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Lesley and Brad recap key insights from physical therapist Dr. Jen Fraboni (@docjenfit), co-host of The Optimal Body Podcast. Known for helping people move with less pain and more confidence, Dr. Jen redefines pain as an “alarm,” not a stop sign—your body's way of asking for better care and awareness. Lesley and Brad unpack her practical strategies for building stability before flexibility, tuning in before you train, and aging with strength and ease.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:How Lesley's pain-as-alarm concept to daily self-check habits.Brad overcomes foot pain by staying active instead of stopping.How Lesley's yoga experience illustrated “stability before flexibility” The importance of reflection and consistency when pain shows up unexpectedly.How building strength supports graceful aging and confidence in movement.Episode References/Links:OPC Winter Tour - https://opc.me/tour0Pilates Journal Expo - https://xxll.co/pilatesjournalCambodia Retreat Waitlist - https://crowsnestretreats.com/waitlistAgency Mini - https://prfit.biz/miniContrology Pilates Conference in Poland - https://xxll.co/polandContrology Pilates Conference in Brussels - https://xxll.co/brusselsSubmit your wins or questions - https://beitpod.com/questionsDr. Jen Fraboni's Website - https://jen.healthThe Optimal Body Podcast - https://www.docjenfit.com/podcastDr. Jen Fraboni's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/docjenfitEpisode 589: Brad Bizjack - https://beitpod.com/ep589 If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! 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DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00 When we feel pain, really doing some sort of, creating some sort of, like, okay, hold on, what's my sleep like, what's my intake like, what's my fuel like, have I been consistent? You know, just do some reflection. Lesley Logan 0:12 Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 0:51 Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the empowering convo I had with Jen Fraboni in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that interview, you've missed out on an incredible interview with DocJenFit. That's her Instagram handle or her handle everywhere. So many of you love her, know her, and this was a really cool, I thought, very vulnerable convo as well. She shared a lot about going on her life, how she handles things. I love when people are like, just a human and so it's gonna be really good. So I can't wait to recap it, but before we do that, today is November 20th 2025, and we have two days to celebrate. And to be honest, there was like seven, so we could have chosen. There was a few that I was like, well, I don't use less, so we can't use use less day, because I'm so not participating. But there's a couple others, but we're going to focus on two of them. One is the Great American Smokeout. The American Cancer Society sponsors a Great American Smokeout on the third Thursday of November annually, challenging smokers to give up cigarettes for 24 hours. If you or a loved one smoke cigarettes, consider joining the movement and take the first step towards quitting cigarettes forever. How? Let's both try to do something tough for a day. I'll give up either coffee, sugar, social media. Brad Crowell 2:10 You're you are allowed to pitch this to them. Lesley Logan 2:13 Oh, this is how you're gonna pitch it. Brad Crowell 2:14 Yeah. This is how you're gonna pitch this to them. Lesley Logan 2:15 This is how you're gonna pitch it. So you're gonna, you, if you're a non-smoker, if you're a smoker, then you can tell another smoker, you guys could do it together. But if you're a non-smoker, asking a smoker, then you're gonna say, I'm gonna give up something they know. You're gonna have a hard time giving up for 24 hours. Brad Crowell 2:30 Like, maybe it's Instagram, maybe it's chocolate, could be sugar.Lesley Logan 2:35 Coffee, you know something like that and you give up smoking, think of it as a reset, not a rule. So.Brad Crowell 2:43 And that's what you can also tell them, It's a reset, not a rule. Lesley Logan 2:45 Well, Brad, can we, like, let's how hard, can we talk about it? Brad Crowell 2:50 We can certainly talk about it. Lesley Logan 2:51 Okay, you quit smoking. Brad Crowell 2:53 I did quit smoking. Lesley Logan 2:54 If he had been a smoker when we met, it would have not we would not be married 10 years. Brad Crowell 2:58 It's true. Lesley Logan 2:59 Because we would not have gone on a date. Brad Crowell 3:00 Yeah. I mean, it's. Lesley Logan 3:02 My grandfather was a smoker. Brad Crowell 3:04 It doesn't smell good. Lesley Logan 3:05 Yeah. So I have had two grandfathers who are massive smokers, one who lost a lung to smoking, and another one who had multiple heart problems, and the heart doctor refused to operate on him unless he quit smoking. So I, like, this is a big like, personal thing, because I lost family members to smoking. But I know it's not easy. So Brad.Brad Crowell 3:26 Yeah, I mean, I've told this story before, so it was the decision to smoke or to quit smoking was, for me, it was made emotionally, which is what made it easy. The decision to stop, to stay with that initial decision was actually quite challenging, you know, because of the addiction, because of nicotine, but because I wanted to sing more than I wanted to smoke, that was the emotional decision. It was like, oh my god, this is a very I just have to stop, like, I can't, I can't be on stage and not be able to sing. So that I think that was hard, because I had to hit a wall in order for that decision to become emotional and then for it to actually happen in my life. But okay, great. That's step one. Then step two is consistently not smoking when I used to smoke. So in the car with the window down, or I don't remember, you know, walking out of my apartment complex, there was a there was, like, part of my routine, you know, and doing those things, like continuing to do life, you're going to run back into those instances where you used to do the habit and would always make me think, this is what I would normally pull out a cigarette. And so that was, that was a constant battle for, honestly, for just a few weeks. Lesley Logan 4:56 Well, it's interesting, because so in a couple of weeks, we have a habit series starting and in one of the episodes, I talked about how to unravel a habit. And for smoking, like all we can be completely honest, there is an addictive element to it, in that they made it addictive. So you have a habit, you smoke when you're in traffic. My old roommate, she would she when she quit smoking was the hardest thing, because she's like, Lesley, I'm in traffic for 45 minutes, and I used to just sit there and smoke, and now I am not. So she had lollipops and teas and coffees because she needed something to do in the car. She actually had, like, the patches like, well, that helps you quit. So she's like, I don't even have the craving to smoke. I have the habit. So I will talk about how to unravel a habit in that series in December, so make sure you're paying attention. Okay, the other day, this is really important to Brad and I that we wanted to bring it up. (inaudible)Brad Crowell 5:47 Second thing we wanted to remember today. Lesley Logan 5:50 Yes. So it's Transgender Day of Remembrance. For generations, the transgender population has suffered various forms of abuse and even death for or murder, so we'll call it that, for challenging the views, notions and stereotypes around male and female identity. Every year, we set aside today as Transgender Day of Remembrance. This holiday is meant to honor, commemorate and memorialize those who face discrimination and stigma on a daily basis across this nation. This holiday is also meant to advocate for transgenders people's rights, as well as focus on the persistent struggles they face in their everyday lives and how others can share their love, support and hope. If you listen to this podcast and you have a fucking problem with transgenders, I am just going to be on, I need you to explore why. These are just people. They're just people, and they've been around forever. And I bring it, I bring it up in one of the FYF is coming up about like, how in the indigenous cultures, they actually have people, they already had words for this. This is something. It's actually a fucking cool thing. Like you have the ability to see the world the way they see it through both lenses. It's a powerful thing. And I fucking clearly I'm pissed about it, but I get so annoyed. We flew on a plane the other day, and no one has a problem using a toilet on a plane, but all of a sudden they have a fucking problem of sharing a bathroom with another person of a different gender, and it's like, what are we talking about here? You just shared a bathroom. So I don't understand when they make neutral bathrooms, how people get pissed about that. I also just listened to this one thing. If I could find the reel I'll send it to the team to link it. If you don't see the link below, it's because I couldn't find it. But this person is is explaining how it's sort of the safety of women to in the bathrooms, of why they want people using the bathrooms of their own, like birth certificate, right? And this one person is a trans man. He goes, so what you're actually saying is that men are a danger to women and you don't want them in their bathrooms. So that's the problem. We should solve that problem. We shouldn't be policing genitals. So I just get really upset because it's just bothersome to me. Why do we why do we care so much we have healthcare issues in this country. We have poverty issue. We have children who don't have enough food. Brad Crowell 8:06 We have food issues, yeah. Lesley Logan 8:07 The higher percentage of people. Brad Crowell 8:09 We have water issues. Did you know, I don't remember what the number is, but like, (inaudible) I think, I think it was Jackson, Mississippi, like, they don't have running water in in, like, many parts of the city. I don't know what the the numbers are, but like, that was a thing in a couple years ago. Lesley Logan 8:24 Yes, no, there's a higher percentage of people who are listening to this show that know someone who's homeless, who is a pover in poverty, who has food. What do you call it? Like a food uncertainty? Then then know of someone who's transgendered and so why? Like, what are we doing? So I'm just pissed about it. I'm just over it. I'm over people being so uptight and like that they're a threat to who you are. You know, it goes to that whole thing where it's like, if you don't like abortions, don't get one. If you don't like gay marriage, if somebody of your same sex asks you to marry them, don't say yes. Like, you don't have to do any of these things. You don't have to be trans like this is I just get annoyed. I'm pissed. Anyways, so today is the day to remember the people who have been fighting to exist as they feel like they should exist, and we should do what we can to honor those people. And if you don't know anyone, maybe consider looking at a community service organization in your area that you could donate to if you are listening from Las Vegas, when you buy food from the Bronze Cafe, their proceeds, part of their proceeds go to the LGBTQ community for mental health. So it's really, really cool. We use their restaurant for all of our retreats here in Las Vegas. We can help support that.Brad Crowell 9:37 And they have a second location at the.Lesley Logan 9:43 Oh Brad's so excited. Brad Crowell 9:45 The conservation preserve, the Springs Preserve here, which has has a massive cactus garden. So go to the cactus garden. Go eat lunch, and you'll be also helping support (inaudible) the transgender community here.Lesley Logan 9:58 Yeah, when you come visit Las Vegas, you should go to Springs Preserves, and then you can go to Bronze Cafe. Okay, cool stuff coming up now. So here we go. Brad Crowell 10:06 All right, so here's what we got coming up on the docket, actually, next week, or Yyeah, literally, in a few days, is the Black Friday Cyber Monday coming up for you've probably already been inundated with everything that's been crazy, but for us, we're going to do it actually, during the old school Black Friday Cyber, Cyber Monday is even new. Black Friday, so it's the 26th to the first of December for OPC only, y'all so check your email for more details, starting yesterday. So just go check your emails if you haven't already, we've got an offer for you with OPC.Lesley Logan 10:37 If you didn't get an email, it's because you have not signed up for our emails, or you unsubscribed from us, and we don't take that personally. You could just resubscribe. But yeah, the dates will be November 26th December 1st. Brad Crowell 10:47 If you're wondering what it is and you didn't get the email, just DM us and we can send you the right place.Lesley Logan 10:52 We're really excited about this sale, and it's the one time of the year we do it, so take advantage. Don't ask us on December 2nd for it. It's not how it works. It's actually a lot of work. Brad Crowell 11:01 Speaking of December, we're gonna be on the road again for our winter tour for OPC, and the actual dates we're gonna get, it's like starting on the seventh or sixth.Lesley Logan 11:11 No, it's like the fifth, I think it's the fifth in Colorado Springs, and it ends on. Brad Crowell 11:15 Oh, yeah, we gotta drive there, though, so we leave.Lesley Logan 11:18 We leave earlier than it starts. We come home the day that it ends so but it's like, it's like, December 5th through the January 6th or January 7th. Brad Crowell 11:28 And we do come home the day that ends. Lesley Logan 11:30 I, yeah, I know that we sound like when it comes to this tour that we're like, not organized. The last time we recorded, we had no idea where we're going. And now we do, and it's huge. The whole tour is listed, 23 cities. Brad Crowell 11:42 Yeah, 23. Lesley Logan 11:43 Colorado Springs. Brad Crowell 11:45 23 public events. Lesley Logan 11:46 St Louis.Brad Crowell 11:47 Yeah, the fifth, the first the first event is on December 5 in Colorado Springs, then we go to Fayetteville.Lesley Logan 11:54 Oh, Fayetteville. Oh, I'm so sorry. How could I skip Arkansas. Brad Crowell 11:57 Then St Louis on the 7th. Lesley Logan 11:58 Then St Louis, then Detroit, then Columbus. Brad Crowell 12:01 No, then Lexington. Lesley Logan 12:03 I'm going to Lexington. Brad Crowell 12:04 You're going to Lexington.Lesley Logan 12:04 Oh, I am going to Lexington, but I'm going in that order.Brad Crowell 12:06 Then you're going to Columbus, then you're going to Detroit.Lesley Logan 12:09 What? How does the map work? Am I going like zigzag?Brad Crowell 12:14 Believe it or not, they're almost in line. Yeah, they're, they are.Brad Crowell 12:18 I don't understand the middle. I'm so sorry. Okay, then we go to Pittsburgh. Lesley Logan 12:22 Okay, Pittsburgh. Then we go to. Brad Crowell 12:25 Rochester Lesley Logan 12:26 RochesterBrad Crowell 12:27 New York Lesley Logan 12:27 Oh, yeah, we're going to, do you say Rochester or you go Rochester. How do you say it? Brad Crowell 12:31 RochesterLesley Logan 12:32 RochesterBrad Crowell 12:33 Rochester, New York. And then we go to Boston, Cape Cod, Hartford, Connecticut. That's a new one for us. Hershey, Pennsylvania. We're coming back Rehoboth Beach. Lesley Logan 12:42 That's a new one for us. Brad Crowell 12:43 That's new, to Delaware, that'll be just after Christmas, and then we have Washington, DC, Virginia Beach, Charlotte, North Carolina. That's new for us. We've got Delray. This is Florida. We're gonna be hoofing it from North Carolina all the way down to Delray, Florida. This is new.Lesley Logan 12:59 Christmas Eve, Del Rey. Brad Crowell 13:01 Nope, New Year's Eve Del Rey. On a roll, here.Lesley Logan 13:07 You guys Del Rey is near Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Florida, correct? Brad Crowell 13:11 Yeah. It's just north of Fort Lauderdale, I think. Lesley Logan 13:14 So our Miami stop has moved up a little bit because most of you are driving from that area anyway, so you're welcome. And then we do New Year's Day with our Pilates crew that's in Tampa.Brad Crowell 13:26 Yes. Lesley Logan 13:26 And then we go to Pensacola. Brad Crowell 13:28 Yes. Then New Orleans. Lesley Logan 13:30 New Orleans, and then Houston. Brad Crowell 13:31 Then, Houston. Lesley Logan 13:32 Houston. We haven't been to Houston in years.Brad Crowell 13:34 Yeah, it's been quite a few years for us to be in Houston. That'll be on January 4th and then fifth in Austin, and then Phoenix, we're coming to you on the seventh.Lesley Logan 13:42 Yeah. So get your tickets at opc.me/events, by the way. Brad Crowell 13:46 Nope, opc.me/tour, opc.me/tour. Lesley Logan 13:50 There's two links. Okay, sorry, opc.me/tour is where you get your tickets. And at the time we're recording this, we're over 57% sold out. By the time you're hearing this, it's going to be way closer to sold out, because literally, nine events only have one spot right now in them. So go to opc.me/tour. Bring your friends. Also in December, we didn't do a Profitable Pilates Black Friday, Cyber Monday this year, because we want you to focus on, so save the date, December 26th or the 31st that will be on the Profitable Pilates newsletter list. So you have to be on that one. So for the Pilates instructors studio owners who want business flights, we're gonna have some special deal on Agency. We've never done it before. So make sure you're watching your inbox for that if you don't get those emails, just DM us and the team will help you out. Brad Crowell 14:36 By the way, we're 55% sold out. Lesley Logan 14:39 Oh, I know, but we're. Brad Crowell 14:40 I just checked. Lesley Logan 14:41 I know, but it hasn't been updated in 48 hours, so.Brad Crowell 14:44 Maybe even more, so it might be closer to 60. Good stuff.Lesley Logan 14:48 Yeah, I think so. And then after our tour, we come home for one day, kick off, eLevate, get our roots done, get our nails done by (inaudible), and then we go to Huntington Beach. Teach for the Pilates Journal Expo. This is a really cool two-day event, huge lineup of teachers. I don't I it's like a fucking party. So you should just go to xxll.co/pilatesjournal. So just two Xs guys, xxll.co/pilatesjournal. And then if you aren't already on the waitlist, you'll want to be on the waitlist because also, in January, we're going to open up the early bird registration for our Pilates retreat in Cambodia. This we just came back from. Brad Crowell 15:28 Y'all it is going to be amazing. Lesley Logan 15:30 I'm making so many mistakes, because we just got back and it was the coolest retreat of life. No offense to the people we've been on retreats with before, you were amazing.Brad Crowell 15:37 Incredible retreat. Lesley Logan 15:38 But like, if you have ever thought, oh, my god, they must get bored of this. We don't. We had the best fucking time. It was like we I just loved it. So I can't wait to take you,Brad Crowell 15:48 Yeah, and I think, I think this year is going to be sorry, next year, So 2026, is going to be even better. And I know we've had a lot of interest already, but one of the things we're going to do differently, in January, we're going to have a call for everyone who's curious about this, the retreat, all the questions. We're going to have a couple of our past retreaters join us live, and we're going to have them just answer those questions. You can ask them directly. They can share with you their experience, you know, the process of getting there, like, did they feel safe? What kind of food was it? What kind of activities did they enjoy? All the things that you might be curious about. And I'm telling you, it is gonna next year, is gonna sell quickly. So, get yourself on the waitlist. Go to crowsnestretreats.com and we can't wait to see it all there.Lesley Logan 16:34 Every group is got its own, different vibe. This group, we were like, rapping in the in the bus on the way to like, no one took a nap. Usually people are napping. We were like, half a native. So anyways, crowsnestretreats.com, crowsnestretreats.com/waitlist get you on the waitlist. Okay, in February, that is when our Agency Mini is happening. That is our three day event. I don't know if we're doing a second one next year. We're going to try, but you know, we'll see. So you're going back to Agency Mini, you want to get on the waitlist for that if you want to make sure you don't miss the early bird discount, prfit.biz/mini holy fucking molly, there's a lot of events coming up. So Poland and Brussels, that is in March, you guys. And I mean, a lot of questions about, are you doing anything in Europe? Anything? This is it. We're going, we're like, literally not getting on a plane until March, and I don't have plans to get on a plane after March until Cambodia. So if you want to see me, you need to check out the Poland Controlology Pilates conference. xxll.co/poland and or Brussels, xxll.co/brussels, two events, different workshops to both events, you can you're welcome to come to both. Karen Frischmann is actually collabing on that with me and the host studios, so you get two amazing teachers for the price of a weekend. And it's pretty kind of it's pretty awesome. So different workshops, plus there's a day of privates and semi private classes. So you can also jump in and enjoy some workouts with us. You don't want to miss it, because I don't know when we're coming back. Okay? And then we're gonna leave that. Brad and I are gonna do a vacation. Brad Crowell 18:08 What? Weird. Lesley Logan 18:09 About nine, 10 days vacation in Europe, and then April after our vacation, we wrap up in April at P.O.T. London, and now it's official. Now if you've been hearing me say, I'm not allowed to tell you, I don't know if we're allowed to tell you, we can tell you I signed a contract. I don't I don't I don't know if there's a link out yet, but I'm sure there is. So just look at like, P.O.T. London from Balanced Body, and you'll find it. All right, oh my gosh, okay, should we let's get to this audience question, and we got to get to this amazing recap episode.Brad Crowell 18:34 All right, so the audience question this week was from @audreyphipps1726, on YouTube. She, this is for the Pilates equipment for beginners video. She said, hey, what size is that Try Me Stability Ball. I would love to find one. Lesley Logan 18:50 Yeah, so the triad ball that's.Brad Crowell 18:53 I was wondering. Lesley Logan 18:54 Audrey, it took me a second. I was like, try me. I'd have to Google this, because sometimes people go, hey, what do you think of this item? And I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about, but I realize it's my accent. It's the triad ball, and I don't actually know the dimensions. It's a purple ball that you don't want to fill all the way up. It's smaller than a I guess it'd be like, volleyball size when it's filled up, but you want it to be a little squishy. And where did I get it. I think I went on Balanced Body. Let's see.Brad Crowell 19:24 The OPTP triad ball nine and a half inches. Lesley Logan 19:27 Is it purple? Brad Crowell 19:28 Um, yeah, it's purple. Lesley Logan 19:30 Yeah, the OPTP. Brad Crowell 19:32 Yeah. OPTP triad ball nine and a half inches. Lesley Logan 19:35 You can get it at like, Target. Brad Crowell 19:37 Yeah, even at Walmart. Lesley Logan 19:38 I'm not shopping at Target these days, but you can get on OPTP's website, they have a bunch. They have a huge website, lots of amazing stuff on TP actually, you'll kind of like, it's good products, good stuff. So if you have a question, you can text us at +13109055534, or submit it to beitpod.com/questions. You can also leave a win. And I love getting your wins, because I love helping people see like there's a celebration in everything. You know there's a reason to celebrate the whole every if you just watch the news and open up your phone, it fucking sucks. So you got to have a place where you know it's going to be some good news, and you might hear your win on a day you need to remind yourself that you had a fucking win.Brad Crowell 20:17 Yeah, that's true. Yeah, you are 100% right. Well, stick around. We'll be right back. Brad Crowell 20:23 Okay, welcome back. Let's talk about Dr. Jen Fraboni. Dr. Jen Fraboni, also known as Doc Jen Fit, is a physical therapist passionate about helping people move more with less pain and more confidence. She is the founder of Jen.Health, a platform and app designed to make strength, mobility and recovery accessible for everyone. Alongside her husband, she cohosts The Optimal Body Podcast. Her work has also been featured nationally, including on Good Morning America and NBC, where she shared simple strategies to ease back pain during the pandemic. So we well, it was just a great conversation, by the way, nobody knows this, but I get to watch the the full interview call, right? And. Lesley Logan 21:06 You watch it? Brad Crowell 21:07 Yeah, watch every single one of them. That's how I do prep. Oh, I thought you just listened, nope, 100% of the time watching the interview. So the beginning of it was really fun because you were saying that, basically you were like, oh my gosh, this is how my day is gonna go today. I'm so excited to start today with this interview.Lesley Logan 21:26 Well, because, because it was a Zoom call with Jen Fraboni. And I was like, it's Jen Fraboni. And then it was then she showed up, like, Oh my God. Like, I was like, I mean, I guess I could have looked up.Brad Crowell 21:39 Doc Jen Fit. Lesley Logan 21:40 I mean, I knew I was interviewing her at some point, but I just my brain didn't like keep her, keep her last name associated with her Instagram handle, but yeah, how fun is that? I don't know, maybe the team left in the outtakes. Yeah, it was so good. Brad Crowell 21:53 Yeah. So you know what, what the two of you were digging into. I thought it was just really great talking about paying because I I related a lot to that, especially this past year, I've actually had a lot of pain with my my foot. So anyway, you know. Lesley Logan 22:08 But well, that goes into, like, something like, what I liked that she addressed about pain was that, like, most of the time it's just an alarm. Especially if you didn't get an accident, like, and sometimes your pain is like, you're just sitting there, and all of a sudden something hurts in your body, and you're like, ah, this hurts. And I'm like, just sitting there, like, what are you talking about? So in that case, if it wasn't, like, you know, you fell down the stairs, you tripped across the street, you were in a car accident, if you have pain, it is your body going, Hey, hi. You're not taking good care of me, right? It's like, just trying to get your attention. And I just like, if we think of that as what it is, as opposed to, I have to stop doing everything that was associated with that, because this is what happens, right? People come to Pilates once a week. The goal is three to four times. Week four is better. That's the goal, right? But I have someone who'll come once a week, and they go, they'll see me the next week. Oh, last last week. My back hurt, so we need to be conscious of that. And it's like so there are six other days, plus the 23 hours of the day. I didn't see you. What did you do? How are you taking care of yourself? I'm not saying the Pilates doesn't didn't hurt you. What I am saying is more likely than not, it wasn't the Pilates, but the Pilates is the unique thing about your day, right? So it's, it's similar to, I have some stomach digestive issues, and I would go, Oh, I think I got gluten, or I must have had some dairy. When I found out that I'm also allergic to oats. And every fucking day I was having oat milk, right?. And I wasn't associating, like, any of the other boring food I was having all of the time, I was coming up with, like, this unique thing that could have happened, so I really like that.Brad Crowell 23:53 We were just with our friend, and the next day he was like, I think I got glutened yesterday. It must have been that meal that we ate, you know? And I said, you know, I'm I'm also not feeling 100% and then I thought about the restaurant, which is we've eaten at 100 times. And I was like, what did we do differently? And he had the spiciest Margarita I think I've ever tasted, and I was loading on the hot sauce. I was like, You know what, man, I wonder. I mean, look, it's possible that you got glutened but they were, they specifically came out and told us that they made this gluten free. So I'd be surprised. Maybe there was some leftover, something (inadible) but also, like, the two of us ate something that was pretty off the path. I like to eat spicy stuff, but, like, we ate a lot of it.Lesley Logan 24:39 His his his Margarita was almost undrinkable. Lesley Logan 24:42 It was crazy. You diluted it twice.Lesley Logan 24:44 And you know, I like a spicy mar I was like, I I think that was gonna provide a colonic, to be completely honest, anyways. But I just think, like, she gave some really great stuff, like she talked about her own personal experience, like she's got some back pain, and she's like, Oh, I've been sleeping less, I'm breastfeeding, I'm sitting more, and I'm not moving my body. So what can I do to be more conscious about the things that I need to give myself?Brad Crowell 25:06 Yeah, I think, I think, with the, with the the idea that people coming into class and saying, Oh, well, last week, I was in pain afterwards, you know, the what she mentioned, which I thought was really obvious but needed to be heard. She said, you know, if you're in the gym lifting and you like, tweak your back, obviously you're going to say, well, I shouldn't do that again. No, no problem, of course. But that was probably not that was the moment that things were stressed to the point of ouch. But that wasn't the only moment. There are definitely other things leading up to that exact moment of when, when your body is, like, we're done trying to hold it together here, now you're in pain. And she said, so, so there's other movements that you're probably doing in your life that are, it's cumulative, right? It's, it's, it's adding up over time, and then bam, maybe the moment that it happened was in a class when you're probably doing something particular that you wouldn't be normally doing, like doing a headstand, or whatever it might be, you know, being on one leg, you know, the, the, but, that's probably not where it started. Lesley Logan 26:16 I think we could all agree in this moment where we're not in pain, right? I hurt my knee doing a deadlift. When I hired my trainer, I said, Yeah, I've been dead lifting a lot lighter because it doesn't bother my knee. But the actual thing that's bothering my knee is the fact that I had weak inner thighs and hamstrings compared to my quads, and then the way my gait is on that leg, that's why my knee hurt. It just so happened that I felt the pain doing the deadlift. The deadlift is actually not the problem my form and my deadlift is not the problem. It is an in-balance and muscles on that leg. And so what can we be doing to make sure that we're taking, like, consistent care of ourselves, and then when we hear, when we feel pain, really doing some sort of creating, some sort of like, okay, hold on, what's my sleep like, what's my intake like, what's my fuel like, have I been consistent? So if you are someone who, like, doesn't work out for a week, and then goes and works out hard, like, I got to get in it, just so, you know, you're going to be in some pain afterwards because you didn't have consistency going into it. So, you know, just do some reflection before you go, oh, that's a problem.Brad Crowell 27:20 Speak about reflection, which, which is, this is pretty funny for, for if you have people coming in and saying, well, last time I did this, I hurt. Lesley Logan 27:29 Or if you are that person. Brad Crowell 27:30 Yeah or if you are that person, do you wake up and hurt like, should this? Does that mean you shouldn't sleep like? You know what I mean, the logic doesn't apply here. I just heard like. Lesley Logan 27:43 So this has nothing to do with that, but it's just my brain thing. Okay?. So this person goes, like, this, like, thing I saw. This person goes, I need to go on a vacation. And this other person goes, did you just come back from a vacation? And then it's like, you should just say, Did you have lunch yesterday? And they're like, yeah, that does that mean you need lunch today? Right? Like, yeah, like, you're if you're.Brad Crowell 28:06 Like, obviously, you're not gonna say, Well, I guess I shouldn't sleep