Podcasts about Bulgarian

Next of Kin After Stroke: When Your 19-Year-Old Has to Decide For You Kylie Ralston was 56, living alone in Sofia, Bulgaria, and getting back into shape after a divorce. Three mornings a week she ran. On the morning everything changed, she was doing a local park run with her friend Rebecca when she slowed to a walk, then tried to run again and couldn’t. “It was like the message wasn’t getting through from my brain to my legs,” she says. No headache. No fatigue. Nothing that felt like an emergency. She finished the run, registered her time, and went home. It wasn’t until she collapsed getting out of the car that anyone understood what was happening. By the time Kylie reached hospital, she had suffered a left frontoparietal haemorrhagic stroke, a spontaneous brain bleed roughly 7.5cm across, with none of the usual risk factors. No high blood pressure. No cholesterol history. No aneurysm, no AVM. She was placed in an induced coma for four days. When she woke, she couldn’t move her right side, and she couldn’t speak. What “Next of Kin” Really Means When a Stroke Hits Abroad Kylie was a permanent resident of Bulgaria, not a citizen, divorced from her daughter’s father, and living on her own. When the hospital needed someone to authorise emergency surgery, there was exactly one person available to make that call: her daughter, then 19 years old, splitting her time between her separated parents’ homes. It’s a detail easy to skim past, but it sits at the centre of this episode: next of kin isn’t a role most of us think about until a hospital needs an answer immediately. Kylie hadn’t nominated her daughter out of any formal planning process; it simply fell to her, because she was the only adult relative in the country who met the age threshold. A 19-Year-Old Signing Consent-to-Operate Forms Kylie’s friends contacted her daughter directly. She rushed to the hospital, and unconscious, unable to advocate for herself, her mother’s care now depended on decisions made by a teenager under enormous duress. Kylie’s first memory afterward is her daughter arriving in the ICU in a hairnet and scrubs, holding her hand, telling her she loved her. It’s the kind of moment that rarely makes it into conversations about stroke recovery, because the focus so often lands on rehabilitation milestones: walking, speaking, returning to work. But before any of that, someone has to be legally empowered to say yes to surgery, and for Kylie, that someone hadn’t expected the responsibility for another few decades. The Gap Between Acute Surgery and Real Rehabilitation Bulgaria’s acute care, Kylie and her friend Nicole Nott both stress, was world-class surgery within roughly two hours of the stroke, the kind of outcome her friends still describe as a miracle given the size of the bleed. What came next was a different story. In the public hospital, physiotherapy visits totalled two sessions. There was no speech therapy. After 14 days, still unable to move her right side or speak, Kylie was expected to go home. Her partner, Guido, refused to accept it, and the couple began privately funding rehabilitation themselves. This is a distinction worth sitting with if you or someone you love is navigating stroke recovery in a country or even a region with limited public rehab funding: acute survival and functional recovery are not the same fight, and they are not always resourced the same way. When a Friend Becomes the Rehab Team Nicole Nott, an occupational therapist and Kylie’s friend since they were 16, found out about the stroke through a message she initially suspected was a scam. Within days she’d cleared her schedule and flown from Australia to Bulgaria. What she found in the private rehab hospital was a caring but under-trained care team, kind staff with, as Nicole puts it, “no rehab expertise.” Nicole spent close to two weeks restructuring Kylie’s room and routine around basic stroke rehabilitation principles: approaching from Kylie’s affected right side to address her spatial inattention, built-up cutlery to force use of her weaker hand, a balloon tapped back and forth for shoulder strength, word games layered on top for speech practice, pegs and curtains repurposed into arm exercises. She also pushed back hard against hospital staff who tried to stop her from helping Kylie transfer to a shower chair or toilet, at one point being told outright she wasn’t permitted because she was a woman. Her single goal before flying home: get Kylie toileting independently again, for dignity as much as mobility. Kylie called her from Dubai airport, mid-transit, to tell her it had happened. Living With Aphasia Fourteen months on, Kylie’s right-side weakness has largely resolved. What remains, she says, is the hardest part: expressive aphasia. “I can’t express myself like I used to.” It’s a small, telling detail of the condition that even the phrase “I can’t” is itself shaped by the aphasia; the words available to describe the loss are affected by the loss. The Unexpected Gains Both women point to what came out of the crisis alongside the hardship: Kylie’s relationship with her daughter deepened. Her circle of friends in Bulgaria proved itself in ways she hadn’t anticipated. And in the rehab hospital, her partner Guido proposed something; he told her he’d already decided before the stroke but simply hadn’t gotten around to asking. If this episode raises questions about who is legally positioned to make decisions for you and whether that person actually knows it, it may be worth a conversation with your own family before a crisis forces the issue. For a deeper account of navigating identity, recovery, and unexpected transformation after stroke, Bill’s book The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened is available at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. If this show has helped you, you can support it at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. Kylie Ralston: Stroke, Bulgaria, and the Friend Who Flew Across the World When Kylie had a stroke abroad, her 19-year-old daughter became her next of kin, and a friend flew in to help her recover. Bill’s Book: The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened Support the Recovery After Stroke On Patreon Highlights: 00:00 Introduction – Next of Kin After Stroke03:47 The Day of the Stroke08:55 Rehabilitation Challenges in Bulgaria16:32 Coping with Language Barriers22:08 Reflections on Healthcare Systems32:50 Setting Goals and Achievements38:29 Family Dynamics and Support Systems45:36 Finding Meaning in Recovery54:44 The Impact of Caregiving58:22 Reflections on Recovery and Gratitude Transcript: Introduction – Next of Kin After Stroke Bill Gasiamis (00:00)And one of my first horrible thoughts was, is this a dreadful hoax? Is someone, you know, is this some horrible scam? And it made me feel quite sick actually And then I rang her son who lives in Australia and he’s like, Yeah, I’m so sorry. I haven’t told you. Yes, it’s true, mum’s had a stroke. Bill Gasiamis (00:16)Welcome back to Recovery After Stroke. I’m Bill Gasiamis, and today I’m joined by two guests, Kylie Ralston and her friend Nicole Nott. Kylie was 56 living in Bulgaria when she suffered a left frontoparietal hemorrhagic stroke, a spontaneous brain bleed with none of the usual risk factors. Nicole is an occupational therapist and one of Kylie’s closest friends since they were teenagers. And when she found out what happened, she got on a plane to Bulgaria to help. In this episode, we get into what it means to have a stroke far from home in a country where you don’t speak the language, and public rehabilitation funding barely exists. We talk about who becomes your next of kin when you least expect it, what it’s like to advocate for a friend inside a hospital system that won’t always listen. And what recovery actually looks like 14 months on, before we get into it, if you want a deeper look at identity, recovery, and unexpected transformation after stroke, my book, The Unexpected Way That Stroke Became, the best thing that happened, is available at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. And if this show has helped you And you can support it to keep me on the path of getting to a thousand episodes, you can do so At patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke Bill Gasiamis (01:37)Kylie Ralston and Nicole Nott, welcome to the podcast. lovely to be here, Bill. Thanks for having us, Bill. Kylie, tell me a little bit about what life was like before the stroke. I was very active and I had a full life and I was working full time. and I was living in Sofia in Bulgaria, in my on my own, in my own apartment. I was renting, actually. and I was getting back to fitness. So I was g getting I was running regularly. So two two or three times a week I was hitting the gym and hitting the tr the treadmill. And that had been happening for like a few month like six months or something like that. but before that I was very fit and active. What kind of work were you involved in? I was a HR work. I was a ha HR leader and so I had my own consultancy I had a team of people that I’ve managed. I had thirty five people, so and that they were people in Germany, Poland, Czechia, Portugal, France, so everywhere in in Europe, basically. Yeah. Wow, how how does an Aussie end up in Bulgaria with staff or clients in that many countries? short answer is I came here with my family, so with my ex husband. and shortly after I arrived we separated and and ultimately got divorced. and I stayed on because my daughter is here. So she was only eleven at the time and I could just couldn’t leave her. The Day of the Stroke So you were living at home with your daughter? she was sharing her time between between us both. Yeah. got it. Okay. So both parents are there. So your daughter was going backwards and forwards. On the night of the stroke or on the day of the stroke, can you take us through that? What were you experiencing? Was there anything unusual that happened that made you think something was wrong? How did it go down? I was with my friend Rebecca. And she was running ahead of me as she she was faster than me, so sh and she often often ran ahead of me. and I’d slowed down to a walk and when I started to run again or try to run again, it it was like the message wasn’t getting through from my brain to my legs. And I thought, that’s strange, that’s that’s really odd. ‘Cause I didn’t feel like tired or anything and I didn’t have a headache and well stuff like that. and I just walked through the rest of the park run. And then when Rebecca saw me coming to the finish line, she waved me over and she said, come on, let’s go register your chip. and so I did that. and she said afterwards that there was a little bit of fumbling with with my phone and there’s a there was a little bit of fumbling when I put my jacket on, but other than that, I just seemed exhausted from a run. do you recall after the experience of feeling exhausted from the run where you ended up? Did you need help? Yeah, I do. So so she didn’t notice that I wasn’t talking because I n I’m normally an endless talker, so I she didn’t notice that I wasn’t talking. And she said that that that is one thing that should have alerted her to what was happening. but it it didn’t. And so I’d caught the bus to the park run and her husband was there and so he drove me home. And I j I remember the journey home and when when we when I went to get out, I just couldn’t. And so and Mark came around to my side of the car and help tried to help me out and I just collapsed against him. And so then that so then they said, quick, something’s wrong something’s I don’t remember what they  They they said, you know, they basically took me straight to the hospital. Yeah. And also rang Guido, my now fiance, but my partner at the time. Uh-huh. So you you went from the run, attempted to go home, and then from that attempt to get you out of the car, actually into your home, it was pretty clear that that wasn’t gonna happen and you ended up in hospital. so Did you guys drive to hospital? Do you recall that? Yes. Yes. We do how far is it from your home? it’s pretty close. I don’t know about kilometres or time, but it’s but it’s like ten or fifteen minutes. Yeah, so it’s not too far. But they didn’t know what was going on, of course. They just knew something wasn’t right and then they figured one of the best things to do is just get it to a hospital. You get to the hospital Do you know what happens after that? Do you get admitted? do you get tested for anything? I suppose what I’m asking is when is the first time you realise that that you’ve had a stroke? When do they report that back? When I came out of the coma. So I was put I was put into an an induced coma straight away. so I I obviously don’t remember anything of of that. and but Rebecca’s told me afterwards. so she’s filled in the f filled in the filled in the blanks for me. and by that stage her husband thought it was a stroke. So she’s he said he said to the staff at the hospital, we think she’s having a stroke. And so yeah. So how long were you in the coma, do you know? Has somebody told you how long it was? Yeah, four four days. Four days, okay. And do you know what kind of stroke you had? Yep. I had a left Frontoparietal hemorrhagic stroke. Wow, that’s a good effort. So you had a brain bleed. Yep. Do they know what caused it? No. It was spontaneous and I didn’t have any of the risk factors. So I didn’t have high blood pressure, a history of high blood pressure, but admittedly I’d hadn’t tested my blood pressure immediately before the stroke. but you know That’s un that’s unlikely to be the cause. And I didn’t have a hi a history of high cholesterol. and so they just and I didn’t have an aneurysm and I didn’t have like what’s the other thing? The An AV AVM. AVM, yeah, I didn’t have any of that. And how old were you? Fifty six. Okay. So you had a spontaneous Bleed in the brain. That happens. People do have that happen from time to time. And sometimes they don’t have any symptoms leading up to it or anything like that. and this is the bizarre nature of like there’s an unlimited number of ways, unfortunately, for people to have a stroke. Now, you woke up in hospital four days later. What kind of deficits did you have? I couldn’t move my right side and I couldn’t speak. Okay. Now I’ve got an idea of well, I haven’t got an idea, but my mind immediately kind of says like if you’re in hospital in Bulgaria, that’s not a hospital in Melbourne. That’s not the Royal Melbourne hospital where no shit is unreal, like it’s perfect and it’s got the highest technology and it doesn’t matter how many things we can bitch and moan about the system being here like compared to Bulgaria, my expectation is that we’re world class. Perhaps that’s not the case in Bulgaria. Would you agree with that statement? I would have agreed before and my my my expat friends here would have agreed before, but now we’re all saying maybe Bulgaria is better than we thought. That’s brilliant. Awesome. Okay, so Rehabilitation Challenges in Bulgaria As far as like medical interventions and all that type of stuff, you felt like that was handled like any other world class hospital would have handled it. Yeah. In that in that s it in that stage it was. but there’s no like that was a public hospital and there’s no there’s no public funded rehab after. or or very li very little. So so that’s where that’s where Australia is ahead. So when you knew you had deficits, was there any rehabilitation whatsoever? Did you get any of that while you were still in hospital? Minimal. So the the physio came to see me twice. and so that’s so that’s all and I got no speech therapy and stuff like that. and but when I was discharged from the public hospital here and went and so they they expected me to go home from the public hospital. And so Guido said she just can’t like like what what the fuck? After how many days? After how many days, how long? Fourteen. Wow, your right side was still offline and you still had problem. Yeah. Okay. So we we just paid for paid for private rehab. got it, right. Yeah. And how long were you in private rehab for? another like two months or something like that. Right. Okay, that’s pretty cool. So i even though you couldn’t access it publicly, you were still able to Access a private now. Are you a citizen in Bulgaria? Not a citizen, a permanent resident. Okay. So do you have are you as a result of the fact that you’re a permanent resident and not a citizen, do you have different things that you are able to access because of your status? No. no. I’m it’s I have the same rights as a citizen. The only one the only right I don’t have is I’m I’m not able to vote here and I’m not I’m not able to work in other EU countries. Got it. Okay. So that’s pretty traumatizing, the whole experience, and then to have to deal with overcoming your left side and your speech deficits after the two month mark, roughly where were you at where you where you are now? Because you kinda sound pretty good. Okay. No, yeah. no and and the other thing the other thing that I must say about Bulgaria is I don’t speak Bulgarian. very very little. So that was a problem. Yeah. I can imagine, yeah. so maybe you can come in here, Nicole, and and talk about where I was at when you came to see me, because that was very very very early on in my in in the private rehab hospital. Yeah, Nicole, tell me a little bit about what it’s like to receive a phone call to find out that your friend has had a stroke. I was absolutely hellish. the way I found out is I got a message through social media from someone saying, Hey, I’m a friend of Kylie’s and she’s in hospital in Bulgaria. And one of my first horrible thoughts was, is this a dreadful hoax? Is someone, you know, is this some horrible scam? And it really, you know, it made me feel quite sick actually thinking this is that’s not someone I know. It does look like a name I’ve seen in Kylie’s kind of social media world. And then I rang her son who lives in Australia and he’s like, Yeah, I’m so sorry. I haven’t told you. Yes, it’s true, mum’s had a stroke. and I was kind of beside myself because by training I’m an occupational therapist, but Kylie and I have known each other each other since we were about 16. and it was really hard to get the information that I wanted as a friend, but also as a health professional. I was wanting to understand what kind of stroke is it? Where is it? What’s the rehab? What can we do? How’s it going? And at that stage the information that I had was that you know, it was really seriously affected the speech part of the brain and obviously the hemiplegia, the weakness down the right side and knowing that Kylie was right handed. so, you know, it’s the friendship part that your heart’s breaking and it’s also the therapist part that’s wanting the information to be able to, you know, reconcile it for myself, professionally what that was going to look like as a consequence for Kylie. Yeah, and you’re so far away, so you really can’t do anything and kind of have to like take information second hand, third hand, and be kind of in a position which is really uncomfortable for, I imagine, a friend, but also a therapist, right? So as an occupational therapist, that’s not the information you work on. You work on actual facts, scans, reports, like a whole bunch of things. So are you also playing it out in your mind? Are you kind of Doom thinking it, like are you how does it affect you personally? I think for me I was all I was really very conscious of not stressing other people. So like friends, family, because sometimes when you are a health professional, you know, you have knowledge and information and you know, you sometimes you you’re keeping that to yourself to some extent because you do know what can happen to people and you do know what consequences can be. So I was really trying not to ask too many questions of people as well. but I was seriously desperate for information. And so I remember I’d gone to a party and I didn’t really want to go because I was actually, you know, upset and stressed for Kylie. And I did end up going to a party and during the party I was really kind of outside having a bit of a downer really by a campfire. but I got a phone call or a message to say that I think you’d said some words, Kylie, and were kind of waking up. so you’re still in the acute hospital then and that you’d been able to move your leg a little bit, I think. Yeah. And you know, joy in that moment. And yeah, I felt very, very far away. And then What happens over the next few days? Like do you guys continue to communicate somehow? Do you keep getting information? Are you being updated? Yeah. Yeah. I wasn’t able to get my into my phone or my any of my devices. So I wasn’t able to able to because I couldn’t remember my password, right? And so and and I tried like d different ones and I you know I just got locked out. So and when I was able to get in then that made it it made it easier t because I was able just text short messages. So so Nicole and I kept in touch that way. and before English-speaking Before you came, Nicole, I think I was talking, but not not not as well as I am now. Yeah. So was it, Nicole, in your mind, you were always going to fly over to Bulgaria and beath your friend? Or did you guys have to work that out? Like what happened now? It’s so cool that you get to have a somebody in your corner that is also a Fred, but also a medical professional in the exact field that you’re struggling with now. Right. Like how do you just drop everything and go overseas and be with your friend? Yeah, well, very grateful that I had an up to date passport. So that was that was a good thing. Kylie, it was interesting because the texting, like if I go back and look at that history, it’s like you can see the progress in the texts. So you can see that Kylie was using kind of more single words and having struggles with spelling and putting sentences together. And then over time, you know, they became more fluent. but the thing that happened was that Kylie and I were talking and she was able to you know, she got some speech back and we were talking. And she was just saying about the rehab care that the the the kind of caring staff just seemed to have no rehab expertise. So the physios were amazing. I think they were great. There was no active speech therapy for Kylie. I think we ultimately found an English speaking speech therapist but who still had Bulgarian as a first language. And there’s very few occupational therapists in Bulgaria, seems to be some expats. And Kylie was talking to me a jab about just you know, really basic things like not being taken to the toilet. and that’s probably what broke my heart. It’s like I cannot leave her in bed, not being able to go to the toilet. I just can’t do it. And so I just said to my partner, I think I just need to go to Bulgaria. And luckily I’m self-employed. So I just kind of cleared my schedule, got on a plane and yeah, I was just I suppose I’m incredibly grateful to have the skill. incredibly grateful to have the financial ability to do it. and yeah, and the skills to do it. And you know, you don’t always get an opportunity in life to do the right thing, or sometimes you don’t make that decision and later you think, Why didn’t I do X, Y, and Z? I try not to live my life like that. I try to actually do those things. So, yeah, I got on a plane and basically arrived at the airport, got on a train straight out to see Kylie at the Rehope Hospital. You’re a real superhero. I’m very grateful to Nicole. Yeah. I rec you know, my story is kind of well, it has a similar kind of thread to it. I one of my best friends is a radiographer and he was a radiographer at the Royal Melbourne Hospital where I was a patient for nearly two and a half years because I was in and out with a number of brain hemorrhages. I had three in total in the same spot, but over two and a half years, then I had brain surgery. And I can’t tell you how many scans I had, but being a radiographer, he was the one who was in the room taking the photos through the MRI. Yeah. And then he would come out. And he would tell us what he saw in the RI, which was against the rules. that’s why I won’t name him. But but that meant that we didn’t have to wait a month to get our results and the the meeting for the results was just more of we’ll go through the process and and have the meeting. Yeah. And and and it was like and I regretted my life when at school I used to throw his books on the roof of the canteen just to mess with him going to s to class late to get in trouble. and I’ve apologised profusely for that and thanked him every day for the fact that, you know, he was able to lend his well, you know, he was able to be in the room. He was able to have that conversation with us and he was able to ease our minds. over that two and a half year period and then you won’t believe it. Like his daughter had an AVM at seventeen. And she went through that and and has recovered from that somewhat now in the last few years. and I got to be I mean I hate that I had to be this guy, but I got to be the guy that supported him through that really acute phase and There is just nothing to describe what it’s like to be able to a repay the favor. and then but B, when I was in that situation to have somebody kind of well, you know, like put their arm around me and really walk me through every stage. Me and my wife and my family walk us through every stage of that part of it, other than intervening as a brain surgeon. But he was the one that put us in char in in touch with my brain surgeon. like Everything that happened was just the most amazing experience to be able to be guided like that. And I know it’s a privilege and many people don’t get that opportunity. so I see Chris, I haven’t told him this in person. I see him as like a bit of a superhero, but he doesn’t know that. I’ve told him I love him in the way men tell each other that they love each other by s abusing him and swearing at him and telling him that the team that he follows is terrible and all that kind of stuff. Reflections on Healthcare Systems so you arrived in Bulgaria. take me from the airport to the hospital. Like what happens? How is that? Actually the flight was really good. Customs was pretty easy. There was some annoying folk in front of me who I wanted to punch in the face and tell them to hurry up, but I was just, you know, needed to to get there. Kylie’s daughter met me at the airport. And then we got the train together out to the hospital. So, you know, obviously I’m seeing my first sight of Bulgaria. I’d never been there before. so not really taking a tourist route at this point. so went out to see Kylie. And, you know, when you just eyeball someone and I, you know, just thank God I’m here, I’m in front of her. Her she’d had a shaved head. she had some pretty spectacular surgical scars, a couple of very big scabs still on her head. she looked skinny, she looked pale, she had started doing a little bit of movement and the hospital room was really kind basic and crazy. Her friends had funded a pressure mattress for her that didn’t exist. And some of these things I had been liaising with Kylie’s friends in Bulgaria about what could we do, how you know, what do we want to prevent? So we want to prevent anyone pulling on from. Her weak shoulders and like don’t let anyone pull her by the arm. this is how I want, you know, to help her with posture in bed or in sitting. and you know, like speaking in single kind of actions at a time and just take your time, say something, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Just allow Kylie’s brain to, you know, take that information on board. Don’t speak for her. and when I got there, it was really clear that. She had an inattention to the right hand side as an effect from the stroke. So then I was a bit of a ball breaker, rearranging the whole room. No, no, no, no, no. Where, you know, everyone come from the right, everyone sit on the right. no cutler, you’re not allowed to have your phone in your left hand, you’re having your phone in your right hand. I’d taken some things with me from Australia to Bulgaria that I thought she might need. like some built-up cutlery, because I wanted her to use her right hand to feed herself. I took a couple of kind of activities that I thought we could do to look at some retraining for the right arm. what I’ll still bring with me, try to remember now. Benjamin. So yeah, just try kind of going into early stroke rehab principles. Yeah. Did you go there well you went there as a friend. But when you were there, were you able to be a professional and also have a conversation with the local team? Kylie and I laughing. Do you want to tell that story, Kylie? Which one are you thinking about? Where I got told off. No, I don’t remember that. well, Kylie was in act like, you know, there was still quite a lot of weakness, but she was also so determined for her own rehab. And in the system there their carers really don’t have a rehab focus. They have a I’ll provide you a meal focus and I’ll occasionally do some cleaning and I’ll occasionally change the bed linen and but really not a rehab focus. So I’ve personally found it quite easy to help Kylie to like stand move. And so the very first weekend I was there, it was a long weekend and what I didn’t realise later was that they were actually quite understaffed. Which worked in our favour because I was helping Kylie to get onto a shower chair, taking her to have a shower, us taking her to the toilet, because prior to that time they were just, you know, using pads for toileting because Kylie couldn’t stand up or move on her own. And because I’m trained, I found it very easy. She’s a lightweight person and she and I just work together and I could do that. I think it was the Tuesday, person who I refer to as Nurse Ratchet. remembering now kind of intercepted me bringing Kylie back from the bathroom to her room and just like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. What are you doing? Stop that, stop that, stop that. and you know, she and I are having a bit of a a discussion. And basically she’s refused and I’m allowed to move Kylie. So Kylie is sitting out in the corridor. I think I’d luckily kind of covered you up for privacy. and she’s like, No, you’re not allowed to move her. I’m gonna go and get the physio. I think at least forty minutes went by and then she comes back, well, okay, and I said, Look, I am a trained person, it’s easy, it’s safe. no, I’ll think about it. And then after I think another fifteen minutes she pushed your chair into the bedroom. And then I think it was probably another fifteen minutes where she just decided to move Kylie herself at that point. even though that was out of policy and the physios had to do it. And then it was all this discussion with me that you can’t do it. And in the end it was you can’t do it because you’re a woman. Not strong enough, you know. so yeah. Then Kylie and I kind of would go on clandestine missions because again, from a rehab point of view, being able to stand transfer, it’s putting all the weight through the leg, it’s giving feedback