Podcasts about anecdotally

Languaging Episode 16: NotesTitle: Languaging in Hampton RoadsEpisode 16 : How do you say Norfolk?Hosts: Jill Winkowski and Prue SalaskyDate: May 1, 2024Length: 34 minutesPublication Frequency: Fourth Friday of each monthIn this episode we finally get to the question that our listeners have been asking since Day 1: How do you say Norfolk? Anecdotally, we discovered that everyone accepted “NAHfuk” as the old-time pronunciation with some retaining it as a way to connect with their city of residence. Increasingly, though, perhaps as part of the so-called cot/caught merger and Southern vowel shift, today's speakers tend to use the “NORfuk” pronunciation. Both of those stress the first syllable with a reduction in the second syllable. There are others who stress the second syllable for a “NorFOLK” or “NorFORK” iteration.We talked about vowels and reference the IPA vowel chart, https://www.ipachart.com/. We also mention linguist Penelope Eckert's 1989 study, “Jocks and Burnouts: Social Categories and Identity in The High School.” It's readily available from various sources online. We had hoped to get a resolution on the matter of who says the city's name in what way by consulting Tidewater Voices, an online archive of interviews of locals conducted (and ongoing) by linguistics students at Old Dominion University in Norfolk over more than two decades. That simply muddied the waters as we found old-timers using the more contemporary sounding "NORfuk" and Gen Zs using "NAHfuk." To listen for yourself, go to https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/tidewatervoices/We travelled the streets of Norfolk and invited those at signature locations – Norfolk Botanical Gardens, The Perry Glass Studio at the Chrysler Museum of Art, Nauticus, Visit Norfolk, The Mermaid Factory, Doumar's Cones and Barbecue, and Norfolk Naval Station – to share their pronunciation of Norfolk along with information about their institution.We consulted Dr. Janet Bing, PhD, a retired linguist from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, and a specialist in phonology, to share her expertise on the topic. She broke the name down phonetically but attributed its varying pronunciations to social forces. Everyone agrees, though, that pronouncing the city's name as "NAHfuk" places you in the local category. International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the Norfolk pronunciation variations: “NAHfuk” [‘na.fək], “NORfuk” [‘nɔr.fək], “NorFOLK” [nɔr'foʊk], “NorFORK” [nɔr'fɔrk].Send your questions and feedback to languagingHR@gmail.com.

Learn how Patrick Matthew's overlooked insight into the theory of evolution shows why execution, not just inspiration, drives real impact. In Episode 246 of Anecdotally … The post 246 – The Value is in the Doing: Patrick Matthew appeared first on Anecdote.

Discover how Jeff Bezos turned a DIY desk into a powerful symbol of frugality and a cornerstone of Amazon's culture. In Episode 244 of Anecdotally … The post 244 – Building Culture with Your Bare Hands: Jeff Bezos appeared first on Anecdote.

Anecdotally it seems that girls are getting their period earlier, but is this true and should we be having ‘the talk' a little earlier?Dr Geraldine Connolly, Co-Founder of ‘My Girls Gynae' joins Seán to explain what is happening, and why young girls are maturing faster…

Anecdotally it seems that girls are getting their period earlier, but is this true and should we be having ‘the talk' a little earlier?Dr Geraldine Connolly, Co-Founder of ‘My Girls Gynae' joins Seán to explain what is happening, and why young girls are maturing faster…

For those of us who live in New York, mass transit is the norm and traffic is a minor form of apocalypse. In response to this persistent issue, New York City implemented a new congestion pricing plan. https://youtu.be/TeObZEnjmv4?si=fQTxzRCe6b-sGH5F Besides the increased funds for badly-needed infrastructure improvements, the plan made other promises. These also include reduced commute times, better air-quality, and improved safety for all road users. https://www.amazon.com/Movement-Yorks-Long-Take-Streets-ebook/dp/B0CV9FNFWV/ Because the sample size is small, it is an open question of whether congestion pricing has delivered? Can it deliver? And how did we get from the horse and buggy, to the street car, to the train and automobile-based system we have now? Will it apply to other cities in the U.S.? Nicole Gelinas and I took some time to trace New York's transportation history in her new book and analyze the prospects for congestion pricing's effectiveness going forward. (*UPDATE: 20 minutes after we stopped recording on 2/19/25, President Trump announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation was pulling its approval of New York City's congestion pricing plan. Governor Holchul has met, apparently unsuccessfully, with President Trump on the topic. Litigation has already started. STAY TUNED.) NICOLE GELINAS, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder, is a Manhattan Institute senior fellow and contributing editor to City Journal. She lives in New York City. She is the author of the recent book, Movement: New York's Long War to Take Back Its Streets From the Car. Outline How did you get interested in congestion pricing and the development of transportation in NYC? New York City's Transit History What are some of the "tragedies" (Cross Bronx Expressway / death of streetcar) and "near misses" (The Saving of Washington Square Park and Grand Central Terminal) that we don't know about? How much credit or blame should we give Robert Moses? Congestion pricing- what is it trying to do (and is it trying to do too much)? As a revenue raiser To reduce congestion Help environment Quality of Life What are the early returns on its effectiveness?  (Anecdotally, to me it seems like it is having a positive congestion effect in Manhattan)  Uber/Taxis?  Notwithstanding these initiatives, what about these often empty cars? E-Bikes? Now that the city has addressed cars, what about the safety concerns of motorized bikes? How is the program affecting Westchester, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut?   As a result of these changes, has the air quality shown any improvement? Meanwhile, is London a Success?  Because of its heady reputation of being one of the most forward cities on congestion control, urban planners trot out London as an example for others. Is this warranted? (However, having been there in November, I thought the traffic was insane! ) Did they do other things to screw up a good initiative? Congestion Pricing's Future (*Before Trump's Involvement) I never met an automatic tax that a politician didn't see to expand and the tax is automatically going up by law, Regarding government's growing addiction to revenue, Will the program expand? Will the borders go north? Brooklyn? Queens?  Or can it go backward under Trump? Regardless, does the MTA have the will to cut costs? Notwithstanding the controversy, is there any political will to enhance safety? Wish list: What would be your favorite next NYC transportation initiative? If we want to learn more, what's the best way to get the book and keep track of your work? Further Details on NeW York's Congestion Pricing Plan https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Actually-Intelligent-Decision-Making-1-ebook/dp/B07FPQJJQT/

Title: The Right Kind of Leaven Text: I Corinthians 5:1-13 FCF: We often struggle with dealing with those who claim to be Christians living in unrepentant sin. Prop: Because the mission of the church is to call sinners to the gospel, we must excommunicate unrepentant believers. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to I Corinthians chapter 5. In a moment we'll begin reading in verse 1 from the Legacy Standard Bible. You can follow along in the pew bible or in whatever version you prefer. Today we will deviate from our study in the book of Acts to help us understand what many in our theological circles conclude is an essential practice of a biblically sound church. As essential as it is, it is one of the most difficult, unpopular, and challenging things that the Lord Jesus has called us to do. The Lord has called us to exercise church discipline on those who claim to be Christians but openly continue in sin without repentance. The scope of the sermon today is not exhaustive. Today, I want to zoom in on one particular historical example of church discipline which was carried out in the church of Corinth. It seems appropriate since in our study of Acts, Paul is currently seeing souls saved and the church forming there in the city of Corinth. So, without further delay, please stand with me to focus on and show proper honor to the Word of God as it is read. Invocation: Heavenly Father, True sheep hear the master's call and obey. At times we cast our eyes to the flock and see some delay in coming to His voice. We wonder – are they not His sheep? How do we know? His sheep will come when He calls. This practice you have given us, for our own spiritual success and purity, is the test of that call. May we be all the more convinced that it is a necessary practice of Your church. We pray this in the Good Shepherd's name… Amen. Transition: Let us dive directly into the text this morning, we have MUCH to see here. I.) For the sake of the one living in unrepentant sin, we must excommunicate unrepentant believers. (1-5) a. [Slide 2] 1 - It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles, that someone has his father's wife. i. Paul, somewhat in shock, reveals that he has heard about an instance of sexual immorality that is happening among them. ii. The level of this immorality was so perverse that even among the pagans such an act would not be tolerated. iii. The act itself is a man who has his father's wife. iv. What this means is somewhat difficult for us to pin down. 1. First, what does Paul mean by calling this woman “his father's wife”. a. Since Paul is quoting or alluding to Leviticus 18 where the sexual laws against incestuous and illegitimate marital partners is addressed, and since a relationship like this with someone's mother is mentioned before the part he is referencing, it is likely that the Leviticus passage and therefore Paul also is referring to someone who is his father's wife but also not his mother. Like a step-mother. b. Roman and Jewish law would not allow such a union, whether we are referring to cohabitation or in marriage. 2. Secondly, we are not certain whether the word “has” here refers to simply fornication or includes marriage. a. Has implies an ongoing sexually deviant relationship. But the nature of that relationship is unclear. b. Many suppose that since it was illegal in the Roman Empire to be granted official marriage recognition in such cases, that most likely Paul is saying they are cohabitating. c. However, given the disposition of the church toward this man (which we'll get to shortly) it is entirely possible that the church of Corinth allowed for a religious union to occur for this man and his father's wife, even if it was not recognized by the Roman government. d. In either case, such a sexual union is displeasing to God solely on the grounds of the partners being illegitimate for each other. e. But if marriage is what this means– how is this possible if she is his father's wife? i. The Romans and Jews of this time did not allow polygamy, although having a concubine would have been common. ii. More than likely, the father is either dead or he had divorced this woman. iii. But because Paul refers to her in the present as his father's wife, this has me leaning toward the latter. iv. Therefore, she is free to be joined in this way. 3. Third, Paul does not address, at any time, the moral culpability of the woman in this scenario. This indicates to us that this woman, most likely, was not a believer. a. Therefore, it is possible that Paul's charge of sexual immorality has three counts. i. First, it is sexual immorality because she is an illegitimate mate being his step-mother. And this would be illegal in both the eyes of the Romans and more importantly in the eyes of God. It is counter to the natural order. ii. Second, it is sexual immorality potentially because she was divorced unbiblically from his father, and therefore marrying her would be adultery. iii. Third, it is sexual immorality because she was an unbeliever and he, at the time, was claiming to be a believer. b. After studying this passage, I believe that this is exactly what was going on. c. He had married an unbelieving divorced woman that used to be his step-mother. It is impossible for this relationship to be honorable to God on those grounds. v. So, what is the church's reaction to this? b. [Slide 3] 2 - And you have become puffed up and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst. i. They have become puffed up … but puffed up in what? ii. What Paul says next helps us answer this question. iii. Instead of mourning (expressing deep spiritual sorrow) and removing the man from among the church itself… iv. They, as a church, were accepting, tolerating, allowing this relationship to continue, and perhaps even celebrating this union. v. In what spirit? vi. Let's keep reading… c. [Slide 4] 3 - For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present: i. Paul, again by saying the opposite gives us the clues we need to understand what is happening in the Corinthian church. ii. They are puffed up, prideful, in what? iii. Their “love”, caution, “care”, and “mercy” to not make hasty judgements against this man. iv. Essentially, they are proud of knowing the bible passage “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” v. They were treating this man with such “love” and “kindness” and allowing him to continue in this relationship because “the Lord is loving and forgiving and receives people from all walks of life.” vi. “We too should be affirming and accepting. Let's not judge too quickly.” vii. As we mentioned before, it is even possible that they facilitated some kind of spiritual union ceremony since the Roman courts would not recognize and would even punish such a marriage. viii. But Paul… what does he say? ix. I've judged him already. It wasn't hard guys. I didn't need to know a bunch of the details. x. I don't need to walk a mile in his shoes. xi. I don't need to look him in the eye. xii. I don't need to empathize with his pain. xiii. I don't need to see it from his point of view. xiv. I don't need to know his temptation to be able to speak on this issue. xv. I am ready to render a judgment. xvi. So here is what you are to do and you should listen as if I were there with you enforcing this… d. [Slide 5] 4 - in the name of our Lord Jesus, when you are assembled, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus, i. Paul invokes the name and power of our Lord Jesus… he bookends this statement with the name of Jesus (with His authority) and the power of Jesus (His saving and changing power). ii. And right in the middle he mentions the assembled church. The next time you are gathered and I am with you IN SPIRIT… iii. Paul saying all of this evokes a courtroom scene. The judge, the jury, the prosecution is all set and they must render a verdict. Not of the church alone. But in the authority and power of Jesus. iv. But what is that verdict they should render? e. [Slide 6] 5 deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. i. In this discussion, Paul assumes that this man is a Christian. ii. Here we have the delicate tension the bible gives us of the practice of church discipline. iii. As Matthew 18 says we are to treat people who are excommunicated from the church as though they are tax collectors and gentiles. iv. Tax collectors were betrayers because they worked for Rome against their own people and Gentiles were pagans worshipping false gods and not members of God's covenant community. v. In other words, Jesus is saying to treat excommunicated people as though they are not believers. vi. But to treat someone as an unbeliever is not the same as declaring them to be an unbeliever, nor is it undeniable proof that they are an unbeliever, nor does it do anything to douse the flame of our hope that they are in fact a believer. vii. The tension then, is to treat them as though they are unbelievers, while still hoping that they are believers and that they will repent of sin and return to the covenant community. viii. Paul's language here is domain or kingdom language. ix. Removing this man from the domain or kingdom of Christ, or recognizing that he has removed himself, allows him to be placed in the kingdom of darkness… while being, potentially, a child of the light. x. If indeed he is a child of the light, Satan will have his way with such a person… even to the destruction of his flesh. Why? xi. So that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. xii. What is Paul saying? xiii. There is protection under the Lord's promises that for His people all things will work together for good. xiv. The church is a haven, a nursery, a dispensary of the means of grace that God uses to grow the faith of His people and encourage them. The Faith they need to weather the storms of this life is grown, cultivated, and nurtured in the environment of the church. xv. When a believer is spiritually removed by excommunication from that haven… the promise of all things working together for good remains true – but God will allow/use Satan to chasten them. How? xvi. In a similar way he used Satan to prove Job. xvii. God proved to Satan and the gathered sons of god that Job was righteous. How? By removing every earthly blessing from him except for his life. xviii. God proved He told the truth when He declared Job to be righteous. Job did not curse God and die. In the end, He confessed that God was God and that he was not and shut his mouth in repentance. That… is what righteous men do. They repent and submit to God. xix. By the church coming together to excommunicate an unrepentant believer, it is to test the declaration of God. xx. If God has truly declared them righteous, as He did Job, Satan's blows will prove God's declaration true in the end. xxi. In that process, they will repent and return to the fold so that they will be spared on the day of judgment. xxii. When the church excommunicates someone… it is not a matter of paperwork. It is a spiritual matter of grave significance. xxiii. It is a domain matter. There are only two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of this world. If a person is excommunicated from the Kingdom of Light, they must join the Kingdom of Darkness. There is no third option. f. [Slide 7] Summary of the Point: Paul's point in this passage is that the only hope this man has to ever be restored and his soul rescued from eternal destruction is for the church to recognize that he has disfellowshipped himself from them by continuing in unrepentant sin. God's Kingdom is a domain of light. Only those who walk in the light belong in the light. If someone is walking in darkness… then they should not be considered as part of the kingdom of light. And it is to their own benefit to be treated as if they are not. It is only when an unrepentant believer is removed from the haven and spiritual protection of the church that they can truly be tested and proved through the fire to be one of God's people. Therefore, we must remove any one who claims Christ but continues in unrepentant sin. Transition: [Slide 8(blank)] But the wellbeing of the one in sin is not the only or even the greatest concern of Paul in this passage. There is a problem that must be corrected in the church as well – beyond removing this man. He continues in verse 6. II.) For the sake of the purity and mission of the church, we must excommunicate unrepentant believers. (6-13) a. [Slide 9] 6 - Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? i. Next, Paul is going to slightly deviate from the issue at hand with this man and his sin and broaden his point. ii. He must do this because, as he opens with, their boasting is not good. iii. This is, in some ways, a deeper and more concerning issue than the issue of this man living in unrepentant sin. iv. The issue is with the church itself. v. It is not profitable to the church for the church to be known as a place that tolerates unrepentant sin from its members. vi. Sin should not be tolerated by the church as a whole or by any of its individual members. vii. Every single believer should desire the death of sin in their own hearts and in another believer's life, because they know that sin always leads to death and destruction. viii. So what? Its none of our business what other do right? ix. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? x. A baking illustration. xi. No doubt many of you bake your own bread or have done so in the past. xii. Approximately how much yeast or bacteria is needed within a 1-pound dough ball in order to permeate the whole lump? xiii. Not much, yes? In fact, given enough time and under the right conditions, the smallest pinch of yeast or the smallest number of bacteria transferred to the lump… will eventually cause it to prove all the way through. xiv. Paul's point is that when sin is tolerated in the church… even to the smallest degree… it pollutes the entire church. b. [Slide 10] 7 - Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, also was sacrificed. i. Paul alters the metaphor to point to Passover. ii. The Israelites would clean their houses of any leaven because it represented sin and pride. iii. And indeed, they have already been made unleavened. How? iv. Christ, our Passover lamb, was sacrificed. It's already been done. v. We have been purified, washed clean. So now we hate sin and seek its eradication. vi. We work to clean out all the old leaven. We are a new lump… a new creation. vii. The old has gone and must continue to stay gone. Why? viii. For the new has come. c. [Slide 11] 8 - Therefore, let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. i. The feast here could be referring to the Lord's Supper or the Passover, but more than likely this is a metaphor for the spiritual fellowship of the church. ii. God has designed His church as a channel for His grace to flow to His people. iii. We sit and eat of the meals God's provides us… but not with the old leaven, the sinfulness, but instead with sincerity and truth. iv. Our sin has been replaced by hearts that believe and love God. d. [Slide 12] 9 - I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people; i. With what is somewhat of a stark transition, Paul moves on to another aspect of this discussion regarding keeping the church pure. ii. Here we see that Paul references a letter he had sent previously. iii. This is one of the lost letters to Corinth. iv. In a previous letter Paul mentioned that they should not associate with sexually immoral people. v. The word to associate means to mingle or to be mixed together with. vi. Again, it is kingdom or domain language. vii. But Paul wants to nuance that command a little. e. [Slide 13] 10 - I did not at all mean with the sexually immoral people of this world, or with the greedy and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. i. Paul specifies that he did not mean this toward unbelievers who are sexually immoral. ii. But what is Paul saying? iii. Are we to join with, mix up with, mingle with sexually immoral unbelievers? iv. Why can we join with unbelievers who sin but not believers who sin in the same way? v. Let's go back to the illustration of the leaven and the lump. vi. In the church, it is obvious that we are the unleavened lump and sin is leaven. vii. But in the world… what is the leaven? viii. Notice that Paul's conclusion for why we should not disassociate from unbelieving sinners is not because if we did, we would have to remove THEM from the world… ix. It is that WE would have to go out of the world. x. The church, the Kingdom of Christ, is the leavening agent in the world. xi. We cannot be unmixed from the world because we are permeating the world. We are part of the world. We are in the world. We are the salt of the earth. We are the light of the world. xii. As sin infects and infests the church, so the church permeates and prevails in the world. xiii. Only the Lord will remove us when He has determined it is time for us to be removed. xiv. Therefore, we remain mixed with unbelieving sinners in the sense that we are in the world – but not of it since we are the leavening agent. xv. Practically speaking then, to associate with the world, and sinners in the world, is merely to be in it. It is to be a part of it. It is to carry on earthly affairs and earthly jobs. Earthly concerns and earthly activities. We have parts of our lives that are not directly related to the Kingdom of God but are submitted to the pursuit of that Kingdom above all. xvi. We are not to be hermits. We are not to shun human contact or live in a commune or religious monastery. xvii. We must be in the world because we are the leavening agent of the world. xviii. But what happens when the lump we are talking about is no longer the world but is the church? f. [Slide 14] 11 - But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one. i. When we shift our focus from the world to the church, everything changes. ii. In the world we are the leavening agent… but in the church, we have no need to be changed, altered, invaded, or permeated with anything since the Lord has purified us. iii. In fact, the goal is to stay holy and pure. We fight against leavening agents. iv. We must associate with the world and sinners because we have the solution to their sin. 1. That is why we can and must be mixed up with the world in the sense that we rub shoulders with wicked people. 2. They probably aren't our best friends. We probably don't become business partners with them. But we don't shy away from interacting and even participating in their lives. 3. Why? 4. So, we can share the gospel with them and live holy lives in front of them. v. But we must not associate with self-professed believers who are unrepentant sinners, because they are the death of the purity and effectiveness of the church. vi. So, what does it mean to NOT associate with so-called brothers living in unrepentant sin? 1. Again, we must change our focus. 2. It cannot mean that we treat them worse than we treat the world. 3. Paul isn't saying that we can participate in the lives of unbelievers but have to shun believers who have been excommunicated. 4. What does it mean then? 5. It means that they are not part of us. They can't be included in anything that is the church. They cannot be affiliated in any way with the church. vii. When we excommunicate someone, we are removing them from the kingdom of light and placing them in the kingdom of this world. At least in how we treat them. Therefore, since we are part of the same world, a world where we are the leavening agent, we must be kind, loving, civil, interacting and participating in their lives – but not closely. We maintain the same distance we would with unbelievers. As Matthew 18 says – we treat them like unbelievers. viii. Well, what about this statement Paul makes about not even eating with them? How do we take that? 1. It seems to me that this whole context so far has been in relation to the entire gathered assembly. a. Therefore, the most likely meals that Paul is forbidding are meals where the church has gathered. b. This would include the Lord's Supper of course, but also love feasts that preceded the Lord's Supper as well as fellowship meals. 2. But even if Paul does mean that individual Christians must refuse to eat with the one excommunicated, there is a certain level of cultural context we must supply to understand this command and apply it rightly to our culture. a. [Slide 15] Let me quote one commentator - “Eating together connotated more than friendliness in ancient culture; it created a social bond. When Christians ate together, it reinforced and confirmed the solidarity established by their shared confession of faith in Christ.” b. The reason Paul commanded this was because in their culture eating a meal together communicated that we are of the same social background. It communicated association. Partnership. Like-mindedness. c. Whether or not this is still true in our culture is something we must consider. 3. [Slide 16] The bottom line is that an excommunicated person is not welcome in any event or occasion where it would communicate, explicitly or implicitly, a bond, a Partnership, or an association to the church. 4. Why? 5. Because although we are a part of them (since they have been removed to the world) they are not a part of us… Not until they repent. ix. Therefore, the “associating” has everything to do with what domain or kingdom we are talking about. x. Why Paul? Why must we make this distinction? g. [Slide 17] 12 - For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Are you not to judge those who are within the church? 13 - But those who are outside, God will judge. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG OURSELVES. i. God is the judge of the world. In the sense that God knows who are His and He will draw His own to Himself in His time. ii. He ultimately will judge and determine the fates of men. iii. He, after all, knows the heart of every man. iv. But within the church, He has given us the keys to the Kingdom. v. We have the authority to bind and loose here on earth. vi. What does that mean? vii. It means we, as the church, have been given the authority and the responsibility to remove from the church any agent which sullies the purity and neutralizes the influence of the church upon the world. viii. Paul's last word is a quote from Deuteronomy 17:7 ix. Remove the wicked man from among ourselves. x. This is his command. xi. Get this cancer out… NOW! h. [Slide 18] Summary of the Point: In what is obviously Paul's primary concern, he reveals that if the church is to remain effective in permeating the world with the message of the gospel of Christ, it is absolutely essential that they must remain pure by removing any leavening agent within their midst. Sin, like a cancer, spreads throughout the body of Christ and pollutes the purity and distinctiveness of the church and therefore neutralizes its effectiveness in permeating the world. To take pride in being slow to act, tolerating, accepting, affirming or even celebrating unrepentant sin is to work against the purpose and purity of the church. Therefore, for the sake of the purity and mission of the church, we too must excommunicate unrepentant believers. Conclusion: So, CBC, what have we learned today and how then shall we live? Doctrinal Takeaway: [Slide 19] In what was sure to be quite a shocking turn, Paul rebukes the church of Corinth for their pride in doing the exact wrong thing. They were puffed up in what they thought was great love, kindness, tolerance, mercy, acceptance, affirmation, and even celebration toward a man who they didn't want to be too hasty to judge. In reality, Paul reveals to them that they have acted against the man himself and the church as a whole. Indeed, for the sake of the man's soul and the purity and purpose of their church, they must remove the man from their midst. They must do so, hoping that God will use Satan to destroy his physical and earthly existence so that his soul might be rescued before the day of the Lord occurs. Therefore, we too must be faithful in executing church discipline. Why? It is for the good of the believer in sin and it is for the good of the church. But let me address some very practical questions in our applications today. 1.) [Slide 20] Mind Transformation: “What truth must we believe from this text?” or “What might we not naturally believe that we must believe because of what this text has said?” We must believe the worst thing we can do for someone in sin is to affirm or support their choices. a. I trust you see the obvious correlation between the wisdom of the church of Corinth and the wisdom of our world today? b. They were proud, an interesting word given the nature of the sin in question, they were proud that they did not judge this man too hastily. c. They were proud to be tolerating, affirming and perhaps even celebrating this man's choices. d. And what is Paul's assessment of their inaction? What is Paul's assessment of their wisdom? Their love? Their tolerance? e. It is not good. f. The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of many “churches” in our culture tells us that our role as the church must be to support, help, affirm, love, care for, and accept every single person no matter what their lifestyle and identity. g. While we certainly live kindly, lovingly, and holy lives toward those outside the church, and while we would never deny an unbeliever living in sin from coming into our church… h. The least loving thing we could ever do for the world or for a believer is to ignore, accept, or affirm their sinful choices. i. Why is that the least loving thing we can do? j. Because the command of Christ is to repent of sin and believe the gospel. k. Never calling anyone to repent communicates that it is ok to disobey Christ. l. This is entirely antithetical to the gospel. m. The gospel is not to free us from the penalty of sin only but to free us from its POWER and eventually even its presence in our lives. n. Many say, well the Lord will forgive me. He loves me and will forgive me. o. God does love us. He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die so that we could be free from the penalty, power, and presence of sin. p. Sin destroys us. Sin is a cancer. q. Would you tell someone with cancer that you are happy for them and will support them in their cancer lifestyle. Would you encourage them to flaunt their cancer and be proud of having cancer? r. NO! This is foolishness. You'd tell them to get it cut out of them. Why? Because it WILL KILL THEM. s. Sin will kill them too. It might kill them physically but it will definitely kill them spiritually. t. The absolute worst thing we can do for anyone living in sin, is to ignore, tolerate, accept, affirm or celebrate it. u. Especially if they claim to be Christians. 2.) [Slide 21] Refutation: “What lies must we cast down” or “What do we naturally believe, or have been taught to believe, that this passage shows is false?” We must deny that the leavening role of the church to the world can continue while the church is impure. a. Paul makes the case that for sake of the church, its purity and its mission are entwined. b. If the church is polluted and full of sin, it cannot maintain its power and distinctiveness to the world. c. Anecdotally, churches who have embraced the LGBTQIA+ agenda are, thankfully, quite empty. d. Why? e. They are just like the world! There is nothing distinct or unique about their message. So the world says – why waste my time? f. On the flipside, the most successful and engaging ministries are those who implore from a heart of love for sinners to abandon their sin and trust in Christ. g. This is the gospel folks. h. We can't be the leavening agent in the world telling the world to repent and seek Christ if we as a church are not telling our own people to repent and trust Christ. i. The purity of the church and the mission of the church work hand in hand. j. If we are to be effective at all in sharing Christ with the nations… we must be a pure church that does not tolerate unrepentant sin. 3.) [Slide 22] Exhortation: “What actions should we take?” or “What is this passage specifically commanding us to do that we don't naturally do or aren't currently doing?” We must execute church discipline on unrepentant believers. a. In my tenure as your pastor we have excommunicated 2 members so far. b. In each case, the sin was not the issue. It was the refusal to repent of the sin and admit any wrongdoing. c. In both cases, they refused to seek freedom from the sin and spurned any correction no matter how kind or loving it was presented. d. This is the nature of church discipline. Although most of us put an equals sign between church discipline and excommunication I would encourage you to resist doing that. e. Church discipline refers to the whole process by which we confront other believers either with sins we have observed them doing or sins they have committed against us. f. As is mentioned in Matthew 18, if in that confrontation, they repent and seek forgiveness and help to gain victory over their sin – then there is no need to continue the process of church discipline. g. Even if, after a period of time, they sin again in the same way, it doesn't mean we can pick up the process where we left off. We would start the whole process again. h. Church discipline is a fancy name for accountability. i. Should we face someone who does not turn from their sin and live differently, then we continue with steps to bring more believers into the conversation to bear witness of the call to repent and their refusal. j. Eventually it is told to the church where the church excommunicates a believer who will not turn from sin. k. Therefore, we as a church must execute church discipline from start to finish. We must confront sin. In our own hearts first and then meekly in others too. l. And if we must, for the good of the one sinning and for the church itself, we must excommunicate any who would continue in unrepentant sin. 4.) [Slide 23] De-Exhortation: “What actions should we stop doing” or “What behaviors do we naturally practice that this passage tells us to stop doing?” We must not associate with excommunicated believers. a. The bulk of the questions regarding excommunication is, how do we treat those who have been excommunicated from the church? b. I hope and trust this sermon has greatly helped, but to tie all the points up in a nice bow, it comes down to one basic concept. c. To not associate with them and to treat them like an unbeliever should be seen as working in conjunction. d. In one sense we treat them as if they are an unbeliever. We as the church are in the world, part of the world, the leavening agent of the world permeating the Kingdom of God and His righteousness throughout it. e. Therefore, since they have been removed to the world, we are free to speak with them, care for them, pray for them, love them, engage them in conversation, live holy lives before them and generally live peaceably with them. All in an effort to share the kingdom message with them again. f. But, hear me now… though WE are part of THEM… THEY are NOT part of US. g. Normally we would allow unbelievers to join us for a church service to expose them to the gospel – But the excommunicated would not be welcomed among us. Why? Because it communicates that they are part of us… when they aren't. h. Normally we'd invite unbelievers to fellowship meals or church events such as the hay ride and chili cookoff or other such things… but the excommunicated would not be welcome. Why? Because it communicates that they are part of us. i. Thinking back over the ones we have excommunicated and thinking forward to any who we might excommunicate in the future, I have developed a test that I believe will help greatly for determining what we are able to do with an excommunicated member and what we are not able to do. j. It isn't a foolproof test. And it will still require some searching and perhaps even wise counsel. But the test is primarily drawn from this text. k. If you are considering engaging in an activity with, an act of kindness toward, or continuing a relationship with an excommunicated member of the church, it would be good for you to ask two questions before pursuing that action. i. [Slide 24] Does this show, explicitly or implicitly, to the church, the world, and/or the excommunicated, that we the church are part of the world and are acting as salt and light toward this person to reveal the gospel and heavenly principles? 1. If the answer is yes, your job is still not done. 2. For you must also ask the second question. ii. [Slide 25] Does this show, explicitly or implicitly, to the church, the world, and/or the excommunicated, that they, as the excommunicated, are part of the church and are partners and sharers in the kingdom of light? 1. If the answer to this is no, and your previous answer is yes, it is probably a good action to take toward them. 2. If the answer to this question is yes regardless of the answer to the previous question, you must NOT engage with them. 3. For we cannot suggest explicitly or implicitly to the church, the world, or the person excommunicated, that they are still part of us. Because they are not. l. The second question is the most important one. There must be mixed signals here. They are NOT part of us. m. That is, until they turn from their sin and seek restoration. 5.) [Slide 26] Comfort: “What comfort can we find here?” or “What peace does the Lord promise us in light of this passage of scripture?” God will never stop chastening His children. a. We know from the scriptures that God, because He is a good Father, chastens His wayward children. b. If they are truly children they will be chastened by the Lord. c. And that is a comforting thought for us. d. We know that while we have removed them from us, if they are truly one of us, the Lord will bring them back. They might be a little worse for wear… but He will bring them back. e. And indeed for this man in Corinth, it seems from Paul's next canonical letter, that he did in fact repent and return. f. We find great hope in this. [Slide 27 (end)] Now let me close with a prayer by the church Father Ephriam the Syrian Lord Jehovah, judge my cause and fight for me against Satan and his host. Lay the strong one low! I have cast off his yoke, and renounced his cursed power. He doubly hates this, and longs to seize me as his prey. I flee to you and to your cross for help. He would win if you did not deliver me-but you have already defeated him. Do not let him conquer me! Put him to shame, O Lord my God! Give me the victory! It is not strength that wins; my weakness is my shield. In lowly trust we fight the fight, and weakness wins the battle. So give me a lowly heart, and cast away each prideful thought. Let gentleness and love come in instead, and abide in my life. Your will, not mine, be done. I resist my selfish desires. Let me ever and always be your servant only. Jesus, I flee to you. I cling to your cross. Save me from Satan's hellish power and pluck me from his grasp. So I will praise you, Lord, and adore your great name. With Father and Spirit one, forever and ever, amen. Benediction: May He Who breaks the power of canceled sin and sets the prisoner free, Whose blood can make the foulest clean; May he increase your understanding so that you may know Him who is true, And that you are in His Son, Jesus Christ. Until we meet again, go in peace.