because, because maybe you just slept on your shoulder, weird, or whatever. And also, too, it doesn't (inaudible) it also doesn't mean that your shoulder is broken or jacked up. It means you stressed it improperly for an extended period of time. Maybe you were sleeping on it weird, right? And how, like, you know, you know how that is, you know how that that feeling is. It could be your ankle or something where it takes a couple of hours for it to work itself out. And what's happening there, which I which I thought was interesting. She talks about how pain. It's a signal from the brain saying something is not 100% correct here. Something is not 100% correct here. Just a reminder. A reminder, a reminder.Lesley Logan 28:50 It's like, when you hit the button and the community goes, er, and you're like, let me hit that again, it goes, er, and you're like, I don't know why I'm expecting something different. Brad Crowell 28:58 Yeah, well, and here's how this, here's how this relates to what I loved. She said. She said, the more we don't use it, we lose it, right? You use it or lose it. You've heard that phrase a million times. But she said the thing that was that frustrates her the most is when she her clients come to her and say, the doctor told me I'm not allowed to do this anymore, right? The thing, whatever the thing is, and this is what related to me because, you know, a couple months, Well, geez, in February of this year, it's now, you know, November, I started to feel pain in my foot, in the top of my foot, it was like this pulling pain. It felt like fascia or nerves. I couldn't decide. I still can't decide. And for a long, long time, I just stopped things. I just stopped doing, you know, like, the pointing of my toe, stopped it. All the stuff that you do in yoga class, stopped it. I was like, I need some time off. Well, I gave up the time off, and it didn't fix it, right? So, then what? Then what it was the next thing we do? Started going to the chiropractor. Chiropractor couldn't figure out what's going on, right there. She's like, Hey, you're you're aligned. What are you talking about, right? So, you know, then I was like, must be these other things. So I'm starting to massage myself. I'm doing all this stuff. And then a couple, like, two months ago, I just decided, You know what, I'm just gonna get warm and I'm gonna keep using my foot. I'm just gonna keep using it. Because, you know, one of the things that she said is especially being pregnant a second time, she leaned into, you know, doing her workouts, when her body was was starting to, like, freak out, but her body was going through a major change, and she said, you know, maybe she modified the exercise, but she always felt better after doing her workout, despite being told, you know, you know, her body, you know, sending a signal. And I think, I think that we have to be careful with this. You know, same for me, I have to actually be careful with this. It's not no pain, no gain, yeah, it's not real. I don't agree with that. It's also, you know, there are, there are moments where your body is is trying to warn you on something, but you need to be able to decide for what that is and and understand, right? Is it like pain to the point of like damage, or are we talking that, that signal of warning, you know, that's like, Oh, you have to be cautious, right? Lesley Logan 31:12 Yeah. Well, it makes it so this morning, I was doing my first Pilates practice on the Reformer in three weeks. And I did not I was like, man, I got my Spine Corrector, and I was like, this not feel awesome. It didn't hurt. It just was like, right? And then I got in the Reformer, and the first overhead kind of was like, but then the second one felt better and the third one felt better. So it's not, it is no no pain, no gain. But is you, if you have a consistent practice of any kind of movement. When you start going, you know, if your body is telling you, this is not a good day or, Oh, hold on, this is opening up. I'm warming up to it. And so when I was doing tendon stretch on the Reformer, normally, I do a single leg tendon stretch. And I did tendon stretch. I did three, and I was like, I in no way feel safe, to lift a leg off. I'm gonna do four more and get off. I got to headstand. I did all the things but the actual headstand, because I have a consistent enough practice in my body, I could tell that I'm going to feel better when it's over, but I'm not pushing myself to do something it shouldn't do. And that just comes with time. It just comes with listening to your body. So, you gotta do that.Brad Crowell 32:20 Yeah, I mean, you know, she said something that I also thought was interesting, that we never, that I never thought about before. She said, clearly, the outside of our bodies change, our faces sag, or we get wrinkles, things, lalala, why would we never, why would we expect that there are no internal changes as well, right? And she was talking about, you know, joint degeneration, and, you know, all those kinds of things which are natural and they happen, you know, discs in your back, compression, all that kind of stuff. But the only way to age gracefully, despite your body deteriorating is strength. Is strong muscles, right? And so we still should be we need to be prioritizing that in our lives now so that we can be moving with ease as we age.Lesley Logan 33:11 Yeah, no, it's so and that's just it, you guys, you will never stop having to sleep enough drink, enough water and strengthen your muscles like that you're, so sorry, guaranteed in life until we no longer get to live on this beautiful planet. So, there you go.Brad Crowell 33:28 Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, stick around. We'll be right back. We're gonna dig into those Be It Action Items that we got from Dr. Jen Fit. Brad Crowell 33:35 All right, welcome back. Let's dig into these Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items. Can we take away from your conversation with Dr. Jen Fraboni? She explicitly advised against relying on passive stretching as a primary solution for pain, even though it can feel good and relaxing, she said it's better to create stability, that is the fundamental requirement for the body to feel safe. So you were talking about the off balance muscles that you had, which is why your lifting was feeling pain, because you were unstable. Your one muscles, your one set of muscles, were stronger than the other set of muscles. She said, when you create stability, it creates a sense of safety. And she recommends focusing on active stretching, isometric holds and strengthening exercises. She highlighted Pilates as a modality that is great at creating stability and teaching the body safety, especially in the initial phases of pain recovery. So yay for Pilates. That's fantastic. What about you? Go ahead, go ahead.Lesley Logan 34:37 I was gonna say, like today, we were in yoga, and my left hamstring just would not open up. And the reality is my left hip just feeling unstable. That's why we're headed to the chiropractor after this. And it's like, I cannot open up this hamstring when my pelvis is out. And so I just really like, that was such a that's such a takeaway for me. I love that Be It Action Item. So be mindful of the passive stretching, my loves. Just be mindful. I love, this is great, t only way that we start to know how to move forward is if we tune in first. So it's really, this is this kind of goes back to, like a Brad BizJack's episode, actually, and that and that, maybe he didn't say it in this episode, but he has said it in something that I've heard of him before, which is, but go listen to that episode anyways, he's like, you would never, you would never just like, go get in the car and drive somewhere without having, like, a destination in mind. Unlike most people, don't check in with how they feel before they like move their body. They just start moving their body like they're not tuning in. So before you set a goal, before you do things, you have to kind of go inward first, so that you know where you're putting your compass, where you're putting your directions, where you're moving forward to. So otherwise you're like, oh, maybe I should do if you don't tune in first, you're gonna be the person who's like, oh, the hot new thing is Jiu Jitsu, and I'm doing Jiu Jitsu, and then that new hot thing is this box thing on a trampoline, like you're not going to actually be able to look at a movement modality and go, oh, that's what my body needs. You'll just be like, going hopping from one thing to the next expecting a quick fix. So I did love that one. And then she really, she advised onto every day to take five deep, long, slow breaths, mouth closed, and focus on taking breath into the sides of your rib cage. OPC members know this. Brad Crowell 36:24 Diaphragmatic breathing. Lesley Logan 36:26 And avoid breathing into your shoulders, neck or chest. Otherwise you're gonna feel stressed. But if you take these deep breaths, you often will see that the pain starts to diminish. I'm Lesley Logan. Brad Crowell 36:35 And I'm Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 36:36 I really hope this was helpful, especially if pain is part of your daily life, it is really hard to be it till you see it in that kind of state. And so hopefully this gave you some tips, gave you some ideas, gave you some permission and share it with a friend who needs to hear it, especially one who's like this topic is like, what they're needing right now. It's, I don't know, there's just so much permission in this episode. Until next time, Be It Till You see it. Brad Crowell 36:55 Bye for now. Lesley Logan 36:57 That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 37:39 It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 37:44 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 37:49 Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 37:56 Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 37:59 Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Lesley Logan 38:11 I don't know if we're doing a second one next year. We're gonna try, but you know, we'll see. Brad Crowell 38:16 You are just making up the URLs here. Lesley Logan 38:19 I'm not. Lesley Logan 38:19 Yeah, crowsnestretreats.com. Just go to crowsnestretreats.com. Lesley Logan 38:23 You gave me the waitlist one. Brad Crowell 38:25 No. Lesley Logan 38:25 Yeah, not on this sheet, but in life.Brad Crowell 38:28 Okay, because of 404. So I'll have the team fix that right now. Lesley Logan 38:31 Fix that, please, because I gave it to somebody else last week on Instagram, because you gave that to me. Okay.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
“If I had been enslaved for a year or two, I might not be able to believe in humanity any more.” “I am a victim of modern slavery.” These chilling words come from a Taiwanese female lured by a fake job offer, only to be sold into a scam compound in Cambodia. She is not alone. She is one of thousands deceived into this industry—people who left home hoping for a better life, only to find themselves trapped in a living nightmare. Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds (Verso Books, 2025) arrives at a critical moment, shedding light on one of the world's fastest-growing criminal economies: Southeast Asia's online scam industry. Running the gamut from the notorious “pig butchering” romance scams to elaborate online extortion and investment frauds, this system has transformed parts of the region into global hubs of cybercrime. Meticulously researched and grounded in years of fieldwork, Scam offers an unflinching look into the prison-like compounds that have mushroomed across multiple countries. Within these walled complexes, victims are often coerced into becoming perpetrators—trapped in what the authors describe as “compound capitalism,” a chilling hybrid of enslavement and exploitation. Scam traces how small-scale online gambling rings evolved into an international “scamdemic,” accelerated by the disruptions of COVID-19. It examines the “victim–offender trap”, a moral and psychological paradox that makes empathy difficult for outsiders. The result is a deeply human investigation into how modern slavery adapts to digital capitalism. The authors uncover the operations of scam compounds across Southeast Asia. In my interview with Ling and Ivan, what stood out was not only their depth of knowledge but their compassion. They used their skills to build trust with victims, gather evidence, and, in some cases, help orchestrate rescues. Their work is both rigorous and profoundly humane, illuminating a crisis that grows more complex each day. Though many of those involved—both perpetrators and victims—are ethnically Chinese, the networks now span continents. The scam compounds are a global phenomenon, built on economic desperation, weak governance, and digital interconnectivity. Scam is more than an exposé. It is a call to action and a vital first step toward understanding a new form of global exploitation—where modern technology and ancient cruelty combine to create a system that enslaves the vulnerable and profits from despair. Ling Li is pursuing a PhD at Ca' Foscari University of Venice with a focus on the role of technology in enabling modern slavery and human trafficking in East and Southeast Asia. In the past few years, she has been providing support to survivors of scam compounds in Southeast Asia, interacting with local and international civil society organisations to bring them relief and help with repatriation. Ivan Franceschini is a lecturer at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. His current research focuses on ethnic Chinese transnational crime, especially in the field of online fraud. He co-founded the Made in China Journal and The People's Map of Global China/ Global China Pulse. His books include Proletarian China (2022), Global China as Method (2022), and Afterlives of Chinese Communism (2019). He also co-directed the documentaries Dreamwork China (2011) and Boramey (2021). Mark Bo is a researcher who has been based in East and Southeast Asia for 2 decades. He has worked globally with local civil society partners to monitor and advocate for improved environmental and social practices in development projects and utilises his background in corporate and financial mapping to investigate stakeholders involved in Asia's online gambling, fraud, and money laundering industries. Bing Wang receives her PhD at the University of Leeds in 2020. Her research interests include the exploration of overseas Chinese cultural identity and critical heritage studies. She is also a freelance translator. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Lya Badgley, author of the book The Thirty-Fifth Page. Lya Badgley was born in Yangon, Myanmar, to Montana parents—a political scientist and an artist—who sparked her lifelong love of creativity and critical thought. After moving to the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s, she became part of Seattle's arts and music scene. In the 1990s, she returned to Southeast Asia as a videographer documenting interviews with Burmese insurgents, then went on to lead Cornell University's Archival Project at Cambodia's Tuol Sleng Museum, preserving evidence used to prosecute war crimes. She later opened the 50th Street Bar & Grill in Yangon—one of the first foreign-owned businesses of its kind at the time. Lya writes internationally set fiction that blends suspense with cultural nuance, exploring women's journeys through landscapes shaped by historical legacy, grief, and transformation. Her debut novel, The Foreigner's Confession (2022), set in Cambodia, was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Award for Best Fiction. Her second, The Worth of a Ruby (2023), set in Myanmar, was also honored as a finalist for multiple international awards. She now lives outside Seattle, Washington in the United States, and is excited to release her third novel, The Thirty-Fifth Page—a gothic-tinged literary suspense set in Bosnia. In my book review, I stated The Thirty Fifth Page is a literary suspense laden with magical realism and a dash of historical fiction. Miri is a researcher whose specialty is medieval manuscripts. She flies to Bosnia to study the Sarajevo Haggadah, an illustrated Jewish text of the Passover Seder housed at the National Museum. Unfortunately, Sarajevo is on the brink of war, so Miri has to work quickly. As she works, she believes the Haggadah has strange powers. Before she can figure it out, war breaks out, and the Haggadah is lost. But when it finally returns to its place of honor at the museum, it has a new page. And she is called back to find out why. This thirty-fifth page merges history and folklore, putting Miri and those she cares deeply about into the middle of an ancient curse. I loved going on this adventure with Miri as she tries to figure out who she is and what she wants in the world. I also loved seeing how the past directly affects our present and future - and how we pass that on from generation to generation. You are definitely going to love this new novel by Lya Badgley! Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1 Join the Novels N Latte Book Club community to discuss this and other books with like-minded readers: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3576519880426290 You can follow Author Lya Badgley Website: https://lyabadgley.com/ FB: @lyabadgleyauthor IG: @lyabadgleyauthor Purchase The Thirty-Fifth Page on Amazon: Paperback: https://amzn.to/3JBzcpP Ebook: https://amzn.to/4q5ai1W Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1 Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors #lyabadgley #thethirtyfifthpage #suspense #historicalfiction #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
“If I had been enslaved for a year or two, I might not be able to believe in humanity any more.” “I am a victim of modern slavery.” These chilling words come from a Taiwanese female lured by a fake job offer, only to be sold into a scam compound in Cambodia. She is not alone. She is one of thousands deceived into this industry—people who left home hoping for a better life, only to find themselves trapped in a living nightmare. Scam: Inside Southeast Asia's Cybercrime Compounds (Verso Books, 2025) arrives at a critical moment, shedding light on one of the world's fastest-growing criminal economies: Southeast Asia's online scam industry. Running the gamut from the notorious “pig butchering” romance scams to elaborate online extortion and investment frauds, this system has transformed parts of the region into global hubs of cybercrime. Meticulously researched and grounded in years of fieldwork, Scam offers an unflinching look into the prison-like compounds that have mushroomed across multiple countries. Within these walled complexes, victims are often coerced into becoming perpetrators—trapped in what the authors describe as “compound capitalism,” a chilling hybrid of enslavement and exploitation. Scam traces how small-scale online gambling rings evolved into an international “scamdemic,” accelerated by the disruptions of COVID-19. It examines the “victim–offender trap”, a moral and psychological paradox that makes empathy difficult for outsiders. The result is a deeply human investigation into how modern slavery adapts to digital capitalism. The authors uncover the operations of scam compounds across Southeast Asia. In my interview with Ling and Ivan, what stood out was not only their depth of knowledge but their compassion. They used their skills to build trust with victims, gather evidence, and, in some cases, help orchestrate rescues. Their work is both rigorous and profoundly humane, illuminating a crisis that grows more complex each day. Though many of those involved—both perpetrators and victims—are ethnically Chinese, the networks now span continents. The scam compounds are a global phenomenon, built on economic desperation, weak governance, and digital interconnectivity. Scam is more than an exposé. It is a call to action and a vital first step toward understanding a new form of global exploitation—where modern technology and ancient cruelty combine to create a system that enslaves the vulnerable and profits from despair. Ling Li is pursuing a PhD at Ca' Foscari University of Venice with a focus on the role of technology in enabling modern slavery and human trafficking in East and Southeast Asia. In the past few years, she has been providing support to survivors of scam compounds in Southeast Asia, interacting with local and international civil society organisations to bring them relief and help with repatriation. Ivan Franceschini is a lecturer at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. His current research focuses on ethnic Chinese transnational crime, especially in the field of online fraud. He co-founded the Made in China Journal and The People's Map of Global China/ Global China Pulse. His books include Proletarian China (2022), Global China as Method (2022), and Afterlives of Chinese Communism (2019). He also co-directed the documentaries Dreamwork China (2011) and Boramey (2021). Mark Bo is a researcher who has been based in East and Southeast Asia for 2 decades. He has worked globally with local civil society partners to monitor and advocate for improved environmental and social practices in development projects and utilises his background in corporate and financial mapping to investigate stakeholders involved in Asia's online gambling, fraud, and money laundering industries. Bing Wang receives her PhD at the University of Leeds in 2020. Her research interests include the exploration of overseas Chinese cultural identity and critical heritage studies. She is also a freelance translator. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies
Did you know there were mega cities in history that were way ahead of their time? Take Mohenjo-Daro in ancient India—it had an advanced drainage system and grid-like streets 4,500 years ago! Or the Mayan city of Tikal, with its towering pyramids and complex water management systems hidden deep in the jungle. Angkor in Cambodia was another mind-blower—it was the largest pre-industrial city, with an incredible network of canals and reservoirs. These places were bustling hubs of innovation, culture, and trade, long before modern cities were a thing. It's amazing to think how advanced they were, only for many to vanish under the sands of time! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week is an encore repeat from 2021, with Scott Neeson, former Hollywood exec who left it all to help starving children in Cambodia. Truly inspiring.Mentioned in this episode:Check out the Smart Travel PodcastThis week's show is supported by the new Smart Travel Podcast. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Check out Smart Travel at the Link below:Smart Travel Podcast
The wonderful British actress Rosamund Pike joins Tanya Rose to share her travel secrets today. In this episode, Rosamund unpacks her transformative experience watching the sunrise in Cambodia, her exclusive tour of the Boeing Factory and tells the story of how she once got trapped in Vietnam! Plus, Rosamund discusses her awe-inspiring experience in Jordan and shares tales from the many road trips she's been on in her beloved Citroën DS. Rosamund's new film NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON'T is out now in cinemas. Rosamund's incredible performance in the National Theatre's Inter Alia is available to watch in cinemas via NT Live, you can find a screening near you at NTLive.com. Inter Alia is transferring to Wyndam's Theatre in the West End in March 2026! Don't forget to follow @travelsecretsthepodcast and remember, you can watch all of our episodes on YouTube. Places mentioned: Los Angeles, United States The Four Seasons, Los Angeles Tuscany, Italy Petra, Jordan Dead Sea, Jordan Hanoi, Vietnam Boeing Everett Factory, Washington, United States Croatia Prague, Czechia France Hotel Bellevue des Alpes, Switzerland Mount Eiger, Switzerland Kleine Scheidegg, Switzerland Siem Reap, Cambodia China Hisa Franko, Slovenia El Bulli, Spain Santa Fe, New Mexico Louvre, Abu Dhabi Museum of the Future, Dubai Chapters 00:00 Intro 05:30 Secret 1: Number 1 travel destination everybody should go to 08:33 Secret 2: Most unexpected travel experience 19:32 Secret 3: Most Over or Underrated travel experience 28:30 Secret 4: Best Food & Drink while travelling 33:05 Secret 5: Number 1 travel tip 38:09 Secret 6: Poignant memory from a trip 46:13 Secret 7: Special travel photograph 47:50 Outro
Today we'll be talking about a continuation of the war of words between Thailand and Cambodia at the UN, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra being ordered to bay billions in back taxes, and a little later we'll look into a cross-dressing robbery and naked motorbike antics.
Donate (no account necessary) | Subscribe (account required) Join Bryan Dean Wright, former CIA Operations Officer, as he dives into today's top stories shaping America and the world. In this Monday Headline Brief of The Wright Report, Bryan covers the White House's growing anxiety over the economy, the nationwide crackdown on illegal migrant truck drivers, new DHS surges into sanctuary cities, the rise of openly socialist leadership on the West Coast, and escalating tensions with China in the Pacific. White House Softens Tariffs as Prices Rise: President Trump acknowledged that tariffs may be affecting consumers and announced lower rates on coffee, beef, bananas, and other staples. Prices have soared due to weather, crop disease, and global demand rather than tariffs alone. Bryan explains that the cuts signal the administration's concern that working families are still struggling and that midterm voters may blame the GOP if the economy does not improve soon. Families Fear the Cost of Children: A new American Family Survey found that seventy percent of Americans believe raising kids has become too expensive. Bryan warns that this trend threatens the nation's future and highlights the connection between economic strain and family planning decisions. Crackdown on Unsafe Migrant Truck Drivers: The White House pressured California to revoke seventeen thousand driver's licenses issued to migrants who often cannot read English or safely operate heavy trucks. Some judges in Washington blocked the rule on procedural grounds, creating legal limbo. Bryan notes that until courts rule, untrained foreign drivers will remain on American highways. DHS Surge Operations Expand: Federal officers have flooded Charlotte, North Carolina, where one in five residents is foreign born. The move mirrors earlier crackdowns in Chicago, Portland, Los Angeles, and Washington, where crime dropped after DHS deployments. Bryan says New Orleans is next. Catholic Bishops Clash with the White House: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops accused the administration of racism and fearmongering. Border czar Tom Homan responded that securing the border saves lives and that the Church should focus on its own scandals. Socialists Rise in Seattle and Los Angeles: Seattle elected an openly socialist mayor who supports abolishing the police under a communist economic system. In Los Angeles, another socialist candidate is challenging Mayor Karen Bass. Bryan connects these victories to a wider ideological battle inside the Democratic Party, where figures like Obama and Clinton now embrace democratic socialism while voices like Bill Maher warn against it. Democrats Plan Supreme Court Expansion: Longtime strategist James Carville confirmed that the party intends to expand the Supreme Court to thirteen justices once Democrats regain the presidency and Congress. He expects the party to remove the filibuster for that purpose, declaring the fight against Trump a national emergency. GOP Infighting Grows: Trump attacked Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie over comments about Epstein files and personal issues. Bryan urges conservatives to stop the internal battles as socialist movements gain ground nationwide. China Leverages Rare Earths and Military Power: Beijing is delaying rare earth shipments and failed to buy U.S. soybeans despite promises. A shortage of yttrium is emerging, although a U.S. company in Indiana will begin refining it next month. Meanwhile, China sent Coast Guard ships into Japanese waters and unveiled a new aircraft carrier, signaling rising tensions in the Pacific. Trump's Narco-Terror Operation Continues: Another drug boat was destroyed in the Pacific under Operation Southern Spear. Critics in the U.K. claim the strikes violate international law, though the White House says cartels qualify as narco-terrorists and legitimate targets. Britain's Leader Shifts Right on Immigration: Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced sweeping new restrictions, ending cash allowances for asylum seekers, requiring work, and imposing twenty-year waits for permanent residency. Bryan notes the political pressure building across Europe as voters demand tougher borders. Saudi Crown Prince to Visit Washington: The White House may sell F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, though U.S. intelligence fears technology theft and regional imbalance with Israel. Economic deals may also emerge as Riyadh seeks to follow through on earlier promises. Good News from Southeast Asia: Trump brokered a fresh ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia after border clashes. Cambodia is moving closer to the United States, granting new access to a key naval base and pushing out Chinese crime networks. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John 8:32 Keywords: Trump tariff cuts grocery prices, American Family Survey cost of children, migrant truck drivers CDL revocation, DHS Charlotte surge, Tom Homan Catholic bishops border, Seattle socialist mayor police abolition, Los Angeles socialist candidate Rae Huang, James Carville Supreme Court expansion, GOP infighting Epstein files, China rare earth yttrium shortage, Senkaku Islands China Coast Guard, Operation Southern Spear drug boats, UK asylum overhaul Starmer, Saudi Arabia F-35 visit, Cambodia Thailand ceasefire
Episode #432: Myanmar researcher Lin Jin Fu investigates the rise of scam compounds that blend human trafficking, digital fraud, and organized crime. His study, Scam haven: Responding to surging cyber crime and human trafficking in Myanmar, traces their expansion from Chinese “scam houses” into a transnational industry stretching across Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos. Originally rooted in China's underground economies, these groups migrated outward as Beijing cracked down and the pandemic restricted domestic activity. They flourished in lawless borderlands such as the Golden Triangle and northern Shan State, where weak governance allowed them to create fortified compounds that combine physical captivity with online deception. Scam centers now anchor wider illicit economies— drugs, gambling, black-market banking, and prostitution— worth at least $37 billion a year. In 2023, the Three Brotherhood Alliance, with apparent Chinese backing, attacked major compounds in Laukkai during Operation 1027, rescuing trafficked Chinese nationals and handing over several ringleaders who were later sentenced to death. At the same time, Beijing launched a domestic campaign, flooding WeChat and Weibo daily with anti-fraud messages. Yet the system persists. Frightened operators briefly suspended work elsewhere, then reopened on the condition that they avoid targeting Chinese citizens. Every compound, Lin Jin Fu explains, survives by securing protection from an armed host—usually the junta or allied Border Guard Forces— while some ethnic armies tolerate or tax them. These networks adapt easily. Big bosses flee by helicopter; smaller scams need only laptops, generators, and internet. The old “pig-butchering” crypto fraud now employees sophisticated AItools, and online-gambling scams targeting countries across South America dominate Tachileik. Sadly, for many impoverished young Burmese, scam centers are the only escape from conscription and joblessness. Meanwhile, inside the compounds, workers endure coercion, sexual abuse, and debt bondage. Surrounding towns boom briefly, then collapse into ghost cities once crackdowns hit. Lin Jin Fu warns that for scam centers to fully cease operations across Myanmar, the military junta has to go. Beyond that, he emphasizes that absent legal migration routes and alternative employment, the industry will continue to endure. “For drugs, people had an alternative— grow coffee instead of poppy,” he says. “For scams, what is the alternative?”
