Podcasts about Berkowitz

The rise of the “virtualist” is reshaping how healthcare is delivered.In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Dr. Lyle Berkowitz, Founder and CEO of KeyCare, shares how his platform is building a future for physicians who choose to practice primarily in telehealth. He explains how flexibility, reduced bureaucracy, and expanded insurance coverage have fueled this trend, especially for working parents, frequent travelers, and semi-retired doctors. While some critics point to limits in physical exams, Dr. Berkowitz notes that most diagnoses rely on patient history, and virtual care can improve access, prevent unnecessary ER visits, and even offer valuable glimpses into patients' home environments.He highlights virtual care's role in advancing health equity by enabling care outside traditional clinic hours and reducing appointment backlogs for complex cases. By integrating directly with Epic's MyChart, KeyCare ensures coordinated visits, preserves patient trust, and eliminates the need to repeat medical histories. Even patients without internet access can benefit through phone consultations, which are still better than no care at all.Dr. Berkowitz outlines KeyCare's differentiator: embedding entirely within Epic to seamlessly share data with health systems, support chronic care through the “three C's” (cover, co-manage, complete), and offload low-complexity cases from hospitals. He envisions KeyCare evolving into a national virtual medical group that partners with health systems and payers, while leveraging ambient AI to enhance care delivery.Tune in to hear how Dr. Berkowitz is redefining what it means to “see the doctor” in the digital age!

In the early hours of July 29, 1976, 18-year-old medic-in-training Donna Lauria and her friend Jody Valenti, then a 19-year-old nurse, were sitting in Valenti's blue two-door Oldsmobile Cutlass in the Bronx, after a night dancing at a disco. Without warning, a man approached their vehicle, pulled a gun from a paper bag, and fired multiple shots, striking Lauria in the back and killing her instantly. Valenti was shot and wounded in her leg, but survived the attack. This brutal and seemingly random crime marked the beginning of a violent spree of attacks that would keep a terrified New York on edge for more than a year until David Berkowitz, originally known as the ".44 Caliber Killer" because of his weapon of choice, was captured by authorities in August 1977.Berkowitz later became notoriously known as the "Son of Sam" serial killer, after the pen name with which he signed letters he left at the scenes of his crimes for police or mailed to journalists. In 1978, he was convicted of the murders of two men and four women, ranging in age from 18 to 25, and sentenced to six consecutive life sentences in prison, which he is still serving.Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes, the fourth chapter in the Conversations with a Killer series, is available on Netflix beginning July 30th, and revisits the killings that haunted New York during an already tumultuous period of crime and underinvestment. The series delves into the mind and troubled past of Berkowitz, featuring newly unearthed audio interviews recorded with him by reporter Jack Jones in 1980 at Attica Correctional Facility in Wyoming County, New York.Alongside interviews with detectives, journalists, and survivors of Berkowitz's attacks, the three-part series offers new insights into the investigation and the enduring impact of Berkowitz's crimes on the local community. The series is directed and produced by Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated director Joe Berlinger (Cold Case: Jon Benet Ramsey, Crime Scene: The Texas Killing Fields, and Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial)."At the heart of Conversations with a Killer lies a commitment to unraveling the complex minds of notorious criminals while providing a space for those closest to the crimes to find closure," Berlinger tells Netflix. "With The Son of Sam Tapes, we delve into the world of David Berkowitz and his chilling influence on 1970s New York City. These rare tapes reveal unnerving insights into his psyche, shedding light on the intricate details of the case and the pervasive fear that gripped the city. Through these tapes, we hope to not only revisit history, but to bring clarity and depth to a narrative that has long intrigued and unsettled the public."WATCH THE TRAILER:Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLENEDZK3h4 Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

In this episode of The PR Week, Steve Barrett and Frank Washkuch sit down with Ron Berkowitz, founder and CEO of Berk Communications, to discuss his career in sports and entertainment PR, from working for George Steinbrenner to an era when athletes are also global influencers. Plus, the biggest marketing and communications news of the week, from Shamrock Capital's acquisition of the Penta Group to WPP's latest quarterly earnings and ICR CEO Tom Ryan's decision to step down.   AI Deciphered is back—live in New York City this November 13th.Join leaders from brands, agencies, and platforms for a future-focused conversation on how AI is transforming media, marketing, and the retail experience. Ready to future-proof your strategy? Secure your spot now at aidecipheredsummit.com. Use code POD at check out for $100 your ticket! Follow us: @PRWeekUSReceive the latest industry news, insights, and special reports. Start Your Free 1-Month Trial Subscription To PRWeek

What if the key to building a thriving, multi-million-dollar company was rooted not in chasing profits, but in honoring people, purpose, and relationships? In this episode, Kevin Thompson talks with Shelly Berkowitz, founder of BrightStar Care and now CEO of Founder 2 Founder. She shares how a personal struggle to find quality home care for her grandmother in 2001 inspired her to create BrightStar Care, a company combining medical and non-medical services under one roof. Over two decades, Shelly grew the brand to more than 400 locations, serving thousands of families weekly while navigating the challenges of single motherhood, rapid franchising, and leading through COVID-19. When it came time to sell, she discovered that 80% of the process was emotional. Her insistence on finding a buyer who valued culture and quality over just money led her to Peak Rock Capital, where she remains a shareholder and board chair. Today, through Founder 2 Founder, Shelly helps other entrepreneurs prepare for scaling or selling, offering the kind of empathetic guidance she wished she'd had. This conversation is about vision, grit, and the relationships—from mentors and early franchisees to her husband that helped shape every step of her journey.   [00:00 - 02:30] Introduction: Kevin Sets the Stage Kevin introduces the Million Dollar Relationships podcast and its mission Shoutout to the Quoted platform for connecting him with Shelly [02:31 - 10:55] Founding BrightStar Care Personal experience seeking better home care for her grandmother in 2001 Creating a company that offered both medical and non-medical care under one roof Commitment to paying caregivers above market rates [10:56 - 15:50] Rapid Growth and Franchising Success in the first three years leads Shelly to franchise BrightStar Care in 2005 Expansion to 450+ locations, serving 10–20K families weekly, employing 25K caregivers and 5K nurses [15:51 - 20:36] Navigating COVID and Shifting Roles Balancing business demands with raising twin boys, one with autism Decision to step back from day-to-day operations and focus on family [20:37 - 28:13] The Sale Process — and Walking Away Near-sale to a buyer who didn't align with her values Choosing Peak Rock Capital for cultural fit and quality focus Lessons learned: most of the sale process is emotional, not just transactional [28:14 - 41:18] Relationships that Shaped the Journey Mentors like Julie Beachy and Gloria Jean Ko Early franchisees who took a chance and helped shape the brand Key employees who continue her mission The personal relationship with her husband Sean that gave her strength during tough decisions Key Quotes “It's never been about money. It's been about doing the right things for families, caregivers, and franchisees.” — Shelly Berkowitz “Eighty percent of selling my company was emotional, not transactional.” — Shelly Berkowitz “If you're not ready to be done, don't sell. There are other ways to take chips off the table.” — Shelly Berkowitz Connect with Shelly Berkowitz Website: founder2founder.com LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/shellysunberkowitz Facebook: facebook.com/shelly.sun.3 BrightStar Founder Page: brightstarfounder.com   Thanks for tuning in! If you liked my show, please LEAVE A 5-STAR REVIEW, like, and subscribe! Find me on: Apple Podcasts Spotify iHeart Radio Stitcher

On this day in 1977, David Berkowitz confessed to being the Son of Sam killer who terrorized New Yorkers with seemingly random attacks. A new series explores interview tapes with Berkowitz to get a better understanding of the killer and his motivations. Director Joe Berlinger discusses the series "Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes," which is streaming now on Netflix. Listeners also share their memories of this period in NYC history.

Who else would get into this much trouble solving mysteries? Where have all the child actors gone? Were the 90's actually better than the 80's? Join the Lawrence Brothers as they team up with Max and Ben Berkowitz for their new graphic novel. Now up on Kickstarter!

Axios Business & Markets Managing Editor Ben Berkowitz breaks down everything you need to know about the Bureau of Labor Statistics as President Trump questions the accuracy of the July jobs report. Berkowitz explains how the BLS collects data, why it matters, and what Trump's criticism could mean for public trust in economic reporting.

“In tyranny, you may not have a whole lot of political freedom, but you can still live a pretty free life under tyranny,” says Roger Berkowitz in this week's episode of The World in Time. “In your private world, you can live under a dictator and still read what books you want and talk to people as long as you don't act out in the public sphere. Totalitarianism is quite different. It tries to get inside your head, and make you, and make everyone, believe. And it has secret police, and snitches, and surveillance. And it tries to fully organize society. It's the most organized and successful attack on freedom that one can imagine. And so for Arendt, you can't just be an individual and sit in jail and be free if you're going to protect yourselves from the dangers of totalitarianism and the end of constitutional, free government, which is what she's worried about. You need to act politically, and you need to act politically with a certain amount of power.” This week on the podcast, Donovan Hohn sits down for a conversation with Roger Berkowitz, writer, scholar, and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities at Bard College. They discuss the life and work of Hannah Arendt and two essays that share a name, “Civil Disobedience”—one by Arendt, the other by Thoreau, both recently collected in a volume that Berkowitz edited and introduced. Their conversation touches broadly on the works of the two writers, on their differences and disagreements, on the political tumults that inspired their famous essays, and on the lessons to be learned from them in the present day.

Emmy-winning and Academy Award–nominated director Joe Berlinger discusses Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes. The three-part Neflix series brings one of New York City's greatest manhunts to life, taking viewers inside the NYPD's frantic race to catch the infamous .44-caliber killer, David Berkowitz. Featuring newly unearthed recordings, the series offers rare insight into Berkowitz's disturbing psyche and reveals what was going through his mind during his reign of terror in the late 1970s. Through firsthand accounts from cops, journalists, and survivors, the documentary explores how fear spread throughout the city—fueled by cryptic letters, intense media frenzy, and a killer who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere at once. Reality Life with Kate Casey What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/katecaseyca Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itskatecasey?lang=en Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245 Amazon List: https://www.amazon.com/shop/katecasey Like it to Know It: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/katecaseySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Netflix documentary series Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes features newly-released recordings of David Berkowitz talking about his troubled past and why he killed. He admits on tape to fabricating some of the most sensational aspects of his criminal persona to build his legend. But how much of what Berkowitz says is true… and how much of it is him still trying to shape his own narrative? In this episode of You Can't Make This Up, host Rebecca Lavoie interviews director Joe Berlinger and executive producer Rachael Profiloski. SPOILER ALERT! If you haven't watched Conversations with a Killer: The Son of Sam Tapes yet, make sure to add it to your watch-list before listening on.  Dig deeper into all of your favorite Netflix documentaries and films at tudum.com. There you can read more about The Son of Sam case. Check our true crime hub at tudum.com/truecrime. Listen to more from Netflix Podcasts. 