According to the World Health Organisation, roughly 1 to 2 people die from snakebite in Australia each year. The good news is this is significantly lower than the 1920's when the Sydney Morning Herald reported about 13 people were dying each year.Today we hear from Joyce, who bucks modern statistics which tell us that 74% of victims are male, with an average age of 46, and interestingly, with around 54% of bites happened at home.She's joined by her friend Frances and together, they share the story of what happened when along a spectacular, grade 5 track, over 3 hours from the nearest road, she describes what felt like a sharp stick hit her ankle.Learnings from this episode: First Aid Training (preferably Wilderness (WFA) or Remote First Aid (RAFA) or Remote Area First Responder is essential for you and also those you walk with or meet along the way. How to treat a snake bite - what they did. The importance of carrying more than 1 snake bandage. When calling for help in the bush in coverage, call 000. Anecdotally, Police (rather than Ambulance) may be better equipped to locate you in a remote location (ie. away from roads/tracks/etc.) The incredible benefits of walking with a group where you know the skills and capabilities, rather than strangers (support, first aid, navigation, bushcraft, tasks, team management, etc) Understand that your backpack may not travel in a rescue helicopter. Pack smart. The value of debriefing with your group after a crisis. Taking a moment to take it all in and be gentle on yourselves. Utmost importance of being prepared: packing everything you need. Learning to mitigate risks: wearing long pants, gaiters, first aid kit and training, communication methods (for in and out of coverage).Helpful Links: My comprehensive packing lists (day hikes, overnight hikes) What's in my first aid kit? Bites and Stings app Find a club in your state! Bushwalking Australia - Emergency+ App What3Words

I started counting headlines about Air New Zealand two weeks ago after my flight from Nelson to Auckland was delayed by about an hour. Then last Saturday my partners flight from Napier to Auckland was delayed after a bird strike. Neither delay was hugely consequential – just a little irritating. But since then, there have been a number of press articles about issues with planes. On the 30th of November, an Air NZ plane sat on the tarmac in Hong Kong for hours before being canned after a fuel fault and then crew sickness. An Air NZ flight from Wellington to Sydney was diverted to Auckland on the 1st of December after engine problems. And a flight from Gisborne to Auckland on the 2nd of December returned to Gisborne after engine problems. The plane landed safely after shutting down an engine shortly after departure. Investigations are underway for both engine issues. Anecdotally you don't have to search too hard to find someone who'll share a story of a flight delayed or cancelled, often at the last minute. It got me wondering if we're experiencing more incidents, delays and cancellations than before; or are we just complaining more? Do we feel we can complain more because quite often we're paying good money to fly around our little country? Recent figures released by the Ministry of Transport, which compare Jetstar and Air NZ's services on the main trunk jet routes they compete on, show that in September Air New Zealand recorded 80.4% for on-time departures (within 15 minutes of schedule), and Jetstar 78.0%. For on-time arrivals, Air New Zealand recorded 82.1% and Jetstar 80.6%. In January, Air New Zealand was sitting at 88% and it dropped to 77% in March this year. So reliability has fluctuated throughout the year. Another interesting figure - Air New Zealand's cancellation rate was 1.4%, more than twice Jetstar's which was 0.6%. So yeah, the stats could be better. We all accept airlines can't control the weather, but Air New Zealand has had other issues to grapple with. Planes out of action due to high global demand for engine maintenance meant 10 jets were out of service in the first half of this financial year. It is not expected this will be sorted until 2026. On top of this, the travel market has been a mixed bag, leading the airline to announce this week they will be running fewer flights on some domestic routes in 2025. Who knows what this will do to prices? A 1.4% cancellation rate is tiny in the overall scheme of things – but when combined with other disruptions and high prices, Air New Zealand has its challenges cut out for them. For so long they have been a beloved New Zealand brand, but since Covid it's been like pushing a Dreamliner uphill. Have you run out of patience yet? The Air New Zealand service and staff may be fabulous, but as long as long as the fleet and financials remain under pressure it looks like it will be difficulty to quiet the headlines. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

North Carolina’s been in the news a lot lately, and our hearts go out to everyone in Asheville who are rebuilding after Hurricane Helene. Anecdotally, we also know some folks who sought sanctuary in nearby Raleigh, and we’ve learned that Raleigh’s also a refuge for one couple’s killer electronic collaboration. We’re talking about Waking April, […] The post Waking April: “Rules” appeared first on KUT & KUTX Studios -- Podcasts.

Do you bear the curse of the Mummy manager? As managers, we're wrapped up with scraps of lessons and experiences we've picked up from colleagues, mentors and other managers throughout our careers, applying them to our management practices in the hopes they'll help us lead our teams successfully. Yet 82% of managers have had NO formal management or leadership training, and only 27% of workers believe their boss is highly effective. This curse of ineffective management is being passed down from manager to manager, as many default to adopting a command-and-control approach because they think that's how they should behave. Much like an ancient Egyptian Mummy, these managers can break free from their outdated wrappings, and it's needed across the board because organisations are still suffering from poor engagement. Only 23% of employees are engaged globally, and seeing as 70% of the variance in team engagement is attributable to their manager alone, a new approach to management is now critical. The curse of poor management It's a fact that good managers engage their people, and bad managers don't. As the saying goes, 'You don't quit a job; you quit your boss.' Anecdotally, it's something we all know to be accurate; we all remember that one boss who nurtured us and encouraged us to find our voice, and conversely, we never forget the micromanagers who made our working lives miserable. But, while in the past employees were more likely to 'put up and shut up' if they had a bad manager, Gen Z, and young Millennial employees are more inclined to vote with their feet if the workplace doesn't live up to their expectations - and research suggests that this demographic is currently the least engaged at work. A 2024 CNBC survey found that almost half of Gen Z workers say they're just 'coasting' at work, with 42% claiming they're just working for the paycheck. This is particularly worrying, as by 2025, Gen Z workers will make up 27% of the workplace. Employers simply can't afford to ignore them. What's clear is that Gen Z individuals want to work for organisations that align with their values around inclusivity and equal opportunities for all. Research by Deloitte Digital found that Gen Z employees place a high value on empathy from their bosses - indeed, they consider it a prerequisite in the workplace. This means that the traditional 'command-and-control' approach to management is becoming as ancient as the Mummies we referenced and simply has no place in the modern workplace. A new, more human-focused approach is needed - one that actively inspires and encourages employees of all demographics, not just Gen Z, to operate at their highest level of potential. Management should be about enabling, not instructing. Operational Coaching: An Enquiry-Led Solution Enter Operational Coaching, an innovative approach to management that has the potential to revolutionise leadership dynamics. At its core, Operational Coaching emphasises building respectful relationships between managers and their teams. This new style of management encourages the greater use of an inquiry-led approach (built around embedding more of a coaching mindset), which fosters more open communication and collaboration. One key aspect of Operational Coaching is its ability to enable team members to step up and develop their independent problem-solving skills. When Mummy managers revert to a command-and-control approach, whereby they fix and solve staff problems by telling them what to do based on their previous knowledge and experience, they take away the learning opportunity for staff to find solutions, inevitably stunting their development. Conversely, when managers adopt an Operational Coaching approach, which involves learning to ask more powerful, insightful questions that stimulate the thinking of others, they invite employees to identify and take action for themselves, drawing on their skills and experience to begin to solve the problems they're faced with. Managers who pr...

In Episode 224 of Anecdotally Speaking, discover how barbed wire transformed the American West and its business lessons on innovation. In Episode 224 of Anecdotally … The post 224 – Small Inventions Can Change the World: John Gates appeared first on Anecdote.

