Podcasts about Blockbuster

Pour one out for Eddie Bauer, because today's daily comedy podcast starts with the official death of yet another mall staple — and immediately spirals into a full-blown nostalgia spiral that only The Rizzuto Show could pull off. What starts as bad news for quilted jackets turns into an emotional support group for anyone who ever owned an Eddie Bauer Bronco, Explorer, or vest their dad still refuses to throw away.From there, the crew goes deep into the archives of dead retail dreams. Blockbuster. Borders. KB Toys. Gadzooks. Sam Goody. Tower Records. Crestwood Mall (but ONLY the correct year). Everyone has a store they'd resurrect if given the chance, and the list keeps growing until it becomes painfully clear that malls didn't die — we just stopped going. Mostly because now we can buy everything online while wearing sweatpants and avoiding eye contact.Then things get darker. Way darker. The show reacts in real time to shocking news out of Branson involving a once-famous magician duo now facing serious federal charges. It's uncomfortable, infuriating, and handled the only way this daily comedy show knows how — honest reactions, zero tolerance, and immediate career-ending “ta-da.”Thankfully, the mood rebounds with actual good news (we know, weird): America's life expectancy just hit an all-time high. The crew debates what that means, who's optimistic, who's pessimistic, and whether eating garbage fast food within 100 yards of your house might be holding us back as a nation. Spoiler: it is.But criminals aren't done stealing the spotlight. High-tech thieves are now planting hidden cameras in shrubs to case houses, cloning key fobs to steal luxury vehicles, and proving once again that crime is apparently a tech startup now. The gang swaps personal horror stories about lost keys, cloned cars, and the terrifying realization that someone may have broken into a vehicle… and left because they couldn't drive stick.We wrap with scam text warnings, why replying “STOP” is a trap, and one absolutely unhinged car wash story involving a man who tried to enter through the exit like rules are optional suggestions. All of it adds up to another beautifully chaotic daily comedy show where the news is weird, the nostalgia hurts, and no one should ever trust a magician again.Branson magicians accused of sexual exploitation of childrenBurglars planting hidden cameras to scout Bay Area homesN.J. auto theft ring stole "millions of dollars worth" of vehicles, used Bronx garages as showroomsNEVER respond to junk or spam text messagesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome back to The Rizzuto Show, the daily comedy show that asks the important questions — like what genre is your life, why are all malls dying, and how did a World War I artillery shell end up in a man's body?The crew kicks things off by breaking down life as a movie genre. Is Rizz living a straight-up comedy? Is Lern trapped in a rom-com she didn't audition for? Is Moon starring in an action movie with jokes sprinkled in? And is Scott legally obligated to live inside a spaghetti western forever? Spoiler: Rafe's life may be a psychological thriller directed by someone who should not be allowed near a camera.From there, the show takes a nostalgic (and slightly depressing) turn as Eddie Bauer officially joins the retail graveyard. The gang runs through dead mall staples like Borders, Blockbuster, KB Toys, Gadzooks, Sports Authority, and basically your entire childhood. Crestwood Mall gets a full eulogy, Mid Rivers Mall gets absolutely roasted, and everyone agrees: online shopping killed the food court vibes.Then it's Super Bowl chaos. Kid Rock vs. Bad Bunny, alternative halftime shows, cultural representation, and why people are still mad about Maroon 5 years later. The crew also ranks the worst halftime performances of all time, and yes — Adam Levine's shirt removal is still haunting America.In news you didn't know you needed, February is statistically the safest month to not get punched in the face. Science says cold weather equals fewer fights, which leads to personal punch histories, parking-lot ego confessions, and a shocking chair-throwing fail from Australia where a guy absolutely destroys his own friend instead of a bouncer.And just when you think it can't get more unhinged, doctors in France discover a World War I shell inside a patient, triggering a hospital evacuation and a bomb squad visit no one wanted. It's a public service announcement wrapped in a cautionary tale wrapped in “please stop putting stuff there.”The episode also dives into rising U.S. life expectancy (good news!), Branson magician crime headlines (very bad news), and a man attempting to spend an entire year locked in one room to “get healthy,” which the crew debates is either inspiring discipline or a live-streamed mental breakdown.It's another daily comedy show episode that somehow educates, horrifies, and entertains — often at the same time. Laugh, cringe, and maybe stay indoors this February… for your face.Follow The Rizzuto Show → https://linktr.ee/rizzshowConnect with The Rizzuto Show Comedy Podcast online → https://1057thepoint.com/RizzShowHear The Rizz Show daily on the radio at 105.7 The Point | Hubbard Radio in St. Louis, MOAustralian man is hit with flying chair thrown by his friend outside strip clubFrenchman hospitalized after inserting WWI munition up his rearMan Has Locked Himself in a Room for 365 Days to Improve His Health — and Is Now Livestreaming His 'Isolation Year' 24/7106-year-old retailer closing US stores in Chapter 11 bankruptcySee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Patrick Graham is the new DC in Pittsburgh, but there's some apprehension from fans due to the Raiders' record during his time there. Las Vegas Raiders on SI Assistant Beat Writer Ezekiel Trezevant sheds some positive light to Steel Curtain Networks Bryan Anthony Davis on what the Steelers are getting in PG. Don't miss this very poignant episode of BAD Language. Steel Curtain Network is courtesy of the Fans First Sports Network. Check out our exclusive 20% off deals with Hyper Natural, Big Fork Brands, and Strong Coffee Company ⁠⁠⁠⁠HERE Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Smith explains that the NFL moving Media Day to Monday Opening Night makes the event completely irrelevant. The Clippers and James Harden are working through whether the sides can find a deal by Thursday's NBA trade deadline.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

TCW Podcast Episode 251 - Virgin Games   As a companion piece to our Mastertronic episode, we look at the rise and fall of Virgin Games. Beginning with Richard Branson's mail-order record business and the success of Virgin Records, the company expanded into games under executive Nick Alexander, whose interest in the industry led to the creation of a Virgin gaming subsidiary. Early successes included the Dan Dare series and computer adaptations of board games. In 1987 Virgin took a stake in Mastertronic, and in 1988 fully acquired the company, gaining both its budget software business and its role in the SEGA Master System launch. From there Virgin Games developed into two distinct arms. In Europe, the company focused on distribution, bringing major publishers and licenses into the region. In the United States, Virgin built on Mastertronic's development studio, centering on strong talent and overlooked licenses, producing titles such as Spot, Cool Spot, Global Gladiators, and later major Disney games including Aladdin and The Lion King. On PC, the company found success with The 7th Guest and through the acquisition of Westwood Studios, gaining Command and Conquer. Virgin Games also had a hand in publishing Dune and Dune II. In the mid-1990s the Virgin Group began seeking a buyer, leading to Blockbuster's acquisition of Virgin Interactive, which soon placed the company under Viacom following the Paramount merger. Heavy corporate debt and shifting priorities resulted in the sale of Westwood to Electronic Arts. What remained was largely a European distribution business that later entered an agreement with Interplay and was ultimately acquired by Titus Interactive. After the collapse of the dot-com bubble, mounting debt forced Titus to shutter the company, and in 2005 Virgin Interactive quietly disappeared   TCW 105 - The Big Voice of Magnavox: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-big-voice-of-magnavox/ TCW 106 - The Small Voice of Magnavox: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-small-voice-of-magnavox/ TCW 026 - The Magnavox Odyssey: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-magnavox-odyssey/ TCW 027 - The Magnavox Patent Lawsuits: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-magnavox-patent-lawsuits-friday-september-16-2016-1003-am/ Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells (Live BBC 1973): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbYQYOM66MA Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future (ZX Spectrum): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUEDOu5ewIQ Dan Dare II - Mekons` Revenge (ZX Spectrum): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Lheo_ao8K4 Dan Dare III - The Escape (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK62NSaE75s Monopoly - Virgin Games (DOS): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un6iagpCwWw Spot - The Video Game (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8Ezmf6z3kM 7-Up Spot Commercials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNTMHqz6_c TCW 229 - US Gold: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/us-gold/ TCW 023 - The Complete Tetris Story: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-complete-tetris-story/ Lure of the Temptress (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwSS5zA74jQ Jimmy White's Whirlwind Snooker (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pr3IsnqxGs Cannon Fodder (Amiga): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFP8WUrBVHc Previous High Scores C&C Ad: https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolRidiculous/comments/x1k61n/could_you_even_imagine_if_westwood_studios/ Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (NES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_1AGDZiLVY Robin Hood Men in Tights - English Accent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9tEH7iWOyk Global Gladiators (Genesis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yy9_-iEdXAA Cool Spot (Genesis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTROI2ODRM4 Aladin (Genesis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngqx0rq7ACg The Jungle Book (Genesis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BivK2swrtqM Aladin (SNES): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9m2gAuWkOY The Lion King (Genesis): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-U4RObki-k TCW 194 - The 7th Guest: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-7th-guest/ The 7th Guest (PC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45Z-Q5KVTyI The Legend of Kyrandia: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO6BE4HOjnM TCW 208 - Two Dunes the Battle for Arrakis: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/two-dunes-the-battle-for-arrakis/ TCW 082 - An Unlikely Pairing of Siliwood: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/an-unlikely-pairing-of-siliwood/ TCW 064 - The Rise and Fall of Infogrames Part 1: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/rise-and-fall-of-infogrames-part-1/ TCW 065 - The Rise and Fall of Infogrames Part 2: https://podcast.theycreateworlds.com/e/the-rise-and-fall-of-infogrames-part-2/   New episodes are on the 1st and 15th of every month!   TCW Email: feedback@theycreateworlds.com  Twitter: @tcwpodcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theycreateworlds Alex's Video Game History Blog: http://videogamehistorian.wordpress.com Alex's book, published Dec 2019, is available at CRC Press and at major on-line retailers: http://bit.ly/TCWBOOK1     Intro Music: Josh Woodward - Airplane Mode -  Music - "Airplane Mode" by Josh Woodward. Free download: http://joshwoodward.com/song/AirplaneMode  Outro Music: RoleMusic - Bacterial Love: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Rolemusic/Pop_Singles_Compilation_2014/01_rolemusic_-_bacterial_love    Copyright: Attribution: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Do you often say things out loud before you realize it? Join Intern John, Sos, Rose, Hoody and Erick as we find out we’re not alone and talk about the signs we knew a relationship wouldn’t work out! Plus an all Second Date Update and another round of Blockbuster! All that and more with Intern John and Your Morning Show! Make sure to also keep up to date with ALL of our podcasts we do below that have new episodes every week: The Thought Shower Let's Get Weird Crisis on Infinite Podcasts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you often say things out loud before you realize it? Join Intern John, Sos, Rose, Hoody and Erick as we find out we’re not alone and talk about the signs we knew a relationship wouldn’t work out! Plus an all Second Date Update and another round of Blockbuster! All that and more with Intern John and Your Morning Show! Make sure to also keep up to date with ALL of our podcasts we do below that have new episodes every week: The Thought Shower Let's Get Weird Crisis on Infinite Podcasts See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The boys are back for 2026, and they are not easing into it gently. Born to Watch kicks off the new year with a full-blooded dive into one of the most aggressively 80s action films ever put on VHS shelves, Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice (1987). Cowboy hats, cocaine, mercenaries, sweat, testosterone and a whole lot of unexplained shoulder shots, this one has it all. In this Extreme Prejudice (1987) Review, Whitey, Gow and Damo reunite as the A-team and take on a film that feels like The A-Team pilot collided head-on with a dusty Western, then detonated somewhere on the Texas–Mexico border. At the centre is Nick Nolte at peak brooding intensity, playing a stone-faced Texas Ranger chasing his childhood friend, now a drug-running psychopath in a pristine white suit, played with unhinged gusto by Powers Boothe.Directed by action legend Walter Hill, Extreme Prejudice is the kind of movie that barely pauses for breath. Secret military units officially declared dead, renegade majors, bank robberies, double-crosses, unnecessary nudity and a final act so chaotic it feels like an entire missing movie has been cut out, which, as the boys discover, is pretty much exactly what happened.The cast reads like an 80s action villain roll call. Michael Ironside growls his way through another morally questionable authority role, Clancy Brown looms menacingly, William Forsythe perfects the art of being deeply hateable, and a young Larry B Scott pops in an action film after Revenge of the Nerds turned him into a cult comedy icon. Add in Maria Conchita Alonso, singing badly on purpose, and you have a film bursting at the seams with characters who all look like they should be in different movies.As always, the boys break it down properly. Overs and unders are debated, including the uncomfortable realisation that Extreme Prejudice may make perfect sense if you're sixteen and not at all if you're over forty. There's deep discussion about whether Nick Nolte smiles even once in the entire film, spoiler, he does not, and whether anyone in the 80s understood centre-mass shooting.The Nut-Tuck-Yourself SAG Awards get a workout, with Nolte's pre-Prince of Tides physique under the microscope, and the Snorbs Report pops up exactly where you expect it to. Box office numbers are crunched, Walter Hill's career is put into context, and the boys try to work out how a film with this cast, this director and this level of explosive excess somehow lost money.Film School for F-Wits returns with a look at Hill's obsession with male-driven action cinema, while Hit, Sleeper and Dud for 1987 reminds everyone just how stacked that year really was, from Predator and Lethal Weapon to the absolute disaster that was Revenge of the Nerds II.Add in listener feedback, voicemail chaos, bird-related accusations, corn beef confessions, and a reminder that Born to Watch never takes movies, or itself, too seriously, and you've got the perfect way to start the year.This is sweat-soaked, ridiculous, deeply flawed 80s action cinema, and the boys wouldn't have it any other way.JOIN THE CONVERSATIONIs Extreme Prejudice peak 80s action excess, or just glorious nonsense?Does Nick Nolte smile even once in this movie?Is the final act pure chaos genius, or a missing half-hour of film?Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at BornToWatch.com.auBorn to Watch, because some movies demand to be watched, argued over and mildly roasted.#BornToWatch #ExtremePrejudice #80sActionMovies #WalterHill #NickNolte #ActionMoviePodcast #CultAction #VHSClassics #MoviePodcast #80sCinema