This episode is another in our series on Climate Resilience featuring Alex Berkowitz, Founder and CEO of Coastal Protection Solutions (CPS), a startup developing nearshore infrastructure that reduces wave energy and enhances climate resilience. Alex shares how her personal experience with Hurricane Sandy in her hometown of Rockaway Beach led to the creation of the Wave Breaker—an innovative floating barrier designed to protect coastal communities from storm surge and erosion. She explains how CPS integrates landscape design, marine engineering, and microgrid energy into its solution, and how it differs from traditional seawalls or breakwaters. Alex also discusses navigating public policy, permitting, and insurance incentives, and finally, Alex shares her career advice for those who are interested in climate resilience. Host and Guest Host: ⁠Mike Toffel⁠, Professor, Harvard Business School (⁠LinkedIn⁠)      Guest: ⁠Alex Berkowitz⁠, Founder & CEO, Coastal Protection Solutions (⁠LinkedIn⁠)

In the season finale of Killer Psyche, retired FBI agent and criminal profiler Candice DeLong dives into the infamous case of David Berkowitz, the “Son of Sam.” Between 1976 and 1977, Berkowitz wreaked havoc on the boroughs of New York with a string of shootings that took the lives of six people and wounded several others. Even more shocking was his motive: a demonic dog told him to kill. But was David Berkowitz truly psychotic, or was his claim of insanity all an act? Candice delves into the rage and resentment brewing in Berkowitz from early in his life, and shares fascinating details from his interviews with FBI profiling pioneers Robert Ressler and John Douglas.Be the first to know about Wondery's newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterNeed more Killer Psyche? With Wondery+, enjoy exclusive episodes, early access to new ones, and they're always ad-free. Start your free trial in the Wondery App or visit wondery.app.link/TI5l5KzpDLb now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week we conclude our coverage on the Son of Sam, David Berkowitz, as we explore the popular conspiracy theory  that Berkowitz did not act alone. The Conspiracy states that not only did David Berkowtiz NOT act alone but he was actually a part of a Satanic doomsday Cult with ties to Scientology and Charles Manson.     WILD stuff I know! But we're going to skim over the details that author and investigative journalist, Maury Terry , POURED over for YEARS and chronicled in his book "The Ultimate Evil". As always follow us on the stuff Merch Store- http://tee.pub/lic/doEoXMI_oPI Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/Artandjacobdoamerica Website- https://artandjacobdoamerica.com/ Network- https://podbelly.com/ Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/artandjacobdoamerica YouTube Channel- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0rT6h3N2pWtlkxaqgIvaZw?view_as=subscriber Twitter- https://twitter.com/ArtandJacobDoA1 Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/artandjacobdoamerica/  

Howie and Harlan are joined by Seth Berkowitz, an internist and health equity expert, who argues that we know how to keep people healthier but are lacking the political will and commitment to do so. Harlan reports on a rapidly growing AI platform for doctors; Howie explains why the budget bill could reduce access to medical school.  Links: OpenEvidence OpenEvidence “OpenEvidence, the Fastest-Growing Application for Physicians in History, Announces $210 Million Round at $3.5 Billion Valuation” “This AI Founder Became A Billionaire By Building ChatGPT For Doctors” “Wall Street Tech Spree: With Kensho Acquisition S&P Global Makes Largest A.I. Deal In History” Forbes Profile: Daniel Nadler ClinicalKey AI Seth Berkowitz Health & Veritas Ep. 164: Sarah Taylor: The Science of Breastfeeding North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services: Healthy Opportunities Pilots Seth Berkowitz: “Medicaid Spending and Health-Related Social Needs in the North Carolina Healthy Opportunities Pilots Program” “NC Healthy Opportunities Program Helped Reduce Medicaid Costs” Seth Berkowitz: Equal Care: Health Equity, Social Democracy, and the Egalitarian State USDA: Food Security in the U.S. “These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration” “For Google, health equity becomes ‘health optimization' as Trump targets DEI” “Trump's ‘big beautiful bill' cuts food stamps for millions—the average family may lose $146 per month, report finds” “Why 1.5 Million New Yorkers Could Lose Health Insurance Under Trump Bill” “The fundamental importance of social insurance for health equity” United States Census Bureau: Quick Facts “Social Security: A Brief History of Social Insurance” Seth Berkowitz: “Expanded Child Tax Credit and Food Insecurity” USDA: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) “5 Key Facts About Medicaid Work Requirements” Health & Veritas Ep. 125: Atheendar Venkataramani: Opportunity, Hope, and Health The Budget and Medical Education “Examining Long-Term Trends in Reported Tuition and Fees Revenues at U.S. Medical Schools” “Medical Student Education: Debt, Costs, and Loan Repayment Fact Card for the Class of 2024” Department of Education: Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans Department of Education: Direct PLUS Loans for Graduate or Professional Students “Medical students fret over the new student loan cap in the 'big, beautiful bill'“ Department of Education: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Executive Order: Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness “U.S. Department of Education Concludes Negotiated Rulemaking Session to Restore Public Service Loan Forgiveness” “How Trump Wants to Reshape a Major Student Loan Forgiveness Program—and Who Could Be Impacted” Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM. Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Howie and Harlan are joined by Seth Berkowitz, an internist and health equity expert, who argues that we know how to keep people healthier but are lacking the political will and commitment to do so. Harlan reports on a rapidly growing AI platform for doctors; Howie explains why the budget bill could reduce access to medical school.  Links: OpenEvidence OpenEvidence “OpenEvidence, the Fastest-Growing Application for Physicians in History, Announces $210 Million Round at $3.5 Billion Valuation” “This AI Founder Became A Billionaire By Building ChatGPT For Doctors” “Wall Street Tech Spree: With Kensho Acquisition S&P Global Makes Largest A.I. Deal In History” Forbes Profile: Daniel Nadler ClinicalKey AI Seth Berkowitz Health & Veritas Ep. 164: Sarah Taylor: The Science of Breastfeeding North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services: Healthy Opportunities Pilots Seth Berkowitz: “Medicaid Spending and Health-Related Social Needs in the North Carolina Healthy Opportunities Pilots Program” “NC Healthy Opportunities Program Helped Reduce Medicaid Costs” Seth Berkowitz: Equal Care: Health Equity, Social Democracy, and the Egalitarian State USDA: Food Security in the U.S. “These Words Are Disappearing in the New Trump Administration” “For Google, health equity becomes ‘health optimization' as Trump targets DEI” “Trump's ‘big beautiful bill' cuts food stamps for millions—the average family may lose $146 per month, report finds” “Why 1.5 Million New Yorkers Could Lose Health Insurance Under Trump Bill” “The fundamental importance of social insurance for health equity” United States Census Bureau: Quick Facts “Social Security: A Brief History of Social Insurance” Seth Berkowitz: “Expanded Child Tax Credit and Food Insecurity” USDA: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) “5 Key Facts About Medicaid Work Requirements” Health & Veritas Ep. 125: Atheendar Venkataramani: Opportunity, Hope, and Health The Budget and Medical Education “Examining Long-Term Trends in Reported Tuition and Fees Revenues at U.S. Medical Schools” “Medical Student Education: Debt, Costs, and Loan Repayment Fact Card for the Class of 2024” Department of Education: Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized Loans Department of Education: Direct PLUS Loans for Graduate or Professional Students “Medical students fret over the new student loan cap in the 'big, beautiful bill'“ Department of Education: Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) Executive Order: Restoring Public Service Loan Forgiveness “U.S. Department of Education Concludes Negotiated Rulemaking Session to Restore Public Service Loan Forgiveness” “How Trump Wants to Reshape a Major Student Loan Forgiveness Program—and Who Could Be Impacted” Learn more about the MBA for Executives program at Yale SOM. Email Howie and Harlan comments or questions.

