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The Travel Path Podcast
20. Getting As Much Fulfillment Out of Life As They Can @HappilyEverHanks

The Travel Path Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 1, 2024 45:23


www.atravelpath.com We were so glad to be able to chat with Kyle and Renee Hanks from Happily Ever Hanks! They shared their inspiring story of how they uprooted their lives to pursue full time travel in order to get the most fulfillment out of life. In this episode you'll learn all about:   Getting Out Of Debt Kyle and Renee attribute much of their Freedom to the habits they developed to getting out of debt and not having to constantly pay large bills and debts every month. We learn some actionable steps they took to get themselves out of $230k in debt!   How to Seek Fulfillment Tired of the mundane 9-5 work life with only two weeks off out of they year, they wanted to pursue something different. They discussed how the loneliness of the road can be nerve-wracking at times, but it's also proved to be a great source of fulfillment, knowing they are out on their own and getting through everything. They discuss chasing the addiction of finally getting one whole month off from work, and how they turned it into a game so that they could find ways to take even more time off.   When Things Go Wrong Kyle and Renee shared a few things that cause them frustrations while they are on the road, and how they have learned to just laugh at times. They make a really good point about how when things go wrong, they have two choices: They can either get upset about it, or stay positive, share a laugh, and get through it.   Learn all this and much, much more during this inspiration-filled chat with Happily Ever Hanks!   Chapters ·        00:00 Introduction ·        04:30 What was some of the skepticism you faced when you started out in your RV? ·        06:15 How did you balance work and travel when you were travel nursing? ·        07:45 How long have you been out of travel nursing for? ·        09:30 How were you able to get out of $230k of debt? ·        11:45 When did travel become a priority for you? ·        12:45 What are the biggest frustrations you face currently while traveling? ·        15:45 Saying goodbye to family for the first time. ·        16:45 Any mistakes or embarrassing stories you'd like to share? ·        21:00 How do you handle it when things go wrong? ·        21:30 What do you love most about your RV lifestyle? ·        22:45 RV Techs ·        23:30 Do you have any advice for someone looking to buy an RV for the first time? ·        25:45 How do you get internet while traveling? ·        29:15 What does your budget look like while traveling? ·        32:30 What is it like traveling with a cat in your RV? ·        34:00 What has been your coolest travel experience? ·        36:15 What is one thing you need & don't need while traveling? ·        38:30 What tools should every RVer have? ·        41:00 Using the trucker lanes. ·        43:00 Who influenced you to travel?   Happily Ever Hanks on Social ·        Website: https://www.happilyeverhanks.com/ ·        YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@HappilyEverHanks ·        Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happilyeverhanks/ ·        Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/happilyeverhanks ·        TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@happilyeverhanks   Videos from Happily Ever Hanks ·        Financial Independence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlIOjC7eyl0&t=182s ·        Avoid These Mistakes When Buying an RV: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VolVHbO1_L0   Past Episodes ·        Travel Nursing with Dakota and Courtney: https://atravelpath.com/travel-nursing/ ·        Part 1 with Laura and Jason: https://atravelpath.com/road-trip-with-kids/ ·        Part 2 with Laura and Jason: https://atravelpath.com/florid-keys/   Resources ·        Dave Ramsey Books: https://store.ramseysolutions.com/books/all-books/ ·        RV Dealer Mentioned: https://www.tomschaeffers.com/   Camping ·        Bahia Honda Campground: https://www.floridastateparks.org/BahiaHonda   Budgeting Tools ·        Tiller: https://www.tillerhq.com/ ·        Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets   RV Tools ·        VIAIR Air Compressor: https://amzn.to/3TBoIrn ·        Pole Buddy: https://amzn.to/3xjiRQ4 ·        (Commissions may be earned from purchases made on this page)   YouTube Channels Reference ·        Long Long Honeymoon: https://www.youtube.com/@LongLongHoneymoon ·        Keep Your Daydream: https://www.youtube.com/@KeepYourDaydream ·        Kara and Nate: https://www.youtube.com/@KaraandNate   Most Popular Blogs: • Most Popular Travel Hacks: https://atravelpath.com/money-saving-travel-tips/ • Travel Gear: https://atravelpath.com/travel-gear/ • How to Budget For Gas on a Road Trip: https://atravelpath.com/how-to-budget-for-gas-for-a-road-trip/ • Our Favorite RV Upgrades: https://atravelpath.com/rv-upgrades/ • How Much We Made Renting Our RV: https://atravelpath.com/renting-camper-van/ • Never Run Out of Gas on a Road Trip: https://atravelpath.com/road-trip-tip/     Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains   *All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.       Transcript Host: Kyle and Renee, welcome to the Travel Path podcast.     Guest: Thank you for having us.     Host: So we know you on YouTube as Happily Ever Hanks. You built a very large community with your mission of both educating people in the RV life and inspiring your audience to break free from their comfort zone. Before we start, I do want to give a shout out to Laura, Jason, and Alexis. One episode of our podcast mentioned that they had watched so much of your content that their younger daughter, Alexis, has been inspired to become a travel nurse herself when she grows up. So here we are talking now full circle. But why don't we start by having you guys share a little about yourselves and then letting our audience know what your current travel lifestyle looks like?     Guest: Sure. Well, first of all, that's really inspiring to hear. Yeah, that's really cool. That's neat that we're bringing up the younger generation and inspiring them. That's like kind of why we started all this. We first started as your nurses back in Pennsylvania in around 2015. We just got tired of the mundane lifestyle and wanted to explore life on the road a little bit. So we started looking at travel nursing and in 2016, we started applying for our licenses. Actually, in late 2016, we started applying for a California license for our nursing. And from there, we just kind of hit the road. And then we had no really idea where we were going. We went to San Francisco for our first travel assignment and then thereafter is kind of up in the air. But basically, over the time being, I'm sure we'll get more into this later on in the podcast, but around 2019, something there, you'd say we were kind of hit a hiccup with nursing itself and we laid off for a little bit. And then that's what inspired us to start documenting our adventures and the RV lifestyle, sharing all the things. When we worked in the ER, man, how many times we were asked by our coworkers and other patients, they were so fascinated with us living in an RV or like, how does that work? It doesn't make sense. You're not living in a house. You're living in an RV. And yeah, we were just educating. We had people gathered around and we were talking about how they can get into like RVing with travel nursing.     Host: So I feel like that's probably maybe we've got the ball rolling for you guys starting your YouTube. Was it everyone asking you questions in your career as travel nurses that kind of got your head scratching? Well, maybe there's a void here we can make start a channel and actually inform a larger audience.     Guest: Yeah, pretty much. We just we learned that there's people who are RV and there's travel nursing. And, you know, when you think of an RV or you tend to focus more on people who are retired, so to have these travel nurses who were younger, just so interested, they're like, I've never even heard of this. I never even thought to get an RV. It's just it's like we were teaching others. But, you know, we didn't know it was a thing either until we found it on the Internet. We were just going to do housing, like apartment housing that the travel nurse company gives you until we stumbled upon some article that talked about, hey, you can live in an RV and do this. And we were like, no. And then here we are.     Host: Now, the purpose of the podcast is to help people, you know, get started traveling and ultimately reach their travel goals. So I do want to dial it back a little bit on your website. You had mentioned that when you made this transition, you fought some skepticism and then also you were, quote unquote, bucking the trend when you sold your house and went to travel full time. What was some of that skepticism and how are you able to overcome that?     Guest: Well, I guess the skepticism was jumping into a different way of life. See, when we were working as nurses back in Pennsylvania before we even started living in an RV, we were kind of just doing the mundane nine to five. And it just like one week flowed into another. And we were having to wait for those two week vacations. You know, you work all year to get those two weeks off. And it's like once you get those two weeks, it's just like, where do we go? What do we do? It seems so condensed into one time frame where we just didn't know we were kind of fumbling around. We're like, why don't we just kind of make a lifestyle out of this? And then through working in the ER, you know, we met a lot of other travelers there and it just blew my mind immediately that nurses could bounce around the country and live this different lifestyle filling in the gaps within schedules across the country, you know, other hospitals. So, you know, I think that's a really good question. So that's kind of like what inspired us, you know, to kind of get there. Is there anything I'm missing?   Guest: No, I pretty much we just also the trend of like you buy a house, you get married, you have kids, it's like life teaches you to follow these certain rules. We were like, what if we sell the house now and just kind of do whatever, travel around the country. So yeah, yeah, get out of debt, lose the mortgage and travel the country.     Host: You mentioned that mundane, like the two week vacation, right? That's kind of the ritual, the path that most people follow. And on our last episode with Wanda with Katie, she had mentioned that she had many nurses or many friends in the travel nurse field where what they kind of do is they'll get to a destination, an assignment. They'll be working like crazy hours for however many weeks. And then they'll take like an extended break, whether it's a couple of weeks or a month in that destination where they are and just explore it. Is that how you pretty much lived it when you were travel nursing?     Guest: That's exactly how we lived it. Yes. So we got a little taste of that. A typical travel nurse contract lasts about 13 weeks. And from that point, when you complete it, you can either ask to resign at the hospital if they still need you or you can move along to a different state, different hospital. It's also flexible. So we got a little taste of that when we finished our contract. We're like, well, now what? We have this money. We saved up a little money on the side and, you know, we could go work another job immediately and start making more money. Take a little time off, go explore some surrounding areas. And that's kind of what led us into becoming debt free. But yeah, just so much like just work your boat off for 13 weeks and then take like a month or two off and actually travel.   Guest: It was such a liberating feeling to be debt-free and have the flexibility to choose how we wanted to spend our time and money.     Host: Do you find it easier or harder, the fact that both of you are travel nurses?     Guest: Oh, easier, much easier. Yeah. Yeah. When we went to San Francisco, oh, my goodness. We were just... I'm not a city person. So I was kind of thrown in the middle of everything. It was very busy, very hectic, and just fast-paced. So having each other to rely on in the new location was kind of nice to kind of get through some of those hiccups.     Host: How long have you been out of the travel nurse space for?     Guest: Oh, man, it's... we took an assignment in 2019, and then that's when they were saying they couldn't resign us. So it's been... it's been a minute for sure. And then, you know, when we got laid off, you know, at that temporary time, we had tried to resign with the hospital, like, you know, we can't afford to rehire you guys. This is right during all the pandemic just to be completely transparent. You know, the hospital took such a hit with the money, you know, depleted and they kind of afford travel nurses. So they really had to hunker down with the budgeting and everything. So luckily we had set up enough of a almost like a safety net for ourselves to take some time off. And, you know, we were always wondering, well, this may be the opportunity to share and document all of our experiences with others. Yeah. And we didn't expect that it was going to replace travel nursing.     Host: I'm sure the travel nurse space has changed a little bit since you guys exited that area. And I'm just realizing now this is like the purpose. This is like a perfect follow up from our previous episode with Courtney and Dakota, who are actually just getting into the travel nurse space. So the episode that came out actually hasn't been released yet, but it's going to get released before this one. So if you listen to this now and you're looking to get into it, they provide details on actually like modern-day, currently what it's like transitioning into that. So that's perfect. Transitioning a little bit, I want to talk a little bit about how you went out of debt, because that's a... I forget the statistic I read, but I know there's a lot of consumer debt in this country. And you had a video a while back on how you went from two hundred and thirty thousand dollars in debt to financial independence. I want to know what your definition of F.I. is because I know that's been thrown around a lot with financial freedom. But how are you able to get or to get out of debt, essentially?     Guest: Well, getting out of debt was just mostly, I would say... I don't know what would what would the term be that I'm looking for? It's kind of just mostly discipline and just having a goal and following through with it. So we broke it down in as simple pieces as we could. We usually referred to Dave Ramsey at the time. We had utilized a lot of his teachings. I don't know how familiar most people are with Dave Ramsey out there. But it's a really simple way of just setting aside like baby steps of like setting some money over here for an emergency fund and then tackling all your lowest debt and then going forward from there to your bigger, bigger debts. So financial independence was a huge thing because, as I said before, once we got that taste of finishing a contract and then having that time off, well, we kind of became addicted to having more of that time off. Freedom. That freedom was like, oh, my gosh, I want more of that. A month was like only a month now that we get to travel. We want two months, three months. And so it became a game to us, to be honest. It turned into a game. We just went all in over time. All of our pennies and dollars went to paying off every single piece of debt that we had. So that to actually qualify, what would the financial independence? It was like the freedom side of it. That's what it meant to us is like not being tied to a loan or like having to work because you have to pay all these bills. It was like, what if we didn't have to pay all these bills and we can kind of just... you can live frugally if you want to not have to work as much or you can work your butt off and save. It's just like you had freedom to do whatever you want with your money.     Host: Yes, it's like once you learn it's that delayed gratification. Yeah, it's a sacrifice. You're giving up certain things now. But once you realize what you're able to do with that extra money and that extra time in the future, that's when it becomes, like you said, like a game and it gets addicting. And then you just try and find every nook and cranny you can start saving and and growing from there.     Guest: Absolutely. Yeah.     Host: Twenty seventeen is when we started travel nursing, right? And twenty nineteen is when we decided to start going full time. At what point did travel become the driving factor in that?     