to the brain. I really wanted to make sure Kylie’s bladder and bowel were gonna work properly. And you know, sitting in bed and that’s just not ideal. So then Kylie’s like, Nicole, I want to go to the toilet. I was like, I’m banned, I’m banned, Mother Nurse Ratchet, I’m not allowed to take you. And I was like, shit. So I would go on a little mission, go look down the corridor, make sure she was nowhere to be seen. And then I quickly stole the shower chair and then I found a bucket. And so Kylie and I were doing secret Wii missions in the bedroom. until w on one of our missions I just hadn’t quite got the bucket in the right place. And so then I it was also then later on a cleaning mission. So it was it was a pretty crazy environment. yeah, just for that lack of t whole team approach to rehab. Whereas, you know, in Australia the nurses would all be rehab trained. They would be transferring someone physios would come in, speech would be coming, OTs would be coming. So I was kind of desperately trying to convince Kylie or to get her rehab to a standard where she’d be able to come back to Australia to get some more rehab. You know what’s good about this conversation other than the hilarious nature of it also is that I as an as a person who hadn’t had a stroke before my hadn’t known anyone who had a stroke before my experience, if I had come across somebody who had had a stroke, I wouldn’t have known what to look out for and what to say to support them in a situation where perhaps something was being neglected. Because I don’t know what I don’t know. I’m not a professional, right? Just like those nurses and therapists that weren’t specifically trained. Yeah. In certain things. I mean, you may as well be not only talking a different language, but you may as well be making it up as you go because as far as they know, now this is what we do for stroke patients. This is how we handle that. is it a lack of understanding of what r stroke rehabilitation requires, or is it a lack of resources, or is it a little bit of both? Do you feel in Bulgaria when you were there? I think I think it’s a lack of of all all of that but it’s the lack of maybe money. So it’s a lack of training. So th there’s there’s not enough there’s not the the nurses or the orderlies or whatever they’re called here, are are aren’t paid very much. So they so And t just like, even though I was in a private rehab hospital, so you would have expected that more. It’s you would have expected more, but I just think that they just don’t have the money to to train those people. Yeah. it wasn’t really a role, was it, Kylie? Like they really were more like housekeepers in a sense. It was more like cleaning a meals. I have to say the physios were excellent. and a lot of the physios had good English as well, which was for your rehab was so important. because again a lot of the carers they would come into the room and you know, again, just from a speech therapy point of view, in Australia, say if someone came into the room who was the person who did the menus or filled up the water bottles or the cleaners, Kyler could have spoken to all of those people and had   incidental communication the whole day in English. But because of all of those p incidental people coming in didn’t speak English, you know, reasonably in Bulgaria. it just for me, I was worried about the lack of just exposure to English language as well. So not even speech therapy, just incidental language through the day. Which is very helpful and people don’t realise how helpful it is to be able to speak to a nurse about how you’re feeling or what’s happening. Yeah. And all the usual stuff. And Kylie’s chatty and friendly and she would have just been having conversations galore, but it just it it it couldn’t be. Yeah. Yeah, it’s another another barrier. so you know when you go overseas, it’s your friend and you’re a professional. How do you handle that? Because you know, like are you emotional? Are you trying to put a lid on it? Are you allowing yourself to Gonna be emotional. How does that work? We had some killer laughs, didn’t we? I mean, I’m a joker anyway. And so, like the first time Kylie got to do a poo on the toilet, I just did a poo dance for her. So I I felt half my job was you know, cheering her up and keeping it light and having fun and chatting about stuff we would just always chat about. as well as doing as much rehab because it was very exhausting because, you know, p after a stroke, it’s very fatiguing. you know, so to Kylie was really tired and needed lots of rest. So and because I had just you know, obviously dropped tools to go over quickly, I was just working sometimes. So I just have my computer and if Kylie was asleep I’d just stay with her and and her partner Guido as well, who was there with her as well. So just, you know, emotional support wise. But Yeah, I do some work. And I stayed in Kylie’s apartment. So I w was I just stayed at her place and I I train out to see her each day at the hospital. W how many hours would you spend in hospital with her? What do you think, Kylie? you would often arrive at like ten in the morning and you wouldn’t go till like five in the evening or six in the evening. Yeah. So technically visiting hours kind of finished at six. So I just try and stay most of the day. A full shift. Yeah. Yeah. Unpaid. Unpaid labour. Slave driver. Yeah. yeah. But nah. That’s what friends are for. I very what I very much wanted to stay the whole day because I did really, really wanna like especially the toileting thing. I just really wanted that. Setting Goals and Achievements I had this bit of a goal for myself for Kylie that she would be able to take herself to the toilet before I left the country. So just from a dignity point of view, from a mobility point of view, transfers, you know, bladder control. So yeah, that was one of my big goals. And she rang me when I was in transit at Dubai Airport on my way back to Australia and said, Nicole, I just took myself to the toilet. Wow, that’s cool. Yeah. Yeah. And and I was having physio two physio sessions a d a wi a day. So I was having other than Nicole. So I was having like about one session about of about an hour in the morning and one session of about an hour in the in the afternoon. Got it. You Kylie seem like pretty mm chill, pretty calm. how are you handling it though, emotionally? How’s the aftermath Treating you because there’s a little bit of you know, there’s all that acute stuff. It’s awesome when your friend is there, but then your friend goes home, right? So how how does that transition kind of happen? Yeah, I might start crying. because I’ve just recently spent seven months in Australia. So I I went to Australia in October last year and I came back in just in May. and I had more rehab there. So I had I had student led rehab at at first and then I got in got accepted into Birch, which is the brain injury rehab community and home in Ad in Adelaide. so that’s that is is a whole team of people. So I had I had physio and I and a occupational therapist and a a e exercise physiologist and a speech therapist and stuff like that so I th that’s really good. now the most frustrating part for me is the aphasia so I I can’t I can’t express myself like I used to. Yeah. You know what I love about interviewing people who have aphasia is when they say I can’t in a sentence to describe something to me it triggers the part of the condition which doesn’t allow the words to come out. It’s so interesting. That happens so so often. And it’s just a for me, I noticed this I’m saying it just from a perspective is maybe I can’t is not the right word. I don’t know. You might remember this, you might not, but maybe I can’t is not the right word. Maybe the right word is Something that helps you get to the word that you need to get to. And okay, now that’s just me, the uneducated stroke survivor on a phasia guy. Like I don’t know about that. But it’s so interesting, it happens every time. but then Nicole goes home, you go home, your partner is kind of now taking over the caregiving role, and you still have some deficits. phage is one of them. what about your right side? How offline was it? I I also moved in with Guido after the after the stroke. So so that was that was a has was ha was and has continues to be a challenge because we’re still getting used to living together because we weren’t living together before. and I was very in very independent before. And I was living in Sofia and he and he and I now live in a in a village. So I live in in a village just outside of Sofia. And I’m not driving yet. but I was medically cleared to drive in Australia before I left. So I’m going through the process here. so anyway, all of all of those things together make it very challenging. don’t get me wrong, I I l I love him, but but you know, and and I d and and I made that decision because my apartment is was was on the fourth floor and th there was no lift. Wow. Yeah. So back to your question. When I was when I was when I came here, when I was discharged, I continued with as an outpatient and and the physio continued to come at home twice a week. So I was having more physio maybe like five times a week. and like it were ha had started to come my right side had was all already back online, but I would I was just working on building strength and and I would get still very tired. Yeah. And did your daughter end up coming to live with you as well? No. but she she at the beginning she she was my next of kin. So at the ripe old age of nineteen, she signed the consent to operate forms. yeah, so that was that was very difficult for her. I didn’t know that at the time, obviously. but yeah. And did that happen, did she become your next of kin because your former partner, her dad, and you had separated and then his that role wasn’t gonna be his anymore. It’s just passed down to the person who was the closest to you. Like how did that happen? Family Dynamics and Support Systems We’re divorced. I I’m divorced from her dad. Yeah. So he’s definitely not my next kin. Right. So that ha changed after the divorce and she was the only person you could nominate because she was over is there an age limit to the next of kin? Eighteen. Yeah. Okay. So she had hit that criteria, you nominated her and then at nineteen she got to make a decision. Which she never and you never would have expected ever for that to be a thing. I didn’t nominate her, it would just happen. So I was I I was unconscious at the time that she signed those forms. So yeah. So my friends actually contacted her. and she she rushed to the hospital. so it was all under duress. It was like this is what happened to your mum, you’re her Next of kin, whether you like it or not, you have to decide. Yeah. Far out. Okay, that’s pretty full on for a 19 year old. Yeah. Yeah, seems like she did a good job. How did she handle this whole mum’s not well situation, this stroke thing? Like how did she deal with it? she was very good. my first memory actually is of her coming into the ICU with with the with the whole, you know, the whole like the the hairnet and the mask and the and the and the what’s it called the scrubs. Scrubs, yeah. and she held my hand and said t that she loved me. so that was pretty special. And incidentally I have an a another memory of Guido coming into the ICU as well and singing singing to me. So he he said that he said that I always wanted him to sing and he refused before. And so did did I want him to sing to me now? And I squeezed his hand or on the on the left he’s was holding my left hand and I squeezed his hand and so he knelt down beside my bed and started singing. Wow. Can he actually hold the tune or is he hard to hear? Yes, see he’s he’s very musical. Okay. Thank God. If my wife had asked me to sing a w if I had asked my wife to sing, it wouldn’t have been a good experience at all for either of us. Yeah, he was he was a busker in i in his younger years. Yeah. and now he decided to come good. Fair enough. Well that that’s important. You know, things like that are important. It lightens the the mood and it makes Yeah. You kind of feel like your family’s around and that you know you know, maybe kind of things might be all right. Like it gives that glimmer of hope. Is that how you received it? Yeah, I did. yeah, but I’m also very, very determined. So I’m a I’m a very normally very strong woman and so everyone said to me that if if well not to me, but w we had a we had a group WhatsApp chat so and I was added to it later and everyone said in that that if anyone can get through this, Kylie can. Yeah. So you know when you’re told you’ve had a stroke, you wake up with all the deficits and everything. Are you like how do you take it? I woke up, couldn’t use my left side. I I did not for one minute. It did not cross my mind like for one minute that this is not a good thing. Like I mean, clearly I wasn’t able to move, etcetera. But it never kinda went a lifesaver, I’m fucked. Like I never had that happen. Me as well. yeah. I I’d I’ve never thought that. I don’t know whether I even thought that It was n like you said, that was not a good thing. I just put one foot in front of the other and or not literally, but the Yeah. Metaphorically. Yeah. Metaphorically. so one foot in front of the other and just got on with it. Yeah. Nicole, like you come across in your work, you come across a lot of different versions of patience, right? Like you get people who might just be by design more negative to a bad experience and then people that are half class full to a bad experience. Just from a professional perspective, what’s the difference like when you’re trying to rehabilitate somebody that has kind of that different mindset? From perhaps what Kylie and I described. Yeah, I mean I’m probably in the last half full camp as well. So as an OT, I suppose we always meet people where they’re at. because everyone is a combination of their past experiences, aren’t they? So and cultural things, like there’s a very significant cultural differences in how people respond to pain or disability and expectations of kind of family and I suppose cultural expectations in Australia are even about you know, what what what should be publicly available. So, you know, from an expectations point of view, I think a lot of it is based on, you know, previous experience. So as a therapist, we’re obviously there to support, you know, emotional well being, physical well being, and try and find the things for people that connect with them. So meaningful, like OTs are our absolute core is meaningful occupation. So how do we find something that’s meaningful to that person that we think is going to get them from kind of, you know, here to there and it’s gonna be very different different motivators, you know. Kylie is probably, you know, very self motivated as described. Sometimes it’s about people really have a d strong desire to get back to work, or people have a really strong family structure that they want to be able to get back to do something with their family. So finding the way or the thing hopefully that’s going to motivate them. But we certainly work with people who you know, have a high level of distress from what’s happened to them and and on an ongoing basis. One of the things I’ve got a little quote on my desk that you can’t see here, but it says, I’m still me, just a different version of me. And it’s what someone one of my clients told me recently who has MS. and often we find need to find the new version of someone. and the new meaning for someone if that, you know, needs to happen. So that’s our great challenge, I suppose. That’s a big job, especially very early on when identity is so tied up into who they were literally days ago. You know, like a week ago. The mobile person, the working person, the money making person, the father, the mother, the whatever. Finding Meaning in Recovery And then, you know, you’re dealing with a physical crisis, the existential crisis, the identity crisis, like you’re dealing with it all in the one moment, and you’re trying to get them to sort of see, well, you know, you’re still you and how we’re gonna move forward with the still you person, like we’re still gonna move forward with that person. And then later does come an adjustment of what that you looks like. did for me like it’s a massive adjustment into what me looks like. But my identity wasn’t so much tied up in a one label specifically, although, you know, I s I was the person who felt like they needed to be the main breadwinner, you know, that you know ran a business that did all these things. I I had a big strong identity. But I think one of the things this is going to sound weird or might even sound logical depending on like w who you are and why you’re listening to this podcast. But for me, the fact that my brain went offline was a really good thing because it and that allowed my emotional side to come to the fore. Like it really enabled me to see things with a different intelligence, you know, and access part of me that my emotional intelligence perhaps that I hadn’t that I perhaps suppressed previously, you know, and just battled through things. And that kind of allowed my identity to come with me, it allowed me to leave some stuff behind and allowed me to bring into my identity this emotional side of me, you know, which who cried, who got excited about new and different opportunities, you know, that my head didn’t convince me out of. You know, so there was a lot of silver linings that I didn’t I wasn’t able to iterate back then. I wouldn’t have been able to tell you that it was a silver lining. But now and a few years later, after it all happened, I was definitely able to talk about those silver linings. Kylie Do you you’re fourteen months or so out, right? So maybe you’re not there yet, I don’t know. But are there some silver and I know a hundred percent Nicole was one of those silver linings, I get it. but do you see some silver linings in this whole saga? Yep. I do. my relationship with my daughter got stronger. Yep. So that was all s that was definitely a silver lining. and you know, I I’m was very grateful before, but it cemented how g how grateful I am for my circle of friends. Yeah. Kylie’s friends were amazing. Yeah. Your friends were amazing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Big family still in Australia is is there a big family in Australia, Kylie? Not not a big one, but my mum and dad are still still alive. So they’re they’re in Melbourne. and my sister is in on the Gold Coast and my brother is in Melbourne as well. Yeah. And my and my son is in Adelaide. Okay. So you still have some family here, but then you were able to create a community in the years before the stroke in Bulgaria. Yeah. you you were doing it a little bit tough after the stroke. Yeah. Correct. Yep. So that’s spot on. Did you Nicole tag team with some of those people as well? Yeah, so Kylie’s friends were beautiful and they were looking after me too. So When I was in Bulgaria, they were looking after me, you know, giving me dinner and what have you, and kind of giving me emotional support as well. And I think they were grateful that I was there from a skills point of view, like they were doing a beautiful job of supporting Kylie emotionally. But and I did kind of train them up a little bit in in some rehab as well, you know, how to help with approaching from the right and how to communicate and also just even doing some activities. Kylie and I had the balloon and we were tapping it back and forward to each other for strengthening up the right arm. And then we’d play some kind of word games as we were doing that for some speech therapy. So I was educating her friends around that kind of stuff. But the other thing, Kylie, that you and I have spoken about is, you know, after the stroke is knowing what’s important and how to let some sh shit go that would have been, you know, annoying or you know. focus on something and now it’s just you you just know it’s just not important. Yeah. Being able to just let crap go. Correct correct. and the other silver lining is that I got engaged. Yes. Did he propose soon after? Yes, in the in the rehab hospital. what a romantic Yeah. But he but he said that he’d already decided before the stroke that he wanted to marry be ma be married to me. So he just hadn’t got around to asking me yet. Yeah, fair enough. That stroke has a way of interrupting people’s plans and the things that they think they’re gonna do. so Nicole you normally treat your patients. They get to a stage. Usually they’re a lot better than they were when they first met you. And part of what you do is you send them off into the big wide world like a kid. I’ve grown you know, I’ve raised them, you know, like they know how to comb their hair now. And you kinda send them off and it’s kind of bittersweet, I imagine, but also a very important part that the people who you’re helping get better actually go off into the world on their own. And stop needing to be supported by you. I know there’s some people who need more support and that continues for longer and some people who don’t get enough and it and it’s never enough. But what’s it like knowing the job is not done, but you still have to leave and go home? that was heartache. I mean, Kylie and I both balled our lies out. it was a long flight home. Yeah. Yeah, it was a long flight home. with lots of reflections. I suppose the good thing at that point was Kylie was easily able to speak on the phone or message each other. So and also, you know, I think at that stage maybe I got to see the brain scan and I was just like, my god, how have you even survived this? ‘Cause I think was it about a seven centimeter bleed, Kylie? Yep. seven and a half. Yeah. To be precise. It truly felt like a a miracle. And again, full kudos to the surgeons in Bulgaria, truly, for that acute care. Because I think Kylie, I feel like you were in surgery in about within about two hours or something after the stroke, which is phenomenal. And, you know, your friends really saved your life. taking you straight to the hospital and prevented like, you know, more serious outcomes from the stroke. So yeah, so for me, I was proud of myself as well. and I, you know, I like to live my life by thinking I can look myself in the mirror. And I felt like I can really I’ve got a tear, really look myself in the mirror. Yeah. Doing the right thing. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You came to the need of somebody who was in need and needed specifically not only your love and support as a friend, but also your skills. Like you had the complete package for them at that time. How long did you end up staying in total? Was I ra away about just under two weeks probably with the flights and everything like that? So yeah. so yeah, leaving was leaving was horrible. But the goal of being able to go to the toilet was met. and also just the skills for, you know, skilled up a few other people and Kylie, you know, had her good networks. I also went out to Kylie’s property out in the village to have a look at any home modifications. So that was another kind of OT type role that that was done. and she’s got an amazing property out there, but it is kind of needs a bit of love and so that was also just reassuring her partner too, like reassuring Guido that no, look, Kylie’s got this. There were a few times where it was like, Nicole, I don’t want her to do this. Like I’m like Guido, she’s safe. She can do it. She’s got sitting balance. She’s okay to sit over the side of the bed. She can wiggle sideways. But he was anxious. And so again, part of my job was to reassure him to make sure that he let her do things. and didn’t step in too quickly. And so as an O T, we’re all used to like sitting on our hands and taking time and letting people struggle a bit. And it was hard for him to let Kylie struggle. So to just encourage him to let her struggle a bit so that she could do it herself and just wait. Just take the time, especially with communication. so yeah, I I kind of obviously knew there was a lot more rehab to be done, but I also had seen Kylie’s determination and that, you know, she kind of knew what to do. and and so that was I I was grateful again for that. Kylie, what was it like when your friend had to leave? I was heartbroken. The Impact of Caregiving I felt like she was a lifeline and I felt like that that had been cut because obviously she speaks English and obviously like Obviously we have a really good relationship. and I felt like I was in a like how do I describe it? In a in a sea of not n of people not understanding. So yeah, not my friends, but the hospital staff, basically. So not the not the physios. Like Nicole said, the physios were exceptional. but, you know, just the hospital staff. Yeah, just generally speaking. So did you feel like she had put you on the right path? Were you more confident with kind of where she left you as opposed to where you guys started and was that enough to kind of give you the foundation for what you needed to take responsibility for when she left? Definitely. yeah, definitely. Yeah. Man, w what a kind of interesting whole situation. You know, if this was fifty years ago, there’s no way anyone’s going anywhere to help anyone with anything. you know, like your hospital s experience in country like Bulgaria after what they’ve been through would have been completely different. You know, your s the chance of surviving telling your story is probably s you know, very much decreased. I know this is gonna sound weird, but like it’s never been a better time to have a stroke in in most of the world. Like let’s face it. the the possibilities are just endless. I’m a miracle from all the medical professionals that put all their time and effort in. I am eternally grateful to my occupational therapists and physios and surgeons and people who invent X ray machines and people who make C T scanners and The plastic bottles where drips go in, like every single thing is just an an absolute miracle of God or medicine or science or I don’t care what, like whatever you want to call it. And it just to me, it you know, here’s a really terrible situation and here and and but look at all the amazing things that came out of it. Somebody from the other side of the planet to be able to come over and intervene in that way, train people up. Like, man, it’s the Perfect like feel good story, you know. Everything’s going okay, things turn shit, and then something good comes out of it and yeah hopefully there’s more good to come, you know. Like, man, it’s just an amazing experience. I just feel really privileged to be able to hear it and share it further. No, not not not me, personally. but now that you say that I will s I will think about it now. the most thing that that Nicole and I reflect on is, you know, like like we’ve already said, how good was that my friends got me to the hospital quickly? How good was the the surgeons the surgeons because it could have all gone wrong. or gone gone a different way. so that’s the stuff we reflect on more. and just just like my amazing recovery. Reflections on Recovery and Gratitude Because I recovered so quickly and so well, like I’ve thrown everyone away here. So so my new my neurologist, my my physios, ever everyone here is like well, back then was like really surprised. So we it’s when I first walked into the n neurologist, she said, like, wow, No one expected you to recover that quickly from such a severe stroke. Yeah. That’s such a good outcome. I like to I like to think that those things wouldn’t have been possible without your most amazing superhero friend Nicole. Nicole, your final thing I’d like to kind of run by you is that your whole career you’re working towards making things better. Yep. Like for people who are going through all really difficult times. have you had you ever dealt with a family member who needed your intervention or family friend or someone like that that needed an intervention with your specific skills before this? man. yes. So when I was quite a young therapist, probably in my early twenties, my dad told me that his One of his like great aunts or cousins elderly relative had had a stroke and she was in hospital and I didn’t really know her. Like she wasn’t someone in the family that I I had knew had known. And I said to Dad, I’ll go and visit her in hospital. And and so I went to the hospital and I found out she was in this room and I walk into the room and there were four people. And I see this gorgeous little old lady who is all crumpled in her chair and squashed and nearly falling out. And I I just walked in and I was horrified. And I just walked straight over to her. And I just said, look, can I help get you more comfortable, get you into a better position? And then I realized it was it was my own relative. and I said to her, I’m Nicole, I’m John’s daughter. you know, dad’s asked me to come and see you. And and she just said the most cutest thing ever. She said, when you walked into the room. You just look so lovely and I hoped you were here to see me, but I I wouldn’t have known what I could have done to deserve that or something something dead cute. anyway, she’d had a very dense stroke and they were basically saying that she wasn’t a candidate for rehab and that she should go straight to a nursing home. And her daughter was a nurse. And she said, Nope, Mum’s not going to a nursing home and she ended up taking her home and I used to go every night after work and do rehab with her. she ended up being able to walk quite with a pretty awkward gait and a and a stick. but she got back to, yeah, walking and living at home and I just again always think that if she didn’t have her daughter, the nurse and myself, she probably would have ended up not not walking. Yeah, being in a nursing home. It’s not that quality of life. So there’s people who definitely go through that. And what I love about you sharing that part of the story is there’s people listening and they’re paying attention and maybe they haven’t been given the amount of therapy that they feel they deserve or need. And maybe that’s going to trigger people to go, you know what, stuff this, I’m gonna find a way to get more therapy, I’m gonna ask. I’m gonna hassle some people, I’m gonna be a pain in the butt to some people, I’m gonna do more. for myself to get me further. I love that you shared that part of the story. That’s kind of the unique experience that a that a a seasoned occupational therapist can kind of impart on us who are early on in the recovery about like how you need to advocate for somebody or yourself for more physical therapy. And and even if you Can’t access that people listening and watching YouTube channels. Go to YouTube. There are a ton of awesome therapists on YouTube showing people how to do exercises at home. Yeah. And I mean, I just took some really basic things. We s I, you know, stole some things out of Kylie’s flat to take in. And Guido’s son gave me some toys and we use those like stacking things to, you know, do rehab with Kylie’s hand. I took some pegs from her house and we made an activity of pegging up the curtains to do shoulder and arm rehab. So you can often do a lot without, yo

