Podcasts about BuzzFeed

Meet the very first astrologer that got me into astrology. I used to watch David Palmer, The Leo King, everyday as a teenager on Youtube and it's such an honor to have him on my show!!  Astrology is moving into a new era. In this episode of Cosmic Compass, Helena Woods sits down with David Palmer, the Leo King, to explore how predictive astrology, AI, historical cycles, and locational astrology are shaping what comes next. David shares how he built his astrology brand, from his early YouTube videos and whole brand from the daily "energy meter" to developing new technology for astrological research. Helena and David also get into the questions astrologers wrestle with:  Is astrology about fate or free will? How do you handle public predictions and online backlash? And how can astrologers stay authentic while building a community? We talk about... David's journey from DJ and astrologer to building The Leo King brand How historical patterns and rare transits inform mundane astrology and prediction What AI might mean for astrology—and how David is developing Hypergate AI How astrocartography and local space can offer new ways to understand place The importance of eclipses, lunar nodes, minor aspects, and timing techniques Why astrologers may need more collaboration, community, and real-world connection David's advice for navigating uncertainty: stay present and show up for one another If you're curious about astrology's future, the role of technology, or the cycles that may be shaping our world, this iconic episode will be one you love!! Join High Vibe TV (highly recommend David's membership!!) ➡️ https://www.highvibe.tv/authors/the-leo-king Follow David on Instagram: ➡️ https://www.instagram.com/theleokingdom/?hl=en Book a reading with David and get his book! ➡️ https://www.theleoking.com/

In this episode, Laura reconnects with longtime friend and author Mark Gober for a fascinating conversation about disclosure, extraterrestrial and interdimensional phenomena, spirituality, consciousness, and our expanding understanding of reality.Laura and Mark explore recent UAP disclosures, the possibility of non-human intelligence, DMT experiences, interdimensional beings, and why the truth behind these phenomena may be more complex than we realize. They also discuss the importance of staying grounded, avoiding fear and obsession, and remaining connected to our purpose while exploring extraordinary ideas. Mark shares a preview of his upcoming book, An End to Upside-Down Creation, and the deeper questions it raises about religion, spirituality, and humanity's place in the universe.Learn more about the book at https://www.markgober.com/books.Mark Gober is a Princeton graduate, a former Partner at a Silicon Valley tech strategy firm, and previously worked as an investment banking analyst in New York. He is also an award-winning author of 8 books since 2018 which span the topics of consciousness, spiritual awakening, political and economic theory, the UFO phenomenon, and the Great Reset. Laura is a Celebrity Psychic who has been featured by Buzzfeed, The Weakest Link, Beast Games, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, the CW, Motherboard by Vice Magazine and the #1” Ron Burgundy Podcast” with Will Ferrell. Laura Powers is a clairvoyant, psychic medium, writer, actress, producer, writer, and speaker who helps other receive guidance and communicate with loved ones. Laura travels nationally and internationally for clients, events, television appearances, and speaking engagements. She is also the author of 7 books on the psychic realm and 1 book on podcasting. Laura also works as a psychic, entertainer, and creative entrepreneur.For more information about Laura and her work, you can go to her website www.healingpowers.net or find her on X @thatlaurapowers, on Facebook at @realhealingpowers and @mllelaura, and on Instagram, TikTok and Insight Timer @laurapowers44.If you enjoyed this episode, check out Laura's book, Diary of a Psychic, which explores psychic abilities, energy boundaries, intuition, and using a spiritual lens to better navigate life. Diary of a Psychic is available on Amazon and major retailers, with more information at healingpowers.net.

Today, we're joined by Kai Luttrell of Kreator.ai, an entrepreneur and innovator who has built experience at the intersection of e-commerce, subscription businesses, AI-powered marketing, and creator-driven growth.Kai has a unique perspective on what it takes to identify the right market, build a compelling brand, leverage influencers and creators, and use AI to move faster and create more effective marketing content.Highlight Bullets> Here's a glimpse of what you would learn…. Entrepreneurial journey of starting a loose leaf tea subscription box brandGrowth strategies using Facebook ads and influencer marketingImpact of BuzzFeed coverage on brand visibility and salesChallenges and economics of running a subscription box businessCustomer acquisition costs, churn rates, and lifetime value considerationsImportance of product selection and market fit for subscription modelsRole of PR and networking in business growthFulfillment and packaging management in e-commerceInsights on personalization and customer retention strategiesDevelopment of an AI tool for content creation in e-commerce marketingIn this episode of the Ecomm Breakthrough podcast, recorded live at Kevin King's Market Masters event, host Josh interviews Kai, founder of a loose leaf tea subscription box brand launched in 2017. Kai shares how her passion project scaled rapidly through Facebook ads, BuzzFeed features, and organic buzz. They discuss subscription business economics, including customer acquisition costs, churn rates, lifetime value, and the importance of choosing the right product and market. Kai also reveals how personalization unexpectedly increased churn and shares networking insights. She concludes by introducing her new AI content creation platform, Creator, designed to streamline marketing for e-commerce brands.Here are 3 action items that Josh identified from this episode:Explore AI tools for content, analytics, and customer service to streamline operations.Integrate AI with your ad platforms and e-commerce tools for maximum efficiency.Stay ahead of the curve by adopting new technologies early.Timestamps:00:00:37 Podcast IntroductionThe host introduces the podcast, recorded on-the-fly at an event, and welcomes his guest, Kai, an entrepreneur.00:01:23 Kai's Entrepreneurial JourneyKai shares how she started her loose leaf tea subscription box as a passion project that scaled rapidly after BuzzFeed coverage.00:02:42 The Subscription Box Money ModelDiscussion on the importance of lifetime value in subscription businesses versus front-end acquisition models common on Amazon.00:03:17 Challenges of Subscription BoxesKai explains the initial financial challenges, like not being profitable on the first few boxes, and the importance of shipping costs.00:04:45 Understanding Customer ChurnKai discusses typical churn rates for subscription boxes and how adjusting the amount of product sent can increase customer retention.00:05:49 The Personalization ParadoxKai shares surprising results from an A/B test, revealing that non-personalized boxes led to longer subscriber retention than personalized ones.00:06:53 Customer Acquisition StrategiesKai details her initial customer acquisition methods, including Facebook ads, blogs, influencer marketing, and promoting within Facebook groups.00:09:32 Packaging and Fulfillment EvolutionKai explains how unique packaging helped her brand stand out and how she scaled fulfillment from her garage to a warehouse.00:11:39 The Economics of the Tea BoxA breakdown of the subscription box pricing, cost of goods, shipping costs, and overall profit margins for Kai's business.00:14:59 The BuzzFeed EffectKai explains how a Cratejoy marketplace feature led to BuzzFeed coverage and how she nurtured that relationship for continued exposure.00:16:46 Experiences with PR FirmsKai reflects on her mixed results with hiring PR firms and what she would do differently if starting over.00:19:20 The Power of NetworkingKai discusses the importance of finding a network of fellow entrepreneurs for support, connection, and learning.00:20:50 Advice for E-commerce EntrepreneursKai offers advice on choosing the right product for a subscription model and selecting a market with a large audience.00:24:54 Staying in the GameThe host and Kai discuss the importance of persistence in entrepreneurship, as big breaks can happen unexpectedly.00:28:17 What Kai is Working on NowKai introduces her new venture, Creator.ai, an AI platform that generates content for Amazon, Shopify, and Meta ads.00:32:39 Three Actionable TakeawaysThe host summarizes the key lessons from the conversation, focusing on business models, market selection, and life-goal alignment.00:36:32 Final QuestionsKai shares her most influential book, favorite AI tools, and the e-commerce entrepreneur she admires most.Resources mentioned in this episode:Josh Hadley on LinkedIneComm Breakthrough ConsultingeComm Breakthrough PodcastEmail Josh Hadley: Josh@eCommBreakthrough.comTools and Websites"BuzzFeed": "00:00:02""Shopify": "00:02:13""Facebook Ads": "00:07:49""Cratejoy": "00:15:06""kreator.ai": "00:28:17""Helium 10": "00:29:35"Books"They Ask, You Answer by Marcus Sheridan": "00:36:42"Influencers and Personalities"Alex Hormozi": "00:38:50"Key Concepts"Lifetime Value": "00:03:15""Customer Acquisition Cost": "00:11:12""Total Addressable Market (TAM)": "00:22:04"Episode Sponsor:This episode is brought to you by eComm Breakthrough Consulting where I help seven-figure e-commerce owners grow to eight figures. I started my business in 2015 and grew it to an eight-figure brand in seven years.I made mistakes along the way that made the path to eight figures longer. At times I doubted whether our business could even survive and become a real brand. I wish I would have had a guide to help me grow faster and avoid the stumbling blocks.If you've hit a plateau and want to know the next steps to take your business to the next level, then email me at josh@ecommbreakthrough.com and in your subject line say “strategy audit” for the chance to win a $10,000 comprehensive business strategy audit at no cost!Transcript:Josh Hadley 00:00:00  How did you know you were onto something?Kai Luttrell 00:00:02  Oh, that's a good question. I feel like I knew I was on to something when people were posting about it, without me soliciting them. Does that make sense? So people would. And then Buz...

Fred Csibi-Levin is a scientist-turned-pastry-chef dedicated to combining the precision of the scientific method with the artistry of pastry. Fred brings an analytical lens to the art of dessert-making; exploring how texture, temperature, and flavor interact to create harmony with visual appeal. After earning his pastry degree from the Cambridge School of Culinary Arts, Fred moved from the science bench to the kitchen laboratory, developing recipes, teaching, and consulting for bakeries and restaurants all over the US and abroad. He is the author of Mastering Macarons, where he breaks down complex techniques into approachable ones to successfully make macarons. His second cookbook, Pâtisserie Extraordinaire, showcases inventive, illusion-inspired desserts that blend techniques with modern artistry and surprise. Through his teaching, Fred shares a system that allows chefs and students to move beyond recipes and develop their own refined, visually striking creations. Fred's work has been featured by Buzzfeed, Tastemade, and the Pastry Arts Magazine, among others; he has competed on the Food Network, and his social media channels have amassed over 450K of followers. Website: docmacaron.com  Instagram: @fred.csibilevin In this episode we explore: Why he swapped a career in pharma to become a pastry chef Why Fred decided to focus on perfecting his technique for macarons Fred's top macaron tips from his book, Mastering Macarons Why he decided to focus on trompe l'oeil desserts in Patisserie Extraordinaire Some of the desserts featured in Patisserie Extraordinaire What he does as a pastry consultant The similarities between the scientific lab and the pastry kitchen And much more!

On the show today: General Lee is missing one CRUCIAL element to his wedding Beccie tells us what headliner we are, BuzzFeed style Turns out Searley makes a great delicacy in the kitchen For exclusive content and the full show including music features, visit: https://www.rova.nz/podcasts/george-fm-breakfast Join the Whānau on Instagram, Facebook & Tik Tok.

Check out and subscribe to Dr Jason Johnson new youtube channel Dr. Jason Johnson is an associate professor of politics and journalism in the School of Global Journalism & Communication at Morgan State University and author of the book Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell. He focuses on campaign politics, political communication, strategy and popular culture. He hosts a podcast on Slate called "A Word" He is a political analyst for MSNBC, SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio and The Grio. He has previously appeared on CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Current TV and CBS. His work has been featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on ESPN. He has been quoted by The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Wallstreet Journal, Buzzfeed, The Hill newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dr. Johnson is a University of Virginia alumnus and earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Listen rate and review on Apple Podcasts Listen rate and review on Spotify Pete On Instagram Pete on Blue Sky Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on Twitter Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Gift a Subscription https://www.patreon.com/PeteDominick/gift Send Pete $ Directly on Venmo

Send us Fan MailBEST OF PTT FROM JULY 2018One of the many advantages of social media is that it connects the world.  However, in a world where everyone is accessible, why are people so isolated and afraid to talk?Communication and Human Nature Expert, Award-winning journalist, and AuthorCeleste Headlee is an award-winning journalist, professional speaker and author of Heard Mentality and We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter. In her 20-year career in public radio, she has been the Executive Producer of On Second Thought at Georgia Public Radio and anchored programs including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.  She also served as co-host of the national morning news show, The Takeaway, from PRI and WNYC, and anchored presidential coverage in 2012 for PBS World Channel.  Celeste's TEDx Talk sharing 10 ways to have a better conversation has over 15 million total views to date.  As an NPR host and journalist, Celeste has interviewed hundreds of people from all walks of life.  Through her work, she has learned the true power of conversation and its ability to both bridge gaps or deepen wounds.  In a time when conversations are often minimized to a few words in a text message and lack of meaningful communication and dialogue abounds, Celeste sheds a much-needed light on the lost and essential art of conversation.  Celeste is an expert in human nature, reclaiming common humanity and finding well-being and frequently provides insight and commentary on what is good for all humans and what is bad for us, focusing the best research in neuro and social science to increase understanding of how we relate with one another and can work together in beneficial ways in our workplaces, neighborhoods, communities and homes.  As a mixed race journalist of black and Jewish descent, Celeste also speaks candidly about how to converse on race and other difficult subjects. Celeste serves as an advisory board member for Procon.org and is an official spokeswoman for Plenty of Fish.  Her work and insights have been featured on TODAY, Psychology Today, Inc., NPR, Time, Essence, Elle, BuzzFeed, Salon, Parade, and many more.  She lives in Washington, D.C. -Timestamps:00:00 Celeste Headlee's career highlights03:42 Improving conversational skills07:28 Starting Conversations at TED Summit11:16 Impact of phones on socializing14:41 Discussing societal trends and future outlook16:48 Engaging short attention spans21:11 Importance of communication skills22:31 Adapting leadership to employee needs27:22 Handling workplace communication issues29:24 Global divisions and tribalism35:05 Book recommendations on human behavior36:38 Cell phone presence effectsSupport the showConnect with Passing The Torch: Facebook and IG: @torchmartinMore Amazing Stories:Episode 41: Lee Ellis – Freeing You From Bond That Make You InsecureEpisode 81: Kurt Warner – Perseverance, Humility, and Lighting the Way Episode 90: Michelle 'MACE' Curran – How to Turn Fear into Fuel------------© 2026 TORCH LEAP®, LLC. All rights reserved.