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a pathologic condition whereby excess CSF is retained in and around the brain despite normal intracranial pressure. MRI-safe programmable shunt valves allow for fluid drainage adjustment based on patients' symptoms and radiographic images. Approximately 75% of patients with NPH improve after shunt surgery regardless of shunt type or location. In this episode, Aaron Berkowitz, MD, PhD, FAAN, speaks with Kaisorn L. Chaichana, MD, author of the article “Management of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus” in the Continuum® June 2025 Disorders of CSF Dynamics issue. Dr. Berkowitz is a Continuum® Audio interviewer and a professor of neurology at the University of California San Francisco in the Department of Neurology in San Francisco, California. Dr. Chaichana is a professor of neurology in the department of neurological surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Additional Resources Read the article: Management of Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus Subscribe to Continuum®: shop.lww.com/Continuum Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme @ContinuumAAN Host: @LyellJ Guest: @kchaichanamd Full episode transcript available here Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio. Be sure to visit the links in the episode notes for information about earning CME, subscribing to the journal, and exclusive access to interviews not featured on the podcast. Dr Berkowitz: This is Dr Aaron Berkowitz, and today I'm interviewing Dr Kaisorn Chaichana about his article on management of normal pressure hydrocephalus, which he wrote with Dr Jeremy Cutsforth-Gregory. The article appears in the June 2025 Continuum issue on disorders of CSF dynamics. Welcome to the podcast, and please introduce yourself to our audience. Dr Chaichana: Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm Kaisorn Chaichana. I'm a neurosurgeon at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Part of my practice is doing hydrocephalus care, which includes shunts for patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. Dr Berkowitz: Fantastic. Well, before we get into shunt considerations and NPH specifically, which I know is the focus of your article, I thought it would be a great opportunity for a neurologist to pick a neurosurgeon's brain a bit about shunts. So, to start, can you lay out for us the different types of shunts and shunt procedures, the advantages, disadvantages of each type of shunt, how you think about which shunt procedure should be used for which patient, that type of thing? Dr Chaichana: Yeah. So, there are different types of shunts, and the most common one that is used is called a ventricular peritoneal shunt. So, it has a ventricular catheter, it has a catheter that tunnels underneath the skin and it goes into the peritoneum where the fluid goes from the ventricular system into the peritoneum. Typically, the shunts are in the ventricle because that is the largest fluid-filled space in the brain. Other terminal areas include the atrium, which is really the jugular vein, and those are called ventricular atrial shunts. You can also have ventricular pleural shunts, which end in the pleural space and drain flui into the pleural space. Those are pretty much the most common ventricular shunts. There's also a lumboperitoneal shunt that drains from the lumbar spine, similar to a lumbar drain into the peritoneum. For the lumbar shunts, we don't typically have a lumbar pleural or lumbar atrial shunt just because of the pressure dynamics, because the lumbar spine is below the lung and as well as the atrium. And so, the drainage pattern is very different than ventricular peritoneal which is top to bottom. The most common shunt, why we use the ventricular peritoneal shunt the most, is because it has the most control. So, the peritoneum is set at a standard pressure in the intraabdominal pressure, whereas the ventricular atrial shunt depends on your venous return or venous pressure and your ventricular pleural shunt varies with inspiration and expiration. So, the easiest way for us to control the fluid, the ventricular system is through the ventricular peritoneal shunt. And that's why that's our most common shunt that we use. Dr Berkowitz: Fantastic. So, as you mention in the article, neurologists may be reluctant to offer a shunt to patients with NPH because many patients may not improve, or they improve only transiently; and out of fear of shunt complications. So, of course, as neurologists, we often only hear about a patient's shunt when there is a problem. So, we have this sort of biased view of seeing a lot of shunt malfunction and shunt infection. Of course, we might not see the patient if their shunt is working just fine. How common are these complications in practice, and how do you as a neurosurgeon weigh the risks against the often uncertain or transient benefits of a shunt in a patient with NPH who may be older and multiple medical comorbidities? How do you think about that and talk about it with patients? Dr Chaichana: When you hear about shunt complications, most of the shunt complications you hear about are typically in patients with congenital hydrocephalus. Those patients often require several shunt revisions just from either growing or the shunt stays in for a long time or the ventricular caliber is a lot less than some with normal pressure hydrocephalus. So, we don't really see a lot of complications with normal pressure hydrocephalus. So that shunt placement in these patients is typically pretty safe. The procedure's a relatively short procedure, around 30 minutes to 45 minutes to place a shunt, and we can control the pressure within the shunt setting so that we don't overdrain---which means too much fluid drains from the ventricular system---which can cause things like a subdural, which is probably the most common complication associated with normal pressure hydrocephalus. So, to obviate those risks, what we do is typically insert the shunt and then keep the shunt setting at a high setting. The higher the setting, the less it drains, and then we bring it slowly down based on the patient's symptoms to try to minimize the risk of this over drainage in the subdural hematoma while at the same time benefiting the patient. So, there's a concern for shunt in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus. The concern or the complication risks are very low. The problem with normal pressure hydrocephalus, though, is that over time these patients benefit less and less from drainage or their disease process takes over. So, I do recommend placing this shunt as soon as possible just so that we can maximize their quality of life for that period of time. Dr Berkowitz: So, if I'm understanding you, then the risk of complication is more sort of due to the mechanical factors in patients with congenital hydrocephalus or sort of outgrowing the shunt, their pressure dynamics may be changing over time. And in your experience, an older patient with NPH, although they may have more medical comorbidities, the procedure itself is relatively quick and low-risk. And the actual complications due to mechanical factors, my understanding, are just much less common because the patient is obviously fully grown and they're getting one sort of procedure at one point in time and tend to need less revision, have less complication. Is that right? Dr Chaichana: Yeah, that's correct. The complication risk for normal hydrocephalus is a lot less than other types of hydrocephalus. Dr Berkowitz: That's helpful to know. While we're talking about some of these complications, let's say we're following a patient in neurology with NPH who has a shunt. What are some of the symptoms and signs of shunt malfunction or shunt infection? And what are the best studies to order to evaluate for these if we're concerned about them? Dr Chaichana: Yeah. So basically, for shunt malfunction, it's basically broken down into two categories. It's either overdrainage or underdrainage. So, underdrainage is where the shunt doesn't function enough. And so basically, they return to their state before the shunt was placed. So that could be worsening gait function, memory function, urinary incontinence are the typical symptoms we look for in patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus and underdrainage, or the shunt is not working. For patients that are having overdrainage, which is draining too much, the classic sign is typically headaches when they stand up. And the reason behind that is when there's overdrainage, there's less cerebrospinal fluid in their ventricular system, which means less intracranial pressure. So that when they stand up, the pressure differential between their head and the ground is more than when they're lying down. And because of that pressure differential, they usually have worsening headaches when standing up or sitting up. The other thing are severe headaches, which would be a sign of a subdural hematoma or focality in their neurological symptoms that could point to a subdural hematoma, such as weakness, numbness, speaking problems, depending on the hemisphere. How we work this up is, regardless if you're concerned about overdrainage or underdrainage, we usually start with a CAT scan or an MRI scan. Typically, we prefer a CAT scan because it's quicker, but the CAT scan will show us if the ventricular caliber is the same and/or the placement of the proximal catheter. So, what we look for when we see that CAT scan or that MRI to see the location of the proximal catheter to make sure it hasn't changed from any previous settings. And then we see the caliber of the ventricles. If the caliber of the ventricles is smaller, that could be a sign of overdrainage. If the caliber of the ventricles are larger, it could be a sign of underdrainage. The other thing we look for are subdural fluid collections or hydromas or subdural hematomas, which would be another sign of lower endocranial pressure, which would be a sign of overdrainage. So those are the biggest signs we look for, for underdrainage and overdrainage. Other things we can look for if we're concerned of the shunt is fractured, we do a shunt X-ray and what a shunt x-ray is is x-rays of the skull, the neck and the abdomen to see the catheter to make sure it's not kinked or fractured. If you're really concerned, you can't tell from the x-ray, another scan to order is a CT of the chest and abdomen and pelvis to look at the location of the catheter to make sure there's no brakes in the catheter, there's no fluid collections on the distal portion of the catheter, which would be a sign of shunt malfunction as well. Other tests that you can do to really exclude shunt malfunction is a shunt patency test, and what that is a nuclear medicine test where radionucleotide is injected into the valve and then the radionucleotide is traced over time or imaged through time to make sure that it's draining appropriately from the valve into the distal catheter into the peritoneum or the distal site. If there's a shunt malfunction that's not drainage, that radioisotope would remain stagnant either in the valve or in the catheter. There's overdrainage, we can't really tell, but there will be a quick drainage of the radioisotope. For shunt infection, we start with an imaging just to make sure there's not a shunt malfunction, and that usually requires cerebrospinal fluid to test. The cerebrospinal fluid can come from the valve itself, or it can come from other areas like the lumbar spine. If the lumbar spine is showing signs of shunt infection, then that usually means the shunt is infected. If the valve is aspirated with- at the bedside with a butterfly needle into the valve and that shows signs of shunt infection, that also could be a sign of infection. Dr Berkowitz: That's very helpful. You mentioned CT and shunt series. One question that often comes up when obtaining neuroimaging in patients with a shunt, who have NPH or otherwise, is whether we need to call you when we're doing an MRI to reprogram the shunt before or after. Is there a way we can know as a neurologists at the bedside or as patients carry a card, like with some devices where we know whether we have to call and bother our neurosurgery colleagues to get this MRI? Or if the radiology techs ask us, is this safe? And is the patient's shunt going to get turned off? How do we go about determining this? Dr Chaichana: Yeah, so unfortunately, a lot of patients don't carry a card. We typically offer a card when we do the shunt, but that card, there's two problems with it. One is it tells the model, but the second thing is it has to be updated any time the shunt is changed to a different setting. Oftentimes patients don't know that shunt setting, and often times they don't know that company brand that they use. There are different types of shunts with different types of settings. If there's ever concern as to what type of shunt they have, an x-ray is usually the best bet to see with a shunt series, or a skull x-ray. A lateral skull x-ray usually looks at the valve, and the valve has certain radio-dense markers that indicate what type of shunt it is. And that way you can call neurosurgery and we can always tell you what the shunt setting is before the MRI is done. Problem with an MRI scan if you do it without a shunt x-ray before is that you don't know the setting before unless the patient really knows or it's in the patient chart, and the MRI can need to change the setting. It doesn't usually turn it off, but it would change the setting, which would change the fluid dynamics within their ventricular system, which could lead to overdrainage or underdrainage. So, any time a patient needs MRI imaging, whether it's even the brain MRI, a spine MRI, or even abdominal MRI, really a shunt x-ray should be done just to see the shunt setting so that it could be returned to that setting after the MRI is done. Dr Berkowitz: So, the only way to know sort of what type of shunt it would be short of the patient knowing or the patient getting care at the same hospital where the shunt was placed and looking it up in the operative reports would be a skull film. That would then tell us what type of shunt is there and then the marking of the setting. And then we would be able to call our colleagues in neurosurgery and say, this patient is getting an MRI this is the setting, this is the type of shunt. And do we need to call you afterwards to come by and reprogram it? Is that right? Dr Chaichana: That's correct, yeah. Dr Berkowitz: Is there anything we would be able to see on there, or it's best we just- best we just call you and clarify? Dr Chaichana: The easiest thing to do is, when you get the skull x-ray, you can Google different types of shunts or search for different shunts, and they'll have markers that show the type of shunt it is as well as the setting that it's at. And just match it up with the picture. Dr Berkowitz: And as long as it's not a programmable shunt, there's no concern about doing the MRI. Is that right? Dr Chaichana: Correct. So, if it's a programmable shunt, even if it's MRI-compatible, we still like to get the setting before and make sure the setting after the MRI is the same. Nonprogrammable shunts can't be changed with MRI scans, and those don't need neurosurgery after the MRI scan, but it should be confirmed before the scan is done. Dr Berkowitz: Very helpful. Okay, so let's turn to NPH specifically. As you know, there's a lot of debate in the literature, some arguing, even, NPH might not even exist, some saying it's underdiagnosed. I think. I don't know if it was last year at our American Academy of Neurology conference or certainly in recent years, there was a pro and con debate of “we are underdiagnosing NPH” versus “we are overdiagnosing NPH.” What's your perspective as a neurosurgeon? What's the perspective in neurosurgery? Is this something we're underdiagnosing, and the times you shunt these patients you see miraculous results? Is this something that we're overdiagnosing, you get a lot of patients sent to that you think maybe won't benefit from a shunt? Or is it just really hard to say and some patients have shunt-responsive noncommunicating hydrocephalus of unclear etiology and either concurrent Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, cervical lumbar stenosis, neuropathy, vestibular problems, and all these other issues that play into multifactorial gait to sort of display a certain amount of the percentage of problem in a given patient or take overtime? What's your perspective if you're open to sharing it, or what's the perspective of neurosurgery? Is this debated as it is in neurology or this is just a standard thing you see and patients respond to shunt to some degree in some proportion of the time? And what are the sort of predictors you see in your experience? Dr Chaichana: Yeah, so, for me, I'd say it's too complicated for a neurosurgeon to evaluate. We rely on neurology to tell us whether or not they need a shunt. But I think the problem is, obviously, a part of the workout for at least the ones that I like to do, is that I want them to have a high-volume lumbar puncture with pre- and postgait analysis to see if there's really an objective measure of them improving. If they have an objective measure of improvement---and what's even better is that they have a subjective measure of improvement on top of the objective measure of improvement---then they benefit from a shunt. The problem is, some patients do benefit even though they don't have objective performance increases after a high-volume shunt. And those are the ones that make me the most worrisome to do the shunt, just because I don't like to do a procedure where there's no benefit for the patient. I do see, according to the literature as well, that there's around a 30 to 40%, even 50%, increase in gait function, even in patients that don't have large improvements following the high-volume lumbar puncture. And those are the most challenging patients for us as neurosurgeons because we'll put the shunt in, they say we're no better in terms of their gait, no better in terms of their urinary incontinence. We try to lower their shunt down to a certain setting and we're kind of stuck after that point. The good thing about NPH, though, is that, from the neurosurgery side, the shunt, like I said, is a pretty benign, low-risk procedure. So, we're not putting the patient through a very severe procedure to see if there's any benefit. So, in cases where we try to improve their quality of life in patients that don't have a benefit from high-volume lumbar puncture, we give them the odds of whether or not it's improving and say it might not improve. But because the procedure's minimally invasive, I think it's a good way to see if we can benefit their quality of life. Dr Berkowitz: Yeah, it's a very helpful perspective. Yeah, those are the most challenging cases on our side as well, right. If the patient- we think they may have NPH, or their gait and/or urinary and/or cognitive problems are- at least have a component of NPH that could be reversible, we certainly want to do the large volume lumbar puncture and/or consider a lumbar drain trial, all discussed in other articles and interviews for this issue of Continuum, But the really tough ones, as you said, there is this literature on patients who don't respond to the large-volume lumbar puncture for some reason but still may be shunt responsive. And despite all the imaging predictors and all the other ways we try to think about this, it's hard to know who's going to benefit. I think that's really a helpful perspective from your end that, as you say in the very beginning of your article, right, maybe there's a little bit too much fear of shunting on the neurology side because when we hear about shunts, it's often in the setting of complication. And so, we're not sort of getting the full spectrum of all the patients you shunt and you see who are doing just fine. They might not improve---the question is related to NPH---but at least they're not harmed by the shunt, and we're maybe overbiased and/or seeing a overly representative sample of negative shunt outcomes when they're actually not that common in practice. Is that a fair summary of your perspective? Dr Chaichana: Yeah, that's correct. So, I mean, complications can occur---and anytime you do a surgery, there are risks of complications---but I think they're relatively low for the benefit that we can help their quality of life. And the procedure's pretty short. So, the risk, it mostly outweighs the benefits in cases with normal pressure hydrocephalus. Dr Berkowitz: Very helpful perspective. So, well, thanks so much again. Today I've been interviewing Dr Kaisorn Chaichana about his article on management of normal pressure hydrocephalus, which he wrote with Dr Jeremy Cutsforth-Gregory. This article appears in the most recent issue of Continuum on disorders of CSF dynamics. Be sure to check out Continuum Audio episodes from this and other issues, and thank you to our listeners for joining us today. Dr Monteith: This is Dr Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio. If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth and clinically relevant information important for neurology practitioners. Use the link in the episode notes to learn more and subscribe. AAN members, you can get CME for listening to this interview by completing the evaluation at continpub.com/audioCME. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