Grab your skates, pop in that well-worn VHS, and get ready to quack your way straight back to the '90s.

In this episode, Bill Scherkenbach, one of W. Edwards Deming's closest protégés, and host Andrew Stotz discuss why leadership decisions shape outcomes far more than frontline effort. Bill draws on decades of firsthand experience with Deming and with businesses across industries. Through vivid stories and practical insights, the conversation challenges leaders and learners alike to rethink responsibility, decision-making, and what it truly takes to build lasting quality. Bill's powerpoint is available here. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.2 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we dive deeper into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussions with Bill Scherkenbach, a dedicated protégé of Dr. Deming since 1972. Bill met with Dr. Deming more than a thousand times and later led statistical methods and process improvement at Ford and GM at Dr. Deming's recommendation. He authored the Deming Route to Quality and Productivity at Deming's behest and at 79, still champions his mentor's message: Learn, have fun, and make a difference. The discussion for today is, I think we're going to get an answer to this question. And the question is: Where is quality made? Bill, take it away.   0:00:44.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Where is quality made? I can hear the mellifluous doctor saying that. And the answer is: In the boardroom, not on the factory floor. And over and over again, he would say that it's the quality of the decisions that the management make that can far outweigh anything that happens on the shop floor. And when he would speak about that, he would first of all, because he was talking to the auto industry, he would talk about who's making carburetors anymore. "Nobody's making carburetors because it's all fuel injectors," he would say. And anyone who has been following this, another classic one is: Do you ever hear of a bank that failed? Do you think that failed because of mistakes in tellers' windows or calculations of interest? Heck no. But there are a whole bunch of other examples that are even more current, if you will. I mean, although this isn't that current, but Blockbuster had fantastic movies, a whole array of them, the highest quality resolutions, and they completely missed the transition to streaming. And Netflix and others took it completely away from them because of mistakes made in the boardroom. You got more recently Bed Bath & Beyond having a great product, a great inventory.   0:02:51.4 Bill Scherkenbach: But management took their eyes off of it and looked at, they were concerned about stock buybacks and completely lost the picture of what was happening. It was perfect. It was a great product, but it was a management decision. WeWork, another company supplying office places. It was great in COVID and in other areas, but through financial mismanagement, they also ended up going bust. And so there are, I mean, these are examples of failures, but as Dr. Deming also said, don't confuse success with success. If you think you're making good decisions, you got to ask yourself how much better could it have been if you tried something else. So, quality is made in the boardroom, not on the factory floor.   0:04:07.9 Andrew Stotz: I had an interesting encounter this week and I was teaching a class, and there was a guy that came up and talked to me about his company. His company was a Deming Prize from Japan winner. And that was maybe 20, 25 years ago. They won their first Deming Prize, and then subsidiaries within the company won it. So the actual overall company had won something like nine or 10 Deming Prizes over a couple decades. And the president became...   0:04:43.5 Bill Scherkenbach: What business are they in?   0:04:45.5 Andrew Stotz: Well, they're in...   0:04:47.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Of winning prizes?   0:04:48.7 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, I mean, they definitely, the CEO got the distinguished individual prize because he was so dedicated to the teachings of Dr. Deming. And he really, really expanded the business well, the business did well. A new CEO took over 15 years ago, 10 years ago, and took it in another direction. And right now the company is suffering losses and many other problems that they're facing. And I asked the guy without talking about Deming, I just asked him what was the difference between the prior CEO and the current one or the current regimes that have come in. And he said that the prior CEO, it was so clear what the direction was. Like, he set the direction and we all knew what we were doing. And I just thought now as you talk about, the quality is made at the boardroom, it just made me really think back to that conversation and that was what he noticed more than anything. Yeah well, we were really serious about keeping the factory clean or we used statistics or run charts, that was just what he said, I thought that was pretty interesting.   0:06:06.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Absolutely. And that reminds me of another comment that Dr. Deming was vehement about, and that was was the management turnover. Turnovers in boardrooms every 18 months or so, except maybe in family businesses. But that's based on the quality of decisions made in the boardroom. How fast do you want to turn over the CEOs and that C-suite? So it's going to go back to the quality is made in the boardroom.   0:06:50.0 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, and I think maybe it's a good chance for me to share the slide that you have. And let's maybe look at that graphic. Does that makes sense now?   0:07:00.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Sure, for sure.   0:07:02.2 Andrew Stotz: Let's do that. Let's do that. Hold on. All right.   0:07:15.8 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, okay, okay. You can see on the top left, we'll start the story. I've got to give you a background. This was generated based on my series of inputs and prompts, but this was generated by Notebook LM and based on the information I put in, this is what they came up with.   0:07:48.6 Andrew Stotz: Interesting.   0:07:50.1 Bill Scherkenbach: Based on various information, which I think did a fairly decent job. In any event, we're going to talk about all of these areas, except maybe the one where it says principles for active leadership, because that was the subject of a couple of our vlogs a while ago, and that is the three foundational obligations. And so the thing is that quality, even though Dr. Deming said it was made in the boardroom, one of the problems is that management did not know what questions to ask, and they would go, and Dr. Deming railed against MBWA, management by walking around, primarily because management hadn't made the transition to really take on board what Dr. Deming was talking about in profound knowledge. And that is, as you've mentioned, setting that vision, continually improving around it, and pretty much absolutely essential was to reduce fear within the organization.   0:09:25.9 Bill Scherkenbach: And so management by walking around without profound knowledge, which we've covered in previous talks, only gets you dog and pony shows. And with the fear in the organization, you're going to be carefully guided throughout a wonderful story. I mentioned I was in Disney with some of my granddaughters over the holidays, and they tell a wonderful story, but you don't ever see what's behind the scenery. And management never gets the chance because they really haven't had the opportunity to attain profound knowledge. So that's one of the things. I want to back up a little bit because Dr. Deming would... When Dr. Deming said quality is made at the top, he only agreed to help companies where the top management invited him, he wasn't out there marketing. If they invited him to come in, he would first meet with them and they had to convince him they were serious about participating, if not leading their improvement. And given that, that litmus test, he then agreed to work with them. Very few companies did he agree to on that. And again as we said, the quality of the decisions and questions and passion that determine the successfulness of the company. And so.   0:11:40.0 Andrew Stotz: It made me think about that letter you shared that he was saying about that there was, I think it was within the government and government department that just wasn't ready for change and so he wasn't going to work with it. I'm just curious, like what do you think was his... How did he make that judgment?   0:12:00.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, it wasn't high enough. And again, I don't know how high you'd have to go in there. But quite honestly, what we spoke about privately was in politics and in the federal government, at least in the US, things change every four years. And so you have management turnover. And so what one manager, as you described, one CEO is in there and another one comes in and wants to do it their way, they're singing Frank Sinatra's My Way. But that's life….   0:12:49.3 Andrew Stotz: Another great song.   0:12:50.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Another, yes.   0:12:52.1 Andrew Stotz: And it's not like he was an amateur with the government.   0:12:57.5 Bill Scherkenbach: No.   0:13:00.3 Andrew Stotz: He had a lot of experience from a young age, really working closely with the government. Do you think that he saw there was some areas that were worth working or did he just kind of say it's just not worth the effort there or what was his conclusions as he got older?   0:13:16.9 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, as he got older, it might, it was the turnover in management. When he worked for Agriculture, although agriculture is political, and he worked for Census Bureau back when he worked there, it wasn't that political, it's very political now. But there was more a chance for constancy and more of a, their aim was to do the best survey or census that they could do. And so the focus was on setting up systems that would deliver that. But that's what his work with the government was prior to when things really broke loose when he started with Ford and GM and got all the people wanting him in.   0:14:27.0 Andrew Stotz: I've always had questions about this at the top concept and the concept of constancy of purpose. And I'm just pulling out your Deming Route to Quality and Productivity, which, it's a lot of dog ears, but let's just go to chapter one just to remind ourselves. And that you started out with point number one, which was create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs. One of my questions I always kind of thought about that one was that at first I just thought he was saying just have a constancy of purpose. But the constancy of purpose is improvement of product and service.   0:15:13.6 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, yes and no. I mean, that's what he said. I believe I was quoting what his point number one was. And as it developed, it was very important to add, I believe, point number five on continual improvement. But constancy of purpose is setting the stage, setting the vision if you will, of where you want to take the company. And in Western management, and this is an area where there really is and was a dichotomy between Western and Eastern management. But in Western management, our concept of time was short-term. Boom, boom, boom, boom. And he had a definite problem with that. And that's how you could come up with, well, we're going to go with this fad and that fad or this CEO and that CEO. There was no thinking through the longer term of, as some folks ask, "what is your aim? Who do you think your customer base is now?" don't get suckered into thinking that carburetors are always going to be marketable to that market base. And so that's where he was going with that constancy of purpose. And in the beginning, I think that was my first book you're quoting, but also, in some of his earlier works, he also spoke of consistency of purpose, that is reducing the variation around that aim, that long-term vision, that aim.   0:17:19.