Hey Boos, join us today as we discuss the history and ghosts of Kentucky's Octagon Hall! Before we get into that, we talk about some of our favorite body horror movies. Then we get into the history of Octagon Hall, the ghost stories, and the pop culture surrounding it. For our Boo Crew Moment of the Week, Bobby hosts a Buzzfeed quiz where we have to try to survive a haunted house. We would love to interact with you, send us an email or DM us on Instagram or Facebook!Follow us on Instagram - boo.busters.podcastFollow us on Facebook - Boo Busters PodcastFollow us on TikTok - boo.bustersEmail us - boo.busters.podcast@gmail.com

What does it take to turn a YouTube channel into a valuable, sellable business? That's what I wanted to explore with this week's guest, Tyler Chou (aka The Creators' Attorney). Having spent 20 years as an entertainment attorney at giants like Disney and BuzzFeed, Tyler now represents some of YouTube's biggest channels, helping them navigate exits and build sustainable enterprises.In this episode, Tyler pulls back the curtain on the legal mistakes creators often make, the crucial steps to take to protect your assets, and why sometimes, a creator doesn't need to sell at all - they just need a sabbatical. Tyler shares insights on how to build a business that can eventually sell for 8 or 9 figures, and what investors are really looking for beyond just views.Timestamps:00:00 Introduction01:09 Private equity looks to buy YouTube channels03:52 Creator burnout04:52 Protecting your IP and avoiding mistakes08:20 Diversifying revenue beyond AdSense and brand deals10:43 Avoiding misclassification lawsuits12:46 The problem with reaction channels17:45 Why buyers love recurring revenue and technical products23:11 The power of artificial scarcity28:20 How to make your brand less dependent on the creator37:48 Should creators sell their business?43:49 You might need a sabbatical, not an exit45:00 How to protect yourself from predatory buyers51:08 Hiring operators to run products54:19 The power of angel investors on your cap table56:29 The value of books for creators1:11:08 Building a network of channels1:14:10 Where to find TylerIf you enjoyed this episode, please like and subscribe, share it with your friends, and leave a review. I read every single one.Learn more about the podcast: https://nathanbarry.com/showFollow Nathan:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nathanbarryLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathanbarryX: https://twitter.com/nathanbarryYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thenathanbarryshowWebsite: https://nathanbarry.comKit: https://kit.comFollow Tyler:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCreatorsAttorneyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thecreatorsattorneyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecreatorsattorneyFeatured in this episode:Kit: https://www.kit.comHighlights:01:38 - Why private equity is buying YouTube channels07:50 - The power of building independent revenue streams12:58 - Why reaction channels are worthless to buyers38:00 - The surprising downsides of taking an exit59:20 - The power of books for creator credibility

In this episode, David reconnects with longtime friend and psychic Laura Powers, psychic, author, entertainer, podcast host for a fascinating conversation about intuition, personal power, boundaries, and transformation.Laura and David share their experiences of developing their psychic abilities, learning to trust their guidance, and discovering that being intuitive isn't always as simple—or easy—as people imagine.They explore what it means to fully own who you are, why highly successful people often rely on intuition more than they realize, and how our daily choices can keep us stuck in patterns we say we want to leave behind.They also dive into the powerful idea of “going through customs”—letting go of the habits, relationships, identities, and behaviors that can't come with us into the next chapter.To learn more about David Waldas and his work, visit www.davidwaldas.comDavid Waldas is a performance advisor, educator, and intuitive strategist who helps high-performing leaders and entrepreneurs unlock clarity, dissolve misalignment, and live from their deepest operating truth.A former high school teacher and successful entrepreneur, David developed the Aligned Living System after years of working with high achievers who felt “off” despite outward success. His framework fuses neuroscience, energetic principles, and practical tactical tools, delivering a repeatable system to live, lead, and perform in alignment with your highest self.David holds a Master's in Education and has spent decades guiding individuals and organizations toward transformational shifts. In 2021, he founded the Aligned Living Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering empathic and highly sensitive teens with the tools to navigate the world without losing themselves in it.His work is rooted in a simple truth:Your power expands when you stop performing and start operating from who you truly are.David is the host of The Aligned Living System Podcast, also the author of Insight, Influence, and Flow: A practical guide for leaders to stabilize in flow, enhance intuition, and operate from alignment in high-stakes environments.Laura is a Celebrity Psychic who has been featured by Buzzfeed, The Weakest Link, Beast Games, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, the CW, Motherboard by Vice Magazine and the #1” Ron Burgundy Podcast” with Will Ferrell. Laura Powers is a clairvoyant, psychic medium, writer, actress, producer, writer, and speaker who helps other receive guidance and communicate with loved ones. Laura travels nationally and internationally for clients, events, television appearances, and speaking engagements. She is also the author of 7 books on the psychic realm and 1 book on podcasting. Laura also works as a psychic, entertainer, and creative entrepreneur.For more information about Laura and her work, you can go to her website www.healingpowers.net or find her on X @thatlaurapowers, on Facebook at @realhealingpowers and @mllelaura, and on Instagram, TikTok and Insight Timer @laurapowers44.

Welcome, friends!Just a quick message before I tell you what this episode is all about. It arrived a little later than planned. Life got unexpectedly busy behind the scenes, so I gave myself a little extra breathing room. Thank you for your patience, and thank you, as always, for listening.Why do women so often become the enforcers of the very beauty standards that have hurt them?In this brand new episode of Beauty Unlocked, we're looking at where our earliest ideas about beauty come from, how seemingly harmless comments can follow us for decades, and why beauty standards can become intertwined with identity, belonging, survival, and worth.We also explore the influence of family, Eurocentric beauty ideals, and the uncomfortable ways inherited beliefs can become lessons we pass on to others.Because the fact that we inherited an idea doesn't mean we have to keep it.ARE. YOU. READY?****************Sources & Further Reading:Deek, Melanie Rebecca, Ivanka Prichard, and Eva Kemps. "The Mother-Daughter-Sister Triad: The Role of Female Family Members in Predicting Body Image and Eating Behaviour in Young Women." Body Image 46 (2023): 336-346.Engeln, Renee. Beauty Sick: How the Cultural Obsession with Appearance Hurts Girls and Women. New York: Harper, 2017.Festinger, Leon. "A Theory of Social Comparison Processes." Human Relations 7, no. 2 (1954): 117-140.Kluck, Annette S. "Family Influence on Disordered Eating: The Role of Body Image Dissatisfaction." Body Image 7, no. 1 (2010): 8-14.Strings, Sabrina. Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. New York: New York University Press, 2019.Vouloumanos, Victoria. "POC Are Sharing The Eurocentric Beauty Standards They Grew Up With And How It Impacted Them." BuzzFeed, February 25, 2023.****************Leave Us a 5* Rating, it helps the show!Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beauty-unlocked-the-podcast/id1522636282Spotify Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/37MLxC8eRob1D0ZcgcCorA****************Follow Us on TikTok & Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!YouTube:@beautyunlockedspodcasthourTikTok:tiktok.com/@beautyunlockedthepod****************Intro/Outro Music:“Fame Inc” by Savvier — https://icons8.com/music

On this week’s episode, we set out to make Amanda laugh with embarrassing stories people shared on Buzzfeed. Colleen got new AirPods after her old ones fell to a watery grave and Shandy dealt with the DMV. Feedback: TheBroadcasters3@gmail.com or 331-BROADS3 (331-276-2373) Links: Merchandise, Matt’s Broadcast Book Club Subscribe (MP3) | Become a Patron

On this week's episode, we set out to make Amanda laugh with embarrassing stories people shared on Buzzfeed. Colleen got new AirPods after her old ones fell to a watery grave and Shandy dealt with the DMV.Feedback: TheBroadcasters3@gmail.com or 331-BROADS3 (331-276-2373)Links: Merchandise, Matt's Broadcast Book ClubSubscribe (MP3) | Become a PatronBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-broadcast-with-amanda-shandy-and-colleen--2940971/support.

#388 | Dave sits down with Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever and former CCO at ClickUp, CRO at Cheddar, and VP of Creative at BuzzFeed, to talk about why most B2B content strategies fail because they're measured like ad campaigns instead of built like an actual media outlet. Melissa breaks down how she trains writers to think like journalists instead of bloggers, why third-party trade publications tend to outperform company blogs, and what it actually takes to run a media operation instead of just posting content. They also get into her wild LinkedIn distribution playbook - five posts a day, no rules followed - and whether AI can ever replace real editorial judgment.Timestamps(00:00) - - Today's guest: Melissa Rosenthal, co-founder of Outlever (01:58) - - From Buzzfeed to Cheddar to ClickUp (06:33) - - Why most B2B content strategies get abandoned too soon (09:20) - - The B2B companies actually winning at content right now (10:32) - - What building a real media company looks like from the inside (12:22) - - Training writers to think like journalists, not bloggers (16:48) - - Should your content live on your own site or somewhere else (21:57) - - Why separating the newsroom from marketing makes content credible (24:55) - - Her LinkedIn playbook: five posts a day and breaking every rule (26:23) - - Why the biggest wins never show up in the analytics (28:36) - - The obvious question nobody in B2B wants to answer (32:18) - - Can AI ever replace real editorial judgment Join 50,0000 people who get Dave's Newsletter here: https://www.exitfive.com/newsletterLearn more about Exit Five's private marketing community: https://www.exitfive.com/***Brought to you by:Optimizely - the AI platform for marketers. Build your own AI agents or pull from a directory of 50+ pre-built ones for marketing use cases. Their new Virtual Teammates can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. Learn more at optimizely.com/exitfive.Webflow - A website platform built for the agentic web, letting modern marketing teams build fully custom sites that perform in AI search with no developer needed. Learn more at webflow.com/for/exitfive.Zoom Webinars & Events – The virtual event platform built to help B2B marketers run webinars that actually drive pipeline, with branded registration pages, live engagement features, and built-in tools to repurpose sessions into clips and content. Learn more at zoom.com/exitfive.Compound Growth Marketing - A full-funnel demand gen agency helping high-growth cybersecurity and enterprise software companies show up earlier in the buying journey, combining AEO, modern paid advertising, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Podcast listeners get two free media planning sessions to find out what channels are driving the best ROI. Learn more at compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exitfive. ***Thanks to my friends at hatch.fm for producing this episode and handling all of the Exit Five podcast production.They give you unlimited podcast editing and strategy for your B2B podcast.Get unlimited podcast editing and on-demand strategy for one low monthly cost. Just upload your episode, and they take care of the rest.Visit hatch.fm to learn more

"We don't really think as much about who we are when no one's watching... that's where a lot of integrity comes from, and it's where we learn to enjoy our lives." — Kathryn Jezer-MortonIn a world obsessed with digital efficiency and quick fixes, the real currency of a meaningful life remains independent thought, presence, and intentional effort.In this episode of Gratitude Through Hard Times, host Chris Schembra sits down with Kathryn Jezer-Morton, sociologist, columnist at The Cut, and author of The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything. Kathryn breaks down the concept of "friction maxing"—reintroducing positive friction into our lives to counteract frictionless, algorithm-driven efficiency. She explores how social media platforms have transformed everyday experiences into performative brand management and why reclaiming nuanced, "flat" stories can restore authentic human connection.10 Memorable Quotes:"We don't really think as much about who we are when no one's watching... that's where a lot of integrity comes from, and it's where we learn to enjoy our lives." — Kathryn Jezer-Morton"Humanity itself is never going to be simple. It's never going to be linear." — Kathryn Jezer-Morton"The purpose of a flat story is to provide an honest accounting of what real life is like." — Kathryn Jezer-Morton"Real currency in a meaningful life remains independent thought, presence, and intentional effort." — Chris Schembra"When a metric becomes a measure, it ceases to become a good measure." — Chris Schembra (referencing Goodhart's Law)"Friction maxing is about inviting the unknown into your life and having to react to it." — Kathryn Jezer-Morton"To take a photograph of something is to appropriate the thing being photographed." — Chris Schembra (quoting Susan Sontag)"We have come to see ordinary stories as boring because we are so used to crazy up-and-down peaks and valleys." — Kathryn Jezer-Morton"Unjudgmental listening gives people the confidence to become better storytellers." — Kathryn Jezer-Morton"Gratitude doesn't change your circumstances; it changes your capacity to carry them." — Chris Schembra10 Key Takeaways:Understanding "Friction Maxing": Embracing intentional, offline friction to counter hyper-optimized digital culture and restore real meaning to personal relationships.The Strength of Weak Ties on Social Media: How digital platforms leverage loose acquaintances to pass social information, while strong ties remain essential for deep emotional resilience.Moving Beyond the "Man in the Hole" Formula: Rejecting performative, dopamine-driven comeback narratives in favor of "flat stories" that capture the realistic, everyday plateaus of human life.The Rise of "Brand Called You": Examining how ordinary social media users inadvertently communicate like corporate brands, curating a polished, risk-averse front stage.Developing "Backstage Integrity": Cultivating personal experiences, private habits, and self-worth when cameras and social media audiences aren't watching.Escaping "Airspace" and Homogenized Experiences: Resisting standardized, Instagram-curated travel aesthetics in order to invite unpredictable, authentic cultural discovery.The Trap of Dual Experiences: Recognizing how document-first culture forces people to experience life twice—first living the moment, then packaging it for public consumption.Communal Storytelling Roots: Drawing lessons from intentional communities and hippy communes on how shared stories hold groups together without commercial incentives.Building Critical Media Literacy: Developing a "skeleton key" to understand algorithmic behavior and view performative social media posting with greater empathy rather than judgment.Unjudgmental Listening as Mentorship: How safe, non-evaluative spaces provided by mentors and family allow individuals to explore complex personal narratives.About our Guest:Kathryn Jezer-Morton is a journalist and sociologist whose work sits at the intersection of family life, identity, and digital culture. She is the author of "Brooding," the biweekly column at New York Magazine's The Cut, where she reports on modern family life and the invisible ways social platforms shape it. Her debut book, The Story of Your Life: How Social Media Shapes the Way We Experience Everything (Penguin Random House, August 2026), examines how algorithm-driven platforms have quietly rewritten not just how we share our lives, but which lives we choose to lead.The book was named a Best New Book of Summer by The Globe and Mail, a Must-Read of August by Marie Claire, Chicago Review of Books, and Lit Hub, and was among The New York Times's 22 Books Coming in August. The Times called it "breezily inquisitive... intellectual generosity... hopeful and unscolding."Kathryn's byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The Guardian, BuzzFeed, Jezebel, Maisonneuve, and elsewhere. Much of her writing centers on ambivalence, the shady human emotion that social media, with its bright performative hits and insistence on redemption, largely fails to capture. Her work has become a touchstone for readers navigating the widening gap between the life they are actually living and the life the feed rewards them for performing.Kathryn holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from Concordia University, where her doctoral research focused on motherhood and online discourse. She is represented by Aevitas Creative Management and lives in Montreal with her partner and their two children.

In the chaotic times in which we live, how can we navigate through its darkness? Where can we find the light of true wisdom? Where can we find rest for our souls? Jesus says in Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and YOU SHALL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.”Jesus also tells us He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And by being in Christ, we have been declared righteous. We are on the path of righteousness, and, "...the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn,             That shines brighter and brighter until the full day" (Proverbs 4:18). By not leaning on our own understanding, by trusting in the Lord with all of our hearts, we act virtuously and shine as lights in a dark world. But even our virtuous acts are all of grace (Ephesians 2:8-10). This is part two of our conversation with English Professor at Oklahoma Baptist University Dr. Alan Noble about his latest book To Live Well. Come and see! From AlanNoble.comAlan Noble is Assistant Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. Alan launched the group Public Faith with Michael Wear to offer an alternative evangelical political voice. He also joined The AND Campaign as an advisor, were he served for a number of years. Alan has written articles for Christian publications such as Modern Reformation, InTouch Magazine, and Christianity Today and for secular publications like VOX, Buzzfeed, and The Atlantic. He has been interviewed, quoted, or cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, MTV News, MSNBC, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Politico, Village Voice, Yahoo! News, ThinkProgress, The Blaze, WORLD Magazine, and Slate. And he has spoken at colleges, organizations, churches, and youth groups on a range of topics related to the church and culture. In 2023, Alan became a “fellow” at the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. Free Watchman Profile articles. These profiles provide an overview of the person and ideas as well as a concise biblical response. NaturalismDeconstructionAtheismCarl Sagan's CosmosRichard DawkinsNihilismAdditional Resources:FREE: We are also offering a subscription to our 4-page bimonthly Profiles here: www.watchman.org/FreePROFILE NOTEBOOK: Order the complete collection of Watchman Fellowship Profiles (two volumes totalling over 700 pages -- from Astrology to Zen Buddhism) in either printed or PDF formats here: www.watchman.org/NotebookSUPPORT: Help us create more content like this. Make a tax-deductible donation here: www.watchman.org/GiveApologetics Profile is a ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit www.watchman.org © 2026 Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

In this episode of The Med-Tech Talent Lab, Mitch Robbins sits down with Joel Greengrass, Chief People Officer at Precision Neuroscience, to explore what it looks like when the mission you work for is also the one you live with.Precision is building a minimally invasive brain computer interface designed to restore communication and movement for people with severe neurological conditions. Joel lost his grandmother to ALS, his closest friend from college is fighting the same disease now, and he has lived with MS for 20 years. He explains why he told a recruiter to stop mid-pitch and not call anyone else, and how three decades spanning Accenture, Equinox, BuzzFeed, FanDuel, and Yieldstreet led him to a role he describes as his ikigai.The conversation also explores the difference between leading HR and leading people, the CEO who hired him by saying he didn't want an HR person, why he tracks how many one on ones he does every month, the honest feedback he gave a CEO that ultimately cost him a job, and the answer he gives in every interview that stops executives cold: you don't fire enough people.Whether you're a people leader, a founder, or an executive scaling a team, this episode offers practical insights on turning the people function into a competitive advantage, earning a real seat at the table, and building the kind of authenticity people can actually feel.In this episode, you'll learn:Why leading people is a growth function and leading HR is a foundationHow to build credibility with a CEO who has never seen a strategic people functionWhy Joel tracks his one on ones, and what meeting 35% of the company buysThe interview answer he gives every company: you don't fire enough peopleWhy a seat at the table is a privilege, and when to give the seat upWhat CEOs most often get wrong about people problemsHow an MS diagnosis reshaped his definition of success and his leadershipWhy the culture you built today is not the culture you'll have tomorrow...and so much more!Joel Greengrass on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joelgreengrass/Precision Neuroscience on the web: www.precisionneuro.io

We're coming up on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, and it had us thinking about an episode we produced in 2014. It's the story of one sentence, written in the hours after September 11th, 2001, that has led to the longest war in U.S. history. We examine how just 60 words of legal language have blurred the line between war and peace. In the hours after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a lawyer sat down in front of a computer and started writing a legal justification for taking action against those responsible. The language that he drafted and that President George W. Bush signed into law—called the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)—has at its heart one single sentence, 60 words long. Over the last decade, those 60 words have become the legal foundation for the "war on terror." In this collaboration with BuzzFeed, reporter Gregory Johnsen tells us the story of how this has come to be one of the most important, confusing, troubling sentences of the last two decades. We go into the meetings that took place in the chaotic days just after 9/11, speak with Congresswoman Barbara Lee and former Congressman Ron Dellums about the vote on the AUMF. We hear from former White House and State Department lawyers John Bellinger & Harold Koh. We learn how this legal language unleashed Guantanamo, Navy Seal raids and drone strikes. And we speak with journalist Daniel Klaidman, legal expert Benjamin Wittes and Virginia Senator Tim Kaine about how these words came to be interpreted, and what they mean for the future of war and peace. LATERAL CUTS -Really anything from our sister show, More PerfectEPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Kelsey Padgettwith help from - Matt KieltyProduced by - Matt Kieltywith help from - Kelsey PadgettSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.Leadership support for Radiolab's science programming is provided by the Simons Foundation and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This week, we're re-airing favorite segments from The Bulletin archive about loneliness. First up, Alan Noble joins Russell and Clarissa to talk about loneliness in the university, and why it often feels shameful to share that you're lonely. Then, Jon Tyson and Mike Cosper discuss the importance of the call to bless your children and others in your life. Finally, Clarissa, Ashley Hales, Ekemini Uwan, and John Shelton talk about people making the decision to live communally, new monasticism, and how to foster community whatever your living situation is. REFERENCED IN THE SHOW: Another Symptom of Growing Isolation - The Atlantic GO DEEPER WITH THE BULLETIN: Join the conversation at our Substack. Find us on YouTube. Rate and review the show in your podcast app of choice. ABOUT THE GUESTS: Alan Noble is an associate professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and author of numerous books and articles. Alan's writing appears in Modern Reformation, Christianity Today, Vox, Buzzfeed, and The Atlantic. Jon Tyson is a New York City-based pastor and author. Originally from Adelaide, Australia, Jon moved to the US over two decades ago to seek and cultivate renewal in the Western church. He is the author of the best-selling books Fighting Shadows, The Intentional Father, and Beautiful Resistance. He graduated from Capital Seminary and serves as the lead pastor of Church of the City New York. Ekemini Uwan is a public theologian, international human rights activist, and co-author of Truth's Table: Black Women's Musings on Life, Love, and Liberation. She co-hosts the award-winning podcast Truth's Table and Get In The Word With Truth's Table. Uwan was a 2024 fellow at The Aspen Institute where she served as the Special Advisor for The Aspen Institute's Racial Justice and Religion Collective. Ashley Hales is the editorial director for print at Christianity Today. She is the co-founder of The Willowbrae Institute, a think tank researching the intersection of Christianity and the common good in America. Ashley hosts the The Cartographers Podcast and is the author of Finding Holy in the Suburbs, A Spacious Life, and A Fruitful Life. John Shelton is the policy director for Advancing American Freedom. He received degrees from Duke Divinity School and the University of Virginia. ABOUT THE BULLETIN: The Bulletin is a twice-weekly news analysis podcast from Christianity Today, with editor-at-large Russell Moore. Each episode offers commentary on current events and headlining news with a roundtable of premier guests, and shares a Christian perspective on issues that are shaping our world The Bulletin listeners get 25% off CT. Go to https://orderct.com/THEBULLETIN to learn more. “The Bulletin” is a production of Christianity Today Host: Alexa Copeland Associate Producer: Alexa Copeland Editing and Mix: Kevin Morris Graphic Design: Rick Szuecs Music: Dan Phelps Executive Producer: Erik Petrik Senior Producer: Matt Stevens Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Link Up w/The Morning Sickness Digitally All Over:Instagram: @hms_98_official, @bosskupd, @bretvesely, @dickToledoX/Twitter: @HMSon98, @DickToledo, @bretveselyFacebook: @HMSKUPDYouTube: @hmspodcast9320, @98kupdRequest/Call in/Wakeup Song line:(IN AZ) 602.585.9800More HMS: www.holmbergpodcast.com, www.98kupd.comEmail: dtoledo@98kupd.com, bvesely@98kupd.com, bbogen@98kupd.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

On this episode, Mark Simon talks to Kuwilileni Williams-Hauwanga, the deputy director of Audience & Innovation at Capital B, a newsroom that covers stories of crucial importance to Black people across the country, such as politics, health, criminal justice, the environment, and rural issues.Kuwilileni is an accomplished multimedia storyteller who previously worked at the Brookings Institution, IndieWire, Business Insider, and Buzzfeed. Our conversation focused primarily on an oral history project that Kuwilileni is helping to lead. It's the For The Record Archive, a joint venture of Capital B and PushBlack intended to provide 250 oral histories of the Black American experience.We talked about Kuwilileni's work history, the project's origins, why it's important, and provided examples of the different types of oral histories shared.  Kuwililileni's salutes: MLK 50 and The 19thSubscribe to our newsletter hereYou can find all our episode guides for teachers and professors here,Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org Mark Simon's website MarkSimonmedia.comMark Simon's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-simon-92355124/

Link Up w/The Morning Sickness Digitally All Over:Instagram: @hms_98_official, @bosskupd, @bretvesely, @dickToledoX/Twitter: @HMSon98, @DickToledo, @bretveselyFacebook: @HMSKUPDYouTube: @hmspodcast9320, @98kupdRequest/Call in/Wakeup Song line:(IN AZ) 602.585.9800More HMS: www.holmbergpodcast.com, www.98kupd.comEmail: dtoledo@98kupd.com, bvesely@98kupd.com, bbogen@98kupd.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In a world that often seems to be chaotically out of control, in a world of an endless cacophony of competing  voices, in a world that encourages us to do whatever we want, in a world that relentlessly encourages us to pursue our own interests and desires, how can we possibly even begin to "live well"? What does that mean? Is it pursuing personal peace and affluence? The perfect job? The perfect spouse? The right college? The right neighborhood? Our guest this week on the Profile, Dr. Alan Noble of Oklahoma Baptist University, has written a helpful little guide that answers these and other questions about what it means for Christians to live well. This is not a self-help book or a name-it-and-claim-it prosperity treatise, but an invitation to meditate upon and pursue the ancient virtues. Noble does not advocate that we are earning God's favor by pursuing the virtues. Rather, because we are made righteous in Christ, we have the freedom in Christ to pursue patience, wisdom, charity, love, courage, and resoluteness. The pursuit of virtue is not dry religious legalism, but an adventure, accomplished by and through the Holy Spirit. Come and see!From AlanNoble.comAlan Noble is Assistant Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University. Alan launched the group Public Faith with Michael Wear to offer an alternative evangelical political voice. He also joined The AND Campaign as an advisor, were he served for a number of years. Alan has written articles for Christian publications such as Modern Reformation, InTouch Magazine, and Christianity Today and for secular publications like VOX, Buzzfeed, and The Atlantic. He has been interviewed, quoted, or cited in The New York Times, The Washington Post, MTV News, MSNBC, The Guardian, Buzzfeed, Politico, Village Voice, Yahoo! News, ThinkProgress, The Blaze, WORLD Magazine, and Slate. And he has spoken at colleges, organizations, churches, and youth groups on a range of topics related to the church and culture. In 2023, Alan became a “fellow” at the Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics. Free Watchman Profile articles. These profiles provide an overview of the person and ideas as well as a concise biblical response. NaturalismDeconstructionAtheismCarl Sagan's CosmosRichard DawkinsNihilismAdditional Resources:FREE: We are also offering a subscription to our 4-page bimonthly Profiles here: www.watchman.org/FreePROFILE NOTEBOOK: Order the complete collection of Watchman Fellowship Profiles (two volumes totalling over 700 pages -- from Astrology to Zen Buddhism) in either printed or PDF formats here: www.watchman.org/NotebookSUPPORT: Help us create more content like this. Make a tax-deductible donation here: www.watchman.org/GiveApologetics Profile is a ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit www.watchman.org © 2026 Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

We love a Buzzfeed and a New York Post and a Breitbart! We love them all! Join Spencer, Ty, and Andy as they debate the tenuous role of the Fifth Estate in contemporary American life in this age of social media. Support us on Patreon for $5, $7, or $10: www.patreon.com/tgofv. TGOFV Theme by World Record Pace. A big shout-out to our $10/month patrons: Celeste, Yung Zoe, Dane Stephen, Weedworf, James Lloyd-Jones, Sam Thomas, Josh O'Brien, Kilo, David, Sam, T, Rach, Tomix, Adam W, L M, Revidicism, Jennifer Knowles, Jeremy-Alice, Louis Ceresa, Charles Doyle, Dean, Axon, Themandme, Raouldyke, Stephen Tucker, Lawrence, Rebecca Kimpel, Malek Douglas, Jacon Sauber-Cavazos, Bernventers, William Copping, NewmansOwn, Heather-Pleather, Bunknown, Dinosarden, Bedi, Francis Wolf, King Krang, Anthony C, ASDF, Buffoonworld, Bavbiff, D Love, and Tugboat!

There was a time when HuffPost and BuzzFeed looked like the future of digital media. Both mastered the mechanics of internet distribution, attracted enormous audiences, and convinced investors that scale itself could become a durable competitive advantage. So how did two of the defining brands of the digital-media era end up shrinking so dramatically? Was the underlying business model always flawed, or did a series of strategic mistakes — from costly acquisitions to overreliance on platforms like Facebook — turn these promising companies into cautionary tales? To help answer these questions, I brought on Jason Krebs, a longtime media executive who has worked at some of the industry's biggest companies, including Google, Disney, The New York Times, and Condé Nast. He's spent decades watching media business models rise and fall, which makes him an especially useful person to talk to about an industry that keeps cycling through new theories about distribution and scale. We also discussed two very different approaches to building subscription businesses. Jason weighed in on The New York Times' experiment with an AI chatbot trained on its own archives and whether the reputational risks are worth it. And we dug into MS NOW's new subscription product, debating whether personality-driven hosts like Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes can convert their audiences into paying members.  

Get ready for the ultimate Halloween thrill ride as Ben Armstrong, co-founder of the legendary NETHERWORLD Haunted House, stops by The Ash Said It Show to celebrate an incredible milestone: 30 years of fear! For three decades, NETHERWORLD has set the global gold standard for immersive horror, cinematic storytelling, and heart-pounding scares. In this special anniversary episode, Ben dives deep into the history, evolution, and massive planning behind NETHERWORLD's most epic season yet. Discover how the team is bringing three decades of nightmares together for a historic celebration featuring two colossal, terrifying new attractions: Curse of the Collector and Beyond Oblivion: Legacy of Evil. Whether you are a lifelong fan looking for classic Easter eggs or a first-time victim stepping into the unknown, this episode is packed with behind-the-scenes secrets, monster lore, and everything you need to know about Atlanta's premier Halloween destination. Don't miss out on this deep dive into horror history—hit play and prepare to enter the Netherworld! GET MORE INFO: www.fearworld.com About NETHERWORLD: Created in 1997 by Billy Messina and Ben Armstrong, veterans in the film and television industry, NETHERWORLD is Atlanta's most popular dark attraction featuring two haunts and a Halloween-themed Midway. Recognized as one of the most highly acclaimed haunted houses in the world, NETHERWORLD is known for its over-the-top special effects, award-winning makeup, elaborate costuming, skilled stunt actors, and unusual themes. Since relocating to Stone Mountain in 2017, NETHERWORLD has expanded its offerings to include five year-round escape games, known as Escape the NETHERWORLD, as well as a monster museum called House of Creeps. Over the years, NETHERWORLD has garnered local and national attention from media, including CNN, “The Today Show,” “The Early Show,” The Travel Channel, BuzzFeed, Parade, O, The Oprah Magazine and Wall Street Journal and has been voted the top haunt in the nation by publications such as Hauntworld Magazine, Dread Central, Fangoria and USA Today. NETHERWORLD's innovative horror experiences and attractions continue to draw in generations of thrill-seekers eager to see what new nightmares have been unleashed. For more information, visit www.fearworld.com or call 404-999-FEAR. #Netherworld #NetherworldHauntedHouse #TheAshSaidItShow #Halloween2026 #HauntedHouse #HorrorPodcast #AtlantaHaunts #BenArmstrong #HalloweenMidway #CurseOfTheCollector #BeyondOblivion #HorrorFans #ScaryScares #StoneMountainGA #HauntedAttraction - Ready to ignite the spark that levels up your entire life? Meet Ash Brown—the American powerhouse, motivational architect, and ultimate hype-woman dedicated to your personal and professional evolution. Ash is far more than a voice in the personal development space; she is a trusted ally who delivers a masterclass in real-talk wisdom and infectious energy. Whether you are navigating a crossroads or ready to scale your grandest ambitions, Ash fuels your journey with a high-octane blend of heart and hustle.