Become a Client: https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply/ Get our free Weekly Rundown newsletter and be the first to hear about breaking news and offers: https://nomadcapitalist.com/email Join us for the next Nomad Capitalist Live event: https://nomadcapitalist.com/live/ Southeast Asia has quietly become one of the most flexible regions in the world for entreprenurs and investors. Mr Henderson reveals how this part of the world offers unique residence strategies, combining tax advantages, long-term flexibility, and smart entry points for those building an international lifestyle. From Singapore and Malaysia to the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Cambodia, discover how to position yourself with the right residence permits before the rules change! Nomad Capitalist helps clients "go where you're treated best." We are the world's most sought-after firm for offshore tax planning, dual citizenship, international diversification, and asset protection. We use legal and ethical strategies and work exclusively with seven- and eight-figure entrepreneurs and investors. We create and execute holistic, multi-jurisdictional Plans that help clients keep more of their wealth, increase their personal freedom, and protect their families and wealth against threats in their home country. No other firm offers clients access to more potential options to relocate to, bank in, or become a citizen of. Because we do not focus only on one or a handful of countries, we can offer unbiased advice where others can't. Become Our Client: https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply/ Our Website: http://www.nomadcapitalist.com/ About Our Company: https://nomadcapitalist.com/about/ Buy Mr. Henderson's Book: https://nomadcapitalist.com/book/ Disclaimer: Neither Nomad Capitalist LTD nor its affiliates are licensed legal, financial, or tax advisors. All content published on YouTube and other platforms is intended solely for general informational and educational purposes and should not be construed as legal, tax, or financial advice. Nomad Capitalist does not offer or sell legal, financial, or tax advisory services.
What if the dream trip starts feeling like a job? We sit down with traveler and author Melissa Rodway to unpack the real highs and lows of a life built on movement—starting with a wild childhood year in Western Australia, a no-guidebook leap through Europe in the 90s, and the pre-smartphone hacks that kept her safe and curious in Costa Rica.The story turns when she quits an advertising job and heads to Southeast Asia for months of motion—Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China—where gritty bus rides collide with occasional five-star stays. Melissa shares how travel fatigue sneaks in, why purpose is the antidote, and the moment a seasoned traveler taught her the hardest lesson of the road: know when to go home. Those long rides turned into pages, and pages into The People You Meet, a witty, honest travel book about culture, food, and the human dramas that follow you across borders.Then we switch gears to a slower kind of adventure: five winter weeks in Quebec City during her year off. Daily cross-country laps on the Plains of Abraham, ice skating under big skies, a Nordic spa two minutes from home, and the electric roar of Carnival with its ice canoe races on the St. Lawrence. We dig into the ice hotel, maple syrup snow taffy, tourtière, French schools for all levels, and why Quebec is built for outdoor lovers in every season—plus practical tips on walkability, ferries to Lévis, nearby trails, and affordable stays that make lingering easy.If you're craving travel that's deeper, steadier, and more you, this conversation is your map.Map of Quebec CityYou can find Melissa:On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fly_travel_media/Her website at: https://flyrodway.comMelissa's book: The People You Meet BookSupport the showPlease download, like, subscribe, share a review, and follow us on your favorite podcasts app and connect with us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wherenextpodcast/View all listening options: https://wherenextpodcast.buzzsprout.com/HostsCarol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.lifeKristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/ If you can, please support the show or you can buy us a coffee.
In this episode I'm going to be diving into a topic of interest to everyone in the nuclear energy field. It is a scandalous expose on the history of the dreaded ALARA principle regarding radiation exposure regulations (As Low As Reasonably Achievable), based on the idea that no amount of radiation is safe. What is the scientific basis behind this idea and is it supported by the evidence, or has there been a massive multi-decadal conspiracy? My guest today has published a book that suggests the ALARA principle is a regulatory roadblock paid for by big oil, and implicitly supported by scientific review panels that may have been more intent on shutting down open air nuclear weapons testing than following the evidence. Returning guest and friend of The Rational View, author Mike Conley has lived in Japan, Hawaii, and all over the US and has backpacked through Thailand and Cambodia. As a lifelong science nerd, Mike became interested in nuclear power in 2010, and quickly saw that the field was in dire need of writers who could explain the technology to the average reader. So he joined the Thorium Energy Alliance, met dozens of scientists and engineers, and made them an offer: “You explain it to me and I'll explain it to the world.” The first published book from this years-long effort was Earth is a Nuclear Planet. Its short companion book The LNT Report is now available. The LNT report is based on detailed investigations by Dr. Edward Calabrese into scientific misconduct underlying the history of the Linear No-Threshold radiation regulatory regime. This work brings to light a decades-long scientific scandal that helped to derail the nuclear revolution and entrench fossil fuels and climate change over the past 50 years. Support the podcast at Patron.Podbean.com slash TheRationalView
Subscribe now to skip the ads and get all of our content! Danny and Derek are vigorously programmed to bring you the news headlines. This week: the Thai-Cambodia ceasefire breaks down as border fire and incidents escalate (0:30); in Gaza, Trump's framework stalls while governments debate the shape and purpose of an international security force (4:27); Syria's President Ahmed al-Shara visits the White House (13:49); Iraq's elections conclude with Prime Minister Sudani claiming victory despite an uncertain coalition (17:37); suicide attacks in Pakistan raise tensions with Afghanistan (20:11) while a constitutional amendment increases military rule (23:00); in Sudan, new reports suggest the RSF is burning bodies and digging mass graves to obscure its actions in al-Fashir (25:30); Russia advances in Ukraine with movement around Kupyansk, Pokrovsk, and Zaporizhia (28:02); Nathaniel Powell returns to the show, this time to delve into the unrest continuing in Cameroon after Paul Biya's contested reelection (29:56); and the U.S. moves the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier into the Caribbean as international criticism grows over strikes on alleged “drug boats” (50:42). Don't forget to join our Discord. Subscribers get access to all channels!
Growing up in Stockton's Khmer refugee community, Nite Yun knew some about her family's history and heritage, but it was only after she visited Cambodia for the first time at age 24 that she connected deeply with her roots. Returning to the Bay Area, she opened the acclaimed Nyum Bai restaurant in Fruitvale, after being nurtured by the culinary incubator La Cocina. Now, she is the chef and owner of Lunette in the Ferry Building, and author of a new cookbook with recipes and reflections on her childhood and cooking in the Bay Area. Guests: Nite Yun, chef and owner, Lunette, a Cambodian restaurant in the Ferry Building. Yun is the author of the cookbook, "My Cambodia: A Khmer Cookbook." Leticia Landa, executive director, La Cocina Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Subscribe now to skip the ads and get all of our content!Danny and Derek are vigorously programmed to bring you the news headlines. This week: the Thai-Cambodia ceasefire breaks down as border fire and incidents escalate (0:30); in Gaza, Trump's framework stalls while governments debate the shape and purpose of an international security force (4:27); Syria's President Ahmed al-Shara visits the White House (13:49); Iraq's elections conclude with Prime Minister Sudani claiming victory despite an uncertain coalition (17:37); suicide attacks in Pakistan raise tensions with Afghanistan (20:11) while a constitutional amendment increases military rule (23:00); in Sudan, new reports suggest the RSF is burning bodies and digging mass graves to obscure its actions in al-Fashir (25:30); Russia advances in Ukraine with movement around Kupyansk, Pokrovsk, and Zaporizhia (28:02); Nathaniel Powell returns to the show, this time to delve into the unrest continuing in Cameroon after Paul Biya's contested reelection (29:56); and the U.S. moves the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier into the Caribbean as international criticism grows over strikes on alleged “drug boats” (50:42).Our Sponsors:* Check out Avocado Green Mattress: https://avocadogreenmattress.com* Check out BetterHelp: https://betterhelp.com/THENATIONAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Become a Client: https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply/ Get our free Weekly Rundown newsletter and be the first to hear about breaking news and offers: https://nomadcapitalist.com/email Join us for the next Nomad Capitalist Live event: https://nomadcapitalist.com/live/ Mr Henderson has just picked up his brand-new Cambodian passport, officially becoming a Cambodian citizen! In this new episode, he shares why he chose Cambodia, how the process works, and the two paths available to obtain Southeast Asia's only investment passport. Nomad Capitalist helps clients "go where you're treated best." We are the world's most sought-after firm for offshore tax planning, dual citizenship, international diversification, and asset protection. We use legal and ethical strategies and work exclusively with seven- and eight-figure entrepreneurs and investors. We create and execute holistic, multi-jurisdictional Plans that help clients keep more of their wealth, increase their personal freedom, and protect their families and wealth against threats in their home country. No other firm offers clients access to more potential options to relocate to, bank in, or become a citizen of. Because we do not focus only on one or a handful of countries, we can offer unbiased advice where others can't. Become Our Client: https://nomadcapitalist.com/apply/ Our Website: http://www.nomadcapitalist.com/ About Our Company: https://nomadcapitalist.com/about/ Buy Mr. Henderson's Book: https://nomadcapitalist.com/book/ Disclaimer: Neither Nomad Capitalist LTD nor its affiliates are licensed legal, financial, or tax advisors. All content published on YouTube and other platforms is intended solely for general informational and educational purposes and should not be construed as legal, tax, or financial advice. Nomad Capitalist does not offer or sell legal, financial, or tax advisory services.
Cambodia just made a stunning move—storing their gold reserves in China instead of the U.S. or U.K. Why does this matter? Because it's a massive step in the global shift away from the dollar and toward a gold-based monetary system. Taylor Kenney breaks down what this means for YOUR wealth, the Fed, and why gold is just getting started. Webinar Registration: https://my.demio.com/ref/0XfytWycpDis0bZg?utm_source=yt
In this episode my guest Diana Mao Kelly, co-founder and president of Nomi Network, shares her journey from a corporate career to founding an organization dedicated to helping survivors of human trafficking. She discusses her pivotal experiences in Cambodia, the challenges and successes of Nomi Network, and the impact of their work on thousands of women. Diana also reflects on personal growth, leadership, and the importance of community involvement in combating human trafficking. Episode Minutes: Minute 3:Pivotal Experience in Cambodia Minute 9: Founding Nomi Network Minute 15: Impact and Success Stories Minute 21: Leadership and Personal Growth To find out more about my work, please visit www.danawilliamsco.com LinkedIn Instagram My Book - The Internal Revolution: Lead Authentically and Build Your Personal Brand from Within Email: hello@danawilliamsco.com The Strengths Journal™ is the only Gallup-certified, purpose-driven daily planner that helps you actively use your strengths to plan your days. Get Your copy here
With less than 50 days remaining of 2025, South East Asia is barrelling towards the end-of-year holiday travel season. And there's plenty of news to talk about. This week, Gary and Hannah zoom through the region's top travel happenings, with stopovers in Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Cambodia and Laos, plus China and Bahrain. We begin with downbeat news about the Thailand-Cambodia peace process, and the detrimental impact this is having on Cambodia's visitor economy (remember in 2024, Cambodia was the first country in ASEAN to claim it had surpassed its 2019 visitor level). In a packed show, we also deconstruct COMAC's acquisition of a 49% stake in Lao Airlines and AirAsia's plans to establish a Middle East base in Bahrain. Plus, we look in depth at Singapore's new Sustainable Aviation Fuel Levy, which will charge differentiated rates to air travellers to fund the scaling up of SAF for flights to/from Changi Airport - and how other ASEAN countries might respond. Staying in Singapore, we ponder its newly announced SGD1 billion wellness attraction by the bay, while a social media storm greeted plans to beautify downtown Kuala Lumpur. We finish with an insider summary from Gary of Phocuswright's new 2025 South East Asia Travel Market Essentials report.
Greg and Andreyka are joined by Susannah Patton to discuss the Southeast Asia Program's upcoming Global Alignment Index report. Japhet and Rocio cover the latest from the region, from updates on U.S.-Cambodia ties to the Philippines assuming the ASEAN chairmanship.
Cambodia could be on the brink of an energy breakthrough.Angkor Resources (TSXV: ANK | OTCQB: ANKOF) is advancing a project that has the potential to be a true country maker. The onshore Block VIII venture could mark Cambodia's first-ever domestic oil and gas discovery, opening doors for new industries, job creation, and long-term economic growth.In this interview, CEO Delayne Weeks shares how this milestone could reshape the nation's energy landscape and why Block VIII remains Angkor Resources' top priority as the company moves toward drilling in late 2026.Learn more about Angkor Resources: https://angkorresources.com/Watch the full YouTube interview here: https://youtu.be/IqJtVpqjCgYAnd follow us to stay updated: https://www.youtube.com/@GlobalOneMedia
A report suggests that a de facto partition of Gaza is increasingly likely, Thailand suspends a Trump administration-brokered Cambodia peace deal, Hannibal Gaddafi is released on a $900,000 bail, China is reportedly targeting the U.S. military with rare Earth export curbs, A new “TRUMP” party launches in Belgium, Senator Elizabeth Warren seeks a probe of U.S. agencies' partisan shutdown messages, SoftBank sells its entire Nvidia stake for $5.8 billion, The International Olympic Committee considers a blanket ban on trans women in the Olympics, Canada loses its measles-free status after 27 Years, and a study claims that speaking multiple languages is associated with slower aging.
In this illuminating conversation of Be It Till You See It, aesthetic nurse and biohacker Rachel Varga joins Lesley Logan to discuss how to achieve lasting radiance by aligning health, mindset, and beauty. She shares how lowering inflammation, managing stress, and purifying your environment can help you look and feel your best—proving that confidence and feeling at peace are the real anti-aging secrets.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:How Rachel's nursing career evolved into a holistic approach to beauty and biohacking.The science behind lowering inflammation to boost vitality and radiance.Why redefining vanity as self-respect empowers confidence and self-care.Everyday habits that support graceful aging through stress management and sleep.How cultivating peace and integrity supports inner and outer radiance.Episode References/Links:The School of Radiance Website - theschoolofradiance.comPromo Code: LesleyLogan15 for 15% off one-on-one sessions, tutorial, and membershipSchool of Radiance Podcast - https://www.theschoolofradiance.com/podcastsInstagram: @RachelVargaOfficial - https://www.instagram.com/rachelvargaofficialGuest Bio:Rachel Varga, BSN, RN, CANS, is a Double Board Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist. Since 2011, Rachel has been offering medical aesthetic rejuvenation in the specialty of Oculoplastics and is known for providing a natural and healthy-looking transformation and educating through her show "The School of Radiance" podcast. She has performed over 20,000 rejuvenation procedures and is also a trainer for other practitioners on rejuvenation procedures including medical grade skin care, laser skin rejuvenation, injectables including neuromodulators and dermal fillers, and slowing aging in general. Rachel is passionate about delivering the highest standard of care, with a focus on what the patient's specific rejuvenation goals are, and a tailored approach to suit their needs, values, and lifestyle. She has published multiple research articles on rejuvenation protocols for the eyelids, jawline, and overall skin health transformation. Rachel is known for her gentle touch, natural-looking results, and making her patients feel comfortable, and at ease with her caring bedside manner that originated in pediatric nursing before beginning her career in medical aesthetics in 2011. She will guide you in creating your customized rejuvenation plan and skincare routine to achieve your goals through one-on-one sessions, expert 7-week seasonal skincare tutorials, and year-long membership for the deeper layers of being beautifully radiant at TheSchoolofRadiance.com. Rachel Varga is one of the first to blend Western approaches to skin care and rejuvenation, functional insights, and biohacking optimization strategies. By blending the best of these worlds and observing what her most radiant patients are doing she will also help guide you on your path to healthy skin and vibrancy for many years… If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! DEALS! DEALS! DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Rachel Varga 0:00 I take this approach of longer lasting beauty through biohacking, because when we reduce inflammation and toxins on all fronts, we then set our body up for success, for being our most radiant versions. And the more radiant we are, the more high vibe we are, the more we can get what we desire out of life, in both our personal and professional lives, and be great people, because our bodies are operating properly.Lesley Logan 0:32 Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 1:11 Hi, Be It babe. Okay, this is gonna be a really fun conversation. I wanted to have this conversation for a while, and it's really like, I'm intrigued by all this, right? I want to, I want to actually look and feel good for as long as possible, but not in like, a crazy, like, change how I look dramatic way, but like, as in a no, this is like, I want to look like me. And so when I met our guest today, because I was on her amazing podcast, Rachel Varga, she's the host of the School of Radiance, and I was like, oh, I vibe with this person. I really like what they're saying. It's intelligent. It's from a place of research and science and methodologies, and she is so knowledgeable about biohacking and things we can do when it comes to med spas and what we're doing with to support ourselves and how we feel and how we look, and then we go on a wide range of topics. We don't hit everything I want to talk about, so I'm going to have to do this again. But I really think you're going to, one, learn a ton and have a lot of permission get granted, because maybe it's not something you have to do to you, maybe it's something you would get to do around you, or maybe it's about changing something in your environment, right? So now I'm going to let Rachel Varga give you all of her amazing wisdom. Lesley Logan 2:26 All right, Be It babe, this conversation is one I've been really wanting to have, but it had to be with a special person, and so I've been waiting the 500 plus episodes to find the person who we can have a conversation about radiance and how we how our how we can age the way we want to, and look good doing it without feeling like we're being vain or going too far. And so Rachel Varga is our guest today. Rachel, can you tell, can you tell everyone who you are and what you rock at? Rachel Varga 2:51 Yes, Lesley, so great to be here, and we had a fantastic interview on my show recently, the School of Radiance podcast. And, so technically, I'm a nurse, and I've been an esthetics nurse since 2011 so I've been in the game for the rejuvenation side of things for a while. Been in that game, published research papers. You can look my name up on PubMed, Rachel Varga, you'll see my eye rejuvenation papers, jawline rejuvenation papers. And then I also teach other doctors and nurses internationally how to do rejuvenation from the non surgical side of things that like injectables. And I know we're going to talk a little bit about that, what we can do that's cleaner options, what's actually going to work and give us the results that we desire. And so I love to teach, and I love to talk about what we can actually do at home. So on this podcast, we'll talk about the lifestyle side of things, and kind of delineate what we can do at home and then what's available in the clinic. But I take this approach of longer lasting beauty through biohacking, because when we reduce inflammation and toxins on all fronts, we then set our body up for success, for being our most radiant versions. And the more radiant we are, the more high vibe we are, the more we can get what we desire out of life, in both our personal and professional lives, and be great people, because our bodies are operating properly.Lesley Logan 4:23 I love this because I love that you can they it's almost like a there's a few different prongs. So if you're someone who's like, I don't want to do surgery, I don't want to do the injectables like people start to look like cat ladies at some point. And I'm sure that's not all injectables do that. I'm sure there's a point which one could stop. But the idea that we there's things we could do at home, it sounds why wouldn't you, like, Why? Why wouldn't you want to do something at home? So before we get into that, though, I do want to kind of know, like, did you always want to get into esthetics? Was this something that you could wear, like, interested as a kid? Like, were you doing makeup? Like, how? Like, what was the journey that got you here?Rachel Varga 4:59 Yeah. Okay, well, practically speaking, my mom's an RN, and I saw how hard she worked, but I also saw that it was a great job. It's a great way to be in that nurturing, supportive, healthy role in the family. It's like something happens to the kiddos, like you know what's going on, or your partner or yourself. It's just great knowledge to have from a nursing perspective for yourself and those you love. My father's are carpenter and so I always had this eye for, oh, that bumper is a little not so straight, or that picture is a little canted. So I had this eye for symmetry and proportions from that, and then also the health side of things. But I saw my mother really struggle as a night nurse. And she did night nursing, so shift work, it's just brutal in extended care for her pretty well entire career, she got breast cancer. She was, at one point, weighed 220 pounds. So she was the type of woman, great woman over gave, did the shift work. So I learned early in my career that I didn't want to be that kind of nurse. And did Pediatric Nursing, pediatric ICU care for a couple years. And during that time in my nursing education, I'd had a few rejuvenation procedures myself too, both surgically and non surgically, and to myself, the aftercare information like the pre post care wasn't great, and for me, going through nursing training, I was obviously watching all the vlogs online. There aren't really a lot of professionals actually talking about this stuff, and I think it's kind of interesting, and people want to know how to get the most out of what they're investing in in the clinic, and, of course, at home, and how to recover before and after non surgical or non surgical rejuvenation options. And thought I wanted to be a doctor. So did all the med school prerequisites, chem, Organic Chem, biochem. And while I was doing prerequisites and applying to med school, which I did for one year, I got a job as an esthetics nurse, did my injectable training, started in ocular plastics in 2011 and just loved the field. I loved the pace. The hours were great, and I would get access to anything and everything. Then something happened. I met my good friend Dave Asprey. Actually helped get his face ready for superhuman so when you look at that book cover, that's my work. Oh, what's this biohacking stuff? This is pretty cool. Started to do some of it myself, cold plunging, intermittent fasting, more protein, adding antioxidants, amino acids, all sorts of great stuff that's in the biohacking world, red light therapy. And then I was in two car crashes. I had to really lean into the biohacking and recovery side of things and supplementation so that I wasn't hurting all the time, and so that I would recover faster. And partner has been a pro athlete as well, so very in tune with the athletic recovery side of things too. Then something interesting happened. The better I cared for myself from an inflammation perspective, I didn't need as much rejuvenation. Scars were fading after just a couple of days post breakout, instead of for months, and I'd have to laser that redness away. I didn't need to do neuromodulators every three months, I would actually go anywhere from like, a year to a year and a half in between.Lesley Logan 8:45 For the people who are like, what's a neuromodulator,Rachel Varga 8:49 The brand names that you probably know about are Botox, Xeomin, Dysport, Nuceiva, Jeuveau. There's always new ones growing up. So the technical term for those is neuromodulators. And then I also started to notice, oh, wow, I'm not burning in the sun in 10 minutes anymore. These deoxidants, this reducing inflammation, is actually allowing me to go outside and enjoy my life more. And I as a researcher, put together a paper for the biohacking community a couple years ago. What are some of the biohacks that actually can support slowing aging in sort of like a methodical framework, kind of way, because there's so many bright, shiny objects in the in the biohacking and wellness space, like, what actually should we start with?Lesley Logan 9:42 This is insane. So this journey that you went on, like, first of all, you met the person. Like, yeah, you were like, you just met them. And then you needed what they had. Like, thank goodness you met them, because you put, who knows how long would have taken you to stumble upon biohacking in that way. And then it got you to see how it worked on the things that you already do. I can it's interesting to me because, like, I think some people in your field would be like, what is the need for me if I could just biohack my way to blemish-free skin that can be out in the sun, you know what I mean. But obviously, like, there's, there's kind of a place for everything. You know, there's also like, what works for you and what helps with what you need. And so I love the idea for those at home who are like, well, what are some like, what are like? Maybe they could Google what an antioxidant is. But like, what are some things that they should be thinking about when it comes to inflammation and things that can affect how they look? Because I think sometimes people go, Oh, I'm just older. And we were taught like, Oh, you're 40, so now you're 50. Like, these things happen. But from what I understand in biohacking, you can actually do a whole lot. It's not about the age, it's kind of about what you're eating and what you're doing.Rachel Varga 10:54 Yeah, you could actually test instead of guess what your biological age is. And I do this usually about once a year, and my biological age, last time I tested it was nine years younger than my chronological age. So doing something right. Lesley Logan 11:11 I love that. Rachel Varga 11:14 When I started to speak on the anti aging, the functional, integrative and wellness sides of things, being an aesthetic nurse, like a traditionally trained nurse, and then in the specialty of aesthetic medicine, I was kind of the odd one out, a little bit misunderstood, especially in the rare community that I'm in, people didn't really get it. It's more like a California and Florida kind of thing, where people in there, in those states in particular, really big into anti aging medicine, and so that was a bit tough for me. But you know what, some of us were just pioneers in the space. And Dave is more of a disruptor, and I'm more of like an encourager. If I can do it, you can do it too. Lesley Logan 11:59 Yeah. And I think, like, you know, the I, what a great place where you can go, okay, here are your options. We can do these things, and here's how often you'd have to do them, and we can absolutely do them, or we can do this thing, and then this is how often, or you could also do this at home. And then it would make whatever we're doing here would support that, or it would reduce your need for that, is that what I'm hearing, like, the biohacking, like, really supports what you do?Rachel Varga 12:26 Bingo. So for me to speak on things, because I am a traditionally trained RN, I have to be able to speak on things that are published in the literature. There wasn't really anything, and I knew this worked. I would see it in my before and after photos. See, you know, 70 to 90 year olds looking fantastic, and they barely need anything. They were aging better. So the jawline paper that I wrote, I basically put in that paper an algorithm for rejuvenation, starting with skin care, then getting into maybe at home peels and at home dermarolling, doing some in-clinic lasers for reds, browns and collagen, you know, resurfacing pore size, polishing the skin, and then the non surgical injectables. So say you guys all probably hear the word Botox, so neuromodulators and fillers and then surgery. So to start from a space of least invasive, you know, do some things, see if you're happy with those results, you might not need the surgery, but surgery definitely does have a place, coming from ocular plastic surgery for the eyelids. And so I wrote a paper on that, basically an algorithm do least invasive to most invasive, and then the Oxidative Stress Status and Its Impacts on Skin Aging paper that was more like a framework of what's the lifestyle stuff that we can do to actually clean up and purify our environment by purifying our air, water, lighting, electromagnetics, testing, instead of guessing the foods that we're eating and then getting into detoxing. And when you do all those things, you should actually be able to get better results from your treatments. And if you go on message boards for people that have issues after injectables or lasers, chances are there was a degree of autoimmune conditions running in the background, or their toxic bucket was really full. They had rejuvenation bucket tipped over, and they had a manifestation of some underlying things that were happening. And then also, during the process of writing those papers, I came across some data. This is why it's not a nice to do. It's a need to do, to look after yourself, that autoimmune conditions, or, more precisely, deaths of unknown causes, which I reached back to the source of you know, what does this category actually mean, autoimmune condition or someone passing away before diagnosis, it actually doubled in 2019 compared to the data six years earlier in Canada, this is Canadian information, and then it doubled again in 2021. So autoimmune stuff for skin is like, eczema, psoriasis, those are typically the skin stuff that we see. Lesley Logan 15:25 It's interesting that you brought that up because it is like, I think people are like, there's so many people with autoimmune it's like, well, now that we know what to test for. The thing about tests, that's the thing, when we it was all, there, it has probably been there for a really long time. The doubling in such a short period of time is scary, but also it, you know, if the tests weren't right arranging or the doctors don't know to test for these things. But I love that you brought that. I like how you bring that up. It's like if you had stuff run in the background, if you were already inflamed, and then you do something that can add to that, like, it is just like the needle that broke the haystack. And so then the things get the blame when it's a whole host of things that are going on. And so I think this is really cool. You know it's and I don't want to be ignorant, so I think it's really, to me, what I find interesting is that, like, I would never have associated a biohacker with someone who would also be doing any of these treatments. Like I would, you know what I mean? Like, I think people think you're either nothing goes in your body except for these things, or you're, like, whatever, It's a free rein, I can do whatever I want. And