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Now, in my second book, I got at least my learning said that you've got to go beyond the logical understanding and your constancy of purpose needs to be a mission, a values and questions. And those people who have who have listened to the the previous vlogs that we've had, those are the physiological and emotional. And I had mentioned, I think, that when when I went to GM, one of the things I did was looked up all the policy letters and the ones that Alfred Sloan wrote had pretty much consistency of three main points. One, make no mistake about it, this is what we're going to do. Two, this is why we're going to do it, logical folks who need to understand that. And to give a little bit of insight on on how he was feeling about it. Sometimes it was value, but those weren't spoken about too much back then. But it gave you an insider view, if you will. And so I looked at that, maybe I was overlooking. But I saw a physiological and emotional in his policy letters.   0:19:00.7 Bill Scherkenbach: And so that's got to be key when you are establishing your vision, but that's only the beginning of it. You have to operationalize it, and this is where management has to get out of the boardroom to see what's going on. Now, that's going to be the predictable, and some of your clients, and certainly the ones over in Asia, are speaking about Lean and Toyota Production System and going to the Gemba and all of those terms. But I see a need to do a reverse Gemba and we'll talk about that.   0:19:49.6 Andrew Stotz: So, I just want to dig deeper into this a little bit just for my own selfish understanding, which I think will help the audience also. Let's go back in time and say that the, Toyota, let's take Toyota as an example because we can say maybe in the 60s or so, they started to really understand that the improvement of product quality, products and service quality and all that was a key thing that was important to them. But they also had a goal of expanding worldwide. And their first step with that maybe was, let's just say, the big step was expanding to the US. Now, in order to expand to the US successfully, it's going to take 10, maybe 20 years. In the beginning, the cars aren't going to fit the market, you're going to have to adapt and all that. So I can understand first, let's imagine that somebody says our constancy of purpose is to continuously improve or let's say, not continuously, but let's just go back to that statement just to keep it clear. Let's say, create constancy of purpose towards improvement of product and service with the aim to become competitive, stay in business and provide jobs.   0:21:07.2 Andrew Stotz: So the core constancy in that statement to me sounds like the improvement. And then if we say, okay, also our vision of where we want to be with this company is we want to capture, let's say, 5% of the US market share within the next 15 years or five or 10 years. So you've got to have constancy of that vision, repeating it, not backing down from it, knowing that you're going to have to modify it. But what's the difference between a management or a leadership team in the boardroom setting a commitment to improvement versus a commitment to a goal of let's say, expanding the market into the US. How do we think about those two.   0:21:53.6 Bill Scherkenbach: Well as you reread what I wrote there, which is Dr. Deming's words and they led into the, I forget what he called it, but he led into the progression of as you improve quality, you improve productivity, you reduce costs.   0:22:33.6 Andrew Stotz: Chain reaction.   0:22:34.5 Bill Scherkenbach: Yeah, the chain reaction. That's a mini version of the chain reaction there. And at the time, that's what people should be signing up for. Now the thing is that doesn't, or at least the interpretations haven't really gone to the improvement of the board's decision-making process. I mean, where he was going for was you want to be able to do your market research because his sampling and doing the market research was able to close the loop to make that production view a system, a closed-loop system. And so you wanted to make sure that you're looking far enough out to be able to have a viable product or service and not get caught up in short-term thinking. Now, but again, short-term is relative. In the US, you had mentioned 10 or 20 years, Toyota, I would imagine they still are looking 100 years out. They didn't get suckered into the over-committing anyway to the electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrids, yes, hybrids yes, very efficient gas motors, yes. But their constancy of purpose is a longer time frame than the Western time frame.   0:24:27.1 Andrew Stotz: Yeah, that was a real attack on the structure that they had built to say when they were being told by the market and by everybody, investors, you've got to shift now, you've got to make a commitment to 100% EVs. I remember watching one of the boardroom, sorry, one of the shareholder meetings, and it's just exhausting, the pressure that they were under.   0:24:55.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Yep, yep. But there... Yeah.   0:25:00.0 Andrew Stotz: If we take a kid, a young kid growing up and we just say, look, your main objective, and my main objective with you is to every day improve. Whatever that is, let's say we're learning science.   0:25:17.3 Bill Scherkenbach: You're improving around your aim. What is your vision? What are you trying to accomplish? And that obviously, if you're you're saying a kid that could change otherwise there'd be an oversupply of firemen.   0:25:38.5 Andrew Stotz: So let's say that the aim was related to science. Let's say that the kid shows a really great interest in science and you're kind of coaching them along and they're like, "Help me, I want to learn everything I can in science." The aim may be a bit vague for the kid, but let's say that we narrow down that aim to say, we want to get through the main topics of science from physics to chemistry and set a foundation of science, which we think's going to take us a year to do that, let's just say. Or whatever. Whatever time frame we come up with, then every day the idea is, how do we number one improve around that aim? Are we teaching the right topics? Also, is there better ways of teaching? Like, this kid maybe learns better in the afternoon and in the morning, whereas another kid I may work with works better in another... And this kid likes five-minute modules and then some practical discussion, this kid likes, an hour of going deep into something and then having an experiment is when we're talking about improvement, is the idea that we're just always trying to improve around that aim until we reach a really optimized system? Is that what we're talking about when we're talking about constancy of purpose when it comes to improving product and service?   0:27:14.4 Bill Scherkenbach: Well there's a whole process that I take my clients through in coming up with their constancy of purpose statement. And the board should be looking at what the community is doing in the next five years, 10 years, where the market is going, where politics is going, all sorts of things. And some of it. I mean, specifically in the science area, it's fairly well recognized that the time of going generation to generation to generation has gone from years to maybe weeks where you have different iterations of technology. And so that's going to complicate stuff quite honestly, because what was good today can be, as Dr. Deming said, the world could change. And that's what you've got to deal with or you're out of business. Or you're out of relevance in what you're studying. And so you have to... If you if you have certain interests, and the interests are driven... It's all going to be internal. Some interests are driven because that's where I hear you can make the most money or that's where I hear you can make the most impact to society or whatever your internal interests are saying that those are key to establishing what your aim is.   0:29:25.7 Andrew Stotz: Okay. You've got some PowerPoints and we've been talking about some of it. But I just want to pull it up and make sure we don't miss anything. I think this is the first text page, maybe just see if there's anything you want to highlight from that. Otherwise we'll move to the next.   0:29:43.0 Bill Scherkenbach: No I think we've we've covered that. Yeah, yeah. And the second page. Yeah, I wanted to talk and I only mentioned it when the Lean folks and the Agile folks talk about Gemba, they're pretty much talking about getting the board out. It's the traditional management by walking around, seeing what happens. Hugely, hugely important. But one of the things, I had one of my clients. Okay, okay. No, that's in the the next one.   0:30:29.4 Andrew Stotz: There you go.   0:30:30.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, yeah. I had one of one of my clients do a reverse Gemba. And that is, that the strategy committee would be coming up with strategies and then handing it off to the operators to execute. And that's pretty much the way stuff was done in this industry and perhaps in many of them. But what we did was we had the operators, the operating committee, the operations committee, sit in as a peanut gallery or a, oh good grief. Well, you couldn't say a thing, you could only observe what they were doing. But it helped the operators better understand and see and feel what the arguments were, what the discussions were in the strategy, so that they as operators were better able to execute the strategy. And so not the board going out and down, but the folks that are below going up if it helps them better execute what's going on. But vice versa, management can't manage the 94%, and Dr. Deming was purposely giving people marbles, sometimes he'd say 93.4%. You know the marble story?   0:32:37.5 Andrew Stotz: I remember that [laughter]. Maybe you should tell that again just because that was a fun one when he was saying to, give them marbles, and they gave me marbles back.   0:32:45.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he said there was this professor in oral surgery that said there was a an Asian mouse or cricket, whatever, that would... You put in your mouth and they would eat all of the... Be able to clean the gums of all the bacteria better than anything. And described it in detail. And that question was on the test. Okay, please describe this mouse procedure. And he said all of the people, or a whole bunch of people except one, gave him back exactly step by step that he had taught. And one said, Professor, I've talked to other professors, I've looked around, I think you're loading us, that's what Deming said. And so he made the point that teaching should not be teachers handing out marbles and collecting the same marbles they they handed out. And so to some extent, he was testing, being overly precise.   0:34:12.8 Bill Scherkenbach: He wanted people to look into it, to see, go beyond as you were speaking of earlier, going beyond this shocking statement that there perhaps is some way that that really makes sense. So he wants you to study. Very Socratic in his approach to teaching in my opinion. And any event, management can't understand or make inputs on changing what the various levels of willing workers, and you don't have to be on the shop floor, you can be in the C-suite and be willing workers depending on how your company is operating. Go ahead.   