Podcasts about big deals

Students of classical music know that Johann Sebastian Bach was one of the most important and influential composers of all time…his use of instruments, four-part harmonies, and use of innovative structures in his material were all brilliant… When he was alive, he commanded plenty of respect…but after he died in March 1685, he was almost forgotten…the only reason we talk about him today is that there was a Bach revival in the 19th century…he became a retro hero in the world of classical music… No one knew anything about Robert Johnson when he was alive other than some myths and legends among hardcore fans of Delta Blues…but when his records were reissued in 1961, 23 years after he died, did his reputation explode… Charles Mingus was revered by fellow jazz artists…it was only after he passed away in 1979 that his influence on jazz was celebrated… We can also talk about posthumous praise for Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, and Elliott Smith…and although Tupac and Biggie were big stars when they were shot, they became even bigger stars in death… I'm going to add another name to this list: Ian Curtis and Joy Division…when Ian took his own life in May 1980, he and the band were so skint that he had to give his dog away because he and his wife couldn't afford to feed him… Today, though, Ian and Joy Division are acknowledged as one of the most important and most influential post-punk bands ever…why?...what was the big deal about Joy Division? And why do they continue to be a big deal?...let's examine this. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another BANGER from the guys. Super Bowl preview and prop bets follow a massive NBA segment. Are the Jazz better? Will James Harden make a difference in Cleveland? Nasty men, WWE, and a lot more! 00:00 - Intro 19:37 - NBA Trade Deadline 41:17 - Around the NFL/Super Bowl Preview 1:28:13 - Big Deal or No Deal 1:40:40 - Sign off Don't forget to submit your questions to the guys at speakonitpod14@gmail.com so they can answer them during the next show!  Follow the squad!! @losdeemix @dannyocean41 @goingfor2live  @speakonit_pod (Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram)