Guest: So, not the answer for Renee, but for most of my growing up, we traveled around as a family, maybe a couple of hours away here and there. We had done some flights across the country to go see some places, but nothing crazy. So jumping into the lifestyle was very new for us because we knew we would have to drive all the way from Pennsylvania to California for our first travel nursing assignment. And there is a lot of land in between to sightsee and just explore and take it all in. So as we proceeded from there, I think it just became a little bit of an addiction over time of like, wow, you know, we only do have one life to live. We live it responsibly. You know, we're not out here discriminating YOLO and blowing money like crazy and doing whatever. We're actually trying to be really responsible people, but get the most fulfillment out of this life as we can. So to kind of answer your question, I just say it gradually increased over time to where we are now of, you know, eventually one day, hopefully we can do some international travel. Yeah, it's a lot to see out there. Lots to see.     Host: Fast forward to where you are on the road now currently. What are some of the biggest frustrations you currently face traveling?     Guest: Probably the lack of consistency. You know, you might be in one area and the cell service is great and the resources are close by. But the campground is iffy or I don't know the weather is not good. So it's like and then you go to another place and the Internet's bad and then you go to this place. And the grocery store is like 20 miles away. So it's like you can never have consistency, but that's OK, because the best part is that you could just pick up and move and go somewhere new all the time.   Guest: Yeah, and it may seem just to piggyback on that, it may sound kind of like... I don't know where we're coming from. You know, if you're living at home, you're like, that doesn't really make sense. But try to uproot your life and all the routines that you have, the typical grocery store, you know, where everything's laid out all the time. You know, your favorite gas station that has all the best prices, friends, your family, everything you can rely on for. You know, you're kind of out here by yourself and it's a little nerve-racking. But in that, you kind of find some fulfillment within your life that you're pushing yourself, you're exploring new places, and it's just fun to be immersed in that kind of lifestyle.   Guest: Going to a grocery store and everything's backwards. Yeah. Walmart. Hey, got to learn it. We'll tackle it together. It's like every time stop and shop, they rearrange everything, except for you guys. It's every time you go to a grocery store. Yeah, it's like there's no learning the grocery store. Like you're just you're always walking around like you're clueless everywhere you go. And that's just the way it is. Roll with it.     Host: Do you guys ask for help in the grocery store? It's the first thing I do. Hope will never.     Guest: Yeah, I don't know. I thought she would be more, but I'm just like you, Tyler. I ask for a couple of times. She's like, where is this? And I immediately just find somebody. I'm like, listen, we don't want to. What's... I don't want to be defeated. It's like if I can't find the eggs, like what she likes, you know, can I even get by in life? It's like a personal scavenger hunt every time.     Host: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I wonder if that's like a man and a woman like personality thing, because it's the first thing I do when I go to a store, even if I know where it is, I'm still asking. But I know with you, like I just ask somebody, no. OK, fine. OK.     Guest: That's because we want to still look at everything. We want to meander around the store. We don't just want to get that one item. I do want to say that the thing I always forget about. I don't want to knock our friends and family like that. That's a big part of travel. That's hard is, you know, he has family in California. I have family in Pennsylvania. So they're spread out and they're all up north. So it doesn't make it like a snowbird situation where we could be in the south and visiting one of them. So that's another inconsistency or an issue with traveling that we don't like. Yeah. Yeah.     Host: So yeah, family. So that's one thing you probably expected, right? Obviously, if you're traveling full time, you're going to be saying goodbye to your family. Was that harder or easier than you expected it to be?     Guest: The first time, the very first time we said bye. Guest: Yeah. Yeah. That was hard. That was hard. It was difficult. I mean, like Renee said, you know, with us having family on the other side of the country, it was like saying bye to them and then being like, oh, I'm excited to see the other side of the family. But it's still kind of it hurts like that, that first time, because it's like, you know, your your mind is telling you, oh, my gosh, this is forever. But in reality, it's it's not it's just it's just a new step in life. That's what it is. Still hurts because we'll go back and visit for a month or two and then you say goodbye again. So it's like you're constantly reliving the like, well, you know, I'll see you next time. And it's always you're always trying to delay it because you don't want to say goodbye. But you think we'll be back.     Host: Like I said, you're mobile, so you can always pick up and go whenever you want to. Do you have any — and I know you guys do because I've watched your videos — but do you have any embarrassing stories or mistakes you want to share that could potentially save a future listener some trouble?     Guest: To keep it as short as possible, we were in Mississippi driving and we need to pull over for some fuel at a Flying J at the time. Now, Flying J is a truck stop out on the road that we had used quite frequently. And why we liked it so much is they also had these RV fuel lanes there. So if you can imagine where normal cars would fuel up, then there's RV fuel lanes. And then on top of that, they have the other section for all the truck drivers and 18-wheelers, so we pulled into the RV fuel lane. But we have been so used to filling up in the trucker lanes where everything was diesel over there. If you don't know where I'm going with this, eventually I got out of the truck, started pumping fuel, but quickly realized I pumped about a gallon, maybe two, two gallons of diesel and two or, excuse me, of gas into my diesel truck. So I stopped, panicked, received his panic. We likely didn't do anything. Didn't start the truck, but I I had no idea what to do. I didn't know what happened if I would fill it up with diesel and start running it. I just said, let's not do anything. We'll call for a tow truck and see what happens. So we end up calling for a tow truck, having to get the truck towed all the way to like a body shop or somewhere that can deal with dropping the tank, cleaning out the fuel injectors, everything. Meanwhile, our RV, our travel trailer sat there blocking the entire fuel lanes for three hours straight.   Guest: Yeah, I think Flying J didn't care. Yeah, they're like, I just let it sit there.   Guest: So we forgot we lock it up or anything.   Guest: I forgot.   Guest: So at the time we traveled with two vehicles.   Guest: Yeah. So I stayed back and just parked the car.   Guest: Oh, that's right. In front of it and just blocked it.   Guest: We need to see the trailer.     Host: Yeah, on guard.     Guest: So just be careful. The reason, just one last thing I want to add to that story, the black handles is what got me. So when you're over on the 18-wheeler side, it could be green handles for diesel or it could be black handles for diesel. But unfortunately, in the RV fuel lanes, it was only green for diesel. And I had picked up a black handle.     Host: Well, fortunately, you caught it and then you didn't end up starting it. Do you know what would have happened if I know it's only a gallon or so you said, but I can't imagine that being good.     Guest: My buddy said something with the combustion of like gasoline. They are nerding out on this stuff, but they said somehow the combustion rate of gasoline basically could really like do some internal damage on a diesel truck engine so that he made the best. A lot of people out there had commented on the video to like, hey, I've done that before, filled it up the rest of the way with diesel. I was fine, but I like to look at it with it being a truck that was at the time paid off. It was under warranty. I'm not sure. We just didn't want a chance that, you know, no dad. I called dad. I called my buddy. They're like, I'm not sure what what to do. So we just called again.     Host: Yeah, when in doubt, you're better off just calling someone. At least you're you're safe that way. Plus, when you're on the road, I mean, you couldn't go on to you. There's a good chance you're going to be in the middle of nowhere at some point. You know, that thing breaking down. There's no service. There's no one, nobody to help you.     Guest: Yeah, yeah. On that same trip, we did almost break down a mile in nowhere, Texas, with my car. Then it needed a new alternator. I don't know where. So we were just like, OK, this lifestyle is great. Yeah, you know, everything's breaking.   Host: You mentioned your previous video every time like you guys just you laugh when there's problems, you said something about that. We just can't get any worse. And is that is that a coping mechanism?     Guest: I think so by now. I got to laugh or cry. So we just figured, let's just laugh about it. We make it a duty to like pick up the camera to show it. So the camera is in your face. You know, you kind of pep up a little bit. You're not. Yeah. There are so many kinds of words around. So yeah, like when things go wrong at first, it's like you used to get so angry. Like, why me? You know, why is this happening to me? Everyone's out at home and joined in or we're all stuck on the side of the road dealing with this, but we quickly realize that's just the way life goes. You know, either live at home. You deal with life or you live in an RV and you deal with life still. So yeah, you can laugh or you cry, but you can't change it.     Host: Yeah, exactly. You got to get it done. On a more positive note, what's the thing you love most about this lifestyle?     Guest: Probably just being able to go somewhere new all the time. You know, we'll be we'll be in one area and we'll love that area. But after a month, we're like, all right, it's time to go see something new. So the flexibility, you just go anywhere. You know, if you want to spend a summer up north, sure. Or if you want to be in the south, we're chasing all the warm weather. It's like, yeah, we're meeting some new people. Yeah, like our faith in humanity was restored. You know, once again, it was like turn off the TV and just get out there and have some conversations with people. And you'll realize that like people are awesome out there. There's a lot of great people to meet. We've met some amazing, amazing people during our travels. And still to this day.     Host: No, that's 100 percent sure. I do want to comment to you on your latest video when you had your leaf spring repaired, you talked about how you had called the RV techs and you weren't sure how they were going to be. But in our experience and at the end of your video, too, you mentioned it. They've been phenomenal. I have not met. We've worked with plenty of them so far. We've only been, you know, about four months. But everyone we've worked with has been great. And we've only heard good things like secondhand about them. I don't know what it is about our RV techs, but they're important to be aware of.     Guest: Absolutely. Yeah, we kind of agree more with that because a lot of people are sitting out there looking on the dealers to fix their problems and they're just not getting any answers. They're waiting. They're saying, hey, you got to wait six months before we can squeeze you into the schedule. And, you know, the RV technicians have been come such a great intermediate between the dealership and the consumer who had bought the RV and is looking for some help. So they're kind of just like that guiding light that could get some of those quick fixes done. Some of them are just beyond what we could ever ask for and repairs and done so much. It'll be to not have to pack up your whole home to take it to a dealership and sit and wait. It's just like they'll come to you and you just hang out. It's so it's so nice. Very convenient.     Host: Yeah. Do you have any advice for someone looking to buy an RV for the first time?     Guest: Oh, we did a video on this recently. Kind of where we talked about making sure you're doing your price checking and comparing. And I would say in today's world, like have an RV inspection, have like a certified RV tech that can do inspections. Come and look at your RV, whether it's used or buying it new off the lot. And if the salespeople or the dealership won't allow external inspectors to come in like a third-party inspector, I would probably not. I would. That's a big red flag. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes it's not going to be well received, but you always got to be your own advocate with these things and have as many, I don't know, people on your side looking out for your best interests because the dealership certainly isn't going to be that person for you. Unfortunately. Yeah. Yeah, we, the reason we bought at the dealer and the reason we bought new is because it was our first time ever buying an RV and we had no clue what to look for. And I didn't want to buy something new or something from a private person or a private dealer just because I had no idea what to look for. Yeah. Had I known I could have had the RV tech inspector available, I think we would have jumped on that and done that instead of buying new and going through all the loops and hurdles and the pain points of going through a dealer and warranties that aren't really warranties and all that fun stuff. For sure. For sure. We were through that too when we bought our first one. We didn't even know anything about tow ratings. I mean, we just showed up with our half-ton truck. And luckily, they were really good about not looking at any RVs. He said, well, before we look at any RVs, I need to know what your truck can tow. We were like, what do you mean? Like, so, yeah, we rolled the dice on a good one. Yeah. A lot of people out there said, well, we never got that. They just, they'll show us that, you know, yeah. I'll show you the rakes and that's that. So that was good.     Host: So there are good ones out there, but just are good.     Guest: Absolutely. Yes. Yes. Tom Shafers in Pennsylvania. That's where that was. Yeah. So, OK, we'll link down the show notes.     Host: Obviously, you guys need Internet when you're traveling, you're full-time content creators. How are you getting Internet?     Guest: Our main form of Internet is Starlink right now. Yeah. Do you guys have Starlink at all?     Host: We're getting it.     Host: Yeah, we've asked this question almost every episode. And so far, the consensus has been T-Mobile, the T-Mobile home Internet plan with this. So the Starlink has been the most popular, but more often than not. What they're saying is they're using it as backup. And then they're using T-Mobile for the most part for their Internet. And then if they're in an area where there's no service there, it's Starlink. That's really nice. Starlink, that's your go-to.     Guest: That's our go-to. Yeah, we always have that up and running. And it's been working out good. You know, it was a little touch and go when we first purchased it. It was very somewhat newish and not as many satellites up in the sky. But yeah, well, we are also in the eastern US. So like so much more heavily populated, more like we were in Florida during snowboard season, so everyone had Starlink. We were all fighting for the satellites. But last year, it is perfect. I mean, it's beautiful. And then when we go east, we're going to be complaining about it. But it's good to hear about the T-Mobile because we do have we have a basic cell phone plan with AT&T and we use the hotspot if we need Internet, if the Starlink is not doing well. So it's good to know about that T-Mobile because we'll have to look into this if we need to. Absolutely. Yes, Ben. So far, so good.     Host: And we have our phone plans with T-Mobile and then we have like a third when we transfer over, we got a third like bonus phone. So we have 150 gigs of hotspot before we ever have to do anything. And then we're using the T-Mobile for Internet. So we're kind of rolling the dice with T-Mobile, kind of putting all of our eggs in one basket. But we'll get Starlink too just to have that as a backup. Is that set up process? The reason people have mentioned they don't use it primarily is because of the set-up process. How long does it take to set that up?     Guest: We're less than five minutes. Yeah.   Guest: Less than. Yeah. It's just we've integrated it with our typical setting up routine. It's mostly just sneaking a wire through the side, through one of the slide-outs, and then connecting it to the modem, and then getting the actual Starlink mounted onto a pole.   Guest: A pole. We call it a pole, buddy. You can buy it off Amazon and it just gets it up above your roof of your RV to have better signal, better access to the sky.     Host: Does the boot-up time take a long time? Is that what it is or?     Guest: That is probably what it is, that they're mostly, you know, it's not as soon as you plug it in, it's up and going. It does take about three to five minutes, I would say. Yeah. But like you could like get that set up. And then while you're doing the outside, I'll plug in the router and then just finish setting up the inside. And by the time I even have a second to like go on the internet it's already running.   Guest: So yeah, I guess if you need it in a quick pinch, if you pull over on the side of the road, take a break, it probably would be a little inconvenient because you'd have to set it up and wait a few minutes. So something like that.   Guest: But I will say, like, I think boondocking is becoming a lot more popular because of Starlink. Before, when you were off-grid, you were truly off-grid. There was like no cell service in a lot of these cool places you see on Instagram, you know, like Utah, Arizona boondocking. Yeah. Now, everyone's out there streaming and gaming. It's like a whole new, no longer off-grid. So it's really nice to have that.     Host: So you guys have been traveling for part-time, full-time. And I know you're pretty tight with your budget. You post videos on your YouTube channel. Have you ever been able to break down what a monthly or weekly budget looks like? I know it probably fluctuates quite a bit.     Guest: It varies. It just depends. Like we just had a very expensive month in San Diego, and our budget looked way different when we were trying to get out of debt. We still budget and track every penny, but we're a little bit more lenient. And then Alaska was kind of like a moment where we were strict. Yeah, I guess the best way to think about it was when we were getting out of debt. What was our budget? Did we go out to eat at all? Like, do you remember? Did we go out to restaurants and treat ourselves to something?   Guest: Yeah, we would give ourselves like two hundred dollars a month. Wasn't it like to go out to try new restaurants or go out to eat? And that included if you wanted to get drinks somewhere. So that ended up really quickly. So that wasn't even nowadays, like nowadays, I would get you a couple of drinks, two hundred bucks. Yeah, like a drink. Here's a cup of water. Yeah, like, wow, great. Yeah. And then groceries were kind of like, I mean, that's hard to control. Groceries are our biggest downfall just as a married couple. I don't know. You know, you get old, you get happy and you just like, oh, let's, you know, have some good dinner tonight and have some snacks. So that's one we got to like always keep coming back to. Yeah. The grocery bill. But to give you the other numbers, I can't really remember what it's been strict in the past. When we were really strict with our budget, we would just look at what we were already spending and then we would just try to cut that like a quarter of that and just try to chop that out and be better about spending.     Host: Do you have any budget apps or tools that make keeping track of that easier?     Gues: Now we use a program called Tiller, but we used to just do pen and paper and Microsoft Excel. And that was to kind of keep track of everything. Watch a quick YouTube video on how to line up with your expenses, highlight it all, and make a running total. And then it was really cool because as you paid off your credit cards or whatever debt you had, you subtracted that and then it would take away from the bottom big number. That was nice to see that. It's kind of like a little encouragement to keep going. So that was fun. Yeah.     Host: The visual is important. I'm glad you mentioned you had that starting out small, but bucks a month. You have to celebrate the small victories. Otherwise, you're going to burnt out. So being able to set money aside to celebrate, you pay something off. You're paying things down slowly. You know, those mini victories.     Guest: No, no. Yeah, it's crazy how when you don't track how much it slips away, because when we first started travel nursing, we weren't budgeting and we weren't being strict about our budget. It wasn't until we decided to see what our three to six months of expenses were. So we kind of got into it by accident because I was like, well, let's see what we are currently spending on every month. And then I saw how much we spent in restaurants because we were travel nursing. We wanted to go eat all the good food. We want to enjoy ourselves. And there was one month that it was close to a thousand dollars and just going out to eat. And I was like, oh, my gosh, like there's that there's a problem. I never guessed. So we saw that and we were like, OK, no more. And that's how like the whole budgeting happens.     Host: You guys are traveling with your cat, Dexter. And I don't believe we've had a guest who's traveled with a cat so far on the show. I would assume most people would assume that there's not much involved in taking care of a cat. But anyone to add to that?     Guest: Oh, yeah. There's, I say, oh, go ahead. I was just going to say that he we had no idea when we got in this lifestyle if he would take well to actually living in an RV. That was kind of what pushes into RV life, to be honest, is having a consistent home for him. So we always joke that we buy these RVs for him, you know. And because the other option was when we were travel nursing is to bounce between apartments and, you know, there's all sorts of smells and you don't know what the rules are with pets and especially cats. So I don't like not having a consistent home. Yeah. So we did it. Exactly. So, you know, I would just say if you do own a cat and you're a little nervous about taking him or her out on the road, you know, just take some car rides, maybe just put them in a kennel and start off small. There's no need to bite off a huge chunk and travel across, you know, halfway across the United States to get an idea of how will they travel? Yeah. He did pretty well right away. We knew he didn't get nauseated or have anxiety or anything like that. He mostly just slept. So it was a good fit for him. I mean, if it's getting close to his dinner time, he'll speak up and he will not be quiet. So like it's yeah, he knows to tell us like, OK, I've been good this whole time, but it's time to pull over.   Host: Don't we all?     Guest: Yeah, don't we? Exactly. Well said.     Host: All right, guys, what has been the coolest experience you've had while traveling?     Guest: Oh, yeah. This question is great because there's, there's just been so many. Like sometimes we would be like, remember that time we just got first, the first time we ran the AC in Iowa, but we were so happy that the thing worked. Yeah, small things. I think there was one of our coolest times was when we were in the Florida Keys, we were at a state park Bahia Honda, and we managed to get a site that was right on the water. So we could literally snorkel like right off where our view was part every day. And that was just like such a cool thing to do. That was nice.     Host: Yeah, we have not been there, but we've seen videos and pictures of actually Alexis and Lauren Jason, the podcast I mentioned you guys, their part to travel tips was all about the Florida Keys, so very detailed on that. And they were sending us pictures. And yeah, that campsite, no joke, it's right on the water.     Guest: And you can snorkel, sit and pull up a long chair. And yeah, so cool. It's like being in the Caribbean, but you're in the States. So that's like what's so cool about it.     Host: And same thing for you, Kyle, Bahia Honda?.     Guest: Yeah, I really enjoyed that. And I guess this to kind of cover your story that you brought up at the AC. It was funny when I said we hit the road at the first time when we left for travel nursing, we left at two o'clock in the morning, left her parents' house, and just drove to WalMart, stayed the night in a random WalMart. And then we kept driving and it was about to where did you say it was Iowa? I remember we made it to Iowa. We made it to Iowa. It was just it was so hot and humid for whatever reason. It was right around four o'clock. We finally pulled in an RV park. But then we turn on the AC for the first time in the RV. I know crazy, right? We tried this out when we got the dealership before we drove off. Now we waited till we got to Iowa before we ran the AC. But I kid you not, it was just like when that cold air was blowing on you and then you could turn around and look out and it's just something completely new. It is just like, wow, we are doing it and we're actually we're going to live like this. And yeah, that was really cool. That was a neat moment.     Host: After spending just about seven years traveling now, has there been anything you've learned that you cannot live without outside of the internet?     Guest: I would have to say, I mean, this is going to sound like something a young person would say, but my smartphone. Think about when you're out to get anything or figure out anything directions. Where's the nearest grocery store? Like, what's the Google reviews on this restaurant? It's like you gotta have your cell phone, like that little mini computer, to tell you so much.     Host: On the contrary, has there been anything that you've learned that you don't need while traveling?     Guest: Yeah, I think living in the RV when we started watching YouTube videos way back when we were first getting into it, there was a lot of unrealistic expectations of like, do I need all that before I hit the road and, you know, something like a ten thousand dollar solar set up or the same thing like crazy like that. You don't really need it to get it out, include knocking and blowing time off grid. You know, you can survive a night or two. Yeah, kind of what what what comes with your RV, just a battery, a water tank, water heater, you have everything you need. So I guess I just would say don't keep up with the Joneses all that much. You know, try to keep it realistic for the lifestyle you're looking for. Yeah, there's a lot of pressure online, social media with all these products. You gotta have this before you own this. And it's like just take your RV. Like, don't buy anything and just go like buy your basic stuff, your hoses and all the stuff to get by. But you don't need all the fancy digits and gadgets. Like, we still don't have a backup camera. And that was on our list when we first hit the road. We were like, look at one eventually. And now it's seven years and we're like, we don't really need it. You don't have to have it like you'll get by.     Host: If you wait and wait and wait until you have everything you need, you'll never hit the road. Exactly. A good point is kind of air on the side, especially with those expensive things. Air on the side of don't buy it. And then once you hit the road and you're traveling, you'll either learn that you need it and then you can buy it then or you're going to learn you don't need it and save ten thousand bucks on a solar panel set.     Guest: Well said. Well said.   Guest: Yeah, that's exactly how we feel, too. You can always get one battery and then add batteries from there. Any tools that RVers should have on them? Why don't you tell them about your favorite one?   Guest: Oh, yeah. We have a thing called a VIAIR and we just love it. It's amazing. Basically, it's an on demand air compressor that you can hook up to your truck battery and then it just creates on demand compressed air. They can fill up your tires if they're running a little bit low. Man, that was a huge concern for us because we were thinking when we get out there, how are we going to be able to fit into gas stations to fill up the tires if they're running low? This just eliminates all those stressors and you just have that whenever you need it most. And we had this huge normal air compressor like I think it's still in a storage unit.   Guest: Oh, yeah, that thing is huge. Really? Do we bring that? How do we fill up our tires? But I think we use that almost every time. This thing is lightweight. It's small. It doesn't take up a lot of space and it can pump up tires to like 120 PSI. So our trailer tires are 100 PSI maximum at cold pressures. So it does more than enough to handle those loads. So if you're thinking, oh, I drive a big class, say that's not going to help me. Actually, probably will. Yeah. And we just told people you don't need to buy stuff, but you do need to buy that.     Host: That's a good point. That's actually something we have not heard in the podcast yet. That's not one of those. I know you said it's smaller, but it's not one of those 20 volt compress bigger than that for your rig, right? Or is that something you can actually use? I guess you can charge it. I guess.     Guest: Well, I'm thinking of one. I've seen like people have like handheld ones. I don't know if those that's what you're thinking of. But this one is probably. Yeah, it's all it runs off the volt battery. So, you know, and you don't really charge it. It just literally plugs into the positive and negative terminal on a truck battery.     Host: And I think it's something else. And because it's the point I want to make was you really can't rely on gas stations. Like you said, you can't you might not be able to fit your RV, but also the air doesn't always work. We've had tire issues where we've pulled in. I've gone back and forth. I went to one gas station. The air didn't work. The next gas station. The air worked, but it didn't have the pressure gauge. So I go back to the first one and it was just the crapshoot going back and forth. But yeah, one person in the gas station had one of those. I think it was VIAIR, but it was smaller. It was like a DeWalt size volt compressor. And we just pumped it up right there. So, yeah, that's a good thing to have for sure.     Guest: Absolutely.     Host: If you could listen to this podcast when you were first starting out, is there a question I did not ask tonight that you wished I would have? And how would you answer that now?     Guest: Oh, you know what? There's, going back to the trucker lanes. I remember when we first hit the road, we had the diesel truck, but we were towing a smaller RV, and we kept squeezing into small, normal-sized gas stations because we didn't know that we could use the trucker lanes. We were like, "We're not allowed in there for the truckers." But if you're starting out, and I mean, basically, you're allowed to use the truck lanes. You're allowed to park in rest areas where trucks park. Like, basically, there were a lot of moments where we felt very timid. And then, just as you go along, you start to be more like, "Yeah, we own this road," you know? Like, you start to be a little bit more like, "Come on in and move over." So, and the reason we say that is because, you know, these RVs, especially the one we're living in, it's the same kind of tractor-trailer. So we measure 13 foot six inches at our first AC over our bedroom. So you've got to be really considerate of where is able to accommodate you. You can't just pull into any random gas station because you can get into a pickle pretty quickly. So, after some time of traveling and sweating it out, those trucker lanes look real nice at the end of the day. And you're like, "No, partaking that. Yeah, go in there, stretch out."     Host: That's a good point. I could definitely see myself being more hesitant like you guys. And once you start seeing, "Oh, there's an RV over there. Okay, we can go over there." And then once you start seeing that, "Okay, we can do that too." But I would be a little more reluctant to get over there.     Guest: Exactly, yeah.     Host: I know, you guys. It seems like you were kind of trailblazers in the digital creation space with travel nursing and traveling full time. But were there other influences or YouTube channels that influenced you or books maybe to do this travel full-time life?     Guest: What got us into travel nursing was just meeting other travel nurses at work. You met actually a couple that would travel together. That's how you found out they do it together. Yeah. But then when we started looking into RV travel, you know, we got on YouTube like a lot of people do. And I remember watching a lot of Long Long Honeymoon and Keep Your Daydream as a lot of them just to help get us, you know, give you, like, not you're not just learning, but you're gaining that confidence to, like, travel on the road. Yeah. And Kara and Nate is another one that's really fun. If people like fast-paced adventures that are like across the world, they're some of our favorite, or my favorites. Yeah, because they do. Yeah, they're really good with their storytelling, things like that. And so they inspire us to be better storytellers too.     Host: Yeah, I feel like if we were starting out, we didn't discover your channel. We were starting out because we were in the van life space. We were watching a lot of Adventures of A and K and Kara and Nate. But if we were looking for fifth wheels or camp trailers, we would have been all over your channel. I feel like we were like relate a lot to you guys and you're very entertaining. But also you provide a lot of useful information. So, yeah, I'll link your channel as well as the other channels you mentioned in the show notes. One last question for audiences in a ton of suspense before the next episode. Where are we talking about for travel tips?     Guest: So our destination we want to talk about is San Diego. San Diego. Yeah, we got a lot to say about that.     Host: All right. San Diego. Tune in in two days, everybody. Kyle and Renee, thanks again.     Guest: Thank you so much.    

Muse After Hours
Ep. 7 Hairstylists Photography Course (Muse x Kara Mercer)

Muse After Hours

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2024 23:43


Muse Extension Lounge + Kara Mercer are bringing something to the hairdressing industry that has never been seen! An epic collaboration between Muse, who is known for their flawless work in the hair extension industry and stunning aesthetic. And Kara who is an absolute trailblazer and icon in her industry as well as an ambassador for @fujifilmx_us Her credentials and the names that she has worked with will blow your mind! @_karamercer•We are bringing a three course offering. Two of the courses will be virtual. One will be for iPhone users, and the other will be for mirrorless camera users. The third course will be an in person intensive that will be hands-on!•Each course will have five sections:✨styling✨camera settings✨posing✨lighting✨editing•We totally understand because we have been there. You take all this time making the hair perfect and then you take the photo and it just does not read the same as it does in person. You get frustrated with your feed and are not proud of it. Let's be real… this day and day age your feed is your portfolio. Potential clients will stay on your page or leave it based on the first nine photos!•Let us help you stop people in their tracks and want desperately to sit in your chair! This collaboration is pure magic and we are so passionate about bringing this to the industry.•Stay tuned for details! we can't wait to help you attract your dream client and level up your career.✨

Weekend Ketchup with Isaac (Real FM)
B-Side #34: Tightropes, Talents, and Trust

Weekend Ketchup with Isaac (Real FM)

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 24, 2023 25:23


Press rewind with Ansen, Kara, and Zoe as they discuss the on-repeat song of the week from Hghts, pause to talk about the pressure to find your God given "calling," with a bonus discussion about how Jesus' parable of the talents might not mean what we think it means. And Kara talks about what she's looking forward to. Spoiler alert... it's about cats. Always cats.

