strokes as she sucked on my balls, first one, then the other, and then both at the same time. Most girls I had been with usually ignored my balls if they even gave me a blowjob, so I wasn't used to having so much time spent on them. After sucking on my balls for a few minutes, Liz put her lips back onto my cock, only this time she started to take me all the way into her mouth. In one quick motion, she took my entire length into her mouth. I moaned as she took me effortlessly into her throat. Liz held there for a minute and then slowly pulled back off my cock to catch her breath. My entire cock was coated in her saliva. Liz took a couple of breaths and then took me back into her mouth. She started to blow me quickly, her lips sliding up and down my cock effortlessly; her tongue rubbing me in a firm swallowing motion, over and over. Liz would alternate from looking down at what she was working on; and looking up at me while she blew me. When she looked me in the eyes, it turned me on so much, but it also seemed oddly intimate, and I felt slightly vulnerable as we looked at one another. After blowing me for a couple of minutes, Liz took me back all the way into her throat and held my cock there again. While I was deep inside of her, she rapidly stroked at the underside of my cock with her tongue. She kept me inside of her mouth for a minute and a half and then pulled back from my cock with a gasp. I thought she would go back to blowing me, but instead, Liz stood up, grabbed my cock, and walked towards the bed. Liz undid her pants with her other hand, and dropped them to the floor as she walked. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, kissing me deeply, I straddled over her, our naked bodies pressed against each other. She reached down between us, grasped my cock, and started to rub it against her cunt lips. I froze up at the warmth and softness of her cunt. Liz nestled my cock between her cunt lips. "I want you inside of me," Liz breathed in between kisses as she started to move so that her cunt rubbed against the tip of my cock. "I want you, too," I said and then, in a moment of honesty, added, "I have wanted you for so long." "I know. Why do you think I have teased you so much all these years?" Liz said, raising her lips so that the head of my cock slipped ever so slightly more inside of her. "To annoy me?" I asked. "That's part of it." Liz laughed. "But the other reason is that I have wanted you too," Liz said. I had one last moment of doubt if I should do this or not. Liz nibbled my earlobe. "I want you to fuck me." There was so much desire in Liz's voice. I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew what I could do in response. Going All The Way. I inched forward to both enjoy this moment and make it easy in case Liz decided to change her mind. She kept on kissing me, so I continued to press forward. I slowly worked my way inside of her. She was tight and incredibly wet. It was hard not to just thrust all the way inside of her. Being inside of Liz felt so good for so many reasons. When I bottomed out inside of her, she let out a little gasp, her body arching in pleasure at the contact of me deep inside of her. I froze in place for a moment to take in the sensation of her cunt wrapped around my cock. After getting used to the fantastic feeling of her cunt I pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust back into her quickly. Liz let out a satisfied moan when she took me fully inside of her. I tried to start off slow, but Liz humped up against me, meeting my downward thrusts. It felt too good for us to take it slow, and before long, we were fucking quickly. She held onto my shoulders, holding her body up off the bed to give her better space to thrust back up against me, or she clenched at my ass, pulling me in deeper with each thrust. Fucking Liz felt so right. It seemed like we instantly knew what the other one was going to do before they did it. Every thrust was timed perfectly to ensure the highest amount of pleasure between us. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat, my body feeling both hot and cold. I was starting to get a little out of breath. If we kept up at this pace, I wouldn't last for as long. I was glad for the release from the previous night, without which I would have come instantly when I first entered her. Liz stopped humping up against me and pressed her hand against my chest. I got off her, and she pushed me down onto my back and straddled me. She held my erection in place just at the entrance of her cunt, and then she lowered herself, taking my entire cock in one quick motion. Her cunt felt even better in this position. Liz leaned down and kissed me as she started to rock her ass up and down, working my cock against the top of her snatch as she rode my cock. I laid there for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feel of Liz perfectly riding my cock. I grabbed her perfect ass and could feel her muscles tighten and loosen as she humped me. I rocked my hips in time with her. Before long, we worked our way back to the quick pace we had built up to before. Liz started to moan more and took shallow breaths as we continued to fuck. It felt good, but it was too good; I could feel each stroke bringing me closer to an orgasm. I didn't want to cum before Liz got off. There was no guarantee that anything would happen again between us. If we were going to break this taboo together, I wanted to make sure to make this the best sex possible. Without breaking the rhythm of riding my cock she pushed on my chest and straightened up so that she was straddling my cock. Immediately her cunt felt even tighter around my cock as she continued to ride me. We both moaned at the same time. Liz pulled up so that just the tip of my cock was inside of her, and then she slammed down, taking it all in at once before pulling right back up and doing it again. I grabbed at her hips and used them to help me better slide in and out of her. Every few strokes, when Liz would take me all the way inside of her, she wouldn't pull back off immediately; instead, she would do a little grinding against me so that my cock pressed even more against her cunt walls. After a few times of doing that, Liz added that grinding motion as she went up and down on my cock, making it feel even better with each stroke. I loved the way her tits bounced as she rode up and down on my cock, and the way her face would contort in pleasure when I timed a thrust perfectly or hit her in a new sensitive spot. I was getting too close to my orgasm, but Liz seemed to be breathing heavier. She started to rub at her clit while supporting herself by leaning back onto the bed with the other hand, so I hoped that she was close enough to cum before me. It gave me a better view of my cock disappearing in and out of her tight cunt with her leaning back. My cock was soaked in her juices and made me slide in and out of her with ease. She started to rock back and forth on my cock, and her fingers rubbed furiously against her clit. Liz's moans got so loud that I was afraid that we would wake up our family, but at this point, I was too far along to do anything to stop. "Awe Chris, that's it, fuck me harder," Liz said. I held onto her hips tighter and started to fuck her even harder. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me," Liz moaned. I knew that if we kept up like this, our family would hear. I sat up and pulled Liz off me. "Why?" She asked in a huff. I pushed her down on all fours, moved around behind her, put my hands on her hips, and then entered her fully from behind in rough thrust. Liz let out a pleasure-filled, "Oh," as I bottomed out inside of her. Liz arched her ass up against me and pressed her face down onto the bed. I had dreamed about taking Liz from behind for so long, and now that I was close to cumming I made sure to enjoy my fantasy come to life. Liz started to hump back against me. I could hear her moaning loudly into the bedding. I was surprised by how much her muffled moans turned me on. I felt her place her hand back onto her clit, and she started to rub it again. I could hear Liz's muffled moans get even louder, and then she stopped humping against my cock. She pressed her cunt back against me, taking my cock inside of her and then rocking randomly against it as her orgasm hit. As she came, I stopped holding back. I thrust into her a few more times, and with a grunt, I started to cum inside her. I held onto Liz's hips to steady myself as my body went numb with pleasure as I shot my loads inside of her as we came together. Liz's random humps slowed down as her orgasm passed, and she slowly rode my cock. When she finally stopped, I pulled out of her and laid on the bed beside her, catching my breath. Liz stayed like that for a moment with her ass up in the air, and then she laid on her side facing me. We scooted towards each other and wrapped our arms around each other. We lay like that for some time. "That was;" I started to say but didn't know the words for it. Liz leaned forward and kissed me sweetly. "I know," she said. I lay there not believing what finally happened when suddenly a thought interrupted my bliss, and I nearly jumped out of bed. Liz placed one of my hands between her tits and cradled it there with her hands as I wrapped my other hand around her. Her heart was beating so fast, just like mine. "What?" Liz asked. "I came in you, I shouldn't have done that, if you get," Liz put a hand to my chest and a finger to my lips. "Calm down. I wanted you to do that, it makes it feel even better, and I am on the pill, so you don't have to worry," Liz said. "Oh, okay, good," I said, embarrassed by my outburst, and wrapped my arms back around Liz. "Merry Christmas," Liz said. "Yeah, the best merry Christmas," I said with a smile. A few minutes later, Liz got up and grabbed the towel that I had used earlier in the day. "I will be right back. I am going to go clean up," Liz said and walked out of the room. There was a bathroom right across from the bedroom, but I still thought it was crazy that Liz walked out of the room naked. I lay there with my fingers laced behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, a smile on my face as I rode the post-sex endorphin rush. Liz stepped back inside and gently closed the door behind her. I watched as she walked towards me and climbed into bed, trying my best to ingrain the image of her naked body into my memory. Liz climbed into bed beside me, rested her head on my chest, and pressed her body against me. I held her with one arm and played with her hair. I knew she was awake for a time, but neither one of us said anything. Before long, I heard her start to snore loudly against my chest, so loud that it woke me up when I was nearly drifting off to sleep. I smiled and lay there for a few minutes, holding her and listening to her snore. Couch Time. When I was starting to drift back off to sleep, even with her snoring, I knew that I better move out to the living room before I fell asleep with Liz again. After that night's physical exertions, I doubted that I would be able to wake up again this morning. I carefully got out of bed to not wake Liz again, but I knew that she was a deep sleeper. My theory had always been that her snores made her deaf to the world as she slept. I pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. After I got dressed, I kissed on the top of her head. I grabbed my blanket and managed to sneak a pillow again off the bed, and I went back out to the living room. It took me some time to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the room and sleep beside Liz but knew that I couldn't. After some tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I woke up to someone kissing me. I opened my eyes, and Liz beamed down at me. "Good morning," Liz said. It was still so early that the sun hadn't fully started to rise. "Good morning," I said. I sat up, and Liz climbed onto my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tightly as she kissed me deeply. As we kissed, my fear that last night was going to be the only time we had sex evaporated. Liz kissed me like how you kissed a lover, and while I didn't know what exactly was going to happen in the future, I knew that the last couple of nights wouldn't be stand-alone events. "My family is on their way to say goodbye, and then I am going to head back to the hotel with them to pack up my stuff." "Oh," I said. Liz lived in Portland, several states away from her family. "So, my flight leaves later today, but I was wondering, since you don't have school for a few weeks, if you wanted to come and visit me," Liz asked, looking down as she spoke. I realized that she was nervous about asking me this. My fearless cousin Liz, nervous at asking me to visit her over my Christmas break. If I hadn't just had sex with Liz the night before, then seeing her nervous about something would have been the craziest thing that happened to me this weekend. I didn't say anything for a moment, and she looked up at me expectantly. "While I mean, I did have some plans," I said. When she started to pout, I couldn't go on with it, "Yeah, I can come to visit you." "You jerk, you were just stalling," Liz said as she threw her arms around me and gave me another huge kiss. I already had morning wood from when I woke up, and I got even harder as Liz started to dry hump me. I began to play with her tits when we heard footsteps coming down the steps. She jumped off me and gave me one last peck on the lips before running back into the guest room. I smiled. I was so used to seeing Liz be sarcastic and aloof; it was odd seeing this sweet side of her. I thought about that for a bit as I laid back down to look like I was still asleep. Liz took a shower first. When she emerged, she was wearing one of my T-shirts without asking, but I loved seeing her in it, so I didn't say anything to her. By the time I took a shower, more family had shown up, including Liz's. They stayed for a couple of hours to have a small breakfast and coffee before they were going to head back to the hotel and pack up. Liz and I spent every possible moment together. Not only did she give me her phone number to make sure we kept in better touch, but she also took my phone and added her Snapchat and Instagram accounts to my phone. I rarely used the apps, and I told her so, but she told me I better use them to talk to her; otherwise, I would regret it. I knew that we would see each other again soon, but I didn't want to see her leave. I walked her and her family to their rented car when it was time for them to drive back to the hotel. Our hug goodbye lingered until we reluctantly let go. As Liz was getting in the car, she checked her purse and said how her phone wasn't in it and that she must have left it in the guest room. She said she would be right back to her family and asked me to come with her to call her phone with mine. "So, where did you last see it?" I asked Liz when we walked into the room. "Right here in my bag," Liz said, holding up her phone. "Why did you say you didn't have it?" I asked her. "So that I could give you a proper goodbye," Liz said as she hugged again, but this time also kissed me. We kissed deeply for several minutes, neither one of us wanting to break off the kiss. Our kisses started to die down, and we tried to stop, but we kept on doing small kisses. We were both left panting when we finally pulled apart. "I want you so badly again," Liz said as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Me too. I don't want to see you go." "Promise you will visit me soon." "I promise," I said, already planning on seeing her as soon as possible. We walked back out to our gathered family. "Sorry it took so long. I had my phone on silent," Liz said as we walked back up. Liz gave me one last hug and then got into the car, and they drove away. I watched them leave, feeling an odd sense of loneliness. I went back to the guest room and laid in the same bed that we had had sleepovers in together when we were kids, the same bed that last night we had sex for the first time in. I pressed the pillow that she laid on last night against my face and inhaled her scent. I lay on my back and pressed the pillow to my face, and inhaled. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I checked it, and Liz told me that they had made it back to the hotel. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her how I was lying in bed. She called me lazy, and I asked her how I could be both lazy and an overachiever at the same time? She somehow avoided answering me, even though I was confident that I was bringing up a good point. I stayed one more day at my grandparents with my family, and then the next day, I drove home. I wasn'

Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 1. Cousins reconnect over the winter holidays. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. I was driving back from Boise, to be with family for Christmas. That semester had been my most challenging yet. I was exhausted and ready for some time relaxing with my family. We usually had the holidays at my grandparents' house in Boulder, Colorado. Being raised in the Arizona desert, I wasn't used to driving in the snow, so the last one hundred miles were slow going for me. It didn't help that it had started to snow again, adding even more snow to the roads. Initially, I planned to get to the family party hours early, but now I would be lucky if I got there before dinner. It was supposed to be less than a 12 hour drive, but that doesn't take in the factors of road conditions and holiday traffic. The snow kept falling, but I managed to make it to the house just ahead of the snowstorm's main bulk. It seemed like everyone was there already from all the cars parked in front of the house. I got out of my car shivering. My jacket barely reduced the cutting chill from icy cold wind. I walked awkwardly to the trunk and pulled out the gifts that I had for gotten. No matter how many times I was in the snow, which wasn't often, I doubted I would ever get used to it. When I was at the door, I took a deep breath. I regretted it immediately because of the frigid air. I quickly opened the door. I was hit by an immediate warmth and brightness as I stepped inside. "Let me help you with that cousin," a silky-smooth voice said to me as I walked in. My cousin Liz walked towards me from the mini sitting area that overlooked the front yard. Just looking at her filled me with warmth. Liz was the cousin that I was the closest to. We were both the only child in our immediate family. Since we were nearly the same age, we had been inseparable at family events, basically since we were born. Liz helped me put my presents under the large Christmas tree near where she had been sitting. As soon as I put the gifts down, she threw her arms around me in a tight hug. I squeezed her back. Out of my family, she had been the one I was looking forward the most to seeing. I hadn't seen her in person in a year, as we had both missed the thanksgiving get-together, this year. We texted infrequently and were friends on Facebook, but she rarely used it. "You look great," I told her. She had her blonde hair in a cute pixie cut, and it was dyed several bright colors going down to the tips. She was wearing a black jacket with a black dress under. Her ears were heavily pierced, and she had a single stud in her nose. Her parents were the extreme religious ones in the family, so they had seemed to stifle Liz her whole life with their beliefs. The moment Liz could, she got out of their household and moved in with some friends. "You're looking great too," Liz said, squeezing my broad shoulders as she pulled away from my hug. I felt my body go warm at her compliment. Liz kept her hand on my shoulders and started to guide me towards the kitchen where most of the family had gathered. "Come on, everyone's been dying to talk to Chris, the golden boy." I felt a little guilty at that, but I knew that Liz didn't mean that as an insult. She was the black sheep, and I was the golden boy. My family were happy to see me, and everyone wanted to spend the entire evening catching up. I enjoyed spending time with them, but it was Liz who I really wanted to catch up with. She spent a lot of the night around me, often raising an eyebrow or giving me a deadpan look when one of my family said something that they shouldn't have. Liz sat next to me at the dinner table, and I finally got some time to talk to her. I tried to ask her about herself, but she seemed to avoid talking about herself and gave me vague answers. We had always been close, so I started to feel confused by this, wondering if maybe in the last year we had finally grown apart. I began to get the hint and stopped bugging her about her personal life. We talked about other things, mostly books and TV shows that we had a shared interest in. Still, it seemed superficial compared to our usual winding conversations that had no limits. Taboo Topics. After dinner, we found ourselves hanging out in the garage. Liz was smoking a cigarette, blowing the smoke through a cracked door that lead to the side of the backyard. This was always the place we would run off to when we wanted to escape the rest of the family. We were doing what we always did, teasing each other. "Come on, you were the one who used to have a crush on me when we were kids," Liz said. That was something that I doubted she was ever going to let me forget about. "Hey, if I remember correctly, you were the one who always wanted to play house and insisted on being husband and wife," I said. "Only so I could kick your lazy ass out when you burned dinner or didn't wash the dishes." "The food was plastic, and we didn't have running water in our playhouse. You didn't have to make me literally sleep in the doghouse!" I said. That was before we had a firm grasp that it was a saying and not literal. "Yes, I did," She said, leaning towards me. I leaned forward. "Why?" "Because it was funny," Liz said. We were leaning so close together, and we both became quiet, which was rare for Liz once she started teasing me. I looked into her beautiful eyes, thinking thoughts that I had been suppressing for years. I couldn't look into her eyes anymore. I thought the year away from her would be enough for me finally to get over my crush on my cousin, but instead, that absence seemed to make those feelings even stronger. I looked up, and my eyes went wide at what I saw nailed above us. Liz looked up and saw what I was looking at. "Mistletoe," Liz said and looked back into my eyes. The part of my brain that held my impulses in check must have been frozen from the cold weather. There was the briefest hesitation, and then we kissed. We wrapped our arms around each other, and the kiss deepened. This is it. It's finally happening. I was surprised by how right something that was supposed to be wrong felt. Now that my urges were finally free, I slid my hand down her back and squeezed her ass through her dress. Liz let out a surprised little moan at that, and she jumped away from my hand and against me. When she settled back down, I started to massage her ass. She moaned and leaned her head back against the wall while arching her lower body towards me and pressing her pelvis into mine. I kissed down her chin and started to kiss her pale neck. With each kiss, she let out tiny little exhales that were both cute and sexy. When I reached the hollow of her neck, I sucked hard. Liz moaned louder this time and ground her snatch into me. I kissed across the front of her neck and repeated the same thing on the other side with the same result. With a finger on my chin, she guided my lips back up to hers. Her succulent lips felt better than I could have ever imagined. Liz lowered a hand down my chest. I thought she was just going to rub my chest, but her hand kept on going lower. I had only a few seconds to realize what she was doing when she grasped my erection through my jeans and rubbed it. I faltered in kissing her because of the unexpected touch. Liz used my distraction to suck on my lip. It all felt so good, and I didn't want it to end. No sooner than when I thought that then I heard one of our family members approaching. We pulled apart quickly and caught our breath as our grandma walked into the garage to get something out of the fridge in there. She said one of our uncles was leaving for the night and for us to say goodbye. "Okay grandma, we will be right there," Liz said. Our grandma left. Liz rested her head on my shoulder, and I held her lightly as we calmed down. Once calmed down, Liz pulled back. Liz looked like she was about to say something but stopped. "Come on, let's go say good night." She didn't seem her usual confident self. I didn't blame her, what we just did had crossed a line that we shouldn't have, but she didn't seem to be upset at what just happened. As I followed her inside, I noticed more sway to her stride that drew attention to her ass. We walked back in and said goodbye to the first of the family to leave. It seemed like that was the cue for others to go because the others started to follow suit. Some of my family stayed at my grandparents' house, while the rest stayed at a nearby hotel. To keep it fair, my grandparents switched out every year who got to stay at their home. My family branch were the lucky ones who got to stay at my grandparents' house that year. Within a couple of hours, the only ones left at the house were my family and Liz's. They finally decided to leave for the night and told Liz that it was time to go now, interrupting her when she was in the middle of a conversation with me. Liz gave me a look and rolled her eyes. "I will be right back." When Liz came back, she told me how her family was leaving and then just stayed with me. "Aren't you going to leave with them?" I asked, confused. "No, I think I am going to stay here and hang out with my favorite cousin." "Okay, cool," I said and smiled. I had been afraid that maybe she was freaked out by our kiss and would want to get away from me as soon as possible. "But you have to give me a ride to the hotel later," Liz added. I did my best to keep my groan inward. After the drive I had, I didn't want to drive again for as long as possible, but if it was for Liz, then I would. "Okay." Liz and I sat in the downstairs living room on a wide loveseat, near the fireplace; as we continued to talk and reconnect after a year apart. She was still elusive when I asked her what she did for work. "It's just some dumb job that I don't like to think about. "So, Do the girls put out more in college?" she asked. "What?" I asked, even though I had heard her. I got flustered as I tried to answer. Liz laughed. "Relax, I was just joking." Around nine my grandparents said goodnight and went upstairs to their bedroom. My parents went up to bed a little later, leaving just Liz and me sitting downstairs alone. Liz asked me again about my dating life. "I don't really know. I am too busy with schoolwork and football. It doesn't really leave me much room for dating," I said. "But I bet girls are throwing themselves at you," Liz said. I thought about lying to her, but we had always told each other everything. "Yeah, there have been some girls that I have hooked up with that I met at parties, but dating never works out, since I am so busy." Liz leaned forward, pressing her hands on my thigh. "Why don't you tell me about one of those times," Liz said. "What; You mean," "Tell me about one of the last times that you hooked up with a girl," Liz said. Her voice became sultry. I hesitated. "Come on, we used to tell each other everything. I told you about what a train wreck the first time I tried to give a guy a blowjob." Liz was right. We used to tell each other everything that happened in our love and sex lives. It was one of the things that had lent so much concrete imagery to my fantasies about being with Liz. "Wasn't that when his pubes got stuck in your braces?" I asked. Liz took her hand off my thigh and hit me on the chest. "At least I didn't come instantly the first time a girl touched me between my legs." "Hey, that happens to a lot of people," I said, no longer enjoying this once I realized that if I wanted to go to war with her on this, that I had probably provided her with more than enough ammunition to take me down. "See. We used to tell each other everything, the good and the bad. I miss that." Liz took my hand and squeezed it. I had been thinking about it as well. "Okay," I said. "I went to one of the fraternity houses parties last year a few nights after we lost our chance of making it to the championship." "The match against the Aztecs?" Liz asked. "Yes, I am surprised you know that." Sports was never something we talked about. "I follow some college football and watched some games. Mostly because number 48 has such a cute ass," Liz said. I couldn't help but go red in the face at her compliment. "Yeah, that game. I was upset that we had lost, so the party was a great way to blow off steam, and I was drinking a bit more than I usually did." Liz laughed but didn't say what I knew she wanted to say. Those who knew me, knew that I couldn't hold my alcohol. Chris and the Sorority Girl. "I was messing around on the dance floor, and there was this beautiful girl out of nowhere dancing right up against me. I hadn't gotten much action for a bit since I was so busy, so when a hot girl started to grind against me, I didn't question it and grinded back." Liz's hand went back to my thigh and gently rubbed it as I told my story. "What happened next?" "The songs that kept on coming up were high energy ones, and we working up a sweat as we danced together. She would press herself right up against my erection and grind back into it, or work her hand down in between us, and she would grab and rub my shaft." Liz started to rub my thigh even harder. "I had my hands on her hips, and she grabbed them and guided them to where I wanted to touch the whole time, Down to her ass which was barely contained in the shorts she was wearing, up to her tits, she wasn't wearing a bra, and then back down, only this time she pressed my hand to the front of her shorts, and I could feel how warm she was and how her wetness was starting to soak through." Liz's hand inched closer towards my cock, but stopped just a couple inches short. "I will be right back," she said and got up, just when things were getting good. Liz came back a couple of minutes later and was holding her AirPods in her hands. "Here," She said, handing me one. "What?" I asked. Liz didn't answer; she just put her AirPod in. Liz had picked an EDM, electronic dance music song. Before I could ask her what she was doing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me to my feet. I stood up, and she guided me up over to the center of the room. "Dance," Liz told me. Since I hadn't had much more than a couple of glasses of wine that night with the family, I was far from being drunk enough to dance without inhibitions, but I decided to indulge her and started to try and dance to the music. A moment later, Liz began to grind her ass against me. She turned around and looked me in the eye as she ran her hands down my broad chest and pressed her body against me. Re-enacting A Dance Scene. I realized that she was enacting my story with me. I danced with Liz, enjoying the songs that she was playing and how she moved her body. I kept my eyes on her, taking in every movement. She moved so perfectly, I wondered when she got so good at dancing. Liz used to be so uncoordinated back when we were kids. She reached down between us. She ran her fingers along my erection, squeezing gently as she did. When on the fourth or fifth song, the high beats per minute songs switched to something a bit slower, and we danced more sensually against each other. Liz guided my hands from her hips down to her ass. I squeezed. It felt as if there was no barrier between her ass and my hands with how soft the material was. I pulled her short dress up and was surprised when I didn't feel any panties on her. I felt her panty line when I had been lowering my hands, So I realized that she must have been wearing a thong. Liz's ass felt so soft and toned, she had always been skinny growing up, but now she seemed to have put on some layers of lean muscle. Liz let me play with her ass for an entire song while she rubbed my erection through my jeans. At the start of the next song, Liz grabbed one of my hands and to pulled it up and around to her front. I knew where she was taking my hand, and I tried to rush my touch along. She set the pace and made me slow down my approach to her tits. When she finally let me put my hand over one of her tits, I started to paw at it roughly in excitement but managed to get a hold of myself and begin to fondle them a bit more gently. As I enjoyed the feel of her tits and ass in my hands, I thought for a moment how this couldn't get any better. I was pleasantly wrong. When the next song started, Liz grabbed my hand from touching her ass. I found my hand pressing against her snatch through her thin dress. Warmth radiated from her cunt as she pressed her body into me. I rubbed at her cunt, and she rubbed my cock up and down, jerking me off through my pants. She began to kiss up my neck, alternating from licking gently to sucking hard. The drop in the song happened, and Liz pulled me down and kissed me deeply. As we made out while dancing, she started to grind against my erection. I felt amazing, but I knew that it was only a small sample of the pleasure she could give me. "What happened next?" Liz asked me after kissing me deeply again. "She grabbed my hand and led me to one of the empty bedrooms," I said. That's when Liz grabbed my hand and led me to the guest bedroom, locking the door behind us. It was the only bedroom on the ground level of the house. "She pushed me down onto the bed." Liz did so. "And then she took off my pants, and before I had time to even think, she had my cock in her mouth and started to blow me." I didn't know if Liz would keep up with following along with the story I was telling, but if she did, then I was going to be glad that I had chosen this one. I wondered if she would do this. Making out and grinding against your cousin was one thing, but a blowjob was crossing even further past that line that I had been staring at for years. Liz reached down and started to undo my pants. I couldn't believe this was really happening when she got my belt open and pulled my pants and boxers down. I raised my hips to make it easier. For a moment, I thought that this might all be for a prank. Liz had been teasing me for years. She had gone through some great lengths in the past to embarrass me. I knew this was a paranoid thought, but it held for a moment. My erection sprung free, close to Liz's mouth as she continued to pull my pants down. She looked down at my cock for a moment. This would be the time for her to stop before we did something that we maybe shouldn't. I wasn't going to voice any complaints, it had all felt so good and right so far, but if she was too scared to take things even further, then I wouldn't blame her. Liz leaned down and kissed the tip of my erection. She swirled her tongue around the top of my erection and then started to take me into her mouth. I let out a moan as she made it halfway down my cock and continued to take it all the way in. Liz was beautiful, and the added taboo of my cousin sucking my cock made it look and feel even better. I watched intently as Liz took my entire seven inches into her mouth. When she got to the end, she deepthroated my cock without even pausing. I moaned again. Liz slowly pulled her mouth back off it. Once back up to the top, Liz sucked deeply on my cock head, her cheeks hollowing inwards. Liz effortlessly sucked on my cock. This was the best blowjob I had ever had. She was not only skilled at doing this, but she also did it eagerly. Liz licked from the bottom to top, using her tongue piercing to trace a path up along my shaft. I shivered as she pressed the metal up along my shaft. I had always had fantasies of having a girl with a tongue piercing blow me. Liz made it to the top of my shaft and twirled her tongue around my cock again, holding eye contact with me as she did it. She then licked at the sensitive part at the bottom of my cock head. The alternating feeling of her soft, warm tongue and the smoothness of the metal there made me moan again, louder this time. "Quiet," Liz scolded me, but I could tell in her voice that she was happy that she could cause me to have such a reaction. Liz blew me to the frantic beat of the song we were listening to. It all felt and looked so good. I was getting close to cumming, but I tried to hold back. Liz started to massage my balls with one hand, jerking me off with the other. She bobbed her head and moved her hand in one motion, touching most of my cock at once. When she would stroke downward, she would let go with all but her thumb and forefinger so that she could still take nearly all of me into her mouth, and then in her upward motion would add back the fingers as she jerked me off.   Lips of Liz. "Liz, I'm getting close," I groaned. Liz redoubled her efforts at blowing me and somehow managed to blow me even better than before. A minute was all I could last with this increased stimulation, and I grunted that I was about to cum. Liz blew me even harder and took me back into her throat. The soft pressure was too much, and I started to cum. I shot my first couple of loads right into her throat. Liz swallowed a couple of times, something that felt amazing with me still in her throat. She pulled back a little so the last couple of loads filled her mouth. Liz continued to blow me while milking the last of my cum up and out before swallowing one last time. "So, how was that, compared to the girl in your story?" Liz asked as she wiped off her mouth. "That was the best blow job I ever had," I said. I was still feeling such strong bliss that I was unable to not tell the truth. I only hoped me saying that wouldn't get to her head. Liz pulled her dress over her head. She was wearing a matching lacey black bra and panties. The black lingerie looked great against her pale skin. She climbed on top of me, and we started to make out. I began to play with her tits through her bra. Liz reached back and unclipped it so that it fell off under my touch. I continued to play with her perky tits, amazed finally to be touching them directly. I played with her nipples and her nipple piercings, gently pulling on them. Liz moaned into our kiss. Liz broke off the kiss and straightened up over my mouth, bringing her tits in closer. I leaned up and latched onto one of her nipples. She moaned loudly and pulled my head against her tits. I sucked harder. Liz held my head against her tit, and I opened my mouth, sucking most of her perky tit into my mouth. I could feel the heat and wetness from her sex as she straddled against my chest. I switched over to her other nipple, sucking hard on it. Liz started to grind her cunt into my chest as I continued to suck hard on her tits. I swirled my tongue around her nipple, and she moaned loudly. I told Liz that she needed to be quiet, and she answered me by pushing me back down so that I was lying on my back. She climbed over the top of me until her snatch, in all its glory, was spread out above me. As she lowered, I eagerly leaned up and stuck my tongue in between her lips. I alternated between licking along her outer lips and slipping my tongue inside of her. Even her snatch tasted better than any other girl who I had gone down on before. I flicked my tongue up and along her clit after a couple of minutes of ignoring it on purpose. Liz's entire body shook when I finally licked it, and she pressed her snatch down onto my mouth. Each additional lick caused her a mini spasm. As I ate her out, Liz started to grind her snatch down onto my mouth, timing her movements against my licks so that there would be the most amount of contact between us. She to pressed her snatch down onto my mouth for increasing amounts of time, making it hard to breathe sometimes, but I loved having her snatch right up against my mouth. As she rode my face, I was able to stick my tongue even deeper inside of her. It seemed like the deeper my tongue went, the better her snatch tasted. Reluctantly, I pulled back to catch my breath. When I went to lick her clit, she was rubbing it. I pushed my tongue deep inside of her. I did my best to take my time and focus on how Liz responded to what I did. I wanted to make Liz cum, but I knew that this wouldn't feel good for her if I tried to rush it. She seemed to like it when I would lick along the top of her snatch, licking her clit when she moved her fingers away to let me have access to it. As her orgasm approached, I did something that I knew would surprise her. When I pulled my tongue out of her, I shifted down a little and flicked my tongue along her anus. It was a good thing that Liz had her face pushed down onto the pillow because when I flicked my tongue across it, she moaned loudly into the bedding. I licked along the edge of her anus, and she moaned again. I worked my tongue closer from the edge. When I finally pressed my tongue against the center, she shivered. I reached up and started to rub along her anus with my fingers while I went back to licking her cunt. I began to rub her rosebud right at the center and then pressed my finger inside of her. When I worked the tip of my finger inside of her, she froze up. I was afraid that I had overstepped in doing this to her. I started to pull my finger back out of her. "No, leave it in," Liz said, so I did. Liz began to hump again against my face. She moved slower as she pushed my finger slowly in and out of her ass. Liz built back up to speed, my finger working its way in and out of her. She must have done anal before because she seemed to get used to my finger inside of her quickly. Liz built back up to her orgasm and started to grind against my mouth and finger even harder. She let out a loud muffled moan, and then she shook on top of me as she came. She pressed her cunt against my mouth and her ass clenched around my finger. Liz let out one last moan, and then she went limp on top of me. Liz climbed off it and under the blankets. I didn't know what to do when she called me to join her in bed. Once I was under the covers, she pressed her naked body against me. I was grateful for her body warmth; this room was always coldest in the house. Sleep came easily to me with Liz in my arms. Christmas Morning. I woke up at five in the morning on Christmas Day, feeling incredibly warm. I wondered where the source of the warmth was coming from. As I moved my hand, I felt the suppleness of a tit. The memories of last night came flooding back. I was in bed with my cousin Liz! I knew that I should get up soon before anyone else in the house woke up and discovered Liz in bed with me. The door was locked, but if we emerged from a locked room together, that would look strange. I kept telling myself to get up and go lay on the couch, but then I would tell myself that another five minutes wouldn't hurt. Liz's naked and warm body pressed against me just felt too good. I had forgotten that Liz was a snorer, which I thought was cute but would be making fun of her for later. Finally, when it was close to six, I forced myself to get up. I grabbed a blanket from out of the closet and a pillow from the bed. It was a delicate maneuver since Liz was somehow on every pillow at once. After I managed to pull one pillow out from under her arm, I looked down on Liz's beautiful naked body; she had kicked off the covers as I went to grab a pillow. She wasn't covered in tattoos yet, but the ones she did have, looked cool and accented her pale, beautiful body. I pulled the blanket back over her and kissed her on her forehead. Her brow lost its furrow, she smiled, and stopped stirring in her sleep. I got dressed and went back to the living room with the fireplace. The couch was so plush that I fell asleep quickly. The smell of bacon frying and the sound of cooking in the kitchen woke me up. I wanted to get up and investigate, but it was so warm under the blanket. I decided to wait to get up until breakfast was fully ready. I felt someone standing over me, and then a moment later, I was being poked in the ribs. "Wake up sleepy head, breakfast is almost ready, and the whole family is almost here." I rolled out from the blanket and looked up. Liz was wearing a pink apron with white frills on the edges that contrasted with her black band t-shirt and ripped jeans that she knew drove her parents crazy. "Nice apron." "Are you sure you want to make fun of the person who is going to be serving your food?" Liz asked. "Point taken. It looks good on you." "Sure," Liz said and walked back towards the kitchen. I watched her walk, admiring the sway of her hips and the way her jeans clung to her ass. When Liz was nearly back into the kitchen, she looked around and caught me checking her out. She smiled at me, and then she was in the kitchen and then out of sight behind a counter. I had been worried that maybe things would be weird between us after what had happened between us the night before, but things seemed to be okay. I felt a weight lifted from inside as I realized what happened wouldn't drive a wedge between Liz and me. I folded up my blanket and returned it and the pillow back where they came from. Liz had left the bed unmade. I shook my head at her and made the bed back up, which was a struggle with how much she had kicked the blankets and under sheet around during the night. Once the bed was made, I used the