Brig. Gen. Gavin Marks '96 discusses the absolute importance of standards and integrity in leadership, and how a new, more rigorous approach at the Academy will build that in to cadets making them Day-1 leaders. SUMMARY Brigadier General Gavin P. Marks, Commandant of the Air Force Academy, shares his journey from being a young man in Atlanta, Georgia to becoming a pilot and eventually serving as the Commandant. He discusses his experiences at the Air Force Academy, including basic cadet training and the challenges he faced. General Marks emphasizes the importance of perseverance, leaning on support networks, and maintaining high standards in leadership. He also reflects on the impact of the Academy on his personal and professional development. General Gavin Marks reflects on his personal journey and the impact of his wife on his military career. He discusses the importance of being adaptable and humble as a leader and the unique responsibilities of command. He shares his decision to return to the Air Force Academy and the changes he is implementing to better prepare cadets for the challenges of great power competition. General Marks emphasizes the love and passion that the leaders at the Academy have for developing future officers and encourages listeners to continue dreaming big.   OUR FAVORITE QUOTES "How you do anything is how you do everything." "There's always somebody better." "I want to make sure that they feel like they got their money's worth from a military development perspective or military training perspective."  "The leaders at the Air Force Academy, from top to bottom, love deeply, deeply love the institution, and are incredibly passionate about the development of these young men and women into officers in the Air Force and the Space Force." "Continue to dream big. Don't let anyone dissuade you from goals that you have. And as it relates specifically to the Air Force Academy, it is absolutely worth it."   SHARE THIS EPISODE LINKEDIN  |  FACEBOOK   CHAPTERS 00:00:  Introduction and Background 01:53:  Returning to the Air Force Academy 02:52:  Young Gavin Marks: Childhood and Calling to Serve 07:04:  Challenges and Growth in Basic Cadet Training 08:29:  Lessons in Leadership and Perseverance 11:45:  Choosing the Air Force Academy and Pilot Training 15:06:  Reflections on the Academy's Impact 20:52:  Leadership Experiences as a Cadet 23:43:  Lessons in Leadership and Perception 27:55:  Successes and Career Progression 32:35:  Meeting His Wife and Reflecting on Tinker Air Force Base 37:25:  Personal Journey and the Impact of Relationships 57:54:  Changes in the Life of a Cadet 01:05:48:  Challenges and Partnerships 01:09:39:  Rigor and Expectations 01:11:09:  Love and Passion for Developing Future Officers 01:12:34:  The Value and Worth of Attending the Air Force Academy   TAKEAWAYS The importance of perseverance, resilience, and grit in overcoming challenges, especially during difficult experiences like the Air Force Academy. The value of having a strong support network, including family and friends, to help navigate challenging times. The significance of leadership roles and experiences during the Air Force Academy in shaping one's development and future success. The Air Force Academy's focus on evolving its training and development methods to better prepare cadets for the challenges of great power competition. The deep passion and commitment of the Air Force Academy's leadership in developing leaders of character who are ready to serve their country.   ABOUT GEN. MARKS BRIG. GEN. MARKS' BIO Brigadier General Gavin P. Marks is the Commandant of Cadets, U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colorado. He commands the 4,300-member Cadet Wing and more than 200 Air Force and civilian personnel. He guides military, leadership, character development, Basic Cadet Training and Expeditionary Skills Training for the Air Force Cadet Wing in addition to providing facilities and logistical support.  Brig. Gen. Marks earned his commission from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1996 and his pilot wings from Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, in 1998. Brig. Gen. Marks has served as a T-1A instructor pilot (at both the undergraduate and graduate training levels) and flight examiner, an E-3B/C instructor pilot and flight examiner, an Air Force Intern, a staff officer on multiple joint staffs, and has commanded at the squadron and wing levels.  Prior to his current assignment, he served as the Director, Electromagnetic Spectrum Superiority, Headquarters U.S. Air Force, Washington, D.C.   Brig. Gen. Marks is a command pilot with more than 3,400 flying hours in the T-3, T-37, T-1A, E-3B/C/G, RC-135S/U/V, TC-135W, OC-135B, and WC-135C aircraft.   - Copy credit:  AF.MIL   CONNECT WITH GEN. MARKS INSTAGRAM: @‌USAFACOMMANDANT     ABOUT LONG BLUE LEADERSHIP Long Blue Leadership drops every two weeks on Tuesdays and is available on Apple Podcasts, TuneIn + Alexa, Spotify and all your favorite podcast platforms. Search @AirForceGrads on your favorite social channels for Long Blue Leadership news and updates!          FULL TRANSCRIPT OUR SPEAKERS Guest:  Brig. Gen. Gavin P. Marks '96  |  Host:  Naviere Walkewicz '99   Naviere Walkewicz 00:01 My guest today is Brig. Gen. Gavin P. Marks, USAFA Class of '96, and currently serving as the commandant of the Air Force Academy. This is his third command position since becoming a member of the Air Force. Gen. Marks was drawn to service as a young man in Atlanta, Georgia, and joined the Junior ROTC program in high school before coming to the Academy in 1992. After he graduated, he became a pilot and flew for 26 years, in addition to continuing his personal and professional development. In 2000, Gen. Marks graduated with distinction from Squadron Officer School at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. In 2015, he again graduated with distinction from the National War College at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C. He has held command positions at the squadron and wing levels. His attachment to the Academy has remained strong, so much so that 20 years ago, he committed to returning and had been working his way back to USAFA when he was called to service, assuming his role as commandant in 2023. Gen. Marks, it is a pleasure. Welcome to Long Blue Leadership. Thank you for being here.   Brig. Gen. Marks 01:03 Thank you very much. It is an honor for me to be here. It really is.   Naviere Walkewicz 01:07 This is an exciting time for us, because especially for me, being a Class of 1999 — “Gold will shine” — I had to get that in there. We go back to Arnold Hall in Basic Cadet Training, when you were the commandant of cadets during Basic Cadet Training for us. So I remember you vividly as your taps from your shoes hit the floor in Arnold Hall. So this is truly a pleasure, sir, thank you.   Brig. Gen. Marks 01:29 It is absolutely surreal to be back, and especially during this period that we're in right now during Basic Cadet Training, and as I interact with basic cadets and the cadre, it's hard not to reminisce about that time. It's hard not to share stories as well. I'm careful that I don't inundate the cadets with my stories of when I was the Basic Cadet Training commander. But it's just it's absolutely wonderful to be back here. Yeah, really is.   Naviere Walkewicz 01:53 Well, we'll get to hear some of those, I think, you know, from your perspective, back then, and also, more recently, as we weave through this podcast. But really excited. And where we like to start is when we go back to young Gavin Marks. So Gen. Marks, tell us about what you were like as a child.   Brig. Gen. Marks 02:08 My mother would tell you that I was precocious, that I was inquisitive. I was very, very talkative as well. So I have an older brother, and we are the sons of two parents that have been married for 55 years, and that's important, because 55 years is a long time, and it taught me the value of being committed. It also taught me the value of what love really looks like, up close and personal as well. I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, as you mentioned, so I'm a product of the South. I am a product of public schools, Baptist churches and Southern upbringing. So, I love sweet tea. I love this disgusting candy called Sugar Babies. And just about anything that you think of with regard to the South, you could probably say that that's pretty accurate as it relates to me and my personality as well. I call everyone ma'am and sir, regardless of rank, just based on my upbringing as well. I really would tell you that I got a calling to serve in the military by virtue of JROTC. I followed my brother into JROTC. We went to different high schools, and he enjoyed it, but it just wasn't his calling. I got involved in it and knew immediately that it was something that I wanted to do. I love shining my shoes. I love shining the brass belt buckle that I had on my trousers. I love marching. I love drill. I did Color Guard. I did Drill Team. It was wonderful for me. It was, I think, the thing that was missing in my life in terms of knowing what my niche was going to be. And so, my professor at that time in that particular JROTC program, I think he saw something in me, and he was the first one to actually bring up a military service academy. Prior to that point, I hadn't heard of anything about West Point or Annapolis or the Air Force Academy at all. And so, I took a trip with my father and we went out to all three and I can't swim, and so Annapolis was pretty difficult for me to wrap my mind around. West Point was too gray. You know, this is a 17-year-old at the time, or a 16-year-old at the time thinking these things. It's like, “Wow, this was really gray and dreary.” No offense to West Point. And then I got to the Air Force Academy, and I remember stepping off the plane and again, coming from Atlanta, Georgia, to see the snow-capped mountains, to immediately be able to feel the difference in the air, I knew that this was the place that I wanted to be. And so, I told my dad right then, as we stepped off the plane, I said, “This is it.” And he said, “What do you know about this place? You haven't even gone here yet.” But I knew, and the rest, as they say, is history.   Naviere Walkewicz 04:48 Wow. So, neither your parents served and your brother was the first kind of introduction to Junior ROTC. What was that like growing up without having that, in Atlanta, not having that military, I guess, presence around you, and you said that's what you learned was missing. But what kind of got you to that point?   Brig. Gen. Marks 05:08 So, I would say, just to be clear, so dad did not have a career in the military, but my father and my uncle both were drafted in Vietnam, and so to that extent, what I would say is, while there wasn't discussions or a lot of military impact in my household, I think, more than anything else, just through watching television, et cetera, there was something about the discipline. There was something about the professionalism. There was something about how revered those that are in service to their nation were in this country that really drew me to the profession of arms. It was just something about the fact that this is a career field. This is a profession that is extremely highly regarded across all facets of life, and I wanted to be a part of it.   Naviere Walkewicz 06:03 So, as a young man in public school, did you find yourself drawn to things, like, I started to think about programs that were like discipline-based, like taekwondo or sports in that manner. Did you have some of those experiences as young man?   Brig. Gen. Marks 06:16 I played — I ran track, following after my brother. My brother thrived in track and field. I followed him, and I absolutely loathed it. I was not athletically inclined, and try as I might, you know, I work out and I try to stay in good shape, but I would not call myself necessarily an athlete of the highest order by any stretch. And so that absolutely was an albatross around my neck coming to the Air Force Academy, especially during basic training, especially during Jacks Valley.   Naviere Walkewicz 06:52 Well, let's talk about that a little bit. Was there a specific instance in Jacks Valley where — because I feel like now you might be able to run circles around some of us.   Brig. Gen. Marks 07:01 Well, I will tell you — so, what I remember a lot about Jacks Valley, I remember the power-line runs. And back then we had the M1 Garand, 11, 12 pounds and we carried it everywhere. And it was heavy. You know, 12 pounds doesn't seem like it's heavy, but it's heavy when you're at port arms, and you're running for miles and miles on end, and the altitude, obviously, is vastly different. Jacks Valley is very dusty. You know, “Jacks Hack” is a thing. And so, all of those things, in aggregate, really caused me a lot of trouble. And so, what I remember is thinking often “I'm not going to make this. This is not going to happen for me,” in terms of graduating out of basic training, because I am falling behind in my runs, et cetera, et cetera. But I made it. I made it.   Naviere Walkewicz 07:56 I love that. And I think for some of our listeners, the key thing, even just in that one was, you know, you didn't give up. You recognized you just had to keep working at it, and you got through it. And you're now serving as a commandant of cadets. So, I feel like there's definitely a story here that talks about you and your grit and your perseverance and everything throughout these years.   Brig. Gen. Marks 08:15 The thing that I took from the Air Force Academy experience probably more than anything else — and there are several things that I took from it — is that this is a an incredibly difficult journey that is made better if you think about it from the perspective of just taking one step at a time every single day. Just show up, just show up, just be present, and that's 80% of it. If you just keep showing up, you are going to be OK. And so that was my mentality: They were going to have to kick me out. I was not going to self-eliminate at all. And so, no matter how slowly I ran back, then they were going to have to kick me out and I was going to keep showing up. The other thing is, I would say this: I had tremendous teammates. Our squad, well, in Jacks Valley, our flight, which became our squadron — we were so close, even back then. And if one of us was falling behind, “Come on, Gavin, let's go. Pick it up.” And that really helped a lot, because you didn't want to let your teammates down.   Naviere Walkewicz 09:22 So, we got a little glimpse of Jacks. So I'm just gonna' dial it back just real quick, back to the point where you said to your dad, “This is it. This is where I'm going.” So, what was that journey like from Junior ROTC to getting into the Academy? Because I think a lot of people want to know what that looked like for you.   Brig. Gen. Marks 09:38 So, I knew that from probably my junior year in high school that I wanted to go into the Air Force or to into the military. I didn't know which branch to be perfectly clear. So I applied to all three service academies. I applied to The Citadel and I applied to VMI and to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Those are all of the ones that I could think of at the time, and the visits helped a lot to crystallize in my mind what I wanted to do. But what really also helped was this fascination with flying. Originally, I wanted to be an astronaut, a dentist, a doctor, an actor, and so many different things when you're growing up, but the idea of flying was really at the forefront of my mind as well. I also knew I wanted to lead. And so, combining those two desires, it made sense to go to the Air Force Academy. And again, I couldn't swim. I tried as much as I possibly could to learn how to swim through the YMCA, et cetera. I'm a product of basic swimming at the Air Force Academy — twice. If I'm being completely candid with you and your listeners, if I could have swam at the time, it is likely that I would have gone to Annapolis, and it is likely that I would have been a Marine, because that is much more, at least in my thinking back then, in line with my personality. Because I am — I will just say the military pillar of the Air Force Academy was, as the young people would say, that's my jam, for sure.   Naviere Walkewicz 11:15 I can see that. While I appreciate that, I can see that. We're so glad that we were able to get you here at the Air Force Academy. So, let's talk about your time at the Academy. You wanted to be an astronaut. You turn the dials toward pilot. Let's talk about what that experience looked like.   Brig. Gen. Marks 11:30 So, the Academy was very, very challenging. What made it challenging primarily was the balance of so many requirements, and that's on purpose. It is rigorous on purpose because the profession of arms requires it, and the nation needs it, it deserves it. I wasn't prepared for it. High school — I wouldn't say high school came easy for me. I would say I did well in high school, and I did well in high school by virtue of cramming and by virtue of instincts. So, I came to the Air Force Academy not really knowing how to study. I didn't know how to prioritize tasks or manage tasks well at all. And the Academy humbled me tremendously.   Naviere Walkewicz Can you share a story about that?   Brig. Gen. Marks Oh, well, I would say this, and the dean, who I know has also been on the Long Blue Leadership podcast as well, she would cringe. So, I never got an F, I'm proud to say, but I certainly am on the team of Ds. I received a D in Aero, and, if I recall, Astro, civil engineering when we had that as a core as well. And that was an incredibly humbling experience for me, because prior to that point, I had never had anything in my career lower than a C in high school or anything like that. And so that kind of thing makes you think, “What am I doing wrong here?” And as you are engaged in that type of introspection, you're still having to get ready for the PFT, and you're still having to get ready for this chemistry test, and you're still having to shine your shoes and get ready for this knowledge test, et cetera, et cetera. And so it was just in my mind, based on my training to that point, not enough time in the day for the reflection that I needed in order to make some changes to my habit pattern. And you're just trying to survive, and you're just showing up every day, one step at a time. So that made it very difficult: the inability for me to study, to not know how to study, the prioritization of tasks. I loved the military piece, and I probably spent more time on that than I should have spent on other things.   My roommates would often comment on the fact that I would be shining my shoes for hours, and I would bypass the need to study until the last minute, until the test came. And that didn't work out very well for me. The other thing I would tell you is this: I wouldn't say that I got homesick, but it was a long way from home. It really was, and so going home really helped to fill my cup back up in terms of just being able to reacclimate with my family and those that were around me — extended family, church, friends, et cetera. It was a long way from home.   I developed a lot of great friends in my squadron. We were in the same squadron all four years, Way of Life committee, gospel choir at the time as well. And then this team of friends that I had on the Cadet Honor Guard as well. What an interesting year that was on the Cadet Honor Guard. But we became incredibly close, and they're still close to this day.   Naviere Walkewicz 14:47 So, I'd like to talk more about the Honor Guard, but before we get there, I think it's important for people to understand that when you find yourself in those tough situations in life and in experiences, how did you pull yourself out of that? You know, you obviously got through. So, something had to change. How did you maneuver that?   Brig. Gen. Marks 15:06 So, I will start by saying this: I talked to my parents a lot, and their support was incredibly helpful for me. They approached it from a different perspective. You know, I learned a lot of great things from both of my parents: hard work, my father's work ethic, my mother and unconditional love and what that truly means. And so, when I'm talking to my parents about the rigors of the Academy experience, my mom would say, “You know, baby you can just quit and come on home and go to Georgia Tech. It's right around the corner, and we'd love to have you, and you don't need this.” And my dad would say, “You better not quit. If you come home, it's for Christmas and you're going back.” And reflecting on both of those comments, my mother was basically saying, “No matter what, we're gonna' love you.” My dad was saying, “No matter what, you can do this, I know you can do it.” And the amalgamation of those emotions and those messages really helped me a lot. It let me know that no matter what, I have support, but I also have the confidence of my parents as well, that leaning on friends is — the friend groups that I talked about as well was really important. And then to a large extent, I would say this: The ability to dig deep inside and pull yourself up even when you are struggling, or even when you are faltering, to be able to show up the next day is really, really important, that grit, that resilience — the thing that we preach to our cadets about now we try to instill in them through the rigors of the Academy experience. It's really important. It's not only important at the Air Force Academy, it's important throughout life, because life obviously throws so many different curveballs your way, right?   Naviere Walkewicz 17:11 I appreciate that you shared that leaning into your support network, not only for their love and their confidence in you, but also it sounds like there was a bit of asking for help and what that was, and so I think that's important for people to hear too. While you are having to pull yourself up, there's no shame in asking for help along the way.   Brig. Gen. Marks 17:27 Not at all. And I would tell you, my mother has so many letters at home and letters that I don't even remember writing during my time at the Air Force Academy, where I was explaining to her different things that were going on that would bring a smile to my face now, because I would be shocked that I would have said these things to my mother or my father in terms of what was taking place and the help that I perhaps needed at the time.   Naviere Walkewicz 17:53 That's great perspective. So, you mentioned Honor Guard, and what an incredible year. I was not part of Honor Guard, but I did appreciate how they helped us stay militarily ready. What was that journey like for you?   Brig. Gen. Marks 18:08 Hard. It was very, very difficult. What I would say is this: So the Cadet Honor Guard attracted me because of the discipline that they had, that they have because of what they represented for the institution as well. These were the cadets that in every formation, carried our nation's flag. These were the cadets that were held up as the example of what a good uniform looked like and what military professionals should strive to look like and resemble and the precision with which they drilled was incredibly impressive to me. And so, when they had an opportunity to showcase what they were about to the fourth-class cadets at the time, so that we could show interest in different clubs, et cetera…   Naviere Walkewicz 19:02 Because you had to try out for honor guard. Is that correct, sir?   Brig. Gen. Marks 19:06 I'm trying to think if I would call it a try-out.   Naviere Walkewicz That's probably not the right word.   Brig. Gen. Marks I think it's probably one of the greatest examples that I can talk to about just showing up, which is to say, “Come one, come all, and there's going to be a lot of physical activity, a lot of running, a lot of drill work, et cetera, all meant to condition you and build your endurance for challenging times when you're in formation, and bad weather and things of that nature, because you know, when you're carrying the nation's flag, it's a no-fail mission, and you can't drop it. And it doesn't matter that it's 20 degrees and 50 knots of wind, you can't drop it.” And so how do I build that into you: the importance of what you're doing means to not only this institution, not only to the Cadet Wing, but to the nation as well? It was a grueling year. It was a hard year. And so I think we started probably with 70-ish fourth-class cadets, and our team ended up at the conclusion at about 16. And that was our team, and that was the team that we carried forth throughout the remainder of our time at the Air Force Academy. And again, I still stay in touch with them to this day. It was a fantastic group of people.   Naviere Walkewicz 20:35 That's incredible. So aside from Honor Guard and some of the time that you spent as a cadet, let's talk about your leadership as a cadet, because you've had multiple positions of leadership.   Brig. Gen. Marks 20:47 So, the two that resonate most with me right now, and that I gained a tremendous amount from — the summer leading into my two-degree year I was the Basic Cadet Training group training non-commissioned officer. That's a mouthful, and so the privilege of being able to, and I'm gonna' use air quotes, “greet” every new appointee as they arrived on the bus to the base of the ramp was given to me, and it was quite an honor. And so, I got to get on the bus and welcome every single basic cadet in the Class of 1998. I will never forget that. And then the next summer, I was the Basic Cadet Training commander, like you were talking about in your earlier comments,   Naviere Walkewicz I definitely recall that.   Brig. Gen. Marks I had a lot of fun, and beyond the fun that you have as cadre during Basic Cadet Training, I had a lot of fun in this regard. As the training NCO, seeing the progress, the development of the basic cadets from I-day, or from that first day of basic training, until the Acceptance Day Parade, if you will, or until we handed them off to the Jacks Valley cadre was something that I really appreciated, because it was very, very noticeable: the changes in drill, the changes in customs and courtesies, the changes in uniform wear, the changes in Mitchell Hall decorum, the changes in how they kept their rooms, et cetera. It was noticeable. And I really appreciated being able to see the fruit of the labor of the cadre. As the BCT commander in so much that you can learn executive-level leadership as a cadet, it taught me a lot about that. So this is the first time that I had an opportunity to conduct my own staff meetings, to build my own staff, to chart a vision, to set objectives, to hold accountable. It taught me a tremendous amount beyond the fun and the great memories of walking across the stage with my taps on during the Fourth of July at A-Hall, which I absolutely still remember to this day, I absolutely remember to this day. But both of those experiences are indelible for me at this point. And I talked to the BCT cadre about them now, because I want them to know that this time that they have is so precious, precious not only because of the memories that they're going to make, but precious because of the impact that they're going to have on these basic cadets. They will remember them forever. They will remember them forever.   Naviere Walkewicz 23:30 Truth. So, I think one of the things that is so unique about that: You said, it was the first time you had the experience of conducting kind of your own operations, or what that looked like, the battle rhythm, the vision. I think a lot of our listeners, you know, they look at you, you're a general, you've been a leader. You know all this. What are some of the things you learned about yourself in that experience that maybe you would share just some lessons in leadership in the early parts of your leadership journey?   Brig. Gen. Marks 23:55 So, I learned very early on, probably as a three degree, that standards really, really matter. It crystallized for me as a probably a three degree, and it just continued to resonate throughout the rest of my career that standards matter greatly in our profession, and perhaps across all walks of life. They matter because of the fact that if we allow someone to not be questioned about meeting standards, we will likely allow further deterioration down the road and erosion down the road, which could lead to catastrophic occurrences. And I've seen it in numerous instances, whether we're talking about accidents, aircraft accidents, whether we're talking about units that have toxic cultures. Because oftentimes it starts with the breadcrumbs that you can walk back to the erosion of standards. There's a line that I love in John Wick. I'm a big John Wick fan. The fourth movie, the bad guy, I don't remember his name, said that his father used to tell him, “How you do anything is how you do everything.” And that is so powerful to me. It is so incredibly powerful. “How you do anything is how you do everything.” I believe that. I truly, truly do. And I learned that for the really, for the first time, as a three degree. I would also tell you perception matters. And I learned that as a firstie as well. How you conduct yourself — as Patton would say, “You're always on parade.” It's important. And if your staff thinks that you are cutting corners here or showing favoritism there, whether that's true or not, it's their reality, and they are going to respond based on how they view their reality, how they view the world in that context. And so, I as a firstie through the experience of the BCT group commander, began to truly pay attention to what perceptions I was perhaps enabling. How about I put it that way? Those are two that come to mind in terms of lessons in leadership that I learned here at the Air Force Academy. When I talk about the idea of building a staff and running a staff meeting, they seem minor. Building the staff was important because it was at that time that I realized that while I may have some things that I'm pretty good at, there are a lot of things that I'm not, and I want to surround myself with people that are good in those areas that I'm not. And so I was very, very deliberate in who I surrounded myself with from a BCT group staff perspective. And then I would also say it's important to, especially when you walk into a group for the first time, to know what you're going to say, to have an agenda for how you want to run things. Because that first impression when you walk in as the leader, as the boss, as the commander, et cetera, it's gonna matter. It is absolutely gonna matter, and you will never have another opportunity to make a good first impression. And so, I could go on and on. I learned a lot from my experiences here in leadership at the Air Force Academy.     Naviere Walkewicz Those are excellent examples.     Brig. Gen. Marks That's why I wanted to come back. While I understood what standards meant and the importance of them as a three degree, I didn't fully put together the impact that the Academy had on me until I was a captain. Leaving here, probably like you and others, I drove away as fast as I could.   Naviere Walkewicz The rear-view mirror…   Brig. Gen. Marks Absolutely, and I told myself that I would never be back here.   Naviere Walkewicz Really?   Brig. Gen. Marks I really did at that time, because enough time hadn't passed to allow me to reconcile all of the wonderful things that had taken place in my development during that four-year period. And it wasn't until I was a captain that I realized that who I was as a function of the Air Force was in large part due to the development that I had received at the Air Force Academy. I credit my parents as well, for sure, but the Air Force Academy, for sure, had a lot to do with that, and I wanted to give that back to other cadets.   Naviere Walkewicz 29:03 Was that in a moment of reflection that you realized that, or was that — did something happen where you were like, “Wow, that's something that I kind of took from the Academy.”? How did you come to that realization?   Brig. Gen. Marks 29:15 I was having — a lot of positive things occurred to me in my career. At that point, I was having a lot of successes, and at some point, I thought about the fact that while certainly I am truly blessed, and certainly there is some luck that plays into that as well, I at some point, through introspection, just kind of look back on the journey that I had gone through from being the knucklehead kid from Atlanta, Georgia, to being this captain in the Air Force, and the metamorphosis that occurred and how that happened. And, so I can only attribute it — some of that, again, is the development over time, when your parents are teaching you things and instilling values and virtue into you, and at the time, when you're a know-it-all teenager, you don't think that it's sinking in, but it does, and it shapes you over time. So, some of it's that, but some of it was the Academy itself. I will tell you this: So, there was a program that I participated in as a junior, I guess, in high school, where I got to come to the Academy for an overnight visit. And I stayed with a cadet, and what I remember about that is this: So I think I stayed two nights. But the first night I went to a pay phone to call a friend, and there was a $20 bill at the top of the pay phone. And so, I went back to the room to tell the cadet, “Hey, somebody left some money there,” and he said, “Don't worry about it. Whoever left it, they'll remember that they left it there, and they'll come back and get it.” And I was bewildered. I was like, I don't understand how that's possible. OK, so the next night, I went to the same pay phone, and it was still there. And I was blown away, and I never forgot that, that this is a place where honor really, really matters. And certainly my parents have integrity, and certainly they, you know, preached and instilled those types of values, but here at the United States Air Force Academy, it was practiced every single day, and it was visibly discernible to me throughout all facets of the Academy experience that undergirding these, you know, push-ups that I was doing and this chemistry test that I was taking, et cetera, was this honor code and these core values that all of us together share. And I just absolutely love that. Reflecting on that over the course of seven years changed my life, truly, for the better.   Naviere Walkewicz 32:15 Thank you for sharing that story. And I actually got chill bumps just thinking about, well, I mean, but you're, right now, you can't think about a lot of places where you can leave something and it's probably still going to be there, or if it was identifiable, it would probably been returned. So, I think that is something we can be so proud of. So, you mentioned, sir, some of your successes. They were kind of, you know, happening outside of the Academy once you'd graduated. Let's talk about what your career looked like and what those successes were.   Brig. Gen. Marks 32:50 So, I was a casual lieutenant. And I guess the claim to fame that I have is that I was Gen. Lorenz's casual lieutenant. So Gen. Lorenz was the commandant immediately after I graduated, went on to become a four-star general, and he is still incredibly active here in the Academy community, and being his casual lieutenant, specifically, his special projects officer, was enlightening in a lot of different ways. Gen. Lorenz is a great leader. He's a unique leader as well. And I learned a lot from being in his space, being in his presence, and seeing how he conducted business. Interestingly enough, when you walk up to the office spaces of the Cadet Wing where my office is, in the hallway is a display of all the previous commandants and their biographies. That was one of my projects as a lieutenant, believe it or not, a long, long, long, long time ago. And so, it gave me an opportunity to be able to research all of the previous commandants to that point and see the commonalities between them as well. So I did that for a little less than a year, and then I went to pilot training. Pilot training was hard. Pilot training was very, very hard. In fact, I came back, if I recall correctly, either in the middle of pilot training or just as I was graduating to talk to the Cadet Wing, the Class of 1998 — one of the classes, '98 or '99 — invited me back to talk at M5.   Naviere Walkewicz I'd like to say it was us.   Brig. Gen. Marks I would like to say it was you all too.   Naviere Walkewicz Can I claim it?   Brig. Gen. Marks And you all gave me the bird, and it was wonderful, and I still have that bird in my office to this day. And I talked about how hard pilot training was, but maybe you'll remember this. I listed the top five hardest things that I've ever done in my life to that point, and I can't remember — I remember No. 1, but I can't remember the exact order, but it was something along the lines of the four-degree year, the entire cadet experience, pilot training, SERE at the time, and my four-degree Honor Guard experience was No. 1 for sure. But all of that to say, just being able to come back to the Academy was a tremendous honor, especially for this silly second, actually, I was a first lieutenant at the time. So went to pilot training and then was selected to be able to stay at pilot training and be an instructor. I went from Columbus to Vance Air Force Base and did that for three years in the T-1, which I absolutely loved. The T-1, that aircraft was probably, if I had the resources, if I was well healed, I would buy myself a T-1 and if I could afford the maintenance. I absolutely love flying that plane and enjoyed my time in AETC. And really, there's nothing special about me. When you enjoy what you're doing and feel like you have a passion for it, oftentimes you're going to do well. I think that's that holds true for just about anybody. I did pretty well in the T-1. After that, I went to an internship at the Pentagon, and so I was there on 9/11 and I got my master's in D.C., left there. After that, I went to Tinker Air Force Base. I did not want to go fly AWACS, and I love AWACS now, but I did not at the time. And I remember when I drove up to the gate for the first time after my year in D.C., and the Security Forces airmen that saw me at the gate asked me, “Are you OK?” just based on the, luckily, based on the look on my face after driving cross country. But what was special about Tinker is that that is where I truly learned, as I would call it, meat-and-potatoes flying, stick-and-rudder flying, no kidding, no thrills and frills. In the AWACS aircraft, you've got to know how to move that jet where you need it to move. You've got to know how to compensate for the aerodynamics of the roto-dome when you're refueling, you've got to know how to fly. And I so it was very enjoyable in that regard, and just being operational was enjoyable. Tinker, though, what I will always credit Tinker for is this: Tinker is where I met my wife.   Naviere Walkewicz 37:15 So I was gonna' ask when the magic happened.   Brig. Gen. Marks 37:19 Yeah, it happened at Tinker. We met through a mutual friend and so, interestingly enough, I always say that the two best decisions I ever made in my entire life, I show on my left and my right hand: my wedding ring on my left, my class ring on my right. Best decisions I've ever made for myself. My wife is retired Air Force 23 years, and she was a first lieutenant, I was a captain. We met through a mutual friend and became friends, and over time, over a period of about a year and a half, we started dating. I asked her to marry me after another year and a half or so, probably a little longer than I should have waited. So, I arrived in 2002, we were married in 2005.   Naviere Walkewicz 37:59 Was her uniform better than yours, sir.   Brig. Gen. Marks 38:05 Oh, goodness, no. So my wife, she will listen to this. My wife would tell you that she has had a wonderful 23-year Air Force journey. Started off with 13 years enlisted time and went to OTS, et cetera. My wife would tell you that I am, I think the term is, I am very “ate up” in terms of the military. Hopefully your listeners know what that means.   Naviere Walkewicz 38:32 Yes.   Brig. Gen. Marks She was not, at all. Not at all. That was not her personality.   Naviere Walkewicz They say opposites attract.   Brig. Gen. Marks 38:35 But I think really, more than anything, what I loved about her, beyond her candor and her honesty, was her compassion as well, her intellect, her ability to be able to see the world in a different way than I saw it — for us to respect each other's opinions about different things, for her difference of a net of opinion, but how she viewed the Air Force and her journey through the Air Force differently than I viewed mine. But we respected each other's nonetheless. And my wife is the reason why I'm still serving and I say that because of this, if my wife was not still in love with this Air Force journey, I would have stopped. I absolutely would have, because being married — and our family is, I hate to say it, is more important to me, truly it is. And so, I would have absolutely stopped. But she loves it. I loathe PCSing. Can't stand it. I'm in a great career field, but my wife loves it, loves the excitement, loves thinking about what's next. And so as long as she's enjoying it, I'm enjoying it too. Yeah, she's my best friend, my best friend for sure. So, we met after that, got married. Fast forward, I left Tinker and went to a Staff assignment in Suffolk, Virginia, stayed there for about three years, went back to the T-1 as a director of operations, a commander in the 99th of Tuskegee Airmen heritage. Then I went to National War College, went to Staff, went back to Tinker, 10 years as the vice wing commander, Offut as the wing commander, back to Staff again, and then here as the commandant.   Naviere Walkewicz 40:32 So, when did the idea trickle back to the mind of, “I want to get back to the Academy?” How did that come into play? Was that just a natural progression of your career? Or how? How does one navigate that?   Brig. Gen. Marks 40:43 So, it was at the time this realization that it had changed me so much and so positively. How can I be a part of another person's just incredible admiration for the experience and appreciation for the experience that they had while they were here? And so, I started investigating becoming an AOC, because at the time, that was where my status in life was in terms of rank, and was the most appropriate, if you will. It just didn't work out for me in terms of the timing.   Naviere Walkewicz 41:24 So, you'd already been looking throughout your career to come back.   Brig. Gen. Marks 41:27 At different points in my career, so about the seven-year point is when I said, “No, I would really like to go back and give back.” And now it's a function of trying to maneuver the timing and all of the other facets that make up an assignment and career progression to try to see how that could work. As an Air Force intern, that counted as my in-residence intermediate developmental education. And so, because of that, I was fast-tracked to staff immediately. And so, timing just didn't work in terms of that intermediate level, getting back to the Academy and making a difference. And so, the next opportunity for me was as a lieutenant colonel, because at that time, our group commanders were group AOCs and they were lieutenant colonels, the opportunity didn't present itself and command of a flying squadron did, and so I absolutely jumped on that with both feet. The idea kind of was off in the back portions of my brain after graduating from command and it didn't come back into the forefront until I got back to the Pentagon because I view the Pentagon as most people do. You know, it's a necessary evil. There is tremendous virtuous work that takes place at the Pentagon. It really is. And I certainly don't mean to poo-poo it. Staff work is important. It's necessary. I wanted to get back into, no kidding, base, desperately. And it had been 27 years-ish to that point. I'd come back for coronavirus. I was working for Gen. Brown and for Secretary Kim. I came back for corona and that was one of the first times that I had been back. And I knew I had to get back here. And interestingly enough, I brought my check to Doolittle Hall. I wanted to be a life member, and I had my $800 check in my pocket. My wife gave me permission, and I was like, “I'm ready.” And I'll never forget this. I don't remember who I talked to, but she said, “Hey, if you wait just a few more months, it'll be free for everybody.”   Naviere Walkewicz Membership for all graduates!   Brig. Gen. Marks I was like, “Sweet!” And then she happened to look at my ring, and she's like, “You got a chip on your ring. Why don't you hand that over to us? Your buying this ring came with a lifetime warranty.” And I was like, “This is unbelievable. This is like, divine intervention. I gotta get back to this place. I love it.” Yeah, I'm so happy to be back here.   Naviere Walkewicz 44:18 That is wonderful. So maybe before we go into arriving back here, kind of some of the surge of what that experience was like — what were some of the leadership nuggets, or the leaders that you worked either under with as peers, those you learned from that worked under you, that you kind of continued to evolve yourself as a leader. What were some of those that shaped you?   Brig. Gen. Marks 44:39 So, I think I will start with my time at Tinker as a flight commander. I think one of the things that I learned then was the importance of being credible in an operational flying squadron. Yeah. Your worth is, especially in a flying squadron, especially as a CGO, your worth is in how well you fly, speaking for pilots in that career field. And so, when you fast forward that to now, what I tell junior officers is this, “As a CGO, your No. 1 objective, your sole objective, is to be a master of your craft. Nothing else really matters. Being a master at your craft is the recipe for success, and if you are not able to do that, it is going to be difficult for you.” So, I learned that at Tinker Air Force Base, I would say, fast forwarding a little bit further to some of my Staff assignments, I would imagine, one of the reasons why I have never been incredibly fond of Staff is because I have — there has never been a good fit for me in terms of the staff assignments that I've been in. I could argue maybe the last one was perhaps, but where I'm going is this: It taught me the need to be able to be adaptable to learn as you go, to be open to learning, and to be humble enough to ask a lot of questions. And I think that that's a tremendous leadership trait to have, to humble yourself to your team, to come in and say, “I don't know everything. I don't know all that you all are doing.” Your stories even, “Please help me to understand. Please teach me.” So Staff, for all of the pains at times, really has developed me to have a better appreciation for that. I would tell you in command, “Oh, my goodness, command is all I ever want to do,” which is both naive and probably a very elementary way of thinking about things I just love command, and command has taught me so much.   Naviere Walkewicz 47:16 What do you love about command?   Brig. Gen. Marks 47:20 So, command is special because there isn't really, not really. There isn't period another position in the military where you are statutorily and regulatorily responsible for mission and people, nothing else. There is no other position in the Department of Defense military like command and to — especially at the unit level, the squadron level — to have such an immediate impact on mission like you are able to, as a squadron commander, and have such a positive impact, direct impact on airmen's lives. It is so incredibly fulfilling. And as you progress and command at higher levels, the direct impact on individuals lives lessens, but the direct impact on mission grows exponentially. I absolutely, not only that, but as you command at higher levels. While the impact, and I probably should have said it this way, the impact that you would have on so many individual airmen's lives' lessons, the impact that you can have on an individual airman's life magnifies based on rank. It is significant also. And I always — one of the things that I tell people all the time is the… it's an oversimplification, but the only reason to have rank is to do good, is to do good things, to make things happen in a positive way that affect positively mission and benefit airmen's lives. That's it. That's all. And if it if rank becomes something different than that for you, you are in the wrong business, or we've given it to the wrong person, if I'm being honest with you.   Naviere Walkewicz 49:11 Thank you for sharing that. So how did you find out that you — how did it work to become the commandant of cadets? Is that something that you're selected for? How did you find out?   Brig. Gen. Marks 49:23 So, I — well for your listeners, there's a dream sheet, if you will. We have a module that we go into and identify things, jobs, positions, perhaps even locations that we think that our skill-set matches up nicely for or that match our family circumstances, and in that module, I talked about the fact that I wanted to be able to give back to the Air Force Academy in this way. And talked about the fact that for 20 years or so, give or take, I have been trying to get back here to be able to have an impact. And I listed some of the things that I felt enabled me to have that type of impact. And then I got a call from the colonel's group or the general officer's group. I can't remember which one, probably general officer's group, that said, “Hey, the superintendent would like to interview you.” And I said, “OK, very good. I look forward to talking to a superintendent.” And what I will tell you is this: It is very difficult to prepare for an interview like that. Number one, you know, in the short amount of time that you're given to prepare for it. And then two, you just really don't know what you're going to be asked. And my knowledge of the Academy was very, very dated, you know, for 27 years ago when I graduated. But I said, “OK, let's go. Let's do it.” And so, I talked to him on the way home from the Pentagon in my car driving home, and we had a really nice conversation. And I remember parking in our driveway, and I remember staying in the driveway for about 15 more minutes as the conversation concluded, and I remember going into the house, and I remember talking to my wife, and I said, “You know, there are probably a number of people that interviewed, and they are, I'm positive, incredibly well suited for the position. There's always somebody better.” That's another great lesson that the Academy taught me, is there's always somebody better. But I said, “I think I feel like that went well. I don't know that I could have given any more to that interview.” Eventually, the superintendent made a decision. The superintendent had to vet that decision through higher levels as well. And eventually you come out on a list and it is announced that this is your next job.     Naviere Walkewicz That's how you found out? You saw the list?   Brig. Gen. Marks So admittedly, you know, birdies are talking to me ahead of time. But at the same time, you are just as a professional, more than anything else that is, that's meant to be private information for just and your family to kind of get your mind wrapped around those types of things. Because, as we've seen over the course of numerous years now, sometimes these lists come out later, and if you were to find out solely by that, that's not a lot of time to house hunt. That's not a lot of time to arrange schools. That's not a lot of time to arrange PCSing, you know, those types of things. So, and in this particular case, I needed to PCS from the Pentagon. I needed to perform a promotion ceremony. I needed to work a change of command ceremony here as well. And so, my wife and I joke, now this last move was the most difficult move we've ever, ever had, because I did all that in 30 days.   Naviere Walkewicz 53:27 Wow, it was a lot, but this was probably one that you were both excited for, not just her.   Brig. Gen. Marks 53:31 Oh, we were. The amount of YouTube videos that we watched in our household about basic training and about the Wings of Blue, just to get our kids excited about this, which is why, I mean — there is no excuse for not knowing what you're walking into at the Air Force Academy, because there are thousands of videos out there. Yeah, and so we were very excited, and the kids were incredibly well educated on what they could expect, everything from the wildlife that's on the installation, to the climate and the altitude, to what cadet life was going to be like. And so, we were really excited. And I remember — and because the kids had never been here at all, my wife and I had taken a trip here early in our marriage, our kids had never seen it and the excitement over the five days of driving was just really, really building up. And so, when we finally were able to see the big white box on the horizon,     Naviere Walkewicz Yes, the chapel-in-the-box.   Brig. Gen. Marks Yeah, when we were able to see that, and I was pointing to it as we were driving, they were just, they were just absolutely bubbling over with excitement. It was amazing.   Naviere Walkewicz 54:34 How did you feel when you saw it?   Brig. Gen. Marks 54:38 Very, very excited. A little overwhelmed. Also, I would tell you, I was really — I was both naive and I was also incredibly humbled and respectful of what I was walking into. Naive in this regard: I felt like, my goodness, I don't know that I've ever been more prepared for a position that I'm walking into than being the commandant of cadets at the Air Force Academy. Because I graduated from here. I surely have to be well prepared and well suited. You know nothing about the inner workings of the Air Force Academy as a cadet. Nothing, nothing. And so, there was so much to learn about governance, not only that — I will tell you this: I had some troubles academically. I never had any run-ins from an honor perspective. I never had any discipline issues, either. And I don't say that to sound self-congratulatory. I say that to show my ignorance, because there were significant gaps in my knowledge and my understanding of how to manage the Cadet Wing, because I had never had any experience with honor, I'd never had any experience with discipline, and so I had to dive into those when I got here and learn that where somebody else might not have had to do that. Very respectful of what I was — the Academy is an incredibly special place. It is also, I don't say this, I don't mean this pejoratively, it is also a lightning rod for attention. There is always attention being drawn to the Air Force Academy and coming into the institution knowing that, it certainly had my attention up front, and I realized also that the opportunity to shape 4,000 cadets and to be able to be the one with a great, amazing team responsible for their military development, their character and leadership development, to ensure that on graduation they had achieved everything that they needed to do in terms of commissioning education to be responsible for their honor education, to be the one that is ultimately overseeing cadet life, it's an awesome, awesome responsibility, and I had a tremendous amount of respect for it when I came into the institution. So overwhelmed in that regard.   Naviere Walkewicz 57:22 I almost could feel through your eyes what you just expressed in coming back and seeing the Academy again and I think this is a wonderful time, because some of us have had the opportunity, whether it's been recent reunions, to hear you speak at reunion briefings, to catch a glimpse of you know, some of the changes or some of the things that you've brought back. Maybe this is an opportunity to share what's Academy life like now, but through the eyes of the commandant. What would you like to share with our listeners?   Brig. Gen. Marks 57:49 So, I would tell you and your listeners that the life of a cadet has changed and is going to change even more. So, I would start much more strategic and talk about this geo-strategically. Being in an era of great power competition, we recognize that because of who our competitor is, because of the advances that they have made, et cetera, it is incredibly important. It's critical for us to rethink how we do just about anything. Rethink how we train, how we develop, how we organize, how we employ force, how we sustain that employment of force, everything. At the Air Force Academy we're in a developmental business and so it's important for us to step back and ask ourselves, with no indictment on the past and the cadets and the lieutenants, rather that we have created and that we have graduated, but right now today, are we doing everything that we can to ensure that the lieutenants that we graduate are ready to lead on Day 1 and win ultimately, should deterrence fail in great power competition? In that deep dive, we have to explore some of the training techniques that we employ here and whether they are applicable on the outside and the force the greater force, or whether they are potentially creating a hazard of negative transfer, we have to ask ourselves whether some of the traditions that we enjoy, or that we have enjoyed here at the United States Air Force Academy, are appropriate for this day and age, send the wrong message, or are potentially harmful in terms of our culture and our climate. Deep diving into all those things, one of the things that I've come to the realization about is this: What I want to be able to do is ensure that a cadet that has graduated — and I know that I won't be here for four years, but assuming that I was — meeting a cadet on I-Day and walking with them through four years, I want to make sure that they feel like they got their money's worth from a military development perspective or military training perspective. And here's what I mean by that: Anecdotally, as I talked to cadets, hundreds of cadets, and talked about their journey at the Air Force Academy, one of the things that I found is that the institution and the curriculum challenged them as a four degree. I think that is universal. But I would also say, and I would imagine, that many of your listeners who are grads would agree that once you were out of your four-degree year, the institution allowed for it to be, if this was your desire, very easy for you to coast militarily, or, dare I say, potentially hide militarily. And I didn't want that. I wanted essentially the same level of rigor that is placed on you academically and the same level of rigor that is placed on you physically and athletically to be placed on you militarily. Said another way, the same sweaty palms that you get in anticipation of your GR are the same sweaty palms that you get in anticipation of your PFT. I want you to have an anticipation of your inspection, or an anticipation of your formation, or an anticipation of your knowledge test, et cetera, throughout your four years. And so, we have evolved our thinking and more importantly, our focus to developing across all four years with the same level of diligence and the same level of rigor that we placed in our fourth-class development. And so the moniker, or the catch phrase, the bumper sticker that we use is that we have transition from a focus on the fourth-class system, to a four-class system, where you can expect, as a rising three degree, or as a rising two degree, to be taught what we need you to do in terms of your military development, expectations and responsibilities, let loose to go practice those things, those supervisory skills, et cetera; assessed on those things, taught warfighting skills as well, that will prepare you for great power competition, et cetera, et cetera. And I can go into a lot more detail, but suffice it to say, this is a significant shift in how we've been operating, and it's a shift for the better, because this is what our nation needs. This is putting us in a better position to be ready on Day 1 to lead and to win on Day 1. So, I'm really excited about it.   Naviere Walkewicz That is exciting. Brig. Gen. Marks We're also bringing some rigor back into expectations about what it means to be a member of the Cadet Wing. So, in other words, we are increasing the number of formations. We are increasing the number of inspections. We are putting our money where our mouth is with respect to the fact that we say and rightly so, that we value character. We are now adding that too as a function of how we assess from a military performance average perspective, how we assess character, because it's so important, it's so critical. There are a lot of changes that are happening for the better, and these changes are going to affect not only the readiness of our cadets, but it's going to affect the culture of our Wing as well in a positive way. It's just going to take some time.   Naviere Walkewicz 1:04:00 That's outstanding. Do you see that trickling up as well into some of the officers that are involved in this, with you, and shaping the cadets — so the AOCs, also your AMTs, and how they're doing that? Is that part of this as well?     Brig. Gen. Marks 1:04:13 It is, and I'll be honest with you, I don't want to be short-sighted or to minimize the impact that the entire institution is going to have. Believe it or not, the touch points that our faculty have, our coaches and staff have, they are abundant, and we would be doing ourselves and our cadets a disservice if all of us in lockstep were — not attacking the problem, but weren't in this together in terms of this development and this approach that we're taking. And so we are. We absolutely are. The dean and I are classmates. We have a tremendous and positive relationship, same with the athletic director and the executive director of Athletics as well. And together we have coffee on a regular basis, and we share ideas and talk about our approaches so that we can together positively impact our cadets. So yes, it is an all-of-USAFA approach and an all-in approach.   Naviere Walkewicz 1:05:22 Absolutely love that. Well, I have two questions. I want to give them to you so you have a chance to think about. The first one being, you know, as a commandant, what keeps you up at night? I think that's something on the minds of our listeners. But then also, would you share maybe, what's something that you're so proud of that's happened since you've been here kind of under your leadership, and maybe something that you're not so proud of? And you can answer those however you'd like.   Brig. Gen. Marks 1:05:48 What keeps me up at night is the resilience of cadets. And let me explain that just a little bit. In no way is that an indictment of a generational thing; this generation of cadets is less. Not at all. It's me talking about human behavior and saying that our program is difficult, it's challenging, and individuals respond in different ways to that, and what keeps me up is an individual feeling like there is no way out. That bothers me a lot. It really, realy, really concerns me a tremendous amount. And so I spend a lot of time talking to our command teams about this and about the need for us to administratively ensure that we are being as efficient as possible when we adjudicate certain matters, because what we don't want to do is leave someone dangling in terms of decision making for months and months on end, because that exacerbates that problem and my concern. In terms of what I am most proud of — so, the jury is still out, but here's what I'll say: I'm very proud of a lot of things. I'm proud of the team we've assembled. I'm proud of the work that is being done at the Staff level. I'm proud of the work that our commanders and our AMTs are doing. Our commanders, our AOCs. I am also very proud of the partnership that we have across the installation. That partnership has enabled us to make a significant change to what is called the schedule of calls, the construct that defines how cadets, day to day, spend their time, essentially. We have made a significant change to it that enables us to provide a more professionalized delivery of commissioning education. It has allowed for us to provide some white space in cadets lives, significant white space. It has allowed for us to build in time for unit fitness. Unit fitness being the operative phrase there, because the unit is so important and developing that cohesion is so important. It ha

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Thank You For Your Time: Understanding the Experiences of Job Seekers in Effective Altruism, published by Julia Michaels on July 10, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Summary The purpose of this research is to understand the experiences of job seekers who are looking for high-impact roles, particularly roles at organizations aligned with the Effective Altruism movement (hereafter referred to as "EA job seekers" and "EA organizations," respectively).[1] Organizations such as 80,000 Hours, Successif, High Impact Professionals, and others already provide services to support professionals in planning for and transitioning into high-impact careers. However, it's less clear how successful job seekers are at landing roles that qualify as high impact. Anecdotally, prior EA Forum posts suggest that roles at EA organizations are very competitive, even for well-qualified individuals, with an estimated range of ~47-124 individuals rejected for every open role. Given that some EA thought leaders (Ben West, for example) have suggested working in high-impact roles as a pathway to increasing one's individual lifetime impact (in addition to "earning to give"), it seems important to understand how well this strategy is working. By surveying and speaking with job seekers who identify as effective altruists directly, I have identified common barriers and possible solutions that might be picked up by job seekers, support organizations (such as those listed above), and EA organizations. The tl;dr summary of findings: A majority of EA job seekers are recent graduates or early career professionals with

Season 3 has begun (finally!)! Join your favorite true crime comedy podcast hosts as they revisit some of their favorite moments from the podcast thus far (including never-released clips!) and take a glimpse into the near future, including GPS-and-grizzly-bear-based disappearances resulting in prison time, radioactive blonde wigs spurring on supervillain-type crime sprees, a tragic near-miss wine allergy, and a creepy & disgusting family annihilator with a prison smile so repellent it will make your skin crawl right off your body. Along the way, Becky & Merie address the burning questions you didn't know you had, like: Why is Walter the Cat the face of this episode?! Will your podcast hosts judge you for NOT drinking wine while listening? Is a giant cheese wedge the sexiest costume Merie ever wore for meeting hot dudes at a Halloween party? Can Becky make it through one episode without telling someone to go f**k themselves? IS Merie trying to give Becky a stroke? Why is Becky stating as incontrovertible fact that people DON'T die from falling down staircases? What is the most terrifyingly realistic depiction of a psychopath on television?! What topics are your pod-coasts promise to analyze only a little-bit-of-shit-out-of? Favorite beers? Favorite colors? Yeah, #thatllbefun! What ASMR Youtuber causes Merie's snot to fly while simultaneously bringing about a premature end to Becky's life? What internet-related icky criminal behavior has Becky preparing for a prison sentence resulting from punching someone in the genitals (repeatedly)? Will Merie EVER directly ask for 5 star reviews from you, our beloved listeners?! (Becky is, tho! Becky is asking!

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: US Presidential Election: Tractability, Importance, and Urgency, published by kuhanj on May 30, 2024 on LessWrong. Disclaimer: To avoid harmful polarization of important topics, this post is written in a non-partisan manner, and I'd encourage comments to be written with this in mind. US presidential elections are surprisingly tractable 1. US presidential elections are often extremely close. 1. Biden won the last election by 42,918 combined votes in three swing states. Trump won the election before that by 77,744 votes. 537 votes in Florida decided the 2000 election. 2. There's a good chance the 2024 election will be very close too. 1. Trump leads national polling by around 1% nationally, and polls are tighter than they were the last two elections. If polls were perfectly accurate (which of course, they aren't), the tipping point state would be Pennsylvania or Michigan, which are currently at +1-2% for Trump. 3. There is still low-hanging fruit. Estimates for how effectively top RCT-tested interventions to generate net swing-state votes this election range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per vote. Top non-RCT-able interventions are likely even better. Many potentially useful strategies have not been sufficiently explored. Some examples: 1. mobilizing US citizens abroad (who vote at a ~10x lower rate than citizens in the country), or swing-state university students (perhaps through a walk-out-of-classes-to-the-polls demonstration). 2. There is no easily-searchable resource on how to best contribute to the election. (Look up the best ways to contribute to the election online - the answers are not very helpful.) 3. Anecdotally, people with little political background have been able to generate many ideas that haven't been tried and were received positively by experts. 4. Many top organizations in the space are only a few years old, which suggests they have room to grow and that more opportunities haven't been picked. 5. Incentives push talent away from political work: 1. Jobs in political campaigns are cyclical/temporary, very demanding, poorly compensated, and offer uncertain career capital (i.e. low rewards for working on losing campaigns). 2. How many of your most talented friends work in electoral politics? 6. The election is more tractable than a lot of other work: Feedback loops are more measurable and concrete, and the theory of change fairly straightforward. Many other efforts that significant resources have gone into have little positive impact to show for them (though of course ex-ante a lot of these efforts seemed very reasonable to prioritize) - e.g. efforts around OpenAI, longtermist branding, certain AI safety research directions, and more. Much more important than other elections This election seems unusually important for several reasons (though people always say this): There's arguably a decent chance that very critical decisions about transformative AI will be made in 2025-2028. The role of governments might be especially important for AI if other prominent (state and lab) actors cannot be trusted. Biden's administration issued a landmark executive order on AI in October 2023. Trump has vowed to repeal it on Day One. Compared to other governments, the US government is unusually influential. The US government spent over $6 trillion in the 2023 fiscal year, and makes key decisions involving billions of dollars each year for issues like global development, animal welfare, climate change, and international conflicts. Critics argue that Trump and his allies are unique in their response to the 2020 election, plans to fill the government with tens of thousands of vetted loyalists, and in how people who have worked with Trump have described him. On the other side, Biden's critics point to his age (81 years, four years older than Trump), his respo...