Welcome to podcast 424. On this program, we're going to feature a new track sent to us by Email by Steve at Jangle Wave. Then, I go and give you new material by Kitka. We'll have other stuff too.Set 1:Steve Skabrat I Lost My Walkman 02:56Kitka Awakening 06:11Kitka Transformation 04:11Kitka To The Lake 04:17Set 2:Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Collage of Koleda Carols (Bulgarian) 03:02Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Mze shina da mze gareta (Georgian) 02:36Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Kur bijāti ziemassvētki (Latvian) 03:06Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble V hospodaron'ka (Ukrainian) 02:35Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Bel veter due (Bulgarian) 01:33Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble A gute vokh (Yiddish) 05:15Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Loomine (Estonia) 04:53Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Ruotā, ruotā (Latvia) 05:27Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Veni Sancte Spiritus (Corsica) 04:09Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Bat'onebis Nanina (Georgia) 03:23Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Oj, jak že bulo, izpreždy vika (Ukraine) 04:48Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Cradle Song (Russian Jewish) 03:35Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Haidi Nani (Romanian) 02:32Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Three Armenian Lullabies (Armenian) 05:01Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Kakhuri Nana (Georgian) 04:09Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Slow to the Dawn (American) 06:50Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Kenge Djepi (Albanian) 02:53Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Lale Li Si, Zjumbjul Li Si, Gjul Li Si (Bulgarian) 05:52Kitka Women's Vocal Ensemble Nani, Nani, Kitka Mou (International) 02:19Set 3"Ensemble Libro Primo Sonata Prima (Giovanni Buonaventura Viviani) 06:48Ensemble Libro Primo Sonata Quarta 'Per sonar con due corde' (Biagio Marini) 07:54Ensemble Libro Primo Toccata 7 (Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger) 02:05Ensemble Libro Primo Prelude 1 (Johannes Hieronymus Kapsberger) 00:44Ensemble Libro Primo Sonata IV 'Darstellung im Tempel' (Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber von Bibern) 07:05Ensemble Al Asdeka La Roza Linda-Ensemble Al 04:13Ensemble Al Asdeka Deceived-Ensemble Al 03:26Ensemble Al Asdeka Twilight on the Nile-Ensemble Al 03:22Ensemble Al Asdeka Dance of the Tamir Agha-Ensemble Al 04:40Ensemble Al Asdeka Flute Taqsim remix-Ensemble Al 02:29Set 4:Allen Cote Burning Man 02:56Allen Cote Chapel Hill Waltz 06:18Allen Cote Monday Morning 02:23Allen Coté Monday Morning 02:20Allen Coté Conservative Lament 05:18Allen Coté Gonzo 03:01Allen Coté La Muerta de las Cucarachas 06:54Set 5:Steve Roach Underground Clouds 05:05Steve Roach Walking Upright 06:50Steve Roach The Holy Dirt 07:30Steve Roach The Return 08:22This will complete today's program. Thanks so much for listening!