restroom and walked into the kitchen. My entire family was there, seated at the small table or on the barstool chairs, drinking coffee or orange juice. "It's about time you are up. You never sleep in," my mom said, handing me a glass of orange juice. "It's my fault. I kept him up late last night catching up and talking," Liz said. "That's why you didn't come back to your hotel room last night?" Liz's mom asked. "Yeah, it got too late for Christo take me home, so he let me have the guest room and slept on the couch," Liz said. "We thought you went out," Liz's mom said. There was so much venom in her voice as she said that, as if going out for a night on the town was one of the vilest things she could imagine. "Geeze, mom, it's not like I am going to go out and fuck some random guy on Christmas Eve when I am in town to be with family. I spent all night with Chris, so unless you think I fucked my cousin last night, then you have nothing to worry about." The whole kitchen fell silent at this, and I nearly spit out my orange juice at what Liz just said. I guess what she said was technically true, we didn't have sex last night, but I still couldn't believe that she said that to her mom. Liz's mom did what she did whenever she got embarrassed by some vulgar thing Liz said, and she stormed away. Liz's dad gave her a look and followed his wife. It wasn't a family get together if Liz's mom didn't storm away at least once. It seemed good that the quota had been met so early in the day because the rest of the family went right back to what they were doing. When breakfast was ready, everyone grabbed a plate and went to the mountain of breakfast food to load up their plates. Christmas breakfast wasn't as formal as dinner, where we would all eat together in the dining room. The dining room and kitchen were full, so we went out to the heated porch to eat. "I still can't believe you said that to your mom," I said to Liz as we sat down. "Hey, technically, it was the truth. I am tired of her constantly trying to degrade me in front of the family just because I am not in college, not because I need to get an education, but in her words, that's where I need to be if I want to find a good man to settle down with. All she wants of me is to be some housewife. Don't even get me started on all of the times she told me I was going to be going to hell," Liz said exasperatedly. "Yeah, technically it was the truth, but still crazy that you said it," I said. I took a bite of perfectly crispy bacon. "Relax, they wouldn't put something crazy like that past me doing, but it's not like they are going to think bad of the family's golden boy," Liz said. I hated whenever she called me that, and it usually would get to me enough for me to call her something back, but I was in too good of a mood to let her goad me into one of our usual arguments. I started to talk lower and hated getting serious so suddenly, but I didn't want to leave things vague between us. If I didn't ask, I would worry all day, and I would rather face the issue than leave myself wondering about it all day. "So, you don't regret anything about what happened last night?" I asked. Liz looked like she was about to say another joke, but she seemed to change my mind when she saw how serious I was. "I don't have any regrets about last night. I enjoyed it, and you did too. What is there to regret?" "Nothing, I just wanted to make sure things are still okay between us." "Don't worry , cuz, I think things are more than okay between us." I nearly jumped when I felt Liz's hand on my thigh. Liz smiled at me, that same smile that she gave me last night when she was about to blow me. Liz rubbed her hand on my thigh. "What does that mean?" I asked. "I think you can figure it out," Liz said and pulled her hand away. "Wait, did you just use my pants as a napkin?" "Yep," Liz said as she grabbed our empty plates and got up to take them to the kitchen. After breakfast, we did the gift exchange under the large fake Christmas tree, like we always did. I thought it was a little weird that we still did this tradition even though the youngest in the family were too old for it, but no one so far had started to have kids yet. It was messed up, but most of my family had thought Liz would be the first to have a kid, from my cousins and me, most likely in high school, according to Liz's mom, but Liz seemed smart and stubborn enough to not prove them right. I loved my family, but some of them were really fucked up when it came to Liz. I always tried to be the mediator and hold the family together when there were fights, but it took a lot out of me. I had to admit that even though we were too old for some of these traditions, I still enjoyed them, even if they were also annoying. I had to be so much for so many people, back at school that it was nice to come home and just focus on how my family saw me and on myself. The version of myself that my family saw, was also tough to uphold, but it was sometimes the closest version of myself. Family Memories on video. After the present exchange, my grandparents got out the scrapbooks and home movies and reminisced about past holidays and events. Liz sat next to me, cramming me into the edge of the sofa. With so many of us in the living room with the fireplace, all the seats were full. Other chairs had been carried over from the kitchen. Liz was pressed right against me, her familiar warmth a constant reminder of last night. As the trips down the well-traveled memory lane were trodden down yet again, Liz initially tried to act like she was bored and didn't care. Before long, she joined in the retelling of family events, usually to defend herself when a story was brought up about something bad that she had done. Still, I could tell that she enjoyed spending this time with her family. Those conversations were some of the only times Liz and her mom talked to each other without any malice, as they remembered their stories. I got a warm feeling in my stomach from all of this. Some things had changed, but they were still close enough for me to be able to slip back into the nostalgia. Throughout the day, Liz would do little things to remind me of the previous night. When it was just us or when no one was looking, Liz would whisper filthy things into my ear and pat me on the ass or grab at my crotch. I would get red in the face. Every time I tried to say something to her, another family member would always pop up, so I would have to stop what I was about to say. I would give Liz a look, telling her that I would say something later, but she would just smile or shrug. She always seemed her happiest when she was messing with me. We had Christmas dinner early. This time everyone sat together at the dining room table. My grandparents said grace, and then we started to eat. I was surprised that Liz and her mom managed to get along the whole day after their argument in the morning. This second party was even better than the one the night before. Everyone seemed to be in the holiday spirit. I wanted the day to last forever, so of course, time flew by. Before I knew it, family members started to go back to their hotels, and then everyone was off to bed again. Liz chose to stay longer and hang out with me again. We found ourselves on the couch again, watching TV together. We were originally sitting on opposite ends of the couch, but the moment the last of our family went up to go to bed, Liz scooted over and lay against me. Having her be close again, and us finally be alone, made my heart thump wildly from nerves. I wondered if anything was going to happen again between us, and if so, what? I hadn't felt this nervous around a girl in years. I wrapped an arm around her, and Liz snuggled up against me. To be continued. Based on a post by storyteller 19, for Literotica. Holidays With Cousin Liz: Part 2. Liz has a present for Chris. Based on a post by storyteller 19. Listen to the Podcast at Steamy Stories. We watched TV together for an hour, mostly in silence, which was rare for Liz, who loved to talk during TV and movies. Nearly the whole time, I was hard, but as turned on as I was by having Liz close again, I also didn't want to try and force things by starting something with her prematurely. It felt right to be holding Liz, and I didn't want to rush things. When it was nearly ten, Liz turned off the TV. She reached up and grabbed at my face and gently caressed it. I looked down at her, and we looked into each other's eyes. Her face was lit by the warm glow of the fireplace. She looked so beautiful. I leaned in and we kissed each other, slowly and sensually. This seemed so different from how she was last night, but not better or worse. Last night, we acted like we satisfied a hunger after starving, but on that second night together, we started out slower and more sweetly. We sat on the couch, making out for nearly a half-hour. Liz broke the kiss, and we looked into each other's eyes in the dimly lit room. Liz stood up and grabbed the fireplace poker. she stirred the remnant pieces apart and the fire transformed to a red glow. She adjusted the damper to a slight ventilation and put the tool away. Turning to me, she smiled, then grabbed my hand. I got up and then she led me into her bedroom. Liz closed the door and locked it. She went back to kissing me, pressing me against the wall. Once we were behind closed doors, she continued our liplock while she swiftly unbuckled, unsnapped, and unzipped my jeans. Swiftly she reached down into my bozers and quickly found my straining erection, and started jerking me off. I kissed down Liz's neck, sucking hard on it and making her moan. I kissed down her collarbone and the top of her chest, pulling at her Aerosmith T-shirt to kiss more of her chest. Liz pulled off her shirt, and I kissed her cleavage. She swiftly unhooked her bra and shrugged it off so that I didn't even have to pause on my way down to her nipples. I licked around her areola and then flicked my tongue across one of her nipples. As she started to moan, I latched onto her tit and began to suck on it, causing her to moan even louder. Liz ran her free hand through my hair. I took nearly all of a tit into my mouth while lapping against it with my tongue and then sucked on it, pulling on her sensitive nipples. I switched back and forth between each of her tits. Liz pulled her hand out of my pants and slipped them down further. Once they were loose, she pulled me back up to kiss her. She flicked her tongue across my lip, and then I met her tongue with mine, and we started to french kiss. Liz pulled my college sweatshirt shirt up and over my head. Once my shirt was on the floor, she sucked and nibbled my lip, and then started to kiss down my neck, rougher than she was last night. I was afraid that she was intentionally trying to leave me a hickey from how hard she was sucking on my neck. Even though it would be so stupid, I wanted some physical mark to prove to myself that this was happening with my beautiful cousin a second night in a row. Liz kissed her way down my chest. When she got down to my stomach, she pulled my pants the rest of the way down, along with my boxers. My rock-hard cock sprung up, nearly smacking Liz on the mouth as she dropped down to her knees. I slipped my feet out of my pants and kicked them away. Liz grabbed my pants and kicked them against the crack in the door, hiding that the lamp light was on. She wrapped her hand around my rigid phallus and held it at its base. Her other hand cupped under my ball-sack and fondled the two boulders within. I shivered in pleasure when Liz looked up at me with those beautiful eyes of hers and kissed the tip of my cock. She seemed to make out with it as she kissed, licked, and sucked on the top of my cock. Everything she did felt great, and being able to better see her doing it, made it feel even better. She skilfully rubbed her tongue along the sensitive frenulum while her lips locked tightly, to hold my glans ridge captive to her lustful intents. Then she leaned down and pressed her tongue onto my ball sack, licking against my balls. I hadn't been expecting her to do that, and I couldn't help but moan. Liz took one of my balls into her mouth and sucked on it. It made me feel vulnerable to her passions, but it also felt so good that it almost hurt. Liz knew just the right amount of pressure to use. She stroked me in long slow strokes as she sucked on my balls, first one, then the other, and then both at the same time. Most girls I had been with usually ignored my balls if they even gave me a blowjob, so I wasn't used to having so much time spent on them. After sucking on my balls for a few minutes, Liz put her lips back onto my cock, only this time she started to take me all the way into her mouth. In one quick motion, she took my entire length into her mouth. I moaned as she took me effortlessly into her throat. Liz held there for a minute and then slowly pulled back off my cock to catch her breath. My entire cock was coated in her saliva. Liz took a couple of breaths and then took me back into her mouth. She started to blow me quickly, her lips sliding up and down my cock effortlessly; her tongue rubbing me in a firm swallowing motion, over and over. Liz would alternate from looking down at what she was working on; and looking up at me while she blew me. When she looked me in the eyes, it turned me on so much, but it also seemed oddly intimate, and I felt slightly vulnerable as we looked at one another. After blowing me for a couple of minutes, Liz took me back all the way into her throat and held my cock there again. While I was deep inside of her, she rapidly stroked at the underside of my cock with her tongue. She kept me inside of her mouth for a minute and a half and then pulled back from my cock with a gasp. I thought she would go back to blowing me, but instead, Liz stood up, grabbed my cock, and walked towards the bed. Liz undid her pants with her other hand, and dropped them to the floor as she walked. She lay down on her back and pulled me on top of her, kissing me deeply, I straddled over her, our naked bodies pressed against each other. She reached down between us, grasped my cock, and started to rub it against her cunt lips. I froze up at the warmth and softness of her cunt. Liz nestled my cock between her cunt lips. "I want you inside of me," Liz breathed in between kisses as she started to move so that her cunt rubbed against the tip of my cock. "I want you, too," I said and then, in a moment of honesty, added, "I have wanted you for so long." "I know. Why do you think I have teased you so much all these years?" Liz said, raising her lips so that the head of my cock slipped ever so slightly more inside of her. "To annoy me?" I asked. "That's part of it." Liz laughed. "But the other reason is that I have wanted you too," Liz said. I had one last moment of doubt if I should do this or not. Liz nibbled my earlobe. "I want you to fuck me." There was so much desire in Liz's voice. I didn't know what to say to that, but I knew what I could do in response. Going All The Way. I inched forward to both enjoy this moment and make it easy in case Liz decided to change her mind. She kept on kissing me, so I continued to press forward. I slowly worked my way inside of her. She was tight and incredibly wet. It was hard not to just thrust all the way inside of her. Being inside of Liz felt so good for so many reasons. When I bottomed out inside of her, she let out a little gasp, her body arching in pleasure at the contact of me deep inside of her. I froze in place for a moment to take in the sensation of her cunt wrapped around my cock. After getting used to the fantastic feeling of her cunt I pulled nearly all the way out and then thrust back into her quickly. Liz let out a satisfied moan when she took me fully inside of her. I tried to start off slow, but Liz humped up against me, meeting my downward thrusts. It felt too good for us to take it slow, and before long, we were fucking quickly. She held onto my shoulders, holding her body up off the bed to give her better space to thrust back up against me, or she clenched at my ass, pulling me in deeper with each thrust. Fucking Liz felt so right. It seemed like we instantly knew what the other one was going to do before they did it. Every thrust was timed perfectly to ensure the highest amount of pleasure between us. It didn't take me long to work up a sweat, my body feeling both hot and cold. I was starting to get a little out of breath. If we kept up at this pace, I wouldn't last for as long. I was glad for the release from the previous night, without which I would have come instantly when I first entered her. Liz stopped humping up against me and pressed her hand against my chest. I got off her, and she pushed me down onto my back and straddled me. She held my erection in place just at the entrance of her cunt, and then she lowered herself, taking my entire cock in one quick motion. Her cunt felt even better in this position. Liz leaned down and kissed me as she started to rock her ass up and down, working my cock against the top of her snatch as she rode my cock. I laid there for a couple of minutes, enjoying the feel of Liz perfectly riding my cock. I grabbed her perfect ass and could feel her muscles tighten and loosen as she humped me. I rocked my hips in time with her. Before long, we worked our way back to the quick pace we had built up to before. Liz started to moan more and took shallow breaths as we continued to fuck. It felt good, but it was too good; I could feel each stroke bringing me closer to an orgasm. I didn't want to cum before Liz got off. There was no guarantee that anything would happen again between us. If we were going to break this taboo together, I wanted to make sure to make this the best sex possible. Without breaking the rhythm of riding my cock she pushed on my chest and straightened up so that she was straddling my cock. Immediately her cunt felt even tighter around my cock as she continued to ride me. We both moaned at the same time. Liz pulled up so that just the tip of my cock was inside of her, and then she slammed down, taking it all in at once before pulling right back up and doing it again. I grabbed at her hips and used them to help me better slide in and out of her. Every few strokes, when Liz would take me all the way inside of her, she wouldn't pull back off immediately; instead, she would do a little grinding against me so that my cock pressed even more against her cunt walls. After a few times of doing that, Liz added that grinding motion as she went up and down on my cock, making it feel even better with each stroke. I loved the way her tits bounced as she rode up and down on my cock, and the way her face would contort in pleasure when I timed a thrust perfectly or hit her in a new sensitive spot. I was getting too close to my orgasm, but Liz seemed to be breathing heavier. She started to rub at her clit while supporting herself by leaning back onto the bed with the other hand, so I hoped that she was close enough to cum before me. It gave me a better view of my cock disappearing in and out of her tight cunt with her leaning back. My cock was soaked in her juices and made me slide in and out of her with ease. She started to rock back and forth on my cock, and her fingers rubbed furiously against her clit. Liz's moans got so loud that I was afraid that we would wake up our family, but at this point, I was too far along to do anything to stop. "Awe Chris, that's it, fuck me harder," Liz said. I held onto her hips tighter and started to fuck her even harder. "Yes, yes, yes, fuck me," Liz moaned. I knew that if we kept up like this, our family would hear. I sat up and pulled Liz off me. "Why?" She asked in a huff. I pushed her down on all fours, moved around behind her, put my hands on her hips, and then entered her fully from behind in rough thrust. Liz let out a pleasure-filled, "Oh," as I bottomed out inside of her. Liz arched her ass up against me and pressed her face down onto the bed. I had dreamed about taking Liz from behind for so long, and now that I was close to cumming I made sure to enjoy my fantasy come to life. Liz started to hump back against me. I could hear her moaning loudly into the bedding. I was surprised by how much her muffled moans turned me on. I felt her place her hand back onto her clit, and she started to rub it again. I could hear Liz's muffled moans get even louder, and then she stopped humping against my cock. She pressed her cunt back against me, taking my cock inside of her and then rocking randomly against it as her orgasm hit. As she came, I stopped holding back. I thrust into her a few more times, and with a grunt, I started to cum inside her. I held onto Liz's hips to steady myself as my body went numb with pleasure as I shot my loads inside of her as we came together. Liz's random humps slowed down as her orgasm passed, and she slowly rode my cock. When she finally stopped, I pulled out of her and laid on the bed beside her, catching my breath. Liz stayed like that for a moment with her ass up in the air, and then she laid on her side facing me. We scooted towards each other and wrapped our arms around each other. We lay like that for some time. "That was;" I started to say but didn't know the words for it. Liz leaned forward and kissed me sweetly. "I know," she said. I lay there not believing what finally happened when suddenly a thought interrupted my bliss, and I nearly jumped out of bed. Liz placed one of my hands between her tits and cradled it there with her hands as I wrapped my other hand around her. Her heart was beating so fast, just like mine. "What?" Liz asked. "I came in you, I shouldn't have done that, if you get," Liz put a hand to my chest and a finger to my lips. "Calm down. I wanted you to do that, it makes it feel even better, and I am on the pill, so you don't have to worry," Liz said. "Oh, okay, good," I said, embarrassed by my outburst, and wrapped my arms back around Liz. "Merry Christmas," Liz said. "Yeah, the best merry Christmas," I said with a smile. A few minutes later, Liz got up and grabbed the towel that I had used earlier in the day. "I will be right back. I am going to go clean up," Liz said and walked out of the room. There was a bathroom right across from the bedroom, but I still thought it was crazy that Liz walked out of the room naked. I lay there with my fingers laced behind my head as I stared up at the ceiling, a smile on my face as I rode the post-sex endorphin rush. Liz stepped back inside and gently closed the door behind her. I watched as she walked towards me and climbed into bed, trying my best to ingrain the image of her naked body into my memory. Liz climbed into bed beside me, rested her head on my chest, and pressed her body against me. I held her with one arm and played with her hair. I knew she was awake for a time, but neither one of us said anything. Before long, I heard her start to snore loudly against my chest, so loud that it woke me up when I was nearly drifting off to sleep. I smiled and lay there for a few minutes, holding her and listening to her snore. Couch Time. When I was starting to drift back off to sleep, even with her snoring, I knew that I better move out to the living room before I fell asleep with Liz again. After that night's physical exertions, I doubted that I would be able to wake up again this morning. I carefully got out of bed to not wake Liz again, but I knew that she was a deep sleeper. My theory had always been that her snores made her deaf to the world as she slept. I pulled the blanket over her and tucked her in. After I got dressed, I kissed on the top of her head. I grabbed my blanket and managed to sneak a pillow again off the bed, and I went back out to the living room. It took me some time to fall asleep even though I was exhausted. I wanted nothing more than to go back into the room and sleep beside Liz but knew that I couldn't. After some tossing and turning, I finally fell asleep. I woke up to someone kissing me. I opened my eyes, and Liz beamed down at me. "Good morning," Liz said. It was still so early that the sun hadn't fully started to rise. "Good morning," I said. I sat up, and Liz climbed onto my lap. She wrapped her arms around my neck and held me tightly as she kissed me deeply. As we kissed, my fear that last night was going to be the only time we had sex evaporated. Liz kissed me like how you kissed a lover, and while I didn't know what exactly was going to happen in the future, I knew that the last couple of nights wouldn't be stand-alone events. "My family is on their way to say goodbye, and then I am going to head back to the hotel with them to pack up my stuff." "Oh," I said. Liz lived in Portland, several states away from her family. "So, my flight leaves later today, but I was wondering, since you don't have school for a few weeks, if you wanted to come and visit me," Liz asked, looking down as she spoke. I realized that she was nervous about asking me this. My fearless cousin Liz, nervous at asking me to visit her over my Christmas break. If I hadn't just had sex with Liz the night before, then seeing her nervous about something would have been the craziest thing that happened to me this weekend. I didn't say anything for a moment, and she looked up at me expectantly. "While I mean, I did have some plans," I said. When she started to pout, I couldn't go on with it, "Yeah, I can come to visit you." "You jerk, you were just stalling," Liz said as she threw her arms around me and gave me another huge kiss. I already had morning wood from when I woke up, and I got even harder as Liz started to dry hump me. I began to play with her tits when we heard footsteps coming down the steps. She jumped off me and gave me one last peck on the lips before running back into the guest room. I smiled. I was so used to seeing Liz be sarcastic and aloof; it was odd seeing this sweet side of her. I thought about that for a bit as I laid back down to look like I was still asleep. Liz took a shower first. When she emerged, she was wearing one of my T-shirts without asking, but I loved seeing her in it, so I didn't say anything to her. By the time I took a shower, more family had shown up, including Liz's. They stayed for a couple of hours to have a small breakfast and coffee before they were going to head back to the hotel and pack up. Liz and I spent every possible moment together. Not only did she give me her phone number to make sure we kept in better touch, but she also took my phone and added her Snapchat and Instagram accounts to my phone. I rarely used the apps, and I told her so, but she told me I better use them to talk to her; otherwise, I would regret it. I knew that we would see each other again soon, but I didn't want to see her leave. I walked her and her family to their rented car when it was time for them to drive back to the hotel. Our hug goodbye lingered until we reluctantly let go. As Liz was getting in the car, she checked her purse and said how her phone wasn't in it and that she must have left it in the guest room. She said she would be right back to her family and asked me to come with her to call her phone with mine. "So, where did you last see it?" I asked Liz when we walked into the room. "Right here in my bag," Liz said, holding up her phone. "Why did you say you didn't have it?" I asked her. "So that I could give you a proper goodbye," Liz said as she hugged again, but this time also kissed me. We kissed deeply for several minutes, neither one of us wanting to break off the kiss. Our kisses started to die down, and we tried to stop, but we kept on doing small kisses. We were both left panting when we finally pulled apart. "I want you so badly again," Liz said as she rested her head on my shoulder. "Me too. I don't want to see you go." "Promise you will visit me soon." "I promise," I said, already planning on seeing her as soon as possible. We walked back out to our gathered family. "Sorry it took so long. I had my phone on silent," Liz said as we walked back up. Liz gave me one last hug and then got into the car, and they drove away. I watched them leave, feeling an odd sense of loneliness. I went back to the guest room and laid in the same bed that we had had sleepovers in together when we were kids, the same bed that last night we had sex for the first time in. I pressed the pillow that she laid on last night against my face and inhaled her scent. I lay on my back and pressed the pillow to my face, and inhaled. I felt my phone go off in my pocket. I checked it, and Liz told me that they had made it back to the hotel. She asked me what I was doing, and I told her how I was lying in bed. She called me lazy, and I asked her how I could be both lazy and an overachiever at the same time? She somehow avoided answering me, even though I was confident that I was bringing up a good point. I stayed one more day at my grandparents with my family, and then the next day, I drove home. I wasn'