0:35:12.0 Andrew Stotz: So let me... Maybe I can, just for people that don't know, Gemba is a Japanese word that means "the actual place," right? The place where the value is created.   0:35:23.8 Bill Scherkenbach: Sure.   0:35:26.2 Andrew Stotz: And the whole concept of this was that it's kind of almost nonsense to think that you could sit up in an office and run something and never see the location of where the problem's happening or what's going on. And all of a sudden many things become clear when you go to the location and try to dig down into it. However, from Dr. Deming context, I think what you're telling us is that if the leader doesn't have profound knowledge, all they're going to do is go to the location and chase symptoms and disrupt work, ultimately...   0:36:02.0 Bill Scherkenbach: Get the dog and pony shows and all of that stuff. And they still won't have a clue. The thing is...   0:36:08.6 Andrew Stotz: So the objective at the board level, if they were to actually go to the place, the objective is observation of the system, of how management decisions have affected this. What is the system able to produce? And that gives them a deeper understanding to think about what's their next decision that they've got to make in relation to this. Am I capturing it right or?   0:36:40.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Well there's a lot more to it, I think, because top management, the board level, are the ones that set the vision, the mission, the values, the guiding principle, and the questions. And I think it's incumbent on the board to be able to go through the ranks and see how their constancy of purpose, the intended, where they want to take the place is being interpreted throughout the organization because, and I know it's an oversimplification and maybe a broad generalization, but middle management... Well, there are layers of management everywhere based on their aim to get ahead, will effectively stop communication upstream and downstream in order to fill their particular aim of what they want to get out of it. And so this is a chance for the top management to see, because they're doing their work, establishing the vision of the company, which is the mission, values and questions, they really should be able to go layer by layer as they're walking around seeing how those, their constancy, their intended constancy is being interpreted and executed. And so that's where beyond understanding how someone is operating a lathe or an accountant is doing a particular calculation, return on invested capital, whatever.   0:38:47.5 Bill Scherkenbach: Beyond that, I think it's important for management to be able to absolutely see what is happening. But the Gemba that I originally spoke about is just the other way. You've got the strategy people that are higher up, and you have the operations people that are typically, well, they might be the same level, but typically lower. You want the lower people to sit in on some higher meetings so they have a better idea of the intent, management's intent in this constancy of purpose. And that will help them execute, operationalize what management has put on paper or however they've got it and are communicating it. It just helps. So when I talk about Gemba, I'm talking the place where the quality is made or the action is. As the boardroom, you need to be able to have people understand and be able to see what's going on there, and all the way up the chain and all the way down the chain.   0:40:14.4 Andrew Stotz: That's great one. I'm just visualizing people in the operations side thinking, we've got some real problems here and we don't really understand it. We've got to go to the actual place, and that's the boardroom[laughter]. It's not the factory line.   0:40:31.7 Bill Scherkenbach: Yes. Absolutely. And if the boardroom says you're not qualified, then shame on you, the boardroom, are those the people you're hiring? So no, it goes both ways, both ways.   0:40:46.8 Andrew Stotz: Now, you had a final slide here. Maybe you want to talk a little bit about some of the things you've identified here.   0:40:53.4 Bill Scherkenbach: Okay, that's getting back to, in the logical area of this TDQA is my cycle: Theory, question, data, action. And it's based on Dr. Deming and Shewhart and Lewis saying, where do questions come from? They're based on theory. What do you do with questions? Well, the answers to questions are your data. And you're just not going to do nothing with data, you're supposed to take action. What are you going to do with it? And so the theory I'm going to address, the various questions I've found helpful in order to, to some extent, make the decisions better, the ability to operationalize them better and perhaps even be more creative, if you will. And so one of the questions I ask any team is, have you asked outside experts their opinion? Have you included them? Have you included someone to consistently, not consistently, but to take a contrarian viewpoint that their job in this meeting is to play the devil's advocate? And the theory is you're looking for a different perspective as Pete Jessup at Ford came up with that brilliant view of Escher's.   0:42:47.1 Bill Scherkenbach: Different perspectives are going to help you make a better decision. And so you want to get out of the echo chamber and you want to be challenged. Every team should be able to have some of these on there. What's going to get delayed? The underlying theory or mental model is, okay, you don't have people sitting around waiting for this executive committee to come up with new things, time is a zero-sum game. What's going to get delayed and what are they willing to get delayed if this is so darn important to get done? Decision criteria. I've seen many teams where they thought that the decision would be a majority rule. They discuss and when it came down to submit it, they said, "no, no, this VP is going to make the decision." And so that completely sours the next team to do that. And so you have to be, if you're saying trust, what's your definition of trust? If the people know that someone is going to make the decision with your advice or the executive's going to get two votes and everyone else gets one, or it's just simple voting.   0:44:35.3 Bill Scherkenbach: The point is that making the decision and taking it to the next level, the theory is you've got to be specific and relied on. Team turnover, fairly simple. We spoke about executive turnover, which was a huge concern that Dr. Deming had about Western management. But at one major auto company, we would have product teams and someone might be in charge of, be a product manager for a particular model car. Well, if that person was a hard charger and it took product development at the time was three and a half years, you're going to get promoted from a director level to a VP halfway through and you're going to screw up the team, other team members will be leaving as well because they have careers. You need to change the policy just to be able to say, if you agree that you're going to lead this team, you're going to lead it from start to finish and to minimize the hassle and the problems and the cost of turnover, team turnover. And this is a short list of stuff, but it's very useful to have a specific "no-fault policy."   0:46:20.6 Bill Scherkenbach: And this is where Dr. Deming speaks about reducing fear. I've seen teams who know they can really, once management turns on the spigot and says, let's really do this, this is important, the team is still hesitant to really let it go because that management might interpret that as saying, "well, what are you doing, slacking off the past year?" As Deming said, "why couldn't you do that if you could do it with no method, why didn't you do it last year?" but the fear in the organization, well, we're going to milk it. And so all of these things, it helps to be visible to everyone.   0:47:23.0 Andrew Stotz: So, I guess we should probably wrap up and I want to go back to where we started. And first, we talked about, where is quality made? And we talked about the boardroom. Why is this such an important topic from your perspective? Why did you want to talk about it? And what would you say is the key message you want to get across from it?   0:47:47.1 Bill Scherkenbach: The key message is that management thinks quality's made in operations. And it's the quality of the... I wanted to put a little bit more meat, although there's a lot more meat, we do put on it. But the quality of the organization, I wanted to make the point depends on the quality of the decisions, that's their output that top leaders make, whether it's the board or the C-suite or any place making decisions. The quality of your decisions.   0:48:28.9 Andrew Stotz: Excellent. And I remember, this reminds me of when I went to my first Deming seminar back in 1990, roughly '89, maybe '90. And I was a young guy just starting as a supervisor at a warehouse in our Torrance plant at Pepsi, and Pepsi sent me there. And I sat in the front row, so I didn't pay attention to all the people behind me, but there was many people behind me and there was a lot of older guys. Everybody technically was pretty much older than me because when I was just starting my career. And it was almost like these javelins were being thrown from the stage to the older men in the back who were trying to deal with this, and figure out what's coming at them, and that's where I kind of really started to understand that this was a man, Dr. Deming, who wasn't afraid to direct blame at senior management to say, you've got to take responsibility for this. And as a young guy seeing all kinds of mess-ups in the factory every day that I could see, that we couldn't really solve. We didn't have the tools and we couldn't get the resources to get those tools.   0:49:47.9 Andrew Stotz: It just really made sense to me. And I think the reiteration of that today is the idea, as I'm older now and I look at what my obligation is in the organizations I'm working at, it's to set that constancy of purpose, to set the quality at the highest level that I can. And the discussion today just reinforced it, so I really enjoyed it.   0:50:11.2 Bill Scherkenbach: Well, that's great. I mean, based on that observation, Dr. Deming many times said that the master chef is the person who knows no fear, and he was a master chef putting stuff together. And we would talk about fairly common knowledge that the great artists, the great thinkers, the great producers were doing it for themselves, it just happened that they had an audience. The music caught on, the poetry caught on, the painting caught on, the management system caught on. But we're doing it for ourselves with no fear. And that's the lesson.   0:51:11.8 Andrew Stotz: Yeah. Well, I hope that there's a 24-year-old out there right now listening to this just like I was, or think about back in 1972 when you were sitting there listening to his message. And they've caught that message from you today. So I appreciate it, and I want to say on behalf of everyone at the Deming Institute, of course, thank you so much for this discussion and for people who are listening and interested, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And of course, you can reach Bill on LinkedIn, very simple. He's out there posting and he's responding. So feel free if you've got a question or comment or something, reach out to him on LinkedIn and have a discussion. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'm going to leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming, and it doesn't change. It is, "people are entitled to joy in work."