In this episode, Jordan and Mike say our final goodbye the podcast world as we know it.We hope you enjoy this episode and if you'd like to join us in The Online Fitness Business Mentorship, you can grab your seat at https://www.fitnessbusinessmentorship.comThank you!-J & MWATCH this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/wPQoEBiyrvMTIMESTAMPS:(00:00) — Intro(00:11) — We've got a BIG announcement(08:16) — Make this your new fat loss dessert(11:18) — Mike's new fitness focus(17:48) — Nothing beats supportive siblings(20:09) — The BEST way to perform Bulgarian split squats(23:35) — Why we hate creatine(26:29) — How long it takes to lose muscle on a layoff (& the psychology of muscle loss)(32:16) — Something happens when you hit 30...(36:19) — Productivity lies & how having kids fixes everything (/s)(38:46) — Olive oil and fat loss(41:32) — The ONE fruit we'd eat for the rest of our life(44:37) — The great weighted vest debate wages on(49:58) — Daily footwear recommendations(51:05) — Thanks for listening! See you in a couple weeks!Follow the show on social:YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@personaltrainerpodcastInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/personaltrainerpodcastTikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@personaltrainerpodcastJoin our email list & get our FREE '30 Ways To Build A Successful Online Coaching Business' manual: https://bit.ly/30O2l6pCheck out our book 'Eat It!' at https://www.amazon.com/Eat-It/dp/0008543046If you have any questions you'd like to have answered on the show, shoot us an email at info@fitnessbusinessmentorship.comIf you enjoyed the episode, we would sincerely appreciate it if you left a five-star review.----Post-Production by: David Margittai | In Post MediaWebsite: https://www.inpostmedia.comEmail: david@inpostmedia.com© 2026 Michael Vacanti & Jordan Syatt

James Hollis, Ph.D., was born in Springfield, Illinois. He graduated from Manchester University in 1962 and Drew University in 1967. He taught humanities at various colleges and universities for 26 years before retraining as a Jungian analyst at the Jung Institute of Zürich, Switzerland, from 1977 to 1982. He is currently a licensed Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. He served for many years as Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center in Houston, Texas, and was Executive Director of the Jung Society of Washington until 2019. He now serves on the Jung Society of Washington's Board of Directors. He is a retired Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, was the first Director of Training at the Philadelphia Jung Institute, and is Vice President Emeritus of the Philemon Foundation. Additionally, he helped create the Jungian Studies program at Saybrook University in California, where he served as a professor. He lives with his wife, Jill—an artist and retired therapist—in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Together, they have three living children and eight grandchildren. He has written a total of 23 books, which have been translated into Swedish, Russian, German, Spanish, French, Hungarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian, Korean, Finnish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Farsi, Japanese, Greek, Chinese, Serbian, Latvian, Ukrainian, Czech, Estonian, and Arabic. Topics Discussed In This Episode: Exploring loneliness, isolation, and solitude (00:03:48) James's journey into Jungian Psychoanalysis (00:09:36) Navigating life's forks: decisions and changes (00:15:18) Understanding the face of suffering (00:19:03) Discipline in creative practices (00:33:23) Understanding and embracing anxiety (00:37:59)  Facing childhood fears and emotional growth (00:43:43) The significance of dreams in self-discovery (00:46:27) Finding meaning throughout life's journey (00:52:10) artistdecoded.com jameshollis.net

Get your learning gifts for the month of August 2026

In 1986, Oggy Boytchev made a split-second decision that would change his life forever. Sent to Egypt by a Bulgarian shipping company, he seized an unexpected opportunity to escape communist Bulgaria, boarding a flight to London and claiming political asylum at Heathrow. In this 2nd episode with Oggy, he recounts details of his extraordinary escape to becoming a broadcaster with the BBC World Service. He describes the emotional impact of leaving his family behind, the pride his father felt hearing his son's voice broadcasting back into Bulgaria, and the dramatic events that followed the collapse of communism. Episode one is here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode465/ Oggy also takes us inside the Bulgarian section of the BBC, where the memory of murdered dissident Georgi Markov still lingered. He reveals stories of another mysterious death linked to the section, recalls interviewing KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky about Markov's assassination, and reflects on later encounters with spies, intelligence chiefs and world leaders during a distinguished BBC career alongside John Simpson. Oggy's latest novel, 'The Istanbul Connection ', is a gripping, morally complex thriller that explores the blurred lines between ideology and manipulation Enter the book giveaway here ⁠ https://coldwarconversations.com/giveaway1/⁠ Check outOggy's books here ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://amzn.to/4wyGHjT⁠⁠ Curated episode extras ⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode466/ Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation, You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION o BlueSky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Threads ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Twitter/X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Facebook ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Youtube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

learn 20 high-frequency expressions, including words for fast food and common hobbies

El mundo en Sofía y un final arabesco The world in Sofia and an arabesque finale Repasamos las muy interesantes jornadas del reciente festival A to Jazz, celebrado en Sofía, la capital búlgara, especialmente la primera jornada del mismo, dedicada a presentaciones o showcases de artistas de muy diversos parajes, en una estupenda selección en la que la mundófona Araceli Tzigane tuvo bastante que ver, ya que fue miembro del jurado de selección. Las músicas nos traen sones italo-balcánicos, anatolios, del sur de la India, de La Reunión, de la Barcelona mestiza, rebelde y cumbianchera, de Hungría, Portugal y Bulgaria, además de un encuentro franco-sudafricano. Terminamos anticipando, a ritmo de gnawa electrificado, el próximo festival Arabesques de Montpellier, Francia. We review the very interesting sessions of the recent A to Jazz festival, held in Sofia, the Bulgarian capital, especially its first day, devoted to showcases by artists from very diverse places, in an excellent selection in which Mundofonías' Araceli Tzigane had quite a hand, as she was a member of the selection jury. The music brings us Italian-Balkan, Anatolian and South Indian sounds, as well as from Réunion, from multicultural, rebellious and cumbianchera Barcelona, from Hungary, Portugal and Bulgaria, along with a French-South African encounter. We end by anticipating, to the rhythm of electrified gnawa, the upcoming Arabesques festival in Montpellier, France. – Nubras Ensemble - Dert - Nubras – Zelişah & Mustafa - Köylü kızı - Köylü kızı – Uma Ranganathan - Swaminatha pariapalaya - [sin álbum especificado] – Zenfan Kabaré - Son palto - Dan mon kèr – Cholo Chicha - Sin trabajo - Cholo – Marthe & Pilani Bubu - Asifani - Nay' indaba – Bianka Haidu - Prophecies - Brave enough – Cristina Clara - Novo fado da melancia - Lua adversa – Victoria Kirilova - Travelling light - Roots & skies – Samifati & Transe Gnawa Express - Mimoun saad yamou - Transe gnawa express  Zelişah & Mustafa, A to Jazz Festival 2026 ( Juan Antonio Vázquez)

This podcast is made possible by our listeners and viewers. If this show has brought you value, you can support it by becoming a member of The Way Forward, our platform designed to help you find the health and freedom community (people, practitioners, schools, farms, and more) near you. Your membership directly supports the podcast and the work we do.Get 10% off your Heart & Soil order with code THEWAYFWRD at checkout. Shop Heart & Soil here!There's a version of health optimization that's making people more anxious, more neurotic, and less resilient, and almost no one in the space is willing to call it out.The holistic health space has a problem, and Ste Lane is one of the few people naming it. He's a coach, homesteader, and host of Radical Health Radio. His lens on ancestral health, masculinity, and human vitality is shaped by everything from cage fighting in England to raising kids on the land in Tennessee.Ste and I have been orbiting each other's worlds for years, and this conversation is the first time we've been able to sit down and dig in.A lot gets covered, but the real thread underneath is this: most people are outsourcing their health to protocols, supplements, peptides, and fear-based content, and it's making them weaker, not stronger. Ste has strong things to say about why the vaccine was never actually forced, why orthorexia is subtly wrecking people, and what the wellness industry keeps getting wrong about resilience.We also get into his four-truths framework, what real success looks like, and why the emotional and spiritual side of health matters more than the biohacks.You'll Learn:[0:00] Introduction[7:07] Mark Sisson's podcast and the virtue of restraint[24:47] Falling for Nicole and an Indonesian village that broke his brain about success[43:26] Success is getting what you want, and how Ste defines it now[1:01:38] The wellness space has become a mess of overwhelm and fad chasing[1:20:14] Blaming outside forces for sickness is weakness, plus the peptide and vaccine hypocrisy[1:32:03] BPC-157 healed his meniscus tear, and how health comes down to four simple truths[1:56:30] Working in versus working out, and why mobility is real estate you already own[2:25:22] Heart and Soil's origin story, and a Bulgarian textbook smuggled out for cigarettes[2:42:59] A Parkinson's neighbor whose tremors calmed within days of eating brain tissue Related The Way Forward Episodes:The 4th Phase of Water: The Blueprint for Biological Energy with Dr. Gerald Pollack | PodcastResources Mentioned:The Law of One by Ra | Books The Red Lion by Maria Szepes | BookFind more from Ste:Ste Lane | InstagramRadical Health Radio | Website | Instagram | YouTubeHeart and Soil Supplements | Website | Instagram | YouTubeFind more from Alec:Alec Zeck | Instagram | XThe Way Forward | InstagramDonate to The Way Forward here.The Way Forward is Sponsored By:BEAM Minerals: Feel the Difference in Days: Join thousands recharging with plant-based minerals. Click here for 20% Off Your First Bottle of BEAM.Want to grow your podcast but not sure what's actually working? Podigy helps me produce The Way Forward. Take their free assessment to get clear on your next move—and a chance to win a call with their founder.Eating well shouldn't be complicated. Dr. Cowan's Garden makes it simple to increase your daily nutrient density with their signature vegetable powders, clean pantry staples, and pasture-raised products. Family-run and committed to "beyond-organic" quality.* Offer: Use code THEWAYFORWARD for 15% off your first order.* Shop: Dr. Cowan's Garden