C’est le Vendredi fou et le Cyberlundi! C’est le temps des gros rabais en ligne… mais c’est aussi le temps d’attraper les cyberacheteurs un peu distraits, que ce soit pour inciter aux achats impulsifs et à la surconsommation, ou pour carrément les arnaquer. Pascal et Alain ont des conseils pour vous aider à éviter les pièges! Aussi: Le chef des technologies de Telus Nazim Benhadid, présente l’IA souveraine de Telus, la plus rapide au pays et une des plus rapides au monde! Testés: La batterie d’appoint Bluetti Elite 10 Les écouteurs avec ANC SG Oasis de Sounds Good. Promo PlanetHoster: La souveraineté de vos données vous inquiète? La solution Code promo : PHA-UTDT Voir https://www.cogecomedia.com/vie-privee pour notre politique de vie privée

「宮地商会、ADV.のAirPods Pro 3用イヤーピース／DEKONI AudioのDACホルダーなどアクセサリー3製品」　宮地商会M.I.D.は、同社取扱のADV.（ADVANCED）およびDEKONI Audioより、オーディオアクセサリー3製品を12月5日（金）に発売する。

Steven Scott and Shaun Preece tackle a lively listener feedback session on Double Tap, diving into blind tech, braille debates, AirPods magic, and the ever-evolving world of mobility aids like Glide. Thanks to Turtleback Low Vision for sponsoring this episode of Double Tap. As a thank you to the Double Tap community, Turtleback is offering 12% off your entire order with promo code DT12. Visit https://www.turtlebacklv.com to shop the full lineup!In this episode, Steven and Shaun kick things off with a humorous chat about cold sores, shaving routines, and the challenges of being on YouTube as blind hosts. From there, the discussion shifts into insightful territory as they respond to listener feedback about the Glide mobility aid, the iPhone action button, and real-world experiences using Apple accessibility tools like Be My Eyes. Listeners share updates on iOS reliability, AirPods Pro 3 noise cancellation, Samsung versus Apple Watch accessibility, and the jaw-dropping Monarch multi-line braille display. Steven and Shaun dig into the realities of braille adoption, assistive tech prices, and the importance of teaching braille to the next generation. Expect laughs, honest opinions, and thoughtful commentary on what truly makes assistive technology useful and accessible. Share your thoughts and experiences! Email feedback@doubletaponair.com, leave a voicemail at 1‑877‑803‑4567, or send an audio/video message on WhatsApp at 1‑613‑481‑0144. Like, comment, and subscribe for more authentic blind tech conversations. Relevant LinksTurtleback Cases: https://turtlebacklv.comAppleVis (iOS accessibility reports): https://www.applevis.com Find Double Tap online: YouTube, Double Tap Website---Follow on:YouTube: https://www.doubletaponair.com/youtubeX (formerly Twitter): https://www.doubletaponair.com/xInstagram: https://www.doubletaponair.com/instagramTikTok: https://www.doubletaponair.com/tiktokThreads: https://www.doubletaponair.com/threadsFacebook: https://www.doubletaponair.com/facebookLinkedIn: https://www.doubletaponair.com/linkedin Subscribe to the Podcast:Apple: https://www.doubletaponair.com/appleSpotify: https://www.doubletaponair.com/spotifyRSS: https://www.doubletaponair.com/podcastiHeadRadio: https://www.doubletaponair.com/iheart About Double TapHosted by the insightful duo, Steven Scott and Shaun Preece, Double Tap is a treasure trove of information for anyone who's blind or partially sighted and has a passion for tech. Steven and Shaun not only demystify tech, but they also regularly feature interviews and welcome guests from the community, fostering an interactive and engaging environment. Tune in every day of the week, and you'll discover how technology can seamlessly integrate into your life, enhancing daily tasks and experiences, even if your sight is limited. "Double Tap" is a registered trademark of Double Tap Productions Inc. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back to another episode of the Best Kept Secret podcast show ft. DJ Jon Lockley. Today is Thanksgiving, so lets all be thankful that Jon has provided us with another excellent mix. This month's mix brings us some nice Melodic and Progressive House. Best to pop your Airpods in, lay back, close your eyes and let this one ride out for its duration. This mix blends deep, progressive grooves with lush, euphoric melodies, soaring synth leads, and heartfelt vocal hooks to create an uplifiing journey through sound. As always, if you like what you're hearing, like, comment, and share. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

Likefolio's Landon Swan calls this a “key time of the year” for Apple (AAPL). The iPhone is doing “really well,” he says, projecting 10%-12% growth vs around 3% for other smartphones. He also looks at the performance of its other products, including Macs (tough comps), iPads & AirPods (doing fine), and the Apple Watch (showing negative growth). “Everything just looks so rosy…this is just a company that's kicking butt.”======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Options involve risks and are not suitable for all investors. Before trading, read the Options Disclosure Document. http://bit.ly/2v9tH6DSubscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

This week Qualcomm is back, and maybe everything is terrible with Arduino. Valve has been funding more Open Source work, and we're reading those tea leaves. Blender is out, AMD is writing code for their next-gen GPUs, and there's finally a remote access solution for Wayland. For tips, we have LibrePods for better AirPod support on Linux, paru for an easier time with the Arch User Repository, and the Zork snap to celebrate this newly Open-Sourced game from yesteryear. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/49uSNCy and have a great week! Host: Jonathan Bennett Co-Hosts: Jeff Massie and Rob Campbell Download or subscribe to Untitled Linux Show at https://twit.tv/shows/untitled-linux-show 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.

This week Qualcomm is back, and maybe everything is terrible with Arduino. Valve has been funding more Open Source work, and we're reading those tea leaves. Blender is out, AMD is writing code for their next-gen GPUs, and there's finally a remote access solution for Wayland. For tips, we have LibrePods for better AirPod support on Linux, paru for an easier time with the Arch User Repository, and the Zork snap to celebrate this newly Open-Sourced game from yesteryear. You can find the show notes at https://bit.ly/49uSNCy and have a great week! Host: Jonathan Bennett Co-Hosts: Jeff Massie and Rob Campbell Download or subscribe to Untitled Linux Show at https://twit.tv/shows/untitled-linux-show 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.

Ever wondered why your iPhone's sound isn't as loud as you expect, or your AirPods seem capped? Mikah Sargent uncovers the hidden settings that could be hindering your listening experience. • Managing silent mode and status bar indicators on newer iPhones • Switching audio input sources, including iPhone mic and AirPods • Fine-tuning ringtone and alert volume controls for less disruption • "Change with buttons" explained: separation of media and alert volumes • Customizing haptic feedback and vibration settings for notifications • Setting default sounds for ringtones, texts, voicemail, and mail alerts • Keyboard feedback: toggling typing sounds and haptics preference • Differences between iPhone and iPad haptics (limitations on iPad) • Controlling speaker volume limits and effects on media playback • Understanding "Reduce Loud Sounds" to avoid abrupt audio spikes • Headphone safety: adjusting reduced loud audio upper limit for AirPods • Headphone usage notifications & protecting hearing over seven days • Managing USB audio accessory settings and privacy tracking Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On Apple at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-apple 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.

Ever wondered why your iPhone's sound isn't as loud as you expect, or your AirPods seem capped? Mikah Sargent uncovers the hidden settings that could be hindering your listening experience. Managing silent mode and status bar indicators on newer iPhones Switching audio input sources, including iPhone mic and AirPods Fine-tuning ringtone and alert volume controls for less disruption "Change with buttons" explained: separation of media and alert volumes Customizing haptic feedback and vibration settings for notifications Setting default sounds for ringtones, texts, voicemail, and mail alerts Keyboard feedback: toggling typing sounds and haptics preference Differences between iPhone and iPad haptics (limitations on iPad) Controlling speaker volume limits and effects on media playback Understanding "Reduce Loud Sounds" to avoid abrupt audio spikes Headphone safety: adjusting reduced loud audio upper limit for AirPods Headphone usage notifications & protecting hearing over seven days Managing USB audio accessory settings and privacy tracking Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On Apple at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-apple 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.

The MacVoices Live! panel digs into Apple's new iPhone Pocket accessory, debating its price, purpose, and whether it's aimed at non-US markets. Chuck Joiner, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jeff Gamet, and Mark Fuccio also examine reported shortages of HomePod mini units at major retailers, asking if it signals a refresh, new colors, or just supply quirks before the holidays, and speculate on what other Apple products might quietly get updated.  MacVoices is supported by the 2025 MacVoices Holiday Gift Guides. Tech and more you want to give and get. Find out what the panels recommend at MacVoices.com/HolidayGiftGuide. Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Show intro and Holiday Gift Guide plug [0:30] Panel introductions and birthday banter [2:40] Bird talk and woodpecker side discussion [5:03] Mark returns from travel and schedule notes [6:34] Eagle livestream story and nature chat [8:02] Apple announces the iPhone Pocket accessory [8:52] First reactions: design, purpose, and regional markets [10:11] Cross-body carrying styles and safety vs convenience [11:17] Pricing and designer branding discussion [14:02] Colors, fashion, and potential knockoffs [16:18] Looking at the designer's wider product line [17:56] Is this real or an April Fool's-style product? [18:46] Final thoughts on who the iPhone Pocket is really for [19:23] HomePod mini stock shortages at retailers [19:56] Rumors of a refreshed HomePod mini [21:25] Could tariffs or parts explain supply issues? [22:57] Colors vs new features vs chip updates [24:35] Timing concerns for holiday shopping [26:17] Calls for new colors on AirPods cases [27:20] Speculation on Apple TV and future AI-driven features [27:52] Store checks on remaining HomePod mini colors [28:55] Closing credits and support information Links: Apple launches iPhone Pocket: a limited edition designer strap accessory  https://9to5mac.com/2025/11/11/apple-launches-iphone-pocket-limited-edition-designer-strap-accessory ISSEY MIYAKE website https://us.isseymiyake.com/ HomePod Mini Out of Stock in Multiple Retailers As Refresh Rumors Persist https://www.mactrast.com/2025/11/homepod-mini-out-of-stock-in-multiple-retailers-as-refresh-rumors-continue/ Apple will pay almost $1 billion a year for a custom Gemini model to power Siri https://appleworld.today/2025/11/apple-will-pay-almost-1-billion-for-a-custom-gemini-model-to-power-siri/ Guests:   Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Ever wondered why your iPhone's sound isn't as loud as you expect, or your AirPods seem capped? Mikah Sargent uncovers the hidden settings that could be hindering your listening experience. Managing silent mode and status bar indicators on newer iPhones Switching audio input sources, including iPhone mic and AirPods Fine-tuning ringtone and alert volume controls for less disruption "Change with buttons" explained: separation of media and alert volumes Customizing haptic feedback and vibration settings for notifications Setting default sounds for ringtones, texts, voicemail, and mail alerts Keyboard feedback: toggling typing sounds and haptics preference Differences between iPhone and iPad haptics (limitations on iPad) Controlling speaker volume limits and effects on media playback Understanding "Reduce Loud Sounds" to avoid abrupt audio spikes Headphone safety: adjusting reduced loud audio upper limit for AirPods Headphone usage notifications & protecting hearing over seven days Managing USB audio accessory settings and privacy tracking Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On Apple at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-apple 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.