This week's episode of Wealth Formula features an interview with Claudia Sahm, and I want to share a quick takeaway before you listen — because she's often misunderstood in the headlines. First, a quick explanation of the Sahm Rule, in plain English. The rule looks at unemployment and asks a very simple question:Has the unemployment rate started rising meaningfully from its recent low? Specifically, if the three-month average unemployment rate rises by 0.5% or more above its lowest level over the past year, the Sahm Rule is triggered. Historically, that has happened early in every U.S. recession since World War II. That's why it gets cited so much. And to be clear — it's cited a lot. The Sahm Rule is tracked by the Federal Reserve, Treasury economists, Wall Street banks, macro funds, and economic research shops globally. When it triggers, it shows up everywhere. That's not by accident. Claudia built one of the cleanest early-warning indicators we have. But here's the part that often gets lost. The Sahm Rule is not a market-timing tool and it's not a prediction machine. Claudia emphasized this repeatedly. It was designed as a policy signal — a way to say, “Hey, if unemployment is rising this fast, waiting too long to respond makes things worse.” In other words, it's a call to action for policymakers, not a command for investors to panic. What makes this cycle unusual — and why talking to Claudia directly was so helpful — is what's actually driving the data. We're not seeing mass layoffs. Layoffs remain low by historical standards. What we're seeing instead is very weak hiring. Companies aren't firing people — they're just not expanding. That distinction matters. And this is where I think the big picture comes in — not just for understanding the economy, but for investing in general. When you step back, the big picture includes a government with massive debt loads that needs interest rates to come down over time. It includes fiscal pressures that make prolonged high rates politically and economically painful. And it includes the reality that if the current Fed leadership won't ease fast enough, future leadership will. History tells us that governments eventually get the monetary conditions they need — even if it takes time, even if it takes new appointments, and even if it takes a shift toward a more dovish Federal Reserve. That doesn't mean reckless money printing tomorrow. But it does mean that structurally high rates are unlikely to be permanent. And when you combine that with investing, the question becomes less about this month's headline and more about what's positioned to benefit when the environment normalizes. That's why I continue to focus on real assets that are already deeply discounted — things like multifamily real estate — assets that were repriced brutally during the rate shock, but still sit at the center of a growing, rent-dependent economy. This conversation with Claudia reinforced something I've been talking about for a long time:The biggest investing mistakes usually happen when people zoom in too far and forget to zoom back out. I've made this mistake myself. If you want a thoughtful, non-sensational, data-driven discussion about where we actually are in this cycle — and what the indicators really mean — I think you'll get a lot out of this episode. Transcript Disclaimer: This transcript was generated by AI and may not be 100% accurate. If you notice any errors or corrections, please email us at phil@wealthformula.com. Welcome everybody. This is Buck Joffrey with the Well Formula Podcast coming to you from Montecito, California. Before we begin today, I wanna remind you, uh, listen, we’re back in, uh, back in the saddle in here in, uh, 2026. I know it’s takes some time to get used to it, but we’re, gosh, we’re at the end of the month actually by the time this plays. I think we’re in February. It’s time again to start thinking about investing. And so if you are interested in potentially using this year, which I believe and which many believe to potentially be the last year, uh, big discounts, uh, in real estate and, uh, various other types of offerings. Make sure. To sign up for the Accredit Investor group, our investor club, as we call it wealthformula.com. You do need to be an accredit investor and then you get onboarded. An accredit investor is just defined by who you are. If you make over $300,000 per year filing jointly, or 200 by yourself, every reasonable expectation to do so in the future. Or you have a net worth of a million dollars outta your personal, outside of your personal residence, you’re an accredit investor. Congratulations. Join the club wealthformula.com. Interesting podcast. Today we have, uh, Claudia Sahm She’s a Big Deal, Claudia Sahm. You may recognize that last name som, for this som rule. And what is a som rule in plain English. You actually have heard of the som rule multiple times from other economists who’ve been on the show. The som rule looks at unemployment. And asks a very simple question. Now, has the unemployment rate started rising meaningfully from its recent low? So specifically, if the three month average unemployment rate rises 0.5% or more above its lowest level, over the past year, this som rule is triggered. Now, historically, that has happened early in every US recession since the World War ii. That’s why it gets cited so much. It gets cited a lot. By the way, the sum rule is tracked by the Fed treasury economists, wall Street Banks, macro funds, economic research shops globally, and when it triggers, it shows up everywhere, and that’s not by accident. Uh, Claudia has built one of the cleanest early warning indicators we have, but here’s the part that often gets lost. The som rule is not a market timing tool, and it’s not a prediction machine. Claudia, uh, emphasized that repeatedly. It was designed as a policy signal, a way to say, Hey, if unemployment’s rising this fast, wait, waiting too long to respond makes things worse. In other words, it’s call to action for policy makers, not a command for investors to panic per se. So what makes this cycle unusual and why talking to Claudia directly was so helpful? Well, it’s what’s actually driving the data. We’re not seeing mass layoffs. Layoffs remain low by historical standards. Um, what we’re seeing instead is very weak. Hiring companies aren’t firing people, they’re just not expanding, and that distinction matters. This is where the big picture comes in, not just for understanding the economy. For investing in general and when you step back, the big picture includes a government with massive debt loads that need interest rates to come down over time. It includes fiscal pressures that make prolonged high rates politically and economically painful. I’ve mentioned this before and it includes the reality that have to fed, fed, uh, if the current Fed leadership won’t ease fast enough. I am likely the case that future leadership appointed by. Donald Trump himself, uh, will, so history tells us that governments eventually get the monetary conditions they need, even if it takes time, even if it takes new appointments. And even if it takes a shift towards a more dovish federal reserve. Uh, that doesn’t mean, uh, reckless money printing tomorrow, but it does mean that structurally. High interest rates are unlikely to be permanent. Okay? And when you combine that with investing, the question becomes less about this month’s headline and more about what’s positioned to benefit when the environment normalizes. Okay? That’s really, really important, and that’s why I continue to focus on things like real estate, right? Real estate is currently. Not for long, in my opinion, but deeply discounted things like multifamily real estate, um, that were repriced brutally during the rate shot, uh, but are still at the center of a growing and, and rent dependent economy. And again, uh, this conversation with Claudia reinforced something that I’ve been talking about a long time, which is the biggest investing mistakes usually happen when people zoom in too far and forget to zoom back out. I’ve made that mistake myself. I am not immune. I have made lots of mistakes, and that’s one of them. So this is a great conversation. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it, especially if you want a thoughtful, nons sensational data-driven discussion. Where we are actually at in this cycle and what these indicators really mean. I think you’ll get a lot of this episode and we will have this conversation for you right after these messages. Wealth formula banking is an ingenious concept powered by whole life insurance, but instead of acting just as a safety net. The strategy supercharges your investments. First, you create a personal financial reservoir that grows at a compounding interest rate much higher than any bank savings account. As your money accumulates, you borrow from your own bank to invest in other cash flowing investments. Here’s the key. Even though you borrowed money at a simple interest rate, your insurance company keeps. Paying you compound interest on that money even though you’ve borrowed it at result, you make money in two places at the same time. That’s why your investments get supercharged. This isn’t a new technique. It’s a refined strategy used by some of the wealthiest families in history, and it uses century old rock solid insurance companies as its backbone. Turbocharge your investments. Visit Wealthformulabanking.com. Again, that’s wealth formula banking.com. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today my guest on Wealth Formula podcast is Dr. Claudia Sahm. Uh, she’s an American, uh, macroeconomic expert, uh, known for her work, uh, on monetary and fiscal policy and real-time economic indicators. She developed this som rule, which I think, uh, people have mentioned on this show before, so this is a great opportunity to talk to her about that. Uh, it’s a widely, uh, followed recession signal based on unemployment. She’s also a former Federal Reserve economist and senior policy advisor in government. Um, so welcome, uh, Dr. Sahm. Great. Happy to be here. Thank you. Well, let’s, let’s kind of start out with this som rule because, uh, you know, it’s funny, we, we have had a few different people, uh, at various times bring up the SOM rule, and I think one had actually said that it was triggered, but I don’t don’t think it was at any rate, let’s, let’s start with that. What is the som rule? Lemme start with why is there a som rule, and then we’ll then we’ll get to specifically what the, what the rule is itself. So when I started out on the project, it wasn’t so much about. Calling a recession, like there are some really fancy technical ways that economists like look at the tea leaves and the data and either try to forecast a recession, which is incredibly hard, or even just say we’re in a recession in real time. So like that’s a useful endeavor. But what actually was behind the development of my recession indicator was more of a call to action. How do we develop policies that, that the Congress can put into place very quickly if a recession comes? So these kind of what are referred to as automatic stabilizers, so they’re decided upon ahead of time, but then you do need a trigger that says a recession is here. So now that enhance the unemployment benefits, send out the stimulus checks, whatever it is that we kind of have as our typical tools that are used in recessions, we could have those ready to go as kind of guardrails. Then like you, you turn the policy on. So that was really my emphasis was on how do we do better policy and recessions, get the support out quickly. ’cause that’s the best chance of kind of stabilizing the situation. And then it’s like, well it was in a, it was in a policy volume that they asked for, like a really concrete proposal. So if I’m gonna say an automatic stabilizer, I need to have a proposal for what a trigger could be. So that’s really where the som rule came. So I think it is important. It’s definitely important to me to, I always remember like what the kind of reason for it’s sure. Now that also guided what the indicator itself looks like. So again, it was gonna be in, in fiscal policy. It needs to be simple, it needs to be something that we track it and it needs to, I felt it was important that it capture the reason that we. Fight recessions, why there’s such a bad, uh, you know, outcome. And so it looks at the, the unemployment rate. I use the national unemployment rate, take a three month average. ’cause we wanna smooth out, like there’s bumps and wiggles in the data from month to month. So you kind of, you know, three month average. One way to smooth it out. So you take that series of three month averages, you look at the current value, you compare to the lowest value over the prior 12 months, if you’ve seen an increase of a half, a percentage point or more. Which is really pretty modest, but half a percentage point or more. Historically, we have been in the early months of a recession, so it’s not a forecast. It’s supposed to be like we’re in it. Let’s go. It’s an empirical pattern. It’s one that’s worked in the United States. It reflects kind of our labor market institutions, the way unemployment rate moves and recessions. It historically is the case that once you get past a certain threshold of increased unemployment rate, it tends to build on itself. And in a typical recession, we see increases of. Two, three or more percentage points in the unemployment rate. Uh, so that’s, that’s what the summer rule is. And in fact, it did trigger in the summer of 2024. At that time I had said like, look around, we are not in a recession. GP is still expanding. Job creation is still happening. We don’t see the other hallmarks of a recession. And pointed to the fact that we’d had a very disrupted labor market after the pandemic in particular. You know, there had been a lot of immigration at that point. The unemployment rate is the total number of unemployed. So people who don’t have a job but are actively looking for one out of the labor force, right? And so these people that have to either be employed or looking for jobs, and so we actually saw from the pandemic. Both with the pandemic and then later with the surge and now the reversal in immigration. We’ve seen a lot of movement in the, in the labor force, which makes unemployment rate a little tricky to interpret. And then I’d also argue, we saw early in the pandemic, the unemployment rate dropped very rapidly. We even had labor shortages. So in some ways unemployment rate rising and it has risen over. I mean, it continued to rise last year in 2025. A lot of that’s also normalization. We’d had a very low unemployment rate. So I think the, the pandemic recession has a lot of features that were very unusual. We’ll talk probably more about the labor market continued to be kind of unusual. So the, you know, the somal was not the only recession indicator to fall flat on its face in the cycle. Um, but I think it’s still a useful, useful guide and I, and. You know, even if it’s not a recession, the, the unemployment rate is a full percentage point above, its low in 2023. So, I mean, that, that could, that could be a reason for policymakers to respond, even if it’s not responding to a recession. Right. That was the first time that it, that triggered and, and actually didn’t. End up in a recession, right? There’s some back in the 1950s, earlier, but it’s, it’s the first time where there’ve been some false positives in the past or, or near false positives. Like in 2003. It was kind of close, uh, is like the unemployment rate rises a little bit and then it falls back down. What we saw after it triggered in 2024 is it stabilized. Then last year it continued to rise. So this the pattern that we’ve seen since the pandemic of rapid recovery dropping unemployment rate and then it’s like gradually rising and yet has risen a full percentage point that you go all the way back in the post World War II period. We don’t see anything that looks like that. So that is a very unusual. Paris. So something’s more is going on in the labor market than just our typical business cycle, boom, bust, recession type dynamics. So what is that? What is the thing that’s happening that’s unusual right now in the labor market? Right? So the thing that is driving the unemployment rate up, I think this is a good lesson, a reminder to all of us. It’s not about layoffs. The rate of layoffs in the United States is really quite low. You look at unemployment insurance claims, they’re also quite low. What’s been pushing the unemployment rate up over the last two and a half years has been a very low rate of hiring and, and it’s, and it is something that over time will at least gradually put upward pressure on the unemployment rate and frankly. Until hiring picks up and we really don’t have many signs of it. Even as we enter 2026 unemployment rate’s gonna probably keep drifting up ’cause we’re not keeping job creation’s, not keeping up with, you know, people coming into the, into the labor market and, and that what’s, I think the puzzle right now is that hiring has been very low. But what we’ve seen in terms of consumer spending, business investment, so the kind of the big pieces of GDP, they’ve really held up pretty well, so. Business. It’s not, again, not that recession of the customers have disappeared. And so we’re not hiring, or we may even be firing workers. The