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Anne Ganguzza sits down with Billy Collura, a powerhouse agent with over 30 years at CESD New York. Billy shares his unique perspective on the dramatic evolution of the voice acting industry, from the early days of union-only radio spots to the current market dominated by non-union and digital opportunities. This conversation provides essential insight into the biggest voice acting trends that have shaped the industry and reveals the simple, authentic quality that makes a voice actor successful today. 00:03 - Anne (Host) Hey guys, it's Anne from VO Boss here.  00:06 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) And it's George the Tech. We're excited to tell you about the VO Boss. Vip membership, now with even more benefits.  00:12 - Anne (Host) So not only do you get access to exclusive workshops and industry insights, but with our VIP plus tech tier, you'll enjoy specialized tech support from none other than George himself.  00:23 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) You got it. I'll help you tackle all those tricky tech issues so you can focus on what you do best Voice acting. It's tech support tailored for voiceover professionals like you.  00:34 - Anne (Host) Join us guys at VO Boss and let's make your voiceover career soar. Visit vobosscom slash VIP-membership to sign up today.  00:43 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) Slash VIP-membership to sign up today. It's time to take your business to the next level, the boss level. These are the premier business owner strategies and successes being utilized by the industry's top talent today. Rock your business like a boss, a VO boss. Now let's welcome your host, Anne Ganguzza.  01:08 - Anne (Host) Hey everyone, Welcome to the VO Boss Podcast. I'm your host, Anne Ganguzza, and today I am thrilled to welcome someone who truly defines what it means to be a powerhouse in the voiceover industry. With more than 30 years at CESD New York, Billy Collura has been at the forefront of commercials and beyond, representing talent with a direct and grounded approach that has earned him the trust of clients and voice actors alike. I think it's fair to say that he doesn't just follow the changes in the business. He really helps to shape them. So, Billy, I am so excited to have you here on the podcast.  01:44 - Billy (Host) Thank you for asking me. Yeah, this is so nice, yeah.  01:47 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I love it, and of course we're like on opposite coasts here, so you're on my home coast and so I do miss New York quite a bit and we did have a little.  01:58 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) How often do you get out here, pardon me, do you get out here often?  02:00 - Billy (Host) Do you ever get out. You know what?  02:01 - Anne (Host) Not as often as I should. I really have now started to say I'm only coming out during the warm season because I'm done with the snow. Yeah, I hear you. But I would imagine like do you travel like elsewhere in the wintertime in New York, Because I know I stay here.  02:22 - Billy (Host) I travel a lot in general um during the course of the year, but um you know, I right now I'm upstate in well. I'm up in the Hudson Valley and in the city of Hudson, which is two hours North of Manhattan, so I go back and forth Um in the winter time. No, I'm usually, I don't know, I'm usually in the Northeast sometimes.  02:43 - Anne (Host) Okay, Are you a skier? Are you a skier? No, absolutely not, Absolutely not. That was, that was what a lot. What kept a lot of people on the East coast? Um, in my area anyways, they're like oh no, I have to be able to ski in the winter.  02:56 - Billy (Host) No, I don't like the cold.  02:57 - Anne (Host) Well, I have a. I have a mountaineer in California, Uh huh.  03:00 - Billy (Host) Uh-huh.  03:02 - Anne (Host) Oh my gosh. Well, anyways, it's so nice to see you again. It's been a while. I saw you at VO Atlanta and I'm just really thrilled that I have the opportunity to talk to you. I know how busy you are, but I'm just so excited that the bosses are going to get this opportunity to really benefit from your wisdom. And so, benefiting from the wisdom speaking of that, you've been at CESD for over three decades. Um, that's, that's amazing. So how would you say that your role as an agent has evolved during that time?  03:37 - Billy (Host) Well, you know like it started when I started. Um, it'll be. Um, it'll be 32 years in May. Oh my gosh, when I started, voiceover was a smaller industry and I dabbled in a little bit of everything, okay.  03:55 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) I did commercials.  03:57 - Billy (Host) There really wasn't. There was no internet back then. So we did radio and TV commercials and industrials and I'm not even sure cable was around when.  04:08 - Anne (Host) I started. I hear you. You know we didn't have computers, any of that.  04:13 - Billy (Host) So we did a little bit of everything. And then, you know, and promos, promos were a thing, and narration and trailers, and so, you know, we did a little bit of all of that. And then, as the industry kept getting bigger and bigger, we started specializing. And all of a sudden, in animation, I dabbled in gaming, but I also, you know, but pretty much my focus was commercials, because that's where the money is, you know, and that was the day where it was just, you know, it was just TV and radio, and you made the actors made a lot of money. Yeah, it was only union, we only worked on union jobs. And now fast forward to now, where 60% to 70% of my desk is non-union. We started doing non-union in 2019. Okay, the union opportunities have pretty much dried up, and I say that, but it's ebb and flow.  05:22 I mean right now this year it was a slow summer for some reason. It was like the old days, it was really slow and I mean that union and non-union. And then I go away on vacation and it just like exploded while I was away and I've been and since then I've been playing catch up and it's been so busy with union, lots of union stuff with non union. Yeah, so it's been great there.  05:49 Yeah. So I mean that's changed and I guess for me what's changed for me is because now I specialize much more on commercials. I do have a few non-union accounts, but I have my large union study accounts, steady accounts. Um, so most of my work, uh is you know, is in the commercial world. I also happen to handle the audio books, but I always say I'm not an audio book agent. I'm the agent at CESD that handles the audio books.  06:18 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) So it's a little difference.  06:20 - Billy (Host) Um so, but the audio book, what I do love about it. You know an an an agent who left um cause she was having. She got married and had babies and she said, take the audio books. They're the nicest people in the world. And I got to say they really are, and so I've kept it.  06:36 I love it. The people are so nice. Um, I really, really enjoy it. So that you know, so I I've been doing that. I also do ADR and loop group stuff, again very specialized, and there really aren't a lot of industrials. Now I know some of the other. I'm one of five, six agents in the department and then there's another two agents that work with agencies that cater to medical industrials.  07:04 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) So they're doing I don't do personally.  07:05 - Billy (Host) I don't do a lot of industrials. I think a lot of the industrials have gone to the pay-to-play sites, so but the union stuff, the medical ones, they are still at the big agencies. I just personally don't happen to have those. I would say maybe the commercial aspect of right Healthcare like pharmaceuticals and that sort of thing is huge and more and more of those blue chip companies are going non-union and those rates are you know.  07:34 - Anne (Host) Sure. What do you attribute that? Why is that happening? What do?  07:39 - Billy (Host) you attribute it to is when it started, when digital work started happening, and these great companies, the Droga5s and there was so many, that's just the first one they were doing great work with the digital work. You know, they were just with stuff before even streaming, when they were just doing they were making commercials for digital work and they were doing fine work. They were doing really good work and these companies, these blue chip companies, were saying, hey, you did that for this much money, why don't you just take all of our network stuff? And that's how I remember, like 10, 12 years ago, a large fast food chain started going, you know, went totally non-union. And then the large fast food chain started going, went totally non-union.  08:25 Then there would be some that because they had a celebrity voice on certain spots, and then they would get a third party and more and more I feel like these agencies, these digital agencies, just kept getting better and better at it and the actors were getting better and better at it. And it's not like the cable stations that you see up here that you know these infomercial things that you know that you can tell it's non-union. You know I've fallen and I can't get up kind of stuff. These. They're doing great work.  08:56 - Anne (Host) I can't tell, are they doing great work because they have great actors or are they doing great work because the entire production value of it?  09:05 - Billy (Host) Yes.  09:06 - Anne (Host) Yes, yes, you know, people are getting better at it.  09:09 - Billy (Host) The voiceover people certainly, and it's not even I mean the voiceover so many people. Covid just changed the game and everybody you know voiceover was the one business in town that didn't shut down during.  09:23 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) COVID.  09:24 - Anne (Host) And every I always say every jaboni with a mic, you know, just set up a studio at home and said I'm going to do voiceover, and not only you know they were well-established Broadway and TV and film you know everybody was doing it and that's and that's so interesting because I would say the majority of people that you know cause I was I was super busy coaching during COVID and I just had so many people that just wanted to like make the demos and get into the industry. But I had a lot more of the talent that were more beginner right to intermediate. But I would imagine that with COVID, with celebrities right them wanting to get into voiceover because what else was there? Because they weren't able to go into a studio, and so I would say that a good portion of that, I would say a good portion of people that were getting those jobs, were probably the celebrities right.  10:27 - Billy (Host) Absolutely coaching. You know they just kept getting better and better at it. And you know, and, and we're willing to work for low wages, I mean that's the other thing. And you know we always say somebody takes a job for $100. You know it's just a race to the bottom. Yeah, you know, if you're gonna add, because you know we don't work on the non union stuff, we don't work on the non-union stuff, we don't work on certain things. I won't work on stuff just because it's not worth my time.  10:48 - Anne (Host) Sure.  10:49 - Billy (Host) And I don't mean to be like, oh, but $250 is a lot to some people. Oh yeah, for all the work that I have to go into it, for me to do it and have my assistant do it and doing the editing to maybe get it, it's just not worth it. But I do. I mean that's usually. My threshold is 250.  11:10 - Anne (Host) And I understand that because I always tell people, because I do a lot of non-broadcast narration, coaching and demos, and I'm always telling people they're like, well, I want an agent. I'm like, well, an agent doesn't get excited about non-broadcast stuff because it's a one and done thing. You don't make your money on that, and so typically you want to have a tip top commercial demo because that's where they're going to be making their money with the residuals and and that sort of a thing. So would you do? You think it has to do with the sheer volume of people that got into voiceover as well. If you've got enough, you know, if you throw spaghetti against the wall right there, some of them will stick. And so then I started to drive down. I'm going to say it started to drive down maybe the prices, uh, or people willing to do the work for less, because it just got to be competitive.  11:56 - Billy (Host) It did.  11:57 There's so many people doing it now, so many people, and especially in the non-union world, there's so many opportunities out there and you know, with the pay to plays and I've kind of changed my tune a little on the pay to plays and I kind of see they're there for a reason. They're a great, you know, tool for learning, for getting the experience, for the auditioning. And I and I learned recently when I was at a conference in Holland and met the CEO from Voices 123. And I learned that they love to put people together and to put the actor and the company together. Take it off the platform and do your thing.  12:41 They don't want to micromanage, like there are other pay-to-plays that micromanage everything.  12:45 But I really found that you know, oh, that's really nice, and then people can make money that way. They're not interested, they're just interested in making the match. So, but, that being said, there are so many people that are doing this now and, yeah, driving down the prices because you know, they may be this may not be their full-time gig, it just may be a side hustle for them. So, yeah, sure, an extra $200, an extra $100, an extra $350. That can accumulate. But unfortunately then they're like well, you did it last time for $100. Why can't you? So it's hard, it's hard.  13:21 - Anne (Host) It is, but would you say that the amount of jobs is diminishing or no, it's just as volume you know, I don't see volume as normal.  13:33 - Billy (Host) I'm busy, you know, but I don't know, like, like I said, this summer was slow with the opportunities, with the, with the auditions. I find that my casting directors, my union casting, just my casting directors in general, um, they, you know, I have some that are busier than others, some I will hear from, you know, once every other month, and then some I will hear from three or four times a week. You know, um, so it's and it's all you know. There's no logic to it.  14:03 - Anne (Host) And then on the um isn't that the truth. Yeah, and then um after all these years, wouldn't you think like you could? You could predict, you know.  14:14 - Billy (Host) I would say to actors you know, I'm not booking, it's just one phone call, it's one job, don't forget. They're only picking one person, but yeah, yeah, picking one person. You, yeah, you know, only picking one person you know and you don't know.  14:25 - Anne (Host) That's a way to put it in perspective. Actually, if you think about it, but in 400,.  14:30 - Billy (Host) You know how many people are auditioning.  14:31 That's why with select VO. You know that only allows you X amount of people to submit. So if they, if the agency says, if they invite you and they say you can only submit three people per role, they won't let you submit a fourth person. So you really have to be smart and we're not the type of agency that will send you know to ten people and then, sophie's Choice, the three that I want. You know, I don't believe in that. I don't. I feel it's a waste of time of the actor. It's certainly a waste of time for my assistant and for me to have to listen to, then you have to listen to them Exactly.  15:10 - Anne (Host) What's the point, you know, and so that translates to me to a good relationship with everybody that's on your roster, absolutely, that that knowledge of their capabilities and you can communicate, uh, back and forth to make sure that the two of you are are, you know, keeping up with one another, and you would be the one that say, okay, I'm going to handpick this audition and send this to this many people, because you're the one that has to do the work right To send it the top three, to the. So the client.  15:43 - Billy (Host) Yeah, absolutely so. It's my reputation and there are some casting directors that you know they will.  15:48 I will submit a list and they will pick who they want to hear you know, back up, if I lose, or if we lose somebody, who else would you like? Or, you know, sometimes they'll say these are the three I want to hear. Send me one of your choice that maybe I, somebody, I don't know, um, and then there are certain casting directors that will micromanage and they have to. They, you know they will only see these people and they're, you know, not flexible. But it just kind of makes me a better agent.  16:14 - Anne (Host) That's why we're.  16:15 - Billy (Host) Cesd is an exclusive agency. We don't oversign in the union or non-union world. We're still building up our non-union roster. You know we're still doing that, but that's where we have the most amount of opportunities. You know, in the non-union world, Sure, Plain and simple.  16:34 - Anne (Host) Absolutely, absolutely. So what would you say after all these years? What's kept you loving your job?  16:42 - Billy (Host) Because it's different every day. You know, that's the— that's the thing. I never know what's ahead of me. So I, you know, I just love. Every day there's some, there's a new challenge, there's something new. Also, recently I have a new assistant who I adore and I love teaching him. He's a little sponge and he wants to learn.  17:09 And so that kind of inspires me to want to teach him, and you know so that that is. I guess that's the difference, and also being able to, because the business has changed. Remotely, you know, I can start earlier, I'm not in the office, I I can work later, you know. It just kind of like the whole. It's such I don't want to say a relaxed, but I feel I feel more relaxed Now. It could be because I've been doing this for a hundred years, but I just feel relaxed, I enjoy what I do. I don't feel the pressure. I don't feel like there's no such thing as a voiceover emergency If somebody screws up or, you know, if I've given you know there's no such thing.  17:51 - Anne (Host) Bravo to that. I always say there's never a VO emergency.  17:54 - Billy (Host) No, there's never a first you know, if something went wrong, don't freak out. How?  17:59 - Anne (Host) do we fix it? How do we?  18:00 - Billy (Host) fix it, that's all you know.  18:02 - Anne (Host) Now, that's from your perspective. What about your client, your casting director? Your client's perspective? Are there VO emergencies? Yeah, there could be, that's on them, not on me. Yeah, okay, I love that.  18:13 - Billy (Host) I don't, you know, I wanna help fix the problem, you know, sure so. And I mean, yeah, you know, it's always something. Fortunately I haven't had any of those emergencies in a while. But you know, the other night I was it was nine o'clock my time and an LA. It was an LA agency booking a client. She happened to be on the West coast, so it worked out okay, but it was nine 30. And I was like you know, I'm old, I can't stay up. And then I thought, and I got a text from the casting director she goes we want to book so-and-so. I left all the information on the email. So I was like, oh well, I have to finish Gilded Age, this episode, and then, as soon as I'm done, I will get on my computer.  18:56 - Anne (Host) I love it, that's great?  18:59 - Billy (Host) I guess yeah. So that's what keeps me going. The relationship with my clients, I don't. It's different because back in the day, actors used to come into the office to audition. West Coast was different because you guys were MP3ing long before, because you all wouldn't get in a car and drive a half hour to the studio.  19:20 - Anne (Host) But in New York, well, because of the traffic.  19:24 - Billy (Host) Yeah, yeah, and that's why you couldn't get to three auditions back in the day, but it was our job in New York to get you, you know, to get you from the Upper West Side down to Wall.  19:34 - Anne (Host) Street over to Midtown yeah, I know so many voice actors who still um go into studios to audition in New York. I mean, I almost don't hear about it anymore, except for well, I'm sorry, excuse me to go into the go on for booking.  19:48 - Billy (Host) No for bookings, they will.  19:49 - Anne (Host) They encourage that now but I have heard people in the last couple of years. I mean it's not every day, but sometimes they are going in. I don't know if it's to audition or if it's to actually do the job it's usually you know there's one or two the studios.  20:03 - Billy (Host) You know a couple of the studios that do auditioning, because that's what changed? Oh, okay, that makes sense, like all the advertising agencies that were in-house casting directors and those casting directors ended up going to the studios in New York and they have in-house casting directors, so they will encourage the Sonic Unions. The. Headrooms the Sound Lounges they will encourage hey, if the client is local to New York, boom, have them come in. Oh, that makes sense. And it kind of opened up because not everybody got SourceConnect especially our older clients.  20:40 It wasn't cost effective for them for that one audition every other month. It wasn't so the foreign language people, they weren't getting it because there weren't enough opportunities. But especially I I want to say the older clients they really weren't getting so this kind of opened up. If you lived in New York you could still send an MP3 and you're able to go to Sound Lounge for the booking that was always that's always a nice caveat.  21:06 - Anne (Host) So I'm sure people ask you this all the time. Commercial voiceover has changed, evolved over the years. Advertisers have changed how they buy and consumers have changed, I think, how they listen. What would you say is what sort of things have changed in terms of trends for commercial VO? What are you looking for now that maybe is different than what was relevant maybe five, even five or 10 years ago, Because I know probably you're going to say like 30 years ago it was more of that announcer sort of style, it was promo. But you know, maybe five, 10 years ago, what has changed?  21:43 - Billy (Host) You know, it was the, you know, when I first started. It was the time, when, you know, Demi Moore started with Keds and there was that raspy, damaged sound that has kind of you know, demi Moore started with kids and she there was that raspy damage sound that has, kind of you know, was such a thing for so long and our and I know our women back then, you know, were the most successful.  22:04 - Anne (Host) I coveted that which is not a part of my genetic makeup at all. I'm like I can't, I can't get a raspy.  22:11 - Billy (Host) No, if you don't, you know you can't put oh, I woke up with a, you know, with a sore throat today. I sound great I should audition. No, you shouldn't. Exactly. So that was. You know, that was always the thing and yeah, it was the rough and tough announcers and you know all those, all those guys, and then that kind of went away and it was the John Corbett kind of sound and he was you.  22:31 he stuck around for a long time as a prototype and now it's Paul Rudd and Rashida Jones and then. So those trends kind of changed. But then about 10 years ago, everything you know really were, it was people of color. You know they wanted voices for actors and that really opened up a wide, you know a wider net. There was no general market anymore because they used to say, you know, they were very specific, we want a Caucasian voice. But now you only see that if you're doing a demo for the on-camera and the on-camera actor happens to be a certain color. But they want authenticity. I remember you know getting. Now, everybody, especially in the union world, they want authenticity. I remember you know getting. You know everybody, especially in the union world, they all want to check boxes. You know, yeah, yeah, they, yeah, so they, you know it's all ethnicities. You know we want non-binary people and I'm like what does a non-binary person sound?  23:27 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) like I don't, it took me you know.  23:29 - Billy (Host) Then I realized oh, they don't really, they're just checking off boxes, but for the, you know, for the African-American community, they were in vogue. They were, you know, I would get breakdowns, all ethnicities, and the prototypes would be Viola Davis, Tiffany Haddish and Angela.  23:49 Bassett, Do the math you know, so that was a thing. And Angela Bassett do the math. You know, so that was a thing. And I think you know, I still think that that is happening. But I'm finding a trend like that is kind of changing, where general market is truly general market. Now they want, you know, it's everybody, it's everything.  24:09 - Anne (Host) That's great. Yes, I love to hear that.  24:12 - Billy (Host) That's the way it should have been, but unfortunately it was so the other way for so long and then it shifted and now it's kind of evening out.  24:21 - Anne (Host) Sure.  24:21 - Billy (Host) Sure, I don't know.  24:23 - Anne (Host) Well, I mean, that's what I was thinking would happen at some point. Right, it would even out and it's kind of nice to hear that that's happening.  24:31 I mean, I wouldn't want it to go another extreme you know, at all, you know, and especially because the world's a little chaotic right now and I know that it's affecting companies and their advertising, and so that to me says gosh, I hope that there's still as much opportunity for everybody as there ever was. And so that's just one of those things where I think if there was a slow part of the season, maybe it's people, you know. I think there's companies trying to gauge like what's happening and what's going to be what's going to work for them in terms of advertising.  25:08 And it's not so much the voice, but the whole, the whole thing, yeah, the whole, all of it On camera, all of it, all of it. How are they going to advertise it to be effective?  25:18 - Billy (Host) And I think you know, and I think that and this is just me I feel like voice wise, I feel that the union world is more tries to check the boxes, much more than the non-union world.  25:32 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) I truly than the non-union world.  25:33 - Billy (Host) I truly believe the non-union world they're gonna pick the best voice for the job, no matter what ethnicity you are.  25:41 I find, and I just because of the actors that I speak with, not only because I speak with my non-union actors in general so much more, just simply because there's so much opportunity there. But I notice, with my union actors I just don't A I don't really have that many opportunities for them. But you know it is. I speak to certain ones more, a lot more than the others. But I don't find that, I find it much broader in the non-union world. I mean it's a different and I've learned so much about the non-union world. I mean it's a different and I've learned so much about the, the non-union community and how. You know how different it is. I feel that it is much more I don't know how to say it. It's much more of a community, I feel.  26:27 I feel that they, they really are supportive of each other, they help each other. It's not as competitive or as petty competitive as it can sometimes be in the union world, it's just, and I think it's fabulous that they really everybody's out to help each other much more in that community.  26:52 - Anne (Host) Well, that's refreshing to hear. I like that from you, Absolutely. So then for you, for talent on your roster. What sort of qualities are you looking for in any talent that might appear on your roster? You know what's funny.  27:06 - Billy (Host) When I first started, you know, when COVID happened first thing, when I and I did a lot of these classes, first thing I was like, obviously the first thing was do you have SourceConnect? You know if?  27:17 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) you have SourceConnect, because so few?  27:18 - Billy (Host) people did.  27:19 - Anne (Host) You went right to the top of my list.  27:22 - Billy (Host) Yeah, if you had SourceConnect, and then it's, you know, and then it's just about reading the copy, and that's the same basic thing is, how do you read copy? Some of my most successful people, my white actors over 40, I have a couple of them and they just read copy. So well, I don't know what it is, they just they're just, they're just great they were. And so, yeah, there's. You can't teach it, it's, you know, it's just natural. This one particular guy, yeah, does he have that Paul Rudd feel to him? Just that guy next door, just that real comfortable, relaxed, nothing pushed, that's how he is in life and that's how it comes across Right, right. Oh, there was something else.  28:06 Oh, I did this one class and there was this woman, you know, like late 20s white woman, and there was just something. I was on a panel, I was one of three people and, oh my God, she was. There was just something about her read that made me crazy and like the next day I was like I have, you know, I want to set you up. I love you, you know, I love you the best. And now, here we are. I love you, know, I love you the best, and now here we are, fast forward to probably a little more than a year. She is one of my most successful actresses on my roster. And what is it about her? I don't know. She's just fabulous. You know, she just, she just reads. It's just, it's honest.  28:50 - Anne (Host) So I'm always looking for that honest. I like that honest, yeah, authentic, yeah. And I like, with that honest, I like that honest, yeah, authentic, yeah. And I like how you know we've heard for for so long right, bring you to the party, bring you to the party, it's that. I think that's so important. And and we throw it around like, oh yeah, okay, I can bring me, but and yet so many people still try to perform, uh and and if they really can just stop in their own head and and just bring themselves to the party because, like you and I like talk like there's something about like I really like Billy, and it's, it's, it's like an intangible thing and it's your personality, right, it's, it's how we connect.  29:23 - Billy (Host) And I think that's what's so right away. The first time we met, we would just like exactly.  29:30 - Anne (Host) I think that's the same thing for voice actors. If you can, you know, if, if you've got a great personality and you're like one of those people that you can connect with right away, I mean that's what I think we're looking for, that authenticity it's you're not trying to, you know, push anything and and this is who you are and I love to hear that, because I keep telling people gosh, you are enough. I mean it really is. Please don't try to be anything other than yourself, because I really like you.  29:55 - Billy (Host) Yes, and so many voice actors. They forget that.  30:00 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) you know this is acting and I said you know you got to get out of your head into your gut.  30:05 - Billy (Host) Whether you're selling peas for 99 cents, it doesn't matter. You have to be, you know, honest and authentic with it, so important. Now I have to ask the question authentic with it, so important?  30:14 - Anne (Host) Now I have to ask the question because you know probably everybody does. And what do you think about the threat of AI in the industry, and especially now that there's? It's not even just voice, it's on camera too.  30:27 - Billy (Host) Yeah, yeah. So I mean, we keep our eye on it. We read every contract, we read every contract, we read every breakdown. You know SAG is doing their best. Bless their hearts.  30:42 You know, nava is you know, above and beyond, what they're doing with the rules and the legislation and what they're doing. You know it's coming, it's not going away and it's going to get better and better. So we just try to keep our eyes and ears on everything and try to follow the rules and say, nope, large deal right now. And there was a huge component with um. They wanted an AI replica and fortunately, the person um doing it was like no, I've heard replicas of my voice and they're not, and they never sound as good as the real thing.  31:27 - Anne (Host) Um, so that's a really interesting point because I know for a fact that that's true, because I, you know back in the day. Well, back a few years ago, I started really delving deep into that and researching companies and how they made voices, and I've heard a lot of voices and there are some people who are amazing actors but yet their voice doesn't translate. Well, either it's the AI technology that has not given, it's just it's not doing the right thing for them and, yeah, it doesn't translate.  31:56 - Billy (Host) Yeah, and he said no, I, I will not. It's my, it's my voice, it's my reputation, and I will be available whenever they need me. They were like well, what in case he's what? You know? What if he's away on vacation?  32:08 - Anne (Host) Yeah, he said there are no VO emergencies. No, there are no VO emergencies, Right, there's no VO emergencies.  32:15 - Billy (Host) So yeah, so are we concerned about it? Yeah, am I concerned, absolutely, but you know I can't lose sleep over it.  32:23 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) It's coming.  32:24 - Billy (Host) You know, it's coming, and so we just have to manage it and make it work to our advantage.  32:30 - Anne (Host) Yes, I agree, I agree, I and make it work to our advantage. Yes, I agree, I agree, I love that. So I'm very excited because you're going to be doing a class for us, a VO Boss workshop, in November. As a matter of fact, it's going to be November 12th. Can you tell us a little bit about what we're going to be doing in that class?  32:48 - Billy (Host) Well, what I usually do is I like to just kind of give my spiel about what I've been doing and I guess the do's and don'ts of the proper way to get in touch with an agent, what to expect, what not to expect from you know. Once you're submitting to an agent, I just try to, I try to just say the things you know, kind of give the tips that actors need to know. You know what's proper, what's not, what's gonna get you. You know what's gonna get you seen, what's gonna get you heard. You know what makes it easy for me, the agent.  33:24 And I've come to also realize that it works differently from agency to agency. So I can only speak to what works for me, um, at CESD, um, but we'll, you know, I'll talk about that and I'll just talk about my feelings on on what it takes, what tools you're going to need and I mean like literal tools, what kind of demos you're going to need, that sort of stuff. Do a little Q and a and then read some copy, you know and anybody that does come to the class.  33:54 um, it's gotta be commercial copy, because that's that's what I do, you know um. I, I'm, I'm not going to be able to judge you on your animation copy or you know that kind of stuff. That's not really what I do. So we'll, you know, we'll do that and we'll tear it apart and hopefully get to two pieces within the class.  34:14 - Anne (Host) Yeah, I love that. We'll see. Yay, well, I'm very excited for that and, bosses, I'll be putting a link so that you can sign up for it, because I'm quite sure it's going to go quickly. Now my last question is because you said you're in upstate New York and I, you know, I have my own, like my own, nostalgic memories of upstate New York, and so, for me, I'd be riding a horse, you know, in in the countryside. So if you weren't an agent, philly, what would you be doing right now? Oh God, would you have a different career? Would you be retired and riding horses, or?  34:49 - Billy (Host) Yeah, well, you know, I've only had three different jobs in my life, okay, well, you know, other than high school jobs. I was an actor slash waiter, and then I became an agent. You know Like I've been it's you know. So I moved to New York to be an actor and that didn't happen, but I always kind of I was. I had a friend who was a commercial casting director and so I used to go in and help him out at the casting calls.  35:20 That was back in the days of Polaroids and signing up and I really was fascinated by it. And he would you know. And he kept saying there's an opening at this agency. Do you want to go? And I would go and audition, you know, to be an assistant. Sure, and then boom, boom, boom.  35:35 And then, it just so happens, he said CED, because we weren't CESD at that point it was looking to expand the voiceover department and was I interested, and my partner at the time said go and audition. I mean go and audition, apply for the job, cause one of these days you will make more money than me. And so you know. And um and so um, and now, every year, every year. I'm still in touch with him and I call him and I say thank you, greggy, for allowing me to have this job.  36:08 - Anne (Host) Here's my annual income report allowing me to have this job.  36:11 - Billy (Host) Here's my annual income report yes, so anyway, yeah. So I've thought about this. What do I do? I'm too old to be a waiter.  36:23 - Anne (Host) I'm not going to go back, though I think I would be really good at it.  36:25 - Billy (Host) I have these- I agree, actually, you've got the social I think I could do. Yeah, so do I go. But when I retire, whenever that is, I want to social. I think I could do. Yeah, you know, so do I go. But you know, when I retire, you know, whenever that is, I'm on a travel. I just love to travel, that's, that's my thing. So you know. You know, I feel like when this is behind me, that I will, you know, I'll just travel. I'm not going to be on a horse up here, but I always had.  36:50 You know, sometimes I've had, you know, I don't know if I even want another. You know job and I'm at that point now where you know, I'm old and I don't want another career. It's not like I'm. You know, I'm going to be an artist, or you know, I once thought I thought well, maybe I'll just go do community theater somewhere.  37:07 - Speaker 2 (Announcement) I have a friend.  37:08 - Billy (Host) I have a friend, interestingly enough, a little older than I am, lives in Chicago and he started taking an acting class just for the hell of it.  37:16 - Anne (Host) For the hell of it.  37:17 - Billy (Host) And he said, the others they love it because they have somebody to play the old man in all those scenes. And I thought, oh my God, that's great, I could do that. Yeah, I love that. I thought yeah, why not community theater you? Know, if that was it. Now there's no community theater in New York City, so if that's where I retire, you know. But if I was to retire up here, you know that would interest me, and you know because I am a lover of theater, so I do.  37:46 - Anne (Host) Yeah, Well, I feel like you kept yourself in the acting world, you know by being an agent I mean in that you know, it's still like a. It's still you're very much immersed in it, and so I feel like, if that was your one love, you came to New York, by the way. Where did you come from?  38:02 - Billy (Host) I grew up in Waltham Massachusetts, oh okay. Okay yeah, just a little outside of. Boston.  38:07 - Anne (Host) Yeah, very familiar with it. I went.  38:09 - Billy (Host) Yeah, I grew up in Waltham and then I went to UMass, Amherst and then to New York.  38:14 - Anne (Host) That was my. Oh, fantastic, yeah, there you go. Well, my gosh, it has been such a pleasure chatting with you today. I mean, I could go on. I feel like we could go on, but at some point, I do have to quit at some point.  38:32 But yeah, thank you so so much for sharing your wisdom. It's been really a joy talking with you. I'm so excited for November. Guys, bosses, remember November 12th. Get yourself to vobosscom and sign up to work with this gentleman. He's amazing, and I'm going to give a great big shout out to our sponsor, ipdtl. You, too, can connect and network like bosses like Billy and myself, and find out more at IPDTLcom. Guys, have an amazing week and I'll see you next week. Bye, bye.  39:05 - Speaker 3 (Announcement) Join us next week for another edition of VO Boss with your host, Anne Ganguzza, and take your business to the next level. Sign up for our mailing list at vobosscom and receive exclusive content, industry revolutionizing tips and strategies and new ways to rock your business like a boss. Redistribution with permission. Coast to coast connectivity via IPDTL.   