The 2025 MacVoices Holiday Gift Guide continues with travel tech, accessories, and creative picks from Marty Jencius, Michael D.J. Eisenberg, and Patrice Brend'amour. Recommendations include USB-C hubs, books for aviation fans, AirPods upgrades, Lego's new Star Trek piece, drive docks, and webcams.  Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Gift Guide Part Two Intro [0:36] Reviewing Picks So Far [1:40] USB-C Travel Hub Recommendation [4:17] Aviation Adventure Book Pick [7:33] AirPods and Noise-Canceling Choices [12:31] Screen Protector Discussion [17:12] Compact 4K Webcam Pick [20:08] LEGO Enterprise-D Enthusiasm [24:36] Mac Mini as a Starter Mac [27:24] Drive Dock for Expandable Storage [34:04] Gift Guide Wrap-Up and Links [35:04] Panelist Contact Information [38:40] Closing Remarks Links: MacVoices 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Master Page MacVoices 2025 Holiday Gift Guide on Flipboard Marty Jencius MOKiN 10Gbps USB C Hub Ethernet, 7 in 1 USB C Adapter for MacBook Pro/Air with 4K@60HZ HDMI, 3*USB-C 10Gbps Data, RJ45, USB 2.0, 100W PD, USB C Dongle for MacBook, USB-C Dongle Obsbot Meet 2-4K Webcam for PC with 1/2" Sensor, AI Framing & Autofocus, Beauty Mode, Lightweight, Gesture Control, HDR, Dual Microphone, 60 FPS, Web Cam for Streaming Patrice Brend'amour Halfway around the World in 40 Days: From my daring Solo Flight in a small Propeller Plane over the Atlantic, the Pack Ice and the Desert by Kathrin Kaiser Lego Star Trek TNG Kit Michael D.J. Eisenberg Apple AirPods Pro 3 AirPods Max FURID Air Tag Wallet (no air tag included) Apple Mac Mini 28-Inch Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C Cable with 40 GBPS Data Transfer, 240W Power Charging and 8K Video Capability Chuck Joiner amFilm OneTouch Screen Protector for iPhone 17 Pro Max 6.9'' + Camera Lens Protector OWC Drive Dock USB 3.2 (10Gb/s) Dual-Bay Drive Docking Solution for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch NVMe U.2 and SATA Drives Guests: Patrice Brend'amour is the creator, advocate and Product Manager of a global healthcare software initiative, which is not only pushing the industry to provide user-centered solutions using the latest advances in UX and technology, but also advancing the sharing of medical information between healthcare providers across the world. She is also an avid podcaster, mainly in the technology space, as well as a maintainer and contributor to a number of open source projects. Everything she does can be linked to from The Patrice, Michael D.J. Eisenberg is a is a solo practitioner based in Washington, DC, advocating for veterans, military members, and their families for nearly two decades. He has been helping lawyers and law offices utilize technology tools to promote efficiency and effectiveness for decades. He created the blog and podcast in 2019 to share that information and more with the world. Find information on his initiatives and his podcast at The Tech Savvy Lawyer. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC) Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The MacVoices Live! panel digs into Apple's new iPhone Pocket accessory, debating its price, purpose, and whether it's aimed at non-US markets. Chuck Joiner, Brian Flanigan-Arthurs, Marty Jencius, Eric Bolden, Jeff Gamet, and Mark Fuccio also examine reported shortages of HomePod mini units at major retailers, asking if it signals a refresh, new colors, or just supply quirks before the holidays, and speculate on what other Apple products might quietly get updated.  MacVoices is supported by the 2025 MacVoices Holiday Gift Guides. Tech and more you want to give and get. Find out what the panels recommend at MacVoices.com/HolidayGiftGuide. Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Show intro and Holiday Gift Guide plug [0:30] Panel introductions and birthday banter [2:40] Bird talk and woodpecker side discussion [5:03] Mark returns from travel and schedule notes [6:34] Eagle livestream story and nature chat [8:02] Apple announces the iPhone Pocket accessory [8:52] First reactions: design, purpose, and regional markets [10:11] Cross-body carrying styles and safety vs convenience [11:17] Pricing and designer branding discussion [14:02] Colors, fashion, and potential knockoffs [16:18] Looking at the designer's wider product line [17:56] Is this real or an April Fool's-style product? [18:46] Final thoughts on who the iPhone Pocket is really for [19:23] HomePod mini stock shortages at retailers [19:56] Rumors of a refreshed HomePod mini [21:25] Could tariffs or parts explain supply issues? [22:57] Colors vs new features vs chip updates [24:35] Timing concerns for holiday shopping [26:17] Calls for new colors on AirPods cases [27:20] Speculation on Apple TV and future AI-driven features [27:52] Store checks on remaining HomePod mini colors [28:55] Closing credits and support information Links: Apple launches iPhone Pocket: a limited edition designer strap accessory  https://9to5mac.com/2025/11/11/apple-launches-iphone-pocket-limited-edition-designer-strap-accessory ISSEY MIYAKE website https://us.isseymiyake.com/ HomePod Mini Out of Stock in Multiple Retailers As Refresh Rumors Persist https://www.mactrast.com/2025/11/homepod-mini-out-of-stock-in-multiple-retailers-as-refresh-rumors-continue/ Apple will pay almost $1 billion a year for a custom Gemini model to power Siri https://appleworld.today/2025/11/apple-will-pay-almost-1-billion-for-a-custom-gemini-model-to-power-siri/ Guests: Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him on Twitter, by email at embolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast. Brian Flanigan-Arthurs is an educator with a passion for providing results-driven, innovative learning strategies for all students, but particularly those who are at-risk. He is also a tech enthusiast who has a particular affinity for Apple since he first used the Apple IIGS as a student. You can contact Brian on twitter as @brian8944. He also recently opened a Mastodon account at @brian8944@mastodon.cloud. Mark Fuccio is actively involved in high tech startup companies, both as a principle at piqsure.com, or as a marketing advisor through his consulting practice Tactics Sells High Tech, Inc. Mark was a proud investor in Microsoft from the mid-1990's selling in mid 2000, and hopes one day that MSFT will be again an attractive investment. You can contact Mark through Twitter, LinkedIn, or on Mastodon. Jeff Gamet is a technology blogger, podcaster, author, and public speaker. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's Managing Editor, and the TextExpander Evangelist for Smile. He has presented at Macworld Expo, RSA Conference, several WordCamp events, along with many other conferences. You can find him on several podcasts such as The Mac Show, The Big Show, MacVoices, Mac OS Ken, This Week in iOS, and more. Jeff is easy to find on social media as @jgamet on Twitter and Instagram, jeffgamet on LinkedIn., @jgamet@mastodon.social on Mastodon, and on his YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/jgamet. David Ginsburg is the host of the weekly podcast In Touch With iOS where he discusses all things iOS, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and related technologies. He is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users. Visit his YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/daveg65 and find and follow him on Twitter @daveg65 and on Mastodon at @daveg65@mastodon.cloud. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession 'firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC). Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

After almost a decade we finally have a dedicated Patreon and Discord! LibrePods bring full AirPod functionality to Linux, Ubuntu puts an extra L in long term support, and a slick open-source one handed keyboard that anyone can use.LWDW is completely listener funded. If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting us on Patreon.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/lwdwDiscord: https://discord.gg/uQVckr5gEZTimestamps:00:00 Intro 01:06 A turkey wedding 03:17 Sunsetting Linux Game Cast08:37 Updates for LWDW: Discord and Patreon14:24 Open-source one-handed keyboard with trackball18:42 LibrePods: AirPod support for Linux and Android 23:50 Ubuntu LTS support hits 15 years! 31:02 Shameless plug for the LWDW Patreon and Discord32:11 Game night with the TM2 Crew: Come play! TOPICSOne-Handed Keyboardhttps://blog.adafruit.com/2025/11/17/making-a-one-handed-keyboard-and-releasing-it-as-open-source-2/LibrePodshttps://github.com/kavishdevar/librepodsUbuntu LTS 15yr edition https://ubuntu.com/blog/canonical-expands-total-coverage-for-ubuntu-lts-releases-to-15-years-with-legacy-add-on

Ever wondered why your iPhone's sound isn't as loud as you expect, or your AirPods seem capped? Mikah Sargent uncovers the hidden settings that could be hindering your listening experience. Managing silent mode and status bar indicators on newer iPhones Switching audio input sources, including iPhone mic and AirPods Fine-tuning ringtone and alert volume controls for less disruption "Change with buttons" explained: separation of media and alert volumes Customizing haptic feedback and vibration settings for notifications Setting default sounds for ringtones, texts, voicemail, and mail alerts Keyboard feedback: toggling typing sounds and haptics preference Differences between iPhone and iPad haptics (limitations on iPad) Controlling speaker volume limits and effects on media playback Understanding "Reduce Loud Sounds" to avoid abrupt audio spikes Headphone safety: adjusting reduced loud audio upper limit for AirPods Headphone usage notifications & protecting hearing over seven days Managing USB audio accessory settings and privacy tracking Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On Apple at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-apple 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.

Ever wondered why your iPhone's sound isn't as loud as you expect, or your AirPods seem capped? Mikah Sargent uncovers the hidden settings that could be hindering your listening experience. Managing silent mode and status bar indicators on newer iPhones Switching audio input sources, including iPhone mic and AirPods Fine-tuning ringtone and alert volume controls for less disruption "Change with buttons" explained: separation of media and alert volumes Customizing haptic feedback and vibration settings for notifications Setting default sounds for ringtones, texts, voicemail, and mail alerts Keyboard feedback: toggling typing sounds and haptics preference Differences between iPhone and iPad haptics (limitations on iPad) Controlling speaker volume limits and effects on media playback Understanding "Reduce Loud Sounds" to avoid abrupt audio spikes Headphone safety: adjusting reduced loud audio upper limit for AirPods Headphone usage notifications & protecting hearing over seven days Managing USB audio accessory settings and privacy tracking Host: Mikah Sargent Download or subscribe to Hands-On Apple at https://twit.tv/shows/hands-on-apple 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.

View this video at https://macmost.com/top-10-things-users-dont-know-they-can-do-on-their-iphone.html. Did you know you can copy text from signs using your camera? Drag and drop items between apps? Perfectly position the cursor in text with a hidden trackpad? Use your iPhone and AirPods as a listening device? Learn how to access these features and more.

Schizophrenia is a really challenging illness. There's been a lot of progress made recently, I will note. I've already written about novel treatments like Cobenfy, and using accelerated transcranial magnetic stimulation for negative symptoms and positive symptoms in schizophrenia. One of the most bothersome of those “positive symptoms”—things that shouldn't be there, in someone's mind, but are—are auditory hallucinations. If you imagine having invisible AirPods that are playing a terrible podcast that you'd rather not be listening to, and that everyone else can't hear, you get a sense of how distracting it might be to have auditory hallucinations.In my previous article about the treatment of auditory hallucinations with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), one of my favorite forms of brain stimulation, I highlighted promising results from early studies. Now we have a much larger Study, phase 3 trial, conducted over many years in Germany. We are even at the level of meta-analysis at this point!It's a considerable study:138 adults with treatment-persistent auditory verbal hallucinations and schizophrenia spectrum disorder were randomly assigned (1:1) to receive 15 sessions of active (n=70) or sham cTBS (n=68) administered sequentially as 600 pulses to the left and 600 pulses to the right temporo-parietal cortex over a 3-week period.I called friends of the podcast—Dr. David Garrison, Dr. Will Sauve, and my mom, Vita Muir, to talk through this paper together, and what it might mean for individuals suffering from psychotic disorders. In the meantime, the team at Radial, where we provide such treatment, does some funny, tough-guy faces with our Ampa One system:Thanks for reading! A live-action newsletter event coming up on January 11th in San Francisco: RAMHT 2026 SF. Join us! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thefrontierpsychiatrists.substack.com/subscribe

Por el título dirías que el capítulo de hoy está basado en una fábula de Esopo, pero no. Es el crudo testimonio de un drama urbano con incierto final. Te lo cuento en este capítulo 2867.No olvides entrar en zaraphone.com y descubrir sus iPhone e Impolutos con doble garantía y envío en 24 horas. Escoger lo bueno cuesta muy poco

The 2025 MacVoices Holiday Gift Guide continues with travel tech, accessories, and creative picks from Marty Jencius, Michael D.J. Eisenberg, and Patrice Brend'amour. Recommendations include USB-C hubs, books for aviation fans, AirPods upgrades, Lego's new Star Trek piece, drive docks, and webcams.  Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] Gift Guide Part Two Intro [0:36] Reviewing Picks So Far [1:40] USB-C Travel Hub Recommendation [4:17] Aviation Adventure Book Pick [7:33] AirPods and Noise-Canceling Choices [12:31] Screen Protector Discussion [17:12] Compact 4K Webcam Pick [20:08] LEGO Enterprise-D Enthusiasm [24:36] Mac Mini as a Starter Mac [27:24] Drive Dock for Expandable Storage [34:04] Gift Guide Wrap-Up and Links [35:04] Panelist Contact Information [38:40] Closing Remarks Links: MacVoices 2025 Holiday Gift Guide - Master Page MacVoices 2025 Holiday Gift Guide on Flipboard Marty Jencius MOKiN 10Gbps USB C Hub Ethernet, 7 in 1 USB C Adapter for MacBook Pro/Air with 4K@60HZ HDMI, 3*USB-C 10Gbps Data, RJ45, USB 2.0, 100W PD, USB C Dongle for MacBook, USB-C Dongle Obsbot Meet 2-4K Webcam for PC with 1/2" Sensor, AI Framing & Autofocus, Beauty Mode, Lightweight, Gesture Control, HDR, Dual Microphone, 60 FPS, Web Cam for Streaming Patrice Brend'amour Halfway around the World in 40 Days: From my daring Solo Flight in a small Propeller Plane over the Atlantic, the Pack Ice and the Desert by Kathrin Kaiser Lego Star Trek TNG Kit Michael D.J. Eisenberg Apple AirPods Pro 3 AirPods Max FURID Air Tag Wallet (no air tag included) Apple Mac Mini 28-Inch Thunderbolt 4 and USB-C Cable with 40 GBPS Data Transfer, 240W Power Charging and 8K Video Capability Chuck Joiner amFilm OneTouch Screen Protector for iPhone 17 Pro Max 6.9'' + Camera Lens Protector OWC Drive Dock USB 3.2 (10Gb/s) Dual-Bay Drive Docking Solution for 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch NVMe U.2 and SATA Drives Guests: Patrice Brend'amour is the creator, advocate and Product Manager of a global healthcare software initiative, which is not only pushing the industry to provide user-centered solutions using the latest advances in UX and technology, but also advancing the sharing of medical information between healthcare providers across the world. She is also an avid podcaster, mainly in the technology space, as well as a maintainer and contributor to a number of open source projects. Everything she does can be linked to from The Patrice, Michael D.J. Eisenberg is a is a solo practitioner based in Washington, DC, advocating for veterans, military members, and their families for nearly two decades. He has been helping lawyers and law offices utilize technology tools to promote efficiency and effectiveness for decades. He created the blog and podcast in 2019 to share that information and more with the world. Find information on his initiatives and his podcast at The Tech Savvy Lawyer. Dr. Marty Jencius has been an Associate Professor of Counseling at Kent State University since 2000. He has over 120 publications in books, chapters, journal articles, and others, along with 200 podcasts related to counseling, counselor education, and faculty life. His technology interest led him to develop the counseling profession ‘firsts,' including listservs, a web-based peer-reviewed journal, The Journal of Technology in Counseling, teaching and conferencing in virtual worlds as the founder of Counselor Education in Second Life, and podcast founder/producer of CounselorAudioSource.net and ThePodTalk.net. Currently, he produces a podcast about counseling and life questions, the Circular Firing Squad, and digital video interviews with legacies capturing the history of the counseling field. This is also co-host of The Vision ProFiles podcast. Generally, Marty is chasing the newest tech trends, which explains his interest in A.I. for teaching, research, and productivity. Marty is an active presenter and past president of the NorthEast Ohio Apple Corp (NEOAC) Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Concerts, marathons, golf outings...what is involved from a medical coverage readiness? Dr. Vince Mosesso, Emergency Medicine, discussed the behind the scenes planning assessments and logistics with interesting examples.  

Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on November 16, 2025. This podcast was generated by wondercraft.ai (00:30): AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystemOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941596&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(01:52): Anthropic's paper smells like bullshitOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45944296&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(03:15): Heretic: Automatic censorship removal for language modelsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45945587&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(04:37): Open-source Zig bookOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947810&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(06:00): I have recordings proving Coinbase knew about breach months before disclosureOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45948058&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(07:22): Maybe you're not tryingOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45943979&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(08:45): IDEmacs: A Visual Studio Code clone for EmacsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941835&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(10:07): Supercookie: Browser Fingerprinting via Favicon (2021)Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947770&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(11:30): The internet is no longer a safe havenOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45944870&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(12:52): Hyundai Paywalls Brake Pads replacement on Ioniq 5 NOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942518&utm_source=wondercraft_aiThis is a third-party project, independent from HN and YC. Text and audio generated using AI, by wondercraft.ai. Create your own studio quality podcast with text as the only input in seconds at app.wondercraft.ai. Issues or feedback? We'd love to hear from you: team@wondercraft.ai

Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.