On with Kara Swisher
Look Ma, No Hands! With Waymo Co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana

On with Kara Swisher

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 8, 2023 57:29


After Kara and Nayeema discuss recent moves at CNN and the ducking cool innovation at Apple, we launch into part two of “Car Week” and an interview with Tekedra Mawakana. The Co-CEO of Waymo (formerly the Google self-driving car project) discusses trying to change how society moves while dealing with obstacles to the autonomous vehicle transition, like angsty Teamsters and tetchy regulators. And Kara explains why she's so bullish on driverless cars. BTW, do you have any burning questions on career, love or life where you'd like Kara or Nayeema's advice? Call 1-888-KARA-PLZ and leave us a voicemail. Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on Instagram. We're @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On with Kara Swisher
Piers Morgan On Murdoch, Musk and – yes – Meghan Markle

On with Kara Swisher

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2022 66:49


What's more toxic: Tabloids or Twitter? Piers Morgan may know – the outsized personality has been an outsized influence in both spheres for decades, since his start as show business editor at Rupert Murdoch's The Sun.  In this interview, Morgan discusses his rise – and stumbles – and the return to Murdochland, where he now hosts the Fox Nation show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored.” We tackle characters with whom Morgan has beefed — from Donald Trump to Meghan Markle. And Kara asks Morgan, who is famous for stirring up debate, what part of him is authentic and what's performance. “I think that when expressing my strongly held opinions, there's always a bit of theater to it.” You can find Kara Swisher and Nayeema Raza on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On with Kara Swisher
Airbnb's CEO on Nomadic Life, Loneliness… and Cleaning Fees

On with Kara Swisher

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 20, 2022 62:41


Airbnb CEO and co-founder Brian Chesky took the company public, laid off 25% of its staff and navigated worker demands for flexibility – all during the pandemic. Oh, and his mom moved in (and made him quiche every day). In this conversation with Kara, Brian discusses the challenge of being professionally successful and, sometimes, personally lonely. They talk about how the pandemic may have permanently changed how we work, travel and live. And Kara gets answers about the company's lack of transparency on those dreaded cleaning fees.  Before the interview, Kara and Nayeema talk about billionaires owning social media networks. They discuss Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who seems to be riding the MAGA train to amass power in the Republican party. And they reflect on the story of Iranian rock climber Elnaz Rekabi, who caused a stir on social media this week in the midst of the nation's anti-government protests.  … oh yes, and they dispense some dating advice. If you want advice – it doesn't have to be about dating – call 1-888-KARA-PLZ! You can find Kara and Nayeema on Twitter @karaswisher and @nayeema. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Junk Drawer
13: The Grossest Junk Drawer Episode (w/ Kara Roselle Smith)

Junk Drawer

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2022 62:41


On today's episode, Nikki, Anuhea & Kara discuss bunions, herpes, STD's, and harry styles queerbaiting. Oh! And Kara has mysterious projects she won't tell us about and the hosts think she works for the white house. Thank you to all the junk drawer listeners and GO CLEAN YOUR FUCKING ROOMS! CONTACT US... contactjunkdrawer@gmail.com ANUHEA: anuheanihipali@gmail.com https://www.tiktok.com/@anuheanihipali/ https://www.tiktok.com/@anuheanihipalii/ https://twitter.com/anuheanihipali/ NIKKI: janaliceshwing@gmail.com https://www.instagram.com/wwabisabi/ https://www.tiktok.com/@wwabisabi KARA: https://www.instagram.com/kararoselles/?hl=en https://www.tiktok.com/@kararoselles?lang=en

Youth Ministry Team Podcast
159: Help! What Do I Do When My Youth Are Grieving?

Youth Ministry Team Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2022 19:46


Loss is all around us--from change to disappointment to death. We see grief show up in ourselves and in our students. What does it look like to make space for grief in youth ministry and lead in the midst of it? Join today's conversation with Holly Bishu, Kara Allison, and Austin White as they unpack personal experiences with grief in their ministry and cover practical tips for leading amidst loss.    You can find Holly on Instagram @hollybishu Austin is @austtinnwhite And Kara is @kara.alllison   Check out Love Does by Bob Goff and be encouraged!   Lastly, you can dive deeper into this topic by revisiting older episodes on this podcast… 117: How Do You Walk With Your Student Through Grief and Loss? With Dr. Dorothy Hunse 005: How Should I Help Students Who are Hurting? With Dr. Marv Penner

Sway
Would You Upload Your Consciousness to the Cloud?

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2022 36:17


Instagram, Twitter and TikTok can monopolize all of your time, driven by what the novelist Jennifer Egan calls humankind's “ongoing hunger for authenticity.” But to Egan, social media is not a winning strategy for discovering what's real or true: “Looking to the internet for authentic experience is just inherently a loser,” she says. The digital world, after all, offers only an “illusion of authenticity.”In her newest novel, “The Candy House” — set in the same universe as her Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Visit From the Goon Squad” — Egan paints a picture of a world where the search for authenticity becomes so ubiquitous that people can choose to upload their memories — and entire consciousnesses — to a collective archive, and then share them for the world to see.In this conversation, Kara Swisher and Egan discuss how far Silicon Valley is from accessing our consciousnesses and introducing this kind of dystopian technology. They debate how social media has changed the world and whether there is still room for optimism. And Kara tries to decipher which tech founder, if any, inspired Egan's protagonist, whom Kara describes as Mark Zuckerberg with “the soul of Steve Jobs.” (Egan, for the record, denies all comparisons.)You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
Would You Upload Your Consciousness to the Cloud?

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2022 36:17


Instagram, Twitter and TikTok can monopolize all of your time, driven by what the novelist Jennifer Egan calls humankind's “ongoing hunger for authenticity.” But to Egan, social media is not a winning strategy for discovering what's real or true: “Looking to the internet for authentic experience is just inherently a loser,” she says. The digital world, after all, offers only an “illusion of authenticity.”In her newest novel, “The Candy House” — set in the same universe as her Pulitzer Prize-winning “A Visit From the Goon Squad” — Egan paints a picture of a world where the search for authenticity becomes so ubiquitous that people can choose to upload their memories — and entire consciousnesses — to a collective archive, and then share them for the world to see.In this conversation, Kara Swisher and Egan discuss how far Silicon Valley is from accessing our consciousnesses and introducing this kind of dystopian technology. They debate how social media has changed the world and whether there is still room for optimism. And Kara tries to decipher which tech founder, if any, inspired Egan's protagonist, whom Kara describes as Mark Zuckerberg with “the soul of Steve Jobs.” (Egan, for the record, denies all comparisons.)You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
The C.E.O. of Condé Nast: ‘ This Is No Longer a Magazine Company'

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2022 33:26


Home to brands like Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Bon Appétit, Condé Nast might as well be French for “magazine.” But the company's C.E.O. sees a “difficult future” for print and is trying to pivot Condé Nast publications toward creating more digital content — even going so far as to say that Condé Nast is “no longer a magazine company.” Amid this fight for readers, clicks and subscriptions, the company has struggled publicly through a cultural reckoning, fielding accusations of a toxic work culture and firing some of its top editors in recent years.In this interview, Roger Lynch explains why and how the company has changed. But Kara Swisher asks: How can it, with one of its most powerful figures, Anna Wintour, still at the helm?Lynch discusses why he thinks Wintour is an agent of change, rather than the old guard. They talk about how management has handled negotiations with the company's various unions. And they consider how publishing gatekeepers have been usurped by online ones like YouTube and TikTok. And Kara asks him to weigh in on the perennial media question: Is print dead?You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
The C.E.O. of Condé Nast: ‘ This Is No Longer a Magazine Company'

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2022 33:26


Home to brands like Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Bon Appétit, Condé Nast might as well be French for “magazine.” But the company's C.E.O. sees a “difficult future” for print and is trying to pivot Condé Nast publications toward creating more digital content — even going so far as to say that Condé Nast is “no longer a magazine company.” Amid this fight for readers, clicks and subscriptions, the company has struggled publicly through a cultural reckoning, fielding accusations of a toxic work culture and firing some of its top editors in recent years.In this interview, Roger Lynch explains why and how the company has changed. But Kara Swisher asks: How can it, with one of its most powerful figures, Anna Wintour, still at the helm?Lynch discusses why he thinks Wintour is an agent of change, rather than the old guard. They talk about how management has handled negotiations with the company's various unions. And they consider how publishing gatekeepers have been usurped by online ones like YouTube and TikTok. And Kara asks him to weigh in on the perennial media question: Is print dead?You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Coffe N. 5
Using Other People's Doubts to Fuel Your Own Success with Kara Goldin

Coffe N. 5

Play Episode Listen Later May 3, 2022 31:42 Transcription Available


Kara Goldin is a big believer in not taking “no” for an answer. For her, the question that follows is, “Why not?” And this is part of what drove her to found Hint Water, now a popular brand sharing shelves in supermarkets next to other major players in the beverage industry. Kara initially got the idea for Hint Water after she decided to cut out Diet Coke, which she had been drinking since she was in high school. It was hard to do, she said, but she noticed a lot of changes. She says she lost 24 pounds in two and a half weeks. And her skin, which had acne, was starting to clear up. But compared to Diet Coke, water was boring! People want something with more to it. And Kara wanted to provide them with that healthy but tasty alternative. So Kara decided to do something about it, and Hint Water was born. She faced many obstacles along the way, including the fact that this was not an industry she was familiar with, and there were naysayers telling her she couldn't make drinks with real fruit but no preservatives. Yet she proved them wrong, all while pregnant with her fourth child!In this episode, we talk about Kara's inspirations, struggles, and what's needed to start a company from scratch. Learn what Hint almost was called, how Kara's husband came to join the company, and how her business helped shape her kids' outlooks and mindsets.What you'll learn: How Hint Water got started Marketing of diet drinksWhat's needed to start a companySacrifices in business Women in business Exacting change and how the next generations are thinking in new waysEncouraging an entrepreneurial mindset in kidsSurrounding yourself with people you can learn fromNot taking “no” for an answerHow the name Hint came to beTo learn more about Kara check out her Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn Also, you can see her website here Follow our host Lara Schmoisman on social media: Instagram: @laraschmoismanFacebook: @LaraSchmoismanLinkedIn: @laraschmoismanTwitter: @LaraSchmoismanGo back to the homepage. Support the show