The Australian Open quarterfinal line-ups are heating up as Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, Jannik Sinner, and Ben Shelton all booked their spots on a blockbuster Day 9 at Melbourne Park

Gigi Salmon, Russell Fuller and Mark Woodforde wrap up Day 9 at the Australian Open, where history is made with the top six seeds in both singles draws all reaching the quarter-finals.We run through a star-studded last eight, discuss the rise of the American women, hear from Jessica Pegula after her win over Madison Keys, and look ahead to brutal heat and a huge test for Alex De Minaur against Carlos Alcaraz.Timecodes: 01:11 – All top seeds reach the quarter-finals 05:55 – American women dominate the last eight 07:38 – Jessica Pegula speaks to Russell Fuller 13:10 – Extreme heat forecast for Tuesday 16:40 – Woodforde predicts De Minaur v Alcaraz

Which big name QB goes first?     To advertise on our podcast, please reach out to sales@advertisecast.com or visit https://www.advertisecast.com/TheJeffWardShow

When the book The Salt Path was published, readers were moved by the story of a couple who, after losing everything, rebuilt their lives through nothing more than determination, their love for one another, and a very long walk. A decade later, journalist Chloe Hadjimatheou begins to pull at a thread—and what unravels is a much darker and more complicated tale.Chameleon is a production of Campside Media and Audiochuck.Follow Chameleon on Instagram @chameleonpod Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's brand new episode, we discuss perhaps one of the most quoted movies of the 2000s.   Barely grossing $6 million in its original theatrical release, this film made over $50 million in DVD sales alone.  In fact, the CEO of Blockbuster has gone on record calling it the most stolen movie of all-time because it was never voluntarily returned.  We are of course talking about 2006's Grandma's Boy. •0:00:00 - Introductions •0:04:30 - Memories of first viewing •0:07:30  - Pertinent movie details  •0:11:15  -  Critical and fan reviews •0:24:00 - Scene by scene breakdown  •1:43:00 - Modern day ratings —————————————————————— Link to purchase Mike's book: https://a.co/d/0vx06Iq SPONSORS-  **BIG GROVE- Check out our beers of the episode here- http://BigGrove.com  **NordVPN-  Grab your EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal by going to http://nordvpn.com/breakfast to get a Huge Discount off your NordVPN Plan + 4 additional months on top! It's completely risk-free with Nord's 30-day money-back guarantee! —————————————————————— **Support us at http://patreon.com/confusedbreakfast for bonus weekly episodes, voting on upcoming movies, giving your modern-day ratings on our movies and much more. **Mail us something   The Confused Breakfast PO Box 10016 Cedar Rapids, IA 52402-9802 Special thanks to our executive producers- Josh Miller, Starling, Dylan Mick and NicMad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's nothing quite like an early 2000s hot-alien-girls-at-college movie during a massive snowstorm, and that's exactly what your boys here at HMN have on the syllabus for you this week. When you consider the fact that DECOYS (2004) is set in January in Canada, the absence of nude alien women makes a lot more sense, but tell that to the guys renting this one from Blockbuster back in the day. What it lacks in skin it makes up for in millenial humor, so we can't be too upset about the watch…right? Join our Patreon⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Buy Some Merch⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Join our Facebook Group⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Follow us on Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Check our Letterboxd⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bombers emerged from their so-far quiet winter and brought back former MVP Cody Bellinger to the Bronx on a five-year deal. And not to be outdone, the Mets added righty Freddy Peralta in a massive trade with the Brewers. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Si disfrutaste toda tu niñez y juventud yendo a las tiendas de alquilar películas, sabes lo que significa Blockbuster para ti... Pues bien, ahora el que alguna vez fue el más grande, podría regresar muy pronto. Mantente al día con los últimos de 'El Bueno, la Mala y el Feo'. ¡Suscríbete para no perderte ningún episodio!Ayúdanos a crecer dejándonos un review ¡Tu opinión es muy importante para nosotros!¿Conoces a alguien que amaría este episodio? ¡Compárteselo por WhatsApp, por texto, por Facebook, y ayúdanos a correr la voz!Escúchanos en Uforia App, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, y el canal de YouTube de Uforia Podcasts, o donde sea que escuchas tus podcasts.'El Bueno, la Mala y el Feo' es un podcast de Uforia Podcasts, la plataforma de audio de TelevisaUnivision.

Special bonus episode: Thomas’ Everything But the Kitchen Sink.In this episode, we look at what made ‘80s blockbusters like Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters, and Back to the Future feel “original”—and whether that really holds up. We also dive into how postmodern theory messes with the whole idea of originality, especially now that Hollywood is all-in on...

What happens when you try to rank the Best Movies of This Century, one year at a time, with no safety net, no do-overs, and your family sitting right beside you? You get chaos, passion, nostalgia, and one of the most honest movie conversations we've ever recorded on Born to Watch.In this special episode, Matt is joined by two very special guests, his wife, Meagan, and his daughter, Bel, as they attempt the impossible task of selecting the single best movie from every year between 2000 and 2025. One movie per year. No ties (mostly). No backing out (occasionally). And absolutely no pretending bad sequels didn't happen.Starting at the turn of the millennium with Gladiator, the episode charts the evolution of modern cinema, from epic blockbusters and genre-defining franchises to animated classics, emotional dramas, and films that completely changed how audiences experienced movies in the cinema.Along the way, the discussion covers everything from the dominance of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Christopher Nolan's genre-bending run, the rise and fall of superhero cinema, Quentin Tarantino's most personal work, unforgettable cinema moments like Avengers: Endgame, and the films that defined family movie nights in the White household.This episode isn't just about critical acclaim or box office numbers. It's about how movies land, who they stay with, and why some films become comfort watches while others hit you once and never leave. Belle brings a brutally honest Gen-Z perspective, Meagan balances emotion and realism, and Matt does what he does best: overanalyses everything while defending Nolan, Denzel, and Ridley Scott at every opportunity.There are laughs, genuine disagreements, questionable parenting admissions, and more than a few moments where the word "sequel" becomes a four-letter swear word. You'll hear passionate defences of animated films, heated debates over Bond rankings, and reflections on how cinema changed after COVID reshaped the industry.Whether you agree with the picks or want to argue every single one, this episode is a celebration of why movies matter, why watching them together matters more, and why trying to rank the Best Movies of This Century is both completely ridiculous and absolutely essential.JOIN THE CONVERSATION Which movie should have made the list? What film defines your century so far? Did we get it right, or completely butcher it?Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at BornToWatch.com.au  #PodcastAustralia #FamilyPodcast #CinemaHistory

John Dillon, CEO of La Madeleine, joins Hospitality Hangout to share his expert strategies on reviving a 42-year-old legacy brand by blending tradition with modern hospitality trends. Drawing on his journey through major restaurant chains like Blockbuster, Pizza Hut, and Denny's, John reveals how clarity, simplification, and execution drive sustainable growth in the restaurant industry.In this insightful episode, John discusses the power of third place thinking — creating welcoming spaces that encourage guests to linger — and how La Madeleine balances grab-and-go convenience with a hospitable atmosphere. He dives into how leveraging technology, social media trends, and thoughtful design innovation enhances guest experiences without losing the brand's unique charm.Tune in to hear insider insights on hospitality innovation, emerging food service trends, and bold ideas shaping today's café culture, all from one of the industry's leading CEOs. Whether you're a foodie, restaurateur, or hospitality professional, this episode offers valuable perspectives on evolving legacy brands in a competitive market. Episode Credits:Produced by: Branded Hospitality MediaHosted by: Michael Schatzberg, JImmy FrischlingProducer: Julie ZuckerCreative Director: Adam LevineShow Runner: Drewe RaimiPost Production: Three Cheers Creativewww.thehospitalityhangout.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send us a textIn this episode of Serving Sundays, Dave Wheeler and Candace Rae kick things off with a trip down memory lane, mourning the loss of the video store rental ritual and debating the charm of 90s home decor versus modern monochrome aesthetics. The conversation shifts from vintage curtains and green fridges to the evolution of technology, touching on the convenience of robot lawnmowers and the influence of MrBeast on the younger generation.The duo then dives into the core topic: The Metabolic Reset. Dave commits to a 28-day "system reboot" in February consisting strictly of meat, cheese, and eggs, inspired by Dr. Vaughn White and Dr. Martin. Candace weighs the pros and cons of joining him while navigating her strict diet for an upcoming fitness competition, leading to a candid discussion on inflammation, modern healthcare, and taking personal responsibility for wellness.Check out The Martin ClinicBig shoutout to the sponsors fueling this fitness journey! Thank you Fancy Infusion for the stunning bikini and heels, and a massive thank you to Perry of Maximum Reality for the championship-level support. Give them a follow at @FancyInfusion and @PerryMangat from MaximumReality to see why they're the best.Support the showFollow us on social media: Dave Wheeler Candace Rae

The first Grand Slam of 2026 is here, and so are we with our preview pod! Defending Australian Open champion Madison Keys, Coco Gauff and debutant Victoria Mboko are in contention in the women's draw, while Féllix Auger-Aliassime, Ben Shelton and the retiring Gaël Monfils will be looking to disrupt the order on the men's side.P.S.: We mistakenly forgot to mention Gabriel Diallo, who's facing Zverev in R1...Don't forget to rate, review and share on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Audioboom. For daily tennis updates: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackspinglobalTwitter:  https://twitter.com/BlackSpinGlobalTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@blackspinglobalGET OUR MERCH HERE: https://blackspinglobal.com/collections