Nilo Stolte explains why Zig is "a totally new way to write programs", George Mack gives twelve actionable ways to be more creative, Mario Zechner shares his findings on using MCP vs Bash tools, Josh Collinsworth compares creating AI art to medieval alchemy, LibrePods unlocks AirPods features for Android, and our first ever Changelog News Classifieds.

This is a recap of the top 10 posts on Hacker News on November 15, 2025. This podcast was generated by wondercraft.ai (00:30): Our investigation into the suspicious pressure on Archive.todayOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45936460&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(01:52): AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystemOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941596&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(03:14): TCP, the workhorse of the internetOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45935503&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(04:37): AMD GPUs Go BrrrOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45934416&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(05:59): I can't recommend Grafana anymoreOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45934940&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(07:21): Nevada Governor's office covered up Boring Co safety violationsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45939798&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(08:44): Messing with scraper botsOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45935729&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(10:06): Spec-Driven Development: The Waterfall Strikes BackOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45935763&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(11:28): Windhawk Windows classic theme mod for Windows 11Original post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45938723&utm_source=wondercraft_ai(12:51): One Handed KeyboardOriginal post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45936262&utm_source=wondercraft_aiThis is a third-party project, independent from HN and YC. Text and audio generated using AI, by wondercraft.ai. Create your own studio quality podcast with text as the only input in seconds at app.wondercraft.ai. Issues or feedback? We'd love to hear from you: team@wondercraft.ai

The latest In Touch With iOS with Dave is joined by Jill McKinley,Jeff Gamet, Eric Bolden, Marty Jencius, Guy Serle. Episode 395 discusses VisionOS 26.2, Apple's new immersive F-18 video, third-party VR content, iOS/macOS beta features, CarPlay tweaks, and frustrations with notifications. The team reviews five years of M-series chips, explores new satellite features, tests out the digital passport ID in Wallet, debates the bizarre iPhone Pocket, reacts to Tesla adopting CarPlay, and covers Apple TV's plans to stream MLS for free in 2026. The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com  Direct Link to Audio  Links to our Show Give us a review on Apple Podcasts! CLICK HERE we would really appreciate it! Click this link Buy me a Coffee to support the show we would really appreciate it. intouchwithios.com/coffee  Another way to support the show is to become a Patreon member patreon.com/intouchwithios Website: In Touch With iOS YouTube Channel In Touch with iOS Magazine on Flipboard Facebook Page BlueSky Mastodon X Instagram Threads Summary In Episode 395, the panel kicks off with a hilarious "tinfoil hat convention" after Guy reveals his "Hat of Intelligence." The group jokes about aliens, mental shielding, and Guy's emergency hat deployment skills before shifting into the week's Apple news. They begin with VisionOS 26.2 Beta, noting incremental improvements such as fixes for stylus pressure, stability updates, and lingering bugs in AirDrop visibility, SharePlay DRM playback, and subscription syncing. The panel agrees the update feels like a tightening pass while everyone waits for the next major feature drop. Apple's newest immersive video, "Flight Ready," filmed with Navy F-18s, sparks lively discussion. The group praises the cinematic quality—especially nighttime carrier deck landings and aerial shots—but several mention Apple's signature issue with immersive content: the feeling that "people are way too close to your face." The panel also highlights the increasing amount of third-party immersive Vision Pro content, including music videos, training simulations, and niche experiences created in tools like DaVinci Resolve, signaling that spatial content creation is slowly becoming more accessible. Eric shares his in-store test of the Vision Pro M5, where he focused on widgets, Safari multitasking, virtual displays, and system responsiveness. He intentionally pushed the device hard to see if it stutters—and it didn't. Dave walks through updates in iOS/iPadOS/watchOS/tvOS 26.2 betas, pointing out UI refinements such as expanded Liquid Glass styling, an improved Alarm interface, app sorting options in Game Library, and message-pinning in CarPlay. CarPlay itself becomes a heated topic—Dave explains how answering a call sometimes instantly hangs up afterward. Marty expresses frustration over automotive UI "reactions" in group chats while driving. The general consensus: CarPlay is great… except when it isn't. The group digs into macOS 26.2 (Tahoe) with mixed reactions. While some see improvements, Jeff notes memory issues and audio stack quirks still need addressing. 1Password's new behavior—unlocking automatically after system login—splits the panel. Some appreciate fewer prompts, while others insist on strict manual unlocking for security. A retrospective on five years of Apple's M-series chips follows. Marty mentions real-world benefits moving from M4 to M5, Jeff feels his M2 Pro is still strong, Dave says his M4 Pro Mac mini is now his main machine, and Guy jokes that old Intel Macs were basically "space heaters with keyboards." Topics and Links In Touch With Vision Pro this week.  visionOS 26.2 Beta 2 Release Notes Apple Releases Second visionOS 26.2 Beta Flight Ready film brings immersive F-18 fighter pilot footage to Apple Vision Pro Apple now selling the PlayStation VR2 Sense Controllers for Apple Vision Pro  Beta this week.  Apple Seeds Second Betas of iOS 26.2 and iPadOS 26.2 to Developers Everything New in iOS 26.2 Beta 2 iOS 26.2 Available Next Month With These 8 New Features - MacRumors iOS 26.2 Adds New CarPlay Setting  iOS 26.2 Adds Alarms for Reminders iOS 26.2 Adds Three New Features to Podcasts App iOS 26.2 Lock Screen Gets Liquid Glass Slider iOS 26.2 Expands Live Translation on AirPods to EU iOS 26.2 lets you disable new CarPlay feature in Messages In Touch With Mac this week Second macOS Tahoe 26.2 Beta Now Available to Developers macOS Tahoe 26.2 Gets Edge Light Feature for Video Calls 1Password Simplifies Access With New Unlock Setting Five Years of Apple Silicon: M1 to M5 Performance Comparison  News Apple Developing These 5 New Satellite Features for iPhone Apple Announces Launch of U.S. Passport Feature in iPhone's Wallet App  Apple introduces Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet Introducing iPhone Pocket: a beautiful way to wear and carry iPhone Apple Debuts iPhone Pocket, a Limited Edition iPod Sock-Style Accessory Tesla Working to Add Apple CarPlay Support to Vehicles - MacRumors Major League Soccer is coming to Apple TV starting in 2026 Major League Soccer paywall on Apple TV is now gone | Macworld Announcements Macstock 9 has wrapped for 2025. Attendees will receive a link for the session recordings when  they're ready in 30-45 days. If you missed Macstock we missed you! Why not purchase a digital pass to relive all the amazing presentations? Click the link below to purchase the digital pass. Macstock X has already been announced July 10,11,12, 2026 hopeful you all can join us.  Macstock IX Digital Pass Our Host Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastodon @daveg65, , BlueSky @daveg65  and the show @intouchwithios   Our Regular Contributors Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's managing editor, and Smile's TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet Pixelfed @jgamet@pixelfed.social and Bluesky @jgamet.bsky.social‬ Podcasts The Context Machine Podcast  Retro Rewatch Retro Rewatch His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet Marty Jencius, Ph.D., is a professor of counselor education at Kent State University, where he researches, writes, and trains about using technology in teaching and mental health practice. His podcasts include Vision Pro Files, The Tech Savvy Professor and Circular Firing Squad Podcast. Find him at jencius@mastodon.social  https://thepodtalk.net  Eric Bolden is into macOS, plants, sci-fi, food, and is a rural internet supporter. You can connect with him by email at eabolden@mac.com, on Mastodon at @eabolden@techhub.social, on his blog, Trending At Work, and as co-host on The Vision ProFiles podcast.   Jill McKinley works in enterprise software, server administration, and IT A lifelong tech enthusiast, she started her career with Windows but is now an avid Apple fan. Beyond technology, she shares her insights on nature, faith, and personal growth through her podcasts—Buzz Blossom & Squeak, Start with Small Steps, and The Bible in Small Steps. Watch her content on YouTube at @startwithsmallsteps and follow her on X @schmern. Find all her work at http://jillfromthenorthwoods.com  Chuck Joiner is the host of MacVoices and hosts video podcasts with influential members of the Apple community. Make sure to visit macvoices.com and subscribe to his podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @chuckjoiner and join his MacVoices Facebook group. Ben Roethig Former Associate Editor of GeekBeat.TV and host of the Tech Hangout and Deconstruct with Patrice  Mac user since the mid 90s. Tech support specialist. X @benroethig and all other social media @benroethig.   Website: https://roethigtech.com/ Guy Serle is one of the hosts of the new The Gmen Show along with GazMaz and email GMenshow@icloud.com  @MacParrot and @VertShark on X  Vertshark on YouTube, Google Voice +1 Area code  703-828-4677

Charlotte and Chuck rave about AirPods Pro 3 for travel and TV watching, then dig into the latest season of The Morning Show, Jennifer Garner's returning thriller, and breakout drama Pluribus that briefly knocked Apple's services offline. They debate whether Apple TV should add an ad-supported tier, plug Charlotte's Streaming Wars book, and share recent picks like Slow Horses and Invasion.  Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] AirPods Pro 3 impressions and travel use [3:40] Noise cancellation, transparency, and adaptive audio [7:01] The Morning Show season update and character talk [9:19] Jennifer Aniston performance debate [10:41] Jennifer Garner's The Last Thing He Told Me return [13:16] Introducing Pluribus and early buzz [15:21] Apple TV server outage and reliability talk [21:48] Charlotte's Streaming Wars book and always-on culture [22:27] Should Apple TV add an ad-supported tier? [27:57] Pricing, value, and subscription fatigue [31:01] Recommendations: Slow Horses and Invasion [32:13] Where to find Chuck and Charlotte online Links: Streaming Wars: How Getting Everything We Wanted Changed Entertainment Forever by Charlotte Henry https://amzn.to/43wHzJV  Guests: Charlotte Henry is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm. She is based in London, writes and broadcasts for various outlets, and is the author of Not Buying It, an examination of fake news. You can find her on her The Addition blog, her podcast, in her The Addition newsletter on substack, and on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Support: Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect: Web:      http://macvoices.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/ MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/ Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher: Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

The Friday Five for November 14, 2025: iPhone Pocket Brings Back… Pockets. CMS Rural Health Transformation Program Government Shutdown Update Most-Favored Nation Drug Pricing CMS GENEROUS Model   Get Connected:

Charlotte and Chuck rave about AirPods Pro 3 for travel and TV watching, then dig into the latest season of The Morning Show, Jennifer Garner's returning thriller, and breakout drama Pluribus that briefly knocked Apple's services offline. They debate whether Apple TV should add an ad-supported tier, plug Charlotte's Streaming Wars book, and share recent picks like Slow Horses and Invasion.  Show Notes: Chapters: [0:00] AirPods Pro 3 impressions and travel use [3:40] Noise cancellation, transparency, and adaptive audio [7:01] The Morning Show season update and character talk [9:19] Jennifer Aniston performance debate [10:41] Jennifer Garner's The Last Thing He Told Me return [13:16] Introducing Pluribus and early buzz [15:21] Apple TV server outage and reliability talk [21:48] Charlotte's Streaming Wars book and always-on culture [22:27] Should Apple TV add an ad-supported tier? [27:57] Pricing, value, and subscription fatigue [31:01] Recommendations: Slow Horses and Invasion [32:13] Where to find Chuck and Charlotte online Links: Streaming Wars: How Getting Everything We Wanted Changed Entertainment Forever by Charlotte Henry https://amzn.to/43wHzJV  Guests: Charlotte Henry is a media junkie, covering how Apple is not just a revolutionary tech firm, but a revolutionary media firm. She is based in London, writes and broadcasts for various outlets, and is the author of Not Buying It, an examination of fake news. You can find her on her The Addition blog, her podcast, in her The Addition newsletter on substack, and on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. Support:      Become a MacVoices Patron on Patreon      http://patreon.com/macvoices      Enjoy this episode? Make a one-time donation with PayPal Connect:      Web:      http://macvoices.com      Twitter:      http://www.twitter.com/chuckjoiner      http://www.twitter.com/macvoices      Mastodon:      https://mastodon.cloud/@chuckjoiner      Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/chuck.joiner      MacVoices Page on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/macvoices/      MacVoices Group on Facebook:      http://www.facebook.com/groups/macvoice      LinkedIn:      https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuckjoiner/      Instagram:      https://www.instagram.com/chuckjoiner/ Subscribe:      Audio in iTunes      Video in iTunes      Subscribe manually via iTunes or any podcatcher:      Audio: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesrss      Video: http://www.macvoices.com/rss/macvoicesvideorss

Bill opened the show by highlighting how the New York Giants job should be attractive for coaches like Kevin Stefanski and Mike Tomlin. Bill then reacted to the news that Jaguars two-way star Travis Hunter will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury and debated whether Hunter should stick to just one side of the ball. Start/Bench/Cut was next as Bill ranked the worst places for AirPods to die and the most intriguing NFL division races to watch down the stretch of the season. Hour two kicked off with Sports Illustrated college football reporter Bryan Fischer joining the show to react to the latest College Football Playoff rankings and which team could make a surprise run to the Playoff. Buy or Sell was next as Bill answered if Draymond Green was in the right to call out his teammates and if the Mavericks are on the right track after firing Nico Harrison. The show ended with Bill explaining why Bill Belichick will never coach in the NFL again.