Send us a textWelcome back to the Laundromat Resource Podcast! In this episode, host Jordan Berry is joined by Amy Berkowitz—an inspiring entrepreneur whose laundromat journey is packed with lessons, laughs, and real-world wisdom you don't want to miss.Whether you're thinking about buying your first laundromat, already own one, or are exploring pickup and delivery services, Amy's story is truly for everyone. She takes us through her pivot from a longtime marketing strategist to laundromat owner after an unexpected career shakeup. Get ready to hear how she launched a branded pickup and delivery business, leveraged her industry know-how to score not one, not two, but three laundromats—including a “free” location—and wove her personal story into a nonprofit supporting breast cancer patients with free laundry service.As you listen, you'll get an inside look at the importance of building a strong brand, the power of networking, taking bold risks, and betting on yourself. Amy holds nothing back as she shares the challenges and triumphs of entrepreneurship, the realities of funding your dreams, and how to find true joy—even when you're knee-deep in dirty laundry.If you're seeking practical advice, a dose of inspiration, or just want to hear a great story from someone who truly “gets it,” this episode's for you. Grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and enjoy this uplifting conversation with Amy Berkowitz on the Laundromat Resource Podcast!In this episode; Jordan and Amy discuss:00:00 "Laundromat Mastermind Group Launch"06:33 Car Wash Advertising Expansion10:31 Seeking Change After Corporate Life19:32 "Coping Well Through Treatment"22:11 Software Donation Feature Development28:26 Mentorship, Partnership, and Marketing Success33:39 Entrepreneurship: Overcoming Loneliness Through Podcasts38:35 Power of Diverse Networking46:30 Consulting Call Reflection51:05 Leaving Corporate for Entrepreneurial Marketing56:15 Home Equity for Laundromat Investment01:00:11 Over analysis and Risk-taking Journey01:04:31 Essence of Non-Passive Entrepreneurship01:11:28 "Reopening Challenges and New Ventures"01:14:30 Opting for Cash Over Financing01:22:31 Ongoing Cleanup and Renovation Efforts01:28:09 Branding Crucial in Business Growth01:30:51 FOMO in On-Demand Ownership01:39:01 "Laundromat Acquisition Strategy"01:41:22 Community Engagement in Laundromats01:48:29 Networking and Connection Strategies01:52:28 "Amy's Instant Classic Episode"Show Noteshttps://laundromatresource.com/show202ResourcesEmail: amy@bubbleslaundryservice.comConnect With UsYouTubeInstagramFacebookLinkedInTwitterTikTok

In this episode of Back in Session, the Ryans sit down with Jeff Berkowitz, founder and CEO of Delve, for an in-depth conversation on how artificial intelligence is transforming the future of public affairs and government relations. Drawing from his years of experience at the intersection of politics, research, and strategy, Jeff shares how AI is moving beyond chatbots to become a true partner in policymaking and advocacy.You'll hear Jeff explain why AI isn't here to replace public affairs professionals, but to amplify their strategic impact, and how tools like Delve's new platform are helping teams move from manual research to real-time intelligence. He also breaks down the risks of poorly thought-out AI regulation, the power of agentic workflows, and how firms can prepare for the next wave of technological disruption in government affairs.Learn more about Delve's AI Playbook:delvedeeper.ai/playbook

We love a good comic book explosion. The Writer smashes superheroes, comic book history, Jewish Folklore, Indiana Jones, The Princess Bride, Mike Mignola, and a little Looney Tunes existential dread. It's born from a unique sibling collaboration between the Berkowitz Bros., Max and Ben, as well as actor Josh Gad, master illustrator Ariel Olivetti, and letterer Frank Cvetkovic. At its center is the aggressively middle-aged Stan Siegel, a comic book writer avoiding life's next big chapter, who gets sucked into a supernatural battle with demons and nazis. And drags his mother and daughter into that war alongside him. The Writer is a meta feast for those steeped in comics and pop culture, nodding to the iconic and not-so-iconic characters who populate our collective imagination. With the trade paperback now available from Dark Horse Comics, we were eager to have the Berkowitz Bros. on the show this week. We discuss their comic book origin stories, a particular Bob Kane painting, middle-aged hero worship, and celebrating family. The conversation stirs intense feelings about siblings and why they make the best and worst collaborators. Also, during this week's introduction, we dive into our first HeroesCon experience. Did we meet all the creators we wanted to meet? Did we buy all the comics we wanted to buy? Are Rick Quinn and Dave Chisholm as cool in person as they are in our six Spectrum podcast episodes? We get into it. And don't forget to follow the Berkowitz Bros. on Blue Sky, Instagram, and their website. This Week's Sponsor We're sponsored by 2000 AD, the greatest comic you're not reading! Within its pages is a whole universe of characters, from Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog to Rogue Trooper, Shakara, Halo Jones, and the poor sods slogging across the Cursed Earth in The Helltrekkers. Get a print subscription at your door every week - and the first issue is free! Or subscribe digitally, get free back issues, and download DRM-free copies of each issue for just $9 a month. That's 128 pages of incredible monthly comics for less than $10. Other Relevant Links to This Week's Episode: Subscribe to the CBCC YouTube Channel and Prepare for The Stacks Brad and Lisa Gullickson Talk Heroes Con on The Short Box Podcast The Best Superman Comic for the Curious Reader Join Comic Book Club in Person CBCC's Comic Shop Road Trip Patreon Exclusive: Saga of the Swamp Thing Book Club Support Your Local Comic Shop Free Patreon Series Final Round of Plugs (PHEW): Support the Podcast by Joining OUR PATREON COMMUNITY. The Comic Book Couples Counseling TeePublic Merch Page. And, of course, follow Comic Book Couples Counseling on Facebook, on Instagram, and on Bluesky @CBCCPodcast, and you can follow hosts Brad Gullickson @MouthDork & Lisa Gullickson @sidewalksiren. Send us your Words of Affirmation by leaving us a 5-star Review on Apple Podcasts. Continue your conversation with CBCC by hopping over to our website, where we have reviews, essays, and numerous interviews with comic book creators. Podcast logo by Jesse Lonergan and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Son Of Sam Murder Really Mafia Hit?David Berkowitz was an American serial killer who murdered six people in New York City in 1976–77. His crimes plunged the city into a panic and unleashed one of the largest manhunts in New York history.Berkowitz was a difficult and occasionally violent child. His erratic behaviour, which began after the death of his adoptive mother in 1967, intensified when his adoptive father remarried in 1971 and moved to Florida without him. In 1971 Berkowitz joined the army, and he became an excellent marksman before he left the service in 1974. According to Berkowitz's diary, he set some 1,500 fires in New York City in the mid-1970s.But was there something else going on?Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

What is evil—and can even the most depraved among us find redemption? In this profoundly moving conversation, Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas sits down with Dr. Michael Caparelli, author of Monster Mirror, to explore the dark and sobering case of David Berkowitz—the notorious “Son of Sam” serial killer. Caparelli, who spent over 100 hours interviewing Berkowitz in prison, offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a man who once claimed to be possessed by the devil but now professes a deep Christian faith.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What is evil—and can even the most depraved among us find redemption? In this profoundly moving conversation, Socrates in the City host Eric Metaxas sits down with Dr. Michael Caparelli, author of Monster Mirror, to explore the dark and sobering case of David Berkowitz—the notorious “Son of Sam” serial killer. Caparelli, who spent over 100 hours interviewing Berkowitz in prison, offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a man who once claimed to be possessed by the devil but now professes a deep Christian faith.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Join Mondo and author Adam Berkowitz as they discuss the latest developments on the red heifers and the Third Temple.

Karen Read Trial Day 25 Recap: Defense Witness Turns on Them, Alleges Defense Member Threatened Her! In a dramatic day inside the Norfolk Superior Court, the Karen Read murder trial took a turn that no one saw coming—when the defense's own witnesses began pushing back. From allegations of witness coercion to a controversial dog bite theory, Day 25 of the trial was packed with explosive revelations and intense courtroom exchanges. Former Canton Police Officer Kelly Dever delivered one of the most impactful testimonies of the trial so far. Dever told the jury that Karen Read's defense team pressured her to testify to a story she knew wasn't true—that she saw Higgins and Berkowitz alone in the garage with Read's SUV. When she refused, she claims they threatened her with perjury. In open court, she directed the accusation directly at defense attorney Alan Jackson. This wasn't a moment of confusion—it was a pointed, emotional standoff that put the defense's tactics under the microscope. Then came Jonathan Diamandis, a friend of former State Trooper Michael Proctor. He confirmed the authenticity of Proctor's now-infamous group chat texts, which were laced with crude, insulting, and misogynistic remarks about Karen Read. But the texts didn't say what the defense needed—they didn't mention any planted evidence, altered reports, or a cover-up. Just hostility. Just bias. And just as easily turned against the defense's credibility as the prosecution's. In the afternoon, the defense called Dr. Marie Russell, a forensic pathologist, to bolster their theory that John O'Keefe's injuries were more consistent with a dog attack than a car crash. But her testimony lacked any physical evidence—no dog DNA, no bite mark match, and no autopsy. The prosecution wasted no time in pointing out that her conclusions were drawn from photos, not science. This video breaks down the legal strategy, expert testimony, and ethical fallout—step by step. #KarenReadTrial #TrueCrime #WitnessCoercion #JohnOKeefe #ForensicEvidence #MichaelProctor #DogBiteDefense #KellyDever #LegalEthics #CourtroomDrama Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?  Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Karen Read Trial Day 25 Recap: Defense Witness Turns on Them, Alleges Defense Member Threatened Her! In a dramatic day inside the Norfolk Superior Court, the Karen Read murder trial took a turn that no one saw coming—when the defense's own witnesses began pushing back. From allegations of witness coercion to a controversial dog bite theory, Day 25 of the trial was packed with explosive revelations and intense courtroom exchanges. Former Canton Police Officer Kelly Dever delivered one of the most impactful testimonies of the trial so far. Dever told the jury that Karen Read's defense team pressured her to testify to a story she knew wasn't true—that she saw Higgins and Berkowitz alone in the garage with Read's SUV. When she refused, she claims they threatened her with perjury. In open court, she directed the accusation directly at defense attorney Alan Jackson. This wasn't a moment of confusion—it was a pointed, emotional standoff that put the defense's tactics under the microscope. Then came Jonathan Diamandis, a friend of former State Trooper Michael Proctor. He confirmed the authenticity of Proctor's now-infamous group chat texts, which were laced with crude, insulting, and misogynistic remarks about Karen Read. But the texts didn't say what the defense needed—they didn't mention any planted evidence, altered reports, or a cover-up. Just hostility. Just bias. And just as easily turned against the defense's credibility as the prosecution's. In the afternoon, the defense called Dr. Marie Russell, a forensic pathologist, to bolster their theory that John O'Keefe's injuries were more consistent with a dog attack than a car crash. But her testimony lacked any physical evidence—no dog DNA, no bite mark match, and no autopsy. The prosecution wasted no time in pointing out that her conclusions were drawn from photos, not science. This video breaks down the legal strategy, expert testimony, and ethical fallout—step by step. #KarenReadTrial #TrueCrime #WitnessCoercion #JohnOKeefe #ForensicEvidence #MichaelProctor #DogBiteDefense #KellyDever #LegalEthics #CourtroomDrama Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?  Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Karen Read Trial Day 25 Recap: Defense Witness Turns on Them, Alleges Defense Member Threatened Her! In a dramatic day inside the Norfolk Superior Court, the Karen Read murder trial took a turn that no one saw coming—when the defense's own witnesses began pushing back. From allegations of witness coercion to a controversial dog bite theory, Day 25 of the trial was packed with explosive revelations and intense courtroom exchanges. Former Canton Police Officer Kelly Dever delivered one of the most impactful testimonies of the trial so far. Dever told the jury that Karen Read's defense team pressured her to testify to a story she knew wasn't true—that she saw Higgins and Berkowitz alone in the garage with Read's SUV. When she refused, she claims they threatened her with perjury. In open court, she directed the accusation directly at defense attorney Alan Jackson. This wasn't a moment of confusion—it was a pointed, emotional standoff that put the defense's tactics under the microscope. Then came Jonathan Diamandis, a friend of former State Trooper Michael Proctor. He confirmed the authenticity of Proctor's now-infamous group chat texts, which were laced with crude, insulting, and misogynistic remarks about Karen Read. But the texts didn't say what the defense needed—they didn't mention any planted evidence, altered reports, or a cover-up. Just hostility. Just bias. And just as easily turned against the defense's credibility as the prosecution's. In the afternoon, the defense called Dr. Marie Russell, a forensic pathologist, to bolster their theory that John O'Keefe's injuries were more consistent with a dog attack than a car crash. But her testimony lacked any physical evidence—no dog DNA, no bite mark match, and no autopsy. The prosecution wasted no time in pointing out that her conclusions were drawn from photos, not science. This video breaks down the legal strategy, expert testimony, and ethical fallout—step by step. #KarenReadTrial #TrueCrime #WitnessCoercion #JohnOKeefe #ForensicEvidence #MichaelProctor #DogBiteDefense #KellyDever #LegalEthics #CourtroomDrama Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?  Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872

Today Rachel is joined by actress Margaret Berkotwitz about her career in musical theatre roles and her new film THINGS LIKE THIS Check out THINGS LIKE THIS using our affiliate link https://amzn.to/43TDj7G (ad) Pick up WHERE IT ALL BEGAN using our affiliate link https://amzn.to/43oZgM1 (ad) For all our interviews https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXv4sBF3mPUA_0JZ2r5fxhTRE_-RChCj5 Follow Margaret on instagram https://www.instagram.com/margaret_berkz/?hl=en Join us over on Patreon! http://www.patreon.com/hallmarkies Check out our merch: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/hallmarkies Send us your feedback at feedback@hallmarkiespodcast.com Or call +1 (801) 855-6407 Follow Rachel on twitter twitter.com/rachel_reviews Follow Rachel's blog at http://rachelsreviews.net Follow Rachel's Reviews on youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/rachelsreviews Follow Rachel on facebook www.facebook.com/smilingldsgirl Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

He's seen it all, from the days of hand-written ledgers to artificial intelligence. But one thing remains the same: it's all about people skills. In this episode, Berkowitz Pollack Brant Founder and Executive Chairman Richard Berkowitz shares his takes with SFBJ Editor-in-Chief Mel Melendez.

News headline roundup. The politics of tyranny.  Find us on YouTube. In this episode of The Bulletin, Mike and Clarissa discuss cruelty, the talks between the US and Russia, the bombing of a fertility clinic in California, former president Joe Biden's cancer diagnosis, and the anniversary of George Floyd's death. Then, Mike talks with Roger Berkowitz about the politics of tyranny.  GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join the conversation at our Substack Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. ABOUT THE GUEST:  Roger Berkowitz is founder and academic director of the Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanities and professor of politics, philosophy, and human rights at Bard College. Berkowitz is the author of The Gift of Science, the introduction to On Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau and Hannah Arendt, and The Perils of Invention. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The American Interest, Bookforum, The Forward, The Paris Review online, and Democracy.  ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a twice-weekly politics and current events show from Christianity Today moderated by Clarissa Moll, with senior commentary from Russell Moore (Christianity Today's editor in chief) and Mike Cosper (director, CT Media). Each week, the show explores current events and breaking news and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world. We also offer special one-on-one conversations with writers, artists, and thought leaders whose impact on the world brings important significance to a Christian worldview, like Bono, Sharon McMahon, Harrison Scott Key, Frank Bruni, and more. The Bulletin listeners get 25% off CT. Go to https://orderct.com/THEBULLETIN to learn more. “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Producer: Clarissa Moll Associate Producer: Alexa Burke Editing and Mix: Kevin Morris Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producers: Erik Petrik and Mike Cosper Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Truth behind the Crime: Wendy Savino Special guest Frank and Maria DeGennaroWendy Savino is a remarkable woman whose life encompasses both a harrowing encounter with a notorious serial killer and a rich history in the performing arts. ⸻

On today's episode I have comic book writers and filmmakers, Ben and Max Berkowitz!  I first came across the Berkowtiz Brothers almost a year ago when I briefly met them at a signing for their comic book, "The Writer". I'll be honest, I wasn't at the signing for them, but for another comic and decided to pick theirs up while I was there. As soon as I dove in I was hooked! I talked with Max and Ben about growing up on the East Coast, their first introduction to comic books, getting involved with entertainment, earliest influences and the first comics they bought, developing "The Writer" and bringing Josh Gadd on board, pitching to Dark Horse Comics, their social marketing company Not A Billionaire, and so much more! A huge Thank You to Max and Ben for taking the time to join me on the show. I've been wanting to have them on the show for a while now and was thrilled we were able to make it happen. You can pick up the paperback of "The Writer" now, which includes the full story and all of the issues in one book simply by clicking on the links at www.onthemicpodcast.com Make sure to follow the Berkowitz Brothers on all of the links at www.onthemicpodcast.com as well.  Thanks, Ben and Max! Enjoy the episode!  

On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the Son of Sam murders that had terrorized New York City for over a year. Berkowitz confessed to shooting sixteen people and killing six with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, and the case was officially closed. Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession. Spurred by conflicting witness descriptions of the killer and clues overlooked in the investigation, Terry was convinced Berkowitz didn't act alone. Meticulously gathering evidence for a decade, he released his findings in the first edition of The Ultimate Evil. Based upon the evidence he had uncovered, Terry theorized that the Son of Sam attacks were masterminded by a Yonkers-based cult that was responsible for other ritual murders across the country. After Terry's death in 2015, documentary filmmaker Josh Zeman (Cropsey, The Killing Season, Murder Mountain) was given access to Terry's files, which form the basis of his docuseries with Netflix and a companion podcast. Taken together with The Ultimate Evil, which includes a new introduction by Zeman, these works reveal the stunning intersections of power, wealth, privilege, and evil in America—from the Summer of Sam until today.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the Son of Sam murders that had terrorized New York City for over a year. Berkowitz confessed to shooting sixteen people and killing six with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, and the case was officially closed. Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz's confession. Spurred by conflicting witness descriptions of the killer and clues overlooked in the investigation, Terry was convinced Berkowitz didn't act alone. Meticulously gathering evidence for a decade, he released his findings in the first edition of The Ultimate Evil. Based upon the evidence he had uncovered, Terry theorized that the Son of Sam attacks were masterminded by a Yonkers-based cult that was responsible for other ritual murders across the country. After Terry's death in 2015, documentary filmmaker Josh Zeman (Cropsey, The Killing Season, Murder Mountain) was given access to Terry's files, which form the basis of his docuseries with Netflix and a companion podcast. Taken together with The Ultimate Evil, which includes a new introduction by Zeman, these works reveal the stunning intersections of power, wealth, privilege, and evil in America—from the Summer of Sam until today.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

For this episode of Black Hoodie Alchemy, I'm finally covering a topic I have teased here and there since the beginning of the whole show-run! At last, I am covering the sprawling, Charlie-Kelly-in-the-mailroom-style conspiracy theory that suggests that David Berkowitz did not act alone in the Son of Sam Murders of NYC. But make no mistake, this frenzied mailroom vibe comes not from the incredulity of the research, but from the sheer state of mind that tackling all of this topic's many threads will put you into! And let's not forget the fact that Berkowitz was working in a mailroom at the time, and contributed to the whole "going postal" phrase that we have today. Get ready to enter a story that surprisingly finds us diving into real-life theistic Satanism, Scientology and L. Ron Hubbard, Charles Manson, a strange Scientology doom-hippie offshoot called 'The Process Church of the Final Judgment', the dangers of hysterical Satanic Panic, brainwashing, and so much more! There is a lot of hype, hysteria, and leaping-conspiracy-theory conjecture that surrounds this case, but the actual case for the 'Sons of Sam' itself is quite compelling to me. In any case, I work my way through not only the classic tome on the topic, Maury Terry's 'The Ultimate Evil', but I also dissect the docu-series done by award-winning filmmaker Josh Zeman on this same subject, entitled: Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness. Not only was Zeman friends with Maury Terry towards the end of his life, but Zeman was the man that Terry willed his entire life's work to -- every document, photo, scribble, phone number... everything. And as an inside scoop, I was able to pick Josh Zeman's brain about this over a Skype call many years ago. While there isn't much he told me that his documentary didn't say, I did get some more direct and explicitly informative answers from him that I share here in the episode.Happy trip down the rabbit hole!Related BHA true crime episodes:The Brazilian PunisherClub Kids & Party MonstersRichard KuklinskiMalachi York's hiphop cultSante Muerte - the good and badIsrael Keyes Alaskan serial killerCartel Black MagiciansSHOW NOTES:NY Times Son of Sam TimelineJosh Zeman filmographySons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness documentaryActual old school Process Church propagandaLove, Sex, Fear, Death - book about the Process ChurchMaury Terry's 'The Ultimate Evil'Declassified FBI investigation into Process ChurchSon of Sam in prisonEd Opperman talks to NYPD Mike CodellaOpperman talks to childhood friend of Carr familyOpperman on History of 'Yonkers Cult'Opperman talks to Carl Denaro, Son of Sam victimLong Island Serial KillingsThis week's featured music -- a truly magnificent sonic assault coming from the strongest underground punk, hardcore, and experimental rock acts around!Salt Style - SaltSouled Out - Doc HammerCarbon Copy - Negative BlastWhen You Force It (Demo) - Zig Mentality

EPISODE 402. Ever wonder why "healthy eating" advice just doesn't seem to fit your brain—or your life? In this jam-packed episode, Katie sits down with neurodivergence nutrition expert Sam Berkowitz MPH, RD, LDN, to unmask the challenges (and unexpected solutions) for neurodivergent folks navigating food, body image, and overwhelming nutrition noise. If you or someone you love struggles with rigid thinking, sensory food aversions, or the stress of diet culture, this conversation just might change how you approach nourishing your body—for good.What We Cover:What neurodivergence really means, how it overlaps with eating challenges, and why a one-size-fits-all approach falls flatHow to break free from all-or-nothing food rules and find structure and flexibility that actually works for unique brainsThe truth about processed foods, sugar, social media fear-mongering—and how to protect your mental (and nutritional) health from all the noiseConnect with Sam:Website | www.unmasked-nutrition.com Podcast | www.unmasked-nutrition.com/blogConnect with Katie:Meal Prep Like a Pro Without Obsessing Over Every Bite | www.katiehake.com/prepJoin our FREE 5-Day Walking Challenge | Walk with Me!Text me your AHA moment from today's episode!

Send us a textAlaska State House Representative for West Anchorage Carolyn Hall got an internship with the Boston Red Sox during her senior year of college in New Hampshire. This led to her dream job working for the team as a videographer during their World Series win in 2004. In 2008 she branched into TV journalism getting her first job with a small local market: KTUU in Anchorage. She covered the Iditarod, Gov. Sarah Palin, Sen. Ted Stevens' trial from DC, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski's 2010 write-in campaign. Hall then worked for a larger TV market in Seattle where she earned an Emmy for her coverage of the Oso Landslide in 2014. After returning to Anchorage, she left broadcast journalism and branched into politics working as communications director for Governor Bill Walker, and at the start of the Covid pandemic, for Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz. We talk about all of that and how she ended up running for office in today's episode. Watch the video of Carolyn Hall and Ethan Berkowitz leaving Anchorage Assembly Chambers, Aug 12, 2020.

Joining us today are the co-founders of the communications and marketing firm Not A Billionaire and the co-writers of the Jewish fantasy folklore comic series The Writer with actor/co-writer Josh Gad and artist Ariel Olivetti.In their series The Writer, amidst a dark and mysterious turn, comic book writer Stan Siegel's life dives into a neo-Nazi occult nightmare. As demonic chaos and high-speed chases reign, Stan's hunger for answers unveils hidden identities, setting off a desperate race against time in this thrilling saga. To combat the rising tide of terror, Stan must become the hero from his pages.It is our pleasure to welcome Ben & Max Berkowitz onto The Oblivion Bar Podcast!Thank you Oni Press & Endless Comics, Cards & Games for sponsoring The Oblivion Bar PodcastFollow us on InstagramFollow us on ThreadsFollow us on BlueSkyLike us on FacebookConsider supporting us over on PatreonThank you DreamKid for our Oblivion Bar musicThank you KXD Studios for our Oblivion Bar art

On this episode of GoalChat, host Debra Eckerling discusses graphic novels with Ben Berkowitz, co-writer of The Writer, along with his brother, Max, and actor Josh Gad, and cartoonist Chari Pere of the "Unspoken" Cartoonmentary series, among others. According to them, a graphic novel is a book-length work, where you explore themes and stories (Ben) through images and imagery (Chari). It's a quick clean, detailed way to tell a story. Ben and Chari talk about the process of creating a graphic novel, what and who inspires them, their dream projects, and more. Getting Started - Ben: Find the spark that makes you want to run with it - Chari: Be ready to run with it. Some projects are "not yet - Chari: You have an idea, look at other books in that genre, make a summary, turn it into beats, sketch thumbnails, get more and more detailed - Ben: If you are not doing the art, you need to build the team. (The Writer is illustrated by Marvel and DC Comics legend Ariel Olivetti, whom the Berkowitz Brothers pitched via Instagram DM.) Goals - Chari: If you are struggling with an idea, take a noun and an action, and tell a story with that - Ben: Finish something Final Thoughts - Ben: Lean into the spark - Chari: Give yourself permission to do what you want to do to get your ideas out there Learn More About Ben Berkowitz: NotaBillionaire.com Char Pere: ChariPere.com Debra Eckerling: TheDEBMethod.com/blog 52SecretsBook.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Howdy folks of the interwebs! Your host Double J is back with another edition of OpGCD Live! Today, Double J is joined by Jonathan Mitchell, author of "Before Son of Sam: The Submerged History of a Yonkers Cult" - to discuss all things Son of Sam & Maury Terry's investigation as stated in his book "The Ultimate Evil".Jonathan Mitchell has studied the pre-Son of Sam/Yonkers, NY cult activity and has a unique view of the environment that produced the Son of Sam cult.Jonathan also has done an excellent study of the available files of Maury Terry in order to better understand the cast of characters comprising this cult, colloquially known as "Son of Sam" cult. These are the characters not named Berkowitz!This outlying cast of characters comprising this cryptic cult are far more interest'n than David Berkowitz...and some may be just as complicit in the homicides committed by the "Son of Sam" cult, same as Berkowitz.Some of those cast of characters maintained status at the highest levels of society, government, and "national security". Perhaps these are the salient characteristics to understand why we as a public are learning these details decade after the alleged end of the crimes of murder & chaos back in 1977!Anyhow, folks of the interwebs, thank you again for joining me today to get a lil GCD! Enjoy today's podcast discussion on Son of Sam, Yonkers cult activity, The Ultimate Evil, and the Process Church!Enjoy the show! Links for Jonathan Mitchell - throwaways@yahoo.comhttps://jonathandm.substack.com/https://www.amazon.com/Before-Son-Sam...https://x.com/JonathanM1973 Links for JJ - https://linktr.ee/operationgcdLinks discussed in show - https://thepeoplevsdavidberkowitz.com...https://thepeoplevsdavidberkowitz.com...

Diagnosing and differentiating among the many possible localizations and causes of vision loss is an essential skill for neurologists. The approach to vision loss should include a history and examination geared toward localization, followed by a differential diagnosis based on the likely location of the pathophysiologic process.  In this episode, Aaron Berkowitz, MD, PhD, FAAN speaks with Nancy J. Newman, MD, FAAN, author of the article “Approach to Vision Loss” in the Continuum® April 2025 Neuro-ophthalmology issue.  Dr. Berkowitz is a Continuum® Audio interviewer and a professor of neurology at the University of California San Francisco in the Department of Neurology and a neurohospitalist, general neurologist, and clinician educator at the San Francisco VA Medical Center at the San Francisco General Hospital in San Francisco, California.  Dr. Newman is a professor of ophthalmology and neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.  Additional Resources Read the article: Approach to Vision Loss Subscribe to Continuum®: shop.lww.com/Continuum  Earn CME (available only to AAN members): continpub.com/AudioCME  Continuum® Aloud (verbatim audio-book style recordings of articles available only to Continuum® subscribers): continpub.com/Aloud More about the American Academy of Neurology: aan.com  Social Media facebook.com/continuumcme  @ContinuumAAN  Host: @AaronLBerkowitz  Full episode transcript available here Dr Jones: This is Dr Lyell Jones, Editor-in-Chief of Continuum. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio. Be sure to visit the links in the episode notes for information about earning CME subscribing to the journal, and exclusive access to interviews not featured on the podcast. Dr Berkowitz: This is Dr Aaron Berkowitz, and today I'm interviewing Dr Nancy Newman about her article on the approach to visual loss, which she wrote with Dr Valerie Biousse. This article appears in the April 2025 Continuum issue on neuro-ophthalmology. Welcome to the podcast, Dr Newman. I know you need no introduction, but if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself to our listeners. Dr Newman: Sure. My name's Nancy Newman. I am a neurologist and neuro-ophthalmologist, professor of ophthalmology and neurology at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr Berkowitz: You and your colleague Dr Biousse have written a comprehensive and practical article on the approach to visual loss here. It's fantastic to have this article by two of the world's leading experts and best-known teachers in neuro-ophthalmology. And so, readers of this article will find extremely helpful flow charts, tables and very nuanced clinical discussion about how to make a bedside diagnosis of the cause of visual loss based on the history exam and ancillary testing. We'll talk today about that important topic, and excited to learn from you and for our listeners to learn from you. To begin, let's start broad. Let's say you have a patient presenting with visual loss. What's your framework for the approach to this common chief concern that has such a broad differential diagnosis of localizations and of causes? Where do you start when you hear of visual loss? How do you think about this chief concern? Dr Newman: Well, it's very fun because this is the heart of being a neurologist, isn't it? Nowhere in the nervous system is localization as important as the complaint of vision loss. And so, the key, as any neurologist knows, is to first of all figure out where the problem is. And then you can figure out what it is based on the where, because that will limit the number of possibilities. So, the visual system is quite beautiful in that regard because you really can exquisitely localize based on figuring out where things are. And that starts with the history and then goes to the exam, in particular the first localization. So, you can whittle it down to the more power-for-your-buck question is, is the vision lost in one eye or in two eyes? Because if the vision loss clearly, whether it's transient or persistent, is in only one eye, then you only have to think about the eyeball and the optic nerve on that side. So, think about that. Why would you ever get a brain MRI? I know I'm jumping ahead here, but this is the importance of localization. Because what you really want to know, once you know for sure it's in one eye, is, is it an eyeball problem---which could be anything from the cornea, the lens, the vitreous, the retina---or is it an optic nerve problem? The only caveat is that every once in a while, although we trust our patients, a patient may insist that a homonymous hemianopia, especially when it's transient, is only in the eye with the temporal defect. So that's the only caveat. But if it's in only one eye, it has to be in that side eyeball or optic nerve. And if it's in two eyes, it's either in both eyeballs or optic nerves, or it's chiasmal or retrochiasmal. So that's the initial approach and everything about the history should first be guided by that. Then you can move on to the more nuanced questions that help you with the whats. Once you have your where, you can then figure out what the whats are that fit that particular where. Dr Berkowitz: Fantastic. And your article with Dr Biousse has this very helpful framework, which you alluded to there, that first we figure out, is it monocular or binocular? And we figure out if it's a transient or fixed or permanent deficit. So, you have transient monocular, transient binocular, fixed monocular, fixed binocular. And I encourage our listeners to seek out this article where you have a table for each of those, a flow chart for each of those, that are definitely things people want to have printed out and at their desk or on their phone to use at the bedside. Very helpful. So, we won't be able to go through all of those different clinical presentations in this interview, but let's focus on monocular visual loss. As you just mentioned, this can be an eye problem or an optic nerve problem. So, this could be an ophthalmologic problem or a neurologic problem, right? And sometimes this can be hard to distinguish. So, you mentioned the importance of the history. When you hear a monocular visual loss- and with the caveat, I said you're convinced that this is a monocular visual problem and not a visual field defect that may appear. So, the patient has a monocular deficit, how do you approach the history at trying to get at whether this is an eye problem or an optic nerve problem and what the cause may be? Dr Newman: Absolutely. So, the history at that point tends not to be as helpful as the examination. My mentor used to say if you haven't figured out the answer to the problem after your history, you're in trouble, because that 90% of it is history and 10% is the exam. In the visual system, the exam actually may have even more importance than anywhere else in the neurologic examination. And we need as neurologists to not have too much hubris in this. Because there's a whole specialty on the eyeball. And the ophthalmologists, although a lot of their training is surgical training that that we don't need to have, they also have a lot of expertise in recognizing when it's not a neurologic problem, when it's not an optic neuropathy. And they have all sorts of toys and equipment that can very much help them with that. And as neurologists, we tend not to be as versed in what those toys are and how to use them. So, we have to do what we can do. Your directive thalmoscope, I wouldn't throw it in the garbage, because it's actually helpful to look at the eyeball itself, not just the back of the eye, the optic nerve and retina. And we'll come back to that, but we have in our armamentarium things we can do as neurologists without having an eye doctor's office. These include things like visual acuity and color vision, confrontation, visual fields. Although again, you have to be very humble. Sometimes you're lucky; 30% of the time it's going to show you a defect. It has to be pretty big to pick it up on confrontation fields. And then as we say, looking at the fundus. And you probably know that myself and Dr Biousse have been on somewhat of a crusade to allow the emperor's new clothes to be recognized, which is- most neurologists aren't very comfortable using the direct ophthalmoscope and aren't so comfortable, even if they can use it, seeing what they need to see. It's hard. It's really, really hard. And it's particularly hard without pupillary dilation. And technology has allowed us now with non-mydriatic cameras, cameras that are incredible, even through a small pupil can take magnificent pictures of the back of the eye. And who wouldn't rather have that? And as their cost and availability- the cost goes down and their availability goes up. These cameras should be part of every neurology office and every emergency department. And this isn't futuristic. This is happening already and will continue to happen. But over the next five years or so… well, we're transitioning into that. I think knowing what you can do with the direct ophthalmoscope is important. First of all, if you dial in plus lenses, you can't be an ophthalmologist, but you can see media opacities. If you can't see into the back of the eye, that may be the reason the patient can't see out. And then just seeing if someone has central vision loss in one eye, it's got to be localized either to the media in the axis of vision; or it's in the macula, the very center of the retina; or it's in the optic nerve. So, if you get good at looking at the optic nerve and then try to curb your excitement when you saw it and actually move a little temporally and take a look at the macula, you're looking at the two areas. Again, a lot of ophthalmologists these days don't do much looking with the naked eye. They actually do photography, and they do what's called OCT, optical coherence tomography, which especially for maculopathies, problems in the macula are showing us the pathology so beautifully, things that used to be considered subtle like central serous retinopathy and other macula. So, I think having a real healthy respect for what an eye care provider can do for you to help screen away the ophthalmic causes, it's very, very important to have a patient complaining of central vision loss, even if they have a diagnosis like multiple sclerosis, you expect that they might have an optic neuritis… they can have retinal detachments and other things also. And so, I think every one of these patients should be seen by an eye care provider as well. Dr Berkowitz: Thank you for that overview. And I feel certainly as guilty as charged here as one of many neurologists, I imagine, who wish we were much better and more comfortable with fundoscopy and being confident on what we see. But as you said, it's hard with the direct ophthalmoscope and a non-dilated exam. And it's great that, as you said, these fundus photography techniques and tools are becoming more widely available so that we can get a good look at the fundus. And then we're going to have to learn a lot more about how to interpret those images, right? If we haven't been so confident in our ability to see the fundus and analyze some of the subtle abnormalities that you and your colleagues and our ophthalmology colleagues are more familiar with. So, I appreciate you acknowledging that. And I'm glad to hear that coming down the pipeline, there are going to be some tools to help us there. So, you mentioned some of the things you do at the bedside to try to distinguish between eye and optic nerve. Could you go into those in a little bit more detail here? How do you check the visual fields? For example, some people count fingers, some people wiggle fingers, see when the patient can see. How should we be checking visual fields? And what are some of the other bedside tasks you use to decide this is probably going to end up being in the optic nerve or this seems more like an eye? Dr Newman: Of course. Again, central visual acuity is very important. If somebody is older than fifty, they clearly will need some form of reading glasses. So, keeping a set of plus three glasses from cheapo drugstore in your pocket is very helpful. Have them put on their glasses and have them read an ear card. It's one of the few things you can actually measure and examine. And so that's important. The strongest reflex in the body and I can have it duke it out with the peripheral neurologists if they want to, it's not the knee jerk, it's looking for a relative afferent pupillary defect. Extremely important for neurologists to feel comfortable with that. Remember, you cut an optic nerve, you're not going to have anisocoria. It's not going to cause a big pupil. The pupils are always equal because this is not an efferent problem, it's an afferent problem, an input problem. So basically, if the eye has been injured in the optic nerve and it can't get that information about light back into the brain, well, the endoresfol nuclei, both of them are going to reset at a bigger size. And then when you swing over and shine that light in the good optic nerve, the good eye, then the brain gets all this light and both endoresfol nuclei equally set those pupils back at a smaller size. So that's the test for the relative afferent pupillary defect. When you swing back and forth. Of course, when the light falls on the eye, that's not transmitting light as well to the brain, you're going to see the pupil dilate up. But it's not that that pupil is dilating alone. They both are getting bigger. It's an extremely powerful reflex for a unilateral or asymmetric bilateral optic neuropathy. But what you have to remember, extremely important, is, where does our optic nerve come from? Well, it comes from the retinal ganglion cells. It's the axons of the retinal ganglion cells, which is in the inner retina. And therefore inner retinal disorders such as central retinal artery occlusion, ophthalmic artery occlusion, branch retinal artery occlusion, they will also give a relative afferent pupillary defect because you're affecting the source. And this is extremely important. A retinal detachment will give a relative afferent pupillary defect. So, you can't just assume that it's optic nerve. Luckily for us, those things that also give a relative afferent pupillary defect from a retinal problem cause really bad-looking retinal disease. And you should be able to see it with your direct ophthalmoscope. And if you can't, you definitely will be able to see it with a picture, a photograph, or having an ophthalmologist or optometrist take a look for you. That's really the bedside. You mentioned confrontation visual fields. I still do them, but I am very, very aware that they are not very sensitive. And I have an extremely low threshold to- again, I have something in my office. But if I were a general neurologist, to partner with an eye care specialist who has an automated visual field perimeter in their office because it is much more likely to pick up a deficit. Confrontation fields. Just remember, one eye at a time. Never two eyes at the same time. They overlap with each other. You're going to miss something if you do two eyes open, so one eye at a time. You check their field against your field, so you better be sure your field in that eye is normal. You probably ought to have an automated perimetry test yourself at some point during your career if you're doing that. And remember that the central thirty degrees is subserved by 90% of our fibers neurologically, so really just testing in the four quadrants around fixation within the central 30% is sufficient. You can present fingers, you don't have to wiggle in the periphery unless you want to pick up a retinal detachment. Dr Berkowitz: You mentioned perimetry. You've also mentioned ocular coherence tomography, OCT, other tests. Sometimes we think about it in these cases, is MRI one of the orbits? When do you decide to pursue one or more of those tests based on your history and exam? Dr Newman: So again, it sort of depends on what's available to you, right? Most neurologists don't have a perimeter and don't have an OCT machine. I think if you're worried that you have an optic neuropathy, since we're just speaking about monocular vision loss at this point, again, these are tests that you should get at an office of an eye care specialist if you can. OCT is very helpful specifically in investigating for a macular cause of central vision loss as opposed to an optic nerve cause. It's very, very good at picking up macular problems that would be bad enough to cause a vision problem. In addition, it can give you a look at the thickness of the axons that are about to become the optic nerve. We call it the peripapillary retinal nerve fiber layer. And it actually can look at the thickness of the layer of the retinal ganglion cells without any axons on them in that central area because the axons, the nerve fiber layer, bends away from central vision. So, we can see the best we can see. And remember these are anatomical measurements. So, they will lag, for the ganglion cell layer, three to four weeks behind an injury, and for the retinal nerve fiber, layer usually about six weeks behind an entry. Whereas the functional measurements, such as visual acuity, color vision, visual fields, will be immediate on an injury. So, it's that combination of function and anatomy examination that makes you all-powerful. You're very much helped by the two together and understanding where one will be more helpful than the other. Dr Berkowitz: Let's say we've gotten to the optic nerve as our localization. Many people jump to the assumption it's the optic nerve, it's optic neuritis, because maybe that's the most common diagnosis we learn in medical school. And of course, we have to sometimes, when we're teaching our students or trainees,  say, well, actually, not all optic nerve disease, optic neuritis, we have to remember there's a broader bucket of optic neuropathy. And I remember, probably I didn't hear that term until residency and thought, oh, that's right. I learned optic neuritis. Didn't really learn any of the other causes of optic nerve pathology in medical school. And so, you sort of assume that's the only one. And so you realize, no, optic neuropathy has a differential diagnosis beyond optic neuritis. Neuritis is a common cause. So how do you think about the “what” once you've localized to the optic nerve, how do you think about that? Figure out what the cause of the optic neuropathy is? Dr Newman: Absolutely. And we've been trying to convince neuro-radiologists when they see evidence of optic nerve T2 hyperintensity, that just means damage to the optic nerve from any cause. It's just old damage, and they should not put in their read consistent with optic neuritis. But that's a pet peeve. Anyway, yes, the piece of tissue called the optic nerve can be affected by any category of pathophysiology of disease. And I always suggest that you run your categories in your head so you don't leave one out. Some are going to be more common to be bilateral involvement like toxic or metabolic causes. Others will be more likely unilateral. And so, you just run those guys. So, in my mind, my categories always are compressive-slash-infiltrative, which can be neoplastic or non-neoplastic. For example, an ophthalmic artery aneurysm pressing on an optic nerve, or a thyroid, an enlarged thyroid eye muscle pressing on the optic nerve. So, I have compressive infiltrative, which could be neoplastic or not neoplastic. I have inflammatory, which can be infectious. Some of the ones that can involve the optic nerve are syphilis, cat scratch disease. Or noninfectious, and these are usually your autoimmune such as idiopathic optic neuritis associated with multiple sclerosis, or MOG, or NMO, or even sarcoidosis and inflammation. Next category for me would be vascular, and you can have arterial versus venous in the optic nerve, probably all arterial if we're talking about causes of optic neuropathy. Or you could have arteritic versus nonarteritic with the vascular, the arteritic usually being giant cell arteritis. And the way the optic nerve circulation is, you can have an anterior ischemic optic neuropathy or a posterior ischemic optic neuropathy defined by the presence of disc edema suggesting it's anterior, the front of the optic nerve, or not, suggesting that it's retrobulbar or posterior optic nerve. So what category am I- we mentioned toxic, metabolic nutritional. And there are many causes in those categories of optic neuropathy, usually bilateral. You can have degenerative or inherited. And there are causes of inherited optic neuropathies such as Leber hereditary optic neuropathy and dominant optic atrophy. And then there's a group I call the mechanical optic neuropathies. The obvious one is traumatic, and that can happen in any piece of tissue. And then the other two relate to the particular anatomy of the eyeball and the optic nerve, and the fact that the optic nerve is a card-carrying member of the central nervous system. So, it's not really a nerve by the way, it's a tract. Think about it. Anyway, white matter tract. It is covered by the same fluid and meninges that the rest of the brain. So, what mechanically can happen? Well, you could have an elevated intraocular pressure where that nerve inserts. That's called glaucoma, and that would affect the front of the optic nerve. Or you can have elevated intracranial pressure. And if that's transmitted along the optic nerve, it can make the front of the optic nerve swell. And we call that specifically papilledema, optic disk edema due specifically to raised intracranial pressure. We actually even can have low intraocular pressure cause something called hypotony, and that can actually even give an optic neuropathy the swelling of the optic nerve. So, these are the mechanical. And if you were to just take that list and use it for any piece of tissue anywhere, like the heart or the kidney, you can come up with your own mechanical categories for those, like pericarditis or something like that. And then all those other categories would fit. But of course, the specific causes within that pathophysiology are going to be different based on the piece of tissue that you have. In this case, the optic nerve. Dr Berkowitz: In our final moments here, we've talked a lot about the approach to monocular visual loss. I think most neurologists, once we find a visual field defect, we breathe a sigh of relief that we know we're in our home territory here, somewhere in the visual task base that we've studied very well. I'm not trying to distinguish ocular causes amongst themselves or ocular from optic nerve, which can be very challenging at the bedside. But one topic you cover in your article, which I realized I don't really have a great approach to, is transient binocular visual loss. Briefly here, since we're running out of time, what's your approach to transient binocular visual loss?  Dr Newman: We assume with transient binocular vision loss that we are not dealing with a different experience in each eye, because if you have a different experience in each eye, then you're dealing with bilateral eyeball or optic nerve. But if you're having the same experience in the two eyes, it's equal in the two eyes, then you're located. You're located, usually, retro chiasmally, or even chiasm if you have pituitary apoplexy or something. So, all of these things require imaging, and I want to take one minute to talk about that. If you are sure that you have monocular vision loss, please don't get a brain MRI without contrast. It's really useless. Get a orbital MRI with contrast and fat suppression techniques if you really want to look at the optic nerve. Now, let's say you you're convinced that this is chiasmal or retrochiasmal. Well then, we all know we want to get a brain MRI---again, with and without contrast---to look specifically where we could see something. And so, if it's persistent and you have a homonymous hemianopia, it's easy, you know where to look. Be careful though, optic track can fool you. It's such a small little piece, you may miss it on the MRI, especially in someone with MS. So really look hard. There's very few things that are homonymous hemianopias MRI negative. It may just be that you didn't look carefully enough. And as far as the transient binocular vision loss, again, remember, even if it's persistent, it has to be equal vision in the two eyes. If there's inequality, then you have a superimposed anterior visual pathway problem, meaning in front of the chiasm on the side that's worse. The most common cause of transient binocular vision loss would be a form of migraine. The visual aura of migraine usually is a positive phenomenon, but sometimes you can have a homonymous hemianopic persistent defect that then ebbs and flows and goes away. Usually there's buildup, lasts maybe fifteen minutes and then it goes away, not always followed by a headache. Other things to think of would be transient ischemic attack in the vertebra Basler system, either a homonymous hemianopia or cerebral blindness, what we call cortical blindness. It can be any degree of vision loss, complete or any degree, as long as the two eyes are equal. That should last only minutes. It should be maximum at onset. There should be no buildup the way migraine has it. And it should be gone within less than ten minutes, typically. After fifteen, that's really pushing it. And then you could have seizures. Seizures can actually be the aura of a seizure, the actual ictal phenomenon of a seizure, or a postictal, almost like a todd's paralysis after a seizure. These events are typically bright colors and flashing, and they last usually seconds or just a couple of minutes at most. So, you can probably differentiate them. And then there are the more- less common but more interesting things like hyperglycemia, non-ketonic hyperglycemia can give you transient vision loss from cerebral origin, and other less common things like that. Dr Berkowitz: Fantastic. Although we've talked about many pearls of clinical wisdom here with you today, Dr Newman, this is only a fraction of what we can find in your article with Dr Biousse. We focused here on monocular visual loss and a little bit at the end here on binocular visual loss, transient binocular visual loss. But thank you very much for your article, and thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. Again, today I've been interviewing Dr Nancy Newman about her article with Dr Valerie Biousse on the approach to visual loss, which appears in the most recent issue of Continuum on neuro-ophthalmology. Be sure to check out Continuum audio episodes from this and other issues. Thank you so much to our listeners for joining us today. Dr Monteith: This is Dr Teshamae Monteith, Associate Editor of Continuum Audio. If you've enjoyed this episode, you'll love the journal, which is full of in-depth and clinically relevant information important for neurology practitioners. Use this link in the episode notes to learn more and subscribe. AAN members, you can get CME for listening to this interview by completing the evaluation at continpub.com/audioCME. Thank you for listening to Continuum Audio.

Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.Health Affairs' Senior Deputy Editor Rob Lott interviews Seth Berkowitz of the UNC School of Medicine to discuss his recent paper that explores a new approach to help guide research and policy at the intersection of income, food, nutrition, and health. Order the April 2025 issue of Health Affairs.Currently, more than 70 percent of our content is freely available - and we'd like to keep it that way. With your support, we can continue to keep our digital publication Forefront and podcast Subscribe to UnitedHealthcare's Community & State newsletter.

Health Affairs' Jeff Byers welcomes Seth Berkowitz of UNC School of Medicine back to the program to discuss nutrition in the US, the current state of SNAP benefits, and his upcoming paper to be featured in our April 2025 theme issue on food, nutrition, and health.Preorder the April 2024 theme issue of Health Affairs.Join us April 23 for an exclusive Insider virtual event exploring site-neutral payments with health economist and health services researcher Brady Post of Northeastern University and Health Affairs' Meg Winchester.Learn more about Seth's book, Equal Care: Health Equity, Social Democracy, and the Egalitarian State.Related Articles:Tennessee bill could ban candy and soda from SNAP benefits (WJHL)

RED HEIFERS are back in Israel! But what does that mean, exactly? Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz, writer for Israel365News.com and author of the new book Return of the Red Heifers (israel365store.com/products/red-heifers), joins us to explain the significance of the heifers, why they're important, and why a Third Temple isn't necessary to begin the sacrifices on the Temple Mount. We also discuss the historical context of the relationship between Jews and Christians, the role of the Messiah, modern misunderstandings surrounding these topics and the potential for future collaboration between the two faiths.Follow Adam's Substack here: AdamEliyahuBerkowitz.substack.com.

Howdy folks of the interwebs! Your host Double J is back with another edition of OpGCD Live! Today, Double J is joined by Jonathan Mitchell, author of "Before Son of Sam: The Submerged History of a Yonkers Cult" - to discuss all things Son of Sam & Maury Terry's investigation as stated in his book "The Ultimate Evil".Jonathan Mitchell has studied the pre-Son of Sam/Yonkers, NY cult activity and has a unique view of the environment that produced the Son of Sam cult.Jonathan also has done an excellent study of the available files of Maury Terry in order to better understand the cast of characters comprising this cult, colloquially known as "Son of Sam" cult. These are the characters not named Berkowitz!This outlying cast of characters comprising this cryptic cult are far more interest'n than David Berkowitz...and some may be just as complicit in the homicides committed by the "Son of Sam" cult, same as Berkowitz.Some of those cast of characters maintained status at the highest levels of society, government, and "national security". Perhaps these are the salient characteristics to understand why we as a public are learning these details decade after the alleged end of the crimes of murder & chaos back in 1977!Anyhow, folks of the interwebs, thank you again for joining me today to get a lil GCD! Enjoy today's podcast discussion on Son of Sam, Yonkers cult activity, The Ultimate Evil, and the Process Church!Enjoy the show! Links for Jonathan Mitchell - throwaways@yahoo.comhttps://www.amazon.com/Before-Son-Sam-Submerged-History-ebook/dp/B084ZYVM3Jhttps://x.com/JonathanM1973 Links for JJ - https://linktr.ee/operationgcdLinks discussed in show - https://thepeoplevsdavidberkowitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/IF-MT-Maury-Terry-Files-Maury-Notes-Witness-Flipper-List-Alleged-SoS-Members-Aug-28-1997.pdfhttps://thepeoplevsdavidberkowitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/C-Conspiracy-Berkowitz-Witness-List-Letter-Apr-5-1996.pdf

Can colleges and secondary schools teach American civics (i.e., an examination of the republic's good and bad experiences) without being jingoistic? Peter Berkowitz, the Hoover Institution's Tad and Dianne Taube senior fellow and teacher of a course in American conservatism that's part of the Stanford Civics Initiative, contends that  “patriotism” isn't necessarily indoctrination. Still, reformers need to look beyond college and the late stages of high school. In a wide-ranging discussion with Volker Senior Fellow (adjunct) “Checker” Finn, Berkowitz suggests that the definition of “civics education” be widened to include core learning at the earliest stages of K-12 and a deeper look at how teachers approach their mission.   Recorded on January 14, 2025.

Peter recaps his Super Bowl experience, highlighting the behind the scenes moments at Super Bowl Opening Night, Chiefs practice, multiple parties, and the work at the game itself. He, then, welcomes Ron Berkowitz of Berk Communications. Ron works with Michael Rubin and Fanatics, as well as Rao's, and takes us behind the velvet rope and into the biggest, most exclusive events and parties of Super Bowl LIX. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.