For review:1. US Central Command (CENTCOM) says it has completed its 11th consecutive evening of air strikes against Iran to further degrade the country's “ability to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz”.2. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Monday that his country was in a “full-scale war” with the United States and that Tehran should accept the repercussions of the conflict, even as mediators reportedly proposed a 10-day truce to deescalate the fighting.3. US President Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that the US will be striking Iran's Pickaxe Mountain “probably pretty soon,” amid reports that Tehran has moved nuclear centrifuges, and possibly even enriched uranium, to the secretive underground enrichment site.4. Houthi Rebels on Monday announced they are imposing a maritime embargo against Saudi Arabia  in retaliation for a blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on the Sanaa Airport. 5. Israeli intelligence has reportedly assessed that Iran has moved thousands of nuclear centrifuges into a site in the Natanz area known as Pickaxe Mountain, burying them deep underground and making them harder to target in aerial strikes.6. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun met with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Tuesday, where he declared that his country will permanently end hostilities with Israel and asked for backing in his efforts to disarm Hezbollah. 7. Lebanese army troops began deploying in the southern Lebanese town of Zawtar al-Gharbiyeh Tuesday after Israeli forces withdrew from the area, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) said in a statement, in line with a US-brokered plan for “pilot zones” in the south.8. Two Hamas terrorists, including a commander, who invaded Israel on October 7, 2023, and were responsible for the abduction of hostages, were killed in separate recent airstrikes, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet announced on Tuesday.9. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman warned Bulgaria on Tuesday against allowing the U.S. to use its territory for operations against Iran.The Bulgarian government has said it will seek parliamentary approval to station up to eight U.S. tanker aircraft at an air base in the Balkan country, which is a member of NATO and the European Union.

study the present tense conjugation of the verb 'живея'.

Oggy Boytchev is a former BBC journalist with more than three decades of experience reporting from conflict zones across the Middle East, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union. Born in 1955, Oggy grew up under the shadow of a family secret. His father had been branded an “enemy of the people” and interned without trial in a remote Bulgarian town, where he spent years under police supervision and forced labour. Even after his release, the family lived under the constant fear of surveillance, informers and political persecution. From secretly listening to the BBC World Service through crackling radio signals to navigating a school system steeped in communist ideology, he shares what it was really like to come of age in one of the Soviet bloc's most tightly controlled societies. Along the way, he reveals the lasting psychological impact of growing up unable to speak freely, the privileges and pitfalls of studying among the children of communist elites, and the shockwaves caused by the 1978 murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London. This is a remarkable story of resilience, caution and quiet resistance—offering a deeply personal perspective on everyday life in Cold War Bulgaria Oggy's latest novel, 'The Istanbul Connection ', is a gripping, morally complex thriller that explores the blurred lines between ideology and manipulation Enter the book giveaway here https://coldwarconversations.com/giveaway1/ Check outOggy's books here ⁠https://amzn.to/4wyGHjT⁠ Curated episode extras ⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/episode465/⁠ Help me preserve Cold War history via a simple monthly donation, You'll become part of our community, get ad-free episodes, receive a sought-after CWC coaster as a thank-you, and you'll bask in the warm glow of knowing you are helping to preserve Cold War history. Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If a monthly contribution is not your cup of tea, we also welcome one-off tips via the same link. Find the ideal gift for the Cold War enthusiast in your life! Just go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://coldwarconversations.com/store/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONTINUE  THE COLD WAR CONVERSATION o BlueSky ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bsky.app/profile/coldwarpod.bsky.social⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Threads ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.threads.net/@coldwarconversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Twitter/X ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Facebook ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ o Youtube ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

North Macedonia has waited 21 years at the EU's door. Zoran Dimitrovski and Linas Kojala ask what delay now costs Europe. Look at a map and the unresolved logic is striking. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia are almost entirely surrounded by EU and NATO members. These countries are not on some distant European frontier. They form an enclave within the Union's own geography. In 2003, at the Thessaloniki summit, the EU promised the Western Balkans a European future. More than two decades later, Croatia remains the last country to have joined, back in 2013. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, enlargement has shifted from a slow technical process to an urgent geopolitical question: what happens when Europe leaves a space inside its own borders unfilled? My guests brought two unusually powerful perspectives to that question. Zoran Dimitrovski, North Macedonia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, spent 35 years as a journalist before entering government. He edited some of his country's leading newspapers, reported from Washington, wrote more than 1,500 articles and investigations, and continues to teach critical thinking and analytical writing. Alongside him was Linas Kojala, CEO of the Geopolitics and Security Studies Center in Vilnius and a lecturer at Vilnius University. A Fulbright scholar with studies at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard, Kojala has written about Lithuania's own journey into the European Union and has been ranked among his country's most influential public figures. Twenty-one years at the front door North Macedonia became an EU candidate in 2005, around the same time as Croatia. Yet it still has not opened substantive accession negotiations. The country first faced a long dispute with Greece over its name, eventually resolved through the Prespa Agreement and the adoption of the name North Macedonia. That opened the way into NATO. A second dispute then emerged with neighbouring Bulgaria, involving language, identity, history and the recognition of a Bulgarian community within North Macedonia's constitution. Zoran Dimitrovski did not deny the work still required within his own country. North Macedonia must continue aligning its laws with the EU, strengthening the judiciary and fighting corruption. His argument was that these shortcomings were not the principal reason the country had been stopped. This describes one of the demands that, in Dimitrovski's view, reach beyond the Copenhagen criteria governing democratic institutions, human rights, the rule of law and a functioning market economy. There is, however, responsibility on both sides of the border and both sides of the accession table. The European Parliament's latest assessment expresses regret at North Macedonia's lack of progress, calling for the constitutional amendments, stronger cross-party cooperation and deeper reforms. Yet that same resolution warns that bilateral disputes over language, culture and national identity should not be used to obstruct accession. This is the uncomfortable heart of the story: the EU must remain demanding enough for membership to retain meaning, while remaining fair enough for its promises to retain credibility. The rules were written for a different Europe Kojala argued that the enlargement machinery itself must adapt to a radically altered security landscape. The process still requires unanimity at critical stages, allowing one member state to hold up another country's progress. Under normal circumstances, such caution might be defensible. These, he stressed, are not normal circumstances. The EU's decision-making can be painfully slow because 27 governments must agree on decisions touching sovereignty, money and national interest. Kojala compared it to 27 friends attempting to choose a restaurant, except that several of them may not be friends and the decisions are monumental. The central question is therefore whether procedures devised 20 years ago are still adequate for a Europe facing war, cyber-attacks, sabotage, disinformation and growing competition from authoritarian powers. Railways, bridges and the architecture of security EU enlargement may sound abstract, but it rapidly becomes concrete. It is about railway lines, bridges, roads, energy systems and digital networks. Dimitrovski pointed to Corridors VIII and X, which cross North Macedonia and connect the Adriatic, Black and Aegean Seas with wider Europe. These routes matter for trade and daily life, but also for NATO's ability to move personnel and equipment across the continent. A bridge too weak to carry military vehicles is simultaneously an infrastructure problem, an economic weakness and a security vulnerability. Kojala offered a useful challenge to the language of cost. Security spending is often discussed as money disappearing from productive use. Yet roads, schools, housing, communications and transport capacity remain in the communities where they are built. The same is true of enlargement: investment in the Western Balkans is not charity at Europe's edge. It is investment in the resilience of the continent as a whole. A vacuum rarely stays empty Russia remains an influential force in Serbia and parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while Chinese lending and infrastructure investment have expanded across the region. Dimitrovski was careful not to suggest that the Western Balkans would simply abandon Europe for Moscow or Beijing. His warning was more subtle. Prolonged uncertainty can produce weaker institutions, frustrated populations and a region increasingly exposed to financial pressure, political manipulation and disinformation. Europe therefore faces a choice that is larger than whether another flag appears outside the institutions in Brussels. It must decide whether the Western Balkans are genuinely part of its future, and demonstrate that belief through fair conditions, credible timelines and visible results. Kojala described the European Union as something close to a “boring miracle”: cumbersome, imperfect and endlessly predicted to collapse, yet remarkably capable of adapting and surviving. That miracle now requires another act of political imagination. The Western Balkans have spent more than 20 years hearing that their future lies inside the European Union. Europe may now need to ask a harder question of itself: how long can a promise remain credible before waiting becomes its own form of rejection?

Bulgarian translation of Friday Sermon delivered by Khalifa-tul-Masih on July 17th, 2026 (audio)

learn 10 high-frequency expressions, including words for parts of the body

Two weeks ago, I back squatted for the first time in six months, loaded it up too fast, and paid for it. In Episode 51 of Pursuit of Balance, I'm using my own back flare-up as a case study in how to actually handle injuries — because for 95% of issues, stopping training completely is the wrong answer. I break down the exact framework I use with myself and our members at Functional Lifestyles: how to know whether the position or the load is the problem, how to regress movements without losing momentum, and why protecting the habit matters more than protecting your ego. We also go deep on fascia — the connective tissue that holds your entire body together — and the three things it's most sensitive to: hydration, position, and temperature. Plus, I walk through how your breathing patterns shape your posture, why big inhalers get stuck in extension, and what your resting posture reveals about your stress state. In this episode: My back injury history — car accident at 19, CrossFit deadlift injury at 20, and the lessons from 15 years of managing it Why I removed heavy back squats, conventional deadlifts, and barbell bench from my training (high risk, low ROI) The swaps I use instead: Bulgarian split squats, goblet squats, sumo, trap bar, dumbbell pressing Fascia 101: Anatomy Trains, fascial lines, and the ketchup bottle analogy for hydration The inhale/exhale test: how breathing connects to extension, flexion, and your nervous system Sympathetic vs. parasympathetic posture — and what mine says about me "There are no bad positions, only weak ones" — the mindset shift that changed how I coach The load test: if it doesn't hurt unloaded, the position isn't the problem How to regress intelligently: reduce load, reduce volume, add tempo, micro-dose frequency Why taking a month off destroys more than your fitness — the downstream habit collapse My honest take on the "supple leopard" philosophy and why modern humans need more prep than a leopard does Whether you're dealing with a back flare-up, a cranky shoulder, or you're just tired of the injury-rest-reinjury cycle, this episode gives you a practical playbook for moving forward instead of shutting down. ️ Subscribe to Pursuit of Balance wherever you get your podcasts

Will 2026 be one of those grand historical years that change the world — like 1917, 1789 or 1968? Not according to Keith Teare, publisher of That Was The Week newsletter and co-host of our weekly tech roundup. For Keith, the best historical analogy is 1905, the year of the first abortive Russian revolution. The year that didn't change the world. Keith's latest tech newsletter asks “What Time Is It?” His answer is that we have “multiple clocks” — micro and macro, short, medium, and long term to make sense of our current AI moment. This week, for example, OpenAI and Anthropic both shipped work-focused products, and most of the world hasn't noticed. Thus his allusion to 1905. We are on the brink of massive change. But nothing is going to change. Not quite yet. Until everything does. Five Takeaways •       It's 1905 in the AI Economy. Keith's answer to the what-time-is-it question is the failed Russian revolution — the moment when the variables of transformation were all in motion but nothing was yet visible, and which took seventy years to fully play out. AI's radical change is real, he argues, but it is being experienced by a small number of people and is not yet generalized through the economy. The evidence of the week: OpenAI and Anthropic both shipped work-focused products — and most of the world shrugged. •       The Socialist Temptation of Slippery Sam. The Wall Street Journal frames Altman's offer of 5% of OpenAI to Washington as socialism creeping into Silicon Valley. Keith — who hated the word even when he was a communist — says the term has been Americanized into meaninglessness: it now just means the capitalist state doing more. What Altman is actually proposing is capitalism's end game — a sovereign wealth fund holding equity in the companies everybody wants to fund, so that private wealth creation reaches the point where everyone can imagine benefiting from it. The precise opposite of British Leyland. •       The Multiple Clocks. Keith's framework sorts the week's flood of AI news into micro and macro issues running on short, medium, and long-term timelines. At the micro-short corner sits deployment friction: Microsoft and Amazon spending billions on forward-deployed engineers, and Apple suing OpenAI. In the middle, work adapts — the human as the driver of AI rather than AI imposed on humans. At the top sits Arvind Narayanan's idea of AI as a “normal technology,” which deflates hysteria without deflating importance: electricity was a normal technology too, and it still changed everything — just slower than its loudest advocates expected. •       Abundance and Its Discontents. Matt Yglesias argues that saving capitalism requires radical land use reform, which reignites the show's longest-running argument. Keith's case: the Elizabeth Line and the congestion zone have redefined London, multiplying its effective land fifty-fold, and a house twenty minutes from the center can be had for a couple of hundred thousand pounds. Andrew's case: prices haven't fallen, London is more expensive than ever, and free is doing a lot of work as “a tendency, not an achievement.” The quarrel is adjourned until next week, with Keith cheerfully moonlighting as a real estate agent. •       Two Americas — and the Small Stuff. Ivan Krastev tells Yascha Mounk that American exceptionalism ran roughly from 1850 to Vietnam and has been replaced by defensive preservation — MAGA as a reaction to decline rather than a vision. Noah Smith's version: America can't build a passenger train, yet its AI industry is upending the world. And against John Battelle's worry that digital life has lost the plot, Keith offers the week's best rejoinder to Ian Bogost's small stuff: go back in history, and no one had time for small things. What we are living through is creeping abundance. The week closes with farewells — to Psion founder David Potter, a week after Om Malik. About the Guest Keith Teare is the founder and editor of the That Was The Week tech newsletter, and Andrew's weekly co-host. A British-born Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor, he was a co-founder of TechCrunch and runs the Palo Alto–based venture firm SignalRank. He and Andrew have been arguing about technology — productively — every week for years. References: •       That Was The Week — Keith's newsletter; this week's edition asks what time it is in the AI economy and lays out the multiple clocks framework. •       The Wall Street Journal piece on the socialist temptation of Sam Altman, and Altman's proposal that the US government hold 5% of OpenAI. •       Arvind Narayanan — the Princeton computer scientist whose framing of AI as a “normal technology” anchors the civilizational clock. •       Matt Yglesias — whose piece argues that saving capitalism requires radical land use reform. •       Ivan Krastev — the Bulgarian political theorist, interviewed in Yascha Mounk's Persuasion on why America has lost faith in itself. •       Noah Smith and Paul Krugman — on the American age and the perennial Europe-versus-US economic comparison, respectively. •       John Battelle — the Web 2.0 pioneer asking whether we've lost the plot, quoting Ian Bogost in Wired. •       The Small Stuff: How to Lead a More Gratifying Life by Ian Bogost (Simon & Schuster) — the interview of the week on Keen On America. •       The New Geography of Innovation by Mehran Gul (Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster) — also on this week's show, on America, China, and everyone else. •       David Potter — the founder of Psion, builder of the first handheld computer and later a governor of the Bank of England, who died this week and is Keith's post of the week. About Keen On America Nobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States — hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 3,000 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting. Website Substack YouTube

Bulgarian lifeguard Yane Petkov won a world record for swimming with his hands and feet tied together. He swam 3,380 meters through the water, but added something to intensify the challenge—he wrapped his body in a sack. The patience and strength required to keep moving despite being so “tied up” amazes me. The apostle Paul also displayed rugged resistance to obstacles as he served God in the days of the early church. He faced many physical challenges—fatigue, hunger, sleeplessness, and beatings. Through it all, Paul continued to preach and write letters of encouragement and instruction to his fellow believers. Paul penned his last letter to Timothy when he was isolated in a Roman prison, awaiting execution. Although shackles restricted his body, he noted that the good news could not be chained (2 Timothy 2:9). Nothing could stop the spread of the good news or make it ineffective. “Therefore,” Paul said, “I endure everything” to give others the chance to hear and accept the truth about Jesus Christ (v.10). God can help us endure any kind of difficulty that stands in the way of serving Him. Physical limitations such as illness, injuries, and disabilities require care and attention, but they can’t ultimately surpass God’s power, which is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Let’s give God the glory when He works through us to do things we cannot do on our own.