so to find someone who sits in the middle, I actually think it gives people a lot more permission. And I actually one of the things I want to talk with you about is, like, just permission, like, I think a lot of people feel bad or feel embarrassed or feel like they shouldn't talk about that they want to make any changes to how they look, because we do live in a place now where, thankfully, people are more accepting and people have been taught to not hate their bodies like we should love our bodies. In fact, your body is listening to you. So part of biohacking would actually be to not talk about the things you don't like about your body because your body's listening. But how can we think about like is it vain for us to want to want to change things on our face, or to want to look a little younger, to want to look a little fresher? Is that? Is that a bad thing? Like, should we not be wanting to change these things? We just be happy with how we look?Rachel Varga 17:11 I think that there's a similarity here with this concept of imposter syndrome. Everyone who starts to do something new is like, Oh my gosh. I don't know of like, Can I do this? Am I gonna get laughed at? I think it's that's just as common as the shadow side of beauty, which is, is this vain? Am I doing something that's selfish to care for myself? One of the reframes that I love to talk about is self-care, self-love. I get so many sweet downloads when I'm doing my skincare, I'm blow drying my hair, I'm doing my beautification, my makeup, putting on a cute outfit, looking at myself in the mirror, it's like, Oh, wow. I had three hours of sleep last night. How the heck do I look this good? Well, there's some biohacks that I did to hack a bad sleep and why I had a bad sleep, which is hilarious. So we can definitely talk about that. But the vanity component is essentially the shadow side of beauty and radiance at its core. So I love to investigate the psychological, the energetic things behind everything as well, because everything is energy. And we're seeing a shift now, though. In about 2018, a number of my clients started to ask me, Rachel, what can I do for healthier skin I want to improve my skin health. So I really started to notice the shift. And then now fast forward to the year that we are in now, every med spa, well, the ones that are, you know, up with the current times, are doing things like NAD infusions, they're offering weight loss, they're offering hormone support, and all of these different things that we're now seeing a really exciting time in the med spa industry, the functional space, integrative and biohacking space, coming together. It's almost like this bifurcation point a couple years ago, but I did see the writings on the wall back in about 2018 that this was going to happen, and now this is what the most notable med spas in the world are doing, is they're incorporating all these things because people want to go to a one-stop shop and not necessarily just look at rejuvenation as being vain, but a form of self-care. They're doing other things as well that they're investing time and energy in, or they might have a health spending account that makes them feel better, because when you feel better, you look better, and when you look better, you feel better. So what I like to suggest, if someone is really grappling with, okay, money's tight or I feel vain about doing this, feel like that money should go to my kids or whatever. But if something's bothering you for a while, say, for example, lines between the brows, or lines to the forehead, or hooded upper eyelids, lower eye bags, melasma, pigmentation, red acne scars, large pores, acne scarring, losing sharpness to the jaw, lines, jowls, fullness to the neck, the list goes on. But if something is really bothering you and you're looking at yourself in the mirror, be like, I really love to do something about that, because it's the one thing that kind of bugs me. I think that the benefit of knowing that, hey, there are some really great health non surgical, or surgical things that we can do to actually support those things. But my angle is, okay, what's the least toxic thing that we can do to give the best results? What is going to give the most long term benefits? So that's why sometimes surgery, like eyelid surgery, is one of the most common surgeries performed to remove excess eyelid tissue. That's actually probably even going to cost less money than trying to do all these other non surgical things, and you have a longer result. So it just depends on everybody's situation. But the vanity thing is something I think every single person grapples with, if they're completely honest with themselves, and then they do it. They do their rejuvenation, they bump up their at home skincare routine, they purify their environment, like, Oh, I feel better. I'm gonna keep doing this, because it's something I do for myself, kind of like getting your (inaudible) you always feel so much better after you have, you know, fresh highlights or whatever. Lesley Logan 21:36 Yeah, yeah. Well, I think, like, there's a difference between doing something because you think it's going to get you people's reaction from people, and doing something for yourself. You know, I think if you are do making changes to yourself, because for other people, that would be a problem, but if you're doing it for yourself, like you said, you don't like the way your pores are. I have my mom, she has talked about the eyelid surgery, and I saw her recently in person. I was like, Oh, poor thing. I don't know. Can you see? Get like, you know, like, and that's not a vain thing. It's also like a necessity, necessity thing, but also like in being it till you see it, some of these things are taking up so much brain space that they're holding us back from coming out and showing people who we are like, if you're not putting yourself out there because you have a scar or you have you don't like the way something looks, that that does bother me, because it does mean that the world is missing out on what your gift is. You know, there are people that you're the only person who can do what you do, and if you're hiding yourself for whatever reason, then that is a bummer, because those people miss out on it and they end up getting swindled by somebody else. So I, I'm of the place, like, if it's for you and it's going to help you show up as the best version of yourself, like, you know, you really do have to look, look into that. But I also love your approach of, like, what's the least invasive, least toxic, most long lasting. And I think if we, I think if we go with that approach, as opposed to quick fixes, then we all, and that goes for everything, not just even for the things you do with your face.Rachel Varga 23:11 100% Oh, you touched on so many beautiful things. So we're gonna back this, because there's some nuggets here for everybody. What happens when you go into the wild, you know, if you're, if you're anything like me, you're working from home, you're going to the gym, you're going to the grocery store, going to church, you know, some work in social events, but that's kind of what the lifestyle looks like. But when we and sometimes I want speeches, and that's super fun, I get all glammed up when you go out into the wild and you see two kinds of people, you see the one person that I just have my hair and, like, a cute little dancer's button I got my workout outfit on. You would love it. It's, like, very Pilates appropriate. Lesley Logan 23:56 I saw it when you (inaudible) I was like, that's so cute. I need a little shawl for my my one my jumpsuit.Rachel Varga 24:02 Oh and I love my body, and I work hard. I lift weights, work on the flexibility, stability, cardio, strength, all those things. I feel fantastic because it brings me in my body as well. W e're very grounding at the end of the day, when you see that individual that they got a little bit of makeup on, they brush their hair, they don something cute, even if it's a little bun, and they have a smile, and they're bright, and they're connecting. Compared to the other person that's just schlepping it. They got their PJ pants on or their sweat pants, they're not put together at all, and they just look like they legitimately rolled out of bed. It's like, okay, something's going on with that person. Oh, this person's really showing up for themselves. They're, you know, putting effort into their appearance. What that actually communicates when you show the world that you're valuable because you value yourself, that's powerful. And if you're showing the world that you just rolled out of bed, your life's a mess, people aren't actually going to value you in the same way. I know that sounds really brutal, but you will be more valued in your relationships. In the professional space, you'll have better relationships. You'll probably be able to make more money, because there's also research to show that people actually who care for themselves the way that they look, earn higher income. But the cool part here that you touched on for you know, reactions for other people is it for yourself. I've seen that where ladies have come to me and their boyfriends in the waiting room and they say, I want to get my lips done. And their lips are already like fantasy lips, if you know what I mean. And I just say to them, no, that's gonna go. If I do anymore, it's gonna really put your lips out of the ideal ratios that actually creates beautiful lips. So you're not a candidate for this treatment. Obviously, there's some body dysmorphia that can have too. However, when we do rejuvenation in a way that looks natural, feels good for us. You know, the body's just like, yes, I want to do this. But thinking about it for a while, it helps to build confidence. Something very interesting about confidence, actually, is that the more confident we are, the better able we're going to be in showing up and building our community. And community is a deep survival need. We're not meant to go through life on our own. We're not meant to over give. We're meant to be supported and receive from those around us, and obviously have it be reciprocated. But the there's the value component, there's the confidence component, there's the community component as well. So there's a lot of really beautiful things actually, about beauty and what it does to our lives.Lesley Logan 27:00 Yeah, and I do, I find it's like, so I used to work at a studio when I lived in L.A., I'd have to, like, leave the house and obviously, how I run and how I shop at the gym, different things, but anything before 7 a.m. that's what different. But when I would go to my studio, I would get dressed to work, go to work, I would teach the whole thing. When I started working from home, I noticed like, oh, I'm not in front of the camera today, so I would just kind of like, still be in the same clothes I did my walk and my workout in, and I was like, starting to slowly feel down about myself and having to give myself more pep talks. And I was doing my fake eyelashes, and they kept getting bigger and wrong, and I kept giving them feedback. And I was like, I don't really like how this is looking. So then I got rid of the fake eyelashes, and now I'm like, well, now I'm a bald eagle, and now I think I'm over at and and I was like, hold on. I also could learn how to do makeup for my natural lashes, and I could get dressed each day, like, how would if I got dressed each day? And what I realized is, by using the clothes in my closet and getting dressed and having a routine of putting my makeup on and and things like that. All those things actually made me feel better. So that whole little haze that, like cloud that was kind of like following around, kind of like an oppression commercial. I don't know if you havethem in Canada, but we have them here, where they're, like, trying to sell you like this cloud that just like hovers over this girl as she walks around, the cloud's gone. I was like, oh, over time, I slowly became used to not doing these things that felt like a waste of time or like not a big deal who's seeing me, and the more I actually spent time with myself. It's not to go back to the vanity topic, It's not vain. It actually just made it easier for me to show up as myself and put myself out there. Because I wasn't going, Oh God, my hair is a mess. Like, like, I, like, got ready for the day, just like, as if I went out into the world to go to work. And so I would say, like, it's really easy for us to go, oh, the world expects us to look a certain way. And really, I actually think the world is quite obsessed with people who are confidently walking in front of them, people who are confidently walking in a room like it. Actually, I'm always amazed, like the people who are famous or infamous and things like that, like some of them, I would never consider like a natural form of beauty, but people are excited about them because they're so calm they walk in, they have their head held high. And so I think if we just go back to like, what are you doing for yourself to help you show up to be the person you want to be, like, those things can't be wrong.Rachel Varga 29:25 Very well said, the, I love this show so much. I love connecting with you, Lesley, I think you're fantastic. You're hitting the nail on the head of, like, really deep topics around beauty and rejuvenation and not enough people are kind of talking about this stuff, the concept of feeling down and self-talk. Let's break that down for a second. A lot of us say, Oh, my fine lines and wrinkles, or, you know, my elevens, or my acne scars, or from an injury perspective, because a lot of you listening are ahletic and sometimes injuries can happen when you're doing new things and pushing your limits and building your strength and your resilience and your readiness and adaptability and all those good things. So instead of saying my whiplash, I detach from it, and I don't say my I say, oh, you know, I'm experiencing this or, Oh, I have a blemish, but I'm not reinforcing it into my identity, because a lot of people have these things that they reinforce into their identity, and then it's like, stuck in their field, if you will. Now we're gonna go just a little bit woo.Lesley Logan 30:39 Oh, you know, we used to only be a one woo show, and considering where the world is right now, Brad and I have gone two woos. We're woo woo in it.Rachel Varga 30:50 Yeah, very much grounded in the 3d science, I published papers. I just the other day, was teaching 60 doctors in Vancouver. Super fun. I just can't help but notice this group of patients that I observed in my career. This is why I talk about radiance, men and women aged 60 to 90 that had never done any rejuvenation. They would come to see me, either on a video call like this, or in the clinic, and I would look at them and be like, Wow, you look fantastic. Like, yeah, you know a couple of things like, bother me. I'd love to do something about it, but it was just how they carried themselves. So I started to kind of unpack this. What is this? What is this that I'm noticing it's like this inner glow, this inner vibration, and what are the components in their life that are contributing to that, which you can ground to the key determinants of health, which are recognized globally as being important factors to determining how healthy you're probably going to be depending on the environment around you. They had a certain vibe to them. Their skin shown differently. Their voice was different. They were very present. They had a family life, they had a spiritual practice. They had hobbies, they had a community. So I coined this radiance, and then I started to dive into some Ayurvedic texts, and came across the definition of radiance, which I think is one of the best definitions of that word that I've ever come across. It's the electromagnetic projection of all of your body systems. The radiant body is the 10th body, and then we have our body, mind, spirit, energy. There's some other bodies in there, but the radiant body is basically that electromagnetic projection of you and a reflection of how all your operating systems are running into the world. And when you begin to hone and cultivate this radiant energy, it's kind of like you become a queen, and you enter a room and everybody notices you for all the right reasons, you become a magnet. And with that, when you step into that very powerful, radiant, queen, feminine and (inaudible) energy, you also repel vibes of certain people that aren't going to be in your highest it's like you're a magnet, but you're also very attractive.Lesley Logan 33:22 Yeah, just like magnets also repel the other side. Rachel Varga 33:25 Exactly. Yes. So magnetic to the right people, the right situations, the right opportunities, and telling yourself (inaudible) oh, you know, there's great things coming just around the corner that are better than I even imagined. And I say that all the time, and it happens all the time. So this becomes you. You become like this force. And one of the most cool things about this as a woman is you get respected, and you are revered by men, not just idolized for looking a certain way, but actually respected and revered, and this is getting into some of the more powerful layers of beauty and radiance. And what you mentioned with your self talk, you probably felt some guilt and shame, right? And those are the lowest vibrations we can possibly sit in. The highest ones are peace love, joy, then there's pre enlightenment, then there's enlightenment. So peace, love, joy, channel your inner (inaudible) that is actually setting the stage for all of your cells and inner machinery and operating systems and field, the human biofield, is an emerging body of science to shine brighter, to slow aging, to feel better, to look better.Lesley Logan 34:47 I love this, and I really do believe in it, because there was years ago I listened to a podcast where they said your cells are listening to you, and how you talk about yourself is what you produce. So if you, going back to your like, my scars, my this, it's so important that you do, you don't hold on to those things, because the body is listening and like they actually did some scientific studies, multiple ones. One of them was they took these people, they blindfolded them, they set them in a chair. They were in a room where they could hear a fire burning, right? And they could hear this hot and they could hear like this, when you put, like, water goes right, that whole thing. And they're like, okay, we're gonna take this (inaudible) and we're gonna brand you, right? And these people are like, Oh my God, they're telling, they're describing what the branding mark is going to be. All these things. I don't even know how they clear this, because it sounds like trauma and torture and all the things, however they did it. And what they would do is they would like make the sound, and then they touch the person with a pen, a pen, and the person develop the welt in the shape of the description of what the branding was going to be. Right? Like, now, whether it lasts or not, wasn't part of the thing, but like they the body was like, so prepared for what it was told it was going to become. And another doctor was trying to figure out if it was a scraping of the knee or the drain of the knee that actually was healing these knee issues. So of course, he has to take three groups of people, one where nothing happens, one where they scrape and one where they drain, and then compare the three and the people who had nothing they were just put into they were put under anesthesia. They played, they played a video of a knee surgery happening so that they would hear in their subconscious they were sent to do all the same post surgical protocol as everyone else. They had the same results as the people who had had surgery, because they told themselves, I had surgery, my knee is fixed, and their body did these things. And so I became so conscious of like, what are we actually talking to ourselves about? Because before we go into all the things we could do to change our bodies, before we go into the biohacking foods, and then what type of treatments we could do, how you're talking to yourself, is literally free. It's a, it's a, it's a free thing you can change. It costs nothing.Rachel Varga 37:01 when you think of a monk, what are they doing all the time? Lesley Logan 37:03 Oh, we get to see them in Cambodia all the time. They are meditating and they're praying. They give blessings. That's what they're doing, just sitting there meditating.Rachel Varga 37:15 And you said something very profound, giving. Lesley Logan 37:19 Blessings. Rachel Varga 37:23 Who you are, depending on what really your reason is for being here. For mine, it's really to activate and initiate men and women around me to be their best versions. I'm very clear on that. So for me and my presence, that's how I serve. That's how I offer. It's how can we be in this state where we engage with others and we brighten their day, we say something kind to them, the way that we move through life is like an offering and a blessing. We first need to fill our cup first, though, that's very important. One of the things that you can channel next time you're in your Pilates or a heavy lifting situation, I do this all the time at the gym. I actually do breath work because for activity as women, especially if you're around that pre perimenopausal, perimenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal, the body's going through transmissions, and what breaks down collagen and elastin quickly is elevated cortisol, which results in a drop of estrogen. When estrogen falls, collagen, elastin, fall too the more at peace you are, the more in that parasympathetic state you are, the less you're in the sympathetic state with high cortisol, adrenaline, you're going to age slower. You're going to have a slowness of the collagen elastic breakdown. And you could actually just do things to stimulate it, right? Like good skincare, sunscreen on the high real estate areas, mineral only at home, dermarolling, in clinic, lasers to get that collagen back up. Consuming collagen is also great. 10 to 12 grams a day is what's in the literature to actually create those visible skin changes in a month. But what I do when I work out is something hilarious, and I actually did bench press with the bodybuilder gym (inaudible) crew at the gym. I was included. They respect me. They revere me. They see my dedication and hard work. So, you know, I was right there with them get it spotted and encouraged, and here I am elevating their presence as well. But when I work out, and I was actually sharing this with one of the bodybuilders, because they'll do like smelling salts to get them in the sympathetic state, which could be good for the masculine, but for the feminine, we don't want that. We want to keep that cortisol down, what I do, actually, between sets of working out, is go right into parasympathetic breathing. Breathe in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, exhale for four seconds. And you can do this, do like four to five cycles of that. You can drop into that at any point during the day when you get some news of a task that you need to do. I run like 13 businesses. So there's always, you know, these kind of small fires, and I have to figure out, like, who to delegate what I need to do, blah, blah, blah. But there's always something. So no matter what, I just always drop into that. Have those dates, have that honey, so I have that glycogen. Take those adaptogens to support the adrenals. Do the self care. But the biggest thing, I think, for beauty and slowing aging is, what do you think creates peace?Lesley Logan 41:05 What do I think creates peace? In someone's life?Rachel Varga 41:07 Yeah, what do you think creates peace in someone's life? Lesley Logan 41:10 Oh, my gosh. Well, I don't, to be honest, my mind is (inaudible) a few places. One, good sleep, that helps with peace. Two, not taking things personally, that could take, I think that could cover a lot of things. Maybe the whole four agreements would create peace and then self love.Rachel Varga 41:29 That's beautiful. What actually builds our confidence when you make a decision and we're happy with those decisions that we're making, or making them out of integrity. People who make really bad decisions, they have to live with guilt and shame, and they have terrible sleep. They're tossing and turning, and they got night sweats. All sorts of stuff goes on in someone's nervous system when they constantly have that guilt and shame, operating in the background. Ask for forgiveness, but move towards operating in integrity in every single thing that you do, you will have more peace because you're making better decisions. I wouldn't I can't picture a monk acting out of integrity, right? That's like against their code. So to have that, I just think it's gorgeous. Not taking things personally is also great. So you're recognizing that not everybody is taking as good care of you. You might have different values or lifestyles or what's important to you. So not taking things personally and just kind of witnessing that everyone's on their own journey, and just let go, but just have that knowing that the decisions you're making are out of integrity, and self love is such a beautiful component to that as well because you're telling your body when you're doing your skincare in the am and pm, you're washing your face, you're putting great things on that aren't toxic, and you're doing a lot of the personal development stuff as well, to be the best human that you can be, to be the best woman partner that success in your career, and just be a light in the world and think that and bring beauty. Literally, I've done this. I've just had a terrible day, something's going on, and I put on a cute outfit, do my hair and makeup, and I go engage with someone. They're like, Wow, you look so pretty today. It was like, it brightens my day. My beauty brightened their day. And then send and receive. I give them a compliment of something that I see is beautiful in them, too.Lesley Logan 43:35 Yeah, oh my gosh. You know, so many good things. And there was like five, five other things I wanted to get to in today's episodes. We're just gonna have to have you back. We're just gonna have to have you back because I was like, really hoping we could talk about, like, is Gua Sha really working? What are the things I should be doing? So we're just gonna have to do this again, and we're gonna take a brief break and find out how people can find you, follow you, work with you. And you already gave us some good stuff, but some Be It Action Items. Lesley Logan 43:58 All right, Rachel, where do they hang out? Where do you hang out? Where can people like stalk you in the best way, get more information, work with you, talk with you, where can we send them?Rachel Varga 44:08 Absolutely, I hang out on Instagram. I love to engage with those who are you? They say yes to themselves. They know they're worth it, and they're curious about some of the different options I share a ton of very entertaining education, like, I shared some sleep stuff like, why (inaudible) sleeps because I took creatine too late after my workout. But how did I hack that not so great sleep? I took a little bit more in the next day because it fires up your ATP, anyways, funny stuff like that. As a biohacker and also in the med spa space is over @RachelVargaOfficial, that's my Instagram handle. And then the podcast, really great show, the School of Radiance podcast. And then theschoolofradiance.com is my website, where you can book a one-on-one. You can join my seasonal skin tutorials, where I actually show you how to do Gua Sha, do your skincare, your makeup, your dermarolling peels, retinols, what rejuvenation is great to do that time of year, so basic and advanced stuff over six weeks, great. Not a YouTube tutorial. It's way better. Lesley Logan 45:13 I'm already in. I'm like, hold on, I need to. Rachel Varga 45:15 Super fun, super fun, right? And then the membership is more of that high level. How do we actually activate this radiance and stuff so we can enjoy our lives better and make more money in the process? Those are the two key metrics you're gonna get benefits from.Lesley Logan 45:30 Amazing. You guys, we have a promo code for you in the show notes and everything, so make sure that you check that out. I already have an appointment booked because I am really excited. And it's, again, not because of it's like, oh, I'm trying to be vain. I'm trying to be something that the world wants. No, it's so that when I look in the mirror, I feel awesome about myself, and I can show up more and more and do all the things. And so I'm just so grateful that our paths crossed. You have given us a lot of great tips. Ladies, get on the creatine. Okay, it's really amazing. There's tons of research. Oh yeah, muscles also, just like, apparently, tons of work on the Alzheimer space, which I'm very excited about. Thank God I've been doing creatine for years. But bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted steps our listeners can take to be it till they see it. What do you have for us? Rachel Varga 46:16 Yeah, the skincare checklist, actually, over at theschoolofradiance.com when you sign up for my newsletter, I have a free 30 minute biohacking lesson too, and use promo code LesleyLogan15 for 15% off of your one-on-one here with m. Creatine, creatine, creatine, yes, high protein, one gram to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight, huge when I started to lift heavy and do those two things, and keep up with the flexibility, mobility that just gave me more inner power, activation, if you will, great for the skin too, and caring for yourself, not just your skincare, not just your rejuvenation, but purifying your environment, air, water, lighting, electromagnetics, eating the right food, then detoxing is a key part, but it's what we do every single day.Lesley Logan 47:07 I love that you brought those things up, because I do a lot of people go on detox all the time, but they don't fix their don't check their water problem. When I lived in L.A., all the water stuff said the pipes were great. Everything is great. You guys, I had arsenic and cadmium in my system. So how, right? So we had to, like, we lived in a 500 square foot apartment and had, like, a $5,000 water system put in, and yes, I took it with me when we moved. But I think it's really important so that you all can support things. Right? These are things you can do at home, with your for yourself and in your environment to help you feel really good. So I am obsessed with these tips. I really am obsessed with you. I can't wait for more conversations together and how people are going to use these tips in your life. You guys, let us know. Tag Rachel Varga, tag the Be It Pod. Share this with the friend who needs to hear it. Sometimes we have friends who are actually overly picking on themselves, and maybe I actually think the words that we talked about here today can really support that and help them understand like, you know what is needed, what is necessary, what is helpful, and then also, if you're starting to feel a little bit out of it yourself, like I, I'm gonna tell you right now, it's really okay to care about how you want to put your hair or how you want to dress, because those things actually help us show up more in the world. And we're we are allowed to take up space. So Rachel, thank you so, so much. And until next time everyone, Be It Till You See It. Lesley Logan 48:23 That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 49:06 It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 49:10 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 49:15 Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 49:22 Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals. Brad Crowell 49:25 Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Your daily news in under three minutes. At Al Jazeera Podcasts, we want to hear from you, our listeners. So, please head to https://www.aljazeera.com/survey and tell us your thoughts about this show and other Al Jazeera podcasts. It only takes a few minutes! Connect with us: @AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube
The Bangkok Podcast | Conversations on Life in Thailand's Buzzing Capital
Greg and Ed discuss an article on Ajarn.com by Dr. Jesse Sessions called "What Does the Future Hold" which discusses some of the bigger problems currently facing Thailand and how they might impact the country's prosperity, competitiveness and social longevity. The guys walk through the issues one by one and give their take on its significance, The first issue is border security. Ed points out that Thailand actually has major security issues on the Burmese, Malaysian, and Cambodian borders, something that is easy to forget from the security of Bangkok. In fact several of the later issues tie in to this problem, including the major problems of government corruption and of scam centers in Cambodia and Burma, that implicate Thailand in international crime networks. Greg points out that these 'scam cities' are sometimes connected to the Thai power grid or Internet service and may also be trafficking victims through Bangkok. As a 'rule of law' guy, Ed emphasizes the importance of cleaning up these issues and ridding Southeast Asia of its Wild West image. Another cluster of issues centers around the economy, such as the slower the expected recovery of the tourism sector after COVID and Thailand's perennial fixture in the 'middle income trap,' clearly surpassing Cambodia but somehow also managing to be miles away from South Korea and Japan. Check in for discussion of a bunch of other topics, including demographics, AI adoption, and environmental problems, and make sure to read the full article for a more thorough breakdown of each issue.
Today we're going to talk about some unfortunate updates regarding Thailand and Cambodia, Phuket cracking down on illegal taxi drivers, and a little later a foreign influencer's cash hunting game is causing controversy.
Watch on YouTube → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhYDiDPxcAk This Veterans Day, we honor those who served with a powerful compilation of the most raw and vulnerable moments from our conversations with America's warriors. What you'll hear: Nick Ige (82nd Airborne) takes us to his first deployment in Afghanistan, from mistakenly hopping on the wrong bus to building an entire outpost from scratch in brutal conditions. His story about Coke cans exploding in the heat and diving for cover captures the terror and transformation of a young soldier's baptism by fire. Nick's Full episode on YT → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6dnQTTCbt0 Jason Redman (Navy SEAL) recounts the ambush that nearly killed him, shot eight times, bleeding out on the battlefield, then finding the strength to walk to the helicopter after calling out to God. A miracle of survival and testament to the human spirit. Jason's Full episode on YT → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAwhKUbVBjA Tu Lam (Special Forces) shares the mission in Laos that changed everything, giving a little girl a pen and building a school for a village still littered with American landmines from decades past. His 9/11 story reveals the moment he knew his warrior path would lead to war. Tu Lam's Full episode on YT → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqRbeVZ-FCw Jack Carr (Navy SEAL/Author) connects the dots between a seven-year-old boy inspired by his grandfather's WWII sacrifice and the man doing push-ups in the surf zone at SEAL training, drawing strength from those who stormed Omaha Beach so he could pursue his dream. Jack's Full episode on YT → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNv9ixfmyps Trung Nguyen (Army Ranger) honors his mother's escape from Vietnam, fleeing with $1 and the willingness to risk death so her son could pursue anything he wanted in America. His Ranger training story captures the mental battle of taking hardship one minute at a time. Trung's Full episode on YT → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOhT0RYo9dk John Stryker Meyer (Vietnam SOG) reveals the secret war in Laos and Cambodia, running classified missions under heavy fire, always leaving under enemy fire, and the 58 Green Berets still listed as missing in action. He carries their names and the heartache of brothers who never came home. John's Full episode → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoaS6eftXdY These aren't polished war stories. They're honest reflections on fear, brotherhood, sacrifice, and what it means to serve. From frozen socks in Afghanistan to silence after firefights in triple-canopy jungle, these veterans share what's rarely spoken but deeply felt. This episode honors all who served and those still missing. Their courage gives us the freedom to have conversations like this one. CHAPTERS: (00:00) - Intro (00:45) - Jason Redman (08:20) - Tu Lam (12:27) - John Stryker Meyer (22:00) - Trung Nguyen (25:20) - Nick Ige (35:14) - Jack Carr SPONSORS ElevenLabs: Thanks to ElevenLabs (https://elevenlabs.io) for supporting this episode and powering Tim's voice. SOCIAL: Website: https://nlupod.com/ X: https://x.com/nlutimgreen Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NLUpod Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nlupod LISTEN ON OTHER PLATFORMS Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nothing-left-unsaid/id1734094890 Audible: https://www.audible.com/podcast/Nothing-Left-Unsaid/B0CWTCRKGZ Castbox: https://castbox.fm/channel/id6405921?country=us Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1734094890 iHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-nothing-left-unsaid-155769998/ PERSONAL Tackle ALS: https://www.tackleals.com Tim Green Books: https://authortimgreen.com Tim's New Book - ROCKET ARM: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0062796895/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Interviews with pioneers in business and social impact - Business Fights Poverty Spotlight
How can carbon finance do more to strengthen rural livelihoods and empower the communities on the frontlines of climate change? Social Impact Pioneers - Anna Kilpatrick, from PUR, Ann Vaughan & Lilian Gwazayo of CARE, and Olaf Westermann, from Catholic Relief Services (CRS) explore this critical question. The conversation, in turn, hears from people implementing carbon finance programmes with a focus on deepening livelihood benefits in countries from around the world, including Mr. Matola Sigele in Malawi; Karimi in Cambodia; Emmanuel and Joshua in Uganda. Together, they unpack how nature-based solutions, carbon markets, and community-led restoration can deliver climate impact rooted in equity and sustainability. The conversation dives into payment for ecosystem services, carbon equity, and the importance of long-term investment in communities that steward forests and farmlands. You will hear how carbon projects are reshaping livelihoods—improving food security, empowering women, and restoring degraded landscapes. And also some of the challenges - in making these programmes work - whether land rights, short-term rewards, or understandable skepticism. This episode offers practical insights for businesses, investors, and NGOs seeking to align carbon finance integrity with inclusive development. Listen now to explore how climate finance can be a cornerstone of sustainable livelihoods—not just a co-benefit. This conversation is hosted by Yvette Torres-Rahman, co-founder of Business Fights Poverty. Social Impact Pioneers: - Anna Kilpatrick, Chief Strategy and Impact Officer at PUR, whose agroforestry projects help global companies decarbonize agricultural supply chains while improving smallholder incomes. - Ann Vaughan, Associate Vice President for Resilient Futures at CARE, leading work to unlock climate finance that reaches 25 million people, especially women and girls. - Olaf Westermann, Senior Technical Advisor on Climate Change and Agriculture at CRS, connecting conservation, livelihoods, and equity in nature-based carbon projects worldwide. - Lilian Gwazayo, Field Advisor, & Environmental Scientist, CARE, Malawi. Links: Redd+ Projects: https://unfccc.int/topics/land-use/workstreams/redd/what-is-redd PUR: https://www.pur.co/ Catholic Relief Services: https://www.crs.org/ Care: Malawi We Staan Nog Steeds: https://www.carenederland.org/verhaal/malawi-we-staan-nog-steeds Care: Malawi: Herstel van groene vegetatie draagt bij aan duurzame toekomst https://www.carenederland.org/nieuws/malawi-het-herstellen-van-groene-vegetatie CARE Malawi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-international-in-malawi/posts/?feedView=all CARE Nederland: https://www.linkedin.com/company/care-nederland/posts/?feedView=all Restore Africa: https://www.evergreening.org/restoreafrica/
EDITORIAL: Thai-Cambodia conflict a challenge for Asean| Nov. 12, 2025Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribeVisit our website at [https://www.manilatimes.net](https://www.manilatimes.net/)Follow us:Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebookInstagram - https://tmt.ph/instagramTwitter - https://tmt.ph/twitterDailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotionSubscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digitalCheck out our Podcasts:Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotifyApple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcastsAmazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusicDeezer: https://tmt.ph/deezerStitcher: https://tmt.ph/stitcherTune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein#TheManilaTimes#VoiceOfTheTimes Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Cambodia's “Dirty Debts” to the US — Redux In the 1970s, the US allowed Cambodia to finance the importation of rice and other agricultural commodities. The debt remains unpaid. One version of this story is that successor Cambodian governments have refused to pay these “dirty” debts. In this telling, the US used the loans to prop up a friendly but illegitimate Cambodian regime. Although the US shipped food, loan proceeds mostly financed the Cambodian military, which the US used as a proxy in the fight against the North Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge. Meanwhile, the US was bombing the Cambodian countryside, destroying domestic food production and contributing to a humanitarian crisis. To make matters worse, it turns out most of the food was sent to countries other than Cambodia. To some observers, the US bears a significant share of responsibility for the Khmer Rouge's ultimate rise to power. Decades later, after indescribable suffering (caused at least in part by US interference) the US wants money back. The contours of this story are largely true, but the real story of the PL-480 “Food for Peace” program is more complicated. Today's episode is about what we have found so far and the questions that still remain open. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5561161 Producer: Leanna Doty
In this special episode of Honoring the Journey, Leslie sits down with her oldest daughter, Stephanie, for an open and vulnerable conversation about faith, family, and personal transformation. Together, they reflect on their shared history, the impact of religious upbringing, and the challenges of deconstructing long-held beliefs. Through laughter, honesty, and a few tears, they explore what it means to find healing, autonomy, and genuine connection—both with each other and within themselves.• Stephanie recounts her experience growing up in purity culture and how it shaped her sense of self.• The episode delves into the pressures and expectations of being a “model” Christian daughter and the journey to self-acceptance.• Stephanie shares candidly about her time living abroad in Cambodia and how it influenced her worldview.• Both mother and daughter discuss the process of deconstructing their faith and finding new meaning outside of traditional religious structures.• The conversation highlights the importance of family support, therapy, and self-care in healing from religious trauma. Honoring the Journey is hosted, produced and edited by Leslie Nease and the artwork for the show is also created by Leslie Nease.Want to get updates/announcements and a FREE Deconstruction Journaling Prompt PDF? Sign up for Leslie's Monthly Newsletter! You can do that HERE.Pick up Leslie's new book, Honoring the Journey: The Deconstruction of Sister Christian here.Interested in working with Leslie as your Life/Faith Transitions Coach? Check out her website and learn more about what she offers! https://www.leslieneasecoaching.comIf you'd like to be a part of the Honoring the Journey Team on Substack, click here! You can find her work and also support her financially if you desire.Would you like to leave a voicemail for Leslie? Click here!If you are looking for community as you deconstruct or just a place to go and enjoy the company of people who are seekers, learners and who are looking to connect with the Divine without religious baggage, please join the Private Facebook Community! Leslie is very passionate about connection and community, so if that sounds like you, please come join us! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
In this episode, Paige chats with London-based artist Natasha, a painter, traveler, and creative soul who has lived in places like Cambodia, Chile, and Bolivia. Natasha shares how she's built a life led by curiosity and courage - from funding her first art trip to Cambodia through pre-selling a body of work, to returning home and creating each piece for a solo exhibition.Together, Paige and Natasha talk about:Turning your art practice into a tool for exploration and connectionHow travel shapes creative voice and perspectiveThe magic of thinking outside the box to fund your art dreamsBalancing motherhood, art, and adventureFinding joy (and grounding) through community online and across the worldPaige also shares a behind-the-scenes look at recording Paige's Pod on video for the first time using Riverside and all the lip gloss, laughter, and arm movements that come with it.✨Connect with Natasha on Substack: Adventurous Art & Artist Toolbox ⭐️ If you loved this episode, leave a review and share it with a creative friend!
Original Episode Transcript FollowsStephanie:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk about food. A lot of times we talk to cookbook authors and kind of understand their process and what they're doing. Well, I'm just noticing my hair is real bedhead, but it is what it is. Friends, in this particular episode, I want to talk to my friend Michael Kenney. He is from Defined Destinations. He owns his own business, and it's a travel company. And. And Michael and I met about three years ago now, and we have done a number of trips together, and we are planning our April trip, which is going to be to Turkey, and we have a lot of different cities that we're going to visit.And one of the things that I've heard from a lot of people is they all know we're going to Turkey and they want to hear about it, and they're excited to know about the destination, but they're nervous about signing up for the trip. So said to Michael, let's just talk. Let's do a podcast where we give people an idea of what to expect, where we're going, what kind of things we're going to see. My friend Todd Walker, coincidentally has. He's in Turkey right now. And he said. And he's been. He travels all over.He works for the Viking Cruise Lines, doing trips for them and helping to write about them and help people experience them. He sent me a text, and he said, turkey is in his top three places he's ever been. He's just super hot on it. He's like, you are totally going at the exact right time. Because he's like, people are just starting to learn about it, but there's so many cool things. He said it's a trip like nothing has ever experienced before. So, Michael, I'm excited to talk to you about it. And people ask me like, well, why did you pick turkey? And I was like, why not? I have always.I met a guy 20 years ago and in Paris that was from Turkey, and first of all, he was gorgeous, so let's just go there. But second of all, he really, like, he just was telling me about where he lived and what Turkey was like and what the food was like. And he talked to me about the spice Trail and kind of how people came in through Istanbul and then crossed over into Italy and into Spain. And it made me feel like, wow, okay. Turkey is this very Mediterranean feeling place with tons of culture, and I've always wanted to go there, so I picked it. Michael, why did you allow me to pick Turkey? Knowing that it would be a destination that would be harder to sell for people.Michael Kenney:Yeah, I think that's what's great. And thanks for having me on, Stephanie. It's always a blast, you know, to travel with you and with your, your listeners. It just, we've built some really great bonds with the people, which has been a fun. So even our latest trip to Sicily. What, what a blast. And great people.Stephanie:Yes.Michael Kenney:But you going back to why we choose this and with Turkey, and that's what's great about you. It's like you're willing to try some new areas. And a lot of people are like, well, I've heard of Turkey. I don't know much about it. And I think that's where we both kind of glammed on. Like, let's go and let's have this experience. And we've been putting group trips together for 27 years and we have some great partners and some Turkish partners, too, that can really open up the, the eyes. I know several people that have been to, to Istanbul and everyone's heard of Istanbul, like, oh, it's a top five city on earth for a lot of people.And you're probably wondering, well, why? So I encourage you to kind of jump in, look at our website, do a little research on that. But Turkey is so, so much more than that. I. They have absolutely stunning beaches, their food culture, their spices, the seaside communities, the, the Roman ruins. They have so much in different little pockets. So Turkey offers. And I think that's what maybe gravitated you and I both to it. Just the diversity and still a little of that wonder, like what's, what's really, what's in Turkey.And I think, you know, we, we talked about a little earlier before the podcast about some of the places, you know, that are kind of overrun with tourists. And definitely Turkey is not there. It will be at some point. So it's kind of fun to get on maybe the ground level to, to some of these places and not just Istanbul, because it, it is busy, but some of the other places that we're going to go from Ephesus to Kabukia or Pamuk. There's so many different places that are on this trip that you've never even heard of. So it's kind of like, well, I haven't really heard of that. Go, go look at our website. Go do a little research on the Internet and see what.It's so amazing. The Europeans, they know of Turkey really, really well because it's a, it's a quick flight and they Absolutely love it. I'm in Europe nine times a year and the folks that I talk with over there, they absolutely love it. So it's kind of like a discovery trip for Americans. And what's great about our trip that will, it's fully guided. We have 31 meals included. We have the inner flight inside, Turkey included. So there's really no out of pocket expense for that.So you can really sit back and relax and take in the best of Turkey with our local guides. And there's just so much and I think that's what's going to be kind of fun to go discover. This place in our group is going to be no more than 15 people. It's a small group experience so you can really relax and enjoy that. And I know folks that maybe, well, what's a group tour? You know, I think you even mentioned that too for some people. Like, well, what do you do? It's again, we've kind of handled everything. We've taken care of the hotels, the buses, the cooking class that we're going to do. I mean, you might want to touch on that later.But we've taken all of that, these best of experiences and put it in one itinerary so you can sit back and relax and know that you're going to see the best of Turkey.Stephanie:I think explaining my husband Kurt's sort of transformation is good here. My husband is an independent person. He's owned his own business, he's a sailor. He would, he, he has no interest really in group travel. Like when I brought it up to him and that I was going to start leading trips, he was like, why would you want to do that? Why would you want to be with people you don't even know? Like, he is just anti group travel as a rule. And he came on our first trip, he wanted to come with us when we went to Cambodia and we went to Vietnam. He knew that he would never plan a trip to Asia on his own. So he thought, well, I'll go along on this group travel and I'll just suck up the group travel part because I get to go to this cool destination.Well, what happened is he loved it. He liked group travel. He liked meeting new people. He liked not being the person that had to be in charge of making sure that we got our luggage to the room and that we made it to the right flights and that he had to carry all the stuff and all the itinerary. He kind of liked that he wasn't responsible for all that. And he liked the food, he liked Meeting the people he liked, not having to be in a city he'd never been in and figure out exactly where we were going to eat every single meal. We had flexibility. Obviously, on these trips, we want it to be your trip.In our Sicily experience, you mentioned a couple times, like, if this doesn't feel like something you want to do, then don't do it. Do something else for the day. We can help you orchestrate other things. He really loved the idea that he didn't have to do everything. And in fact, when we did our cooking class in Sicily, which was amazing, by the way, we learned to make arancini, which they call arancino. We made a thing called a pinella, which was a chickpea pancake that they eat in a sandwich, which was kind of different. But Kurt didn't want to do the cooking class. He was like, you know what? I think I'm just gonna go walk around the city.So him and another friend peeled off and, like, that's the joy of these trips. We plan everything, but if you're tired or if you just want a day of rest, you can do that too. We really try to make it so that we know it's your experience. We're not as interested in you just being forced to come along on things that you're not interested in. We're interested in your experience. We want you to have a good time. So if Kurt Johnson can get turned on to group travel, I feel like, seriously, anyone can.Michael Kenney:No, that's. That's well said. I would have never guessed that about Kurt initially. You know, and I wouldn't call him an introvert by any means, but I think we get, you know, a lot of people like that with. With. Kurt. You know, maybe their. Their.Their husband or their wife drags them on a trip, and they're like, you know what? This is actually pretty cool, especially for the person that maybe is doing typically all the planning. And it's stressful. You know, we do all that for you, but you can really, again, sit back and enjoy. You spend a lot of money to go on these trips, and that's what we want. So we want you to feel like you. You have that. That freedom, too. When we set up our hotels in nice, central locations and safe areas, too, that you can go out and explore, so we encourage you to do that.But honestly, we feel pretty good that the pace of these trips are designed really well, that you have that flexibility, because we want you. Yes, you're in a group, even a small group, but we want to make it feel like you're having these experience with, with a friend or a family member that's with you too, that you, you feel like you're, you're having these little exploring trips, but it's all kind of put together already for you. But again, we, we have time for you to go exploring, to have these other experiences, which is really, really important. Balance is so important. Over 27 years, I think we've really, we focus on that so we know that, that people are comfortable having that free time to explore. But again, having the, the framework of an itinerary with, with experiences. Typically, we might do a city tour in the, in the morning and then have the rest of your day free to have your own exploring. Then maybe for, especially for this trip with the 31 meals that will meet up and have dinner in a place.And again, they're all being curated with our local team too, in the area that you're going to have foods local from the area in great mom PA type of restaurants. So sometimes it's stressful when you're trying to figure out where am I going to go eat, what should I do? I want to make sure the dinner is going to be great. We've got that taken care of so you can sit back and relax. And again, we know most of you probably have not heard of a lot of these places. Please, we implore you to go and take a look at the itinerary, do a little research, because I guarantee in a few years from now, these are going to be mainstream and you'll be able to go explore and see these places before they're overly busy. So take a look at this itinerary.Stephanie:I was impressed because when I first was thinking about Turkey, I went on a map and I didn't realize, like, when I started going to Croatia, I didn't realize how close Croatia is to Italy. That literally they share a sea and that a lot of Italians use Croatia as their summer vacation spot.Michael Kenney:Yeah.Stephanie:And I didn't also realize that Turkey and Italy are very close and that a lot of Europeans, because they've got EasyJet there, that's an Italian airline, they're going to Turkey like we would be going to Palm Springs. I mean, a lot of Europeans are experiencing Turkey and it's just not a destination that a lot of Americans are familiar with. But a lot of people are going there and having fun, doing fun things. This. It's been so fun for me to watch my friend Todd Walker, because he went to Cappadocia, which is a city that we're going to go to and they have all these fairy houses that are like these stone. They look like dunce caps sort of. They're these weird structures. And he, like, actually spent the night in one of them.He did a hot air balloon r there, which is part of our itinerary. If someone wants to add that on, I know Kurt's going to do that. It's like he went and he had all this video of it where there's 140 hot air balloons going up kind of all at once out of this city. It just looks so completely cool. And then the. The huge market. There's like, the world's largest market. So all of these trips, I always end up with a group of great women shoppers.And I'm like, okay, bring an extra bag, ladies, because you're going to come home with a rug and you're going to come home with all of these spices. There's 4,000 stalls in the Grand Market in Istanbul. Do you know that?Michael Kenney:Yeah, the Grand Bazaar. I didn't know exactly how many, but, yeah, it's massive.Stephanie:So just that, like, I love getting into a market and just, like, seeing all the different things, feeling all the different spices. In Sicily, we had an opportunity to go to the market, and afterwards we had our. Our local guide that kind of takes you around and shows you where everything is and gives you a sense of maybe what to look for at the market. And then we split up and Kurt and I, he just wanted to drink beer in the market and kind of experience feeling in the market. So we went and got sandwiches. But a bunch of other people, like, shop till they dropped. Like, they had huge shopping bags full of stuff. So if your jam is shopping, great.If your jam is just sitting and taking in the culture, great. Like, you can also learn more about a city by spending time with the city guides that are with us. They're always having lunch with us, and we have a bus driver that we get to know in certain trips. It really just. We just got back from Sicily and we had such a great experience. We had such a great trip. It was probably one of my favorite groups because a lot of the folks had traveled with us before, so we really knew each other, too. It's group travel is really fun.I'm just. I don't know, I'm really jazzed about it, and I'm jazzed about Turkey, and I want people to come. If you could describe Ephesus, because that's a place that I haven't been before and you have what is that like?Michael Kenney:Yeah, Ephesus, it was, you know, built by the Romans in the time of Christ, so 2,000 years ago. And it's. You're walking through. It's. It's unbelievable. It's not like when you're at the Roman Coliseum or that area around there that's actually, it feels like it's in. More in ruins, if you will. But you're like in this village, this Roman village that you can think of, the Apostles walk, maybe if you're, you know, religious.Mary, Jesus's mother, has walked. And the. Still, the stone streets are there. You know, a lot of the buildings are in ruins, but the library, the, the whole front facade is still there. It's, it's unreal. It feels like you're just being brought back in time. And there's truly nothing like Ephesus, which is just right outside of the, the village of Kusadasi, or city in Turkey. But it's, it's like the.If, again, if I could have an analogy, like you're in Rome, but to another level that it's, it's much more, I would say intact. Still in ruins, but intact. But this, this, this village that it's in hibernation. So walking these streets. And we have these local guides as you touched on too, that kind of can bring everything to, to, to life. So, you know, you're not looking through your, your book and trying to like, well, what is this? You listen to an audio guide or our, our local guide speaking about that. So you're learning about the history. But Ephesus is, is.Is unbelievable. And we're not going to see. There's other ruins and more Roman sites and throughout this trip, so you'll really get, you know, a history. I wouldn't say a deep dive. They touch on it. So you're not like, oh, this is so boring. But you even said it's, it's a trip like this is great for, for shoppers, if you want to shop. I'm not a shopper.I like to do what Kurt does. Sit down, maybe have a beer and take it all in and do nothing. Just take in the people walking around, the smells. There's. There's nothing like it. And again, I think this trip to Turkey really offers a potpourri of different experiences. So if you're a foodie, if you're into photography, to culture, to history, this trip really ticks all the boxes. And I guarantee it, you'll love it.You'll love the trip. But then even at the end you. There's a great chance you're going to make lifelong friends on, on a trip like this too. So it's, it really ticks a box of. Of of experiences. So hopefully April is a great time to go to. The temperatures you can expect, you know, low 70s, you know, 50s, 60s at night. So it's really comfortable.Not like in the summer when it's really busy and it's busier with the Europeans and the temperatures hotter. This April time is a great time to visit for sure.Stephanie:Can you talk a little bit about what the food is like? Like, I have an idea, but I don't really know. Like, is it Mediterranean? Is it like meat and pomegranates and couscous?Michael Kenney:Yep, you're nailing it right now. No, it. It is like that. So I think I encourage again people to. To look online too, to see what some of these are. But you maybe have heard of, you know, baklava or, you know, kebabs, the lamb, the beef, the chicken. They have, you know, the different kebabs, lots of different spices, ganache, as many, you know, like fried dishes too, but then a lot of cooked on open fires. But I would say, I wouldn't necessarily say it's comfort food, like German, you know, in having, you know, some of the staples that you might know, but still something that's not too odd.It's probably more closer to home than maybe some of the French food you would see. But you'll see a lot of lamb, the beef, I said some of the fried foods, lots of, you know, from your Turkish delights and different things like that. So I think even when we're walking around in the market, you'll get that. And then we'll at our dinners have different meals as well that will infuse some of these different experiences. So it won't be something completely foreign, but it'll be. It'll be comfortable enough that I think you'll enjoy it, but it definitely be a nice array of different experiences with the food.Stephanie:I haven't told you this, but one of the places, and I don't know where I'm going to do this, but I am going to find. Have you ever been to a hammam or done the spa experience where like, you lay on like hot marble and it's sort of like a sauna and you get sweaty and then you like, go into a room and they like brush you with salt and scrubby things and like completely clean you. It's a Muslim tradition and it's the most amazing thing I've ever done. I did this in Athens and I loved it so much. We went three times while we were in Athens.Michael Kenney:Wow.Stephanie:Find a spa that does this there. I don't know in what city or where we are, but I know a local guide can help me when we get there.Michael Kenney:Yep.Stephanie:Both Kurt and I, it was just the most amazing, relaxing experience. Just someone scrubbing you with all these different herbs and salts. And they have weird little brushes that your eyes are closed and. And you can't even. Like. One of them was this big, puffy, like, pillow feeling that was running across the top of your body. It was so weird, but so great.Michael Kenney:Yeah, I haven't done it. I've seen them. I've done, like, the part that we're just going in, like, in the. In the sauna or the steam bath. That's it. I haven't had the full rub down yet. Maybe on this Turkish.Stephanie:We're going to do it. Yeah, it's great. I'll do it.Michael Kenney:No, it'll be fun, but no, it's very popular over there. The Turkish amans. To do that. So there definitely will be that opportunity. I will. I'll give it a shot. You know, it'll be interesting to have someone scrub me down with salts. But, hey, life's about to have any experiences and.And I'm. And I'm. I'm for it, but I'm glad you enjoyed that. But, yes, they definitely have that. And you'll have that opportunity if you want again. It's. Yeah, it's always. It's.Stephanie:I'm not gonna make anyone go get naked and do this, but if you want to get naked and do this, I'm telling you, it's amazing. And they probably actually. They wear bathing suits because they're pretty modest. Or they'll have, like, a separate women's area and a separate men's area. When we did it in Athens, it was men and women together, and we wore bathing suits. And then when you got into the private room, you could take your bathing suit off. And they were very modest and helpful, but.Michael Kenney:Yeah. So being comfortable. Yeah, no, that's. That's great. Well, that'll be. Maybe we'll just get a whole group and do that to get so great.Stephanie:Yeah, it's just like. It was one of the best things I've ever done. And I. I like spas and massage, and I've done a lot of weird things like that. This was, like, just amazing. Well, I'm excited. I hope that people will join us. The way it works is you can find all the itinerary on defined destinations website.We'll link that in the show notes here you can see each particular day and what city you'll be in and what you'll be doing and what's included. I would imagine in most of these breakfast is included because that's typically a sort of European thing to do. And then as he's. As Michael said, a lot of the meals are included. I do think when you're breaking open a new destination, it's important to kind of give people a sense of what they're going to be experiencing. And food is obviously a big part of that. And food is a big part of my journey on this trip. Turkish delights, if you've never had them, they're like this beautiful little jelly.Turkish coffee is very different. It's a much more intense coffee experience. So if you're a coffee drinker, you'll learn a lot. Also, olive oil is very much present in Turkey. Like again, I keep comparing it to Italy, but it is right across the water. So there's a lot of different olive oils that are used in Turkey, a lot of different spices. We're going to have fun. So the way this works is you can go online, you can put your deposit down and full payment is due I think in January for this trip.You can book your own travel if you want to, meaning get your airfare to get to where we're going to meet for the trip. Or you can use Michael's got a service that can help you book all your airfare. I personally like to control my airfare because I like to have the miles and I like to know exactly how I'm going to set things up on my itinerary. Kurt and I also like to get there like a day or two in advance just to get acclimated a little bit before the rest of you guys come. So that I'm not super jet lagged. I'm on fire by the time you arrive. And yeah, we do. There's going to be a lot of beautiful wine, I'm assuming too, because that's something that there's a great grape destination there.You don't know about Turkish wines yet, but you will. They, they exist. There's actually quite a lot of them. Yeah. And that's how it works. Michael, you've got a special offer just to get people that may be on the fence a little bit. Yeah.Michael Kenney:Well, we're excited. The trip again is April 9th through the 20th. And again, go online, take it just take a look at the website, look at some of the pictures. You'll absolutely love it. And then even all the things that we've talked about that aren't even mentioned in the itinerary, there's so many fun things. But if you're listening to this and you're new to register, you'll get $200 off per person if you register for the trip. Final payment is January 1st, so just think about that. So this would be a great.A great gift for a loved one. Hey, let's. We're going to go to Turkey. And I hear more and more people are. They want to have a travel experience rather than having tangible things about having experiences, especially with ones you love. So hopefully this trip to Turkey, if you want to try something new and have just an amazing experience about a place you maybe haven't heard too much about, I think you'll absolutely love it. So just go to defined destinations.com, like Stephanie said. She'll have the link there, too.Against April 9th through the 20th. You can register right there. If you need help with airfare, we're happy to do that. So we make it pretty easy for you on that end. So we're gonna. We're gonna have a blast with a great group of people and hopefully, you know, you'll want to join this small group of no more than 15 people.Stephanie:Is this the time that we tell people that are listening to maybe stay tuned. I mean, we do have a pretty epic October trip planned.Michael Kenney:Yeah, no, I mean, go for it. We don't have the. All the dates totally confirmed, but we're. Yeah, go ahead.Stephanie:Well, we're working on one of the trips. So I have taken people to Spain, I've taken people to Croatia, I've taken people to Cambodia, Thailand, and now Turkey. And the Croatia trip was really magical and people loved it. And I have a huge fondness for Croatia. Obviously, I've been there a lot, and there were a lot of people that wanted to go on that trip that didn't get the opportunity because it's a luxury experience. It's a luxury yacht. It's small rooms or not small rooms. It's a small ship with actually, the rooms were quite big for a boat.And so we had so many people that wanted to do that itinerary again. Michael said, hey, how about we do it again? But I'll add a couple of new things so that it's a new experience for you too, Stephanie, because there is. I've never been to Zagreb, which seems probably surprising since I've been to Croatia so many times and there's a bunch of these finger lakes. What do they call those? Is it the plastic lakes?Michael Kenney:Yeah, the Plaviche Lakes National Park. Yep.Stephanie:The national parks in Croatia are legendary. If you. I mean Mijet has one of the most beautiful national parks on it with a monastery in the middle of this lake. So we are going to be taking another small group. It'll be smallish. I think we had 28 on our last.Michael Kenney:Yeah, enough to fill the boat. And the boat only can sleep like 34. So it's a small experience on that. But yeah, I'm excited to go back to that again. That's been one of our hot sellers, our Croatia trip. So with the Zagreb and the Blevice lakes and then our seven night cruise, the Croatia trip will be great. So maybe you want to do two trips. Our beautiful Turkey trip in the spring and then come October we'll have this amazing trip to, to Croatia.So go out and have experiences and hopefully you want to join us. I think you'll find great value, great meals just. And great people that to travel with.Stephanie:And if you're listening and you want to explore Michael's other trips because he takes trips with other people, not just me. And also he just guides trips himself. Just tell him that you're a friend of Stephanie's dish so that he knows that you came from my referral. But just like, yeah, if you want to sign up for a Christmas market or you're interested in heading to the Amalfi coast, traveling with defined destinations is a really great opportunity. They do it extremely well. I have traveled a lot and so I've had some good experiences and some not so good experiences. So I know that when you travel with Michael, you're in good hands. I'm still just missing our guide Peter, who was with us on our last Sicilian trip, who turns out has been your friend for like 25 years.I just miss him. He's such a character. I loved him so much.Michael Kenney:Yeah. And that's great. Yeah. Peter's a good friend of mine for. He's our Austrian guy, but he's. He's got family in, in Italy and does some of our, our Central European trips. But again, like you said it too, it's, it's. Again, it's more than just the sights.You're building relationships even if you're not even looking for that. But it's fun to recall and all the good people you've met and the fun experiences you've had along the way. I love what I do, and hopefully it shows in our trips. It's all about having a great experience with great people, so encourage you. And you've been such a great part of the defined destinations family. Thank you, Stephanie.Stephanie:I love it.Michael Kenney:Looking forward to more.Stephanie:If I didn't, people know I would have kicked you to the curb long ago. And you even have got. You've even converted Kurt.Michael Kenney:So, I mean, yeah, that's great. So, yeah, it's about. About having fun and that's what we do. And we'd love to have you on, on any of our trips.Stephanie:Yeah. All right, you guys. So I'll put all that information that you need in the links below. We are going to Turkey and I hope you come. That's all I can say because I'm gonna probably be talking about it non stop because I'm so excited.Michael Kenney:That's great.Stephanie:I'm.Michael Kenney:I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again, Steph.Stephanie:Thanks, Michael. Okay, bye. Bye.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
Original Episode Transcript FollowsStephanie:Hello, everybody, and welcome to Dishing with Stephanie's Dish, the podcast where we talk about food. A lot of times we talk to cookbook authors and kind of understand their process and what they're doing. Well, I'm just noticing my hair is real bedhead, but it is what it is. Friends, in this particular episode, I want to talk to my friend Michael Kenney. He is from Defined Destinations. He owns his own business, and it's a travel company. And. And Michael and I met about three years ago now, and we have done a number of trips together, and we are planning our April trip, which is going to be to Turkey, and we have a lot of different cities that we're going to visit.And one of the things that I've heard from a lot of people is they all know we're going to Turkey and they want to hear about it, and they're excited to know about the destination, but they're nervous about signing up for the trip. So said to Michael, let's just talk. Let's do a podcast where we give people an idea of what to expect, where we're going, what kind of things we're going to see. My friend Todd Walker, coincidentally has. He's in Turkey right now. And he said. And he's been. He travels all over.He works for the Viking Cruise Lines, doing trips for them and helping to write about them and help people experience them. He sent me a text, and he said, turkey is in his top three places he's ever been. He's just super hot on it. He's like, you are totally going at the exact right time. Because he's like, people are just starting to learn about it, but there's so many cool things. He said it's a trip like nothing has ever experienced before. So, Michael, I'm excited to talk to you about it. And people ask me like, well, why did you pick turkey? And I was like, why not? I have always.I met a guy 20 years ago and in Paris that was from Turkey, and first of all, he was gorgeous, so let's just go there. But second of all, he really, like, he just was telling me about where he lived and what Turkey was like and what the food was like. And he talked to me about the spice Trail and kind of how people came in through Istanbul and then crossed over into Italy and into Spain. And it made me feel like, wow, okay. Turkey is this very Mediterranean feeling place with tons of culture, and I've always wanted to go there, so I picked it. Michael, why did you allow me to pick Turkey? Knowing that it would be a destination that would be harder to sell for people.Michael Kenney:Yeah, I think that's what's great. And thanks for having me on, Stephanie. It's always a blast, you know, to travel with you and with your, your listeners. It just, we've built some really great bonds with the people, which has been a fun. So even our latest trip to Sicily. What, what a blast. And great people.Stephanie:Yes.Michael Kenney:But you going back to why we choose this and with Turkey, and that's what's great about you. It's like you're willing to try some new areas. And a lot of people are like, well, I've heard of Turkey. I don't know much about it. And I think that's where we both kind of glammed on. Like, let's go and let's have this experience. And we've been putting group trips together for 27 years and we have some great partners and some Turkish partners, too, that can really open up the, the eyes. I know several people that have been to, to Istanbul and everyone's heard of Istanbul, like, oh, it's a top five city on earth for a lot of people.And you're probably wondering, well, why? So I encourage you to kind of jump in, look at our website, do a little research on that. But Turkey is so, so much more than that. I. They have absolutely stunning beaches, their food culture, their spices, the seaside communities, the, the Roman ruins. They have so much in different little pockets. So Turkey offers. And I think that's what maybe gravitated you and I both to it. Just the diversity and still a little of that wonder, like what's, what's really, what's in Turkey.And I think, you know, we, we talked about a little earlier before the podcast about some of the places, you know, that are kind of overrun with tourists. And definitely Turkey is not there. It will be at some point. So it's kind of fun to get on maybe the ground level to, to some of these places and not just Istanbul, because it, it is busy, but some of the other places that we're going to go from Ephesus to Kabukia or Pamuk. There's so many different places that are on this trip that you've never even heard of. So it's kind of like, well, I haven't really heard of that. Go, go look at our website. Go do a little research on the Internet and see what.It's so amazing. The Europeans, they know of Turkey really, really well because it's a, it's a quick flight and they Absolutely love it. I'm in Europe nine times a year and the folks that I talk with over there, they absolutely love it. So it's kind of like a discovery trip for Americans. And what's great about our trip that will, it's fully guided. We have 31 meals included. We have the inner flight inside, Turkey included. So there's really no out of pocket expense for that.So you can really sit back and relax and take in the best of Turkey with our local guides. And there's just so much and I think that's what's going to be kind of fun to go discover. This place in our group is going to be no more than 15 people. It's a small group experience so you can really relax and enjoy that. And I know folks that maybe, well, what's a group tour? You know, I think you even mentioned that too for some people. Like, well, what do you do? It's again, we've kind of handled everything. We've taken care of the hotels, the buses, the cooking class that we're going to do. I mean, you might want to touch on that later.But we've taken all of that, these best of experiences and put it in one itinerary so you can sit back and relax and know that you're going to see the best of Turkey.Stephanie:I think explaining my husband Kurt's sort of transformation is good here. My husband is an independent person. He's owned his own business, he's a sailor. He would, he, he has no interest really in group travel. Like when I brought it up to him and that I was going to start leading trips, he was like, why would you want to do that? Why would you want to be with people you don't even know? Like, he is just anti group travel as a rule. And he came on our first trip, he wanted to come with us when we went to Cambodia and we went to Vietnam. He knew that he would never plan a trip to Asia on his own. So he thought, well, I'll go along on this group travel and I'll just suck up the group travel part because I get to go to this cool destination.Well, what happened is he loved it. He liked group travel. He liked meeting new people. He liked not being the person that had to be in charge of making sure that we got our luggage to the room and that we made it to the right flights and that he had to carry all the stuff and all the itinerary. He kind of liked that he wasn't responsible for all that. And he liked the food, he liked Meeting the people he liked, not having to be in a city he'd never been in and figure out exactly where we were going to eat every single meal. We had flexibility. Obviously, on these trips, we want it to be your trip.In our Sicily experience, you mentioned a couple times, like, if this doesn't feel like something you want to do, then don't do it. Do something else for the day. We can help you orchestrate other things. He really loved the idea that he didn't have to do everything. And in fact, when we did our cooking class in Sicily, which was amazing, by the way, we learned to make arancini, which they call arancino. We made a thing called a pinella, which was a chickpea pancake that they eat in a sandwich, which was kind of different. But Kurt didn't want to do the cooking class. He was like, you know what? I think I'm just gonna go walk around the city.So him and another friend peeled off and, like, that's the joy of these trips. We plan everything, but if you're tired or if you just want a day of rest, you can do that too. We really try to make it so that we know it's your experience. We're not as interested in you just being forced to come along on things that you're not interested in. We're interested in your experience. We want you to have a good time. So if Kurt Johnson can get turned on to group travel, I feel like, seriously, anyone can.Michael Kenney:No, that's. That's well said. I would have never guessed that about Kurt initially. You know, and I wouldn't call him an introvert by any means, but I think we get, you know, a lot of people like that with. With. Kurt. You know, maybe their. Their.Their husband or their wife drags them on a trip, and they're like, you know what? This is actually pretty cool, especially for the person that maybe is doing typically all the planning. And it's stressful. You know, we do all that for you, but you can really, again, sit back and enjoy. You spend a lot of money to go on these trips, and that's what we want. So we want you to feel like you. You have that. That freedom, too. When we set up our hotels in nice, central locations and safe areas, too, that you can go out and explore, so we encourage you to do that.But honestly, we feel pretty good that the pace of these trips are designed really well, that you have that flexibility, because we want you. Yes, you're in a group, even a small group, but we want to make it feel like you're having these experience with, with a friend or a family member that's with you too, that you, you feel like you're, you're having these little exploring trips, but it's all kind of put together already for you. But again, we, we have time for you to go exploring, to have these other experiences, which is really, really important. Balance is so important. Over 27 years, I think we've really, we focus on that so we know that, that people are comfortable having that free time to explore. But again, having the, the framework of an itinerary with, with experiences. Typically, we might do a city tour in the, in the morning and then have the rest of your day free to have your own exploring. Then maybe for, especially for this trip with the 31 meals that will meet up and have dinner in a place.And again, they're all being curated with our local team too, in the area that you're going to have foods local from the area in great mom PA type of restaurants. So sometimes it's stressful when you're trying to figure out where am I going to go eat, what should I do? I want to make sure the dinner is going to be great. We've got that taken care of so you can sit back and relax. And again, we know most of you probably have not heard of a lot of these places. Please, we implore you to go and take a look at the itinerary, do a little research, because I guarantee in a few years from now, these are going to be mainstream and you'll be able to go explore and see these places before they're overly busy. So take a look at this itinerary.Stephanie:I was impressed because when I first was thinking about Turkey, I went on a map and I didn't realize, like, when I started going to Croatia, I didn't realize how close Croatia is to Italy. That literally they share a sea and that a lot of Italians use Croatia as their summer vacation spot.Michael Kenney:Yeah.Stephanie:And I didn't also realize that Turkey and Italy are very close and that a lot of Europeans, because they've got EasyJet there, that's an Italian airline, they're going to Turkey like we would be going to Palm Springs. I mean, a lot of Europeans are experiencing Turkey and it's just not a destination that a lot of Americans are familiar with. But a lot of people are going there and having fun, doing fun things. This. It's been so fun for me to watch my friend Todd Walker, because he went to Cappadocia, which is a city that we're going to go to and they have all these fairy houses that are like these stone. They look like dunce caps sort of. They're these weird structures. And he, like, actually spent the night in one of them.He did a hot air balloon r there, which is part of our itinerary. If someone wants to add that on, I know Kurt's going to do that. It's like he went and he had all this video of it where there's 140 hot air balloons going up kind of all at once out of this city. It just looks so completely cool. And then the. The huge market. There's like, the world's largest market. So all of these trips, I always end up with a group of great women shoppers.And I'm like, okay, bring an extra bag, ladies, because you're going to come home with a rug and you're going to come home with all of these spices. There's 4,000 stalls in the Grand Market in Istanbul. Do you know that?Michael Kenney:Yeah, the Grand Bazaar. I didn't know exactly how many, but, yeah, it's massive.Stephanie:So just that, like, I love getting into a market and just, like, seeing all the different things, feeling all the different spices. In Sicily, we had an opportunity to go to the market, and afterwards we had our. Our local guide that kind of takes you around and shows you where everything is and gives you a sense of maybe what to look for at the market. And then we split up and Kurt and I, he just wanted to drink beer in the market and kind of experience feeling in the market. So we went and got sandwiches. But a bunch of other people, like, shop till they dropped. Like, they had huge shopping bags full of stuff. So if your jam is shopping, great.If your jam is just sitting and taking in the culture, great. Like, you can also learn more about a city by spending time with the city guides that are with us. They're always having lunch with us, and we have a bus driver that we get to know in certain trips. It really just. We just got back from Sicily and we had such a great experience. We had such a great trip. It was probably one of my favorite groups because a lot of the folks had traveled with us before, so we really knew each other, too. It's group travel is really fun.I'm just. I don't know, I'm really jazzed about it, and I'm jazzed about Turkey, and I want people to come. If you could describe Ephesus, because that's a place that I haven't been before and you have what is that like?Michael Kenney:Yeah, Ephesus, it was, you know, built by the Romans in the time of Christ, so 2,000 years ago. And it's. You're walking through. It's. It's unbelievable. It's not like when you're at the Roman Coliseum or that area around there that's actually, it feels like it's in. More in ruins, if you will. But you're like in this village, this Roman village that you can think of, the Apostles walk, maybe if you're, you know, religious.Mary, Jesus's mother, has walked. And the. Still, the stone streets are there. You know, a lot of the buildings are in ruins, but the library, the, the whole front facade is still there. It's, it's unreal. It feels like you're just being brought back in time. And there's truly nothing like Ephesus, which is just right outside of the, the village of Kusadasi, or city in Turkey. But it's, it's like the.If, again, if I could have an analogy, like you're in Rome, but to another level that it's, it's much more, I would say intact. Still in ruins, but intact. But this, this, this village that it's in hibernation. So walking these streets. And we have these local guides as you touched on too, that kind of can bring everything to, to, to life. So, you know, you're not looking through your, your book and trying to like, well, what is this? You listen to an audio guide or our, our local guide speaking about that. So you're learning about the history. But Ephesus is, is.Is unbelievable. And we're not going to see. There's other ruins and more Roman sites and throughout this trip, so you'll really get, you know, a history. I wouldn't say a deep dive. They touch on it. So you're not like, oh, this is so boring. But you even said it's, it's a trip like this is great for, for shoppers, if you want to shop. I'm not a shopper.I like to do what Kurt does. Sit down, maybe have a beer and take it all in and do nothing. Just take in the people walking around, the smells. There's. There's nothing like it. And again, I think this trip to Turkey really offers a potpourri of different experiences. So if you're a foodie, if you're into photography, to culture, to history, this trip really ticks all the boxes. And I guarantee it, you'll love it.You'll love the trip. But then even at the end you. There's a great chance you're going to make lifelong friends on, on a trip like this too. So it's, it really ticks a box of. Of of experiences. So hopefully April is a great time to go to. The temperatures you can expect, you know, low 70s, you know, 50s, 60s at night. So it's really comfortable.Not like in the summer when it's really busy and it's busier with the Europeans and the temperatures hotter. This April time is a great time to visit for sure.Stephanie:Can you talk a little bit about what the food is like? Like, I have an idea, but I don't really know. Like, is it Mediterranean? Is it like meat and pomegranates and couscous?Michael Kenney:Yep, you're nailing it right now. No, it. It is like that. So I think I encourage again people to. To look online too, to see what some of these are. But you maybe have heard of, you know, baklava or, you know, kebabs, the lamb, the beef, the chicken. They have, you know, the different kebabs, lots of different spices, ganache, as many, you know, like fried dishes too, but then a lot of cooked on open fires. But I would say, I wouldn't necessarily say it's comfort food, like German, you know, in having, you know, some of the staples that you might know, but still something that's not too odd.It's probably more closer to home than maybe some of the French food you would see. But you'll see a lot of lamb, the beef, I said some of the fried foods, lots of, you know, from your Turkish delights and different things like that. So I think even when we're walking around in the market, you'll get that. And then we'll at our dinners have different meals as well that will infuse some of these different experiences. So it won't be something completely foreign, but it'll be. It'll be comfortable enough that I think you'll enjoy it, but it definitely be a nice array of different experiences with the food.Stephanie:I haven't told you this, but one of the places, and I don't know where I'm going to do this, but I am going to find. Have you ever been to a hammam or done the spa experience where like, you lay on like hot marble and it's sort of like a sauna and you get sweaty and then you like, go into a room and they like brush you with salt and scrubby things and like completely clean you. It's a Muslim tradition and it's the most amazing thing I've ever done. I did this in Athens and I loved it so much. We went three times while we were in Athens.Michael Kenney:Wow.Stephanie:Find a spa that does this there. I don't know in what city or where we are, but I know a local guide can help me when we get there.Michael Kenney:Yep.Stephanie:Both Kurt and I, it was just the most amazing, relaxing experience. Just someone scrubbing you with all these different herbs and salts. And they have weird little brushes that your eyes are closed and. And you can't even. Like. One of them was this big, puffy, like, pillow feeling that was running across the top of your body. It was so weird, but so great.Michael Kenney:Yeah, I haven't done it. I've seen them. I've done, like, the part that we're just going in, like, in the. In the sauna or the steam bath. That's it. I haven't had the full rub down yet. Maybe on this Turkish.Stephanie:We're going to do it. Yeah, it's great. I'll do it.Michael Kenney:No, it'll be fun, but no, it's very popular over there. The Turkish amans. To do that. So there definitely will be that opportunity. I will. I'll give it a shot. You know, it'll be interesting to have someone scrub me down with salts. But, hey, life's about to have any experiences and.And I'm. And I'm. I'm for it, but I'm glad you enjoyed that. But, yes, they definitely have that. And you'll have that opportunity if you want again. It's. Yeah, it's always. It's.Stephanie:I'm not gonna make anyone go get naked and do this, but if you want to get naked and do this, I'm telling you, it's amazing. And they probably actually. They wear bathing suits because they're pretty modest. Or they'll have, like, a separate women's area and a separate men's area. When we did it in Athens, it was men and women together, and we wore bathing suits. And then when you got into the private room, you could take your bathing suit off. And they were very modest and helpful, but.Michael Kenney:Yeah. So being comfortable. Yeah, no, that's. That's great. Well, that'll be. Maybe we'll just get a whole group and do that to get so great.Stephanie:Yeah, it's just like. It was one of the best things I've ever done. And I. I like spas and massage, and I've done a lot of weird things like that. This was, like, just amazing. Well, I'm excited. I hope that people will join us. The way it works is you can find all the itinerary on defined destinations website.We'll link that in the show notes here you can see each particular day and what city you'll be in and what you'll be doing and what's included. I would imagine in most of these breakfast is included because that's typically a sort of European thing to do. And then as he's. As Michael said, a lot of the meals are included. I do think when you're breaking open a new destination, it's important to kind of give people a sense of what they're going to be experiencing. And food is obviously a big part of that. And food is a big part of my journey on this trip. Turkish delights, if you've never had them, they're like this beautiful little jelly.Turkish coffee is very different. It's a much more intense coffee experience. So if you're a coffee drinker, you'll learn a lot. Also, olive oil is very much present in Turkey. Like again, I keep comparing it to Italy, but it is right across the water. So there's a lot of different olive oils that are used in Turkey, a lot of different spices. We're going to have fun. So the way this works is you can go online, you can put your deposit down and full payment is due I think in January for this trip.You can book your own travel if you want to, meaning get your airfare to get to where we're going to meet for the trip. Or you can use Michael's got a service that can help you book all your airfare. I personally like to control my airfare because I like to have the miles and I like to know exactly how I'm going to set things up on my itinerary. Kurt and I also like to get there like a day or two in advance just to get acclimated a little bit before the rest of you guys come. So that I'm not super jet lagged. I'm on fire by the time you arrive. And yeah, we do. There's going to be a lot of beautiful wine, I'm assuming too, because that's something that there's a great grape destination there.You don't know about Turkish wines yet, but you will. They, they exist. There's actually quite a lot of them. Yeah. And that's how it works. Michael, you've got a special offer just to get people that may be on the fence a little bit. Yeah.Michael Kenney:Well, we're excited. The trip again is April 9th through the 20th. And again, go online, take it just take a look at the website, look at some of the pictures. You'll absolutely love it. And then even all the things that we've talked about that aren't even mentioned in the itinerary, there's so many fun things. But if you're listening to this and you're new to register, you'll get $200 off per person if you register for the trip. Final payment is January 1st, so just think about that. So this would be a great.A great gift for a loved one. Hey, let's. We're going to go to Turkey. And I hear more and more people are. They want to have a travel experience rather than having tangible things about having experiences, especially with ones you love. So hopefully this trip to Turkey, if you want to try something new and have just an amazing experience about a place you maybe haven't heard too much about, I think you'll absolutely love it. So just go to defined destinations.com, like Stephanie said. She'll have the link there, too.Against April 9th through the 20th. You can register right there. If you need help with airfare, we're happy to do that. So we make it pretty easy for you on that end. So we're gonna. We're gonna have a blast with a great group of people and hopefully, you know, you'll want to join this small group of no more than 15 people.Stephanie:Is this the time that we tell people that are listening to maybe stay tuned. I mean, we do have a pretty epic October trip planned.Michael Kenney:Yeah, no, I mean, go for it. We don't have the. All the dates totally confirmed, but we're. Yeah, go ahead.Stephanie:Well, we're working on one of the trips. So I have taken people to Spain, I've taken people to Croatia, I've taken people to Cambodia, Thailand, and now Turkey. And the Croatia trip was really magical and people loved it. And I have a huge fondness for Croatia. Obviously, I've been there a lot, and there were a lot of people that wanted to go on that trip that didn't get the opportunity because it's a luxury experience. It's a luxury yacht. It's small rooms or not small rooms. It's a small ship with actually, the rooms were quite big for a boat.And so we had so many people that wanted to do that itinerary again. Michael said, hey, how about we do it again? But I'll add a couple of new things so that it's a new experience for you too, Stephanie, because there is. I've never been to Zagreb, which seems probably surprising since I've been to Croatia so many times and there's a bunch of these finger lakes. What do they call those? Is it the plastic lakes?Michael Kenney:Yeah, the Plaviche Lakes National Park. Yep.Stephanie:The national parks in Croatia are legendary. If you. I mean Mijet has one of the most beautiful national parks on it with a monastery in the middle of this lake. So we are going to be taking another small group. It'll be smallish. I think we had 28 on our last.Michael Kenney:Yeah, enough to fill the boat. And the boat only can sleep like 34. So it's a small experience on that. But yeah, I'm excited to go back to that again. That's been one of our hot sellers, our Croatia trip. So with the Zagreb and the Blevice lakes and then our seven night cruise, the Croatia trip will be great. So maybe you want to do two trips. Our beautiful Turkey trip in the spring and then come October we'll have this amazing trip to, to Croatia.So go out and have experiences and hopefully you want to join us. I think you'll find great value, great meals just. And great people that to travel with.Stephanie:And if you're listening and you want to explore Michael's other trips because he takes trips with other people, not just me. And also he just guides trips himself. Just tell him that you're a friend of Stephanie's dish so that he knows that you came from my referral. But just like, yeah, if you want to sign up for a Christmas market or you're interested in heading to the Amalfi coast, traveling with defined destinations is a really great opportunity. They do it extremely well. I have traveled a lot and so I've had some good experiences and some not so good experiences. So I know that when you travel with Michael, you're in good hands. I'm still just missing our guide Peter, who was with us on our last Sicilian trip, who turns out has been your friend for like 25 years.I just miss him. He's such a character. I loved him so much.Michael Kenney:Yeah. And that's great. Yeah. Peter's a good friend of mine for. He's our Austrian guy, but he's. He's got family in, in Italy and does some of our, our Central European trips. But again, like you said it too, it's, it's. Again, it's more than just the sights.You're building relationships even if you're not even looking for that. But it's fun to recall and all the good people you've met and the fun experiences you've had along the way. I love what I do, and hopefully it shows in our trips. It's all about having a great experience with great people, so encourage you. And you've been such a great part of the defined destinations family. Thank you, Stephanie.Stephanie:I love it.Michael Kenney:Looking forward to more.Stephanie:If I didn't, people know I would have kicked you to the curb long ago. And you even have got. You've even converted Kurt.Michael Kenney:So, I mean, yeah, that's great. So, yeah, it's about. About having fun and that's what we do. And we'd love to have you on, on any of our trips.Stephanie:Yeah. All right, you guys. So I'll put all that information that you need in the links below. We are going to Turkey and I hope you come. That's all I can say because I'm gonna probably be talking about it non stop because I'm so excited.Michael Kenney:That's great.Stephanie:I'm.Michael Kenney:I'm looking forward to it. Thanks again, Steph.Stephanie:Thanks, Michael. Okay, bye. Bye.Stephanie's Dish Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit stephaniehansen.substack.com/subscribe