275. Raising Healthy Kids Free Tips with Emily Johnson   Exodus 31:3 NIV "and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills—"   *Transcription Below*   Emily Johnson is a homeschool mama who married her high school sweetheart, and she's now additionally the owner of Gracious Healing, which is an online nutritional practice that works with families to get to the root of their health issues with a holistic view and approach. Emily has so much goodness to share to encourage each of us about our own health and also how we can pass these healthy habits along to our children.   Thank You to Our Sponsor: Sue Neihouser Team   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV) Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*   Music: (0:00 – 0:09) Laura Dugger: (0:11 - 1:29) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   Thank you to the Sue Neihouser team for sponsoring this episode.   If you're looking to buy or sell a home this season, make sure you reach out to Sue at 309-229-8831. Sue would love to walk alongside you as you unlock new doors. You are in for a treat today.   My fabulous guest is Emily Johnson. She's a homeschool mama who married her high school sweetheart, and she's now additionally the owner of Gracious Healing, which is an online nutritional practice that works with families to get to the root of their health issues with a holistic view and approach. Emily has so much goodness to share to encourage each of us about our own health and also how we can pass these healthy habits along to our children.   Here's our chat. Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Emily.   Emily Johnson: (1:29 - 1:31) Thank you so much for having me.   Laura Dugger: (1:32 - 1:46) I'm so excited to chat with you today, and I'd love for you just to start off by vision casting the biblical reasons for pursuing a healthy life, both for ourselves and for our family.   Emily Johnson: (1:47 - 3:22) Yeah, I feel like this is a question that I have wrestled with a lot, right, because there's so much depth to this, and so, obviously in a short podcast we're trying to like paint the picture. I think the best way I can paint this picture without really going into like deep theology is just this idea that when we have a big picture of the destiny that God has for us and our children. We want to steward every part of our lives, including our health, to be able to run after all that he has for us, right?   If He came to give us life abundantly, that doesn't always look like maybe this Western view of abundance. When we kind of approach our health in the same way we do our finances and our resources and steward them well. I find that that big picture actually helps kind of keep us on this path of like, right, my kids may love McDonald's, maybe want to go to McDonald's all the time, but the reality is I believe that I know who God created them to be, and I believe that he has this destiny over them, and so, if I allow them to steward their bodies poorly in a way that makes them sick and tired, then they're not able to run after that destiny fully, and then, right, there's this limitation, and so, to have this idea of abundance, this whole holistic view, is that we steward our mind, our hearts, our spirits, our bodies, it's all one, and if we steward that according to God's Word, then we just get to run with him in such a way that just brings joy in life.   That is so opposite, I think, then what happens when we're sick and tired and depleted.   Laura Dugger: (3:23 - 4:00) That's a good word, and I think all of this information, you do such a great job with all of your work running it through the lens of parenting so, we can help our kids, but it's helpful even for me to remember everything that's healthy for our children is also healthy for us as the parents, and so, I appreciate that reminder, but I'd love to just go through some various areas and see if you even have quick tips to get us started for ideas, so, we'll just begin very basic, even water and hydration. Can you just lay the groundwork here?   Emily Johnson: (4:01 - 11:08) Yeah, so, to backtrack a little bit to what you said, because I think it's super important, I firmly believe that in most things, there's always a caveat to some things, but in almost everything, you can't give what you don't have, so, how do we give our children health and a big picture and asking them to steward something when we ourselves don't have the experience of what that means, and so, I think that it's a whole family affair, but often we are the gatekeepers, so, as parents, if we are not open and willing to understand health and wellness, then how do we ask our kids to do that, and so, I feel like that's just kind of so often it starts with mom, honestly, so, kind of running into water, hydration, there are so many pillars, right, you can look at all sorts of different practitioners out there, health, kind of all sides, whether you're looking at kind of Western medicine, or you're looking at more traditional, like Eastern medicine, or you're looking at holistic, functional, right, everybody's going to have the like seven, eight pillars to health. I think that almost everyone would agree within those pillars are going to be different, but almost everyone has hydration as a pillar, right, and why do we need hydration as a pillar?   We are, our bodies are so, there's so many facets and different mechanisms within the body, but so much of it depends upon hydration, and if the cell has enough water and electricity, right, to operate and continue those processes, I feel like so often when we look at hydration, just, we just are, and it's not so much just drinking water, right, some people are like, I just am not drinking enough water to stay hydrated, and that is a huge factor, but when we look at hydration and just what happens when the cell doesn't have enough water, and you're just, right, your body is depleted of that hydration, you will, right, be more tired, I feel like, again, disease kind of sets in quicker, that cell doesn't have the capacity to do what it's supposed to do, and bowels move slower, right, you, your skin is more dry and cracked, like there's just so many different facets of detox and flushing things out that are dependent upon hydration, but I think that we have to look at one, how much water are we drinking? I think some people, everything in health I have found is truly that Goldilocks approach, sometimes we want to take something and we want to run with it and be like, well, if a little is good, a lot's better, right, and it's often this approach of like, what is really best for you and your body and your system? So, when we look at water, we want to be well hydrated from just the metabolic perspective, but with that, we're looking at how much water are you drinking and what is in your water, right, so, if you have somebody who's drinking super contaminated water, it's going to be adding toxins as they're adding water, right, and so, we want to look at what kind of water are we drinking, then we want to say like, how much water, right, there's a kind of a general rule of thumb that people jump off of and they would say, half of your body weight in ounces is a good place to start. I say that's true for most people under certain conditions, if you are somebody who is, right, sometimes I will find that people will drink a hundred plus ounces of water a day, but then they're drinking just as much coffee and energy drinks along with it, and so, you're like, that's a lot of pressure on your kidneys to have to flush out all of that liquid, and then you have somebody who is potentially eating very processed food, right, that processed food, so, we think anytime we take what we're going to say is like man food or God food in the way God created, right, so, God created water to be enriched with minerals, structured water, you find it in nature when water is like running over a brook and like hitting those rocks and kind of moving that becomes almost electrical within it, and so, when you look at how God created the water and we see that is what's best for our bodies, now we backtrack and we say whenever we take something that God created and we kind of make a man version of it, it often requires more nutrients within our bodies to process that, so, when you have like processed food that's void of hydration, void of nutrients, it's going to actually require your body to take the reserves that it has to process that thing within the body, so, hydration is no different, right, when we're eating really whole good foods that are full of water content, right, like watermelon, cucumbers, chicken, ground beef, right, if we're not overcooking things, it should hold moisture in those foods, so, when we're eating whole foods, we're actually getting hydration, right, when we're drinking herbal teas, we're getting good minerals and hydration, and so, I say a lot of people it's like okay, yes, do the like half your body weight in ounces for an average person, but also take into account are you somebody who's sweating a lot and you're just constantly working in an environment where you're dripping with or you're an athlete, you're probably gonna need more than that, are you a person who eats really good whole nutrient-dense food and you don't eat any processed food and you're not necessarily overly exerting yourself in sweat, you may not need that much hydration, right, so, kind of listening to those body cues, I've always heard when you find you're thirsty, probably because you're already dehydrated, right, so, being on top of it, I feel like so many of us do better in the summer because we're hot and we're thirsty, but being intentional all the time with kind of trying to measure that amount of water and then taking into account other things. One of the parts of cellular hydration that I feel like it's often missed and this might be going down a rabbit trail, so, you can cut me off if it is, but when you have a healthy functioning body, your mitochondria will make ATP and one of the products of ATP is actually like a fourth phase of water, it's like a little gelatinous form of water, which is super, super hydrating, so, somebody who is really metabolically functioning well and getting all the nutrients and vitamins they need, the rest, the sunshine, right, they're just living that life and their body is thriving in it, they actually, again, may need less water because their body's producing enough water that they don't necessarily have to be chugging the same amount of water, so, I find some people, if we're overexerting our water, we might want to ask the question, why are you so thirsty all the time, why are you drinking so much water, there might actually be something metabolically imbalanced. Kids are super great, I feel like they're so intuitive that unless they're drinking sodas and juices and energy drinks, if they're just drinking water and eating whole foods, most of the time they're pretty good at knowing when they need water and when they don't.   Laura Dugger: (11:09 - 11:20) Because is that rule, I guess, generally recommended as well with the half your body weight in ounces, is that the same for kids and you feel like they're just natural at regulating that?   Emily Johnson: (11:21 - 12:27) Yeah, and so, sometimes you look at a kiddo who's super tired all the time, and you might ask the question, how much water are they drinking, right? The other thing I find with kids, with kind of this like new Stanley water bottles and stuff for women, it's a little bit different, but I feel like with kids, because we're so like in this mindset of kids get water bottles, right, and you like fill their water bottle up before you send them to school or daycare or whatever, or just for the day, unless you're drinking out of a glass cup at home all the time, most kids just naturally fill up a water bottle, I find just nowadays. And so, it's easier to track their water, I feel like for most kids.   And so, okay, kind of that general rule of thumb, in general, half your body weight. You know, my son, when my kids were in public school, he used to come home and like none of his water, like his water hadn't been touched, right? And I'm like, okay, you went six hours through a whole day and never took a sip of water, right?   Like that's obviously would be a problem. But I think he was so distracted at school, right? That like, he wasn't realizing kind of those cues within his body to reach for his water.   But yes, it would be the same for kids.   Laura Dugger: (12:28 - 15:19) And now a brief message from our sponsor.   With over 28 years of experience in real estate, Sue Neihouser of the Sue Neihouser team is a RE-MAX agent of Central Illinois, and she loves to walk alongside her clients as they unlock new doors. For anyone local, I highly recommend you call Sue today on 309-229-8831 and you can ask her any real estate questions.   Sue lives in Central Illinois and loves this community and all that it has to offer. When unlocking new doors with her clients, Sue works hard to gain a depth of understanding of their motivations and dreams and interests in buying and selling their home. And then she commits to extensive market research that will give them confidence in their decision.   Sue truly cares for each of her clients and the relationship she forms with each family along the entire home buying or selling process. This was absolutely our experience when we worked with Sue and her team. The house that we desired at the time was actually not even on the market, but Sue had a connection and was able to ask those homeowners if they would be willing to sell.   She was timely in her response as she walked us through this whole process, and she helped us sell our home with the right offer coming in hours after it was listed. It was astonishing. I remember one afternoon after we had settled into our new home, and she was knocking on the door dropping off a goodie bag for our family that came from the local bakery.   Our daughters also loved getting to know Miss Sue as she assisted us in finding truly our dream home. So, whether you're looking to buy a home for the first time, or looking to upgrade or downsize, or making the big decision to move to an assisted living from your home of many years, Sue will be there to help you navigate the big emotions and ensure the process is smooth and stress-free, and that the new doors to be unlocked are ready and waiting for more memories to be made. So, call her today at 309-229-8831 or visit her website at sueneihouser.com. And that is sueneihouser.com. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Okay, well then you also mentioned sunlight.   So, how does sunlight and just general outdoor time impact our children's health?   Emily Johnson: (15:20 - 21:49) Yeah, so, there's again so many rabbit shells we could probably go down on this, but in general I always look at the body as what did God create and how close to nature are we living or how far away are, right? So, there's a doctor that is always quoted, he says, you know, the further away from nature that we get the more disease that we see, right? And so, when you look at sunlight and getting your feet on the ground, so, from a metabolic perspective, sunshine is super important for our circadian rhythm.   It's super important just for cellular health, for energy, right? So, when you get that sunlight on your face that not only gives you vitamin D, if you kind of have the processes in the body right to convert the sunlight to vitamin D, but it is also going to be super helpful for your eyes because the minute your eyes see sunlight in the morning, people always say, I can't sleep at night. And I'm like, okay, what do you do the first hour of your morning?   Because the first hour of our morning actually sets that clock for the rest of our day and actually kind of helps us fall asleep at night. So, when you look at sunlight and just the way that it actually helps your circadian rhythm, it's gonna help naturally calm. If you ever go outside and you feel a little bit anxious and then you go outside and you almost just breathe, right?   Like I think there's just this beautiful calming effect that the sun has on most people, right? It just lifts your mood. It's just because our bodies are so deprived of sunlight.   When you look at, again, the cell, it's why red light, things like that, people really enjoy because you do get some of those light waves within them, like your skin absorbs it. And then, right, it just kind of helps your adrenals, your cellular function, and just in general your body. There was an interesting study years ago that I had come across that was actually talking about chickens and how, right, why do you use chicken lights?   Why do farmers use chickens? Because if you don't use a warming light and give, get like a fake sunlight, right, on the chicken, they'll molt in the winter, and they won't lay eggs. But as long as you keep stimulating the sun by getting light on their skin, then they actually keep reproducing eggs and their feathers don't molt.   And so, they were using that study to say, okay, how does that affect humans, right? And I always feel like God gave us the sun and, right, he, when we're out in the sun, like so many parts of the body just process better and more efficiently. Then you mentioned getting your feet on the ground, right?   And so, when you look at the electromagnetic fields within the earth, they are, again, God-made electric magnetic field. When you get your feet on the ground, when you're in nature, when you're out in, there's a grounding effect that happens. So, I think this happens in both our physical and our spiritual sense, right?   So, physically, you actually start getting, in the same way we need water, we also need really good electricity within the body to, again, kind of make all those processes of the body happen. When we are so, when we're kind of living under false light, we're not getting our feet on the ground. We're not getting out in nature where everything is kind of artificial, right?   The body just doesn't thrive in the same way that it does out in nature. So, getting our kids outside, getting them in the sunlight is not only gonna help just make them feel better, it's gonna help their skin, right? Their energy of the body, all those different things.   Then getting their feet on the ground, they're actually can start absorbing that electromagnetic field from the earth. It's why astronauts, right, when they go off into space, they actually, their body ages really, really, really fast because they don't have the gravity and they don't have that electrical pull that happens when we're out in nature. There's some fun studies that talk about how when you get like even just like one 24-hour period of like camping is enough to totally reset your circadian rhythm.   Just like one and then it lasts, right? There's some other studies on the immune system and how when we're in nature for just even two to three days consistently, right? And so, that looks like man-made environment going in nature for a couple days and then coming back to man-made environment and how that just boosts your immune system, you know, for up to several months, like it just kind of lingers, right?   And so, the idea is that we're always in nature, we're always getting outside, we're always gonna get these benefits. Because I work a lot with children with neurodivergent issues, one of the best things again, we can do for our kids from a brain development perspective is actually letting them get outside and run around and climb on things and jump off things and right because that actually helps strengthen parts of the brain as well as just their overall body. For kids who are super nearsighted, getting them outside in the sun and doing work and stuff outside actually will help strengthen those eye muscles.   So, there's just so many cool benefits. I think even just when you look at, you know, being inside a building, you have walls, right? So, your depth perception, your awareness is still kind of closed in.   But when you go outside in nature and you're even just in your backyard, right? There are no walls, right? So, there's just an expanse and your mind and your perception, what you hear, what you see, what you smell, everything just gets kind of grounded is honestly the best word.   And I think even spiritually, you see that, right. We started gardening years ago, not because I'm particularly good at gardening, but because I had read that like, the parables in the gospels are so much more amplified when your kids understand what it looks to farm. And obviously, we live in town, we don't live on land where we can like do the full farming thing.   But at least the idea was that our kids would understand what it means for a seed to go in the ground, what it means for it to sprout, what it means, you know, to have to prune the peach trees, what it means to have, you know, to, to be able to harvest after you've done all of this work, right? And so, that even just those things, like there's so much more, I think, spiritual, and physical and emotional of just being in nature, right? We slow down; we just appreciate God's beauty in a different way.   And then metabolically, we just see all the amazing benefits that it has.   Laura Dugger: (21:50 - 22:13) And I'd never heard that before about camping resetting us even for months. If that feels too big for somebody to do right away, is there any recommended amount of time just as we're getting started, even as it's starting to get colder out, when the weather is tolerable, what amount of time will we maybe start to see benefits of being outdoors?   Emily Johnson: (22:14 - 25:41) Yeah, so, everyone, unfortunately, right, is a little bit different in kind of, because it's going to depend on what you're doing inside too, right? So, if you're on a screen, 24 hours a day, and then once you go outside, you can spend 20 minutes outside, right? I would say most of my clients, I encourage 20 minutes a day outside, even when it's really, really cold, right?   Because there's also beautiful benefits of cold therapy. So, as you're moving into the winter, sometimes I'm like, that's actually so fun, because you get light in the morning, you get your kids outside, they get their energy out, and they're getting cold exposure, which is also super helpful at boosting the immune system, right? It's a hormesis stress.   So, there's some stresses that are really bad. And you kind of want to avoid those stresses, right? But there are other stresses that in short measurements actually increase the ability of the immune system to kind of modulate it and boost just resiliency in general.   And so, honestly, even cold in, I just think with air conditioning, with lighting, with all that stuff, right, we have just kind of lost our ability to be resilient from a biological perspective. So, the more in the summer, when it's really warm, and you're pushing your kids outside, right. They're kind of getting like, “Oh, it's too hot.” Or when it's in the middle of winter, and you're pushing your kids outside. They're like, “It's freezing cold, right.”   And so, it doesn't have to be a lot, but I would say a little bit. And I also find that it's kind of the teenager and adults that have a harder time being outside, kids will always run outside and play, right? Once you get them out there, I feel like most of the time, they're, it's hard to then get them back in.   But I would say in general, starting off with just, and you know, I say 20 minutes for kids, because I think that's super important. And even more, right. So, I love the like 100 hours, you know, a year outside, like a lot of that initiative in those books are just so cool.   Because it just kids love charts, and they love being outside. So, an hour a day is another kind of helpful benefit. But I would say, if you're really struggling, depending on the schedule, and just your work and sports and all the things, any amount outside is going to be beneficial.   So, grab your coffee, go stand outside, even in the cold, even if it's still dark outside, right, sip on your coffee for five minutes. And then as much as you can do throughout the day to just get outside, park a little farther away from the grocery store. So, you get a little bit more time outside, right?   Camping in your backyard, if you're like, I don't want to go camping or my kids used to, you know, put hammocks out and sleep outside. Just that type of stuff. It doesn't have to be like going into the middle of the woods and hibernate, you know, it can be these little chunks of just exposure.   Even when we say nature, the studies of all that I've always come across are like deep in the woods. But we also see the benefit of just being outside, even in a rural area, right, or super industrial area, or a super heavily populated city, like it is still, you still see a lot of benefits, people in New York who are just going outside on their patio, like you still see health benefits. So, I would say, make a resolve amount of time and stick with it until that becomes easy.   And then you start doing the next thing, right?   Laura Dugger: (25:42 - 26:12) I love that. Okay, that's doable to start with a bite size and some is better than none and more is better than some. I'm also thinking, as you're talking about cold therapy and grounding, maybe not for kids with cold plunging, but are there any other kind of bio hacks? Are grounding mats that we can sleep on, is that helpful for children too, if they're not getting the amount of time barefoot on the ground outdoors as we would like?   Emily Johnson: (26:13 - 29:08) Yeah. So, one of the things we think about with grounding is again, eating whole nutrient dense food that is going to help that mitochondria, right? Those types of foods, the electrical current of the body, that actually I find some kids don't need to kind of ground like on the grounding mats, maybe the way an adult would, because they're just not depleted as much energy, right?   As maybe an adult might be. Grounding mats, I feel like can go either way because some kiddos, adults too, I just think kiddos, you're not as aware of it as maybe an adult might be that some, even with grounding mats, I have some very sensitive clients who can't do like manmade EMFs, right? So, anything electrical that you're plugging into a wall, Wi-Fi, even like batteries sometimes, you know, they're just very sensitive too.   And so, sometimes those kinds of biohacking things don't work super well if it brings in kind of a manmade current. PEMF is one of my favorite. Most kids respond well to that.   And it just kind of boosts the cell backup. I don't know if I've had great reviews from people with grounding mats that anyone feels any different. I don't know if it's placebo.   I just haven't had personal testimony that it does a whole lot. PEMF, I definitely have had lots of testimony that kids feel more grounded, adults feel better, just overall kind of addresses the whole cellular function. Red light is my next favorite, because again, if you are sensitive to EMF, you can stay away from it and you're still getting it on your skin.   So, you see some of those health benefits. Red light is probably my favorite because I just think it's so much easier for kids to do. And there's so many different variations out there that can be super helpful.   Again, just getting light on the skin can just kind of help boost the overall, just cellular process of the body. You said cold plunges. Cold plunges, again, yeah, for adults are great.   Kids, it's just hard to measure. But cold washcloths, right? Cold, even just like a cold face plunge, right?   Some kids don't mind that and that can be super beneficial for them. But most kids you're like, just go outside in the cold and you start to see the benefits of that. But I have a couple of kids just from a nervous system perspective, they get really amped up and real worked up, right?   And obviously for an adult, I'd be like, go cold plunge. For a kid, you're not going to necessarily do that. But we take ice packs and I just say, take ice packs, put them on the face for just a little bit until they're tolerating it.   And a lot of times that will bring kind of that nervous system back into balance, just putting ice packs on your face.   Laura Dugger: (29:09 - 29:54) I just wanted to let you know, there are now multiple ways to give when you visit TheSavvySauce.com. We now have a donation button on our website, and you can find it under the donate page, which is under the tab entitled support. Our mailing address is also provided if you would prefer to save us the processing fee and send a check that is tax deductible.   Either way, you'll be supporting the work of Savvy Sauce Charities and helping us continue to reach the nations with the good news of Jesus Christ. Make sure you visit TheSavvySauce.com today. Thanks for your support.   This is new to me. Did you say PEMFs or what is that?   Emily Johnson: (29:54 - 31:35) Yeah. So, it's post electromagnetic field therapy. Yeah.   So, it's kind of, and there are homemade ones or like ones you can get for home that are doable. Therisage is my favorite one just because it's price wise, it's doable. Most I've had lots and lots of testimonies of, you know, autistic kiddos that just they're calm when they're sitting on it.   And then there's really great like high tech ones that you would find. Pulse centers is my favorite. Like they're just really expensive.   So, most of the time you're going to go to a pulse center center of some kind or chiropractor or something like that that might have one. But the idea is that it is trying to mimic as close to the ground, right? So, when you think EMFs in nature, there's a certain frequency that the sun gives off a certain frequency that the earth gives off.   But manmade EMFs tend to be significantly higher and just way, way, way out of range of kind of what these manmade or I'm sorry, God made ones are. So, when you're sitting on a PEMF, it's kind of mimicking that frequency of the earth and the sun. So, you get kind of there's different frequencies for different levels.   So, pain, neurological, kind of resetting your nervous system, sleep, like there's a lot of different frequencies that you might look at if depending on the health concern that you have. But again, it's sensitive to like manmade EMFs and sometimes having something plugged in the wall that you're sitting on doesn't really do it for you.   Laura Dugger: (31:36 - 31:54) Okay, you're making me even think of weighted blankets then as well. But before we go there while we're on EMFs, are things like AirPods the worst for us? Or what are practice to have in place to avoid the most harmful EMFs?   And why are they harmful?   Emily Johnson: (31:55 - 37:20) Yes, yeah. So, so, again, when we're thinking the best way I feel like I can describe it without getting super, super sciency is that it is kind of like these frequencies are coming at us in a way. So, when you're outside on the ground, right, your body, it's like this really beautiful hurt, like slow hurts that your body is receiving.   When you get into these higher frequencies, it's kind of like microwaves, right? Like it's just this constant noise that is bombarding your system. So, one of the things that you hear a lot in health is, and I know this is again, maybe a little bit of rabbit trail, but I think it applies to maybe kind of encompasses lots of conversation here.   But when you think about health, we're always saying like, can you stay in a place of rest and digest? Can you say is your nervous system always in this heightened fight or flight stage, or even worse. So, it's called dorsal vagal.   When you jump up to this, like freeze mode and your body just kind of freezes, right. We're not making good cells. We're not necessarily running from a dragon, right.   Or a lion or something. We're not like scared in that way, but we're not, we're also not resting and we're not digesting and absorbing either because there's this heightened kind of nervous system reaction that's happening. So, when you look, obviously, we always think of stress as emotional, right.   And it's like, oh, I want to avoid the stress emotionally, but metabolically we're looking at what externally also is causing stress on my system. And so, EMFs, because we don't see them, I think a lot of people don't realize how problematic they are, but it's almost this, like, you can't feel the, you can't see the wind, but you can feel it, right. It's kind of like that in the sense that you can't necessarily feel the EMFs, but if you were to take certain electrical measurements, you're able to see like that's emitting a ridiculous amount of frequency.   And so, you think of like just sitting in your living room, super calm, relaxed, right. But if you have all of this bombardment of EMFs kind of at a frequency level hitting your body, then without realizing it, you're like, why does my body always feel like it's stressed out? And so, again, from a resilience perspective, how do you fight infection and deal with actual stressors in your life?   If you're in a place of always being in this kind of heightened fight or flight stage. So, EMFs, manmade EMFs, there's a lot of different ones you can talk about. There's ones, obviously you have an ACDC that runs through your walls that can be problematic.   You have Wi-Fi. I would say the top things that I would say for most people, AirPods, I would say is relatively low. It depends on how much you wear them, right?   If you're a kiddo who's wearing it 12 hours a day, it's not super great. Some people would say that unless you get like a tubed type EMF specific, you know, earbud or headphone that every single one, whether it's wired or wireless is probably not great for you. The younger you are, the more problematic it is because you, the way your brain is and the way that the protection around your brain is, you're more sensitive the younger you are.   So, you can look on like a thermogram and you can see how a kiddo with like a cell phone to their head is going to be like, all of a sudden their whole head is like bright red and hot versus an adult who does the same amount of time. It might be a little bit more like orange, but it's not going to be as bright red because you don't have that barrier around your brain quite yet. When you're little, it's still forming versus when you're an adult, you have more of a thicker skull.   Your brain protection is just different. So, I would say top ones that seem like the most problematic are 5G, because again, it's just this, like, you know, I just read a study the other day that we had more bees die this last winter in America than we've had, right? Like all, like, I don't know, ever recorded, you know?   And the question was, you have really high frequencies, like 5G, that's like disrupting a lot of our animals. And actually, they've shown that it does kill bees, you know? And so, when you think of if it's killing off animals and disrupting kind of the natural way that birds and bees and things are able to communicate and locate where they need to go because that EMF is so, or that 5G is so disruptive, then what is it doing to our own brains and bodies?   So, I would say 5G is not great. So, if you live by a tower, sometimes you do need to, like, protect yourself if you can. That looks like different sheets.   There's different sheets and options and things that you can go on your wall. There's a ton of, like, EMF protection in the world. I don't know if that's necessary for most people.   Unplugging your Wi-Fi at night, talking on a speakerphone and not having your cell phone up to your head can be some of the easiest ones I have found that most people, it feels very doable to unplug your Wi-Fi because that can emit a lot of really high EMF frequencies. And then anything that you can do that's just more on speaker and not in your ear is probably better, but I don't think it's terrible if it's short-term.   Laura Dugger: (37:21 - 37:45) Even going back to that outdoor time, we've talked about clean water, mentioned some clean food, and grounding. All of these things are free options so far as well. And even just how much cleaner outdoor air is compared to indoor air.   Can you speak to how nature is a natural filtration system for air?   Emily Johnson: (37:45 - 38:40) Yeah. I'm trying to think of where we want to go with that. So, I think that when you look at the way that grass and leaves, right, you know, when you're thinking of, like, fourth grade science and you're like, okay, photosynthesis, right, all these different things, the way that they give up oxygen and the way that they filter, you know, different pathogens in the air.   And when you think of the breeze and just the natural way that things move around outside, it is, you're going to just have that natural, nothing's going to settle as much, right? And when you have your indoor, your windows are all closed. You don't have that natural cross bees.   You don't have that natural movement flowing through. And then, right, you just have nature that's just good at releasing oxygen into the air and you have trees that just naturally absorb those toxins. And yeah, does that answer your question?   Laura Dugger: (38:41 - 42:18) It's so good. It's helpful to have those little takeaways. And I'm just thinking, get outside, get outside.   Emily and I were having so much fun recording that we went way over the planned time limit. So, I want to share all of it with you, but we're going to divide this episode into two parts. So, make sure you tune in next time for part two with Emily Johnson.   One more thing before you go, have you heard the term gospel before? It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you, but it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there's absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior, but God loved us so much. He made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life. We could never live and died in our place for our sin.   This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus. We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished. If we choose to receive what he has done for us, Romans 10:9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”   So, you pray with me now. Heavenly father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you.   Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life? We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus name we pray.   Amen. If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me. So, me for him, you get the opportunity to live your life for him.   And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason. We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you're ready to get started.   First, tell someone, say it out loud, get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes and Noble and let me choose my own Bible. I selected the Quest NIV Bible and I love it.   You can start by reading the book of John. Also get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ. I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you.   We want to celebrate with you too. So, feel free to leave a comment for us here. If you did make a decision to follow Christ, we also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “in the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