Mit den kürzeren Tagen sinkt bei vielen Menschen nicht nur die Energie, sondern auch ihr Vitamin-D-Spiegel. Rutscht er zu sehr ab, hat das Folgen für Leistungsfähigkeit, Immunsystem und Stimmung.Eine neue Studie deutet darauf hin, dass Indoor-Training den im Winter üblichen Vitamin-D-Abfall messbar ausbremst. Kann Deine Fitness-Routine also das Vitamin-D-Supplement ersetzen? Am Ende der Folge bist Du auf Stand und weißt, was das für Dich und Deinen Vitamin-D-Haushalt bedeutet.Außerdem bekommst Du eine klare Strategie an die Hand, um die dunklen Monate von Oktober bis März energiegeladen (und mit vollen Vitamin-D-Speichern) zu überbrücken – statt im Wintermodus auf Reserve zu laufen.____________*WERBUNG: Infos zum Werbepartner dieser Folge und allen weiteren Werbepartnern findest Du hier.____________Tools (Marks Empfehlungen):Vitamin-D-Selbsttest von Medivere.Vitamin-D-Präparat mit 2.000 IE von FormMed (vegane Variante).Weiterführende Inhalte:Download: Ratgeber NahrungsergänzungFolge 502: "Brauchen Sportler Nahrungsergänzung, Herr Ernährungsmediziner?" Mit Niels Schulz-RuhtenbergWissenschaftliche Literatur:Perkin OJ, Davies SE, Hewison M, et al. Exercise without weight loss prevents seasonal decline in vitamin D metabolites: The VitaDEx randomized controlled trial. Advanced Science. 2025;12(22):e2416312.Bikle DD. Vitamin D metabolism, mechanism of action, and clinical applications. Chemistry & Biology. 2014;21(3):319-329.Webb AR, Kazantzidis A, Kift RC, Farrar MD, Wilkinson J, Rhodes LE. Meeting vitamin D requirements in white Caucasians at UK latitudes: Providing a choice. Nutrients. 2018;10(4):497.Lin LY, Smeeth L, Langan S, Warren-Gash C. Distribution of vitamin D status in the UK: a cross-sectional analysis of UK Biobank. BMJ Open. 2021;11(1):e038503.de Oliveira LF, de Azevedo LG, da Mota Santana J, de Sales LPC, Pereira-Santos M. Obesity and overweight decreases the effect of vitamin D supplementation in adults: Systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders. 2020;21(1):67-76.Wortsman J, Matsuoka LY, Chen TC, Lu Z, Holick MF. Decreased bioavailability of vitamin D in obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000;72(3):690-693.Drincic AT, Armas LAG, Van Diest EE, Heaney RP. Volumetric dilution, rather than sequestration best explains the low vitamin D status of obesity. Obesity (Silver Spring). 2012;20(7):1444-1448.Ekwaru JP, Zwicker JD, Holick MF, Giovannucci E, Veugelers PJ. The importance of body weight for the dose response relationship of oral vitamin D supplementation and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D in healthy volunteers. PLoS One. 2014;9(11):e111265.Sun X, Cao ZB, Taniguchi H, Tanisawa K, Higuchi M. Effect of an acute bout of endurance exercise on serum 25(OH)D concentrations in young adults. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. 2017;102(11):3937-3944.____________Shownotes und Übersicht aller Folgen.Trag Dich in Marks Dranbleiber Newsletter ein.Entdecke Marks Bücher.Folge Mark auf Instagram, Facebook, Strava, LinkedIn. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joshua, Matt, Kory, Michael and David discuss the Mets and Yankees prospects for the postseason ahead of the final weekend of the regular season, and on Football Friday discuss Jaxson Dart taking over for the Giants as he'll make his first ever NFL start on Sunday. Then, WHPC Game Picks for Week 4!

The House of Representatives recently passed a resolution to honor the late Charlie Kirk—no thanks to 118 Democrats who voted against the measure, including Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, and more. Why did they snub Kirk, especially after the House unanimously passed a resolution commemorating the shooting of the Democrat speaker of the Minnesota State Legislature? Victor Davis Hanson breaks down how this refusal to honor a man who was just assassinated reflects a troubling shift in our politics where basic decency, civility, and bipartisanship are being replaced by ideological purity tests on today's episode of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” “ If you listen to what Ilhan Omar said about him, that he was a racist and he was a racist every day of his life. And AOC said she was not going to honor him. And Jasmine Crockett said Caucasians, only two Caucasians—that was not true, by the way, as everything she says is almost not true.  “What they're angry about was—what was Charlie Kirk? I said in an earlier video, he was very successful in channeling the natural rebelliousness of youth to focus against the establishment. He's saying to young people: The establishment are baby boomer leftists and these are the people who are responsible for a lot of our unhappiness. And that's why they're angry. And he was also angry at racialists, tribalists—like Jasmine Crockett, like AOC, like Ilhan Omar—who self-identify, essentially, by their skin color or appearance rather than incidentally.”

Obesity is one of the strongest risk factors for type 2 diabetes. Around 60–70% of people with diabetes are either obese or overweight. For Indians, even a BMI above 23 is considered overweight, above 25 obese, and above 30 morbidly obese. Excess body fat, especially inside the abdomen (visceral fat), increases insulin resistance, forcing the pancreas to work harder to maintain normal blood sugar. The pancreas does this through its beta cells, which normally keep glucose between 70–140 mg/dL. But repeated exposure to high-calorie, high-sugar, low-fiber diets puts these cells under constant strain. Over time, beta cells become fatigued and begin to fail. By the time fasting blood sugar reaches 126 mg/dL—the cut-off for diabetes—nearly half to two-thirds of beta cells are already lost. Preserving the remaining cells is therefore of utmost importance. Lifestyle changes are the most effective way to protect beta cells. Regular exercise, a healthy diet, and maintaining normal weight reduce the workload on the pancreas. Indians require at least 250 minutes of brisk walking per week, compared to 150 minutes for Caucasians. Avoiding sweets, fried foods, and excess fat, while ensuring adequate hydration (1.5–2 liters per day), is equally important. Medications that overstress beta cells should be used cautiously to avoid accelerating their decline. Protecting beta cells through lifestyle, diet, regular exercise, and the use of a few drugs (SGLT2i, GLP-1a, etc.), which help protect beta cells, delay their aging, and improve their secretory function, is essential for a healthy future for people with diabetes. Technology is the key to delaying complications and living healthier with diabetes. Expert- Dr Sunil Gupta Anchor- Mrs. Kalyani Gokhale Recorded on: 20/05/2025 Recorded at: Akashwani Nagpur

GET LIVESTREAM TICKETS FOR OUR SHOW ON OCT 4TH https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/livestream-lions-led-by-donkeys-podcast-live-in-glasgow-4th-october-2025-tickets-1532091008449?aff=ebdssbdestsearchgl=1s0822wupMQ..gaNDgyMTk4OTc3LjE3NTc4NjgzNzM.ga_TQVES5V6SHczE3NTc4NjgzNzMkbzEkZzAkdDE3NTc4NjgzNzMkajYwJGwwJGgw It's a special version of History of Armenia in which Georgian journalist Omar Tsotsoria joins the show to discuss the history of another Caucasian country, and the specific history of an early-Soviet-era anarchist breakaway state in the Georgian SSR. Get the whole episode on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/139624712

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, reflected on her decision to vote against a measure honoring slain Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk and condemning political violence, saying it hurt her heart that only two "Caucasians" joined her opposition to it. Sept 8th 2025 --- Please Like, Comment and Follow 'The Ray Appleton Show' on all platforms: --- 'The Ray Appleton Show’ is available on the KMJNOW app, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or wherever else you listen to podcasts. --- 'The Ray Appleton Show’ Weekdays 11 AM -2 PM Pacific on News/Talk 580 AM & 105.9 KMJ | Website | Facebook | Podcast | - Everything KMJ KMJNOW App | Podcasts | Facebook | X | Instagram See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1986, Denise Pflum was about to graduate from high school and begin the rest of her promising, young life. But one afternoon she left home and was never seen or heard from again. Denise Pflum is a Caucasian female with brown hair and brown eyes. Her ears are pierced and she wears contact lenses. She was last seen at the age of eighteen years old, when she was five-feet-six-inches tall and one-hundred-thirty-five pounds. She was last seen wearing a medium-sized red Motley Crue t-shirt, size eleven blue-striped jeans, size nine white sneakers, size seven hip-hugger panties, a size 34-B beige or white bra, a gold ring with a garnet, and a silver class ring with a red setting. If you or someone you know have information about Denise Pflum's missing persons case, you can reach the Fayette County Sheriff's Department at 765-825-0535. That's 765-825-0535. Listen Ad Free And Get Access to Exclusive Journal Entries Episodes: Spotify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4HEzJSwElA7MkbYYie9Jin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/themurderdiariespod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Apple: Hit subscribe/ 1 week free trail available Sponsorship Links: Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period and take your retail business to the next level today! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://shopify.com/murderdiaries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://themurderdiariespodcast.com/episodes/wx7pm9967k95696-7gmam-sjfe8-5737y-3p233-2rmha-kac9n-69gzk-j6ctk-bkght-wx7ah-dwby7-xzfpf-r33cx-tcjde-xr48m-p5dn9-dlgc2-nnfkj-ef448-n2a25-a2zg3-ppy4e-ccjt6-majwr-y86t9-djgn3-6hh9s Music Used: Walking with the Dead by Maia Wynne Link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Maiah_Wynne/Live_at_KBOO_for_A_Popcalypse_11012017⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ License: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Glitter Blast by Kevin MacLeod Link: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://filmmusic.io/song/4707-glitter-blast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ License: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://filmmusic.io/standard-license⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our Links: Link Hub: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://msha.ke/themurderdiaries⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/themurderdiariespod/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Edited by: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.landispodcastediting.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This Pink Cloud S6E34 - Join DJ Kelly Reverb in this powerful episode of *This Pink Cloud*, as he welcomes his longtime friend Bear Claw, a proud Native American celebrating over 20 years of sobriety. Bear Claw opens up about his unique upbringing, having been adopted by a Caucasian family, and his involvement in the AIM movement of the 1970s. He shares the challenges of navigating his identity while growing up with an adopted father who was a respected pillar of the Oklahoma community and a dedicated fire chief. At just 15, Bear Claw took his first drink, plunging into a cycle of daily drinking that spanned years. He candidly recounts his struggles, multiple attempts at recovery, and how perseverance ultimately led him to long-term sobriety. From his experiences working as a bouncer in the nightlife scene to the deep connections he's forged through his heritage, this episode is a profound exploration of resilience, identity, and the road to recovery.Tune in for an inspiring conversation filled with reflections on family, community, and the strength it takes to break free from addiction. Whether you're seeking inspiration or insights into the journey of sobriety, this episode is sure to resonate.https://www.instagram.com/funkygoldnetwork/Sponsorship inquiries, Shoutouts, etc...Please email: thispinkcloud@gmail.comT- Shirts - Available https://www.teepublic.com/user/kellyreverb#ThisPinkCloud #BearClaw #SobrietyJourney #NativeAmericanVoices #AIMMovement #AddictionRecovery #Resilience #RecoveryStories #LifeAfterAddiction #Community #Empowerment #PersonalGrowth #CulturalIdentity #BreakingTheStigma #JourneyToSobriety

Scoliosis is an abnormal bending of the spine that occurs in about 3% of the population.  In this episode, you'll find out:—Why Scoliosis is more common in females, but boys can have a worse case when they do get it. And why Caucasians and blondes are more likely to develop Scoliosis.—The Hormonal and Copper-Zinc imbalances that Dr. Prather believes contribute to Scoliosis. And how Dr. Prather's theories on the causes of Scoliosis are unique.—How infections could lead to a higher incidence of Scoliosis, but are not the main cause of modern cases as they used to be.—The traditional treatments are bracing and surgery, but Dr. Prather finds alternative treatments in his office have a very high success rate if it is caught early enough.—Why Dr. Prather feels Chiropractic is "essential" for Scoliosis patients, particularly the Atlas Orthogonal Chiropractic adjustment that is Dr. Prather's specialty. And the Cerebrospinal Fluid adjustments that Dr. Prather finds all Scoliosis patients need.—How Acupuncture relaxes the muscles in the back and helps the spine shift back into proper position.—The importance of supplementation in balancing out hormones to help with both the Scoliosis as well as the moods of patients. And how almost all of us have some sort of Hormonal imbalance.—The more modern bracing that is contoured to the body to help young girls avoid embarrassment at school. And why surgery is not promoted as much as it used to be.—How Dr. Prather sees balancing out Hormones and Nutrition in his growing patients add as much as four-inches to the height of a boy and two-inches to the height of a girl.—Dr. Prather says he's always able to prevent Scoliosis in his young patients. And why Chiropractic care should be an essential part of children's health.—Plus, you'll hear from Felicia and two of her children, Abby and Clay, about the difference Holistic Integration has made in their lives.http://www.TheVoiceOfHealthRadio.com

“White Culture Is A Real Thing” explores the concept of culture as it pertains to Caucasians, arguing that true culture transcends specific lifestyles, religions, or economies and is characterized by its ability to add value and promote progress to all. The author suggests that what is often called "culture" is merely a lifestyle, and asserts that so-called White culture is universal due to its global adoption and lasting influence. The text contends that authentic culture is aspirational, aligned with faith, and leaves a meaningful impact on the world, ultimately culture is a shared human legacy. As members of the human race, we need to find a way to live that unites us.

This week we have...Mike and Bill on Hump Day! Yes, we have plans this weekend, so we recorded early. Not that it matters, but we are telling you either way.Mike kicked things off with his reading and it was about life on life's terms. Things happen (good, bad and indifferent), but how we handle those things is what matters. Do we want to be part of the problem or part of the solution? It was a good talk. We chatted about the Cracker Barrel (who hasn't, right?) and yes, that was the inspiration for "The Caucasian Container" title. Then it was the new season, Marc Maron and free-styling, pure Michigan, Higher Power stuff, good news, perfect is boring, the radio gig wrap up, the F*cking Sober Podcast and grandkids.We mentioned that we have plans this weekend. Mike and Chris are in Alaska and Bill is hanging out with FIB's in the southern part of the FIB state. (If you don't know what a FIB is, Google it)Enjoy the episode.Visit usPodcast  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.sobernotmature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Store  ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.sobernotmatureshop.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Hobo ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.themoderndayhobo.com

“She's triple negative and has a very, very aggressive tumor. Instead of going on spring break that year, she sat in our chemo room and got chemo. Her friends from college are good to try to keep her involved and try to surround her and encourage her, but they're right now in very, very different spots in their lives. She's fighting for her life; her friends are fighting for the grade they get in a class—and that's different,” ONS member Kristi Orbaugh, MSN, NP, AOCN®, AOCNP®, nurse practitioner at Community Hospital North Cancer Center in Indianapolis, IN, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS, during a conversation about metastatic breast cancer in adolescent and young adult patients. Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0  This podcast is sponsored by Lilly and is not eligible for NCPD contact hours. ONS is solely responsible for the criteria, objectives, content, quality, and scientific integrity of its programs and publications. Episode Notes This episode is not eligible for NCPD. ONS Podcast™ episodes: Episode 368: Best Practices for Challenging Patient Conversations in Metastatic Breast Cancer Episode 354: Breast Cancer Survivorship Considerations for Nurses Episode 350: Breast Cancer Treatment Considerations for Nurses Episode 345: Breast Cancer Screening, Detection, and Disparities Episode 307: AYAs With Cancer: Financial Toxicity Episode 300: AYAs With Cancer: End-of-Life Care Planning ONS Voice articles: ‘Cancer Ghosting' May Add Another Layer of Emotional Burden for Patients Discoveries in Race-Related Breast Cancer Biomarkers May Improve Precision Treatments What Is HER-2-Low Breast Cancer? What Oncology Nurses Need to Know About Supporting AYAs With Cancer ONS books: Guide to Breast Cancer for Oncology Nurses Oncology Nursing Forum articles: An Integrative Review of the Role of Nurses in Fertility Preservation for Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer Impact of Race and Area Deprivation on Triple-Negative Metastatic Breast Cancer Outcomes Relations of Mindfulness and Illness Acceptance With Psychosocial Functioning in Patients With Metastatic Breast Cancer and Caregivers ONS huddle cards: Altered Body Image Fertility Preservation Sexuality Other ONS resources: Breast Cancer Learning Library Fertility Preservation in Individuals With Cancer ONS Biomarker Database American Cancer Society's breast cancer resources American Society of Clinical Oncology continuing education resources Elephants and Tea Life, Interrupted Livestrong National Cancer Institute's breast cancer resources Stupid Cancer Young Survival Coalition To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.  To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library. To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org. Highlights From This Episode “When we use ‘adolescent and young adult,' we're really talking about age 19–35. Some groups will say 15–39, but right around that age. When we think about that age, think about what all could be going on during those ages. Late teenagers, they may be going off to college, they may be graduating high school, trying to set up their own life, trying to become independent from mom and dad. If you're talking about early to mid 30s, you could be talking about young parents, young career folks. So, just setting that into place makes you realize this can be a very tumultuous time for folks.” TS 2:06 “Unfortunately, this group tends to have more aggressive subtypes. We see more triple-negative in this group. We see more hormone-negative, HER2-positive in this group. Normal breast cancer cells should be stimulated by hormone. They are stimulated by hormones. So when you have a breast cancer cell that is not driven by hormones, it's much more difficult to treat. We tend to see more aggressiveness in these tumors. We also see a higher incidence in non-Caucasian folks in this age group compared to the older age groups.” TS 4:53 “I think we have gotten much better about understanding the importance of fertility preservation and getting reproductive endocrinologists in, sooner rather than later. If we have earlier-stage cancers and we have patients that want to try to preserve eggs, preserve fertility, sperm banking. … If you have that time to talk to them—maybe a 21-year-old—the primary thing on her mind is not how many children she wants to have one day. Maybe she's not even thought about having kids yet. It's still a question you need to [ask]. Do you want to try to preserve fertility? Do you want to try to harvest some eggs? That's a conversation that needs to be had and is very, very important for that age group.” TS 10:35 “One thing that helps is if you can get them [into] reputable support groups with people their own age that are going through what they're going through. Someone else that doesn't have hair, someone else that isn't going to make it to the big board meeting or isn't going to get the promotion this year because they've had to take a medical leave. Someone else that understands it differently.” TS 16:47 “In breast cancer, many of those biomarkers just get reflexed. And what I mean by reflexed is a breast cancer pathology comes through, or a breast cancer specimen comes through, and it just automatically gets tested for X, Y, Z. HER2 and of course ER/PR. Now we understand that we don't just need to know whether they're HER2 positive or HER2 negative. We need to know: What is the IHC score? And even if the IHC score is zero, is there any membrane staining? And then we need to know what's their ESR1, their PTEN, their AKT, their PIK3CA. Those are so important to know.” TS 18:11 “I think it's important to try to remember what our priorities were when we were in our 20s—what our priorities were when we were starting out as young mothers or starting out our career. Because that's where these folks are. … I can't imagine in the midst of college, when I'm trying to be independent, to suddenly have to be at home and rely on my mom to take me to my chemo appointment. … So I think one really important bias is to remember where they are in the developmental stages of life. They're not 40-something. They haven't lived X amount of life, and we need to take a step back and try to remember when we were their age, what was important to us? Where were our priorities at that point? And then hear them when they're telling us what's important to them.” TS 29:22 “From a female standpoint … we frequently throw these patients into menopause or have early menopausal symptoms, and I think we forget how devastating that can be. … They now are at higher risk for osteopenia or osteoporosis. … And then we tell people, ‘Be as normal as possible, get back and do those normal things.' Well, they're in a relationship, and they want to be intimate [but] suddenly having sexual intercourse is incredibly painful. Or if it's not painful, sometimes they've just lost pure interest in that. They don't feel confident about their body. All of those things need to be addressed because patients are trying to live each day as normally as possible.” TS 31:55 

Visit RENEW.org for great resources on Disciple Making and Theology.  Check out our 2025 RENEW Gathering Digital Access Pass:  https://reallifetheologypodcast.supercast.com/  Today's episode will help us understand the theological and social perspectives surrounding the inclusion and fear experienced by African Americans in the context of Christian unity. Orpheus. Heyward discusses the importance of theological foundations, focusing on the Great Commission and the inclusivity of the Gospel for all ethnic groups. It highlights the biblical story of Peter's vision in Acts 10, emphasizing God's acceptance of ethnic diversity. Orpheus. Heyward addresses the historical trauma faced by African Americans, particularly in the context of religious exclusion and the formation of the black church. The need for understanding and addressing these historical wounds is stressed, particularly within predominantly Caucasian religious spaces. The speaker shares personal experiences and suggests open dialogue and empathy as key steps towards racial unity and reconciliation within the Christian community. Examples include discussions on the Trayvon Martin and George Floyd incidents and the importance of including African American narratives in the larger Christian history. The message concludes with a call for authentic inclusion, collaboration on the mission of God, and the significance of understanding historical pain to create a more inclusive and unified Christian community.