Episode 184 - Divergent by Veronica RothTwo readers. Two different experiences. And one very important question:Was Divergent actually done dirty by being compared to The Hunger Games?Danielle read Divergent when it originally came out. Sam is reading it for the first time, and together they're digging into one of the biggest YA dystopian series of the 2010s.We talk about why comparing Divergent to The Hunger Games can actually be a disservice to the book, how the movie adaptation helped drag the series down, and (yes) the MANY problems that exist in the book itself.But then things get really interesting.Veronica Roth is revisiting the world of Divergent with an alternate-timeline story, which raises one extremely important question:Which faction will Tris choose this time?And because we couldn't leave well enough alone, we also took the BuzzFeed faction quiz.We had our predictions.We were wrong.Sam: CandorDanielle: EruditeApparently we know ourselves less well than we thought.We discuss:Divergent vs. The Hunger GamesWhy the comparison isn't necessarily fairThe book's strengths AND its problemsHow the movies affected the reputation of the seriesVeronica Roth's alternate-timeline rewriteAnd which faction Tris might choose in the new storyNew episodes every Monday at 8 AM EST ✨Next week: Princess of Thieves by Mari Mancusi⏱️ Time Stamps00:00 Intro01:40 About the Author04:42 Background07:27 Rewrite?10:09 Age Level & Content Warning12:30 Judge a Book by Its Cover13:55 Discussion01:04:04 General Thoughts01:09:39 One Question for the Author01:13:17 Rating01:14:12 Read Again?01:15:40 Outro

Your ambition has not gone anywhere. Life just pulled the handbrake. In this episode of The Balance Theory, Erika sits down with Nicki Bedford, founder of Founders Official and former Head of Asia Pacific at BuzzFeed, for one of the most honest conversations about what ambition actually looks like when life forces you to slow down. This is not a conversation about giving up or settling. It is about what happens when your drive is bigger than your current capacity and how slowing down might be the very thing that gets you there faster. If you have ever caught yourself thinking: "I can't afford to slow down right now" "I wish I could do more but something keeps holding me back" "I feel behind no matter how hard I work" "I know where I am going but I can't move at the pace I want" "My identity feels tied to my output and I don't know who I am without it" Then this episode is for you. In this conversation, Erika and Nicki cover: - What the forced slowdown actually does to your ambition and why it is not what you think - Why your identity being tied to your output is keeping you stuck not moving forward - How to move through inner conflict when your ambition and your capacity are at war - Why slowing down will catapult your success faster than grinding ever will - The two questions to ask yourself when your behaviour is contradicting your goals - What happens right before people make it and how to recognise that season - How to hold space for big ambition and presence with yourself at the same time - Why there is no deadline to figuring out your life and what that actually means - The sales skill everyone needs and how to pitch yourself without feeling pushy - Where AI is a no-go and why your humanness is your biggest competitive advantage You do not have to choose between your ambition and your wellbeing. This episode is the proof. SPONSORS:   ⚪ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HUEL⁠ ⁠- Limited Time Offer - Make healthy eating simple. Get Huel today with my exclusive offer of 15% OFF online with my code BALANCE at ⁠huel.com/BALANCE⁠. New Customers Only. Thank you to Huel for partnering and supporting our show!

Listen to the rest with a 7 day free trial at our Patreon!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

471: Ryan's week 0 of teachers reporting ahead of the first day of school is somehow very chill, despite all the obstacles and debacles... We also take a look at a new BuzzFeed quiz, in honor of the theme of the episode... Patreon: patreon.com/classroombrew Email us: classroombrew@gmail.com  Instagram: instagram.com/classroombrew

Ferrari 275 GTBs, the Manson Family, a Rivian in the desert, and the Porsche 911 GT3 S/T debate. Spike, Zuckerman, and Sam from Seen Through Glass cover Monterey Car Week, vintage classics, and the rise of Chinese automakers in Europe and America. ______________________________________________

This month, on Laura Flanders & Friends, we turn to the state of journalism—at a moment of deep disruption, consolidation, and consequence. Across the country and around the world, newsrooms are shrinking, ownership is concentrating, and the very idea of a free and independent press is under pressure. But journalists aren't simply standing by—they're pushing back, reimagining their work, and, in many cases, taking matters into their own hands.This week we explore whether worker-owned media might offer a path forward, as reporters and editors respond to industry collapse by building new models rooted in accountability and collective power.  This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Description:  The business of media is in danger — but it sure isn't dead. Many of the rising stars that were poised to “save journalism” like Vice and Buzzfeed have either entered bankruptcy or stopped reporting on news. There have been layoffs across the industry and many newsrooms have cut back on the resources available to journalists. But workers have also organized unions, including high-profile campaigns at Condé Nast and The New Yorker, and started worker-owned media like Hell Gate and Defector. This month on “Meet the BIPOC Press”, Laura Flanders is joined by three journalists who have lived through the struggles and are a part of the solutions. Alex Sujong Laughlin is a supervising producer and co-owner at Defector; Esther Wang is a worker-owner at Hell Gate; and Tammy Kim helped organize unions at Al Jazeera America and The New Yorker, where she is a contributing writer. How do they think about the future of journalism, and what difference does it make when journalists have the freedom to speak truth to power — especially when it comes to reporting on policing and Palestine? Guests: • Tammy Kim: Contributing Writer, The New Yorker;  Contributing Editor, Lux Magazine • Alex Sujong Laughlin: Supervising Producer & Co-Owner, Defector Media • Esther Wang: Co-Founder, Hell Gate; Former Senior Political Reporter, Jezebel   RESOURCES: Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes: •. Jumaane Williams & Hell Gate on Rikers: Why is it So Hard to Close a Jail? Subscribe:  YouTube to Watch and/or Listen on Major Podcast Platforms •. BIPOC Press for the People: Bursting the Corporate Media Bubble Subscribe:  YouTube to Watch and/or Listen on Major Podcast Platforms •. BIPOC Media on the Fight for Fair Wages — & Anti-Racist Unions Subscribe:  YouTube to Watch and/or Listen on Major Podcast Platforms   Related Articles and Resources: • Unionizing the Digital Newsroom, by Tammy Kim, Dissent Magazine,  Read Here • The Freelance Solidarity Project is the Digital Media Division of the National Writers Union.  Learn More Here • Opinion:  It's possible to be a journalist and a human, by Alex Sujong Laughlin, Poynter, Read Here • Report:  Why ‘Affordable Housing' Is Rarely Affordable in NYC, by Esther Wang, May 7, 2024, Hell Gate, Read Here Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

✨ Kayla Boyd, Senior Shopping Editor at Buzzfeed☁️ How to become a content creato☁️ Practices and habits for improving body acceptance☁️ Tips for becoming a better writer☁️ The importance of cultivating self-confidenceJoin the Sky Society Marketing Girly private LinkedIn group.Follow Sky Society on Instagram @skysociety.co and TikTok @skysociety.co

This month, on Laura Flanders & Friends, we turn to the state of journalism—at a moment of deep disruption, consolidation, and consequence. But journalists aren't simply standing by—they're pushing back, reimagining their work, and, in many cases, taking matters into their own hands. This week we explore whether worker-owned media might offer a path forward, as reporters and editors respond to industry collapse by building new models rooted in accountability and collective power. This show is made possible by you! To become a sustaining member go to LauraFlanders.org/donate Description:  The business of media is in danger — but it sure isn't dead. Many of the rising stars that were poised to “save journalism” like Vice and Buzzfeed have either entered bankruptcy or stopped reporting on news. There have been layoffs across the industry and many newsrooms have cut back on the resources available to journalists. But workers have also organized unions, including high-profile campaigns at Condé Nast and The New Yorker, and started worker-owned media like Hell Gate and Defector. This month on “Meet the BIPOC Press”, Laura Flanders is joined by three journalists who have lived through the struggles and are a part of the solutions. Alex Sujong Laughlin is a supervising producer and co-owner at Defector; Esther Wang is a worker-owner at Hell Gate; and Tammy Kim helped organize unions at Al Jazeera America and The New Yorker, where she is a contributing writer. How do they think about the future of journalism, and what difference does it make when journalists have the freedom to speak truth to power — especially when it comes to reporting on policing and Palestine? Guests: • Tammy Kim: Contributing Writer, The New Yorker;  Contributing Editor, Lux Magazine • Alex Sujong Laughlin: Supervising Producer & Co-Owner, Defector Media • Esther Wang: Co-Founder, Hell Gate; Former Senior Political Reporter, Jezebel   Note- Full Conversation Release:  While our weekly shows are edited to time for broadcast on Public TV and community radio, we offer to our members and podcast subscribers the full uncut conversation.  These audio exclusives are made possible thanks to our member supporters. Become a supporting member at https://LauraFlanders.org/Donate RESOURCES: Related Laura Flanders Show Episodes: •. Jumaane Williams & Hell Gate on Rikers: Why is it So Hard to Close a Jail? Subscribe:  YouTube to Watch and/or Listen on Major Podcast Platforms •. BIPOC Press for the People: Bursting the Corporate Media Bubble Subscribe:  YouTube to Watch and/or Listen on Major Podcast Platforms •. BIPOC Media on the Fight for Fair Wages — & Anti-Racist Unions Subscribe:  YouTube to Watch and/or Listen on Major Podcast Platforms   Related Articles and Resources: • Unionizing the Digital Newsroom, by Tammy Kim, Dissent Magazine,  Read Here • The Freelance Solidarity Project is the Digital Media Division of the National Writers Union.  Learn More Here • Opinion:  It's possible to be a journalist and a human, by Alex Sujong Laughlin, Poynter, Read Here • Report:  Why ‘Affordable Housing' Is Rarely Affordable in NYC, by Esther Wang, May 7, 2024, Hell Gate, Read Here Featured ‘Music in the Middle' of the Podcast: Pleasure, Joy & Happiness by Galliano, released on Brownswood Records. Listen & Learn More Laura Flanders and Friends Crew: Laura Flanders-Executive Producer, Writer; Sabrina Artel-Supervising Producer; Jeremiah Cothren-Senior Producer; Veronica Delgado-Video Editor, Janet Hernandez-Communications Director; Jeannie Hopper-Audio Director, Podcast & Radio Producer, Audio Editor, Sound Design, Narrator; Sarah Miller-Development Director, Nat Needham-Editor, Graphic Design emeritus; David Neuman-Senior Video Editor, and Rory O'Conner-Senior Consulting Producer. FOLLOW Laura Flanders and FriendsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraflandersandfriends/Blueky: https://bsky.app/profile/lfandfriends.bsky.socialFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/LauraFlandersAndFriends/Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lauraflandersandfriendsYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFLRxVeYcB1H7DbuYZQG-lgLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lauraflandersandfriendsPatreon: https://www.patreon.com/lauraflandersandfriendsACCESSIBILITY - The broadcast edition of this episode is available with closed captioned by clicking here for our YouTube Channel

In this special episode of Open Deeply, Sunny Megatron sits down with co-host Kate Loree to explore the therapeutic approach she has developed over more than two decades as a psychotherapist.Kate shares how she integrates EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic psychotherapy, ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, and psychedelic integration to help people heal trauma, deepen intimacy, and create more authentic relationships with themselves and others.Together, they discuss:What makes Kate's approach different from traditional relationship and trauma therapyWhy she specializes in working with consensual non-monogamy, sexuality, and sex workersHow spirituality became an important part of her clinical workWhat led her to ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and psychedelic integrationThe launch of Open Deeply Coaching and how coaching differs from psychotherapySupporting couples creating a new chapter in intimacy and people navigating consensual non-monogamyKate's men's process group and her vision for future groups exploring psychedelic integration, spirituality, and alternative relationshipsThe biggest lessons she's learned after working with thousands of clientsWhether you're curious about trauma healing, relationships, sexuality, psychedelic integration, or human potential, this conversation offers an inside look at the philosophy that guides Kate's work and why she believes lasting change happens through curiosity, compassion, and embodied self-awareness.Kate's Bio:Kate Loree, LMFT, is a sex-positive psychotherapist, author, speaker, and podcast host specializing in trauma, relationships, sexuality, and non-traditional relationship structures. She works extensively with LGBTQIA+, kink, and consensually non-monogamous communities and is the author of Open Deeply: A Guide to Building Conscious, Compassionate Open Relationships.In addition to her work as a licensed marriage and family therapist, Kate holds an MBA and is a registered art therapist (ATR). She is certified in EMDR, IFS-Informed Somatic Trauma Therapy, and Psychedelic Harm Reduction & Integration and offers Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy.Kate has worked with clients since 2003 and is known for integrating attachment theory, somatic awareness, sexuality, nervous system regulation, and compassionate communication into her work. She co-hosts the Open Deeply podcast with Sunny Megatron, has appeared in BuzzFeed videos and Playboy Radio, and has been featured in media outlets including Vice and Ms. Magazine.Through her writing, teaching, and clinical work, Kate helps people create more authentic relationships,How to find Kate Loree: Website http://kateloree.com Instagram: http://instagram.com/opendeeplywithkateloree Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@opendeeplywithkateloree Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kateloreelmft Twitter http://twitter.com/kateloreelmft YouTube https://youtube.com/channel/UCSTFAqGYKW3sIUa0tKivbqQHow to find Sunny Megatron: Website: http://sunnymegatron.com Facebook http://facebook.com/sunnymegatron Twitter http://twitter.com/sunnymegatron Instagram http://instagram.com/sunnymegatron Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@sunnymegatron YouTube https://www.youtube.com/sunnymegatron American Sex Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/2HroMhWJnyZbMSsOBKwBnkOpen Deeply podcast is not therapy or a replacement for therapy.