Un nuevo Mac barato, llega Pluribus a Apple TV, y Gemini será el cerebro de la nueva Siri. Todo grandes noticias.Patrocinador: Did I Do te permite gestionar cada una de tus tareas recurrentes en un pequeño widget en la pantalla de tu iPhone o de tu iPad. Usando el código CUPERTINO tendrás un mes gratis de la versión Plus con la que tendrás funciones extra que son magníficas: múltiples widgets, notificaciones y recordatorios.Un rumor impactante sugiere que Apple está desarrollando un MacBook de bajo coste, con un precio aproximado de 600 dólares, enfocado en el sector educativo para competir con Chromebooks. Este portátil podría integrar un procesador de la gama A de iPhone y plantearía la posibilidad de un diseño más asequible, incluso de plástico y con colores vibrantes, lo que podría redefinir la línea de Mac y su estrategia de mercado. En el ámbito de la inteligencia artificial, comentamos la notable noticia de que Apple podría pagar mil millones de dólares anuales a Google por usar su modelo Gemini, especialmente entrenado para la inferencia en los iPhones, con el fin de potenciar las capacidades de Siri en tareas complejas, mientras continúan desarrollando sus propios modelos fundacionales.Exploramos las mejoras en el ecosistema de software y los desafíos regulatorios. Celebramos la llegada de la traducción en tiempo real a los AirPods en Europa, aunque su retraso se debió a la creación de una nueva API de enrutamiento de audio exigida por la DMA. Sin embargo, lamentamos la pérdida de la sincronización Wi-Fi automática del Apple Watch en Europa por la misma regulación, que Apple considera un riesgo para la privacidad. También comentamos las significativas mejoras en la aplicación de Podcasts, que ahora incluye capítulos automáticos y enlaces a otros podcasts, y el lanzamiento de una nueva interfaz web para la App Store. Además, abordamos la limitación de seis miembros en Familia Compartida de Apple, sugiriendo la necesidad de opciones de expansión para familias más grandes.Finalmente, compartimos otros detalles y rumores, como la posible llegada de tiendas de aplicaciones de terceros a Japón y las implicaciones que el acuerdo entre Epic y Android podría tener para Apple. Analizamos el hallazgo de "Apple Creator Studio" en el código de la beta de iOS 26.2, que podría ser un servicio de suscripción para aplicaciones profesionales. Hablamos de la suite de Affinity, ahora gratuita gracias a Canva, como una excelente alternativa a Adobe. También abordamos el rumor de que el iPhone Air de 2026 podría incorporar una doble cámara, debatiendo la configuración más lógica, y el posible aumento de los precios de los procesadores y la memoria RAM, lo que impactaría los costes de los futuros dispositivos.En cuanto a Apple TV+, destacamos el nuevo logo y el inicio del rodaje de la sexta temporada de "For All Mankind", mientras esperamos con ansias la quinta, y comentamos el nuevo documental "Planeta Prehistórico: Edad de Hielo". Tim Cook cumple 65 años y crecen los rumores sobre su sucesor en Apple – iSenaCode No estar a la altura con Siri ya tiene precio: más de 1.000 millones de dólares que Apple pagará a Google por usar Gemini iOS 26.2 updates Liquid Glass slider to customize your Lock Screen - 9to5Mac iOS 26.2's new Apple Podcasts feature makes the app very hard to resist - 9to5Mac iOS 26.2 to Allow Third-Party App Stores in Japan Ahead of Regulatory Deadline - MacRumors [Has the Fate of 'For All Mankind' Already Been Decided? [Exclusive]](https://collider.com/for-all-mankind-future-seasons-renewed-cancelled-explained/) Star City (serie de televisión) - Wikipedia, la enciclopedia libre Private Talky on X: "iPhone Air with dual camera setup. which design would you prefer? https://t.co/CetCOKvye9" / X Angel Jiménez de Luis on X: "Mi apuesta: servicio de suscripción tipo Creative Cloud con acceso a Final Cut, Logic, Pixelmator y nuevas apps creativas que se podrían lanzar en 2026." / X ‎Today for iPhone - App Store GitHub · Where software is built Motorola's Edge 70 is the blueprint for future thin phones The Verge La traducción en tiempo real de los AirPods llega por fin a Europa Gadgets Ya es oficial: WhatsApp llega al Apple Watch con todas estas funciones iOS 26.2 to Allow Third-Party App Stores in Japan Ahead of Regulatory Deadline - MacRumors Apple (AAPL) Preps Low-Cost Laptop to Rival Chromebooks and Windows PCs - Bloomberg Chipmaker TSMC Reportedly Informs Apple of Further Price Hikes - MacRumors TSMC 주요 업체에게, 5나노 이하 공정 가격인상 통보중 : 네이버 블로그 Apple's A20 Chip Could Be Massively More Expensive - MacRumors

En este episodio repasamos todas las novedades del ecosistema Apple de las últimas semanas: desde las mejoras de iOS 26.1 y la beta 26.2 con traducción en los AirPods, hasta la llegada oficial de WhatsApp al Apple Watch. Hablamos también del futuro iPhone 18 Pro, los iPad y MacBook con pantallas OLED, y los planes de Apple para un hogar inteligente con IA en 2026. Además, analizamos la confirmación de Tim Cook sobre el nuevo Siri con inteligencia artificial personalizada, que promete transformar la experiencia del usuario. Cerramos con dos apps para Mac perfectas para monitores dobles: - Aerial: https://aerialscreensaver.github.io - Multi Monitor Wallpaper: https://dsh.re/71cb8 Además de las noticias y la opinión acerca de las novedades de la semana, también responderemos a las preguntas de nuestros oyentes. Tendremos durante toda la semana activo en Twitter el hashtag #podcastapple para que nos preguntéis lo que queráis, nos hagáis sugerencias o lo que se os pase por la cabeza. Dudas, tutoriales, opinión y review de aplicaciones, cualquier cosa tiene cabida en esta sección que ocupará la parte final de nuestro podcast y que queremos que nos ayudéis a hacer todas las semanas. Os recordamos que que si queréis formar parte de una de las comunidades más grandes de Apple en español, entréis a nuestra comunidad de Telegram (enlace) donde podréis opinar, preguntar dudas, comentar las noticias, etc. Y aquí no cobramos por entrar, ni te tratamos mejor si pagas. Os recomendamos que os suscribáis en iTunes en iVoox o en Spotify para que los episodios se descarguen de forma automática en cuanto estén disponibles. También puedes escucharlo en Cuonda, tú eliges.

Ever mix a Grammy-winning track on AirPods? Justin Francis did - and he's back to share killer tips on mixing in the box, vocal stacking, pedalboard tricks, and keeping the studio vibe fun. Get ready to level up your mixes and laugh along the way! Get access to FREE mixing mini-course: https://MixMasterBundle.com My guest today is Justin Francis, a Grammy award-winning engineer, mixer, and producer with a talent for channeling deep emotion through sound. Justin brings a creative, artist-first approach to every session, working across many genres - from Sheryl Crow and Kacey Musgraves to Tyler Childers, Lake Street Dive, Justin Timberlake, Madison Cunningham, Gary Clark Jr., Sarah Jarosz, and Lauren Daigle. Originally from western Pennsylvania and now a long-time fixture in the Nashville music scene, Justin has earned a reputation for his innovative techniques and dedication to serving the song. He's been on the show before in episodes RSR220 and RSR280, and I'm psyched to have him back again today. THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS! http://UltimateMixingMasterclass.com https://usa.sae.edu/ https://www.izotope.com Use code ROCK10 to get 10% off! https://www.native-instruments.com Use code ROCK10 to get 10% off! https://www.adam-audio.com/ https://www.spectra1964.com https://pickrmusic.com  https://RecordingStudioRockstars.com/Academy https://www.thetoyboxstudio.com/ Listen to the podcast theme song "Skadoosh!" https://solo.to/lijshawmusic Listen to this guest's discography on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5V5goiVEMHTiv1mmhPbuSu?si=F1djvCk1R1mgDFCpzkj5LQ If you love the podcast, then please leave a review: https://RSRockstars.com/Review   CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE SHOW NOTES AT: https://RSRockstars.com/531

On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss the AirPods Pro 3 and the future of the AirPods lineup as a whole. Apple introduced the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ in September, featuring a more refined design, improved active noise cancelation (ANC), enhanced sound quality, foam ear tips in five sizes, and heart rate monitoring for workouts. After using the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ for two months, we talk through our experience with the noticeably different fit, improved ANC, and more. We also discuss the reports from some users who are experiencing an ongoing static issue with the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌. Apple does seem to be replacing affected units for customers who are bothered by the noise, which appears to be audible when ANC is active but no sound is playing. Other users have been hearing a high-pitched whine when on airplanes, which could be related to pressure. Not all ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ units are experiencing the issue, but it sounds like Apple is investigating. Looking to the future, another version of the ‌AirPods Pro 3‌ are expected to launch next year featuring infrared cameras for gesture controls and improved Vision Pro integration. This model is likely to be a more premium offering available alongside the current model at a higher price point. Apple is believed to be working on a next-generation H3 chip for future AirPods models. The AirPods 5 are in development, with two models just like the current version. The AirPods Max 2 are also in the works, touting a lighter design and likely a newer chip with features that are now noticeably absent from the device such as adaptive transparency and Siricommands. They are reportedly due to enter mass production in 2027 at the earliest. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/mac #rulapod

From broken studio props and Halloween chaos to hot sauce loyalty wars and bizarre tech conspiracies. Bobby kicks things off with an all-out rant about the Cholula wooden cap ("you stupid marble wooden cap!"), while Paul goes off on AirPods, claiming they're cooking people's brains. The duo then dives into fan-submitted "bones," including aggressive dog-petters, clueless coworkers, and doctors laughing in hospitals.   Visit https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/BONE & use code BONE to get $50 in lineups when you play your first $5 lineup!   Join the Patreon at patreon.com/bonetopickcast  

You know those friendships that just get you? The ones where you can talk about the deep, weird, mystical, totally human parts of life — and she just understands without you having to explain? That's what this conversation feels like.   It's been almost a year since my last sit-down with my real-life bestie, Rosie Acosta — and these episodes are always your favorites (and mine too!). Someone messaged me the other day saying, "Your podcast feels like the spiritual sleepover I wish I could be part of." And that's exactly what this episode is.   Rosie and I talk all about how to create — and sustain — friendships that truly stand the test of time. We share how we met (hint: a podcast swap that turned into a lifelong bond), what makes our friendship work through distance and growth, and how we've navigated things like conflict, evolving paths, politics, and even love.   We dive into: