Podcasts about Alif

Omar Waseem, the founder of Alif, a Venture Capitalist firm that supports Muslim businesses and startups. He shares his extraordinary journey from his first business at 12 years of age to becoming a prominent figure in the venture capital world and silicon valley by 21. Omar talks about building Alif, how to build a company, navigating the pitfalls of startup life, the importance of intentionality and ethics in business, and how Islam has been a guiding force in his entrepreneurial endeavors. Join us for an inspiring discussion on ambition, resilience, and the drive to create meaningful change for the Ummah.#business #podcast #muslim *Pomoroi:* https://pomoroi.com/ansari_Mention the podcast for a FREE Consultation_*Human Appeal*_DONATE at:_ https://give.humanappealusa.org/ansaripodcast*Alif Network:* https://www.Alif.build/network-tap*Boycat app:* https://www.boycat.io/_Business Code:_ ANSARI10*Support US @* ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ansaripodcast*Chapters:*00:00 Intro05:43 The Drive Behind Building Companies13:11 A Turning Point: The Car Accident24:01 Common Startup Mistakes28:49 Building Alif31:00 The Doctor Disease41:59 The Power of Tech in Politics45:34 The Work Ethic Needed51:28 Dealing with Burnout53:31 Guilty Pleasures & Hollywood Parties58:32 Muslim Billionaire Role Models01:00:09 Fun Questions01:07:25 Final Thoughts

Dr. Omar Suleiman shares his incredible journey from skepticism to faith, the early days of his da'wah work, and his passion for helping those in pain. He speaks out and advocates for prisoners, the power of social media in da'wah, and the role of art and culture in reviving the Muslim ummah. Don't miss this inspiring discussion that bridges personal stories with larger socio-political issues affecting Muslims today.#omarsuleiman #podcast *Muslim Professionals:* https://www.muslimprofessionals.us/*Pomoroi:* https://pomoroi.com/ansari_Mention the podcast for a FREE Consultation_*Human Appeal*_DONATE at:_ https://give.humanappealusa.org/ansaripodcast*Alif Network:* https://www.Alif.build/network-TAP*Boycat App:* https://www.boycat.io/_Business Code:_ ANSARI10*Support US @* ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/ansaripodcast*Chapters:*00:00 Dr. Omar's Life Journey04:40 Discovering Youtube09:13 Dr. Omar's Vision/Life in Fame15:06 Reviving Muslim Civilization18:02 The Role of Art in Cultural Renaissance21:33 Choosing the Ramadan Series23:58 Political Engagement and Community Responsibility27:56 Challenges of Muslim Entrepreneurs and Artists53:35 Dreams of Companions01:00:57 Final Reflections and Personal Insights

Tajweed Tuesday – The Hidden Sound of Ikhfa!Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh!Welcome back to Be Quranic—it's Tajweed Tuesday! This week, we're diving into Ikhfa, one of the biggest Tajweed rules. We'll also break down the ayat of the week, which is Surah Ar-Rahman, verses 46 to 55. If you missed the recitation, check out Sunday's post!Quick Recap of Past LessonsBefore we get into this week's new rule, let's go over what we've learned so far:• Tajweed is about perfecting our recitation by understanding letter rules and stopping points.• Types of errors:• Major (Lahan Jali) – changes meaning (serious issue!).• Minor (Lahan Khafi) – affects beauty but not meaning.• Mad Asli (natural elongation) – Stretching vowels correctly (Alif, Waw, Ya).• Wajibul Ghunnah – The nasal sound in Nun and Mim Shaddah.• Nun Sakin & Tanwin rules:• Idhar (clear pronunciation) – When Nun meets throat letters.• Idgham (full merging) – When Nun disappears into Yarmaloon letters.• Iqlab (switching sound to Meem) – When Nun Sakin meets Ba.New This Week: Ikhfa – The Half-MergerThis week, we focus on Ikhfa, which literally means “hiding.” It happens when a Nun Sakin or Tanwin meets one of 14 specific letters (not Idgham, not Iqlab, not Idhar).How do you read Ikhfa? Instead of a full merger (where the Nun disappears), you blend the Nun sound into the next letter while shaping your mouth for that letter.Example:• Ikhfa with Fa → Nuhasuffala (your mouth is shaped for “Fa,” but the Nun sound is still present).• Ikhfa with Ta → Tantasiran (your tongue is positioned for “Ta,” but the Nun sound is hidden).• Ikhfa with Sheen → In sha Allah (the Nun sound is softly blended).It's not a full Idgham (merger), but not a clear Idhar either—it's the in-between!Tajweed Breakdown of the AyatAs we recited Surah Ar-Rahman (46–55), we spotted:✅ Ikhfa in action – Nun Sakin blending into letters like Fa, Kaf, Zay, Ta, Sheen.✅ Idhar (clear pronunciation) – When Nun meets a throat letter (e.g., Min Istabraq).✅ Madd rules – Stretching for four harakats where marked.✅ Iqlaab – Small Meem above a Nun Sakin, meaning it turns into a Meem sound.✅ Qalqalah (bouncy letters) – The usual suspects: ق ط ب ج د.Final Thoughts & What's Next?We've now covered all four of the Nun Sakin & Tanwin rules!

Mawlaya Seydi Mouhamed ElCheikh

learn how to write ا (alif)

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh.Welcome to BeQuranic!Today is Tuesday, the 26th of Shaaban, 1446 Hijrah—which means Ramadan is just a few days away! SubhanAllah, we are so close to the blessed month, the month of the Qur'an.And since it's Tajweed Tuesday, let's make the most of these last few days by working on beautifying our Qur'anic recitation. After all, what better way to prepare for Ramadan than by improving the way we connect with the words of Allah?Before we dive into today's lesson, let's do a quick recap of what we've covered so far.Over the past few weeks, we've explored:✅ The meaning of Tajweed – which is all about enhancing our recitation by following the rules of pronunciation, knowing how letters interact with each other, and understanding when to stop and when to continue.✅ Major and minor mistakes in Tajweed – Some mistakes, like switching letters or changing vowels, can actually alter the meaning of the ayah, and we absolutely need to avoid them. Other mistakes, like slight mispronunciations, don't change the meaning, but they still affect the beauty of our recitation.✅ Mad Asli (the foundational elongation) – Remember the golden rule? “Nuhiha” – three letters:• Alif after a Fathah• Waw after a Dhammah• Ya after a KasrahAnd we hold them for two harakat. Simple, right? But crucial, because missing it completely changes the meaning. Like how:

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh!Welcome back to BeQuranic!Alhamdulillah, today is Tuesday, the 12th of Shaaban. Shaaban is a special month, one that Rasulullah ﷺ would fast in more than any other month outside of Ramadan. Why? Because this is the month when our deeds are lifted and presented to Allah annually.We already have our daily presentation of deeds that happens after Fajr and after Asr, which is why Rasulullah ﷺ would dedicate those times for Qur'an recitation and dhikr. Then we have the weekly presentation on Mondays and Thursdays, which is why we are encouraged to fast on those days. Rasulullah ﷺ loved for his deeds to be lifted while he was in the state of worship.And then there's the annual presentation that happens in Shaaban. Saidatuna Aishah رضي الله عنها mentioned that Rasulullah ﷺ fasted the most in Shaaban, apart from Ramadan. And when asked why, he said, “I love for my deeds to be lifted while I am fasting.”Powering Up Our Intentions!Tomorrow is the 13th of Shaaban, which means we are entering the White Days—the 13th, 14th, and 15th of every lunar month, known as Ayyamul Beed (the White Days), because the nights are bright with the full moon.These days are Sunnah to fast in every month except Ramadan, as it is obligatory to fast the whole month. And here's the beautiful thing—you can combine multiple intentions when fasting these days!✅ For Wednesday: Intend to fast for Shaaban and the White Days—you get double the reward.✅ For Thursday: Intend to fast for Shaaban, the White Days, and the Sunnah fast of Thursday—that's triple the reward for one single fast!This is how we multiply our rewards with just one act of worship!Tajweed Tuesday: Let's Get into It!Since today is Tuesday, that means it's Tajweed Tuesday—the day we break down the rules of Qur'anic recitation so we can beautify and perfect our reading.Let's start with the basics of Tajweed before we dive into our practical session with Surah Ar-Rahman.What is Tajweed?The word Tajweed literally means “to beautify”. In the context of Qur'anic recitation, it means:

Pandangan alam, atau worldview, merujuk kepada cara kita melihat realiti kehidupan, menilai, menafsir, dan memaknakan sesuatu sehingga menjadi pegangan hidup. Pandangan ini boleh dipengaruhi oleh budaya, pendidikan, dan juga agama. Namun, apabila berbicara tentang agama, persoalan yang timbul adalah sejauh mana ilmu agama yang dipelajari mempengaruhi pandangan alam kita? Adakah setiap perkara yang berlaku di sekeliling kita dilihat menerusi lensa agama yang kita anuti? Persoalan ini membawa saya kepada satu pengalaman peribadi semasa menziarahi seorang rakan di Turkiye pada musim panas baru-baru ini. Ketika bersama keluarganya, saya berpeluang berbual panjang dengan anak beliau, yang kali terakhir bertemu, beliau masih seorang bayi. Kini beliau seorang pelajar universiti di negara berkenaan. Dalam perbualan kami, timbul topik menarik tentang drama Kübra di Netflix yang baru selesai saya tonton ketika itu. Ia membawa kepada topik filem-filem seram Turkiye di Netflix yang saya teruja dengannya seperti Dabbe: Cin Çarpması. Anak rakan saya menyatakan bahawa elemen-elemen seram dalam filem tersebut hanyalah fiksyen dan semata-mata hiburan. Ini mendorong saya untuk bertanya, bagaimana pula dengan kewujudan jin dan syaitan yang disebut dalam Al-Quran? Adakah kepercayaan terhadap perkara-perkara ghaib ini turut dilihat hanya sebagai elemen fiksyen? Soalan ini menimbulkan kerumitan kepada anak rakan saya kerana beliau tidak pernah merenung isu tersebut secara mendalam. Baginya, perkara-perkara ghaib ini tidak relevan dalam kehidupan sehariannya kerana tidak pernah bertembung dengan situasi yang memerlukan beliau membuat pendirian. Kehidupan moden di kota besar seperti Istanbul terasa begitu jauh dan tiada kaitan dengan hal ehwal jin dan syaitan ini. Penerokaan topik berkenaan mendorong beliau membuat pengakuan terbuka bahawa pemahamannya hanya terbentuk melalui filem dan drama, yang kebanyakannya dihasilkan oleh budaya luar. Beliau ada masalah untuk melihat dirinya sebagai Muslim, di tahun 2024, dan percaya kepada benda-benda ghaib sebegini. Budaya dan Perbincangan tentang Alam Ghaib Saya menyedari bahawa di Nusantara, topik tentang hantu, jin, dan alam ghaib sering menjadi perbualan biasa kita sejak kecil hingga dewasa. Kita dengan mudah membezakan antara hantu dalam budaya tempatan seperti hantu galah atau hantu raya dengan makhluk ghaib seperti jin, syaitan, dan malaikat yang disebut dalam Al-Quran. Namun, saya tidak pernah berbicara tentang hal ini bersama rakan-rakan dari Turkiye. Adakah mereka mempunyai versi “hantu” tersendiri dalam budaya mereka? Persoalan ini membawa kepada refleksi lebih mendalam tentang bagaimana pandangan alam kita, terutama kepercayaan terhadap perkara-perkara ghaib, dipengaruhi oleh agama. Sebagai Muslim, Al-Quran sejak awal lagi, seperti dalam surah Al-Baqarah, menegaskan bahawa orang-orang yang bertakwa adalah mereka yang beriman kepada perkara-perkara ghaib. “Alif, Lam, Mim. Itulah al-Kitab yang tidak ada sebarang keraguan di dalamnya, petunjuk buat orang-orang yang bertakwa. Iaitu golongan yang beriman dengan perkara-perkara ghaib, yang mendirikan solat, dan yang menafkahkan apa yang Kami rezekikan buat mereka…” (al-Baqarah 2: 1-3) Jin dan Syaitan, adalah sebahagian daripada perkara ghaib, dan sebahagian daripada perkara yang dinyatakan secara jelas dan spesifik di dalam al-Quran dan al-Sunnah. Di mana posisi jin dan syaitan dalam kepercayaan kita, semalam melayan ‘hantu' di dalam filem-filem seram? Di mana batas yang membezakan antara fiksyen dengan hakikat kebearan? Sejauh mana kepercayaan ini diteroka dan diaplikasikan dalam kehidupan kita? Artikel penuh di https://saifulislam.com/2024/12/jin-turkiye-dan-krisis-pandangan-alam-kita-sebagai-muslim/ https://gofundme.hasrizal.com

Empezamos el programa con Cultura Rápida y las últimas noticias acontecidas del día. Nos ha visitado el presentador de televisión Jordi Cruz en Actualidad Mal. Hemos recordado con él su etapa como presentador de Art Attack y hemos intentado hacer una manualidad con él. Entrevistamos a María Trénor, la directora de la película de animación 'Rock Bottom'. Inspirada en la música y la vida de Robert Wyatt, baterista de Soft Machine. 'Rock Bottom' es una historia de amor autodestructivo entre Bob y Alif, una joven pareja de artistas inmersos en la vorágine creativa y rompedora de la cultura hippy de principios de los 70.Y acabamos con Barra Libre de Aloma Rodríguez. Dónde hoy hemos entrevistado a Natalia García Freire para hablar de su libro 'La máquina de hacer pájaros', una complicación de cuentos relacionados con el terror que de alguna manera conversan entre ellos.Escuchar audio

Entrevistamos a Maria Trénor, la directora de la película de animación 'Rock Bottom'. Inspirada en la música y la vida de Robert Wyatt, baterista de Soft Machine. 'Rock Bottom' es una historia de amor autodestructivo entre Bob y Alif, una joven pareja de artistas inmersos en la vorágine creativa y rompedora de la cultura hippy de principios de los 70.Escuchar audio

Should young people be talking about - and planning for - their deaths? Synopsis: The Usual Place host Natasha Ann Zachariah hunts for new perspectives on issues that matter to young people. In this episode of The Usual Place, three millennials under 35 get candid about mortality and what changed their perspectives on death.Ho Hui Sze, 30, a counselling psychologist and host of Being With Grief podcast, G. Kethlyn Gayatiri, 32, a freelance educator, and Muhammad Alif, 28, a financial advisor and content creator, are no strangers to talking about death. They feature on Let's Talk About Death - a five-episode docuseries by The Straits Times, which premiered on Oct 23, 2024. From choosing a casket to protecting their passwords for their online accounts, each of them explores different aspects of end-of-life planning and dying well.Kethlyn is filmed in Episode 2 with her mother, Irene Koh, while Alif appears with his wife Liyana (@financewithliyandlif), in Episode 4. As for Hui Sze(@beingwith.grief), she chooses to memorialise her own bedroom in Episode 5. Natasha wants to find out how discussing death can be liberating, the misconceptions that often come up when planning for death, and how thinking about dying has made them live life differently. Highlights (click/tap above): 1:36 What made these millennials change their perspective of death?6:16 Hui Sze talks about the pain of death and the gifts of grief17:19 What if I die first? Kethlyn recounts talking to her mother 23:12 Alif gets emotional when creating his will - his “last love letter”31:25 A ‘Dabao Kit' and and Death Cafes to talk about death39:32 How has talking about death made them live life differently?Follow Natasha on her IG account and DM her your thoughts on this topic: https://str.sg/8WavHost: Natasha Zachariah (natashaz@sph.com.sg)Read Natasha's articles: https://str.sg/iSXmFollow Natasha on LinkedIn: https://str.sg/v6DN Filmed by: Studio+65 Edited by ST Podcast producers: Eden Soh & Teo Tong Kai Executive producers: Ernest Luis & Lynda Hong Follow The Usual Place Podcast here and get notified for new episode drops: Channel: https://str.sg/5nfm Apple Podcasts: https://str.sg/9ijX Spotify: https://str.sg/cd2P YouTube: https://str.sg/wEr7u Feedback to: podcast@sph.com.sg --- Follow more ST podcast channels: All-in-one ST Podcasts channel: https://str.sg/wvz7 ST Podcast website: http://str.sg/stpodcasts ST Podcasts YouTube: https://str.sg/4Vwsa --- Get The Straits Times' app, which has a dedicated podcast player section: The App Store: https://str.sg/icyB Google Play: https://str.sg/icyX #tup #tuptrSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

(00:00) Negation Forms: Different forms and usage of negation in Arabic. (Nafi ke Sighay)(10:10) Vowels (Waaw, Alif, Yaa (Huroof-e-Illat), Hamzah, Ek Jaise Do Haroof)(20:09) Relative Pronouns: Usage and forms of pronouns that connect clauses. (Asma-e-Mawsoolat)(26:06) Ism-e-Mubaligha: The noun of exaggeration. (Ism-e-Mubaligha) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Pj Gubernur Riau SF Hariyanto, mengunjungi Pondok Pesantren Modern Nur Alif di Lirik, Indragiri Hulu. Dalam lawatannya itu, para santri dan ustaz mendoakan SF Hariyanto agar senantiasa dipermudah jalannya untuk menjadi Gubernur Riau definitif

This episode is full of crunchy chicken ASMR. This isn't your typical fried chicken fare - it's even more finger-lickin' good, found in the heart of West Philly. We've got an exciting lineup of Best Bites, and a ton of events and pop-ups to fill your calendar. (00:00) Dave took a trip to the Fancy Food Expo, and Philly was well represented! (04:59) White meat, dark meat or vegan meat? (06:46) Mabruka Kane joins us in studio. She and her sister Hayat Ali serve up Ethiopian-inspired fried chicken at Doro Bet in Philly. Not only does it have that perfect crunch, it's gluten free, too. She tells us the secret ingredient in this heavenly chicken coating (12:35) Mabruka tells us about her journey from growing up in Ethiopia to meeting her husband while working in hospitality, and later opening three restaurants in three years here in Philadelphia, starting in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. She tells us about how opening the first spot, Alif, was a family affair, and led the way for Salam Cafe and Doro Bet (38:18) In It to Win It: We're giving away $100 to dine at Morea, thanks to Center City SIPS! (42:17) Save the date: we're talking about ‘The Bear' on the podcast later this month, so send us your thoughts and questions about the show (and how it relates to real kitchens) on Instagram: @deliciouscitypodcast (48:15) Best Bites include the Bolo anniversary dinner, a tribute to Le Bec Fin, hot and cold crab, and rooftop oysters for a good cause (57:07) There's a ton of foodie events to satisfy your summer appetite. We'll celebrate Christmas in July, Bastille Day, and Mebruka tells us about a pop-up happening at Doro Bet… and much more! And of course, we could not do this without our amazing partners who are as passionate about food and drink as we are: For the most tasty, healthy, and satisfying salads and noodle dishes in Philly, click here to order Honeygrow If your restaurant or company wants to be in the headlines for all the right reasons, click here to discover how Peter Breslow Consulting and PR can take your business to the next level Social media and digital content are two of the most important things you can create for your brand. Check out Breakdown Media, a one stop shop for all of your marketing needs. Connect with us on Instagram and, of course, share your eating adventures with us, as well as tag us in your posts so we can talk about them on air!

1. Synthetic cage vs. allo/autograft in ACDF. 2. Unplanned re-operation in Adult Spinal Deformity surgery. 3. ALIF vs TLIF at L5-S1. 4. Spinal Cord Shape and Intra-operative Neuromonitoring

From Surah Al-Fatiha Verse 1 to Surah Al-Baqarah Verse 141

Summary   Ron Gura, the co-founder and CEO of Empathy joins us today on our show. Empathy aims to provide support and guidance to individuals who have lost a loved one, helping them navigate the administrative and emotional aspects of the process. He shares his personal journey and the inspiration behind starting Empathy. The conversation delves into the workflow and touchpoints of Empathy's services, the co-branded experience for carriers and producers, and the impact of Empathy's services on claimants. The episode concludes with a discussion on breaking the taboo around death and the value of experience over product in the insurance industry.   Takeaways   Empathy is a company that provides support and guidance to individuals who have lost a loved one, helping them navigate the administrative and emotional aspects of the process. The taboo around death and loss needs to be broken, and conversations about mortality and end-of-life planning should be encouraged. Empathy offers a co-branded experience for carriers and producers, allowing them to provide personalized support and resources to their policyholders and beneficiaries. Having conversations about death and end-of-life planning is essential, and individuals should take the time to discuss their wishes and make necessary arrangements with their loved ones. Experience and support are more important than the product itself in the insurance industry, and companies should focus on delivering a positive customer experience throughout the claims process.   Chapters   00:00 Introduction and Weather Update 01:03 The Importance of Life Insurance Claims 02:07 Introduction of Guest: Ron Gura, Co-founder and CEO at Empathy 03:06 The Taboo Topic of Death and Empathy's Mission 04:12 Ron Gura's Background and Journey to Empathy 06:26 The Impact of Personal Loss on Ron Gura's Mission 08:25 The Need for Conversations About Loss and Death 10:04 The Workflow and Touchpoints of Empathy's Services 11:25 The Co-branded Experience for Carriers and Agents 13:26 The Administrative Support Provided by Empathy 15:44 The Impact of Empathy's Services on Claimants 17:44 The Logistics and Timing of Introducing Further Business Relationships 19:02 The Importance of Breaking the Taboo Around Death 23:20 The Value of Experience Over Product in the Insurance Industry 31:10 The Right Time and Approach to Introduce Further Business Relationships 35:12 Closing Thoughts and Advice on Having Conversations About Death 38:33 Conclusion and Call to Action     Paul Tyler (00:03.303) Hi, this is Paul Tyler and welcome to another episode of That Annuity Show. Bruno, how are you? Good. Coming in clear from Canada. This is great today. Yeah. Tisa, how are you?   Bruno Caron (00:09.152) I'm very good, thank you Paul.   Bruno Caron (00:13.94) Always happy to be here.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (00:18.474) We've got snow here in the Connecticut area, but snow day, but doing good.   Paul Tyler (00:22.459) Indeed, indeed we do. Ramsey, it's the first time it snowed in forever. You missed it.   Ramsey Smith (00:27.473) Yeah, I think we sent it your way. It was raining like crazy here for a couple days, but now the sun's just coming out, so yeah, you're welcome.   Paul Tyler (00:34.003) All right, well good. Hey listen, we got a really interesting episode with a great guest today, just to sort of connect the dots with some of our previous shows. What's the most important thing about life insurance? It's gotta be claims, right? That's at the end of the day, what we're doing is paying checks or income payments or death claims and there's no more sort of fundamental purpose in our business, yet it's a hard one to, it's hard to do right.   You know, TISA, we've had a couple of conversations, right, with people who've explained how it can be disruptive in terms of cross-generational relationships, right? Yeah, so today we have somebody who's actually trying to fix that. It's Ron Gura. Ron, I hope I pronounced your name correctly, co-founder and CEO at Empathy. Thank you so much for joining us today.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (01:11.073) Absolutely. Yeah.   Ron Gura (01:26.154) great to be here. I always dreamed about being on a podcast with the word nudity and now I'm... look at my eye. I made it.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (01:34.967) Hahaha   Ramsey Smith (01:35.961) Oh dude, all right.   Bruno Caron (01:36.) Today's your day.   Paul Tyler (01:37.441) Today it is, you know. SEO is going to go through the rough. SEO will go through the rough here.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (01:40.098) Dreams come true.   Ron Gura (01:43.682) Absolutely. I'm excited to be here and eventually talk about just that, that big moment of truth. That's what a claim really is, right? It's a premise. It's more than just financial peace of mind. What else happens? So that's where we come in and excited to talk about that and what's happening in life insurance.   Paul Tyler (01:52.697) Yeah.   Paul Tyler (02:07.375) Yeah, well this is great. So, well first off, tell people like, you know, what is empathy and what does your company do?   Ron Gura (02:14.102) Sure thing. So empathy is primarily the friend you wish you had when you lose a loved one. That's how I'd love people to really think about it. It's not just a friend, it's that knowledgeable neighbor that happens to be an ex-state lawyer, but now maybe also a social worker. And it's really, really experienced with...   winding down the affairs of a loved one, but also helping you get back on your feet again. That's really what we're trying to do here, save people, families, time and money and stress when the inevitable happens. As you know, Paul better than most, it happens. It doesn't escape any of us. It's the inescapable truth, but at the same time, it's the single largest consumer sector that is, for some reason, untouched. Untouched by innovation.   untouched by technology, unspoiled by software really. And I think we can all agree the reason it's untouched is not some regulatory barrier or technology barrier. It's just us, us here on the call as humans, trying really hard, so hard, not to think about us, not to contemplate our own self-mortality.   And we believe here at Empathy that like any other taboo topic, this one should be broken down as well. And if we put the right technology in place with the right amount of human touch, we can really change the market and empower people during what we believe is life's most challenging moments.   Ramsey Smith (03:55.041) So tell us a little bit about your journey. You've touched a lot of different areas, the innovation space, various startups. Tell us about how that journey informs your approach to empathy.   Ron Gura (04:12.642) So yeah, I'm a consumer internet person. I'm not a life insurance expert. I play my ignorance for what it's worth and get to be the outsider in a lot of meetings asking funky questions like, hey, didn't that claimant beneficiary who just called you, he's not a good lead. Like, isn't that an adult child, stranger, who's not your customer?   calling you, giving you all of his information, all of his data, chasing you again, giving you more data, telling you he's at need, need money, money you know you have, money you know he's gonna get in a few weeks, big liquidity event, bigger than probably any other big event he's gonna have.   And what are you going to do? Like you're going to do what? You're going to send him the check and do more Superbowl ads? The guy's right here. So a glass of wine as you wait for your table is really how I look at this from an outsider view. Like, what's going on? Isn't this weird that the only industry within insurance   where the beneficiary is not the policyholder, technically, is not, people don't think about it. Of course, if a PNC claim, that's a renewal moment. Like someone's gonna give you really good service. And don't get me wrong, paying effectively and accurately and with sympathies is good service. And a lot of carriers, I think have their...   They wear their heart on their sleeves and they're trying to do good in this neutral negative event. But long story short, it's not enough. From a background standpoint, that's me. I'm a consumer intent person. I've been going in and out from startups that usually I get to start myself as a naive person. I get to wear my pink rose glasses all the time.   Ron Gura (06:26.278) And in and out from bigger companies, I had the chance to have meaningful executive roles at eBay and PayPal and WeWork, and always very much focused on the product and the consumer. In terms of what led me to this, I think, well, nobody starts an end-of-life company without having their fair share of loss. I had my fair share of loss, definitely. I can share with you that...   while probably not the final trigger, definitely the earliest one was losing my brother at an early age, Amir, that completely changed family dynamics. My single mom with three opinionated, well, playful boys, over energetic Israeli boys, who...   Ron Gura (07:28.274) grew up in Haifa, north of Israel. And my brother, Amir, my middle brother, was diagnosed with a very severe and aggressive type of cancer. And after he passed away, I vividly remember one Saturday morning, my mom literally taking a lock, key and locking his door, which remained locked for the next 15 years.   and was a very vivid and clear representation and reminder of what happened. And also how we're shutting it down, not to be talked about in many ways. With no complaints on my mom's side here, but... It's the first time I understood nobody wants to talk about loss. Well, kids usually get up from watching Lion King for the first time.   Bruno Caron (08:25.584) Thanks for watching!   Ramsey Smith (08:26.587) Mm-hmm.   Ron Gura (08:26.947) and kind of losing their faith in humanity, lions and uncles at the same time. But they have a lot of questions. Kids, I got two daughters myself now, Tom and Danny, and nine and six years old. They ask a lot of questions and sometimes after Disney movies, they do ask me questions about mortality and life and death and they kind of move on. But I didn't.   I made my mom's life very difficult. I've been asking questions again and again and again. And then I had more loss, friends, colleagues, natural loss, even friends from the army. But it was actually only after eBay acquired my first startup, the GIFS project, and I was a young product director at eBay, one of my employees lost his wife to cancer.   and I showed up in an apartment in Milpitas, San Jose.   Knowing that I don't know what to expect, knowing that it's going to be very different than my community, my religion, my experience, but didn't know how different. He was by himself with a suit, shaved, doing probate paperwork, asking me about when do I need him back. That was really a big aha moment for me. That was when I took my black notebook and said, oh.   That's weird. Like, why don't we have anything for this? Like we need headspace for grief, but we really need toolable tax for a state settlement. And we kind of need both. And we kind of can't decouple the two. Grief is made hard by logistics. Logistics are made harder by grief. And I don't get the luxury of choosing one of them and say, I'll do a FinTech product that is only pre-filling your probate stuff. That's...   Ron Gura (10:33.142) It's not going to be something people want to talk about or use such an emotional period. So long story short, three and a half years ago, my co-founder and I, Jan, we started Empathy. We're now 80 people between New York headquarters and Tel Aviv R&D Center. We have $48 million in venture capital from 2.1 folks like General Catalyst, Alif, Entree, and others.   We work with MetLife, New York Life, Guardian, many other, dozens of other carriers, dozens of big employers, progressive employers who want to show up for their teams. And what I think we're doing more than anything else is putting a spotlight on this taboo topic and creating hopefully a very empowering workflow of continuity of care.   Paul Tyler (11:25.115) Maybe talk to us a little bit about the workflow. You know, we have people who listen who are, some people on the group side, we've got some people on the individual side, of course, we always look at it from our own lens, right? At the end of the day, it's a person. Stuff for the loss is getting checked. Maybe talk about the customers on either end. Like if I'm a, you know, I've got an employee and I've had a policy, or I guess my loved one was an employee and I've got a policy check or I'm a beneficiary. How does that workflow?   Ron Gura (11:36.75) Mm-hmm.   Paul Tyler (11:54.515) feel to a person who's a beneficiary.   Ron Gura (11:58.478) So the tiny differences. The differences would mostly be on the touch points. We do a no-code, simple implementation. We learned the hard way that the one thing that is more expensive to carriers than money is IT resources. I think that's a big lesson for us. And since we got that, we shifted to a no-code implementation and added more than 14 carriers in 14 months.   And that was a big aha moment for us and what drove a lot of our Forex growth in 2023. We add a few multifaceted simple touch points. For example, the script on that call, sorry for a loss, but we're not going anywhere. That insert on the brochure on the snail mail with the QR code, hey, if you need anything at all, scan this.   Email that says, number one, we got your claim. Number two, you're eligible for 24-7, bereavement care. So these simple touch points didn't require any data transfer. We don't need to know the social security. We don't need to know the face value. We don't want to know if Ms. Jones was rich or poor. We want to democratize access for grief in the state administration. So when you think about group and individual, it's just those touch points that are slightly different.   the bereaved next of kin, who cares? Like they're dealing with so much, who cares if they got the policy from, you know, New York Life GBS or New York Life individual. It's group or individual, you still have probate, funeral, grief, sleep support, mood tracking, social security, IRA, deactivation of social media, deactivation of accounts, banks.   selling the property, fighting with your sister, doing a state tax, thinking about identity theft, and you know, just 50 other topics from veteran administration all the way to IRAs. So when someone passes away, it's overwhelming. We publish every January the cost of dying report to create more awareness.   Ron Gura (14:23.026) on the full implications on us as individuals and as a society for the employer cost, the financial cost, the emotional cost. You can see that on empathy.com. And it's 50 pages of infographics that are basically showing us it's more than a year of work to wind down the affairs of a loved one on average. It's more than 400 hours of direct work. Of course, from a group standpoint.   Of course your employee has a second job, he can't bring his whole self back to work. Of course from an individualized standpoint, that glass of wine as you wait for your table makes a lot of sense when you are thinking about generational loyalty and asset retention and NPS because what other moment of truth do you have that is bigger than someone calling in and saying, I lost a loved one?   Where is my money? Of course, of course you need to have the money ready. That's the 90%. I, life insurance is still about financial protection, but people expect much more and we hope they will. I hope they will continue to expect much more. Right now, one out of seven claimants in the U S is getting more from empathy.   Ramsey Smith (15:44.821) So is it, is the solution, I don't want to call it a product, because that doesn't give it the right name, but the experience, let's call it the experience. Is it branded according to the carriers? Is it branded as empathy? So is it white label or is it, are the carriers able to carry their own brand?   Ron Gura (16:05.462) So it's both. It's a co-branded experience. Just give you a quick example if you're already on video. So I'm going to pop my Empathy app. And one of our carriers is going to pop as a covered by. And then inside the experience, you're going to have both the digital app. You're going to have your care team service element 24-7, especially social workers and more that are available for discussion.   Ramsey Smith (16:21.344) Yep.   Ron Gura (16:35.106) You're going to have other places where you understand this is coming from this carrier specifically. And can even create a lead back to them at the right time in the least intrusive way possible. The exact opposite from an agent calling after the loss and say, hey, what about you? This is actually about first thing and first thing first, cementing.   trust in showing up. First let me save you some time in money and stress.   First, let me offer you a glass of wine. Then let's check what's going on with the table. First, make sure that you got what you need right now. If that's funeral comparison, if that's estate tax, if that's cleaning the property. Whatever advice or support you need, you got it. Then when you're ready to talk about your financial legacy, your family.   Of course, the same carrier that sent you to empathy would love to continue that conversation with you. And why not?   Ramsey Smith (17:44.737) So how much of the logistics? So there's the, obviously there's the, there's a psychological element of it, but of all the long list of logistical hurdles you have to go through that you mentioned before, how many of those are you providing sort of specific intervention on to make those steps easier?   Ron Gura (18:03.638) I'd say it's half of what we do. We do the filing for petition for probate. We do the preparing for the house for vacancy. We close and deactivate accounts and cancel subscription. We give you a dedicated personal care plan that is personalized for you, Arizona or New Jersey, five siblings or none, Jewish or Muslim, executor or not.   We help with the eulogy, with the obituary, the funeral, the debts, the notifications of loss, the social security, the IRAs, the purchasing of a headstone all the way to the bonds, the credit bureaus. So it's a long list of tens of items in the administrative side, probably hundred something items that you need help with. Every one of them could be quickly five other items. So we don't just tell you what to do.   We actually do it for you and with you.   Ramsey Smith (19:01.417) Got it.   Paul Tyler (19:02.131) Tisa, could you have used this?   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (19:05.874) Yes, so I experienced a significant loss in August of 2021. As a middle-aged adult, it was my first major loss, so I'm grateful for that. But because it was my first major loss, it was a long process. So I think it took two and a half years. We just closed probate.   We just did. I don't know, what's this? This is February. Maybe it was right before Christmas. So as I'm listening to you speak, Ron, I'm thinking through all of it feels very real. I guess I have a couple of follow-up questions. One of my questions was, I heard you say bereavement care, I think is what you said. So I wanted to dig into a little bit of the services under that umbrella, but I think you probably just spoke about that a little bit.   I guess I'm curious looking at the mobile app that you showed that is claimant or beneficiary focused. What are the resources or what is the version of that app, if any, look like for the agent? What sort of support or guide or talk track are you giving to the agent so that they can handle that claim experience differently? Say the things differently, do the things differently to still cultivate the lead, but in...   you know, in that way that's not intrusive, to use your word, and in a way that sort of shifts their thinking about the opportunity in that moment of truth. You could talk a little bit.   Ron Gura (20:42.127) First thing, I'm sorry to hear about your loss and the process that you're going through and two and a half years in. It might feel like a lot of time to do the administration, but it's actually very normal on the executor side. Like when we're talking about 18 months average, it's...   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (20:57.687) Get coming.   Ron Gura (21:04.53) including a lot of folks that are not the official executor. Once you are and you're actually going through probate, two years plus is very regular in the US, unfortunately. And well, I do.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (21:17.95) In particular, when everyone lives in different states where they grew up. Don't cross the state line because that adds, you know, months, years.   Ron Gura (21:26.294) that's also not very rare in the United States. And just even having one piece of property in Arizona and a motorcycle in New Jersey, that's it. You're going through a whole new fun process and we help refill that. So on your questions, first, bereavement care is really the emotional side of everything we do. So there's really just the two halves that I was mentioning before. And on the...   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (21:29.689) Yeah.   Ron Gura (21:55.826) emotional side, I would split it also into the product and the service. The product would be everything you would imagine a wellness app to do in 2024, but tailored for grief. So grief coaching.   grief meditation, grief music, audios, podcasts, videos, thousands of articles about any topic from as small as how do I tell the kids all the way to a specific probate petition in New York City. So that would be mood tracking and sleep support. And of course,   a lot of self-reflections and healing. At the same time, anything the app can do just yet, or if you need anything, 24-7 bereavement care with our care managers. That could be 2 a.m., can't fall asleep, or it could be middle of your workday when you ran out of a conference room to cry in the bathroom because you feel guilty. You call us, we take those calls.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (22:54.623) Mm-hmm.   Paul Tyler (23:10.535) Wow. Well, you know, maybe...   Ron Gura (23:10.826) You can chat on the app, you can talk on the phone. We're always there. You're never alone when you have empathy.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (23:11.478) Yeah, it's.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (23:18.652) That's very comprehensive.   Paul Tyler (23:20.999) Yeah, it is. And, you know, just double clicking on something you said, you know, because we do have a lot of distributors and stuff on the line. You said, Oh, you kind of like insert the opportunity for an agent to actually help somebody through the financial process at the right time. I like to understand that a little more just to give you my backstory. I worked at MetLife when that was, you know, actually had a retail division, you know, it was, and we had a whole program called Delivering the Promise, which was delivering the death claim check.   You know, two observations there. One is any agent who actually gets to deliver a death claim check will be an agent for life. That is a transformative experience. I think a lot of agents are selling the product. You never actually get to see the product getting used. And those who are lucky enough to actually see this, it was a huge, a huge, a huge event in their life to deliver that and see, see the product actually works. Um, now to flip that side, it was also very.   competitive process because as you said, it's a massive event financially for somebody. A lot of big liquidity event, maybe one of the biggest ones they'll have in their lives. How do you do this appropriately? Now, we screened agents. This is not something you just sort of drew a number for. You had to get approved. You had to go through a coaching process. You had to learn how to do this. Talk to us about how and when do you digitally   start that conversation. You know, when, to T's point, is it month, you know, I think this is horrible, month 15 or is it month 16 or is it something that happened along the way that you've, that say, okay, now's the right time to do that.   Ron Gura (24:51.639) Mm-hmm.   Ron Gura (25:05.486) So first thing I can tell you that while Midlife did decouple from the retail business, they still deliver on the promise and they do it on the group side. I got to know the organization very closely and the way they show up for their national accounts and employers and support the next of kin of the employees is very, very unique, very efficient and I think very comprehensive.   And when that happens, it's really no different, like I said, between an individual and a group. You are still going through all of this, even if your loved one was a Nike employee or a Google employee, or never was a freelancer and never had a group life. It's still a loss of a loved one. From the agent perspective...   The shortest explanation I can give in probably a good summary of everything we do here is taking a transaction and shifting into our relationship. That's really what this is about. We have this massive multi-trillion dollar industry that is intermediated, that is lacking engagement. It's kind of, you know, you have such amazing retention.   relatively speaking to SaaS products, but you don't really have any meaningful engagement with the policyholder. And even on the agent side, let's take a classic agents of business, probably 200 years old, some big mutual in the US, and 10,000, 20,000 agents, whatever the number are gonna be, still 70% of the claimants are gonna be unassigned.   or how the industry likes to call them, but I don't, orphans, orphan claims. 70%, that's the number. We have a pretty good umbrella view on the entire industry of seven-digit volume of claims every year. Not even the largest carriers in the United States have seven digits in claim volume. I can tell you, even if you did the absolute best job as an agent...   Ron Gura (27:24.446) The chances of my dad's agent to still be in business practicing when my dad passed away, just not likely. High net worth individuals, of course, different mechanics here, different physics, people make different efforts for obvious reasons. And while we don't differentiate, the market does. And you'll see.   people spend more time about generation loyalty and getting to know the son or the daughter. However, at the end of the day, agents are about top line. Agents are about my next deal. And talking to the Barret family, showing compassion, it's a part of the job, but it's not my training. It's not something...   I'm uniquely positioned to do outside of the fact that I've seen it before. And my admin or myself are going to shift them to the claim center. Maybe have some extra layer of care like, Hey, how's it going? Do you need anything else? But it's there's a claim center. That's what's going to happen. What we do is we, when there's an agent involved on the 30%, we do everything around the agent. Agents are the heroes. So John Smith.   is sending empathy to Mrs. Jones.   and everything is coming from him. If it's automated or not, he decides, he can send something every month. Every time, hey, I see you're making some progress on the will, on the probate, do you need help with this? And provide just a series of emails that are coming branded from the agent. That's a big help for people.   Ron Gura (29:21.234) And I think the industry is aligned. And when there is an agent involved, you want to go for the agent. And we have a back office for them. To your question, Tis, this is what we do. I showed you a little bit of the consumer app, of course. But there is a whole different system for agents. They can add a phone number and one click.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:34.151) Yeah.   Ron Gura (29:41.942) They get the whole experience co-branded agent front and center. There's even a letter from the agent waiting in there. So putting the agent's front and center is, is very important.   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (29:55.222) That's great. It helps them build that relationship you talked about.   Ramsey Smith (29:59.285) I mean, there's so many sort of interesting time-related issues to this sort of customer journey, right? So, Paul, you talked about delivering the promise. So the first time gap is between the point of sale and the claim, which things change, maybe the agent's not in the business anymore. All right, so then you have the claim, very important point of delivering the promise, right? But everything else that you're talking about, Ron,   around bereavement and settling the estate. And then at some point being ready for some further business relationship is essentially undefined, right? Ahead of time, you know, at T zero, it's undefined. And it could take months or weeks or years. And so that's a very interesting sort of part of the experience and how you manage it, how you figure out when it's time and when it's time, to whom do you send that?   Who ultimately gets that lead? Does it go back to the company? Does it go back to the same agent or that agent has gone to somebody else? Like how does, what is the path for the further business relationship down the road?   Ron Gura (31:10.358) So the last part is actually the easiest, right? Like the company defines if they want everyone to go to a central location, a phone, a digital form, easy to enhance and customize. It's within our three weeks implementation period. That's the easy part. But figuring out what and when to say to the beneficiary in order to put this in front of them, but not selling them.   Ramsey Smith (31:13.213) Yeah.   Ramsey Smith (31:18.963) Yeah.   Ramsey Smith (31:22.206) Mm-hmm.   Yeah.   Ron Gura (31:39.382) is really important. So I won't share exactly our unique data around when to surface what, but I will tell you that if someone is a few months in, it's not a secret that they're starting to think about the fact that, well, I'm next. There's a reason why 33% of the wheels that people buy   Ramsey Smith (31:41.249) It's very hard.   Ron Gura (32:08.626) are after the loss of a loved one, usually a parent. It's that clear generational movement that people comprehend. And we wanna surface that at the right time, in the right place. People are understanding the implications of not having those sensible conversations with their loved one just a few weeks and months ago.   They understand even if they had a will, even if they had insurance, they didn't have the iPhone password. They don't know what to do with the dog. They're not sure what's, you know, you prefer cremation or not. They didn't have these conversations. And now they're thinking, you know what? I want to have all this information in place for my kid. They also get big check and they have liquidity and they're well positioned to now.   make a big purchase like life insurance and a big commitment. And they kind of understand like that their best position to understand the value of this industry because they get that check. And just like Paul said, an agent that delivered a check, understand the value, a beneficiary that received the check, understand what life insurance is. Until then it's a financial tool.   Ramsey Smith (33:09.511) Yep.   Ron Gura (33:34.374) And for us, it's really important to surface that at the right time. People are reading. We have far more data points than an agent sitting at their office thinking, should I call me Jones today or tomorrow? It's been two months or three months.   Ron Gura (33:52.794) we see what's going on and what state of mind she is and what can really add value to Ms. Jones. We will never do anything that is not 100% aligned with the beneficiary's best interest. I think if we do that once, we don't have a justification in this end of life category. And every employee that on board here at Empathy, that's the first thing they read on their.   Onboarding, if we lose track of our mission to help families deal with loss, we're just as good as the next predatory funeral home chain. Just another person trying to sell people something. But if we first and foremost say, wait, is this saving time and money and stress? Is this a good offer? Is this a good brand? Is this what the beneficiary wants to hear right now? Is this going to find its empowering?   to get support on probate. They're going to find it empowering to get an agent, call them and say, hey, here are your options in terms of your proceeds. Or maybe it's not the right time for that, and they're right now dealing with something very different. We know that. We're best positioned to know that more than the carrier, the agent, or any advisor.   Paul Tyler (35:10.471) Bruno, what are your thoughts?   Bruno Caron (35:12.349) Well, I was wondering, I mean, do you have any advice or any kind of a low hanging fruits, easy things people can do to save, to save significant amount of time when those things happen?   Ron Gura (35:31.882) Well, estate planning as a whole is something that pretty much 70% of Americans don't do. I can't say that's a low-hanging fruit. The folks that say it is, I would not necessarily trust them.   People that say, oh, five minute and you're gone, easy, fast, affordable. Wills and trusts and guardianship documents should not be fast and affordable. They should be thoughtful. You should be thinking about your hierarchy of values. You should be opening a bottle of wine with your significant other and asking you some really tough questions about who's going to raise the kids. Uh, however, even without proper documentation, having the conversation is a lot, talking with your parents is a lot.   Sometimes they will start talking back if you bring this up, but people don't wanna talk about mortality. So the longing fruit is break the taboo. Nothing to be ashamed of. This is literally like sex education in the 50s. Like just the fact that we are running away from it doesn't mean it's not a thing and people don't wanna, and need the support and advice.   Paul Tyler (36:41.799) Break the taboo. I think we've got a title for our podcast here. Tisa, do you think that works?   Tisa Rabun-Marshall (36:46.134) Absolutely. That's a note to end on, or start to end on. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I couldn't agree with you more. The loss I referenced a few minutes ago is exactly that. Thankfully, I had everything, my father had everything lined up, but it was the aha moment that like, ooh, I'm a parent. I probably need to do something, so if something, you know, so that the same experience could be for my child.   That is absolutely the reaction of getting your own affairs in order when you either probably witness a loved one not having their affairs in order and the impact it has to you or having them in order and the impact that has to you, you know how much harder it could have been without things in place. So I totally agree with you there. And I think it's just the conversation, setting the expectations, making those wishes known. They are hard conversations to have.   having to ask my 14 year old who you want to be with if mommy's not here. Who you know, I mean my heart's like pounding right now even saying that again. But it's necessary. And I think on the fight, it's kind of a similar like topics that are off limits, right? Like politics, religion, money.   Death. So, we shy away from having the conversations. They're uncomfortable sometimes and we have differing values. But I think to your point, like for your question of low hanging fruit and wrong, your answer of one of the easiest things, yet hardest things to do is to have a conversation and start to talk about things. So I appreciate that advice. I hope it resonates with our listeners.   Paul Tyler (38:06.175) Death.   Paul Tyler (38:29.148) Yeah, Ramsey.   Paul Tyler (38:33.482) Oh, sorry.   Ramsey Smith (38:37.717) Sorry, I was on mute. So I've long been of the view that if there were a simple mathematical formula for the opportunity set in the insurance space, it would be experience greater than product, just that. Like that is the direction that I think in all sectors of our industry, whether it's.   Ron Gura (38:50.263) Mm-hmm.   Ron Gura (38:57.526) Beautiful.   Ramsey Smith (38:58.301) with life, whether it's life, PNC, et cetera, that is where the greatest opportunity lies, both in terms of having happy customers for our existing businesses, but also to be able to extend our businesses into other areas. And Ron, you started out talking about just how you have this interesting situation in like in insurtech generally, what ends up being the problem that blows up a lot of new companies is that they...   their customer acquisition is too high, right? Then you have incumbents that have really deep relationships, even if they're not really worked on explicitly, but there's these really deep relationships of trust that exist. There's people that are under the tent and depend on you, and I think there's great opportunity to expand those relationships over time if done properly.   Paul Tyler (39:52.255) Yeah. Hey, Ron, listen, thanks so much for your time. I think what you're building is, it sounds like a wonderful service. I think, you know, I've been through it twice with both parents and I would have loved to have it as well. A little less recent than Tease's experience, but what's the best way for people to learn more about your company and, you know, for your carrier or, you know, distributing, you want to learn more about offering the product? What would they, where should they go?   Ron Gura (40:20.086) We'll keep it very simple. You go to empathy.com, you'll see our testimonials and case studies, our videos, our care team, our app, can reach out to us for a demo. And I think really join the movement of more and more carriers who are embracing a new standard when it comes to beneficiary care. And we're very excited.   about the momentum in the US, expanding beyond the US in 2024, and even beyond the life claims into additional adjacent categories that also include a moment of truth. And you'll be hearing more about that. But for now, empathy.com is really the simplest and easiest way to learn more about us.   Paul Tyler (41:09.119) Excellent. All right. Well, thanks so much. And I want to thank our listeners. Share this show. Recommend us to your friends. Give us feedback. And be sure to join us next week for another great episode of That Annuity Show. Thanks, everybody.

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Day 14 of Be Quranic welcomes the sacred month of Rajab, a prelude to Ramadan, reminding us to begin our spiritual preparation. Our focus is on two key practices: Quran recitation and fasting, central to enhancing our relationship with Allah's word. We're also introduced to Surah al-Baqarah, a pivotal Surah described by Rasulullah as the summit of the Quran. It is known for its protective qualities and profound wisdom, including the mysterious 'Alif Laam Meem', a symbol of humility and a reminder of the limits of our intellect. This Surah challenges us to approach the Quran with humility, shedding arrogance, which can be a significant barrier to receiving guidance. Our quest today is to cultivate humility, a vital trait to safeguard against arrogance – a seed that can hinder our journey to Jannah. Join us in embracing this training of the heart, as we delve into the depths of Surah al-Baqarah and the essential virtues it teaches. #BeQuranic #Rajab #SurahAlBaqarah #Humility

We got celebrity Alif Satar joning us on the show today telling us about his journey in the entertainment showbiz, completing his Ironman journey and partying on a multi million dollar yatch.

Good literature can help us navigate our own emotions and motivations, and it helps us see the world through the eyes of the writer. The best literature touches our hearts and our minds. It triggers our emotions, and makes us think critically about the world around us, by challenging our assumptions and consequently, expanding our understanding of what it means to be human.Some writers write from the heart, some from the head. The truly literary among them speak from the junction of emotion and reason—and this is what makes literature powerful. It is what allows us to connect with characters and stories on a deeper level.My guest today is an example of a writer who can write from the heart and from the head. She is novelist Anjum Hasan.Anjum grew up in small town India, in Shillong, Meghalaya—as we imagine, an idyllic setting in which her early impressions of life and culture took root, she now lives in the urban sprawl of modern Bangalore.And—judging from her earlier novels—she is comfortable in both skins. Anjum's ability to traverse the two landscapes—both of small-town India and the ambition of Bangalore—is seamless. And this could be one reason why her insight is not just quick and keen, but unusual. And this sense of the insight has led to some pretty evocative, well-crafted prose. A good example of this is her latest novel, History's Angel—a powerful and moving story about lives in a time of rising religious phobia. History's Angel explores the protagonist Alif's challenges of navigating an increasingly incomprehensible contemporary India, where political unrest is the normal and nostalgia is the refuge. The story offers a perspective on the larger context of asserting humanity in the face of widening social fissures.Anjum Hasan, apart from her novels, is someone I have always admired in general, for her prose. Her writing is sharp, compassionate, and darkly witty. What gets me most is her ability to craft sentences that are elegant but also accessible. I have always wanted to ask her about her prose.  So she is joining me from her family home in lovely Shillong.ABOUT ANJUM HASANAnjum Hasan's work has been shortlisted for the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Hindu Literary Prize, and the Crossword Fiction Award. She won the Valley of Words Fiction Award 2019. She has been a Homi Bhabha Fellow, a Charles Wallace Writer-in-Residence, and is currently a New India Foundation Fellow. Her essays, short stories and poems are widely published including in New York Review of Books, Granta, The Paris Review, Baffler, Los Angeles Review of Books, Wasafiri, Asia Literary Review, and Caravan. She is the co-editor of the recent anthology Future Library: Contemporary Indian Writing.BUY HISTORY'S ANGEL: https://amzn.to/3tcUFwrWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "WHAT'S THAT WORD?!",  where they discuss the word  "ALEF”CONTACT USReach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.comOr here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycityOr here: https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/Cover pic credit: Lekha Naidu.

Ronnie Raviv joined Leah to try and figure out if he has any favorite things. We talk about cocktails, cocktail bars, books, TV, great meals and our friendship origin story. For someone who claims to have no favorite things, there was no lacking in conversation. Like my beloved Zouks, Ronnie is not on twitter. Show Notes Second City Conservatory  Quipfire Improv  Sally Albright Chicken Pot Pie origin story  Mexican Mule Journeyman White Whiskey Jasper Fforde  OCD TLV Taizu  Fantastic TLV  Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde Blind Barber Duck Duck Goat Aviary Rosemary Tango Sur Bar Roma Frasca Monte Verde Dear Margaret  Yom Tov Deli (Tel Aviv) Harry's Epic Israel Food Tours Transcript follows Ronnie Raviv  0:00   Hello, my name is Ronnie Raviv. And I don't think I really have favorite things, but I have a lot of things that I like a lot, and you can hear all about them. In this week's finding favorites. ----more---- Announcer  0:10   Welcome to the findings favorites Podcast where we explore your favorite things without using an algorithm. Here's your host, Leah Jones. Leah Jones  0:23   Hello, and welcome to finding favorites. I'm your host, Leah Jones. It's Sunday, August 27. Really a beautiful, perfect day in Chicago after that brutal heatwave earlier in the week. Nice to have the windows open and to eat dinner outside today. Not too much to report other than my shoulder MRI shows a what seems to be a completely boring, small rotator rotator cuff tear. So hopefully, I will have some resolution to my shoulder pain soon. The orthopedist I saw last week said shit your shoulder is jacked. Which I think is sports for let's take this injury seriously. This week on the podcast I am talking with my one of my very dear friends Ronnie Raviv. You have heard about him on the podcast for years because he kept me company during a lot of chemo therapies and steroid Saturdays. We went to Israel on overlapping trips recently, so we just had that fabulous dinner in Tel Aviv. We talked about that a little bit. So I twisted his arm and said, Come be on a podcast. Now he does not listen to podcasts. He's not a he's not into the audio medium of podcasting. So I don't know if he will ever listen to this. But we have a fun conversation. Just sitting around bullshitting on the couch for an hour or so. And hit record. So without further ado, wear your mask. Wash your hands. Get your booster. I know a new booster is coming out soon. So I guess, wear your mask more diligently while you wait for the new booster to be available. And keep enjoying your favorite things. Leah Jones  2:43   Hello, and welcome to finding favorites. I'm your host, Leah Jones. And this is the podcast where we learn about people's favorite things and get recommendations without using an algorithm. Today I'm joined a rare in person interview for finding favorites. With my own personal algorithm. You do all the research that wire cutter doesn't do for me. So I don't have to do it. Yeah. What do we just found out recently? You didn't know what wire cutter Ronnie Raviv  3:08   was? No, I had no idea. You introduced me to wire cutter. Leah Jones  3:11   Right. So wire cutter is consumer a modern consumer reports. Yeah, basically. And then anytime I need a new phone. You are my Consumer Reports. Ronnie Raviv  3:23   Yeah, I would just from like the one article that I read or the one article with all the links to the other articles that I read. It it I wouldn't describe it necessarily as the modern consumer reports. I would describe it as the less nerdy Consumer Reports. So let's let's charts and figures and more. Recommendations. Leah Jones  3:49   Yes. Ronnie Raviv  3:50   It's a curated fair Consumer Reports. Leah Jones  3:57   I'm fine with him doing all the research for me. Sure. Because I am too lazy. Yeah, I would rather buy it. It'd be the wrong thing. Never return it and buy another thing. I wouldn't rather that but that's more likely how my life goes, Ronnie Raviv  4:10   right? Yeah, no, I'd much rather would buy the right thing to begin with. Leah Jones  4:14   Yes. Right. Which is why every two years when I'm a Verizon, it's time to buy a new phone. I call you with no warning. And I'm like, What phone am I buying today? Right. I've done that for 15 years, at least. Once I went away from my Blackberry, Ronnie Raviv  4:29   which I think we're all happy for. Leah Jones  4:31   Yeah. So Ronnie, usually, this is when so this is like the time of the podcast where people get to know the guest. And often we're I'm getting to know the guests because usually they are a complete stranger. Right? And you're not No, Ronnie Raviv  4:48   no, we've known each other for I was trying to do the math. I feel like 21 or 22 years we've known each other. Yeah. And we've known each other well, for maybe 18 years. Yeah, we know each other very well for 15 years. Yeah, maybe that's I think Leah Jones  5:06   that's about right. I moved here in Memorial Day 2002. Okay. And started going to open mics immediately. Yeah. And very quickly. Got to the tequila Roadhouse. RIP, RIP tequila Roadhouse and Ronnie Raviv  5:25   their crack fries. Yeah, they were surprised that were I don't know what they put on. There were so bad. Leah Jones  5:33   Well, there was my cousin's Friend's Boyfriend maybe wasn't conservatory with you? I don't remember. Okay. I think he was Greek. Okay, or he had a friend and I don't remember. Somehow I want to but one of your conservatory shows Ronnie Raviv  5:55   site. Yes. Second City conservatory Right. Leah Jones  6:00   Which quickly led to tequila Roadhouse. Yes. Ronnie Raviv  6:03   Because my many of the people I would go into group and that improv group, not only did stuff but also held an open mic. First tequila Roadhouse, then they went to Weiss fools. Yep. Neither of which are around because this is over 20 years ago. Leah Jones  6:19   Yeah. So it was a mixed bag. Open Mic. Yes. Very. So I did stand up comedy. And you were reading your as of yet unfinished novel Ronnie Raviv  6:31   as of still yet unfinished novel? Yes. And you would read a chapter a week? Yes, that was probably the most productive time because I had the actual deadline to like, do the chapter, right. But the way I write I don't outline or plan ahead, I sorta have to get into the, into the fugue state, which means that every time I sit down and write I don't necessarily remember what it was that I wrote, because I'm in a bit of a fugue state, right. And that's generally how I read books as well. I don't remember things after I just sort of get the good feeling. Yeah. And so I, so now it's just become this daunting mountain, because as the chapters pile up, every time I sit down, I have to read the whole thing to get into that flow. And it's just like, you know, if I have an hour to write, that's all well and good, but it'll take me like three or four hours just to read the thing to like, get into the meat into you know, and I don't have three or four. Let's be honest, I probably do. I just don't have the, Leah Jones  7:28   you don't have it set aside. You haven't scheduled in, right. Reread the novel, Ronnie Raviv  7:33   right? Before I read a new chapter, right? You know, so I'll like read, I like spend three hours rereading it to the right, a few pages. And then the next day, I have to like, reread a bunch to get into, this doesn't really happen. Maybe one of these days, I'll outline what I actually want to have happen. And that will help spur me on to like, Oh, now I need to read. Now I need to write this thing that happens. But I don't even know what will happen. It just sort of happens as it happens. Yeah. That's why I always wrote short stories when I was in college. Yeah, Leah Jones  8:06   I was gonna say maybe your short story guy. Ronnie Raviv  8:08   I am. But I don't like I want to write a novel. Yeah. I like I'm better suited for short stories. It's the same. It's the same thing with improv. Like, I did improv in college and we did short form improv improv games. And then and that's what I was good at, because I'm like, I'm good at that kind of quick joke thing. And then I went through the conservatory program at Second City, after many different things like twists and turns of my life and then ended up there. And I appreciate improv long form. Improv is an art form. And I sort of denigrate short form improv is just gimmicky, right? And so I don't like the short form improv as much. But that's the thing I'm better at I'm not good at the long form. So now I can't really do improv because the thing that I like, I'm not as good at writing that I I'm better at I don't like as much right. Leah Jones  9:01   But do you have? When's the last time you I don't I've never I don't think I've ever seen you do short form improv. I've seen you do sketch. Yeah. No, you haven't because I don't even know if I've ever seen you do long form improv. You have. Ronnie Raviv  9:13   I think, Okay, what if you? Well, I guess no, because it's because the seconds are the conservatory shows were more your sketch. They were born they were born out of improv to do with the improv in the class. And there was, there was a certain amount of improv, improvising on the stage. Like we make beats, we didn't have anything written out. Right. Sketches weren't, weren't scripted. But we sort of knew what was going to happen. A little more like, Curb Your Enthusiasm type. Leah Jones  9:37   I remember I guess I mostly remember your musical numbers. Yeah. White people brown line. Yes. Ronnie Raviv  9:43   I did not write that one. No, Leah Jones  9:45   but somebody asked you that you look at your watch. And somebody asks you the time and you were like, I don't know what time it is. And you put your hand down. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  9:54   You have more memory than I do. Leah Jones  9:56   I think because of the time I lived on the brow, I took the brown line about Each and every time I get on the Brown Line, I would think about the song. Yeah. So Ronnie Raviv  10:04   yeah, no white people brown line. That was that was a brilliant piece of work. I did a song that was a parody of modern gender. Yeah. That was a mouthful. It was like a victim of the new new economy or something, which at this point is like, three economies ago. Because this was in the early aughts. Yeah. It's been awhile. It's been a lifetime. It's been so long. So yeah, so the last time I did improv, I think is when my undergrad improv group. This is pre pandemic came through Chicago, they would come through Chicago, New York or LA. So every three years it comes to Chicago. And then they, they they did a little show to basically no audience is just really for us. Yeah. And then they called on the alums to come. And I thought they were gonna just kind of, we were just gonna do a quick little scene, like what we would do at reunion is like a world's worst. I like my women or men, like I like my blank or whatever. Yeah. But no, they then said, Okay, now you're going to do now, all the alarms now you're going to do a long form improv. Which, so when I was going through that group, it's called quickfire? Yeah. When I was going through it, we only did short form improv, right? Leah Jones  11:21   Because it was before UCB. It was before the Herald had New York. Ronnie Raviv  11:25   Yeah, this was this was in the mid in the early mid 90s. So we only did short form improv. And so the only reason I even knew like, luckily for me, I had gone through the second city experience. So I had had experience with long form, right. But so this was in I think, 2017. Okay. And my last experience with long form improv was in 2002. Yeah. So, and I was by far the oldest alarm there. The next oldest alarm was from the class of 2009. Okay, so the next oldest alarm was sort of complaining that they hadn't done improv in a while. had done it at like at that point. quickfire had done long form improv when they were in school. And so they had last done in 2009. You know, I had last done it before they were even in school. Leah Jones  12:22   Right before they were in grade school. Ronnie Raviv  12:25   Not quite that far, but they weren't probably Junior High. Last time I did long form improv, right. And that only by like luck, because previous to Second City, I'd only done short form improv. So I was like, I felt like it was a fish out of water, but somehow didn't. Didn't crap the bed too bad, I guess. I don't know. We did. Okay. It was only for us. So it didn't really matter, right. low stakes, no stakes, stakes improv. Leah Jones  12:50   I did. Eventually I gave in and I did the five classes at annoyance when I was managing the ice cream parlor, right? Because so many lifetimes ago, many, many lifetimes ago. Because I was so tired of people asking me if I did improv, I was like, I do stand up comedy. Sometimes, Ronnie Raviv  13:12   ironically, because literally everybody who does improv their families all assumed that their stand up comedian, right, right. Oh, do some do some stand up comedian comedy Ford's like, that's not what I do. I do improv. Okay. Well then do improv. Right? No, it's a group thing. Right. Stand up here and do improv. Leah Jones  13:27   I know. But you did have me come out once and do stand up comedy. For your parents friends. For Param. Yes, I remember that. Ronnie Raviv  13:37   I wasn't, I don't think you would not have gone without No, I wouldn't you did it. And you were brave. They were they were they were welcoming audience. Leah Jones  13:48   They were welcoming audience. You had Ronnie Raviv  13:52   you had my favorite joke, my favorite Lea joke. But it will have been we don't necessarily have to. Leah Jones  13:58   Was it about the date with a little person? No, I remember that one being Ronnie Raviv  14:02   No, it was the learning Hebrew. Oh, yeah. That you the needle pointed for me. And I still haven't hung but I will in a minute. Yeah. Leah Jones  14:10   Right. So Ronnie helped me. When I was learning the alphabet, the Hebrew alphabet. We would like go to Jack's for chicken potpie. And sometimes I would drag out these giant workbooks and make them help me with Hebrew. And when I had finally gotten really confident that I could like, kind of like know the alphabet in order. I was like, Ronnie, I have learned everything from Alif to Zion, Ronnie Raviv  14:37   which you know, translated from A to Z except it's really more like if you're familiar with the Greek alphabet from alpha to zeta, and that's like the seventh letter. Right? But Leah Jones  14:48   you know, yeah. So I for Ronnie's 40th birthday, I cross stitched him something that said met LF Ronnie Raviv  14:57   Zion Yeah, from A to zeta Right. So essentially, Leah Jones  15:00   right, I've learned everything from A to F. Yeah. Which honestly appropriate. Yeah. Because I had not learned Hebrew from A to Z like, No, probably not. I can. I can't even function anymore. I used to use my Hebrew used to be better, but everybody in English, everybody in Israel's English got way better. And also technology got way better. Ronnie Raviv  15:23   Yes. Not as important anymore. No. But I remember that crowd really liked that joke, right because it was a crowd of Hebrew speakers. Right. So they, they were all right there they that was the that was the crowd. That Leah Jones  15:36   was the only crowd I didn't have to explain the punchline to Yeah, yeah, like we just did here. Right. Ronnie Raviv  15:43   But you know, jokes are always better when you have to explain the punchline. Leah Jones  15:46   Yeah. Right. So I did improv it annoyance. But I've never performed it outside of a class. Ronnie Raviv  15:57   So that's alright. That's fine Leah Jones  15:58   with me. Yeah, it's okay. I understand it. And I understand I don't want to do it. Ronnie Raviv  16:04   Yeah. Yeah, I'm sort of I'm sure I'm right there with you. It took me longer time to understand that. Leah Jones  16:10   Yeah. That you didn't want to do it anymore. Or that or to understand it? Ronnie Raviv  16:15   Both, I guess. Yeah. Because I was in a more because they started with the short form, right, which is like the games and the, the joke Enos right. Leah Jones  16:23   The Whose Line Is It Anyway, who's that's exactly boarded for puns and jokes and dad jokes and quick thinking, right. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  16:30   Which is what we were, which is what I was really good Leah Jones  16:33   at. Yeah. So you're still really good at? Yeah, Ronnie Raviv  16:36   I think so. I'm okay that for sure. Yeah. But you know, when it comes to like, improvising long scenes where you have to like, react and have emotions and whatever, I'm not as good as that. Leah Jones  16:51   Till we met, and then comedy ended, comedy didn't really end I got transferred to London. So I was like, and you finish conservatory. And I think by the time I was back from London, I think the tequila Roadhouse might have been closed. Ronnie Raviv  17:09   I think it was around for maybe a little longer than that. But we were but they were no longer doing the open mic. Yeah. Leah Jones  17:15   Yeah. And we ran into each other at a board game. It's a bar on Addison started with a G threes. threes. Ronnie Raviv  17:23   I have no recollection of this. You know, me. I'm, you know, me. I sort of have no recollection of things. Yeah. Leah Jones  17:30   I remember it clearly, somewhat clearly. And then I recently searched my blog to see if I had when it happened. Okay. And I reference people that I'm like, I referenced someone named Jamie. And I'm like, Who the fuck is Jamie? Jamie Allen? Probably no, no. Like I was there with my friend Jeff from high school. Were Jeff from college. Jamie might have been his girlfriend at the time. Ronnie Raviv  17:52   Oh, girl. Okay. Yeah. Leah Jones  17:55   I don't know. Like, I don't know the description of the people that I say I walked in with Oh, okay. And then you watch because I moved to London and quit comedy. And we figured out like, Oh, hey, what's up? Sell your number. And so then we went for chicken Popeye. Nice. Shortly thereafter, Ronnie Raviv  18:14   yeah. Chicken. Popeye was so good. Yeah. Last, Leah Jones  18:19   so rip jacks. Yeah. And long before they were closed. Rip the chicken pot pie. Ronnie Raviv  18:23   Right. Rip that chicken pot pie. More so than jacks. Yeah. And then the Diag. Yeah, it's Leah Jones  18:28   rip. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  18:31   Yeah. But yeah, the chicken pot pie was gone long before that. And that was really the big tragedy of the whole thing. Leah Jones  18:39   Was the chicken potpie gone before your ability to process? Dairy? Ronnie Raviv  18:45   No, it was worth it. Ya know, my ability. My inability to process dairy disappeared before the dream pop. I did. But it was worth it. Leah Jones  18:53   Yeah. That's another conversation locked in my brain because it was so insane. Because you picked me up from the 14th station. And you pretended like I had any choice about where we were going to dinner. Right? Which was nice of you to pretend. Right? And then you said, Leah, you know, the type of chicken Popeye that you dream of? And I was like, I do not dream of chicken pie. I Ronnie Raviv  19:14   see. You remember this as dream of I feel like I wouldn't have put it that way. Maybe I did at that point. But I sort of always see it as you know, when you have a hankering for chicken, Popeye. And you sort of have in your mind's eye. What? You're sort of picturing like, Oh, I could go for that. Right? And then you order it. And it's like, oh, well, that's not really what I was picturing. Chicken Popeye, but it's not the chicken coop I had in my brain. Yes. This place had that chicken. Leah Jones  19:45   Yeah. And I was very skeptical. Of course, Ronnie Raviv  19:49   as was everybody I told this story to right there. Leah Jones  19:53   And you were of course correct because they they baked it an individual that you had a cross pinched on To the top of your bowl. Ronnie Raviv  20:01   Yeah. But it was just it wasn't it was beyond that it was I think it was like the way the sauce that like Allah King sauce or whatever it is. It's like the like just the chicken, the combination of vegetables, the proportions, the sauce, the flavor, the cross, like all of it. It was like the platonic ideal of a chicken about pie, right. And I had many a convert to that chicken. Popeye was good. It was great. And then the chef left and they could not recreate it. No. And then it just kept getting worse and worse and worse. And then they closed and it became a sports bar. Leah Jones  20:38   Yeah. And then somehow that was the last time we went I think was probably my 40th Ronnie Raviv  20:45   Yeah, I don't know what's been called for a while. Leah Jones  20:47   Yeah. But we went that's where we went after. That was where the after party was okay? Was Diag. Okay, because it was walking distance. So, according according to the pictures I have. Yeah, I don't I don't recall that either. No, I don't have a lot of memories. Right that night. Ronnie Raviv  21:07   Yeah, no, that and that was a bit of a blur. Yeah. Yeah. Leah Jones  21:12   Um, yeah. So that's the origin story. Yeah. Is comedy. And then happened to happen? Chance happenstance, happenstance. Yeah. Yeah. And people were listened to the podcast have heard about you, Matthew. David brozik. One of your good one of your best friends from college has been a guest. And people have certainly heard about you on steroids. Sunday. Steroid Saturday's one of my Mayo Clinic. Road trip buddies. Yeah, the OG hospital host the OG hospital husband. Yes. And you still probably wear your pen. That was that was really sweet. Leah Jones  22:02   So one of the things when we talked about favorite things, like what would you talk about? As favorite things first, you're like immediately I don't have anything. Ronnie Raviv  22:12   No, I still I've been racking my brains. And I have. I have no favorite things. I have a lot of things I dabble in and things I like, right. Like a lot of things. Yeah. I'm a fairly easygoing, sometimes guy. Usually going in a sort of very high maintenance way. Leah Jones  22:31   I joke last night about you being Sally Albright. But you are Sally Albright from When Harry Met Sally. I mean, I'm you are easy going in the way that Sally Albright is easygoing. Ronnie Raviv  22:42   I think maybe not quite that heightened. But yeah, there's just there's no, there's certainly some truth to that for sure. No, I'm, I like a lot of things. Yeah. I also hate a lot of things. But I like a lot of things. And I'm sort of, you know, generally fairly open to whatever. Is there a certain way Leah Jones  23:01   you'll eat almost anywhere as long as you can order around the menu. Which is true. Ronnie Raviv  23:06   Yeah. Because you're a lot of picky eater. Bit of a super taster. Yeah, not an adventurous Well, no, that's not true. I Leah Jones  23:14   don't think that's fair. Ronnie Raviv  23:15   You know, I'm an I'm adventurous. I just picky. Leah Jones  23:18   You are adventurous. If you trust the chef. Yeah, that's true. Because we could just talk about, we can even just talk about great meals we've had together. Yeah, we've had some good ones. Yeah. Because Thai zoo and Tel Aviv last year. Yep. And OCD. Yep. Are both to where it was where? You would? I mean, they both places where they took our tastes seriously? Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  23:49   Yeah. We said what we liked and didn't like whatever and pointed them in a direction, right? And they said, Okay, trust us, and they delivered. Leah Jones  24:00   Yeah. So I think if the chef can't deliver at that level, you are less adventuresome. Right, for sure. Or you will amend the menu to make something better than they have on them. And yeah, Ronnie Raviv  24:13   well, I mean, I try not to be as annoying about it as Sally. I try to, I generally try to say, just eliminate these one or two things that I don't like. And also like if there's like a thing that I have to eliminate five things. I'm not going to get that thing, right. I'm gonna just get the thing like okay, I can have this like just take out the raw onions and avocado and I'm good. Yeah, you know, just like the things I don't like. I don't try to like have them do a concoction. Except for if there's mac and cheese on the menu and there's chili on the menu. That's a thing where things have to be put together. Yeah, because that's amazing. Chili Mac is the best thing ever. And I don't know why any restaurant that has chili and then has mac and cheese does not have Have a chili Mac. Yeah, option. It's silly. Leah Jones  25:03   Yes. I do think we have to get the purchase doesn't have Mac and mac and cheese right? Ronnie Raviv  25:09   I don't believe so they have an amazing chili. Chili was so good. Chili was so good, but I did not see mac and cheese. Yeah. Leah Jones  25:16   So we'll have to get it to go and then take and then go to the mac and cheese. Max. Yeah, yeah. Be like don't worry. We have purse chilly Ronnie Raviv  25:28   we got chilly to go. Leah Jones  25:30   Yeah. Um, I don't know, do you wanna talk about with CD? We could. Or something? Ronnie Raviv  25:37   Oh, no, I could. I could. I could throw this back on you. Okay. I mean, the name of the podcast is finding favorite. Yes. So find my favorite. What's my favorite? Leah Jones  25:51   Well, your favorite liquor right now is Mezcal. True? That is? Yes. It's Mezcal number is affirm. Number one. This Ronnie Raviv  26:01   girl is affirmed. Number one, but with a huge caveat. Like the bartender was mixologist. Whatever has to be Mezcal is pickier. It's harder to blend. Okay, well, so if I don't trust the bartender, I will fall back on tequila, which is easier to deal with. But if the bartender is really good in Moscow, they can do a better job. Leah Jones  26:29   Right. So the the Mezcal meal has been your go to cocktail this summer? Ronnie Raviv  26:37   Yes. If I again, if you trust them, trust them. Otherwise, I'll go with Mexico meal because that's a lot more right. Reliable, Leah Jones  26:46   yeah. But I don't know when that because not you were never really you're not really a Gen drinker? Because that's a little too aromatic. Yeah. But for a long time, it was like vodka or rum, but like tequila, I feel like is new on like, in the last five years has gone up your list? Ronnie Raviv  27:11   Well, I think it probably was, realistically, it was there longer than that. Maybe afraid. Like I figured, because I'm like, I don't love the taste of alcohol, like vodka is my thing. And I like you know, and if you go to a bar that doesn't have anything, like you go to a like, an event, right? And all you know, they had the most basic stuff, then I'll get a vodka cranberry, right, you know, splash soda and some wine. Ronnie Raviv  27:40   But if there's a place that and then for a while, I was like, oh, but if you have ginger beer, I'll do a Moscow Mule. Yeah. And then I discovered the Mexico mule. And that is so much better than the Moscow Mule. Right. And then I was also like, at that point, I was like, But wait, but also if there's a margarita, I will go for a margarita. Yeah. And it's like, well, maybe, you know, really the only vodka drink I like is the vodka cranberry. And I like the Mexico mule as my fallback, right? You know, my my go to and I like the the the margarita, right? Maybe, maybe tequila is my favorite. And so then I'm like, You know what, maybe I want to kill a guy and I didn't know and then like, and then I discovered the Moscow Mule. And I'm like, wow, that elevates the, the Mexico mule to a whole new level. But you go to a bar that doesn't know what they're doing a Moscow Mule is gonna be hit or miss. Yeah. Leah Jones  28:33   I also I mean, mezcal has come into its own in America in the last few years. So Ronnie Raviv  28:38   it's more popular. You it was there, there were times where you there are a lot of bars that still don't have it. Yeah. Leah Jones  28:44   And they also suspect as you and your friends as like all of our paychecks have changed. And our base level to Keela has changed in our houses. Like in the I think there's like grote, we're older. We're middle age now. So we're not getting like the cheapest tequila and none of your friends have the cheapest tequila in their house and and so like I also think there's something to be said for like access to better quality. Yeah, I Yeah, that's a killer you were introduced to at 21 You probably want to drink today. Ronnie Raviv  29:25   Maybe or maybe it's about the mixers the quality of the mix. Like ginger beer just really solves a lot of problems. Yeah, alcohols in general. But also think that vodka is a much, much more consistent thing. So you know, there's bad gin and bad tequila and certainly bad Moscow. Yeah, vodka. It might be mediocre you know, but But by the same ticket there's excellent tequila is an excellent Moscow's right and excellent gins. And there's not really an excellent vodka. Maybe there's a few I have a very Leah Jones  30:00   nice vodka right now. Ronnie Raviv  30:02   Exactly a very nice vodka. Leah Jones  30:04   It's a Polish. It's the buffalograss. Polish vodka. Ronnie Raviv  30:08   Very nice vodka. It's not an excellent vibe. But it can't be excellent because there's just not enough complexity there. Right? It's like the best vodkas are the ones that taste least like anything. Right? Like the bad vodkas are the ones that like tastes a little bit like gasoline and the ones that the excellent bikers are the ones that taste less like gasoline fare, whereas tequila has the complexity of the brown liquors that I don't like right without being the brown occurs and I don't like Leah Jones  30:34   right, because the brown look, error is not on my favorites. No. Ronnie Raviv  30:40   But it's not just a bitter there's it's just that gasoline, turpentine sort of alcohol it tastes Yeah. And I don't know there's the peatiness I don't know there's something the barrel. Yeah. Because I because journeyman, we're plugging so many should get. You should get all sorts of free stuff. Leah Jones  30:57   Oh, I don't link to all of it. And they they give me nothing. Yeah. But Ronnie Raviv  31:02   journeyman, in three oaks, Michigan. They have a white whiskey Leah Jones  31:10   that's aged in glass, Ronnie Raviv  31:13   or it's not aged. They distill the whiskey but then they don't agent in the barrel, maybe a moonshine? No, it's whiskey, right? But it just doesn't have that PD. Yeah. Woody, barely taste or whatever it is that I don't like about it. That makes an excellent mule. And they also have this drink called OCG. The old country goodness, it's like an apple cinnamon, nice cider that they do either straight up or is a frozen slushy. And it's really, really good. It's good. Yeah. So with a white whiskey, that's the only whiskey to drink. Unless it's like a really, really cool, complicated, right drink where the whiskey sort of really balanced out by other stuff. Like get at the aviary. Yeah, plug plug plug. Leah Jones  32:05   Right so that the aviary and like less so the violet hour or what's the one on Damon? Ronnie Raviv  32:16   Violet hours on Damon? Oh, what's Leah Jones  32:18   the other one on Damon? closer to me? Damon on LinkedIn. Victor or Victor Victor bar? Ronnie Raviv  32:24   Yeah. Just like the sticks. Used to be Yeah. Leah Jones  32:28   So you do you also have I would say also a favorite thing of yours is a well crafted complex, very Ronnie Raviv  32:35   well crafted. Interesting cocktail. Yes, I do like that. Yeah. Oh, sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Well crafted, interesting cocktail or fantastic. In Israel. Yeah. Or bellboy? Right? In Israel in Tel Aviv, Leah Jones  32:53   Imperial. Ronnie Raviv  32:55   Imperial was good. Like Ultra. Yep. also has very good cocktails. Leah Jones  33:04   Yeah, I do Ronnie Raviv  33:05   have one Barber has good cocktails. Yep. There's another place that has had really good cocktails. I can't remember. There's a lot of places with good cocktails. Yeah. Leah Jones  33:17   So I think that is I think, like if you're in a new city, not that you go to new cities often, right? No, I don't if you are returning to a city. So like my friend Dave. He uses hardrock cafes as like, an excuse to go to a city. He collects going to them just because it gives him a reason to put a city on his itinerary. Ronnie Raviv  33:41   In and of itself, that's a terrible excuse. But if it gets you to a new city, it gets you there. But it's terrible underlying excuses. Leah Jones  33:49   Check off boxes. Yeah, right. There's a list you can check out against the list. Okay. So that is not, you know, not implying it is. So if you are returning to a city you've been to before Tel Aviv, New York. Chicago, I think you will seek out a new interest. Like you will seek out a cocktail bar. Yeah. Something to do. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  34:16   I'm usually if I'm if I'm there on my own. No, that's not true. I'm usually there with somebody. Visiting somebody seeing somebody. Yeah. So I will get from them. What's the good? What's the good cocktail, right? So I went to business. I went on business to Copenhagen. And so I made sure that our business contacts told me where the good cocktail bar Leah Jones  34:39   right was. Yeah, yeah. So all right, so there I've already found Mezcal and fancy pants cocktail bar, Ronnie Raviv  34:51   Fancy Pants cocktail. Yes, girly drinks, girly, girly drinks. Leah Jones  34:56   I was just reading an article this morning about how sometimes men to freak out when they're served something in stemware and will like make the bartender put it in a rocks glass. Oh, my Ronnie Raviv  35:08   friend Bob hates coupe glass. Really? I don't like martini glasses because martini glasses are stupid. Because they spill everywhere. Right? But a coupe glass that doesn't spill as much as a little bit because it's up to the rim. Yeah, but no, my friend Bob hates Kool Aid. He like will reject cocktails if they come in. Like he's not if they come to him that he won't reject them. But he was like, sometimes if you if you remember his he'll say, Is that coming to coupe? Like, oh, and then I want it? Leah Jones  35:33   Yeah. I mean, I will sometimes say like, is it up or on the rocks? And I will often ask for something that's served up to be served on the rocks. Yeah. But that's because I love ice. Right? Yeah, that's a whole different thing. And not because I hate Well, it's I love ice. I will drink it way too fast and a coupe. Like if there's not ice in it. It's just might as well just be a shot. Right? So Ronnie Raviv  35:57   I don't know why I feel myself to ice. I do a good job of sipping when it's in the coupe glass. Yeah. Something about the coupe glass. Not that I love it or hate it and anything else but something about it always. Like if it's in a tall glass. I will down that like nobody's okay. Yeah, I'll go and like down. Yeah. Whereas in the coupe glass that's like, oh, it's like I can see the whole thing. And I can sort of take little, little dainty sips and none of Leah Jones  36:25   its hiding behind the ice. Right. Exactly. Exactly. And they're not served with a straw. Ronnie Raviv  36:30   Which I never use. I very rarely use. Yeah. Only if it's like, really, really like impossible. Like it's piled high with ice and other things like, like sticking out of the rim. Leah Jones  36:43   Like the so we had a drink at fantastique in Tel Aviv with Ronnie Raviv  36:48   Chuck flowers, electric flowers, look them up on Google, which are Leah Jones  36:53   I have smuggled them home. They're in my purse. Ronnie Raviv  36:57   They're crazy. Yeah. It's just this little. It's like It's like almost I don't know how to describe it. It's Leah Jones  37:07   not quite a thistle. Yeah, because it doesn't. It doesn't poke you hurt, right? It's kind of like Ronnie Raviv  37:15   it's like the dandelions like the inside of the puffball. Dandelion. Yeah, before it's opened. No, after after it's open. When you've blown all the puffs off. It's like the round ball. It's a little bit bigger. And it's a little bit fuzzy, Leah Jones  37:28   right? Oh, you know, it's kind of like a pussy willow. Like the Yeah, Ronnie Raviv  37:34   but yellow. Yeah. And you bite into it just a teeny tiny little, tiniest, tiniest amount. It's bitter, and it's not great. And it doesn't taste good. But you just the tiniest amount just a little tiny nibble, like Alison Wonderland noodling on, nibbling on it and mushroom, just the tiniest little nibble. And then for the next, depending on how big the nibble was. 1015 minutes. Your tongue feels like it's constantly licking a nine volt battery. And as you drink something, it enhances that. Yes. And it's really, really interesting and cool and different and bizarre. Yeah. And unpleasant and pleasant at the same time. Leah Jones  38:18   I think you have been telling me about it for like four years. Ronnie Raviv  38:21   Yeah. And you and you still didn't quite picture it in your head. Leah Jones  38:25   No. Even in my mouth. I did not. It was so in SAM. It was you are as giddy right now as you were in the moment. So wonderful Ronnie Raviv  38:35   to see. For the look of a horror and shock on your face of like, what is this? What am I done? What is happening to my insides in my face right now? It was so awesome. Leah Jones  38:49   It was so weird. Yeah. And then it was right like a tequila based drink with a lot of ice. Yeah, a lot of drama. Oh, yeah. Ronnie Raviv  38:57   There was a plan sticking thorns. I'm all sorts of stuff. It was. Yeah. I think the drink was called like, dangerous. Something deep something like danger in the world in the name, Leah Jones  39:06   right. But it was very, it was it was very fun. Ronnie Raviv  39:12   Yeah, yeah. It was really, really tasty drink, too. Yeah. Leah Jones  39:18   I think that was the I think you did a better job or I got whatever. Oh, might have a good and plenty, isn't it? Ronnie Raviv  39:25   Well, yeah. Because you wanted something that tasted like licorice. Leah Jones  39:29   Yeah, but it was such a literal interpretation of tastes like licorice. It was was good. And plenty is melting in the bottom of a whiskey drink Ronnie Raviv  39:37   with some bitters that you could inject with? Yeah, syringe? Yeah. Leah Jones  39:42   It was dramatic and creative, but not delicious, right. I mean, it was fine. Yeah, it was but I'll never order it again. Ronnie Raviv  39:50   No. My drink was better. But honestly, the best drink was the one that we went with the electric flower. Yeah. Leah Jones  39:59   Was very funny. It Ronnie Raviv  40:00   was just for the gimmick would be fine. But it was not just a gimmick. It was a really, really good drink. Right. Really well balanced with the gimmick. Yes. Leah Jones  40:06   Yeah. So that was that's That was great. And I had gone to loutra earlier in the weekend in Tel Aviv and had some very nice cocktails to I don't remember what they were. Because it was all tequila. Yeah. And Ronnie Raviv  40:24   very few Mexican restaurants in Israel. Yeah. A little surprising. Yeah, but I mean, just from like, the palate like you would think like spicy foods and right. Cilantro. Yeah. It's like all these things. Oh, yeah, it's all rice. You'd think that it would be really popular in Israel and for some reason. There aren't that many of them Leah Jones  40:50   for many years. When I would like check a huge bag instead of checking a small bag or three Ronnie Raviv  40:57   small bag, three medium sized. Leah Jones  41:01   Um, and I would take like my friend David, when a trash bags like Benji and tall Tali both wanted like, El Paso taco seasoning. Like my friends were like, bring me like envelopes of taco seasoning. And American trash bags. And American toothpaste. And aspirin. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  41:24   And then what would you bring back? Israeli ketchup? And my friend who is a modern Orthodox would ask me for Doritos, because Oh, because they're kosher isn't Israel. They're kosher. Leah Jones  41:39   I I remember, early trip bringing you back like olives. Ronnie Raviv  41:44   Yes, you brought? Yeah, but now you can get them. Yeah. I still have those olives and pickles because they were the wrong ones. They're the cracked olives that are bitter, as opposed to the sort of the more the Arabic olives that are bitter as opposed to the kibbutz olives that I like, and it was the the cucumbers in vinegar instead of in Brian. Leah Jones  42:11   I still I still have entries been at minimum 10 years that I gave you those possibly longer Ronnie Raviv  42:20   I think more like eight but yes, it's been a while. During the probably not. They're not. I'm moving in six weeks or so. Leah Jones  42:28   Yeah, I will sneak in and take them and throw them out for you. You're not moving them? Ronnie Raviv  42:36   Probably not. But it's against my religion to throw food away. Leah Jones  42:40   I understand. I understand that. Ronnie Raviv  42:42   I know. I know. It's possible I gave the olives to my mom because she does like those correct olives. Yeah, but none of us like the pickles and vinegar. Brian, Leah Jones  42:52   it's also sweet of you to wait eight years to tell me that I brought you the wrong thing. Ronnie Raviv  42:57   No. It was like it was so sweet of a gesture I'm not gonna I didn't have the heart to tell you know, beggars can be choosers I don't like the free thing you got me. Leah Jones  43:09   Um, when my nephews were of a certain age, which is much younger than they are now I would bring back I would go to the shuk and Jerusalem and buy like all of the fake Kinder eggs like I would go to the Kinder Egg store that had like all the off brand unlicensed Kinder eggs Ronnie Raviv  43:30   because they were legal here for a while. They're still Leah Jones  43:31   illegal here. Ronnie Raviv  43:32   I thought they weren't I thought they just thought they figured out how to because now you can buy it now they just buy them but they suck. Right because they don't have because they they've been protected for the litigious American mark. Yes. Leah Jones  43:43   So there were times when I would like have an entire layer of Kinder eggs and bootleg Kinder eggs for the kids of Leroy, Illinois, for the O'Briens and the DeVivo is to have like a Kinder Egg Unboxing party at my sister's house. Nice. Yeah. Leah Jones  44:12   Okay, other favorite things of yours. You consume a lot of TV for someone who is not a TV critic. Ronnie Raviv  44:21   Right? I do. I used to consume a lot more admittedly. I consume less nowadays. Yeah, still consume a lot. Leah Jones  44:28   Right? For sure. When we met you had three VCRs. Correct. Ronnie Raviv  44:32   And then you worked on a client on the TiVo account and the TiVo account. And so I got a TiVo that can record six things at once. Yeah. Which I still have. Yeah. Actually, no, between those I had a DVR I had like a I had a Windows Media DVR that could record four things at once. Yeah, but the hard drives kept going out. Yeah. And then I got the TiVo. I have that to this day. But now I'm not going to have cable in my new place. Right? So I'm gonna have to figure out what's going on with that whole new era. It's a whole new era. Yeah. Because YouTube TV isn't going to quite do it for me, but I'm not sure that ATT DirecTV is going to do it for me, but like, I can get you like I can get internet for sort of free because the building has internet, but I don't know if it's reliable enough, and it won't have the 18 T. Like, I'd have to pay extra. So do I want to pay the extra it's a whole big thing that I have to Leah Jones  45:30   sort of figure out it's, it's going to be a major lifestyle, it is going to be a major lifestyle change. But how what is your origin story with TV? Like, how did you become? When did you go from one to two to three visa like when I've only ever known you as someone with a huge queue of TV to watch, but I don't know why you watch so much TV. Ronnie Raviv  45:56   I don't either. Um, because it's good escapism, I always like watching TV. Like I had a TV, I got it, I got a small little TV. Like, I don't know, like a 13 inch TV or something for my Bar Mitzvah that I had in my room. So I'd watch TV there sometimes. And then I took that to college, and then we would watch Whose Line Is It Anyway, like we'd all crammed right, and we didn't have cable, freshman and sophomore year. So I would like take speaker wire and toss them out the window, click attach to the rabbit ears in hopes of getting a decent signal on. Because that's how old we are Lea. And so yeah, so I was watched that and then and then I guess maybe after college I started recording things on on the VCR so I wouldn't like because, you know, I'm I have friends who will not have plans because they want to go do something they want to watch TV or something. So I would like record whatever because why not? And so maybe a little bit after college that started but then it really was in earnest it during business school. That's when I collected sort of like a second and maybe even my third DVR. VCR. Yeah. In business school. So I could record things but not miss out on social occasion. Right. And also, there's an additional advantage of that is because if there's an hour long show that you record, you can zip through the commercials and watch it in 45 minutes very efficient. So yeah, so I think it's, I'm all about if you if I had to pick a favorite thing would be efficiency. That's which is really the polite way of saying lazy. But yeah, so it was really the efficient thing to do. Leah Jones  47:50   Right. And when and when, like comedy so much of it wasn't right. Yeah. I mean, classes might have been during the day, but like so much of comedy was Yeah, evenings and yeah, Ronnie Raviv  48:01   so I wouldn't be never home but I wouldn't want to I wouldn't want to miss out on things. Like you know, I'm, I'm a very much a homebody, right and need an inordinate amount of me time, right? I don't like having plans day after night after night after night after night after night. Right? Even if I'm enjoying all those plans it just like I get stir crazy. I need my time. But I don't want to be the kind of person who misses out on plans with friends. Because Oh, no, I have to watch this at home. Right? That's I feel like, you know, that's You can be addicted to the thing, but not make it ruin your life. Right. So, yeah, so I just like started recording anything that was vaguely interesting. And I would watch it. Yeah. And my bar for vaguely interesting is pretty low. Right? Leah Jones  48:51   It's not reality. No, I Ronnie Raviv  48:52   don't I don't do reality TV. And I don't like shows about unpleasant people making bad decisions. Leah Jones  49:02   It's a madman. Ronnie Raviv  49:03   Yeah. Madman Breaking Bad. I watched a few episodes and like, succession. Haven't you watched that? Yes. Like at this point, I kind of know, oh, this is a show about shitty people making bad decisions, right? I'm not gonna like it. Because if it's a good person making bad decisions, okay, if it's a shitty person making good decisions, like an antihero kind of a thing. You know, like a Dexter or whatever, fine. But if it's like a crappy person who's making bad decisions and gets in trouble for their bad decisions, like I'm not gonna root for them to get out of trouble. Like you just you do this yourself. Yeah. Why do I care if you get out of it? Leah Jones  49:38   That's how I felt. I feel like I watched the pilot of girls. The TV show it was on HBO. Lena Dunham. Yeah. Adam Driver. Yeah. And I think I watched the pilot and I was like, Oh, I agree with the parents. This show is not for me because I think the parents should be kind Putting her off. And then I think that was like one of like five episodes of the whole series that I ever watched because I was like, No, I think I think she should be cut off and have to like, figure it out a little bit better. Yeah, I Ronnie Raviv  50:13   think that was on during the years that I didn't have HBO. Yeah. Because I had HBO for many years while I was, you know, when I first moved into my apartment, because for some reason, the cable company screwed up and it wasn't scrambled. Great. So I had free HBO and Showtime and then one day they caught on and they re scramble them and it's not like I could pick up the phone and call them and say Hey, how come he scrambled the free Why am I free cable that I'm not taking away? Yeah, so I you know, watch the first several seasons of sopranos and the first couple seasons of Kirby enthusiasm, and then I lost HBO so then I didn't watch those shows anymore. Well, sopranos Leah Jones  50:51   was on Sunday nights right before the tequila Roadhouse. Open Mic. So sometimes people would watch it at kill Roadhouse in the front and the bar and then go to the back for the open mic. Yeah, maybe I recorded it. Yeah. Right. You're gonna have to find a whole new system. Ronnie Raviv  51:10   Yeah, well now so they all it's streaming DVR, so you could just have hit it, but from what I read, they're not good about time shifting. Yeah, like in my current on the on the TiVo, I can say, okay, record this show, like when it supposed to be but then keep recording for another, you know, three, five minutes, another hour and a half. Like if there's a baseball game on before a football game before? And they're gonna like start it late. I can just keep recording. Yeah. But now with these online, these these streaming DVRs. You have to sort of set to record the show after it because he can't like extend the show. They don't know well enough, and but you might be able to go back and I don't know. It's a whole complicated thing. Yeah. I'm gonna have to figure out yeah. So yeah, TV is sort of a favorite. Yeah. But again, okay. I have a lot of things I like but none of these are my favorites. The the cocktails is probably the closest Yeah, but like people ask me, oh, what's your favorite show? If you watch too much TV? I don't have a favorite show. Just like I watch a lot of shows. Yeah, I don't favorite. Yeah, efficiently. I don't have a favorite though. Yeah. I have a bunch that I like. So I like more or less, where I'd be hard pressed to even say what those are. Yeah. I also like with books, I watch a TV show or a movie or a book. And I get the good feeling of it in the moment. And I appreciate it. I enjoy it in the moment, but then asked me what it was about. Right. When I'll have a tough time. Yeah. I just like it goes out of my head. I'm like, Oh, I remember I liked that book. What's it about? I don't know. What happens and I don't know. I just remember that it came away thinking it was a great book. Leah Jones  52:49   Do you ever come away thinking it's a bad book? Yeah. Okay. Ronnie Raviv  52:54   But I'll still read it. i There's only there's only, I think, two books on my list that I have started and not finished. Which are Moby Dick. And gravity's rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Which is weird, because there was a time period where I was when every book I was really enjoying and reading. Everyone was describing it as pinching ask. And I'm like, well, it's weird that the one book that I didn't finish is by Thomas Pynchon. But all these bitchiness, yes. I liked Leah Jones  53:30   I thought you were gonna say Moby Jack, either because you have told me before or because in the airfare she is sentence to live until she finishes the most boring book in the world. Ronnie Raviv  53:46   Book airfare and I don't remember. I have no, Leah Jones  53:49   not in airfare. It's it's further along in the series. Ronnie Raviv  53:53   I've read the whole series, and I have no recollection of what you're saying. This is what I'm talking about. Right. No recollection of these things? Leah Jones  53:58   Yeah. It is. It's one of my top topics I recommend to people. Ronnie Raviv  54:06   It's a good it's a good series of books. Yeah, sure. Leah Jones  54:08   Especially if people are readers. You're rewarded for being a lifelong reader. Yeah. And in his books, yeah. Ronnie Raviv  54:16   And there's good wordplay. And there's just clever. Yeah, yeah, it's good stuff. Yeah, Jasper Ford is very good. Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to eventually reading the sequel to my favorite book of his the great. The shades of grey shades of grey. Yeah. Not to be confused with 50 Shades of Grey, right. Shades of Grey is an awesome book. Again, don't ask me what it's about because I don't remember. I just remember thinking it was an awesome book. Let me tell you what I know. I know. It's I vaguely know it's like some people can't see certain colors, but some people can see certain colors, but not all of them. But then some people can like the more of the spectrum we can see. I don't remember what it signifies. But I just remember there are people who can like see greens and People can see reds. And there's like, sort of, but I don't really remember anything beyond that. Leah Jones  55:04   The it's the caste system is based on how much how colorblind, you are right with the people with the best cut the best vision at the top, and the most limited vision or at the bottom. Ronnie Raviv  55:18   But even the best limit, even the best vision, it's like, you only see one spectrum of colors, Leah Jones  55:23   right? And it's a coming of age story because of the age 16. You take the test, right? You're allowed to live without a caste until you're 16 or whatever. And then you take the test. And it is is the protagonist, I believe is realizing that if his parents are who his parents are supposed to be, he should not be able to see what he can see. Right. So they his mom stepped out to get his to get the kid better vision of a chance of a better future. You don't remember any of that that Ronnie Raviv  56:06   part? I don't remember. Yeah, no. No, I like read the book I enjoyed in the moment. And then I just come away with a good feeling. Leah Jones  56:14   Yeah. No, I'm excited for the sequel to Yeah, yeah. Ronnie Raviv  56:20   Yeah, it was really? Yeah. Because for a long time, it looked like he wasn't gonna do the sequel because it didn't sell that well, even though it's his best book, like by far. Yeah, the goal is because all of his books are good. But that one is the best book by far. Leah Jones  56:32   I think I've heard about him a lot during this current war in Ukraine. Why is that? Because a detail you don't remember from the era fair, right, is that the Crimea, the Crimean War has been ongoing for 20 years. Okay. Everybody in the UK eventually fights in the Crimean War, and it's unending. Ronnie Raviv  56:54   Yeah. I bet you remember something about the Crimean War? Yeah. Leah Jones  56:58   And so when it when it was annexed ahead of the war, a couple years ago, I was like, this Jasper Ford, like, actually, psychic, because it was like that. There was something wild that happened with Amazon and Kindles and like the deleting of content. And, you know, you don't really own your digital content. And so it was like Crimea, digital content going away, and something else and I was just like, what is Jasper Ford on? Like, how can he, as a futurist, and a science fiction writer have such a clear vision of where things are going, Ronnie Raviv  57:43   especially since it was written in such an almost absurdist fantastical way? Like nothing here is even remotely close to reality, right? Leah Jones  57:52   Yeah, I forget what your airfare is from. Ronnie Raviv  57:59   The 80s? Maybe? Oh, no. Like when it was published, or when published? Oh, like takes place in like, what feels like the 80s? Yeah. But I think it was, yeah, I Leah Jones  58:09   think I'm looking at my early aughts. I'm looking at my bookshelves as if it's there as if I haven't loaned it out for the 50th time, right. I've given it to so many people. Ronnie Raviv  58:19   I mean, I can Oh, takes place in alternative 1985. Right. Publishing 2001 According to Google, July 19 2001. So So pre 911, but Leah Jones  58:34   yeah, a pre Kindle. Ronnie Raviv  58:38   Yeah. You know, yep. Leah Jones  58:42   Amazon was only Amazon existed. But barely, barely. And only for books. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Cocktails, efficient TV watching. chicken potpie. That doesn't exist anymore. Right. Trustworthy chefs. Yeah. So which dinner do you think was better? tysew or OCD, OCD by far? Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  59:09   I mean, he was great. But OCD was amazing. Yeah. OCD was some of the best food I've ever read. Leah Jones  59:13   I was so nervous. I got so anxious that week, leading up to it that we oversold that we had oversold it. Ronnie Raviv  59:22   No, no, no, no, I wasn't nervous about that. I knew no matter what it was going to be good and fun and an experience and interesting. Yeah. And what was all those things, but it also was delicious. Yeah. Leah Jones  59:34   It was it was just a remarkable. Yeah. And every bite with one exception was phenomenal. For me. There was just that one salad. That was a little too sour. The chard? The chard, lettuce, chard greens. Yeah. And like the lemon sauce. Ronnie Raviv  59:55   Oh, yeah. You have you have a thing with sour right now. Leah Jones  59:58   Yeah, yeah. I made a face. I made a face when I tried it and I saw the staff see me make the face. And I was like, Oh, it was like unintentional, right? Because everything had been so perfect. Yeah. And even that one I appreciated but like just my Ronnie Raviv  1:00:16   I'm just off, ya know, just hit your jaw. Yeah, sour in the sour spot. Leah Jones  1:00:20   I mean hard in the sour spot. I still am thinking about the the freeze dried parfait the cloud? Oh, yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:00:30   Which you would think that the top layer of it would be the melty part would be the melt in your mouth part. And the bottom layer would be sort of like the, but it was the opposite for me. Like the bottom layer was the stuff that melted and disappeared in your mouth like candy. Almost. It wasn't. And the top layer was sort of like it crunched down like those like, green plant. You know, the green Styrofoam look really thick. Yeah, Styrofoam stuff. Leah Jones  1:00:57   I know. You're talking about floral, floral Styrofoam. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:01:01   Yeah, so it was like it's sort of that just got dense. So I would, I was expecting that top layer to just melt away like cotton candy. But it got dense. Yeah, and really good. And the bottom stuff, which was like more ice creamy sort of that. I figured it was going to just be like sort of become liquid and it just sort of disappeared. I don't know how Yeah, that was that was really good. Leah Jones  1:01:22   Yeah. And then like cuz it started with like, that was like a celery. Grenada. Yeah, it was wild. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:01:30   And the creme brulee that mean made out of potatoes. Yes. With like little potato chips on it like yeah, like shoestring potatoes, but sweet. Yeah, that was and what was the ice cream with that? Leah Jones  1:01:45   It wasn't it was non dairy. I think it was salted like a salted caramel maybe. Ronnie Raviv  1:01:50   I feel like it was also something that was savory. Yeah. Like a savory like some of you would expect to be savory but they made it a sweet Yeah, ice cream. Yeah, potatoes, but like some like not potato ice cream. But like some other kinds of something like turnips. Yeah, like something. Yeah. Leah Jones  1:02:08   And now they've already changed. We were we went for the smoke and fire menu. They're already on a new menu. And it's like, Ronnie Raviv  1:02:22   yeah, we have to we have to go back. Right. So good. It was so good. Leah Jones  1:02:25   I think Thai zoo because it was so I think Thai zoo is what unlocked for us. Like, we can have a nice time if we don't have plans. Yeah. So Thai zoo was like a friend of your cousin's got us a last minute reservation. It's hard. it hard to get reservation but not impossible. Like OCD, right? We went a year ago. And it was they interviewed us at the beginning of the meal. And we were like, Yeah, take it away. Like what they ordered for us. Yeah. And my only the only thing I told them about me was like they serve like whole fish like racinos like whole fish. And I was like, I don't face. I can't deal with a face. I'm already embarrassed thinking about how to eat that in public. Right. So like, I don't want the full fish. But other than that, like, I'll try anything. Yeah. And that was such an amazing dinner because it was just like, didn't know it. We didn't know what we were gonna do. Yeah, Ronnie Raviv  1:03:29   we didn't know what to expect. Yeah. Yeah, we were very good at the sponge. We've had incredible luck with the spontaneous. Yeah. dinners in the last few months. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, like your birthday was awesome. Leah Jones  1:03:44   We couldn't if we had planned if we had made all those reservations, it wouldn't have worked. Ronnie Raviv  1:03:48   No, we couldn't have planned that. Yeah, the one thing we did plan like we did plan Yes. But we just decided to skip it at the last minute. Yeah. And go completely plan LIS Yeah. To like the most the busiest part of town for like restaurants like where you can't get reservations for anything. No. And we just went to four different places all without reservations. And ended up being we just went from place to place to place all within like a block and a half. Yeah. Leah Jones  1:04:21   Because that's all I could do at the time right? Yeah, blind barber for drinks. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:04:28   And then Duck Duck go duck duck go for a last minute dinner right Open Table reservation Yeah, yeah, that Leah Jones  1:04:34   we did make a reservation but then like literally just walked across the street. Two minutes later. Yeah, we looked Ronnie Raviv  1:04:39   looked like oh, look, they have a table. It's 15 it's six. Let's go. Yeah, we put our name down. Yep. Went Leah Jones  1:04:46   and then and before every stop. We've went to aviary and tried to get an aviary Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:04:54   So tried to start the evening at aviary. We were denied because it was closed for private event. Yeah. So We went to get drinks at blind Barber. Yeah. And we went to dinner. Then we tried to go back to a beer. Yeah. And we're denied again. So then we went to to get dessert. Leah Jones  1:05:08   And we said, where would you go for dessert? And they told us about rosemary. This Croatian restaurant. Yeah. It's like what do you have now been for dinner? And I have not been Yeah, Ronnie Raviv  1:05:15   it is. Really good. Yeah. Leah Jones  1:05:20   So then we just like so rosemary, also very hard to get a table at Ronnie Raviv  1:05:24   like I've looked. Yeah. And I might, it's not an easy get. Leah Jones  1:05:28   But we just waltz in. And they Ronnie Raviv  1:05:30   sat us like, at the kitchen. Yeah. Like, at the counter at the kitchen. We were the only ones and yeah, had dessert there. Leah Jones  1:05:38   So we have like three, we ordered two. And they brought us a third because it's my birthday. Yeah. So we had these amazing desserts there. Ronnie Raviv  1:05:45   And as soon as they pop them down, we get a text from the aviary saying okay, you can come over Yeah, so we just download desserts and went wander over the aviary and had a nightcap there. Yes. A really good evening. Leah Jones  1:05:57   It was a fun night. Yeah. Yeah, so we've had good luck and we had good the night before your birthday party. We went to Frasca. Ronnie Raviv  1:06:06   Yeah, fresca, fresca. Braska fresco Frasca? Yeah Leah Jones  1:06:10   oh my god, we ordered so much food we Ronnie Raviv  1:06:12   ordered so much. Leah Jones  1:06:16   Delicious. Got it got a table right before it started to rain again. Right before everybody from the patio had to come inside. Yeah. Tremendous luck. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:06:28   A few other like one or two other places to that we just lucked out on. Leah Jones  1:06:32   Yeah, like we went to Tango sore after we saw Oh, yeah. Heimer. Yeah. Ronnie Raviv  1:06:35   And that's like, yeah, we're just like, hey, let's walk towards your car, and then maybe go drive somewhere. It's like, oh, or we could go into here, right. Oh, and then. Oh, and a few months before that we had we went to Barbara Roma. Yes. Where my friend is my friend's husband is the headshot. And so we went there and just like got a table there. Also not a particularly easy get that's pretty popular place. Leah Jones  1:07:01   Because it was a day after Ronnie Raviv

Mohammad Muneem urf Alif is a singer, songwriter, scriptwriter, professor... the list goes on. In this special podcast, Alif and Prateek talk about his journey so far, his Coke Studio song "Kya Karie Korimol", and more, but not without some of Alif's singing. Tune in for a music journey through Alif's career.

Imom Navaviyning “At-Tibyan fi adabi hamalatil Qur'an” (“Qur'on ko'taruvchilar odoblarining bayoni”) kitobining Husaynxon Yahyo Abdulmajid tomonlaridan qilingan sharhi Mundarija: 00:00 — Kirish. Avvalgi dars takrori 01:16 — «Alif bir harf. Lam bir harf. Mim bir harf» hadisining qisqacha sharhi 15:14 — Hasana - yaxshilik, goʻzallik deganidir 17:35 — Nega komil musulmon boʻlishga harakat qilish kerak? 20:01 — Ushbu hadisdan olinadigan foydalar 24:13 — Hadis xulosasi 27:12 — «Biror xonadonning chirogʻi oʻchiq turganini koʻrmaganman» 29:51 — Xotima

Alex Whiteley is ready, mic in-hand on the football fields at SCAT (Shrewsbury College of Arts and Technology) on London Road. This mission today is to speak to coaches, parents and players about the world of coaching, girls football and the positive impact it can have.Alex speaks to coaches Adam, Jess and Marv about the roles that they play at Shrewsbury Up and Comers u11 Girls. Women's football is on the rise and rise at the moment which is pretty awesome. But to solidify the fantastic work led by the iconic success of the Lionesses, it is important to build a solid foundation for the next generation of women footballers. That is what Marv, Adam and Jess are doing here (amongst many fantastic coaches across the country too).Alex speaks to some of the parents to find out the positive impact of their children being part of a team, as well as the encouragement of being coached regularly.Finally and most importantly, Alex spoke to some of the girls about their experiences at the team. Believe me when I say, these girls blew my mind. Some of the answers and comments that they gave had the maturity and wisdom that will take them far in life - ALIf you have a young one that you'd like to bring along to training or if you'd like to help out with a bit of coaching, please email Marv at girlsdevelopment.upandcomersfc@gmail.com

Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute.Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute. Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute.Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute. Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute.Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute.Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute.Dans cet épisode, je te fais un rappel sur les nombreux trésors que renferme le Qur'an, sa lecture, son apprentissage et son écoute. D'après Ibn Mass'oud (qu'Allah l'agrée), le Prophète (que la prière d'Allah et Son salut soient sur lui) a dit: « Celui qui lit une lettre du livre d'Allah a pour cela une bonne action et la bonne action compte 10 fois. Je ne dis pas que Alif Lam Mim est une lettre mais Alif est une lettre, Lam est une lettre et Mim est une lettre ». (Rapporté par Tirmidhi dans ses Sounan n°2910 qui l'a authentifié et il a également été authentifié par Cheikh Albani dans sa correction de Sounan Tirmidhi)  

Tafseer Unlocked - A journey through the Qur'an, through the explanations of our Early Pious Predecessors (the Salaf). A weekly series from at Masjid Al-Azhar, Belmore presented by: Farhan Bin Rafee. Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/live/wy7uXa75N2g Listen to the whole series: https://on.soundcloud.com/XiUbw Watch the series: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLWRcONNViMipkb8I0OQA7_BkB7CC3XqNU Listen LIVE on the Albayan Radio App: https://albayan.com.au/ Please Support Albayan Radio: http://albayan.com.au/#donate

"Introduction to Islamic Metaphysics" by Shaykh Mohamed Faouzi al-Karkari (qs) — Translation & Voice by Yousef Casewit & Khalid Williams. Buy the Book: https://amzn.to/3eeeyZh

In this episode of the “Get Back To It” podcast, Rita speaks with registered nurse, Suzanne Wurster, who was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was an adolescent. As she grew older, her Scoliosis began to cause her more pain and she began looking for answers in 2017. Her initial doctor suggested physical therapy and SI joint injections.The injections were initially helpful, but their impact quickly faded. Suzanne persisted in seeking more opinions from several other doctors, but none seemed too confident in their suggestions. That was until Suzanne visited a spine specialist, a professional in the field of spine care. This doctor recommended two surgeries, an ALIF interior lumbar fusion and a posterior instrumented fusion. Both surgeries were very successful, and Suzanne is doing very well and living her best life pain free. Her experience taught her not to give up on advocating for yourself and that you need to feel confident with your doctor's treatment plan. Support the show

Ask the Experts: Vascular Injuries during ALIF surgery Brian Kuhn, MD Thomas Terramani, MD Brent Kimball, MD Jonathan Schoeff, MD

Review các phim ra rạp từ này 24/02/23 MẤT TÍCH C16 Đạo diễn: Nick Johnson, Will Merrick Diễn viên: Storm Reid, Nia Long, Joaquim de Almeida, Tim Griffin, Daniel Henney, Amy Landecker Thể loại: Hồi hộp, Tâm Lý Những người từng tạo ra SEARCHING đã trở lại với MISSING ! “Missing” bắt đầu khi Grace (Nia Long) cùng bạn trai Kevin Lin (Ken Leung) đi du lịch Colombia. Sau vài ngày không liên lạc, cô con gái Ali (Storm Reid) bàng hoàng nhận ra mẹ mình đã mất tích một cách bí ẩn. Hết cách, Ali đành phải cố đăng nhập vào các tài khoản liên lạc hay mạng xã hội của mẹ để tìm manh mối. Cô dần khám phá ra những bí mật đen tối mà Grace che giấu suốt bấy lấu. Hàng loạt câu hỏi ập xuống đầu cô gái trẻ. Những mối quan hệ xã hội của Grace là ai? Thân phận thật sự của Kevin là gì? Liệu gã có phải tội phạm và lên kế hoạch bắt cóc Grace? CÚ MÁY CHẾT CƯỜI C16 Hòng tiết kiệm chi phí thuê bối cảnh, một đoàn làm phim độc lập vừa nghèo vừa “keo” đã tận dụng khu nhà máy bỏ hoang để ghi hình tác phẩm lấy đề tài xác sống. Tại đây, bọn họ đã có trải nghiệm nhớ đời khi chạm mặt những thây ma hung tợn bằng xương bằng thịt THÁNH VẬT CỦA QUỶ C18 Đạo diễn: Christopher Smith Diễn viên: Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Janet Suzman, Thoren Ferguson,... Thể loại: Kinh Dị Chuyện phim cuốn khán giả vào không khí ma quái đang bao trùm lấy tu viện Mount Savior nằm sâu trong Cao nguyên Scotland. Nơi đây vừa xảy ra cái chết bí ẩn của một linh mục - đó là em trai của Grace (Jena Malone). Giáo hội ở đây cho rằng em trai cô đã tự sát, nhưng cô không tin vào lời khai này mà quyết tìm ra sự thật. Tuy nhiên, càng dấn sâu vào điều tra, Grace vô tình làm sáng tỏ một “sự thật” đáng lo ngại hơn cả cái chết bí ẩn của em trai mình. Những ký ức kinh hoàng dần hiện về trong tâm trí của Grace, đan xen với những hiện tượng tâm linh khó lý giải tại tu viện. Ngay tại nơi ngự trị của Chúa, Grace đã phải đối mặt với những nguy hiểm rình rập từ giáo hội, nhưng điều kỳ lạ là không một ai có thể làm hại được cô ấy. Liệu Grace đang có thiên thần hộ mệnh hay thế lực ác quỷ sau lưng? Trận chiến ác liệt giữa Chúa và quỷ dữ sẽ diễn ra như thế nào? GIÁO SĨ QODRAT C18 Đạo diễn: Charles Gozali Diễn viên: Vino G. Bastian, Marsha Timothy, Maudy Effrosina Thể loại: Kinh Dị Qodrat phải đối mặt quá khứ đầy ám ảnh khi đứa trẻ Alif bị quỷ ám lại trùng tên với con trai quá cố bị quỷ dữ sát hại. Anh sẽ vượt qua nổi đau hay sa đọa vào bàn tay quỷ dữ. LÚC ĐÓ TÔI ĐÃ CHUYỂN SINH THÀNH SLIME: MỐI LIÊN KẾT ĐỎ THẪM C13 Đạo diễn: Yasuhito Kikuchi Thể loại: Hành Động, Hoạt Hình, Phiêu Lưu Câu chuyện xoay quanh anh chàng 37 tuổi Mikami Satoru sống một cuộc đời chán chường không mấy vui vẻ… cho đến khi mất mạng và bị biến thành slime! Sau khi đã quen với hình dạng kỳ quặc này, anh chàng bắt đầu chuyến phiêu lưu khám phá thế giới mới với cái tên Rimuru Tempest, cùng các quái vật xây dựng quốc gia riêng Jura Tempest và thay đổi thế giới này. Trong phần phim điện ảnh, Rimuru sẽ đến với quốc gia Razha nằm ở phía Tây Tempest. Rimuru cùng các thuộc hạ vướng vào một âm mưu xoay quanh một cô gái bí ẩn và bắt đầu chuyến phiêu lưu nguy hiểm nhưng cũng vô cùng hồi hộp và phấn khích. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/kim-thanh-duong/support

Alif Bank has grown into one of the leading fintechs in Central Asia; and with its portfolio of Sharia-compliant lending, payments, and banking products it's showing that fintech can be based on noble values.Alif Bank and all its products can be found at www.alif.tj (click the link to jump to English) or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/alif-capital/Abdullo himself, who you've heard is very personable, is also there at https://www.linkedin.com/in/akurbanov/You can read about the academy and how Alif are building future tech stars at https://fintechmagazine.com/financial-services-finserv/fintech-in-tajikistan-director-of-alif-academy-on-diversityThen, in the episode Abdullo mentions how Alif are now an AWS case study, and he means that literally, you can read more about their hybrid migration to AWS at https://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/alif-bank-case-study/Somon.tj is exactly where you'd expect it: https://somon.tj/Tajikistan is a mountainous, rugged country - if you'd like to visit it, read more here https://wikitravel.org/en/Tajikistan or here https://advntr.cc/the-not-knowing-an-adventure-in-tajikistan/You can learn more about myself, Brendan le Grange, on my LinkedIn page (feel free to connect), my action-adventure novels are on Amazon, some versions even for free, and my work with ConfirmU and our gamified psychometric scores is at https://confirmu.com/ and on episode 24 of this very show https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/episodes/episode-24If you have any feedback, questions, or if you would like to participate in the show, please feel free to reach out to me via the contact page on my site: https://www.howtolendmoneytostrangers.show/contact-us.Oh, and if you're in need of more banking podcasts, you can find related content at https://blog.feedspot.com/banking_podcasts/Regards, Brendan Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you want the truth, I'll tell you the truth: Listen to the secret sound, the real sound, which is inside you. -Kabir. Today we have such a person with us on Audiogyan who has not only heard his inner voice but also share himself as a work of art. He happens to be born n raised in Kashmir. Would his work of art be any different if he was born raised anywhere else in the world ? I am pleased to have Mohammad Muneem Nazir with us on Audiogyan. He is a poet, singer-songwriter. His artist name is Alif. He is the winner of the IRAA Award for his single “Like a Sufi” and the Dada Saheb Phalke Award for the single “Lalnawath”. He conceptualizes and directs Alif's videos. Muneem teaches Urdu poetry/songwriting at Symbiosis College of Arts and Commerce in Pune and also conducts various poetry/song writing workshops. Questions Who according to you is an artist? What does art mean to you? Can you separate art from the artist?  Does an artist need to be always in pain? or seeking pain? How instinctive is “writing” for any poet? or for you? In your DD Kasheer interview, you casually mentioned that you want to stay with a positive vibe - While your poetry seems to be dark at times. Could you talk about it a little more? You often say, the Kashmiri language has a lyrical quality to it and the words feel musical. Even though your compositions seem soothing and melodic but the lyrical content has some undercurrent. Any observations you saw in your work? This is in the context of your song, “Lalnawath”. There can be multiple takeaways from it. Is there any threshold of abstraction when you say what you want to say but still making it palatable to the listener/reader of your poetry? I interviewed Varun Grover a long time ago and he said that a poet is creating art within the environment he or she is living. While few artists have done amazing work in exile. How and when can one reflect or zoom out to see the larger narrative? Is there a larger narrative while poets live in a utopian world? Reference Reading https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/music/mohammad-muneem-of-alif-on-their-unique-music/article25908501.ece https://rollingstoneindia.com/alif-mohammad-muneem-siyah-azizo/ https://twitter.com/alifsmusic?lang=en https://www.instagram.com/everythingisalif/?hl=en

Tonight on the GeekNights Book Club, we discuss G. Willow Wilson's Alif the Unseen. A magical realism cyberpunk thriller set in the Middle East, it'd definitely worth your read! We enjoyed it, and there's significant interesting allegory about what it means to see (or not see) things, places, and people.

English Name of the Story - Madison Chowk Ki Alif Laila लेखक - ओ॰ हेनरी Writer - O Henry स्वर - समीर गोस्वामी Narration - Sameer Goswami https://kahanisuno.com/ http://instagram.com/sameergoswami_kahanisuno https://www.facebook.com/kahanisuno/ http://twitter.com/goswamisameer/ https://sameergoswami.com

Media relations is often confused to be the same as public relations. And yes, it does have overlapping aspects to it, but media relations is a completely different thing, according to this episode's guest. Felicity Cowie, a former BBC and Panorama journalist, now a media relations expert, explains the difference between media relations and public relations, and how it can help you #getnoticed.Felicity also shares how to come up with a great pitch, factors to consider before you decide which media or journalists to pitch, and some common dynamics within the media relations stage that makes it risky and complicated but worth it. She also shares a couple of tips if you're looking at doing media relations and if you're considering of hiring an agency to help you with it.She also shares about her book called Exposure: Insider Secrets to Make Your Business a Go-To Authority for Journalists which you can order from Amazon or her website, www.mediarelationscoach.com.Post-production, transcript and show notes by XCD Virtual AssistantsSocial listening - google alert killer!Generate leads and market your product using social listeningGet Otter with 1-month FREE Pro LiteGenerate rich notes for meetings, interviews, lectures, and other important voice conversations.The UnNoticed Entrepreneur BookThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur: Fifty Ideas for your Company to Stand OutThe Marque of an EntrepreneurGet noticed as an entrepreneur with the 19 Dots range of merchandise; bottles, cups, caps et alIf you want to know how to get noticed this show is for you. I have interviews, tools, tips, everything that an entrepreneur could need in order to help their organization to get noticed for free. Thank you for joining me on the unnoticed show.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEPlease rate the show here.

Media relations is often confused to be the same as public relations. And yes, it does have overlapping aspects to it, but media relations is a completely different thing, according to this episode's guest. Felicity Cowie, a former BBC and Panorama journalist, now a media relations expert, explains the difference between media relations and public relations, and how it can help you #getnoticed.Felicity also shares how to come up with a great pitch, factors to consider before you decide which media or journalists to pitch, and some common dynamics within the media relations stage that makes it risky and complicated but worth it. She also shares a couple of tips if you're looking at doing media relations and if you're considering of hiring an agency to help you with it.She also shares about her book called Exposure: Insider Secrets to Make Your Business a Go-To Authority for Journalists which you can order from Amazon or her website, www.mediarelationscoach.com.Post-production, transcript and show notes by XCD Virtual AssistantsSocial listening - google alert killer!Generate leads and market your product using social listeningGet Otter with 1-month FREE Pro LiteGenerate rich notes for meetings, interviews, lectures, and other important voice conversations.The UnNoticed Entrepreneur BookThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur: Fifty Ideas for your Company to Stand OutThe Marque of an EntrepreneurGet noticed as an entrepreneur with the 19 Dots range of merchandise; bottles, cups, caps et alIf you want to know how to get noticed this show is for you. I have interviews, tools, tips, everything that an entrepreneur could need in order to help their organization to get noticed for free. Thank you for joining me on the unnoticed show.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEPlease rate the show here.

Email marketing brings +40 times more revenue than expenses. How to jump on this boat? Alif Huq shares his valuable insights. Let's dive in. Email marketing has gone through a major change in the last few years because the volume of emails sent is increasing by around 20% every year. A lot of people are…

Most people are familiar with public podcasts, just like this show. But do you know that private podcasts can also be a great way to #getnoticed? With private podcasts, you can easily turn any content to audio, be it a course, webinar, or document - and share it with selected listeners, and for a specific duration, if you would like. And this is what our guest for this episode, Nora Sudduth, Co-founder of Hello Audio, shares with us.Nora also shares the main 3 use cases of private podcasts, how Hello Audio could help you generate and deliver your content to your listeners, and how audio content or private podcasts can help you with your funnels.Post-production, transcript and show notes by XCD Virtual AssistantsSocial listening - google alert killer!Generate leads and market your product using social listeningGraphic design toolbox - VismeCreate visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a pro designer or a total novice.The UnNoticed Entrepreneur BookThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur: Fifty Ideas for your Company to Stand OutThe Marque of an EntrepreneurGet noticed as an entrepreneur with the 19 Dots range of merchandise; bottles, cups, caps et alIf you want to know how to get noticed this show is for you. I have interviews, tools, tips, everything that an entrepreneur could need in order to help their organization to get noticed for free. Thank you for joining me on the unnoticed show.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEPlease rate the show here.

Most people are familiar with public podcasts, just like this show. But do you know that private podcasts can also be a great way to #getnoticed? With private podcasts, you can easily turn any content to audio, be it a course, webinar, or document - and share it with selected listeners, and for a specific duration, if you would like. And this is what our guest for this episode, Nora Sudduth, Co-founder of Hello Audio, shares with us.Nora also shares the main 3 use cases of private podcasts, how Hello Audio could help you generate and deliver your content to your listeners, and how audio content or private podcasts can help you with your funnels.Post-production, transcript and show notes by XCD Virtual AssistantsSocial listening - google alert killer!Generate leads and market your product using social listeningGraphic design toolbox - VismeCreate visual brand experiences for your business whether you are a pro designer or a total novice.The UnNoticed Entrepreneur BookThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur: Fifty Ideas for your Company to Stand OutThe Marque of an EntrepreneurGet noticed as an entrepreneur with the 19 Dots range of merchandise; bottles, cups, caps et alIf you want to know how to get noticed this show is for you. I have interviews, tools, tips, everything that an entrepreneur could need in order to help their organization to get noticed for free. Thank you for joining me on the unnoticed show.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEPlease rate the show here.

According to Mike Maynard of Napier, entrepreneurs who are running a great business have really great opportunities. But based on what he has observed from his clients in Napier, the biggest challenge for these businesses to #getnoticed is creating their story. How do you overcome this challenge?In this episode, Mike explains why creating a story is the biggest challenge for businesses when it comes to PR and shares how to overcome this. He also shares the most important steps in their 4-step process to build a good campaign, and some tips for entrepreneurs on how to build a great story to #getnoticed by media or their audience without spending a big amount of money.Podcast post production: XCD Virtual AssistantsVidyard - Use Video In Your EmailsVidyard is the easiest way to record and send videos that build personal connections.AI Writer - Content writing made easierGenerate Accurate, Relevant & Quality Content in 2 MinutesThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur BookThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur: Fifty Ideas for your Company to Stand OutThe Marque of an EntrepreneurGet noticed as an entrepreneur with the 19 Dots range of merchandise; bottles, cups, caps et alIf you want to know how to get noticed this show is for you. I have interviews, tools, tips, everything that an entrepreneur could need in order to help their organization to get noticed for free. Thank you for joining me on the unnoticed show.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEPlease rate the show here.

According to Mike Maynard of Napier, entrepreneurs who are running a great business have really great opportunities. But based on what he has observed from his clients in Napier, the biggest challenge for these businesses to #getnoticed is creating their story. How do you overcome this challenge?In this episode, Mike explains why creating a story is the biggest challenge for businesses when it comes to PR and shares how to overcome this. He also shares the most important steps in their 4-step process to build a good campaign, and some tips for entrepreneurs on how to build a great story to #getnoticed by media or their audience without spending a big amount of money.Podcast post production: XCD Virtual AssistantsVidyard - Use Video In Your EmailsVidyard is the easiest way to record and send videos that build personal connections.AI Writer - Content writing made easierGenerate Accurate, Relevant & Quality Content in 2 MinutesThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur BookThe UnNoticed Entrepreneur: Fifty Ideas for your Company to Stand OutThe Marque of an EntrepreneurGet noticed as an entrepreneur with the 19 Dots range of merchandise; bottles, cups, caps et alIf you want to know how to get noticed this show is for you. I have interviews, tools, tips, everything that an entrepreneur could need in order to help their organization to get noticed for free. Thank you for joining me on the unnoticed show.Buzzsprout - Let's get your podcast launched! Start for FREEPlease rate the show here.