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: The US Presidential Election is Tractable, Very Important, and Urgent, published by kuhanj on May 29, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Disclaimer: To avoid harmful polarization of important topics, this post is written in a non-partisan manner (in accordance with forum guidelines), and I'd encourage comments to be written similarly. US Presidential Elections are surprisingly tractable 1. US presidential elections are often extremely close. 1. Biden won the last election by 42,918 combined votes in three swing states. Trump won the election before that by 77,744 votes. 537 votes in Florida decided the 2000 election. 2. There's a good chance the 2024 election will be very close too. 1. Trump leads national polling by around 1% nationally, and polls are tighter than they were the last two elections. If polls were perfectly accurate (which of course, they aren't), the tipping point state would be Pennsylvania or Michigan, which are currently at +1-2% for Trump. 3. There is still low-hanging fruit. Estimates for how effectively top RCT-tested interventions to generate net swing-state votes this election range from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per vote. Top non-RCT-able interventions are likely even better. Many potentially useful strategies have not been sufficiently explored. Some examples: 1. mobilizing US citizens abroad (who vote at a ~10x lower rate than citizens in the country), or swing-state university students (perhaps through a walk-out-of-classes-to-the-polls demonstration). 2. There is no easily-searchable resource on how to best contribute to the election. (Look up the best ways to contribute to the election online - the answers are not very helpful.) 3. Anecdotally, people with little political background have been able to generate many ideas that haven't been tried and were received positively by experts. 4. Many top organizations in the space are only a few years old, which suggests they have room to grow and that more opportunities haven't been picked. 5. Incentives push talent away from political work: 1. Jobs in political campaigns are cyclical/temporary, very demanding, poorly compensated, and offer uncertain career capital (i.e. low rewards for working on losing campaigns). 2. How many of your most talented friends work in electoral politics? 6. The election is more tractable than a lot of other work: Feedback loops are more measurable and concrete, and the theory of change fairly straightforward. Many other efforts that significant resources have gone into have little positive impact to show for them (though of course ex-ante a lot of these efforts seemed very reasonable to prioritize) - e.g. efforts around OpenAI, longtermist branding, certain AI safety research directions, and more. Much more important than other elections This election seems unusually important for several reasons: There's arguably a decent chance that very critical decisions about transformative AI will be made in 2025-2028. The role of governments might be especially important for AI if other prominent (state and lab) actors cannot be trusted. Biden's administration issued a landmark executive order on AI in October 2023. Trump has vowed to repeal it on Day One. Compared to other governments, the US government is unusually influential. The US government spent over $6 trillion in the 2023 fiscal year, and makes key decisions involving billions of dollars each year for issues like global development, animal welfare, climate change, and international conflicts. Critics argue that Trump and his allies are unique in their response to the 2020 election, plans to fill the government with tens of thousands of vetted loyalists, and in how people who have worked with Trump have described him. On the other side, Biden's critics point to his age (81 years, four years older...

The trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias are a group of headache disorders that appear similar to each other and other headache disorders but have important differences. Proper diagnosis is crucial for proper treatment.  In this episode, Gordon Smith, MD, FAAN, speaks with Mark Burish, MD, PhD author of the article “Cluster Headache, SUNCT, and SUNA,” in the Continuum April 2024 Headache issue. Dr. Smith is a Continuum Audio interviewer and professor and chair of neurology at Kenneth and Dianne Wright Distinguished Chair in Clinical and Translational Research at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Dr. Burish is an associate professor at UT Health Houston in Houston, Texas. Additional Resources Read the article: Cluster Headache, SUNCT, and SUNA Subscribe to Continuum: continpub.com/Spring024 Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @gordonsmithMD Transcript Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum, the premier topic-based neurology clinical review and CME journal from the American Academy of Neurology. Thank you for joining us on Continuum Audio, a companion podcast to the journal. Continuum Audio features conversations with the guest editors and authors of Continuum, who are the leading experts in their fields. Subscribers to the Continuum journal can read the full article or listen to verbatim recordings of the article by visiting the link in the Show Notes. Subscribers also have access to exclusive audio content not featured on the podcast. As an ad-free journal entirely supported by subscriptions, if you're not already a subscriber, we encourage you to become one. For more information on subscribing, please visit the link in the Show Notes. AAN members: stay tuned after the episode to hear how you can get CME for listening.   Dr Smith: This is Dr Gordon Smith. Today, I'm interviewing Dr. Mark Burish on cluster headache, which is part of the April 2024 Continuum issue on headache. Dr Burish is an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, which is located in Houston, Texas. Mark, thanks so much for joining me today on Continuum Audio. I was really excited to be asked to talk with you about this article. When I recertified from my boards the last time (and actually, it will be the last time I have to take the exam), I did the AAN course on all of neurology. And I'm a neuromuscular guy, right, and so I was actually kind of worried about the headache part because I thought, “How interesting could that be?” And I was blown away at how fascinating headache has become, and in particular, your topic (cluster, SUNCT, SUNA, the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias) - such a great topic. But before we start talking about them, I'd love to just hear more about how you got interested in this area - both headache, this topic in particular. What's your story, Mark? Dr Burish: Well, thank you very much for having me. I'm honored to be part of this. I got into headache probably the way many people do; is, in residency, you figure out what you like, and your residency clinic tends to start collecting patients that you like (not that you're trading them with other residents, but you see certain patients). And mine (by the end of residency) had a lot of headache and pain patients into it. Then, I was very fortunate and had the opportunity to do some research as part of my career. I'm an MD-PhD, and I spend about half my time now doing research on cluster headaches, so I'm very fascinated by these types of diseases. Dr Smith: Can you tell us really briefly what you're working on in your research? Dr Burish: Cluster headache is such a poorly researched area. There's not a lot of people in it, so we do a little bit of everything: we have a clinical trial going; we do some basic science on the circadian mechanisms (cluster gets this very weird timing to it, where the headaches happen same time every day); and we do a little bit of starting to wade into the genetics. Dr Smith: Well, super exciting. I was actually blown away by the statistics on cluster (as common as multiple sclerosis), and the severity of pain I was amazed to learn is above that of childbirth (it was, like, between nine and ten out of ten, which is really crazy). And I'm worried that I missed these patients in my neuromuscular clinic. So, maybe we can begin by - just tell us what you think our listeners need to know. If they have to drop off right now, what message do they need to remember from our conversation? Dr Burish: I think there's two things. First of all, the first-line treatments for these headaches have not changed recently. For cluster headache, you still treat it with oxygen, the triptans (the faster triptans; not the oral ones, but the injectables and nasals), and you prevent them with verapamil. For SUNCT and SUNA, you use lamotrigine. So, those have not changed over time. There are some new treatments, which we'll talk about later. Then the second point is, there are four different types of headaches in this family and they all look very, very similar (one-sided pain, autonomic features, ipsilateral lacrimation, rhinorrhea - that type of thing). They differ in the treatments and how long they last. If you get them wrong (if you misdiagnose them), you're probably not going to give them correct treatment. Indomethacin works very well for two of them (the ones with hemicrania in the name, so not the ones we're going to discuss today). And then SUNCT, SUNA, and cluster headache - indomethacin does not work very well. So, it's important to distinguish them and get them right. Dr Smith: Maybe we can start there, Mark. I mean, I was kind of appalled to learn that the average delay in diagnosis is four to nine years in your article, and given the severity of pain and the impact it has on these patients, that's clearly a challenge. What's so hard about this? And do you have pearls on how we can recognize these patients? And how do you sort this out practically in clinic? Dr Burish: For cluster headache patients especially, it is a lot more common than we would think it is, but it still goes misdiagnosed, partly because most cluster headache patients are episodic. So, there's an episodic version where you get them every day for a few weeks and then they might go away for a year. So, I think what happens is that patients start to get into a cycle and they either get confused for sinusitis (because it happens in the spring), or they schedule a visit with a neurologist or somebody else, but the headaches are over by the time they see them, and they cancel the visit. So, I think they get misdiagnosed partly because it's either confused or they don't see doctors fast enough. I think a little bit more awareness of what this disease is and then, somehow, a mechanism to get these patients in a little bit more urgently is probably what's necessary. Dr Smith: Well, Mark, access is a real issue in neurology more broadly, and I'd love to talk to you about that in a moment, but I wonder if we could go back. You talked about how similar these are to one another, yet the treatments are different. How do you sort out the diagnosis when you're seeing a patient? Let's say you have someone who comes in who has episodic, unilateral, very severe pain and some of these autonomic features. What are the pearls for differentiating cluster, SUNCT, and SUNA from each other? Dr Burish: The big difference between all these different headaches is the timing. As a general rule, SUNCT and SUNA attacks last seconds (they're very similar to trigeminal neuralgia); paroxysmal hemicrania (that's one of the hemicrania ones, where indomethacin helps) - those attacks last minutes; cluster headache attacks last about an hour; and the hemicrania continua is constant (that's the other hemicrania one where indomethacin works). The other part is how often they happen. Again, SUNCT and SUNA - very similar to trigeminal neuralgia, may happen hundreds of times a day; paroxysmal hemicrania - dozens of times a day; cluster headache - maybe a handful of times; and then, hemicrania is constant. Based on how long the attacks are and how frequent the attacks are, you can generally separate them out. And if you're not sure, just try indomethacin. And then if it doesn't work, you're trying to distinguish between SUNCT and SUNA, which lasts seconds, and cluster headache, which lasts an hour, so fairly easy to distinguish those. Dr Smith: How long does it take to medicine to work in a patient with hemicrania continua or paroxysmal hemicrania? I'll remind our listeners - there's a separate article in the same issue of Continuum on that topic - but for our purposes, let's say you try that; how long do you need to try it? Dr Burish: Yeah, there's a great, another article about how much to give and how it works. It is generally pretty quick. I have noticed with most patients that the onset is twenty-four to forty-eight hours. And then, if you stop the medicine, the same thing - offset is kind of twenty-four to forty-eight hours. So, patients know pretty quick whether it's going to work. Dr Smith: Wow - that's awesome. One of the things I was interested in was so-called “secondary cluster.” So, you've seen your patient and let's say you've diagnosed them with cluster (primary cluster). Do you do additional testing? Do they need imaging or other laboratory workup? Dr Burish: Yeah. The differential for cluster (and cluster is the one that we know the most about; it is the most common of all the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias) - it's a fascinating differential. If you don't know much about them, migraine is probably the most common. If you do know a lot about them, hemicrania continua and paroxysmal hemicrania are very common. But there's all these secondary headaches that can look identical to cluster headache; these pituitary hormone-secreting tumors (prolactinomas) - things like that. So, because all these other secondary causes can happen, they generally recommend everybody gets an MRI of the brain, with or without contrast. If that is normal and the patients continue to not respond to the medicines like you expect them to (verapamil doesn't work, oxygen doesn't work, and so forth), then you might do some additional testing for pituitary bloodwork. So, just kind of a panel of hormones, looking at blood vessels (because there are some cases that dissections or AVMs can cause cluster headaches). And then sometimes get imaging of the apex of the lung because there's some data that - with the Horner syndrome - that that might be relevant. Dr Smith: I'll refer our listeners to your article, just in general, because they really need to read it. It's fantastic. But your discussion about the neuroanatomy is really cool, and probably more than we want to get into right now, but the intersection of the neuroanatomy with therapeutics, and some of these other potential etiologies. So, one thing I was really amazed by (or appalled by, frankly) was the frequency with which these patients have suicidal ideation, given the severity of the pain and, I assume, the long time it often takes to get this sorted out. How do you handle that in clinic? Do you have conversations with people about this? How often do you appreciate it? And any words of wisdom for those of us who might encounter these patients? Dr Burish: Yeah. It's not hard to imagine why patients would be suicidal with this. When you have pain that is a ten out of ten - and patients who have also had childbirth and cluster, they consider childbirth more around a seven - so you can imagine how painful this is and what thoughts might be going through people's heads. It tends to be (in my personal experience and some emerging data) that they are suicidal during a cycle. So, for these episodic patients (most patients are episodic with cluster headache for a few weeks), they are suicidal during those weeks. And when the headaches go away, much less risk of suicide. So, during the cycle, I try to get my patients in as fast as possible, get the medications in as fast as possible, but basically just be there to let them know that we have options, and so that they consider me as their first option, rather than something darker. Dr Smith: How successful is first-line therapy in these patients and what's your success rate with your initial attempt at treatment? Dr Burish: On the acute side, the as-needed medicines (sumatriptan, oxygen) - if you give an injection (not the oral; that takes too long) - incredibly effective; for most patients, one or both of those will work. We usually prescribe both because the injections - usually you can't get that many (they can be quite expensive, realistically speaking). But also, just practically speaking, patients can have headaches up to eight times a day and you're not really supposed to be taking sumatriptan eight times a day, so we also give oxygen (but then again, oxygen is not very portable, so that's where the sumatriptan comes in). On the preventive side - not great. There's been some studies suggest maybe fifty percent is as good as any preventive is going to work for you, and that's not considering side effects and other things that patients might stop them. So, we do need to have a few different preventive options and you may have to go through a few different things. Chronic cluster headache (which is the more rare version, where patients have them year-round) is anecdotally much more refractory to treatment. Dr Smith: Can you talk a little bit about bridge therapy? You differentiate bridge from prophylactic therapy in your article. Dr Burish: Yeah. When you're approaching one of these patients - let's say they're completely naive to any medications - usually we will give them a couple of as-needed, acute medications (sumatriptan injections and oxygen). We'll give them a preventive like verapamil, but the verapamil takes a few weeks to kick in. So, the obvious question is, “What am I supposed to do in the meantime, while you're ramping it up and it's kicking in?” So, we use these short-term preventives, which we call bridge therapies or transitional therapies. These are short-acting preventives; they kick in quick, but you can't take them for very long. The most common by far is prednisone. Or an occipital nerve block with some sort of steroid (so, steroids in some sort of fashion). We will usually give them right at the beginning of a cycle (right at the beginning of a flare for chronic cluster headache patients) while we are uptitrating something like verapamil. Dr Smith: This may be a really silly question, but the next time I see one of these folks and I want to start oxygen, how do I do it? What are the logistics of giving someone oxygen for this, and how do patients navigate that, right? If you're having eight attacks a day during a cluster and you work as a nurse in the headache clinic, you probably have oxygen there. But you get where I'm going, right? - it's logistically challenging. How do you order it, and do you have words of wisdom to make it easier for patients to use? Dr Burish: There's a whole kind of system of oxygen, durable medical equipment - stuff that I've had to learn. To boil it down, there are basically two types of oxygen. There's a concentrator - kind of just a machine that takes room air and turns it into about ten percent oxygen - that is sometimes effective for patients. But sometimes ten liters per minute (which is the highest that can give) is not enough and you need fifteen liters per minute. In that case, you need an oxygen tank (the big metal cylinders that you see with a extra device on top called a regulator, that can crank it up to fifteen liters a minute. For both of these - fifteen liters a minute - you're going to need a mask. The nasal canula is just - it doesn't get up to fifteen; it's not going to be enough, so we give you this bag mask (the non-rebreather mask, or the bag hanging out below it). You really need high dose, pure oxygen for these things to work, so you have to write orders that say, “fifteen liters a minute, with regulator and non-rebreather mask.” Dr Smith: I'll refer our listeners to your Continuum article. I know a lot of our listeners use Continuum at point of care. And, of course, you can access it electronically, so there's really great pearls there. Another question for you: CGRP agents have really transformed migraine; what role do they play, if any, in management of these headaches (cluster, SUNCT, and SUNA)? Dr Burish: I think this is a fascinating emerging area of cluster headache research. One of the studies in the last three years came out that it was successful for episodic cluster headache, called galcanezumab, and it did not work for chronic cluster headache. Meanwhile, a couple other CGRP companies have tried them and they were unsuccessful, at least according to the data on ClinicalTrials.gov. And some other CGRP studies are still emerging. We know that both migraine and cluster headache work on the trigeminal system (I mean, this is a trigeminal autonomic cephalalgia - it's in the name) and CGRP is involved in the trigeminal system. That's probably where the commonality between migraine and cluster headache come from - they both work on the same pain system. But why all of them seem to work for migraine and only some of them – you know, some of these medicines work for cluster headache - is a fascinating thing. Does that mean that we don't have the dose right? Does that mean that we don't have the timing of these clinical trials right? Does that mean it's just not as effective? And there's other things that are involved in cluster headache - it's an interesting mechanism that we can start to explore. Dr Smith: I wanted to learn more about the circadian aspects of this - I found that really interesting, and you commented that you're interested in that in a research perspective. Can you describe that phenomena a little bit and just tell us what your thoughts are? Dr Burish: The interesting thing about cluster headaches, specifically, is that the headaches happen, for most patients, the exact same time every day – so, within an hour each day. So, my patient usually will say, “They're at two AM.” Across different time zones, every study that's been done - well, not every study, but many studies have been done - two AM is the most common time of day. But if you ask an individual patient, patient number one will say, “They happen every day at two AM; patient number two will say, “They happen every day at three in the afternoon.” I had a patient who was, I think, kind of getting fed up with all the questions I was asking about his headaches, and he said, “Dr Burish, it's three o'clock; if you want to wait until three fifteen, I'm going to get a headache - you can see what it's like.” That's how sure he was about when the headaches were going to happen. And other than maybe hypnic headache, there are a few other headaches that have that level of circadian predictability. So, it's just an odd, curious, unique thing to these headaches and we don't quite understand why yet. Dr Smith: So, I'm curious if the time of day patients get their headaches is in any way correlated with other aspects of sleep phenotype, right? There's broad variability in your sleep phase - the length of it, when it starts and ends. Is there any relationship, in your experience, between the time of day (two AM, ten PM) and other aspects of their sleep? Dr Burish: We haven't seen that, to my knowledge. People have looked, for example, at sleep studies while patients are having attacks. These attacks occur out of REM sleep, non-REM sleep - it doesn't seem to matter. Anecdotally, patients will say, “My cycle last year - I had headaches every day at two AM. But my cycle this year - I have headaches every day at five in the afternoon.” So, even a same patient who, theoretically, is not having big sleep changes over different years, has different timing of attacks. Dr Smith: Mark, what's the latest thing? What's most exciting in the field that you can tell our listeners about? Dr Burish: There are a lot of new treatments for cluster headache. There's the galcanezumab, which we discussed a little bit. There is a new dose for prednisone. We weren't sure how effective it was; now we're using kind of neuroimmunology-level doses of prednisone (100 milligrams daily; kind of titrating down from there). And then there's an occipital nerve stimulator for the chronic cluster headache patients. Since the last Continuum review on this topic, these three trials have been successful, and I think what gets lost is how impressive each one of these is in different ways. The prednisone study is impressive because you had to study that medicine (which we thought worked but didn't have a good clinical trial), and it's really hard to enroll patients in a placebo-controlled study where you already think it works. Another was done by a large pharmaceutical company. This is not an advertisement for or against, but these companies have rarely ventured into studying cluster headache until recently. The third study, the stimulator study, was a ten-year, multisite study involving surgeons and neurologists - just a monumental effort. It's because of these impressive studies that we now have data on how to treat the patient. Dr Smith: Just so interesting. I tell you what - I mean, if you told me twenty years ago I would be this interested in headache, I would have said, “You're crazy.” But now I see why our residents are so interested in it and why you are. This is fascinating. I could keep going for another hour or two asking you questions, Mark, but maybe we can pivot back to where we began. You told us your story about enriching your resident clinic - and for those residents listening, those are words of wisdom right there, my friend. But here's my question for you: we've already talked about access to care and how you manage access for these patients, but we have a huge access issue in neurology broadly and we desperately need more neurologists. As you're probably aware, there are some of our colleagues that don't think pain is neurology (I'm not one of them, but I know some of them and respect them otherwise). If there's an access issue for neurology, there's a access crisis for pain neurologists. And you don't just see headache, as I understand it; you see other patients with pain. So, I want to give you the last few minutes of our Continuum Audio episode to do your pitch, right? What do you have to say to the residents that are listening to us (or students) about why you find managing pain so rewarding and why they should consider this as a field? Dr Burish: Yes - I also did a fellowship in pain medicine, in addition to my headache research, so I see a little bit of both. For me, the patients are very appreciative because you are talking with them about what they are interested in. They are not interested in the change in the MRI between last time - I mean, they are interested in it, but not as much as, “I hurt today.” So, patients are more than happy - they're very grateful that you are addressing their primary concern, the thing that they're going home with that day that they're worried about. For me, seeing these patients has been very rewarding. From the research side. I think it's fascinating that there's just not enough research in this area - you can create your own niche; you can look into your own mechanisms - there's just not a lot of people in this field. And then, I think from a clinical side, other than the rewarding nature of it, there's a lot of options that we have. There's all of these neuropathic medications; there's all these different headache medications. If you want to wade into the procedural side of things (which I did with pain management), you can get into fluoro-guided procedures and spinal cord stimulators and all these different options that we have for these patients that help them, in addition to whatever they're going through. I have patients that then come back and say, “Well, by the way, I have these seizures; do you mind helping me kind of just go through my antiepileptics.” And they're generally well controlled and they consider me kind of a general neurologist for them. So, I've found it extremely rewarding and I wouldn't do anything different. Dr Smith: Well, that's really great information and I hope our resident listeners will take that to heart. Your article is truly amazing, Mark. I can't tell you how much I was impressed with it, and for our listeners - you gotta check it out. I've got a list of ten other things on my piece of paper here I could ask Mark about, but I think we're probably at time. So, Mark, thank you so much. Congratulations on an amazing article and really fascinating and exciting area of neurology. Dr Burish: Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. Dr Smith: Again, today we've been interviewing Dr Mark Burish whose article on cluster headache - appears in the most recent issue of Continuum, which is on headache. Be sure to check out Continuum audio podcasts from this and other issues, and thank you very much to our listeners for joining us today.   Dr. Monteith: This is Dr Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio. If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth and clinically relevant information important for neurology practice. Right now, during our Spring Special, all subscriptions are 15% off. Go to Continpub.com/Spring2024 or use the link in the episode notes to learn more and take advantage of this great discount. This offer ends June 30, 2024. AAN members: go to the link in the episode notes and complete the evaluation to get CME. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

Dr. Ellen Csepe // #TechniqueThursday // www.ptonice.com  In today's episode of the PT on ICE Daily Show, Older Adult division teaching assistant Ellen Csepe discusses eating disorders & obesity, the relationship between mood & disordered eating, binge eating as the most common form of disordered eating, and the role of the physical therapist in eating disorders. Take a listen to the episode or check out the full show notes on our blog at www.ptonice.com/blog. If you're looking to learn more about our Extremity Management course or our online physical therapy courses, check our entire list of continuing education courses for physical therapy including our physical therapy certifications by checking out our website. Don't forget about all of our FREE eBooks, prebuilt workshops, free CEUs, and other physical therapy continuing education on our Resources tab. EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION INTRODUCTION Hey everyone, Alan here, Chief Operating Officer here at ICE. Before we get into today's episode, I'd like to introduce our sponsor, Jane, a clinic management software and EMR with a human touch. Whether you're switching your software or going paperless for the first time ever, the Jane team knows that the onboarding process can feel a little overwhelming. That's why with Jane, you don't just get software, you get a whole team. Including in every Jane subscription is their new award-winning customer support available by phone, email, or chat whenever you need it, even on Saturdays. You can also book a free account setup consultation to review your account and ensure that you feel confident about going live with your switch. And if you'd like some extra advice along the way, you can tap into a lovely community of practitioners, clinic owners, and front desk staff through Jane's community Facebook group. If you're interested in making the switch to Jane, head on over to jane.app.switch to book a one-on-one demo with a member of Jane's support team. Don't forget to mention code IcePT1MO at the time of sign up for a one month free grace period on your new Jane account. ELLEN CSEPEGood morning everybody and welcome to the PT on Ice daily show brought to you by the Institute of Clinical Excellence. My name is Ellen Csepe. I'm a teaching assistant with the modern management of the older adult division coming to you live from Littleton, Colorado. I'm an outpatient physical therapist who practices with the same question in mind every day. Why aren't physical therapists more involved in managing one of the most pressing health crises in the world today. Obesity. On today's Leadership Thursday, we're going to discuss eating disorders in those with obesity. To feel complete in our treatment of those with obesity, we have an obligation to understand the link between eating disorders and obesity. This is a very nuanced topic with a lot of viewpoints and a lot of new research, but I want to be respectful of your morning and keep this discussion succinct and have this framework for today. First, we're going to open about how mood disorders and obesity are related. Then we'll talk about the most common eating disorder that affects people with and without obesity. Then we'll talk about our number one job as clinicians to avoid provoking disordered eating and then what we can do pragmatically if we suspect our patient is struggling with an eating disorder. So to open us up, for those of us who have never struggled with an eating disorder or obesity, having an issue with your weight can just seem like a physics equation gone wrong. Too many calories in, not enough calories out equals obesity. But for those who are struggling with their weight, this oversimplified physics equation really overlooks the emotional and mental language that can come with struggling with your weight or your perception of your weight. We see obesity as a complex biopsychosocial chronic disease with this framework in mind that it is anything but simple. And thinking that there's a simple solution and a simple fix can often make this problem worse in treating our patients. MOOD & OBESITY ARE RELATED So to start, obesity and mood disorders are related. Obesity and depression frequently occur together and actually there's a bi-directional relationship between mood disorders like depression and obesity. In fact, depression can be a risk factor for obesity and obesity can be a risk factor for depression. This risk and this association is the strongest in women. eating disorders are mental health disorders. The DSM-5 identifies eating disorders as mental illnesses that are characterized by a persistent disturbance of eating or eating-related behavior that results in the altered consumption or absorption of food that significantly impairs physical health or psychosocial functioning. And in fact, eating disorders can be life-threatening and have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Eating disorders have their own diagnostic criteria in the DSM-5, and those eating disorders with diagnostic criteria include pica, rumination disorder, ARFID or avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Anecdotally, many clinicians feel apprehensive discussing weight, exercise, and eating habits in part because they're aware that executing these conversations poorly can have adverse impacts on their patients and their mental health. But as clinicians, we have to know the basics of diabetes, cancer, Graves' disease, ALS, MS. And if we feel confident making dietary recommendations to our patients, For things like protein intake, calorie deficits, and reducing added sugar in our diet, we want to at least be aware of the most common eating disorder that will likely impact our patients. So we understand that there's a correlation between mood disorders and obesity. BINGE EATING AS THE MOST COMMON EATING DISORDER Now let's talk about the most common eating disorder that we're gonna see in our practice. So binge eating disorder is the most commonly recognized eating disorder among people with and without obesity. So it doesn't matter if you have obesity or not, this is likely going to be the most common eating disorder that a patient will suffer from. So eating disorder, let's understand this a little bit more so that we can really clearly understand what this looks like in our practice. So binge eating disorder is characterized by eating a large amount of food in a short period of time, all while feeling the loss of control during this episode and immense shame and guilt afterwards. So you might be thinking, well, do I have binge eating disorder? I chowed last weekend. There's a difference. Having unhealthy eating habits or chowing or going crazy now and again is not the same thing as an eating disorder. An eating disorder is not a choice. A diet is a choice. You can choose to not be a vegan anymore. You cannot choose to not have an eating disorder. And that's the best way to summarize the differences between diets and eating disorder. But binge eating disorder has some specific characteristics. Eating a large period of food over a short period of time without the feeling of control. Eating faster than normal. Eating until uncomfortably full. Eating large amount of food even when not physically hungry. Eating alone because of embarrassment with how much one is eating. and feeling disgusted with oneself, depressed, or very guilty afterwards. So this is a very common diagnosis that we'll see in the clinic. Other unhealthy weight control behaviors that would be reflective of disordered eating could include vomiting, skipping meals, fasting, laxative or diuretic use, smoking to manage appetite, and consuming stimulants to reduce appetite. So these behaviors aren't the same thing as having an eating disorder, but we should know that these behaviors are rarely successful in managing weight and, more importantly, can lead to depressive symptoms and eating disorders in the future. So we summarized the most common eating disorder that we'll likely see as clinicians. Now let's talk about our number one job. THE ROLE OF PT: PROVIDE AN ENVIRONMENT FREE OF STIGMA ABOUT WEIGHT So our number one job as clinicians is to provide an environment for our patients free of weight stigma. For us to be psychologically informed clinicians who want to help those with obesity, We have to be aware of how impactful weight stigma can be on disordered eating. Weight stigma implies that people who struggle with their weight are lazy, less adherent, less motivated, less deserving of empathy, sloppy, mean, have decreased willpower, are unsuccessful, or are otherwise unpleasant. And unfortunately, it's very common among healthcare providers. A recent survey of nurses suggested that 24% of nurses would see people with obesity as repulsive. and that 12% of nurses surveyed didn't want to touch those with obesity. These feelings are not only unhelpful, but they're really hard to hide. If you're repulsed by your patients, it's probably going to show on your face. And actually, a recent 2023 systematic review it'll be in the comments below on this Instagram post, looked at how weight stigma impacted disordered eating. So studies that looked at relationships between disordered eating and internalized weight stigma showed that weight stigma is helpful, unhelpful across the board in managing weight and can actually really commonly provoke disordered eating habits. So the studies reviewed looked at actual experienced weight stigma anticipated weight stigma, so for example, the fear of being judged by others, like if you're going to go out in a bathing suit, having that apprehension that you're going to be judged, and then internalized weight stigma, so the personal belief that you are lazy, unmotivated, have less self-control because of your body habitus. And the systematic review suggested that across the board, experiencing weight stigma made outcomes worse. And in several studies would suggest that experiencing weight stigma from a medical provider immediately caused a binge eating event afterwards. So not only are those weight stigma beliefs that we hold as providers unhelpful, they can make the problem much, much worse and can even cause a binge event for those with binge eating disorder. So I challenge you today to reconsider how you face obesity. If you have biases against those with obesity, I really challenge you to recognize with empathy how hard it is to lose weight and to manage your weight. Recognize that when we lose weight, our bodies fight to get that weight back by changing our hormone levels, our ghrelin levels go up, increasing our hunger, our leptin goes down, decreasing our satiety, and our bodies perpetually try and return to that weight that we lost. It's hard. Our world and our food landscape have changed significantly in the past 50 years. You don't have to grow an Oreo. You could go and buy them from the grocery store, and those are quick, low-nutrient calories that you can access without having to do any physical labor. It is extremely difficult to maintain weight, and those with obesity need our help and support in their journey to manage their health for the long term without judgment or weight stigma from providers. I recognize that obesity is a huge problem that our culture and our entire world face. I know that you likely agree if you're listening to this podcast. Weight issues are hard to manage and where we should start is with empathy and dignity and respect and compassion with those with obesity. SUMMARY So we talked about how mood disorders and obesity are related. We talked about the most common eating disorder, binge eating disorder, that affects people with and without obesity. We talked about our number one job as clinicians to make sure that we provide an environment free of weight stigma for our patients. And last, if you suspect that your patient is struggling with an eating disorder like binge eating disorder, we have some options. You can ask, have you ever struggled with an eating disorder? Or do you know if you have an eating disorder? Just as easily as we can acknowledge depression or anxiety on a past medical history form, we can identify eating disorder or disordered eating habits. Within the past 24 hours, a previous patient of mine shared that he had an eating disorder, but is only now getting treatment after years of struggling because nobody asked. So our job as clinicians, if we suspect somebody has an eating disorder, it's totally within our scope to ask. And if they say yes, you can refer them to the National Eating Disorder Association. The link will be below in the comments. Or this is a completely, this is not an ad, but there's an online virtual service called Equip Health that takes major medical insurances and provides mental health therapists, dietician, and medical provider support, as well as mentors who have overcome eating disorders and are there to help your patients. So we have lots of resources. To summarize, mood disorders and obesity are linked and we have to understand that as clinicians. Binge eating disorder is the most common eating disorder that we'll see for those with and without obesity. Our number one job as clinicians is to provide an environment free of weight stigma for our patients. And if you suspect that your patient has an eating disorder, ask and offer pragmatic support with a referral to another dietician or mental health therapist or an online program. Thank you so much guys. I know that we recognize that obesity is a growing problem in our world and you being a part of this podcast and a part of this team really reflects your genuine empathy and caring for those who are struggling. Thank you so much for being here and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. OUTROHey, thanks for tuning in to the PT on Ice daily show. If you enjoyed this content, head on over to iTunes and leave us a review and be sure to check us out on Facebook and Instagram at the Institute of Clinical Excellence. If you're interested in getting plugged into more ice content on a weekly basis while earning CUs from home, check out our virtual ice online mentorship program at ptonice.com. While you're there, sign up for our Hump Day Hustling newsletter for a free email every Wednesday morning with our top five research articles and social media posts that we think are worth reading. Head over to ptonice.com and scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up.    

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Reasons for optimism about measuring malevolence to tackle x- and s-risks, published by Jamie Harris on April 2, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Reducing the influence of malevolent actors seems useful for reducing existential risks (x-risks) and risks of astronomical suffering (s-risks). One promising strategy for doing this is to develop manipulation-proof measures of malevolence. I think better measures would be useful because: We could use them with various high-leverage groups, like politicians or AGI lab staff. We could use them flexibly (for information-only purposes) or with hard cutoffs. We could use them in initial selection stages, before promotions, or during reviews. We could spread them more widely via HR companies or personal genomics companies. We could use small improvements in measurements to secure early adopters. I think we can make progress on developing and using them because: It's neglected, so there will be low-hanging fruit There's historical precedent for tests and screening We can test on EA orgs Progress might be profitable The cause area has mainstream potential So let's get started on some concrete research! Context ~4 years ago, David Althaus and Tobias Baumann posted about the impact potential of "Reducing long-term risks from malevolent actors". They argued that: Dictators who exhibited highly narcissistic, psychopathic, or sadistic traits were involved in some of the greatest catastrophes in human history. Malevolent individuals in positions of power could negatively affect humanity's long-term trajectory by, for example, exacerbating international conflict or other broad risk factors. Malevolent humans with access to advanced technology - such as whole brain emulation or other forms of transformative AI - could cause serious existential risks and suffering risks… Further work on reducing malevolence would be valuable from many moral perspectives and constitutes a promising focus area for longtermist EAs. I and many others were impressed with the post. It got lots of upvotes on the EA Forum and 80,000 Hours listed it as an area that they'd be "equally excited to see some of our readers… pursue" as their list of the most pressing world problems. But I haven't seen much progress on the topic since. One of the main categories of interventions that Althaus and Baumann proposed was "The development of manipulation-proof measures of malevolence… [which] could be used to screen for malevolent humans in high-impact settings, such as heads of government or CEOs." Anecdotally, I've encountered scepticism that this would be either tractable or particularly useful, which surprised me. I seem to be more optimistic than anyone I've spoken to about it, so I'm writing up some thoughts explaining my intuitions. My research has historically been of the form: "assuming we think X is good, how do we make X happen?" This post is in a similar vein, except it's more 'initial braindump' than 'research'. It's more focused on steelmanning the case for than coming to a balanced, overall assessment. I think better measures would be useful We could use difficult-to-game measures of malevolence with various high-leverage groups: Political candidates Civil servants and others involved in the policy process Staff at A(G)I labs Staff at organisations inspired by effective altruism. Some of these groups might be more tractable to focus on first, e.g. EA orgs. And we could test in less risky environments first, e.g. smaller AI companies before frontier labs, or bureaucratic policy positions before public-facing political roles. The measures could be binding or used flexibly, for information-only purposes. For example, in a hiring process, there could either be some malevolence threshold above which a candidate is rejected without question, or test(s) for malevol...

Anecdotally, nicotine pouches are becoming more popular with young people in Canada — despite the potentially harmful health effects. Dr. Nicholas Chadi, a pediatrician and researcher in adolescent and addiction medicine, explains how these pouches are being marketed and how they could be harming youth. For transcripts of The Dose, please visit: lnk.to/dose-transcripts. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. For more episodes of this podcast, click this link. 

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Vipassana Meditation and Active Inference: A Framework for Understanding Suffering and its Cessation, published by Benjamin Sturgeon on March 24, 2024 on LessWrong. I want to thank Jan Kulveit, Tomáš Gavenčiak, and Jonathan Shock for their extensive feedback and ideas they contributed to this work and for Josh Burgener and Yusuf Heylen for their proofreading and comments. I would also like to acknowledge the Epistea Residency and its organisers where much of the thinking behind this work was done. This post aims to build towards a theory of how meditation alters the mind based on the ideas of active inference (ActInf). ActInf has been growing in its promise as a theory of how brains process information and interact with the world and has become increasingly validated with a growing body of work in the scientific literature. Why bring the idea of ActInf and meditation together? Meditation seems to have a profound effect on the experience of people who practise it extensively, and in many cases purports to help people to come to great insight about themselves, reality, and in many cases profoundly alters their relationship to their lived experience. ActInf seems to promise a legible framework for understanding some of the mechanisms that are at play at the root of our experience. Considering these ideas seem to both be pointing at something fundamental about how we experience the world it stands to reason they might be talking about some of the same things in different languages. The hope is that we can use these two to explore these two theories and start to bridge some of the gap in science in providing a theoretical explanation for how these meditative techniques work. This post will be quite speculative in nature without me providing much in the way of experimental evidence. This is a weakness in the work that I may try to address later but for now I would like to stick to what the theories say and how we can fit them together. I will focus on the technique of Vipassana meditation and in a future post I will examine Anapana and Metta meditation. I'll be talking about these techniques because I have a reasonable body of personal experience with them and because I have found their practice leads to fairly predictable and replicable results in those who practise them. My personal experience is the source of much of the discussion below. Anecdotally, I have found that thinking about suffering in the way described below has helped me to recognise and escape from painful thought cycles where I was able to realise I was generating needless prediction error by simply going back to observing reality through sensations. This has been very helpful to me. A quick intro to Active Inference My goal in this section is to give a barebones summary of some key concepts in ActInf that we will use to examine various meditative practices. My focus will be on defining terms and concepts so that if you have never heard of active inference before you can have the context to follow this post and judge the merits of the arguments yourself. The precise neuroscience is not explored here, but by hypothesising we can work towards a story that seems to fit our observations. ActInf is a theory that tries to explain how and why agents (in our context this refers to all living things) act in the world in the way that they do. The key concept of ActInf is that the primary objective of an ActInf agent is to minimise the gap between its predictions of the world and how the world actually appears. This happens through 2 methods: it improves the accuracy of its world model, or generative model, by updating that model with new information, and by taking action in the world to bring the world more in line with the predictions of its generative model. Generative models and preferences ActInf hinges on the ...

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: More people getting into AI safety should do a PhD, published by AdamGleave on March 14, 2024 on The AI Alignment Forum. Doing a PhD is a strong option to get great at developing and evaluating research ideas. These skills are necessary to become an AI safety research lead, one of the key talent bottlenecks in AI safety, and are helpful in a variety of other roles. By contrast, my impression is that currently many individuals with the goal of being a research lead pursue options like independent research or engineering-focused positions instead of doing a PhD. This post details the reasons I believe these alternatives are usually much worse at training people to be research leads. I think many early-career researchers in AI safety are undervaluing PhDs. Anecdotally, I think it's noteworthy that people in the AI safety community were often surprised to find out I was doing a PhD, and positively shocked when I told them I was having a great experience. In addition, I expect many of the negatives attributed to PhDs are really negatives on any pathway involving open-ended, exploratory research that is key to growing to become a research lead. I am not arguing that most people contributing to AI safety should do PhDs. In fact, a PhD is not the best preparation for the majority of roles. If you want to become a really strong empirical research contributor, then start working as a research engineer on a great team: you will learn how to execute and implement faster than in a PhD. There are also a variety of key roles in communications, project management, field building and operations where a PhD is of limited use. But we believe a PhD is excellent preparation for becoming a research lead with your own distinctive research direction that you can clearly communicate and ultimately supervise junior researchers to work on. However, career paths are highly individual and involve myriad trade-offs. Doing a PhD may or may not be the right path for any individual person: I simply think it has a better track record than most alternatives, and so should be the default for most people. In the post I'll also consider counter-arguments to a PhD, as well as reasons why particular people might be better fits for alternative options. I also discuss how to make the most of a PhD if you do decide to pursue this route. Author Contributions: This post primarily reflects the opinion of Adam Gleave so is written using an "I" personal pronoun. Alejandro Ortega and Sean McGowan made substantial contributions writing the initial draft of the post based on informal conversations with Adam. This resulting draft was then lightly edited by Adam, including feedback & suggestions from Euan McLean and Siao Si Looi. Why be a research lead? AI safety progress can be substantially accelerated by people who can develop and evaluate new ideas, and mentor new people to develop this skill. Other skills are also in high demand, such as entrepreneurial ability, people management and ML engineering. But being one of the few researchers who can develop a compelling new agenda is one of the best roles to fill. This ability also pairs well with other skills: for example, someone with a distinct agenda who is also entrepreneurial would be well placed to start a new organisation. Inspired by Rohin Shah's terminology, I will call this kind of person a research lead: someone who generates (and filters) research ideas and determines how to respond to results. Research leads are expected to propose and lead research projects. They need strong knowledge of AI alignment and ML. They also need to be at least competent at executing on research projects: for empirically focused projects, this means adequate programming and ML engineering ability, whereas a theory lead would need stronger mathematical ability. However, what real...

New data published by LinkedIn to coincide with Engineers Week provides insights into the Irish software sector derived from software engineers in Ireland who are active on LinkedIn. It reveals what Irish software professionals value most when evaluating new job opportunities. Almost seven in ten (69%) software engineers in Ireland ranked flexible work arrangements as the biggest motivating factor when switching jobs, higher than salary and benefits (61%). The third most important factor signalled by the research participants is a healthy work-life balance, flagged by 61% of respondents. Demand for software engineers in Ireland outstrips supply, with a steady flow of talent coming into the country. LinkedIn's data shows that the top five sources of talent for the Irish software sector are India, the UK, Brazil, Turkey, and the Netherlands, respectively. Given the level of demand for software engineers in the country, one issue that should be addressed in order to create a larger pool of talent is tackling the gender divide. In Ireland, a staggering 83% of software professionals are male, with just 17% female. Digging deeper into the data, it appears that there is a glass ceiling in the sector, with women holding proportionally more junior roles. LinkedIn's analysis shows that women's share of non-leadership roles is distinctly higher than their overall representation in the sector, suggesting that the balance could shift further in years to come - Junior Software Engineer (22%), Associate Software Engineer (28%) and Software Engineer Intern (30%). LinkedIn's data also revealed the top employers in the Irish software sector, with Workday, Amazon Web Services, Ericsson and Mastercard ranking among the top five employers of software engineers. Over the past year, the highest levels of recruitment were recorded by Workday, Mastercard and Fidelity Investments. Ireland's third-level institutions play a significant role in providing talent to the industry. The largest provider of talent is Technological University Dublin, followed by UCD, Trinity College, Dublin City University and the University of Galway, respectively. Commenting on the analysis, Deirdre Hogan, Senior Engineering Manager at LinkedIn, said: "Demand for software engineers in Ireland continues to soar. In order to bolster supply, we need to address the gender imbalance in the industry, with women only accounting for 17% of professionals in the sector. If the industry can shift the dial in this regard, then a sustainable flow of talent can be established to meet the needs of employers." "One factor which may help to address the gender divide for software engineers is hybrid working. Anecdotally our research would seem to indicate that it is a jobseeker's market for software professionals in Ireland, as flexible working is the main driver for software engineers when switching roles - in contrast to most sectors where salary remains the primary motivator. Offering flexibility can boost a company's ability to attract talent, with a work culture that accommodates people's individual needs, broadening an employer's potential pool of candidates in the process."

Chris gives a history lesson on Leap Day as him and Mac have a laugh and try to make the Leap Day history books. Also see a surprise Leap day birthday caller.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Justin Brierley is a writer, speaker, and podcaster committed to building dialogue between Christians and non-Christians. His first book was titled Unbelievable? Why, after ten years of talking with atheists, I'm still a Christian and in September 2023 he published his second book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God.I wanted to speak to Justin after reading his exceptional new book (and after listening to the accompanying podcast), it brought me hope as a Brit in what is presented to be an incredibly secular United Kingdom. Anecdotally, that's not the case. I'm constantly surprised by friends and acquaintances responding positively or showing interest in my Christian projects. I'm also seeing many statistics beneath the surface highlighting societal trends (especially in the rising generation) showing a return to prayer, church, family, and God. Some highlights include how to remain hopeful in a pre-war world, what Justin thinks of Richard Dawkins' opinion of Jordan Peterson, and why young men in Finland are showing up to Church more and more. Justin will be hosting an event in London with Tom Holland on March 5th, head to his website to get tickets.For All The Saints episodes are released every Monday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts and more. If you have any suggestions for topics or guests, connect with Ben & Sean via hello@forallthesaints.org

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Dual Wielding Kindle Scribes, published by mesaoptimizer on February 21, 2024 on LessWrong. This is an informal post intended to describe a workflow / setup that I found very useful, so that others might consider adopting or experimenting with facets of it that they find useful. In August 2023, I was a part of MATS 4.0 and had begun learning the skill of deconfusion, with an aim of disentangling my conflicting intuitions between my belief that shard theory seemed to be at least directionally pointing at some issues with the MIRI model of AGI takeoff and alignment difficulty, and my belief that Nate Soares was obviously correct that reflection will break Alex Turner's diamond alignment scheme. A friend lent me his Kindle Scribe to try out as part of my workflow. I started using it for note-taking, and found it incredibly useful and bought it from him. A month later, I bought a second Kindle Scribe to add to my workflow. It has been about six months since, and I've sold both my Kindle Scribes. Here's why I found this workflow useful (and therefore why you might find it useful), and why I moved on from it. The Display The Kindle Scribe is a marvelous piece of hardware. With a 300 PPI e-ink 10.3 inch screen, reading books on it was a delight in comparison to any other device I've used to read content on. The stats I just mentioned matter: 300 PPI on a 10.3 inch display means the displayed text is incredibly crisp, almost indistinguishable from normal laptop and smartphone screens. This is not the case for most e-ink readers. E-ink screens seem to reduce eye strain by a non-trivial amount. I've looked into some studies, but the sample sizes and effect sizes were not enough to make me unilaterally recommend people switch to e-ink screens for reading. However, it does seem like the biggest benefit of using e-ink screens seems to be that you aren't staring into a display that is constantly shining light into your eyeballs, which is the equivalent of staring into a lightbulb. Anecdotally, it did seem like I was able to read and write for longer hours when I only used e-ink screens: I went from, about 8 to 10 hours a day (with some visceral eye fatigue symptoms like discomfort at the end of the day) to about 12 to 14 hours a day, without these symptoms, based on my informal tracking during September 2023. 10.3 inch screens (with a high PPI) just feel better to use in comparison to smaller (say, 6 to 7 inch screens) for reading. This seems to me to be due to a greater amount of text displayed on the screen at any given time, which seems to somehow limit the feeling of comprehensibility of the text. I assume this is somehow related to chunking of concepts in working memory, where if you have a part of a 'chunk' on one page, and another part on another page, you may have a subtle difficulty with comprehending what you are reading (if it is new to you), and the more the text you have in front of you, the more you can externalize the effort of comprehension. (I used a Kobo Libra 2 (7 inch e-ink screen) for a bit to compare how it felt to read on, to get this data.) Also, you can write notes in the Kindle Scribe. This was a big deal for me, since before this, I used to write notes on my laptop, and my laptop was a multi-purpose device. Sidenote: My current philosophy of note-taking is that I think 'on paper' using these notes, and don't usually refer to it later on. The aim is to augment my working memory with an external tool, and the way I write notes usually reflects this -- I either write down most of my relevant and conscious thoughts as I think them (organized as a sequence of trees, where each node is a string representing a 'thought'), or I usually write 'waypoints' for my thoughts, where each waypoint is a marker for a conclusion of a sequence / tree of thoughts, or an inte...

Technology inevitably has an impact on the way we think and relate to others. Decades into our own experiments with computers and the internet, researchers have begun to gather data on what that technology is doing to us. Anecdotally, we know that the internet is changing how we relate, how we speak, and how we work. As Christians, then, what are we willing to do to make sure that our minds our sharp, and our children are ready to use their minds to glorify God?   On this episode, Adam, Matthew, Travis, and Erik discuss just what it is what we are doing, and what wisdom dictates we ought to do to press back against the way our technology is shaping us.

“With the turnover rates where they're at now, there's no way we can keep thinking how we did in the past—like, we have to. There's no doubt. We have to think differently,” Deborah Cline, DNP, RN, associate professor in the Department of Graduate Studies with Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston in Texas, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a discussion about oncology nurse retention.  You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below.   Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod  Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Earn 1.0 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the professional practice and performance ILNA categories, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by December 29, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.  Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to nurse retention strategies.  Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD.  Oncology Nursing Podcast: Episode 231: Nurses Thrive in a Healthy Work Culture Episode 187: The Critical Need for Well-Being and Resiliency and How to Practice Episode 85: Nursing Resilience and Self-Care Aren't Optional  ONS Voice articles: Train and Retain: From Orientation to Leadership, Here Are the Strategies That Experienced Staff Developers Use American Rescue Plan Funds Will Reduce Burnout, Promote Mental Wellness Among Healthcare Workforce Biden-Harris Administration Invests $100 Million in Awards to Grow the Nursing Workforce Create Space Between Work and Life With These ONS Member-Tested Techniques  Clinical Oncology Nursing: Will You Leave or Stay?  ONS Nurse Well-Being Learning Library  ONS Symptom Interventions and Guidelines: Peripheral Neuropathy  The Journal of Excellence in Nursing Leadership: The Accreditation in Shared Governance Program (Robert Hess)  American Nurses Foundation Stress and Burnout Prevention Program  National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience  Would you like to hear more from Debbie and about the future of nurse retention? Check out her next presentation at ONS Congress® in April 2024.  To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.   To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.  To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.  Highlights From Today's Episode  “When you look at the data, we have over 3 million nurses in the United States. Approximately, 1.7 million of those are in the hospitals, but unfortunately, the turnover rate has nearly doubled. Just since 2019, where it was about 15.9% nationally, we are over 27% since 2021.” TS 1:45  “The data actually shows that it's turnover in early-career nurses. When we're looking at that first five years of data and who's turning over, it's our nurses that are one to two years. Our patients are so complex. When you're looking at staff turnover that's early, we're going to have a huge problem getting to the point where we can keep some of the knowledge going, and when you lose them early, it's not good for nursing and oncology nursing in specific.” TS 3:05  “In May of this year, we learned that nursing enrollments for entry level baccalaureate programs are down for the first time in over a 20-year period. So, that is really concerning. So, enrollments are down. There's challenges getting clinical placements depending on where you are, not to mention that oncology clinical placements I think are even harder to come by. Some organizations feel very strongly that clinical placement in an oncology setting may not be appropriate for undergraduate students.” TS 6:06  “A lot of children don't understand what it is that a nurse does. When you ask them, ‘Oh, you give shots,' and that's your role. And so really helping kids at all ages—elementary, middle school, high school—talking to them about what nursing is, what it looks like on a day-to-day basis, the critical skills you need to the complexity of your workday, I think can really incite some younger children to understand, ‘Oh, nursing is an option for me.'” TS 8:47  “It's a challenge to put your head around. I could be a new grad doing this, and we all have this, you know, idealism that, ‘Oh, you have to have acute care inpatient first before you can do that,' but we can't, right? We can't sustain that model. So, how are we building our programs to ensure that ambulatory care nurses that happen to be new grads in oncology are getting a solid training program with stable preceptorship and a very structured program that can be individualized to their needs?” TS 14:12  “There's also the aging workforce. The oncology nurses that have started in oncology or transition to oncology at any point in time—they love it. … Anecdotally, we probably have some of the most experienced nurses in many of our organizations that are in oncology. Those nurses are also looking at retiring.” TS 17:38  “You have to have professional development opportunities. What educational opportunities? And if your organization doesn't have the funding for that, that's okay. You could promote education that might be free online or through Oncology Nursing Society. There are ways to bring your staff education that doesn't cost a lot of money, but many organizations do have an education team that may also be adding to those opportunities.” TS 20:13  “If you're in a unit that has a lot of vacancy rates, how often are you sharing with nursing staff, ‘Okay, I've done X amount of interviews this week, or we have these new nurses coming in to join us or nursing assistants, whatever role that may be coming to join us.'  What does that timeline look like? A lot of times I think we don't promote that transparency well enough. And I think establishing that communication with your team and increasing the level of trust and transparency is so vital.” TS 26:12  “My first organization to my second organization, I was still a stem cell transplant nurse, but the experience was different. So, we need to also trust ourselves that sometimes it's just not the right fit. And I don't think we do a good job as nursing organization and like as health care organizations supporting those types of transitions. And I think there's a lot of opportunity there.” TS 32:25  “Ensuring that you're not picking up so much overtime, you don't have time—the downtime to take care of yourself and take care of your family and spend time and figure out what feeds your soul. I think it's so, so important to figure out what that is for yourself. And sometimes it takes a lot of reflection and exploration to figure that out. But it's worth the time in the effort to do that.” TS 41:06  “A lot of times, it's easy to kind of get in this, ‘I'm just going to keep complaining, but I'm not going to do anything.' But we all need to be part of the solution to get us moving forward and to stabilize the nursing shortages that we have. And unfortunately, I don't think it's going away. I think we've got several more years that we're all going to have to purposely look for solutions and work on implementing solutions to help stabilize the workforce.” TS 44:27  “Your best resource, and I say it again, is your team, your team, your team, your team. Talk to each other. Help figure out solutions together that are going to work for your specific milieu.” TS 49:14 

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Altruism sharpens altruism, published by Joey on December 26, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. I think many EAs have a unique view about how one altruistic action affects the next altruistic action, something like altruism is powerful in terms of its impact, and altruistic acts take time/energy/willpower; thus, it's better to conserve your resources for these topmost important altruistic actions (e.g., career choice) and not sweat it for the other actions. However, I think this is a pretty simplified and incorrect model that leads to the wrong choices being taken. I wholeheartedly agree that certain actions constitute a huge % of your impact. In my case, I do expect my career/job (currently running Charity Entrepreneurship) will be more than 90% of my lifetime impact. But I have a different view on what this means for altruism outside of career choices. I think that being altruistic in other actions not only does not decrease my altruism on the big choices but actually galvanizes them and increases the odds of me making an altruistic choice on the choices that really matter. One way to imagine altruism is much like other personality characteristics; being conscientious in one area flows over to other areas, working fast in one area heightens your ability to work faster in others. If you tidy your room, it does not make you less likely to be organized in your Google Docs. Even though the same willpower concern applies in these situations and of course, there are limits to how much you can push yourself in a given day, the overall habits build and cross-apply to other areas instead of being seen as in competition. I think altruism is also habit-forming and ends up cross-applying. Another way to consider how smaller-scale altruism has played out is to look at some examples of people who do more small-scale actions and see how it affects the big calls. Are the EAs who are doing small-scale altruistic acts typically tired and taking a less altruistic career path or performing worse in their highly important job? Anecdotally, not really. The people I see willing to weigh altruism the highest in their career choice comparison tend to also have other altruistic actions they are doing (outside of career). This, of course, does not prove causality, but it is an interesting sign. Also anecdotally, I have been in a few situations where the altruistic environment switches from one that does value small-scale altruism to one that does not, and people changed as a result (e.g., changing between workplaces or cause areas). Although the data is noisy, to my eye the trend also fits the 'altruism as a galvanizing factor' model. For example, I do not see people's work hours typically go up when they move from a valuing small scale altruism area to an non-valuing small scale altruism area. Another way this might play out is connected to identity and how people think of a trait. If someone identifies personally with something (e.g., altruism), they are more likely to enact it out in multiple situations; it's not just in this case altruism is required, it is a part of who you are (see my altruism as a central purpose post for more on thinking this way). I think this factor that binds altruism to an identity can be reinforced by small-scale altruistic action but also can affect the most important choices. Some examples of altruistic actions I expect to be superseded in importance by someone's career choice in most cases but still worth doing for many 50%+ EAs: Donating 10% (even of a lower salary/earnings level) Being Vegan Non-life-threatening donations (e.g., blood donations, bone marrow donations) Spending less to donate more Working more hours at an altruistic job Becoming an organ donor Asking for donations during some birthdays/celebrations. Getting your friends and family birthd...

Cook County tax bills are out payable due 12/1/23. It seems like everyone is dealing with higher taxes, but what about the lucky few who saw their bills decrease? We know you're out there! Anecdotally, we're seeing upticks in refinance activity as people look to take advantage of their home equity to consolidate debt or build a cash-cushion for the future. Townstone offers multiple 1st and 2nd lien products to help you achieve this as we head towards the holiday season. Bonds/Mortgages hold steady as market awaits FED decision on Wednesday. No increase is expected. Also coming later this week: several key employment reports, including ADP's employment change figures and JOLTS job openings on Wednesday, and the September jobs report on Friday. The data will give investors hints about the state of the labor market after last week's weekly initial jobless claims suggested it may be cooling slightly. As always, FREE 1 on 1 consultations available at: https://townstone.com/consultation-request/

According to research from Sales Enablement PRO's State of Sales Enablement Report 2023, when reps understand the winning behaviors that will help them improve performance, they are 74% more likely to effectively replicate them with buyers. So what role does effective training and coaching play in an overall enablement strategy? Shawnna Sumaoang: Hi and welcome to the Win Win Podcast. I'm your host, Shawnna Sumaoang. Join us as we dive into changing trends in the workplace and how to navigate them successfully. Here to discuss this topic is Malia Di Salvo, senior manager of training effectiveness at Upwork. Thanks for joining, Malia! I'd love for you to tell us about yourself, your background, and your role. Malia Di Salvo: I am super excited to be here. A little about myself, as you mentioned, I lead the training and effectiveness team here at Upwork. Under my purview, we have sales coaches, we have onboarding that is part of my scope, as well as a leader enablement program called lead up. A little bit about me, I am in Seattle, Washington so I am just getting in to enjoy the fall weather. I have a master’s in teaching. I’ve been a salesperson, a sales leader, in enablement, leading onboarding, coaching, and all those fun things. This has just been really the opportunity to marry a lot of my passions into one role and be able to play a part in the strategic vision and helping our sales teams and go-to-market teams really become effective. Marrying all my favorite things together now. SS: I love that. As you mentioned, you specialize in both training effectiveness and sales coaching at Upwork. Tell us about Upwork’s approach to training and coaching what are the key components of your enablement strategy and how do training and coaching both play a role in this? MD: One of the things that really drew me to Upwork was the fact that they had a sales coach team and we’re looking at expanding it and building it. Having been a sales coach in the past, I recognize the impact that coaches can really have when it comes to not just driving rep behavior and skill change, but ultimately revenue. One of the things that drew me was the fact that they had a portion on this team. Training and effectiveness to me, when it comes to our overall enablement strategy is really about effectiveness, like exactly what the team is. With enablement, we partner closely with our marketing team. We have a content enablement team that we really work closely with when they build playbooks or talk tracks, and then we launch the training and the pull-through. Training and effectiveness, to me, are one of the most paramount parts to pulling that enablement strategy forward and through all the way to application to competency to mastery. We’re integrally tied to our enablement as well as our overall strategy when it comes to driving revenue and impact. SS: I love that. We have this theme here at Highspot to help others understand what good looks like. What does good look like for sales training? In other words, what makes for an effective training program? MD: Sure, I think the overall best look for training is if it’s tied into larger strategic initiatives for the org. What are the overarching OKRs? Our OKRs should align back up into the go-to-market organizations and all the way up and through. Good looks like being able to tie your initiatives to those larger-scale initiatives and start showing the impact you’re having on those initiatives. I like to say that with enablement and with training and coaching, it’s really hard to say we’ve caused those success metrics, but have we correlated with them? What part of the equation were we when it came to attaining those overall strategic initiatives? Were we part of the equation? Anyone who’s in enablement knows it’s really hard. There’s a lot of squishiness in enablement when it’s like, did we make an impact or not? I think it’d be if you tie it into those larger initiatives, so you can show correlation to having achieved those, and that’s where it really shows the impact. I feel like when it comes to some of the programs that we’re doing to achieve these OKRs and these larger-scale programs, you start looking at progressive metrics along the way. For example, if we have a certain large-scale OKR from the CRO or Sales VP or whoever that might be. What are some of the programs we tie in place to tie back into them? If they’re looking to achieve X amount of revenue by the end of the year or by the end of the quarter, we can look at some programs to start increasing some of the leading indicators to tie into those ultimate goals. If we focus on setting more net new meetings or better qualifications or things like that, do we see an increase in some of these leading indicators knowing that they will impact the lagging indicators? That’s where the correlation starts to come in, and that’s where the enablement program happens. You need to be able to show that pull through that you were able to do, not just launching something, but the reinforcement, and then the ultimate indicator is like, oh, we saw an uplift in those new meetings and new opportunities I’m covering, knowing that that will ultimately lead to some of the larger scale programs and initiatives. SS: I love how you guys are able to draw that correlation. I have a similar question about sales coaching. What, from your perspective, does good look like for sales coaching, and what are maybe some of the core components of an effective coaching program? MD: I mean, there are anecdotal and empirical ways to say what good looks like with coaching. My coaches both come from sales, so they’re very empirical. They’re like, how do I know I’ve been successful? How do I know what I’m doing is making an impact on these teams? Since they come from very black-and-white situations where it’s like, you were successful today, you’re successful this month, or you weren’t, there’s that anecdotal and empirical type of way. Let’s start with the empirical. Do we see an uplift in any metrics? If you started coaching a rep and you’ve had them on your roster for X amount of time, did you see an uplift in some of the behavior and the indicators you were trying to impact? It’s really case by case because you might have one rep and this is very situational as well. You might have one rep who is really struggling with getting to the power in the deal. They’re having trouble gaining executive alignment. The coaching strategy is on that. We look at, did we get an increase in the VP plus opportunity or personas added onto these opportunities. Someone might have been struggling to close deals, so the coach comes in and really focuses on why aren’t you closing deals as strongly. Oh, well, they’re not creating urgency enough earlier in the sales process. We can start looking at the deal to move from stage one to stage two faster. On the empirical side, there are multiple ways you can look at that correlation. Again, I’m going to say correlation because the coaches are working tightly with the sales leadership as well. There are multiple things coming at them to help drive this particular behavior set. You can see the correlation on the empirical side. Anecdotally, it’s really like, do the reps get excited to meet with them? Are they like, hey, can I be on your roster this next month, or are the leaders like, hey, can so and so be on your roster this next month? They get a great Slack message at the end of the session like this was really great and impactful. You really helped me close this deal. When it comes to what good looks like, it really is twofold. There’s empirical and anecdotal, and you can look at it and I feel like you have to take both of them into account because. As a coach, people have to want to meet with you for you to be impactful. That’s where the anecdotal comes in before the empirical can even happen. SS: Absolutely. Now, I know, especially this year, a lot of organizations are hyper-focused on how they can improve productivity, especially amongst their revenue-generating teams. How can real-world coaching help to scale the productivity of a sales team? MD: That’s a great question. I think right now in this day and age, everyone is being asked to do more with less. We are off the teams that are impacted by rifts and layoffs. You have the sales teams that were cut drastically and are still having to drive revenue. How do you really focus on the most impactful part of your revenue team to do that? One of the things that I talk about and that we’re really looking to focus on as well here at Upwork is moving the middle. How do you identify the most robust group of people where the marginal benefit of them increasing their quota attainment by 1% will exponentially increase your revenue and productivity goals? The A players and the non-A players, we’ll say, the D and F players, that’s where the leaders can really lean into that. That’s where you’d be that the sales coach side of the house can really lean into the middle and focus on their productivity. How do we, again, get more with less, but not just necessarily more, but better conversations, better quality conversations, more power in the deal, and more effective ways to create urgency? We really try to focus on the middle portion, because again, that’s where we find if we see the increase in productivity, the increase in deals, the increase in quota attainment, that’s really going to drive our revenue goals in a whole, in a whole new direction. The coaching team can really help the leaders focus on and double down on that as well. To be able to help achieve some of that productivity and those revenue goals that we still have to hit. Every company still has to hit. SS: Absolutely. How do you guys leverage Highspot to help bring your coaching strategy to life? MD: Our company, our org is set up a little differently than other companies. Our enablement function and our sales enablement function focus on our content enablement. They live in our marketing department, and so my team lives in the ops department. We work really closely with our content enablement team to be able to develop playbooks, develop plays, develop talk tracks, and all these things to be able to double down and reinforce. We partner closely with them to build that content out, and then we launch the live training. We launch any e-learns you might need to have as well. It’s a double-down approach. We can use Highspot as well for reinforcement and to ensure we can get the insights we need. Anyone in enablement has heard of the Kirkpatrick model for measuring success. I think we use Highspot and recognize that Highspot is a great asset to us as we look to measure that impact. For level one for reaction, we can get the training survey and maybe do a quick pull to see if it was impactful, but for level two and level three, you start seeing the behavior, the learning, input, and impact. You can do the role plays and have them uploaded in Highspot. We have the reinforcement material. Who’s accessed it? Who’s been in the playbook that we created? Did it help drive a deal forward? It’s a real way to get that empirical data where it’s really hard to enablement, a way to continue that progressive measurement of success by utilizing the tool properly you can really start getting those insights. You can also see who hasn’t utilized it and get some feedback on why you aren’t there. Why haven’t you used it? We can pivot quickly as well to ensure that the material is as used as possible if you will. SS: Do you have any wins or best practices you can share about the outcomes of leveraging Highspot for sales coaching? MD: It’s all wins to me. Anytime we can utilize a tool to see what’s working, and what’s not. This is the beginning of the year we launched a program called Gaining Executive Alignment. As with every other company out there, as we’re all trying to get our people as equipped and enabled as possible, having power on the deal is really important. We partnered with our enablement team to build out the content and playbook for gaining executive alignment series. We were able to have a progressive series program where we did three different live sessions. We did some content and playbooks associated with it. We were able to not just use our live training, but also our content team to be able to measure who’s utilizing it. How is it working? We continue to still use it. We saw that when we focused on it, it really helped you, but we saw a pretty decent increase in actually getting power on deals and setting up new meetings with the right people as well. We’re able to back that into insights we use from it. If the person’s getting good, getting more deals or they’re getting more power on deals, of course, even in the Highspot, a lot utilizing some of the talk tracks and the playbooks that we have. There’s an easy correlation to make. If you use it it actually works. SS: Now, we’ve talked a lot about ongoing training and coaching, but I know that you guys are also using Highspot to help with your onboarding process. Tell us a little bit more about that and how you leverage Highspot in your onboarding program. MD: We’re actually in a revamp of it too right now, and I was just speaking with Nikki, who is our owner of Highspot over here at Upwork. Historically, we’ve used it for e-learnings and getting them on the path for that, but as we look to revamp our onboarding program and make it a more, I won’t say progressive, but for lack of a better word, progressive approach towards a true ramping experience versus this kind of like exponential curve and then fall off. We’re looking at how we’re going to be utilizing Highspot to have that experience be even more interactive with our new hires. Can we have a new hire landing page where every new hire goes to the page, they knows exactly what their journey is, where they are on the journey, what e-learnings are going on that week, what milestones we call them, and what assessments are coming down. We’re actually revamping it and going to be doubling down on our Highspot usage for our new hire training to really make it a much more singular source of truth for our new hires to come in. It’s not so, go to the search bar and find it, and here’s e-learning. It’s going to be a one-stop shop. I’m excited for what we’re going to be doing. I know that it’s going to be a lot more impactful to our new hires. It’s a new way that we’ll be utilizing Highspot. One of the other things we’re going to be looking at doing with our new hire experience is as we’re building out this content or revamping this content, what I think we’ve found is that governance is really hard as we like having people leaving the business or moving into new roles. We have to go in and update any e-learning or any videos where they were in. We’re also looking at making sure we have facilitator guides so that anyone who does come in can take over quickly. We’re going to start utilizing AI. You know, ding, ding, ding, the term of the quarter of the term of the year. How do we bring AI into some of our e-learnings and things too, to really make it a much more general approach versus a specific sales leader or person speaking to it? We’re also going to look at how we have a gated way within Highspot to have all of these facilitators, like kind of the backend, like with that leaders can access specifically where it holds all the facilitator guides, holds all the depth. If it’s like, oh shoot, this leader’s out this week, in the Highspot link, here’s the facilitator guide, here’s the deck you’re going to be presenting to the person who might be filling in for them. We’re going to be looking to expand over how we use Highspot for our new hire instance. We’re working on the plan this quarter with a potential launch in Q1, or Q2. I am excited to see how that turns out and how that’s going to impact our new hires coming in. SS: Amazing. Well, I’m excited about those plans as well. You guys are doing amazing already. You guys have incorporated Highspot training and coaching into day to day workflows of your reps, and you guys are already seeing an 83 percent recurring usage, which is amazing. I think adoption and usage are really critical in order to ensure that you’re seeing that intended behavior change. My last question for you, sales leaders obviously play a very critical role in reinforcing behavior from the top. How do you enable sales leaders to effectively support their teams and reinforce the value of training and coaching? MS: Great question. I got to give huge props again to Nikki, who is our manager over at Enablement. She owns, runs, and really drives that adoption for Highspot. She’s an incredible partner. I couldn’t do this without her. Reinforcement is the key when it comes to any enablement programs. I think we have all been at companies that had training rollouts, whatever that might be, new programs, new products, new pricing, new methodology, and it’s like, oh, great. We’re going to be sitting in this training and let’s check the box and get it done and then the next shiny thing happens and that’s all fizzled out and forgotten. Reinforcement is a huge part of success for any program or anything you’re trying to launch as we all know, but it’s also the hardest thing to do. What we’ve been looking to do, especially knowing that leaders have so much on their plate, is enablement teams are often a team of one or two. How do you scale that reinforcement? How do you enable and provide the leaders with the tools that they need to help you reinforce that? How we use Highspot is after we have training for some of our larger scale programs, we create what’s called a meeting in a box. It’s simple, but it’s a one-sheet that ties out just some decks that can provide some additional team huddle materials, and one-on-one questions to help continue that conversation. With leaders, we try to make it as simple as possible, knowing that their days are insane and slammed. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I think frontline leaders have the hardest job in any organization. That middle manager, you’re really managing up, down, across in so many different ways. In enablement and training, our job, when it comes to making sure that we get behavior and skill change and that these training are impactful, is on that reinforcement and that sustained motion. While we depend on the leaders a lot, how do we make it as easy as possible? We create this meeting in the box, we share it with the leaders afterward, and then we can, using Highspot, look at who’s actually going in and utilizing that resource and that tool. It does a few things. It’s like, okay, they’re utilizing it, it’s being adopted like that’s that level two of Kirkpatrick, we’re starting to see it. We can see who’s not using it. Again, it’s a great way to go and see if someone’s not utilizing it, why not? Our goal is to get 100% of our leaders utilizing our content and at least getting in there to assess it and be able to pull through to the application. It’s a way to also get feedback and really identify the not, the non-adopters, which is to me the key. Who’s not utilizing it and why not? We can quickly iterate quickly, by seeing who’s not actually going in there and getting some insights from Highspot. We can go in really quickly and be like, Hey, Mr. Sales leader, let’s have a quick conversation, a couple of questions. My customers are the sales leaders, so I want to know what’s not working so that we can make it right so that they’re utilizing it and their teams are impacted as well. SS: I love what you guys are doing. It helped to enable your sales leader. You guys are doing a fantastic job there at Upwork. Thank you so much for joining us today. MD: This was awesome. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having such a great tool too. We are huge Highspot fans over here. SS: To our audience, thank you for listening to this episode of the Win Win podcast. Be sure to tune in next time for more insights on how you can maximize enablement success with Highspot.

Scientists say climate change is accelerating, but their voices are getting drowned out. Might using the drier while doing laundry be counterintuitive, or helpful, in slowing climate change. We also dig into the effectiveness of traffic cameras and Gen Z's relationship with live sports. Lara Williams, David Fickling, Justin Fox, and Adam Minter join. Amy Morris hosts.     Transcript:   00:01Speaker 1 You're listening to the Bloomberg Opinion podcast count US Saturdays at one and seven pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Bloomberg Opinion. I'm Amy Morris. On this week's show, we'll look at what's better for the planet running the dryer or using a clothesline. The answer might surprise you. Plus, since the beginning of the pandemic, traffic deaths in the US have risen sharply. What will it take to get those numbers back down? And finally, if Taylor Swift can't bring gen Z to the NFL, who can? But we begin with the heat. The global temperature continues to rise and scientists are beside themselves. Officials from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration say this past July was the hottest month for the Earth on record. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson certainly is self evident that the Earth is heating up. And what we find is that July of this year the temperatures are the hottest ever on record, and last month was the hottest September on record by far. This past June the warmest June ever recorded. Yeah, we're seeing the trend. Let's talk with Bloomberg opinion columnist Laura Williams, who covers climate change, and scientists are using some pretty unscientific language to describe the temperatures that they're seeing. If your column is any indication, Laura, what have you heard? Yeah, so we've had dobsmackingly bananas. We've had astounding, staggering and nerving, bewildering, flabber dusting, dusting, distrioting, dobsmacking. Scientists have been really, really surprised by the kind of the level of heat that we saw in September compared to previous records. It is a bit alarming that they seem so surprised by this because they've been calling attention to climate change and climate change issues and the effects for years. Why did this catch them so off guard? Yeah, it's just because it's half a degree celsius higher than the previous record in twenty twenty, and so when we see these records getting broken, they're not usually broken by that margin. And so it is a kind of market in Greece, and it looks like it could be. Some are saying an acceleration in the rate of global woman which would be worry. Yeah, I wondered was this an outlier, was just this is a one time thing. Is there's something that caused it specifically, or are we seeing an acceleration. It's going to just get hotter and hotter and hotter in the next few years. So that's something that scientists are debating. So there are two camps of scientists. The first camp and I spoke to sociologists and he'd kind of terms these guys accelerationists, and they are concerned that this is an acceleration. Basically, what we've seen, particularly this year, is there are these sulfur dioxide emissions which are comes from like crew like cruise ships and you know, ships like taking all our stuff across the oceans, and they've cleaned up their act and so we're seeing way fewer aerosols being emitted into the atmosphere. So that's a good thing for our health. But those aerosols have historically served to mass human induced climate change because they reflect the Sun's heats back into space, and so the fewer thing fewer of those that we have, the more solar radiation reaches the earth surface. The scientists that think that we've seen an acceleration point to that trend of you know, sulfur emissions going down, and point to the trend of you know, these these huge temperature records that we've seen over the past few months and say that it could be an acceleration. Now, I would argue that the other team of scientists, the observationists, are right in that this is just you know, it's a few data points, and there's there's lots of things that could be making this. You know, this the Earth a lot warmer right now, a lot of temporary things. So of the September that we've just seen was one point seventy five degrees celsius warmer than pre industrial temperatures. Now that's very scary. Number. One point two degrees celsius of that we know is down to US burning fossil fuels. The remaining zero point five degrees celsius or so is due to with a combination of different factors, and so it could be aerosols, but it should also be the fact that we are in an l Nino cason, which is a naturally occurring climate pattern that warms global temperatures. It should also be that, you know, there was this huge underwater volcano which held an immense plume of water vapor, which is a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere last year, and that would be enough to temporarily elevate global temperatures for a few years. It would be partly aerosols, and it should partly be the fact that we'll see we've got we've had reduced ice at the poles this year. So the more dark sea that's exposed, the more heat that's absorbed by the water. Oh, there's a lot there. Yeah. But no matter which side they're on, whether they believe that this is an acceleration or they believe this is just par for the course, the observationists, if you will, is there a new sense of urgency? Now? Well, I think that there's always a sense of urgency, and I you know, whether it's an acceleration or not, the overwhelming trend is that the Earth is just in warmer and that we are still not doing enough to combat that warming. And so if it weights people up and is a reminder that we actually need to, you know, take some severe action to stop this trend, then I guess that, yeah, there could be a call for a renewed sense of urgency. The urgency was needed all along, but yeah, I suppose that this would be a weight of call. We are talking with Bloomberg opinion columnist Laura Williams about the quote gob smackingly Banana's heat, as scientists describe it, and as it's listed in your column on the Bloomberg terminal. Laura, it was a great read, very interesting to see how they are using terms that you might you might hear among the laypersons such as myself, you don't usually expect to hear from people who study this for a loving What do they believe this could mean for the coming winter months. Are we going to see a milder than usual winter or because it's an extreme, where we going to see a colder winter. That's a good question, and I guess we'll find out when the data comes out, But I think for now, October is looking to be warmer than average. And I would say that with you know the fact that we're in an El Nino that tends to make things warmer. It actually tends to make parts of the world, So I think Europe might be might be CNA holder slightly tolder winter if their only pattern holds true. But I certainly wouldn't be surprised if we saw a warmer than average October and November. So there may be some disagreement about what these temperature trends are telling us right now among signs, but they do agree on one thing, and that there's an issue with political will. There isn't enough of it. Where does that stand? Yeah, so you know, I would say that the fissure between science and political will is huge. We need to be deterbinizing with farmer urgency. So according to the website the Climate Actioning Tractor, which takes stock of all of the promises and policies of countries around the world, and then not a single country in the world is taking action that's compatible with limiting warm into one point five degree celsius above pre industrial temperatures. The UK has rolled backs and that zero tardets. Germany's approved bringing toll fired power plants back in line over the winter. US oil production is running at an all time high. It's not really how you'd expect country is reacting to climate crisis to be acting. Is that in part because of the geopolitical climate that we are dealing with right now, what's going on in uk and now what's going on in the Middle East, and what it's going to mean for heating fuel being shipped out to those areas. Yeah, I think, I think definitely the geobilistal you know, environment is not helping. And we've also got a you know, really high inflation, which is you know, stretching people's wallets, and whether we like it or not, we have to admit that, you know, sometimes net zero action is going to cost people more in the in the short term. In the long term, you'd hope that it would, you know, eventually bills should come down. We rolled out renewables enough, but certainly in the short term we're feeling in our wallets. Have they been able to get any traction with this, to get the attention of those lawmakers and those leaders who would be able to take the lead on this, or are they being shouted down, if you will, or drowned out by what is going on in the rest of the world and the really urgent need in the rest of the world for things like heating fuel because of what's happening in Ukraine and Israel. For sure, I think that at the moment, it definitely feels like, you know, the scientists are being drowned out just because of the urgency of these other prices. It will be really interesting to see at COP twenty eight in Dubai in December, what kind of happens there, you know, whether we're able to kind of come around the table and re you know, set our sights on more ambitious climate action there and kind of you know, center ourselves around that, or whether indeed, you know, the under end conflicts kind of again makes it another kind of non event, all right, and we're going to watch it with you. Thank you so much, Laura for bringing us up to speed on this. Thank you very much for having me. Larah Williams a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. She covers climate change and coming up, we're going to continue this climate change conversation. We'll talk about what's better for the earth. Using a clothesline to dry your clothes or just run the dryer might surprise you. You're listening to Bloomberg Opinion. You're listening to the Bloomberg Opinion podcast. Catch us Saturdays at one and seven pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com. The iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business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ur solar system. The time the toughest time, well, the two to toughest times for grids at the moment, or of course, the middle of the day, which we were talking about, and the evening the sun goes down. Everyone gets home, they switch on appliances, air conditioning, televisions, you know, or manner of things, and of course the solar that was there in the middle of the day is no longer there within your own home home solars, you know, home system. If you attach a battery to it you can be charging it in the middle of the day and discharging it in the evening, and that that potentially works quite well. But across the you know, across grids as a whole, things much more ambitious need to be done than that, and it's and it's a significant problem. You know, we're seeing things like here in Australia, for instance, there is a very big pumped pumped hydro project being built at the moment, which essentially what happens is when there is too much electricity in the middle of the day, a load of water is pumped uphill to a lake high up on a mountain just sort of southwest of Sydney, and then during the evening, when all that electricity is needed, then the water goes down through turbines like a standard hydroectionri dam and it will do this day after day. And there are lots of places, I think in California the same thing applies. There are lots of places where pump hydro is being used. And of course batteries as well for dispatchable power will be you know, utility scale batteries will be more active. But I think one of the problems that we're facing over the coming years. Is that the speed with which households are installing are installing solar power is faster than the sort of utility scale storage solutions can catch up. And dispatchable power, of course, dispatchable power, by which I mean you can switch on and off, you know, with the flick of a switch, which of course is not the case with any renewable power, also not really the case with is not the case with nuclear either. With dispatchable power, you know, most of it is fossil fossil fired, and that's a real problem because of course we want to get rid of fossil fossil fire electricity right now. And so it sounds like the two big things that need to be resolved would be managing the storage issue, the battery, making sure that those can be not only a portable but easy to acquire and quickly charged. And the infrastructure as a whole. Yeah. I mean one other solution, of course, which is again a lot of this depends on having the right market settings in place, and regulators I think in many ways have been somewhat slow to catch up on some of these things because it is all changing so very fast. But of course one thing to bear in mind is is we're seeing surging cells of electric vehicles. Electric vehicles another thing that should be sucking up power in the middle of the day and potentially could be used to discharge electricity in the evening, but at the moment in most markets there is very little regulation that would allow people to do that, you know, so instead we're seeing things like in South Australia, one of the states in Australia which has a particularly high volume of solar. Basically, the grid operator can switch off rooftop solar panels when there is too much of it, which is something that's possibly necessary to stop to stop stress on the grid. But ideally you want to find ways to use it. You don't want to be reducing the amount of zero carbon power that you're producing. You want to be using it more productively. So we're seeing a lot of these teething pains at the moment. David, this is just fascinating. Thank you for taking the time with us today. No, it's lovely to talk. Bloomberg Opinion columnist David Fickleing covers energy and commodities. Don't forget We're available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform. This is Bloomberg Opinion. You're listening to the Bloomberg Opinion podcast counts Saturdays at one in seven pm Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com, the iHeartRadio app and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts. This is Bloomberg Opinion. I may you Morris Now. Since the beginning of the pandemic, traffic depths in the US have risen sharply, and during the high ight of the pandemic shutdown, speeding related accidents actually increased. At the time, Pamela Fisher of the Governor's Highway Safety Association explained, why fewer cars on the road, you should have fewer crashes. But the behaviors that were happening out there. People were seeing open highway, open roadways, local roads as well, not just on highways, and they were driving at really crazy speeds and engaging in other unsafe behaviors. Well, it hasn't improved much since then. Preliminary numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate forty six twenty people died in accidents involving motor vehicles in twenty twenty two. That's down just a bit from twenty twenty one, but still eighteen percent more than in twenty nineteen. Let's look at what's happening. Bloomberg opinion columnist Justin Fox covers Business and joins me, Now, Justin, you have voluminous amounts of data and some really nifty helpful charts to kind of guide us as to why all of this is happening. And you were even able to use this information to a limit. They some of the candidates for what is causing this? But what is the problem? Well, yeah, I mean when you bring this up that traffic fatalities are up in the US, and there's been a big jump since twenty nineteen, but they'd already started rising around I don't know, twenty fifteen or so. And a lot of times people will bring up smartphones or just the pandemic. But if you compare the US to other rich countries, I made a chart of the US, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and the UK. None of the rest of them have had this stall in the improvement in traffic fatalities like the US has. There In all those countries, they've kept going down. In the US, they stopped going down about a decade ago, and they've really gone up significantly over the past few years. So, okay, what's different about the US from these places? And one thing that's been brought up is we have these gigantic pickup trucks and SUVs that are you know, really safe if you're in them and get it in a a crash, but not so great for people in the other cars, and especially for pedestrians. I think there's some really big issues with the really high bumper pickups and SUVs being extreme pedestrian risk because they just you can't see what you're doing as well. So there's some research on that and the thought that maybe some percentage of the increase ten percent something like that is caused by the bigger trucks, and so that lame leaves Okay, well, what happened in the US since twenty nineteen that didn't happen in other places. And obviously it was this sort of national conflict rethinking argument about the role of the police, you know, especially in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Although obviously this discussion been going on for longer, you can sort of date it really coming to the fore to you know, Ferguson back in which I think was the end of two thousand and fourteen, and it if you look, you know, there aren't great national statistics on police stops for traffic violations. There's you know, there's a ole that the Bureau of Justice Statistics does and they're definitely down a little bit. But if you look at specific cities, it's pretty I mean, San Francisco is the champion in the San Francisco Chronicle was the first to report this a few weeks ago that traffic stops are down ninety four percent in San Francisco over the last eight years. But you find and Seattle is almost that much. You find a lot of other cities where they're down pretty significantly too. Now you ascribe some of this, at least to that sort of conflict between police and society what happened with the killing of George Floyd during the height of the pandemic. But could speed cameras, red light cameras, those types of traffic cameras also be a factor. Where you have an electronic eye versus a human eye keeping tabs on how we are on the highway right, those are much more common in most of these other countries that have had big, continued declines in traffic fatalities. We have some in the US, not many speed cameras outside a few big cities, a lot of red light cameras, but actually fewer than there were a decade ago. And that's something that there's been a lot of research done on over the years that especially the speed cameras seem to have a really pretty dramatic effect on reducing traffic fatalities. And it's I mean, I knew I've written about them before and I got lots of emails from people and I got them again now that just Americans hate this idea, and I think the one way to think about it is we also a lot of these other countries are kind of a little more reasonable about their speed limits, like Germany or something. You can drive really fast on the autobot in Germany. You just if you drive faster and you're allowed, you are likely to get in trouble. And I think the UK has been really the toughest on this and has had a really amazing decline in traffic fatalities. So yeah, it's like, Okay, we've dramatically cut back on the kind of traffic enforcement that we mostly do in the US, and at the same time, we're still really reluctant to embrace this other way of doing that has been pretty effective in other countries. It is, I mean, I will and I haven't checked if Kevin Newsom has signed it yet, but California has legislation that the Assembly and the Senate passed that would at least allow San Francisco and a few other cities to start experimenting with speed cameras, and I mean there aren't like New York has tons of both, and I think in general they have been shown to be pretty effective in making the city a lot safer than it used to be, although again New York has had a pretty big drop, you know, not like ninety percent, it's more like twenty or forty or something in enforcement and an increase in fatal accidents. And we are talking with Bloomberg opinion columnist Justin Fox about these sharp rise in traffic related deaths and what can be done about it. I want to get back to the speed camera, the red light camera situation, because you said something about how people just really aren't getting behind it. Anecdotally, I can tell you that when I would cover local news local traffic issues, local neighborhood issues in the Washington, DC area, If you are a driver a motorist, no, you are not crazy one hundred percent in love with those of the traffic cameras. But if you were in a neighborhood, you know, take that driver out of the car and put him in his living room with the kids who are outside playing in the yard. You want those traffic cameras in your neighborhood. I've talked to many people who are actually lobbying, petitioning to get a traffic camera in their neighborhood to slow people down, right, And that's like one reason why we have lots in New York City, because drivers are in the minority here and the people who are worried about getting hit by drivers are in the majority exactly. But that's just a really hard equation in a lot of the country. And I mean, I do think there's some history of the speed cameras being used by you know, small towns in Texas to nab people without adequate warning. And because Texas is one of the states that the legislatures outright banned them. I think there are nine states that have banned speed cameras and eight red light cameras, and then most states just don't have any law permitting them and therefore don't really have any But then they're like Maryland has tons. I don't know. I just think American motorists and I get it because so many people are so dependent on their cars to do everything in their lives. But American motorists are the most entitled people in the world. Like when they're thinking in car thought, sometimes when they get out of the car and realize, oh, I live in a neighborhood with that cars drive through, then they can change that. But just the knee jerk reaction from people, you know, I don't think the enforcement should be unreasonable, in the speed limit should be reasonable, but yeah, why not have automated enforcement rather? Because it has been shown pretty clearly. There was a really interesting, very recent study done using data from lyft and lift drivers in Florida where they could, because of lift's location data, tell exactly how fast the cars were going. They knew who all the drivers were, and black drivers were significantly who were driving the exact same speed as white drivers were significantly more likely to be pulled over. And yeah, with speed cameras, you don't have that. It's really it sort of Police jobs are the kinds of jobs that are hard to hire people for right now. I mean, across the economy, there's this big shortage of young people. I mean, there's lots of them doing it, but the demand, there's this big demand and supply mismatch of especially young people coming into non college degree requiring and police is one of them. And so there's this sort of overall issue. And I just think in a lot of cities people feel like, yeah, do I really want to be a cop? In San Francisco, it doesn't. They pay pretty well, but it doesn't seem like a high status job, and all the police cars are thirty years old, so I don't know. Justin it is a great column. I recommend everybody check it out. Thank you so much for taking the time with us. Thanks for having me. You're listening to Bloomberg Opinion. I n Amy Morris, it's the problem makes me. Actually, Taylor Swift isn't the problem for the NFL at all, but she might not be enough either because for the most part, gen Z couldn't care less about traditional sports. I want to talk about this now with Bloomberg opinion columnist Adam Mentor, he covers the Business of sports, and he joins us, Now, Adam, what will it take besides Taylor Swift for the NFL to win over gen Z? They've spent years worrying about this, and one of the things they're finding is that no matter what they do, overall, the interests of gen Z in their product and in other pro sports traditional sports products is declining. So they're looking and Taylor Swift, they hoped, would provide that a little bit of and temporarily she has, but once she's gone, they're looking for some way to fill that vacuum. So there was a little bit of a boost, but that didn't last. Where does this indifference come from? You know, if you grew up like I did, you sort of had your sports fandom passed on generationally. You watched the football game on Sunday with Grandpa or you watch it with dad, and then you went to school and everybody was talking about what they watched on Sunday with grandpa or dad or mom or whoever it was, and maybe that was inspiration to go and join the high school or elementary school football team. That's breaking down because everybody has their own screen at home now, and so you aren't getting what people who study this called generational fandom. It's not being passed on any more. People either have to find it on their own, they have to find their own way of embracing football, baseball, hockey, whatever it is, or they're just going to find other ways to entertain themselves. And increasingly that's the case. And it's a reason for panic for the NFL, the NHL, and all the major sports leagues. So does this also impact say, the NCAA and those leagues as well. Yes, and no. I mean yes in the sense that sure, you know you're gonna learn to watch Alabama with your parents who was an alum. But even so, you still have your own screen that you can sit on the couch and watch esports on. And we're finding that esports are incredibly popular for gen z, you know, roughly aged twenty six and younger. You know, then it used to be that way. If you're sitting on the couch and there's one TV in the house and it's tuned to the Alabama game, you're watching the Alabama game, not somebody playing you know, League of Legends, you know, with somebody else in Hong Kong. Is there a cultural or even economic impact that comes from the indifference. Right now, we're seeing, you know, huge media rights deals. For example, for the NFL. You know, the NFL is has just started this year a multi billion dollar deal. Amazon is paying a billion dollars a year to show Thursday Night NFL games. That deal is going to last for years. But you know gen Z is starting to age into its prime earning years. And you know the companies, the Googles, the ABC's, the espns, the ESPN, ABC are the same. You know, as they start projecting out what these media rights deals are going to be worth in five or ten years, they're going to look at these demographics and say, hey, wait a second. You know gen Z isn't as interested in this stuff as the millennials were or gen X was, and thus we're not going to pay as much. So it is a long term risk to their business models. I was going to ask, how do you win over the next generation, But it sounds like they don't really know. They haven't figured that part out yet. Yeah, I mean that's the thing they're struggling. One of the things that you hear the league say in the network say, well, we have to meet the fans where the fans are. Well, you know, that used to be at the one television in the living or more or at the stadium. It's not so easy now Now you have to meet them on TikTok. You know, you have to meet them on other social media sites. That gets harder. Who's going to create the content that attracts them? You know. One of the things that the NFL is doing is they're starting to hire influencers, gen z influencers, people who are popular, you know, on these social media service. Is it working? You know, I don't think anybody can say yet. You know, you're not going to see, certainly a Taylor Swift tight bump from a well known influencer on TikTok, you know, reflected in this week's TV ratings, but maybe long term you will. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Adam Mentor covers the business of sports and that does it for this week's Bloomberg Opinion. We're produced by Eric Mullow, and you can find all of these columns on the Bloomberg Terminal. We're also available as a podcast on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform. Stay with us Today's top stories and global business headlines. Just ahead, I may me Morris. This is Bloomberg.See 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“We really need to do our best to reach people who don't have access to palliative care in their communities, and this is an innovative way for us to do that,” Carey Ramirez, ANP-C, ACHPN, nurse practitioner and manager of advanced practice and supportive care medicine at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, CA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, BMTCN®, oncology clinical specialist at ONS, during a discussion about how telehealth is overcoming barriers and disparities that previously limited patients' access to timely oncology palliative care.  You can earn free NCPD contact hours after listening to this episode and completing the evaluation linked below.   Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod  Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  Earn 0.5 NCPD contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD), which may be applied to the care continuum, coordination of care, nursing practice, oncology nursing practice, psychosocial dimensions of care, quality of life, symptom management, palliative care, supportive care, treatment https://www.oncc.org/ilnaILNA categories, by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at myoutcomes.ons.org by October 20, 2025. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of NCPD by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.  Learning outcome: The learner will report an increase in knowledge related to telehealth-based oncology palliative care.  Episode Notes  Complete this evaluation for free NCPD. Oncology Nursing Podcast:  Episode 251: Palliative Care Programs for Patients With Cancer  Episode 135: ELNEC Has Trained More Than One Million Nurses in End-of-Life Care  Episode 41: Advocating for Palliative Care and Hospice Education  ONS Voice articles:  Bipartisan PCHETA Legislation Reintroduced in U.S. Senate  U.S. Senators Introduce Legislation for Earlier Palliative Care  Help Your Patients Prepare for the End From the Beginning  APRNs Can Lead by Example When Integrating Palliative Care in Practice  Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing articles:  Palliative Care: Oncology Nurses' Confidence in Provision to Patients With Cancer  Telehealth in Palliative Care: Communication Strategies From the COVID-19 Pandemic  Clinical Oncology Nurse Best Practices: Palliative Care and End-of-Life Conversations   Integrating Palliative Care in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: A Qualitative Study Exploring Patient, Caregiver, and Clinician Perspectives   ONS Palliative Care Huddle Card  ONS clinical practice resource: Palliative Care Communication Strategies  ONS book: Integration of Palliative Care in Chronic Conditions: An Interdisciplinary Approach  Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC)  Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA)  National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO)    To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.    To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast Club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.  To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.  Highlights From Today's Episode  “If a person is uncertain of their prognosis or if a provider is uncertain of the goals that the patient has for themselves, that might be an appropriate time to consider palliative consultation. These are all important considerations for triggers that might make palliative a possibility for patients in those scenarios. The take-home message, though, is that the sooner that palliative care is involved, the more likely the patient and family are to benefit.” TS 2:51  “From a patient and family perspective, we frequently find that there are misperceptions regarding palliative care. Oftentimes, they'll conflate the word palliative with either hospice or end-of-life care. They unfortunately sometimes believe that they're one and the same. They demonstrate a lack of knowledge regarding the benefits, including the fact that palliative care can and should be provided alongside life-prolonging care.” TS 3:53  “Palliative providers do their best to help patients maintain hope throughout their disease trajectory, regardless of how well or how poorly things are going. I tend to view things in terms of climbing a sand dune: Living with cancer can sometimes feel like you're walking up a sand dune, either at the beach or at the desert, and there will be days where you take two steps forward and you might slide only one step back. There may also be days where you take two steps forward and slide three steps back. And you find, for example, that if you keep trudging toward the top, that because the winds are constantly blowing those dunes, the top you eventually reach might be different than the one you initially set out to reach. And I think that speaks to the changing nature of hope.” TS 6:08  “It's important to ensure that providers are aware of the local services available to them in their respective communities. [And] we often find that from an organizational or a structural barrier perspective, there are lack of access to palliative care in the community. We often find that outpatient programs may not be as robust, or you may find that there is great variation between outpatient programs with regard to quality.” TS 10:10  “We have multiple patient populations who unfortunately do not have equal access to palliative care. They include rural populations, those who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds. We find that male patients and/or patients who are older adults have lower access to palliative care. We find that those who might be either single or live alone, those who might have an immigrant status, those who don't speak English, those who might have certain cancer diagnoses. It may surprise some of you to know that those with hematologic malignancies actually have much lower rates of palliative referral than those with solid tumors.” TS 11:23  “There's a maldistribution of palliative care resources nationwide. We tend to see that many of the resources are in urban areas, and as a result, we find that a great many rural areas are left untouched. I think it's important for us to recognize that these social determinants of health exist. It's important for us to look intentionally at them and whether they affect some of our patient populations and to work together to overcome them.” TS 14:03  “Anecdotally, I've been doing telehealth for about five years and it's been quite well received. It decreases my no-show rates. It improves my ability to monitor patients over time, and it can be carried out safely.” TS 16:12  “It's important to recognize that telehealth can be utilized not only for a planned appointment that might be scheduled to surveil someone every two weeks or every month from a pain and symptom management perspective, it can also be utilized as a same-day possibility. So if, for example, we have a patient who's due to have an MRI tomorrow and their last MRI was stopped in part because they couldn't tolerate it due to pain or symptoms, we might have a primary team reach out to us and ask whether we can see that patient the day prior to their MRI and devise a plan with that patient so that they can tolerate the MRI more easily the next day.” TS 22:26  “Many of our patients no longer have the ability to get to and from their place of worship, and we can sometimes bring their clergy people to them via telehealth video. We also offer psychology services, psychiatry services, child life services, all via telehealth. And I think it's important to recognize that palliative care is actually made up of an interdisciplinary team, including all of the aforementioned specialists who can basically work together to improve the experience of the patient who is living with cancer and being treated for it.” TS 26:41  “Accept the inevitability of ups and downs. Learn from the downs and persevere. The outcomes are definitely worth it.” TS 28:11 

Anecdotally we know what commonly happens to a woman's career after she has a child. But, what are the facts? That question is what this week's guest, Jessica Heagren asked herself and decided to find out. Jessica is based in the UK, and early this year released the 'Careers after Babies' report on what happens to a woman's career after she has a child. This is a really interesting and insightful conversation talking about the key findings of report, the impact on working mothers, and the role organisations play in supporting and retaining women.  We talk about:  * What was the inspiration and motivation for the report * Key findings of the report * Advice for women to minimise the impact of up to 10 years for a mother's career to recover after having children  * How organisations can better support female workforce participation and close the gender pay gap  * What Jessica sees as the future of work for parents  and sooo much more. The report has sooo much in it and it was great to unpack this with Jessica.    Connect with Jessica  Download 'Careers after Babies' report and connect with her on LinkedIn    Connect with Carina at Working Mumma Free resource:  '3 steps to sharing the mental load'  Join the waitlist for the Working Mumma Village Follow Working Mumma on LinkedIn or connect with Carina on LinkedIn Instagram: @workingmummacommunity

Jon Summers is The Motoring Historian. He was a company car thrashing, technology sales rep that turned into a fairly inept sports bike rider. Hailing from California, he collects cars and bikes built with plenty of cheap and fast, and not much reliable. On his show, he gets together with various co-hosts to talk about new and old cars, driving, motorbikes, motor racing, and motoring travel. Topics Covered on this Episode: Cricket and the Englishman The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh Poker A Porsche Digression -  The rise of the 993 4S J's 964 experiences J's 968 CS test drive In praise of the Cayenne GTS' interior Porsche choose their customers like Ferrari. Anecdotally. The appeal of a base model Boxster J rebels against car models always bloating '15 and '16 Fiesta ST running reports A revolution in car cleaning products, by YouTube '17 BMW M2 running report - A/C and brake juddering, and a not great dealer J's app for surfing beater cars in Europe - AutoScout24 Renault Clio 182 1914 Grand Prix Peugeot Peugeot 205 GTi Sierra Cosworth (Sapphire) Citroen Saxo VTS Citroen C6 and Up N Down Renault Fuego GTX 2002 Mercedes E55 AMG running report @ 158k, “cut roof off”, a broken hood ornament but mechanically sound; central locking pump and battery change Battery strategy when letting cars sit Hubnut Vain - Whisper Plans to Pick up the Free Motorcycle Vice Grip Garage Western road trip - Coloma, where they found gold in California X-15 Major Michael Adams Memorial Seligman AZ: the real Radiator Springs from the Cars movie Death Valley at 124 degrees with no A/C  Thanks to United Rentals, and their Ford F250 J retells the story of the discovery of gold in California Highway 395 Route 66 - all kinds of awesome, Seligman to Victorville especially Gentrification and Shelby - an LA story (as seen in Ford vs Ferrari) Newton's bad behaviour on a Honda XR650 Supermotard Paradise Cove reprised Bruce Junor and his book PCH and memories of the CBR Copyright Jon Summers, The Motoring Historian. This episode is part of our Motoring Podcast Network and has been republished with permission. ===== (Oo---x---oO) ===== The Motoring Podcast Network : Years of racing, wrenching and Motorsports experience brings together a top notch collection of knowledge, stories and information. #everyonehasastory #gtmbreakfix - motoringpodcast.net Check out our membership program and go VIP at: https://www.patreon.com/gtmotorsports Other cool stuff: https://www.gtmotorsports.org/links

Let's be real. Family worship is a little known subject among evangelicals. It is more known and practiced among Dutch Reformed denominations. Anecdotally speaking, I've known and worked closely with Presbyterians in my life, and although it's a known subject, it isn't practiced as much as you may think. Same goes for Reformed Baptists. But overall, this situation is changing as more resources are produced. Family worship is having a renaissance of sorts.Welcome to Urban Puritano. On today's episode, we scratch the surface on a valuable resource for family worship, the Family Worship Bible Guide, published by Reformation Heritage Books. Gird your loins and stay tuned. #LayingTheFoundation#TransformYourHome

Welcome to the daily304 – your window into Wonderful, Almost Heaven, West Virginia.   Today is Thursday, Aug. 31  Get ready for the Great Beckley Beer Festival this weekend -- Cheers!...Business and tourism is booming in the Potomac Highlands region…and the Kanawha Library's new nutritional literacy program is inspired by local Chef Otis Laury…on today's Daily304. #1 – From WVNSTV – The southern West Virginia community is gearing up for the fourth installment of The Great Beckley Beer Festival. Presented by West Virginia Collective, the event takes place Sunday, Sept. 3, at the Beckley Intermodal Gateway. Attendees will have the chance to savor a wide array of handcrafted beers from more than 30 brewers including Weathered Ground Brewery, Freefolk Brewery, and Fife Street Brewery. In addition to craft beer, the festival will also feature delicious food, local arts and crafts, and live entertainment.  For details and tickets, visit www.beckleybeerfest.com. Read more: https://www.wvnstv.com/news/local-news/celebrate-craft-beer-and-community-at-the-4th-great-beckley-beer-festival/   #2 – From WV EXECUTIVE – Characterized by stunning mountaintop views and an abundance of outdoor recreation, every aspect of the Potomac Highlands region reminds us why West Virginia is considered Almost Heaven. Encompassing the eight counties of Grant, Hampshire, Hardy, Mineral, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Randolph and Tucker, this region considers itself a nature lovers' paradise. While home to the highest geographical point in the state, Spruce Knob, which sits approximately 4,861 feet above sea level, this region also prides itself on taking the Mountain State to great economic heights. Whether it's a new health care initiative, educational opportunity or groundbreaking event center, this treasured piece of Appalachia is working diligently to help the state flourish in the areas of economic development, health, education, outdoor adventure and tourism. “Anecdotally, there are a lot of people moving here,” says Kevin Clark, director of the Mineral County Development Authority. “We've done some research, and our market is adjusting to the new housing demands. We're also trying to do some things with the BUILD West Virginia Act so that we get more benefits if a local developer develops properties than if an out-of-state developer develops properties.” Always searching for ways to attract visitors to the area, the Potomac Highlands region is introducing a myriad of exciting new projects and annual events. In Randolph County, a Tygart Hotel Renovation Project is already well underway. The county is also in the final stages of planning for a brand-new event center in an old rail yard that will attract a myriad of new visitors to the region. Read more: https://wvexecutive.com/taking-west-virginia-to-new-heights/   #3 – From THE GAZETTE-MAIL –  A few years ago, as word began to spread about just who had moved into the house on the corner, Will Ellis hopped off the school bus, spotted his new South Hills neighbor working in the yard and promptly seized the moment. “I asked if I could help him in the garden in exchange for some cooking lessons,” said Ellis, now 14 and an incoming freshman at George Washington High School. The man next door is Otis Laury, West Virginia's unofficial chef to the stars, who's served as executive chef under three governors here and has catered parties for some of the region's most prominent families for decades. It was a win-win for both: Ellis points to dozens of photos of sophisticated dishes he's learned to prepare, and Laury's garden is a work of art.  The Kanawha Valley is also set to pick up a win: The main branch of the county's Public Library is poised to open its Otis Laury Center this fall, a nutritional literacy initiative with books, resources, recipes, and -- perhaps best of all -- an area for culinary lessons, presentations and demos by some of the best chefs around. Including Otis himself. Read more: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/life/food_and_dining/from-forbidden-to-forever-new-kanawha-library-center-to-honor-otis-laury/article_5c7d084c-e97a-51f7-aef3-18fe2d095c28.html Find these stories and more at wv.gov/daily304. The daily304 curated news and information is brought to you by the West Virginia Department of Commerce: Sharing the wealth, beauty and opportunity in West Virginia with the world. Follow the daily304 on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @daily304. Or find us online at wv.gov and just click the daily304 logo.  That's all for now. Take care. Be safe. Get outside and enjoy all the opportunity West Virginia has to offer.

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: AI Forecasting: Two Years In, published by jsteinhardt on August 20, 2023 on LessWrong. Two years ago, I commissioned forecasts for state-of-the-art performance on several popular ML benchmarks. Forecasters were asked to predict state-of-the-art performance on June 30th of 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025. While there were four benchmarks total, the two most notable were MATH (a dataset of free-response math contest problems) and MMLU (a dataset of multiple-choice exams from the high school to post-graduate level). One year ago, I evaluated the first set of forecasts. Forecasters did poorly and underestimated progress, with the true performance lying in the far right tail of their predicted distributions. Anecdotally, experts I talked to (including myself) also underestimated progress. As a result of this, I decided to join the fray and registered my own forecasts for MATH and MMLU last July. June 30, 2023 has now passed, so we can resolve the forecasts and evaluate my own performance as well as that of other forecasters, including both AI experts and generalist "superforecasters". I'll evaluate the original forecasters that I commissioned through Hypermind, the crowd forecasting platform Metaculus, and participants in the XPT forecasting competition organized by Karger et al. (2023), which was stratified into AI experts and superforecasters. Overall, here is how I would summarize the results: Metaculus and I did the best and were both well-calibrated, with the Metaculus crowd forecast doing slightly better than me. The AI experts from Karger et al. did the next best. They had similar medians to me but were (probably) overconfident in the tails. The superforecasters from Karger et al. did the next best. They (probably) systematically underpredicted progress. The forecasters from Hypermind did the worst. They underpredicted progress significantly on MMLU. Interestingly, this is a reverse of my impressions from last year, where even though forecasters underpredicted progress, I thought of experts as underpredicting progress even more. In this case, it seems the experts did pretty well and better than generalist forecasters. What accounts for the difference? Some may be selection effects (experts who try to register forecasts are more likely to be correct). But I'd guess some is also effort: the expert "forecasts" I had in mind last year were from informal hallway conversations, while this year they were formal quantitative predictions with some (small) monetary incentive to be correct. In general, I think we should trust expert predictions more in this setting (relative to their informal statements), and I'm now somewhat more optimistic that experts can give accurate forecasts given a bit of training and the correct incentives. In the rest of the post, I'll first dive into everyone's forecasts and evaluate each in turn. Then, I'll consider my own forecast in detail, evaluating not just the final answer but the reasoning I used (which was preregistered and can be found here). My forecasts, and others As a reminder, forecasts are specified as probability distributions over some (hopefully unambiguously) resolvable future outcome. In this case the outcome was the highest credibly claimed benchmark accuracy by any ML system on the MATH and MMLU benchmarks as of June 30, 2023. My forecasts from July 17, 2022 are displayed below as probability density functions, as well as cumulative distribution functions and the actual result: MATHMMLUResult: 69.6% (Lightman et al., 2023)Result: 86.4% (GPT-4) Orange is my own forecast, while green is the crowd forecast of Metaculus on the same date. For MATH, the true result was at my 41st percentile, while for MMLU it was at my 66th percentile. I slightly overestimated progress on MATH and underestimated MMLU, but both were within my range of e...

Today, I am blessed to have here with me Dr. David Harper. As a health educator and cancer researcher, Dr. David G. Harper has studied the impact of diet on human health for many years. The culmination of that extensive work is the BioDiet, a ketogenic food regimen that he and his wife began in 2012. The significant weight loss and health improvements they experienced led Dr. Harper to counsel hundreds of people on the BioDiet, with similarly consistent and impressive results. Dr. Harper is an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley and a visiting scientist at the BC Cancer Research Center, Terry Fox Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in comparative physiology at the University of Cambridge. He is on the scientific advisory board of the Canadian Clinicians for Therapeutic Nutrition and is a member of the Institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition. In this episode, Dr. Harper discusses fixing your diet before putting drugs in your body. The best cure for cancer is through prevention; Dr. Harper reveals how diet can be the key to avoiding chronic diseases and cancer. Dr. Harper dives deep into the connection between insulin resistance, obesity, and inflammation. Plus, he chats about how ketosis is a great way to lower inflammation and reverse insulin resistance. Tune in as Dr. Harper talks about studying the effects of a ketogenic diet on women with breast cancer.  Get Keto Flex on Audible for Free (New Customers Only): https://adbl.co/36d6A24 Get Keto Flex on Audible here for current customers: https://adbl.co/3699lBm / / E P I S O D E   S P ON S O R S  Biotiquest Sugar Shift product. Regulate glucose, reduce cravings, achieve deeper ketosis, and remove glyphaste.  https://biotiquest.com/products/sugar-shift Use the coupon code KAMP10 for 10% off their products.  Bioptimizers Masszymes for better digestion on keto and carnivore. Get your FREE bottle of Masszymes right now by heading to http://www.masszymes.com/ketofree and use coupon code ketokamp10 .  Text me the words "Podcast" +1 (786) 364-5002 to be added to my contacts list.  [01:40] You Should Try Fixing Your Diet Before Putting Drugs In Your Body We can improve people's health significantly through diet.  Diet will decrease your risk of chronic disease by about 70%.  If you get the food right, many health symptoms will correct themselves.  Everyone feels better when they have adopted a ketogenic diet.  [07:10] Dr. Hopper Reveals The Best Cure For Cancer People often ask Dr. Hopper what the best treatment for cancer is. The best cancer treatment is not to get it in the first place. When you age, you don't need to get heavy and sick. Most likely, you get heavy and sick because of your diet. You can have diabetes for a decade, which will be wholly reversed through a ketogenic diet.  Even atherosclerosis is reversible through diet.  [10:20] How Keto Tackles Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Inflammation   Counting calories has been pretty much disproven. It turns out this model just doesn't work.  Obesity is a result of chronic exposure to a high carbohydrate diet.  Carbohydrates elevate your blood sugar dramatically.  Also, obesity makes insulin resistance worse and inflammation worse. It's a vicious cycle! Inflammation is the root cause of most cardiovascular diseases. Sugar and high carbohydrate diets are causing inflammation.  Overall, you can make your mitochondria healthier through diet and exercise. [19:05] How Does Ketosis Lower Inflammation In The Body?   Ketones are produced when you metabolize fats.  When you switch to fat metabolism, it triggers more antioxidant reactions within the cell.  Ketones will reduce the amount of fat within the cells.  High-sensitivity C-reactive Protein (hs-CRP) is the best measure of your chronic inflammation. You want that number to be low. Exercise is one of the best ways to stimulate mitophagy. Mitophagy helps remove aged and damaged mitochondria.  [32:45] How Do You Produce Glucose In Your Body Without Eating Sugar?  You need glucose in your blood. If you don't eat carbohydrates, your liver has a mechanism called  gluconeogenesis.  Gluconeogenesis will help your liver cells create glucose through non-sugar sources. You need about a teaspoon of sugar in your blood at any time.  Gluconeogenesis will also burn an extra 250 calories a day through that process.  [43:00] Studying The Ketogenic Diet on Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer Dr. Hopper did a study on women with metastatic breast cancer. He put them on a ketogenic diet. However, women have different types of breast cancers, and they are taking various types of medications.  Dr. Hopper provides all the food for them; he knows exactly what they are eating.  Anecdotally speaking, he has seen significant improvements. The ketogenic diet had the same effect on these women as on an average healthy population. A very positive therapeutic benefit to a well-formulated ketogenic diet is concomitant treatment.  [52:00] How To Improve Your HDL Cholesterol Levels  You want less LDL and more HDL.  Three things improve HDL: Exercise Alcohol Saturated Fats There's no relationship between saturated fat in the diet and cardiovascular disease. In reality, it has much more to do with how much sugar is in your diet. If your LDL is too high, a physician will recommend putting you on a statin. AND MUCH MORE!    Resources from this episode:  Check out Bio Diet: https://www.biodiet.org/ Follow BioDiet Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/biodietbook/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/biodietbook/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/biodietbook Keto Salt Lake: Dr. David Harper: Can a Ketogenic Diet Improve Infection Outcomes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nWAh5zFruM Keto Salt Lake: Ben Azadi Innate Intelligence Tapping Into the Wisdom of the Body With Ketosis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imp8Lziohhw Keto Chow: https://www.ketochow.xyz/ Join the Keto Kamp Academy: https://ketokampacademy.com/7-day-trial-a Watch Keto Kamp on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUh_MOM621MvpW_HLtfkLyQ Get Keto Flex on Audible for Free (New Customers Only): https://adbl.co/36d6A24 Get Keto Flex on Audible here for current customers: https://adbl.co/3699lBm / / E P I S O D E   S P ON S O R S  Biotiquest Sugar Shift product. Regulate glucose, reduce cravings, achieve deeper ketosis, and remove glyphaste.  https://biotiquest.com/products/sugar-shift Use the coupon code KAMP10 for 10% off their products.  Bioptimizers Masszymes for better digestion on keto and carnivore. Get your FREE bottle of Masszymes right now by heading to http://www.masszymes.com/ketofree and use coupon code ketokamp10 .  Text me the words "Podcast" +1 (786) 364-5002 to be added to my contacts list.  *Some Links Are Affiliates* // F O L L O W ▸ instagram | @thebenazadi | http://bit.ly/2B1NXKW ▸ facebook | /thebenazadi | http://bit.ly/2BVvvW6 ▸ twitter | @thebenazadi http://bit.ly/2USE0so ▸clubhouse | @thebenazadi Disclaimer: This podcast is for information purposes only. Statements and views expressed on this podcast are not medical advice. This podcast including Ben Azadi disclaim responsibility from any possible adverse effects from the use of information contained herein. Opinions of guests are their own, and this podcast does not accept responsibility of statements made by guests. This podcast does not make any representations or warranties about guests qualifications or credibility. Individuals on this podcast may have a direct or non-direct interest in products or services referred to herein. If you think you have a medical problem, consult a licensed physician.

Contributor: Meghan Hurley MD Educational Pearls: What do you do if you need a stat pregnancy test on an incapacitated patient? You can send a serum quantitative human chorionic gonadotropin (beta-HCG), but that might take a while for the lab to process. Another option is to place a drop of whole blood on a urine pregnancy immunoassay. These tests are already verified for urine and serum. 2012 study showed that whole blood was 95.8% sensitive for pregnancy compared to 95.3% for urine. Takes a little bit longer (10 minutes was used in the study) due to the viscosity of blood. Word of caution: This study only looked at a single urine pregnancy kit type. It is possible that other kits would have a different efficacy. There are new finger stick tests coming out for capillary blood. Anecdotally, Dr. Hurley was able to use this technique to support a diagnosis of ruptured ectopic pregnancy in a patient that needed emergent surgery. References Fromm C, Likourezos A, Haines L, Khan AN, Williams J, Berezow J. Substituting whole blood for urine in a bedside pregnancy test. J Emerg Med. 2012 Sep;43(3):478-82. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2011.05.028. Epub 2011 Aug 27. PMID: 21875776. Sowder AM, Yarbrough ML, Nerenz RD, Mitsios JV, Mortensen R, Gronowski AM, Grenache DG. Analytical performance evaluation of the i-STAT Total β-human chorionic gonadotropin immunoassay. Clin Chim Acta. 2015 Jun 15;446:165-70. doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2015.04.025. Epub 2015 Apr 25. PMID: 25916696. Summarized by Jeffrey Olson, MS1 | Edited by Meg Joyce & Jorge Chalit, OMSII

Starting Small to Go BigLibraries are really going to be a big project, but as I've said, the payoff is nothing short of career stability. So in order to begin the process, we're going to start close to home.You can sell your paperback directly into your home library. In the same way direct fulfillment is the best path for author and reader, direct fulfillment is the best for authors and libraries.You may have heard me say this, and if not, check out parts 1 and 2 of the library series to recap, but if a library buys from Ingram Spark, they pay double the price of your retail cost.If they buy direct from you, you can sell at retail, save the library 50%, and gross 97% of you sale. Every time you sell your paperback into a library this way, you earn full-price, and enable local readers to read for free.Few, if any, channels will be more profitable to your author business. Often times, a simple visit to the library can lead to a purchase of a paperback. And if you find you meet resistance, donating a copy can be a great way to start a relationship, but if you donate, you need to commit to follow-up visits to ensure the library is giving your book a fair chance.One technique that can lead to a thriving snowball effect is returning to the library after your book is catalogued to encourage a patron to borrow the book. This does require a measure of extroverting yourself—which is a skill all of us should strive to build. You'll want to select a good time to visit the library when the most patrons are likely to be on location.Find someone browsing in your genre and recommend your book. It's tough because it means talking to a stranger, but it's an easy sell because they read your kind of book and it's a free checkout.Once your book is checked out, you have data to export to get your book in more libraries.And here's the deal, according to wordsrated.com the average book gets checked out 8 to 10 times per year, but what that statistic manages to misrepresent is that averages account equally for powerhouse books like Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow as well as that one book you never heard of that sits on the shelf gathering dust. What that means is averages make poorly circulated books seem more successful.I called my local lending library here in Omaha and spoke with Autumn at the Ralston branch. She agreed that the 20/80 principle probably fit pretty well with lending trends. In other words, 20% of books account for the majority of borrows while 80% may see fewer than 1 checkouts on a given week.(Honestly, it is very likely that 50% of books in a library will see fewer than a single checkout per year. Using our example of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, consider that just one branch the OPL system, say the Sorenson location, may have as many as 50 copies of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow in circulation. If that one book remains constantly loaned for even six months, it would account for 1,200 borrows.With a little bit of fast math, we can determine that it would take about 86 books being checked out just once a week for six months to bring the lending average to 8-10 times a week for the lot of them. That means one successful book can impact the average for almost a hundred library rejects.Anecdotally, my best guess is that most books are checked out in the single digits per year and many books are never checked out.Are Checkout Statistics Depressing?You might be tempted to feel depressed by the stats on the majority of books, but I feel encouraged by them. It means the hardest work you'll do is getting your book in libraries. After that, all you need to do is visit the branch to ensure your book is consistently borrowed, and by doing that, you'll strengthen bonds with your local librarians and begin to build a case study for why your book is a great addition to regional, state, and national locations.See, the thing is, most libraries are fighting for funding. They have to show a good deal of savvy and they need to produce results, or Neanderthals like Omaha Mayor, Jean Stothert, will do everything in her power to destroy them. And what is savvy? It's picking hot titles people actually read. I mention this because if you are at a library helping to see that books are checked out, you're strengthening the library's resilience when politicians who can't read try to shut libraries down.(In case you think I'm being too hard on Jean Stothert, consider that she once tried to mandate that snow plows not being clearing until snowfall had ceased. Her utter disregard for human life makes her unfit for office. But this isn't a political show.Building Out From Local to RegionalOnce you've grown comfortable with your local library branch and worked to get the book borrowed with regularity, it's time to repeat the process with nearby branches of the same library system.For me, I can type in “Omaha Public Library” to see a full list of branches in my system. Substitute your city or town to do the same. Prepare to visit these locations by having documents ready. It's an easy process, and one that will serve as the powerhouse of your growth.First, contact your pilot library—he branch you already have a book in. Ask for an email showing your usage stats. Print your usage stats and go to a new branch. First, you'll try to sell the book, showing your usage stats. If the librarian is not prepared to buy ask what they would need to see to make the decision. If the effort they're requesting is simple, followthrough and repeat your process for lending with the first branch.If the new branch has a complex request and it would take significant time to complete, ask to donate a copy and repeat the steps that gave you success with the pilot library.Getting Started Will Be Time-ConsumingYou may have thought at some point during this, that at the pace you'll be able to get books in branches, you'd be 199 years old before you had decent market penetration. You'd be right, if it weren't for the law of acceleration.At some point, you'll have enough data to send a compelling email to a library branch without visiting the location in person, and libraries will buy the book on your data presentation. From there, you can build a compelling case for regional acquisition, and quite quickly to state and national acquisition.But if you're like me, you may have little patience for slow-moving beginnings. If that's the case, and you have the funds, donate a copy of your book to every branch in town, and visit those branches nightly until your book is lent at every location.Get a robust lending history quickly, and you may have an entire metropolitan community worth of statistics in as little as a month, but either way, you'll spend the same amount of hours hustling to get the books moving.TRBM is a listener-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.If You're Finding Value in TRBM, Consider Supporting It By Purchasing the Host's NovelsEvery week I bring you two episodes of this podcast, and if you see value in the information I provide, you'll notice, I have no call to support. There are two ways you can, however help this show grow and ensure it's future. My favorite way is to purchase my book in any format here.Second, if you're an author and want to see massive sales in the fastest time possible, if you want to earn a living as an author and you have at least one professionally published book, look into Author Marketing Mastery through Optimization (AMMO). Steve's program is second to none, and the proof is in the testimonials.Have a look here, and see if the program is right for you. Get full access to TRBM at jodyjsperling.substack.com/subscribe

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: National EA groups shouldn't focus on city groups, published by DavidNash on June 5, 2023 on The Effective Altruism Forum. Summary National EA groups have a variety of strategies available to them, but many seem to focus on supporting local city groups as the main activity with less consideration of other interventions. I think this leads to neglecting more impactful activities for national groups. Potentially this is because they are following more established groups/resources where city groups are given as a default example. Most people interested in EA are not joining local EA groups, and most people who could get more involved in EA don't necessarily want to do that via joining a local group first From EA London attendance data for 2016-18, out of ~1300 people roughly 75% attended just 1 event, and only 10% attended 4 or more which suggests that most weren't aiming to become regular members There is an unseen majority of people who know about EA and want to have more impact who are neglected by a city-first strategy EA should attract more people than those also looking for community Community is still important, but should be seen as additional rather than a main focus Community can mean a lot of different things but I'm defining community in this post as a more densely connected subset of a network based around a location In practice this means a community is more likely to involve social gatherings, daily/weekly in person touchpoints A network will involve conferences, mentorship, newsletters/social media, monthly/yearly touchpoints There is probably value to having some city organisers if there is a critical mass of people interested in EA and the city has strong comparative advantages Alternative strategies could include cause specific field building, career advising, supporting professional networks nationally, organisation incubation, translation The Unseen Majority When most people hear about EA for the first time, it's usually via an online resource (80,000 Hours, GWWC, podcast) or word of mouth. The message they receive is that EA cares about having more impact and that EA as a movement is trying to help people have more impact. This can contrast to the experience of going along to a local group (which is regularly suggested as a good way to get more involved with EA), and experiencing the main message as ‘join our community', with less focus on helping that person have impact. This could lead to people who are focused on generating a lot of impact bouncing away from EA. Anecdotally I have heard people say that they don't find that much value from attending local group events but are still interested in EA and focus on having an impact in their career. For the subset of people who are looking for community, local groups can be great. But for a lot of people who do not have that preference/have other life circumstances, this isn't what they are looking for. People already have communities they are a part of (family, friends, professional, hobbies) and often don't have time for many more. Anecdotally from conversations with other organisers the people most likely to join are those looking for a community - students, recent graduates or people who are new to the city. This can be self reinforcing as the people who are likely to keep on attending meetups are the ones with spare time and lacking community. We often use neglectedness when choosing cause areas, leading to support of unseen majorities - people in poorer parts of the world, animals and future beings. But when it comes to movement building there is less thought paid to those who aren't visible. A lot of strategies I have seen are about increasing attendance or engagement at events rather than providing value to people who may not be as interested in attending lots of events each year but still wan...

Episode 159 ...  for the week of May 29, 2023, and this is what is going on in our Disney World...What is Everybody Talking About?- Rock-N-Rollercoaster soft reopens - no major changes beyond repainting (source: Blog Mickey)- Galactic Starcruiser remaining dates sell out- 50th Decorations fully gone from Cinderella Castle (source: Blog Mickey)- Disney Dining Plan predictionsStarts @0:57 ...Topic: Is Walt Disney World Really Empty? Why?- Anecdotally and data supported seems to show that Walt Disney World is rather empty compared to this time of year in past years.- Is this just due to increased costs? What other factors are playing a role?Starts @21:03 ...OUR Takes: Which Attractions are Worth a Long Wait in Queue- What attractions provide an experience that justifies waiting in the queue provided? Starts @36:03 ...Top 3: Tips for Planning a WDW Trip During High Crowd Levels- If you are visiting Walt Disney World during a period that has high crowd level, what can you do to make the best of the situation?Starts @44:58 ...DBC Engagement: What is the Price Point You Would Pay for a Starcruiser like experience? - And if the structure of the experience does not appeal to you, what would and what would you pay for that?Starts @52:37 ...* Reminder to like, subscribe, rate, and review the DBC Pod wherever you get your podcast *Send us an e-mail! .... thedbcpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on social media:- LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thedbcpod - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheDBCPod/- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDBCPod- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDBCPod- YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/thedbcpod- Discord Server: https://discord.com/invite/cJ8Vxf4BmQNote: This podcast is not affiliated with any message boards, blogs, news sites, or other podcasts

Show Resources Here were the resources we covered in the episode: Covid19's Effect on LinkedIn Ads Bidding and Budgeting NEW LinkedIn Learning course about LinkedIn Ads by AJ Wilcox Youtube Channel Contact us at Podcast@B2Linked.com with ideas for what you'd like AJ to cover. A great no-cost way to support us: Rate/Review! Follower Ads (Red call-out boxes) Follower Ads impressions were decimated on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since these are only served on Desktop, it shows how few people were on LinkedIn on their desktops. The other ad formats didn't see such large decreases, telling us that members largely switched over to mobile during the holidays. Follower Ads costs skyrocketed on holidays. An indication of what happens to prices when to the audience vacates the platform while advertisers are still bidding. Single Image Sponsored Content (Purple call-out boxes) Single Image Sponsored Content impressions were above average the day before Thanksgiving but dropped to 80% and 68% during and after. Signals many people taking time off work and not spending as much time on LinkedIn. The day before and day of Christmas was interesting to see an increase in impressions, although these were weekend days which are traditionally lower anyway and wouldn't be hard to beat. The day after New Years (January 2 nd ) saw 17% higher-than-average usage, which is what we expect to see. Costs around Thanksgiving skyrocketed to 35%, 52%, and 69% above average, making for very expensive traffic. Around Christmas, costs were elevated 3-16%, which is up, but not egregious. New Years costs were really surprising though. They actually dropped from 1-33% of average, which is what we usually see after the New Year, but to see the diminished costs during the holiday was interesting. We would guess this is due to advertisers pulling back; although I don't understand why advertisers would pull back en masse for New Years but not at Christmas just a week before, unless it had something to do with running out of budgets by the end of the month and needing to pull back. Video Ads (Blue call-out boxes) The day before Thanksgiving was pretty much business as usual, but we definitely saw fewer impressions the day of and the day after Thanksgiving. Christmas Eve was up 6% but the day of and the day after were down to 81% and 54% of average. New Years Eve had lower impressions which we'd expect given the holiday, but similar to Sponsored Content (since they share the same inventory) were up 11% and 7% respectively. Thanksgiving CPMs were elevated 3-31%, but Christmas did not follow suit, strangely. Christmas CPMs actually dropped 11-32%, which I don't have an explanation for. New Years CPMs also dropped significantly, but we expect that for the same reasons we see decreased costs around New Years every year. But a drop between 50%-71% is huge! After New Years Analysis Unsurprisingly, impressions and clicks increased after the New Year (1/3-1/5) since we're back to work and all rested up from time off for the holidays.  What is surprising is that costs on Follower Ads were still elevated by 11% even after the holidays.   Show Transcript What happens to your LinkedIn Ads on holidays and vacation? Well, it's a total pain to calculate. So I went ahead and did it. I can do hard things. We're talking a holiday ad performance on this week's episode of the LinkedIn Ads Show. Welcome to the LinkedIn Ads Show. Here's your host, AJ Wilcox. Hey there, LinkedIn Ads fanatics, I'm sure you've wondered if you should pause your ads on holidays, or just let them ride? Well, I'm a total data junkie so I took it upon myself to crunch the data and find out and it gets juicy. We're gonna walk through it and analysis that I did over a lot of data to tell you conclusively whether or not you should be advertising on LinkedIn over holidays. And make sure to stick around until the end for an extra bonus analysis that I did about ad performance after the new year. All right, let's hit it. If you've been listening for a while, you may remember Episode 32, where I did a whole analysis of what happened to LinkedIn Ads availability, and pricing during the COVID 19 pandemic. And I really enjoyed doing that study. It was a ton of data crunching, but a lot of fun. Well, and we get asked all the time by clients whether or not we should be pausing over the holidays, especially in November and December here in the US, where we have Thanksgiving and Christmas, followed closely by New Years. In the past, we've oftentimes given the advice to pause entirely over those holidays. And there are a lot of reasons why. The first is that it's towards the end of a quarter and a month so these larger companies are bidding more aggressively to try to finish strong. And this is going to lead to increased competition, which means you're going to pay more at these times. It also happens to be the end of a year. So budgets that are use it or lose it, they have to be spent. So advertisers are again bidding up and this is leading to increased competition and costs. And meanwhile, people are traveling and taking more time off due to the holidays. This leads to less time spent on LinkedIn, which means fewer impressions to go around. And so more advertisers fighting over those. It's really important to understand that what you pay on LinkedIn, it's all an auction. And the auction is driven by supply and demand. The supply is the people on LinkedIn that are logged in and ready to receive ad impressions. The demand is our demand as marketers trying to get in front of them. And we're bidding in order to do so. So what we pay right now is this interplay of people being on LinkedIn, and US advertisers trying to get in front of them. So when the supply of LinkedIn visitors decreases, all else held equal, our costs are gonna go up. But in this case, where your visitors decrease, and competition increases, it means your overall advertiser costs are going to skyrocket, which is obviously not great if you're trying to be efficient with your advertising. If you're using manual bidding during these times, you kind of have a hedge, or a bit of insurance when costs are going up. Because when costs rise, you're naturally just going to lose more auctions. And so when those costs get over your bids, you just naturally leave the auction. And then of course, when costs come back down, you'll be back to receiving traffic the way that you were. If you're using LinkedIn's maximum delivery of bidding, though, you're just going to ride that wave of high costs all the way up, and then back down, and you'll be subjected to whatever is happening on the platform. Costs can spike with no warning whatsoever. And those high costs are especially a problem since the platform doesn't allow you to do any sort of timing of your ads. So if you want to pause your campaigns or pause certain ads, it has to be done manually. Or in our case, we ended up building an internal de partying and ad scheduling tool. So that that wouldn't be a downside for us. But we realize most people aren't going to have something like that at their disposal. And we've talked a lot about costs increasing, which is totally a huge factor in whether you should be advertising over the holidays. But there's something else to keep in mind. It's lead quality, we found something that is the same every single year. And that is any demo or call scheduled, 95% of time it's going to get pushed back to after the new year. Just think about it. How many calls have you said, hey, let's push this into the new year. Well, now you've pushed a meeting forward potentially several weeks. So by the time you actually go to do that meeting, you've most likely forgotten entirely who this person was and why you wanted to talk to them. So over the holidays, if you're paying more for those leads, just to leave them cooling over the holidays. Obviously, it's not a great combination. And this is what we've seen in past years. But my question was, does it still hold up today? I always like to test my assumptions and see what platform changes have happened. I was actually spurred on to do this because I had six different LinkedIn reps, all pushing really hard, saying that we should be advertising over the holidays. Some even went as far to say that costs drop over the holidays. This wasn't the case from what I've experienced in the past so I really want to do this analysis. And I'm ashamed to say that this analysis took 31 hours of my life, I started and it was pretty straightforward. And then I kept coming across cool data points that I wanted to study and dive deeper into, I had to restart three times. And I'm certain that if I were really really insanely good at Excel, this probably wouldn't have taken this long. But let's jump into the methodology. I had some requirements. First of all, we needed these accounts to be decent spending. But they also had to be spending similarly. So we hand picked accounts that were spending between about $15,000 to $20,000 a month. They also had to be really similar in brand strength so we picked very well known companies in their space. And all of these accounts happened to be in the Fortune 1,000. We also wanted to make sure that the ads were similar in focus, and they were using similar ad types. We didn't want to combine one account that was running text ads, and another one running sponsored messaging, and then another one running sponsored content. We pretty much scored the jackpot, because we had five accounts that match this criteria. They were good spenders, but they were also similar. They were all Fortune 1000. So they're gonna be really well known across the board. They were all running the same ad formats, we really couldn't pass this opportunity on. As we dove in, though, we realized that there were several variables that had to be controlled for. The first was whether or not this was a weekend or a weekday. For example, Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day, we're all on weekends this year. We didn't want to compare a holiday to a normal weekday, or even a combined average of weekdays and weekends, since weekends and weekdays both act very differently on LinkedIn. Plus, the days after each of these holidays were a weekday. It was Monday. And of course, we needed to be able to tease out the difference between a holiday Monday and a normal Monday. Thanksgiving was really kind to us, it made sure that the holiday itself as well as the days before and after were all weekdays, which made it much easier to analyze. Oh boy, I wish I could have just thrown out weekends and weekdays differences, it would have saved me a lot of time. The next variable we had to control for was ad type. If you were to calculate the click through rate across multiple ad formats, let's say for instance, sponsored content and text ads, the average would be absolutely meaningless. You can't average sponsored content and text ads together. Sponsored content has like a .44% average click through rate, while text ads have a .025%. So text ads have a click through rate that's like 1/12 of the average sponsored content. Plus text ads show way more impressions because there's not much of a frequency cap. And so if you're showing both of those ad formats to the same size of audience, your text ads are going to show a lot more impressions. And that would totally sway your click through rate to a much lower number that really wouldn't make sense. So all this to say that in this analysis, I had to break out the different ad formats so that cost per click and cost per impression would actually be meaningful. For metrics to track I knew costs, were going to be the one that was my main concern. And I started out by using cost per click. And then I realized occasionally there were days with no clicks, and then I'd have a zero in a denominator. And nobody likes seeing error divided by zero in their Excel. So I ended up adding in CPM as well. And it was nice to show them alongside. And then CPM never has a problem with a zero and a denominator. And the final variable to control for was account changes. These had to be accounts that couldn't make any major changes to adds to bidding and budgets. And in cases in these accounts where there was a major change, we just threw out any day where those changes were made. The result of all of this was over 121,000 rows of data to be crunched, and a 60 megabyte Excel file. So the sample sizes were pretty robust, and the findings were strong as well. Okay, we're gonna jump to a quick sponsor break and then we'll get to dive into the actual results of the analysis. The LinkedIn Ads Show is proudly brought to you by B2Linked.com, the LinkedIn Ads experts. 9:38 If you're a B2B company and care about getting more sales opportunities with your ideal prospects, then chances are LinkedIn Ads are for you. But the platform isn't easy to use and can be painfully expensive on the front end. At B2Linked, we've cracked the code to maximizing ROI while minimizing costs. Our methodology includes building and executing LinkedIn Ads strategies, customized to your unique needs, and tailored to the way that B2B consumers buy today. Over the last 11 years, we've worked with some of LinkedIn's largest advertisers in the world, we've spent over $150 million on the platform, and we're official LinkedIn partners. If you want to generate more sales opportunities with your ideal prospects, book a discovery call at B2Linked.com/apply. We'd absolutely love the opportunity to get to work with you. 10:31 All right, let's jump into the results of the holiday analysis. And don't forget to stick around until the end for that bonus analysis that I know you'll love. If you go to the show notes page, you'll see a paste of all of the data that I'm going to be talking about. So I'm just going to describe to you what it is that you're seeing. The first column is the holiday that we're talking about. So you'll see Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's There, you'll also see a column for ad type. Underneath ad type, you'll see the acronyms FA, which is a follower ad, which is one of the dynamic ad formats. You'll see SC, which is short for sponsored content. And it's specifically single image sponsored content. Because we also have VI for video ads, which is also technically sponsored content, it uses the same inventory. Then you'll see a column called Day. And what that is, is we tracked the day before the holiday, the day of the holiday and the day after. So we could paint the whole story of what's happening as the week progresses on holiday week. Then you'll see all the data, the data are all percentages have an average day of its kind. So if you see the column of impressions, we're showing you how many impressions Christmas Day got, as opposed to a normal Sunday. Because these are a percentage of benchmark, if you see anything that's under 100%, it indicates that there were less of that that day than there are on a normal benchmark day. So impressions, for instance, if you say less than 100%, on impressions, that indicates that there were fewer impressions served that day than average. Clicks is the same way. If you see less than 100% clicks, that means that there were fewer clicks that happened. But I think what's even more interesting is that when you see the clicks percentage is higher than the impressions percentage, that tells us that people were more active that day at clicking. Our CTRs went up that day, which is pretty cool. You'll see a column for spend and this is just the ability to tell our campaigns on average, able to spend more or less or about the same. It's the spend ability of campaigns on that day. The next column is CPC or cost per click. And again, seeing less than 100% indicates that campaigns have lower average costs per click than average. If it's over 100%. That means average costs per click were higher than average. Makes sense, right? You will see some blanks under the cost per click heading. And that's because there were some days where follower ads didn't get any clicks and so rather than having a really ugly divide by zero error, I just deleted them out. But the next column is for CPM or cost per 1000 impressions. This is likely a better way of gauging costs than CPC, just because this was how we were getting charged regardless of if people were clicking or not. And again, less than 100% indicates that campaigns were spending less than average, over 100% means that we're getting gouged a little bit. Alright, let's start specifically with follower ads, because they were really interesting. In the graphic, these are the red call out boxes. So anytime that you see a red box around data that was dealing with follower ads. What was interesting is that follower ads impressions were decimated on both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Literally impressions were around 10%. But since these are only served on desktop, that shows us how few people were actually on LinkedIn on their desktop machines. Since the other ad formats show on mobile, and we didn't see such large decreases, that tells us that members largely switched over to mobile devices during those holidays. Then when we look at costs, follower ads costs skyrocketed across all holidays. And to me, this is a perfect example of supply versus demand. The supply of advertisers stayed constant because LinkedIn doesn't allow us to do ad scheduling and leave the auction. Meanwhile, the demand of advertisers stayed constant because LinkedIn doesn't allow us to pause our ads certain times and take ourselves out of the auction. And at the same time the supply of members on the platform because they weren't there on desktop devices they left and that causes costs to shoot through the roof. For example, on the Thanksgiving holiday costs tripled, on Christmas, they almost doubled and on New Year's Day about doubled. Okay, so that's follower ads a little bit interesting. 14:56 Now let's move on to single image sponsored content. These were the ones in the purple call out boxes. So sponsored content impressions were above average the day before Thanksgiving, but then dropped to 80% and 68%. On the day during the holiday and after, this totally signals to me that people were working right up until the day before, and that during the holiday and after they went ahead and took time off, and weren't spending as much time on LinkedIn. The day before and the day of Christmas were really interesting to see an increase in impressions. And I didn't really have a great explanation as to why this was, although both of these were weekend days, which are traditionally lower anyway, and so it wouldn't be too hard to beat the average. The day after New Year's, this is January 2, we saw 17% higher than average usage, which is what we expect to see after the new year. And we'll tell you all about that data here soon. The costs around Thanksgiving skyrocketed to 35% to 69% above average, making it a really expensive holiday to be advertising. Around Christmas costs jumped 3% to 16%, which is certainly up, but it's not egregious. New Year's costs were really surprising though, they actually dropped one to 33% of average, which is what we usually see after the new year. But to see the diminished costs during the holiday was interesting, usually we see them after, we would guess that this is due to advertisers pulling back. Although I don't understand why advertisers would pull back on mass for New Years, but not Christmas that was just a week before. Unless, of course it had something to do with running out of budgets by the end of the month, and needing to pull back. Now let's analyze video ad. There were the blue call out boxes on the image that you see on the show notes page. If we look at the day before Thanksgiving, it was pretty much business as usual. But then we saw a huge dive in impressions on the day of and the day after Thanksgiving. The costs on Thanksgiving, though they jumped 3% to 31%. But strangely, Christmas didn't follow suit. Christmases CPMs actually dropped between 11% to 32%, which I don't really have an explanation for. New Year's Eve definitely had lower impressions, which we'd expect given the holiday. But similar to the other sponsored content that we've already talked about, since they do share the same inventory, the impressions were actually up 11% and 7%, respectively. And as you'd expect, New Year's CPMs dropped significantly, which we do expect usually, but it was a huge drop between 50% to 71% drops in price. 17:32 So my takeaways here are that generally costs go up over holidays. So I recommend pausing your ads over those times. And even in cases where costs will drop over the holidays like for Christmas and New Year's, I still recommend pausing your ads due to the lead quality drop. I would not suggest pausing your retargeting ads though. I think your retargeting ads are good to keep going. And remember how we talked about supply and demand, how it affects our pricing on LinkedIn. Let's talk about something that makes our pricing even worse. Rising costs are totally exacerbated by advertisers who are bidding by the impression rather than by the click. The reason this is the case is because when someone is bidding by click, they're only paying when someone actually takes action. And then the advertiser with the highest click through rates, ends up getting the best relevancy scores and that drives everyone to be better. If you're bidding by the impression though, it really doesn't matter how you're performing. Any advertiser willing to pay enough, LinkedIn is going to bypass the auction and start showing ads. LinkedIn has caused rising costs smartly on their part, but I think it's terrible, by making maximum delivery the default bidding method because it's the default, the less experienced advertisers just end up going with it. We talked about in episode six about when maximum delivery should be used. But it's effectively bidding by the impression but letting LinkedIn bid as high as they need to, to make sure that it can spend your entire budget every day. So if your daily budget is like $10 for a campaign, it may only need to bid like a $60 CPM to spend it all. But if your daily budget is high, let's say something like $1,000, and you have a relatively small audience, you might find that the platform has to bid $400 CPMs, in order to show your ads enough to spend your money. Just as a reminder, if your click through rates are two to three times the benchmark CTR for that ad format, then it's actually in your best interest to bid CPM as it saves you money. 90% of the time, though, you're not going to be beating your benchmarks by two to three times. And maximum delivery is the most expensive way to pay for your traffic. If you're bidding maximum delivery just because it's easier to spend your budget. You're just pushing yours and everyone else's costs up on the platform. And the only winner here is LinkedIn Corporate, who's watching their revenue climb quarter over quarter. So we as advertisers, what can we do about out this? I would encourage you don't bid max delivery unless you have really high CTRs. I would also encourage you to pause over holidays. And please don't bid really aggressively at the end of a year or a quarter or a month, if you don't have to. Because if we as advertisers stop pushing the costs up, then prices come down for all of us, then, who knows, maybe there are some advertisers out there who need to be bidding on holidays, and they end up getting lower costs to do so. Okay, I mentioned that if you're going to stick around to the end, I would share a bonus analysis with you. What we generally see is after the New Year, holiday performance tends to look really good on the platform. Costs come down, it becomes a lot easier to spend your full budget. So I wanted to do this analysis and to actually quantify this. First off, looking over three different ad formats, follower ads, single image sponsored content, and video ads, we average the 20% increase in impressions. And we saw clicks increased by 14%, which is pretty similar. It shows there's more people on LinkedIn spending time after the new year, and they're about as engaged as usual in clicking. When we look at costs, though, we see that follower ads have an 11% higher CPM, but cost per click is about the same. So that shows the difference made up of people actually clicking. Single image sponsored content, though, the costs actually dropped by 22% afterwards. And video costs actually dropped by 49% to the CPM, not bad. All of this goes to show that performance after the new year really is good. Takeaways from the New Year are advertise strong for the New Year. Traffic is up and costs are down and lead quality tends to be really high, too. Anecdotally, what we see is that now that people are back in the office, they're pretty rested from having a nice long break, they're a lot more likely to be agreeable towards having a meeting. There's not a whole lot of other stuff clouding up their schedule. Plus, they tend to have budgets again for the year which were depleted just the previous month. It's the beginning of a month and a quarter, so people don't feel like they have to bid super aggressively to try to finish things up strong. I absolutely love the first week of January every year. All right, I've got the episode resources for you coming right up, so stick around. Thank you for listening to the LinkedIn Ads Show. Hungry for more AJ Wilcox, take it away. 22:38 First off, the tables that I was reading off of, they're gonna be in the shownotes. So go visit the show notes page, if you want to see specifically what I was talking about there. Also, check out the link to Episode 32, all About COVID-19's effect on LinkedIn ads. Feel free to compare those and see this COVID-19 act more like a holiday or is it totally different. Check out Episode Six, all about bidding and budgeting to dive deeper into maximum delivery, and manual bidding and all of that. If you are one of your colleagues or looking to learn more about LinkedIn Ads, check out the link to the course that I made on LinkedInLearning.com, right within the show notes. It's by far the most detailed and lowest cost course out there and it's by LinkedIn Learning, so you know, the production is awesome. If this is the first time you're listening to us, make sure to hit that subscribe button, because you obviously care about LinkedIn Ads. If this is not the first time you're hearing this, though, can I ask a special favor? Can you go and rate and review this podcast in whatever podcast player you listen in? It would go a long way to say thanks for the 31 hours that I've sunk into this report. With any questions, suggestions, corrections, reach out to us at Podcast@B2Linked.com. And with that being said, we'll see you back here next week. Cheering you on in your LinkedIn Ads initiatives.    

Shop Talk covers a UK study that investigates reducing the work week by a day, reducing hours while keeping pay the same. Anecdotally, everyone who has tried it likes it. Difficult to do with some service jobs of course. Caught My Eye looks at an old fort that just sold off the coast of England and the percentage of Americas that have not experienced snow. Gwynne Shotwell, President, and COO of Space X is our Business Birthday. Happy 59th Gwynne.We're all business. Except when we're not.Apple Podcasts: apple.co/1WwDBrCSpotify: spoti.fi/2pC19B1iHeart Radio: bit.ly/2n0Z7H1Tunein: bit.ly/1SE3NMbStitcher: bit.ly/1N97ZquGoogle Podcasts: bit.ly/1pQTcVWPandora: pdora.co/2pEfctjYouTube: bit.ly/1spAF5aAlso follow Tim and John on:Facebook: www.facebook.com/focusgroupradioTwitter: www.twitter.com/focusgroupradioInstagram: www.instagram.com/focusgroupradio

Did you know that Black women are more likely to die from preventable childbirth complications than white women? Or that Black women make up less than 2 percent of psychiatrists? This week on “The Gloria Purvis Podcast,” Gloria speaks with Dr. Amanda Joy Calhoun about the deep vestiges of racism in our medical institutions and the strategies she is using to challenge and correct them in her own practice. Dr. Calhoun is an adult and child psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine. She is an expert at exposing racism in the medical system and mitigating the effects of racism on Black Americans. Dr. Calhoun firmly believes that all doctors should be activists and is a fellowship coach of The Oped Project. Dr. Calhoun shares disturbing accounts of how she's witnessed racism in the hospital setting, among both white patients and staff.   “It has little to do with the psychiatric illness. Mental illness is used as a scapegoat for racism,” Dr. Calhoun says of white patients who have lashed out with hate speech at Black patients. “But oftentimes these kids that are saying these N-words, they're about to leave the hospital, they're stable. This is just the word they use to describe people. It's not that they're in this episode where they don't know what they're saying.” Just as troubling, is the preference white staff shows to white patients:  “Anecdotally, I had been looking at the fact that it seemed that predominantly white staff, which is medicine, were much quicker to put my Black patients in restraints, than white patients.” There is no standard training or treatment for dealing with racism in hospitals, but Dr. Calhoun is quick to provide her expert recommendation: “I use the word racist. I think we need to own it.”  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this special episode of The Dive, Kobe & Mark welcome for the first time LPL caster Dagda to give us his thoughts on Play-Ins & the upcoming Group Stage. If things look odd, it's because our fantastic tech team ships necessary equipment to New York City & we had to step away from our usual cameras for The Dive. For those of you wondering about Divephoria, that's next week! (When the Euphoria folk land in NYC) We went forward with this format because it just seemed weird to not do SOMETHING ahead of the Groups Stage. The Trio reviews the highs of the Play-In Stage, take some time huff hopium all thanks to Champions Queue & made predictions heading into the Group Stage. Where will we find the upsets? What teams are worthy of the hopium? What teams are overrated?If you like Dagda's comfy poncho, check it out at merch.riotgames.com to pick up one of your own. Anecdotally, our producer is def getting one it's perfect for being a degen gamer BUT FASHION. We'll be returning with Divephoria episodes from NYC to ATL to San Fran! So make sure you meet us here in the lolesports youtube channel or wherever you listen to audio podcasts! The Worlds Group stage kicks off with another EU vs. NA matchup, Cloud9 vs. FNC at 2PM PT/5PM ET on Friday. Don't you miss it! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/the-dive-esports-podcast/message

297: Yuck! Homework! In today's podcast, we discuss the important but dreaded topic of psychotherapy homework, and our featured guest is Alexis, whom some of you know from her fabulous work organizing beta tests for the Feeling Good App. Today, Alexis brings us a very special gift, by showing us how she "walks the walk."! At the beginning of the podcast, we discussed the two major reasons to do psychotherapy “homework:” First, the homework gives you the chance to practice and master the techniques you're learning, so you can keep growing and strengthening your skills. And second, because it's an expression of motivation; motivation alone can have powerful anti-depressive effects and lead to rapid recovery. I also talked a research study I did with a friend and colleague who got depressed following the breakup of his relationship with the woman he'd been dating for several years. Each night he would partially fill out a Daily Mood Log, including a brief description of the upsetting even or moment. Then he would circle and rate his negative feelings on a scale of 0 (for not at all) to 100 (the worst), for how he was feeling at that very moment. Then he recorded his Negative Thoughts and indicated how strongly he believed them on a scale from (not at all) to 100 (completely). He was telling himself that he'd never find anyone to love, that he'd never find work, and so forth. Then he'd flip a coin to decide on one of two courses of action. If heads, he would jog for 30 minutes or so at a fairly fast clip and then re-rate his belief in each negative thought as well as the intensity of each type of negative feeling on the same scales of 0 to 100. If tails, he would work on his Daily Mood Log for 30 minutes and then rerate his belief in each negative though and the intensity of each type of negative feeling. He did this for several weeks and I was thrilled to see that he recovered on his own from a pretty severe bought of depression without any psychotherapy or medications. However, I did give him a little coaching on how to challenge various kinds of distortions. Once he recovered, we analyzed the data using Structural Equation Modeling. We discovered that the jogging had no effects whatsoever in reducing his belief in his negative thoughts. This finding was not consistent with the popular idea that exercise boosts brain endorphins and causes a “high.” I was not surprised, since jogging has never elevated my feelings, either, although some people do report this effect. In contrast, on the nights that he worked with his Daily Mood Log, there were massive reductions in his belief in his negative thoughts as well as his negative feelings. This finding was consistent with the idea that psychotherapy homework is very important, whether or not you are receiving treatment from a human shrink. The study also confirmed the idea that distorted negative thoughts do, in fact, cause depression and other negative feelings like anxiety, shame, inadequacy, and hopelessness, and that a reduction in your belief negative thoughts triggers recovery. Anecdotally, I would like to add that he maintained his positive mood and outlook following his recovery. His career flourished, and he got married. I showed him his negative thoughts years later, and he was shocked. He found it hard to believe that he was giving himself and believing such harsh and distorted messages at the time he was depressed. I've often said that there is a kind of hypnotic aspect to depression, anxiety, and even anger. You tell yourself, and believe, things that are simply not true! Recovery is a little (or a lot) like snapping out of a hypnotic trance! Here is another implication of the study of exercise vs the Daily Mood Log, as well as other studies that have confirmed the critical importance of psychotherapy homework in recovery from depression and anxiety. Because we know the importance of homework, if we are not asking our clients to do homework, then we may actually be impeding their progress rather than supporting them. That's why I let people know prior to the start of therapy that the prognosis for a full recovery is very positive, but homework will be required and is not optional. If they feel like they don't want to do the homework, I don't encourage them to work with me. This is called the Gentle Ultimatum and Sitting with Open Hands. Oddly, enough, this approach seems to enhance patient motivation as well as patient compliance with homework between therapy sessions. The homework, in turn, speeds recovery and reduces patient drop-out. When I'm doing research, I try to create mathematical models that reveal causal factors that affect all human beings, and not some finding that only applies to this or that school of therapy. Therefore, it would seem to follow, that doing “homework” is just as important if you are working on your own without a therapist. And it would seem like it should be important in our app, as well. These hypotheses have been confirmed. Practice, and doing specific exercises that I've created, are just as important to the degree of recovery in beta testers who are using our Feeling Good App, as well as in people who are working on their own without a therapist. Today, we are joined by Alexis, who works on her own negative thoughts whenever (like the rest of us) she feels stressed out or upset. Alexis described an example of her homework, starting with this upsetting event at the start of the pandemic: Daily Mood Log Upsetting Event or Moment: Pandemic and moving back to my preferred city and leaving my mom to live alone.   Next, Alexis recorded her negative feelings: Feelings Now % Goal % After % Anxious, worried, panicky, nervous, frightened 75     Frustrated, stuck, thwarted, defeated 50     Guilty, remorseful, bad, ashamed 100     Hopeless, discouraged, pessimistic, despairing 20     Sad, blue, depressed, down, unhappy 80     Inferior, worthless, inadequate, defective, incompetent 80     Lonely, unloved, unwanted, rejected, alone, abandoned 75     Angry, mad, resentful, annoyed, irritated, upset, furious 20     Embarrassed, foolish, humiliated, self-conscious 10       As you can see, she felt intensely guilty, anxious, inadequate, and lonely, and had a few additional feelings that were somewhat elevated. Then she pinpointed two negative thoughts, along with her percent belief in each one. I'm a bad daughter. 100% I should move back in with my mom. 50% Then she identified the distortions in her thoughts, and explained why each distortion will not map onto reality. This technique is called “Explain the Distortions.” Explain the Distortions NT: I'm a bad daughter 100% All-or-Nothing Thinking. I'm focusing on the idea that I can be 100% good or bad , which doesn't make sense, since nothing in this world is completely good or bad. Overgeneralization I'm calling myself a ”bad daughter,” as though this is label described my entire being. Mental Filtering Instead of focusing on some of the positive things that I do. I'm focusing on the idea that I'm not doing enough. Discounting the Positive I'm not thinking about all the loving things that I do for my mom and that I enjoy doing for her and with her. Mind-Reading I'm telling myself that my mother thinks that I am a bad daughter, but I don't actually have any evidence for this. Fortune-Telling I am telling myself that I'll never be good enough. Emotional Reasoning: I feel like a bad daughter so I think it must be true. Magnification and Minimization: I'm magnifying how important my conduct is to my mother (big ego). Should Statement: I'm telling myself that I should be a better daughter and that I shouldn't have moved back to the city where I prefer to live. LAB: I'm labeling myself as “bad daughter.” Self-Blame: I am blaming myself for being a “bad daughter.” Other-Blame: I might be blaming my mother for expecting so much. NT: I should move back in with my mom. 50% All-or-Nothing Thinking. I'm telling myself that I'm either there 100% or not there 100%, which doesn't really make sense. Even if I don't live with my mom, I can still visit often and stay as long as I like. Mental Filtering I'm focusing only on my duty to a parent and not on my commitments to myself. Fortune-Telling I'm telling myself that something bad will happen to my mother and that she will be unable to care for herself. Magnification and Minimization: I'm magnifying my importance (ego!!!) Emotional Reasoning: I feel like I should live with her so it must be true. Should Statement: I am shoulding myself. Self-Blame: I'm blaming myself for leaving and for wanting to live on my own. Other-Blame: I am secretly blaming my mother for making me feel this way. Straightforward Technique You just try to challenge your negative thought with a positive thought (PT) that fulfills the Necessary and Sufficient Conditions for emotional change: The Necessary Condition: The PT must be 100% true, and not a rationalization. The Sufficient Condition: the PT must significantly or greatly reduce your belief in your Negative Thought. Negative thought: I am a bad daughter (I should move back in with my mom.) Write down a more positive and realistic thought: My mom is in average health for her age and can take care of herself. She has the financial resources to maintain her lifestyle without my help. Ask yourself: Is this negative thought really true? Maybe. I love my mom more than just about anyone. I do lots of things for her and with her and enjoy her company immensely. Do I really believe it? I do. Socratic Method When you use this technique, you ask yourself questions to lead yourself to the illogic of your negative thought. NT: I am a bad daughter Questions: Are you sometimes a good daughter? Yes Do most adult children feel like they are a bad kid sometimes? Yes NT: I should move back in with my mom Questions: Should adult children live with their parents? Not if they don't want to! Worst, Best, Average With this technique, you list the qualities of the opposite. Since you're calling yourself a “bad daughter,” you can list the qualities of a “good daughter.” Then you can rate yourself in each quality, thinking of when you're at your worst, when you're at your best, and your average. Qualities of a “good daughter” Worst Best Average 1.        Calls their parents 80 100 90 2.        Visits their parents regularly 30 100 90 3.        Helps their parents 70 90 80 4.        Is financially responsible for self 80 100 90 5.        Respects their parents 0 90 80   When you're done, you can review your ratings. If there's one area where you need to improve, you can put together a 3 or 4 step plan for changing. Sometimes, as in Alexis' case, you'll realize that you're actually doing just fine, and no change is needed! This technique was the icing on the cake, and Alexis decided that her thought, “I'm a bad daughter,” wasn't actually true. These were her feelings at the end. Feelings Now % Goal % After % Anxious, worried, panicky, nervous, frightened 75 5 10 Frustrated, stuck, thwarted, defeated 50 0 0 Guilty, remorseful, bad, ashamed 100 0 0 Hopeless, discouraged, pessimistic, despairing 20 0 0 Sad, blue, depressed, down, unhappy 80 5 0 Inferior, worthless, inadequate, defective, incompetent 80 0 0 Lonely, unloved, unwanted, rejected, alone, abandoned 75 0 0 Angry, mad, resentful, annoyed, irritated, upset, furious 20 0 0 Embarrassed, foolish, humiliated, self-conscious 10 0 0   As you can see, Alexis put in some time and effort to challenge the negative thoughts that were triggering her unhappiness. We are indebted to Alexis for being so open and vulnerable, and for showing this how it works. Is it worth it? That was a lot of “homework!” That's a decision you'll have to make for yourself, of course. The Dalai Lama said that happiness is the purpose of life. That's not entirely true, but there's a lot of truth in it, for sure! So, the question might be, what would some greater happiness be worth to you? If you are interested in beta testing the Feeling Good App, you can sign up at www.feelinggood.com/app. Thank you Alexis for the very special gift of your knowledge, tremendous skill, and vulnerability! Until next time— Rhonda and David  

Today, I am blessed to have here with me Dr. David Harper. As a health educator and cancer researcher, Dr. David G. Harper has studied the impact of diet on human health for many years. The culmination of that extensive work is the BioDiet, a ketogenic food regimen that he and his wife began in 2012. The significant weight loss and health improvements they experienced led Dr. Harper to counsel hundreds of people on the BioDiet, with similarly consistent and impressive results. Dr. Harper is an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of the Fraser Valley and a visiting scientist at the BC Cancer Research Center, Terry Fox Laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in comparative physiology at the University of Cambridge. He is on the scientific advisory board of the Canadian Clinicians for Therapeutic Nutrition and is a member of the Institute for Personalized Therapeutic Nutrition. In this episode, Dr. Harper discusses fixing your diet before putting drugs in your body. The best cure for cancer is through prevention; Dr. Harper reveals how diet can be the key to avoiding chronic diseases and cancer. Dr. Harper dives deep into the connection between insulin resistance, obesity, and inflammation. Plus, he chats about how ketosis is a great way to lower inflammation and reverse insulin resistance. Tune in as Dr. Harper talks about studying the effects of a ketogenic diet on women with breast cancer.