customers are there for the businesses, but they’re choosing in this environment not to add, uh, to their payrolls. And that’s slowly pushing up down point rate. Yeah. Um, you know, it, it’s interesting what you’re, you’re talking about, but essentially you’re, people aren’t getting fired. They’re just, when they retire or leave, they’re just not replacing those. Individuals, you know, makes me think a little bit about what’s going on in the big, you know, in the tech push with artificial intelligence and that kind of thing, and increased in efficiency. Certainly you see that in the larger companies like Amazon and all that, where they’re just becoming massively more productive and cutting expenses essentially by, you know, using tech. Do you think that this is sort of an early indication, potentially of that kind of movement? So it. It’s possible, but I think we’re at the very front end of AI disrupting the labor market. This low hiring rate that we’ve talked about. You see this across all kinds of industries, including ones that don’t show high levels of AI adoption, and frankly, a AI adoption is pretty low. I mean, there are some sectors like tech and increasingly finance and some professional services have higher adoption rates. Uh, but in terms of it being able to explain the low hiring. I think it’s pretty tough ’cause the low hiring is such a, such a broad based, um, phenomenon. Now, AI might be, I think, indirectly contributing in that one of, one of the hypotheses about why, um, businesses have been, uh, not hiring despite, you know, economic activity. Continuing to push ahead could be that there’s a lot of uncertainty. Now there is a long list that we could draw of, of factors that might be causing businesses to be uncertain and hesitant to add to their payrolls. Uh, a lot of times you talk about things with tariffs or, you know, economic policy, regulations changing, you know, so there’s a lot going on there. But it could also be, there’s a lot of uncertainty about what this technology means for the future. Maybe you don’t need to bring on more workers because your ability to kind of use and adapt this technologies coming online. And so like that could be part of it. I think there’s another piece, you know, we have a lot of discussion about ai, but I do think that there’s, there could be a, a technology angle to this that’s, that is. Not in the AI technologies, but maybe just some of the more basic kind of automation is again, right after, you know, the, the pandemic recession as we came out of a, you know, very rapid recovery, uh, there was, there was a lot of hiring or that, ’cause businesses had done a lot of firing and they needed to bring back workers really rapidly and we actually had a period of labor shortages. There were workers moving around a lot and there were, that also put a lot of pressure on some employers, particularly in service sector, to automate more ’cause they just couldn’t get the workers, so they needed to bring technology. Online to help, you know, fill the gap. And over time, you know, businesses though, they haven’t done as much hiring, they have been firing. So the workers, they have longer tenures, have more experience, they’re probably more productive. So maybe businesses can kind of, you know, get away with not doing more hiring. ’cause the people they have there can kind of keep up with it. Um, and they’ve done some more automation. I don’t think those are sustainable. I think we’re going to need to see hiring pickup in terms of, of staying with, um, you know, as expanding, uh, demand from customers. But I won’t pretend to know what AI means for the future of the labor force. Right. So like there could be, I think that’s a big conversation about we’re headed, where we’re headed. I think it’s probably a pretty small slice of explaining. Where we’re at right now. You know, it’s interesting because obviously there was a lot of concerns about rising inflation, and particularly in the context of, you know, tariffs and, and among those types of things that were, were, um, coming down the pipe. And as it turns out, inflation seems to be coming down. How do you explain that from where you sit? Because it, it, it seems sort of to contradict a lot of what, you know, many economists believe to be likely. So when thinking about the effects of tariffs on inflation and this, this idea that it didn’t end up being as much of a factors we had really feared, uh, you know, a year ago. I think there’s a few things to keep in mind. One, the announced tariffs, uh. Didn’t come to pass fully. Right? So there’s a big difference between some of the, the, the initial announcements, whether it was on Liberation Day, April 2nd, or the initial kind of retaliation tit for tat with China, where we ended up with some triple digit, uh, tariff numbers. Those didn’t end up being where we, we ended now tariff, the effect of tariff rate. Is much higher than it was before. Right. Uh, president Trump came into office for the second time, so like, I don’t wanna minimize the, the, the increase in tariffs and the US government collected about $200 billion last year in, in additional tariffs. But there is a, there’s a good bit of daylight between what was announced and where we actually ended up. Businesses also proved very capable of trying to avoid those tariffs and not in like a. Illegal kind of way of avoiding them, but, but using inventories like trying to get ahead of them. We know the tariffs are tariffs. There’s been some evidence that, that it’s businesses are gonna start passing on the tariff cost increase when it’s actually tied to the inventories that they’re putting out in front of customers. And for some of our goods, like say apparel or things that have long seasons or come from, you know, all across the world, it actually takes quite a bit of time from the inventories being what actually shows up in front of customers. So there’s been the ability to. Kind of get around the tariffs ’cause they were rolling in. And so do be smart in terms of your inventories. And then it just takes time for those inventories to be, you know, um, to come down. Mm-hmm. By, there’s been several studies at this place, at this point that, that demonstrate that the, the tariffs, the cost of the tariffs is coming into the us. So the, it’s always the importer that pays the tariff, like literally writes the check to the US government. But it’s possible that the foreign producer could say, reduce their prices on what they’re, you know, paying or what they’re asking to be paid for that, uh, imported good. And then that would be a way of the foreign producer sharing the cost of the tariff. But everything that we see from the M Court data suggests that a very small fraction, probably less than 10%. Of the total tariff burden is being born by, at least at this point, born by the foreign producers. So it’s coming into the us. It’s sitting with either US businesses that are importing the goods or have the goods at some point in their, you know, in their supply chains and, and with us customers, the consumers we have, we’ve seen. I think you can really look at the inflation data. You can see the goods prices, which often are kind of a drag on inflation that they did turn around. They’re, they’re putting upward pressure on inflation. It’s not massive. It doesn’t explain all of these, you know, 200 billion in tariff costs, but then it is, it’s sitting with businesses. The effects still, it’s still just not that long enough to really understand. You know what, what the implications. It’s possible. I, I think that’s true with any, with any big policy change. Like it doesn’t happen overnight. I think that’s one thing that a lot of, a lot of economic models that, like, they’re, they’re very sensitive, right? Like as soon as a policy change happens, the models will kind of tell us something pretty dramatic in terms of adjustments. But this last year was a reminder, like when there’s, when there’s a big cost, there’s gonna be a lot of attempts to adjust around it to try to minimize that cost and then. It takes time, like in the real world, like the interactions are much more complex. You know, inventory lags all of the, like, it takes time to move its way through. So I think we’re not done with the pass through. I think we’ll probably still see more come to consumers, but businesses could decide to bear that cost. They, they could, you know, with profit margins. I mean some of, some of the inflationary environment in the pandemic did allow. There were very broad base increases in prices. You did see some companies be profitable from that because it was, there was a, you know, some of the costs were more targeted, but the, you know, the, the price increases were broad. So it could be a time where businesses see that, you know, consumers are more price sensitive now than they were in 21, 20 21, 20 22, so they’re not passing as much on it. Could be that that’s part of where. Like the cost businesses are dealing with that cost by maybe doing less hiring as opposed to passing it on to consumers. Uh, you know, they could be taking a hit with their profits. They, you know, so like, it doesn’t have to go all the way through to consumers. There are different levers that can be pulled. I do think we’ll still see some pass through in the, in probably the first half of this year, and that’s assuming that our whole tariff regime. Sit still, right? It looks like once again we might be, uh, increasing those tariffs, but, um, so yeah, I think it’s just tracing, you know, the tariffs through the system is really complicated. And one last thing I’ll say about the tariffs is they’re not just tariffs on goods that go to consumers. These tariffs have been broad enough that we’re also taring imported goods that are used by our manufacturers used for our, by our businesses in their production. So then it can take a really long time for that to end up with the, you know, the end customer could be a business to start with, and then it moves its way down. So I think these are just, you know, the costs are real. We can see the tariffs have been collected, the costs are there. We can see in the import data, there haven’t been import price data, there haven’t been a lot of adjustments by the foreign suppliers. So then it’s just a question of, we have these costs. Where did the cost go? I believe the last GEP was 4.3% and, uh, inflation was around 2.6, 2.7, or at least core. You’ve obviously, uh, worked at the Fed. Um, give us a sense of the situation that the Fed is trying to figure out here. Like what do they do with these numbers and, you know, all of the issues that surround them. The work at the Fed, I mean, it, it’s laser focused on the, the response, the mandates that the Fed has. So with maximum employment and price stability and with maximum employment, that’s not something that can be easily defined. It’s not like it’s a particular unemployment rate, it’s not a particular payroll number. But I mean, broadly speaking, it’s, you know, do, are, you know, the people who wanna work, are they working? In such a way that it’s not putting pressure on inflation, right? Like labor shortages that end up with wage increases that just, you know, end up with inflation. Like that would be a situation where the Fed would actually want to kind of help restrain some of the. Uh, employment growth. And we, we saw that in this cycle. I mean, the Fed raised rates a lot in 2022 and 2023. Uh, so that’s the maximum employment on the stable prices. The Fed has set a target of the 2%, uh, year over year PCE inflation. So a little different than the CPI inflation, but very much related. And, and it’s one, I mean, that’s, that’s the goal, right? And it, uh. So it starts with those two pieces and, and what’s been, I think what’s been challenging in say the last year as the Fed was, you know, trying to figure out what it was gonna do with interest rates was the fact that it, there was pressure on both sides of the mandate. Mm-hmm. Um, and not necessarily the, well, I mean, inflation itself has, was above the 2%. It continues to be above the 2%. Target has been. Since 2021. Now the Fed’s policy doesn’t have a look back, but I mean, they do worry that the longer inflation stays closer to three than two businesses. Consumers are gonna start to kind of embed three into their actions, their expectations. Then you kind of get stuck there. So like that, that both, you know, they were missing on the inflation mandate and there were, there were concerns that the, that we might see inflation get stuck above the mandate and the way you dislodge it if it gets stuck. Could end up risking a recession, right? So the Fed doesn’t want that to happen. So that’s a real concern. But then on the employment side, you know, we started out talking about the small rule, the rising unemployment rate. We’ve seen the unemployment rate rising. And then last year in particular, it wasn’t just the unemployment rate rising, we saw job creation just really take a leg down. Um. Some of that probably is less immigration population aging, so less supply of workers, which isn’t something the Fed would react to. ’cause that, I mean, if you don’t have as many people that wanna work, you don’t need to create as many jobs. But the unemployment rate was rising, so it’s clear, like there just wasn’t, there wasn’t enough job creation to keep up with, um, the workers who were there, uh, to work. And, and there was a concern that this could, could spiral out. Those small increased unemployment rate that, that very low level of job creation. And frankly, if you look at, I mean the, I mean, we have multiple months and probably more after revisions of declines in payroll employment. Mm-hmm. Like if you looked at the labor market data, you’d be like, aren’t we in a recession or like on the edge of one? Again, that’s not where we’re at, but it, it certainly gave that, that risk. Things could be slowing down. And, and the, the last piece that was really important in the Fed’s decisions was where, where’s the federal funds rate? Where are the interest rate, the policy interest rate they control? And it was still relatively high. For, for recent history, right. Not in the long history of the Fed, but mm-hmm. And so, like the Fed had raised, they’d raised interest rates quite aggressively to fight the inflation in 2022. They’d very gradually lowered it. Some was taken out in 2023 because made some pro, made quite a bit of progress on inflation in, or in 2024, they lowered the rates in 2025, the 75 basis points of cuts that the Fed did. It was out of concern. Of the labor market unraveling a risk, not a, not saying, hey, the labor market is unraveling, but saying the risk that the downside risk to employment are larger and more worrisome than the upside risk to inflation. So this inflation getting stuck, is that still the case as a going into 2026 here? So, you know, even, even last year we saw, we listened to Fed officials, there’s quite a bit of disagreement. Because it was a tough situation to read. There are some Fed officials that were more focused on inflation, some that were more focused on the employment side. Uh, and it really was just a matter of kind of reading the economy and trying to figure out this, a very unusual situation, like where, where was this headed? What did the Fed need to do? In the end, the consensus on the Fed was to do the rate cuts, kind of front load them. They talked a lot about it as insurance. They’re taking out insurance against the labor market deteriorating. And I think with that approach, in all likelihood, and there’s been certainly signaling of this, that when they meet at the end of January, it’ll, they’re unlikely to move again. That this is, this will be an opportunity to hold steady, be patient the Fed has, has taken out their restriction. So they don’t have the higher rates, so they’ve pulled rates down. We also know that early this year there’s various kinds of fiscal support that are coming online or tax cuts to households and to businesses that should give a little extra lift, uh, to the economy. So I think it’s a period of the Fed waiting to see what the effects of their policy changes are, seeing what the effects of the fiscal policy with the expectation this will be enough to stabilize the labor market. Even help get it back on track and really what the Fed would like. I mean, we’ll see what they get, but they’d really like the next cut to be a good news cut. Like inflation. Oh look, it’s moving back down again. We’re making clear progress back to 2%. I think that’s probably gonna take maybe even till the middle of this year to build that case. A strong case for the disinflation. Mm-hmm. But that’s, that’s what they would, would like to do. But they’re gonna keep an eye on the labor market. But nothing we’ve seen in the most recent data suggests that they gotta get moving like that. There’s some, you know, real pressure building. Um, in fact, the labor market looks a little bit better probably than when they met in December and inflation. Showing some signs of progress, but it, it’s pretty bumpy in terms of, there’s a lot of noise in the data at the moment. You mentioned, um, the Fed’s mandate and you know, certainly that’s something, um, that, uh, you know, that, that we know the Fed looks at these unemployment numbers that look at inflation. I’m curious though, that there’s, you know, there is