In Asia Trump ha firmato molti accordi, ha stabilito tariffe, è andato alla ricerca di minerali critici, e soprattutto è stato accolto come avrebbe voluto: come un re. Le tappe del suo viaggio hanno dimostrato una incredibile propensione da parte dei leader asiatici ad accarezzare il suo lato più narcisistico. Ma dopo che Trump è tornato negli Stati Uniti, le analisi degli esperti regionali, e non solo, dimostrano che dietro lo charme, i regali, le concessioni gastronomiche, in realtà, potrebbe essere rimasto molto poco. Gli inserti audio della puntata sono tratti da: Donald Trump arrives in KL, Malaysia for ASEAN summit, dances on tarmac at welcome ceremony, CNA, 26 ottobre 2025; Donald Trump congratulates Thailand, Cambodia for signing peace deal, ChannelNewAsia, 26 ottobre 2025; Trump wanders off while meeting with Japanese prime minister, The Independent, 28 ottobre 2025; Pres. Trump delivers remarks to business leaders in Japan, Fox 9, 28 ottobre 2025; PM Takaichi Surprises Trump with Golf Gifts, Including Abe's Putter, Apt News, 28 ottobre 2025; Trump Lands in South Korea and Greeted With YMCA, Al Arabiya English, 29 ottobre 2025; President Donald J. Trump meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, White House, 30 ottobre 2025. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
As the Supreme Court takes up one of the most consequential trade cases in decades, former Biden administration official and Yale-trained lawyer Peter Harrell joins Jacob L. for a real-time breakdown of what's at stake. Together, they cut through the legal jargon to reveal how a 1977 emergency powers statute became the foundation for Donald Trump's sweeping tariff regime—and why the Court's decision could reshape U.S. trade, markets, and global power. A crash course in law, economics, and political brinkmanship.--Timestamps:(00:00) - Introduction(00:45) - Supreme Court and Tariff Legality(05:09) - Understanding IEPA and Its Implications(15:30) - Potential Outcomes and Impacts(22:24) - US-Mexico-Canada Trade Relations(26:27) - Mexico's Trade Challenges(26:35) - Trump Administration's Legal Battles(27:49) - Supreme Court's Role in Tariff Decisions(28:20) - Foreign Governments' Reactions(30:36) - Impact of US Elections on Trade Policy(34:46) - Historical Context of Tariffs(38:25) - Trump's Trade Deals with Cambodia and Malaysia(43:24) - Future of US Tariff Policy(48:39) - Implications for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses--Referenced in the Show:Peter Harrell - https://carnegieendowment.org/people/peter-harrell?lang=en Twitter - https://x.com/petereharrell--Jacob Shapiro Site: jacobshapiro.comJacob Shapiro LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jacob-l-s-a9337416Jacob Twitter: x.com/JacobShapJacob Shapiro Substack: jashap.substack.com/subscribe --The Jacob Shapiro Show is produced and edited by Audiographies LLC. More information at audiographies.com --Jacob Shapiro is a speaker, consultant, author, and researcher covering global politics and affairs, economics, markets, technology, history, and culture. He speaks to audiences of all sizes around the world, helps global multinationals make strategic decisions about political risks and opportunities, and works directly with investors to grow and protect their assets in today's volatile global environment. His insights help audiences across industries like finance, agriculture, and energy make sense of the world.--
In this Be It Till You See It recap, Lesley and Brad reflect on Danielle Droitsch's journey from environmental law to leadership coaching and the mindset shifts that helped her uncover her real strengths. They share how Danielle's simple but powerful approach reframes fulfillment, challenges perfectionism, and inspires action through alignment. Tune in to explore how small, intentional changes can help you lead and live with more clarity.If you have any questions about this episode or want to get some of the resources we mentioned, head over to LesleyLogan.co/podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/. If you have any comments or questions about the Be It pod shoot us a message at beit@lesleylogan.co mailto:beit@lesleylogan.co. And as always, if you're enjoying the show please share it with someone who you think would enjoy it as well. It is your continued support that will help us continue to help others. Thank you so much! Never miss another show by subscribing at LesleyLogan.co/subscribe https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/#follow-subscribe-free.In this episode you will learn about:What it means to uncover your true superpower and use it to create impact.How following your energy reveals where you're most aligned and fulfilled.Why you only need 20% of your week focused on what energizes you to feel more balanced.How confidence grows by acting, reflecting, correcting, and continuing forward.Episode References/Links:OPC Winter Tour - https://opc.me/tourPilates Journal Expo - https://xxll.co/pilatesjournalCambodia Retreat Waitlist - https://crowsnestretreats.comAgency Mini - https://prfit.biz/miniContrology Pilates Conference in Poland - https://xxll.co/polandContrology Pilates Conference in Brussels - https://xxll.co/brusselsSubmit your wins or questions - https://beitpod.com/questionsTime For Well-Being Website - https://www.time4wellbeing.comStop Second Guessing Your Next Career Move (Free Training) - https://exclusive.time4wellbeing.comDanielle Droitsch on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielledroitschCareer Clarity Journey: Define Your Career Path - https://mailchi.mp/7b47af821797/3jwkmtvr4yEpisode 27: Kareen Walsh - https://beitpod.com/ep27Episode 397: Kareen Walsh - https://beitpod.com/ep397 If you enjoyed this episode, make sure and give us a five star rating and leave us a review on iTunes, Podcast Addict, Podchaser or Castbox. https://lovethepodcast.com/BITYSIDEALS! 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DEALS! https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentCheck out all our Preferred Vendors & Special Deals from Clair Sparrow, Sensate, Lyfefuel BeeKeeper's Naturals, Sauna Space, HigherDose, AG1 and ToeSox https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/memberships/perks/#equipmentBe in the know with all the workshops at OPC https://workshops.onlinepilatesclasses.com/lp-workshop-waitlistBe It Till You See It Podcast Survey https://pod.lesleylogan.co/be-it-podcasts-surveyBe a part of Lesley's Pilates Mentorship https://lesleylogan.co/elevate/FREE Ditching Busy Webinar https://ditchingbusy.com/Resources:Watch the Be It Till You See It podcast on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gLesley Logan website https://lesleylogan.co/Be It Till You See It Podcast https://lesleylogan.co/podcast/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan https://onlinepilatesclasses.com/Online Pilates Classes by Lesley Logan on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjogqXLnfyhS5VlU4rdzlnQProfitable Pilates https://profitablepilates.com/about/Follow Us on Social Media:Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lesley.logan/The Be It Till You See It Podcast YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq08HES7xLMvVa3Fy5DR8-gFacebook https://www.facebook.com/llogan.pilatesLinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesley-logan/The OPC YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@OnlinePilatesClasses Episode Transcript:Lesley Logan 0:00 She defined superpowers as your innate ability to create impact. I love that. Your innate ability to create impact. You guys, if you aren't hearing a theme about today, it is, are you using your inner compass? Are you taking time to understand yourself? Are you talking yourself up? Lesley Logan 0:16 Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started. Lesley Logan 0:55 Welcome back to the Be It Till You See It interview recap where my co-host in life, Brad, and I are going to dig into the flourishing convo I have with Danielle Droitsch in our last episode. If you haven't yet listened to that interview, feel free to pause this now and go back and listen to that one, and then come back and join us. She's a fucking badass.Brad Crowell 1:13 She's pretty amazing. I really enjoyed that conversation. Lesley Logan 1:15 I mean, I don't even know how, she's been listening to our pod for a while. Then she pitched herself. We talked to her. You came up and talked to her. I want to be friends with her. I wish she lived closer. She's doing great work. And also, like, I don't even know how she did what she did for a living, because, like, as we talked about in the podcast, you're an environmental attorney, which means you're constantly fighting for the environment, and the environment is constantly getting hotter. Brad Crowell 1:38 I didn't know she was an environmental attorney. Lesley Logan 1:38 I'm pretty sure. Brad Crowell 1:38 No, she just described her work as an attorney, but it's possible you guys have that you talked to her beforehand. Lesley Logan 1:50 Yeah, no, she was an environment policy world attorney, like she was a fucking badass in DC. And I remember talking to her offline, like, Oh my God. So every day you're trying to say, the Earth is hot. I'm fighting for the earth. And every day they're like, you know, like, it's just, I don't know, like, that would be a hard that'd be a long hard, but we need people like her in this world. Brad Crowell 2:13 Well, she quit, so.Lesley Logan 2:17 She still fights for it. She still does her she still does her work. She didn't quit. Brad, what makes it sound like she gave up? She did not, you know it.Brad Crowell 2:31 No, she has moved on to bigger and better task. Lesley Logan 2:33 She had to leave DC for other reasons, and it's pretty hard to fight for the environment on a world level outside of DC. So anyways, she's still badass. Brad Crowell 2:43 Yeah. Actually, she said she's she's bringing a little bit of liberal vibes to Salt Lake City, so. Lesley Logan 2:49 We love that. You know, it's really because we have a friend who's a federal defense attorney, and I, like, think about her going to work every day, right? And, like, the federal defense attorneys, like, what's the average win? It's like 2% or something like that. And she's like 4% and that's like, fucking badass, right? And you're just like, and she's like, fighting. Brad Crowell 3:11 I think she had six. Lesley Logan 3:05 I think she had six, you're right. Yeah, she got, like, defense attorney of the year. Hi, Amelia. Anyways, she like, I think about people like that, and Danielle and like these other people like, talk about having to figure out a different way of understanding how to celebrate your wins, because, like, it could take years to move, to get a date, for something to be heard. Years, and we're over here being it until we see it, going, oh, that thing didn't happen yesterday. I had to wait six months.Brad Crowell 3:35 Yeah, it's true. I mean, especially with environmental law. I mean, you could be working on something for, you know, five to 10 years before it actually comes together, so.Lesley Logan 3:43 Yeah, well, we'll get into her in a second. Hold on. Just so you're clear, I actually have no idea what day Brad chooses until we open up the script, unless I choose a day. And so I have no idea what I'm about to read. And I feel like it's gonna be weird, because today is November 6th 2025 and it's Marooned Without A Compass Day, which would, is the story of my life, I think I would be marooned without a compass for sure. If I had my phone, and it was working, we'd be okay, but truth be told, I don't have a charger ever on me, which means my compass would be leaving us quickly. This day is celebrated annually to put a spotlight on the direction of our lives or the lack of it. Oh, well, that's interesting. On this day, we ask ourselves the hard question, where is my life going? Am I happy? In a rather literal sense, maroon means being trapped alone in a place, yeah. But in a mindful sense, it describes the ecstatic gloom and thank you, Brad for highlighting. I see ecstatic gloom is a paradoxical or oxymoronic phrase that describes the feeling that being simultaneously overwhelmed with happiness and sadness is not a standard English idiom, but a descriptive pairing of two contradictory emotions, wonderful. I feel like ecstatic gloom is how I live every day in this administration. That comes with being lost in our life.Brad Crowell 5:04 So ecstatic gloom. So in a rather little literal sense, marooned means being trapped alone in a place, but in a mindful sense, that describes the ecstatic gloom that comes from being lost in our own life. Lives, right? So. Lesley Logan 5:07 Well, this is people who are not being it until we see it, Brad. Brad Crowell 5:11 That's what I'm saying. Lesley Logan 5:13 Our listeners do not mean marooned without a compass. Brad Crowell 5:21 That's why today is exactly the right day to celebrate. Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. Today is all about climbing up from the rock bottom of our lives and becoming our own compass. But that's what we do here every single day at the Be It Pod. So, you know, I thought this was a great day, because what this actually really made me think about was the reset button that Covid was, you know.Lesley Logan 5:47 Yeah if people took advantage of it, which I feel like.Brad Crowell 5:49 I mean, whether or not you took advantage of it, it became a very real it was a mirror to our own lives. Each and every one of us had this, this really, I'm sure we all had the internal conversation, this ecstatic gloom of like, oh, this is what my life is. Is this what I want my life to be? (inaudible)Lesley Logan 5:49 And oh, my God, I get to lay on the couch. That's the ecstatic part. You have to have ecstatic part of the gloom.Brad Crowell 6:13 Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't know how many people like I think the I think there was this weird perception that we can learn another language, but that never happened for us. Lesley Logan 6:21 People did make sourdough, Brad, not us, we weren't those people. Brad Crowell 6:25 We were not those people, but people did make sourdough. Lesley Logan 6:28 Our dog got walked fucking 12 fucking miles a day. That's right.Brad Crowell 6:33 But, but I, you know, I think that, you know, we're already five years past Covid, and I think this is a good time to check in and be like, Hey, I had this realization back then. You know, I made changes in my life, the changes that I made. Am I happy with them still? So, yeah. So today is Marooned Without A Compass Day. Lesley Logan 6:55 Yeah, but you don't have to go on an island and get a volleyball and name it Wilson. You can just use Hey, I just studied the Hermit card today. That was my hermit and my Tarot reading, because my new hobby, okay, and it's about taking time to be alone and do some self-reflection and some inner like looking in your inner wisdom. Brad Crowell 7:13 How poignant. Lesley Logan 7:14 How poignant. But not well, because this is on November 6th, and I'm doing it today, but it is poignant that we're recording this today, and one of the things you have to ask yourself is, like, what, what does like self-reflection look like to you? How do you understand what your inner guidance is? And like, I really do think that a lot of us are very busy, and even some of us are really good at time by ourselves and even time with our self-care. But how often are we actually using our inner wisdom versus our outer wisdom? And this is something I work with, like, eLevate members when they're like, Okay, so what next? And I'm like, You got to go inside and, like, juice out what you learned already. Brad Crowell 7:52 Gotta go inside. Lesley Logan 7:53 Anyways. Well, that's cool. Like it. I like a good compass. I don't know how to use one, but I think about it all the time. Brad Crowell 8:01 It's okay. Lesley Logan 8:03 Don't download the free compass on your phone, because there is already a compass on your phone. Brad Crowell 8:08 Yeah, there's already a compass. You don't need to get another app. Lesley Logan 8:12 You actually, that's and that is also poignant, you already have a compass. It's already inside you. You guys.Brad Crowell 8:17 We're gonna blast through these, because there's a whole list now. So we're gonna move real fast, are you ready? Lesley Logan 8:22 I am ready. Brad Crowell 8:23 Here's what's happening in November. OPC is gonna have a Black Friday sale. Black Friday Cyber Monday sale is only gonna happen during the actual holiday weekend. We're not doing it before or after. Lesley Logan 8:32 No, we're not those weirdos who start on November 1st. Brad Crowell 8:34 Okay, so that's November. December, we're gonna be on the road doing our Winter Tour. Which tickets are already on sale. In fact, hopefully the tickets are sold out at this point. HoweverLesley Logan 8:43 Let me tell you, we are recording this before they go on sale, and people have already bought tickets. I'm not sure how, but they did. So that's how quick the tickets go. Brad Crowell 8:50 If you are trying to find out more about that, go to opc.me/tour, opc.me/tour. Lesley Logan 8:57 Just, can we go back to November? I just want to be very specific, because I don't think it was very specific. We are only doing a Black Friday, Cyber Monday for OPC. So if you are, we're excited for a Profitable Pilates discount. We are not doing that. We will have more information. In fact, if you were on our email list, you would already know this and have more information. But we are.Brad Crowell 9:15 Cool. So the next thing on our list is, in December, we're going to have a Profitable Pilates sale. And that's a secret that we're giving to you here on the pod. Y'all listeners, if you ever wanted to try Agency out for, you know, a short time. Lesley Logan 9:29 Like a little mini. Brad Crowell 9:33 Like, a little month. Lesley Logan 9:36 Not a month, but a little mini. Brad Crowell 9:38 No, I think it's gonna be a month of Agency. Lesley Logan 9:35 Oh, we're doing something fun. Brad Crowell 9:36 Yeah, we're doing something new and fun. We're trying out Agency, so. Lesley Logan 9:39 I know, you guys, I do know about this, and I forgot. Brad Crowell 9:42 While we're not doing a Black Friday, Cyber Monday for Profitable Pilates, we're going to give you all the opportunity to hop in for a brief time, to get to know us, to see, kick the tires as it were. But stay tuned for the end of December, after Christmas, before the new year. Okay. Lesley Logan 9:57 Oh, guys, there's so much more ready. Can I take over? January, my birthday month, you're welcome to send gifts. Pilates Journal Expo in Huntington Beach. Go to xxLL.co/pilatesjournal, I am teaching some great workshops, a world premiere of a workshop, by the way, why your clients don't get it? I'm super excited about that and some other good stuff. And then also, in January, you want to make sure you're already on the waitlist. So don't get on the waitlist in January, go on the waitlist now for Cambodia, because in January is the early bird discount, and only those on the waitlist get that invite. In February, the month of love.Brad Crowell 10:29 Wait. Go to crowsnestretreats.com to get yourself on the waitlist.Lesley Logan 10:33 Thank God for Brad. Okay, February, Agency Mini is happening in February, so you want to get on the waitlist for that. Do you hear how we have waitlist? Why do you have waitlists? Because you get all the good stuff, including somehow people buying tickets early for the tour. So prfit.biz/mini. That's profit without the O dot biz slash mini. It's three days of epicness for your business. I promise you it will light a fire on your ass. You will not feel marooned without a compass. That is for fucking sure. Brad Crowell 10:59 That's for sure. Lesley Logan 11:00 And then in March, we are in Poland at the Contrology Pilates conference with Karen Frischmann on all the Contrology equipment. It's gonna be so fun. That's xxLL.co/poland also in March, we're in Brussels at Els Studio. It's really amazing with Karen Frischmann and, Brad, did I tell you, Ignacio is gonna be there. Brad Crowell 11:00 Oh, I thought it was Miguel. Lesley Logan 11:02 No, that's for something else I'm doing. No, Ignacio. Brad Crowell 11:15 That's so great. Lesley Logan 11:15 I know I'm so excited. I found out when.Brad Crowell 11:15 I saw some photos, but I. Lesley Logan 11:15 Yeah, I know I'm so excited. It's a Vintage and Friends Program at Els Studio in Brussels. We are teaching different workshops in Poland and Brussels, so you can actually go to both, or you can pick which weekend you want, but it's Karen and I, and Ignacio is only in Poland, and Brad's coming along. xxLL.co/brussels, and then in April, P.O.T. London. Okay, we're, that's a lot, guys,Brad Crowell 11:59 That's a whole lot. Lesley Logan 12:02 We're not doing anything else the rest of the year, all right, before. Brad Crowell 12:11 That's not true at all. Lesley Logan 12:02 That's not true at all. But we're, well, we're not doing a lot of international stuff besides the retreat. Anyways, let's get into the question. We have to talk about Danielle still. What's the question? Brad Crowell 12:12 Let's do it. All right. So this is regarding Swan Dive on the Wunda Chair @DeniseBraunStargazer on YouTube asks, What spring tension would you recommend for this movement tips for swan dive on the Wunda Chair on an Exo chair. So an EXO ChairLesley Logan 12:27 So, an EXO chair is still a Wunda chair. Here, it's, I appreciate that it has its own name, because it is different than a traditional Wunda Chair. But the thing that makes it different is the angle of the pedal, the weight of the chair. I'm sure Ken will tell me a bunch of other things that are different. And also, but to the eye and to the use, and also, the cactus thing on the back has four springs. But they have other things that have four four hooks, I should say, two springs, four hooks. So if you're using my flash cards, you'll see that there's a how to use this deck card, and that card actually will tell you that on a chair that has four hooks, so that'd be an Exo chair or anything else that has four hooks. I ignore the fourth hook on an Exo chair unless you absolutely need it. And the person who edits our flash cards actually only has an Exo chair, so she edited these cards with the Exo chair in mind, so without seeing you do The Swan, my guess is you should start with one spring on a two. So the cactus on an Exo chair has numbers one spring on the two. Now that being said, you could be fun sized and you need a one. You could be in a more of a body abundance or chest abundance bodies. You have a little bit more weight going on the pedal. So then you might need a three. You might be super advanced and only need a one. You might be a beginner and need a three. So the thing about the Wunda Chair that people don't understand this goes with EXO Chair as well, is that the springs are like pirate rules guidelines get to choose them, do you remember what was the line in the Pirate movie? Their pirate rules are just like thoughts, things to do. You know the line of the movie. Brad Crowell 14:07 What are you talking about? Lesley Logan 14:08 Johnny Depp's movie of the Pirates. They're like guidelines. Everyone is knows what I'm talking about. if they watched this movie, I'm gonna look it up later. Anyways, on the Chair. So another example on a Wunda Chair is on the flash cards. I say that a pull up is often done on a one, one spring on a one and one spring on a three. That would be (inaudible).Brad Crowell 14:30 Okay it's about the pirate rules, they'e more like guidelines. Lesley Logan 14:31 Correct. That's how the Wunda Chair.Brad Crowell 14:31 Parlay, I think it's parlay. Lesley Logan 14:33 Parlay, parlay. So that's exactly how a Wunda Chair works in an Exo chair. So if we ignore the fourth hook on the Exo chair, then you have a one, two and a three, or what we'll often say in classical Pilates, a top and a bottom. One is a bottom and a three is a top, and then a middle spring is a two. So if the traditional parlay on a pull up is a top and a bottom, so a Wunda, three on an Exo chair, that would be the guideline. However, right now I'm doing pull up on a one top. That's pretty impressive, Brad, you should be impressed. It's impressive.Brad Crowell 15:08 I'm so impressed right now, it's one on top. Lesley Logan 15:11 And then the other thing to go off of, guys is, is the spring working with you, meaning the spring should never be pushing you around, nor you bossing it around. It's your dance partner. So today it might be a two. Tomorrow might be a three. I know, this is annoying because you just want to know, but that means you're trying to be a perfectionist and not someone who is using their inner compass. That's all I have to say about that. All right, if you have questions, send them to beitpod.com/questions or you can text us at 310-905-5534, if it's international, you gotta do a plus one. All right, Brad, let's talk about Danielle. Brad Crowell 15:44 Or just use the website. Go to beitpod.com/questions. Stick around. We'll be right back. We're gonna dig into all this amazing stuff we learned from Danielle Droitsch. Brad Crowell 15:55 All right, let's talk about Danielle Droitsch. Danielle spent decades as a lawyer in the environmental policy world. Oh, that's where we learned it, leading teams and. Lesley Logan 16:05 Leaving it. Leaving it. Brad Crowell 16:07 Leading teams and directing big projects. But after 25 years, she hit a wall and realized the traditional path of titles and skills was not bringing her fulfillment. That turning point led her into coaching, where she now helps mid to senior leaders uncover their superpowers, the natural strengths that create meaning, energy and impact. Instead of piling on more certifications or chasing someone else's version of success, she shows people how to tap into what already is inside of them. Lesley Logan 16:35 Sounds like a lot of our listeners need to hear that because I remember Erika Quest and I did a whole wealthy mindset weekend about like imposter syndrome. And one of the things, sign of you imposter syndrome is that you continually acquire more certifications. And look, I think Danielle would agree with me, learning is cool. You got to keep learning. But if you keep thinking that the next certification is going to make you happy, that is the wrong motivation. So she defined superpowers as your innate ability to create impact. I love that. Your innate ability to create impact. You guys, if you aren't hearing a theme about today, it is, are you using your inner compass? Are you taking time to understand yourself? Are you talking yourself up? She states that these are often hidden to you, and unless you've gone through the exercise of actually figuring out your superpowers, you do not likely know them. This is so true. I think when we coach people, the often thing is like, oh, my god, that's amazing, right? We talk about you're the only person who can do what you do the way you do it. And people like, it's come so easy to me, it's like, yeah, it comes not easy to everyone else, like, no one else gets it. And we do need a mirror. We need some way. We need a Danielle to tell us, like, oh, this is the thing that you do really well. Also it's often the thing that people keep asking you questions about, which is why I should go into being a skincare influencer.Brad Crowell 18:00 The thing that I thought was really neat about her talking about your innate abilities is she said people will often describe their quote, unquote superpowers to her, and she would disagree with them, right? So they're, they're like, you know, I'm really good at I don't know whatever organizing or they think it always revolves around work. I think that's ultimately what her point was, that they always apply it around work. And she's saying that's not necessarily the case. For example, for her, she said, of course, I was a competent attorney, but what I was really doing around the office was making sure that everybody was feeling part of the team, feeling included, and being, you know, like, encouraging and uplifting. And she said, Actually, I never pegged that as my superpower until way after I was always just, like, actually, she said she literally thought it was her weakness. I'm being too kind. I'm so kind. I need to be less kind. I need to be more more, ruthless, you know. And she said that's because I was applying my kindness to my execution of my job. But I was, I was imagining that that's a weakness, when really it was my strength, you know. And so it was really, it was really interesting. And she said they're often hidden to you and but she's she did talk a lot about energy and what, what makes you, what feeds you, what lights you up.Lesley Logan 19:26 She said a way to figure it out is you need to follow the energy, because when engaging activities align with what your superpowers, the time flies by. So episode 400 Your Genius Zone. Alternatively, tasks that are draining to you indicate a lack of alignment. If we go back to Kareen Walsh and her, like, Drain Joy list, right? Like so and I think what happens is we're all like, Oh my God, I need to get better at this. Like, I would like, often if you have like, I need to be more detailed, and I need to work on being more detailed. But being more detailed was, like, nailed on a chalkboard because I'm like, well, how much more detailed do I need to be? Like, this seems quite obvious to me. No, I'm just not a detailed person, period. Guess why? Everyone on the team has detailed in their fucking strengths? Because I don't. I don't have it. That was my elbow. If you heard that on the podcast. Anyways, it's fine, don't worry. Didn't hit a funny bone. But I just really like what she said about that. I think it's a great way to think about things. And I also love that she shared what she thought, that she thought her strength was a weakness, like I think, I think that's very relatable. What did you love?Brad Crowell 20:31 Just for those of you who are wondering, Kareen's episode was number 27 and she had a follow up episode, which was episode 397, so. Lesley Logan 20:42 Whoa, already that many episodes behind? (inaudible) I feel like that just happened. Okay. Well, here we are. You know what? I'm clearly in my my fucking like. Brad Crowell 20:56 You're detailing it away here, babe. Lesley Logan 20:58 No, I'm not detailing anymore, because we added those FYFs, so I don't know what the numbers are anyway, but I just want to say I'm clearly following my energy, because time is flying by. Brad Crowell 21:07 Flying by. What I really loved is when she was talking about, we have this. I mean, all right, y'all have heard me talk about strengths finders and CliftonStrengths and all that stuff like, for years. Lesley Logan 21:20 For years. Brad Crowell 21:21 For years. But she said we have this societally reinforced tendency to focus on our weaknesses. Lesley Logan 21:29 Oh, my whole, my ex's biggest thing, and we talked about this on the podcast that we used to do about dating, my ex's biggest thing is, like, you're not this, you're not this, you're not this. And I'm like, okay, I got to be one of those things. And no, no one liked me for those things. So here we are.Brad Crowell 21:46 Yeah, also, that's so annoying. I mean, you know, like, I think about it. And she was laughing because she said, we have kids. And the kids, you know, if they came home from school with a D, I would be like, you need to be doing better, right? Even if they even if they were like, well, that's not my strength, she still would say, no, you need to do better. Because I think that there's a time and a place for in in the typical world of learning. The way that we educate people here in the United States, you know, it's based on test results. And now that may be changing over time, but our generation that was all that mattered was the grade at the end of it. So if you didn't get a grade, then you did not pass, right? And so this pass-fail concept, you know, it drives us to thinking that that applies in life, right? It applies at our job, it applies in our personal lives. And that's not actually the way that it functions in the rest of the world, education is different than the rest of the world, right? And so what we do, though, is, because that's how we were taught, we take that and we apply it. And so we think that we need to be better. We just need to be better at all the things, even if that's not the thing we should be focusing on. Lesley Logan 22:54 All the things. All the time. Brad Crowell 22:54 Right? And so what do we do? We get in our job, and we're like, wow, I'm really not good at numbers. I guess I need to be better at numbers. So I'll go take a course at numbers, and then you end up hating it, and you're like, oh, I hate everything I'm doing now because I just have to do numbers, you know? And instead, if we were focusing or leaning into our strengths, and this is what Danielle was saying, you know, it will, it'll change our attitude around our it'll change our our vigor, our excitement, our our mindset completely around the thing that we're doing, and probably give us a whole lot more joy. She advised paying attention to what energizes you, right? And you know, there are cases where you have to, you know, do something that you don't want to do, but eventually you want to outsource those kinds of things, you know? And we've talke about. Lesley Logan 23:40 Also, we've done this on the retreat, if you want to know why you should come on the retreat, sometimes people are doing things that they think they have to do. Brad Crowell 23:49 That's, yeah, that's exactly what I'm saying. Lesley Logan 23:52 And like you and and outsourcing, like people like outsourcing can be expensive. Sometimes you can just delete it. You don't even have to do it. We live in a world with some amazing technology, robots, subscriptions, like you. If you hate the grocery store, you can put things on auto ship. You just can.Brad Crowell 24:10 Yeah, that's, that's exactly, that's exactly right. Like, what if you hate grocery shopping? Great. Put it on repeat. You don't have to actually go do any of that. You know, the way that we live today, it's amazing. But anyway, you know, she said, what energizes you often correlates with the things that you're really good at, and you know it gives you joy. And you know that will change your excitement about life. You know, around the horn, so.Lesley Logan 24:38 So in Pilates, Jay always told us, like, whatever you don't like, you have to do twice, because like your body, your body needs it. This is very different than like, how you do work and and your strengths, right? So when it comes to like, balancing your balances. And today, this is, I don't know if that has anything to do with this episode, but I want to share this with you. Okay, so today we had to do. frog in in class, frog, which is your fucking favorite, and I hate everything everything about it. I hate everything about it. And I don't think we were in frog one minute, but it felt like 17 years. But when we were in pigeon, which probably is only one minute, if I just was like, I think we're in pigeon, for like, three minutes, it went by so it just flew by, because I love pigeon so much, and I just like, I'm like, pigeon feels so good in my body, but frog doesn't feel good at all. And if I could avoid, if I was in charge, we would never frog.Brad Crowell 25:37 We would never frog. If Lesley was in charge we would never frog. Lesley Logan 25:41 But I did tell Anthony, I said, I said, you know how we don't like what we need? And he said, yeah, I'm like, I really hate that. Anyways, you got to (inaudible) energizes you, because what doesn't energize me is frog and yoga. Brad Crowell 26:00 Well, maybe in your body, it's kind of like educating. You need to be balancing things out, or your body will break. Lesley Logan 26:05 Yeah, I don't think you should. Here's the thing, because there's a woman named Joanna who I'm trying to get on the pod guys, I really am. She's got the Unlearn IG and we're close. We got close. We got we're getting closer. Stay tuned on that. But she said in her TED talk, she said, like, kids should fail at things because they need to learn how to fail, right? Like, on a low level thing, however, like, there's a difference between not trying and like not understanding and like not being a skill. And I do agree, like, we don't want kids to not know how to balance their budget, so like, you got to learn how to add and subtract. But like, also, I think what happens is we put up, like you said already, we put this pressure you that has to be your focus, as opposed to like, just get like, decent at it, and that way you can enjoy the English class that you love, or the Shakespeare class that you love, or whatever it is. Yeah, I'm in. It makes sense in my brain, Brad.Brad Crowell 27:05 Great, I love it. Okay, stick around. We'll be right back. We're going to dig into those Be It Actions that we got from Danielle Droitsch. Brad Crowell 27:05 All right, let's talk about those Be It Action Items. What bold, executable, intrinsic or targeted action items can we take away from your convo with Danielle Droitsch? I'm gonna jump in right away. She emphasized that you don't need your entire day to be quote, unquote fulfilling. Lesley Logan 27:27 I agree. Brad Crowell 27:28 This is interesting, right? You don't need your entire day to be fulfilling. Even a relatively small portion dedicated to your strengths can significantly increase your job satisfaction. What was really interesting is she is backing this up with statistics. It wasn't just like this, this like thing that she's winging it here. She said, hey, observe for the last for at least one week, observe what activities give you energy. Aim to dedicate at least 20% of your day or your week to these energizing superpowers. Act these superpower activities to significantly boost fulfillment. So. Lesley Logan 28:03 2% of your day is 30 minutes. What's 20% of your day? How many hours? How many?Brad Crowell 28:08 Well, we're hold on 20 so 20% of eight hours would be one and a half hours. So if you were like in the zone as it were, for an hour and a half.Lesley Logan 28:20 You're in your superpower for an hour and a half a day. Brad Crowell 28:23 A day. Lesley Logan 28:23 But you don't have to do it all at once. You could do it, but. Brad Crowell 28:26 No, but probably, if you're like, if time has disappeared, you've cranked through an hour and a half.Lesley Logan 28:31 And some of your strength. Yeah, yeah. It's probably true. But also, just for my perfectionist listening, it's okay. It's gonna probably be okay if it's 30 minutes in the morning, 30 minutes in the afternoon, 30.Brad Crowell 28:40 It might be, it might be teaching time for you, because that's when things like, you know, go and that's okay, and that's good, yeah, you know, like when I was working for somebody else. And even now, what I often like to do is I sit down for, you know, a work block in my head. I'm like, okay, this will be my morning work block before I get up and go to lunch or whatever. And I usually try to give myself, like a three hour, like two to three hour like hard work block. And my hope is that in that time I do hit the zone, I'm in that zone, you know. And if I can do two a day of these work blocks, I have had an effective day. Now, what often happens for me is I'll do probably one in the late morning, and then I'll do another one at like, nine o'clock at night,you know or.Brad Crowell 28:40 You feel like you're in your strength to Danielle's point, not just like those. You feel like you're.Brad Crowell 28:57 Well, usually when you're in the zone, as it were. Lesley Logan 28:57 Time is just flying by. Brad Crowell 28:57 Yeah, you're doing you're using your strength, because time is going and you're not realizing it, and you know it's okay. You're, you know, you're, you're effectively using your superpower.Brad Crowell 28:57 When I'm doing Pilates, time flies by. Oh, my God, it flies by. I looked at the clock. It was like 44 minutes. I was like, whoa, where did the hour ago? Brad Crowell 29:49 You're just gonna do Pilates all day, every day?Lesley Logan 29:50 Apparently, only do an hour and a half, then I'd like, I'm gonna significantly save my life. I'm just saying. Anyway, mine.Brad Crowell 29:58 I don't think that's what I was saying, but we'll go with it.Lesley Logan 30:00 That's my takeaway, because she said, just follow your energy. That's where your superpower is lived. Brad Crowell 30:01 We're not talking about work. We're not talking about play, but. Lesley Logan 30:09 My job is Pilates. Brad Crowell 30:11 Yeah, but the point is teaching. That's not talking about doing.Lesley Logan 30:16 I understand, I understand. I understand. Brad Crowell 30:18 Okay, just making sure that we're clear. Lesley Logan 30:20 We're clear. I am going to spend more time with myself. She explained that confidence also doesn't come from faking it. Duh. That's why we call it the Be It Till You See It podcast. That's why she's on. That's why she's on. But in activating what is true about you, and it's not built through the mindset, rather, is built through action and failure and success and getting right back up. So you're gonna you're gonna fail, you're gonna reflect, you're gonna correct, and you're gonna continue. That's right to do, and you're gonna get better at it. You don't have to do it perfectly the first time. Brad Crowell 30:52 Yeah, you do not. Lesley Logan 30:53 So follow your energy. And if you're like, oh, that was the wrong energy, great. You now, now tomorrow, you won't follow that one. You have your new inner compass that's gonna tell you the right direction. I'm Lesley Logan.Brad Crowell 31:03 Well before we sign off, I actually just got off a coaching call with a client, and we were talking about rolling out a program, and she said, I just don't think I have she said, what lights me up is educating educators. So she likes to teach teachers. We're talking about Pilates here. And she said, I have my own clients, and I do really enjoy teaching them, but what really lights me up is teaching teachers. She said, the problem I have is that I I can't stop teaching to take on more educating teachers. And she said she's feeling really stuck. And what she said in her like offhand, she was like, and to do like, you know, I got to roll it out, and it's got to be perfect, and I got to do this thing, and I got to do that. And I was like, hold up. Hold up. You know and we had a conversation about this idea of introducing a new product or introducing a new service, and it having to be perfect. I said it has taken us, for our retreats, for example, the very first retreat, I worked on it for a year, I put my my heart and soul into organizing this thing, right. And I was like, we got this and we went and we executed it. And afterwards, we were like, we already have things we want to change. In fact, we did not really totally lock in the flow of events, the schedule of this retreat for like, 10 retreats. It was maybe after the eighth or 10th retreat where we were, like, we're done swapping days around. We've decided these are the days of things running. These are when lunches should be. These are the activity blocks. This is the free time blocks, like we. Lesley Logan 32:42 They were, by the way, they're all amazing. We just, we. Brad Crowell 32:44 That's not, not, not what I'm saying. Each experience was different, but afterwards, we were like, we want to make another change. We want to make another change. We we were all really tired after this one experience because we pushed it too hard. Okay, how do we tweak it? Lesley Logan 32:58 I also got rid of February because we realized we just love October.Brad Crowell 33:00 Whatever the point is, we, it wasn't until us, having done the experience, like, almost 10 times, that we were like, oh my God, it's amazing. We have it dialed in, right? So the point is, no perfectionism. Perfection is not real. It's never going to be real. It will never be perfect. We will always have something that we want to adjust after the fact.Lesley Logan 33:22 Yes, always. That's why, in the show, we say, take messy action. Make messy action. Wow, guys, it is late for us on this recording date. So I'm Lesley Logan. Brad Crowell 33:32 And I'm Brad Crowell. Lesley Logan 33:33 We love you. Use your inner compass. Go follow the energy. Tell Danielle how you did it. Reach out to her. She's got some great stuff going on and share this with a friend who needs to hear it, the friend who's like focusing on all the shit that drives them crazy and drains them. Oh my God, that's annoying to be around. Brad Crowell 33:49 Send them this episode. Lesley Logan 33:51 Yes, they'll find out now why you did it. Anyways, until next time, Be It Till You See It.Lesley Logan 33:51 Bye for now. Lesley Logan 33:57 That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.Brad Crowell 34:41 It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.Lesley Logan 34:46 It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.Brad Crowell 34:50 Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.Lesley Logan 34:57 Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.Brad Crowell 35:00 Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/be-it-till-you-see-it/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
Today's episode is an interview with Sheryl Roberts, author of a new book about her life as a missionary and homeschool mom of 10 children in Cambodia. Sheryl's wisdom and experience can teach us all about a refreshing way to look at leading and serving. Beyond the Green Gate by Sheryl Roberts Next Steps: Schedule a coaching call: https://homeschoolcommunitybuilders.com/ Join our Facebook group- Lead Your Homeschool Co-op https://www.facebook.com/groups/72507320516066 Become a Lead Your Homeschool Co-op Insider and get first dibs on valuable resources to help you lead, organize, and connect your community. https://homeschoolcommunitybuilders.com/contact/
On this Stakscast, I sit down with Victor Marx—USMC veteran, high-risk missionary, and founder of All Things Possible Ministries—who just launched his 2026 campaign for Governor of Colorado. His story reads like a novel: molested and left in a commercial cooler at age 5…years of brutal abuse, rage, drugs, and PTSD…then a radical encounter with Jesus that set him free. Victor went on to rescue more than 45,000 women and children from trafficking and terror across Syria, Iraq, Cambodia, and beyond. Now he says Colorado is at a crossroads—and he's running to put faith, family and freedom back at the center. We cover: The turning point: from a closet standoff with a violent stepfather to surrendering his life to Christ Forgiveness that heals: the face-to-face with his abuser—and what finally broke the chains Why he's running: parents over bureaucrats, courage over politics, people over special interests If Colorado chooses Victor Marx, it won't just be electing a governor—it'll be choosing a leader forged in fire who knows how to fight for the vulnerable and lead with courage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Uncovering the deep connection between Buddhism and Martial Arts, Damiano Seiryū Finizio joins Vincent Moore to explore what it truly means to face our most powerful opponent: the mind.This conversation was originally recorded on Paths of Practice Podcast. Listen to more episodes HERE.Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/beherenow and get on your way to being your best self.This time on the BHNN Guest Podcast, Damiano and Vincent discuss:What initially brought Damiano to Buddhism after growing up in Italy, a predominantly Catholic countryHow Buddhism can be harmonious with martial arts Working on self-development and mutual growth rather than sparring Maintaining perfect mental presence during times of physical discomfort Following the Buddhist precepts and adopting a vegan diet for the principal of no-harmMountains as natural energy centersDamiano's global work and exposure to unique cultures in Vietnam, Cambodia, The Canary Islands, and moreBringing the message of peace, awareness, and compassion into the westDamiano's advice for beginners walking the Buddhist pathAbout Damiano Seiryū Finizio:Damiano Finizio was born in Italy in 1992. He began practicing traditional Japanese martial arts in 2012, where he met the Buddhist monk Seiun, who transformed his curiosity for Eastern disciplines and philosophies into dedicated practice. In 2014, he officially took refuge in the Dharma at Tenryuzanji Temple, receiving the name Seiryu, symbolizing his deep bond with his teacher and the temple. Since 2020, he has been living and working in Spain as a hostel owner, while also working seasonally in Italy and Croatia as a trip leader during the warmer months. Despite his commitments, he remains an active member of the Tenryuzanji community and continues to participate in its activities whenever possible.For more information about Tenryuzanji Temple, please click HERE. To keep up with Damiano, visit his Instagram.“The advice is don't do it yourself. It's very likely to happen that you're trying to tame your mind, but if you don't know how to do it, most likely your mind will tame you and make you feel like you're moving forward, but you're just looking for comfort. This is why a teacher is important.“ –Damiano Seiryū FinizioAbout Vincent Moore:Vincent Moore is a creative and creative consultant living in San Francisco, California, with over a decade of experience in the entertainment industry and holds a graduate degree in Buddhist Studies. For years, he performed regularly at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, an improv and sketch comedy theatre based in New York and Los Angeles. As an actor, Vincent performed on Comedy Central, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, The Late Show with Seth Meyers, Above Average, and The UCB Show on Seeso. As a writer, he developed for television as well as stage, including work with the Blue Man Group, and his own written projects have been featured on websites such as Funny or Die. Additionally, he received a Masters of Buddhist Studies from the Institute of Buddhist Studies with a Certificate in Soto Zen Studies and engages in a personal Buddhist practice within the Soto Zen tradition. Vincent is also the creator and host of the podcast, Paths of Practice, which features interviews with Buddhists from all over the world. Learn more on Vincent's website HERE.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Send us a textWelcome our guest, Rhiana Holmes Turner, LPC, LAC, is a licensed mental health professional and Approved Clinical Supervisor based in Denver, Colorado, with multi-state licensure across Colorado, Florida, Texas, and Kansas. She has expertise in trauma-informed, care and a career spanning community advocacy, international mental health work, and psychopharmacology education, Turner brings a unique lens to this raw and resonant conversation.In this episode of Tell Me About Your Mother, Evan and Rhiana open up about their work with some of the most misunderstood populations — from genocide survivors in Cambodia to clients who have committed murder. The discussion explores what it means to show up authentically as a therapist, the projections therapists carry, and the radical empathy required to do the work well.Topics include:Working with genocide survivors in Cambodia and unintentional publicationNarrative therapy and reintegration between victims and perpetratorsCoercion, moral ambiguity, and the psychology of violenceTreating clients who have killed someone — and confronting therapist biasRejection-prevention behaviors and shame in clinical relationshipsBlank slate therapists vs. authenticity and immediacyAttachment dynamics, regulation, and what actually makes couples therapy workThe universal human need to feel loved, accepted, and safe — even for therapists Support the showHave any questions or insights about this episode? Reach out to us at contactus@tellmeaboutyourmother.run
Operation “Chargeback” takes down global fraud networks. An investigation reveals the dangers of ADINT. M&S profits plunge after a cyberattack. Google patches a critical Android flaw. Asian prosecutors seize millions from an accused Cambodian scam kingpin. Ohio residents are still guessing water bills months after a cyberattack. Houston firefighters deny blame in city data breach. Nikkei reports a slack breach exposing 17,000 records.The Google–Wiz deal clears DOJ review. Ann Johnson welcomes her Microsoft colleague Frank X. Shaw to Afternoon Cyber Tea. Norway parks its Chinese Bus in a cave, just in case. Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Miss an episode? Sign-up for our daily intelligence roundup, Daily Briefing, and you'll never miss a beat. And be sure to follow CyberWire Daily on LinkedIn. Afternoon Cyber Tea On this month's segment from Afternoon Cyber Tea, host Ann Johnson welcomes Frank X. Shaw, Chief Communications Officer at Microsoft, to explore the critical role of communication in cybersecurity. They discuss how transparency and trust shape effective response to cyber incidents, the importance of breaking down silos across teams, and how AI is transforming communication strategies. You can listen to Ann and Frank's full conversation here, and catch new episodes of Afternoon Cyber Tea every other Tuesday on your favorite podcast app. Selected Reading Operation Chargeback: 4.3 million cardholders affected, EUR 300 million in damages - Three criminal networks suspected of misusing credit card data from cardholders across 193 countries; 18 suspects arrested (Europol) Databroker Files: Targeting the EU (Netzpolitik) M&S profits almost wiped out after cyber hack left shelves empty (BBC News) Google releases November 2025 Android patch, fixes critical zero-click flaw (Beyond Machines) Prosecutors seize yachts, luxury cars from man accused of running Cambodia cyberscams (NPR) Cyberattack that crippled Middletown's systems shows how hackers target smaller cities (Cincinnati.com) Houston data breach exposes firefighters' personal info, union says they're being blamed (Click2Houston) Japanese publishing company Nikkei suffers Slack compromise exposing data of over 17,000 people (Beyond Machines) Google Clears DOJ Antitrust Hurdle for $32 Billion Wiz Deal (Bloomberg) Dybt i et norsk fjeld blev en kinesisk bybus splittet ad. En status på vores frygt (Zetland) Share your feedback. What do you think about CyberWire Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. Want to hear your company in the show? N2K CyberWire helps you reach the industry's most influential leaders and operators, while building visibility, authority, and connectivity across the cybersecurity community. Learn more at sponsor.thecyberwire.com. The CyberWire is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Cambodia Becomes First To Vault Its Gold In China Vince Lanci has been reporting on how China has been setting up a gold vaulting network, and now they just got their first customer. As Cambodia has decided to store its gold in China. This is a big shift in the gold market, and to find out more, click to watch today's video now! - To get access to Vince's research in 'Goldfix Premium' go to: https://vblgoldfix.substack.com/ - Get your free copy of Arcadia's Silver Report here: https://goldandsilverdaily.substack.com/p/arcadia-silver-report-an-overview - Get access to Arcadia's Daily Gold and Silver updates here: https://goldandsilverdaily.substack.com/ - Join our free email list to be notified when a new video comes out: click here: https://arcadiaeconomics.com/email-signup/ - Follow Arcadia Economics on twitter at: https://x.com/ArcadiaEconomic - To get your copy of 'The Big Silver Short' (paperback or audio) go to: https://arcadiaeconomics.com/thebigsilvershort/ - Listen to Arcadia Economics on your favorite Podcast platforms: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/75OH2PpgUpriBA5mYf5kyY Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/arcadia-economics/id1505398976 - #silver #silverprice #gold And remember to get outside and have some fun every once in a while!:) (URL0VD)Subscribe to Arcadia Economics on Soundwise
There are few chapters in American military history as daring, secretive, and defining as MACV-SOG, the Military Assistance Command-Vietnam, Studies and Observations Group. A small band of elite Green Berets who operated deep behind enemy lines, often without acknowledgment, and always with extraordinary courage.These men were tasked with missions that had never been done before and might never be done again. Their work in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam forged the tactics, technology, and mindset that would become the DNA of modern Special Operations.But when they came home, many faced a different kind of battle. The Vietnam era brought with it a complex legacy, one of heroism and heartbreak, pride and pain. Some became business and political leaders; others struggled for decades to find peace. Yet through it all, the brotherhood forged in MACV-SOG never wavered.Live from the 2nd Annual Stars and Stripes Classic, we sat down with Doug Godshall and Jim Shorten, two veterans of MACV-SOG, to honor their service, preserve their stories, and remind today's Green Berets what courage, sacrifice, and innovation truly mean.This episode is about the origins of Special Forces as we know them today, the unbreakable bonds formed in war, and the duty we all share to ensure that the lessons of MACV-SOG live on in every generation of those who don the Green Beret.HIGHLIGHTS0:00 Introduction1:42 Welcome to the Stars & Stripes Classic3:06 Defining MACV-SOG5:54 Who were the partner forces?7:20 MACV-SOG Losses11:27 Why Become A Green Beret?14:42 Life Post-Vietnam19:35 Leadership Lessons from MACV-SOG22:54 Honoring MACV-SOG VeteransQUOTES“We had no identification that we were United States soldiers.”“MACV-SOG had the highest casualty rate of any US Army unit since the Civil War.”“We were very dedicated to the Montangards.”“We wouldn't be alive but for our indigenous partners.”“Teams went out and didn't come back. They were overrun upon landing.”“The Vietnamese War was highlighted by a lot of enemy infiltration into our ranks.”“Our generation wasn't supportive.”“I'm one of those guys that likes to continue learning.”“You can never train up enough.”“You can be whatever you want to be if you put your mind to it.”“I think the modern GWOT soldier has a lot of history to look back on and they're going to be better soldiers."“If you really want to run the mission, get all the training you can possibly get.”“We're glad that you're honoring us, but you're honoring you and the rest of the Regiment as well.”The Jedburgh Podcast is brought to you by University of Health & Performance, providing our Veterans world-class education and training as fitness and nutrition entrepreneurs.Follow the Jedburgh Podcast and the Green Beret Foundation on social media. Listen on your favorite podcast platform, read on our website, and watch the full video version on YouTube as we show why America must continue to lead from the front, no matter the challenge.The Jedburgh Podcast and the Jedburgh Media Channel are an official program of The Green Beret Foundation.
Kerry Lutz and Bill Walton break down President Trump's recent Asia tour — a trip that could redefine global power. From brokering peace between Cambodia and Thailand to strengthening U.S.-Asian ties, Trump's moves may be shifting influence away from China. They compare Asia's economic rise with Europe's decline and argue that Trump's strategy favors economic incentives over military pressure. The discussion also dives into tribal and political tensions in India and Pakistan, where economic competition could replace conflict. Kerry and Bill also turn their sights on the U.S. — blasting Washington's failures in Ukraine, the government shutdown, and a system they say has lost accountability. From food aid fraud to New York's chaos, they call it a symptom of collapsing governance. Find Bill here: https://billwaltonshow.com Find Kerry here :https://khlfsn.substack.com and here: https://inflation.cafe https://khlfsn.substack.com Kerry's New Book "The World According to Martin Armstrong – Conversations with the Master Forecaster" is now a #1 Best Seller on Amazon. . Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/4kuC5p5
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sheds light on the shocking revelations surrounding the Arctic Frost investigation. Tune in as we discuss the extensive surveillance of hundreds of individuals, including bank and phone records, and the implications of such actions on American freedoms. Jim Jordan shares his insights on the political weaponization of investigations and the urgent need for reforms to protect citizens' rights. Later, Tennessee's Attorney General, Jonathan Skrmetti, discusses the recent legal victories in Tennessee that affirm state rights and protect parental authority. We delve into the implications of the Adult Entertainment Act and its First Amendment victory, as well as the significant ruling against the Biden administration's healthcare mandates regarding gender identity. Finally, we analyze the recent successes of President Trump's trip to Asia with former Deputy National Security Adviser Victoria Coates. We discuss significant developments such as the peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand, trade negotiations with China, and the potential for new regional alliances in the Pacific.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
President Trump's Asia trip kicks off with peace deal between Cambodia and Thailand and a trade framework with China, before meeting with President Xi Jinping on Thursday. The massive U.S. military build up in the Caribbean waters off the coast of Venezuela is causing concern from Caracas to the U.S. Congress, Venezuelan troops conduct drills on their beaches this weekend. And federal workers face growing financial strain as the government shutdown threatens holiday travel and food benefits.Want more comprehensive analysis of the most important news of the day, plus a little fun? Subscribe to the Up First newsletter.Today's episode of Up First was edited by Dana Farrington, Tara Neil, Kelsey Snell, Mohamad ElBardicy and Alice Woelfle .It was produced by Ziad Buchh, Ben Abrams and Christopher ThomasWe get engineering support from Neisha Heinis. And our technical director is Carleigh Strange.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Dave Rubin of "The Rubin Report" talks about "Real Time with Bill Maher" guest and former Biden administration official Kate Bedingfield getting into a tense exchange with Bill Maher over Zohran Mamdani's unwillingness to criticize Uganda for its policy of giving to death penalty to people for being gay; Scott Jennings getting CNN's Abby Phillip to defend Zohran Mamdani's making muslim New Yorkers out to be the real victims of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center; Gavin Newsom trying to convince the "All the Smoke Podcast" hosts think that he grew up poor by hiding his father's deep connections to Gordan Getty and the Getty family fortune; Arnold Schwarzenegger calling out Gavin Newsom's lies to CNN's Jake Tapper about Newsom's plan to make gerrymandering only temporary; Donald Trump's hilarious attack on the United Nations for being an alleged proponent of peace while he presided over the signing of a peace treaty between Thailand and Cambodia; new Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi announcing her plans to deal directly with Japan's birth rate problem and avoid resorting to immigration to solve labor shortages; and much more. Today's Sponsors: Crypto.com - Trump Media just signed a massive $6.4 billion deal with Yorkville Acquisition Corp. and Crypto.com. This new company will be the largest publicly traded CRO holder out there. For more information, visit Yorkville Corporation's Public filings: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1849635/000114036125032615/ef20054552_ex99-2.htm Go to https://crypto.com Perplexity AI - Use the Comet web browser, the new AI-web browser from Perplexity, that will completely change the way you are able to interact with your browser. Download Perplexity's new AI-web browser, Comet, by heading to: https://pplx.ai/RUBIN Plus, right now when you download Comet - you get a month of Rumble Premium for free! CBDistillery.com- Struggling with poor sleep or aches and pains? Take the advice of our over 2 million satisfied customers. Use CBD after physical activity for reductions in stress and pain. Use code RUBIN to save up to 25% off. Go to: http://CBDistillery.com and enter PROMO CODE: RUBIN
President Trump attends ASEAN summit in Malaysia, and oversees an agreement between Thailand and Cambodia to normalise relations after their short border conflict earlier this year. Also: Hurricane Melissa bears down on Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic; the anniversary of floods that killed more than 200 people in Valencia; groups of indigenous peoples may be wiped out in the next ten years; voting for the next mayor of New York; a former world chess champion denies bullying; the release date of a Japanese film about a bear attacking humans is delayed - because of real bear attacks; and the row over a new Chinese embassy in London.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: globalpodcast@bbc.co.uk