Sway
The Corporations Passing — and Failing — the Ukraine Morality Test

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2022 27:54


McDonald's, BP, Netflix and hundreds of other companies have enlisted in the West's pushback against Vladimir Putin. Since the start of Russia's invasion, several hundred U.S. companies have announced plans to withdraw from or step down their operations in the country. The idea, says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, is to make Russia such a pariah that Putin is forced to back down.Sonnenfeld, who's been called a “C.E.O. whisperer,” is working with his team to compile a corporate watchlist for Russian engagement that effectively serves as a hall of fame, and a hall of shame. In this conversation with Kara Swisher, he discusses when business blackouts will reach a tipping point and result in real change — the way the anti-apartheid boycott did in South Africa.Kara and Sonnenfeld debate whether a “South Africa moment” is possible when big companies like Koch Industries refuse to leave and when China's ascendance presents a completely different economic context. They also discuss domestic cases of corporations taking a stand on politics, from Disney's fiasco with Florida's so-called Don't Say Gay bill to the backlash over voting rights bills in Georgia. And Kara asks Sonnenfeld whether morality should really be the business of C.E.O.s. “When people say to C.E.O.s, get back in your lane,” he replies, “this is the lane of business.”You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
The Corporations Passing — and Failing — the Ukraine Morality Test

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 24, 2022 27:54


McDonald's, BP, Netflix and hundreds of other companies have enlisted in the West's pushback against Vladimir Putin. Since the start of Russia's invasion, several hundred U.S. companies have announced plans to withdraw from or step down their operations in the country. The idea, says Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, is to make Russia such a pariah that Putin is forced to back down.Sonnenfeld, who's been called a “C.E.O. whisperer,” is working with his team to compile a corporate watchlist for Russian engagement that effectively serves as a hall of fame, and a hall of shame. In this conversation with Kara Swisher, he discusses when business blackouts will reach a tipping point and result in real change — the way the anti-apartheid boycott did in South Africa.Kara and Sonnenfeld debate whether a “South Africa moment” is possible when big companies like Koch Industries refuse to leave and when China's ascendance presents a completely different economic context. They also discuss domestic cases of corporations taking a stand on politics, from Disney's fiasco with Florida's so-called Don't Say Gay bill to the backlash over voting rights bills in Georgia. And Kara asks Sonnenfeld whether morality should really be the business of C.E.O.s. “When people say to C.E.O.s, get back in your lane,” he replies, “this is the lane of business.”You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
How Far Would Biden Go in a Cyber War Against Putin?

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2022 42:25


Ever since Russian forces invaded Ukraine late last month, President Biden has been toeing a fine line between providing support to the Ukrainians and averting kinetic, nuclear and cyber conflict between superpowers. In this conversation, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, unpacks how this conflict is evolving in the cyber realm.Kara Swisher asks Neuberger how, in the face of attacks on Ukrainian banks and the Defense Ministry, the U.S. government “is working directly with Ukraine on cybersecurity” and why the Russians didn't strike early on with the large-scale cyberattacks many experts had expected to see — similar to the 2015 attack that took out Ukraine's electrical grid. They discuss how cyber tensions between Russia and the U.S. may escalate, with Neuberger clarifying that when the secretary of state reaffirmed this week that the U.S. and NATO “will defend every, every inch of NATO territory should it come under attack,” he was speaking not only of ground attacks, but also cyberattacks. And Kara presses Neuberger on whether the administration should have responded to the SolarWinds hack that infiltrated the Pentagon and the State Department with more than economic sanctions — and whether U.S. cyber policy has enough teeth to really deter Putin.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
How Far Would Biden Go in a Cyber War Against Putin?

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2022 42:24


Ever since Russian forces invaded Ukraine late last month, President Biden has been toeing a fine line between providing support to the Ukrainians and averting kinetic, nuclear and cyber conflict between superpowers. In this conversation, Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, unpacks how this conflict is evolving in the cyber realm.Kara Swisher asks Neuberger how, in the face of attacks on Ukrainian banks and the Defense Ministry, the U.S. government “is working directly with Ukraine on cybersecurity” and why the Russians didn't strike early on with the large-scale cyberattacks many experts had expected to see — similar to the 2015 attack that took out Ukraine's electrical grid. They discuss how cyber tensions between Russia and the U.S. may escalate, with Neuberger clarifying that when the secretary of state reaffirmed this week that the U.S. and NATO “will defend every, every inch of NATO territory should it come under attack,” he was speaking not only of ground attacks, but also cyberattacks. And Kara presses Neuberger on whether the administration should have responded to the SolarWinds hack that infiltrated the Pentagon and the State Department with more than economic sanctions — and whether U.S. cyber policy has enough teeth to really deter Putin.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Kinda Jaded
#7 - Google It

Kinda Jaded

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 9, 2022 58:58


Kara and Kacy sit down to discuss excessive googling, going barefoot in the pit at the Dua Lipa concert, the art of layering scents, Kacy's twitter beef with DJ Mustard, global warming, and excessive googling. And Kara breaks the news to Kacy that Larry King died last year. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kinda-jaded/support

Pep 'n Ched with Megan Nash
Episode 33 - Kara Golemba

Pep 'n Ched with Megan Nash

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2022 53:41


Megan Nash and Kara Golemba discuss tea, privacy, and spreadsheets. And Kara tells Megan what some of her favourite episodes of the podcast have been. 

and kara
Sway
Why This Liberal Mayor Doesn't Want a Lecture From Progressives

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2022 40:25


San Francisco's politicians are struggling to find a Goldilocks balance when it comes to public safety, and Democrats across the nation should pay attention. After declaring a state of emergency in the Tenderloin neighborhood to deal with what she called a public health crisis of opioid use, Mayor London Breed has been criticized for taking too strong a hand in forcing people to seek treatment for drugs or mental health problems. Meanwhile, the city's district attorney, Chesa Boudin has been accused of being soft on crime and faces a recall in June. No one is “just right” on the balance between public safety and overpolicing, and that's why law and order may be emerging as a wedge issue for Democrats, like critical race theory was in the Virginia gubernatorial race.In this conversation with Kara, Breed talks about the crackdown she's leading and whether she was ever the “defund the police” mayor some in the media painted her to be (and critiqued her for stepping away from). Breed says her experience growing up in a public housing development in the Western Addition neighborhood gives her a perspective many of her critics may not have. “They have a theory as to what they believe based on their ideology, but they're also white,” she says. “They are not Black people who had these unfortunately traumatizing experiences in communities where there's not trust with the police, but also there's a desire to be safe.”They also discuss the flight of tech money out of San Francisco, Breed's Covid response strategy and how Black mayors like Breed, Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago are “held to a completely different standard.” And Kara asks whether Breed wants to run for a third term — or even a senate seat.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

Sway
Why This Liberal Mayor Doesn't Want a Lecture From Progressives

Sway

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2022 40:26


San Francisco's politicians are struggling to find a Goldilocks balance when it comes to public safety, and Democrats across the nation should pay attention. After declaring a state of emergency in the Tenderloin neighborhood to deal with what she called a public health crisis of opioid use, Mayor London Breed has been criticized for taking too strong a hand in forcing people to seek treatment for drugs or mental health problems. Meanwhile, the city's district attorney, Chesa Boudin has been accused of being soft on crime and faces a recall in June. No one is “just right” on the balance between public safety and overpolicing, and that's why law and order may be emerging as a wedge issue for Democrats, like critical race theory was in the Virginia gubernatorial race.In this conversation with Kara, Breed talks about the crackdown she's leading and whether she was ever the “defund the police” mayor some in the media painted her to be (and critiqued her for stepping away from). Breed says her experience growing up in a public housing development in the Western Addition neighborhood gives her a perspective many of her critics may not have. “They have a theory as to what they believe based on their ideology, but they're also white,” she says. “They are not Black people who had these unfortunately traumatizing experiences in communities where there's not trust with the police, but also there's a desire to be safe.”They also discuss the flight of tech money out of San Francisco, Breed's Covid response strategy and how Black mayors like Breed, Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta and Lori Lightfoot of Chicago are “held to a completely different standard.” And Kara asks whether Breed wants to run for a third term — or even a senate seat.You can find transcripts (posted midday) and more information for all episodes at nytimes.com/sway, and you can find Kara on Twitter @karaswisher.

HBO's Succession Podcast
“23-Foot Tall Pair of Spread Legs” (with Stephen Carter)

HBO's Succession Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2021 22:31


Host Kara Swisher talks with Succession production designer Stephen Carter and party designer for the wealthy Ken Fulk for a conversation corresponding to season 3, episode 7, “Too Much Birthday.” With Kara, Stephen talks about how set ideas came together for Kendall's 40th birthday bash and some of our favorite episodes throughout the seasons. Later in the show Kara gets dishy with party planner Ken Fulks, who details how parties for the rich and wealthy really go down.  And Kara details who is climbing or falling down the Succession leaderboard in her final power rankings of the season.  The official Succession podcast is produced by HBO in conjunction with Pineapple Street Studios.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Martha Project
Seeds Do Not Need Light To Germinate

The Martha Project

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 31, 2021 77:58


In this episode, Jeremy and Kara watch Episode #3 of Martha Stewart Living. They discuss more about the book "Just Desserts," Jeremy talks about his psychiatrist. And Kara finds herself as Harriet the Spy while opening up a world of Martha Stewart True Crime. It must be heard to be believed.Follow along with us as we watch Martha Stewart Living Episodes atwww.marthastewart.tvJust Desserts by Jerry OppenheimerGift Shop | www.etsy.com/shop/TheMarthaProjectGmail | marthaprojectmail@gmail.comTwitter | martha_projectInstagram | marthaprojectinstaMusic by Jason Erlenbornhttps://www.facebook.com/jasofbas/

The Martha Project
Icy Icy Cold

The Martha Project

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 30, 2021 50:14


In our second episode, Jeremy watches the wrong episode so we focus on other important topics. We discuss the Martha products Jeremy owns, Martha's frequently used sayings- including "Icy Icy Cold Butter." And Kara shares major firsthand Martha gossip!Follow along with us as we watch Martha Stewart Living Episodes atwww.marthastewart.tvMartha's Garden ToteJust Desserts by Jerry OppenheimerGift Shop | www.etsy.com/shop/TheMarthaProjectGmail | marthaprojectmail@gmail.comTwitter | martha_projectInstagram | marthaprojectinstaMusic by Jason Erlenbornhttps://www.facebook.com/jasofbas/

cold and kara
Unconditional The Podcast
A MUST Listen Episode With Kara Best: How Does She Do It?