Cameron, John, and Sarah discuss Kurt Russell and Martin Short as comedic foils in this surprisingly dull family adventure movie from 1992, also starring Mary Kay Place. Sources for this episodeHeywood, Susan. (2026, January 4). I Was 6 When My Father Decided We'd Sail Around The World. I Would Be Trapped On That Boat For Nearly A Decade. | BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/suzanneheywood/raised-sailboat-sea-scSwanson, P. (2019, September 6). The original ‘captain ron' piloted a power cruiser. Passage Maker; Passagemaker | The Power Cruising Authority. https://passagemaker.com/lifestyle/the-original-captain-ron-piloted-a-power-cruiser/Our theme music is by Suno

Don’t get left behind on AWS! Don’t get left behind on AWS! Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://theultimatepartner.com/ebook-subscribe/ Check Out UPX: https://theultimatepartner.com/experience/ In this episode, we go deep inside the AWS Marketplace with Louise Strandoo, who spent nearly a decade building AWS’s marketplace business from the ground up and now leads partner development for AWS’s data, analytics, and storage practice. Louise unpacks COST, the six-pillar framework her team built by studying what actually separates hypergrowth startups and billion-dollar sellers from partners who treat marketplace as a side project. We break down why operational excellence has to be in place before you ever enable your sales team, why executive sponsorship from the top of the organization is what keeps a marketplace strategy from collapsing into a single point of failure, and why product-led growth is no longer optional now that buyers, and increasingly AI agents, expect to try, buy, and deploy software without waiting on a human to close the loop, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwyAP7yVy3I Key Takeaways Success on AWS Marketplace requires a comprehensive framework like COST, not just a simple checklist of tasks. Your product must be something customers actually want to buy, not a subpar offering used merely to test the waters. Operational excellence is required to ensure your marketplace motion has the sustainability to scale globally. Product-Led Growth (PLG) is essential for enabling frictionless procurement, especially as buyers shift toward agent-driven AI solutions. Executive sponsorship is critical; building a strategy without leadership buy-in will prevent it from gaining real traction. Sales alignment ensures reps are appropriately compensated and friction is removed, preventing them from avoiding marketplace transactions. If you're ready to lead through change, elevate your business, and achieve extraordinary outcomes through the power of partnership—this is your community. At Ultimate Partner® we want leaders like you to join us in the Ultimate Partner Experience – where transformation begins. Key Tags AWS Marketplace framework, COST methodology, product-led growth, agentic procurement, hyperscaler ecosystem, operational excellence, revenue friction, private offers, co-sell acceleration, strategic collaboration agreements, resilient architecture, cloud commitments, organizational transformation Key Tags Louise Strandoo Audio Episode [00:00:00] Louise Strandoo: Salespeople, rightly so. They don’t wanna introduce something that’s going to add a complexity to the deal. They’re like, why would AWS wanna be involved? [00:00:11] Vince Menzione: You can feel it happening. The ecosystem is shifting beneath us, the way Hyperscalers are partnering, how AI’s remaking the channel and what it means to win in 2026. [00:00:22] Louise Strandoo: Welcome to the Ultimate Partner Podcast. I’m Vince Menzi. Own [00:00:26] Vince Menzione: your host. And each week I sit down with leaders at the intersection of technology, partnerships and outcomes. The voices shaping how ecosystems actually work. We talk about what’s real, what’s changing, and what it takes to lead in this era where the partner channel isn’t just part of the strategy. [00:00:45] Vince Menzione: It is the strategy because being in the room changes everything. Let’s start. [00:00:53] Louise Strandoo: And Louise Strand, come on out. Come on up. Uh, our first, our first [00:00:59] Vince Menzione: Amazon executive at, at this session. Not our first ever, but our first at this session. [00:01:06] Louise Strandoo: Happy to be [00:01:07] Vince Menzione: thrilled to have you. I, why don’t we sit down on an, um, I’ll have you sit here and, you know, you get, take one of the ultimate partner pillows with you since you’re a first assignment attend. [00:01:15] Louise Strandoo: Wonderful. [00:01:16] Vince Menzione: Uh, [00:01:16] Louise Strandoo: good [00:01:17] Vince Menzione: to hear. So great to have you. I thought maybe we’d start, maybe, uh, with you, uh, explaining your role. Then we can start talking about costs, which is the subject is like near and dear, and we’ll talk about that, about what that is. But I want to keep people on their pins of their seats right now. [00:01:33] Vince Menzione: So tell us, tell us more about you and your role and your journey at AWS. [00:01:37] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, well thanks for having me. Good to see everybody in the room. Um, so my name’s Louise. I have spent the better part of the last nine and a half years at AWS and I spent almost that whole time, probably around eight years. In AWS Marketplaces business Development organization, um, I joined to help startups figure out how to scale their business on the marketplace. [00:02:00] Louise Strandoo: And from there, I grew into a number of different roles, helped ISVs figure out how to scale their marketplace business of all sizes. Um, I worked with some of our top sellers on the marketplace, figure out how to really scale their revenue through the marketplace. Today I am actually the lead of the data analytics and storage partner development team. [00:02:20] Louise Strandoo: Nice. Within the US Tech partnerships organization. So it’s been a really cool transition to go from like all marketplace focused. And throughout that time, marketplace kind of became the center of partnerships. Yep. Within our partner program. Um, so now I manage PDMs and partners and we still talk a lot about marketplace. [00:02:40] Louise Strandoo: Also everything else that we do as a partner. So it’s, um, it’s been a fun journey. [00:02:45] Vince Menzione: And we were talking about this earlier, like you started with Marketplace and then moved out where all the other organizations started from partnership and moved into marketplace. Mm-hmm. Almost the other up. And you have built a framework costs [00:02:59] Louise Strandoo: mm-hmm. [00:03:00] Vince Menzione: Characteristics of successful sellers. And I have a set of operating principles about successful partnering. So I’m really intrigued about this conversation. I was hoping you could walk us through it, like what are these characteristics and where do most partners fall short in terms of characteristics? [00:03:18] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, so, um, like all really good things, cost was an effort that I built alongside a bunch of other really smart people. And we started to have this conversation about what does, uh, you know, what does success look like? We we’re focused in the beginning, in my marketplace journey on getting. Partners to sell on the marketplace, getting them to list and adopt the features. [00:03:41] Louise Strandoo: And of course they’re like, why would we do this? And we’re like, that’s a great question. Let’s figure out like really what the why of this whole thing is. And as we started to get partners who were startups and some of our really large partners activated, we started to see all kinds of value and how marketplace was helping co-sell and all this good stuff. [00:03:59] Louise Strandoo: And we needed to figure out like how do we identify what is like the lightning in the bottle? So we looked across some of the most, uh, hypergrowth companies on the marketplace. Mm-hmm. Some of those startups that had really propelled into major success stories. And then some of those like really scaled enterprise sellers, the one [00:04:17] Vince Menzione: that got to a billion dollars. [00:04:18] Louise Strandoo: Exactly. The market, our billion dollar market market. Billion dollar sellers. Right? Yep. And we looked at what are the common characteristics that all of those partners embody. Yes. And how do we kind of. Define a framework that is not a checklist because a lot of us were doing that at the time. Here’s all the things that you should do to make it work well. [00:04:34] Louise Strandoo: It doesn’t really work from partner to partner. Everyone has a unique go-to market strategy. Yeah, so we developed costs to kind of be this overarching tool that partners can use to say, do we have the right kind of fundamental approach to how we’re going to market with AWS and how we’re thinking about the marketplace. [00:04:51] Louise Strandoo: Do we have the right tools to like bring our overall go-to-market strategy to A AWS and to the marketplace so we’re not doing two separate things. That was sort of the genesis of the idea. Makes [00:05:02] Vince Menzione: a lot of sense. [00:05:04] Louise Strandoo: So, um, the characteristics, there’s six of ’em. I won’t go into detail about every single one. [00:05:11] Louise Strandoo: Oh, [00:05:11] come [00:05:11] Vince Menzione: on. We’ll do that one. Yeah. We have some people in the room that are gonna be intrigued by this. Go ahead. [00:05:16] Louise Strandoo: So, um, the first pillar is. Partnership with AWS, you can’t do marketplace without figuring out what, what’s your overall partner strategy, right? So how are you using the partner programs to drive differentiation in your business? [00:05:30] Louise Strandoo: Yep. How are you using our funding programs to elevate the parts of your business that you really wanna accelerate? Um, and how are you thinking about your partner strategy with AWS overall? [00:05:40] Vince Menzione: Interesting. [00:05:41] Louise Strandoo: The second one is, uh, selection on AWS marketplace. [00:05:44] Vince Menzione: Product selection. [00:05:45] Louise Strandoo: That’s right. [00:05:45] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:05:46] Louise Strandoo: You gotta have a product on the marketplace that your customers wanna buy. [00:05:49] Louise Strandoo: I think the biggest thing that partners have done wrong over the years is they think, let’s do crawl, walk, run. We’re gonna put something up there that we’re not, you know, really excited about, but we’ll see how it does and then we’ll try to invest from there. [00:06:03] Vince Menzione: Mm-hmm. [00:06:04] Louise Strandoo: If you put something out there that nobody knows how to sell, then that you’re not excited about, your customers aren’t probably excited about it either. [00:06:09] Louise Strandoo: There’s no reason it’s gonna do well in the marketplace. [00:06:10] Vince Menzione: Yeah. It makes no sense to me. [00:06:12] Louise Strandoo: Yep. So you gotta have something good. You gotta have your marquee product, and then you wanna use features that are gonna help buyers actually access that product in a way that’s frictionless. Yeah. The third one is operational excellence. [00:06:25] Louise Strandoo: So that’s looking at how are you structuring your organization and investing in all the right processes that you need to scale the business. Reporting at a global scale, understanding how to recognize revenue and thinking about all of the in-between moments of. Being on the marketplace, creating an offer, how does your sales team gonna get in touch with you when you need to send that offer out? [00:06:47] Louise Strandoo: And how are you making sure that an alliance person isn’t trying to find an outlet in a random corner of an airport to send a private offer to a customer? All of that structural stuff to make the, the motion scale. [00:07:00] Vince Menzione: So we’re talking product led growth versus. One off or [00:07:04] Louise Strandoo: all of it? All of it. Okay. No matter what kind of partner you are, you have to have operational excellence. [00:07:08] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. To make sure that your marketplace and your partnership motion has sustainability and scale. The next two, I’ll kind of go through fast. There is, yeah. Um, partner commitment to marketplace revenue. So what do you really want Drive from a revenue perspective, right. How do you get your leaders bought in on that, and how do you set a goal that dictates what you’re doing? [00:07:28] Louise Strandoo: And then how do you define sales alignment? From a structural perspective to say we’re gonna remove friction that could get in the way of the field selling this thing. We’re gonna remove things that are, um, negating reps from wanting to go through marketplace because it’s impacting their comp. Yeah. Or it’s really hard. [00:07:46] Louise Strandoo: All of that kind of structural stuff goes into the sales alliance. [00:07:49] Vince Menzione: So there’s, yeah. I wanted to take this apart a little bit too, if you don’t mind. No [00:07:52] Louise Strandoo: problem. [00:07:53] Vince Menzione: Because I think about this a lot. So when you start talking about an organization, you’re talking about what this, we’ll call it an ISV Sure. Or an si, but. [00:08:00] Vince Menzione: You know, ISPs primarily is where it all started. They need to get their internal operational excellence. Right, exactly. Which means their, their ops piece. Yep. And their sales execution. They’re gonna to market all those things. The sales alignment side. Is that their sales teams [00:08:18] Louise Strandoo: correct. [00:08:19] Vince Menzione: Are compensated properly so that they don’t go around the systems. [00:08:22] Vince Menzione: Exactly right. They’re aligned. They’re aligned to go drive the right results. [00:08:25] Louise Strandoo: Exactly. [00:08:26] Vince Menzione: Because they’ve made commitments as well. [00:08:28] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:08:28] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:08:29] Louise Strandoo: And I always talk about marketplace, like it is transformation. It’s different. It’s not what you’re doing today. [00:08:35] Vince Menzione: That’s right. [00:08:35] Louise Strandoo: Salespeople, rightly so. They don’t wanna introduce something that’s gonna add a complexity to the deal. [00:08:43] Louise Strandoo: They’re like, why would AWS wanna be involved? Stay away. So if that is already there and then on top of that Mm, they don’t get paid as much when they go direct. [00:08:53] Vince Menzione: Right? Right. [00:08:54] Louise Strandoo: They’re not gonna go through the market nice. [00:08:55] Vince Menzione: No, they’re not. [00:08:55] Louise Strandoo: They’re not gonna bring anything to you and the partnership team saying like, Hey, we really wanna figure out how to make this engine work with AWS So we have to do as much as we can to remove that friction from the experience. [00:09:06] Vince Menzione: So, you know, you mentioned private offers, which made me think about like product-led growth versus private offers. ’cause it’s, it feels like marketplace from the beginning. It’s changed. It [00:09:15] Louise Strandoo: has, [00:09:16] Vince Menzione: you’ve been doing this for a number of years. You were first to market with a marketplace. There was, I’ll call a lot of friction because there was channels and other, other routes to market direct selling. [00:09:27] Vince Menzione: Tell us, take us through some of those experiences. Yeah, yeah. Like what was that like? And then obviously you built cos because you had a lot of field engagement with these organizations trying to get them to go do it the right way. [00:09:38] Louise Strandoo: Right? [00:09:39] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:09:39] Louise Strandoo: So it’s interesting actually, when we built the marketplace. [00:09:42] Louise Strandoo: It was completely like a product-led growth motion, as in let’s just figure out a way to let AWS customers find amis in the marketplace. Developers are gonna go get it, and they’re just gonna buy it without any additional push from the field or like co-sell. That doesn’t need to happen. Then we heard from customers, Hey, this is great. [00:10:02] Louise Strandoo: But what we really want is also to be able to buy bigger contracts. We wanna customize our contracts, we wanna negotiate price when we’re buying this on behalf of, you know, large organizations. We’re not just buying what’s on the shelf. We need something more custom. So we introduced this concept of private offers to make sure that we could bring all of that customization into the process. [00:10:23] Louise Strandoo: And then we heard from customers saying, uh, we want to purchase from our preferred channel partners. We really wanna make sure that we’re, you know, not losing that source of, um, engagement with our really critical partners. So we had to figure out, hey, how can we make it so that we’re not competing with the channel? [00:10:41] Louise Strandoo: ’cause we’re not really a channel at all. Right. So we had to go and build our platform that allowed for channel partners to sell through the marketplace and augment that private offer piece to say, Hey, if you want, you can have a channel partner resell your product through the marketplace. So today we kind of see all of those as just different routes to market and different ISVs are gonna embrace different routes to market. [00:11:04] Louise Strandoo: First, the really important thing about costs is that it’s. Pushing partners to think about bringing their go to market strategy that works outside of the partnership to the marketplace. Mm-hmm. So if you’re an ISV that doesn’t sell with channel today, don’t start with channel partners on the marketplace. [00:11:21] Louise Strandoo: Right. If you don’t do product-led growth today, probably figure that out before you start doing it on the marketplace. Yeah. But if you’re doing those things, if you’re not doing those things, you should look at why not, and could we be doing those things and then we have the ways to bring it into your strategy with AWS marketplace. [00:11:38] Vince Menzione: So what separates the partners who kind of build this flywheel of success that you describe from those who treat it maybe as a side project? And do you, do you see less and less of that today too? I wanna, I wanna ask you. [00:11:50] Louise Strandoo: No, I think, um, the more mature the marketplace gets [00:11:57] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:11:58] Louise Strandoo: The more obvious some of the, uh, characteristics of success become and the more important. [00:12:06] Louise Strandoo: Embodying that framework becomes for partners as they grow to become the next billion dollar seller, right? And become the next a hundred million dollar seller. Um, I think a couple things come to mind for me. The first thing is that like at AWS overall, we talk a lot about like resilient architecture. We talk a lot about what does it look like to drive successful transformation. [00:12:29] Louise Strandoo: All of that has to happen in the partnership. Partners that have really strong marketplace motions with AWS, they do not have single points of failure. They are not expecting an alliance lead to manage everything and then have the business collapse if they leave. [00:12:46] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:12:46] Louise Strandoo: They figure out how to delegate and get buy-in from leadership so that they have multiple folks invested in the strategy for multiple angles so that there’s scalability and sustainability. [00:12:58] Louise Strandoo: Without that. You could do all the things right with costs and if there’s res, if there’s no resiliency, if there’s, if there’s a single point of failure, it doesn’t scale and it doesn’t last. [00:13:09] Vince Menzione: It’s so funny ’cause you haven’t seen my seven principles of, of successful partnering, but we talk about growth mindset, we talk about executive commitment and then clarity on your vision and what you’re hoping to achieve. [00:13:21] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:13:22] Vince Menzione: Like that’s your internal victory. You’ve gotta get those things right. That’s exactly what you just said. A hundred [00:13:26] percent. [00:13:26] Louise Strandoo: And you can’t, you, you know, like if you don’t have that executive sponsorship, [00:13:30] Vince Menzione: yeah, [00:13:32] Louise Strandoo: great. You’ve done the cost framework, but where are you gonna go with it? [00:13:35] Vince Menzione: And it’s not just the sponsorship, it’s. [00:13:38] Vince Menzione: Up in, from the top of the organization all the way down to the selling floor. Completely. Right? [00:13:42] Louise Strandoo: Completely. [00:13:42] Vince Menzione: Everybody has to be aligned. Resources, investments all need to be aligned to this. Mm-hmm. [00:13:47] Louise Strandoo: Mm-hmm. [00:13:47] Vince Menzione: We’re speaking the same language earlier. A hundred percent. I love it. I love it. I love it. Um, so what does, we talked about product-led growth, but I want to maybe jump in here a little bit more. [00:13:58] Vince Menzione: Because I think it’s, it’s becoming more prevalent today, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s like, you know, we talked about private offer. It was really private offers, at least my perspective was a few years ago, I wanna buy something from you. Oh, you have a cloud commitment. I can access the cloud commitment. [00:14:13] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:14:14] Vince Menzione: And so it was always the private offer thing that was going on behind the scenes, which required a lot of internal resources to go drive. [00:14:19] Louise Strandoo: Yep. [00:14:20] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about product led growth. ’cause that becomes a fly more of a flywheel that’s automated Yeah. And allows you to sell while you’re sleeping kind of thing, you know? [00:14:28] Louise Strandoo: Totally. [00:14:29] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:14:30] Louise Strandoo: So I think, um, we have heard a lot from customers saying, okay, when we really need to negotiate and we need something custom, we wanna be able to do that. [00:14:40] Louise Strandoo: But we also wanna be able to purchase things quickly. We don’t wanna have to go out to dinner every time we need to upgrade, uh, like our licenses and get a new contract. We wanna be able to experiment and pick the things that resonate best with the line of business users that are, you know, increasingly taking some of that buying power. [00:14:59] Louise Strandoo: And I think especially now that we’re entering into, you know, the unprecedented, unprecedented times, it’s everything is AI like. There is more, um, pressure than ever to have users quickly figure out, does something add value to me and my business right now? And if it does, then I’m gonna keep using it, and if it doesn’t, I’m gonna go to the next thing. [00:15:22] Guest: Right. [00:15:22] Louise Strandoo: Product led growth is really about eliminating some of that I would say. Paperwork at the start of the process and putting the power in the hands of the user to say, can this product solve your challenge? And as more and more buyers are looking at Agen solutions, they wanna be able to try something, see if it works, and then quickly buy it without having to go through a whole bunch of steps because they have work that needs to be done right now. [00:15:54] Louise Strandoo: So the marketplace, that was our roots, like we started with this PLG motion. So we have all of that foundation to do it, and we’ve spent a lot of time over the last two, three years, like really investing in that from our engineering and roadmap perspective to build a whole bunch of features and capabilities that support product-led growth. [00:16:11] Louise Strandoo: We have things like free trials request, demo request, a private offer if you want to. Um, we introduced something, you know, last year that was an express private offer experience. Hey, you know, you want custom pricing. Request it and we’re gonna give it to you right away because the vendor has populated rate cards. [00:16:26] Louise Strandoo: Right? So all of those things I think are really important right now to say, yeah, when your customers like, wanna get going, now let’s stop. Putting barriers in the way and let your product actually show its value immediately. [00:16:38] Vince Menzione: And you were actually putting buttons or making buttons available Yeah. For people’s websites. [00:16:42] Vince Menzione: Exactly. So they could just say, click here and [00:16:43] Louise Strandoo: buy. Absolutely. We buy with a Ws. You can click from your own website, your own marketing pages to route them to the marketplace. If that’s the preferred way to transact, [00:16:50] Vince Menzione: yeah, why not? [00:16:51] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. [00:16:52] Vince Menzione: So you mentioned ai. We talked a little bit, I call it the tectonic shifts. [00:16:56] Vince Menzione: We, we’ve seen this incredible transformation happening so fast. And now we’re talking about agents. Right. And, uh, John Yo was over here from, uh, earlier from Sugar talking about like, what happens if the buyer is an agent? [00:17:08] Louise Strandoo: Totally. [00:17:09] Vince Menzione: Let’s talk about that. [00:17:10] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. I mean, I think that PLG and like is the right thing to enable a agentic procurement. [00:17:18] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:17:19] Louise Strandoo: If, um, you know, like in the, uh. 2019 when private offers were like, that was the big boom. We were like getting people to sign up on the marketplace. All we were focused on was private offers. So many sellers would have products on the marketplace where you’d click and purchase it and it would just say, thanks for buying, and it’d be like, we’ll get in touch with you and like a 24 hours and then we’ll figure it out. [00:17:42] Louise Strandoo: No worries. Thanks for buying. If that doesn’t work. If you’re an agent, it doesn’t work. An agent would be like, okay, this is like a dead end, right? Yeah. Agents are gonna look for products that they can purchase and begin using instantaneously. So yeah, product-led growth is like a really good, um, strategy that ISVs can use to future proof their business and make sure that they’re not just catering to an evolved. [00:18:06] Louise Strandoo: You know, procurement persona who maybe is looking for that faster transaction, but also preparing for that agent persona. Yeah. That is gonna be helping make software procurement scale. [00:18:17] Vince Menzione: So what do the partners in the room need to do to rethink how they think about this? [00:18:22] Louise Strandoo: I think there’s a couple things. I think you know, number one, you can look at the cost framework and start to use it as a jumping off point to evaluate your business. [00:18:31] Louise Strandoo: You can look through a bunch of resources that we’ve put out around costs, and one of the first blogs that I wrote has a Buzzfeed style quiz. You can go through and be like, where are we at? And if you realize after you run through that exercise that you’re farther away from where you wanna be in terms of partnering with AWS, it’s a really good dump like starting point to be like, great, here’s the challenges. [00:18:56] Louise Strandoo: But the biggest message I would relay to the partners is. Do not wait to try to go build this and then bring it to your executives and say, look what I built. It’s not gonna go anywhere. You need to go and use that as the cry to your leadership team. Like escalate. Now here’s the opportunity that we have with AWS. [00:19:17] Louise Strandoo: Let’s look at all of the awesome studies that we and our partners have put out over the years. Look at your competitors that are in the marketplace, your competitors that are partnering with AWS, and start there by saying, we’re. Behind or we’re missing in these areas. We could be doing, you know this, to make our product more a ag agentic ready. [00:19:37] Louise Strandoo: We could be doing more in marketplace to ensure that we’re capitalizing on the private offer business, and we need to figure out how we’re gonna drive commitment now so we can go and build this if you try to build it. Then show the value later. It’s gonna be really hard to then be pushing that boulder up the hill. [00:19:55] Louise Strandoo: So the more that you can lean into getting the sponsorship early on, you’re gonna have a much easier time then navigating, you know, all the hard work that comes with partnership co-sell, um, and, and everything kind of fun that we get to do once we get to go to market with our partners. [00:20:10] Vince Menzione: Do you have one piece of advice for each one of the. [00:20:13] Vince Menzione: Conditions or characteristics for, for, for this group to follow or [00:20:17] Louise Strandoo: think about? I think that, um, the, we didn’t talk about the last one, which is a good one to end on, which is enablement. [00:20:22] Vince Menzione: Yes. [00:20:23] Louise Strandoo: Enablement starts with like most of the time, ISVs in particular, and this, it goes for channel partners as well. [00:20:30] Louise Strandoo: They’re like, we gotta enable the field go and enable all the salespeople why they should do all this stuff. You have to do these things like in some sequence though. So if you go and enable the field, everybody do marketplace and they’re like, how? Where do we go, right? Do we send you the leads? Are we slacking you? [00:20:47] Louise Strandoo: Like are we emailing? Like what do we do? You have to then go back and be like, actually, our operational excellence isn’t sorted out. We need to do that first. And who needs to be enabled from that side of the house? Like don’t forget to enable your rev ops teams, your deal desk teams, all of the teams that are kind of essential to making your partnership with AWS Hum need to be enabled in the way that is relevant for their business. [00:21:10] Louise Strandoo: So when you, you know, think about like what do you need to do across all the pillars? It’s gonna be different depending on what your go-to-market focus is. If you’re a hundred percent focused on selling through SIS today and through channel, maybe product-led growth is not the top priority, but then you need to go and figure out, okay, so how have we. [00:21:28] Louise Strandoo: Figured out which partners we wanna work with on AWS and how have we enabled them and have we communicated that enablement to our salespeople? Are we removing unnecessary barriers to them transacting? That’s what you really gotta figure out. So it’s really about looking at how you execute outside of marketplace, outside AWS, figuring out what that, what are the strongest pieces that you do in your business today, across those pillars, and then asking to replicate that with your partnership with AWS. [00:21:56] Vince Menzione: Nice. So to the room here is, um, if someone in this room doesn’t, does one thing differently on the marketplace, what should it be? [00:22:08] Louise Strandoo: There’s so many things I can think about. I think like first [00:22:12] Vince Menzione: you’re coaching ’em [00:22:13] Louise Strandoo: individually, [00:22:13] Vince Menzione: by the way. Just think about it that way. [00:22:15] Louise Strandoo: One of the first things like, it depends on where you’re like, where you’re at in your journey. [00:22:18] Louise Strandoo: So like, quick show of hands, who is, um, a partner that is like using the marketplace today? [00:22:26] Vince Menzione: There’s quite a few actually. [00:22:27] Louise Strandoo: Okay. Awesome. Thank you for helping drive the marketplace. So for those of you that raised your hands, like my sentiment to you all would be figure out how you are incorporating marketplace as the center of your strategy with AWS. [00:22:44] Louise Strandoo: We are increasingly using marketplace as the point of scale for all things about partnership. All things funding are like increasingly requiring some hook into marketplace. So we can actually provide more funding and scale increase like more. So think about like how do you use marketplaces that like center of your partnership, um, for those of you that are not on the marketplace today and are thinking like, is this something that is valuable to me? [00:23:15] Louise Strandoo: Is this something that I should think about and do? You should absolutely. Go look at who are your competitors? Who are the folks that are already out there on the marketplace and, and why aren’t you there? And then you should start to look at what are the characteristics of successful sellers to map out What could we do and what’s the kind of order of operations that we should take to figure out like, how do we get there? [00:23:40] Louise Strandoo: How do we have a plan from the beginning to get buy-in for our partnership with AWS so that we’re not going about it, expecting that it’s gonna just like drive a bunch of leads to the business. It’s not what it does well, but it is gonna help accelerate the way that you co-sell with AWS, which can be a tremendous value add when done appropriately. [00:23:58] Louise Strandoo: So I think, yeah, like figure out the right way that it’s gonna unlock business value depending on what’s most important to your priority. Um. Today [00:24:08] Vince Menzione: we have about three and a half minutes, and I, I’m eager to see if there’s any questions. I, I, um, I, John’s right here with the mic and I love that. I love the, want to get the interaction here in the room. [00:24:19] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, [00:24:20] Vince Menzione: it’s a great group. [00:24:25] Guest: Oh, [00:24:29] Vince Menzione: can they light up that mic? Maybe [00:24:33] Louise Strandoo: Good. [00:24:37] Vince Menzione: There you go. That’s fine. There you go. It’s working. Alright. [00:24:41] Guest: Thank you so much. This is a really great presentation, first of all. I love it. Um, I’m actually part of the, uh, the GSI, so I work cognizant. My name is Ana Hill, um, and I’m manage alliances with ServiceNow. Um, our goal is in the really near future to really engage with all the hyperscalers in sell. [00:25:00] Guest: So that’s one thing. But my interesting, my question is how do you, how, how does AWS measure success? Of the partners who are on your platform, what are the metrics? How do you determine which partners are actually successful and what other partners can use to learn from that? [00:25:19] Louise Strandoo: Yeah, that’s such a great question. [00:25:21] Louise Strandoo: So, um, something that I think is like super helpful that you bring up is cost is not a, um, a scorecard that says everybody that does all these things is a good partner. It’s basically inputs that we have come up with that are supposed to help with the partnership outcomes. Um, so partners, we measure a whole bunch of different things. [00:25:47] Louise Strandoo: I think PDMs and my team carry goals across like seven different categories. There’s a couple of big things that we look at. We look at the revenue that you drive through the marketplace, so whether that’s through private offers or through your self-service business or through. Selling through a reseller, or if you are the reseller, like what is that resell business or driving? [00:26:05] Louise Strandoo: Um, we look at what are the opportunities that you’re bringing and sharing with AWS and that you’re launching. So through our lead sharing mechanism. Not only what are you launching, but what are you sharing with us that is qualified that you’re bringing the field into? Um, we look at things like migrations and migration, realized revenue. [00:26:25] Louise Strandoo: How are you helping drive customers to the cloud? And how are you helping customers not just get everything set up, but you start actually using it. Um, so we really are gonna look across like a multitude of those metrics and when we look at like which partners are kind of leading the way. We’re gonna start to look at the revenue in those buckets, right? [00:26:44] Louise Strandoo: Like who’s sharing and bringing and growing with us? Who’s bringing more opportunities to engage before it happens on the marketplace? Who’s actually completing that transaction? And then who are helping who, who are the partners? Kind of like leading those big types of transformations, migrations, and, and realize revenue. [00:27:00] Louise Strandoo: This is really great. Yeah. Yeah. [00:27:04] Vince Menzione: Thank you. Any other questions? Come on. We’ve got 30 seconds left. We have time for that one last question. Run over there. John. Come on. [00:27:17] Guest: Thank you again, a great, uh, presentation. One question I had is, uh, this morning, right Jay from, uh, oia, right? He identified a whole bunch of, uh, companies that are doing. [00:27:28] Guest: More than a billion dollars in revenue with AWS. [00:27:30] Louise Strandoo: Mm-hmm. [00:27:31] Guest: What would you say are one or two top qualities among these companies that help some drive? I can give [00:27:36] Louise Strandoo: six. And they’re all of these. Yes. [00:27:39] Vince Menzione: The cost, [00:27:40] Louise Strandoo: but like, I think, um, so I love it. Yeah. My, my team we’re working on some content to better capture, like Yeah. [00:27:48] Louise Strandoo: You, you’ve gotten there, you’ve done the six basic things. Now what happens when you’re a billion dollar business? What does it look like there? It’s a lot of the same stuff, right? Like billion dollar billers on the marketplace. They embody that resilience, for example, in their operational mechanisms. [00:28:03] Louise Strandoo: They’re moving beyond the point of there being like one person that creates private offers and they’re like just part of the partnership team. They activate their, um, their deal desk to really manage private offers and marketplace business at scale. They’re integrating their pipeline to share deals proactively through their CRM system and they have really targeted enablement that is. [00:28:24] Louise Strandoo: Really pushing to the field to make sure that every person in their team understands the value of cloud value of AWS and how marketplace accelerates the pipeline. So the more mature that you become as a marketplace seller, like the more that cost is relevant to help keep you on track and be that kind of north star to say like, you could do a cool bunch of stuff with us, but here’s really where you wanna check and see, like what can you do to evolve the business to the next stage? [00:28:49] Vince Menzione: What you’ve said is so like impactful and we have some experts in the room that do this. They help these organizations better understand it’s really getting into your field organization to help them understand how to. How to show up for meetings with AWS re, like how to, how to, uh, co-sell together, how to think about going after these opportunities. [00:29:09] Vince Menzione: What, when you’re, when you’re talking to customers, potential customers about their cloud commitments, like what are the right questions to ask in the pro? There’s so many things, like I’m sure the costs six has like 150 each [00:29:21] Louise Strandoo: Easily [00:29:21] Vince Menzione: steps. Yeah. You know, to it. [00:29:24] Louise Strandoo: Yeah. And I think like, just to follow on that. [00:29:26] Louise Strandoo: Um, we have partners who have gone and they’ve been like, okay, we’re getting a strategic collaboration agreement with AWS. We’re getting funding, and if they don’t have this, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work. It fails. So this is really like, yeah, it’s about building that resilient architecture to say, if we go big, do we have the execution plan to succeed? [00:29:47] Louise Strandoo: You can’t start with a plan to say, give us a bunch of funding and we’ll go do it. Your salespeople will say. Know what that is. Don’t care. Yeah. So you have to put all of that, you know, all of those building blocks in first to make sure that we can actually execute. [00:30:01] Vince Menzione: You need alignment from the executive suite down to the selling floor. [00:30:05] Louise Strandoo: A hundred percent. [00:30:06] Vince Menzione: Yeah. [00:30:06] Louise Strandoo: Yep. [00:30:06] Vince Menzione: That’s really what it’s all about. [00:30:07] Louise Strandoo: Yep. [00:30:08] Vince Menzione: Louise, thank you so much. It’s been incredible. So great to have you join us. Thank you [00:30:15] so [00:30:15] Louise Strandoo: much. Yes, thank [00:30:16] Vince Menzione: you. [00:30:16] Louise Strandoo: Thank you, [00:30:16] Vince Menzione: thank you. Thanks for listening to The Ultimate Partner Podcast. If today’s conversation resonated. Share it with a partner leader in your network. [00:30:26] Vince Menzione: Subscribe where you listen, and head over to the Ultimate partner.com for show notes related content and the resources for this episode. And if you haven’t already, now’s the time to register for the Ultimate Partner Live event in Reston, Virginia, October 26th through October 28th. Until next time, keep showing up in the rooms that matter because being in the room changes everything.

When media mogul Bryon Allen took a controlling stake in BuzzFeed in May – becoming its CEO and chairman – it was his latest bold bet in a volatile media landscape. The Allen Media Group founder joins Rapid Response to explain his strategy for BuzzFeed (note: we recorded this before BuzzFeed announced layoffs for 35% of its staff), taking over Stephen Colbert's former CBS time slot with his Comics Unleashed, why YouTube and Netflix aren't untouchable in the streaming wars, and why race matters in media ownership. Visit the Rapid Response website here: https://www.rapidresponseshow.com/See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

“Evil is reductive. But the impact of the business is evil, even if the intent isn't.” — Andy Hunter on Amazon Network effects transformed Amazon from a startup internet bookshop into today's $2.44 trillion everything store. The more ubiquitous its affiliate program became, the more powerful Amazon became. But, in today's digital economy, winner-take-all might not be winner-always-take-all. These network effects, you see, can be subverted. They might even be used as weapons against a seemingly dominant player like Amazon. Take, for example, Bookshop.org. Founded by Andy Hunter in 2020, this online bookstore has aggregated 3,000 independent bookstores, these affiliates contributing to a counter-Amazon network that already does 2% of Amazon's book business and will, within the next thirty days, pass $50 million distributed to local bookstores. When Hunter originally pitched the idea to Silicon Valley investors, they asked him if he could beat Amazon on price or speed. No. Then you don't have a chance, they told him, because Americans only care about price and speed. But they were wrong. Since Bookshop.org launched in 2020, American bookstores have grown from 1,900 to 3,300, with 90% of these independents joining Bookshop.org and 98% of booksellers polling the company as a positive force. His is a winner-share-all marketplace where stores keep the full profit of their own sales, while a $4.5 million annual profit pool flows to any real brick-and-mortar ABA bookstore. Nobody gets rich, Hunter says, but everybody does okay. Hunter suspects that if Bookshop.org grows to take 5% of Amazon's book market, things might turn nasty. Could Amazon just buy Bookshop.org, I asked. No, Hunter responded, all his investors signed a clause barring a sale to any major US retailer. So even if I got hit by an Amazon delivery truck, he explained, his mission couldn't be undone. So is Amazon evil? Not exactly evil, he explains, since evil requires malignant intent. But Amazon is more like fishermen who overfish until the stock collapses and wrecks their ecosystem beyond repair. That classic tragedy of the commons. Hence Bookshop.org's anti-Prime campaigns, which used Amazon's “discount” holiday as a way of generating an extra $1.2 million for its affiliate bookstores. Hunter wants to replace Amazon's seemingly infinite scalability with a more moral kind of scale. He imagines a Bookshop.org for everything from hardware stores and art supplies to bikes and toys. Silicon Valley's conventional winner-take-all economics would be replaced by a Robin Hood style winner-share-all model. Except for our tech bro friends, I suspect we would all be wealthier for it. Five Takeaways •       “Americans Only Care About Price and Speed.” That was the verdict of a 2019 conference call with twenty Silicon Valley angel investors: if Bookshop couldn't beat Amazon on price or speed, it had no chance. Hunter's counter-pitch: enough people care about their values when they shop — if supporting a local bookstore is made just as easy. His sharpest insight was the affiliate economy: by 2019 the internet had become one giant funnel pushing every reader toward Amazon, with the New York Times, NPR, BuzzFeed, and celebrity book clubs all earning Amazon kickbacks on their book coverage. Bookshop's universal link gave them an alternative that pays local bookstores instead. Nine months of rejection later, he had cobbled together $750,000 — with the publisher Morgan Entrekin introducing five of the original seven investors.•       Winner-Share-All. Bookshop is a marketplace, like Etsy: over 3,000 bookstores plus affiliates from Literary Hub to The Atlantic to Dakota Johnson's book club. Stores keep the full profit on their own sales; direct sales feed a profit pool — 33 percent of profits, about $4.5 million a year — shared with any real brick-and-mortar bookstore in the American Booksellers Association. Within thirty days, total distributions will pass $50 million. Hunter kept the raise tiny and refused venture capital to protect the mission: a $10 million check would have demanded a 10x return and a sale, and Bookshop's shareholder agreement bars any sale to Amazon, Walmart, or Target. The company runs on a 12.5 percent expense ratio and twelve engineers. Nobody gets rich; everybody does okay.•       The Comeback Numbers. Amazon put over half of America's bookstores out of business in two decades. Since Bookshop launched in 2020, the country has gone from 1,900 bookstores to 3,300 — seventy percent growth — and 73 percent of member stores grew in 2025. The rising tide lifts all boats: Bookshop grew 55 percent last year while stores' own websites grew 25 percent. Ninety percent of American independents have joined, and a poll of 3,000 booksellers found 98 percent view the company positively. Meanwhile Amazon's share of the book market is flat for the first time in twenty-three years. Bookshop has taken about 2 percent of Amazon's book customers — small enough to be useful anti-monopoly evidence, Hunter jokes, but a social movement in the making.•       Not Evil — Worse? Hunter refuses the word “evil”: evil requires malignant intent, and Amazon's managers are merely told to grow profits every quarter. The better analogy is overfishing — blind growth that destroys the ecosystem beyond repair. But the stakes are not merely commercial: bookstores bring authors to communities, raise new generations of readers, and — as the arrest of five Hong Kong booksellers reminds us — stand as the vanguard of free expression. No single company, good or evil, should control a market so essential to human consciousness. As for Bezos, once so interested in climate change: now it's rockets and data centers. “Evil is reductive. But the impact of the business is evil, even if the intent isn't.”•       The AI Flood. Did OpenAI and Anthropic steal from authors? “They were,” Hunter says — a conscious choice that stealing was faster than dealing, and now they're paying up because they got caught, in a race to be first that cuts regulatory, legal, and ethical corners. Meanwhile three times as many books are being added to Amazon each year than before AI — overwhelmingly scam books generated from search trends, uncopyedited, designed to defraud buyers rather than inform them. Bookshop tells its suppliers to keep AI books off the site entirely, with a tiny asterisk for serious poets making artistic investigations of AI. Hunter's standard is simple: these aren't books, they're scams — and no retailer who cares about customers should sell them. Including Amazon. About the Guest Andy Hunter is the founder and CEO of Bookshop.org, the online bookstore that supports local independent bookstores, launched in January 2020 and named by Time one of the year's most influential social-good companies. A longtime literary publisher and entrepreneur, he previously co-founded Electric Literature and Literary Hub. He lives in Brooklyn. References: •       Bookshop.org — the marketplace itself: shop any of 3,000+ independent bookstores, or let your purchase feed the profit pool.•   ...

The AI industry spent the week arguing with itself, which is honestly the healthiest thing it's done in years. One coalition led by Nvidia begged regulators not to slow down open AI models, while more than 1,100 AI workers signed another letter asking regulators to do exactly that. Anthropic warned about bioweapons, OpenAI admitted the four-hour workweek isn't happening after all, and Microsoft's Satya Nadella reminded everyone that building your entire business on someone else's AI is a fantastic way to outsource your own brain. In other words, the people selling the future still can't agree on what they're selling, except that you'd better buy it fast.Meanwhile, the AI bubble keeps demanding sacrifices. Patreon, BuzzFeed, and Uber all swung the layoff axe while insisting AI isn't replacing humans... it's just reorganizing them out of a paycheck. Nvidia is floating another three-quarters of a trillion dollars in infrastructure deals that have people muttering "AI subprime mortgage crisis," China has discovered there's money in renting your face to AI companies, and the U.S. is carving data centers out of pollution rules because apparently acid rain is a small price to pay for chatbot dominance. Add in ChatGPT suddenly refusing to imitate famous authors, researchers discovering AI coding assistants are happily installing malware if you ask nicely, and Meta launching an ad campaign about the wonders of AI that somehow forgets to mention what any of those wonders actually are.Elsewhere in Tech Hell™, eBay finally paid the price for its executives' unhinged harassment campaign involving pig masks and live insects, Elon is shopping The Boring Company while promising money won't matter in the AI utopia of 2036, and a traveler is headed to court after allegedly triggering GrapheneOS's "duress PIN" during a border search. We also hit Media Candy with Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Silo, Blade Runner 2099 and Neuromancer, celebrate Dave Bittner's birthday, marvel at Jason's ever-growing Boneyard of dead websites, and somehow end up discussing thermal cameras, piano repair, and old-man bladder supplements. Because that's what happens when Gen X gets older - we just add more tabs instead of closing the old ones.Sponsors:DeleteMe - Get 20% off your DeleteMe plan when you go to JoinDeleteMe.com/GOG and use promo code GOG at checkout.StoryBlocks - For a limited time, they're offering 15% off any annual plan at storyblocks.com/gogPrivate Internet Access - Go to GOG.Show/vpn and sign up today. For a limited time only, you can get OUR favorite VPN for as little as $2.03 a month.SetApp - With a single monthly subscription you get 240+ apps for your Mac. Go to SetApp and get started today!!!1Password - Get a great deal on the only password manager recommended by Grumpy Old Geeks! gog.show/1passwordShow notes at https://gog.show/757Watch on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Sii_nodESkcSHOW NOTESEBay and Former Execs Will Pay $56 Million to Couple They Tormented With Bloody Pig MasksAs US weighs response to Chinese AI, industry urges against broad open-weight restrictionsAI researchers call for new tools that can slow automated model developmentOver 1,100 AI workers sign letter asking US to support tools that 'pace the frontier of automated AI development'Anthropic's Dario Amodei responds: doesn't oppose open-weight models, but fears Chinese AIAmodei Denies Anthropic Supports Open-Weight AI Ban, Warns of China RisksSam Altman said AI hasn't led to 4-hour workweeks because people are competitiveSam Altman Shuts Down Hopes of an AI-Led 4-Day Workweek Anytime SoonOpenAI Proposes 32-Hour Pilot Incentives for EmployersSatya Nadella says companies that trust one AI for everything may not survive Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warns companies relying on one AI model may not surviveOpenAI's rogue hacking incident was a warning shot. Will it be a wake-up call to finally create AI safety regulation?Behind the Curtain: AI godfathers converge on regulationsPatreon is laying off 20 percent of its staffAI Mania Is Eviscerating Global Decision-MakingBuzzFeed Lays Off 33 Percent of Remaining Staff After Bizarre Pivot to AIUber lays off 10 percent of its customer service team in favor of using AIIn China, people are renting out their faces to AIAs SpaceX Sheds a Tesla's Worth of Value, Elon Musk Is Trying to Sell Investors on Another CompanyHow Much Charity Would It Take for People to Like Elon Musk?ChatGPT is now refusing requests to write in famous authors' stylesNvidia's $750 Billion Deals Revive Fear of AI Circular FinancingThe Trump administration is exempting data centers from pollution laws intended to prevent acid rainUS accuses American of allegedly wiping his phone using a 'duress' password during border searchMeta launches new Facebook Verified badge for actual, real humansMeta launches a storefront platform through Facebook MarketplaceMeta's pro-AI ad campaign is conspicuously light on AIIf You AI-Generate Code, Hackers Just Found a Devious Method to Install Malware Directly on Your ComputerMinions & MonstersStar Trek: Strange New WorldsBroadchurch S2SiloTed Lasso Season 4 TrailerNeuromancer — Official Teaser | Apple TVPrime Video Finally Lifts the Lid on ‘Blade Runner 2099'Star Trek: Section 31Bad Deeds by Andrew Hunter MurrayDave BittnerThe CyberWireHacking HumansCaveatControl LoopOnly Malware in the BuildingJason DeFillippoJurassic Park computers in excruciating detailWho are the Mandalorians? | Star Wars: Galaxy GuideHF96V Thermal Camera with Visual Camera & Laser Pointer, Intelligent Scene Detection, 240 * 240 Super Resolution Thermal Imaging Camera,25 Hz, 50° FOV, -4°F to 1022°F, IP54 Infrared CameraProject FarmSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lauren Nossett is a professor turned novelist and the award-winning author of the thrillers The Resemblance and The Professor. Her books have been Amazon Editors' picks and featured in The New York Times, Buzzfeed, E! News, and Paste Magazine. Described as "elegant and thoughtful" by The New York Times and "impossible to put down" by Paste Magazine, The Resemblance won the ITW Thriller Award for Best First Novel and was chosen as a Book All Georgians Should Read. Her next novel, Indie Darling, will release in July. Lauren currently lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with her husband and her spunky Pomeranian, Bowie.Killer Women Podcast is copyrighted by Authors on the Air Global Radio Network#podcast #author #interview #authors #KillerWomen #KillerWomenPodcast #authorsontheair #podcast #podcaster #killerwomen #killerwomenpodcast #authors #authorsofig #authorsofinstagram #authorinterview #writingcommunity #authorsontheair #suspensebooks #authorssupportingauthors #thrillerbooks #suspense #wip #writers #writersinspiration #books #bookrecommendations #bookaddict #bookaddicted #bookaddiction #bibliophile #read #amreading #lovetoread #daniellegirard #daniellegirardbooks #laurennossett #flatiron

Crusaders, the lights are out! At least for Joey anyway. This week our besties are manifesting a big career and big money for Joey, as he needs his electricity and Netflix. Meanwhile, Snooki prepares for her upcoming surgery, breaking down all the self-care gadgetry from laxatives to body binders, to help keep herself comfortable, and hopefully, pain free. Keep the recommendations coming, crusaders. The duo doubles down on streaming channels everywhere, demanding that if we’re going to binge our shows, at least let’s be able to watch them every year. Who has time to wait two years for a new season? Our besties question what would social media have been like if millennials had them in our teenage years. One thing is for certain, we’d all end up in jail. As for millennials today, Myspace is apparently making a comeback! Are we ready for another round of “My Top 8”? The besties go even harder with old school quizzes from YM Magazine and BuzzFeed. Crusaders, how well do you know your 2000s MTV shows? Snooki and Joey get spooked on this week’s hotline, from zombie roosters to unavailable “businessmen,” the duo are dealing out their best advice. On this week’s Confession Sessions, sponsored by Hard Rock Bet, Joey literally spills the beans, while Snooki reveals her secret catfishing scheme. Hello chat rooms? The 2000s are calling and Snooki and Joey have answered. #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post suffered MASSIVE layoffs this week as Byron Allen takes over the failing digital media company. Watch the podcast episodes on YouTube and all major podcast hosts including Spotify. CLOWNFISH TV is an independent, opinionated news and commentary podcast that covers Entertainment and Tech from a consumer's point of view. We talk about Gaming, Comics, Anime, TV, Movies, Animation and more. Hosted by Kneon and Geeky Sparkles. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mike Bausch is an industry leader whose restaurant, Andolini's Pizzeria, is a top ten pizzeria in the US, as named by Trip Advisor, BuzzFeed, CNN and USA Today. Andolini's began in 2005 and has grown to five pizzerias, two gelaterias, two food-hall concepts, a food truck, and a fine dining restaurant by 2020. He's a World Pizza Champion, a Guinness Book world record holder, and a writer for Pizza Today, and the author of Unsliced: How to Stay Whole in the Pizzeria Business. Join RULibrary: www.restaurantunstoppable.com/RULibrary Join RULive: www.restaurantunstoppable.com/live Set Up your RUEvolve 1:1: www.restaurantunstoppable.com/evolve Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtube.com/restaurantunstoppable Subscribe to our email newsletter: https://www.restaurantunstoppable.com/ Today's sponsors: - Hermetic.ai  - Private event leads die in inboxes every day. Mia fixes that. She's an AI agent that responds within seconds, handles the back-and-forth, and fills your event calendar — automatically. Fully integrated in under 10 minutes. Head to hermetic.ai and put her to work. https://www.hermetic.ai/ - Hotshift - Hotshift is the all-in-one tool built by a restaurant owner, for restaurant owners. Scheduling, hiring, training, reviews — one roof, one login. Plusreal-time labor cost forecasting before the shift ever starts. Head to hotshift.pro/unstoppable. - Restaurant Technologies — the leader in automated cooking oil management. Their Total Oil Management solution is an end-to-end closed loop automated system that delivers, monitors, filters, collects, and recycles your cooking oil eliminating one of the dirtiest jobs in the kitchen.. Automate your oil and elevate your kitchen by visiting rti-inc.com or call 888-779-5314 to get started! - US Foods®. Running a restaurant takes MORE than great food—it takes reliable deliveries, quality products, and smart tools. US Foods® helps you make it. Ready to level up? Visit: usfoods.com/expectmore. - Guest contact info:  https://getunsliced.com/ Thanks for listening! Rate the podcast, subscribe, and share! 

Ever wonder how products actually get featured in BuzzFeed, Bustle, MSN, and other major publications?In this episode, Gloria sits down with freelance shopping writer Yasmin Singh, whose work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Bustle, Elite Daily, Scary Mommy, and more. She shares exactly how commerce editors decide which products make the cut—and the biggest mistakes small businesses make when pitching.You'll learn:• Why gift guides aren't the only (or even the best) PR opportunity • What shopping editors actually look for in product pitches • How to make your brand stand out in a crowded inbox • Whether product samples and affiliate links really matter • The surprising importance of before-and-after photos • How to pitch products without sounding generic • Why "our product is for everyone" is hurting your chances • Website mistakes that can cost you media coverage • The simple tweaks that make editors more likely to feature your brandIf you sell a physical product and want to earn more media coverage without paying for ads, this episode is packed with practical advice directly from someone who chooses products for major publications every day. Want your business to become the one AI recommends? In my free AI Visibility Masterclass, I'll show you how small business owners are using PR, media features, and credibility signals to increase their AI visibility, earn press without hiring a PR agency, and get discovered by customers at the exact moment they're ready to buy.

On this episode, Payton dives into the disappearance of Cynthia Anderson, a young secretary who vanished from her office after receiving a series of disturbing phone calls. Links: Netflix Video Every Monday @11am PST, 12pm MST, 2pm EST 1pm CST https://www.netflix.com/murderwithmyhusband Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/murderwithmyhusband NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case Sources: Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack: Season 2, Episode 13 Unsolved Mysteries - https://unsolved.com/gallery/cynthia-anderson/ Ohio Attorney General - https://www.ohioattorneygeneral.gov/Files/Law-Enforcement/Investigator/Ohio-Missing-Persons/Missing-Adults-1/Anderson Lost N Found Blogs - https://lostnfoundblogs.com/f/cindy-anderson-premonition-to-peril Buzzfeed - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLIUkk6Esr0 The Charley Project - https://charleyproject.org/case/cynthia-jane-anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The new era is here: New Wave Astrology

There are few things I like to do more than argue about the fine gradations of Who Is A Star Today And Why. I love the categorization element (what's the difference between a heartthrob and a sex symbol??) but I especially love thinking about what the actors we designate as heartthrobs tell us about our current understandings of masculinity. Is Pedro Pascal a heartthrob or a boyfriend? Is Leonardo DiCaprio the Eternal Heartthrob? Are the stars of Heated Rivalry the Official Heartthrobs of 2026? Do our heartthrobs age with us, or are they eternally 22? Romance author and male celeb aficionado Adib Khorram joins me to work through all of the above and so much more. Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party (via Getty) Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode: Make the switch to Blueland today and get 15% off your first order by going to Blueland.com/CULTURE Get 40% off select Lola Blankets products at Lolablankets.com by using code CULTURE at checkout. Experience the world's #1 blanket with Lola Blankets. Use code CULTURE at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a free gift with your first purchase! Ollie. Feed the Obsession. Go to ollie.com/culture and use code CULTURE to get 70% off your first box! Show Notes: Learn more about Adib and find links to all his books: https://adibkhorram.com/ Order Adib's most recent book One Word, Six Letters: https://bookshop.org/a/56144/9781250405555 And pre-order his next adult romance, Isn't He Romantic?: https://bookshop.org/p/books/isn-t-he-romantic-adib-khorram/3c6c724552db372c?ean=9781538739594 Follow Adib on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adibkhorram The BBC Article we reference about heartthrobs through the ages: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191218-timothe-chalamet-and-hollywood-heartthrobs-through-the-ages Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny!!! https://bloodknife.com/everyone-beautiful-no-one-horny/ I reference Emma Straub's book American Fantasy: https://bookshop.org/a/56144/9798217046850 Strongly recommend this essay collection if you want to think a lot more about the masculinity of Rudolph Valentino and Douglas Fairbanks in the 1920s: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/idols-of-modernity/9780813547329 As promised, the photo of when Pedro Pascal visited the BuzzFeed office in 2014: We're currently looking for your questions on the following topics: HOW WE SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA TODAY — how we narrativize our lives, what's changed, what's weird, what's still important and keeping us on this apps....with the great Kathryn Jezer-Morton THE NEXUS OF LLMs/A.I. AND CREATIVITY: A.I. Boosters argues that LLMS can free us for more creative endeavors — or "facilitate" our creative work. THOUGHTS???? (This one's with the brilliant Vauhini Vara, whose work grapples with these questions in a way I've never seen before). Hopefully this piece on how A.I. keeps wasting my G-D time will spark some questions on your end. CONVENIENCE CULTURE: From dinner to groceries to daily news to hailing a cab to finding a playlist-- we're used to getting a lot of things we want in a "convenient" way. What's that doing to us and our society? How have you embraced or eschewed convenience in your life? WOMEN'S FITNESS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. As our co-host Zoe Rom puts it: "Women are told they need to do fasting, creatine, lifting, fueling, and recovery differently than men. Sometimes the science backs it. More often the "different" is a marketing mechanism: invent a gendered problem, sell a gendered protocol, collect the markup." What's going on here? Where have you seen it, what pisses you off about it... take this wherever you'd like.     Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Netflix makes shows. And movies. And podcasts. And games. And… YouTube videos, apparently. So what even is Netflix anymore? Nilay and David have ideas. After that, they talk about Meta's ongoing smart glasses mess, and whether Meta or anyone can make these devices work. Finally, it's time for Brendan Carr, RAMageddon, the state of X, and a dumb TV mystery. Further reading: Bloomberg: ⁠Netflix Viewers Are Abandoning Shows After One Season⁠ ⁠Of course viewers are giving up on Netflix shows ⁠ ⁠Netflix is about to host videos from BuzzFeed, Condé Nast, and other publishers⁠ ⁠Netflix Bets on Short Videos to Compete With YouTube - Business Insider⁠ ⁠Netflix's video podcast engagement numbers 'are low,' per insider⁠ ⁠Emmy Nominations List 2026: BEEF, The Diplomat, The Beast in Me, Black Rabbit, and More - Netflix Tudum⁠ ⁠If Microsoft sold off Xbox, who would even buy it?⁠ ⁠Meta is reportedly working on smart glasses that would be recording all the time ⁠ ⁠Meta's glasses will turn off the camera if you tamper with the privacy light ⁠ ⁠Solos debuts an even lighter version of its camera-less smart glasses ⁠ ⁠Boz describes how Meta's smart glasses facial recognition feature would work. ⁠ ⁠Another verdict on camera glasses in court: nope! ⁠ ⁠ABC tells the government to get out of its newsrooms⁠ ⁠Meta's new Muse Image model can pull other Instagram users into AI photos ⁠ ⁠You can (and should) opt out of letting people use your Instagram posts with Meta's AI.⁠ ⁠Are you ready for what it takes to stop ghost guns?⁠ ⁠Vizio accidentally made the best dumb TV on the market⁠ ⁠PC shipments fell for the first time in over two years thanks to RAMageddon. ⁠ ⁠A tough chart about the RAM crisis. ⁠ ⁠Subscribe to The Verge⁠ for unlimited access to ⁠theverge.com⁠, subscriber-exclusive newsletters, and our ⁠ad-free podcast feed⁠.We love hearing from you! Email your questions and thoughts to ⁠vergecast@theverge.com⁠ or call us at 866-VERGE11. (Timestamps are approximate.) 00:01:00 Intro 00:04:00 Netflix Identity Crisis 00:08:00 Creators Versus Netflix 00:15:00 Netflix Buys YouTube Videos 00:18:00 Go90 Scale Check In 00:19:00 Netflix Should Buy Xbox 00:28:00 Smart Glasses Panopticon 00:46:00 Backlash And Offline Tech 00:49:00 Smart Glasses Without Cameras 00:55:00 FCC Chilling Effect 01:03:00 Ramageddon Price Shock 01:07:00 Regulating Ghost Guns 01:14:00 X Product Reality Check 01:20:00 Vizio Dumb TV Mystery 01:25:00 Wrap Up And Plugs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

My conversation with Amanda starts at 29  minutes and Dr Johnson starts at 52 mins in after headlines and clips Subscribe and Watch Interviews LIVE : On YOUTUBE.com/StandUpWithPete ON SubstackStandUpWithPete Stand Up is a daily podcast. I book,host,edit, post and promote new episodes with brilliant guests every day. This show is Ad free and fully supported by listeners like you! Please subscribe now for as little as 5$ and gain access to a community of over 750 awesome, curious, kind, funny, brilliant, generous souls Amanda Nelson is an amateur historian and political content creator behind Amanda's Mild Takes, a media brand that uses history, political science, and civics to explain how power actually operates in the United States. She publishes daily political analysis and action ideas for a engaged audience of over a million people who want historical context, not just headlines. Amanda's new podcast  Executive Dysfunction  Y'all Vote  Check out and subscribe to Dr Jason Johnson new youtube channel Dr. Jason Johnson is an associate professor of politics and journalism in the School of Global Journalism & Communication at Morgan State University and author of the book Political Consultants and Campaigns: One Day to Sell. He focuses on campaign politics, political communication, strategy and popular culture. He hosts a podcast on Slate called "A Word" He is a political analyst for MSNBC, SIRIUS XM Satellite Radio and The Grio. He has previously appeared on CNN, Fox News, Al Jazeera, Current TV and CBS. His work has been featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and on ESPN. He has been quoted by The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Wallstreet Journal, Buzzfeed, The Hill newspaper, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Dr. Johnson is a University of Virginia alumnus and earned his PhD in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Listen rate and review on Apple Podcasts Listen rate and review on Spotify Pete On Instagram Pete on Blue Sky Pete on Threads Pete on Tik Tok Pete on Twitter Pete Personal FB page Stand Up with Pete FB page All things Jon Carroll  Gift a Subscription https://www.patreon.com/PeteDominick/gift Send Pete $ Directly on Venmo