Logic suggests we'll be heading to Bulgaria's capital city for next year's contest, but could a dark horse have entered the race to host Eurovision?In this exclusive episode we meet Manuela Dimitrova, Founder of CEO of Bulgarian based Excedo Travel.She takes us through the cities that have expressed an interest in hosting and assesses the bids fom Sofia, Plovdiv, Burgas and Varna.We also hear how excited her nation is to be welcoming the world next May.Click this link to sign up to The Euro Trip + on Patreon for just £4.99 a month.Follow us on Twitter, Instagram & TikTok or email hello@eurotrippodcast.com, and find us online at eurotrippodcast.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

learn how to use the past tense to make a complaint

Shallow and Jiunta break down why split stance movements are not the same as unilateral training. They cover B-stance RDLs, Bulgarian split squats, exercise selection, load management and more. Join the PSL1 Waitlist For Our Only Course Discount: https://www.pre-script.com/psl1 FREE Coach's Field Guide: https://www.pre-script.com/coachs-field-guide Spoken Nutrition: 15% Off Your Order! www.spokennutrition.com/RXD We've got a new sponsor! Marek Health is a health optimization company that offers advanced blood testing, health coaching, and expert medical oversight. Our services can help you enhance your lifestyle, nutrition, and supplementation to medical treatment and care. https://marekhealth.com/rxd Code RXD  Don't miss the release of our newest educational community - The Pre-Script ® Collective!  Join the community today at www.pre-script.com.  You can also follow Dr. Jordan Shallow and Dr. Jordan Jiunta on Instagram! Dr. Jordan Shallow: https://www.instagram.com/the_muscle_doc/ Dr. Jordan Jiunta: https://www.instagram.com/redwiteandjordan/

In March, the EU's top court ruled in favour of a Bulgarian transgender woman who wanted to correct the gender and name recorded in her civil registry. Some say this is a landmark decision for trans rights in Europe. But what is actually the state of transgender rights in Europe?This episode was co-written with Emma Belmonte.Production: By Europod, in co-production with the Sphera network.Follow us on:LinkedIn•Instagram Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

study the present tense conjugation of the verb 'казвам'.

Angel Studios https://Angel.com/TODD Storm the theaters and help make Young Washington the #1 movie in America. Join the Angel Guild today for $15/month and receive two free tickets to see Young Washington this Independence Day. Absolute Ministries https://AMgive.org/TODD Your gift helps people overcome addiction, find hope and purpose, and experience lasting change through a Christ-centered system of care. Together, we can support sustainable transformation that goes far beyond temporary sobriety.  Alan's Soap https://AlansSoaps.com/Todd  Honor John's memory and the legacy he created for Ian and Alan with Alan's Artisan Soaps “John's Favorites” bundle.  Get one bar of each of his favorites for only $28.99.  Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.com Be confident in your portfolio with Bulwark! Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio review. Go to KnowYourRiskPodcast.com today.  Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd Your journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd  Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/Todd Get the new limited release, The Sisterhood, created to honor the extraordinary women behind the heroes. Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.Their slogans were devoid of meaning. But now the citizens of Belfast are turning the slogans back onto their heads.BREAKING : Who remembers this video from months ago of a Scottish girl brandishing a knife and axe? At the time the left called it a racist attack.  It's now been revealed the 22 years old Bulgarian “victim” behind the camera was found guilty of assaulting 4 girls.‘Sophie Of Dundee' Has Been Vindicated, But It Won't Change Anything In Britain"We say very clearly no to racism in our society." First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill condemns the violent disorder that has taken place in Belfast in recent days, describing it as "pure racism in its vilest form".British woman got a notice requiring her to sell her newly bought house to accommodate migrants.Woman:“It is for immigrants, not the indigenous population” The UK government spends £630 per homeless person per year but £50,000 per illegal migrant per year. The UK has fallen.All the slogans the ruling class mindlessly chants at working people are being thrown back at them. NEW: An Imam's home was "fire-bombed" in the early hours of this morning in Bolton, England, as widespread unrest continues over attempted beheading by Sudanese migrant Hadi Alodid - UK Citizen: “Firebombing is part and parcel of life in the big city and it's important that the Muslim community doesn't look back in anger. Backlash against peaceful Englishmen will not be tolerated.”The UK government uses social media to promote Islam all the time. But, they don't want people using it to point out problems with what mass migration is doing. HERE WE GO; Britain's Minister for Northern Ireland is preparing a major crackdown on social media companies to force removal of all content they say “is illegal”Caroline Lucas: "We need to recognise that what happened on the streets of Belfast was being orchestrated by the far right, by Elon Musk, by a network of people who actually want this to happen, so it wasn't quite as spontaneous as it looked.. and that has to be stopped"Breaking: Sudanese migrant who almost beheaded a man in Belfast is former police officer. Journalist goes to an INVADER‑filled neighbourhood to prove they are “peaceful.” Their response? Leave, or we'll kill you. The Great Replacement becomes TRUE.Muslims in London counter protesting against Unite the Kingdom event say “these street are ours” and “we will smash them off the streets”. This is Demographic jihad.orig published June 15 2026

If you want to support the podcast, get full-length daily podcasts from grand slams, ad-free listening and so much more, go to ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/TennisUnfiltered⁠⁠ and sign up for the Tennis Unfiltered Supporters Club. **** Look, it's fair to say that George and James were a little sleep deprived after both making bad football-related decisions on Sunday night. So if they got a little bit silly at Wimbledon on Monday, that's why. Genuinely, no drink had been taken. They even forgot to mention Alex de Minaur. We're sorry. We don't really know what got into them. Arthur Fery keeps British hopes alive by winning a five-set thriller over Grigor Dimitrov, but is that the worst defeat of the Bulgarian's career? James's Linda Noskova prediction gets better every day as Madison Keys is the latest victim Alexander Zverev gets shafted by the schedule and loses his day off Does Alexandra Eala have the worst serve in the draw? James certainly was blown away by her first serve bottoming out at 65 miles per hour in defeat to Italy's Jasmine Paolini  Taylor Fritz's serene progress continues with a speedy win over Alexander Bublik Marta Kostyuk is done by lunchtime and slips under the radar into the quarter-finals AND FINALLY, George has finished his novel. **** To become a member of the Tennis Unfiltered Supporters Club, head to: https://www.patreon.com/tennisunfiltered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you want to support the podcast, get full-length daily podcasts from grand slams, ad-free listening and so much more, go to ⁠⁠www.patreon.com/TennisUnfiltered⁠⁠ and sign up for the Tennis Unfiltered Supporters Club. **** Look, it's fair to say that George and James were a little sleep deprived after both making bad football-related decisions on Sunday night. So if they got a little bit silly at Wimbledon on Monday, that's why. Genuinely, no drink had been taken. They even forgot to mention Alex de Minaur. We're sorry. We don't really know what got into them. Arthur Fery keeps British hopes alive by winning a five-set thriller over Grigor Dimitrov, but is that the worst defeat of the Bulgarian's career? James's Linda Noskova prediction gets better every day as Madison Keys is the latest victim Alexander Zverev gets shafted by the schedule and loses his day off Does Alexandra Eala have the worst serve in the draw? James certainly was blown away by her first serve bottoming out at 65 miles per hour in defeat to Italy's Jasmine Paolini  Taylor Fritz's serene progress continues with a speedy win over Alexander Bublik Marta Kostyuk is done by lunchtime and slips under the radar into the quarter-finals AND FINALLY, George has finished his novel. **** To become a member of the Tennis Unfiltered Supporters Club, head to: https://www.patreon.com/tennisunfiltered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#beaver #sun #folktaleFirst Story: We learn that the moon was a woman, until she met the sun.Second Story: We learn why beavers and bears don't make good spouses for humans.Source: Wigwam Evenings: Sioux Folk Tales Retold by Charles A. Eastman and Elaine Goodale EastmanNarrator: Dustin SteichmannMusic: NVTV - Native Rhythems - 'Spirit of the Dance'Sound Effects: Froggos by Dustin SteichmannPodcast Shoutout: Bulgarian History podcast. Hosted by Eric, you can hear the history of the Bulgarian people and learn about the beauty of their country. Eric lives and works in Sofia and does a great job about bringing this often overlooked country's history to life. Go check him out.Listener Shoutout: Hagåtña Guam. It is the capital city of Guam and in the Chomorro language it means something like our blood. The entire island was handed from one empire, the spanish, to another empire, the americans in 1898. And if I am lucky enough to visit this island paradise, I would love to go visit the Chamorro village and just listen to folks talk. And so to my listener in Hagatna, I say in Chamorro si Yu'os ma'ase and Buenas Noches, thank you and goodnight

Interview with Drew Miller of Boiled In Lead ! Boiled in Lead's musical recipe features guitar, bass, violin & drums that play country music from many countries with power and emotion. They are the longest-running Celtic punk band in America, and an important part of the foundation of what became Minnesota punk rock; their star is still on the wall at legendary nightclub First Avenue, dating back to their first 7th Street Entry show in 1983. A record release show, presented by KFAI, is confirmed for the Parkway Theater in Minneapolis tomorrow with openers Pop Wagner and the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band. Tickets can be purchased here. Initial press reception for the new record has been terrific with coverage in (and soon to be in) outlets as diverse as World Music Central, Beatique, Rabble Rouse News, KFAI, The Five Count Radio Show, Mpls Jazz88 Shamrock Shore interview, We Heart Music, ReGen magazine, Strange Currency (NPR's KMUW), Exclusive Magazine, Ink 19, The Ox in Germany and more. With the eyes of the world on Minnesota, the band understand the irony of releasing an internationalist record at this time in history. Bassist Drew Miller says, “We began recording in the spring of 2024, a very different time. Our goal, as it's been since 1983, is to bring some joy into people's lives by loudly reviving dark old folk songs and Irish dance music. The band's name comes from an 17th Century Irish ballad called “Two Sisters.” In the last verse, the bad one is executed by being boiled in lead. Seemed like a good name for a band starting out in the punk scene.” While Boiled in Lead is known for their Celtic roots, King Of The Dogwoods is much more than that. In fact, it will take more than one listen to take in all that is going on on this record. In a world that is ruled by checking genre boxes, Boiled in Lead is radically eclectic: the Serbian folk song “Adje Jano” sits comfortably alongside strong originals like the title track, and multiple instrumentals from the delicate “Keshenever Bulgar” to the brutal “Fast Reels.” It rewards the listener after one listen, yet has uncommon depth on repeat listenings. Sure there are through lines from the bands career; taking traditional material that excites them (“Bold Lovell”), and finding powerful ways to play it as a rock band. With the strongest four-part harmonies that they have ever had, it's less wild jam improv but more studied although they always value the element of surprise. Celtic, Americana, World, Cajun can all be found on King of the Dogwoods. Enthusiastic, powerful, technically brilliant, playing a wealth of instruments with extreme dynamics, Boiled In Lead routinely demolishes genres with its highly-identifiable sound. An Onion A&E quote describes the band's approach well: “…the prime purveyor of a style of Celtic music infused with punk-rock attitude, developing over the years with a hard-driving swirl that combined Irish folk with heavy rock and elements of styles from all over the world. …one of the best bands Minnesota's ever produced. …even without amplification, Boiled In Lead can summon up furious punk-folk energy.” While in high school, bass player and founder Drew Miller became obsessed with traditional folk. He started the band to turn the volume up and bring those tunes and songs to new audiences. Following their first LP, he met guitarist / vocalist Todd Menton at an Irish session. With distribution from TwinTone, the band was soon playing the First Avenue Mainroom, the Winnipeg Folk Festival; that led to a UK record deal and tours in Europe and around the country. The group and the individual musicians have won many Minnesota Music Awards, and toured throughout the US and in Europe. Having played alongside bands like Hüsker Dü, Richard Thompson and Camper Van Beethoven, Boiled in Lead are celebrating more than 40 years on stage and in the studio combining eclectic sounds featuring world music tunes from Irish, Serbian, Bulgarian, Klezmer, and roots American traditions. https://boiledinlead.bandcamp.com https://boiledinlead.com/  

learn about shops and services that are common in Bulgaria

study the present tense conjugation of the verb 'работя'.