Unconditional The Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 5, 2020 67:01


Episode 10 is such a beautiful listen. I am joined by a good friend, Kara best. Who not only is a kick-arse lawyer, shes a wife, mother, daughter, and friend. As always, we are all on a journey. We also all have the right to tell our story because you never know who is listening. You never know who needs to hear that they are not alone. And Kara has one hell of a story to tell! Tune in to hear how her family has been living with their youngest daughter Adelaide, 3, and her recent diagnosis BPAN, an incurable rare brain caused by a spelling mistake on her WDR45 gene and more elaborately known as Beta-Propeller Protein-Associated Neuro Degeneration. The strength this beautiful woman has left me incredibly inspired and I know you will feel the same way.Donations can be made here: https://www.mcri.edu.au/bpandonate  Further information can be assessed here: https://www.mcri.edu.au/news/new-research-rare-genetic-brain-condition  Aimee Morrisby: https://www.aimeemorrisby.com/Get in touch: hello@aimeemorrisby.comAimee Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aimeemorrisby__/Kara Best: https://bwbfamilylaw.com.au/our-team/kara-best/  

The Starling Tribune: An Unofficial Arrow TV Show Fan Podcast
Starling Tribune - Season 5 Edition – What We Leave Behind (A CW Network DCTV Arrow Television Show Fan Podcast) #131

The Starling Tribune: An Unofficial Arrow TV Show Fan Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2016 62:26


Starling Tribune - Season 5 Edition – What We Leave Behind (A CW Network Arrow Television Show Fan Podcast)   The Official Arrow Podcast of the Gonna Geek Network   Episode:            “What We Leave Behind” [Season 5 Episode 9] Air Date:           Wednesday, December 7, 2016 Director:      Antonio Negret                    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0624423/?ref_=tt_ov_dr                    2x Legends of Tomorrow | 3x Arrow | 1x The Flash | 2x The 100                    Writers:       Wendy Mericle                    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1355890/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr4 Showrunner for Arrow | 19x Arrow   Beth Schwartz                    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2584087/?ref_=ttfc_fc_wr5 19x Arrow | 2x Legends of Tomorrow | 1x Hart of Dixie     Promo: https://www.comicbookmovie.com/tv/dc/arrow/there-are-lots-of-big-reveals-in-arrow-season-5-episode-9-promo-what-a147195      Weekly Ratings   Episode # / Episode Title / Episode Air / Date  / Rating 01 Legacy 5-Oct-16 1.89 02 The Recruits 12-Oct-16 1.94 03 A Matter Of Trust 19-Oct-16 1.79 04 Penance 26-Oct-16 1.87 05 Human Target 2-Nov-16 1.61 06 So It Begins 9-Nov-16 1.95 07 Vigilante 16-Nov-16 1.86 08 Invasion 30-Nov-16 3.55 09 What We Leave Behind 7-Dec-16 1.94 10 Who Are You TBD 11 Second Chances TBD 12 Bratva TBD 13 Spectre Of The Gun TBD   Part 1: The Plot, Themes and Characters What was the overall theme for this episode / What was the link to the ep. name Actions from the past coming back to haunt you Prometheus is the son of someone Ollie as The Hood killed We have two legacies we leave behind - the good and the bad Fight scenes & Stunts: Share your thoughts Prometheus attacks Curtis Curtis gets some hits in. Not many Prometheus and Ollie - round one Prometheus has skills; does cool special flip (Ollie recognizes it; he learned it from a woman in Russia) Wild Dog shoots weapon out of Prometheus's hand, but Artemis shoots his guns Prometheus disappears with Artemis Prometheus and Ollie - round two Action is cut with flashback from 4 years ago Prometheus has dead bodies posed just like how Ollie killed them Its super creepy and really helps to amp up the tension Fight up escalator (flashback) Prometheus able to escape; makes Billy Malone look and sound like him Similar to the Joker's hostages in The Dark Knight Flashbacks: Share your thoughts 4 years ago - Ollie as The Hood Killing people; The List Diggle knows Ollie is The Hood Ollie after Justin Claybourne, who manufactured weaponized TB in order to sell medicine for it Diggle warns Ollie that his actions could have unintended consequences Red pen! Felicity is awkward and cute when she helps Ollie find address (1852) Ollie:   Has he learned after all this time? Brings team to first fight w/Prometheus Goes alone when find Prometheus again - why? Being confronted with past makes him act like that again - he kills Prometheus instead of putting an arrow in his knee Does he have to kill Prometheus? Confesses to team the truth First instinct is to push everyone away The expression on his face when he sees HER in the Arrowcave Diggle Active in flashback Leads group hug at end when Ollie wants to push everyone away Is called by Lyla to safe house Is taken in by soldiers Thea Feels as though the Dominators dream renewed her purpose Tells Ollie that we leave good and bad legacies Suits up as Speedy! Is this a onetime thing after the reveal of Artemis' betrayal? Felicity Awkwardly introduces Billy to friends; suggest double date w/Ollie Tells Billy not to investigate Prometheus; Billy does anyway because that's his job Billy sends her photo of baby - is looping her in on what he finds Blames Prometheus for Billy's death Quentin Lance Not in episode Curtis Has lied to husband Paul - doing a start up with Felicity Tells hubby the truth - Paul gives ultimatum Realizes being Mr. Terrific gives him purpose Paul leaves b/c can't see him go off every night and risk life Wild Dog “I don't like rules or listening” Does the opposite Ollie instructs (maybe Ollie pulls an “opposite day” move) Is he a father? Artemis Gives Rene, Rory, and Diggle stockings with their code names Says guys are her only family Betrays Oliver because city needs protecting from him Ragman Makes Flashpoint joke Figures out how to sequence DNA D.A. Adrian Chase Really wants Prometheus dealt with Puts kill order on Prometheus Susan Williams Ollie's date to the Christmas party Drinks Russian vodka Russian writing on the bottle is centered on screen, is this a hint? Tells Ollie shutting people out is not a good thing to do Has sexytimes with Ollie Laurel Is this due to Barry and Flashpoint? Or maybe due to Legends of Tomorrow where Sara revealed Damian's future so now he is travelling time to avert it. Bratva Not in episode Prometheus Leads? - A whole bunch At least 30 years old Justin Claybourne's son - ???? Seems too easy if this is the case Son not publicly known - mentioned in divorce papers Has studied Oliver for four years How does he(?) know that Ollie killed his father and studied fighting in Russia? When did he(?) find out all of this about Ollie? Is it Claybourne's son? Could it be someone else who just knows about what Ollie has done when he was The Hood and was working off of The List? Tied to The List He sounds like Michael Dorn to Chris (reddit seems to agree) Michelle's List O'Suspects: (I'm keeping this active until the mask comes off) Tommy Merlyn - Not likely now. In Ollie's Dementor vision as someone proud of Ollie New: Susan Williams - if the Claybourne son thing is a red herring; then it could be her; she is old enough, drinks Russian vodka, and has finally confirmed Ollie was in Russia. Maybe her real name isn't SW Robert Queen - too old? But is the author of The List. In Ollie's Dementor vision as someone proud of Ollie. New: It's actually Claybourne's son Adrian Chase (but more likely to become Vigilante) Billy Malone - dead Helena Bertinelli (but I would rather see her as either Huntress or head of the Bertinelli family) Isabel Rochev Mckenna Hall Shado - not Claybourne's child and not really connected to The List Slade Wilson - not tied to The List Talia al Ghul (see this week's news) New: Quentin Lance (likely a red herring) (in rehab) Roy - too young and in Ollie's Dementor vision as someone proud of Ollie; also, not really tied to The List Viktor (SP's add) - too old   CURRENT EPISODE DC EASTER EGGS & POP CULTURE REFERENCES Season Episode  “What We Leave Behind” (Date: 08 Dec 2016) Article: http://comicbook.com/2016/12/08/arrow-easter-eggs-and-things-you-might-have-missed-in-the-season/      JUDAS CONTRACT - A young, female team member who is recruited into Team Arrow and then seduced to the dark side and ends up becoming a sleeper agent for the villain is pretty much exactly the plot to the classic New Teen Titans storyline The Judas Contract. OLIVER'S CHRISTMAS MOVIES - According to Stephen Amell's recent Facebook Live video, he shares Oliver's favorite Christmas movie (Die Hard) and the "Its true!" he delivered after saying so in the episode was actually a Stephen Amell-ism, not Oliver Queen's. His second choice, It's a Wonderful Life, is an interesting one considering..."I was very lucky to be able to rewatch that movie last week."...which of course is not a thing that happened. He was  subjected to a kind of custom-made It's a Wonderful Life, where the Dominators showed him a whole different timeline and how his life and the lives of those around him might be different if he had made different decisions. BIG BELLY BURGER - The mention is because the to-go bag for the DC Universe's favorite burger joint was the focus of a shot that hung on for a few seconds AND transitioned from the present day to the flashbacks. That's a lot of camera time for a fast food container. CLAYBOURNE - While Justin Claybourne's name did in fact appear on The List, we never saw him dealt with in season 1 and all of the scenes here that were calling back to the first year of the series were entirely new material. This, of course, opens up the question of whether we might see some more such stories in flashbacks for future episodes...! ALMOST EVERY WEDNESDAY - "People who are supposed to be dead turn out to be alive almost every Wednesday." Weirdly enough never during the summer or between mid-December and late January, though. THE HOOD - Oliver's season 1 costume, the kill list, the sets, the mission, his arguments with Diggle...this is what it was like when he was The Hood and not Green Arrow. THE RED PEN - The red pen is a nice callback to some of Felicity Smoak's earliest appearances, and that makes it worth breaking out to talk separately about "IT Girl Felicity," back when Oliver was still making up outlandish stories to get her help instead of just coming clean with her. AK DESMOND PHARMACEUTICAL - It seems worth noting, since Dr. Alchemy is such a big part of The Flash this season, that A.K. Desmond Pharmaceutical could plausibly be considered a wink-and-a-nod reference to Albert Desmond, a chemist who would go on to become Dr. Alchemy in the comics. Unlikely, but possible! MAKE THE CITY GREAT AGAIN - Obviously in his final moments, when Claybourne is trying to appeal to Oliver's ideas about "saving the city," he says that businesses like his can "make the city great again," which in the context of the last years' worth of public life feels suspiciously like a reference to Donald Trump's "make America great again" campaign slogan. ARROW NEWS:   ARROW FANS HAVE ALREADY SEEN SEASON 5'S FINAL SCENE — OR HAVE THEY? (Date: 05 Dec 2016) Now that “Arrow” has reached season five and has no plans of slowing down, the plan has changed slightly. As Guggenheim said, “Spoiler alert. That's (Ollie's rescue from Lian Yu) going to end up being the Season 5 finale.” Season five's flashback story arc will still end by replaying the first moments of the series, but there's now much more show to come after that moment in season six and beyond. But just because fans saw how season five will end five years ago doesn't mean there aren't surprises still ahead at the end of this season. Guggenheim added that the creators have “some incredibly clear plans for what we want to do in the Season 5 finale,” but that they always leave wiggle room for surprises and cliffhangers. Link:http://www.cbr.com/arrow-fans-have-already-seen-season-5s-final-scene-or-have-they/   Arrow's David Ramsey: "I Like The Idea Of Felicity Not Defining Herself Through Her Relationship With A Man" (Date: 04 Dec 2016) During the Arrow panel at the CCXP convention in Brazil, David Ramsey was asked to chime in on Olicity. "For me, I like the idea of Felicity not defining herself through her relationship with a man," Ramsey told the crowd. "I like the idea that she can be her own person, and she can be strong and feminine, own the company, without pining over men — Oliver or any other man." Link:http://comicbook.com/2016/12/05/arrows-david-ramsey-i-like-the-idea-of-felicity-not-defining-her/   Stephen Amell Addresses The Big Twist In Arrow's Midseason Finale (Date: 07 Dec 2016) In a Facebook video, Stephen Amell discussed the return of Laurel. Amell said that tonight's script was the first in a long time that legitimately shocked him when he turned the page to that reveal. He also said that he was skeptical at first of the idea of bringing another character back from the dead, but that they're now several episodes down the line in production and that he thinks the story that comes out of it is a good one. Link:http://comicbook.com/2016/12/08/stephen-amell-addresses-the-big-twist-in-arrows-midseason-finale/   GENERAL DC TV NEWS Four-Night DC Crossover Gives The CW Its Most-Watched Week In Six Years (Date: 06 Dec 2016) The four-night DC superhero crossover event is certainly paying off big for the CW, pulling in 2.3 million viewers for its most-watched week in six years. For the week of November 28, the CW was up 20% in total viewers versus the same week last year, up 15% in adults 18-49 (0.7 vs. 0.6) and up 16% in adults 18-34 (0.6 vs. 0.5), according to Nielsen stats. Supergirl had its most-watched (3.5M) episode of the season, and matched its season premiere ratings in both adults 18-34 (0.9/4) and adults 18-49 (1.1/4). The Flash saw its most-watched episode (4.15M) in almost two years (12/9/14) and its highest rated episode of the season. Arrow delivered the series' most watched (3.55M) and highest-rated episode since last season's crossover episode (12/2/15). And DC's Legends of Tomorrow had its most-watched episode ever (3.39M) and its highest-rated episode ever in adults 18-34 (1.0/5). Link:http://deadline.com/2016/12/dc-crossover-the-cw-ratings-supergirl-arrow-the-flash-legends-of-tomorrow-the-flash-1201865656/    MISTER MXYZPTLK TO MATERIALIZE ON SUPERGIRL (Date: 02 Dec 2016) com reports DC Comics supervillain Mister Mxyzptlk will bring his impish antics to the CW drama for two episodes in 2017.Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Ira Yarborough for 1944's “Superman” #30, Mister Mxyzptlk is a mischievous imp from the fifth dimension who delights in tormenting the Man of Steel. More fun-loving prankster than straightforward villain, Mxyzptlk's fifth-dimensional technology appears as magic to three-dimensional beings; the limits of his powers are vast and unknown. Famously, he can only be stopped and returned to his home dimension by tricking him into saying his name backward (“Kltpzyxm”).   Link:http://www.cbr.com/mister-mxyzptlk-to-materialize-on-supergirl/    How “Supergirl” And A Super-Duper Gay Comic Book Clerk Helped Save A Girl's Life (Date: 04 Dec 2016) Mary, a “super-duper gay” employee at a comic book shop in Indiana, shared an encounter she had with a young woman. The girl said she was suicidal because she's gay, and she didn't realize gay women could be happy until she saw the Alex Danvers coming out arc on Supergirl. To help the girl out through the hiatus, the employees suggested  Batwoman: Elegy, Midnighter, and Gotham Central. The girl didn't have money for all of the titles, so the employee bought them for her. Link:http://www.newnownext.com/supergirl-lesbian-sanvers/12/2016/   Mark Hamill and John Wesley Shipp On the Biggest Surprises Reprising Their Roles on The Flash (Date: 06 Dec 2016) Interesting fact: Shipp starred in The Flash in 1990 and 1991, with Hamill as a recurring villain. While Hamill was filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a new TV version of The Flash was coming together. Three years later, against all odds, he and the producers have found a way for Hamill to make an appearance as James Jesse in each midseason finale so far. Link:http://comicbook.com/2016/12/07/mark-hamill-and-john-wesley-shipp-on-the-biggest-surprises-repri/   Supergirl Showrunners wanted to play with Shippers (Date: 3 Dec 2016) Producer Andrew Kreisberg revealed after a screening (h/t EW) that multiple moments with Kara were ultimately cut from the three episodes, including Sara asking out the Girl of Steel (and perhaps foreshadowing a future with Alex): There was a little exchange between Sara [Caity Lotz] and Kara [Melissa Benoist] that I really liked — I don't think we even filmed it — where Sara says, ‘Hey, do you want to get a drink when this is all over?' And Kara says, ‘I think you wanna meet my sister.' Just the idea of starting the Sara/Alex [Chyler Leigh] shippers going … Link:http://comicsalliance.com/supergirl-legends-crossover-deleted-scenes/ Fallout from the Superhero Crossover (Date: 3 Dec 2016) WILL SUPERGIRL VISIT EARTH-1 AGAIN? | Now that Kara has a way to communicate and travel across Earths, crossovers are certainly “easier” to execute, Kreisberg says. “The next time we do it, it means it doesn't necessarily have to be because Oliver and Barry need Kara; it could be because Kara needs them.” However, the EP notes that nothing is in the works, seeing as how “we just barely survived this one. So we're not too concerned with what we're going to try to do next year. But it just gives us another way to come at a story.” DOES THE WORLD KNOW ETs EXIST? | A line was cut for time, in which the G-man known as “Glasses” says, “‘Cover up what? A dozen weather satellites falling out of orbit?'” Guggenheim explains: “People see the ships, but no one ever really saw the Dominators. The way we're sort of playing it going forward is that Glasses is good at his job, and when he says he's going to cover it up, he's going to cover it up.” Adds Kreisberg: “There's a mention of it in The Flash, that the threat of aliens brought out all the crazies. But we're sort of Doctor Who-ing it.” Link:http://tvline.com/2016/12/01/legends-of-tomorrow-recap-season-2-episode-7-crossover-dominators-return/ GREEN ARROW COMICS & TOY NEWS X-MEN: GOLD AND BLUE ROSTERS AND CREATIVE TEAMS REVEALED (Date: 28 Nov 2016) X-Men: Gold will be written by Marc Guggenheim with art by Ardian Syaf. The phase-shifting Kitty Pryde at long-last will become an X-Men team leader, whose squad includes Storm, Colossus, Nightcrawler, Old Man Logan, and Rachel Grey. “Kitty is the right person to bring the X-Men into the future, to herald in the next era of the X-Men,” Guggenheim told us in a phone interview. “We are post the war with the Inhumans. The X-Men are sort of at a crossroads. They're at a point where they are trying to decide, is there a future for the X-Men? And Kitty is very much of the mindset that there is a future for the X-Men and it's a bright future.”  Guggenheim is best known as co-showrunner and writer on The CW's Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow and previously worked on the adjectiveless X-Men book in 2014 featuring an all-female cast of characters. Link:http://comicbook.com/2016/11/28/x-men-gold-and-blue-rosters-and-creative-teams-revealed/   NEXT EPISODE   Promo for Next Week: Episode - “Who Are You” (Date: xx month year) Article:Link (comicbookmovie.com) Episode:   “Who Are You?” [Season 5 Episode 10] Air Date:        Wednesday, January 25, 2017 Summary:      According to the clip on the app: Diggle is back in jail, but this time he vows to face the charges. Oliver and the team are looking for the mother of Claybourne's child. Also, they have to ease Laurel back into present-day life. Director:         Gregory Smith Writers:          Ben Sokolowski and Brian Ford Sullivan IMDB:   http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5584160/?ref_=ttep_ep10   Join The Starling Tribune each week as we stream live on Thursday nights at 9:00 PM eastern or 8:00 PM Central at www.geeks.live. Join the fun chatroom and interact with the hosts live. Contact us: @StarlingTribune - starlingtribune@gmail.com - www.starlingtribune.com - www.facebook.com/starlingtribune - 612-888-CAVE or 612-888-2283.   Starling Tribune is proud to be a member of the GonnaGeek network found at GonnaGeek.com. For more geeky podcast visit GonnaGeek.com.   You can find us on iTunes under ''Starling Tribune." We are very thankful for all of our positive iTunes reviews. You can find all our contact information here on the Network page of GonnaGeek.com Our complete archive is always available at www.starlingtribune.com   This podcast was recorded Thursday December 8th, 2016.   Thank you for listening and we hope you enjoyed the show!   Audio Production by Stargate Pioneer of GonnaGeek.com.