Two-time Emmy and three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brandon Bronaugh. A life transition expert and one of the faces of A&E’s hit show Hoarders.

Two-time Emmy and three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brandon Bronaugh. A life transition expert and one of the faces of A&E’s hit show Hoarders.

Two-time Emmy and three-time NAACP Image Award-winning television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Brandon Bronaugh. A life transition expert and one of the faces of A&E’s hit show Hoarders.

Comedians Clare O'Kane, Alex Ptak, and Jeremy Kaplowitz explore the mysterious land of Quora.com to answer life's questions. This week's questions include: Why is every Caucasian race in the world our enemy? What is the Great Scientist Yakub's estimated I.Q.? As an Indian beta male how to enjoy MGTOW before parents force me into marriage? --- Follow Ben on YouTube @ https://www.youtube.com/@ShaqKatzner Get even more Quorators when you support the show @ patreon.com/quorators Send quoras and qommunicate on our discord discord.gg/7pPYuKuYCr Watch the show @ youtube.com/@quorators

. Hey You Guys! Welcome to the “ Jst Us” Podcast! Season 3 Make sure to Like, Comment, and Subscribe! For business Email: Jstuspod@gmail.com

Episode 105 Deanna Merryfield On the night of July 21, 1990, thirteen year old Deanna Merryfield spent much of the night watching movies with her grandmother in Killeen, Texas. After her grandmother went to bed, Deanna snuck out of the house, and at 3:30am, went to see her sister Rebecca who lived with their uncle nearby. Deanna knocked on Rebecca's window and the sisters briefly talked before their uncle woke up and told Deanna that she needed to leave. Deanna had been driven to the house by two men in a Brown or Bronze four door car that Rebecca did not recognize. Deanna left with the two men who were thought to be either Caucasian or Hispanic, and after that, she vanished.  Hours later, Deanna's grandmother realized that she was missing and reported her missing, but because she was suspected to be a run away by police, there was no investigation started. In 1992, Rebecca reportedly received a collect phone call from someone who told the operator that her name was Deanna, but when Rebecca accepted the call, the caller had hung up. The call was traced to Kentucky, where Deanna had family, but none of  her relatives there reported seeing Deanna. During the 2000-2002 time period, there was an unconfirmed sighting of Deanna by a relative of hers who claimed to have encountered her, and that Deanna at the time of the sighting had several tattoos. The information provided by this family member may not be credible.  At another point over the years, someone contacted police and told them that Deanna had returned home safely. As a result, her case was closed. It was only realized later that the call was to police was inaccurate, and Deanna was still missing, at which point her case was re-opened. Deanna remains missing to this day. In this episode, Deanna's sister Melissa is our guest.  At the time of her disappearance, Deanna was described as a White female standing between 5ft and 5ft5, and weighing 108-120 pounds. She had Blonde hair and Hazel eyes. She had a small scar on her upper lip. Deanna if alive today, may or may not have tattoos; including the name “Merryfield” with an unknown date on her neck, a cross with lines on her ankle and a yellow rose with “Texas Born” on her back. There is a DNA sample on file for needed comparisons as per Deanna's NAMUS page Investigators are interested in identifying and speaking to the two young men Deanna was last seen with. At the time of Deanna's disappearance, the men, possibly brothers, were thought to be White or Hispanic, and their names may be Tony and Rudy Longoria. Police were also seeking a Sylvia Martinez for questioning.  If you have any information or tips in Deanna's case, please contact the Killeen Police Department at 254-501-8830 or submit a tip on Bell County Crime Stoppers. To learn more about Deanna's case, or provide information, please check out the website and Facebook page connected to her case.  To listen to every episode of Missing Persons ad-free and get other benefits, simply  visit our channel page on Apple Podcasts to get started with an AbJack Insider subscription. Of course, you can also support DNA: ID with a Patreon subscription. Follow us on social media; https://linktr.ee/missingpersonspodcast  

“We walk the talk—not talk the talk.” “Expect the unexpected—Japan will challenge every assumption you bring.” “The language we use programs our mindset—'we' means we're in it together.” “Creating little leaders is more powerful than just giving orders.” “Trust here runs deeper—it's built case by case, moment by moment.” Previously Yvette was Managing Director Hong Kong and South China; National Sales Manager, Hong Kong, South and West China; Business Development And Key Account Manager, Greater China.  She has a Master of Science from the University of Reading and a BA from Oxford Brookes University Yvette's leadership journey is marked by a deliberate pursuit of challenges and cultural contrasts. She views leadership as a dynamic relationship built on trust, adaptability, and empathy—particularly crucial in navigating cross-cultural business environments like Japan. Taking over her organization in Tokyo during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yvette saw opportunity within disruption. The crisis leveled traditional expectations and provided her with a rare chance to build credibility and trust with her team from the ground up, not as a foreign imposition, but as a shared survivor of an unprecedented time. Leading a team in Japan, Yvette quickly discovered that the leadership style required differed greatly from her previous experiences in Hong Kong, China, and the UK. Japanese teams, she observed, value preparation over improvisation and consensus over individual assertion. While her background leaned more toward rapid execution and adaptive correction, she learned to balance that with Japan's cultural emphasis on structure and perfection in implementation. Her leadership had to evolve to emphasize patience, inclusivity, and long-term trust-building. She also had to navigate Japan's deeply embedded hierarchical norms. Rather than simply asserting authority, Yvette focused on empathy and consistent communication. She intentionally stepped away from the pedestal of title and role to speak directly—and frequently—with team members at all levels. This practice of daily, informal engagement helped break down barriers, inviting ideas and dialogue in a culture often hesitant to voice dissent or innovation publicly. A core tenet of her leadership philosophy is the development of "little leaders"—empowering team members to take ownership of decisions and develop their own voices. She acknowledged the difficulty of encouraging initiative in a traditionally deferential culture, but saw the value in allowing team members to try, fail, and learn. Mistakes were treated as shared learning opportunities, framed as “we” moments to avoid fear or blame. This approach fostered trust and motivated individuals to gradually speak up and contribute more actively. Yvette also emphasized the importance of translating the company's global vision into locally meaningful action. Rather than treating values and mission as distant mandates, she sought to connect them to tangible customer experiences. Post-project debriefs became teaching moments where the team could reflect on how their values shaped outcomes. This made abstract ideals like trust and service more relatable and alive in the day-to-day. Understanding that Japanese business culture places clients at the top of the hierarchy, often at the expense of innovation or efficiency, Yvette introduced the idea of partnership. Though she knew this was a radical shift from the servant mindset, she saw the necessity of guiding both clients and teams toward more collaborative, value-driven relationships. Ultimately, Yvette's leadership is defined not by asserting control, but by creating a culture where people feel safe to contribute, grow, and lead in their own right. Her presence as a non-Japanese, non-Caucasian woman helped her defy assumptions and craft a leadership identity that fits neither a local mould nor a global cliché—but one tailored to the team she is building.    

HOUR #2 - ASTROS BREAKING NEWS: Jake Meyers Lands on 'Stros Injured List; AND-the BEST Older Caucasian Phrases We LOVE Lolol full 2379 Fri, 11 Jul 2025 23:24:29 +0000 cZUjJmV5wixDRQ3LlmXx9q91uf1gVkXr nfl,mlb,nba,texans,astros,rockets,sports The Drive with Stoerner and Hughley nfl,mlb,nba,texans,astros,rockets,sports HOUR #2 - ASTROS BREAKING NEWS: Jake Meyers Lands on 'Stros Injured List; AND-the BEST Older Caucasian Phrases We LOVE Lolol 2-6PM M-F © 2025 Audacy, Inc. Sports Fals

"Just Hold Your Horses there, Buddy!" - The BEST Older Caucasian Fella Phrases that We LOVE full 541 Fri, 11 Jul 2025 21:36:46 +0000 q45qlq62Hh4ew0jMB1HtgOeC8qtOdiUm nfl,mlb,nba,texans,astros,rockets,htown,clutch city,sports The Drive with Stoerner and Hughley nfl,mlb,nba,texans,astros,rockets,htown,clutch city,sports "Just Hold Your Horses there, Buddy!" - The BEST Older Caucasian Fella Phrases that We LOVE 2-6PM M-F © 2025 Audacy, Inc. Sports False h

This week, I'm reading Chapter 23, the final chapter of the Peter David penned movie novelization of the 1991 Rocketeer film.  Ironically, this episode will come out right after the United States' birthday (7/4/1776), at a time when there is a lot of turmoil in the country.  It's not the first time, nor will it be the last, I suspect.  I won't get into the wasteland of politics, but since this episode is on the Rocketeer, I thought it would be an interesting time to reflect on how the character fits some American ideals. Speaking of which - ideals ... the country was founded on the idea that all men are created equal and all deserve some basic rights.  Was this true in 1776?  Let's be frank (it's an American ideal).  No.  Not even close. It might have been true if you were a free white man but was probably not anywhere close to being true if you were a woman, child, slave, indentured servant, or a race other Caucasian.  It took a long time for other groups to finally catch up.  US women finally achieved the right to vote in national elections in 1920 (19th amendment to the US Constitution).  Though slavery was officially abolished after the US Civil War in 1865, black men were were not granted the right to vote in federal elections until 1870 (the 15th amendment to the US Constitution), and it was not until the 1950s and 60s and beyond that segregation practices were ended (Jim Crow laws ended on a national level in 1964, but in many cases, still exist in other, less overt forms depending on the location).  It was not until 1967 that interracial marriage was allowed on a federal level (see the 1967 US Supreme Court case of Loving v. Virginia).  Although the United States was founded by immigrants, the Chinese exclusion act, passed in 1882, was the first significant law that restricted the flow of immigrants into the US, targeting Chinese laborers.  While there were amendments to the law in 1943, there were still quotas and other restrictions to abide by.  It was not until 2012 (!) that the Chinese exclusion act was official condemned by Congress.  Although Native Americans were the first people on this land, they were not granted access to US citizenship until 1924 (Indian Citizenship Act), and it was not until 1965 that they were granted the federal right to vote (Voting Rights Act of 1965), though US Native Americans still are often unable to vote for various reasons to this day.  Same sex marriage was not legally allowed on federal level until 2015 (see the US Supreme Court decision of Obergefell v. Hodges). These are just a few examples of inequality in the face of a federal Constitution claiming basic rights for all.  I write all this not to condemn all the ways in which we as a country fail to live up to our ideals but rather to show that as any society, especially one made up by immigrants from all over the world, is going to have its problems and will require a lot of work and constant maintenance to work in any somewhat functional way.  The US is basically a nearly 250 year old hotel with guests constantly coming and going, clogging the sinks and toilets, running down the hot water, making messes, and yelling in the hallway.  Even in low season times, there is still plenty of maintenance to do since things break.  Nothing lasts forever.   How does all this relate to the Rocketeer?  Read more at https://13thhr.wordpress.com/2025/07/07/the-thirteenth-hour-podcast-517-and-like-a-hood-ornament-81-reading-the-conclusion-of-the-rocketeer-movie-novelization-chapter-23/∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞Once Upon a Dream, the second Thirteenth Hour soundtrack, is now out in digital form on services such as Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube Music. -Check out the pixelart music videos that are out so far from the album:-->Logan's Sunrise Workout: www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7SM1RgsLiM-->Forward: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9VgILr1TDc-->Nightsky Stargazing: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S0p3jKRTBo-->Aurora's Rainy Day Mix: https://youtu.be/zwqPmypBysk

Dr. Diwakar Davar and Dr. Jason Luke discuss novel agents in melanoma and other promising new data in the field of immunotherapy that were presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. TRANSCRIPT Dr. Diwakar Davar: Hello. My name is Diwakar Davar, and I am welcoming you to the ASCO Daily News Podcast. I'm an associate professor of medicine and the clinical director of the Melanoma and Skin Cancer Program at the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Cancer Center. Today, I'm joined by my colleague and good friend, Dr. Jason Luke. Dr. Luke is a professor of medicine. He is also the associate director of clinical research and the director of the Phase 1 IDDC Program at the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Cancer Center. He and I are going to be discussing some key advancements in melanoma and skin cancers that were presented at the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting. Our full disclosures are available in the transcript of this episode.  Jason, it is great to have you back on the podcast. Dr. Jason Luke: Thanks again so much for the opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to it. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Perfect. So we will go ahead and start talking a little bit about a couple of key abstracts in both the drug development immunotherapy space and the melanoma space. The first couple of abstracts, the first two, will cover melanoma. So, the first is LBA9500, which was essentially the primary results of RELATIVITY-098. RELATIVITY-098 was a phase 3 trial that compared nivolumab plus relatlimab in a fixed-dose combination against nivolumab alone for the adjuvant treatment of resected high-risk disease. Jason, do you want to maybe give us a brief context of what this is? Dr. Jason Luke: Yeah, it's great, thanks. So as almost all listeners, of course, will be aware, the use of anti–PD-1 immunotherapies really revolutionized melanoma oncology over the last 10 to 15 years. And it has become a standard of care in the adjuvant setting as well. But to review, in patients with stage III melanoma, treatment can be targeted towards BRAF with BRAF and MEK combination therapy, where that's relevant, or anti–PD-1 with nivolumab or pembrolizumab are a standard of care. And more recently, we've had the development of neoadjuvant approaches for palpable stage III disease. And in that space, if patients present, based on two different studies, either pembrolizumab or nivolumab plus ipilimumab can be given prior to surgery for somewhere in the 6- to 9-week range. And so all of these therapies have improved time-to-event endpoints, such as relapse-free or event-free survival. It's worth noting, however, that despite those advances, we've had a couple different trials now that have actually failed in this adjuvant setting, most high profile being the CheckMate-915 study, which looked at nivolumab plus ipilimumab and unfortunately was a negative study. So, with RELATIVITY-047, which was the trial of nivolumab plus relatlimab that showed an improvement in progression-free survival for metastatic disease, there's a lot of interest, and we've been awaiting these data for a long time for RELATIVITY-098, which, of course, is this adjuvant trial of LAG-3 blockade with relatlimab plus nivolumab. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Great. So with that, let's briefly discuss the trial design and the results. So this was a randomized, phase 3, blinded study, so double-blinded, so neither the investigators knew what the patients were getting, nor did the patients know what they were getting. The treatment investigational arm was nivolumab plus relatlimab in the fixed-dose combination. So that's the nivolumab standard fixed dose with relatlimab that was FDA approved in RELATIVITY-047. And the control arm was nivolumab by itself. The duration of treatment was 1 year. The patient population consisted of resected high-risk stage III or IV patients. The primary endpoint was investigator-assessed RFS. Stage and geography were the standard stratifying factors, and they were included, and most of the criteria were balanced across both arms. What we know at this point is that the 2-year RFS rate was 64% and 62% in the nivolumab and nivolumab-combination arms, respectively. The 2-year DMFS rate was similarly equivalent: 76% with nivolumab monotherapy, 73% with the combination. And similar to what you had talked about with CheckMate 915, unfortunately, the addition of LAG-3 did not appear to improve the RFS or DMFS compared to control in this patient population. So, tell us a little bit about your take on this and what do you think might be the reasons why this trial was negative? Dr. Jason Luke: It's really unfortunate that we have this negative phase 3 trial. There had been a lot of hope that the combination of nivolumab with relatlimab would be a better tolerated combination that increased the efficacy. So in the metastatic setting, we do have 047, the study that demonstrated nivolumab plus relatlimab, but now we have this negative trial in the adjuvant setting. And so as to why exactly, I think is a complicated scenario. You know, when we look at the hazard ratios for relapse-free survival, the primary endpoint, as well as the secondary endpoints for distant metastasis-free survival, we see that the hazard ratio is approximately 1. So there's basically no difference. And that really suggests that relatlimab in this setting had no impact whatsoever on therapeutic outcomes in terms of efficacy. Now, it's worth noting that there was a biomarker subanalysis that was presented in conjunction with these data that looked at some immunophenotyping, both from circulating T cells, CD8 T cells, as well as from the tumor microenvironment from patients who were treated, both in the previous metastatic trial, the RELATIVITY-047 study, and now in this adjuvant study in the RELATIVITY-098 study. And to briefly summarize those, what was identified was that T cells in advanced melanoma seemed to have higher expression levels of LAG-3 relative to T cells that are circulating in patients that are in the adjuvant setting. In addition to that, there was a suggestion that the magnitude of increase is greater in the advanced setting versus adjuvant. And the overall summary of this is that the suggested rationale for why this was a negative trial may have been that the target of LAG-3 is not expressed as highly in the adjuvant setting as it is in the metastatic setting. And so while the data that were presented, I think, support this kind of an idea, I am a little bit cautious that this is actually the reason for why the trial was negative, however. I would say we're not really sure yet as to why the trial was negative, but the fact that the hazard ratios for the major endpoints were essentially 1 suggests that there was no impact whatsoever from relatlimab. And this really makes one wonder whether or not building on anti–PD-1 in the adjuvant setting is feasible because anti–PD-1 works so well. You would think that even if the levels of LAG-3 expression were slightly different, you would have seen a trend in one direction or another by adding a second drug, relatlimab, in this scenario. So overall, I think it's an unfortunate circumstance that the trial is negative. Clearly there's going to be no role for relatlimab in the adjuvant setting. I think this really makes one wonder about the utility of LAG-3 blockade and how powerful it really can be. I think it's probably worth pointing out there's another adjuvant trial ongoing now of a different PD-1 and LAG-3 combination, and that's cemiplimab plus fianlimab, a LAG-3 antibody that's being dosed from another trial sponsor at a much higher dose, and perhaps that may make some level of difference. But certainly, these are unfortunate results that will not advance the field beyond where we were at already. Dr. Diwakar Davar: And to your point about third-generation checkpoint factors that were negative, I guess it's probably worth noting that a trial that you were involved with, KeyVibe-010, that evaluated the PD-1 TIGIT co-formulation of vibostolimab, MK-4280A, was also, unfortunately, similarly negative. So, to your point, it's not clear that all these third-generation receptors are necessarily going to have the same impact in the adjuvant setting, even if they, you know, for example, like TIGIT, and they sometimes may not even have an effect at all in the advanced cancer setting. So, we'll see what the HARMONY phase 3 trial, that's the Regeneron cemiplimab/fianlimab versus pembrolizumab control with cemiplimab with fianlimab at two different doses, we'll see how that reads out. But certainly, as you've said, LAG-3 does not, unfortunately, appear to have an impact in the adjuvant setting. So let's move on to LBA9501. This is the primary analysis of EORTC-2139-MG or the Columbus-AD trial. This was a randomized trial of encorafenib and binimetinib, which we will abbreviate as enco-bini going forward, compared to placebo in high-risk stage II setting in melanoma in patients with BRAF V600E or K mutant disease. So Jason, you know, you happen to know one or two things about the resected stage II setting, so maybe contextualize the stage II setting for us based on the trials that you've led, KEYNOTE-716, as well as CheckMate-76K, set us up to talk about Columbus-AD. Dr. Jason Luke: Thanks for that introduction, and certainly stage II disease has been something I've worked a lot on. The rationale for that has been that building off of the activity of anti–PD-1 in metastatic melanoma and then seeing the activity in stage III, like we just talked about, it was a curious circumstance that dating back about 7 to 8 years ago, there was no availability to use anti–PD-1 for high-risk stage II patients, even though the risk of recurrence and death from melanoma in the context of stage IIB and IIC melanoma is in fact similar or actually higher than in stage IIIA or IIIB, where anti–PD-1 was approved. And in that context, a couple of different trials that you alluded to, the Keynote-716 study that I led, as well as the CheckMate 76K trial, evaluated pembrolizumab and nivolumab, respectively, showing an improvement in relapse-free and distant metastasis-free survival, and both of those agents have subsequently been approved for use in the adjuvant setting by the US FDA as well as the European Medicines Agency.  So bringing then to this abstract, throughout melanoma oncology, we've seen that the impact of anti–PD-1 immunotherapy versus BRAF and MEK-targeted therapy have had very similar outcomes on a sort of comparison basis, both in frontline metastatic and then in adjuvant setting. So it was a totally reasonable question to ask: Could we use adjuvant BRAF and MEK inhibitor therapy? And I think all of us expected the answer would be yes. As we get into the discussion of the trial, I think the unfortunate circumstance was that the timing of this clinical trial being delayed somewhat, unfortunately, made it very difficult to accrue the trial, and so we're going to have to try to read through the tea leaves sort of, based on only a partially complete data set. Dr. Diwakar Davar: So, in terms of the results, they wanted to enroll 815 patients, they only enrolled 110. The RFS and DMFS were marginally improved in the treatment arm but certainly not significantly, which is not surprising because the trial had only accrued 16% to 18% of its complete accrual. As such, we really can't abstract from the stage III COMBI-AD data to stage II patients. And certainly in this setting, one would argue that the primary treatment options certainly remain either anti–PD-1 monotherapy, either with pembrolizumab or nivolumab, based on 716 or 76K, or potentially active surveillance for the patients who are not inclined to get treated.  Can you tell us a little bit about how you foresee drug development going forward in this space because, you know, for example, with HARMONY, certainly IIC disease is a part of HARMONY. We will know at least a little bit about that in this space. So what do you think about the stage IIB/C patient population? Is this a patient population in which future combinations are going to be helpful, and how would you think about where we can go forward from here? Dr. Jason Luke: It is an unfortunate circumstance that this trial could not be accrued at the pace that was necessary. I think all of us believe that the results would have been positive if they'd been able to accrue the trial. In the preliminary data set that they did disclose of that 110 patients, you know, it's clear there is a difference at a, you know, a landmark at a year. They showed a 16% difference, and that would be in line with what has been seen in stage III. And so, you know, I think it's really kind of too bad. There's really going to be no regulatory approach for this consideration. So using BRAF and MEK inhibition in stage II is not going to be part of standard practice moving into the future. To your point, though, about where will the field go? I think what we're already realizing is that in the adjuvant setting, we're really overtreating the total population. And so beyond merely staging by AJCC criteria, we need to move to biomarker selection to help inform which patients truly need the treatment. And in that regard, I don't think we've crystallized together as a field as yet, but the kinds of things that people are thinking about are the integration of molecular biomarkers like ctDNA. When it's positive, it can be very helpful, but in melanoma, we found that, unfortunately, the rates are quite low, you know, in the 10% to 15% range in the adjuvant setting. So then another consideration would be factors in the primary tumor, such as gene expression profiling or other considerations.  And so I think the future of adjuvant clinical trials will be an integration of both the standard AJCC staging system as well as some kind of overlaid molecular biomarker that helps to enrich for a higher-risk population of patients because on a high level, when you abstract out, it's just clearly the case that we're rather substantially overtreating the totality of the population, especially given that in all of our adjuvant studies to date for anti–PD-1, we have not yet shown that there's an overall survival advantage. And so some are even arguing perhaps we should even reserve treatment until patients progress. I think that's a complicated subject, and standard of care at this point is to offer adjuvant therapy, but certainly a lot more to do because many patients, you know, unfortunately, still do progress and move on to metastatic disease. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Let's transition to Abstract 2508. So we're moving on from the melanoma to the novel immunotherapy abstracts. And this is a very, very, very fascinating drug. It's IMA203. So Abstract 2508 is a phase 1 clinical update of IMA203. IMA203 is an autologous TCR-T construct targeting PRAME in patients with heavily pretreated PD-1-refractory metastatic melanoma. So Jason, in the PD-1 and CTLA-4-refractory settings, treatment options are either autologous TIL, response rate, you know, ballpark 29% to 31%, oncolytic viral therapy, RP1 with nivolumab, ORR about 30-ish percent. So new options are needed. Can you tell us a little bit about IMA203? Perhaps tell us for the audience, what is the difference between a TCR-T and traditional autologous TIL? And a little bit about this drug, IMA203, and how it distinguishes itself from the competing TIL products in the landscape. Dr. Jason Luke: I'm extremely enthusiastic about IMA203. I think that it really has transformative potential based on these results and hopefully from the phase 3 trial that's open to accrual now. So, what is IMA203? We said it's a TCR-T cell product. So what that means is that T cells are removed from a patient, and then they can be transduced through various technologies, but inserted into those T cells, we can then add a T-cell receptor that's very specific to a single antigen, and in this case, it's PRAME. So that then is contrasted quite a bit from the TIL process, which includes a surgical resection of a tumor where T cells are removed, but they're not specific necessarily to the cancer, and they're grown up in the lab and then given to the patient. They're both adoptive cell transfer products, but they're very different. One is genetically modified, and the other one is not. And so the process for generating a TCR-T cell is that patients are required to have a new biomarker that some may not be familiar with, which is HLA profiling. So the T-cell receptor requires matching to the concomitant HLA for which the peptide is bound in. And so the classic one that is used in most oncology practices is A*02:01 because approximately 48% of Caucasians have A*02:01, and the frequency of HLA in other ethnicities starts to become highly variable. But in patients who are identified to have A*02:01 genotype, we can then remove blood via leukapheresis or an apheresis product, and then insert via lentiviral transduction this T-cell receptor targeting PRAME. Patients are then brought back to the hospital where they can receive lymphodepleting chemotherapy and then receive the reinfusion of the TCR-T cells. Again, in contrast with the TIL process, however, these T cells are extremely potent, and we do not need to give high-dose interleukin-2, which is administered in the context of TIL. Given that process, we have this clinical trial in front of us now, and at ASCO, the update was from the phase 1 study, which was looking at IMA203 in an efficacy population of melanoma patients who were refractory at checkpoint blockade and actually multiple lines of therapy. So here, there were 33 patients and a response rate of approximately 50% was observed in this population of patients, notably with a duration of response approximately a year in that treatment group. And I realize that these were heavily pretreated patients who had a range of very high-risk features. And approximately half the population had uveal melanoma, which people may be aware is a generally speaking more difficult-to-treat subtype of melanoma that metastasizes to the liver, which again has been a site of resistance to cancer immunotherapy. So these results are extremely promising. To summarize them from what I said, it's easier to make TCR-T cells because we can remove blood from the patient to transduce the T cells, and we don't have to put them through surgery. We can then infuse them, and based on these results, it looks like the response rate to IMA203 is a little bit more than double what we expect from lifileucel. And then, whereas with lifileucel or TILs, we have to give high-dose IL-2, here we do not have to give high-dose IL-2. And so that's pretty promising. And a clinical trial is ongoing now called the SUPREME phase 3 clinical trial, which is hoping to validate these results in a randomized global study. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Now, one thing that I wanted to go over with you, because you know this trial particularly well, is what you think of the likelihood of success, and then we'll talk a little bit about the trial design. But in your mind, do you think that this is a trial that has got a reasonable likelihood of success, maybe even a high likelihood of success? And maybe let's contextualize that to say an alternative trial, such as, for example, the TebeAM trial, which is essentially a T-cell bispecific targeting GP100. It's being compared against SOC, investigator's choice control, also in a similarly heavily pretreated patient population. Dr. Jason Luke: So both trials, I think, have a strong chance of success. They are very different kinds of agents. And so the CD3 bispecific that you referred to, tebentafusp, likely has an effect of delaying progression, which in patients with advanced disease could have a value that might manifest as overall survival. With TCR-T cells, by contrast, we see a very high response rate with some of the patients going into very durable long-term benefit. And so I do think that the SUPREME clinical trial has a very high chance of success. It will be the first clinical trial in solid tumor oncology randomizing patients to receive a cell therapy as compared with a standard of care. And within that standard of care control arm, TILs are allowed as a treatment. And so it will also be the first study that will compare TCR-T cells against TILs in a randomized phase 3. But going back to the data that we've seen in the phase 1 trial, what we observe is that the duration of response is really connected to the quality of the response, meaning if you have more than a 50% tumor shrinkage, those patients do very, very well. But even in patients who have less than 50% tumor shrinkage, the median progression-free survival right now is about 4.5 months. And again, as we think about trial design, standard of care options for patients who are in this situation are unfortunately very bad. And the progression-free survival in that population is probably more like 2 months. So this is a trial that has a very high likelihood of being positive because the possibility of long-term response is there, but even for patients who don't get a durable response, they're likely going to benefit more than they would have based on standard chemotherapy or retreatment with an anti–PD-1 agent. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Really, a very important trial to enroll, a trial that is first in many ways. First of a new generation of TCR-T agents, first trial to look at cell therapy in the control arm, a new standard of efficacy, but potentially also if this trial is successful, it will also be a new standard of trial conduct, a new kind of trial, of a set of trials that will be done in the second-line immunotherapy-refractory space. So let's pivot to the last trial that we were going to discuss, which was Abstract 2501. Abstract 2501 is a first-in-human phase 1/2 trial evaluating BNT142, which is the first-in-class mRNA-encoded bispecific targeting Claudin-6 and CD3 in patients with Claudin-positive tumors. We'll talk a little bit about this, but maybe let's start by talking a little bit about Claudin-6. So Claudin-6 is a very interesting new target. It's a target that's highly expressed in GI and ovarian tumors. There are a whole plethora of Claudin-6-targeting agents, including T-cell bispecifics and Claudin-6-directed CAR-Ts that are being developed. But BNT142 is novel. It's a novel lipid nanoparticle LNP-encapsulated mRNA. The mRNA encodes an anti–Claudin-6 CD3 bispecific termed RiboMAB-021. And it then is administered to the patient. The BNT142-encoding mRNA LNPs are taken up by the liver and translated into the active drug. So Jason, tell us a little bit about this agent. Why you think it's novel, if you think it's novel, and let's talk a little bit then about the results. Dr. Jason Luke: So I certainly think this is a novel agent, and I think this is just the first of what will probably become a new paradigm in oncology drug development. And so you alluded to this, but just to rehash it quickly, the drug is encoded as genetic information that's placed in the lipid nanoparticle and then is infused into the patient. And after the lipid nanoparticles are taken up by the liver, which is the most common place that LNPs are usually taken up, that genetic material in the mRNA starts to be translated into the actual protein, and that protein is the drug. So this is in vivo generation, so the patient is making their own drug inside their body. I think it's a really, really interesting approach. So for any drug that could be encoded as a genetic sequence, and in this case, it's a bispecific, as you mentioned, CD3-Claudin-6 engager, this could have a tremendous impact on how we think about pharmacology and novel drug development moving into the future in oncology. So I think it's an extremely interesting drug, the like of which we'll probably see only more moving forward. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Let's maybe briefly talk about the results. You know, the patient population was heavily pretreated, 65 or so patients, mostly ovarian cancer. Two-thirds of the patients were ovarian cancer, the rest were germ cell and lung cancer patients. But let's talk a little bit about the efficacy. The disease control rate was about 58% in the phase 1 population as a whole, but 75% in the ovarian patient population. Now tell us a little bit about the interesting things about the drug in terms of the pharmacokinetics, and also then maybe we can pivot to the clinical activity by dose level. Dr. Jason Luke: Well, so they did present in their presentation at ASCO a proportionality showing that as higher doses were administered, that greater amounts of the drug were being made inside the patient. And so that's an interesting observation, and it's an important one, right? Suggesting that the pharmacology that we classically think of by administering drugs by IV, for example, would still be in play. And that did translate into some level of efficacy, particularly at the higher dose levels. Now, the caveat that I'll make a note of is that disease control rate is an endpoint that I think we have to be careful about because what that really means is sometimes a little bit unclear. Sometimes patients have slowly growing tumors and so on and so forth. And the clinical relevance of disease control, if it doesn't last at least 6 months, I think is probably pretty questionable. So I think these are extremely interesting data, and there's some preliminary sense that getting the dose up is going to matter because the treatment responses were mostly observed at the highest dose levels. There's also a caveat, however, that across the field of CD3 bispecific molecules like this, there's been quite a bit of heterogeneity in terms of the response rate, with some of them only really generating stable disease responses and other ones having more robust responses. And so I think this is a really interesting initial foray into this space. My best understanding is this molecule is not moving forward further after this, but I think that this really does set it up to be able to chase after multiple different drug targets on a CD3 bispecific backbone, both in ovarian cancer, but then basically across all of oncology. Dr. Diwakar Davar: Perfect. This is a very new sort of exciting arena where we're going to be looking at, in many ways, these programmable constructs, whether we're looking at in vivo-generated, in this case, a T-cell bispecific, but we've also got newer drugs where we are essentially giving drugs where people are generating in vivo CAR T, and also potentially even in vivo TCR-T. But certainly lots of new excitement around this entire class of drugs. And so, what we'd like to do at this point in time is switch to essentially the fact that we've got a very, very exciting set of data at ASCO 2025. You've heard from Dr. Luke regarding the advances in both early drug development but also in advanced cutaneous melanoma. And Jason, as always, thank you so much for sharing your very valuable and great, fantastic insights with us on the ASCO Daily News Podcast. Dr. Jason Luke: Well, thanks again for the opportunity. Dr. Diwakar Davar: And thank you to our listeners for taking your time to listen today. You will find the links to the abstracts that we discussed today in the transcript of this episode. And finally, if you value the insights that you hear on the ASCO Daily News Podcast, please take a moment to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. Guest statements on the podcast do not express the opinions of ASCO. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement. Follow today's speakers:    Dr. Diwakar Davar    @diwakardavar    Dr. Jason Luke @jasonlukemd Follow ASCO on social media:     @ASCO on Twitter       ASCO on Bluesky   ASCO on Facebook       ASCO on LinkedIn   Disclosures:     Dr. Diwakar Davar:      Honoraria: Merck, Tesaro, Array BioPharma, Immunocore, Instil Bio, Vedanta Biosciences     Consulting or Advisory Role: Instil Bio, Vedanta Biosciences     Consulting or Advisory Role (Immediate family member): Shionogi     Research Funding: Merck, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, CellSight Technologies, GSK, Merck, Arvus Biosciences, Arcus Biosciences     Research Funding (Inst.): Zucero Therapeutics     Patents, Royalties, Other Intellectual Property: Application No.: 63/124,231 Title: COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS FOR TREATING CANCER Applicant: University of Pittsburgh–Of the Commonwealth System of Higher Education Inventors: Diwakar Davar Filing Date: December 11, 2020 Country: United States MCC Reference: 10504-059PV1 Your Reference: 05545; and Application No.: 63/208,719 Enteric Microbiotype Signatures of Immune-related Adverse Events and Response in Relation to Anti-PD-1 Immunotherapy     Dr. Jason Luke:     Stock and Other Ownership Interests: Actym Therapeutics, Mavu Pharmaceutical, Pyxis, Alphamab Oncology, Tempest Therapeutics, Kanaph Therapeutics, Onc.AI, Arch Oncology, Stipe, NeoTX     Consulting or Advisory Role: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck, EMD Serono, Novartis, 7 Hills Pharma, Janssen, Reflexion Medical, Tempest Therapeutics, Alphamab Oncology, Spring Bank, Abbvie, Astellas Pharma, Bayer, Incyte, Mersana, Partner Therapeutics, Synlogic, Eisai, Werewolf, Ribon Therapeutics, Checkmate Pharmaceuticals, CStone Pharmaceuticals, Nektar, Regeneron, Rubius, Tesaro, Xilio, Xencor, Alnylam, Crown Bioscience, Flame Biosciences, Genentech, Kadmon, KSQ Therapeutics, Immunocore, Inzen, Pfizer, Silicon Therapeutics, TRex Bio, Bright Peak, Onc.AI, STipe, Codiak Biosciences, Day One Therapeutics, Endeavor, Gilead Sciences, Hotspot Therapeutics, SERVIER, STINGthera, Synthekine     Research Funding (Inst.): Merck , Bristol-Myers Squibb, Incyte, Corvus Pharmaceuticals, Abbvie, Macrogenics, Xencor, Array BioPharma, Agios, Astellas Pharma , EMD Serono, Immatics, Kadmon, Moderna Therapeutics, Nektar, Spring bank, Trishula, KAHR Medical, Fstar, Genmab, Ikena Oncology, Numab, Replimmune, Rubius Therapeutics, Synlogic, Takeda, Tizona Therapeutics, Inc., BioNTech AG, Scholar Rock, Next Cure     Patents, Royalties, Other Intellectual Property: Serial #15/612,657 (Cancer Immunotherapy), and Serial #PCT/US18/36052 (Microbiome Biomarkers for Anti-PD-1/PD-L1 Responsiveness: Diagnostic, Prognostic and Therapeutic Uses Thereof)     Travel, Accommodations, Expenses: Bristol-Myers Squibb, Array BioPharma, EMD Serono, Janssen, Merck, Novartis, Reflexion Medical, Mersana, Pyxis, Xilio