this push and pull with the treasury. In particular, you know, looking at the amount of, of, of, of bonds that need to be refinanced, that kind of thing. I mean, presumably that’s one of the reasons why the Trump administration is pushing so hard, uh, on the Fed to reduce, um, you know, to reduce rates so that you know, this sovereign debt can be refinanced at a, something a little bit more palatable. How much of that actually. I know it’s not supposed to play a part in the Federal Reserve’s actions, but in reality is there, is there that kind of, you know, thinking that, you know, they have to, they, they may try to play ball a little bit with the, with the situation, with the debt. Yeah. There, the, the Fed is not playing ball right now with the administration. Uh, but, but there have been, there have been times in our past. So during World War II, there was an explicit cooperation between the Fed and the Treasury. The Fed kept interest rates low. Both the federal funds rates, so the short term interest rates, they also did, uh, some purchases of longer term to help keep longer term rates down. Right. So I mean, the, the Fed really, they, their policy was oriented exactly on this objective, keeping the borrowing cost of the US government low because it was financing the war effort. So, so there have been times where the Fed has cooperated with treasury. Now, when they came out of World War ii. What happened is, you know, treasury wants to keep interest rates low. This is good for, you know, the economy, good for growth, but it was, it really was creating a lot of inflationary pressures and it took until the early 1950s for the Fed to kind of regain its kind of operational independence from treasury and then go back to pursuing, you know, inflation as a key goal. And then also in the late seventies and maximum employment was added as an explicit goal. So we’re in a place now where. It’s employment, it’s inflation, it, there was quite, um, I mean, president Trump and some other officials have been, you know, very open about saying rates should be low to help with the deficit, with funding the gov. So like, it’s, it’s been in the discussion in the air. But that’s not, that’s not a mandate that Congress has given the Fed. That’s not what they’re pursuing. It does, you know, but things can change at the Fed. We’re gonna see a change in leadership this year with a new Fed chair. Um, the Fed always, I mean, Congress created the Federal Reserve. It’s changed its abilities, its responsibilities over time. I don’t wanna say that we’ll never get back to a place where the Fed thinks about. Its effect on the deficit. I mean, they’re watching it, they know, right? They’re tracking all these aspects of the economy. But in terms of what’s driving the Fed’s decisions about what the, the federal funds rate should be, that’s not part of the calculus right now. Yeah. Um, you know, another, just another question is for clarity. You know, the, the, um, officially right now there’s, there’s no quantitative easing. However, there is. Uh, you know, I’ve been reading, uh, about even, I think even today, there was a, a fair amount of liquidity, uh, being injected in by the Fed. Can you, for people who don’t understand the mechanics of this and what the difference in terminology is, can you explain to us maybe what the difference is between quantitative easing and what’s being done right now? So just as for context, where quantitative easing even came from. So if we go back to the global financial crisis in 2008, the Federal Reserve, in response to that recession, pulled the federal funds rate all the way to zero. Cut rates to zero And as sure many of us remember that that recession was a very deep and long recession. So, and the unemployment rate was, you know, 10% and inflation was not a problem. So the, the Fed would want in that environment to do more to support the economy. But when the federal funds rate is at zero, that’s, its, that has been its primary tool. Well, that’s, that’s. Stepped out. So then as a question of, well, what else could we do to help support the economy? And, and there, there were. Different possibilities. Uh, some European central banks looked at, you know, they actually did negative interest rates or tried to pull their policy rates, and that’s not what the US did. What was done was to do purchases of, uh, treasuries. Uh, there’s also been purchases of mortgage backed securities, and this is where the Fed is. I mean, and, and they’re creating reserves. So the fed, I guess, secretary, uh. Treasury doesn’t refer to it as magic money. Um, you know, they create reserves and then they’re going out and they’re buying tr so they’re pushing that liquidity, that demand into markets. And if you’re, if there’s a lot more demand for treasuries, well, the price of the treasuries will go up. The yield comes down. Interest rates go down. Yep. Interest rates go down. So they. They were, the Fed wanted to support the economy more. That was the tool that they used to do it. So when, when the Fed talks about quantitative easing, it’s not just the tool, the asset purchases, it’s also the intent, right? They wouldn’t do quantitative easing right now. ’cause if the Fed thought they really need to stimulate the economy more, they’ve still got like. More than three percentage points they could cut from the federal funds rate. Like if the issue were right now, we need to like get the economy going, they’re gonna like cut the funds rate and do it that way. They wouldn’t be pur like purchasing assets, purchasing treasuries to do that. But what what happened is between the global financial crisis, the Great recession, so all the asset purchases done then. There was some, some runoff of the balance sheet, but then again, in the pandemic there were a lot of asset purchases. Uh, the Fed has a really big balance sheet, and it has, uh, it, it kind of changes the way that the Fed can even just move around the federal funds rate. Like, I don’t wanna get too much into the, the technicals, but it’s, it’s just, you know, when the Fed says, well, we wanna lower the, the funds rate to 3.5%. In the old days, they could kind of do, you know, with the bank reserves and they could like, make these small purchases and it would, it would make that stick. Now with, there’s, uh, banks have a lot of reserves, so they’re not as responsive. And so just to kind of, there’s like the, the technical, the tools, the Fed has to just make it happen. In terms of operationally, it means that they have to do some purchases now and then they call their, I mean the new name they have for these are reserve management. Purchases. So it’s really about operations. It’s not about, but it does mean they’re purchasing assets. So if you’re just focused on like the Fed’s purchasing assets, they’re putting liquidity into the system. Yes, they are doing that, but it’s not with the intent to kind of push the economy to run harder. It’s just enough liquidity to keep. The federal funds rate stable at the level that they wanted to be at, to just make sure that all these operations are short in the very short term lending markets amongst banks, that it’s all kind of working as mm-hmm. As it should be. So it’s more about operations and it’s about stimulus policy. Right. A lot of our, um, a lot of our listeners are real estate owners, investors, and they’re, you know, they think about, um. Mortgage rates and that kind of thing. There was recently a, a pretty significant, well, I don’t know how significant it really was. I think it was about, was it maybe $250 billion worth of mortgage backed securities purchased by Fannie Mae. Um, that ca can you talk about the purpose of that and really the, you know, what kind of effect that would actually, we could actually expect from that. It’s certainly been, I mean it’s, it is clear. You know, we talked about one reason that the administration would want interest rates down. It’d be like financing the deficit. Right. Another reason that very much pulls into kind of the affordability debate is we want interest rates lower, one of them lower for consumers. Now the White House has put a lot of pressure on the Fed for them to lower rates even faster than they have. Has not played ball with that. But then the Fed has lowered its rates. The Feds rates are very short term rates, and the federal funds rate is like an overnight rate with between banks. Right. So it, and it has an effect on, you know. Credit card rates, short term rates, but it’s not one, it, it has an effect, but it’s really not like driving necessarily 30 year mortgage rates or you know, some of the longer term rates. There’s a lot of other factors that go into that, and so in this kind of, you know, push for lower mortgage rates. Pushing on the Fed is not the only lever to pull, right? The administration has other levers that they could potentially pull, um, in trying to influence mortgage rates. Now, there, I’d argue the administration’s tools here, like the, the $200 billion, Fannie and Freddie purchase that you mentioned. That really is about trying to reduce the spread. Between mortgages and treasuries. So in some ways it sounds similar, like, oh, fed and Franny, which are, you know, GSEs. So part, part of the, you know, government right now, at least they were privatized during the global financial crisis. You think, oh, they’re going out and purchasing this Sounds a lot like the Fed going out and purchasing. There are there, there’s some parallels, but we need to remember, Fannie and Freddie don’t create money. The Fed, when they start, when they start the process of their quantitative easing, they’re creating reserves like they’re actually creating liquidity and money supply. Fannie and Freddie have authorization to be able to make these purchases, but they’re not like the fed. They’re not creating reserves, but they can, so I don’t wanna think about them like bringing down the whole set of interest rates, but they can affect this spread between mortgages and say treasuries. Right? And so, because again, if you’re, if the. If the GSEs are going out, they’re purchasing mortgage backed securities, well that’s increasing demand for those, and that can push down the rates, that can like squeeze that spread. And, and while the announcement has been made, you know, I mean they’re, they’re in the early stages of putting that in place, but we even on the announcements, saw a response in financial markets and you’re seeing some movement down, uh, in mortgage rates now. It was. Pretty modest, right? And, and 200 billion while, you know, not nothing, uh, really pales in comparison to like the scale of say, the quantitative easing that the Fed did. Um, and there are probably other, but the, you know, the administration’s not done. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that Fannie and Freddie do more purchases. The the spread between mortgage rates and treasuries is pretty substantial. There’s other places where, you know, the fees that go into getting a mortgage are quite a bit larger than they were before the, the global financial crisis. So maybe they go in and try to chip away at the fees and, you know, so there’s, there’s different levers. And I fully expect, and I think we’re gonna get some announcements here again soon on the White Houses. Housing affordability agenda. So there may be other, other ways that they’re trying to, uh, influence, uh, the mortgage spreads. But that’s, that’s what that is all about. And it, it should have, and it looks like, you know, it’s having some effect in terms of bringing rates down, but it likely, it’d be modest, like in the 10 basis points, maybe 20 if they ramp up the program some. But like, it, you know, it’s, it, it, you know, every, every bit counts. But this is not a. Uh, this won’t be enough to, you know, move rates down, dramatic mortgage rates down dramatically, uh, when you, when you look at the economy. Um, and I, I, I think just, you know, one last question. I mean, I just in terms of, you know, the people listening to this are. They’re, they’re people, you know, with jobs and who are trying to invest their money, and they’re trying to, you know, build long-term wealth, but they’re, you know, everybody’s worried about what’s happening with the economy. What, what, what do you think, like, just as, um, um, you know, perspective for people to understand or try to have some framework for how to look at what’s going on in the economy. How they should judge it. Like what would you suggest, like just for mom and pop investors trying to, what is happening with the economy? I’m not an economist. What, what are the, what are the things that you think they should consider studying up on, looking into a little bit? One challenge for a lot of investors, I mean, frankly, it’s, it’s been a challenge that I try to deal with too. Uh, we’re, we’re in an environment where there’s just. There’s so much news coming out of DC uh, with the White House and policies and the Fed, and you know, I mean, like, there’s just, there’s a lot. The headlines are big. And like I talked about with the tariffs, we had like really big tariff announcements. The really scary numbers were, and then it like dialed back and then we pushed through it and it’s like, and it’s this remembering that, um. There’s always a tendency to have this idea that the, the president really runs the economy. I mean, that’s not just about this administration. That’s like a longstanding, you know, the president gets, uh, blame or credit for the economy when really, right. Like we have a over 33, $30 trillion economy, hundreds of millions of workers, tens of millions of businesses. Like this is not about one administration. And so we always need to be careful about. Putting too much weight on the policies coming out of dc. Uh, and you know, last year if you really just listened to all the, you know, we’re cutting immigration, we’re raising tariffs, we’re doing, you know, all, there’s a lot of uncertainty in Doge. Well then you might have missed, like, there’s a bunch of AI investment happening and we’ve got a lot of growth in the economy and while consumers are still pretty resilient, so you, it’s kind of like. Tuning down the volume, some coming out of Washington, especially the like every twist and turn. Uh, and then kind of focusing in on the fundamentals. I will say, you know, you don’t wanna turn down DC too far because we, we do have some like big picture events that could play out over many years. Right. So kind of keeping an eye on it, but for the long game. As opposed to reacting to every twist and turn, every policy announcement, because a lot of this clearly is more of a negotiation than it is like, we’re gonna actually do this. So, you know, as investors, you don’t wanna get whipped around by the latest headline, but you also can’t put your head in the sand. Like you gotta kind of try and find a way to pull the signal out of the noise. And it is really. It’s really hard. Yeah. Like this has been a challenging time and the, the US economy’s been doing things that are not typical. We talked about some of the things with the labor market and we are running some policy experiments that haven’t been run in a long time, so things could change pretty dramatically. But I think it’s just trying to absorb the information, not get too wound up about it, but like also keep an eye on like what’s good for long-term growth. Yeah. Because it’s good for long-term productivity. Thank you so much Dr. Sahm. It’s uh, it’s been a pleasure talking to you on, uh, wealth Formula Podcast today. Great. Thank you so much. You make a lot of money but are still worried about retirement. Maybe you didn’t start earning until your thirties. Now you’re trying to catch up. Meanwhile, you’ve got a mortgage, a private school to pay for, and you feel like you’re getting further and further behind. Now, good news, if you need to catch up on retirement, check out a program put out by some of the oldest and most prestigious life insurance companies in the world. It’s called Wealth Accelerator, and it can help you amplify your returns quickly, protect your money from creditors, and provide financial protection to your family if something happens to you. The concept. Here are used by some of the wealthiest families in the world, and there’s no reason why they can’t be used by you. Check it out for yourself by going to wealthformulabanking.com. Welcome back to the show everyone. Hope you enjoyed it. It was Claudia Sahm. She is, uh, she’s a very, very smart lady. And, uh, just a reminder, if you have not done so, uh, I, I don’t frequently ask to do, do this, but, uh, make sure you give the show. Five stars and a positive review because that’s how we’re getting, you know, really high quality people like Claudia on the show, I’ve been around for a long time. It helps that the show is, you know, like over a decade old and all that stuff too. But, uh, anything you can do to support would be very helpful. And also one more reminder, uh, if you have not done so and you weren’t a credit investor, make sure you sign up for that investor club. At Wealth formula.com. That’s it for me. This week on Wealth Formula Podcast. This is about Joffrey signing out. If you wanna learn more, you can now get free access to our in-depth personal finance course featuring industry leaders like Tom Wheelwright and Ken m. Visit wealthformularoadmap.com.

Ken and Anthony share their thoughts on the reports of the Vikings being upset about Kwesi Adofo-Mensah taking paternity leave and discuss why they think it shouldn't have been a big deal.

Seth and Sean discuss Dan Graziano predicting big new deals for CJ Stroud and Will Anderson Jr., give credit in Acknowledge Me, and if people should know by age 25 how to pronounce "hors d'oeuvres."

Seth and Sean discuss Dan Graziano predicting big new deals for CJ Stroud and Will Anderson, give credit in Acknowledge Me, and talk about what may have been part of why the Vikings fired their GM.

The Grand Canyon is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Learn about its true origin and biblical significance. Consider going on one of our Grand Canyon tours!

Mike Johnson, Beau Morgan, and Ali Mac continue to react to the Atlanta Falcons announcing that they've named Ian Cunningham as their General Manager, explain why they think Falcons President of Football Matt Ryan and Falcons new General Manager Ian Cunningham being in their respective roles for the first time in their careers isn't a big deal, and react to Jeff Howe and Josh Kendall of The Athletic reporting yesterday that the Falcons are going to release quarterback Kirk Cousins.

On this episode of the Awkward Dreadhead Podcast. A woman gets fired from her job because she takes a picture with a woman who wears a t-shirt that says "ban all male podcast". Should someone be fired based on a picture like that? www.awkwardreadheadmedia.com

As America prepares for a Sam Darnold/Drake Maye Super Bowl, the guys talk about fan demographics, a former activist turned performer, the NBA, the WWE, coaching hires, and more! 00:00 - Intro 21:00 - NFL Championship Weekend 46:40 - NFL Coaching Changes 1:03:15 - NBA 1:19:40 - Big Deal or No Deal 1:27:00 - Sign off Don't forget to submit your questions to the guys at speakonitpod14@gmail.com so they can answer them during the next show!  Follow the squad!! @losdeemix @dannyocean41 @goingfor2live  @speakonit_pod (Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram)

Bill Belichick, love him or hate him, should be a first ballot hall of fame coach. It is a big deal that he is not

BIG DEAL & MACKWOP PULL UP TO DISCUSS THE DRAMA! | BACK ON FIGG EP 355 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Keith Sawyer speaks with cognitive scientist Liane Gabora. Her work spans creativity research, artificial intelligence, cultural evolution, and complex systems. Dr. Gabora has spent decades developing computational and mathematical models to understand how ideas emerge, evolve, and spread—both within individual minds and across societies. The conversation centers on Gabora's research showing that creativity is a self-organizing process in the mind that reshapes a person's entire worldview. Rather than seeing creativity as confined to specific domains, her "honing theory" explains how creative thinking draws on experiences across a person's life. When you're thinking creatively, you are transforming ideas, and your mindset is one of openness and potentiality. She also talks about why creativity is deeply therapeutic, how cultural change depends on a balance between novelty and continuity, and what recent advances in AI reveal about the human mind.  Five Key Takeaways 1. Creativity reorganizes the mind. It's not just about having ideas. Creative work helps resolve internal tensions and brings greater coherence to how we understand ourselves and the world. 2. Creative inspiration is cross-domain. The sources that fuel creative ideas usually come from many areas of life, even when the final output appears in a single domain. 3. Creative thinking depends on potentiality. Creativity involves holding ideas in flexible, unfinished states where meanings can shift depending on context. 4. Cultural evolution mirrors creative processes. Human culture advances through cycles of invention and imitation, with the same process as individual creativity. 5. Transformational creativity is "problem finding." The most powerful creative ideas come from stepping outside the choices we're given and redefining the problem itself.  For additional information  Web site: https://gabora-psych.ok.ubc.ca/ Her research group is called "Art and Science of Creative Change"  Music by license from SoundStripe: "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich   Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

Watch The X22 Report On Video No videos found (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:17532056201798502,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-9437-3289"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");pt> Click On Picture To See Larger Picture Trump trolls the climate people, temps are going down and there incredible amount of snow. China pushes forward with Silk road. Canada/China try to go around Trump’s tariff system and he warns Carney to stop. The people have been dependent on the government and its because of the [CB]. The [CB]/China are trying to stop Trump’s tariffs. Countries want their gold back. The [DS] is taking the information war and now moving to a physical war. The war is between the American people and the criminal syndicate. The [DS] want Trump to use the insurrection act during the midterms, this way they can use the narrative that he is going to stop the elections. Hold the line, the people are waking up. Trump’s counterinsurgency is getting bigger. Trump will not act until he has the leverage, buckle up its going to get bumpy.   Economy https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2015283109235732576?s=20 (function(w,d,s,i){w.ldAdInit=w.ldAdInit||[];w.ldAdInit.push({slot:18510697282300316,size:[0, 0],id:"ld-8599-9832"});if(!d.getElementById(i)){var j=d.createElement(s),p=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];j.async=true;j.src="https://cdn2.decide.dev/_js/ajs.js";j.id=i;p.parentNode.insertBefore(j,p);}})(window,document,"script","ld-ajs");   https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/2014838127677030845?s=20  work, I lose my food stamps, I lose my health insurance and we’re only getting $100 back on taxes. Huh? This is why people don’t want to work because why am I working my butt off and losing all that stuff and still living paycheck to paycheck when I was living paycheck to paycheck before, but I at least had food stamps and health insurance and got $7,000 back. Yeah, how’s that math mathing?”  Repatriate The Gold’: German Economists Urge Withdrawal From US Vaults Shift in relations and unpredictability of Donald Trump make it ‘risky to store so much gold in the US', say experts  Germany is facing calls to withdraw its billions of euros' worth of gold from US vaults, spurred on by the shift in transatlantic relations and the unpredictability of Donald Trump. Germany holds the world's second biggest national gold reserves after the US, of which approximately €164bn (£122bn) worth – 1,236 tonnes – is stored in New York. Emanuel Mönch, a leading economist and former head of research at Germany's federal bank, the Bundesbank, called for the gold to be brought home, saying it was too “risky” for it to be kept in the US under the current administration.  “In the interest of greater strategic independence from the US, the Bundesbank would therefore be well advised to consider repatriating the gold.” Source: zerohedge.com Trump Suggests He Can Send $2,000 Tariff Rebate Checks Without Congress  Bessent has also suggested the $2,000 benefit might not take the form of direct cash disbursements.  the Treasury secretary said while he had not yet finalized details with Trump, the “dividend could come in lots of forms,” such as through tax reductions already under consideration—including exemptions for tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits, among other deductions. Source: zerohedge.com Political/Rights Anti-ICE Singer Bad Bunny Reportedly Planning to Wear a Dress at Super Bowl Halftime Show to ‘Honor Queer Icons'  Bad Bunny, the anti-Trump, anti-ICE, Puerto Rican rapper, whose real name is Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, is reportedly planning to wear a dress to “honor queer icons” during his Super Bowl halftime performance. The artist has a history of wearing skirts, dresses, and other bizarre costumes. According to a Radar Online report, Ocasio will wear the dress at the NFL's biggest game of the year to “honor Puerto Rican queer icons and generations of drag, resistance and cultural rebellion.” The report states: Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/2014745821682483678?s=20 https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/2014735703490334753?s=20 DOGE  dramatic, final, and beautiful conclusion. I would also like to thank President Xi, of China, for working with us and, ultimately, approving the Deal. He could have gone the other way, but didn't, and is appreciated for his decision. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP Geopolitical https://twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/2015086947782525422?s=20    War/Peace   DONALD J. TRUMP PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Medical/False Flags https://twitter.com/TheChiefNerd/status/2014517087830491440?s=20 [DS] Agenda https://twitter.com/gatewaypundit/status/2015410989953433956?s=20    BREAKING: Magistrate Judge Orders Release of Minnesota Church Protestor William Kelly All three Minnesota church protestors have now been released from federal custody. Nekima Levy-Armstrong, Chauntyll Allen, and William Kelly, A federal magistrate judge on Friday ordered the release of William Kelly, the far-left agitator who stormed a St. Paul church and harassed parishioners on Sunday. William Kelly was arrested and charged with conspiracy to deprive rights, a federal crime, and violating the FACE Act 18 USC 248 for his involvement in the St. Paul church riots. Kelly was wearing his signature “F*ck Trump” beanie when he was taken into custody. On Friday, Magistrate Shannon Elkins said there was no basis for pretrial detention.   Source: thegatewaypundit.com https://twitter.com/AAGDhillon/status/2015140496344314364?s=20  https://twitter.com/StephenM/status/2014479574847967639?s=20    https://twitter.com/AGPamBondi/status/2015219042441699797?s=20 https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2015263298669707666?s=20   to protect people of color. Renee Good was shot dead two weeks earlier after accelerating her SUV toward a federal agent. https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2015259764800770348?s=20   were merely carrying for self-protection he wouldn’t have had that many rounds on him – it is clear he was prepared to kill as many officers as possible. He didn’t bring his permit or ID (it is illegal to carry in MN without both).   https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/2015275183591010331?s=20 https://twitter.com/joeybeastmarket/status/2015154134849028324?s=20  his gun. Leftists cannot comprehend agency and therefore believe instead that he literally spawned on the sidewalk and through a series of fascist coincidences he was executed for exercising his constitutional right to do whatever he wants without consequences   1. Pretti engaged in obstructive behavior. 2. Pretti committed a felony assault against a federal officer while armed. 3. Pretti resisted arrest while armed. 4. The fact that Pretti had a gun was revealed to all Officers there. So a person for whom there was PC he had committed a violent felony, was resisting arrest, and was armed with a firearm were among the totality of circumstances known to the Officer at the time he used deadly force. Use of deadly force policy does not require the Officers to wait until they are attacked. https://twitter.com/prayingmedic/status/2015144823909728529?s=20 and assumes the suspect is going to begin shooting, so the cop kills him.   Great State of Minnesota? We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats' Open Border Policy. We want the money back, and we want it back, NOW. Those Fraudsters who stole the money are going to jail, where they belong! This is no different than a really big Bank Robbery. Much of what you're witnessing is a COVER UP for this Theft and Fraud. The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric! Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America. LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB! 12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2015288336189952066?s=20     https://twitter.com/DHSgov/status/2015273624174023098?s=20   was found in possession of a bag containing several similar devices. The subject was arrested. https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2015293685336846546?s=20   https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2015217649442013493?s=20   , which has become popular for the far-left in organizing violence due to its reach with mainstream liberals. Wagner has branded himself on the neck with the gang tattoo of the Antifa “Iron Front” logo, similar to how neo-Nazis brand themselves with fascist symbols. https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/2015223657593716965?s=20 https://twitter.com/GoldenAgeTimes2/status/2015181318053581196?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2015181318053581196%7Ctwgr%5Ec578672a0fd7f78278c6fea2c4ab03241a2a7051%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2026%2F01%2Ftexas-democrat-senate-frontrunner-jasmine-crockett-says-ice%2F   blanche ability to do so.”  or several signals. Let's start with a screen recording of all members of the south side group to start.  to distract the public. Same Deep State playbook. https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/2015365238862786572?s=20   https://twitter.com/ElectionWiz/status/2015245963648962850?s=20     https://twitter.com/amuse/status/2015259080470802833?s=20 Neon vests for all feds immediately.

The Grand Canyon is one of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World. Learn about its true origin and biblical significance. Consider going on one of our Grand Canyon tours!

What else is there to do in winter except take it easy and catch up on games? Steve and Andre take it to Sonic X Shadow Generations, Ubisoft cancelleing the Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake, the unmitigated hubris of Peter Molyneux, and many other topics. Stay toasty and melt the ice! Fine Time on Bluesky: @fineti.me Andre on Bluesky: @pizzadinosaur.fineti.me Steve on Bluesky: @monotonegent.fineti.me [00:00] Intro - Big n' Tasty [02:46] Sonic X Shadow Generations [31:07] What Else Have We Been Playing? [46:38] Break Time [48:26] Our Current Peter Molyneux Trust Level [54:15] Ubisoft In Shambles [01:03:09] What Button Do You Use To Jump In Sonic? [01:06:05] Steve Is An Air Fryer Virgin [01:13:05] Half-Pizzas Make Andre Mad [01:18:03] Over-Under Three Million: JRPG Edition [01:27:20] Bye!

I know I sound obsessed with vision, but in this episode, I'll explain why I can't stop talking about it. You see, everyone says you need a vision—but very few people can explain why it actually matters once the real work starts. In this episode, I unpack what a vision really does when things get messy: when district priorities shift, when parents push, when politics creep in, and when you're genuinely unsure what move to make next. Plus, I'm sharing the 4 reasons vision matters more than you think. Two will surprise you. One is about what YOU get out of this, not just your school. So if you think vision is a luxury that can wait until you've got everything else figured out, think again. Tune in to discover what happens when administrators finally get a true 100% vision #LikeABuilder. 

John Harbaugh got some extra love from the President. What makes John Harbaugh so special? Plus, who is he going to add on to the New York Giants staff?

In this Decoding TV bonus episode, David is joined by filmmaker and cinematographer Valentina Vee to discuss the first season of Heated Rivalry on HBO Max.Why has this show become a phenomenon? Why are women “feral” for the show? And why is it significant to the LGBTQ+ community in Russia and around the world? Listen to hear us discuss these questions and more.Check out some of Valentina's videos on Tiktok and Instagram. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Declutter with me! Decluttering does not need to be a weekend project or a life overhaul. Register for the Free Workshop: Decluttering Made Simple: 3 Surprising Ways to Get Organized WITHOUT Tossing Everything - simplyconvivial.com/declutterIn this episode of my decluttering series, I show you how to make decluttering a small, repeatable habit using just 10 minutes at a time. Instead of waiting until you are fed up, exhausted, or drowning in mess, you can learn how to stay on top of clutter as a normal part of managing a home.I walk through decluttering a real drawer in real time and explain:    Why big decluttering projects usually backfire    How to choose the right small space to start    Why trash comes first    How to build momentum without making a huge mess    How to turn decluttering into regular maintenance instead of a crisis response

This week's edition of the Tapping The Keg podcast discusses the end of the Green Bay Packers season, whether the Milwaukee Bucks should tank or make a trade, and lastly discuss Alex Bregman coming to the Chicago Cubs The podcast begins with Charlie and Mitch getting into all the nitty gritty details about the Green Bay Packers season. They talk about what they like. What they didn't like and what might be on the way this offseason. They also talk a little bit about the NFL Playoffs and who they're rooting for. The podcast moves on to discuss the Milwaukee Bucks. We decide if we're team tank or team trade. Lastly, the boys react to Alex Bregman now with the Chicago Cubs.

Send us a textSubscribe and prepare to root for the slowest athletes on Earth.In this Niche Scientists minisode of Wildly Curious, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole dive into the bizarre but brilliant world of snail racing—and the scientists who study it to unlock secrets of movement, slime, and survival.Every summer in England, snails compete in the World Snail Racing Championships. It sounds ridiculous… until you realize researchers are using these races to study animal locomotion, non-Newtonian fluids, and biomimicry.

In this conversation, Professor Arthur I. Miller discusses artificial intelligence and creativity, including his book The Artist in the Machine. We discuss the essence of creativity, exploring its interdisciplinary nature and the connections between art and science. Dr. Miller emphasizes the importance of visual imagery in both science and art, and he identifies the key characteristics of highly creative individuals. We talk about the role of AI in creativity, the future of human-machine collaboration, and we end with practical advice for enhancing your own creativity. Takeaways Breakthrough creativity comes from interdisciplinary connections. Visual imagery underlies creativity in both art and science. The future of creativity will be in the collaboration between humans and machines. Creativity can be cultivated through practice and new experiences. For further information: Arthur I. Miller's web site Professor Miller's book The Artist in the Machine: The World of AI-Powered Creativity Music by license from SoundStripe: "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich   Copyright (c) 2026 Keith Sawyer

Join this channel to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1wBbajkdji5hoQJLPLTwVg/join #TruckNHustle #Trucks #truckingbusiness FOLLOW PROGRESS OF THE PORT STREET CORRIDOR IMPROVEMENT PROJECT HERE: https://www.panynj.gov/port/en/our-port/port-development/PSCI.html

China looms large in our modern world -- and yes, is misunderstood, or not understood at all. Manoj Kewalramani joins Amit Varma in episode 435 of The Seen and the Unseen to put together a primer on China, from ancient times through all the kingdoms through Mao and Deng to Xi and this present moment. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Manoj Kewalramani on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google Scholar, Amazon, Takshashila, Substack and his own website. 2. The Takshashila Institution. 3. The Great Power Show on Spotify, Apple and Substack. 4. Tracking People's Daily -- Manoj Kewalramani's Substack Newsletter. 5. Eye on China -- Anushka Saxena's Substack newsletter (formerly written by Manoj). 6. China in the Changing Geo-economic Landscape -- A Takshashila course on China that begins later this month. 7. The China Dude Is in the House -- Episode 231 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 8. What Does China Want? — Episode 143 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 9. Chinese Foreign Policy — Episode 81 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Manoj Kewalramani). 10. Foreign Policy is a Big Deal — Episode 170 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Pranay Kotasthane & Manoj Kewalramani). 11. The Dragon and the Elephant — Episode 181 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Hamsini Hariharan & Shibani Mehta). 12. Keeping India Safe — Episode 219 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Sushant Singh). 13. Kanti Bajpai on India vs China -- Episode 234 of The Seen and the Unseen. 14. The History of Indian Cricket -- Mihir Bose. 15. The Invention of China -- Bill Hayton. 16. When Marx Met Confucius. 17. Red Roulette -- Desmond Shum. 18. Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China -- Ezra Vogel. 19. China's New Red Guards -- Jude Blanchette. 20. Factional Model-making in China -- Olivia Cheung. 21. America against America -- Wang Huning. 22. The Lying Flat Movement. 23. China Media Project. 24. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag — Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 25. Wealth and Power -- Orville Schell and John Delury. 26. Rethinking Chinese Politics -- Joseph Fewsmith. 27. The Party's Interests Come First -- Joseph Torigian. 28. Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion -- Joseph Torigian. 29. John Fairbank, Alastair Iain Johnston and Vijay Gokhale on Amazon. 30. The Long Game -- Vijay Gokhale. 31. China Talk -- Jordan Schneider. 32. Sinica -- Kaiser Kuo. 33. The Third Revolution -- Elizabeth Economy. 34. End of an Era -- Carl Minzner. 35. Hrithik Roshan on Dhurandhar. This episode is sponsored by The Six Percent Club. Join them to go from content idea to launch in just 45 days! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'A Maze' by Simahina.

We're back on the Big Deal beat for 2026! Steve and Kevin play Anthem before it goes offline forever, Andre revisited Shadow Labyrinth in light of a new patch, Call of Duty is in the sales shitter, we play our worst takes of 2025, and much more. Thanks for joining us, and rate and review us wherever you listen ot the show! Fine Time on Bluesky: @fineti.me Andre: @pizzadinosaur.fineti.me Steve: @monotonegent.fineti.me Kevin: @kevinflevin89.fineti.me [00:00] Intro [03:22] Steve and Kevin played Anthem [34:18] Andre revisits Shadow Labyrinth [50:13] Shower Hour [52:43] Call of Duty On The Skids? [01:08:03] Nintendo Is Fretting About Metroid Prime 4 [01:16:07] Andre's 2025 Games of the Year [01:24:49] Steve's 2025 Games of the Year [01:33:06] Kevin's 2025 Games of the Year [01:40:22] Our Worst Takes of 2025 [01:56:42] Bye!

The MLB is starting to implement its data collection and standardization rules to the MiLB. There are many pros and cons to doing this. Adding in these rules could be a great addition for the media surrounding the MiLB, but it could also make investments useless at the same time. The minors used to be a place for testing and growth, but how will these rules getting added change that? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To him, it is a big deal. When your teenage son faces rejection or embarrassment, your first instinct may be to say,  “Son, in the scheme of things, this is not a big deal.” But that might not be the best approach. Through MRI scans of teenage brains, psychologists have actually found that a teen's amygdala– the part of the brain that senses negative emotions– is much more reactive than a child's brain or an adult's brain. So instead of telling your son to stop worrying, empathize. Recall a similar situation you've been in and how it made you feel. Suggest he does something like working on his car or walking his dog. Help him find healthy coping mechanisms, and he'll start to learn how to better handle negative experiences. For more ideas on raising boys to be godly men, visit Trail Life USA or RaisingGodlyBoys.com.

Six months ago (literally the week Sophia gave birth), she and her husband, Bradley, a Peloton instructor with a built-in community, launched a podcast that got thousands of downloads immediately. No warming up. No convincing. People just showed up. It was such a stark contrast to launching Marketing Unfiltered years earlier without an audience, and it crystallized something Sophia sees coaches mess up constantly: they spend a year perfecting their program while completely forgetting to grow their community. Then they launch a webinar and ask, "who am I promoting this to?" and realize... there's no one there. This episode is Sophia's wake-up call that audience growth can't be an afterthought anymore, it needs seasons, strategy, and to happen alongside (or before) building your offers. Because if you want to be a big deal in 2026, you can't wait until your program is perfect to start growing your audience.Here's What We Cover:The biggest mistake coaches make with audience growth: Spending a year perfecting the program while forgetting to consistently grow the communityThe order that actually works: Build the audience and relationship BEFORE or WHILE you build the thing (not after it's "perfect")The difference between passive exposure and real growth: Why podcast guesting and lead magnets are great for consistency but not how you grow BIGThe three best ways to own your growth: Summits, Private Podcasts, and Bundles: When each strategy works best and which one matches your sales approach…and other proven growth principles most coaches overlook.Resources Mentioned:Submit Your Question —

First Take begins with Paul Finebaum breaking down the powerhouse-less CFP semifinals. (0:00) Then, Stephen A. reacts to the Cowboys firing their fourth defensive coordinator in four years! (22:10) Next, Finebaum is back to tell us if Ole Miss or Miami winning is the better story! (39:15) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In today's solocast, I explore one of my favorite mental training mantras: “No big deal.”We look at how quickly we label experiences as good or bad, and how those judgments (often made without the full story) can quietly hijack our nervous system, emotions, and performance. Using a classic Zen parable alongside examples from sport, I unpack how unexamined thoughts start to feel like reality, and what happens when we learn to loosen our grip on them.We also examine how “no big deal” isn't about dismissing your experience, but about creating space to feel what you feel, unhook from unproductive thinking, and re-orient toward your values and intentions so you can stay present and perform what's actually in front of you.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Learn more about The Mental Training LabConnect with Pete on Instagram | LinkedIn | WebsiteSubscribe to the podcast on Apple | Spotify This show is produced and edited by the team at Palm Tree Pod Co.

Social media is LOVING Timothee Chalamet's public proclamation of love to Kylie Jenner - but Booker doesn't get it! New year, more Bweckham family drama! Tom Brady's hot new fling! Leo's new movie, the Stranger Things Finale and the TV show that everyone should be watching starring Dakota Fanning. And much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States has kidnapped the president of Venezuela. We talk about it.   https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-press-conference-venezuela-maduro-january-3-2026/   https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y5q173053o    https://www.semafor.com/article/01/03/2026/new-york-times-washington-post-held-off-on-reporting-venezuela-raid    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/03/us-oil-trump-venezuela   https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/eaf41f57-9ef4-4ec3-9118-4881b2ac71ec.    https://www.diariolasamericas.com/america-latina/florida-tycoon-takes-advantage-of-oil-and-the-venezuelan-political-crisis-n5377852    https://floridaphoenix.com/2020/09/27/a-peek-at-billionaire-harry-sargeant-iii-a-somewhat-mysterious-figure-in-fl-gop-circles-and-elsewhere/    https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/sargeant-marine-inc-pleads-guilty-and-agrees-pay-166-million-resolve-charges-related-foreign    https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article299803319.html    https://bsky.app/profile/atrupar.com/post/3mbm7zqpudm2c    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15432025/background-Trumps-Mar-Lago-war-room-x-Maduro-strike-Venezuela.html   https://www.newsweek.com/zohran-mamdani-inauguration-live-updates-nyc-mayor-party-11293975

Our stories make us human and shape the doctors we become. Yet, we rarely let our pasts show from beneath our white coats. Sydney Katz reflects on how little trainees and attendings know about one another outside of the hospital. The essay read in this episode was published in the Teaching and Learning Moments column in the December 2025 issue of Academic Medicine. Read the essay at academicmedicine.org.

As the New Year stretches out before us just take a look at what's to come.  This year will mark the launch of the Artemis space flight, the first crewed mission taking us to the moon since Apollo 17 back in 1972. I'm looking forward to watching it. Talk about a big deal! And like you, I'm looking forward to being in worship and hearing God's Word. Now, you may be thinking to yourself, well, that's no big deal.  But actually, it is.  And here's why. Episode art:  Kevin Gill from Nashua, NH, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where does the New Year happen first? Why do we use noisemakers to celebrate? How is NYE celebrated around the world? Have you started your FREE TRIAL of Who Smarted?+ for AD FREE listening, an EXTRA episode every week & bonus content? Sign up right in the Apple app, or directly at WhoSmarted.com and find out why more than 1,000 families are LOVING their subscription! Get official Who Smarted? Merch: tee-shirts, mugs, hoodies and more, at Who Smarted?

Kochaj albo rzuc aka Love it or Leave it aka Big Deal (1977) / Roll Bounce (2005) This week we end as we began by returning to the windy city as we crash the Polish diaspora with Kargul and Pawlak and hit the roller disco with Bow Wow

In this episode, we talk about banking, big deals, and the mentors who shape our careers—long before companies like Amazon even existed. This is an honest discussion about: Career choices and turning points Learning through real-world deals The role of mentors in long-term success How business thinking has evolved over time Whether you're early in your career or reflecting on your journey, these lessons remain timeless.

Every January, millions of people make New Year's resolutions—and just as many abandon them weeks later. But where did this ritual come from? In this episode, Dr. Keith Sawyer traces the surprising 4,000-year history of New Year's resolutions, from ancient Babylonian vows to Roman civic promises, Christian moral reflection, early American self-engineering, and modern consumer culture. Along the way, he shows that resolutions were never inevitable or instinctive. They're a powerful example of collective creativity: a social tradition that slowly emerged as each generation added something new. Even when resolutions fail, we still grow from reflecting on our past and thinking about the future.  Five Key Takeaways New Year's resolutions are a tradition that emerged over thousands of years.  The earliest resolutions were about social trust, not self-improvement. In ancient Babylon, people made public vows to repay debts and keep promises to maintain social order. Christianity turned resolutions inward. Over time, public civic vows evolved into private moral commitments focused on personal character and self-examination. Modern resolutions were shaped by early American self-tracking--a science of the self. Figures like Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin treated the self as something that could be systematically improved through intention and measurement. Failure doesn't mean resolutions are pointless. Even when resolutions aren't fully kept, the act of reflection helps people clarify values, imagine future selves, and move toward personal growth. Chapters  Intro Why do we make resolutions? Reflection and self-improvement.  The First Resolutions: Babylon, 2000 BCE. Vows to the gods as public tools for social trust and stability.  Rome Invents January 1. How Julius Caesar, Janus, and Roman vota reshaped the calendar and the meaning of promises.  Christianity Turns Resolutions Inward. From public ritual to private moral self-examination.  Jonathan Edwards Invents the Modern Resolution. Seventy intense resolutions and the birth of systematic self-engineering.  Benjamin Franklin Tracks His Failures. Virtue charts, black dots, and the idea that character can be optimized.  Newspapers Start Making Fun of Resolutions. By the 1800s, some people were already making fun of how often they failed.  Radio and Psychology Take Over. How 20th-century media transformed resolutions into intimate self-help.  Advertising Discovers Resolutions. When self-improvement became a January sales strategy for gym memberships and Weight Watchers.  How to Make Resolutions that Stick. Research on resolutions: when they fail and what you can do to be more likely to succeed. Collective Creativity. Resolutions are a social innovation that emerged over the centuries. Outro Closer Music by license from SoundStripe: "Sparkling Eyes" by AFTERNOONZ "Uptown Lovers Instrumental" by AFTERNOONZ "Velvet" by AFTERNOONZ "Miss Missy" by AFTERNOONZ "Blue Molasses" by Renderings "Corner Trio" by Renderings "What's the Big Deal" by Ryan Saranich   Copyright (c) 2025 Keith Sawyer

The Steelers have had their ups and downs this year, and while Aaron Rodgers has been winning over at least some reluctant hearts, there was a moment this season when fans were so livid they booed our most beloved power anthem: Styx's 1979 hit "Renegade." To understand why this was such a big deal, we're revisiting our episode about why the song is so special here, how it became the Steelers' secret weapon, and whether this anthem produces tangible results or is all just superstition. **This episode originally aired on September 1, 2022. Become a member of City Cast Pittsburgh at membership.citycast.fm. Want more Pittsburgh news?  Sign up for our daily morning Hey Pittsburgh newsletter. We're on Instagram @CityCastPgh. Text or leave us a voicemail at 412-212-8893. Interested in advertising with City Cast? Find more info here. 

Post-Gazette Pitt insider Stephen Thompson breaks down some topics surrounding the Panthers football team and its recent coaching changes. What went into Pat Narduzzi selecting Cory Sanders as Pitt's new defensive coordinator, replacing the retiring Randy Bates? Will anything change with Sanders at the helm of that unit? How much will the team miss Ryan Manalac, who became the defensive coordinator at UConn? Should he have been the choice instead? And who are some names to watch to backfill the vacant jobs? Maybe Mickey Jacobs from Duquesne? Stephen tackles those topics and more. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Focus. Productivity. Relationships. Distraction. Neurodiversity. How do you know if you have ADHD? How can you get others to understand your ADHD brain? What are your treatment options and how can they help? In this encore of our wildly popular Part 1 episode, we talk racing thoughts, brilliant brains and the causes and effects of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with the world's leading expert, Dr. Russell Barkley who is A BIG DEAL. Psychologist, retired professor of clinical psychiatry, author and speaker, Dr. Barkley has a personal connection to ADHD and has studied it for nearly 40 years. Is it all cute quirks? Nope. It's serious business. But next week, we'll hear about tips and tricks and self-love from 3 more experts — Jessica McCabe of How to ADHD, René Brooks of Black Girl Lost Keys and ADHD researcher Dr. Jahla Osborne. I'M TRYING NOT TO USE A BUNCH OF EXCLAMATION POINTS. It's exciting. Dr. Russell Barkley's website dedicated to education and research on ADHDDr. Barkley's book: Taking Charge of Adult ADHDMore books and papers by Dr. BarkleyDonations were made to CHADD and Partners in HealthMore episode sources and linksOther episodes you might enjoy: Somnology (SLEEP), Chronobiology (CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS), Volitional Psychology (PROCRASTINATION), Sports & Performance Psychology (ANXIETY & CONFIDENCE), Personality Psychology (PERSONALITIES), Molecular Neurobiology (BRAIN CHEMICALS)Sponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, masks, totes!Follow Ologies on Instagram and BlueskyFollow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTokEditing by Mercedes Maitland of  Maitland Audio Productions and  Jake ChaffeeTranscripts by Aveline MalekWebsite by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Joe's Premium Subscription: www.standardgrain.comGrain Markets and Other Stuff Links —Apple PodcastsSpotifyTikTokYouTubeFutures and options trading involves risk of loss and is not suitable for everyone.

Want to Start or Grow a Successful Business? Schedule a FREE 13-Point Assessment with Clay Clark Today At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com   Join Clay Clark's Thrivetime Show Business Workshop!!! Learn Branding, Marketing, SEO, Sales, Workflow Design, Accounting & More. **Request Tickets & See Testimonials At: www.ThrivetimeShow.com  **Request Tickets Via Text At (918) 851-0102   See the Thousands of Success Stories and Millionaires That Clay Clark Has Helped to Produce HERE: https://www.thrivetimeshow.com/testimonials/ Download A Millionaire's Guide to Become Sustainably Rich: A Step-by-Step Guide to Become a Successful Money-Generating and Time-Freedom Creating Business HERE: www.ThrivetimeShow.com/Millionaire   See Thousands of Case Studies Today HERE: www.thrivetimeshow.com/does-it-work/  

Errol Louis, political anchor of Spectrum NY1 News, host of Inside City Hall and The Big Deal with Errol Louis, New York Magazine columnist and host of the podcast You Decide, talks about his new podcast where he explores the impact of the former Congresswoman Bella Abzug, locally and nationally, and why she's not more well known. Plus, the latest local political news.

In this powerful Abundance Thursday episode, Vinney Chopra and Gualter Amarelo break down one of the most misunderstood wealth principles: "Who has your money?" Vinney Chopra, who came to America with just $7 and went on to build a portfolio across multifamily, senior living, and hospitality, shares real-life lessons from decades of investing. Joined by Gualter Amarelo, best-selling author of Broke to a Quarter-Million and host of the Alchemist Nation Podcast, this conversation blends mindset, strategy, and practical wisdom into one eye-opening discussion.   Together, they unpack how money truly moves in business and investing, including:

Many countries are frustrated with U.N. climate conferences. While some countries urgently want to transition away from fossil fuels — the main driver of global warming — others are blocking that language from climate agreements. Today on the show, Emily talks with Julia Simon from NPR's climate desk. She takes us to Brazil and introduces us to a group of countries that are trying something new.Interested in more science and climate related news? Email us your question at shortwave@npr.org.Listen to every episode of Short Wave sponsor-free and support our work at NPR by signing up for Short Wave+ at plus.npr.org/shortwave.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In this week's Gaslit Nation, Andrea and Kyiv-based journalist Terrell Starr discuss how American corporate oligarchs act like authoritarian regimes. It's a lot like Trump, Kushner, and their real estate buddy Steve Witkoff's plan to sell out Ukraine to Russia. Once again we're reminding you that the war against oligarchy here at home is global.  Amazon, one of the 37 donors who helped bankroll Trump's illegal and unnecessary ballroom, was exposed in an investigation by Rolling Stone for possibly causing a cancer cluster near one of its data centers in Oregon, an allegation the company denies, because they know, under Kremlin-backed mass-murdering Trump, escalating a war for oil in Venezuela, they will get away with it. This is the same Jeff Bezos who celebrated in the White House with Trump, Kushner, and the Saudis who murdered Washington Post writer and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Democracy doesn't just die in darkness; it dies under cheap gold fixtures and chandeliers. We also discuss why both Trump and Putin need a war in Venezuela to distract from their corruption at home, how oligarch ownership of the press continues to hollow it out, and how much more Americans can take of this abuse and gaslighting. And yet, amid all this lawlessness, democracy defenders around the world are fighting back. Bolsonaro's escape plan got foiled as he faces 27 years in prison, New Yorkers joined other American cities and towns in shutting down Trump's gestapo, and MAGA continue to be punished for voting for him–with a recent poll showing one in four Trump voters are disappointed or regret their vote. Join us for Gaslit Nation's bonus show out Thursday as we debate whether America is ready for a woman president–and how to stop Kushner and Ivanka from winning the MAGA succession war to install Ivanka with the help of their dictator friends. To listen and join our community of supporters, be sure to subscribe at the Truth-teller ($5/month level) or higher. Thank you to everyone who supports our independent journalism. Your support keeps us going and gives us the freedom to tell the truth.  Join our community of listeners and get bonus shows, Q&A sessions, invites to exclusive events like our Monday political salons at 4pm ET over Zoom, ad free listening, group chats with other listeners, ways to shape the show, and more! Sign up at Patreon.com/Gaslit! EVENTS AT GASLIT NATION: December 1st 4pm ET – Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky + Total Resistance by H. Von Dach – Poetry and guerrilla strategy: tools for survival and defiance. Minnesota Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: available on Patreon. Vermont Signal group for Gaslit Nation listeners in the state to find each other: available on Patreon. Arizona-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to connect, available on Patreon. Indiana-based listeners launched a Signal group for others in the state to join, available on Patreon. Florida-based listeners are going strong meeting in person. Be sure to join their Signal group, available on Patreon. Gaslit Nation Salons take place Mondays 4pm ET over Zoom and the first ~40 minutes are recorded and shared on Patreon.com/Gaslit for our community Show Notes:   Article that Terrell references in the episode: 'What's the Big Deal?' Ask Trump Voters on Russia Hacking Report https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/07/us/russia-hacking-election-trump-voters.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5k8.LzM3.Aqyb_HChdz9L&smid=url-share   "In his book Berlin: the Downfall 1945, Beevor described how Russian soldiers would gang rape not just German women but the starving and emaciated survivors of concentration camps and slave-labour factories." https://bsky.app/profile/andreachalupa.bsky.social/post/3m6ubnaxavk2h   "This exposé is breathtaking. Witkoff and Kushner do not just have conflicts of interest - thy are deeply woven into a web of Russian influence peddling by "investments". Money, personal ties and geopolitics have become indistinguishable." https://bsky.app/profile/joerglau.bsky.social/post/3m6yvn5n6g22i   Rolling Stone investigation into Amazon data center in Oregon polluting water, leading to mysterious cancers and miscarriages https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/data-center-water-pollution-amazon-oregon-1235466613/   "According to the US Coast Guard, the year prior to Trump changing our policy to summary execution, only 21% of the vessels interdicted by them off the coast of Venezuela suspected of trafficking drugs had drugs on board. The other 79% had nothing. But now we just kill them all." https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski.bsky.social/post/3m6zh6tznsk27 Make Money Not War: Trump's Real Plan for Peace in Ukraine The Kremlin pitched the White House on peace through business. To Europe's dismay, the president and his envoy are on board. https://www.wsj.com/world/russia/russia-u-s-peace-business-ties-4db9b290   Not A Bad Week For Ukraine Truth, Democracy and Corruption, Possible High Command Changes, Are European Gloves Coming Off? https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-161-not-a-bad-week?r=1tgexa&utm_medium=ios&triedRedirect=true   Jared Kushner's double life Kushner has resumed his role as a top Trump foreign policy advisor while expanding his business partnership with the Saudi government. https://popular.info/p/jared-kushners-double-life   Meet all 37 White House ballroom donors funding the $300 million build, including Silicon Valley tech giants, crypto bros and the Lutnicks https://fortune.com/2025/10/26/37-white-house-ballroom-donors-funding-300-million-build-tech-ceos-trump/   "This is what it looks like when billionaires own the media." https://x.com/DarrigoMelanie/status/1995566687249465706   Trump Envoy Has Financial Ties With Former Adviser to Putin's 'Money Man' Now Leading Kremlin Peace Talks: Steve Witkoff's real-estate empire is bankrolled by a former adviser to Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund and a key architect of Moscow's Ukraine negotiations https://bylinetimes.com/2025/12/01/trump-envoy-has-financial-ties-with-former-adviser-to-putins-money-man-now-leading-kremlin-peace-talks/   Dictatorship-era army officers and supporters rally in Argentina in latest sign of political shift https://apnews.com/article/argentina-military-junta-dictatorship-javier-milei-plaza-de-mayo-6122d6d7541141badaf78522efd42fd9   Layoff announcements surged last month: The worst October in 22 years https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/06/economy/job-layoff-announcements-challenger   A year on from Trump's victory, resistance is everywhere https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/09/trump-resistance-is-everywhere?CMP=share_btn_url   Ivanka Trump Sat in Vladimir Putin's Chair and Spun Around When at Kremlin, President's Former Associate Says https://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-putin-chair-spun-kremlin-931754   Ivanka Trump Was In Contact With A Russian Who Offered A Trump-Putin Meeting: Her contact said a meeting between Trump and Putin could expedite a Trump tower in Moscow. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/anthonycormier/ivanka-trump-putin-moscow-meeting-michael-cohen-tower   Admiral Overseeing Caribbean Mission to Retire after One Year in Role https://news.usni.org/2025/10/16/admiral-overseeing-caribbean-mission-to-retire-after-one-year-in-role   "Prospera Honduras is a Zone for Employment & Economic Development (ZEDE) backed by Peter Thiel. Trump plans to pardon the former Honduran president who championed ZEDES b4 his drug trafficking conviction. Honduras current outgoing president has tried to eliminate ZEDES, an obstacle for Prospera." https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:we7sidyj3b5or2r7trtpfzt7/post/3m6ungpja622f   Terrell Starr Substack: https://terrellstarr.substack.com/  

The secret to winning any negotiation isn't aggression, but connection. In this episode, I sit down with Molly Fletcher, the former sports agent known as the female Jerry Maguire, who negotiated over $500 million in deals and represented hundreds of the biggest names in sports. Molly shares how she broke into one of the most male-dominated industries in the world, how she reframed being “the only woman in the room”, and why confidence is built the exact same way athletes build muscle. Get ready to take bold action, negotiate with intention, and show up with the ENERGY of a game changer. In This Episode You Will Learn How to REFRAME being “the only one in the room” into an ADVANTAGE. Why CONFIDENCE is a muscle and how to build it through ACTION. How to turn DEFENSIVENESS into CURIOSITY to move conversations forward. Ways to STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIPS so deals happen FASTER. Why ENERGY, not time, determines your performance and your burnout risk. How to ALIGN your calendar with your VALUES for better results in work and life. Check Out Our Sponsors: Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/monahan Quince - Step into the holiday season with layers made to feel good and last from Quince. Go to quince.com/confidence Timeline - Get 10% off your first Mitopure order at timeline.com/CONFIDENCE. Northwest Registered Agent - protect your privacy, build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes! Visit https://www.northwestregisteredagent.com/confidencefree Resources + Links Learn more about Molly Fletcher HERE Listen to Molly's podcast Game Changers HERE Call my digital clone at 201-897-2553!  Visit heathermonahan.com Sign up for my mailing list: heathermonahan.com/mailing-list/  Overcome Your Villains is Available NOW! Order here: https://overcomeyourvillains.com  If you haven't yet, get my first book Confidence Creator Follow Heather on Instagram & LinkedIn Molly on Instagram & LinkedIn