Michael dives into the Somali daycare scam, election vouching insanity, and why small businesses like Ace Hardware are fighting for survival. Plus—Blockbuster nostalgia, Coca‑Cola’s greatest commercial, and the truth behind mental‑health PTO.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Semi stocks to the rescue. Blockbuster results from the world's largest contract chipmaker send global chip stocks surging. Plus, big banks taking a big share of the blame for the recent weakness — mostly positive results overshadowed by President Trump's credit card rate-cap campaign. Our Jim Cramer explains. And later, wild moves in energy as traders game the odds of a U.S. military intervention in Iran. A live report from the region coming up. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This special In Touch With iOS episode 403 Host Dave Ginsburg is joined by co-host Jeff Gamet and guest Katie Fawkes.We explore the nostalgia of VHS, the rituals of movie night, and how streaming has transformed how we watch films. From Blockbuster memories and Betamax wars to the resurgence of physical media and the promise of immersive experiences with Apple Vision Pro, the conversation bridges past, present, and future movie-watching culture. The show notes are at InTouchwithiOS.com  Direct Link to Audio  Links to our Show Give us a review on Apple Podcasts! CLICK HERE we would really appreciate it! Click this link Buy me a Coffee to support the show we would really appreciate it. intouchwithios.com/coffee  Another way to support the show is to become a Patreon member patreon.com/intouchwithios Website: In Touch With iOS YouTube Channel In Touch with iOS Magazine on Flipboard Facebook Page BlueSky Mastodon X Instagram Threads Summary In episode 403 of In Touch With iOS, Dave Ginsburg welcomes back Katie Fawkes alongside Jeff Gamet for a deep, nostalgic dive into the evolution of home movie watching. The discussion begins with personal stories of VHS rentals, recording TV shows, and the rituals that defined movie nights in the 80s and 90s, including Blockbuster runs, rewinding tapes, and the infamous VHS vs. Betamax wars. Katie shares how The VHS Club grew out of long-distance movie nights with her childhood best friend, eventually becoming a podcast celebrating classic films and shared viewing experiences. The panel reflects on how physical media created intention and community—contrasting sharply with today's overwhelming abundance of streaming options and "spoiled for choice" fatigue. The conversation shifts to the modern era, examining how streaming services—especially Apple TV+ and Netflix—reshaped content consumption, binge-watching habits, and original programming. David and Jeff explore the fragility of digital ownership, the renewed interest in DVDs, Blu-ray, and VHS among younger generations, and the growing collector culture surrounding physical media. Looking forward, the panel discusses immersive movie experiences through Apple Vision Pro, questioning whether shared virtual environments could bring back the communal magic of theaters. The episode wraps with rapid-fire movie picks, favorite must-own physical titles, and a lively debate over which single streaming service they'd choose if forced to pick just one. Announcements Macstock 9 has wrapped for 2025. Attendees will receive a link for the session recordings when  they're ready in 30-45 days. If you missed Macstock we missed you! Why not purchase a digital pass to relive all the amazing presentations? Click the link below to purchase the digital pass. Macstock X has already been announced July 10,11,12, 2026 hopeful you all can join us.  Macstock IX Digital Pass Our Host Dave Ginsburg is an IT professional supporting Mac, iOS and Windows users and shares his wealth of knowledge of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV and related technologies. Visit the YouTube channel https://youtube.com/intouchwithios follow him on Mastodon @daveg65, , BlueSky @daveg65  and the show @intouchwithios   Our Guest Katie Fawkes is the Director of Marketing at Ecamm, a leading live streaming and video production software for Mac users. With a background in content strategy, podcasting, and community building, Katie is passionate about helping creators confidently show up on camera and grow their brands through video. She's the co-host of The Flow and The VHS Club video podcasts, hosts multiple live video series, and speaks regularly at industry events on topics like one-take video, camera confidence, and creator marketing. Co-Host Jeff Gamet is a podcaster, technology blogger, artist, and author. Previously, he was The Mac Observer's managing editor, and Smile's TextExpander Evangelist. You can find him on Mastadon @jgamet Pixelfed @jgamet@pixelfed.social and Bluesky @jgamet.bsky.social‬ Podcasts The Context Machine Podcast  Retro Rewatch Retro Rewatch His YouTube channel https://youtube.com/jgamet

In der heutigen Folge sprechen die Finanzjournalisten Daniel Eckert und Lea Oetjen über bittere Enttäuschungen bei den US-Großbanken, die fünf Blockbuster von Bayer und den großen Oracle-Streit. Außerdem geht es um Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Tesla, Fresenius Medical Care, RWE, KKR & Co, Apollo Global Management, EQT AB, iShares MSCI Japan (WKN: A0DK60), Vanguard FTSE Japan Distributing (WKN: A1T8FU) und Amundi Core MSCI Japan (WKN: LYX0YC). Wir freuen uns an Feedback über aaa@welt.de. Noch mehr "Alles auf Aktien" findet Ihr bei WELTplus und Apple Podcasts – inklusive aller Artikel der Hosts und AAA-Newsletter. Hier bei WELT: https://www.welt.de/podcasts/alles-auf-aktien/plus247399208/Boersen-Podcast-AAA-Bonus-Folgen-Jede-Woche-noch-mehr-Antworten-auf-Eure-Boersen-Fragen.html. Der Börsen-Podcast Disclaimer: Die im Podcast besprochenen Aktien und Fonds stellen keine spezifischen Kauf- oder Anlage-Empfehlungen dar. Die Moderatoren und der Verlag haften nicht für etwaige Verluste, die aufgrund der Umsetzung der Gedanken oder Ideen entstehen. Hörtipps: Für alle, die noch mehr wissen wollen: Holger Zschäpitz können Sie jede Woche im Finanz- und Wirtschaftspodcast "Deffner&Zschäpitz" hören. +++ Werbung +++ Du möchtest mehr über unsere Werbepartner erfahren? Hier findest du alle Infos & Rabatte! https://linktr.ee/alles_auf_aktien Impressum: https://www.welt.de/services/article7893735/Impressum.html Datenschutz: https://www.welt.de/services/article157550705/Datenschutzerklaerung-WELT-DIGITAL.html

The Set Shot, Ep.19, Jan. 13, 2026: On this episode we discuss the Cavs Turning, Ja Morant Trade Next?, Cavs Trades, Blockbuster Trades Worth & More

Your favorite sleep-deprived monsters return this week to dive headfirst into Mortal Kombat (1995), directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, and its chaotic little gremlin cousin Mortal Kombat:Annihilation (1997), directed by John R. Leonetti. What begins as nostalgic love for flying bicycle kicks, techno bangers, and flawless '90s vibes quickly mutates into a full-scale emotional fatality.We lovingly scream about how the first Mortal Kombat is still a beautiful, dumb, perfect arcade fever dream where every punch sounds like someone slapping a rotisserie chicken and every slow-motion kick feels like cinema history. Paul W.S. Anderson gave us glowing eyes, practical sets, unforgettable character entrances, and a soundtrack that could legally be classified as a controlled substance. This movie didn't just raise us — it babysat us while our parents were in Blockbuster arguing about late fees.Then… we willingly walk into the Outworld disaster zone that is Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, a sequel that bravely asks the question: “What if we replaced half the cast, forgot how physics works, and spent the entire budget on Party City cosplay and unfinished CGI dragons?” We spiral into madness over:•Johnny Cage getting deleted faster than a bad tweet•Raiden turning into a dust cloud instead of, you know, lightning (sir???)•Random characters popping in like cursed Pokémon cards•Animalities happening whenever they feel emotionally ready•A centaur that may or may not be two American Gladiators sewn together in a garageAt some point the episode completely derails into debates about centaur anatomy, bad sequel trauma, why Scorpion keeps shooting demon snakes instead of a perfectly good spike-on-a-rope, and how this movie taught us — as children — that sometimes art hurts you on purpose.Through laughter, yelling, nostalgic joy, and light emotional damage, we celebrate what makes the Mortal Kombatmovie franchise endlessly rewatchable: insane fight choreography, iconic characters, wildly questionable creative choices, and the kind of beautiful stupidity only '90s genre cinema could deliver.CREEP-O-RAMA is: Store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠CREEP-O-RAMA⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@creep-o-rama⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@joshblevesque⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Artwork: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@bargainbinblasphemy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Theme: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@imfigure⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Audio: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@stranjlove

Comedy is the hardest genre to get right. Making people laugh once is tough; making them laugh for decades is almost impossible. Yet here we are in 2026, revisiting a film released in 1980 that still lands gags at a rate modern comedies can only dream of. This week on Born to Watch, Whitey and Gow tackle the undisputed benchmark of parody comedy in our Flying High (Airplane) Review, a movie that didn't just spoof disaster films; it rewired comedy forever.Known as Flying High here in Australia and Airplane! Everywhere else, this is the film that taught generations how powerful straight-faced absurdity can be. Serious actors, ridiculous situations, relentless visual gags and a script that fires jokes every few seconds without ever stopping to catch its breath. Watching it again now raises the big question: Does it still work in 2026?The short answer, absolutely.From the opening Jaws parody at the airport to the final moments on the runway, this film never lets up. There are jokes in the foreground, jokes in the background, jokes buried inside other jokes, and blink-and-you-miss-it moments that reward repeat viewings again and again. Whitey and Gow break down just how outrageous the gag density really is, and why that non-stop approach is exactly what modern comedies have lost.The cast is a huge part of what makes Flying High work so well. Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves and Leslie Nielsen all play it completely straight, refusing to wink at the audience even once. That contrast between deadly serious performances and utterly ridiculous dialogue is the secret sauce. Leslie Nielsen, in particular, launches what would become one of the great comedy second acts of all time, delivering lines like “Surely you can't be serious” with such conviction that it somehow makes them even funnier.Whitey and Gow also dig into the sheer insanity of the situations. A full hospital bed loaded onto a commercial flight. A child needing a heart transplant mid-air. Everyone eating the fish except the one person who doesn't get sick. A blow-up autopilot. A guitar smashing passengers in the head as it walks down the aisle. None of it makes sense, and none of it is supposed to.Overs and unders are discussed, with both hosts landing comfortably in the 35 to 40 watch range, a testament to just how embedded this movie is in their DNA. It's the kind of film that was always in rotation growing up, something the whole family could watch, quote and laugh at together. That shared comedy experience is something Whitey argues we no longer get.The episode also explores how Flying High set the template for everything that followed, from Naked Gun to Hot Shots and beyond, while also pointing out why so many parody films failed to replicate its magic. Awareness of what you are, commitment to the bit, and never stopping the joke train.Critical scores still back it up. A 7.7 on IMDb, 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, and a spot alongside absolute classics in movie history. Not bad for a film that proudly advertised itself as the winner of zero Academy Awards.This episode is packed with favourite scenes, forgotten gags, pop culture moments, questionable jokes that still somehow work, and plenty of Born to Watch side tangents along the way. If you love comedy, parody, or just laughing out loud at things you probably shouldn't, this is one episode you don't want to miss.JOIN THE CONVERSATIONIs Flying High the funniest comedy ever made?Which gag still kills you every time?Could a movie like this even get made today?Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at BornToWatch.com.au#FlyingHigh #AirplaneMovie #BornToWatch #ComedyClassic #MoviePodcast #80sMovies #ParodyFilms #FilmReview #CultCinema #LaughOutLoud

It's another episode chronicling the Seattle Sounders' offseason, this time with a new player signing to discuss following the Rave Green's acquisition of U22 Initiative midfielder Nikola Petković from Charlotte FC. We'll also jump around MLS to talk about some of the other roster movement and storylines from around the league.Follow Lobbing Scorchers: YouTube Instagram Bluesky TikTok Ari Liljenwall Noah RiffeSPONSORSHaxan Ferments - Specializing in unique, small-batch fermented hot sauces and vinegars, Haxan Ferments is handcrafted in Georgetown and made with the best local ingredients from across the Pacific Northwest. Use Code LS for a FREE Hot Sauce w/ purchase!Sounder at Heart - Our network host and biggest supporter, Sounder at Heart covers the Seattle Sounders, Seattle Reign, and MUCH MORE! Subscribe and Support to the BEST independent Seattle Soccer coverage.Podium Edmonds - Located at 114 4th Ave N, just off Main Street in the heart of Downtown Edmonds, come shop and explore the best menswear in the Pacific Northwest. Tell them Lobbing Scorchers sent you!Full Pull Wines - Founded in 2009, they the best boutique wines of the world to members, with special focus on our home, the Pacific Northwest.Seattle Sounders Tickets - Get tickets to an upcoming match straight from the club and help support the show at the same time.MLS Season Pass - MLS Season Pass is back on Apple TV with access to every single MLS match—including Leagues Cup and the entire Audi MLS Cup Playoffs—with no blackouts! Subscribe today to support the show.MLS Store - New year, new gear! The 2025 MLS jerseys are here, and MLSStore is the ultimate destination for every fan. Every purchase helps support our show!Lobbing Scorchers is a production of Just Once Media.Lobbing Scorchers is a Seattle Sounders and MLS focused show brought to you by Sounder at Heart. Hosted by Major League Soccer's Ari Liljenwall and Producer Noah Riffe. Join us as we lob our scorching takes on the American soccer landscape, Seattle Sounders, Major League Soccer, USMNT and more.Contact: lobbingscorchers@justoncemedia.com

What if the difference between AI mediocrity and breakthrough isn't the tool—it's how you architect your approach? Carter Jensen from The Uncommon Business joins the crew to reveal why most people are stuck "button pushing" while others are unlocking 3X productivity gains. This isn't theory; it's the frontline reality of businesses transforming workflows with the right AI architecture. If you're tired of surface-level AI hype and ready for actionable intelligence on integrating AI into security, compliance, and everyday business operations, this episode delivers. Whether you're Blockbuster or Netflix is up to you.

On this episode, we dive headfirst into peak nostalgia—breaking down the best 1980s movie posters, the most iconic lunchboxes, and Tonka's legendary WWF Wrestling Buddies. We relive the heartbreak of no Blockbuster case behind the movie box, big logo hats from the '90s, and talk about the timeless vibes of Geto Boys' My Mind's Playing Tricks On Me.Discord Drops were absolutely on fire, the Super Retro Hotline came through like always, and we celebrated our 3-year anniversary in true Super Retro style. Add in Retro Card of the Week, a top-tier Fit Check, and a whole lot more. This one is packed wall-to-wall with throwback goodness.⸻Today's episode was brought to you by Salty Water. Hydrate Your Inner Warrior! Support our sponsors:IG: https://www.instagram.com/drinksaltywater/Buy: https://tinyurl.com/4c4kz9ceWebsite: https://drinksaltywater.com/Subscribe to our Spotify for early access: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/superretro/subscribe ⸻Discord: https://discord.gg/superretro⸻Master list on our NES collection: https://superretropod.com/nes-game-list-super-retro/⸻Join our channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMP4yO-dFGayGUkT_MVYrhQ/joinEmail: SuperRetroPod@gmail.comAll things Super Retro: https://linktr.ee/superretroInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/superretropodcast/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@superretropod

RENT, RETURN, REPEAT FROM THE JANUARY 2026 ISSUE OF GREEN PROFIT MAGAZINE WRITTEN BY NEIL ANDERSON NARRATED BY BILL CALKINS EXCERPT: How many times do you think Blockbuster rented out “The Little Mermaid” or “Ghostbusters” before those VHS tapes finally gave out? Probably hundreds. At roughly $4 a rental, that's about $1,200 of revenue from a $20 tape. Pretty good margin, right? Read the Digital Edition: https://www.ballpublishing.com/magazine/gp_26_01/index.aspx

Episode Description: Have you ever wondered if your earliest memory is real—or just a story you've adopted as your own?

Blockbuster news out of Baltimore, Murrlin! After 18 years, 6 division championships, and one unfortunate Super Bowl title in 2012, John Harbaughs tenure with the Baltimore Ravens officially came to and this week. I talk about that as well as the coaching carousel in general and how the clock may have struck midnight for my beloved 49ers.

Simon Morris shares how he helped shape some of the biggest shifts in modern media, from launching Sega and Sonic in the UK, to building Football 365, to disrupting Blockbuster with LoveFilm before its acquisition by Amazon. Simon explains how spotting change early, backing new technology, and scaling at the right moment played a central role in his career.He also reflects on losing everything at the height of success, battling addiction, getting sober, and rebuilding his life from the ground up. Simon discusses leadership, intuition, resilience, and what long-term success actually looks like beyond money and titles.This is the eventful life of Mr Simon MorrisAll Enquiries - Hello@DodgeWoodall.comWebsite: DodgeWoodall.comYouTube: Dodge WoodallFacebook: Dodge WoodallInstagram: @Dodge.WoodallTikTok: @DodgeWoodallLinkedIn: Dodge Woodall Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

APROVEITE NOSSO CUPOM ESPECIAL NA BASICAMENTE!!!! Use o cupom MOEDOR20 e ganhe 20% DE DESCONTO NO SITE: https://basicamente.comSEJA MEMBRO DO MOEDOR: https://moedor.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to a special holiday edition of Born to Watch as we kick off 2026 with our first episode of the year, diving headfirst into James Cameron's latest visual behemoth, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Released during the peak Christmas blockbuster window, this third chapter continues Cameron's decades-long obsession with Pandora, spectacle, and pushing cinematic technology to its absolute limits. In this Avatar Fire and Ash Review, Whitey and Damo reunite for what has now become a strange but sacred tradition, reviewing each Avatar film together as it hits cinemas. Sixteen years after the original Avatar changed blockbuster filmmaking forever, Fire and Ash arrives with enormous expectations, a massive runtime, and the promise of something darker, angrier, and more volatile than anything we've seen on Pandora before.Picking up shortly after the events of The Way of Water, the Sully family are still dealing with grief, fractured relationships, and the relentless pursuit of humanity's returning forces. This time, however, the danger doesn't just come from sky people and recombinants. We're introduced to the Ash People, a fire-driven Na'vi tribe led by the ferocious and unforgettable Varang. Their volcanic environment, brutal ideology, and complete rejection of Eywa mark the franchise's most radical departure to date.Visually, Fire and Ash is everything you expect from Cameron. The world-building is astonishing, with volcanic landscapes, new creatures, and large-scale action sequences that exist purely to remind you why Avatar films demand the biggest screen possible. Whether it's underwater chaos, airborne combat, or creatures that feel ripped straight from Cameron's sketchbooks, the film is an undeniable technical achievement.But Born to Watch isn't here to admire pretty pixels. Whitey and Damo dig into the film's biggest talking points, including the now-familiar Avatar formula, the film's staggering three-hour-plus runtime, and whether this chapter actually moves the story forward or simply spins its wheels. Is this Avatar 3, or Avatar 2.5? Does the franchise still have emotional weight, or has it become a tech demo in search of a story?There's plenty of discussion around returning villain Quaritch, whose moral tug-of-war continues to be one of the franchise's more compelling arcs, and Spider's expanding role as the human caught between two worlds. The episode also tackles the darker tone of Fire and Ash, its surprisingly violent moments, and the question of whether Cameron is setting up a satisfying endgame or stretching Pandora beyond breaking point.As always, the episode starts spoiler-light before diving fully into spoilers, dissecting character arcs, repetitive beats, and the growing sense that Avatar may be more about visual wonder than narrative payoff. There's praise where it's due, criticism where it's earned, and a lot of laughs along the way.If you loved the first two Avatar films, this one will feel familiar, immersive, and impressive. If you've ever questioned where this franchise is heading, Fire and Ash may give you just as many questions as answers.JOIN THE CONVERSATIONIs Avatar still cinema's ultimate big-screen spectacle? Is this chapter bold evolution or safe repetition? Can James Cameron realistically deliver two more Avatar films?Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at BornToWatch.com.au#AvatarFireAndAshReview #BornToWatch #Avatar2025 #JamesCameron #MoviePodcast #FilmReview #BlockbusterCinema #SciFiMovies #IMAXExperience #Pandora