Ed Center and I begin this podcast with a toast. I'm proud to call Ed my friend. I met him a couple years at The Social Study, where we recorded this episode and where my wife, Erin Lim, bartends. From the first time I spoke with Ed, I knew I liked him. His energy and humor and intellect and heart are all boundless. I'm hella drawn to people like Ed. His story begins in Cebu in the Philippines, with his maternal grandmother. Her family was poor and her parents died in the Spanish Flu of the 1910s. That loss plunged the surviving family members into what Ed describes as destitute poverty. Following that tragedy, her older brother signed up to work for the Dole company in Hawaii. Ed's grandmother was 13 at this time, but still, it was decided that she would accompany her brother to the islands to help care for him while he worked the pineapple fields and earned a wage. Ed points out that the Dole Food Company (as it was known at the time) intended these migrant workers to honor their contracts and then go back to their home countries. To that end, the company only hired young men. But Ed's family paid a stranger on their boat $20 to marry his grandmother so that she could join her brother in Hawaii. Ed goes on a sidebar here about the tendency in his family to exaggerate their own history. “Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story,” or so the family saying goes. He returns to the story of his maternal grandmother to share the tale of her younger sister being so distraught about the departure, she hugged her so hard that her flip-flop broke. It was her only pair of shoes. In the Filipino community on Oahu at the time, there was an outsize number of men in relation to women. When Ed's grandfather first set eyes on his grandma, he began to court her. A year later, they asked her older brother if they could get married, and he said no, that she was too young (14 at the time). But they got married anyway, with the understanding that they would wait two more years to live together. They moved in and Ed's grandmother had a new baby, including his mom, every other year for the next 20 years. Like her brother, his grandmother's new husband worked in the pineapple fields for Dole, doing incredibly hard labor. His grandma washed clothes for bachelor workers. The two saved their money and bought plantation property from Dole. The property was affordable enough that they were able to build multiple shacks for the kids to eventually live in. At this point, Ed launches into what he calls “the shadow story” of his family. He learned that shadow story when he was a kid and his mom and aunties were cooking in the kitchen. He'd sit just outside the room pretending to read a book, eavesdropping. There, he learned things like which family members were smoking pot or getting into trouble. But there are more serious elements, which prompts Ed to issue a trigger warning to readers and listeners. His grandmother didn't quite agree to go to Hawaii. When she told her brother no to the idea, he beat her. He did this repeatedly until she acquiesced. But it was in one of these violent melees that his grandmother's flip-flop broke. All this to say that Ed's grandmother didn't have much agency in her life decisions. The last two of her 10 children almost killed her. After number 10, the doctor gave Ed's grandfather an involuntary vasectomy. Ed shares the story of how, on plantation payday, the women and children would hide in the fields with the men guarding them. It was a way to try to protect them from workers in the next village getting drunk and coming in to cause trouble. He summarizes the family history to this point by pointing out the incredible amount of resilience his ancestors carried. Also strength and love. But also, violence. All of those qualities manifested in their and their children's parenting practices. Ed's mom raised her kids in this way. The severity of the abuse waned over generations, but it was there nonetheless. Ed says he was ultimately responsible for his mother's emotions. For many of these reasons, in his adult life, Ed founded The Village Well Parenting. We'll get more into that in Part 2. We back up for Ed to tell the story of how his mom and dad met each other. His dad was in the Army during the war in Vietnam. On a voyage to Asia, his boat took a detour and ended up in Hawaii, where he remained for the next five years. His parents got together and had Ed and his younger brother. They grew up among a much larger Filipino extended family, but Ed didn't really know his dad's Caucasian family, who lived on the East Coast. He's gotten to know them more in his adult life. Ed grew up on Oahu in the Seventies and Eighties. His family was between working class and middle class, and there was always stress about money. But in hindsight, they lived well. We share versions of a similar story—that of parents telling kids that Christmas would be lean, that they didn't have a lot of money (probably true), but that never ended up actually being the case. Both of our recollections was mountains of gifts on December 25. Growing up, Ed was always feminine. He was also athletic. It was a time before Ellen, before Will and Grace, when “athletic” also meant “not gay.” Ed says he wanted to be “not gay,” but he couldn't help who he was. That led to his getting bullied. Moving to the mainland for college meant escape—from his own torment and from that of his peers back on the island. Ed went to UC Davis. He had played competitive soccer in middle school and high school, and because his teams were good, they came to the mainland a couple times. But Davis was a whole other world by the time he arrived to go to college. It was the early Nineties. He took what we call a gap year before coming to California. For him, that meant working. In one of his jobs, he served tables at CPK in Hawaii, where Carol Burnett was one of his regulars. We end Part 1 with Ed's story of his time at UC Davis and not yet accepting his queerness. This Thursday on the podcast, I talk with Megan Rohrer about their new book on the Transgender District in San Francisco. And check back next week for Part 2 with Ed Center. We recorded this podcast at The Social Study in June 2025. Photography by Jeff Hunt

Quaranteam – Book 1: Part 14 Andy reconnects with his past, and Emily explores. Based on a post by CorruptingPower, in 25 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels. And, after two weeks of trying to subtly discern it from her, Andy eventually just asked Taylor what she did for a living, and Taylor informed Andy that she'd been a phlebotomist before moving into the Rook household, and once she was done with her time in the penalty box, she would go back to it. It was the first step she had taken towards eventually becoming an anesthetist, which was her long term goal. She'd met Lauren when the Aussie had needed someone to come in and blood test a few of the 49ers she was training. Taylor insisted that if Andy ever wanted her to stay in his bed for a night, she would without reservation, but that otherwise, she would be sleeping in the same bed with Lauren, who had set up her own bedroom now, so as to not wake Andy when she left early in the morning for practice.               Piper and Sheridan had also set up their own bedrooms, for similar reasons. Piper insisted her workout routine begin at the butt crack of dawn, and she also had a tendency to go to bed almost immediately after dinner, and Sheridan had started joining her in those hours, although the two women had very different work out routines in the morning. Andy had never been awake for any of them, but both of the women had filmed themselves working out, so he could see what they were up to in the wretched early hours. Aisling, Niko, Emily and Sarah had flatly refused to sleep away from Andy, although the order they laid against one another in the bed at night varied quite regularly. At various points over the last few days, he'd woken up in the night to find Emily quietly making out with each of the other three. He was a little surprised that Emily and Sarah didn't want another bedroom for times when the two of them wanted to fool around with just each other. He'd asked them about it, but Sarah had just teased him and insisted that when they did, he should be nearby in case he wanted to watch or join in. The craziest part of the day, however, was when Emily came to track him down in his office just before dinner with a rather baffling request. He'd spent most of the day writing, knowing that tomorrow there would be new women joining the household, and that he'd likely get very little work done on that day. He felt like he was very close to considering the draft for what he was now calling "The Doppleganger's Identity," the next book in the Druid Gunslinger series, ready for his first pass readers to take a look at, and hoped to wrap it up today. It would certainly stop Sarah from asking him yet again when she could read it, since she had insisted she get a spot on that esteemed small council. He kept the door to his office open most of the time, but Emily insisted on knocking before entering the room anyway. "Andrew, love, I know you're writing right now, but might I bother you for just a skosh?" she said, smiling at him in that disarmingly charming English way of hers. "It's never a bother, Em," he said, closing up his laptop. "You know, you're the only one of my partners I'm okay with calling me 'Andrew?' Anyone else does it, and I know I'm in trouble, but you somehow make me not hate the sound of my full name. C'mon in. Sit down, talk to me." The blonde Englishwoman sashayed into the room before lifting one of his legs so she could sit down on the footstool in front of his writing chair. She was wearing a billowy floral print dress that hung down past her knees, loose fitting but still draped enticingly well. Andy wondered if maybe it was tailor made for her, but before he could think to ask, she launched into the reason she'd come to see him. "My agent received a rather odd request today, and I wanted to come and talk to you about it before I answered it. If you're not comfortable with it, I would completely understand that, but I personally think that it would be an excellent thing for us to do, so I hoped we might talk a bit about it before you came to any decision, and perhaps I could bring you around to my way of thinking." Andy set his laptop on the coffee table to the side of his writing chair and shifted to sit up a little bit. "Who's the request from, and what is it that you think I might be uncomfortable with?" "It came from the office of the president, if you can believe it. My agent said President Pelosi didn't call personally, but a member of her staff did." Emily took his large hands in her small ones, holding onto them softly as she kept his gaze focused on her sapphire blue eyes. Clearly whatever they were going to discuss was of great importance. "When the announcement hits next week, they're expecting much of the nation to be in rather dire shock. Such massive casualties means the American way of life going forward is going to have to be something extremely different than what it once was, something radical and new." She licked her lips, a touch of nervousness Andy wasn't sure he'd seen from the usually confident young woman before. "Something like us. To sort of help assert the new norms in the minds of the general public, they want a handful of celebrities to do talk show appearances, with the hosts who are still alive anyway, and most of them seem to have made it out okay, and talk about their new family units, how polyamory is going to be the lay of the land, and how the laws are immediately being changed so that a single man can have multiple wives, to help repopulate the country after the severe losses." Andy laughed a little bit. "If you want to go on television, Em, you certainly don't need my permission. What makes you think I'd be against that?" She smiled at him kindly, and he realized immediately he'd missed what she'd been specifically asking him. "I don't just want to go on television by myself, Andrew. I want to go on television with you and with Sarah and maybe with a couple of the other girls, Niko in particular. I think it's important that we get out there as a new family unit, on The Daily Show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night With Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, anyone who wants to talk to us, so that we can help put the country a little more at ease that we are going to get through this. Normally, I would be most in favor of shielding all of you from the horror that is the paparazzi, just to keep my personal life simply that,  personal. But this is a very strange new world we find ourselves in, Andrew, and we need to help our fellow humans become comfortable with their new reality." "You sound pretty committed to the whole idea," he said, trying to keep his voice as non committal as possible, but Emily had gotten very good at reading him in the short time they'd been together, so he knew she could tell he wasn't entirely opposed to it, simply gauging how it would all work. The particulars of opening his private life to the entire world seemed a little daunting at first blush, but certainly not insurmountable. "We wouldn't be the only ones, I think it's important to stress that, love," she said, squeezing his hands a little bit. "And Sarah and I would also be coming out about our relationship with each other, so you wouldn't have to field a lot of questions if you didn't want to. We could take on the brunt of the questions if that makes it any easier. But I just know many people in this adopted homeland of mine are going to be frightened, and I think the idea to show them the way through would be a step in the right direction." She leaned her head down and kiss the tops of his hands before looking up at him. "Oh! And you could also use it to promote your books, if that might sweeten the pot a smidge. It might help, having twenty minutes of prime mental real estate for your face and your writing?" He chuckled, nodding his head. "You know as well as I do that my agent would string me up by my toes if I had a chance to get this much free publicity for my next novel and didn't take it, so how can I say no? I'm not going to hide from journalists. I'll do my fair share. Tell me how all this is going to work." She smiled, leaned in and kissed him, soft and tender, but for what felt like a delicious eternity. "We will set up the camera and microphones in Sarah and I's little studio, and then we'll just take an hour or so a day for a few weeks to record segments with whoever asks. The president's office wants us to do a 60 Minutes interview even before the announcement is made, as our sort of grand unveiling. For that, they're actually going to send Katie Couric here with a camera woman to do the interview in a few days. They're likely to want to do that in a larger room, or maybe out on the back deck, by the pool. They're going to do an entire show all about the deaths, the vaccine and the new post pandemic world we're starting to grow into. The ten to twenty minute interview with us will just be part of the larger package. They were hoping to have us for a day on the 14th. They're going to be filming at the base on the 13th and doing interviews with President Pelosi on the 15th. The president's representative seemed to think Niko might be a good link between the two segments, if she was one of the people helping to give the tour of the base, and the vaccination process. I asked Niko about it, and she said she wouldn't mind if you didn't, but that I had to ask you first. The whole episode of the show is going to air immediately after the President's speech on the 20th." "Good lord, sounds like they've got all this planned out. I'm surprised I didn't hear from the Office of the President personally." Emily offered him another smile, and considered her next words carefully. It wasn't that she worried about bruising his ego, because Andy had never come across that way, but she also didn't want to seem too full of herself. "Love, I've been a very well known movie star for a decade now, so I think they figured out where I was first and went from there. That's no slight against you! I'm just saying that you aren't a household name that millions of people recognize, and, for better or worse, I am. The Dagger Academy movies were everywhere, as were the books. Simon, my costar in the movies, he's still living in England, so he's in an entirely different world than we are here in the States." Andy grinned. "Oh, I know, I know. All I'm saying is that it wouldn't hurt for the President to have called me herself, y'know. But that's fine. It's fine." "Well, when the paparazzi are struggling to get topless photos of you in Ibiza, then we'll have a conversation about how you aren't being taken seriously as an artist, alright darling?" She giggled a little. "It was fun, teasing them, knowing they so desperately wanted to get images of my tits to sell, and that a bidding war would erupt for the image." "They are excellent tits, Em." "Bless you, love. But you're never going to convince me they're as nice as, say, Sarah's or Hannah's. And all those tits, theirs and mine, are exclusively the purview of this family now and forever more, so the paparazzo can fuck right off. So, the interview? You'll do it? You'll dance for the media circus with us, for the good of the nation?" "I'll do almost all of it, sure." She tilted her head slightly in confused amusement, that coy smile on her pink lips, as her tender fingers squeezed his thigh. "Almost all of it? Which part of it am I going to have to have to convince you for?" He rolled his eyes a little, a playful smirk on his lips. "I'll do all the evening shows, magazines, newspapers and website interviews you want me to, but doing Good Morning America might be a hill too far, simply because of how goddamn early I'd have to get up for it." "Or we could simply stay up very late and do it before bed," she said, moving to slide off the footstool so she could climb into his lap. "I'm sure we could find some way to keep you awake and alert that far into the night. Four thirty in the morning our time could give us the opportunity to go on live television with sex hair," she said, waggling her eyebrows at him lasciviously. "Oh, and I'm not gonna do Fox News." "Christ, love, haven't you heard? They're barely running a skeleton crew over there. Most of their on air talent died over the last few months, and now that the women are in charge over there, they're losing some of that ridiculous bullshit they used to be spouting." Andy chuckled, shaking his head a little bit. "All it took was most of the men dying." "It's pretty hard to pretend the plague isn't a real thing when it keeps killing people off left and right, dear," she said. "The rescheduled Presidential election next month is going to be between Senators Kamala Harris and Susan Collins, two women. That's never happened before in the history of this country. The vast majority of people voting in the election are going to be women. This is all completely unprecedented, so all those women who have felt powerless for so many years, this is their chance to shine. But the old tribal lines are still going to be there, even if the genders of the people leading those parties has changed. Republicans will still be Republicans and Democrats will still be Democrats. But there's too many dead people for everyone to go on pretending like the plague isn't real, or that it's not better to not get a grip on the new reality. One side was already telling their people that the plague wasn't real, so more of their men died than the on the other side. They can't afford to do that any more. So the new Fox News agenda is to go back to simple fiscal conservatism, pro military and pro old school Christianity stances. They're just going to drop all the anti woman bullshit that they've been poisoning their own wells with for so long." "And all it took was most of their men dying." Andy rolled his eyes. "Fine. I'll leave it up to you on whether or not you want to do any of the Fox News shit." "Oh heavens no," Emily laughed, shaking her head. "No, you couldn't pay me enough to appear in front of those horrid people. They've been trying to tell me they have the right to regulate my body for decades but that I should keep my mouth shut when it comes to how they spend the money I pay in taxes. At least a few of their remaining hosts have called me horrible things for daring to disagree with them. 'Entertainers should be sit down and be quiet when it comes to politics,' they've said about me for far too long. Fuck that, darling. I'm having none of it." "Well, on that we can agree." "Now, I do believe I have some convincing to be doing," she said, licking her lips playfully, as she slid off his lap and down onto her knees before him, pushing his legs apart. "That's really not necessary, Em," he said, reaching forward to put a hand on her shoulder, but her delicate fingers moved to grab his wrists, lifting them so that one of his hands was along the back of her neck, and the other was sliding up into that radiant cascade of blonde hair. "It might not be necessary, Andrew, but that isn't to say I wouldn't enjoy it anyway," she said, her hands moving to unbutton his jeans, slowly drawing the zipper down. "Because sometimes a girl just needs to get her fix, you know?" She leaned down and kissed part of his exposed stomach. "You wouldn't deny me that, would you, love? Not innocent little me?" "I don't know that I could deny you anything, Emily," he chuckled. She licked her lips, those inescapable blue eyes of hers looking up at him. "That's what I like to hear. Because it's time for me to do something before Sarah does." She fished out his cock, tucking his balls over his boxers to protect them from accidentally getting caught in the zipper of the jeans, because she wasn't willing to wait long enough to pull his jeans off. "I let her have first go at you, but I'm entitled to have some firsts with you before she gets a chance. That's fair, isn't it?" She leaned down and pressed her pink lips against the head of his cock, covering it in tiny kisses. "I think we can both agree that's only fair." "I seem to recall you and Sarah taking turns blowing me at the same time," he said, tilting his head a little. "I wouldn't say she got there first." "She got to fuck you first though, Andrew," she sighed, stroking his cock tenderly. "And I understand why. She's madly in love with you because of your writing, although she's very much fallen in love with the man behind that writing as well." Her tongue slipped out and dragged a long trail across the bottom of his cock, from the base up to the tip, teasing the slit with the tip of her tongue for only a split second. "Me, on the other hand, I fell in love with the man first, when I heard all the lengths you'd gone to in protecting the women who'd chosen to hitch their wagons to your train. Niko painted such a wonderful portrait of you, and you haven't failed to live up to that yet." "I'm always going to put my family's needs above my own, Em," he said, shivering as he felt her pursing her lips around the mushroom tip of his circumcised cock for a long moment. "So what is you want to do before Sarah, hmm?" "Oh, bless, Andrew, I would've thought it would've been obvious," she giggled, blowing air along his cock, teasing his balls with her finely manicured fingernails. "I want you up the serviceman's entrance. I want you in my ass, before Sarah thinks to ask you to do it to her. We've had fingers and small toys up both hers and my asshole before, naturally, but never the real thing, and I'm afraid I simply cannot risk the chance that she get the opportunity to convince you to do it to her before you do it to me. I want to have at least one first of my very own with you before she does, and while I'm a little nervous, I must confess I am also rather excited. First times are always so exhilarating." Andy licked his own lips, swallowing a breath of air. "First times can also be quite intense, Em. Even overwhelming." "Yes yes yes Andrew, that's why I'm going to ask you if you can remember a color code when you're worked up. I know those kinds of sensations can be, distracting to self control, but you've always struck me as level headed." Her tongue took a long swirling path around the underside of the head of his cock, and his fingers tightened in her sandy hair a moment, clenching a fistful of it, which evoked a clear quiver of delight from the girl. "What do you mean a color code?" "You see, when Sarah and I are adventuring into, shall we say, uncharted sexual waters between the two of us, we use a color code. If one of us says 'green,' then things are wonderful, enjoyable and the other should carry on full steam ahead. If one of us says 'yellow,' then perhaps a bit of caution or easing back is needed. If one of us says 'red,' then a moment's rest is needed, or second thoughts are being had, and it's best to stop, until the other is ready to go again. Like a stoplight. We strike the use of those colors for any other uses when we're on the code." She looked up at him with those tender azure orbs again, soft and warm, as her fingertips stroked his shaft and juggled his balls. "Would that be alright, Andrew?" He leaned forward and kissed her again, and this time he found her not only pliant but a touch more eagerly wanton than she'd been moments ago. "Of course, love," he said to her. "But just be careful and remember you can't use those words for anything else while we're in color code mode." She titled her head to the side, a curious expression of amusement on her face. "Oh? Do you anticipate me slipping? I'm quite bright, you know," she teased, winking at him. "I have a degree in feminist studies from Cambridge and everything." He smirked a little bit. "I simply thought you might ask me to paddle your ass red, and then I'd have been more than a little conflicted from the mixed signals." She began to giggle fiercely, having even to take one of her hands from his cock up to cover her mouth, as she nodded furiously, her blonde curls falling in front of her face before her hand lifted from lips and pushed it from her eyes. "You're right! You're right you're right you are absolutely right, I most certainly would have done that, said that without even thinking about it, and what a right git I would've looked, while you would've been standing there frozen in fear that you'd gone too far." "You think you can keep that in mind, then?" She nodded once more, this time more slow and deliberate, before she pressed her hands on the tops of her thighs, moving to stand herself up. "I had Nicolette conceal a couple of bottles of lube in nearly every room of the house, in case this particular stripe of lust struck one of us. She seemed to think it was an excellent idea." Andy couldn't help but snicker a little bit. "I'm sure she did. She seemed to enjoy the hell out of it when she got her turn at it a couple of days ago." Emily giggled again as she reached behind the couch in the corner of his writing studio, her fingers reemerging with a small bottle of lube in them. "I did notice her walking a little funny yesterday, but she wouldn't tell me when I asked her about it. She simply blushed a wonderful shade of crimson and walked away from me. So I take it you gave her the ol' heave ho?" He tried to keep that ain't I a stinker smile from spreading on his face, but in the end, he just couldn't help it. "She told me she likes to be a bit bratty and put into her place, so I stuffed her panties in her mouth while I had a go at her ass. She seemed to like that quite a bit." While Emily approached him, he stood up and tugged off his jeans and boxers, not wanting to get any of the lube on them, setting them on his writing chair. For the hell of it, he pulled off his shirt as well. The idea of resembling Donald Duck appalled him. Emily's eyes widened in amusement and delight, shaking her head frantically. "You didn't! You absolutely didn't! Tell me that you didn't, Andrew!" "I surely and truly did, and she loved it. She even made a point to tell me that it was exactly how I should have a go at her moving forward." "Well, not this time, but I might like to try something like that at some point in the future," she said, as she walked over to him, lifting her dress up and over her head, tossing it aside, revealing she was completely naked beneath it. "Mostly because it wouldn't let me speak the color code if need be, but also because I'm simply not wearing any panties today." She flashed him another saucy wink, as she moved to set up her cell phone to point at the couch. Andy suspected she might be filming it to show to Sarah later, or perhaps just for her own personal edification. "Now let me pour some of this lube on your cock, and you can tell me what position I should be in for my first time at this." He shivered a little as she drizzled clear fluid onto his prick, her slender fingers stroking his shaft again, making sure to get every inch of his thick cock slicked up as much as possible. "If you want total control, you could climb on for a ride, but some women think the sensations are just too intense, and tend to seize up, so they prefer to have the man controlling things. If that's more your speed, then you probably want to get on your knees on the couch, laying your arms down on the top of it, your head resting on your arms, or with your arms behind you, so you can grab at your legs, or rub on your clit. Lauren rubbed her cunt her entire first time, saying it helped the nerve endings get all tangled up in one another." She licked her lips, that tiny hint of reticence fading away the moment he saw it, as she nodded. "I do think it will all be simply too much for me to keep my head clear, so I think I will try the position on the couch, and you can be in the driver's seat." She handed him the small bottle of lube. "Make sure you get me slicked up before you go rampaging in, however." "You sure you  " His sentence was interrupted by her grabbing the back of his head, smearing lube on his skull while she pulled him into a feral, almost delirious kiss, her tongue rampaging into his mouth with a carnal frenzy that he didn't normally associate with his more restrained and reserved partner. When she pulled back, she didn't let her face move more than an inch away from his, her blue eyes peering directly into his greens. "I have been a posh prig my entire life, Andrew," she cooed at him in a sing song fashion. "Now it's time for you to take that stick out of my prim ass and jam this wicked cock up it instead. If you don't, I may well go mad, and that wouldn't be ideal for either of us, I somehow think. Now let's get to it." "As the lady requests," he said, watching her sashay away from him. She slid one knee up on the couch demurely, followed by the other, bending forward at the waist, leaning down until she was resting on her hands and knees on the plush sofa. God, she was gorgeous, he thought to himself. Almost criminally so. She held pose there as he walked over towards her, but as he got closer, she lowered her shoulders down towards the top of the couch, sliding her hands back behind her, to cup her perky porcelain white ass. "This is all yours, Andrew," she moaned. "Virginal. Unspoiled. Unsullied. Uncharted territory." She shivered and he could see goosebumps run across her skin as the lube started to drizzle down the cleft of her ass, smearing over that rosy pucker. "God, I feel so wanton and exposed like this, ready to be debauched and debased, your eager whore, giddy for you to introduce her to these new delights, to expand her horizons and blow her mind." Andy set the bottle on the table next to the couch, then moved to use two of his fingers to smear the clear liquid along her anus, seeing her body twitch and wriggle just a little bit, as he smeared the substance around, pushing his index finger inside of her, hearing her gasp sharply following by a tiny, high pitched yelp, as she clamped down on that digit. "How are we doing, Em?" She drew in a long breath that sounded like it took some effort before she exhaled, a slow controlled push of air over her lips, as that sphincter muscle relaxed around his fingertip. "Green! We're green, Andrew. I just, I simply needed a moment to compose myself once more. Your fingers are quick thicker than Sarah's," she said with a nervous laugh. "You're going to be getting something much bigger than that in a moment," he said. "If you still want it, that is. Not too late to change your mind." "I have come too far to back out now, Andrew." "You haven't cum at all, I don't think," he teased. "Shows what you know," she giggled once more, looking over her shoulder at him to stick her tongue out in his direction. "I definitely came when you pushed your finger in. The pre fuck jitters, one might think. Like a bloody schoolgirl, I am, right now." "Alright then," he said, as he slipped his fingertip out, her asshole closing up immediately. "Remember, you merely have to say what you want, and I'm going to listen." She nodded again, one hand reaching between her legs to rub her fingertips against her cunt, stroking her finely manicured digits against her cunt, as her other hand reached up and over behind her, grabbing one of her asscheeks, pulling it aside, as if to make sure she was open and exposed for him. "Let me feel it, Andrew, but go slow. Just a bit at first." Andy nodded, as he moved his hips, settling the tip of his cock against her asshole, which he felt spasm just a little when the mushroom head of his cock made contact with it. He gave her half a second to relax once more, then began to push forward. He leaned his body against hers, feeling some initial resistance, but after a few moments, the head of his cock popped through that ring of muscle, and a guttural, almost primitive moan erupted from her throat, loud and carnal. "Fuck that's big that's so fucking big yellow yellow Andy, yellow,” she rambled, and immediately Andy held perfectly still. "Too much?" he said, feeling her ass clinging onto the head of his cock with an intense amount of pressure. "Stop? Pull out? Just wait?" "Don't pull out! Are you fucking crazy?" she said, a borderline delirious laugh cackling from her lips. "I just, I just, just give me a moment, please, you're fucking big, you know that? You and your fat fucking cock feel like you've shoved a telephone pole up my tight young virgin ass, so I'm going to need a god damned moment, thank you very much, but don't you dare fucking slip out, or I will beat you bloody senseless with a cricket bat!" Andy blushed a little bit, a wry smile on his lips, as he held perfectly still. "In your own time, Em." The tiny blonde Brit drew in a long breath, then slowly exhaled it, like she was doing some form of yoga and trying to center her chi. She did it again, and Andrew started to get worried that maybe she simply wasn't ready for this, but just about the time that thought started to roll around in his head, he felt her starting to lean back against him just a little bit. "Green, Andrew, but,” she said, shifting her body just enough so that she could look back at him, "please, for heaven's sake, take it slowly." He nodded to her, and began to lean forward, feeling her body almost being pried apart as his cock worked his way inside of her virginal asshole. Her fingertips were rubbing down firmly on her clit, and while he tried to keep the forward momentum as slow as possible, when he was nearly half way into her ass, she suddenly pushed back into him, engulfing the rest of his cock in her back door, as a wash of goosebumps rolled across her flesh, starting at the small of her back and blossoming outwards in an instant flare, followed by a hard tremble intermingled with a high pitched whine that started racing upwards in octaves and volumes until it crested, breaking and dissolving into a frantic, almost demented giggle, as his balls rested against her fingers which hadn't stopped stroking at her cunt. "You alright, Em?" he asked. "Alright? Alright? Are you asking if I'm alright now, Andrew?" she hissed, although the tone was giddy and excited. "I am green, super green, all the greens! I am awesome, fucking brilliant. That felt,” she drew in a long breath, "So fucking good, and I came So fucking hard." Her head whipped to look directly at her cellphone camera. "Sares, it's like it builds and builds and builds, and you're getting more and more and more tense and then,” she said, pulling her hips forward, sliding his cock mostly back out of her ass before, "Wham!" she said as she slammed her ass back onto his cock hilt deep once more, and let out another unearthly moan. "Holy fuck, that feels so good. Your cock just jammed up right my ass, your balls resting right on my cunt." Her head snapped again to look back at him, and her soft and kind blue eyes had gone more than a little crazy. "Go on then, in for a penny, in for a pound. Pound your little penny. Go on, you dirty wanker. Do it to me! Fuck my ass!" At this point, he was pretty sure that if he had said 'red,' she would've ignored him and just played on through. The kind of wild lust in her eyes would've been completely unfamiliar to him if he hadn't seen it before, briefly, with both Piper and Sheridan, though those had been chemically induced. Later in the evening, he'd consider whether maybe she'd tapped into that same mental state that being deprived of his semen developed in women, but in that particular moment, the only thing he could do was to fuck Emily Stevens, film sweetheart of a generation, within an inch of her sanity. His hips drew back and then thrust forward, a solid grind on his first real pump, which was met by a hard squeeze of her ass around his cock and a burbling, uncorked moan oozing from her lips. He drew back again, but this time his forward thrust was met by the snap of her hips pushing her ass back into him, making her toned asscheeks ripple just a tiny amount. "Oh fuck, Andrew," she babbled, "I want more, but I know I'm going to cum soon, and once I start again, it's not going to stop, so I need it, I need you, I love you, I need you to fucking cum inside of my ass, fill it up with that hot spunk for the first time. Mark your territory with your seed! Please Andrew, I'm fucking begging you, let me have it, show my ass you love it, teach me this final thing. Fucking cum in my ass!" The entire time, she was doing more of the thrusting than he was, although he was trying to keep pace with her. And just towards the end, he knew that he wouldn't be able to stave off the impending orgasm for long, so at her insistence, he let loose a hot jet of jizz right into her ass. The minute he felt the first spurt escape him, it felt as though she clamped down on him in a fist like grasp, and then he felt a heavy rush of liquid against his balls, her cunt gushing all over them and down the inside of his thighs. The very sensation of it made him splattered a handful more blasts of cum into her ass before he stopped, one of his hands holding onto the back of the couch for dear life, as he felt her fingertips fall away from her cunt as her arm slumped downwards. He'd gone soft almost right away, but her ass was still trying to milk any last remaining droplets of cum from his cock with gentle squeezes, even as he finally slid out of her. Her body was mostly propped up by her knees, although her face was buried into the couch cushions. He waited a minute or so before he finally said, "You alright, Em?" She began giggling, slowly moving to roll onto her side, so he could see her face had turned bright red, the color of Sarah or Aisling's hair, and she was clutching one hand to her mouth, trying to contain the infectious laugh that would not be suppressed. "Holy fucking Christ, Andrew, I am so so so embarrassed by that," she whimpered. "I've, fuck, I've never done that before. I didn't know I could fucking do that, Christ, I'm made such a mess, how awful of me. I'm horrible." Andy knelt down alongside the couch, and leaned in to press his lips against hers. She struggled for half a moment, still caught up in her own awkwardness of the moment, before she gave in and simply returned the kiss, which he held for an endlessly long time. "Did you enjoy it?" he said, when he finally gave her a moment to breathe again. "Fuckin' 'ell, Andrew," she stumbled, "I think that would've been bloody obvious." "Then who the fuck cares about the mess?" He kissed her again, one hand stroking her sweaty hair from her face, the energy cooling down a little, as they both came down from the orgasmic plateaus they'd just been dancing in. "Besides, I'd have thought you'd enjoy the idea of telling Nicolette to come and clean my office without giving her any explanation into why." Emily face almost hurt from smiling so much as she nodded. "Thank you for this, Andrew, and for making me feel at home in my own body as it learns new things about itself." She looked down then looked up at him, almost a touch of fear in her eyes. "I know I've said it before, but it's important to me that you know this, Andrew. I well and truly love you, like no other man I've known before." "I love you too, Emily," he said, making sure he was looking directly into her eyes when he said it, so she would understand there were no reservations. "And I'm very glad you agreed to marry me. You've been not only good for me, you've been good for the whole house." "Oh shush, now my heart's all aflutter," she said, moving to stand up, pausing to wince for a second. "Well, I'll jolly well feel that for the next few days. It's sore and it's still tingling in pleasure. Both, together, at the same time. What an odd delight." He laughed, grabbing her dress for her, holding it out. "Go on, get dressed and bring Nicolette in here to see the mess that you've made for her to clean up. I'll bet she's not at all embarrassed, and more than a little jealous." "You know, I suspect you might well be correct, Andrew. Brilliant." A cast list intermission for Quaranteam The House of Rook Andy Rook,  A 38 year old content writer for Netflix, who also lives a double life as semi successful urban fantasy writer Blake Conrad, known for his Druid Gunslinger books. Shaved head, neatly trimmed brown beard, 5'11", hazel eyes, tattooed on the chest with a griffon, could stand to lose a few pounds. Originally from Ohio, has lived in the Bay Area for over a decade. Our protagonist, such as he is. Still reaping the benefits from one random act of kindness to a stranger named Dave. Aisling (Ash) Blake,  A 27 year old graphic design contractor for Google. Originally from Dublin, she's lived in the States for 4 years. Red hair, freckles, short (5'4"), fit. Outgoing and charming, but also protective of Andy. Aisling showed up first (at the same time as Lily) and has helped keep Andy level headed and sane throughout the entire ordeal. Pregnant with Andy's child. Engaged to Andy. Lauren White,  A 35 year old personal trainer for the San Francisco 49ers. Originally from Australia, she's lived in the States for 2 years. Very tall (6'6"), very tan, blonde, athletic, emotionally involved with Taylor as much as (if not more so) Andy. Lauren is big and boisterous, but has a tendency to not think things fully through. 2nd Lieutenant Niko RedWolf,  A 22 year old Air Force Security Forces officer (military police). Originally from South Dakota. Half Lakota, one quarter Mexican and one quarter Japanese. Long black hair, toned and slender. 5'4". Sarcastic, wry and witty, Niko has basically become Andy's right hand woman, along with Ash, whom she considers her best friend. She's helped provide endless insight to the vaccine program being managed at the local Air Force base, where she works. Also pregnant with Andy's child and engaged to him. Nicolette (Yvette) Seydeaux (staff),  The 22 year old maid of Rook Manor. Blonde, with long curly hair. Extremely buxom. 5'9" or 6'1" (in heels). Second generation French American. Enjoys wearing classic maids outfits and being a bratty submissive. Pretended to be named Yvette at first, at the suggestion of Phil. Katie Rodriguez (staff),  The 32 year old gardener of Rook Manor. Hispanic, butch, 5'8", with short black hair cut in a bob, almost always seen in overalls and a button up shirt. Lesbian and wife of Jenny Peters. Had reservations about the program, but wanted to ensure safety for her and her wife, so they took the deal and came to join the House of Rook. Jenny Peters (staff),  The 31 year old cook of Rook Manor. Midwestern and plump, 5'8", with brown bushy hair. Wears large circular glasses. Tends to be overly motherly. Bisexual and wife of Katie Rodriguez. Taylor Morrison,  The 25 year old ex ex girlfriend of Lauren White. Platinum blonde, stacked, short (5'2"). Currently still in the doghouse for cheating on Lauren almost a year ago, but close to working her way out of her trouble. As part of her current punishment (dictated by Lauren), she is not allowed to wear clothes. Piper Brown,  A 26 year old Olympic Volleyball player. Brunette, tall (6'2"), muscular but lean, blue eyed. Went viral for a video of her pre game warm up dance. Still slightly recovering from abusive treatment at Andrew Covington's home. Asha Varma,  An 18 year old college student and daughter of Dr. Charlotte Varma. Half Indian, half French, raised in London until last year. Brown skin, black hair, pierced navel, wild child attitude. 5'6". Party girl and socialite, Asha tends to enjoy causing trouble, as it gets her attention. Has some growing up to do. Sarah (Sares) Washington,  A 31 year old actress. 6'2", redheaded, quirky, clumsy and a bit dorky. Originally from New Jersey. Swears like breathing. Very girl next door. Huge fan of the Druid Gunslinger books, and had a crush on Andy before she even met him. Big lover of Broadway theater and musicals, both attending and performing in. Partner of Emily Stevens. Engaged to Andy. Emily (Em) Stevens,  A 30 year old actress, 5'1", blonde, blue eyed, pale, slender, very posh, British. Left London for L A just a few years ago. Incredibly charming and witty, with an almost supernatural social sense. Grew up as a child actress in a wildly popular series of movies called "The Dagger Academy" series, but has since struggled to establish a successful acting career outside that role. Partner of Sarah Washington. Engaged to Andy. Sheridan Smith,  A 32 year old acrobat and performer for Cirque Du Soleil. 5'7" Blonde, frizzy hair, slender and extremely flexible. Very laid back and go with the flow. Has been teaching the girls of the house yoga in her spare time. Hannah Nakamura,  And 18 year old college student and former cheerleader. Half Hawaiian, half Japanese. Short (5'1"), Asian, with long black hair with blonde stripes in it. Curvy, very well endowed (44G) and a firecracker of energy. Originally supposed to be joining the House of Watkins, she is much happier being part of the House of Rook. The House of Yang Eric Yang,  A 39 year old engineer, and Andy's former roommate. Second generation Japanese American. Short (5'5") but athletic, if a bit shy and bookish. Piggybacked on Andy's one good deed into a complete life change he wasn't expecting. Andy and Eric are friends, but not overly close ones, despite having shared a condo for most of a decade. Lily Wu,  a 25 year old coder for Door Dash. Second generation Japanese American. Dyed purple hair, short (5'2"), punkish. Eric's first partner, who expected to be his only partner only for life to get majorly in the way. Lily is the iron fist that runs the House of Yang, sometimes making decisions for Eric so he doesn't spend too long dwelling on them. Jenny Carnero,  a 28 year old meteorologist for the local Fox News channel. Statuesque brunette (5'10") who always remains overly tanned. Lily's ex roommate who had to be rescued after fleeing from the person she was supposed to be paired up with, before getting paired up with Eric. Threatened to tell her story to the reporters at the station she worked at, but Lily convinced her that doing so would be bad for all involved. Phil cleaned the mess up. Sarah Wilson,  a 26 year old HR specialist with Adobe Systems. Short (5'3"), blonde, Nordic and curvy. Originally from Kansas. The House of Marcos Phil Marcos,  a 34 year old Filipino project manager for Boeing, working in conjunction with the Air Force to manage the vaccine development/distribution program trying counter the epidemic. Probably involved in a sizable amount of heavily classified shit. Tall (5'11"), slender and usually exhausted. Has a deep love of fighting games and mischief. Phil always knows more than he can talk about. Audrey Percy,  a 29 year old Hispanic psychologist. Short (5'1"), very curvy. Also a big fighting games fan. Has been doing her best to keep Phil sane throughout the apocalypse. One of the first successful recipients of the current vaccine. Pregnant with Phil's child and engaged to him. Captain Linda Hayes,  a 35 year old Caucasian captain in the Air Force. Blonde, fit, lethal. Also doubling at Phil's bodyguard most days. Tamika Jefferson,  an 18 year old African American college student. Short (5'2"), curvy, disaffected and disinterested in most things. Yuko Takahashi,  a 22 year old first generation Japanese immigrant and video game engineer. Very short (4'10"), very slender but extremely agile. The most sarcastic of Phil's partners. Dr. Charlotte Varma,  a 44 year old French infectious disease researcher working with the Air Force and Boeing. Lead developer on the current vaccine. Average height (5'7"), blonde, matronly but also a bit bougie. Originally from Paris, she moved to London and married Dev Varma, before they emigrated to the US earlier this year with their teenage daughter, Asha (now part of the House of Rook). Was rescued by Andy but chose to go with Phil. The House of Covington Arthur Robert Covington IV,  a 63 year old investment banker. Considers himself the most important person in New Eden. Certainly is the richest. A horrible prick with a rumored proclivity for making his partners do awful things. Runs a regular poker game where people are used as stakes. The person Andy hates the most. Lisa Davis,  a 25 year old graphic design contractor for Google. Ex colleague of Aisling. Partner for Covington, who does not allow her to speak in public. Ash has been trying to find ways to talk to her on the side. Rachel DeMarco,  a 28 year old infectious disease researcher working with the Air Force and Boeing. Has only been spoken of, not actually see in the story thusfar. Veronica DeLaCruz (deceased),  a 27 year old Hispanic card dealer for the House of Covington privately, as well as professionally over at a local casino. Cheated on her partner (Arthur) with a man named Brian Morrison, and the sexual encounter resulted in her death. The first fatality in New Eden, her death is being used to remind women the dangers involved in being unfaithful in the new world. The House of Vikovic Gregor Vikovic,  a 52 year old business owner. Russian, huge (6'2", 275lbs), mucular, with a big braided silver beard and a fondness for expensive things, particular food and drink. One of the more elite members of New Eden. The House of Watkins Nathaniel Watkins,  a 41 year old investor and insanely rich self made gadfly. Tall (6'1"), lean and Waspy, Nathaniel tends to look more like an out of work yoga instructor than the forty first richest man in the world. His brown beard is always somewhat disheveled, and seems to relish always walking around in socks and Birkenstocks. Has a friendly relationship with Andy, whom he gave a shitload of money to, seemingly to punish his son. Benny Watkins,  an 18 year old high school student. Benny is Nathaniel's biggest failure, spoiled and thoughtless, entitled and arrogant. His claiming of Deborah Barnes resulted in his punishment by his father, and the reassignment of Hannah to Andy. Deborah Barnes,  a 34 year old veterinarian from Los Gatos, originally from Kansas. She was originally assigned to Nathaniel, who used her as a stake in one of Covington's poker games. She was won by Andy, but Benny claimed her before she could be relocated. As part of Benny's punishment, Deborah's been assigned control of Benny. Erin Donegal,  a 36 year old pharmaceutical representative. Dated and lived with Andy about a decade ago until she gave him an ultimatum “ "either your friends go, or I do." Andy gave her the boot, and she stalked him on and off since then. Second generation Irish American. Blonde (but dyes her hair brown), curvy. Andy refused to bring her into his house, and she was reassigned to the House of Watkins. The House Of Haunton Mayor James Haunton,  the 54 year old mayor of New Eden. Portly and short tempered. Has a mustache that whole bowls of soup could get lost in. Major Monica Peters,  the 36 year old wife of the mayor, who doubles as the greeter and tour guide of New Eden for the most recent arrivals. The House of Jacobson Jake Jacobson,  the 49 year old owner of the AllStore chain of department stores. Jet black hair with a pencil thin mustache. More reptilian than human, with beady eyes and a perpetual sneer on his face. Hot tempered, petty and vindictive.. The House of Baker Xander Baker,  a 38 year old auto mechanic and car restorer from Ohio. Andy's oldest and best friend. Being relocated to New Eden to get paired up with Captain Betsy Ross. Covered in tattoos, ridiculously muscular, Xander is a gentle giant. Not to be allowed near karaoke machines under peril of death. Captain Betsy Ross,  a 34 year old Air Force officer, working on the reconstruction program, rebuilding America's heavily damaged infrastructure. Soon to be Xander's first partner. Brooke Maloney,  a 24 year old Olympic swimmer, and friend of Piper. Second generation Swedish American. Blonde, short (5'4") and extremely athletic. Originally, Piper was trying to convince Andy to bring Brooke into the House of Rook, but Andy immediately recognized her personality would be a better fit for Xander, and asked Phil to help redirect her. The House of, Dave? Dave, something or other?,  a thirty(ish) something(?) quarantine management engineer for the CDC, who came to test Andy and Eric, and found out that Andy was secretly Dave's favorite author. In exchange for an advance copy of the newest unpublished Druid Gunslinger book, he put Andy and Eric into the system as Top Level V I P, which has changed their life forever. Nice dude, but Dave's just this guy, you know? Chapter 29 The next day, Andy and Ash met up with Eric and Lily for lunch in a restaurant, something they still weren't accustomed to, even though they'd done it a couple of times since moving into New Eden. They'd been in quarantine so long that the basic things like eating out felt alien. They'd found a nice little BBQ joint that someone had opened within the walls of New Eden, and Andy was ecstatic. Andy's hope was that they were going to keep getting more varieties of food in their new home town. The little 1950s dinner was nice, but the village needed things like a Mexican joint, a Chinese restaurant, a ramen house, a place where he could get a banh mi, Andy realized he really just needed the place to be less exclusively white. The guy who owned and ran the BBQ was a big black guy named Bryant Walters who'd apparently played football for the 49ers a couple of decades ago. He'd settled in the Bay after his football career ended, and he had brought his love of southern BBQ to opening his own restaurant, called "Smoke On The Water." He had a dozen of his own BBQ sauces, brisket that he smoked for at least twelve hours and some of the best damn ribs Andy had ever tasted. It didn't hurt that Bryant was also massively friendly, making sure to come out and talk to patrons of the place. The wait staff was comprised of his partners, five women in all, at least one a former 49ers cheerleader. Over lunch, Andy made sure to tell Bryant that he should have delivery service for the community, and the big burly man told him that was an excellent idea, and that he'd start working on a website for online orders. The meal was the first chance that Andy and Eric had really been able to sit down and catch up one on one since they'd gotten to New Eden. Sure, they'd seen each other at parties and big gatherings, but with just Ash and Lily there, it felt like a throwback to the first days of the whole adventure when they'd been a pair of new couples sharing a tiny little condo. "So yeah, what with all the casualties on my team, I've been promoted up the food chain to be director of the division," Eric said, poking at his brisket with his fork. "I like the responsibility and the increase in pay, but it's also incredibly depressing to think about all the former coworkers that died, none of whose funerals I can attend, because nobody's allowing funerals." "Yeah," Andy sighed, "Phil told me they're moving to mass cremations now, since so many people died. They'll probably build some sort of memorial after we're through all of this, like the Vietnam Wall or Ground Zero for 9/11." "It's so strange, seeing all the names on Slack that aren't lighting up any more," Eric sighed. "At some point, the death toll crossed from a number I can understand to a number I can't." "Kill one person and it's murder; kill a hundred thousand and it's a statistic. Good ol' Stalin," Lily joked, squeezing his hand reassuringly. "Don't try and think about it, dear. You're only going to get angry or depressed again, and we're having a nice lunch here, with everyone getting a chance to see one another. I mean, I love Niko to death, but if Andy shows up with his entire tribe, it takes over the whole room. How many are there now, fifty?" Ash giggled, rolling her eyes. "It really isn't tha' bad, Lily. How many're over there?" "Seven, including Lily," Eric said. "I refuse to let them send any more," Lily growled. "Each of the girls gets one day a week to spend with him, and he gets Sundays off." "Then when do ya get time with him?" "Any time I fucking want to," Lily laughed, waggling her beer in Eric's direction. "We're trying to have a kid now, and I'm refusing to let any of those other bitches get a go at getting knocked up until I'm well and truly swollen. Once I'm half way through my second trimester, then I'll let'em get off their birth control, and not a minute fucking sooner." "Still got Eric under your thumb, huh, Lil?" Andy teased. "Thumb, palm, e

A weekly magazine-style radio show featuring the voices and stories of Asians and Pacific Islanders from all corners of our community. The show is produced by a collective of media makers, deejays, and activists. Tonight's show is June 19th. We are all connected. We are talking with Asian and Asian American Children's book authors. PowerLeeGirls host Miko Lee talks with Chi Thai and Livia Blackburne about the power of storytelling, maternal heritage, generational trauma, and much more. Title:  We Are All Connected Show Transcripts Opening: [00:00:00] Apex Express Asian Pacific expression. Community and cultural coverage, music and calendar, new visions and voices, coming to you with an Asian Pacific Islander point of view. It's time to get on board the Apex Express.   Ayame Keane-Lee: [00:01:17] Welcome to Apex Express. Tonight's show is June 19th. We are all connected. We are talking with Asian and Asian American Children's book authors. PowerLeeGirls host Miko Lee talks with Chi Thai and Livia Blackburne about the power of storytelling, maternal heritage, generational trauma, and much more. First, we want to start by wishing everyone a happy Juneteenth, Juneteenth commemorates, an end to slavery and the emancipation of Black Americans after the Civil War. In 1865, 2 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, enslaved people in Galveston, Texas finally learned of their freedom. Juneteenth marks the day the last enslaved people learned of their freedom. Though outright slavery became illegal, the systematic oppression of African Americans continues to this day. We see that show up in almost every aspect of American culture, from the high rate of infant mortality to the over punishing of Black children in schools, to police brutality, to incarceration. We must continue to recognize the importance of championing Black lives and lifting up Black voices. We are all connected. June 19th is also an important day in Asian American history. In 1982 in Detroit, Vincent Chin was at a bar celebrating his bachelor party prior to his wedding the next day. Ronald Ebens, a white auto worker, and his stepson Michael Nitz taunted Vincent with racial epithets. They thought he was Japanese and were angry about the Japanese rise in the auto industry. When Vincent left the bar later, the two men attacked and killed Vincent with a baseball bat. He was 27 years old. Ronald Ebens never did time for this murder. Ronald Ebens is 85 years old now. Ebens not only skirted prosecution, he has used bankruptcy and homesteading laws in Nevada to avoid a wrongful death civil suit settlement. Ordered by the court in 1987 to pay $1.5 million to Chin's family, the Chin estate has received nothing. Lily Chin, Vincent's mom could have stayed silent about the racist attack on her son. Instead she spoke out. She took a courageous stance to highlight this most painful moment in her life. In doing so, she helped ignite a new generation of Asian American activists working for civil rights and social justice. We find ourselves in a new wave of activism as our communities band together to work against the injustices of the current regime. And what does this have to do with children's books? It is all connected. We highlight children's books by Asian and Asian American authors because we want our next generation of children to know and appreciate their own heritage. We want them to proudly represent who they are so that they can work in solidarity with other peoples. Our struggle is interwoven. As Grace Lee Boggs said, “History is a story not only of the past, but of the future.” Thank you for joining us on apex express. Enjoy the show.   Miko Lee: [00:04:24] First off. Let's take a listen to one of Byron Au Young's compositions called “Know Your Rights” This is part of the trilogy of the Activist Songbook. This multi-lingual rap, give steps to know what to do when ICE officers come to your door.    MUSIC   That was “Know Your Rights” performed by Jason Chu with lyrics by Aaron Jeffries and composed by Byron Au Yong Welcome, Chi Thai to Apex Express.    Chi Thai: [00:07:13] Hello. I'm really happy to be joining you, Miko.  Miko Lee: [00:07:16] I'm really happy to meet you and learn about you as an artist, as a filmmaker, as a children's book author. And I wanna first start with a personal question, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you? Chi Thai: [00:07:30] Ooh, what a great question. You know what? I love being asked stuff that hasn't been asked kind of before. I mean, there's a kinda really kinda natural answer to that, which is, you know, family are my people. Of course. 100%. And certainly, you know, the reason why I'm talking to you today, you know, in regard to the, to the book, you know, it's about my family's journey. But I found, and I don't know if this is. Somewhat to do with, you know, being a child of two cultures and you know, being a child of the diaspora that you really have to kind of find your own family too. 'cause I suppose I grew up feeling, I didn't quite relate to maybe my parents in a way that, you know, you normally would if you weren't part of the diaspora. And I felt estranged from my birth country and I didn't really feel like British either a lot of the time. So in terms of like, who are my people? I've gathered those people as I've kind of grown up and it's, it's a kind of strange feeling too. I feel like it's taken me a really long to grow up and to figure out who I am. And I suppose that's why, you know, the people that I have a really, a lot of people that have come, kinda later in my life, I actually have no friends in my childhood as an example of that. I've had to kind of find these people as I've grown up, but it's taken me a long time to grow up because growing up in the UK there wasn't any literature to read about what it was like to be Asian. And British, to be a refugee and things like that. So it just took me longer and I then, as a result, it just took me longer to find my tribe. but I have it now, but it's still work in progress. That was a very convoluted answer. I'm very sorry Miko.    Miko Lee: [00:09:15] No, it wasn't. No worries. It's fine. And what legacy do you carry with you?   Chi Thai: [00:09:19] Kind of an extension to that answer, I think when you're an artist, practicing your voice, figuring out your voice, can take a while. And I think I've only really started maybe the last like five to 10 years at the most really figured out what I want my legacy to be. The things I wanna talk about are really about s tories from the diaspora, certainly, and about community and healing. These are the things I think that are really important to me, especially when we talk about maybe coming from struggle. I don't feel it's enough to be an artist today and just talk about struggle. I want to talk about justice as well. And justice really is about healing, you know?    Miko Lee: [00:10:00] Oh, that's beautiful. Can you talk a little bit more about that healing and what that means to you and how that shows up in your work?    Chi Thai: [00:10:07] A couple years ago, no, not even that long ago, I produced a, a feature film. This is probably the best example for it, but I produced a feature film called Raging Grace, which we called it Horror with a small H and it. Basically took the story of what it was like to be, undocumented Filipina in the uk who was also a mother. And I think if that film had been made 10 years ago, it would just shown how hard her life was, and unrelentingly. So, and I think the reason why Raising Grace is so special is it goes beyond the trauma, it takes us to a place of justice, of being able to speak out for someone who has felt invisible, to be visible for someone who's not. Had a voice, to have a voice and to begin that kind of healing process of sticking up for herself, making a change transforming herself from maybe the good immigrant to the bad immigrant and things like that. I think that's a really great example and I think I read a really wonderful thing. It might have been in a Guardian article where we, so a lot of my work is around, inclusion representation of like diasporic stories. And I think when you have, when you exist in the poverty of like representation, I. the solution to that is plentitude. I think that Viet Thanh Nguyen probably said that, so I don't wanna take credit for it. He comes up with so many wonderful things, and that's a wonderful thing to be able to move from poverty, like to plentitude and that be the solution, is kinda really wonderful. So I enjoy being really prolific. I enjoy supporting artists to be able to do their work. So as a community, we can also be prolific and I wanna support, narratives that. Take us beyond a place of struggle and trauma to a place of like healing and justice and so forth.    Miko Lee: [00:11:57] Your work crosses so many genres. You were just mentioning how that film was kind of a horror film and, and then you've done these kind of dreamy animation pieces and then now this children's book. Do you select the genre and the format and the medium, or does it select you?   Chi Thai: [00:12:16] Oh, I think the story chooses it. I like 100% believe that. I just actually was thinking about this 'cause I was doing an interview on something else, people, often ask about the creative process and I, can only speak for my own. But usually when I get an idea for a story, the general shape of it comes almost like really well formed. There's a sense of a lready kinda what genre it'll be. There's a sense of the character, there's a sense of the journey and all these things. I felt the same about, writing The Endless Sea I knew it would be from the voice of a child. This probably sounds like my creative process is terrible, but it was just. This is how it was going to be. That kind of part was writing itself, or at least I feel that it'd been writing itself like that in my subconscious for many, many years before it kind of surfacing and writing. Like the writing bit is just the tip of the iceberg at the end of the day. there wasn't like a kind of decision about that. the story in that sense was quite intact. So I often feel like the story is demanding something about kind genre and for, for Raging Grace 'cause I've talked about this a lot, not just in listen to me, but other things. But we always said like if you are an an undocumented person, every breath you take is taken in a hostile environment. It's so natural for it to be a horror. So there's not a sense that you kinda decide that it's like that is the very reality of someone who's going, you know, that's their lived experience. And if you're going to represent that truthfully, it will be through the prism of horror. And I suppose that's how I think about genre. the story is kind of telling you what it needs to tell its emotional truth. and I felt that way, with The Endless Sea same thing with the Raging Grace, with Lullaby. And I think you talked about The Promise, I suppose I, with The Promise, which is an adaptation I had less choice about that because that was a book and it was a adapted into an animation. I've heard Nicola, who's the author of the book, talk about that and she talks about like the story coming to her in a dream and tiptoeing down her arm coming onto the page, she like describes it really beautifully. so maybe our processes are the same. It feels that way. there's not long deliberations. I mean, that's not to say the writing process isn't difficult. It is. But that, I've never found the, [genre] the difficulty or the bit that's required a lot of, I don't know soul searching with it.    Miko Lee: [00:14:28] So with that being said, how did Endless Sea your latest children's book? How did that tiptoe into your imagination?    Chi Thai: [00:14:36] This is a strange one because this is probably the closest thing to like, almost autobiographical work. What I can say is like, it's the true story o f how I and my family, which would've been at the time my mom and dad, my older sister, me, how we fled Vietnam after the fall of an Saigon. we actually left quite late we left in 1979 w hen things were tr were getting truly, truly, truly, quite terrible. And, this was very much a last resort. I think my parents would try to make things work, but realized that they couldn't. This journey that we took on these, boats that were made badly, made poorly, that many of which sank has become almost like the genesis story of our family. It's like it's a big, it has a long shadow, right? Ever since you know I, it is like the first story that I can remember. It's one of the few stories my mom would tell me again and again when we, when they see their old friends, it's something they talk about. So it's something that has happened to it to us, but it's such a big thing that it's just, echoed In my life growing up, as I've you know, got older and older, and the wonderful thing about having a story kinda live with you eventually it's in your blood and in your bones, but also if it's a thing that's kinda shared with you again and again, you actually build up this, there's something about the repetition of it, and then every time you hear it told from an uncle or a family friend or from your mom, a new little detail is embroidered that someone adds. So I've kinda lived with this story for 40 plus years and I've been collecting all these little things about it all this time and all that time it was, I think, kind of just writing itself, you know? You know, it was doing all that work before I actually put like pen to paper. Um, yeah.    Miko Lee: [00:16:31] Was there a catalyst or something that made you actually put the pen to paper?   Chi Thai: [00:16:36] That's really interesting. You know, I probably don't mind it is probably something really banal like. I think I probably wrote it during Covid and I had more time. Um, I think there are probably be some bigger forces in place. And you know what, I can tell you what it is actually if I'm, I'm forcing myself to think and examine a bit closer so when this is totally true. So I remember hearing the news about Viet Thanh Nguyen win winning the Pulitzer for The Sympathizer. And it made such a mark on me and I kind of felt, wow, someone from our community has achieved this incredible thing. And I thought, why? Why now? Like, and I was like, well, you know what? It's probably taken our community certain amount of time to come of age, to develop not just the abilities to write, to create, to make art, but also to have possibly the relationships or networks in place to be able to then make the art and get it out into the world. And I kind of felt when he was able to do that and came of age, I kind of felt there was going to be like other people from the kind of diasporic Vietnamese community that would also start to flourish. And that made me feel really good. About probably being a bit older than the average kind of artist, like making their, kinda like their pieces and everything and saying, you know what? My time can be now. It's okay. And I just find it just really inspiring that, you know our community was kind of growing, growing up, coming of age and being able to do these, these things And I kind of felt like it had given me the permission, I suppose the, the confidence to go, “Oh this story that I've been carrying my whole life, which I don't really see a version of out there I can write that and now I can write it and I'm the right person to write it.” And I had just done The Promise so I had a relationship with Walker. I was like, I have a, you know, a relationship with the publisher. I feel my writing is matured. Like I can do this. And so it was like a culmination and, you know, convergence of those things. And, but I do remember having that thought thinking, “This is a good time to be alive in our community 'cause we're actually able to make our art and get it out there now.” I, I felt it was like a real watershed moment really.   Miko Lee: [00:19:11] What made you decide to do it in this format as a Little Kid's Children's Illustrated book? We were talking earlier about how to, to me, this is the first more realistic version of a boat people experience in a very little kid's voice. What made you decide to do it in this style?    Chi Thai: [00:19:33] So interesting. At the same time, I was writing The Endless Sea. I was writing also the script for a short film, which is called Lullaby, which is takes an incident that happened on my boat but expresses it as a film, as a little kinda horror kinda drama, but a kid cannot watch that. It's like too terrifying. Um, and I wrote, you know, The Endless Sea at the same time. And again, I can't, it's really hard for me to articulate. I just knew it was gonna be a kid's book, like, and I knew it'd be written from the voice of a kid, and I didn't actually, can I say I didn't even ascribe a particular kind of value to that. It wasn't until I had started conversations with the publisher they're like, you know, we see like there's a really high, like this is really great that it's written in the voice of the kid. It somehow gives it something else. Something more is something kind of special. I didn't set out to like, overthink, like what was the most effective way to tell this story? I, I think I just told the story as honestly as I could, you know, with the words that I felt that, you know, I had in me to de, you know, to describe it. In the most authentic way to, to me. And like I say, at the same time, I knew, like I knew that was a kid's book. There was another part of that I wanted to express that was really important to me and that was survivor's guilt. But that I felt was like, that was a horror, so that was really not gonna be suitable for kids. So I was definitely thinking about lots of things to do with the same subject of the same time, but they were definitely being expressed in different ways. And again, Lullaby came to me very kind of quickly, almost fully formed. And I knew, you know, it would be a ghost story. I knew it would be the story of a mother and things like that. And I often maybe, you know, I should, I, I should interrogate more, but I kinda, I take these kinda. These ideas, which are quite well shaped and, and then I just like lean into them more and more and more. But they, the way they arrive it, I've kinda, I, I can see a lot of what is already about to unfold.   Miko Lee: [00:21:43] And do you still dream about that experience of being on the boat as a kid?    Chi Thai: [00:21:52] It's, it's a really difficult thing to explain because you know that that happened now so long ago, and I've probably heard the story thousands of times. I've watched all the terrible Hollywood movies, I've seen all the news clippings, I've watched all the archive. I've listened to, you know, people talk, and I have my own memories and I look at photographs and I have memories of looking at photographs. I feel like, you know, my memory is really unreliable, but what it is instead is it's this, this kind of, kind of tapestry of, you know, of the story of memories, of, you know, images as I grow up of hearing the story, like all coming together. One of the things I did when I wrote, I wrote The Endless Sea, is I then went back to my mom and I did a recorded interview with her 'cause I was really worried about how unreliable my memory might be. And I interviewed her and I asked a lot of questions and I said, and I, it was like, you know, in the way I would've just like listened to the story quite passively before this time I interviewed her and I asked a lot of questions about details and all sorts of things. 'cause I really wanted to be able to represent things, you know, as factually as I could. And that was kinda one of my kinda kind of fact checking kinda exercises I did 'cause I was, I was much quite worried about how unreliable my memory was about it all. And you know, what is, what is a memory of a memory of memory, like, you know, especially when it comes to thinking about that time on the boat and the feelings I had. Yeah. So, you know,    Miko Lee: [00:23:34] and you were so young also to    Chi Thai: [00:23:37] Totally 100%. And sometimes, I don't know, you know, is it a memory of a memory? Is it a dream of a dream?   Miko Lee: [00:23:44] Mm-hmm.    Chi Thai: [00:23:44] Or just some, yeah.   Miko Lee: [00:23:46] Was there anything that your mom said that surprised you?    Chi Thai: [00:23:50] Yeah. Um, she didn't realize how bad it was gonna be and she was like, “God, if it, I'd known how terrifying it was I dunno if I, we could have done it.” I think there's a certain amount of naivety involved and I suppose that surprised me. You know? 'cause we know already now how bad it was. Um, so things like that surprised me.    Miko Lee: [00:24:15] and your mom, the dedication of the book is to your mom. What does she think when she first read it?    Chi Thai: [00:24:22] I've got a funny story. My parents, you know, they, we left, they were in their early twenties and I think it was, you know, the escape was hard for them, but settling in new country was really hard for them. That's. That's been kind of their struggle. They had to work so hard, so many hours to kind of, you know, give us a great life. And, I think a lot of that meant they weren't people that could go out, enjoy, enjoy movies, look at art, read lots of literature and things like that. They're very, very simple, very working class. Simple life or working class kinda life. Very much all about, uh, the work. Um, and I remember when I had a, the publisher had made like a mockup of the book and I gave it to my mum to read 'cause I wanted her to be happy about it too, and she's probably been my toughest critic. I think everything I've done, she hasn't really liked, to be honest. Um, and when I gave her the mockup to read. She went, “Yeah,” but she said it in such a way I knew what she meant was Yeah, that's right. You know, that's the truth. That's the, you know, the book isn't the testimony, but it felt like she was saying yeah. It was like the simple kind of approval. It wasn't like a lot    Miko Lee: [00:25:50] That is the most Asian mom's approval ever.    Chi Thai: [00:25:54] It's so funny, like people say to me, oh Chi, it's such a beautiful book. Oh, the writing so lit, like lyrical. It's stripped back, it's elegant. Like, you know, Viet Thanh Nguyen , like God bless his like consults, gave me a comment to put in the book, said these wonderful things, and my mom goes, “yeah.”. You know, it made me laugh at the time, but I knew what it meant. And I also was old enough, I was mature enough, you know, God, if she'd given me that, if I'd been 20 written that I might have cried and my heart might have broken. Right. But I, I knew I had, I've so much compassion, you know, for my parents. Mm-hmm. And people like my parents, what they've been through and, you know, but    Miko Lee: [00:26:38] That was incredibly high praise for her.    Chi Thai: [00:26:40] It was, I couldn't have asked more.   Miko Lee: [00:26:47] Oh, I totally get that. I think that's such an Asian thing. That is so funny.    Chi Thai: [00:26:53] It is, it is. I didn't feel bad. I, I remember showing her Lullaby, um, and she didn't like it at all.    Miko Lee: [00:27:02] What did she say? What is her not like voice? What did she say to that?    Chi Thai: [00:27:05] Oh, she. Well, firstly, she, well, the, the film is almost silent because basically it tells a story. It's inspired by a mother that was on our boat who lost her baby on the border crossing, and I was very much ever, for as long as I knew about this woman's story, I was like, I was very much haunted by it, and I was haunted by, you know, the fact that that's how she felt and her guilt. Over losing her baby on this journey. And I knew, I knew I wanted to tell her story. 'cause one of the things I feel very strongly about is when you are on the losing side. So I'm from South Vietnam, like that's not the, you know, that's not the story that's told, the story is told of who triumphs at the end of the day. And I was just like all those people that we lost at sea, this mother, her baby. The stories kind of aren't told. So I kind of felt really strongly that this was somehow a very creative way to put down like a, an historical record like this happened. And actually I found out after making the film that five babies were lost in our boat, not just one.   Miko Lee: [00:28:24] Wow. So what did she say, your mom say?   Chi Thai: [00:28:28] Yes. So I made this film, which was for the most part, a silent film. This is a woman that's shut down. She barely speaks anymore. She is living with the guilt ever. You know, when she was on the boat before her baby died, she sang a lullaby, and ever since then, she hasn't been able to speak again. And then we find out that she has been haunted by the ghost of her child that she lost. And then a bit too, you know, to kind of free herself from that. She, she actually sings, you know, the, the film culminates in her singing the Luby one last time. S saying Goodbye finally being able to move beyond her Gild and I Griffin, saying goodbye and hoping she's able to, you know, progress. So I made a film about that was largely silence except for this lullaby, and my mum watched it. She went, next time you make a film, you know you need more words. I was just like, oh, I think my heart probably did crumple off a bit a bit at that point.    Miko Lee: [00:29:30] Aw.    Chi Thai: [00:29:31] You know? Um, but yeah. But yeah, it's okay. It's okay because you know what? My mom doesn't get to see stuff like that very often. So sometimes she doesn't have the wider, and this is why, I mean, like, the life that she's had, you know, hasn't been one where she's been able to surround herself with, oh, I'm so lucky. You know, my life has been so different, but it's been different. Different because of, you know what she's, what she's done for us, so it's okay. I can take it on the chin when she says my film doesn't have enough dialogue in it.    Miko Lee: [00:30:04] I love that. For you, have you had conversations with your mom about your life as an artist, and what are her thoughts on that?   Chi Thai: [00:30:16] Well say. So I, so my mom, I don't really like, you know, she's probably not that into it. I'll be honest about being an artist. I can understand why she wants you to have a good life. And I would say for the most part, being an artist is, is a, is a tough life because it's hard to make, you know, the, the pennies work, right?   Miko Lee: [00:30:44] She wants stability for you, right?    Chi Thai: [00:30:45] Yeah, exactly. But she's made a peace with it. And basically what happened, I think all the best story is gonna be about my mom, right? Is that she basically, I, I, um, I have a partner, we've been together for 15 years. Um, he's a really nice guy and he has a reliable job and we have two kids together and i,    Miko Lee: [00:31:08] So that makes it okay.   Chi Thai: [00:31:10] So yeah, this is what I was saying. So she said to me like. It doesn't really matter what you do now. 'cause she, you are already peaked. You're somebody's wife. We're not married. But she told everyone in Vietnam we were married 'cause she couldn't cope with this not being like having kids out of wedlock. In her head. She's rewritten that we are married. Right. She's like, you are married, you're somebody's wife and you mother, it doesn't get better than that. So if you are an artist or if you're a filmmaker, whatever, it doesn't matter. 'cause nothing can be better than that. Right. So she's accepted on the basis that I've already fulfilled, kind of my promise.   Miko Lee: [00:31:46] Wow. Interesting.    Chi Thai: [00:31:50] And she means that in the nicest possible way.    Miko Lee: [00:31:52] Yeah.    Chi Thai: [00:31:52] That she feels like you have a home, you have stability, you have someone who loves you, you know, you have a, a purpose in life, but really her value, you know, the way, I think, the way she measures my value is like, that's how she looks at it. The, the art is something else.    Miko Lee: [00:32:10] Well, I really appreciate you sharing your art with us in the world and your various, um, genres and styles. And I'm wondering how our audience can find out more about your work. Clearly we'll put links to where people can buy the book and let's see, but how do they find out more about your films?   Chi Thai: [00:32:28] Um, so that like, because it is the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War in 2025. Actually the very anniversary of that is the tomorrow, the 30th, April, right? Um, you can watch Lullaby on Altar, which is a YouTube channel. Um, and I can give you the link for it. Rating Grace is on Paramount Plus if you want to, if you've got Paramount Plus, but you can also buy it from all the usual kind of places too. Um, and you know, and we'll see us from all great book stockists, I imagine in, in the us.   Miko Lee: [00:33:07] Thank you so much. Um, I'd love to get, I'd love for you to send me the link so I could put 'em in the show notes. I really appreciate chatting with you today. Um, is there anything else you'd like to share?    Chi Thai: [00:33:19] Um, no, I think, I think that's good. Your, your questions are so good. Mika, I'm already like, kinda like processing them all. Uh, yes.    Miko Lee: [00:33:30] Well, it was a delight to chat with you and to learn more about your artistic vision, and my wishes are that you continue to grow and feel blessed no matter what your mama says, because deep down, she's still proud of you. Even if she doesn't say it out loud.    Chi Thai: [00:33:47] I believe it. I totally believe it.    Miko Lee: [00:33:50] Yay. Thank you so much for spending time with us on Apex Express.Next up, listen to stay, go from dark heart, a concert narrative by singer and songwriter Golda Sargento.   MUSIC   That was the voice of Golda Sargento from the new Filipino futurism punk rock sci-fi dark heart. Welcome, Livia Blackburne Children's book, author of Nainai's Mountain. Welcome to Apex Express.    Livia Blackburne: [00:38:56] Thank you so much for having me.    Miko Lee: [00:38:58] I wanna start with a personal question, which is, who are your people and what legacy do you carry with you?    Livia Blackburne: [00:39:05] I am Chinese American, and so I carry the stories of my grandparents who fled China to Taiwan, fled that war. And I also carry the stories of my parents and myself who immigrated. To America, and I am, I grew up in New Mexico, so I have fond memories of green chili and new Mexican food. I went to college, Harvard and MIT on the east coast. So I've got a bit of that kind of ivory tower. And now I'm in LA and, you know, my people are, my family and my community, the writing community here. So I, I'm a big mix. Yes.    Miko Lee: [00:39:44] What legacy do you carry with you?    Livia Blackburne: [00:39:47] I mentioned a bit of my grandparents and my parents. What they went through in the war in China, and then my parents and me coming here. the experience of being here in two worlds, coming from Taiwan having that cultural background and also, growing up in the United States. The culture I've been surrounded with here as well.    Miko Lee: [00:40:06] Thank you so much for sharing. Can you tell us about your new illustrated children's book? Nainai's Mountain. What inspired this work?    Livia Blackburne: [00:40:14] The story of this book actually started with another book that is coming out in a couple years that actually I can't share too much about. My grandparents fled the war in China and then my. Parents grew up in Taiwan and I wanted to preserve that family story. My parents are getting older. So I started doing oral interviews with my parents about their childhood, what it was like, growing up. I wouldn't say they weren't refugees in Taiwan. It's a very complicated political situation, but they were transplants to Taiwan, and what it was like growing up there, their daily life. What kind of things they did when they were a child, their pastimes, I wanted to preserve their stories and I got a lot of great material., A lot of that is going into a novel that I'm currently working on. But also as I worked on it, there were so many great details that I thought would be really good in a picture book as well. Also, I'm a mother now. I have an 8-year-old daughter, and she is half Caucasian, half Asian. She has never gone to Taiwan before and I. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking, it would be really great to, I do want to share Taiwan and, my own childhood, home with her at some point. And so I start imagining what would it be like to bring her back to Taiwan and show her everything. And that became the seed for Nainai's Mountain, which is a. Story of a girl visiting Taiwan for the first time with her grandmother. And her grandmother shows her around and tells her stories about her childhood, and the girl through her grandmother's eyes, sees Taiwan, you know, for the beautiful place that it is.    Miko Lee: [00:41:56] You also wrote the book I Dream of Popo. How are these companions to each other and also for audiences that might not speak Chinese. One is a grandmother on the mother's side, and the other is the grandmother on the father's side. Can you talk about how I dream of Popo is linked to Nainai's Mountain?   Livia Blackburne: [00:42:15] Thank you for pointing that out. Yes. So Popo is maternal grandmother, and Nainai is a paternal grandmother. And that is a fantastic question. So I dream of popo is kind of my story. So it's about a little girl who moves from Taiwan , to the United States and it's about her relationship with her grandmother who stays in Taiwan. And it talks about, how a close relationship, navigating long geographical distances about the language barrier that comes up. And that was very much me, Nainai's Mountain. It's kind of like Popo in reverse, you know, it's now it's someone going back to Taiwan and kind of getting in touch with those roots. That, as I mentioned, that's inspired by my daughter. And you'll see in Nainai's Mountain, I specified that the child should be, half Asian, half Caucasian. Because, I wanted more of that representation in the children's literature.    Miko Lee: [00:43:07] Thank you. I, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the artistic style. So you are the author, but you had different illustrators for both of the books and the style is really different. The in, when I look at Nainai's Mountain, which I'm holding here, it's sort of collage and really vibrant colors. Where I Dream of Popo has a different, more. I'm almost realistic, kind of look to it. And I'm wondering what your process was like in collaborating with illustrators.    Livia Blackburne: [00:43:37] That's one of the best things about being a picture book author, is that you get to collaborate with so many illustrators and they all have such different styles, such different visions. Most of the time it's the publisher who chooses the illustrator, although they. Consult me usually. My editor for I Dream of Popo picked Julia Kuo. And she sent me samples and I loved it. And, it was great. I'm friends with Julia now and that book did really well. It was very well known, especially in kind of Taiwanese American, Asian American circles. And so when I did, Nainai's mountain, that was with a different publishing house and my editor. He very consciously said, you know, because it's also a book about Taiwan and a grandmother. We don't want to get it confused with I dream of Popo. So, we made a conscious decision to pick an artist with a very different style and Joey Chou is fantastic. He's very well known for his Disney art. You can see his art in a lot of the hotels and cruise ships. And, he, very bright, vibrant, and I, he's also from Taiwan. I think he did a fantastic job.   Miko Lee: [00:44:41] And have the artistic work ever surprised you as being really different from your imagination while you were writing?    Livia Blackburne: [00:44:48] That's a great question. I don't think they've ever surprised me. By being different. They surprised me in the specifics that they've chosen. For example, I dream of Popo. Julia, spent a lot of time in Taiwan and she put in these great, Taiwan details that, you know, if you're from Taiwan, you would know for sure. There's like a specific brand of rice cooker called the rice cooker, and she has one there and like the giant bag of rice in the corner, and the calendar on the wall.   Miko Lee: [00:45:16] Even the specificities of the food and the trays and everything is quite lovely.    Livia Blackburne: [00:45:20] Yeah, yeah. You know, every time I read that, I look at that spread, I get hungry. So surprise there. And, with Joey, I, I love how he does the different, there's kind of flashback pictures and there's, pictures now and. The thing about him, his color, I just love the color that he put in from the greens, of Taiwan to kind of the bright fluorescent lights, neon lights of Taipei, and then there's kind of the slight sepia tones of the past and he just, you know, brings it so to life so well.   Miko Lee: [00:45:49] I didn't know he was a Disney animator, but it totally makes sense because it feels very layered. It does feel animated in a way and kind of alive. So I appreciate that.   Livia Blackburne: [00:45:59] I'm not sure. If he's an animator. He does a lot of art for the theme parks and like products and the cruise ships and stuff. I'm not sure.    Miko Lee: [00:46:07] Oh, interesting.   Livia Blackburne: [00:46:07] He does like movies and  stuff.    Miko Lee: [00:46:08] Interesting. It looks like animation though. Your book.    Livia Blackburne: [00:46:13] It does look very, yeah. Lively. Mm-hmm.    Miko Lee: [00:46:16] That I'm looking forward to that series. That would be so cute. The grandmother series as a whole little mini series traveling to different places. can you tell us about your new book, Dreams to Ashes? Has that been released yet?   Livia Blackburne: [00:46:29] Dreams to Ashes? That has been released that, released about a month before Nainai's Mountain. Yeah, that one's quite a bit different. So that one is a nonfiction book and it's a picture book, and it's about the Los Angeles massacre of 1871. Whenever people, I tell people about that, they're like, wait, you wrote a picture book about a massacre? Which is slightly counterintuitive. So I never knew about the Los Angeles massacre growing up. And, and, given that I am a Chinese person in Los Angeles, that is kind of weird. Basically, it was a race massacre that occurred. One of the biggest mass lynchings in history, uh, where there was a between two rival Chinese organizations and a white bystander was killed. And because of that, , a mob formed and they rounded the Chinese population up basically. And. Blame them for that death. In the end, 18 Chinese men were killed and only one of them were involved in the original gunfight. It was a horrible tragedy. And unfortunately, as often happened with these kind of historical tragedies in our country, nobody was really punished for it. A few men were indicted and convicted, but their convictions were overturned and it just kind of disappeared into history. And it really struck me that, you know, nobody knew about this. I wanted to kind of bring this to light and unfortunately when I was writing it, it was also, during the Covid pandemic and, I was seeing a lot of anti-Asian rhetoric, anti-Asian hate crimes were going up. And I saw so many parallels between what happened. Back then, because, you know, Chinese people specifically were being vilified , they were being called immoral, stealing people's jobs. And you can see in the years before the massacre the newspapers were saying horrible things and, you know, the hate was just becoming very strong and all that exploded one night into an unspeakable tragedy. Unfortunately as an author, you want your work to be relevant, but sometimes you don't want your work to be relevant in this way. Right. Nowadays I'm seeing so much rhetoric again against immigrants and not of many ethnicities. And in some ways I'm sad. That, this is happening now. And I also hope that this book will contribute to the conversation and show how the danger of racism and xenophobia and hate and what, what can happen because of that.   Miko Lee: [00:48:55] So this occurred in the late 1800s, right? Was it before the Chinese Exclusion Act?    Livia Blackburne: [00:49:03] Yes, it was before the Chinese Exclusion Act. So you'd hope that people kinda learn from these things. And it was just kind of one of the, one of the horrible things that happened on the way to the Chinese Exclusion Act and Chinese immigrants being excluded basically Chinese laborers at least.   Miko Lee: [00:49:23] Oh wow. Okay. I'm looking this up now. And 1882 we know was the Chinese Exclusion Act and this incident actually happened in 1871. Yes. A decade beforehand, Helen Zia always talks about these moments that are missing. MIH missing in history and this is clearly another one of, another time of just wiping out a population.I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit more about how Children's Books can make a difference in the world that we're currently living in, where our government is banning books and you know that there's a narratives that they want to align with a certain kind of conservative ideology. Can you talk about the power of being a Children's Book author in this time that we're living in right now? . I'm really thinking about dreams to Ashes and even I dream of Popo and even Nainai's Mountain, which you would think, oh, they're, you, they're visiting their grandparent, their grandmothers, that would not be controversial. But now when even words like inclusion and diversity are threatened and books are being banned, I'm just wondering if you could. Share a little bit more about your superpower as a children's book author?    Livia Blackburne: [00:50:31] Yeah, that's a fantastic question. We live in a time right now, there's, a lot of hate, a lot of intolerance, a lot of fear of different people groups. And a lot of that I think is because people are unfamiliar with people unlike themselves. They see. People who are different, look differently, act differently, speak differently, and it scares them. And I think the best way to get around that is to actually get to know people of other backgrounds, to see them as human. And I think that's where children's books come in. ‘Cause we don't, children are not born. With this hate of the other. They learn it. But, if they grow up being familiar with people of different backgrounds seeing their stories seeing them as, normal human beings, which, should be obvious, but sometimes it's hard, for adults to realize. Then, I'm hoping, as a children's book author that it will lead to a more empathetic world. And perhaps that's why the government sometimes in certain groups are wanting to, censor this and control the flow of children's books because, children are the most their minds are still open. They're still able to learn.    Miko Lee: [00:51:48] And Livia, tell us what you're working on next.   Livia Blackburne: [00:51:53] So right now I am. Working on a historical middle grade. We haven't quite announced it yet, so I can't say the title or too many details, but it is based on my family history of my parents and grandparents who moved from China to Taiwan after the civil War.   Miko Lee: [00:52:12] Please check out our website, kpfa.org. To find out more about our show tonight. We thank all of you listeners out there. Keep resisting, keep organizing, keep creating and sharing your visions with the world because your voices are important. Apex Express is created by Miko Lee, Jalena Keane-Lee, Preti Mangala-Shekar, Swati Rayasam, Aisa Villarosa, Estella Owoimaha-Church, Gabriel Tanglao, Cheryl Truong and Ayame Keane-Lee.   The post APEX Express – 6.19.25 We Are All Connected appeared first on KPFA.

The media is reporting that a person pretending to be a police officer who shot two Minnesota Democrat politicians and their spouses—killing state Rep Melissa Hortman, along with her husband, and severely wounding state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife—has been identified as Progressive fanatic Vance Luther Boelter.  Boelter was an associate of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the failed Vice-Presidential candidate, who had appointed Boelter to a government development board.  Boelter, who presents as extremely Caucasian, was also reportedly active in the group “Minnesota Africans United.” Apparently Boelter had dressed himself as a police officer, wore a bullet proof vest, carried a Taser, and drove a car that resembled a police vehicle. Although Boelter remains on the run, inside his vehicle police found a political manifesto with a “death list” of various politicians, and many flyers for the Progressive “No Kings” riots scheduled for this weekend. Hortman and Hoffman are believed to have become his targets because they recently broke with their Democrat colleagues and voted to end free healthcare for illegal migrants in the state.  It is also rumored that Hortman had been planning to switch parties to become a Republican.Get Your FREE Copy of Our Best-Selling Book: "The Law of Self Defense: Principles"Visit Here: https://lawofselfdefense.com/getthebook"You are wise to buy this material. I hope you watch it, internalize it, and keep it to the forefront whenever you even think of reaching for a gun"-Massad Ayoob (President of the Second Amendment Foundation) The #1 guide for understanding when using force to protect yourself is legal. Now yours for FREE! Just pay the S&H for us to get it to you.➡️ Carry with confidence, knowing you are protected from predators AND predatory prosecutors➡️ Correct the common myths you may think are true but get people in trouble​➡️ Know you're getting the best with this abridged version of our best-selling 5-star Amazon-rated book that has been praised by many (including self-defense legends!) for its easy, entertaining, and informative style.​➡️ Many interesting, if sometimes heart-wrenching, true-life examplesGet Your Free Book: https://lawofselfdefense.com/getthebook

-Said another way, all the lies white cis men have told Black cis men about manhood (p1)--Happy Pride! - They thought they found "aMerIKA" and the nigga they say "founded" it never made it to North America but fast forward centuries later and ya'll still believe it - They said they descended from Aryans because the word had a ring to it, used to create the myth of a superior race but now they hate the actual Aryans (in and near Iran) and want to bomb them -They named themselves Caucasian after mountains that they have no relationship to -They wouldn't know an anglo saxon if it hit them in a head which would be virtually impossible for them to do because anglo saxons never existed... -Misogyny, racism, transphobia and homophobia are a hedged of protection against their own insecurities (“I didn't get to be a fire engine when I was little but I'm a man tho!” head ass) -They spend all night and day on reddit, thecoli, twitch and tiktok studying how to be anything and anyone other than themselves...but yet, we still believe what white cis men tell us a man is? Okay. Pride Episode! Happy Pride -[ ] Ms Rachel - [ ] Gentrification - changing NYC - [ ] masculinity. Question for Black cis men: who are you!? - [ ] Bernie Sanders on the Andrew Schulz podcast What is masculinity if it's not wielded? Brooklyn gentrification on the heels of white settlers to South Africa being imported here What does it all mean bro? Goalpost of what it mean to be a man can be moved backwards and forward according to their agenda This is a listener supported, currently pay-wall free podcast. To support the continuation of this independent listener sponsored podcast and keep this g-thang ad free, consider becoming a patron: www.patreon.com/c/ihartericka or via Venmo: @Ericka-Hart, Paypal: ericka@ihartericka.com. Thank you!

Hold up… it's still bad movie week isn't it? Then why in the name of John Woo's BUTTHOLE are we buring 90 minutes of sweet, sweet podcast runtime talking about Face/Off? 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, Chris. What the hell?! There's a lot to talk about because this movie is an insane time capsule that perfectly articulates the height of ‘90s action movie excess. It's illogical, but who cares? It's overacted in a way that's both operatic and absurd, but, also, who cares? Face/Off fucking rules, and I'm willing to die on this hill. I think Chris is too. Bob only sent us a complaint about the runtime in the group chat because he'd rather watch Quiz Show, so the Jury's still out on him. Time to yell!Dissimilar stubborn supposed studs swap sockets, skin, sneers, stubble, and sideburns so that the savior could stop sabotage while the sadist slays civil servants and shares the sheets for spousal snuggling! Snuffing a ciggie on sleeping Castor! Policeman's partner doesn't pick up on penis replacement! Non-consensual face removal! Dead child changeouts! Caucasian tan-line semantics! Castor Troy's ass-crumb trail! Fucking magnet prisons?! Chris peeing during the closing credits, and much, much more on this week's episode of The Worst Movie Ever Made! www.theworstmovieevermade.com

Tammy Gibson wants you to visit the gravesites of your deceased relatives. “Have you checked on your ancestors?” said Gibson, the founder of Sankofa TravelHer, an organization dedicated to honoring the legacy of African-Americans who were often denied dignity in death. As we learned last episode, Chicago's long history of segregation affected both the living and the dead, as many area cemeteries once offered burial space “for the exclusive use of the Caucasian race.” So where did African-Americans bury their loved ones in the 19th and early 20th centuries? “From my research, African-Americans could not get buried in Chicago,” Gibson told Curious City. Instead, she said many African-Americans buried their dead in the South Suburbs, at cemeteries like Mount Glenwood in Glenwood, Ill., and later Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. In this episode, Gibson tells us about the people who first started these cemeteries and the notable people buried there. She talks about the work she does to continue honoring the deceased, including offering a reinterment ceremony years after the 2009 grave-stacking scandal at Burr Oak Cemetery. Gibson also works to get headstones for notable Chicagoans who do not have them. This includes Eugene Williams, whose death sparked the 1919 Chicago Race Riot, and journalist Ethel Payne from Chicago's Englewood neighborhood, who was known as the First Lady of the Black Press.

//The Wire//2300Z June 4, 2025////ROUTINE////BLUF: MANHUNT UNDERWAY IN WASHINGTON STATE. DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS CONTINUE BETWEEN THE USA/RUS.// -----BEGIN TEARLINE------International Events-Russia: This morning President Vladimir Putin spoke with President Trump by phone, with the phone call being reported as serious but positive by the White House. Specifically, President Trump stated that the call was "good" but also that it was "not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace".AC: At the moment, that's probably the best that the United States can hope for. Russia will indeed retaliate for Ukraine's recent drone attacks, though the time and place of such will be impossible to determine until it happens.-HomeFront-Illinois: An Uber driver was murdered over the weekend following an attempted carjacking/kidnapping in Columbia. At least two (but possibly four) assailants requested an Uber ride, but once inside the vehicle forced the driver at gunpoint to drive to his own home. The driver initially complied, however once he neared Columbia, he diverted to a local police station parking lot. The carjackers then murdered him, and fled to the south through a local park. As Uber logs a considerable amount of personal information, authorities immediately identified the killer as Kareem Weaver, who was arrested on Monday.AC: "Bad Rides" are becoming an increasingly common threat vector to be aware of. Not just for Uber drivers, but also for Uber passengers. Despite apps like Doordash and Uber very obviously logging who is using the app, criminals are still starting to commit crimes anyway without any thought of the extensive paper trail leading to themselves.Washington: A manhunt is underway following a series of horrific murders that took place over the weekend. Local authorities state that Travis Decker murdered his three children at Rock Island Campground after being granted visitation rights by a judge. Right now, authorities are conducting a search for Decker in the vicinity of his last known position in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest. Cellular data pinged Decker's phone within the Leavenworth area, which after a brief search by local authorities, resulted in his vehicle being found at the Rock Island Campground and the subsequent discovery of the crimes. The suspect is a 32-year-old Caucasian male, 5' 8" tall, 190 pounds, last seen wearing a light-colored shirt and shorts. All hotels and campgrounds have already been searched in the local area, with no success.-----END TEARLINE-----Analyst Comments: Locals have been warned to not make contact with Decker due to the safety concerns involved in this case. However due to the horrific nature of the crimes, many local volunteers have begun searches of their own (independent of what local authorities are working), just in case he made it out of the initial search area. This area is notoriously rugged terrain that offers much concealment to the fugitive, and offers many challenges to the pursuers. Decker has a three-day head start, but he is very likely to be on foot (as his abandoned vehicle was found near the campsite). The Wenatchee Police Department has stated that as of yesterday, they believe that he is still in the local area. As such, anyone who has information pertaining to Decker's location is urged to contact local authorities.Analyst: S2A1Research: https://publish.obsidian.md/s2underground//END REPORT//

Asians vs. Caucasians is back with more of our favorite Korean food! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Send us a textContent Warning: Filmic violence is and will often be celebrated throughout Season 15 – Squib Season. Second in the series and keeping to their unpatented temporal pincer movement, the enlisted four of TGTPTU storm the beachheads of Season 15 this week to liberate Squib Season's earliest covered picture, the black-and-white WWII movie HELL TO ETERNITY (1960). (Not to be confused with To Hell from Eternity, which does not exist; To Hell and Back, which does and preceded in Technicolor this week's talkie by five years; or From Hell to Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, which is actually the combined titles of two vastly different films released, respectively, 41 years and 35 years after this week's feature.) In Hell to Eternity, the 6'0”-tall, New Orleans-born Caucasian actor Jeffrey Hunter (yes, yes, nerds, we know he's Captain Chistopher Pike, listen back to our The Searchers 4x4 episode but also listen to this week's for an irony behind Hunter's being replaced on Star Trek TOS by actor Sean Kenney in Season 1's clips episode two-parter “The Menagerie”), then age 34, plays war hero and protagonist Guy Gabaldon in this biopic based on the real life events of the 5'4”-foot tall Latino Los Angelean of the same name when he was 18.  As in the movie, Gabaldon was raised by adoptive Japanese parents, learning their first language (and presumably, as in the movie, their stories about fish and love), and enlisted after Pearl Harbor as a translator. It's with his language skills that Gabaldon was able to, as depicted at the end of the film, convince over 800 Japanese soldiers and civilians to surrender, although further research would be required by the author of these show notes to know whether real-life Gabaldon adopted/stole a Japanese child to be his son as implied at the end of the film (IMDB Trivia does claim Gabaldon named one of his sons after Hunter as he was enamored by his portrayal of him, implying Gabaldon had more than one son) or if the eighteen-year-old short king had swell times in swinging Hawaii as shown in the film's contentious, extended party sequence containing not just one but two apartment burlesque routines.  The film is lensed by Burnett Guffey who will go on to shoot (on film) our next earliest entry, i.e., BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967) for which he'd earn his second Academy Award. His first Oscar win was for another flick whose title lends itself to easy confusion with this week's, namely FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953). Also involved, Lieutenant (later Captain) Sulu (or the actor and activist who originally played the helmsman/fencing expert in Star Trek TOS). Also, hundreds of Japanese Imperial Army veterans and active-duty U.S. Marines who reenacted events from the Battle of Saipan on the adjacent island of Okinawa for the cameras commanded by Guffrey. And some squibs.   This episode, hear Ryan explain both what squibs are and, later, how a man got his start as a boy. Jack, subsequent to the latter, loses his mind. Tom spoils the surprise appearance by a famous and long-deceased sports announcer. And Ken, as impossible as it might seem, might actually change his opinion on mic, specifically about the seemingly endless Hawaii party scene.  Subscribe and listen as the Good Pod Boys give a 21-gun salute to this forgotten classic. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.comFacebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTUInstagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.socialYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-gLetterboxd (follow us!):Podcast: goodpoduglyKen: Ken KoralRyan: Ryan Tobias

The GGACP team marks May's Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month by revisiting this interview with one of the world's best-loved pop culture figures, actor-activist George Takei. In this episode, George shares his feelings about Caucasian actors in Asian roles, speaks frankly about Japanese-American internment, expresses his gratitude to Trekkies and fondly remembers old friend Leonard Nimoy. Also, George feuds with William Shatner, chats up Jerry Lewis, runs into Cary Grant and rebukes Arnold Schwarzenegger. PLUS: Frank Gorshin! Celebrating James Hong! George channels Sir John Gielgud! Gilbert does his best Richard Burton! And the last of the Paramount contract players! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May is Stroke Awareness Month. Strokes can happen to anyone at any age. When I had a stroke in 1972 at age 2, that wasn't the case. Back then, strokes happened to people 65 years and older who were unhealthy: obese, smoker, drinker, and rarely exercised.My guest, Lori Vober, is also a stroke survivor. Her hemorrhagic stroke happened when she was twenty-nine years old. Thankfully, people were at the church at that day and got Lori help quickly. Lori shares her story in her book: Choices: When You Are Faced with a Challenge, What Choice Will You Make? When we face challenges that significantly impact our lives, Lori believes we must trust that God has a bigger and better plan.Notable quotes by Lori Vober:·         “We can get stuck in bitter, or we can grow better through our experiences.”·         “I am thankful I have the mindset and perseverance to be able to do all I can do.”·         “Although I can't control my circumstances, I can control my attitude and my faith.”Lori's fight verse is 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18, which reads, “Rejoice always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” Connect with Lori Vober at https://lorivober.com/On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lori.voberOn Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorilonghorn99/ Stroke awareness facts: ·         Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the US and a leading cause of severe disability. ·         The two major types of strokes are hemorrhagic, which occurs when a weakened blood vessel ruptures, and ischemic, which occurs when a clot blocks a blood vessel and cuts off blood flow. ·         Nearly two million brain cells die each minute a stroke is untreated. ·         About 55,000 more women than men have a stroke each year.·         In the US, 1 in 5 women will have a stroke.·         Stroke kills twice as many African Americans as Caucasians.·         80% of strokes are preventable. ·         Know the anacronym FAST: F = droopy face, A = arm or leg numb, S = slurred speech, T = time.  Call 9-1-1 fast! Time is of the essence if you are experiencing any of these symptoms. Send me a COMMENT or QUESTION!THANK YOU FOR LISTENING! Have a comment about this episode? Click HERE and complete the form.

EPISODE 86 -  “ANNA MAY WONG: CLASSIC CINEMA STAR OF THE MONTH” - 5/5/2025 Anna May Wong was once the most famous Chinese woman in the world. The trailblazing actress, philanthropist, and fashion icon appeared in over 60 films and was a celebrated star, yet, at the time, she was not allowed to kiss a Caucasian man on screen, which limited the roles she could take, and she was not allowed to buy a house in Beverly Hills. A strange dichotomy, indeed. In recent years, she has enjoyed a much-deserved resurgence. Known as a Trailblazer and a cultural icon, she paved the way for generations of Asian and Asian American actors by proving that talent and perseverance could transcend racist casting conventions. Her life and career continue to influence conversations about diversity, representation, and the politics of race in Hollywood. This week, she is our Star of the Month. SHOW NOTES:  AVA GARDNER MUSEUM: If you would like to make a donation to help support the Ava Gardner Museum in Smithfield, N.C. (Ava'a hometown!), please click on the following link: https://ava-gardner-museum.myshopify.com/products/donations Sources: Not Your China Doll (2924), by Katie Gee Salisbury; Anna May Wong: From Laundryman's Daughter to Hollywood Legend (2012), by Graham Russell Gao Hodges; Anna May Wong: A Complete Guide to Her Film, Stage, Television, and Radio Work (2010), by Philip Leibfried and Chei Mi Lane; Perpetually Cool: The Many Lives of Anna May Wong (2003), by Anthony B. Chan; “Anna May Wong: 13 Facts About Her Trailblazing Hollywood Career,” April 30, 2024, By Minhae Shim Roth; “Anna May Wong's Long Journey from Hollywood to the Smithsonian,” March 2024, by Ryan Lintelman, Natural Museum of American History; “Anna May Wong Will Be the First Asian American on US Currency,” October 18, 2022, by Soumya Karlamangla; “Anna May Wong is Dead At 54; Actress Won Movie Fans in '24; Appeared with Fairbanks in ‘Thief of Bagdad,' Made Several Films Abroad,” February 4, 1961, The New York Times; Wikipedia.com; TCM.com; IBDB.com; IMDBPro.com; Movies Mentioned:  Phantom Of The Opera (1943), starring Claude Rains, Eddy Nelson, & Suzanna Foster; The Spider Woman Strikes Back (1946), starring Gale Sondergaard & Brenda Joyce; White Savage (1943), starring Maria Montez, Jon Hall, and Sabu; Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), starring Maria Montez & Jon Hall; It Grows On Trees (1952), Irene Dunne & Dean Jagger; Impact (1949), starring Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines, Helen Walker, & Anna May Wong; The Red Lantern (1919), starring Alla Nazimova; The Toll of the Sea (1922), staring Kenneth Harlan & Anna May Wong; The Thief of Baghdad (1924), starring Douglas Fairbanks & Anna May Wong; Picadilly (1929), starring Gilda Gray & Anna May Wong; Daughter of the Dragon (1931), starring Anna May Wong and Warner Orland; Shanghai Express (1932), starring Marlene Dietrich & Anna May Wong; The Hatchet Man (1932), starring Loretta Young; The Mask of Fu Manchu (1932), starring Myrna Loy; The Son-Daughter (1932), starring Helen Hayes; Tiger Bay (1934), starring Anna May Wong; Chu Chen Chow (1934), starring Anna May Wong; Java Head (1934), starring Anna May Wong; Limehouse Blues (1934), starring George Raft, Jean Parker, & Anna May Wong; The Good Earth (1937), starring Paul Muni & Luise Rainer; Daughter of Shanghai (1937), starring Anna May Wong & Philip Ahn; King of Chinatown (1939), starring Anna May Wong & Sidney Toler; Dangerous to Know (1938), starring Gail Patrick & Anna May Wong;  Island of Lost Men (1939), starring Anna May Wong & J. Carrol Naish; Bombs Over Burma (1942), starring Anna May Wong; Lady From Chungking (1942), starring Anna May Wong; Portrait in Black (1960), starring Lana Turner, Anthony Quinn, & Sandra Dee; Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nicole Cabell is an award-winning American soprano known for her rich voice and versatile artistry. Born in California with African American, Korean, and Caucasian heritage, she rose to international fame after winning the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She has performed leading roles at top opera houses like the Royal Opera House and the Metropolitan Opera. Her acclaimed recordings include the solo album Soprano and performances in La Bohème and Imelda de' Lambertazzi. Cabell also serves as an Associate Professor of Voice at the Eastman School of Music, where she mentors young singers.

Welcome back to another bite-sized episode of Look Behind the Look. Today, we're back with another obscure cinema excavation exploring Spike Lee's 1996 film, Girl 6. The film offers a unique take on the world of phone sex operators through the eyes of an aspiring actress in New York City and, of course, so much more than that. We'll explore how this film fell into obscurity...and the layered messages on race and female exploitation.Despite its ambitious narrative, the film received mixed reviews upon release and was a commercial disappointment, grossing approximately $4.9 million against a $12 million budget. Girl 6 was dismissed so hard when it came out; it's like it just vanished from Spike Lee's filmography. Reviewers like The Washington Post's Rita Kempley described it as "little more than a profane litany punctuated by Oscar-caliber orgasms," while the Post's Desson Howe stated that "it's enough to reduce expectations over him forever."Even when discussing He Got Game two years later, Spike wouldn't mention Girl 6…That's how much people sidelined it. It's wild because after Girl 6, Spike didn't make another film centered on a female perspective until Chi-Raq in 2015, almost 20 years later. You have to wonder if the reception to Girl 6 made Spike pull back from telling stories about women, especially Black women, navigating systems that weren't built for them. Girl 6 is one of Spike's most overlooked films, but also one of the most fascinating. That's exactly why it deserves a closer look behind the look.A Cultural ReassessmentIn 1996, people didn't know what to do with Girl 6. It barely made a dent at the box office, critics were lukewarm at best, and ultimately, it faded into obscurity. But here's the thing—Girl 6 wasn't a failure. It was a film about performance, sex, race, capitalism, and identity. It didn't fit the mold Hollywood—or even Spike Lee fans—wanted it to fit.This was Spike's first time directing a script he didn't write. The screenplay came from Pulitzer Prize-winner Suzan-Lori Parks, and what they created together was something totally different from the more straightforward sociopolitical narratives people had come to expect from Spike. Instead of overt protest, Girl 6 gives us a quiet, messy rebellion in the form of one Black woman trying to survive the film industry without selling her soul.Theresa Randle plays Judy, a struggling actress who ends up working as a phone sex operator to make ends meet. And that premise could've easily become male-gazey or exploitative in the wrong hands. But it doesn't. This is a story about the male gaze, not one that indulges it. The camera doesn't leer. It's observant. It's empathetic. It's watching Judy navigate objectification. Beyond general objectification, it shows how she manages which specific forms of objectification she subjugates herself to, like being told by her boss, Lil played by a perfectly cast, Hollywood legend, Jenifer Lewis, she needs to sound “Caucasian” on the phone, because that's what “the client likes.”The film also drops in these surreal, meta moments that throw you off, especially the interspersed news storyline of the young black girl who survived falling down the elevator shaft in her building, but that's the point. It draws a direct line from girlhood to adulthood—how young Black girls are burdened from the start with invisibility, impossible standards, and stereotypes they're expected to navigate alone just to survive. We see Judy auditioning for roles where she's told to be more "urban," more "real," while directors like Quentin Tarantino, in his now-infamous cameo, barks at Judy with lines laced in microaggressions that escalate—into full-blown aggression, unchecked racism, and flat-out exploitation as he demands she take her top off on camera. It's violent in its familiarity. And that's the point. Girl 6 doesn't flinch—it forces us to sit in the discomfort, to confront how easily Black women are dehumanized under the guise of “opportunity.” This isn't just a scene. It's a reckoning that begins Judy's arc. It's Spike and Suzan-Lori Parks holding up a mirror and asking, ‘How many times has this happened—and how many times did we call it art?' or better yet "This is what you do to Black women when you 'give them a chance.'"And that's why the ending hits so hard. Because after everything—after all that growth and pain and disillusionment—it's gutting to see Judy go back to Shoplifter. It's framed like a reunion, maybe even a resolution—but it isn't. It's a return to something familiar. Something that once had control over her.And when she heads to L.A. for her so-called fresh start, she walks right into the same kind of exploitative audition that launched this whole journey. The loop restarts. But this time—she doesn't freeze. She doesn't stay quiet. She doesn't submit. She assertively leaves. That moment shifts everything. Because even though the circumstances haven't evolved, she has. It's not loud. It's not celebrated. But it's powerful. It's self-possession. It's Judy refusing to play the part again, even if the script is exactly the same.So no, the ending isn't tied up in a bow. But it's not hopeless either. Girl 6 isn't offering a fantasy of escape—it's showing us what resistance looks like when the world and the people around you won't meet you halfway. Quiet, deliberate, exhausted… but still yours.So why did Girl 6 flop? Because audiences weren't ready for a Black feminist art film disguised as a phone-sex dramedy. It didn't check the boxes. It wasn't "important" in how people expected a Spike Lee joint to be. The film's portrayal of Judy's experiences resonates with contemporary discussions about the empowerment and exploitation inherent in everything we've come to understand about performance, labor, and digital sex work (hello, OnlyFans), Girl 6 feels prophetic. In recent years, Girl 6 has been reassessed for its ahead-of-its-time commentary on sex work and female agency.It's time we stop calling it a misstep. Girl 6 didn't fail. We did—for not seeing what it was trying to show us. With all that said, I do still think it's worth critiquing how a man directing the film despite having a female screenwriter is a statement and impression in and of itself that is left upon this film, and that's something we're still unpacking today.The wigs, costuming, and futuristic sets are all intentional and impeccably designed. Judy is a chameleon, adapting to the fantasies projected onto her. She tries never to lose herself, but as the film progresses, it becomes a hard line to walk. And Randle does it brilliantly. Her performance is nuanced, internal, and often quiet—maybe that's why it got overlooked. People expected something louder. But Judy's strength is in her stillness. I paused the film so many times in awe, wondering - how we didn't get Theresa Randle leading dozens of films post-Girl 6. Her performance has always stuck with me. She is the film.Girl 6 is a wig-lover's dream. Theresa Randle wears over 20 different wigs and styles throughout the film, and each one feels like a window into her state of mind or her persona at that moment. Her hair isn't just flair—it's fashion, character, power, and commentary all in one.There's the long honey-blonde crop she rocks in the phone booth—classic "sex symbol" vibes and we see everything from her an ode to Dorothy Dandridge, bantu knots, finger waves, a full-on Foxy Brown afro—it's a whiplash of transformations that, if you blink, you might miss one. Her hair becomes armor, a mask, a performance. And what's genius is that the wigs and styling reflect the emotional tone of each scene without her having to say a word.It also speaks to the fantasy that phone sex work sells. Every call, every client, is a role she steps into. And Theresa's ever-changing look mirrors that idea—who she is depends entirely on who's on the other end of the line and what they're paying for.Plus, let's give some flowers to the hairstyling team. There is not much information out there about who exactly was responsible. I tried to get in touch with Lisa Hazell, but could not reach her for an interview. The hair designs gave Theresa an entire visual vocabulary of Black femininity, expression, power, seduction, and identity.Theresa Randle played Judy, the lead role. Before this, Randle had appeared in supporting roles in Lee's "Jungle Fever" and "Malcolm X." Her performance as Judy marked her first leading role, showcasing her range and depth as an actress.And while a lot of this film wasn't exactly the norm for Spike, he still had a role, as he often does—but this time, it feels especially personal. He plays Judy's cousin and best friend, Jimmy, a comic book nerd obsessed with blaxploitation and sports memorabilia. It's sweet and totally feels like a little bit of an opportunity for Spike to get all his Brooklyn Dodgers gear into the production design. He's one of the only people in her life who doesn't sexualize Judy, who just wants to hang out and talk about old-school movies. It's giving Letterboxd boyfriend energy… uh if your boyfriend was your cousin and just wanted to debate Pam Grier films over pizza. Their friendship grounds the film, a reminder of who Judy is underneath all the wigs and roleplay.The opposite of Jimmy is Isaiah Washington's character—Judy's ex, known only as “Shoplifter.” And that name alone tells you everything. He's not even given the dignity of a real identity—just a label, a behavior, a red flag. He's controlling in the way so many men are: smiling, supportive on the surface, but constantly trying to reshape her into someone more manageable. He pushes her to get a “real job,” but what he really wants is her dependence. He wants her small.The tension between them is always there—quiet, but constant. And the way Spike shoots those scenes, you can feel the power imbalance. It's intimate, but it's not safe. These aren't just moments between two people with history. These are scenes about how easily women—especially Black women—are asked to compromise themselves in exchange for stability, approval, or love that's conditional.Both of these male characters exist to show us different versions of masculinity—Jimmy is supportive, if a little clueless, and Isaiah's character is the opposite: demanding, judgmental, and ultimately part of the reason Judy needs to reclaim her voice in the first place.The film is peppered with notable cameos, adding layers of meta-commentary. As mentioned previously, Quentin Tarantino appears as the self-absorbed director, and this collaboration, interestingly enough, occurred before the well-documented disagreements between Lee and Tarantino over the use of racial slurs in cinema.We also get Halle Berry, Debi Mazar, John Turturro, Ron Silver, John Cameron Mitchell, and Michael Imperioli giving their best, if not strangest, character acting bits to the film.Other notable appearances include Madonna as the competing strip club owner. She looked insanely good—possibly the best she's ever looked, and that's saying a lot for someone who literally invented iconic beauty in the 80s and 90s—and, of course, supermodel Naomi Campbell as a fellow phone sex operator, taking on a more demure and reserved role.Pete Travers at Rolling Stone called Girl 6 "the worst movie Spike Lee has ever made," one that "[resorts] to all-star cameos to disguise structural shortcomings." Still, I believe these cameos contribute to the film's commentary on fame, exploitation, and the blurred lines between reality and performance.The PRINCE SoundtrackI could never go without mentioning one of the film's most essential elements, being its soundtrack, composed entirely of songs by Prince. You can't say that about any other film outside of Purple Rain. The entire soundtrack is Prince. Yup. Not just a song or two—the whole thing. And it's not a greatest-hits situation either; We're talking deep cuts, unreleased tracks, B-sides, and songs he gave just to this movie. "She Spoke 2 Me"? Unreal. "Don't Talk 2 Strangers"? Are you kidding? These weren't just throwaways—he curated a whole vibe for Judy's world, and I can't even believe we aren't talking about this every day.Prince was famously selective about who he worked with, and it says a lot that he said yes to this film. You get the sense that he understood what the story was about—performance, femininity, identity, power. And that's all over his music, too. Prince elevates the whole damn film. That's the kind of creative alignment that doesn't happen often. Honestly, the Girl 6 soundtrack is one of the most slept-on parts of Prince's catalog—and of 90s cinema in general.How this happened still blows my mind and definitely leads me to believe that, aside from Spike distancing himself from the film, the complexity of continuing to secure rights to Prince's catalog may be why we haven't been able to stream the film. That's a whooooole other can of worms to dive into for another day…But I will get to the bottom of it.Girl 6's unique collaborations, themes, and the conversations it continues to inspire about representation, exploitation, and agency for Black women and in the entertainment industry are why it remains a fascinating entry in Spike Lee's filmography. Although its approach to these themes may have been clunky, convoluted—dare I say, disjointed—it's 1000% worth watching, studying, and taking the time to understand the story beyond traditional narrative form.Unless you own a VHS or DVD copy, it's a shame you can only find it for $100+ on eBay right now. Kelli and I mailed the DVD back and forth like it was 2006 to study and put this episode together. So, grab a friend or two and create an old-school Netflix sisterhood of the traveling DVD and watch for yourselves. If you do track down a copy, tag me @lookbehindthelook—I want to see your setups. As always, we love hearing your thoughts, what you want to hear more about, and what films you'd like us to dive into next.Thank you for joining me on another bite-sized episode of Look Behind the Look. Until next time...**At the time that I recorded this, the DVDs were $80-$100 on ebay but now it looks like it jumped to $225-$350! Keep your eyes on those DVD bins at the vintage stores, people!Girl 6 on eBaywritten by Kelli Reilly Get full access to Look Behind The Look's Substack at lookbehindthelook.substack.com/subscribe

This week on CounterSpin: When Robert Kennedy Jr. was just a famously named man about town, we heard about how he dumped a bear carcass in Central Park for fun, believes that children's gender is shaped by chemicals in the water, and asserts that Covid-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people,” while leaving “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese” immune. But once you become RFK Jr., secretary of health and human services in a White House whose anger must not be drawn, those previously unacceptable ideas become, as a recent New York Times piece has it, “unorthodox.” Kennedy's unorthodox ideas may get us all killed while media whistle. We hear from Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, about that. For many years, social justice advocates rather discounted the Federal Communications Commission. Unlike the Federal Trade Commission or the Food and Drug Administration, whose actions had visible impacts on your life, the FCC didn't seem like a player. That changed over recent years, as we've seen the role the federal government plays in regulating the power of media corporations to control the flow of information. As the late, great media scholar Bob McChesney explained, “When the government grants free monopoly rights to TV spectrum … it is not setting the terms of competition; it is picking the winner.” We'll talk about the FCC under Trump with Jessica González, co-CEO of the group McChesney co-founded, Free Press.     The post Paul Offit on RFK Jr. and Measles / Jessica González on Trump's FCC appeared first on KPFA.

The Caucasian Los Angeles Lakers Prove They CAN WIN without LeBron James as Gilbert Arenas & The Gil's Arena Crew return to Gil's Arena and react to the Lakers snapping a 4 game losing streak thanks to their all white lineup featuring Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves. They break down the Lakers' performances without LeBron James during this difficult stretch of games and debate how long the team can stay afloat without their GOAT Leader. They then flip to discuss another dynasty in the state of California and react to the Golden State Warriors ripping off 7 straight wins, breaking down how the trade for Jimmy Butler has unlocked this team for a deep playoff run and sparking a debate over if the Warriors have a championship level team. Next, they react to another hostile moment on the New York Knicks sideline as Josh Hart joined Mikal Bridges in his complaints over Thibs' heavy minutes policy, making the Gil's Arena Crew question if this Knicks squad is going to be able to hang on throughout the NBA Playoffs. Finally they break down some big games from over the weekend as Jordan Poole sank Nikola Jokic & The Denver Nuggets with a circus style buzzer beater, Shai Gilgeous Alexander dropped 80 points over 2 games for Oklahoma City Thunder and the Orlando Magic proved their the 8th seed nobody wants to face in the NBA Playoffs after snapping the Cleveland Cavaliers 15 game winning streak. Please give us a like and subscribe!!! Gil's Arena Crew - Gilbert Arenas, Josiah Johnson, Kenyon Martin, Brandon Jennings, Nick Young & Rashad McCants Gil's Arena Merch is Available NOW at https://gilsarenamerch.com/ Sign up for Underdog Fantasy HERE with promo code GIL and get up to $1000 in Bonus Credits and A FREE Pick: https://play.underdogfantasy.com/p-gil's-arena To get YOUR FREE Jumpstart Trial Bag, go to https://ruffgreens.com & use Promo code ARENA USE Code GIL10 for 10% off tickets on SeatGeek https://seatgeek.onelink.me/RrnK/GIL10 Join the Playback chat to interact with Gil and Josiah https://www.playback.tv/gilbertarenas SUBSCRIBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAvjYgmwadC682OoC4Cc6TQ Join the Underdog discord for access to exclusive giveaways and promos! https://discord.gg/underdog Stream Josiah's Film "Memes & Nightmares" Available NOW on Hulu and Disney+ 0:00:00 2 Min Timer 0:02:16 Show Start 0:04:26 Gil Reacts To Alijah's Final High School Game 0:13:18 Swaggy Challenges Josiah In March Madness 0:18:28 Jimmy Butler SAVED The Warriors 0:27:28 Are The Warriors Championship Caliber? 0:40:05 How Many Teams Can Win The Title? 1:31:32 Bronny Claps Back at A Heckler 1:42:46 Shai Gilgeous Alexander Drops Another 40 1:52:56 Pistons Coach Crashes Out On The Refs 2:09:46 Magic SNAPS The Cavs Winning Streak 2:16:26 St Patrick's Day in The Arena 2:24:00 MostlyFans Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Roman Dolidze got his revenge on Marvin Vettori, taking a unanimous decision victory in their main event rematch this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 104. It was a hard-fought battle that even saw Vettori hurt Dolidze in the third round, but “The Caucasian” overcame the moment to win four rounds and all three judges' scorecards and earn a spot as a top-10 middleweight. Following Saturday's return to the APEX, MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and José Youngs react to Dolidze's impressive performance over Vettori, discuss if Dolidze is a serious title threat at 185 pounds and where he goes from here, chop it up about the numerous finishes that happened on the undercard, choose their favorite performance from the night, talk about the various prospects who showed out (and some who fell short), and much more. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Roman Dolidze got his revenge on Marvin Vettori, taking a unanimous decision victory in their main event rematch this past Saturday at UFC Vegas 104. It was a hard-fought battle that even saw Vettori hurt Dolidze in the third round, but “The Caucasian” overcame the moment to win four rounds and all three judges' scorecards and earn a spot as a top-10 middleweight. Following Saturday's return to the APEX, MMA Fighting's Jed Meshew and José Youngs react to Dolidze's impressive performance over Vettori, discuss if Dolidze is a serious title threat at 185 pounds and where he goes from here, chop it up about the numerous finishes that happened on the undercard, choose their favorite performance from the night, talk about the various prospects who showed out (and some who fell short), and much more. Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rod and Karen banter about content warnings on anime, the Jennifer Hudson show, a blinking sign, Eagles won’t go see Trump, Karen has sideburns now and Rod can wear a 3XL jacket now. Then they discuss federal employees returning to work, Trump cuts Medicare Telehealth funding, commerce secretary targes social safety nets, MSNBC talent shakeup, AI-generated video of Trump sucking Elon's toes, Jim Jones wants to go to the White House, French Montana does song with Laura Trump, Jaguar Wright accepts award from Trump, Who News, auto thief makes damning journal entry, naked doctor busted on video sexually harassing his employees, bingo battle shuts town funds down and sword ratchetness. Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@rodimusprime⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@SayDatAgain⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TBGWT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@TheBlackGuyWhoTips⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠theblackguywhotips@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Blog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.theblackguywhotips.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Teepublic Store⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon Wishlist⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Crowdcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Voice Mail: 704-557-0186 Live Show Link – https://www.blumenthalarts.org/events/detail/the-black-guy-who-tips-liveGo Premium: https://www.theblackguywhotips.com/premium/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Racial division in America is a messy topic where many fear to tread. Monique Duson, a former African American progressive and Krista Bontrager, a Caucasian conservative, have formed a strong friendship over the years in unusual circumstances. They share how difficult conversations exposed their cultural biases about racial division and how their love and respect for God’s Word led to a spiritual breakthrough and lasting friendship, as they discovered common ground. They’ll challenge you to break through cultural barriers to see others made in the image of God, setting an example for a broken culture. Receive the book Walking in Unity and the audio download of the broadcast "An Unlikely Multi-Ethnic Friendship Sealed in Christ" for your donation of any amount! Get More Episode Resources If you've listened to any of our podcasts, please give us your feedback.

JD and Producer Jules are arguing about who did the most Caucasian activity this week. Joey Boy and Sienna are definitely staying clear of this one! Follow us on socials! @themorningmess

JD and Producer Jules are arguing about who did the most Caucasian activity this week. Joey Boy and Sienna are definitely staying clear of this one! Follow us on socials! @themorningmess

JD and Producer Jules are arguing about who did the most Caucasian activity this week. Joey Boy and Sienna are definitely staying clear of this one! Follow us on socials! @themorningmess

In the 19th Century, a war on the boundary between Europe and Asia had an unexpected effect. It caused the American public to re-examine one of the terms with which they described race: Caucasian.Don Wildman is joined for this episode by the award-winning art historian Sarah Lewis. They explore how the term Caucasian came to be associated with whiteness, and how photography was fundamental to unpicking this myth.Sarah is the John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Harvard University. She is also the founder of the Vision & Justice initiative and author of the book discussed here: 'The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America'.Produced and edited by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign here for up to 50% for 3 months using code AMERICANHISTORY.You can take part in our listener survey here.American History Hit is a History Hit podcast.