Broadcast from KSQD, Santa Cruz on 6-25-2026: Dr. Dawn devotes the show's opening to ivermectin for COVID. She walks through critical thinking principles—considering the source, cross-verification, and recognizing self-interested claims—before reviewing the evidence. The most-cited 2021 Bulgarian study of 300 people showing 77% reduction lacked accessible methods, and larger trials capable of detecting even small benefits failed to confirm efficacy. On safety, the standard 12mg parasitic dose every few weeks is well-tolerated due to the blood-brain barrier and efflux pumps that keep ivermectin out of the brain, but daily long-term dosing has caused encephalopathy, liver and kidney damage, and birth defects. Critical drug interactions—macrolide antibiotics, verapamil, proton pump inhibitors, and beta blockers—disable the efflux mechanism, and high-fat meals increase absorption 2.5-fold. Dr. Dawn shares two inflammation formulas calculable from any CBC. The Systemic Inflammatory Index (neutrophils × platelets ÷ lymphocytes) flags runaway inflammation: 200-500 is good, above 900 warrants investigation and correlates with worse stroke outcomes and rising tumor burden. The SIRI (neutrophils x monocytes ÷ lymphocytes) detects chronic tissue inflammation and early innate immune activation: below 500 is good, above 1500 indicates trouble and correlates with cardiovascular mortality and arterial plaque from M1 macrophage activity. Dr. Dawn shares two takeaways from the Institute for Functional Medicine annual conference: in patients at high cardiovascular risk by cholesterol, each gram daily of combined EPA/DHA produces a 9% risk reduction, with bruising as the dose-limit signal. Additionally, a 15-minute walk within 30 minutes of a meal nearly eliminates postprandial inflammation. An emailer asks whether an endocrinologist's claim that vitamin D leaches calcium from bones is true. Dr. Dawn confirms that very high vitamin D (above 150 nanograms, with concern starting above 90) elevates 1,25-vitamin D, which stimulates osteoclast formation and increases C-telopeptide markers of bone breakdown. A crowdsourced question asks how histamines work in women. Dr. Dawn explains histamine functions as a CNS neurotransmitter promoting alertness, wakefulness, and pain perception (deficient in narcolepsy), and as a GI signal driving acid secretion, motility, and visceral sensation. Gut bacteria can convert histidine to histamine, and fish left to spoil can trigger anaphylactic-like reactions from accumulated bacterial histamine. She notes stomach acid treatments Tagamet and Zantac are H2 blockers rather than the more familiar H1 antihistamines, and confirms histamine correlates with hormones but not particularly with minerals. A crowdsourced question on B vitamins for women in their mid-twenties prompts Dr. Dawn to recommend prenatal vitamins for those who might become pregnant, and B100 complex with calcium taken with a little apple cider vinegar for those on restricted diets or eating mostly fast food. Another question asks about chest versus belly breathing. Dr. Dawn explains babies demonstrate proper diaphragmatic breathing (belly protrudes on inhalation) while accessory muscle use signals fight-or-flight—or pneumonia in a non-crying infant. Chest breathing raises adrenaline; belly breathing calms it in adults. How do I stop compulsive scratching? Dr. Dawn explains neurodermatitis has its own ICD-10 code alongside compulsive nail-biting and hair-pulling, and it is diagnosed by sparing of unreachable areas like the mid-back between shoulder blades. Treatment includes nail clipping, lubricants, covering scabbed areas, and Prozac—which uniquely among antidepressants has a secondary indication for neurodermatitis. Zurich researchers combined immature human nerve cells with magnetic nanoparticles to create 6-micrometer NPC bots that can be magnetically positioned at spinal cord injury sites and then triggered by pulsatile magnetic stimulation to mature into nerve tissue. Mice with severed spinal cords regained movement and brain-muscle electrical signals by day 34 after daily 30-minute treatments. A study of 15,000 people with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome identified eight genetic regions distinguishing them from controls. Two relate to immune response to infection—consistent with the post-infectious onset many sufferers describe, including roughly half of long COVID patients—and others link to the nervous system and chronic pain. Dr. Dawn frames ME-CFS as an immune system stuck in the "on" position, unable to brake against an enemy that is long gone. An emailer asks about prostate biopsy approaches. Dr. Dawn explains the new transperineal biopsy (through skin between scrotum and anus) reduces post-biopsy infection from 1.5% to near zero and eliminates prophylactic antibiotics, though it requires more anesthesia and time. Cancer detection rates match the transrectal approach when both use MRI targeting, and she expects the transperineal approach to become standard.

Get your learning gifts for the month of July 2026

In this episode the guys break down the six best lifts for athletic fitness — the movements that translate directly to real world performance, sport and everyday life. They cover lunges and sled work, the standing overhead press, trap bar deadlift, one arm rows with rotation and pull ups, hanging leg raises done correctly, and band and cable chops for rotational power. They also reminisce about their worst business failures — Sal's second studio location that cost him 75K to break the lease, Adam's mobile car detailing hustle, Justin's app build, and Doug's story of losing his entire Japan savings to a fraudulent investment group that got raided by the IRS mid-call. Then they answer questions from Instagram on Bulgarian split squat imbalances, swapping exercises in MAPS 15 Powerlift, which program fixes imbalances and unlocks squat depth, and how to pair sprint intervals with strength training. No BS 6-Pack Formula: https://nobs6pack.comCode: 6PACK for 50% off. Full ab building system with two phase blueprints and video demos by Sal. $28.50 after discount. SPONSORS Rho Nutrition (liposomal creatine, NAD+ and Glutathione): https://www.rhonutrition.com/discount/MINDPUMP Code: MINDPUMP for 20% off everything. Liposomal creatine discussed on air as the fix for people who experience bloating from regular creatine. Paleo Valley (grass-fed fermented meat sticks): https://paleovalley.com/mindpump 15% off automatically applied at checkout, no code needed. Our Place (non-toxic cookware): https://fromourplace.comCode: MINDPUMP for 10% off sitewide. Always Pan replaces eight pieces of cookware, forever chemical free, 100 day trial with free returns. LINKS Mind Pump Store: https://mindpumpstore.comMaps Fitness Products: https://mapsfitnessproducts.com Instagram: @mindpumpmedia 0:00 - Intro 2:28 - 6 best lifts for athletic fitness 3:25 - Lunges and sled work — triple extension, split stance and why sled is the most accessible power exercise 8:09 - Standing overhead press — the squat of the upper body and how it reveals your whole body strength 10:22 - Trap bar deadlift — why athletic coaches prefer it over conventional for most sports 14:38 - One arm rows with rotation and pull ups — pulling strength and the rotational component most programs miss 16:31 - Hanging leg raises — how to do them correctly and why they matter for every athletic movement 18:25 - Band and cable chops — rotational and anti-rotational power for sport 21:15 - Worst business failures — studios, apps, car detailing and Doug's IRS raid story 50:13 - Rho liposomal creatine solving the bloating problem for women 51:43 - Justin's Yellowstone trip and the bear world grizzly feeding park 59:25 - Paleo Valley fermentation process and the Truckee cabin bear break-in story 1:01:22 - Q&A: Bulgarian split squat imbalances — how to even out a weaker leg 1:04:41 - Q&A: Swapping exercises in MAPS 15 Powerlift with weaker lift variations 1:05:47 - Q&A: Best MAPS program for fixing imbalances and unlocking squat depth 1:07:40 - Q&A: How to pair sprint intervals with strength training correctly

Dr. Barbara Paldus — biotech engineer, founder of Codex Labs Corp, and one of the most rigorous minds in plant-based skin science — joins Dr. Will Cole to break down the full skin-gut-immune axis behind eczema, acne, psoriasis, and rosacea. They cover the five layers of the skin most people don't know exist, the filaggrin protein that eczema patients are missing, and how a combination of 14th-century Irish plants and a Bulgarian resurrection plant was clinically proven to achieve 95–97% eczema clearance in eight weeks with zero topical corticosteroids. Dr. Paldus also walks through the hormonal cascade driving acne, why milk thistle compares favorably to doxycycline, the L-histidine supplement protocol from their pediatric and adult clinical trials, and the launch of Decode Me — the first tele-naturopathy platform integrating functional labs, AI interpretation, and Fullscript. For all links mentioned in this episode, visit www.drwillcole.com/podcast.Visit codexlabscorp.com and use code WILLCOLE30 for 30% off your first purchase of a 60-day eczema or acne system. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode. Produced by Dear Media.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

discover effective strategies and tips for learning Bulgarian

After being so excited in the October 1991 Teen Life episode that the Ian Svenonius era was over, HERE HE IS AGAIN in What Now, along with stories on Wig Out, Brad Pitt, and Bulgarian wedding music. Your co-hosts are bitterly divided on the films of Mike Leigh, but come back together on Mary's Danish. Did One To Watch live up to his designation? Was Mike's report on his time as an extra in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare scooped up after getting cut from Dirt? We discuss this and much more in our latest episode!QUICK LINKS

Check out Marek Health at https://marekhealth.com/syatt and get 10% OFF your first order using code: SYATTIn this episode of The Jordan Syatt Podcast, I shoot the breeze and answer questions from listeners with my podcast producer, Tony, and we discuss:- GLP-1 struggles- Dosage and coming off of GLP-1's- Fat loss for busy people- Losing weight or gaining muscle (which comes first?)- Is sodium a problem in frozen meals?- Clear communication in relationships- Bulgarian split squat science- Overcoming my hamstring injury- And more...Check out my FREE Calorie Calculator: https://linktw.in/vvLIHODo you have any questions you want us to discuss on the podcast? Give Tony a follow and shoot him a DM on Instagram - @tone_reverie - https://www.instagram.com/tone_reverie/ I hope you enjoy this episode and, if you do, please leave a review on iTunes (huge thank you to everyone who has written one so far).Finally, if you've been thinking about joining The Inner Circle but haven't yet... we have hundreds of home and bodyweight workouts for you and you can get them all: https://www.sfinnercircle.com/

Send us Fan MailGeorge Stoimenov is a Bulgarian-born author and frontline worker, based in the UK. He has spent the last twelve years working with some of the most vulnerable people in the country—homeless youth, freshly arrived asylum seekers and, currently, men on probation for the UK's Ministry of Justice. He's the author of several books on men's work, trauma and recovery. His latest, Rise From The Ashes, is a practical 4-step guide for anyone—men and women—feeling stuck, lost, or buried beneath the weight of their past. One hour a week can change your life!  This is his story.  Listen Now!His website:  https://www.menscorner.co.uk/Contact US:  Rumble/ YouTube/ IG: @powerofmanpodcastEmail: powerofmanpodcast@gmail.com.Twitter: @rorypaquetteSTART YOUR OWN MEN"S MOVEMENT!  WE need more men to LEAD!  Join us here to learn how!   https://www.facebook.com/groups/490821906341560/?ref=share_group_linkYou have VALUE!  You are WORTH IT!  BELIEVE IT!

Yacht, sky rises, pent houses and luxury weekends, we are on another level, living in the moment, every little thing will be alright.   The love island obsession, trigger point, flash, predator wasteland, lord war, what remains, tower, pretty hard cases, Vera, la'finest   Order and make bake and take, chocolate brownie cookies, sushi bake, sun dried tomato flatbread, ginger shrimp stir fry, Bulgarian cucumber salad.   Happy Thursday stars

It's Thursday, June 18th, A.D. 2026. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard on 140 radio stations and at www.TheWorldview.com.  I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark More countries persecute religious citizens More countries are seeing high levels of social hostilities involving religion. A new Pew Research report found 55 countries recorded high or very high levels of such religious hostilities in 2023.  That figure has risen three years in a row. Christians faced harassment in the largest number of countries compared to any other religion. Countries with very high levels of religious hostilities include Bangladesh, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Syria. Most of those countries also rank in the top 10 most oppressive countries for Christians according to Open Doors. Luke 6:22-23 says, “Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in Heaven.” Pro-family charter signed involving 20 of 54 African countries Lawmakers in Africa gathered for the Fourth African Parliamentary Conference on Family Sovereignty and Values this month in Ghana.  Attendees represented 20 out of 54 countries across the continent.  Lawmakers signed a pro-family charter at the conference, reports LifeSiteNews. The charter defends the traditional family and opposes abortion and sexually perverted lifestyles.  Britain to ban social media for kids The United Kingdom plans on banning social media for children under 16.  Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced the ban on Monday which will take effect next year. The U.K. joins other countries putting restrictions on social media use for children. These countries include Australia, Brazil, Canada, and Indonesia. The U.K. ban will affect platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and X. Bulgarian Christians now allowed to evangelize door-to-door The European Court of Human Rights ruled to protect door-to-door evangelism last week. The case began in Bulgaria where the government issued a broad ban on the practice.  Nicolas Bauer with the European Centre for Law and Justice told EWTN News, “Evangelizing is often viewed with suspicion in a secularized Europe. The European Court of Human Rights ruling reaffirms a basic requirement of religious freedom for believers: the right to the same freedom of expression as everyone else.” Alabama officials threaten mail-order abortion kill pill providers In the United States, the state of Alabama issued cease and desist letters to mail order abortion providers last week. The companies were illegally providing chemical abortion-inducing drugs to residents in the state.  Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said, “Alabama's law is clear, abortion is illegal in this state. These companies are not only breaking the law, they are deceiving Alabama consumers about the very real dangers of these drugs. That stops now. Anyone who tries to exploit Alabamians for profit while flouting our laws will be prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by law.” Habakkuk 2:9 and 12 says, “Woe to him who covets evil gain for his house, That he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of disaster! … Woe to him who builds a town with bloodshed, who establishes a city by iniquity!" Elon Musk became Earth's first trillionaire Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk became the world's first trillionaire last week. His company SpaceX went public on Friday in the biggest initial public offering of all time. His shares in the company at the time were over $766 billion. Combined with his Tesla shares of $280 billion, his net worth pushed past the trillion-dollar mark. This comes 14 years after Musk crossed the billionaire threshold.  Gallup: 65% of Americans say religiosity benefits society And finally, a new Gallup poll found that most Americans still believe religiosity would benefit the United States. Sixty-five percent of respondents said it would be positive for society if more Americans were religious. But that's down from 75% back in 2013. Americans are divided on whether the federal government should promote moral values. Forty-five percent say the government should be involved while 50 percent say it should not be involved.  Gallup noted, “The poll comes at a time when a Republican presidential administration has sought to elevate the role of religion in public life, including by establishing the White House Office of Faith, beginning government meetings with Christian prayers, and encouraging federal workers to express their faith in the workplace.”  Close And that's The Worldview on this Thursday, June 18th, in the year of our Lord 2026. Subscribe for free by Spotify, Amazon Music, or by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com.  Plus, you can get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Angel Studios https://Angel.com/TODDStorm the theaters on July 4 and help make Young Washington the #1 movie in America. Join the Angel Guild today for $15/month and receive two free tickets to see Young Washington this Independence Day.Absolute Ministries https://AMgive.org/TODDYour gift helps people overcome addiction, find hope and purpose, and experience lasting change through a Christ-centered system of care. Together, we can support sustainable transformation that goes far beyond temporary sobriety. Alan's Soap https://AlansSoaps.com/ToddHonor John's memory and the legacy he created for Ian and Alan with Alan's Artisan Soaps “John's Favorites” bundle.  Get one bar of each of his favorites for only $28.99. Bulwark Capital https://KnowYourRiskPodcast.comBe confident in your portfolio with Bulwark! Schedule your free Know Your Risk Portfolio review. Go to KnowYourRiskPodcast.com today. Renue Healthcare https://Renue.Healthcare/ToddYour journey to a better life starts at Renue Healthcare. Visit https://Renue.Healthcare/Todd Bonefrog https://BonefrogCoffee.com/ToddGet the new limited release, The Sisterhood, created to honor the extraordinary women behind the heroes.   Use code TODD at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase and 15% on subscriptions.LISTEN and SUBSCRIBE at:The Todd Herman Show - Podcast - Apple PodcastsThe Todd Herman Show | Podcast on SpotifyWATCH and SUBSCRIBE at: Todd Herman - The Todd Herman Show - YouTubeTheir slogans were devoid of meaning. But now the citizens of Belfast are turning the slogans back onto their heads.BREAKING : Who remembers this video from months ago of a Scottish girl brandishing a knife and axe? At the time the left called it a racist attack.  It's now been revealed the 22 years old Bulgarian “victim” behind the camera was found guilty of assaulting 4 girls.‘Sophie Of Dundee' Has Been Vindicated, But It Won't Change Anything In Britain"We say very clearly no to racism in our society." First Minister of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill condemns the violent disorder that has taken place in Belfast in recent days, describing it as "pure racism in its vilest form".British woman got a notice requiring her to sell her newly bought house to accommodate migrants.Woman:“It is for immigrants, not the indigenous population” The UK government spends £630 per homeless person per year but £50,000 per illegal migrant per year. The UK has fallen.All the slogans the ruling class mindlessly chants at working people are being thrown back at them. NEW: An Imam's home was "fire-bombed" in the early hours of this morning in Bolton, England, as widespread unrest continues over attempted beheading by Sudanese migrant Hadi Alodid - HERE WE GO; Britain's Minister for Northern Ireland is preparing a major crackdown on social media companies to force removal of all content they say “is illegal”Caroline Lucas: "We need to recognise that what happened on the streets of Belfast was being orchestrated by the far right, by Elon Musk, by a network of people who actually want this to happen, so it wasn't quite as spontaneous as it looked.. and that has to be stopped"Breaking: Sudanese migrant who almost beheaded a man in Belfast is former police officer. Journalist goes to an INVADER‑filled neighbourhood to prove they are “peaceful.” Their response? Leave, or we'll kill you. The Great Replacement becomes TRUE.Muslims in London counter protesting against Unite the Kingdom event say “these street are ours” and “we will smash them off the streets”. This is Demographic jihad.

Skipping the warm-up. New Linchpin Monthly Tests Why do Bulgarian Split Squats wreck me? What do people ask me to add or remove from programming? Humidity, sweat & nastiness. The VNR Back Squat Capacity program. Sandbags are fun. What Supplements do I take?

Skipping the warm-up. New Linchpin Monthly Tests Why do Bulgarian Split Squats wreck me? What do people ask me to add or remove from programming? Humidity, sweat & nastiness. The VNR Back Squat Capacity program. Sandbags are fun. What Supplements do I take?

23 September Movement | 28 May 2026 Across the Nato camp, the ruling classes are increasingly turning to naked terroristic violence to try to suppress the growth of anti-imperialist antiwar activity. The victory of the Soviet and communist forces over fascism during the Great Patriotic War reminds workers that when they join together in militant defence of their class interests, they become an unbeatable force. With the imperialist world spiralling deeper into crisis and war, the exploiters are working overtime to suppress this message, while reviving the very same fascistic forces that were beaten in 1945 in their quest to maintain their global domination. ----------------------------------------------------- Subscribe! Donate! Join us in building a bright future for humanity! www.thecommunists.org www.lalkar.org www.redyouth.org Telegram: t.me/thecommunists Twitter: twitter.com/cpgbml Soundcloud: @proletarianradio Rumble: rumble.com/c/theCommunists Odysee: odysee.com/@proletariantv:2 Facebook: www.facebook.com/cpgbml Online Shop: https://shop.thecommunists.org/ Education Program: https://thecommunists.org/education-programme/ Each one teach one! www.londonworker.org/education-programme/ Join the struggle www.thecommunists.org/join/ Donate: www.thecommunists.org/donate/

Through her multifaceted work, the Bulgarian-born, Brooklyn-based writer, reader, and researcher Maria Popova, founder of the “free, ad-free, A.I.-free, fully human” website and newsletter The Marginalian, braids together literature, science, philosophy, poetry, and art in beautiful, alchemical ways. Traversing centuries, she approaches various ideas and thinkers, living and dead, as active references in the expansive, ongoing project of learning what it means to be human. Now, nearly 20 years since the site's founding, she continues to cultivate a singular space on the internet—one devoted not so much to information but to illumination. Her latest book, Traversal, which links figures such as Mary Shelley and Walt Whitman, alongside other writers, poets, physicists, and philosophers, serves as an intellectual journey and an across-time meditation on creativity, consciousness, and interconnectedness. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Popova discusses the idea of “spiritual ancestors,” why today's A.I. debates are fundamentally modern versions of age-old questions about the soul, and the mystery of being alive. Show notes:  Maria Popova [4:58] Traversal (2026) [5:43] René Descartes [6:50] Aristotle [6:50] Susan Sontag [7:03] Alan Lightman [8:16] Mary Shelley [8:16] Walt Whitman [9:42] Frankenstein (1818) [14:08] Frances “Fanny” Wright [17:13] Freeman Dyson [17:13] Maker of Patterns: An Autobiography Through Letters (2018) [16:04] Rube Goldberg [22:26] Nina Simone [23:28] Dan Frank [23:29] Figuring (2019) [34:24] The Marginalian [43:18] T.S. Elliot's “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” (1915) [55:00] Dacher Keltner's Awe (2023) [45:17] Iris Murdoch [45:33] The Universe in Verse (2024) [45:55] Patti Smith [45:57] Rebecca Elson [45:58] Vera Rubin [47:23] “Urns for Living” [48:54] Sylvia Plath [59:35] Leaves of Grass (1855)

We are spoiling you in this episode with two special guests, the first being Kavus Torabi of Gong ahead of their extensive tour of the UK and Europe.  He talks to Billy Reeves about their new album ‘Bright Spirit'  as well as covering important topics like snapping synapses, The Bash Street Kids, the illustrative art of 2000AD and pause to give each other a pat on the back... Then follows a conversation with Godsticks who are back after 18 months of hard work with an amazing new album (and tour) entitled ‘Void'. Darran, Gavin, Tom & Francis invited us to their south Wales HQ to explain “uncompromising”, give a terrific guide as to why the scene has exploded (as discussed in ep. 187 with Stef Broks of Textures), the influence of Duke Ellington's Bulgarian arrangements!

The Entity of Tsarichina: The Bulgarian Military Dug for Something, Then Buried It Again Episode Description In this Mindless Banter episode, we dig into one of Europe's weirdest military mysteries: the Tsarichina Hole. In the early 1990s, the Bulgarian military reportedly spent nearly two years excavating near a small village, officially searching for lost medieval treasure. But the story quickly spirals into psychics, alien guides named Roro and Kiki, “Object Number One,” strange underground phenomena, disappearing records, forcefields, Baba Vanga warnings, and claims of a buried entity tied to the origins of humanity. Was it a failed treasure hunt, a psychic military experiment, a corruption cover-up, or did they actually find something strange enough to seal the whole thing in concrete? Episode Breakdown The official treasure-hunt story involving Tsar Samuil's lost riches The psychics who allegedly gave the military digging instructions The bizarre claims about a yellow-haired, genderless, monkey-like extraterrestrial “Object Number One” and the mystery of what was supposedly buried underground Strange reports from the site: sickness, equipment problems, lights, vibrations, and underground warnings Roro, Kiki, Sorel, and the alleged alien management problem Bulgaria's post-communist chaos and why a psychic military dig might have happened The wildest theories: forcefields, missing soldiers, Baba Vanga, telepathic notebooks, and the 16 million lev money pit Podcast Sponsors This episode is sponsored by BattlBox. Get 15% off your first BattlBox at Survive.BattlBox.com/CasualPreppers. This episode is also sponsored by LMNT. Get a free LMNT Sample Pack with any purchase at DrinkLMNT.com/CasualPreppers. This episode is also sponsored by TacPack. Use code CASUALPREPPERS for the current offer. Get Casual Preppers merch here! #StaySurvived

Seven-figure Amazon sellers from Bulgaria and Romania reveal EU marketplace strategies, Prime Day tactics, ranking tips, Rufus optimization, and how they built brands across Amazon marketplaces. ► Watch The Podcasts On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Helium10SeriousSellersPodcast?sub_confirmation=1 ► Instagram: instagram.com/serioussellerspodcast ► Free Amazon Seller Chrome Extension: https://h10.me/extension ► Sign Up For Helium 10: https://h10.me/signup  (Use SSP10 To Save 10% For Life) ► Learn How To Sell on Amazon: https://h10.me/ft What does it take to build a seven-figure Amazon business from Eastern Europe? In this episode, Bradley Sutton travels to Sofia, Bulgaria, to speak with experienced sellers from Bulgaria and Romania who have built successful brands across Amazon Europe and the U.S. marketplace. From workwear and cosmetics to pet supplements and ranking services, these sellers share how they found opportunities, scaled their businesses, and adapted as Amazon continued to evolve. The first story follows Iliyan Ivanov, a seller who started in advertising and eventually turned local workwear demand into a multi-million-euro Amazon brand. He explains how starting early in Amazon Europe gave his listings maturity, how Germany became his top marketplace, and how keyword research helped uncover unexpected seasonal demand around Germany's carnival season. He also shares how tools like Cerebro and Managed Refund Services helped his team with listing strategy, keyword targeting, and recovering money from Amazon reimbursement opportunities. Next, Bradley talks with another Bulgarian seller, Milcho Vasilkov, who used product research to enter categories he was not personally connected to, including maternity products, cosmetics, grocery, and pet supplements. His story highlights why sellers do not always need to be passionate users of their own products to succeed. Instead, he focuses on demand, customer behavior, marketplace fit, and smart inventory timing. He also shares Prime Day strategies for Europe, including building keyword position ahead of major events, using account managers for top deals, and extending promotional momentum after Prime Day. The final guest brings a Romanian seller, Marcel Marculescu's perspective on selling in the U.S. marketplace, and how Amazon ranking has changed over the years. After early product failures, he built a seven-figure Amazon business and now focuses on more sustainable launch and ranking strategies. He discusses using Vine, PPC, external traffic signals, keyword research, and Rufus optimization to help listings perform in today's Amazon ecosystem. The episode closes with a powerful reminder for sellers: success does not come from a single hack or a single marketplace, but from adapting early, watching the data, and building strategies that can survive the next Amazon change. In episode 748 of the Serious Sellers Podcast, Bradley, Iliyan, Milcho, and Marcel discuss: 00:00 - Seven-Figure Sellers From Bulgaria And Romania 00:50 - From Advertising Agency To Amazon Seller 03:20 - Launching A Bulgarian Workwear Brand 04:07 - Growing To €3 Million In Revenue 05:04 - Finding A Carnival Keyword Opportunity 07:43 - Expanding Across Amazon Europe 11:36 - Cerebro, Refunds, And Helium 10 Wins 14:21 - Building Mature Listings Against Copycats 18:41 - Product Research In Pregnancy And Baby Niches 23:00 - A Half-Million-Euro Product Launch 27:20 - Prime Day PPC And Deal Strategies 31:04 - Ranking, Rufus, And Modern Amazon Launches

Episode 2796 - Vinnie Tortorich and Anna Vocino discuss the basics of glute exercises with a booty-building 101, and more. https://vinnietortorich.com/2026/05/booty-building-101-episode-2796 PLEASE SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS Pure Vitamin Club Pure Coffee Club NSNG® Foods VILLA CAPPELLI EAT HAPPY KITCHEN YOU CAN WATCH THIS EPISODE ON YOUTUBE - @FitnessConfidential Podcast Vinnie's workout videos are available to purchase! Choose from a 2-day, 4-day, or 6-day workout–or buy all three at a discount! TO PURCHASE VINNIE'S WORKOUT VIDEOS, CLICK THIS LINK: https://vinnietortorich.com/workout Booty Building 101 Body trends have changed over time. Older bodybuilding aesthetics favored smaller glutes; modern culture/influencers popularized bigger butts. (4:15) Contrasts natural training for glute development with cosmetic surgery trends (e.g., BBLs) and criticizes the extreme social media fitness culture. Vinnie warns strongly against performance-enhancing drugs, peptides, and SARMs. There have been multiple deaths among young pro bodybuilders because these substances are dangerous. (12:20) These are key glute-building compound exercises. You may want to view the YouTube video to see some of the items they discuss. (21:00) Back squats (can be free weights or Smith machine) Leg press Lunges or Bulgarian split squats Deadlifts Hip thrusts/glute bridges (machine or barbell) Genetics influence results, but progressive strength training can build more glute muscle over time. Training glutes twice per week (three times is "overkill"), spacing sessions out (e.g., Tue/Fri or Mon/Thu). Training Guidance Here is some program guidance: Choose 3 exercises each session from the main list and rotate the order each workout. Do a "to-failure" style session once per week. In the other weekly session, train at about 85% effort (higher reps, stop short of failure). Avoid going to failure in every workout to reduce the risk of injury and burnout. Keep these techniques in mind (28:00) Slight toe turnout is OK (about 10–12%), not extreme "ballet" turnout. Keep heels planted; if ankle/hip mobility is limited, elevate heels slightly until flexibility improves. For lunges, avoid letting the knee travel too far over the toes; aim for depth limited by hip flexor mobility while maintaining safer alignment. Avoid "tucking" the pelvis like a ballerina; think "sit back" with glutes engaged. Deadlift basics: push through heels, keep the bar close. It should be rubbing your quads, and hex bars can make the pattern easier to feel. Ideas for travel/mobility tips for long drives: stop often, move/stretch, consider using a yoga mat, and do a brief activity (jump rope, jumping jacks, etc.). (31:30) DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness) is microscopic muscle tears largely from eccentric (lowering/lengthening) contractions, not lactic acid. The NSNG® VIP GROUP IS NOW CLOSED AGAIN AS OF SUNDAY, MARCH 15TH Anna's next cookbook, Eat Happy Cocktail Hour, is filled with cocktails, mocktails, and appetizers and is available for pre-order right now. If you pre-order, you'll get bonus goodies! You can preorder from a wide variety of booksellers at https://eathappycocktailhour.com/ Save your receipt from wherever you preorder, you'll need it for your bonuses! Physical Release Date is October 2026 A New Sponsor Jaspr Air Scrubbers has a discount code, VINNIE, that gets you $200 off for a limited time. Jaspr offers a lifetime warranty. Go to Jaspr.co for more information or to purchase. (1:05:00) You can book a consultation with Vinnie to get guidance on your goals. https://vinnietortorich.com/phone-consultation-2/ More News Serena has added some of her clothing suggestions and beauty product suggestions to Vinnie's Amazon Recommended Products link. Self Care, Beauty, and Grooming Products that Actually Work! https://www.amazon.com/shop/vinnietortorich/list/3GPVU29UHHPMY?ref_=aipsflist Don't forget to check out Serena Scott Thomas on Days of Our Lives on the Peacock channel. "Dirty Keto" is available on Amazon! You can purchase or rent it here.https://amzn.to/4d9agj1 Please make sure to watch, rate, and review it! Eat Happy Italian, Anna's second cookbook, is available! You can go to https://eathappyitalian.com You can order it from Vinnie's Book Club. https://amzn.to/3ucIXm Anna's recipes are in her cookbooks, on her website, and on Substack —they will spice up your day! https://annavocino.substack.com/ PURCHASE DIRTY KETO (2024) The documentary launched in August 2024! Order it TODAY! This is Vinnie's fourth documentary in just over five years. Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries Then, please share my fact-based, health-focused documentary series with your friends and family. Additionally, the more views it receives, the better it ranks, so please watch it again with a new friend! REVIEWS: Please submit your REVIEW after you watch my films. Your positive REVIEW does matter! PURCHASE BEYOND IMPOSSIBLE (2022) Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries FAT: A DOCUMENTARY 2 (2021) Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries FAT: A DOCUMENTARY (2019) Visit my new Documentaries HQ to find my films everywhere: https://vinnietortorich.com/documentaries