-- On the Show -- Donald Trump orders a U.S. military operation that captures Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores in Venezuela and brings them to New York despite lacking clear legal authority -- Reporting says Donald Trump escalates to military action after Nicolás Maduro dances on Venezuelan state television and aides treat it as personal mockery -- Donald Trump bets the Maduro seizure will unlock Venezuela's oil, but allies, businesses, and markets resist a plan with no clear political transition -- Donald Trump gives rambling, conflicting answers about Venezuela, oil, and military escalation that raise questions about his decision making -- Donald Trump admits he did not brief Congress yet says he spoke with oil companies and calls the Maduro seizure a kidnapping -- The Wall Street Journal reports Donald Trump shows visible signs of decline, disputes doctors, and mislabels a CT scan as an MRI while aides manage optics -- The Wall Street Journal says Donald Trump takes more aspirin than doctors recommend and blames bruising on superstition instead of updated medical guidance -- Marco Rubio tells Kristen Welker the United States is running Venezuela but cannot explain elections, governance, or the legal rationale in real time -- Marco Rubio and Lindsey Graham indicate Cuba is a likely next target after Venezuela, signaling escalation rather than containment -- On the Bonus Show: Oil markets steady after Trump's Venezuela strike shocks the world, speculation grows that Donald Trump Jr. is being groomed for a 2028 run amid tension with J.D. Vance, and Minnesota politics take a twist as Governor Tim Walz looks ready to exit and Amy Klobuchar eyes a comeback. ⚠️ Ground News: Get 40% OFF their unlimited access Vantage plan at https://ground.news/pakman

Whether money's tight or you just love being intentional, these creative date ideas will help you laugh, reconnect, and invest in your marriage without financial stress. From $1 tacos to backyard movies, coffee shop crawls, matinee movies, and even nostalgic Blockbuster-style nights, there's something here for every couple.Chat with Bre on Instagram @datenightwiththewoods Follow Tony on Instagram @drtonygwood For videos, old episodes, blog posts, events, and more www.datenightfam.org

In our Ghostbusters 2 (1989) Review, Whitey and Damo strap the proton packs back on and head to New York City for a sequel that arrived five years too late and never quite captured the lightning in a bottle of the original. After seeing Ghostbusters (1984) an almost unhealthy number of times, expectations for the follow-up were sky high. What we got instead was a softer, louder, more kid-friendly sequel that trades sharp satire and genuine menace for slime, singing and some very questionable creative choices.Set against a New Year's Eve backdrop, Ghostbusters II reunites Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson as the once-celebrated paranormal heroes, now sidelined, sued and reduced to performing at children's birthday parties. When Dana Barrett's baby becomes the target of an ancient Carpathian villain named Vigo, the boys are forced back into action to stop an underground river of pink slime, fueled by negative emotions, from swallowing New York whole.On paper, it sounds like a solid premise. In execution, it feels like a sequel constantly fighting itself. The episode breaks down how Ghostbusters II leans heavily on repeating beats from the original, courtroom chaos, montages, and paranormal mayhem, without ever understanding why those moments worked the first time. The result is a film that feels over-lit, over-explained and strangely toothless.Whitey and Damo dig into the tonal confusion at the heart of the movie. Is this meant to be for kids, adults, or fans of the original? The answer seems to be “all of the above”, which unfortunately means it never fully commits to any of them. The darker elements, Vigo, the possessed nanny, the skull-filled subway, hint at something more sinister, but they are quickly undercut by jokes that miss the mark and a finale that relies on good vibes and sing-alongs to save the day.There is still fun to be had. Rick Moranis is once again the MVP, delivering genuine laughs as Lewis Tully, especially in the courtroom scenes and his chemistry with Annie Potts' Janine. Their relationship is one of the few elements that actually evolves from the first film and provides some heart amid the chaos. The Ecto-1 makeover also earns praise, because if you are going to revisit this universe, you may as well do it in style.Unfortunately, other characters fare far worse. Winston is once again sidelined and reduced to explaining the plot in plain English before disappearing for long stretches. Sigourney Weaver, fresh off Aliens and Gorillas in the Mist, is criminally underused. Bill Murray's Peter Venkman, once effortlessly charming, feels disengaged and oddly mean-spirited, lacking the spark that made him iconic.The episode also takes aim at the film's baffling logic, from characters wandering into danger without proton packs to slime that magically stops affecting people once jackets come off. And then there is Vigo himself, a villain with an impressively grim backstory who somehow becomes one of the least threatening antagonists of the era.By the time the Statue of Liberty moonwalks through Manhattan and New Yorkers save the day through collective positivity, Born to Watch has a verdict. Ghostbusters II is not unwatchable, but it is the definition of a sequel made by committee, one that misunderstands its own appeal and plays it far too safe.It is a fascinating case study in how not to follow a classic.JOIN THE CONVERSATION Did Ghostbusters II deserve a reappraisal, or is it a nostalgia trap? Was Vigo ever scary, or just underwritten? Should this franchise have stopped after one film?Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or at BornToWatch.com.au #BornToWatch #Ghostbusters2 #Ghostbusters1990 #MoviePodcast #FilmReview #80sMovies #90sSequels #IvanReitman #BillMurray #MovieNostalgia

Move over “Be Kind, Rewind.” The new slogan is “Take a Movie, Leave a Movie.” That's right. A Blockbuster nostalgia trip could be coming to a yard near you. Today, we visit Salt Lake City, which just got its very first Free Blockbuster — like a lending library but for DVDs and VHS tapes. Also on today's show: divisions at the Federal Reserve and a coin buried for centuries in the Scottish woods.

Move over “Be Kind, Rewind.” The new slogan is “Take a Movie, Leave a Movie.” That's right. A Blockbuster nostalgia trip could be coming to a yard near you. Today, we visit Salt Lake City, which just got its very first Free Blockbuster — like a lending library but for DVDs and VHS tapes. Also on today's show: divisions at the Federal Reserve and a coin buried for centuries in the Scottish woods.

Anecdotal stories suggesting that weight-loss drugs can help people shake long-standing addictions have been spreading fast in the past few years, through online forums, weight-loss clinics and news headlines. And now, clinical data are starting to back them up.Over a dozen randomized clinical studies testing whether GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic can suppress addiction are now under way, and neuroscientists are working out how these weight-loss drugs act on brain regions that control craving, reward and motivation.Scientists warn that the research is still in its early stages, but some researchers and physicians are excited, as no truly new class of addiction medicine has won approval from regulators in decades.This is an audio version of our Feature: Will blockbuster obesity drugs revolutionize addiction treatment? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christmas, Christmas, the happiest day of the year! Perfect time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the holiday rom-com Just Friends, and Mark welcomes Gaius Bolling from the Back to the Blockbuster podcast back on the show to do just that. They rave about the cast, including MVP and hilarious scene stealer Anna Faris, plus the crazy, aggressive physical comedy everyone's doing, and the original songs (Forgiveness is more than saying sorry... Just be yourself... Mall people come and go...). But that infamous fat suit is a bit cringe 20 years later, huh? The guys also shout out the movie musical Rent too, which was released on the same day as Just Friends.Follow Gaius @g_reelz and listen to Back to the Blockbuster here: https://linktr.ee/BackToTheBlockbuster

Candace Owens has shared her account of the much-ballyhooed four-and-a-half-hour meeting with Erica Kirk and her lawyer, and Owens says she was not convinced by Turning Point USA's confidence that Tyler Robinson was the shooter in Charlie Kirk's assassination. Owens says the lawyer admitted there is no evidence beyond what the public has already seen and that investigators have not even interviewed key eyewitnesses whose testimony could challenge the official narrative.  She argues that TPUSA and allied commentators are gaslighting the public by overstating the strength of the case while dismissing questions about inconsistencies, including eyewitness accounts, ballistics issues, and unexplored leads. Owens concludes she has not changed her position, will continue investigating TPUSA figures she finds suspicious, and believes the authorities are failing to seriously pursue alternative explanations for what happened. Plus segments on Tim Pool contradicting himself in statements about Candace Owens' security, Trump openly admitting he is bought by the Israel lobby and Erika Kirk getting caught in a lie about Egyptian planes. Also featuring Kurt Metzger and Stef Zamorano!

Pre-show: Marco joins team snow tires i3: 155/70R19 XC90: 275/40R21 Molex F-150 Lightning’s demise

Why do massive companies like Nokia or Blockbuster get crushed by newcomers, even when they seemed to be doing everything right? How does innovation sneak up and change the game before the big players even notice? This episode unpacks one of the most important business books of all time.Omar breaks down The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen and highlights the real reasons industry giants fall behind while scrappier startups take over. You'll hear why listening to today's customer isn't always the answer, how disruptive competitors often look “worse” at first, and why business model innovation, not just technology, creates category leaders. Omar also shares practical exercises to help you spot untapped opportunities in your own space, plus lessons from building his own software company.If you want to avoid getting left behind and build a business that is future-proofed, hit play now! This lesson will steer you towards building what's next in your industry.Discover all our must-read book reviews at https://100mba.net/bookreviews.Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Netflix to take over Warner Bros Discovery's film and streaming businesses in 72 billion dollar deal, giving it ownership of Harry Potter and Game of Thrones franchises. The acquisition could face resistance from regulators. Also: President Putin says Russia is ready to provide uninterrupted fuel supplies to India, which is facing heavy US pressure to stop buying oil from Moscow. Elon Musk's social media network, X, has been fined nearly a hundred and forty million dollars for breaching EU digital content rules. The largest study of the impact of deep sea mining has found that it causes significant damage to animal life on the ocean floor. Students across Germany are striking in protest at the government's decision to introduce a new voluntary military service. And people in Denmark are sending their last Christmas cards before the postal service ends its letter delivery service. (Credit: Reuters)The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk