Podcasts about AW

Aw, shucks.

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

I detta "AW med Ann och Dala" fortsätter Ann Sandin-Lindgren och Dala Dahlström att prata om de program som nu hörs på Radio Tyresö 91,4 MHz. Det har varit mycket politik under hösten men nu har slingan matats med en massa nya intressanta program. Vilka har Dala gillat? Vilka program är på g? De reflekterar också över hur det går med deras medborgarinitiativ och vad potatis historiskt betyder för många.

CATCHING THE JOY #RTTBROS #Nightlight"13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13There's a story about Benjamin Franklin after he gave a stirring speech on the guarantees of the Constitution. As he finished, a heckler shouted from the crowd, "Aw, them words don't mean nothin' at all. Where's all the happiness you say it guarantees us?"Franklin didn't get defensive. He just smiled and replied, "My friend, the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself."I think a lot of us treat our faith like that heckler. We read the promises of the Bible—promises of peace, joy, and restoration—and we look at our messy lives and ask, "Where is it? Why hasn't it just landed in my lap yet?"We mistake a promise for a passive experience."13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13God doesn't run a vending machine where we insert a prayer and a finished product drops out. The Kingdom of God is an invitation to a pursuit. The joy of the Lord is a gift, but it's a gift we have to actively chase. We don't "catch" it by chasing the world's version of happiness, money, status, or comfort, but by pursuing the Person who is the source of it.The promise is guaranteed, but the pursuit is required.Tonight, stop waiting for the joy to find you. Start chasing the One who holds it.Catch the Joy: 3 Action PointsAudit the Chase: Ask yourself, "What have I been chasing this week to make me happy?" If it's a circumstance or a person, pivot. Spend 10 minutes tonight pursuing God's presence instead of a solution.Active Gratitude: Joy is often found in noticing what we already have. Write down three specific ways God showed up for you today. You can't catch joy if you're blind to the grace already in the room.Outward Motion: We often catch the most joy when we stop looking for it for ourselves and start delivering it to someone else. Send one encouraging text to someone who is struggling.Stop waiting for the feeling; start seeking the Father.Be sure to Like, Share, Follow and subscribe it helps get the word out.https://linktr.ee/rttbros

Have you ever looked at a project you've poured years of your life into and realized… it's fine? Not catastrophic. Not terrible. Just fine.No one wants to read a book that's fine — and I am certain you don't want to write one.The first step in making sure you do better than fine is to catch yourself when you know you've hit a wall — which is way easier said than done.We get so used to plowing ahead, getting the words down, prioritizing FINISHING that we often forget to stop and make sure we are writing what we really want to be writing. Think of that pause like checking in with your gut or your heart: do you love this?Because if you don't love it, your readers aren't going to love it, either.In this Write Big episode, KJ and I sit down for an honest, behind-the-scenes look at what happens when you hit a wall—and decide to set off a stick of dynamite instead of trying to climb over it. Both of us recently threw out huge portions of our current projects (my Write Big book, and KJ's novel) to start fresh from page zero.I share the story of my 12-hour wrestling match with ChatGPT over the books subtitle (yeah — 12 hours on the subtitle), the “tough love” reality check I got from #amwriting recurring guest therapist Dr. Diana Hill, and how answering one simple question—are you actually centering your reader?—changed everything about my book's tone, structure, and voice. Meanwhile, KJ opens up about why she threw out her protagonist, embraced a dual-timeline structure, and ignored the well-meaning advice of friends who told her NOT to keep starting over.We talk about:* How to recognize when a book is polite or timid instead of alive.* The difference between an echo chamber (which AI can sometimes be) and a true truth-teller.* A method for salvaging the gold from an abandoned draft without getting bogged down by old words.* Why starting over isn't “falling behind”—it's standing up for your conviction.If you're feeling stuck, lost, or secretely suspecting your current draft needs a radical pivot, we encourage you stop playing it safe and build something alive.Let's get back to work and finish work we LOVE.#AmWriting is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Books Mentioned* Austin Kleon's Steal Like an Artist* John Wooden's books on coaching basketball* Serena Bowen's novel: Big Stick Energy* Virginia A. Evans's The CorrespondentTranscriptJennie: [00:00:00] Hi, I'm Jennie Nash, and you're listening to the #amwriting podcast, the place where we help writers of all kinds play big in your writing life, love the process, and stick with it long enough to finish what matters most. This is a Write Big episode, where I bring you short conversations, this one might not be so short, about the mindset shifts that shape the work, and today I'm talking to KJ.Jennie: Hi, KJ.KJ: I'm so excited to be here. This is... Uh, you know. I'll be here lots. This is great. Uh, the, the behind-the-scenes stuff- Is the behind the scenes stuff? KJJennie: often-KJ: And here we are just to like, you know, having a nice normal, um, a podcast, soJennie: yeah. I know. I'm so excited to talk to you and to share this conversation with our listeners, and we're talking aboutJennie: So we're talking about the mindset shifts that shape the work. That's what Write Big is all about, and [00:01:00] oof, some big ones just happened for us both. Yep. Um, if you've been listening for a while, you know we're both working on projects. They're very different projects. Um, KJ's is a novel, mine is a nonfiction book, and I just m- literally dropped a bomb on mine and totally blew it up and started in a new direction, and this is years into it, and you recently did that too, and you- I didKJ: something very similarJennie: you were shy about sharing it with me, which I thought was funny. Um- Oh. ‘Cause you were like- Yeah ... “She's not in the book anymore.” I was asking her aboutKJ: something. That's right. You're like, “Oh, and this could be s- “ I, I mentioned something, and I was like, “Oh, yeah.” Yeah,Jennie: I just mentioned changes. That was when we were in person.Jennie: We, KJ and I were in person, and you know what? We didn't take a picture.KJ: Oh my God, we didn't. You're right. Oh, well.Jennie: We both tra- We have aKJ: lot of things. Travel It just means we have to do it again [00:02:00] soon.Jennie: We both traveled great distances in order to have lunch and go shopping and talk about books, and we were walking and chatting about KJ's book, and, and that's when I learned she had blown everything up.Jennie: So how areKJ: you- We both blew things up. So I got questions. I'm sure you have questions. I have. My first question- Yeah ... you just did this, so how did you know you had to do this?Jennie: Yeah, I did it yesterday.KJ: I think that's ... I know. I think that's the thing that people wanna know, like, “How did you, how did you know?”KJ: Okay. “Was it gradual? Was it sudden?” Just-Jennie: Yeah ...KJ: you know, j- tell, tell us how we should know if we should do the same thing, which I already did, and I have an answer to this too, so.Jennie: Yeah, yeah.KJ: How didJennie: you know? So I was ... I had a finished manuscript, and I asked two people to read it for very particular reasons, these beta reas- readers, and they, neither of them were people that I would callJennie: They're not the kinda typical people that I would go to. [00:03:00] They were, they were more, um, regular readers, if that makes sense. They're, they're not insidery people like you. I mean, you and I- Me ... have a lot of insidery, inside the industry people. These were not those people. So I had a full manuscript. I took it out to both of them.Jennie: I got feedback from both of them, and the, the first, the first person's feedback was- Fine? It was, it was fine. It was like, “This is fine. I want more of this or that.” And it was, it was kind of like, not-KJ: Fine, huh? Great ...Jennie: not what anybody wants. Fine. I either want my reader to be like, “Oh, hell yes,” or, “I co- totally don't get it.”Jennie: Like, I want, I don't want fine. So that was the first thing, and then the second reader [00:04:00] said, “I ha- I got some tough love for you.” And this was happened after I was really struggling. I was trying to rewrite while they were doing the beta read, and, you know, f- with my own critique and my own next steps and my own thing, and I found myself unable to go forward because of the title.Jennie: I kept changing my mind on the title. Like, what really is this? And what, it's particularly the subtitle. What, what am I doing? Like, after all this time, after all this time, after a million blueprints, a million conversations, a whole manuscript, I'm still asking myself, “What is the point? Who is this for?Jennie: What am I doing?” And I, when I say that I was wrestling with that, I felt that I couldn't revise until I got it right because I, the revision now is very [00:05:00] specific. It's not let's just get some words down.KJ: Mm-hmm.Jennie: And so I think I spent, I mean, I'm not even exaggerating- 12 hours? I'm not kidding. Playing- No,KJ: I, I believe-Jennie: Playing with my title.Jennie: And-KJ: And you kept sending me things, and I'd be like, “Eh.”Jennie: Yeah, you were like, “Meh.” I was playing in Chat GPT- I was super helpful ... and the reason that I spent so much time was it was really fun. It was, it was like, “Well, what about this? Well, what about the other? I don't like that word.” Like I was fighting with the machine, which I sort of enjoyed, and, and it was, it wasJennie: It says, you know, it says ridiculous things all the time. “This is your most original idea.” I'm like, “Blah.” You know? Yeah. Just I was kind of wanting to- Yeah, you,KJ: you, you can't listen to it. No. You can only listen to what it's making you say.Jennie: I was wrestling with my own mind. Yeah. That's what I was doing.Jennie: Mm-hmm. And, and I would land on something, and I would think this, and I would start [00:06:00] to revise, and I'd think, “Yeah,” and then I'd send it to you. And you'd be, yeah, you'd be like, “I don't like it,” or, “I don't get it,” or, “Meh,” or, “No,” or whatever. And I was getting mad, not at you, but at my own self. Like, what is the matter here?Jennie: And if you've listened to the podcast, you heard some big revelation episodes with Andrew Perella, who's working on his novel, where you have to step back from the wrestling to say, “Why am I wrestling so much with this? There's something else going on here,” right? Mm-hmm. So that was kind of what was happening, and then the second beta reader- Uh, who is, has been on the podcast several times as well and, and will be in the future.Jennie: It's therapist Diana. So therapist Diana often comes on to help us with some psychological things around writing. And- AndKJ: she has a book.Jennie: She does. She has actually three. So she was the one [00:07:00] who said, “I got some tough love for you.” And she said, “Why don't you come over, and we'll sit down, and I'll, I'll tell it to you.”Jennie: And so part of me was doing that thing that you do is, where it was like, “Oh, crap, I still have so much work to do, and, and I'm tired of this, and I don't wanna.” And, you know, so I went into it with that sort of whiny, resistant attitude. And for, like, the first hour when she was talking to me, I had that really defensive thing of like, “You don't get me.Jennie: You don't get, you don't get what I'm doing. You don't, you're not, you're not in my world.” Like, I was really resistant. And then she did the coolest thing because she's a, a therapist and a writer and all the things. She used my own system on me, and she was like, [00:08:00] “Okay, step one is why are you doing this?” And she said, “I want...Jennie: I'm gonna ask you,” I think she said, “15 times, ‘Why are you doing this?'” And we, we were walking, and so she was just go saying, “Why are you doing this?” And I was just spouting out all the things. And I got to about, I don't know, eight, nine, and she goes, “Okay.” None of these are about the reader. These are all about you and what you want.Jennie: And, and none of these are about what you're actually making. Is this book... Are you trying to help your readers with what you're trying to do with this book? Like, are they in the same place you are? And I s- I had this really strong reaction, and I said, “No. What I'm struggling with around this book is, is a different problem from, from my r- my [00:09:00] reader.Jennie: I want to meet them here.” And I, and I said where I want to meet them, and what I want, how I wanted to help them, and why it was so hard to deliver that. And she was taking notes on her phone while we were walking, and then, uh, she read them back to me, and, and it was like, oh yeah, that's the book I want to write.Jennie: That, that's the book I want to write. Like, I, I knew it, I just wasn't doing it. And it was, um, a whole different structure, a whole different attitude, a whole different voice and tone. And, and it really required a page zero start. So I... This was what was really cool. I, um, did not use ChatGPT. I wrote a new subtitle.Jennie: I guess I did use it, ‘cause I was wrestling with one word. I guess I did use it for this one [00:10:00] word. Um-KJ: It's, it can be a really great thesaurus.Jennie: Yeah, yeah. And, and I sent it to you, and you said, I'm gonna keep this text for the rest of my life. You said, “I've already pre-ordered it.”KJ: Yeah.Jennie: I mean- YouKJ: got itJennie: It actually-KJ: I mean, you know, you might change a word or something, but, but no, that one was like, oh, oh, yeah, yeah.KJ: Okay.Jennie: Yeah. It made me wanna cry. Aw. And then I re- I wrote a new intro, totally new from scratch, which is where I had been stuck before, just like even what is this? And I, I wrote it in, like, 15 minutes, and I sent it to Diana, therapist Diana, and, um, she said, her text reply was, “F*****g awesome.”KJ: Yay.Jennie: And I was like, okay, okay.Jennie: [00:11:00] Like, two people I trust.KJ: She didn't say, “Fine.”Jennie: Right? Two people I trust had that reaction, and when I... I wish I could find the text. Maybe I can find the text. Because when I sent it to her, this was what was so great. I do wanna find this. I'm scrolling through my texts now while we're talking, because I said, um- New intro, just three pages.Jennie: Will you read? This is it, period. I hardly even need to ask you because I know it's it. Like, I, it wasn't looking for confirmation or validation. I kind of just wanted her to see. But I, I felt it was it. I knew it was it. And then I started... I can't stop writing now. Like, I'd been so stuck, and I can't stop writing.Jennie: I'm so fired up. I'm so excited. It feels alive and amazing. Um, it feels like butter on toast. Like, it's just [00:12:00] smooth and easy, and I get it, and I, I, I've clicked in, and it, and it... This has come after, like, I tried to sell this book. You know? I mean, I went through that whole process and, and it didn't. And now I'm so delighted that it didn't sell, that I'm not writing that other book, that, that I get to write- YesJennie: this book. And it's, like, such a pain in the butt really because, you know, I wanted it to be done, and I wanted it to be over- ... and I wanted to be close. And I thought I was there. Um, I had all these plans, you know, for launching and making it happen and blah, blah, blah. And it's like, oh gosh, now I'm like six months or a year behind.Jennie: I'm using air quotes. Like, behind what? I don't know. I mean, if I'm perfectly honest, there, there's a colleague who has a book coming out in 2027 that I'm [00:13:00] twitchy about, and I sort of wanted to beat it. And- ... it was never gonna happen. And also, like, what is that even? What is that even? So I, yeah, I feel amazing.KJ: This is great.Jennie: Yeah. Yeah. I, I feel amazing.KJ: That's, that's fantastic. Yeah.Jennie: I, I just love it. I'm so grateful for, um, you know, the people that I have who are truth tellers, which is, you're one of them. And youKJ: know- It is hard to find a truth teller. And I pick up so many books now, some of them by, you know, very well-known authors, and I'm like, there, there was no truth teller- RightKJ: for this person. And- I mean, I, I, yeah. You know, sometimes it's just like, “Well, this could've been better,” but the- I've had a couple where I was like, “Wow, damn.” Like, I would've, I would... [00:14:00] Even though I don't know you very well, if you'd given this to me in time, I would've stopped you, but-Jennie: Well, I think sometimes the more famous people get, the, the less often- I think soJennie: people will tell them the truth, and- Mm-hmm ... you have to seek that o- out your own self. And, y- you know, I'm so lucky that I have s- have, I mean, so lucky. You know, you, you're not gonna let me get away with crap, and I don't wanna put crap out there. Like, what I had was fine. ItKJ: wasn't crap. It was fine. ItJennie: was fine.KJ: Mm-hmm. But- And some of it was great, was, like, inspirational, really. Helped me, and had lot... But you couldn't, you just couldn't nail that the subtitle was the point.Jennie: Yep. It's so true. Yeah,KJ: and you just couldn't, you just kept sending me, like, “Ugh.”Jennie: I know.KJ: You know? Like, like, “Oh, this is a book about...” You know, I was like, eh, just like, you know-Jennie: This is a writing bookKJ: boring thing, boring thing, colon, [00:15:00] boring thing. And it was- I know ... or, you know, like, like, “Meh thing, unexciting, dash-” “... probably okay.” I don't know. It's, it's-Jennie: I know, and it, you know, this is in fact the whole write big process. I am going through the very thing I am teaching people to do. And- Mm-hmm When I, what I really understood finally is the reasonJennie: So one of the things, um, when Diana asked me, when she stopped me from saying all the reasons why I wanted to write this book and, and said none of these are about the reader, she understands about me that my whole career is about the reader. I, I train book coaches. I'm a book coach. I- it's what I do. And, and so she was e- then asked me to really define.Jennie: She was like, “When you're coaching someone and it's magic and it [00:16:00] just works and it's awesome, what are you doing?” And, and it was like, I'm not pulling any punches. I'm not, you know, a- and I, and I described to her an incident that just happened, and I can't say very much about it. But a very, very well-known performer was sent to me by an agent, somebody we would all know, with a book proposal that needed help.Jennie: And, and I read the proposal, and the word that was just like a neon sign flashing in my mind was timid. It just felt timid.KJ: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.Jennie: And everybody does this. Everybody shrinks to a certain extent from the thing that they know they can write, and it was like, wow, s- super famous performer who is connected to all the famous people, don't write a timid book.Jennie: Like, we don't, we don't want you to write a timid book. No. You don't want to write a timid book. And in what I do, so I, I got on the Zoom with them, and I said, [00:17:00] “This is timid. This is a timid book. You're shrinking from your authority.” And, you know, they were obviously taken aback. Um, but also then they ... It landed.Jennie: Like- Yes ... I, I see that. And that's what I do when I'm coaching someone. So, so why is that not in the book? Yeah. So the book has gotten much more confrontational, much more tough love, much, much less equivocating. It just feels- MuchKJ: less how to not do something.Jennie: Ugh. Like. It's so much more me, and I- YeahJennie: sometimes pretend like I'm a, a polite and kind and whatever, patient person. But the people that know me, you know, know I'm not actually like that, so. Anyway.KJ: And that would not be a helpful, I mean, that's not a helpful book coach.Jennie: That's right.KJ: You know, people may need that, but- For some people, give somebodyKJ: I don't, yeah. I mean, yeah. Some, sometimes. But by and large, if you give somebody [00:18:00] something and they're like, “This is great”-Jennie: Yeah.KJ: I, I mean, and maybe it's great. Yeah. It's probably not.Jennie: Yeah.KJ: You know, 99% of the time it's almost, or it's not even close, or it's ...Jennie: Yeah.KJ: Yeah.Jennie: So I've pulled off of my shelf some different books for inspiration than the ones I was using before.Jennie: Um, Austin Kleon has a really cool thing in his new book. Why can't I remember the title of his new book? It's quite hard to remember.KJ: I don't know. What does he want you to steal now?Jennie: I mean, steal, Steal Like an Artist is so memorable, and I can't remember the new, the new one. It's a good book, but he has this really cool image where he says, “Books are made of books,” and, and he has the cover of his new book with these inputs and the cover of, like, I don't know, maybe six or eight books that went into his [00:19:00] book.Jennie: You know, like the, that went through his mind to create his book, and it's really beautiful. LikeKJ: real books?Jennie: Yes.KJ: Like his cover is like if you put, I don't know, I'm look- reading titles from the back of you- you- you're behind ... Deep Work and Dare to Lead and Made to Stick, and, and you like- Yep ... fed them into a brain- YepKJ: and then it spat out your book?Jennie: Yep.KJ: Wow. Huh.Jennie: It's reallyKJ: cool. That's a, that's an interesting ...Jennie: Yeah, it'sKJ: bold.Jennie: That's really- It is bold, and it, but I do think it's, I do think it's real. And, and I had some books that were sort of ... What's weird is I wasn't reading them or studying them. I was almost like I would almost just touch them.Jennie: Like, these are the books I want my book to sit next to, to be like. And I've changed out the books that are, are that. I've pulled ... Like, I have this book that I love that is, um, by John Wooden, the basketball coach, about coaching basketball, and you know, it's about [00:20:00] coaching, and, and I've always loved that book, and I've loved how he was revered as a coach.Jennie: And you know, that, that book is now one that's informing me more. It would never be a comp title. This is a very different concept than a comp title, right? But, um, yeah, I just feel, I feel great. And, um- And folks who have been listening have heard me share some things where I've not been feeling great, and I've been feeling lost and confused, and, you know, shouldn't I know better?Jennie: I'm the coach of the coaches, and shouldn't I know better? This is my 13th book, and shouldn't I know better? And it's like, no, you always have to do the work. You just do.KJ: Well, and that's what I hope, you know, people who've been listening along to us for the years we've spent on these projects now take is, I mean, there are people who write great books really quickly.KJ: Typically, they are also people who are able to, uh, you [00:21:00] know, process and keep pots on the stove. And, you know, like Serena writes three to four books a year, and that's, uh, you know, a really hard person to have next to you at all times- Yeah, no kidding ... as I pretty much do. But I also can see that she's got pots boiling at all the time.KJ: She doesn't, you know, wake up on March 1st and say, “Okay, I wanna have a book by July 31st. What should it be about?” And, and that's not how it works for her. And, and so even though she is absolutely faster at producing quality work than, than I am, it's still, it's not that. You know, it's more like, “Okay, here's this thing that I set up before, and here's this thing that I spent, you know, a week plotting, and here's...KJ: And I'm gonna pull this, this toge- together,” and, you know, she gets stuck, but she, and she also, you know, she's full time all the time- Eh, not [00:22:00] doing, you know, that's what she does. That and promoting them. And incidentally, she had a book come out today. Uh-oh, you've gone silent for me.Jennie: Sorry, I was raving and saying she did.Jennie: Um, it was, it's called Big Stick Energy.KJ: Yeah.Jennie: And when this podcast airs, it will not have just come out today. It'll be-KJ: No, but, you know, as we talk ...Jennie: a few weeks ago. But yeah, yay Serena. Okay. Yeah. So do you have more questions for me?KJ: It was more that I just wanted to express that I, uh, felt similarly, but minus all the other people.KJ: Mm. It was a very, like I was really stewing in like, “I just can't- You know, I wanted to have, um, a, a, something that I was thinking about the whole time as I write. You know, I really wanted to know the, what the theme was and what the point was, and I just wanted to know why. Why was I doing this? And every day I would like sort of wake up [00:23:00] and, and stew more on that, and like put some more things in that.KJ: And it was like a, a 40-page Google Doc of, you know, me ranting and trying to get there. And then, then I was, I was putting words on the page, and I had 35,000 words, but I would sit down and I found the protagonist boring. She just ... The other people around her were more interesting.Jennie: That'sKJ: not aJennie: good- And- That's not a good- NoJennie: feeling.KJ: No, it was bad. And I just kept sort of poking at this, and, and it was always so ... I'd say it's, it's, um, I would call it, I would call it domestic suspense except that it, it's more of an outdoorsy book, so, you know, I don't know, campground suspense. I don't know. But, um, it's, it's not exactly a thriller.KJ: It's definitely a, a suspense novel. And it all came down to like, well, why did this [00:24:00] happen, and why and why and why? And I realized that all of it was in the past. The more interesting story was in the past, and the more interesting people were the ones who had had that past experience, and were still here in this book.KJ: And it didn't mean that, that I didn't need a second generation of people, but they needed to have been, um, honestly fed by the trauma of the thing that happened in the past, and it ... So I, at some point, I was looking for the text while we were talking, but I can't find it. I texted, um, Serena and Jess, and I was like, “Ugh, I think I gottaKJ: The, I gotta, I gotta have a second, I gotta have a dual timeline. I gotta ...” A- and Serena was like, “Stop doing this. You keep stop, you keep blowing this bo- book up. You know, just write what you're writing. Just write.” And I was like, “No, no, no, no. I really, I, I do. I do.” And, “Why?” She said, “Why?” I said, “Because that's where the interesting stuff is.”KJ: And she said, “Okay, fine.”Outro: Okay, but you said- And then she made me explain itKJ: whenOutro: we had a, a walk,KJ: but,Jennie: um- You said it didn't involve people, but that's people. [00:25:00]KJ: Oh, yeah. Yeah. But the people were saying, “No, no.” And, and she's right to do that. I'm very prone- Oh, I see. They were not- I'm a little prone to blowing, blowing things upJennie: they were not egging you on. They were saying-KJ: No. Yeah. Uh, it was, it was, you know, “Can, can you stop rethinking this book and, and write this book?” And yes, yes I can, but it needed the, the rethinking. It's, this is, it's, it's much more interesting. And, you know, it was at a point where things would kinda like, I'd come up with something and be like, “Oh, yeah, that locks into this, and this locks into this, and this locks into this,” but- The method of telling it wasn't working.KJ: It's not really a different story. The method of telling it wasn't, wasn't, wasn't working. But it really is kind of like it bugs you, and it bugs you, and it bugs you, and it bugs you, and it bugs you, and finally you just give in to it.Jennie: Well, yeah. I mean, it's a really interesting question of how do you know when you're hiding from something, or avoiding something, [00:26:00] or telling yourself a story about your story, and how do you know when you need to make a move?Jennie: I, I feel like it's very, very hard to do that in isolation. You know, even with your situation where your people were saying, “No, KJ,” that's a mirror that somebody's holding up to you where you get to decide how you feel about them saying no. Like, the point- Right ... really honest, good feedback is not that you take it all the time, it's that does this resonate with something in you or not?Jennie: And with me it was like, oh, yeah, my fine manuscript, and then, and then this tough love. I'm like, “Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it needs to change.” And you hearing that, you're like, “No. No. This...” Like, it, it was all, it all goes back to your conviction, but it's- It,KJ: it's just like the way you were using ChatGPT. ChatGPT wrote nothing, said [00:27:00] nothing, con- added nothing because he is...KJ: He. I don't, uh... You know, it is not an anything. It is a echo. It is- Yeah ... a reflection. It is an echo and a reflection of all of our work combined into, you know, a, a, a stolen creation. But e- and therefore, as far as I'm concerned, we have a right to use it however we want. But- It's not capable of producing anything original, but it is capable of reflectingJennie: That's rightKJ: And that's what you were using it for, and I think that's reallyJennie: It's really helpful when you're strategizing- Mm-hmmJennie: and sorting out your thoughts, and this is what I think I wanna do, and this is why I wanna do it, and this is why that word isn't right for that. And for me, that was just the-KJ: And the peril of it kind of is that it refuses to stopJennie: So that's what's so interesting you say that, because I... When I... So I said 12 hours.Jennie: I spent a whole lot of time on airplanes the last month, and this [00:28:00] is kind of what I would do on an airplane, is I was on airplanes that now have super fast, like that satellite hotspot- Mm-hmm ... WiFi. It's super fast. And so it was kind of fun to get to do this stuff on an airplane. And you know, I can... I love to work on airplanes, but I can't do deep work.Jennie: So I would sort of tap into this, and I was just playing, playing, playing, playing, pushing, pushing. And I did have the thought at one point: There is no friend that I have on the planet or anybody that I could pay that would stick with this as long as I'm doing it. And-KJ: That is true ...Jennie: and that was in, on some, some ways I was like thank goodness that this thing will stick with my brain, saying, “No.Jennie: No, not that word. Let's find 47 other words to think about rightKJ: now.” But you're the one saying, “No, no, no.”Jennie: Yes. Yes.KJ: Yeah.Jennie: And no humanKJ: would do that. But I do find that a peril of it, like, [00:29:00] like I was trying to use it to, to find a, a stand-up paddleboard today. This is a fine use to... And, and you know, it kept... It just keeps saying, “Well, if you'll tell me this, I could do this.KJ: And if you'll tell me this, I could...” Like, it never... It doesn't want... You know, it's not a thing, so it wants to keep you there like all things of its sort. So it's a, it's a little bit of, um It, it's, it's just something to be aware of. Like, it's, it is keeping ... Its job is to keep you in that conversation.Jennie: Yeah.Jennie: And itKJ: wa- But it is not a conversation because it is not a, it is not something that you can converse with. But so, so to use it for as far as you can get, and then as you did, to go, “Uh, and now, you know, uh, my thoughts have, have churned enough to have, have, have ... And, and you have to sort of, uh, you know, leave it going, “But wait, if you'll sugg- you know, tell, [00:30:00] I, tellKJ: Right. It- “I can still think of 452 more words for, for,” you know.Jennie: And it, and yeah. No. It's relentlessly helpful- It's relentless ... in suggesting things.KJ: Yeah,Jennie: yeah. And it's ... So on the one hand, that was lovely, and on the other hand it was like, “Just stop.” Like, the writer's job is to have an opinion or a point of view.Jennie: And-KJ: It could have any point of view ...Jennie: it will never have a point of view- No. Yeah ... or opinion that is based on anything. And so, like, your reaction to your, your longtime people who know you and know your writing, know your process, and know your goals, and know all that, y- you know, that reflection allowed you to tap back into your point of view, which is, “No, I have to have two timelines.Jennie: I have to blow this up. I have to do it differently. It's ... My protagonist is boring.”KJ: Yeah. Don't worry, future readers of this book. She's gone. [00:31:00]Jennie: But new protagonist is not boring.KJ: New protagonist is not one bit boring. It was funny ‘cause there were just some things that I, that had come from the point of view of non-protagonist characters that I was just like, “This is so much better thanKJ: Like, this is the, this is ... Like, I wanna be with this person. I don't wanna be with this person I'm ... This person just threw themselves into this,” whereas, you know, the person I was imagining and creating and, uh- Anyway, it- it's okay. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine.Jennie: Um, I mean, I know you've had that thing I've had, which is I'm gonna have a draft by X, and you've had that- YeahJennie: for many, many months.KJ: The number of times I've said I'm gonna have a draft by on- Yeah ... this particular manuscript are- Really embarrassing. They're not embarrassing, it's just, you know, it, it, [00:32:00] it just, it just is. I'm trying to do something different, and doing something different takes time, and you are trying to do something big-Jennie: YeahKJ: and something that has a big shadow and a big resonance, and you can't ... You're not gonna ... That's not gonna be that way in the first or the second or the fourth or the fifth draft.Jennie: Well, you said to me ... I, I've always had a vision of this book I'm writing as, as being small. I have a couple of-KJ: Small physically, like thin.Jennie: Both. Small in length and small in trim size. Uh, uh, spare, I guess, is maybe- Yeah ... a word I, I would think of. And there's several books I have that do that, that I admire, and it's a thing I want. And you've been always saying to me, “It's really hard to write a book like that.” It's n- you don't just ... [00:33:00] Just ‘cause it's little and short doesn't mean it's easyKJ: It's hard to write short.Jennie: Yeah. And, and you've been warning me about that, and I think I really encountered that buzzsaw here. Uh, I'm like, “Ugh.” Um, so.KJ: Well, you're just trying to channel ... I think you're also trying to channel a part of yourself that mostly comes out in reaction to others.Jennie: Mm, yeah.KJ: And that's hard, because you don't have anything to react against.KJ: Yeah. You're reacting against an imaginary version. You're reacting against everyone that you've ever had to go, “That's timid.”Jennie: Yep. “KJ: That's, you know, that's not what you meant to do.” Okay, great, but I didn't ... Like, uh, this is, is, is fine writing, but why? Where does it fit? Right. What is this? What the hell are you doing?KJ: What- Right ... you know? And you're trying to write for all of those people, but as an abstraction.Jennie: That's super astute. That's super astute. And I,KJ: I'm gonna- Maybe, [00:34:00] maybe, maybe you, you address this book to, to the, this, um, unknown celebrity.Outro: Well, I actually did write thatKJ: story. Dear Taylor Swift, this is how you-Outro: Oh, gosh.Outro: Can youKJ: imagine? Don't write a ... Don't- Uh ... don't write a, a, you know- Uh ...Jennie: aKJ: timid book. And I know it wasn't Taylor. Well, I don't actually know that it wasn't Taylor. No. But it wasn't Taylor Swift, guys. It wasn't TaylorJennie: Swift. Oh, my gosh. Um, the ... Yeah, that is a really helpful thing for me to think about, actually, because I need to keep specific people in mind at specific points, and that's gonna help me.Jennie: And that's the reason why I love book coaching, is I love the back-and-forthing. Interactive nature that isKJ: very- Well, and you said to me the last time we talked about my book, I wrote it down, hold on, ‘cause it's very, [00:35:00] “What can I say that's not being said? What can I say that's offensive? How can I make people mad?”KJ: Here, do that. I'm shaking the page at Jennie. Jennie, what can you say that's not being said about writing? Why, how can you offend people? How can you hurt their feelings and make them go away and go, “That's worse. I'm not either doing that. You're soKJ: mean”?Jennie: Well, the reason I said that is because we were talking about what books ... I mean, so far listeners, Kate is obviously at a level many of us will never get to, and in her career. She is at a very high level with- SheKJ: does not feel that way.Jennie: I know. But, you know, with really big goals and, uh, big possibilities in front of her.Jennie: And so the, when we talk about it, it's like, “What will make people pick this book for their book club?” And, and that's a question anybody could ask, and should [00:36:00] ask, if that's what their goal is, to write such a book. And, you know, that's why I was saying write something offensive, because you want some book clubs to be like, “That is a book we will not touch,” because- YepJennie: that that means there are other book clubs that are gonna be like, “This is our next book, no question.” Yeah. You know?KJ: Yeah. Like, if you- And we say it all the time, you write for everyone, you write for no one, but also it's just hard to-Jennie: Well, and I haveKJ: been- Hard not to like pull your punches and back up a little and be like, “Uh, I can't mention that.KJ: I can't, I can't-” Or, “IJennie: can't be that person.” And you, as a human, I mean, I am so fortunate to be your friend, because you as a human will often say things that other people will, will maybe not say, or, you know, are maybe not super popular. And I go to you to hear those things, you know? And, and you, you say them with conviction, and I love [00:37:00] that about you.Jennie: And that should be in your book, you know?KJ: Well, I'm trying. I think it's closer. Amazing. I think it's a lot closer.Jennie: Well, if folks are getting tired of hearing us talk about this, the endless struggle and challenge and up and down and whatever, you're probably not in the right business. Because-KJ: Yeah ...Jennie: this is- IKJ: would hope this would be reassuringJennie: this is how it goes.KJ: I always wanna hear. That is part of the problem with the, the standard podcast model of talk to author whose book has just come out, because that is an author whose book has just come out. They have just, they've, they've done all this, and, and I'm not... I mean, by all means, you know, listen to podcasts about authors and then go buy their books.KJ: Um, but you know, as a writer, you just hear that and you're like, “Oh, look, they're finished. Look, that,” you know, they, they, they... And they, they'll say, “Well, there was this really low moment where, you know, the, my book pre- before [00:38:00] this got turned down,” or whatever. But they're, they're past that and, and you're just like, “Well, yeah, but that was probably really short.KJ: That was probably a blip. You probably didn't feel that the way I would've felt it.” And I,Jennie: yeah, so- Right? You hear Virginia A. Evans say she was rejected and rejected and rejected, and she finally just said, “Screw it, I'm gonna write this weird story in my head,” that turned out to be The Correspondent, you know?Jennie: And, and she tells that in three minutes on a podcast,KJ: and- Right ... I- And you're like, “Well, that, that, that was short. That can't have been very painful.”Jennie: Right? And look at what it got her, and she's fine now. But- Mm-hmm ... yeah, I'm mostly interested in talking to people when they're making the decisions that lead to whatever, whatever they're gonna make, ‘cause it's the process, man.Jennie: You gotta like the process. Yeah. Even on the days when it sucks and- Ooh ... oof, there are days when it does. They really-KJ: There, there are, [00:39:00] there are indeed Yeah. Well, but this is pretty g- like we're, we're back. We're back, kids. We're, we're- We're, we're back ... we're writing. We're, we're, we're here. We're doing it.KJ: We did. Yeah. We blew some stuff up, but now we'reKJ: building it back. Hopefully a year from now you won't be listening to the exact same podcast. We'll be like, “Here's what we said a year ago. Here's how we're blowing up our books today.” At some point everyone should be like, “You know they're never gonna finish these books.” When is that point?Outro: 2029.KJ: If we're still doing this in 2029Jennie: and talking about the same books, you can, you can all just turn off. No, I'm on fire now. I'm on fire. I am too,KJ: I swear.Jennie: Yeah, yeah.KJ: This is it.Jennie: And there's a thing that I'm doing that we could talk briefly about, ‘cause I know you're doing too, which is when you blow something up, there are parts of what you made that you can keep.Jennie: And what's part of the fun is discerning that. Yeah. And for me, I'm [00:40:00] going through the manuscript and, and saving a story here, a page there. I would say like one out of 10 maybe. One-KJ: That is not how I do it.Jennie: Mm.KJ: I start a new thing and then I will go back. Whenever I run into something that I know is in the other thing, I pull it in.Jennie: Mm. Yeah, I've beenKJ: mining- It's kind of my rule. I'm allowed, allowed to be in the other thing.Jennie: Interesting. Interesting. It'sKJ: only I have to take it ... And sometimes I don't even drop it right into the Scrivener. I'll like put it somewhere else- Yes ... and then play with it somewhere else-Outro: Interesting ...KJ: so thatKJ: Yeah, ‘cause I, I, I don't wanna Sometimes, and sometimes I will realize that revising something that I already did, even though it's good, to make it fit is actually harder than just rewriting it.Jennie: Yeah. I just really like the physical act. I, I do this physical thing. I go in and [00:41:00] I literally strike out what I'm not gonna use.Jennie: Mm. And it, it feels really satisfying. Just like, “Nope, nope, nope, nope”- Yeah ... nope. And then I'll encounter a thing I am gonna use, and I'll highlight it gray. That means it was used. And-KJ: Nice ...Jennie: it just ... I like the physicality of there are parts of this that are useful, and there's a lot of this that is not, and, and I'm making that decision.Jennie: It's gone from-KJ: Right ...Jennie: well, it's not really, it's struck out, but- Yeah ... that physical, um- Yeah.KJ: That was, that was what ... I forget the phrase that Serena used, but when I said I was doing this and I was gonna start it, and she said, “Okay, save past draft.” Like, she said something very clear. It was just, like, three words that were just like, you know, like, “Okay, but don't, don't throw it away.”KJ: That's so funny.Jennie: Which I,KJ: I wasn't going to, but yeah.Jennie: Do you feel 100% committed to the forward path now? [00:42:00]KJ: I feel 100% committed to the forward path. Thanks. This is so much more alive.Jennie: Yay. Same. That's what we're looking for, alive. Alive.KJ: Yes.Jennie: Yeah, I love it. All right. Well, um, so fun to chat with you, KJ, and we will continue the conversation.Jennie: Um, also you have some stuff up your sleeve that, um, folks will get to listen to coming up. And for everyone tuning in, so glad you could join me to talk to KJ. Now let's get back to work and finish what matters most.Outro: The hashtag amwriting podcast is produced by Andrew Perilla. Our intro music, aptly titled Unemployed Monday, was written and played by Max Cohen. Andrew and Max were [00:43:00] paid for their time and their creative output because everyone deserves to be paid for their work This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit amwriting.substack.com/subscribe

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

More and more people are wearing technology in the form of fitness bands and smart rings. These devices track metrics such as heart rate, skin temperature and sleep. The latest frontier is health tech for babies — and it's being supercharged by artificial intelligence.Sapna Maheshwari shares her family's experience with health tracking and discusses whether it's helping people or just adding to their anxieties.Guest: Sapna Maheshwari, a reporter covering new media companies for The New York Times.Background reading: Aw, it's baby's first A.I. surveillance system.Will A.I. kill us? Can it hack my bank account? Your A.I. questions answered.Photo: Margeaux Walter for The New York Times For more information on today's episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

#cuttheclutter R&AW completes 58 years of existence today. It was on 21 September 1968 that India's external intelligence agency was formed by RN Kao. Shekhar Gupta explains why and how R&AW was formed, its many successes and a short-lived period of crisis. ThePrint Editor-In-Chief also traces the stories of the many spymasters who helmed it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #asusexpertbook  @ASUSIndia.official  Checkout the ASUS Expertbook series: https://www.flipkart.com/asus-expertbook-core-ultra-store

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Aw, man, this is just like that time in One Piece where they put a God Valley flashback inside another flashback: this week we're covering One Piece Chapter 1193 “Still Practicing” with Sam (Anime Recap host) and Ken (archivist)! We also have our Piece Together segment, where we take your questions, comments, and theories! Later this week, we'll be commemorating the life of Mike McFarland, ADR director & voice actor on One Piece as well as a dear friend of the show, in a separate episode. SUBSCRIBE TO US ON PATREON! We've opened up a BRAND NEW “Sticker of the Month Club” tier on Patreon that entitles you to a patron-exclusive sticker of one of our amazing episode images every month! You also get access to ad-free episodes and our 800+ episode archive, our exclusive series 4'ced to Watch 4Kids with Steve & Alex, our full-length film OPPJapan, exclusive episodes with our special guests and a lot more. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:10:28 Manga Recap: Chapter 1193;01:24:27 Piece Together;01:48:09 To Be Continued…! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t get left behind in the AI revolution. Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this powerful episode, Vince Menzione sits down with Rebecca Jones of Bridge Partners and Mark Yaphe, Head of Consulting Partners for AWS, to uncover how AI is fundamentally rewiring the partner ecosystem. They explore the urgent shift from 90% stalled AI pilots to a new era of rapid execution, warning against the trap of “shiny object” syndrome. By unpacking the necessity of a “builder mindset” and a product-focused approach, this discussion reveals exactly what top-performing companies are doing to collapse six-month development cycles into four weeks and secure their place in the 2026 market landscape. Key Takeaways The transition from on-prem to cloud and marketplace is now entirely focused on AI transformation. Top companies approach AI with a product mindset rather than running scattershot pilots. Empowering frontline teams with a “builder mindset” can collapse solution cycles from six months to four weeks. Partners must avoid the $260 billion AI “FOMO” trap by specializing in specific industries and workflows rather than trying to do everything. Evaluating the “highest and best use” of AI models like Claude is essential for managing token economics and ROI. Thriving through AI disruption requires cultivating a strong growth mindset and prioritizing human connection and critical thinking. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AI transformation, AWS partner ecosystem, hyperscaler alignment, builder mindset, product mindset implementation, Bridge Partners insights, GenAI solution cycles, AI token economics, Claude model utilization, GSI strategy, 2026 ecosystem shift, AI ROI measurement, agentic tools, workflow specialization. Transcript Rebecca Jones and Mark Yaphe AUDIO EPISODE [00:00:00] Rebecca Jones: You can either, um, think about being disrupted or being a disruptor. [00:00:07] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us the way hyperscalers are partnering, how AI is remaking the channel. And what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:18] Vince Menzione: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi, own your host. [00:00:23] Vince Menzione: And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: technology, partnerships and outcomes, the voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: Let’s start. We have another incredible session today, right? So I get to invite another friend of, of ultimate partner who’s been around for a while and, uh, it’s just absolutely amazing. Rebecca has been in the studio, she’s been at, how many of events have you been with? Fourth, fourth one, and I’m gonna have you introduce Mark as well. [00:01:10] Vince Menzione: So come on, on stage. Rebecca. Rebecca Jones to many of you know. [00:01:14] Rebecca Jones: Thank you, sir. [00:01:15] Vince Menzione: Good to see you. Good to see you. And Mark, great, great to have you. I want to have you, Richard, we’ll have you, Rebecca’s gonna introduce you and then we want you to introduce yourself as well, sir. [00:01:23] Rebecca Jones: Wonderful. Well, [00:01:24] Vince Menzione: and another AWS exec. [00:01:26] Vince Menzione: I love this. Like, I know. Yeah, we’re finishing out the day Strong. [00:01:28] Rebecca Jones: Well, Vince, I have to say, you’ve got me, um, the last time we got together, it was the last session before happy hour. So I guess we’re closing. [00:01:36] Vince Menzione: Well, you know, we’re gonna close us [00:01:38] Rebecca Jones: out [00:01:38] Vince Menzione: really nicely. Know we, yeah. We’re serving Bloody Mary’s, by the way, while you’re guys are up here. [00:01:42] Vince Menzione: No. Good. [00:01:42] Rebecca Jones: So, um, we’re so excited to have Mark. Thank you, mark, for joining us here. Um, head of consulting partners for AWS and, uh. We’re gonna close this down, aren’t we? I love [00:01:54] Vince Menzione: it. I love it. Yes. I’m looking forward to it. [00:01:56] Rebecca Jones: Okay. [00:01:56] Vince Menzione: So Mark’s well, welcome. Good to have you. [00:01:58] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Do you wanna take a seat? [00:02:00] Vince Menzione: Uh, yeah, [00:02:00] Rebecca Jones: please do. [00:02:01] Rebecca Jones: All right. [00:02:01] Vince Menzione: Please do. I’m morphing the pillows up, by the way. [00:02:05] Rebecca Jones: Oh, are you [00:02:05] Vince Menzione: by the way, for those of who don’t know, these got shipped from my house because we got Oh, I was wondering. It’s hard to find, but yeah. Yeah, they’re, we take them from event to event. It’s so funny to have them. But I wanna, well, thank you for both being here. [00:02:17] Rebecca Jones: Yes. [00:02:18] Vince Menzione: I think it’d probably be helpful for those who don’t know, bridge Of course. Maybe just spend a moment because I know you well. [00:02:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:02:23] Vince Menzione: And we know the organization well, those of us. Those of us. [00:02:26] Rebecca Jones: But for me, uh, so let me talk to you a little bit about Bridge Partners and my role, um, the company has been around for almost two decades. [00:02:34] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. And so when you think about the transformation that’s happened within the tech industry. And our primary focus is the tech industry. Uh, and within that we focus on enterprise companies and we help them with product go to market and how they scale that through partners. Yeah. Uh, so that’s given us a really interesting and, uh, vantage point around the transformations from on-prem to cloud, cloud to marketplace and now marketplace and the transformation with ai. [00:03:04] Vince Menzione: I feel like you’re the McKenzie of the, of the partner business. Like I, [00:03:07] Rebecca Jones: I like that. [00:03:08] Vince Menzione: Can we get that? [00:03:09] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:03:10] Vince Menzione: I’ll, I’ll, I’ll sign an agreement with you, but I really do, I feel like as we work together, bridge was always like the organization we bring in to help us. Solve the big issues. Yeah. Like that I think about your organization. [00:03:20] Vince Menzione: Yeah. And Mark, talk to me about Global Consulting services. Sure. So is it all GSIs? Is it, [00:03:24] Mark Yaphe: uh, so I head up, uh, global Consulting Partner Marketing. Okay. So I focus really on, on two key categories for the, the more sig larger, uh, GSIs. Uh, I’ve got a team that actually partners very closely with them. Nice. [00:03:36] Mark Yaphe: That helps them develop the right strategies, go to market approaches, nice to unlock the opportunity. And then for the full consulting community, I look at those mechanisms. Go to market approach is leveraging marketplace to help our whole consulting community become successful with AWS. [00:03:51] Vince Menzione: And we’ve got GSIs in the room here, which is kind of cool actually. [00:03:53] Vince Menzione: Yeah. Um, where do we wanna start? Let’s, let’s, [00:03:57] Rebecca Jones: well, yeah, we’ve got a good list of questions to go through. How’s everybody feeling? We’re we’re good? We’re awake. One more session, everyone. Alright. Okay. [00:04:09] Vince Menzione: So Rebecca, uh, across the organizations you work with. What are you seeing from the highest ’cause? I, I say you’re like the McKinsey. [00:04:16] Vince Menzione: What are you seeing from the highest performing companies? Yeah, that they do differently. When it comes to turning your go-to market strategy into outcomes? [00:04:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Um, I will say the most important thing that we’re seeing from companies is they’re asking different questions, fundamentally different questions when it comes to ai. [00:04:34] Rebecca Jones: Interesting. [00:04:34] Vince Menzione: What do you mean by that? [00:04:35] Rebecca Jones: Well, we, we talked a lot this morning about there’s never been higher access, and I’ll say general adoption for tools and technology. There was a great stat this morning. Uh, I think Jay shared that, uh, from MIT. [00:04:50] Vince Menzione: We keep looking there as if he’s still [00:04:51] Rebecca Jones: sitting there. [00:04:51] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, I’m looking. Where was Jay? He, he was all over the place. Um, there was a great stat from MIT that there was, you know, if you looked at last year, 90% of pilots. Were stuck and they weren’t going anywhere. And now that’s dropped down to 70%. So there’s movement and transformation. And so when I think about that, and when I go back to the types of questions leaders are asking, um, that are really moving ahead, they’re looking at operating systems differently and they’re looking at, um. [00:05:25] Rebecca Jones: They’re asking the questions on where should I apply AI within those work streams, um, and within those operating systems, and the way in which they’re approaching that is with a product mindset. So that is fundamentally different than just the scattershot of let’s just do pilots everywhere. [00:05:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. You’ve talked about product, uh, mindset with me as well. [00:05:48] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:05:48] Vince Menzione: And I think we were gonna talk about builder mindset as well, mark, that that is a kind of a different point of view. When you think about moving from strategy to execution, how does that mindset show up inside teams and organizations? [00:06:00] Mark Yaphe: No, absolutely. Yeah. You know, the notion of the builder mindset is about, uh, taking the notion of innovation and pushing it out to the edge. [00:06:07] Mark Yaphe: Of the organization, um, the greatest ideas for innovation, the greatest things that will help you scale. They’re in the minds of your customers and the people that can best understand them and best address ’em. They’re your teams. Yeah. Your, your customer teams or your technical teams, but unlocking it. You, you want these teams to do more than just have the conversations and understand needs. [00:06:28] Mark Yaphe: You want them to be tooled and equipped to build. Yeah. So the ones that are right in front of the customers. In that moment of need where they say, I’ve got these offerings and these motions, and it gets me this far, but if I could only do a little bit more, I could delight them. I could really power this up. [00:06:45] Mark Yaphe: And so you wanna unlock that. You want to give them the tools to build, to build the POC to address specific, uh, options in the meeting. And then when they’re showing some success, show the rest of the organization how they can scale that. [00:06:58] Vince Menzione: How do you think about, because I think about big GSIs. Having huge organizations like Accenture has half a million people, and then you have customer teams that may not, are, may not be as fluent in the technology side of things. [00:07:13] Vince Menzione: Like how do you make sure that’s getting from the customer all the way to the right people in the organization and driving that loaded question. I know. [00:07:20] Mark Yaphe: No, I, I, um, you, you, you want to think about how that process works. Yeah. And there are parts of the organization. That define how do we get go to market offers in motions out to the field. [00:07:34] Mark Yaphe: Um, and they look at the whole thing and they say, well, how effective are we and how quickly can we cycle through? Yes. These activities. There’s one partner I worked with, um, they looked at this and they measure the cycle time. How long does it take me to get from pushing on an offer? Working with customers, getting feedback, and then creating new updates. [00:07:53] Mark Yaphe: A long, long time ago, like two years ago, this would take, it was a hundred [00:07:57] Vince Menzione: years ago in AI terms. [00:07:59] Mark Yaphe: Well, that’s basically it. This took about five to six months. They get about two revs a year. Now. They literally implemented a geni solution that number one uses geni to push it out to the teams, makes it bespoke on an engagement by engagement basis. [00:08:14] Mark Yaphe: It makes it relevant for their industries and their use cases. And that same tool is the feedback mechanism. So in real time it’s providing feedback. So they’ve collapsed six month cycle times to four weeks. And the punchline here is we talked about builder teams. The people that figured out they needed the solution, built the solution, and piloted the solutions were the builder teams. [00:08:36] Mark Yaphe: They were the people working with the customers. [00:08:38] Vince Menzione: I love it. Yeah, I love it. Anything to add to that? Rebecca, I know you work again, being the McKinsey of the, of the partner world. [00:08:46] Rebecca Jones: Well, I’ll, I [00:08:47] Mark Yaphe: It’s gonna stick, [00:08:47] Rebecca Jones: stick. It’s [00:08:48] Vince Menzione: gonna [00:08:49] Rebecca Jones: stick. You say it three times, that’s stick. No, I, you know, mark just hit on some really important things with the customer mind. [00:08:57] Rebecca Jones: You’re really looking at what outcomes are you trying to drive for those customers and that builder mindset, you, you’re going to hear a lot about that because companies need, as you transform, you really need to be thinking differently. And transformation takes quite a while. And while there is massive opportunity and you see the, the quickness you have to have that long-term vision and then be able to work backwards from that. [00:09:21] Rebecca Jones: And so I couldn’t agree more with the, the focus on customer outcomes. [00:09:26] Vince Menzione: So we’re in a very interesting, I’ll call it, almost a seminal point, although that’s overused in terms of where we are with AI today, right? I you mentioned like two years, feels like 10 years. Yeah. Ago, right? I mean, we’ve seen such transformation happening, but it also doesn’t feel like organizations are keeping, like, I, I feel like small SMBs actually are further ahead because they, they have to be agile, but the bigger organizations are still trying to figure some things out, right? [00:09:53] Vince Menzione: So. What needs to change around organizations, culture management processes? Like how do we bring, how do we bring everyone along on this journey? [00:10:04] Mark Yaphe: There’s a lot that needs to happen. Um, [00:10:07] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:10:08] Mark Yaphe: One thing that struck, there’s a lot of things I, I wanted to anchor on. One that Yeah, please. It could be a relevant conversation. [00:10:13] Mark Yaphe: Both, um, as part of your, uh, partner organizations delivering outcomes to customers. And, um, it’s about focusing on the business outcomes. It can be very easy, uh, to talk about the technology and the services, but day to day, the sales organization is going into solve customer problems. They’re meeting line of business leaders in specific industries who have very specific business problems to tackle. [00:10:42] Mark Yaphe: And I think one thing that organizations can do is impress upon them that it’s critical to understand. What are the business problems that we solve for our customers that we’re serving? What are those use cases? What are the drivers for it? In the role that I’m doing in an organization, how does that move the needle? [00:10:58] Guest: Yeah. [00:10:58] Mark Yaphe: For the business outcomes, it’s, it’s not dissimilar to other things, and perhaps it’s a little bit of a pivot, but always thinking about business outcomes, I think is, um, a little bit of a change that needs to be instilled within [00:11:10] Vince Menzione: what, what are the best doing better, and where are you seeing the gaps? [00:11:16] Mark Yaphe: Couple of areas, uh, one area, um, nobody knows everything. Yeah. Nobody’s got all the knowledge. [00:11:23] Vince Menzione: Right. [00:11:23] Mark Yaphe: And so rely on your ecosystem of partners and stakeholders. Yeah. Recognize you’ll only have so much information, um, and reach out, whether it’s to your technology partners, your business partners, your hyperscalers AWS to find out what am I missing. [00:11:38] Guest: Yeah. [00:11:38] Mark Yaphe: Um, again, many years, you know, a hundred years ago, two years, two years ago, um. We’d have these conversations about, well, what use cases are you seeing and what business problems are you solving? But, but those would be in scheduled meetings quarterly. Now there are agenda items on weekly standards. [00:11:55] Mark Yaphe: They’re happening every single week. What are you seeing? What are you seeing? And further, I’ve seen some gen AI and agent solutions that actually automate how that information flows to, to make it, to accelerate. [00:12:06] Vince Menzione: Yeah, it’s, it’s absolutely amazing. Yeah. Anything on, I mean, certainly you’ve got a perspective ’cause you’re working with these organizations. [00:12:13] Rebecca Jones: I have a couple thoughts on this specifically for the partner organizations and the partner companies here. I can understand there’s a lot of, you know, we looked at a stat earlier about the AI partner opportunity and it was. $260 billion somewhere in that bracket. And that can create maybe some fomo, you know, maybe, uh, let’s go after everything in this area. [00:12:37] Rebecca Jones: Yes. And not pick and choose [00:12:39] Mark Yaphe: a [00:12:39] Rebecca Jones: shiny object. Shiny object and not prioritize. And it’s actually the opposite. It’s really understanding where your strengths are in the market. Um, who’s in your partner ecosystem? What are you bringing to market? Are you, uh, a tech company that are looking to break? Bridge and bring out services or your services company, and now that can build product. [00:13:01] Rebecca Jones: But really understanding your opportunity. What industry do you play, what specialization do you have? And go really deep and then know how to augment your partners and the ecosystem around you to make you stronger and better for the customer. So with that market opportunity, which is. Tremendous, how do you focus and prioritize? [00:13:21] Rebecca Jones: And that’s where I have observed partners. Oh, I’m a little bit here, a little bit there, a little bit here. And, and, uh, I would be curious, I mean, that’s probably pretty hard for you if a partner shows up and they’re a little bit of everything. [00:13:34] Mark Yaphe: Well, I, I resonated with a point that you made before. Yeah. I, I’ve spent, um, half my time at AWS on the consulting side working with enterprise customers, the us half the partners. [00:13:43] Mark Yaphe: It’s critical that partners understand what’s unique about them. [00:13:45] Exactly. [00:13:46] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:13:47] Mark Yaphe: You it. I mean, everybody here, they’re looking at cloud migrations and modernizations and agentic, but that’s kind of part of the noise. You’ve gotta know what uniquely you do in an organization to deliver value. Are you developing supply chain for transportation companies or drug acceleration pipelines for. [00:14:06] Mark Yaphe: Pharmaceuticals. Yeah. Starting with that anchoring on your differences, I think is, is really important. [00:14:11] Vince Menzione: When I first started in the partner world, that was one of the biggest challenges and dilemmas, and I’m sure you still see it today, where I do all things. You know the partner that does the big SI that does everything, they have all the certifications. [00:14:24] Vince Menzione: I have 10,000 people trained on every technology certification, right. And then like, well what do you do? Like, and they can’t clarify. Right. Have that conversation. [00:14:33] Mark Yaphe: And then how do people, customers, [00:14:35] Vince Menzione: yeah. [00:14:35] Mark Yaphe: Or sales organizations choose you and why. [00:14:38] Vince Menzione: Yes, exactly. Exactly. So how do you get them to show up in that way? [00:14:43] Vince Menzione: Like especially if they’re like, how do you coach them through that? ’cause it feels like it’s still exists, right? This like mentality or this mindset. I can do all things, especially with the shiny objects that we’re facing today. [00:14:55] Rebecca Jones: Mm-hmm. [00:14:55] Vince Menzione: And I feel like we’re almost, I, I almost feel like we’re at a point right now where we were getting clearer and we’ve had so many shiny objects, even just in the last few months. [00:15:03] Vince Menzione: Like you were talking about how like months feels like ears, uh, you know, I’ll, I’ll use the Claude example here. Yeah. ’cause we, a lot of us pivoted and shifted and like, what do I do now as a partner in the room? Again, I think you, you mentioned the solving for business outcomes for client outcomes as opposed to chasing the next shiny object. [00:15:24] Vince Menzione: Like how do you get, how do you coach them on that? [00:15:27] Mark Yaphe: It’s always on the agenda. It’s, it’s day one conversations. Yeah. Who are you? What’s unique about you? How do you deliver value? Which customers do you focus on and with? Which use cases, and if it is a jack of all trades. Then my team, my and my team will help ’em. [00:15:42] Mark Yaphe: We know that down to specific areas of focus. [00:15:44] Vince Menzione: Yeah. So how do partners need to evolve their capabilities? Like how do they, I mean, how do they actually hone in on this? Like, you know, okay, I can state one thing, but how do I hone in on my capabilities, offerings and teams to stay relevant during this time? [00:15:59] Mark Yaphe: Um, what I’m coaching them on right now? Yeah. That’s what I is, uh, use the technology internally. The agentic tools and the gen AI tools are. I’ve been at this for a while, and the tools that exist right now dramatically expand your capability and capacity. So the thing I coach ’em is embed them in your organization. [00:16:18] Mark Yaphe: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Tackle those key things organizationally. You need to change and leverage these tools to help you accelerate. [00:16:23] Vince Menzione: And they’ll help you solve, they’ll help you solve for absolutely any of them. Right. It’s like, it’s like hiring a consulting organization to come in and solve for that. [00:16:29] Mark Yaphe: Yeah. [00:16:29] Vince Menzione: Yeah. How are you thinking through this? [00:16:31] Rebecca Jones: Well, uh, there’s a couple things I’m thinking about. Um, if you start to. I’ll stay with the customer for just a minute because you’re talking about Claude and just the dramatic improvement. [00:16:45] Guest: Yeah, [00:16:46] Rebecca Jones: that’s there. Just with Claude, uh, we start to think about highest and best use of the model because, uh, we had another talk earlier about the economic conditions and the. [00:16:58] Rebecca Jones: And so now we’re asking partners like, right, [00:17:01] Vince Menzione: the tokens. [00:17:01] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. Yep. How do you specialize and be focused by industry, by workflow, by use cases, you’re gonna start to look at what is the ROI of that investment? Is this a good enough? Look at the models, look at how you’re using that, and you’re having a token conversation because the economics might not be there. [00:17:21] Rebecca Jones: And so as you’re a business and a customer looking to transform their organization. They’re going to look across the business and figure out what are the highest and best use cases that should get that focus. And as a partner, if you wanna be in that conversation and really helping that company or that. [00:17:40] Rebecca Jones: Customer transform from where they are. It’s not only industry specialization, but it’s functional and workflow and really helping them understand what they should be using in that particular use case. So specialization is king or queen and that, um, scenario, and that’s where, you know, you ask partners today to specialize because there’s a whole economic conversation coming behind that, around how do you think about the models as that new one shows up? [00:18:09] Vince Menzione: Let’s shift from the technical side to the human side. [00:18:12] Rebecca Jones: Yeah. [00:18:13] Vince Menzione: Super important, right? I mean, we were having this conversation internally, like everybody’s saying, you know, jobs are going away, jobs are going away. I think I, I believe more jobs are gonna happen, but we’ve gotta get humans aligned properly to what their new roles will be. [00:18:29] Vince Menzione: Comments on this one? [00:18:31] Mark Yaphe: I think this is like a classic organizational transformation Yeah. Question. Mm-hmm. Where the 70, 80% of the problems are people process change. Um, I, I think there are these three areas that organizations need to focus on, and I’m gonna sound a little bit repetitive, but one, it’s okay. [00:18:46] Mark Yaphe: It’s, uh, the role of the team members have gotta be focused on outcomes, especially when things are moving quickly and there’s ambiguity. The one way that you can anchor on moving in the right direction is how do I let my customer, so one is outcomes. The second one is the builder mindset. Move from, I’m presenting, I’m hearing, but I’m gonna build things. [00:19:05] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:19:05] Mark Yaphe: And the last one is, uh, inspiring your team, making them competent and confident to navigate ambiguity because that is the premise upon which everybody’s operating. So those three, [00:19:17] Vince Menzione: Rebecca, what capabilities. Would be embodied in, in that organization that Mark describes. [00:19:23] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, I think that the growth mindset, you know, if you can package that around, you can either, um, think about being disrupted or being a disruptor. [00:19:34] Rebecca Jones: And if you have a growth mindset around the opportunity that’s ahead, it’s a whole different perspective of the challenges before you. I love that. And so when I think about what. Capabilities. You know, it’s the critical thinking and the judgment, human connection. We’re all here for a reason. Yes. Right? [00:19:50] Rebecca Jones: Yes, yes. And so as a leader, um, really helping set that tone and letting them see the art of the possible, um, around that vision. But it’s really, if I boiled it down to one thing, it’s having a growth mindset to the opportunity ahead. [00:20:05] Vince Menzione: Well, I wanna open it up. We have about five minutes left. Yeah. And this has been so insightful, but I. [00:20:11] Vince Menzione: I mean, I feel the energy. There’s gotta be some questions out here too. ’cause this, we have two incredible experts up here talking. I mean, and this is such an impactful conversation today. So John’s got a mic and uh, I think we’ve got some questions coming. [00:20:32] Vince Menzione: Yeah, [00:20:33] Rebecca Jones: this’s [00:20:33] Vince Menzione: a long way [00:20:33] Rebecca Jones: around. [00:20:34] Vince Menzione: Took a [00:20:34] Guest: thanks, long David Younger with. Thank you. That was great, great discussion. So, uh, you, you brought up a key statistic, uh, which is the MIT data and around the, the 90, I think it was 95%. Of, uh, businesses, uh, are not in production. And, and actually they, they went further to say that 95% of businesses. [00:20:56] Guest: Uh, we’re achieving zero ROI. And, and that was about a year ago, right? And now, and now you said the number, I think the number was quoted earlier today too, is, is shifting to about 70% of those, uh, projects in production. I’m curious to, to know as you, and I think you nailed it too, when you talk about product, right, have a product mindset or business mindset, right? [00:21:16] Guest: Not just how can I save money, but how can I actually generate revenue, whether it’s saving money or generating revenue. Where would you say. Uh, what, what percentage of companies you talk to are actually achieving real ROI would you say? [00:21:31] Rebecca Jones: Yeah, that’s a, that’s a great question. Really. Great. So I’ll go back and explain a little bit more about what I mean by product mindset. [00:21:39] Rebecca Jones: So a lot of companies did get stuck or there were just, uh, a. Large amount of pilots happening in the organization. And that’s not a bad thing. ’cause you think about, that’s a builder mindset, go and test and trial. But when you’re starting to look at true business transformation, you really need to think about where that, um, high value use case is. [00:22:00] Rebecca Jones: So a. The product mindset I’m talking about is taking a long-term view of the outcomes you’re trying to achieve and how are you going to measure those? And then look at that workflow, that function, and if you’re an expert in that function, whether that be a sales process or a marketing process, you know what KPIs your business is trying to drive today, and you start to unpack that. [00:22:24] Rebecca Jones: And so we’ve seen and what. Um, the most, uh, accelerated motion is knowing the KPIs and the measures you’re trying to achieve and then working towards that. And from there you can build, right? And you start to think and you have an ecosystem approach to that workflow or work stream. So we have seen, um, everybody wants cost on the system. [00:22:46] Rebecca Jones: Um, we have seen dramatic cost reduction in areas we’ve seen, you know. Two to three times, um, faster time to market. Um, there’s multiple things that we’ve seen as, uh, leaders really start to unpack that, understand what they’re trying to accomplish in the business, and I’m happy to go into greater detail. [00:23:06] Rebecca Jones: I know we have just a couple minutes left, but that’s just the product mindset up. How do you get started and how do you look at that long-term opportunity? [00:23:15] Vince Menzione: Really great answer. Mark, do you wanna add that? [00:23:17] Mark Yaphe: I think if you look at all use cases. Maybe 30% perform. But if you look at this across enterprise, I think each enterprise is finding very specific use cases where they’re driving ROI and and um, and so I think it’s about picking your spots, knowing who you are, identifying the top priority ones, not worrying about the broad enterprise transformation. [00:23:38] Mark Yaphe: Find those areas where you can drive value a little bit. Yeah, [00:23:41] Vince Menzione: that’s great that that’s almost a mic drop moment in my opinion. Yeah. That’s really great. Any other questions? I we’re holding every, oh, we got one in the back. I was gonna say I’m holding people up from happy hour. Yeah, [00:23:53] Rebecca Jones: just, we’ll just bring the cocktails in here [00:23:56] Vince Menzione: pretty soon. [00:23:57] Guest: Uh, Jeremy with Integral, um, um, a money question, something comparable. Uh, activator portfolio, the programs for founder firms that are trying to really get off the ground with new ideas. And there’s some comparable programs, I think with different providers. How much of that is a strategy, and I don’t wanna put you on the spot if activating portfolio aren’t the things you’re covering, but, but that money investment for startups that are trying to grow and really focus on AWS uh, the thousand dollars is the founder version that gets us in and then a hundred thousand dollars. [00:24:26] Guest: It’s a bit difficult to get into. And then there’s bigger ones after that if we attend the schools and all these things. But I’m thinking about as we all are trying to grow and really focus in AWS, which a lot of folks really wanna do with Bedrock and all the things that are kind of cool going on, it’s just. [00:24:40] Guest: Great AI focused conversation, but how is that playing into attracting more of the MSPs that are, that are trying to grow and more of the startups to really funding this idea of, of startup mentality. Hopefully that’s not too off topic, but your, your fair game [00:24:57] Mark Yaphe: was, was the question, how does funding. [00:25:01] Mark Yaphe: Attract startups in specific categories, process. [00:25:04] Guest: I think it’s, it’s about if there’s, uh, the other hyperscalers also have programs comparable. So Microsoft’s program is, uh, 150 grand to to, to build out the founder kind of, and it’s fairly easy to get into. Aw. WS is a bit harder to get into, but is that going to change as far as using that as a, as a key strategy for incubating more and more ideas to accelerate the velocity of everything you guys were talking about? [00:25:25] Mark Yaphe: I’m really not the right person. Definitely outta my wheelhouse on that. No problem. [00:25:31] Guest: Yeah. [00:25:37] Vince Menzione: And we’re about seven seconds away from uh, happy hour. [00:25:41] Rebecca Jones: I know, [00:25:41] Vince Menzione: I know. This was fantastic. I know. It was so great. [00:25:44] Rebecca Jones: Yes. [00:25:45] Vince Menzione: And I think the McKenzie thing is gonna stick. I think it is, it is. [00:25:48] Rebecca Jones: Now, mark, I’m gonna make [00:25:49] Vince Menzione: sure it does. And Mark, it was great to have you up on stage with us today. So, so great to have AWS supporting us and sponsoring the event with us and, uh, and having just this broad audience of people just so interested in. [00:26:02] Vince Menzione: Being in the room and and learning from each of you. So thank you so much today. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. [00:26:09] Mark Yaphe: Thanks for listening to The Ultimate Partner [00:26:11] Vince Menzione: Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated, share it with a partner leader in your network. Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the ultimate partner.com. [00:26:22] Vince Menzione: For show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live Event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

Aw, man, this is just like that time in One Piece where they put a God Valley flashback inside another flashback: this week we're covering One Piece Chapter 1193 “Still Practicing” with Sam (Anime Recap host) and Ken (archivist)! We also have our Piece Together segment, where we take your questions, comments, and theories! Later this week, we'll be commemorating the life of Mike McFarland, ADR director & voice actor on One Piece as well as a dear friend of the show, in a separate episode. SUBSCRIBE TO US ON PATREON! We've opened up a BRAND NEW “Sticker of the Month Club” tier on Patreon that entitles you to a patron-exclusive sticker of one of our amazing episode images every month! You also get access to ad-free episodes and our 800+ episode archive, our exclusive series 4'ced to Watch 4Kids with Steve & Alex, our full-length film OPPJapan, exclusive episodes with our special guests and a lot more. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:10:28 Manga Recap: Chapter 1193;01:24:27 Piece Together;01:48:09 To Be Continued…! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On episode 362 of the Awards Watch podcast, it's a full house with Awards Watch Editor-In-Chief joined by Executive Editor Ryan McQuade, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello, contributors Mark Johnson and Jorge Tenreiro, and AW friend and confidante Christina Birro of Pop Culture Confidential, as we break down last weekend's Telluride Film Festival. It was another whirlwind Telluride for the group, with splashy world premieres including Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, Simon Stone's Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman, and the big talk of the festival, the surprise TBA of Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim's secret film You Can See Everything, about Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes, which was shot with unprecedented access during the month before she went to prison in 2023. During our zippy and efficient conversation, we talk about our favorite films of the festival (where titles like Club Kid and La Bola Negra pop up), what everyone non-film and film awards-related at the festival was talking about (again, La Bola Negra and Club Kid) and our favorite moments from the many, many parties thrown during this very short window of cinephile celebration. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page. This podcast runs 46m58s. We'll be back next for the main show talking about director Zach Cregger's new Resident Evil film and with a recap of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which just kicked off. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

The world is changing - and India is being forced to make choices. China has transformed itself into an economic and strategic superpower. The United States is still the world's dominant power, but its relationship with China is changing. Russia remains a major geopolitical force. And the Global South is demanding a greater say in how the world is governed. So where does India stand? In the run-up to India's BRICS 2026 Summit, Bharatvaarta brings together perspectives from three of India's leading thinkers and practitioners to examine India's position in this emerging world order. From India's economic race with China to the future of US-China relations, from BRICS and the Global South to strategic autonomy and India's ability to become a power that can choose its own path — this is a conversation about the choices that will shape India's next chapter. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS (00:00) — India, China & the changing world order (00:36) — Why did China pull so far ahead of India? (02:43) — The policy risks that powered China's rise (03:41) — Why India's size can become a weakness (05:21) — How can India become export competitive? (06:23) — What China did differently (10:34) — Can India reach 9–10% growth? (10:53) — How should India deal with China? (11:54) — The future of US-China relations (13:17) — Why India cannot afford a confrontation with China (16:09) — China's rise and the challenge to American power (16:38) — Can the West accept a powerful India and China? (18:07) — India, Russia & China: a new geopolitical equation (18:35) — Who are the real hegemons? (19:43) — Is the West trying to keep India down? (20:06) — Was bringing China into the WTO America's biggest strategic mistake? (21:41) — The Thucydides Trap: Is US-China conflict inevitable? (24:12) — Is American power declining? (24:26) — India between the US and China (24:40) — Where does India go from here? (25:00) — The difficulty of strategic policy in a democracy (26:35) — India's battle-tested military advantage. (27:06) — What India needs to get right. ABOUT THE GUESTS

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight on APEX Express, Host Miko Lee is going Beneath the Surface — with two incredible artists, Margaret Cho and Masaki Fujihata. Both artists have been working in their fields for decades. Margaret Cho — stand-up comedy, sitcom, filmmaking, writing. Masaki Fujihata — a pioneer in new media art.And here's what they have in common: they've both shifted with the times… but never lost their own voice. Their vision has stayed singular, even as the world around them changed. Listen in to APEX Express   Check out: BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration at the Oakland Museum from Friday, September 18, 2026—Sunday, December 27, 2026 Masaki Fujihata website Choligarchy at Berkeley Rep, September 15-19th, 2026  Margaret Cho website Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges at Oakland Asian Cultural Center, September 11, 2026 7pm Artists featured: arjun-verma.com www.pezhham.com  MazdakAlipour.com emanhashimi.com   Show Transcripts [00:00:00] Opening: Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   [00:00:34] Miko Lee: Tonight on Apex Express, I'm going beneath the surface with two incredible artists, Margaret Cho and Masaki Fujihata. I'm your host, Miko Lee.   [00:00:57] These are two artists who've been working in their fields for decades. Margaret Cho, stand-up comedy, sitcom, filmmaking, writing, and Masaki Fujihata, a pioneer in new media art. And here's what they have in common. They've both shifted with the times, but they never lost their own voice. Their vision has stayed singular, even as the world around them have changed. So stick with me. First up, my conversation with Margaret Cho   [00:01:29] Welcome Margaret Cho to Apex Express.    [00:01:32] Margaret Cho: Thank you.    [00:01:34] Miko Lee: I wanna start with my question I ask most of my guests, which is who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:01:41] Margaret Cho: I think my people are Asian American, my people are queer, my people are all ages, my people are progressive, my people have hope for the future. That's what I'm hoping. I think that's it, and that's who I am too.    [00:01:56] Miko Lee: Thank you. You started stand-up so young in this very Bay Area, and I think you started at age 14. I'm wondering what's your earliest childhood memory of being a performer?    [00:02:08] Margaret Cho: My earliest childhood memory of being a performer was I was actually a singer. I was a singer in a band of children, and I was probably maybe five years old. We were on a show on KTVU. I believe it was called Asia Now, and it was filming in the studio and I wouldn't stop waving at my mother, who was just off camera. And after the performance the band leaders asked me not to come back. Aw. I remember that because I could not stop waving at my mother and so I kept breaking that fourth wall. That was my first memories of performance.   [00:02:47] Miko Lee: And what did that feel like to you?    [00:02:50] Margaret Cho: I didn't really get the idea. I didn't really understand television exactly quite. I didn't understand why we were performing. I didn't understand why I couldn't say hi to my mother while I was performing. I didn't have a real comprehension of like even like rejection of what that meant or even performance or what that meant or television. So all these things that I come to learn about very well, rejection, performance, and television is my whole life. But back then I didn't understand the importance of all those things.    [00:03:22] Miko Lee: But there must've been some kind of zhuzh for you that you said, “Ooh, I wanna keep doing this,” right?    [00:03:28] Margaret Cho: Yeah, I think so. Much later though, you know, I did perform as a pianist. I was a classical pianist. I was also a ballet dancer. So those things required performance, which actually would make me really, really nervous, I think because in piano you're playing a classical piece. You're playing Beethoven, you're playing Mozart. So if you make a mistake, everybody's gonna know. Also with ballet you're choreographed and you're in as a troupe. If you're doing choreography with a bunch of other people- If you make a mistake, everybody's gonna know. But with comedy, mistakes are a little bit more of, something you can gloss over a bit. There's a little more control there, a little more room for chaos, which I absolutely need, I think, as a performer.   [00:04:22] Miko Lee: Mm, this is interesting. You've already described some of the different types of performance that you do, and you've also done so many things in your life. But I'm wondering if there is a type of art form that still makes you nervous.    [00:04:34] Margaret Cho: Music. I think playing an instrument in front of people, I think because when I was a child and would perform these recitals, I would be so nervous. There were a couple of times in recitals where I had to start over, you know? When you're, like, eight or nine years old and you make a mistake and have to start over, and this audience is, like, hundreds of people, it's, like, really mortifying. I still carry that. I play m- numerous instruments, and I really dread playing them in public. What helped me a little bit is busking, which I did quite a lot of over, over the years because when you're playing out on the street, there's a… I don't know. It's like people are not really paying attention to you, and therefore you're kind of in this divide of I'm in performance, but I'm also kind of not. So that helped. In general, I refrain nowadays from when I do music, I don't usually play my instrument along with the band. I usually just focus on singing. Even that is quite nerve-wracking. Singing and doing music still, even though I've been doing it really my whole life, there is something about it that, that quite, um… because when you're singing, you're actually also the instrument. So there's a bit of more required. That's why I always prefer comedy. Your quality of voice doesn't matter because the music you're making doesn't have to sound pleasing.    [00:05:59] Miko Lee: And when you were busking, what instrument were you playing?   [00:06:02] Margaret Cho: Guitar. Ah. So I would play guitar, sometimes a six-string banjo, sometime, I'd play all manner of sort of guitar-necked instruments, which can go from, guitar to mandolin to a cello that's, it has a guitar neck, so I can play- Ah that as well. So all those things, I cheat at everything 'cause I have a guitar neck.    [00:06:21] Miko Lee: I love that. The improv just comes out of you in all different ways, I guess.    [00:06:27] Margaret Cho: Yeah.   [00:06:27] Miko Lee: So you have been a path maker, rule breaker in so many aspects of your life, from comedy obviously, and producing and starring in the first Asian American TV show, actor, fashion maven, author, rapper, podcast host, and out and proud queer role model. I'm wondering, what's a career dream that you aspire to?    [00:06:46] Margaret Cho: Ooh, well, I wanna be an old lady crime show, like Murder She Wrote. I wanna just solve crimes. I love, like, a British crime show, like an old lady solving crime. Like a Prime Suspect, like a Helen Mirren. I love that kind of genre of television, and so I would love to mature in that 'cause, like, it's so interesting and also so rich and, I feel really drawn to it. So that's something that I haven't… I'm a participant in a lot of those types of shows. I'm on a show called Bull Trent, which is very much that, which is really cool. And then I've been on Law & Order, which is the ultimate, SVU is the ultimate sort of crime show. So I would love to engage in that genre more.   [00:07:31] Miko Lee: Ooh, are you developing that on your own?    [00:07:34] Margaret Cho: I'm not, but I am participating in lots of other people's versions of it. They're not out yet, so they will be coming, forthcoming.    [00:07:44] Miko Lee: Coming soon, and then your own version starring you. Yes. The- Yeah … modern Murder She Wrote. I would love it. In what town would this be? In San Francisco or in-    [00:07:53] Margaret Cho: Oh, San Francisco would be great. Yeah. San Francisco or, like, Marin.    [00:07:56] Miko Lee: Oh, God. That would be really funny.    [00:07:58] Margaret Cho: Sausalito. Sausalito would be so fun. You know, Napa Valley. You know, something, like, very, like, th- this community that looks very, like Saint Helena, like Calistoga, s- community that's very quaint and peaceful and, like, kind of like foodie oriented and, like, very, you, you know, you think very upscale, but actually there's a lot of dirty dealings going on underneath the surface.   [00:08:20] Miko Lee: The wine country Murder She Wrote.    [00:08:23] Margaret Cho: Yes, I love it.    [00:08:24] Miko Lee: I would watch that. That's fun. So you also have expressed your art in so many ways. Your body is filled with so many tattoos. I think you have over 70. Which of your tattoos evokes the strongest emotion for you?    [00:08:38] Margaret Cho: Well, right now I'm in this, like, trend only getting art from Korean artists, and these are guys. People from Korea who are tattooing now are really the best in the world. They are the state of the art. Like, their eye and their talent is just so innovative. There it's semi-illegal, so they do it under duress, you know, and they have to sort of do all these different things to do it. But their ability to just visualize things that are just, that seemed impossible, you know, these miracles on skin that they can do. The art now I'm really resonating with. There's an artist now that works exclusively in Dancheong, which is a kind of the color scheme of Korean temple art. And so all of his tattooing reflects that. And so I'm working on a very, very large piece on my leg that is, all Dancheong, which you know, for me, like having had lots of different kinds of tattoo, like I had sort of Japanese traditional and a lot of American traditional, and a lot of just kind of different kinds of art. Now to just really delve into the art of my ancestors is quite powerful, and by being done by very young, very skilled tattoo artists from Korea. You know, so I get to speak in Korean to them. We communicate in a language that is shared, that's ours, which is very different from the way that I've communicated with all of the other artists that I've had over my time as a tattooed person. So, um, yeah, tattooing for me, it's, it's all about Korea right now.    [00:10:21] Miko Lee: And what inspired your first tattoo?    [00:10:25] Margaret Cho: My first tattoo was done by Don Ed Hardy, who is a legendary Bay Area tattooer, also, an amazing guy and he was a friend of the employees of my father, who, my father owned Paperback Traffic, which is his gay bookstore just going in the 1970s. And so a lot of people were getting tattooed by Don Ed Hardy. They were getting full body suits in the '70s and '80s, and the, the, um, images, like, so on our refrigerator as a… When I was a child, my father would put up, um, the full body tattoos of these guys that worked for him. So that's what I would see every day. Instead of, like, our graded papers or, like, stuff that you usually have on a refrigerator, it was photographs of completely tattooed people. Um, and that really stayed with me. And so when I was ready to be tattooed, and this is, like, 2002, um, my father's employees and all of our, like, old friends took me down to see Don Ed Hardy, who was doing these body suits, and, he gave me my very, very first very large Japanese-inspired piece on my stomach and back. And that kind of started it off. I got the most painful, most difficult place in your body tattooed first, which is, like, basically your stomach, and your sternum, your chest. All those areas are really, like, those are the worst, and I got that over with. And so I realized, oh, I could actually keep on doing this. And I always knew that I would be heavily tattooed because of that.   [00:11:59] Miko Lee: So your first one you chose really big, not just like a small something. You got a really big one.    [00:12:03] Margaret Cho: Yeah.    [00:12:04] Miko Lee: Wow. Yeah. Just jump in, girl. Just jump in.    [00:12:07] Margaret Cho: Well, I just knew that was right, and I knew also this was probably, like, the only time that I would be able to get a very large piece from Don Ed Hardy, you know? Yeah. People know him, of course, from the clothing line- That's right … and the sort of Y2K influence. But he is so much more than that. His influence on tattooing is really significant. That was towards the end of his tattooing career. He didn't have many years where he kept doing it after, 'cause he explained to me that he absorbs the pain of people. Wow. And so he realized, like, that probably wasn't so good for him physically as he aged, I was really lucky to get what I got from him, which is a very, very large piece and a very important piece.   [00:12:51] Miko Lee: Amazing. And as you're talking about your childhood and growing up in the bookstore, it just makes me reflect on how your childhood was so unique and so interesting. Mm-hmm. And I'm wondering if today you were to make a television show about your childhood, how very different… With, with more artistic freedom. It would be so fun. It would be so fascinating. There's so many more streaming options than just the three networks that we grew up with. Yeah. So, what would that be like for you to do a TV show on your childhood now?    [00:13:23] Margaret Cho: I would love it. I mean, I would love to create that world, recreate that world, because, you know, we had the influence of, like, people who were doing a lot of very early body modification, meaning these full, full body tattoos, and, like, body piercing, which was such a different thing. I mean, in the 1970s we had the rise of Harvey Milk you know, and his assassination.    [00:13:44] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:13:44] Margaret Cho: We also had the devastation of the People's Temple, which was all San Francisco people.    [00:13:50] Miko Lee: Yep, yep.    [00:13:51] Margaret Cho: It happened in Guyana, people don't realize this originated in San Francisco and came from there. All the people who died were San Franciscans, and Oakland, Bay Area people. This is our people. My parents actually rented the recently vacated People's Temple for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. Wow. Like, crossing the police tape. To go in and have a Korean party, and then my mother's, “Lot of ghosts.” She saw all the ghosts.   [00:14:19] Miko Lee: Yeah, I'm sure.   [00:14:21] Margaret Cho: “Ghosts, ghosts, lot of ghosts. Well, ghosts don't really do anything. They just make food get cold very fast.” You know, like that kind of a thing. So it would be a great TV show, I think.    [00:14:32] Miko Lee: Ugh, I would watch that too. We're talking about your new show, Choligarchy, which is gonna be at Berkeley Rep, and I read that you said it brings you back to your roots as a political comedian. Can you share more about this?    [00:14:44] Margaret Cho: Well, I had the luxury of the Obama administration where I didn't feel like I had to fight so hard to be heard and seen as a queer Asian American woman, 'cause I worked on the Obama campaign, I worked on, getting people registered to vote in 2008 in Philadelphia. I worked on all these different things with Cal Penn in 2008 to assure a kind of future where we are gonna have something different, and then we did. And then so I got to spend about eight years where I could do dance, I could do music, I could kinda like drift into these other arenas of work that I hadn't been able to do because, before, had been, like, so much about fighting the Bush administration, so much about fighting what was going on. So now to be able to return to a thing that I'm very used to, like political commentary, where I'm really focused on using my voice to affect change and to create change, and it's really profound, you know? I love doing this show. It's got me thousands and thousands of death threats, which is also really terrifying and bizarre. I've always had a kind of very confrontational relationship with conservatives, but now it's escalated to the point of, like, oh, I actually do fear for my safety. But I think that it's worth it. The message is worth it, and I'm proud to do this show, and I'm very, very excited to bring it to very progressive Berkeley, which they're gonna hear it better than anyone. I do think Berkeley is even more progressive than San Francisco. So it's exciting.    [00:16:27] Miko Lee: Well, San Francisco is filled with tech bros now, so it's a very- Yeah … different vibe than when we were-   [00:16:32] Margaret Cho: That's right.   [00:16:32] Miko Lee: growing up. I'm wondering, I heard you say about how different it was during the Bush regime, which is actually relatively tame in retrospect compared to the fascistic times we're living in now. I'm wondering how different, now that you're going back to the kind of political roots, how different is it from that Bush time in your approach to your comedy?    [00:16:51] Margaret Cho: Well, Bush never descended into a cult. Bush never had the sort of magnetism as a person, to demand the cult-like sort of atmosphere that sort of exists now, where we have a leader who will gladly let all of his followers be on a decoy plane while he rushes away in a catering van. We think the decoy plane, that's really America. Like, the decoy– we are all, as a nation, on the decoy plane. He's happily content to let us all die to ensure his safety. It's like they're, and they're still gonna follow him after that. So that's a cult, you know? This is a different beast than we're dealing with just sort of patriotism or the idea of like xenophobia or the idea of wanting this kind of America that Bush wanted. Bush couldn't create that because he was not a cult leader, whereas now we have a bona fide cult and cult leader on a path to destruction.    [00:17:57] Miko Lee: So given this time that we're living in and how complicated it is, I'm wondering, especially as you're going on tour with this show, what brings you comfort and makes you feel connected to home when you're on tour or when you're away?   [00:18:10] Margaret Cho: Well, my dog is with me all the time, so that's really special. She'll be there at Berkeley. She's really, really amazing. I'm a big fan of social media. It's connecting with people on there, and people are encouraging me through there. There's a lot of points where I carry home with me. I'm also, at home on the road, because I've been traveling and performing for over 40 years, so it's a place that I feel a great deal of comfort in.    [00:18:35] Miko Lee: Because you mentioned social media, I'm just wondering, isn't that where the death threats are coming from, though, is social media? Or are you getting them in—   [00:18:42] Margaret Cho: Yes. But I'm also get, I get them on my phone. I get them, like they—   [00:18:45] Miko Lee: Oh, you, they- Yeah … find your cellphone and contact you—   [00:18:47] Margaret Cho: Yeah.   [00:18:48] Miko Lee: directly? Wow.    [00:18:49] Margaret Cho: Yeah, I get them, like, you know… I'm also concerned about, I've been doxxed, you know, they threatened to kill my dog, and I'm like, “She's white. She's one of you. Why would you kill her?” It's kind of funny.   [00:19:01] Miko Lee: But you don't respond to any of these folks, right?    [00:19:04] Margaret Cho: No, you can't, because you just don't know what… I always think about, like, Melissa Hortman. They killed her dog. I don't wanna be another example of, like, MAGA lunacy. When you speak out and you are a symbol of what they don't want. They don't want women, they don't want people of color talking. When you are that you're really in the line of fire. That's why traveling works for me, I get to be very, very stealth and hidden. Um, and that's kinda also why I travel so much, is to be stealth. Mm. I get so much encouragement from social media. I don't wanna cut myself off from it. But yeah, you have to be careful.    [00:19:42] Miko Lee: So you feel like that balance outweighs it?    [00:19:45] Margaret Cho: Yeah, for sure.   [00:19:45] Miko Lee: And I'm wondering if you think there's something that's misunderstood about you?    [00:19:49] Margaret Cho: When I'm talking and people don't like what I'm saying, they will say, “Oh, look at this has-been talking again.” And I'm like, “I'm not talking because I think I'm a celebrity. I'm talking because I am alive, and everybody who is alive has the right to speak.” I think this is really important. I don't talk because I feel like I have a responsibility to talk because I represent anything. No, I talk because we should all be talking. We should all have a voice. I don't have a sense of importance about myself or who I am or what I do. I think that everybody should be talking, and now we should all be talking because now we are all on that decoy plane, and he will leave us to die. So I'm going to say something about it. People have a myth about celebrity that somehow it involves our ego, and that's why we feel compelled to have a voice. But I think we should all have a voice no matter who we are.    [00:20:41] Miko Lee: I've heard you call yourself the patron saint of outsiders. Can you talk about what that means to you?    [00:20:47] Margaret Cho: I think for me it means to be able to have, my queerness front loaded, my Asianness front loaded, my gender front loaded, all these things that I want to be able to talk to those who feel like they don't feel represented by mainstream culture, by white supremacy. If you have felt rejected or even just not included by society at large, I wanna hear your voice. I wanna hear your opinion, and I wanna know you.    [00:21:15] Miko Lee: And last question, why should folks go and see Oligarchy at Berkeley Rep?    [00:21:20] Margaret Cho: Oh, it's Choligarchy.   [00:21:20] Miko Lee: Choligarchy.   [00:21:22] Margaret Cho: It's my nation. It's my dictatorship. In my dictatorship, we have universal healthcare. In my dictatorship, we have a universal living wage. If we actually made the billionaires pay their share, if we actually stopped supporting Israel and Argentina, other countries which I don't know why we give them so much money, but we do, if we stop doing that, we stop supporting the billionaires, if we stop giving corporations handouts, we could actually have a universal living wage where everybody in this nation would just be able to just live. We could just live because we are American. We could just live. And then your work could be what you really wanna do. That would be such an important change to the way that we exist as Americans. And we could do that if we actually stopped giving b- bailouts to corporations, actually made billionaires pay their share, and stopped giving money to countries that are not ours. That's what my platform is. That's what I run on, and that's what I plan to do.    [00:22:35] Miko Lee: And folk can find out more by going to see the show at Berkeley Rep, and we'll put a link in our show notes. Thank you so much, Margaret Cho, for joining us on Apex Express.    [00:22:45] Margaret Cho: Thank you.    [00:22:46] Miko Lee: Next up, get a preview of an upcoming unique performance at Oakland Asian Culture Center. Listen to Sawaal Jawaab    MUSIC   [00:24:01] Miko Lee: That was Sawal Jawab with Arjun Verma, Eman Hashimi, and Pezhham Akhavass in Interweaving: Indo-Persian Exchanges, a one-night-only performance on Friday, September 11th at the Oakland Asian Culture Center. The concert's a rare opportunity for Bay Area audiences to experience the interplay of some of Asia's richest classical music traditions from India, Iran, and Afghanistan. Next up, we hear from two voices, multimedia artist Masaki Fujihata and Carin Adams, senior curator at the Oakland Museum. Masaki Fujihata is a world-renowned sound, installation, interactive, and new media artist. He's also a professor at Keio University. His work has been shown all around the world, and now it's coming to the Oakland Museum, opening September 18th and running through the end of December. The piece is called BeHere / 1942, A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration, and it's a new augmented reality work. So tune in to my interview with Masaki and Carin Welcome to Apex Express, multimedia artist Masaki Fujihata and Carin Adams, senior curator at Oakland Museum.    [00:25:13] I'm so happy to have you both with me, and we're talking about the new exhibit BeHere / 1942: A New Lens on the Japanese American Incarceration, which opens at the Oakland Museum from Friday, September 18th to Sunday, December 27th. So thank you so much for joining me. I wanna start with a question I ask all of my guests. I'm gonna start first with you, Carin, and then I'll go to Masaki, and the question is, who are your people, and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:25:53] Carin Adams: Oh, wow. I think there are lots of different facets of my family and who I think of as my people. Um, I think in, in this work in particular, I'm really, um, thinking a lot about my grandparents, my, my mother's parents, and, um, my mom, who's turning 91 in, um, October, and, um, her and her siblings' experience, um, being incarcerated in Tule Lake. So- Mm … that, I think has, has a lot to do with wh- why I'm here, and thank you so much for having me.    [00:26:36] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm. Thank you so much. And Masaki, what about you? Who are your people, and what legacy do you carry with you?    [00:26:43] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, in my case, my, career started with the computer graphics long time ago in the '80s, so I came in, uh, Bay Area and, uh, West Coast quite frequently to join a big, uh, conference and so on. But then in '90s, I was very many times to be invited to be in Europe, so-called media art, i- is so dominant. So my curiosity is about the visual arts plus computer technology. Then nearly 10 years ago, I started to play with augmented reality. I recognized AR is a very good technology to put the history in actual moment. So the title Be Here 1942 means, I try to call the people in the past in the present. After one of my friend, the professor at UCLA invite me to be in Los Angeles, then we started to focus onto the Japanese Americans' history. That was the first, a kind of coincidence, but it was, very interesting to me because, I was born in Tokyo and grew up here in Tokyo, so usually I didn't think about who is a Japanese. [00:28:10] Along with this production, I studied a lot, not only the racial problems, but also the identity, , not only the personal identity, but also identity of Japanese and also American. It's really difficult to understand what's is the identity in the America because so many different people are living together and of course there are several conflicts. This is very good study for me, through the new media technology and, through the meeting with the people. Some of them really had, severe experience inside the camp. I never had a chance to think about these opportunities. Then I really want to recreate what had happened in the 1942. That was my point of view for this project.    [00:29:08] Miko Lee: I'm wondering when you were growing up in Japan, did you learn about the Japanese American incarceration?    [00:29:15] Masaki Fujihata: Maybe, maybe, but a tiny. Most of the young students just thought, oh, this is the history, not mine    [00:29:27] Miko Lee: And did you… Were there kibei that were there? Cause I know there were a lot of Japanese Americans that had been pushed out and repatriated to Japan. Did you grow up knowing any of those people?    [00:29:39] Masaki Fujihata: Mm, not, not really. Not really. Um, how can I say? Mm, maybe this is the education, the Japanese education. They didn't talk much about the history. The first part is an ancient moment, is very, very, you know, impressive. But, at the end of the term, so the modern age usually passing very, very fast.    [00:30:10] Miko Lee: Oh, interesting.    [00:30:11] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, so n- not only about, history between America and Japan, but also China and Japan.   [00:30:18] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:30:19] Masaki Fujihata: We have very few knowledge in, on the context of, uh, history education. I mean—   [00:30:24] Miko Lee: So sort of World War II- I mean- and forward? From World War II—   [00:30:27] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, yeah …   [00:30:28] Miko Lee: You didn't really learn about it?   [00:30:28] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, modern age. Modern age. I believe this is very big problem in the education.    [00:30:35] Miko Lee: That's so interesting. So the first that you really learned about the Japanese American incarceration was during, when you started this project at UCLA? Is that right?    [00:30:44] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, yeah. I know something about the history in the US, but when I started to do research, there are many details, and every people's history is very, very different. So the textbook of the history is just the surface- So that's why I wanted to show more the detail through a new media technology.    [00:31:16] Miko Lee: I read a quote from you that said, “My aim was to peer deeply into photographs to derive from them more than was visible on the surface.” Can you talk a little bit more about what that means to you?   [00:31:29] Masaki Fujihata: Yes, because, I started to think about to focus on the moment when they ride the bus. So then, of course, I did some research to read some oral history, but, most of them didn't tell about the moment because I think this was just one hour or two hours for waiting. I suppose they usually don't want to remember, and also they thought that this is not important day, then they forgot.   [00:32:04] Miko Lee: What was it about the bus that you were curious about?    [00:32:08] Masaki Fujihata: We planned to realize our project, to think about the beginning. What is the beginning? There, there are quite many novels and writings about the life in the camp because of, of course, this is so heavy. Four years in the camp is unbelievable. According to my research, some people said they thought the war will ends in three months. But in there they spend in the camp, over four years. So of course, this is a heavy story and also while in the inside the camp. There are some conflict between the first generation, second generation or American side or Japanese side. The beginning is, of course, the Pearl Harbor raid, but, the bus, suddenly one day the bus came into your town and you were asked to ride the bus, and before riding they didn't tell them where they are going. So so if it happened now, how can we behave? So this is my question. This is the beginning, and they didn't know what will happen in the future. And then in parallel, I did some research to see the photographs because, there are many documentary photographs were in the archive, in National Archive, and also Library Congress. I tried to, see the photography, but as I said, when see the picture, you know, the detail is telling a different story, against the comment. The comment is just they are lining up for riding a bus or something, or Japanese American families get together and waiting. Of course they have some name card. At last I found through one of small girl's eye, there is a reflection of the photographer. But, not only the photographer, there are two, three, or four more people standing with the cameraman. Then, of course I understand they are all Caucasians. They are not Japanese American people. So for the little lady, for the little girl, when she was surrounded by, white officer, perhaps military police, she has nothing to do. But on the surface of the photography, she's smiling. So this contrast is the beginning. So this is a problem about media, visual media. So then I really want to share this experience with the other audiences through the exhibition. That was my intention.   [00:35:18] Miko Lee: And had you seen the photographs from Dorothea Lange and Russell Lee prior to working on this project?   [00:35:25] Masaki Fujihata: Of course, I know these names because they are very famous,, documentary photographer, the magazine Life started to publish from the year 1933, it was hit, so popular. I was really surprised because they did the job to make a document for Japanese Americans, and there is over 4,000 pictures left in the archive. I saw all of these so many times, so I can tell each picture. I can tell what is the difference, between the Dorothea and Russell Lee. So each photographer has, different characteristics. But I really surprised because, Dorothea Lange's photography is very different from others. And—   [00:36:18] Miko Lee: And the government didn't like them. They locked them away for years because they were too real.    [00:36:25] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, and because, Dorothea's photography is always associated with the object inside the photography. She tried to understand who is she, who, who is—-    [00:36:38] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm …    [00:36:39] Masaki Fujihata: and try to have a good relationship with the object. Most of the photographer, like a press cameraman, it's just go there, “Hey, smile,” and shot is their, you know, way of business. But Dorothea's way is very different, so sometimes, I can tell she is always calculating the distance from her to the object. I enjoyed very much to have a chance to see all of these details. Of course, another luckiness because all of these photograph were shot by the government, then all of these are now public domain. Even me from Tokyo, I can see so many photographs with high resolution. I think those are made after year 2000 because of the technology came in. Then now they are supplying 3,000 by 4,000 pixels. That's why I could enlarge and to see the reflection on the girl's eye. It's a coincidence, but also it's the evolution of computer technology from analog photography. So this is also interesting part to share with the audience.   [00:38:01] Miko Lee: Thank you. Carin, I wonder if you could talk about what an audience will see when they come in to see the exhibit.    [00:38:08] Carin Adams: The exhibition is going to happen inside and outside the gallery. So if people are visiting the museum coming up through our entrance on Oak Street, they will have an opportunity to enter the augmented reality application that Masaki has designed where they're, standing there grounded in, the architecture of the Oakland Museum. But they're also seeing people, dressed as if they were in 1942, waiting with their belongings and their family members. They'll be able to see the buses that lined up on Oak Street in '42. There was a civil control station that was across the street, and Dorothea Lange took some very famous photographs of people waiting with their belongings in front of their houses that, on the museum side of the street. Masaki has adapted the augmented reality that he first developed for Los Angeles for Oakland. So people on entrance onto our campus will have that experience, and then if they come into the gallery, then they'll really be entering into the gaze of these eyes. They'll be surrounded by very high resolution images that Masaki has blown up, to mural size. You're forced to encounter the people that were reflected in the eyes of the subjects that Lange photographed.    [00:39:45] Miko Lee: Thank you, and I know that in the collection, you've had these Dorothea photos for a long time, right, in the Oakland Museum's—   [00:39:53] Carin Adams: Yeah. The Oakland Museum is the holder of the Dorothea Lange archive, including some of her images of the incarceration. The Bancroft Library also has extensive holdings of her work and material , related to this history. And of course, Masaki did lots of research in the National Archive and Library of Congress.   [00:40:16] Miko Lee: Masaki, I know this is the second version of the show since you have opened it first at JAMM and at UC, with UCLA. Yeah. What was it like for you to recreate it for the Oakland Museum? How has that experience been?   [00:40:30] Masaki Fujihata: I'm very, very lucky to find OMCA. Mm-hmm. We started to think about the production in OMCA. I made a research through, of course Dorothy Lang's photography. Then there is a number of the street, 1117 Oak Street is the place where people apply their address and family name. The Civil Control Station is that address. I was very surprised because this is a street in front of the museum, and actually the other side of the street was the Civil Control Station where the bus came in. So this is exact place I really wanted to put my augmented reality models. So I was very shocked because I never think about the museum is a real place.   [00:41:24] Miko Lee: So it's truly a place-based piece of art because that is the history coming alive in that very spot.    [00:41:31] Masaki Fujihata: Yes. Yeah. So, all the projects start from the realization of augmented reality.    [00:41:39] Miko Lee: Mm-hmm.    [00:41:40] Masaki Fujihata: So augmented reality is a kind of tech term, but augmentation is adding some information rather than the first wa- surface or rather than the display. In this case, we are putting the happenings in the 1942 in present, and then try to make a contrast between now and the past. The exhibition inside the gallery is showing a kind of process of the research to make this augmented reality piece because for making the 3D model data, we invite many volunteers into a special studio. I have to direct them. I have to prepare some scenario for them. In some cases, you are the university students. Coincidentally, you met the professor, while waiting for the bus. This is a fiction I made. When I need to make a scenario, I really need a research what is possible, what is not possible. So then the photography help me a lot to make a small scenario.    [00:43:01] Miko Lee: How many volunteers worked with you on this?    [00:43:04] Masaki Fujihata: I think totally 64 volunteers.    [00:43:08] Miko Lee: Wow. That is amazing.    [00:43:10] Masaki Fujihata: Each one was asked to walking towards the point where the bus would come, and then the second part is waiting, and then the third part is just lining up for the bus. So there is three different scenario. Then each person appears three times. Then totally you will see nearly 200 people.    [00:43:37] Miko Lee: Wow. And I understand that you use, in order to utilize the AR, you use cameras that kind of replicate those used during the incarceration, and I'm wondering what made you decide to choose that?   [00:43:53] Masaki Fujihata: So I try to know the core idea of each technology, because the technology is usually used for capitalism. My manifest is liberate technology from capitalism. So technology has another dimension, not only for serving for the capitalism to make money for your life more rational, but the technology also can give you a chance, who are you? What is life? What is the world? So I really want to use the technology another dimension of the technology usually used by the companies, and capitalism. In this case, this project is really good because very nice photography was left in the archive. But imagine in the 1942, photography was a high technology. Very few technicians or rich people could have the camera. Now so popular everybody has a camera inside their mobile phone, but it was high tech. And now augmented reality is somehow popular technology, but no one didn't use the AR technology to think about what we are doing as an art. So I wanted to use augmented reality to, to think about what is our life    [00:45:32] Miko Lee: Ooh, that is so interesting. I really appreciate that. And I'm wondering because you've seen audiences go through the first exhibit, I'm wondering if anything surprised you by audiences that have seen it and what, what you'd like people to walk away with after going to your installation.    [00:45:51] Masaki Fujihata: I was really surprised because this was my first case the audience had a tear. So after they saw the augmented reality, some of the person said, “Masaki,” I suppose, she suppose that, “Perhaps my grandfather was here.” Could feel the same impression or imagine, she could imagine what had happened on her grandfather So it's a bit like a cinema, but there is no written story, so each person can explore the images through a tablet. But, uh, maybe five minutes later, uh, the user will feel inside the scene. So In another words, I can say you are going to feel you are inside a cinema studio. You will be captured by the camera. And also another, okay, another interesting aspect because, I could develop this project because the photographs were left made by Dorothy and other people, uh, professional documentary photographer made these photography. So photography was left. And then, um, while you are using iPad in the entrance plaza of, Oakland Museum, you will see many Japanese people wearing the costume and, waiting for the bus. But now you are the cameraman. You believe you are seeing what had happened through the display, but, imagine for them inside the image were looked by you. So this is the viewer you are going to see, but also from them, from the object, you are the cameraman.   [00:48:04] Miko Lee: So you want people to feel both sides, both being the watcher but also in it—   [00:48:09] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah.   [00:48:10] Miko Lee: Immersed in the experience.    [00:48:11] Masaki Fujihata: Yeah, hunter.    [00:48:13] Miko Lee: Mm.    [00:48:13] Masaki Fujihata: Image hunter, yeah.    [00:48:15] Miko Lee: Image hunter, mm. I, I feel like you're saying utilizing technology as a tool for your emotions as opposed to a capitalistic gain. I'm wondering if you're working with AI at all, and your thoughts about it. Because you've really been on the forefront of so much multimedia since the '80s and I'm just wondering now people are just talking about AI and the impact of artists  and I wonder what your thoughts are about that.   [00:48:39] Masaki Fujihata: I, I think, uh, it's too early to, uh, work with AI as an artist because, uh, e- even the developer of, uh, AI didn't know what happened inside, so it's a black- totally black box. So that's interesting part of AI. Uh, maybe you know some, some story about this. Very recently, uh, the AI ju- just hack the connection, then they escape from the inside the laboratory to go outside the internet. So this could happen. Uh, that's why, because a human couldn't imagine. So the AI doing something different, and it's really a black box. Then, uh, that's interesting point. If I can be inside the development company as an artist, I can make something interesting hacking software, but it's a huge business, and, uh, I think this is not the moment for the artist. And also, as you know, all the data inside the AI is, uh, happenings in the past.    [00:50:02] Miko Lee: Right.    [00:50:04] Masaki Fujihata: And then, right, the present is important for the humans. What is the role of the artist? There is some, uh, sentence, artist is the person who is creating something new which has not exist before. so, uh, we are not AI, so w-we have to know who, what we should do in contrast to AI is the important moment    [00:50:37] Miko Lee: Thank you so much. I wonder if you would want to just reflect briefly on how this, this piece that you're presenting at Oakland Museum is very resonant right now in America because of the current politics of incarceration of peoples and you know, we're at the same, at the exact same concentration camps where Japanese Americans were held. Immigrants are being detained and put there right now. I'm wondering how this piece speaks to the moment that we're living in in the United States right now.   [00:51:13] Masaki Fujihata: Um, please do not make more mistakes that American government did before in 1942. So Our project can be a kind of reference what the American government did after the Pearl Harbor.    [00:51:39] Carin Adams: Masaki, would you wanna talk a little bit about the new piece that you're making?    [00:51:45] Masaki Fujihata: Oh, I see, I see. I think- That's a good idea. I, I totally forgot. Yeah. Thank you, Carin. Because I proposed to Carin and museum about to make a new piece. The idea is about, uh, the poster. The, that they… So the, in Okura case, maybe, uh, to l- late April in 1942, the poster paste on anywhere, everywhere inside the town, and talking about the, at the certain day, you cannot be stay here. You will be criminal. So, so this is the s- starting point. Then they need to come to the civil control station to sign up, and then one week later, the bus came in, then they need to go to the camp. Then the poster is now very famous, but, uh, usually, people didn't read it Then I, I asked to, collect volunteers to ask read this text on the poster, uh, several different locations inside the Oakland. So when you see the final result, the view of the people reading the text aloud is very peaceful, very bright, California sunshine and there is a lake behind and sometimes, you know, the buses came and stop and go there. So this is very peaceful, but the content is very strong- strongly contrast- co- contrasted. So it's a command from the government. I really wanted to, to make this contrast through this new production. So you, you will see three vertical monitors, and, 25 different group of people. I think there was nearly 45 people helped me to realize this   [00:54:02] Miko Lee: What is it you hope to evoke by adding this new piece of the relocation poster?   [00:54:08] Masaki Fujihata: I really wanted to involve some of the young generation and family and also, known Japanese American people. So all of these people, of course, have some fear against the, this moment, and then try to, uh, send messages. So they helped me to realize this.   [00:54:39] Carin Adams: The video is really going to provide the soundtrack for the exhibition. There is no sound in any of the other film elements or in the AR other than what visitors bring in conversation into the space. But they'll be able to hear the local volunteers that Masaki assembled reading the exclusion order text and we're expecting that to be very profound- impactful. And yes, some of the people who volunteered for this new video element were incarcerated themselves, others are descendants, and then there are just people who are representing different immigrant experiences who wanted to participate. So it's a very local production, and it really cites us in the present moment with this really chilling text from the past.    [00:55:33] Miko Lee: Thank you so much for joining me and chatting with me about the exhibit BeHere / 1942. I'm really excited to check it out, and I hope our audience gets a chance to go and see it all the way through the end of December at Oakland Museum.   [00:55:48] Carin Adams: Thank you so much for having us.    [00:55:50] Miko Lee: Please check out our website, kpfa.org/program/apexexpress to find out more about our show and our guests tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating, and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is produced by Ayame Keane-Lee, Anuj Vaidya, Cheryl Truong, Isabel Li, Jalena Keane-Lee, Miko Lee, Miata Tan, Preti Mangala-Shekar and Swati Rayasam. Tonight's show was produced by me Miko Lee, and edited by Ayame Keane-Lee. Have a great night.   The post APEX Express – 9.3.26 – Beneath the Surface with Margaret Cho & Masaki Fujihata appeared first on KPFA.

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  Thanksgiving through the Psalms album

God has an amazing plan. He blesses us so that we can be a blessing in the world. The question is – how? How do we take what God's given us and share it around.   Let's Get it Straight It is great to be with you today. This is the third message in a series that I've called "Blessed to be a Blessing". I think it's important for us to take a really deep look at God's way of blessing us because when we understand that; when we know how God's working and operating in our lives, it's such a wonderful thing to see His blessing flow. Over the last couple of weeks we have seen that we often get things the wrong way around when it comes to God's blessing. I mean, sure, God is a God of blessing; we want to be blessed but what we often don't come to grips with in our hearts, is how God wants to multiply His blessing through us. To have a flood tide of blessing go out to a parched and dry and hurting world. For His blessing to flow into our lives from God and out through us to other people. Last week we particularly looked at two verses that made that abundantly clear. The first is John chapter 7, verse 37: On the last and greatest day of the feast, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, "If anyone is thirsty let them come to me and drink, and whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow out from within them." By this He meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were later to receive. You see, it's in and out. If anyone is thirsty, come to Jesus and drink. If you're looking for something and you're parched and needy, come to Jesus to drink. Put your faith in Him and rivers of living water will flow out. It's in and out. It's one of the greatest passages in all of the Bible. It's powerful. It's the crux of being a disciple. We are blessed to be a blessing – rivers of living water. Remember, we looked at it – Nile, Ganges, Murray and Mississippi and Thames and Rhine and Yangtze and Amazon and again – rivers of living water. The other thing He said was: Give and it will be given to you, of good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure that you use, it will be measured to you. We are going to expand on that theme today and get really practical. If God's blessing is something that flows through us, if that's a part of how He works, how should that happen? Because if all those rivers head in and none of them head out, we're going to end up being like the Dead Sea – dead. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a man called S.D. Gordon. Sometime in the late eighteen hundreds or nineteen hundreds, he wrote that book called, "The Quiet Talks on Power". And in that book he uses the simple and powerful example to describe the consequences of expecting all of God's blessing to flow into our lives but not letting any of them flow out. He uses this picture of the Dead Sea. Now the Dead Sea is exactly that; a body of water where all the rivers flow in and none flow out and as a result, it is dead. Nothing lives in it. Not a thing. No fish, no plants, no birds and the water is incredibly hard and brackish. He makes this point in his book; that if we expect all of God's blessing to flow in and none of them to flow out then our lives become like the circumference of the Dead Sea. Now it's a big turn-around for us because we are programmed to think that blessing is all about me. It should all flow into me, right? But that's not it in God's economy. Blessing is really only a blessing when it flows out through us again. Think about it, a material blessing like a home … isn't the joy, the real joy of a home, sharing it with your family? It's a natural thing! In Acts chapter 20 and verse 38, it says this: The Lord Jesus Himself said, "It is more blessed to give that receive. That is so profound – "It is more blessed to give that to receive." See Jesus is throwing our whole idea of blessing on its head. And He's saying when the blessing flows out through you, you'll be more blessed than when it flows into you. Do you get it? God's way of blessing is the blessing flows down from Him and out through us and in that process, standing in the middle of His great river of blessing, we to are blessed. That's it! The world's dropped this notion into our heads that it's all about us – me, me, me – and we end up twisting and perverting God's plan. We end up thinking God's blessing is about the next "this thing" for me or "that thing" for me. Now He loves to do those things, but principally, God's blessing is the thing that flows out of us to the rest of the world. What if Jesus, the Son of God, had come to earth and said to Himself, "You know something, it's all about me." No, the Son of Man didn't come to be served but to serve. See, in and out. Now, Berni Dymet, the business man: I tried so hard to get everything to flow into me, with a huge house and gold plated taps and a car worth so much, just thinking about it now makes my toes curl. You know, the blessing of 'me' became an art form. That's what my whole life was about and it never, never, never satisfied me. And when God got a hold of me a dozen or so years ago, over several years He changed me to the point where He trusted me to do what I'm doing now. And I walk with Him in the quiet, cool hours of the morning and experience Him and delight in Him and hear Him and spend time in His Word, and then prepare these programmes and sit here and spend time with you and the blessing flows in and out again. Today, I'm one of the most deeply satisfied people you will ever come across, even though the way God has chosen to bless me is different from what I would have planned. I had to re-learn what it meant to be blessed by God. And it's in this serving and using our gifts and skills, abilities and resources as channels of God's blessing, that we discover blessing. A close connection with God – it's a two sided transaction – intimacy with Jesus and then letting Him use us … us whom He's made what we are meant to be, to let Him flow out through us into the parched, dry land around us. You and I are blessed to be a blessing. "It is more of a blessing to give than to receive", is what Jesus said. Now, maybe you're listening to this and you are thinking, "Ok, I get the theory; I believe that; I understand it, but what about the practice? How can I be a blessing?" Well, that's what we are going to look at through the rest of this programme.   What Gifts do I have? It's so easy for us to think, "Well, I don't have anything to bless other people with. How can I be a blessing?" The "how" is so important. It's about making the rubber hit the road and about getting our lives aligned to God's way, so that we are working with Him and not against Him. We talked before about the fact that God's blessing is a two-sided transaction – in and out. You can't do the "out" without the "in". Jesus said in John, chapter 15, verses 4 and 5: Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me - I am the vine and you are the branches. If anyone remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. See, this talks about the "in" and the "out" again. We need to be close to Jesus, we need to be grafted into Him; He is our life blood. And when we set our hearts on Him; when we spend that time with Him, His Spirit flows into our lives and we can't help it, we just end up bearing fruit – He bears fruit. And who's the fruit for? It's not for the vine, no, it's for other people … in and out. Isn't it amazing how this theme recurs over and over again through the Scripture? How easy it is for us, though, to miss it, to pervert it to the "me, me, me" thing. We'll look at that a bit more next week; how we are prone to twist and pervert God's plan for blessing. If we think for one minute that we can peddle and peddle and peddle hard on the outside to make things happen, whilst our relationship with Jesus on the inside is in tatters, we are kidding ourselves. The only way I know of having that relationship with Him is to lay down my life and to spend time with Him. I was speaking a while ago at a Christian leaders conference about our priorities, about God being first and a lot of the people there were very well known leaders of Christian ministries. And one by one they came up to me afterwards and said. "You know, this is an area I struggle in. I'm busy doing ministry and somehow I don't have time to spend with God." So a lot of people struggle with the "in" side of the equation but others struggle with the other end. They have a relationship with Jesus; they have time with Him but they become what I call a Spiritual couch-potato – they don't do anything with that. And the Bible says that faith without works is dead. Now you might say, "Berni, that's unfair; I just can't do any of that 'out' stuff." Have a listen to what Paul wrote. Romans chapter 12: Therefore, I urge you, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is you Spiritual act of worship. Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good and pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given to me, I say to every one of you, don't think of yourselves more highly that you should. But rather think of yourselves with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith that God's given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members and these members don't all have the same functions, so in Christ, we who are many from one body and each member belongs to all the others – we have different gifts according to the grace given to us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy according to your faith; if it's serving then serve; if it's teaching, well, teach; if it's encouraging, encourage people; if it's contributing to the needs of others, give generously to them; if it's leadership, govern diligently and if it's showing mercy, do it with cheerfulness. See, God calls us to be living sacrifices. Last week on the programme we saw how Abraham was blessed to be a blessing and he spent twenty five years on a painful, uncomfortable journey. He was a living sacrifice. If we are going to be blessed to be a blessing, if the blessing of God is going to flow into our lives and out again, there is a cost. It is not always convenient; it's not always fun; it doesn't always look like a blessing. We are called to be living sacrifices. And then we shouldn't let the world squeeze us into its mould. Don't conform any longer to the pattern of this world. See "world" says it's about you and me and Jesus is saying, "No it's not! Die to yourself! Sacrifice your life!" And it turns everything on its head. With sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith that God has give you, exercise the gift that is given. See we make two equal and opposite mistakes here. Firstly, some people embark on things that they were never cut out for by God. You know, that never, ever works. People operating outside their gifting are really ugly, with a capital 'UG'. Some people have said to me, "Berni, you should be a pastor". UG! You know it's not going to happen – I'm not pastorally gifted. It would be like dragging my wife Jacqui in here, who is pastorally gifted, who in fact, is wonderfully gifted in the area of service. And if you are in Australia and you ring our ministry, chances are, you'll talk to her. And if someone rings and they order a CD or they do this, she wants to get it out today. She's just gifted to do that but if you dragged her here in front of the microphone, all you would get is this … dead silence, because she'd be petrified. Or if you put me into her job, you probably wouldn't get your CD because that's not what I'm motivated to do. Let's start doing what God has made and gifted us to do. We're all different so let's not compare; that's so dumb. There is something that God made in you that is uniquely you, it's special; and when we compare that with others, we're missing the point. The gifts we have are given according to the grace of God. Prophesying, serving, teaching, encouraging, contributing to the needs of others, giving, leadership, mercy – they're motivational gifts. They're things that God has birthed in us and there are all sorts of different manifestations of this. We all have something, we all love doing it, and it's unreal when we're flowing in that; when the blessing of God is manifest through us doing the thing that He made us to do. And it's terrible when people aren't working in that gifting. You see it in business. You get served by a waiter in a restaurant, and they just don't have the gift of service and it's terrible – it doesn't work. "Aw, you don't understand Berni. I'm a mum with a screaming baby, I can't do anything; I'm stuck at home". And there's probably a mother's group somewhere with other mum's in it who are just dying for your gift of encouragement. If only you would see it as an opportunity for God's blessing to flow through you. Blessing and service go hand in hand. You can't separate them. God's blessing comes in and it flows out. The problem is can I tell you this? – the problem is that so many Christians allow themselves to be stuffed into the world's mould and they still think, "It's all about me." "Be transformed by the renewing of your mind." God has given you a gift. "Aw, Berni, that is so spiritual. I work sixty hours a week in business and I have a lot of money but it don't have time to do this stuff; this giving," and all along God is giving you a heart of generosity and there's some young evangelist in your church, who if someone funded them for just a day and a half a week, they would be able to touch so many people with the love of Christ. Do you get it? We all have something that God has put in us, through which His blessing will flow to a lost and hurting world.   Putting First Things First I guess this message of being blessed in order to be a blessing is a bit "in your face", but I think God is doing an exciting thing. I think sometimes He wants to challenge us through His Word. I don't know about you but I want to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and I grew up with a very selfish "me, me, me" attitude – straight out of the world's mould. Maybe you are like that too and today is a day where we decide to put first things first. To get our priorities in life straightened out. To stop thinking about God's blessing as material blessing only. He does bless us with material things and people who don't have enough food, have to rely on God for His blessing. But listen to what Jesus said: Therefore I tell you, don't worry about your life; what you'll eat or what you drink or about your body, what you'll wear. Isn't life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air – they don't sow or reap or store things in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren't you much more valuable than them? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about your clothes – look at the lilies of the field – see how they grow – they don't labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even King Solomon, in all of his splendour was dressed like one of these. If that's how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and gone tomorrow in the fire, won't He clothe you much more - you of little faith. So don't worry saying, "What will I eat or what will I drink or what will I wear – the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly Father knows that you need them, but first seek His Kingdom and His righteousness and all of these things will be given to you as well. Therefore, don't worry about tomorrow – tomorrow will worry about itself – each day has trouble enough of its own." See, the context here is a bunch of people who are worrying about their own needs and whether you are poor and you have genuinely a cause to worry about your own needs or whether you're wealthy and you are racing after God's blessings for a bigger car and a bigger house, the same truth applies. Jesus is saying here, "Get your priorities right." Get a deep abiding, enduring, intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Spend time in prayer and in God's Word and then let Him use us as His fountain of blessing, a flood tide of life and all the other things will get added to us. God knows what we need and you know something, God knows the things we want too. God is a wonderful God to come along and bless us with just little things along the way that we didn't even think for; didn't even ask for, but God thought of them. You know, He's worried about the little things in our lives as well. It is so crazy for us to reduce the blessing of God down to just material blessing. "First seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well." Now this is counter-intuitive. It's a deep ask. God is asking us today – you and me – to trust Him and to do it His way. Why does He do it this way? Why does He say, "Look, bow your life down to Me first and then get the blessing?" Why do we have to die before we can live? Why does He ask us to step out and start serving in order to be blessed? Why did Jesus say, "Give and it will be given to you – a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into your lap, for with the measure you use in your giving, it will be measured to you." Why did He do that? Because that requires faith and God wants us to be a people of faith, completely dependent on Him. And when we do that; when we step out with our gifts – meagre as they might seem in our eyes – when we live the struggle and the rejection and the disappointments for Him, He honours that. We are blessed to be a blessing. You have incredible abilities and gifts and talents and motivations that God has planted in you, worked into your very DNA, that God prepared and nurtured through the experiences of your life, even through the hurts of the past – especially through those. When we put those in His hands; when we let Him use them to be a blessing to others; when we draw so close to Him that no one else could ever understand what's going on in our relationship between us and our Master – then we see what happens. I am never as blessed as I am than when I'm right here with you now, doing what God crafted me to do. That's His plan. And it's a phenomenal plan and He has the same plan for you, with your gifts and your talents and abilities and your motivations. You are blessed to be a blessing. Go on! Let the blessing flow through you to other people, no matter what the cost – let God use who you are for His glory and you will be blessed beyond anything that any words can describe. You and I are blessed to be a blessing.

We Like Shooting We Like Shooting - Ep 676 August 17, 2026 Presented by This episode of We Like Shooting is brought to you by: Foxtrot Mike (Code: WLSISLIFE) C&G Holsters (Code: WLSISLIFE) Gideon Optics (Code: WLSISLIFE) Midwest Industries (Code: WLSISLIFE) Blue Alpha Night Fision (Code: WLSISLIFE) Otis Technology (Code: WELIKESHOOTING15) Giveaways!! GAW   Text Dear WLS or Reviews +1 743 500 2171 Public   Show Titles   Gear Chat Note Montana Knife Company stoned goat ultrahttps://www.montanaknifecompany.com/products/stoned-goat-ultra EAA Corp. Girsan Witness2311 CMX XXX Discover the Witness2311 CMX XXX, a compact double stack 1911 with 16+1 capacity, a slim grip, firing pin block safety, and two-tone finish. The Girsan Witness2311 CMX XXX is a compact single-action 9mm pistol from EAA Corp. with 16+1 capacity using Check-Mate magazines. It features an RMSc-footprint optic-ready slide, 3.4-inch coned barrel, two-tone Cerakote finish, low-profile 3-dot sights, ambidextrous thumb safety, 4-slot Picatinny rail, and EAA limited lifetime warranty. Availability: Available for purchase via Add to Cart on eaacorp.com (no explicit stock, release date or additional retailers stated) Cost: $899 Special: Streamlined compact grip with aggressive texturing, low-profile magwell, and automatic firing pin block safety replacing traditional grip safety for 16+1 capacity without added bulk Odysee (Nick) SecondWatch FTN.6 Suppressor Pack Update: We received overwhelming feedback that people did not like the text. The intention was to save on what needed to be engraved. Since it is so unpopular, all text has been removed from the model… The FTN.6 Suppressor Pack is a downloadable set of 3D-printable files for DIY suppressors released by SecondWatch on August 15, 2026, via Odysee. It includes updated designs for rimfire, 5.56, and 300 BLK models that are described as the quietest FTN variants to date, matching or surpassing many commercial suppressors in head-to-head testing. The pack continues the FTN (Fuck The NFA) series focused on accessible, low-cost polymer printed silencers. Availability: Released August 15, 2026 on Odysee (@SecondWatch); downloadable files Special: FTN.6 Air is a very lightweight (~10.6 oz) and slim rifle suppressor using thread adapters; modular flash hider and compensator add-ons; FTN.6 Rimfire offers similar sound reduction to FTN.5 but in a smaller package Defiance Machine (Nick) Defiance Machine Deviant Comp Rifle Action Deviant COMP – The new standard for PRS competitors. The Deviant COMP refines our popular Deviant model into a purpose-built precision rifle action designed specifically for PRS competitors who demand speed, consistency, and reliability under pressure. Built with the features competitive shooters actually want, the Deviant COMP features an oversized bolt for fast cycling, an AW magazine cut compatible with both AW and AICS magazines, and guaranteed headspace for repeatable accuracy and hassle-free builds. This makes the Deviant COMP a competition-ready package that is ideal for PRS. Finished with nitride included at no additional cost, the Deviant COMP delivers premium performance at an exceptional value. Specifications Integral scope mount/rail. Integral recoil lug. Defiance swept legacy bolt design. Oversized competition bolt knob. Smooth chrome-moly bolt action with anti-bind design. Recessed bolt lugs, Mini-16 extractor, and plunger ejector. AW magazine cut. Trigger pins included. Nitride finish included. Why choose the Deviant COMP? PRS competition-ready feature set. Integral rail and recoil lug means more rigidity and reliability when it matters most. Receiver is made from once piece of pre-hardened aircraft-certified 416 stainless steel, allowing for tight manufacturing tolerances and increased performance. One-piece legacy bolt, machined to exacting tolerances required to cycle as smooth as possible. Swept bolt handle design to allow plenty of clearance with your rifle scope. Precision extraction system that significantly increases initial extraction and improves smooth bolt cycling. Need an extra bolt? Extra bolts are available when purchasing your action over the phone with our team for $495 each (includes extractor, ejector, and fire control assembly). The Deviant Comp is a purpose-built short-action bolt-action receiver from Defiance Machine, refined from the standard Deviant for PRS competitors. It is machined from a single piece of pre-hardened 416 stainless steel with an integral scope rail and recoil lug for rigidity and guaranteed headspace. It features an oversized competition bolt knob, swept bolt handle, anti-bind design, AW/AICS magazine compatibility, nitride finish, and a smooth chrome-moly bolt with recessed lugs, Mini-16 extractor, and plunger ejector. Availability: Available through retailers including Red Hawk Rifles (add-to-cart with options) and Altus Shooting (currently out of stock for specific variants like RH/308) Cost: $1,495.00 Special: PRS-optimized with oversized bolt for fast cycling, AW magazine cut compatible with AW and AICS, integral rail/lug for rigidity, and included nitride finish at no extra cost 270 Videos Removed from YouTube for FRN and WLS in Recent Days 270 videos removed from youtube for FRN and WLS in the last several days. Supplementary Research: Firearms Radio Network (FRN) produces multiple gun-related podcasts including the long-running We Like Shooting (WLS) show, which features discussions on firearms, gear, training, and current events. The claim states that 270 videos associated with these channels were removed from YouTube over several days in 2026. YouTube's enforcement actions in 2026 have included widespread removals tied to updated policies on AI-generated content, community guidelines, and monetization standards, with millions of videos and channels affected platform-wide. Gun Fights Play the best Price Is Right-style GunBroker game on the internet. Gun Fights Live DisplayFollow the game, prices, and reveals as they happen.Open the live display BangRank A live cast ranking segment for anything and everything in the gun world, powered by questionable certainty, strong opinions, and audience voting. BangRank Live VotingScan or open the link to rank along with the show.https://welikeshooting.com/rank   WLS is Lifestyle GunCAD Index 2011 OPTICS MAXXING by Foaps Files Designed specifically for the Nightalliance 2011 Maxxing frames. There are two styles to choose from and six different optic mounting patterns. Each … This is a 3D model release on GunCAD Index containing STEP and STL files for optic mounts designed specifically for Nightalliance 2011 Maxxing frames. It offers two styles, six optic mounting patterns (including ACRO, Docter-Noblex, Pic Rail, RMR, RMSc, T1-T2), Gas Pedal and Non-Gas Pedal variants, plus length options for Full, Commander, and Short frames. The page serves as an indexed preview only; actual files must be acquired from the original source. Why it Matters: Enables precise red-dot integration on custom 2011 pistols in the growing 3D2A community, allowing shooters to upgrade iron-sight platforms with modern optics without factory limitations. The Vibe: Clean, modular CAD aesthetic with purposeful engineering details—gas pedal extensions, multi-pattern plates, and frame-specific lengths that emphasize performance-oriented customization over factory aesthetics. Hot Take: In the 2011 maxxing scene, bolting a quality optic directly to a printed or custom frame is now the baseline, not an afterthought. GunCAD Index Freedomware Sedco SP22:8 SPEDBRO SP22 Printable 22LR Pistol Don't like the standard Jennings J22? Well here's his neglected brother, the Sedco SP22. A knockoff of the already trash J22. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION O… The SPEDBRO SP22 is a 3D-printable knockoff of the Sedco SP22 / Jennings J22 design by FreedomWare. It is a rimfire 22 Long Rifle handgun classified as a printed firearm using DIY barrel, bolt, and fire control with no firearm parts required. The release includes multiple STL files, reference images, a drill key, and README; total size 2.5 MiB; explicitly not for distribution on DEFCAD; tagged for FOSSCAD and 3D2A. Why it Matters: Provides a fully printable 22LR plinking handgun design that requires no commercial firearm parts, enabling DIY production of a simple rimfire pistol using consumer 3D printing and basic tools. The Vibe: Utilitarian homemade aesthetic with blocky printed polymer grips and frame, exposed metal DIY barrel/bolt, and reference photos showing side-by-side comparison to a Bryco 22; raw FOSSCAD open-source vibe with technical STL and drill-key files. Hot Take: A knockoff of the already trash J22 – the neglected brother Sedco SP22 now lives on as a fully printable FreedomWare project for the 3D2A community. Guncadindex Tritschi 60 Seconds Timer for Shooting Range A self-built horizontal hourglass-style mechanical countdown timer using a stepper motor, GT2 belt, Nema17, Arduino Nano, and 3D-printed parts. It provides a large 160 cm x 90 mm visual window that transitions from white to red over exactly 60 seconds for timing K20-K23 handgun events in DSU disciplines, with startup red LED/beeper sequence, green LED indicator, optional beeper, and planned light-sensor start. Powered by 3S Li-Ion with BMS; designed in TinkerCad and printed on Prusa MK4/Sovol SV08. Why it Matters: Best Use Case: Competition (K20-K23 handgun events in German DSU shooting sports; helps pace 18 shots in 60 seconds without digital distractions or crowd noise) Hot Take: Quick Pro/Con: Pro – Large peripheral-vision mechanical analog display improves focus and timing accuracy; Con – Self-built (requires 3D printing,...

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  

Betsy is back from Belize and back to giving us the advice we can all learn from. In this episode, she wants us to remember that our value is our presence, not our usefulness. Are you doing the work for you and for everyone else? Leaning back doesn’t have to mean becoming less, it allows others to show up more. Give it a try in your life and you might get pleasantly surprised. Transcript:  Welcome to The Art of Living Big, where we explore how to live intentionally and with more joy. I’m Betsy Pake, your host, master, coach, and creator of the Navigate Method. Here to help you listen in to your true desires, elevate your standards, and live life to the fullest. Now, let’s go live big. Hello. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. I have been missing for a couple weeks. We went to Belize for our retreat, and it was … Oh, my God, it was so great. I, I wish you could have been there. It was this group of people that came together. Some of them had worked with me, but most of them hadn’t. But everybody got along. I- it was insane how awesome it was. It was girlhood, you know? We played in the pool. We did some work on ourselves. We d- you know, had drinks by the moonlight. I mean, it was just such a great, great trip. It, it was so fascinating to me how everybody just bonded, you know? And I think that’s just, … I, I always say, , I attract the best women. Beautiful women, too. But I attract the best women. And so everybody just meshed. A, a, lot of people extended their trip. They had an extra day, and then some people changed their plane flight so that they could stay, and it was just amazing. And I’m so happy that we did that trip, and I’m gonna plan another one. I got a couple things that I’m working on that I’m gonna finalize today. Hopefully today is the day. But I would really like to do something in January, so be on the lookout for that, because you won’t wanna miss it. Just the coming together, and it was like we’d all known each other for 20 years, you know, and it was like our annual girls’ trip. I know that for me, I expanded so much, and I felt so great, and so it definitely made me realize that, , live events, it’s so important, I think, for us to get together live and to have that experience together. So anyway, what I wanted to talk to you today about, though, is I kinda have a, a short little thought, an idea, experiment that I have been running. You know, it’s interesting, because, , in the last episode, I talked about how I had started dating, and I don’t, I’m not gonna be coming in here talking about dating every time. I, have to tell you that I resisted it for a long time, and what I’m recognizing is how much I have learned about myself in the last couple months of doing this, and how much I have grown, really, and how much I was able to notice old patterns and actually shift so that I know I have healed, because I noticed it and was able to move out of it. And so there’s a little lesson in here that I have learned that I think might be helpful for you, and so that’s what I wanted to kinda share today. If you’ve been here for a while, you know that I- tend to say that relationships are a mirror, right? Every single one. Our friendships, our, coworkers, with our kids, you know, with the lady who does your hair, like the person that you’re standing next to in line. All of this is a mirror about how we actually feel about ourselves, and we can learn a lot about ourselves from any one of those experiences. You know, I, I think some mirrors show us things that other mirrors couldn’t show us. And so I think that’s why this experiment has been so important for me on my journey. And you know, I, I have been coaching for years. I mean, 2012. A long time. And I have done the work. I know myself very well. And I noticed when I started dating that there was this pattern that was sort of, I don’t know. I- if you had asked me, “Do you have that pattern?” I would say, “No, I can do, I can do it. It’s n- I’m fine. I’m fine.” But what I recognized was that that pattern was so much in the middle of who I was that I actually couldn’t see it until I had the mirror to show me. , And so I’m gonna talk a little bit about that, because I think that every relationship that I had was old enough that the pattern was, like, already kind of baked in. And so, you know, like when you walk into your living room, like you don’t notice the furniture ’cause it’s just been there. But dating put me in like a brand new living room. You know what I mean? With people who knew nothing about me, , no history, no established roles. Like nobody had an expectation of me that was already in, in place. And I think that created this like blank space. And I watched myself do something within, you know, the first 24 hours of finding somebody, that I liked. Now- I’m, I wanna say, I’m gonna say I liked loosely… I, I, I liked everybody is my point. I liked everybody. I, met some really, really nice people. But here’s what happened, is that I over-functioned. I think that’s the easiest way to say it. I met somebody, and I immediately started doing the work of the relationship. , I would carry the conversation, I would ask really good questions. I kept saying, “Everybody’s so nice, I could talk to them for hours. And then I was like, wait, maybe that’s me. Maybe that’s me. , Not that they’re not nice, not that they can’t hold a conversation, it just made me realize maybe there’s something I’m doing here that is over-capacitating to, , an extent. You know? I, I found, , if something got awkward or if I noticed something made somebody uncomfortable, , I would immediately kind of smooth it over. I, I would handle everything. I would suggest a plan when there wasn’t a plan. , I would explain myself so thoroughly, I would over-explain what I meant or what I was trying to say so there wouldn’t be any confusion. And what I noticed was that I was doing my half, right, my half of the relationship, and I did that really fast and I did it really well because I’m good at it, but then I also did his half. And I think that there was this part where I felt like I had a connection with somebody, but looking back now, I realize that it was just me, , over-capacitating the whole thing. Like, when I look back at this, , I’m gonna use the word relationship, but we’re gonna air quote that. , I went out with somebody, , I don’t know, five or six times, and I realized I was doing my half and his half. And that I built that whole thing. I have no idea what that guy would have built with me because I never left him any room to build anything with me. I would reach out. I would suggest things. And so here’s what I wanna do, is I think I wanna sort of name this thing because I think a lot of you are gonna recognize yourself in this. You know, I, I am very good at walking into somebody’s complicated situation, understanding it, finding a solution for things, and making it better. , That is real. That is my gift. I can… It’s almost like a cosmic thing. When somebody explains to me what’s going on with them, I feel like I’m hovering above it, and I can see the, all the levers. And so if somebody hands me a mess with a lot of moving parts and a lot of feeling attached to it, I can sort it out. I can see what actually is going on. I, have built a business on this, right? But somewhere, a long time ago, I think I must have decided that that was my value. Not like one of my qualities, but that was my value. , That was the reason someone would want me around, like the, the price of my cocktail or whatever And I think once you believe that, you carry it into every living room you walk into, right? Every situation that you find yourself in. And so I would walk in kind of scanning for how I could be of value. And you find the thing that you can be useful for, and then you get to work because you know being useful is how you have always understood that you belonged in that room. And I have been doing that for, like, my whole life and calling it, like, being a good person, I think. I have really evaluated, what does it mean to be a good person? And, you know I, I think I am a good person. I think I am generous. I’m not gonna, you know, pretend that I’m not or not want to be. But I recognized in this interaction with this person that some of this was a bid. Some of it was me t- trying to buy my way in to closeness with someone. And, and the problem with buying your way in… And you may be looking at your marriage or relationship with people at work or whatever and go, “Oh my God, I do this. , I over-capacitate in order to feel like I’m enough to be in this situation.” And, , so I think that the problem with that is simply that , if you get close to people by being useful, you can never stop being useful. You have to continue to earn that spot, and you have to stay necessary, and that is not being close with someone in a relationship. That’s a job, and I don’t want to have a job with the people that love me. And so I recognized… And like I said, I went out on a bunch of different dates with a bunch of different people, and then I went out with one person, , I don’t know, four or five times. Couple weeks. It was just a couple weeks. And I noticed that I was doing this. And so as I was learning about other people and going out with other people, I started doing something a little bit different. And I wanna describe this ’cause I wanna be really careful about how I say it And because the shift was important, but there- it’s also nuanced, right? So I did not show up as being less, okay? So I’m not saying, , you need to dummy yourself down, or if you have a superpower, just keep that hidden. I’m not saying withhold your superpowers from people you love, . And I’m not saying that I wanted to pretend to be less, less interested in people than I was. I- and I’m, and I wasn’t trying to make anybody chase me., I’m 55 years old. I, I didn’t have the energy for some big strategy. But I wanted to lean back, and I wanted to do my part and stop. So I am still funny. I’m still warm. , I will still point out the thing that nobody else will say. I can still be generous when I feel like being generous. But I don’t need to m- make myself less capable, but I need to stop automatically spending all of my capacity. Does that make sense? So I don’t need to make myself less capable. I need to stop automatically spending all of my capacity. The capacity stays. I just stopped spending it before anyone asked. I just stopped spending it as a deposit to be wanted. So this is what it kinda looked like in practice. In practice, it looks like leaving when it’s time to leave. If I don’t make the plan, does he make the plan? If I don’t carry the conversation, like every message back and forth, I didn’t have to ask a question. I didn’t have to… I could just say… I could just answer what they asked me and give them enough information that they could keep the conversation going. I- I didn’t wanna explain myself. I just said, “This is what it is,” and then I let them see if they leaned forward. Do they get curious? Do they ask me about themselves? If I don’t smooth over an awkward moment, what do they do? Can he sit in an uncomfortable thing for a few seconds like a grown man? If I don’t tell him, this was the big one. One man asked me, “Well, what is it you’re looking for?” And I, I said, “Clarify what you mean.” And he said, “Well,, what kinds of things do you like?” And I said, “I am l- liking learning about who you are and how you show up. I’m not gonna tell you exactly how I wanna be treated. I wanna see how you would treat me, and then we’ll know if it’s a match And, , I’m not gonna tell some man that I need you to open the door for me, but I’m gonna choose the one that does it. I’m not gonna tell you that, “Hey, yeah, great, let’s go out. I need you to plan everything.” I’m just gonna choose the man that plans everything. I’m not gonna say, “You need to tell, that I look pretty. Don’t you think I look pretty?” I know this is so silly. Tell me I’m pretty and feed me. But I, I… This person I went out with, like, five times or whatever could- never said anything, like, complimentary to me, and I realized I needed that. And so I’m not gonna tell you that I need that. In the beginning, I’m trying to figure out if you’re the right match, but I’m gonna just notice, and I’m gonna pick the one that does tell me. So I think that leaning back let me learn more about people and who I wanted to invest my energy into, and made me realize that spending time with me… Now, this one’s crazy. If you are an over-capacitator like me, what I’m about to say is gonna make you so uncomfortable, but that me just being- spending time with you, was the payment. D- do you know what I mean? , That was enough. , I am joyful, and fun, and curious, and I don’t have to fix your problem. I don’t have to pay for the drink or plan the date. I can show up, and that is my value, is me, is my presence. You get to spend time with me. This shift is so insane. Even as I’m saying it, I’m like, that feels weird. What’s your value? , It can’t possibly just be that you just be you. But yeah, it can, ’cause the right person will be delighted in that. I have a man that I’m going out with, , the third time, and I’m, I’m not over-capacitating. I’m letting him show up, and he is. There’s another guy I’m going out with for a second time. I’m not over-capacitating. He’s showing up. He’s consistent. They’re messaging me every day. One of them said, “I don’t want you to worry your pretty little head about it. I’ll take care of it.” I said, “Yes, sir. I will just lean back.” And I think that this is a really hard thing for women who are accomplished. I think it’s a really hard thing for women who have been taught that their value is serving others and taking care of everything. So I think this is the thing that I, want you to hear, ’cause I really didn’t expect this, is that when I left empty space, men filled it. Not all of them. Some of them left it empty right back, and that was really useful information, and then I moved on without any drama about it. Unmatch. Some of them stepped in, made the plan, made the reservation, followed up when they said they would, noticed something that I mentioned once, some little small thing, and remembered it, took care of things, wanted to take care of things. And, you know, at first this felt really uncomfortable. , What do I do? , Should I offer something? Should I make this easier for him? Should I pay the bill? Should I say something, I don’t know, magical? I don’t know. Should I try to fix something? But nothing. That was the answer. Nothing. You do nothing. , You say thank you, and you enjoy it. And there are men out there this whole time who wanted to take care of things, and I just never gave anybody the chance, because I was already doing it long before they ever even got there. I wasn’t attracting the wrong people, but I was crowding out the right people. And I don’t think that our world teaches women necessarily how to receive. , We get taught, how to give until it, it is painful, and then we call that, , a vow or you know, loving. We get taught to be the capable one. We get a ton of praise for it. People tell you, “You’re so strong. You’re amazing. I don’t know how you do it.” And that’s good for, , you know, I don’t know, 10 years. Then, then all of a sudden you recognize that receiving is its own skill, and that most of us are really terrible at it. I mean, watch yourself next time someone gives you something, even, , a compliment. “Oh, gosh, no. Oh, this old thing?” Right? “Oh my God, I have so many wrinkles. No, God, that don’t even… I need a haircut. My nails, oh, thanks, but God, they… I gotta get them done.” Right? A compliment, a favor, dinner, help with something that you didn’t ask for help with. , Do you deflect? Do you immediately balance the books? Do you say, “Oh, you didn’t have to do that,” or do you start planning how you’re gonna pay it back before they even finished doing what they were doing? I don’t think it’s being humble. I think that’s discomfort. I think receiving makes us feel like we owe, and owing feels dangerous. And so we wanna,, clear up that imbalance immediately, and then get back to a safe ground where we’re the giver, and I think that gives us a sense of control. So what if you just sat in it? , Just for a second, just let it be uncomfortable and don’t fix it. I found this was so difficult until it wasn’t., At first I was like, “Oh, you don’t have to open the car door.” The guy, , you know, shut the car off, ran around the car door. , You don’t have to do that. But, but you can. But you can, and I found that nice and charming. And then soon I found I was able to really lean back and let people show up, and they’re showing up in a totally different way than I have ever experienced before. It wasn’t because there weren’t men around me who wanted to show up. It’s because I was crowding it out. So I wanna bring this all the way home, ’cause I know a lot of you aren’t dating on the dating apps, and I know that. But maybe you’re in a marriage and you can’t figure it out, or you’re in a friendship that just feels really lopsided, or you’re in a job and n- you’re carrying the team or a family where you have always been the adult, you know, since you were 10 years old. So here’s what I wanna say to you. If you’ve been over-functioning in something for 20 years, you don’t currently know what it is. You know what it is with you holding both ends of it. You don’t know what it is. You’ve been managing the calendar, and the moods, and the extended family, and the temperature of the room, and you have been doing that really well. , You soften things so that he doesn’t get mad, and you anticipate things before it even happens. You’re brilliant. You’re so brilliant, people don’t even know half the stuff that you take care of, ’cause you do it before there’s a, a missing piece, before there’s loss. You do your half and their half, and you call that a relationship. So when you sit down to ask yourself the big question of, “Can this relationship work? Do I want this? Is this enough?” You are asking about a truth that you likely built, and you cannot get a true answer from that place. So I’m not telling you to stop doing everything, and just see if ever- anybody notices, right? That’s … would likely be more uncomfortable for you, ’cause you’d have a messy kitchen and a, a cluttered household, right? I’m telling you something much smaller and a little bit harder, and that is to pick one thing, one thing that you always do that actually isn’t yours. You know, that something that only gets done because you do it, and then not getting it done would be uncomfortable, and then just don’t do it. Don’t announce it. Don’t make a big production. Don’t make it a lesson. Don’t turn it into a conversation about how you’re the one who does every goddamn thing, ’cause we know you do. ‘Cause I promise the conversation’s already happened. You’ve already done that, and it didn’t work. So just leave it empty, and then watch, not, not to catch anybody, but just to see them, to actually get clear eyes, to see what’s happening. ‘Cause you’re over-capacitating if you’re anything like me. You’re over-capacitating, and you think that’s real. But the truth is, if you just stay in your lane, you can see what they’re willing to do, and those are different, and your body knows which one you do regularly, so it’s gonna feel a little uncomfortable. And maybe they pick up the slack. That happens more than you might think, and it’s great when it does. We had someone the other day in group, two people, one person in particular, that was like, “I can’t believe how different my marriage is when I created space. I can see how much he shows up for me.” Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe it just sits there. But either way, you’re gonna learn something true, and I think that we are all pretty starving for something true. And, the last thing I’ll say, and, this is the part that I’m still practicing, is that it’s okay for you to just bring the joy. You don’t have to arrive with a solution. You don’t have to be the most useful person in your family. You don’t have to earn your seat by fixing anything or anybody. You can show up funny. You can show up interested. You can show up delighted by the thing you saw, , during your day. You can order something good on the menu and just be a pleasure to be around and let that be the whole thing. I know this is hard ’cause you’re like, “Well, I’m not going out on dates. I’m at home, and he does not see me as funny or interested or delighted by me.” But what if you felt that way about you? What would be different? ‘Cause that is enough. It’s always been enough. I don’t think there’s a ledger that we think there is. I, I think 20 years ago if somebody had said, “Don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, I got it.” Somebody said that to me yesterday. “Just show up.” And I would’ve been like, “I can handle it. I can do it. I’m a feminist.” But now I’m like, okay, I’m not gonna worry my pretty little head about anything. I’m just gonna get a cute outfit on and , go up and be joyful and happy and have fun, and enjoy the conversation, and spend time with somebody. I know that that’s not necessarily real life, it’s only a second date. But I think when we stop spending all our capacity on everybody else, we get it back for ourselves. So everything is teaching us something, including all the things that you swore you were done with. I, I was done with dating. I said it out loud on the show. And it turned out to be the one mirror that could show me a thing that I had been carrying my whole adult life. You, you might already know where you do this. You might n- even know as soon as I started the podcast, , might have been like, “This is what I do.” You know, there’s a specific moment in your week where you do something where you over-capacitate, and you don’t have to do anything about that right now, but just catch yourself when you start reaching and see if you can let yourself come back down and receive. Maybe it’s when a friend says, “Oh my God, you’re such a great friend.” And you go, “Aw, you’re a great friend.” You’re not valuable because you’re useful. You’re valuable because you’re you, and anybody worth having close to you already knows that. And I think that is how you live a big life. All right. All right, everyone. I love you so much. I’ll see you guys next week Thanks for joining me on The Art of Living Big. I hope today’s episode sparked something within you, maybe pushed you to dream a little bit bigger and live a little larger. Don’t forget to subscribe. Leave us a review and share this podcast with someone you know who might need a little inspiration today. You can find me over on Instagram at Betsy Pake and on my YouTube channel. Remember, the world is vast. Your potential is endless, and your life, it’s yours to shape. Until next time, keep reaching, keep exploring, and keep living big.

Around the Word in 180 Days podcast is designed for educators in any school community to engage in the Word of God, prayer and fellowship. Karen Seddon, from Christian Educators, hosts this daily glimpse into the heart of an educator featuring a 180 daily readings from the Book of Acts. Guest readers for each chapter in the Book of Acts will enhance our listening experience. We will also pray the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication each day. Please join us using Apple podcasts, Amazon Prime, Spotify and/or the blog portion of this podcast. (AW 180 Days blog) Most of all, be in the Word of God and prayer daily for it is the power of transformation in your school life . Each daily show is designed to be 15 minutes or less with the busy educator in mind.  

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.grounded.dayLast week we covered the introduction, ayat 1–8. We saw how Allah opens the surah with Alhamdulillah — a practice of gratitude — and directs that gratitude towards the Qur'an itself. Allah corrects those who claim He has a son. Then He moves to the purpose of creation: this world was made beautiful as a test of who among us has the best deeds. Then it is destroyed. Then comes the resurrection.That last point is where this week begins.Grounded is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.The problem the Quraysh hadThe Quraysh did not struggle with the idea of a Creator. Something cannot come from nothing, and everything around us points to an uncreated Creator. When they were asked who created the heavens and the earth, they would say: Allah.Their problem was Yawm al-Qiyamah.Because belief in the Day of Judgement changes how you behave. It changes your priorities. If you believe in God but not in the reckoning, you can do whatever you want — you die, and that is the end of it. The rich and the powerful can steal from the poor, oppress the weak, bomb nations and schools, and walk away from it. If there is no ākhirah, what is there to worry about?Belief in the ākhirah takes that away. It forces a change.Ayah 9 — Do you find this the amazing part?أم حسبت أن أصحاب الكهف والرقيم كانوا من آياتنا عجباDo you think that the people of the cave and the inscription were, among Our signs, a wonder?Al-raqīm means inscription. The story of these young men was carved into stone — as the ancients would inscribe things — and so it survived. It was known among certain Christian communities, which is exactly why the Quraysh used it to test the Prophet ﷺ. Nobody in Makkah knew this story. They had to travel outside the city to find people of the book who could tell it to them.So Allah puts the question back to them. You accept that a group of young men slept in a cave for centuries and woke up alive — and that you find miraculous. But death and resurrection you cannot accept?This ayah is not saying the story of the people of the cave is no sign. It is a sign, and a great one. But it is not the greatest. Why is this the thing that excites you, while you ignore what actually matters — that you will die, be resurrected, and be held to account?Ayah 10 — The duʿāʾ on the way to the caveإذ أوى الفتية إلى الكهف فقالوا ربنا آتنا من لدنك رحمة وهيئ لنا من أمرنا رشداWhen the youths retreated to the cave and said: our Lord, grant us mercy from Yourself, and prepare for us right guidance in our affair.Awā means to seek protection — to move behind something and shelter there.Notice what the Qur'an leaves out. We are not told the city, the town, the house, or the cave. This is how the Qur'an teaches history: it omits what is not relevant to the lesson, because detail distracts. If Allah had named the city, people would argue about the city. What matters is that there was a group of young men.And Allah highlights that word — fityah. Young men.We tend to treat the youth as the weakest link in the chain of the ummah. Children come to the masjid because their parents bring them. The elderly come because perhaps there is nothing else. And the youth are absent. Allah is addressing exactly that.Look at the early followers of the Prophet ﷺ. The Prophet ﷺ was forty; Abu Bakr al-Siddiq رضي الله عنه was around the same age. Those are middle-aged men. But Sayyidina Ali was in his early teens. Zayd ibn Harithah, another young man. Uthman, Zubayr, Talha — teens and early twenties. They were the ones actively carrying the daʿwah.

This week on Toilet Radio: We’re talking about a dungeon synth festival coming up at the Overlook Hotel that we wanna go to real bad. The decimation of music publications continues unobstructed. Brooklyn Vegan, Revolver, and other publications have been gutted by the private equity machine, this time helmed by something called “Veeps” owned by legendarily bad band Good Charlotte. Let’s dive in and learn what the hell Veeps is and what these Madden freaks are up to. IN OTHER NEWS, the bass player from Five Finger Death Punch is also getting licks in on Phil Labonte for being stupid. Aw man, now even Martin’s scoring on me. Marty Friedman is living his anime dreams and Ghost and RZA are working on a new VHS movie. Folks…. it’s a good one. Join us next week for something completely different. Music featured on this ‘sode: Maiden Head – Death March This program is available on Spotify. It is also available on iTunes or whatever they call it now, where you can rate, review, and subscribe. Give us money on Patreon to get exclusive bonus episodes and other cool shit.

Remember those grainy old baby monitors? So passé. Today, the modern nursery can be equipped with HD cameras and biometric sensors — all analyzed with artificial intelligence.The technology can detect hazardous position changes or a blanket covering a baby's face, but also tracks less critical metrics that purport to help optimize infant sleep and health. Sapna Maheshwari, business reporter at The New York Times, recently wrote about this. She's been an avid user of the Nanit Smart Baby Monitor System with both of her children.More on this“Aw, It's Baby's First A.I. Surveillance System” from The New York Times“AI-powered IoT is creating a new security challenge” from Spiceworks

Remember those grainy old baby monitors? So passé. Today, the modern nursery can be equipped with HD cameras and biometric sensors — all analyzed with artificial intelligence.The technology can detect hazardous position changes or a blanket covering a baby's face, but also tracks less critical metrics that purport to help optimize infant sleep and health. Sapna Maheshwari, business reporter at The New York Times, recently wrote about this. She's been an avid user of the Nanit Smart Baby Monitor System with both of her children.More on this“Aw, It's Baby's First A.I. Surveillance System” from The New York Times“AI-powered IoT is creating a new security challenge” from Spiceworks

It's Max Beaudry / He'll make your dreams come true Just kidding, those are mostly lyrics to the Muppet Babies theme song. But Max is with us and we talk about his debut graphic novel AW, NUTS! THE CRUMBELIEVABLE ADVENTURES OF PEANUT AND JELLY. Which is just the start, with volume 2 to hit the shelves in 2027! Max has a bunch of experience making characters and concepts leap off the page into our lives with his work in TV, and he connects all the dots for a wonderful chat. Thanks, Max, and glad Peanut and Jelly have more adventures on the way!  _________ This episode's book reviews:    GO PLAY by (friends!) Kate Allen Fox and Gennie Gorback JUST A SHELL... OR IS IT? words by Becca McMurdie, illustrations by Paula Escobar   _________   The artwork for You May Contribute a Verse features our quokka mascot, Versey, and was generously created by the great Maddie Frost! Find her on IG @hellomaddiefrost or on her website Maddie-Frost.com    Our theme music is So Happy by Scott Holmes. You can find more of his music at scottholmesmusic.com     Love the podcast and wanna support more episodes like this? Find Community Shoutouts, Merch and our Patreon here!!    Find us on Bluesky @joshmonkwords and @brennajeanneret and as always, let us know what you think via a rating, review, or comment!

AW hell, y'all.. The Drive gone & done it..!!

1 John 4 AW 08-02-26 by Reliance Community Church

1 John 5 AW 08-09-26 by Reliance Community Church

On episode 357 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Karen Peterson to go back 55 years and take a look at the 44th Academy Awards, covering the films of 1971. In another Oscar retrospective, the team go back this week to the start of the 1970s, where Hollywood was in a transition period within the films of the past; costume dramas and period pieces, and the films that would dominate the decade; auteur, original filmmaking from new voices in cinema. One of those voices was director William Friedkin, who broke big in 1971 with The French Connection, a neo-noir, action thriller about a narcotics detective trying to take down a big-time, connected drug dealer. The film was a massive success for the director and its star Gene Hackman, with the Academy awarding them Oscar gold. But will the team let Friedkin and company keep their Oscars? The Best Picture winner, alongside A Clockwork Orange, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, McCabe and Mrs. Miller, The Devils, A New Leaf, Dirty Harry, The Last Picture Show, Nicholas and Alexandra, Fiddler on the Roof, Harold and Maude, and more were mentioned on the show. In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 1971, briefly discuss talk about The French Connection as a Best Picture winner, and how that speaks to the legacy of their nominates and or wins, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren't normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page. This podcast runs 2h26m. We will be back next week to talk about the latest film from the director David Robert Mitchell, The End of Oak Street. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).

Aw, joe is a bird. Music/SFX: If you like our sounds, sign up for ONE FREE MONTH on us at Epidemic Sound! Over 30,000 songs: http://share.epidemicsound.com/n96pc Follow The Valleyfolk across the digital globe: http://twitter.com/TheValleyfolk http://instagram.com/TheValleyfolk http://facebook.com/TheValleyfolk Follow the group on their personal socials: Joe Bereta: http://twitter.com/JoeBereta http://instagram.com/joebereta Elliott Morgan: http://twitter.com/elliottcmorgan http://instagram.com/elliottmorgan Steve Zaragoza: http://twitter.com/stevezaragoza http://instagram.com/stevezaragoza http://twitch.tv/elliottmorgan Joe BIRDeta. He was telling us all along...

Welcome to episode 366 of The Cloud Pod, where the forecast is always cloudy! Ryan is back from “vacation,” aka his other job (moonlighting as the admin of the Eagles’ biggest fan Facebook group), and this week we're talking a lot about security, how orgs are managing threats, and whose turn it is to release a new hoard of patches. Plus, we've got news from BigQuery, JWT, MCP, and Cloudflare – and so much more, so let's get started!  Titles we almost went with this week GitHub’s New Stack Overflow: PRs Edition North Korea Debugs Its Way Into Your NPM Packages Amazon Bedrock Googles Itself, Skips the Middleman Kiro, Claude, and the Quest for Sane Code Review Bezos Bucks: AWS Revenue Growth Defies Gravity Google Tears Down Data Walls with Borderless Lakehouse BigQuery Goes Full Nomad, Crosses Clouds Without a Passport Chollima Chaos: DPRK Hackers Crash the NPM Party Bedrock Bets Big on Bing-Free Web Search Microsoft’s Azure Hits Triple Digits, Xbox Hits Snooze Google Automates the DBA Out of Day 0 MCP Servers Turn Data Chaos Into Actual Answers Cloudflare Gives Agents a Computer, Not Containers 200 OK, Zero Trust: Cloudflare Traces Agent Fails Amazon is all about the Quota A big thanks to this week's sponsors: We're sponsorless! Want to get your brand, company, or service in front of a very enthusiastic group of cloud news seekers? You've come to the right place! Send us an email or hit us up on our Slack channel for more info. General News  It's Earnings Time!  01:12 Google (GOOG) Q2 2026 earnings report: Live updates Google Cloud revenue grew 82% year over year to $24.8 billion, the standout number in an otherwise mixed earnings report, and beat Wall Street’s overall revenue expectations of $116.93 billion with $119.80 billion. Alphabet raised its 2026 capex guidance to $195-205 billion, up from the $180-190 billion forecast given just last quarter, with Q2 capex alone up 100% year over year to $44.9 billion. CFO Anat Ashkenazi cited continued supply constraints and strong demand from both external cloud customers and internal AI workloads. Despite the cloud growth and revenue beat, stock dropped in after-hours trading, suggesting investors are more focused on the scale of AI infrastructure spending than current cloud performance gains. Google’s Antigravity AI coding tool reported 2.4 million weekly active users, and the Gemini App has scaled to 950 million monthly active users processing 22 billion tokens per minute, indicating substantial adoption of Google’s AI products. Competitive pressure is mounting from Chinese open-weight models pushing token costs down, prompting Google to release three cheaper Gemini models this week.  Gemini 3.5 Pro remains in testing after reported delays, while compute is already being allocated toward Gemini 4 to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI’s frontier models. 04:19 AW

Aw heck yeah, nerds! Welcome to episode 241 of Up Yours with More, the official podcast of Up Up and Away Comics in Cincinnati, OH!This episode, MODOK and BC preview what comics, graphic novels, manga, and collectibles will be on sale in the month of October (and beyond)!Find Us Online at the Following Outlets Website :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠upupandawaycomics.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠youtube.com/@upupawaycomics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook ::  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/upupawa⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠y and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠facebook.com/uuablueash⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠instagram.com/upupawaycomics⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter :: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠twitter.com/upupawaycomics⁠⁠

On episode 355 of The AwardsWatch Podcast, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade is joined by AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson and AwardsWatch contributors Josh Parham and Karen Peterson to go back 20 years and take a look at the 79th Academy Awards, covering the films of 2006. The AW team goes back twenty years to take a look back on a time that was a nail biter of a season that resulted in Martin Scorsese coming out on time, winning his long awaited Oscar for the crime, gangster thriller The Departed. Alongside that, it was a fascinating five films in the Best Picture line-up that made up a pretty deep year of films that rank as some of the best of the decade of the 2010s upon retrospective. Films like Notes on a Scandal, Pan's Labyrinth, The Devil Wears Prada, United 93, Little Children, Half Nelson, and more from the nominations are talked about in-depth on this week's episode alongside Maria Antoinette, The Prestige, Miami Vice, Casino Royale, Children of Men, Inside Man, The Holiday get more attention from the group than their original award season run or get more nominations past their original snubs. It's a stacked conversation, and it makes for a fun episode of deliberation amongst the group.  In their in-depth discussion, the AW team talked about the film year of 2006, briefly discuss talk about The Departed as a Best Picture winner, and how that speaks to the legacy of their nominates and or wins, do an extensive conversation over the below the line categories and nominees for the year, and then the new version of the AW Shoulda Woulda Coulda game, where instead of individual replacements, they must decide as a group who the nominees and winners should be in the top eight categories. The rules of the game state they can only replace two of the nominees that year from each category, except in Best Picture, where the group could replace up to three films to make up the final set of five nominated films. Like past retrospective episodes, it was a fascinating, fun conversation including spirited debates, alliances, vote swinging, celebrating various movies, performances that aren't normally talked about and more that we all hope you enjoy. You can listen to The AwardsWatch Podcast wherever you stream podcasts, from iTunes, iHeartRadio, Soundcloud, Stitcher, Spotify, Audible, Amazon Music and more. You can also listen on the AW YouTube page. This podcast runs 2h44m. We will be back in next week to talk about the latest film from the MCU, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and talk about the best films of 2026 so far. Till then, let's get into it. Music: "Modern Fashion" from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), "B-3" from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro).