Podcasts about centralized

Think your cash is safe sitting in a traditional bank? Think again. Centralized banks profit from your deposits while offering little protection or growth. Long before banks dominated the financial system, mutual whole life insurance companies provided unmatched stability, guaranteed growth, and security that will last generations.  In this episode of the Private Banking Strategies Podcast, Vance Lowe and Seth Hicks Esq., reveal why these policies beat IRAs and 401(k)s, how compounding growth will supercharge your cash, and why keeping your money in the right insurance policies—not banks—will give you true long-term financial control. Whether you're seeking true financial freedom, wealth preservation, or a smarter approach – this podcast reveals the strategies banks don't want you to know about. Seth and Vance discuss: Before centralized banks: the power of mutual whole life insurance companies Why these policies offer unmatched stability compared to IRAs and 401(k)s  How compounding growth accelerates your wealth over time The smart strategy: keeping your money in policies instead of banks Resources: To Schedule a Call with Vance, Click the Link Below: https://go.oncehub.com/VanceLowe To learn more about Private Banking Strategies®, download a copy of our E-book today: https://privatebankingstrategies.com/resources/free-e-book/ 

In this episode of the Network Nations mini-series, Primavera De Filippi speak with Santiago Siri, founder of Democracy Earth, DemocracyOS, and Proof of Humanity, to explore a central question of the digital age: Can we escape politics with protocols or do protocols simply create new political arenas? Santiago shares his journey from building Argentina's internet political party Partido de la Red, to creating open-source democratic infrastructure, to running one of the most ambitious on-chain identity and governance experiments in Web3. They discuss identity as the core bottleneck of digital democracy, governance failures inside protocols, DAOs as political systems, AI as both promise and threat, and what Network Nations must learn from a decade of real-world experimentation. A deep, honest conversation about legitimacy, power, and why politics never disappears  it just moves layers.

Industrial water professionals are increasingly pulled into conversations about scarcity, resilience, and "where the next gallon comes from."  Dr. Veronika Zhiteneva, CEO and Co-founder of Waterloop Solutions frames water reuse as an implementation challenge more than a technology gap—and explains where the practical starting points are when the scope feels overwhelming.   Moving reuse forward when the technology already exists  Waterloop Solutions was founded to accelerate implementation: clarifying end-use quality, identifying post-treatment needs on the back end of existing plants, and building risk management plans that fit real operational and regulatory expectations. The conversation stays grounded in what slows projects down (time, permitting, funding, and public acceptance) and where progress can be made without reinventing the toolbox.  Centralized vs. decentralized: why "less regulated" can move faster  Europe's agricultural reuse regulation (noted as coming into effect in June 2023) created shared minimum requirements, but also uncertainty around permitting and responsibility at the local level. In contrast, decentralized reuse is described as an "early adopter" space—often driven by innovative building projects (gray water separation, rooftop rain capture) and, in some cases, easier implementation from scratch than retrofits.  What matters to industrial listeners: partnerships, autonomy, and distance  For industrial teams, Dr. Veronika points out opportunities for synergistic partnerships with municipalities and agriculture—balanced against the realities of infrastructure distance and cost. She also makes the case for industrial autonomy: decoupling from conventional sources through internal reuse to protect future production when municipal needs take precedence.  Communication and the "toilet to tap" problem  Public perception remains a stubborn barrier. Dr. Veronika calls out the long-lasting impact of "toilet to tap" framing and why first impressions can derail technically sound reuse projects.  Listen to the full conversation above. Explore related episodes below. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!    Timestamps  03:58 - Trace Blackmore shares how "Pinks and Blues" questions get chosen—and where listeners can submit them  05:05 - Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals   07:42 – Words of Water with James McDonald  11:47 – Meet Dr. Veronika Zhiteneva and why Trace invited her from LinkedIn insights  12:20 — Veronika's path: UMD → Colorado School of Mines → PhD at Technical University of Munich 15:40 — Why Waterloop Solutions started: progress is slow, but implementation support is missing  19:40 — Decentralized reuse: why interest is rising, and why it can be easier to implement in buildings  20:20 — EU agricultural reuse regulation (June 2023): minimum quality, crop types, and risk plan uncertainty  23:40 — Unique barriers by sector: municipal timelines, industrial ROI, and the difficulty of reaching farmers  33:20 — Lowest-hanging fruit: municipal reuse for street cleaning and parks; industrial autonomy via internal reuse  45:00 — Women and young professionals: visibility, role models, and why the sector's willingness to help matters  47:20 — Where to learn more: US EPA resources, EU work underway, and Australia as a reuse leader    Quotes "It's okay to ask questions."  "But actually, all the technology needed for it already exists."  "What I think is awesome in the US, for example, that you guys are really pursuing this direct potable reuse now."  "I think these are all valid options to have kind of in the water management portfolio on a local level and also on a regional level."    Connect with Dr. Veronika Zhiteneva Email: vzhiteneva@gowaterloop.com   Website: Home – Waterloop Solutions  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vzhiteneva/    Waterloop Solutions: Overview | LinkedIn    Guest Resources Mentioned   Brave New World by Aldous Huxley (Paperback)     European Commission's Water reuse: New EU rules to improve access to safe irrigation  Intermezzo Paperback – by Sally Rooney (Author)   Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott   US EPA State Water Reuse Resources  US EPA Water Reuse Information Library  US EPA's "A Framework for Permitting Innovation in the Wastewater Sector Report"  US Department of Energy's About the BuildingsNEXT Student Design Competition  The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)    Water Reuse Europe Policy and Regulations    Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned  AWT (Association of Water Technologies)   AWT Technical Training Seminars   Scaling UP! H2O Academy video courses   Submit a Show Idea   The Rising Tide Mastermind    Words of Water with James McDonald  Today's definition is a device for removing condensate from a steam line without allowing the steam to escape.  Can you guess the word or phrase?       2026 Events for Water Professionals  Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.     

Allen and Joel are joined by Pete Andrews, Managing Director at EchoBolt. They discuss the company’s new BoltWave inspection device, the shift from routine retightening to condition-based monitoring, and how ultrasonic technology helps operators manage blade stud and tower bolt integrity throughout the turbine lifecycle. Sign up now for Uptime Tech News, our weekly newsletter on all things wind technology. This episode is sponsored by Weather Guard Lightning Tech. Learn more about Weather Guard’s StrikeTape Wind Turbine LPS retrofit. Follow the show on YouTube, Linkedin and visit Weather Guard on the web. And subscribe to Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” YouTube channel here. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us! Welcome to Uptime Spotlight, shining light on wind. Energy’s brightest innovators. This is the Progress Powering tomorrow. Pete Andrews: Pete, welcome to the program. Good to be back. Yeah. See you face to face. Yeah. Yes. This is wonderful. It’s a really great event to catch it with loads of the. UK innovation that are happening in the supply chain. So it’s, yeah, really nice to be here.  Allen Hall: This is really good to meet in person because we have seen a lot of bolt issues in the us, Canada, Australia, yeah. Uh, all around the world and every time bolt problems come up, I say, have you called Pete Andrews and Echo Bolt and gotten the kit to detect bolt issues? And then who’s Pete? Give me Pete’s phone number. Okay, sure. Uh, but now that we’re here in person, a lot has changed since we first talked to you probably two years ago.[00:01:00] You’re a bootstrap company based in the UK that has global presence, and I, I think it’s a good start to explain what the technology is and why Echo Bolt matters so much in today’s world.  Pete Andrews: Yeah, absolutely. So, um, as you said, we’re a uk, um, SME, there’s a team of 13 of us based here in the uk. Yeah. But we do deliver our services internationally, but really focused on Northern Europe. Yeah. But increasingly we’ve done more in the US and North America, a little bit in Canada. Um, but our big offering really is to help wind turbine operators and owners reduce the need to routinely retire in bulks. So we have a quick and simple inspection technology that people can deploy, find out the status of their bolt connections, and then. Reti them if necessary, but the vast majority of the time we find that they’re static and absolutely fine and can be left [00:02:00] alone. So it’s a real big efficiency boost for wind operators.  Joel Saxum: Well, you’re doing things by prescription now, right? Instead of just blanket cover, we’re gonna do all of this. It’s like, let’s work on the ones that actually need to be worked on. Let’s do the, the work that we actually need to, and instead of lugging, like we’re looking at the kit right here, and I can, you can hold the case in one hand, let alone the tools in a couple of fingers. As opposed to torque tensioning tools that are this big, they weigh a hundred kilos, and those come with all of their own problems. So I know that you guys said you’re, you’re focused here. You do a lot of work, um, in the offshore wind world as well. Yeah. I mean, offshore wind is where you add a zero right? To zeros. Yeah. Everything else is that much more complicated. It costs that much more. It’s you’re transitioning people offshore to the transition pieces. Like there’s so much more HSE risk, dollar risk, all of these different spend things. So. The Echo Bolt systems, these different tools that you have being developed and utilized here first make absolute sense, but now you guys are starting to go to onshore as well.  Pete Andrews: Yeah, that’s right. So I mean, as as you said, that there’s really [00:03:00] three main benefit areas we focus on. The first one is the health and safety of technicians, right? As you said, some of the fasteners used offshore now are up to MA hundred. So a hundred millimeter diameter bolts,  Joel Saxum: four inches for our American friends. Yeah, absolutely.  Pete Andrews: And they probably weigh. 30 kilos plus per bolt. Yeah. Um, so just the physical manual handling of that sort of equipment and the tightening equipment for those bolts is a huge risk for people. If you think 150 bolts lifting or maneuvering, the tooling around on on its own can cause all the problems. So as well as the inherent risk of the hydraulic kit failing. So occasionally we see catastrophic tool failure. Is, which have really high potential severity, you know, sort of tensioner heads ejecting or crush injuries from Tor. So that is really a key focus for our customers, just to [00:04:00] keep their teams safe, but also you have to be the cost effective and the the major cost benefit we allow is that we don’t have to revisit every bolt and every turbine like you’d have to do if you were retyping. So we believe there’s something of the order of a million pounds per installed gigawatt saving. By moving from a routine REIT uh, maintenance strategy to a focused condition based inspection, you significantly reduce the amount of intervention you make and keep your turbines running more and reduce the boots on the ground on the turbine. So three real kind of, um, key. Benefits for people adopting our technology  Allen Hall: because we routinely see tower bolts being reworked or retention depending on who the manufacturer is. And I’m watching this go on. I’m like, why are [00:05:00] we doing this? It seems, or the 10% rule, we’re tighten 10% this year, and they’ll come back and see how it’s going. That’s a little insane, right, because you’re just kind of. Tensioning bolts up to see if one of them has a problem and then you just do more of them and we’re wasting so much time because echo bolts figured this out years ago. You don’t need to do that. You can tell what the tension is in a bolt ultrasonically, which was the original technology, the first gen I’ll call it, uh, that you could tell the length of the bolt. If the length of the bolt is correct within certain parameters, you know that it is tension properly. If it’s shrunk, that probably means it’s not tensioned properly. That’s a huge advantage because you can’t physically see it. And I know I’ve seen technicians go, oh, I could take a hammer and I can tell you which ones are not tensioned properly wrong. Wrong. And I think that’s where equitable comes in because you’re actually applying a a lot of science simply [00:06:00] to a complex problem because the numbers are so big. Pete Andrews: Yeah, I mean that, that, that’s been the real. Driving force between our offering is to simplify it. So ultimately we’re based on a non-destructive testing technique. It’s an ultrasonic thickness checking technique, but when from the non-destructive testing background, it’s crack detection, people have time, they can be, it’s a very precision measurement. People have to be trained in the wind industry. We’re trying to inspect. A thousand, 2000 bolts a day at scale. It’s a completely different, um, ask of the technology and the way the technology has been developed historically has required too much technician expertise, too much configuration and set up time, and hasn’t delivered on the, on the speed that’s needed to be efficient in wind. And that’s where our bolt wave [00:07:00] unit we’ve, that we’ve developed over the last. 18 months, let’s say, where all of our focus has gone to make it as slick and as easy for a client technician to pick up with minimal training. It’s through an iOS interface. Everyone understands it intuitively. Um, it’s a bit like using the camera app on your phone. You know, you’re just hitting measure, measure, measure, measure, measure 10 seconds a bolt as you move the, um, ultrasonic transducer across, and then the data gets moved. Automatically to the cloud, to our bolt platform. And customers can view it in near real time. The engineer in the office can see the inspections happened. They can see if there are any anomalous bolts, and then there can be communication there and then whether an intervention is necessary. So it’s sort of really changed the way our customers think about managing their, um. They’re bolted joints.  Joel Saxum: Well, I think these are, these are the kind of innovations that we love to see, right? Because [00:08:00] we regularly talk about a shortage of technicians, and this isn’t, I was just learning this this week too, like this is not a wind problem. This is a everywhere problem. No matter what industry you’re in. Use are short of technicians. But we’re seeing like a tool like this is developed to be able to scale that workforce as well. Right. You don’t need to be an NDT level three expert to go and do these things. ’cause there’s a very few of those people out there. Right? Right. We know the NDT people, a lot of NDT people, and that’s a hard skillset to come by. Yeah. This can be put in the hands of any technician. Yeah, a quick training course. Just, Hey, this is how you use your iPhone. You can check Instagram, right? Yeah. Okay. You can off figure. Yeah, have fun. See you at lunch. Um, but they can, they can make this happen, right? They can go do these inspections and you’re getting that, that, uh, data collected in the field. Centralized back to an SME that’s looking at it and you don’t have to put that SME in the field and try to scale their ability to go and travel and do all these things. They can be in the office making sure that the, the QA, QC is done correctly. I love it. I think that that’s the way we need to go with a lot of things. [00:09:00]Uh, and you’re making it happen.  Pete Andrews: Yeah. And it’s a real kind of. F change in mindset for us. So originally when we started Ebot, we were using third party hardware. Yeah. Which required a bit of that specialism. Yeah. A bit of care about the setup of the project, getting multiple parameters configured before you got going. And it wasn’t really something we could put in the hands of a customer.  Joel Saxum: Yeah.  Pete Andrews: Which meant Ebot scale was limited to what our own team could go and do, and regionally as well. You know, so we’re UK based. Probably 60% of our customers are uk, but now we have this Northern Europe offshore wind is obviously on our doorstep, but then increasingly we’ve done more and more in North America, so we’ve probably been to five or six sites now in North America and expect that to be a growth market because we can, we can now ship the devices over there, give some virtual training help. Uh, [00:10:00] people set themselves up and then that opens up that market, you know, so it’s been a real change in strategy for us, but has allowed us to have far more impact than we otherwise would just try to be a pure service.  Allen Hall: Well, let’s talk about the big problem in the states of a minute, which are the root bushing or inserts that are loose in some blades. When you lose that pushing, you also lose the tension on the bolt that can be measured. Is that something you’re getting involved with quite a bit now because of just trying to determine how many bolts are affected and, and where we are on the safety scale of can we run this turbine or not? Is that something that EE bolt’s been looking into? Pete Andrews: Yeah, absolutely. So I, I’d say there’s sort of two halves of what we do. There’s the, there’s the bulk wholesale monitoring of. Typically static connections to eliminate this routine retitling where it’s not needed typically, typically. But then we have these edge cases of certain [00:11:00] connections and certain platforms that have known bolt integrity problems, and we are working with clients to really, um, manage those integrity risks. Blade stud is an absolute classic, you know, sort of, I think almost every turbine OEM on some, if not all of their platforms has got. Embedded risk into their blades, pitch bearing connections. Um, so yeah, exactly as you said, our customers are using the technology for two things really. One is to ensure the bolts have been tightened to the preload that was specified or the target window. And quite often we find there is an opportunity to increase the preload and therefore increase the resistance to fatigue failure. So. You know, particularly on older sites where the bolts perhaps not in the condition they were on day one. Well, they definitely won’t be. Um, when people have gone and retti them, they haven’t got back to where they, they should be.[00:12:00] So we can prove that and increase a bit of that resilience, but then also start to look for the segments around the joint where, um, the bolt might start loosening or failures are occurring, and find areas where they can really hone in. And actively manage risk. And that sort of leads to what we’ve decided to do for the next year, particularly with Blade Stud in mind, is evolve this technology. So whilst it’s also measuring the elongation, we will do a defect scan at the same time. So you’ll monitor your blade stu, um, connection and we’re hoping that we can set the device to flag to you there and then. We believe this bulk has got a defect while you’re here, get it changed out before it fails and, and all the knock on problems, um, from there. Joel Saxum: So what you’re just pointing to there is a, is a workflow, right? So to me that is typical [00:13:00] of some of the amazing, innovative companies in the UK that I’ve run into throughout my career. And that is, you’re a group of SMEs, you know, bolted connections. That’s what you do, right? But then you’re like, hey. If there’s a tool, we could make a tool that would make our lives a bit easier, then it’s like, well, we could make the entire industry’s lives a little bit easier as well. So let’s iterate on that. And now you’re able to send these kits around the world to look at these things. Hey, you have a problem with this specific model. We can help you with this because we know the failure mode and we know how to look for it. Let’s do that for you. Also here, you’re doing bolt bulk measurements. We got that for you. But it all kind of flows back to the fact that Echo Bolt is a team. A bolted connection, SMEs that are making tools and being able to also provide consulting if need be. Yeah. Right. Um, to, to an entire industry. And I think that, um, this is my take on it, right? Wind is stop number one. I think you guys are gonna do a fantastic year, but there’s a lot of, uh, opportunity out there in bolted [00:14:00] connections as well. Allen Hall: A tremendous amount blade bolts being broken from defects in the crystalline structure. What appears to be a more. Rapidly developing issue across fleets that I’ve seen. I went to a farm this summer and the number of blade bolts that were there on the table that were broken on the conference room table was And the whiteboard office. Yeah. Yeah. This one,  Joel Saxum: this one.  Allen Hall: Your hard head is not gonna protect you from this one. It’s, it’s, it was this, um, I couldn’t imagine the amount of time they were spending hunting these things down. And of course, the only way they were finding ’em was they were broken. You like to catch ’em before they break because it becomes  Joel Saxum: a safety risk. Just not too long ago we saw an insurance case where there’s an RCA going on and it is pointing at an entire tower came down. Right. And it is pointing at a mid, mid tower section bolted connection. How often do you guys run into those problems? Or are you contacted by insurance companies or anything like that to, to take a peek at those? Pete Andrews: We haven’t done anything directly for insurance [00:15:00]companies, but we have been engaged by. Engineering consultancies that are doing RCA type activities. Okay. Um, things like at the end of defect liability periods mm-hmm. A customer has, has seen, they’ve had a lot of, uh, issues from an OEM, maybe an OE EM has offered a modification or an upgrade, assessing whether that upgrade is actually solved the problem or not. We’ve got involved in, um, but the tower. Issue specifically. It’s actually very rare we find, um, problems with tower connections, but where we do is often where they haven’t achieved good flange flatness, ah, during installation or the bolts have been, let’s say, left out in the elements for a period and lubrication has been, has deteriorated before the bolt’s been installed. So there are cases out there, but what I would say is. [00:16:00] To think about your whole life cycle, so ensure the bolt’s installed correctly and we can help with that with a QA to say, yes, this torque or tightening method has got you to the load that you want. Do some through life monitoring, but often if you install it correctly, it will it’s operational life. You will have very little concern. But then in the UK market, we’re increasingly getting involved again at the end of life, right? Life extension where life extension turbines are 20, 25 years old. How does an operator make a decision to carry on running without replacing all bots? Um, and that’s where increasingly we being asked to use the technologist just to say, actually the joint is fine. The bolts have run in a good, um, operational envelope. Run them on. Don’t replace a hundred percent of them like you might have been recommended to from your, um, yeah. Turbine supplier side. [00:17:00] Allen Hall: So Pete, if someone’s doing a repower where they’re basically putting a new one in the cell on an existing tower, they’re making a lot of assumptions about all the bolts from the ground up that they’re gonna be okay. And I know we’re talking about that. We’re in a lot of installations where. If the turbine has gone through a repowered or two. So now those bolts are 20 years old. Yeah. And trying to get ’em to  Joel Saxum: 30 35. 35  Allen Hall: 40. Yeah. I don’t know what they’re doing. By those bolted connections. Are they just like replacing the bolts? Are they hitting ’em with a hammer again? Is that the, yeah,  Pete Andrews: I mean, they might replace ’em, but you’ve got a problem with the foundation bolts. ’cause they’re obviously often anchor bolts set into concrete, so you have to reuse them and. With the projects, both in wind and in process power industry with the chimney stacks to try and ascertain whether foundation bolts that are set into concrete are still suitable for operations. So look for corrosion losses, look for [00:18:00] defects. Um, so yeah, they’re all things that need thinking about before you just make the snap decision to repower. But I think  Joel Saxum: a lot of that, uh, going back to a couple minutes ago, you were talking about at the commissioning phase, making sure that you have proper qa, QC of how these things were installed day one, and then making sure that before commissioning of a turbine, they’re checked. I think that’s really important. We’re starting to see that in the blade world now too, where we’ve been talking about it for a long time, and now when you talk to operators, they’re like, we’re getting inspections done on the blades before they’re hung. Or at the factory before they’re hung. After they’re hung. Like they want a good foundation baseline. Are you seeing that in the bolted connection world too?  Pete Andrews: Yes. Sort of. It’s just emerging for us. What we’ve found is, so most of our customers are in the operational phase ’cause they are the ones feeling the pain. Yeah. Of the routine retitling work. When they do major components, they sometimes engage us to come and say, can you check [00:19:00] before and after the blade was removed? What was it? Before we took it off from a a bolt load perspective, what is it afterwards? Can you then recheck after 500 hours When we retalk it? And what we’ve seen there often is the initial install hasn’t got them to where they needed to be and they’ve had to go and do the break in maintenance or the 500 hour REIT to get the bolts to the right load. So one of the questions that we have is whether. Some of the defects are actually being initiated very early on in that initial running in period and whether if, if actually you’d taken the time at, at the point of assembly to make sure you were correct, whether that avoids some of the knock on integrity concerns. So yeah, it’s interesting area.  Allen Hall: Well, bolts are what hold wind turbines together and you better know you have the right. Tension and [00:20:00] torque on your bolts to get to the lifetime of the wind turbine and to, and to check it once in a while. And I know there’s a lot of operators I can think of right now in the United States that are sort of doing that job somewhat. I I think they have missed out on opportunities to save a lot of money and to call it echo bolt. How do people get ahold of you? Because that’s one thing I run into all the time. Like, Hey, hey, you gotta talk to Ebol, call Ebol. How do they get ahold of you?  Pete Andrews: So the easiest ways are via our website. Which is echo bolt.com. Um, LinkedIn, you’ll find us at Echo Bolt on LinkedIn. Reach out. Our email would be info@cobolt.com. So any of those route and you’ll, uh, reach me and the team and more than happy to speak to you about any of your faulting concerns or problems. We are, uh, yeah, we’re passionate about your problems.  Allen Hall: Pete, thank you so much for being on this podcast. I, it is great to actually see you in person and see the bolt wave technology. It’s really [00:21:00] impressive. So anybody out there that needs bolt tensioning to checking tools, you need to get ahold of Pete at Echo Bolt and get started today. Thank you Pete. Thanks guys. It’s great to be here.

Bitcoin mining was designed to be permissionless and decentralized — but is that still true today?At @bitcoinmenaconf, @MiningGrid sits down with @graminitha1 to break down how mining is becoming increasingly centralized, why corporate concentration poses long-term risks to Bitcoin, and how retail-accessible, self-custodial mining can help rebalance the network.The conversation covers:– Why mining centralization threatens Bitcoin's core principles– Self-custody vs custodial exposure to Bitcoin– Whether mining remains sustainable long-term– The role of retail miners in securing the network– Why participating in mining can protect your Bitcoin investment

#732 What if one of the most overlooked “boring businesses” is actually one of the most scalable — and most AI-resistant — opportunities out there? In this episode, host Brien Gearin sits down with entrepreneur Ian Noble — founder of Run Steady Investments and former dry cleaning operator who spent 14 years growing, scaling, and ultimately selling his family's business in Austin. Ian breaks down why dry cleaning is not a laundromat business, why quality control and customer service make or break you, and why buying an existing operation often beats starting from scratch or franchising. They also dive into modern growth levers like centralized plants with retail “drop” locations, pickup-and-delivery routes, wash-and-fold as a major revenue driver, and the power of automated review requests to dominate local search. If you've ever considered a “boring” business with real demand and a clear path to scaling, this conversation is a blueprint for how to become a great operator — and build something you can keep long-term or sell for a strong exit! What we discuss with Ian: + Dry cleaning vs laundromats + Family business origins + Scaling to multiple locations + Quality control as a moat + Centralized plants model + Pickup & delivery growth + Wash-and-fold revenue + Online reviews & reputation + Franchising pitfalls + Building for exit or longevity Thank you, Ian! Check out RunSteady Investments at RunSteadyInvestments.com. Get the free Passive Investing in Real Estate Cheat Sheet. Join the Passive Investor Mailing List. Follow Ian on Instagram and LinkedIn. To get access to our FREE Business Training course go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MillionaireUniversity.com/training⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ To get exclusive offers mentioned in this episode and to support the show, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠millionaireuniversity.com/sponsors⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Table of Contents: Updated Group Prayer–List of Current Event Prayer Points–Part 2 The End of the American Fiat Money Experiment – Bill Holter & Scott Johnson's Comments on Silver & What is Happening 12/25/25 Silver Hits Over $80 per Ounce in Shanghai China China Warns They Are STOPPING Silver Exports On January 1st–Fiat Collapse? Recommended: Buy your gold or silver bullion/coins from a reputable coin dealer—fake silver & gold is becoming increasingly more prevalent and will as the price of both increases Precious Metal Recommendations Silver “War” Nickels 1942 – 1945 Gold and Silver Biblical Examples/Verses Crashing the New World Order & Owning Silver Listener Comment: More on gold and silver Sleepwalking In Modern Day Babylon–HOW THE SYSTEM MANUFACTURES OBEDIENCE AND HOW WE REFUSE THE PROGRAM During the 2nd half of the Tribulation: Babylon Is Fallen—Revelation 18:1-5 Sherri Tenpenny Exposes the UN Pact for the Future: Threats to Sovereignty & Freedom–The pact outlines mechanisms that would allow international bodies to declare a global emergency without the consent of individual nations, opening the door for…• Biometric digital IDs • Globalized surveillance systems • Censorship of any information deemed “unapproved” • Restrictions on personal autonomy • Centralized authority overriding national laws Germany is Now Officially a Surveillance State – Civil Liberties Destroyed It’s official… social media is now banned for kids 16 and under all across Australia. On the surface, this sounds great…protecting the kiddies–However this a Trojan horse to something more insidious… a social credit score system designed to control everything we do—And it is already in (and coming to) America like a freight train! The EU-Canada DIGITAL ID PACT Is The FINAL NAIL In The COFFIN OF FREEDOM!!! ALL Vaccinations are the systematic poisoning of humanity, says many MD's Peter McCullough says the difference between vaccinated and unvaccinated kids is now undeniable. “It’s clear in the modern day, going natural (meaning no vaccines whatsoever in a healthy child) the child is healthier” PDF: Emergency Freedom Alerts 12-29-25 Click Here To Play The Part 1 Audio Source

Nearly 100 million UNI votes already support Uniswap's UNIfication proposal ahead of the Christmas Day deadline. The plan activates protocol fees, launches a 100M UNI retroactive burn, and redirects Unichain sequencer revenue. Uniswap Labs and the Foundation would unify operations, shifting focus to protocol growth over interface monetization.~This episode is sponsored by BTCC~BTCC 10% Deposit Bonus! ➜ https://bit.ly/PBNBTCC00:00 intro00:05 Sponsor: BTCC00:43 We Called It01:20 Christmas Vote Deadline02:05 Odds of Passing02:19 Volume Skyrocketing02:33 $4 Trillion in volume02:49 Top ETH App03:21 Matt Hougan: Institutions Will Love $UNI04:25 Less Employees Than Coinbase05:01 Bank Onramp Into Uniswap05:58 Uniswap Fees vs Other Wallets06:17 Aerodrome vs Uniswap06:38 SOL, XRP, and ADA Coming to Uniswap06:54 Charles Hoskinson: Uniswap vs Cardano Apps07:12 Liquidity & Distribution is King07:28 Cathie Wood Can't Understand It07:40 Institutional Exposure To $UNI08:03 CLARITY Act will most benefit $UNI08:18 DeFi Season 2.0 Potential08:49 Uniswap a Buy?09:13 outro#Crypto #Ethereum #Uniswap~Uniswap Historic Vote & Burn in Two Days!!

In this episode, Stewart Alsop sits down with Joe Wilkinson of Artisan Growth Strategies to talk through how vibe coding is changing who gets to build software, why functional programming and immutability may be better suited for AI-written code, and how tools like LLMs are reshaping learning, work, and curiosity itself. The conversation ranges from Joe's experience living in China and his perspective on Chinese AI labs like DeepSeek, Kimi, Minimax, and GLM, to mesh networks, Raspberry Pi–powered infrastructure, decentralization, and what sovereignty might mean in a world where intelligence is increasingly distributed. They also explore hallucinations, AlphaGo's Move 37, and why creative “wrongness” may be essential for real breakthroughs, along with the tension between centralized power and open access to advanced technology. You can find more about Joe's work at https://artisangrowthstrategies.com and follow him on X at https://x.com/artisangrowth.Check out this GPT we trained on the conversationTimestamps00:00 – Vibe coding as a new learning unlock, China experience, information overload, and AI-powered ingestion systems05:00 – Learning to code late, Exercism, syntax friction, AI as a real-time coding partner10:00 – Functional programming, Elixir, immutability, and why AI struggles with mutable state15:00 – Coding metaphors, “spooky action at a distance,” and making software AI-readable20:00 – Raspberry Pi, personal servers, mesh networks, and peer-to-peer infrastructure25:00 – Curiosity as activation energy, tech literacy gaps, and AI-enabled problem solving30:00 – Knowledge work superpowers, decentralization, and small groups reshaping systems35:00 – Open source vs open weights, Chinese AI labs, data ingestion, and competitive dynamics40:00 – Power, safety, and why broad access to AI beats centralized control45:00 – Hallucinations, AlphaGo's Move 37, creativity, and logical consistency in AI50:00 – Provenance, epistemology, ontologies, and risks of closed-loop science55:00 – Centralization vs decentralization, sovereign countries, and post-global-order shifts01:00:00 – U.S.–China dynamics, war skepticism, pragmatism, and cautious optimism about the futureKey InsightsVibe coding fundamentally lowers the barrier to entry for technical creation by shifting the focus from syntax mastery to intent, structure, and iteration. Instead of learning code the traditional way and hitting constant friction, AI lets people learn by doing, correcting mistakes in real time, and gradually building mental models of how systems work, which changes who gets to participate in software creation.Functional programming and immutability may be better aligned with AI-written code than object-oriented paradigms because they reduce hidden state and unintended side effects. By making data flows explicit and preventing “spooky action at a distance,” immutable systems are easier for both humans and AI to reason about, debug, and extend, especially as code becomes increasingly machine-authored.AI is compressing the entire learning stack, from software to physical reality, enabling people to move fluidly between abstract knowledge and hands-on problem solving. Whether fixing hardware, setting up servers, or understanding networks, the combination of curiosity and AI assistance turns complex systems into navigable terrain rather than expert-only domains.Decentralized infrastructure like mesh networks and personal servers becomes viable when cognitive overhead drops. What once required extreme dedication or specialist knowledge can now be done by small groups, meaning that relatively few motivated individuals can meaningfully change communication, resilience, and local autonomy without waiting for institutions to act.Chinese AI labs are likely underestimated because they operate with different constraints, incentives, and cultural inputs. Their openness to alternative training methods, massive data ingestion, and open-weight strategies creates competitive pressure that limits monopolistic control by Western labs and gives users real leverage through choice.Hallucinations and “mistakes” are not purely failures but potential sources of creative breakthroughs, similar to AlphaGo's Move 37. If AI systems are overly constrained to consensus truth or authority-approved outputs, they risk losing the capacity for novel insight, suggesting that future progress depends on balancing correctness with exploratory freedom.The next phase of decentralization may begin with sovereign countries before sovereign individuals, as AI enables smaller nations to reason from first principles in areas like medicine, regulation, and science. Rather than a collapse into chaos, this points toward a more pluralistic world where power, knowledge, and decision-making are distributed across many competing systems instead of centralized authorities.

Scott Spencer, co-founder of Rewarded Interest and former DoubleClick and Google product leader, explains why cookie banners failed, how consumer privacy still feels broken, and what it takes to give users real control without hurting publishers or advertisers. Takeaways RTB wasn't invented in a single moment. It emerged organically as multiple teams solved latency, bidding, and scale problems in parallel. Cookie banners fail both consumers and regulators by creating friction without real control or understanding. Rewarded Interest aims to replace site-by-site consent with centralized, programmatic privacy preferences across devices. Privacy control likely belongs above the browser level, especially as agentic browsing and AI assistants become mainstream. Changes proposed to GDPR may reduce protections around pseudonymous identifiers, increasing the need for user-centric control tools. The industry risks pushing users toward ad blocking if it can't offer meaningful, trusted privacy solutions. Scott's biggest regret from the RTB era isn't technical. It's not taking time to appreciate the magnitude of the transformation and the people behind it. Chapters 00:00 Intro: Scott Spencer's DoubleClick and Google legacy 01:29 Year-end notes: Marketecture Wrapped and MadDB.ai 03:35 Why Scott founded Rewarded Interest 05:00 Coalition for Better Ads and reducing ad blocking 06:20 Why cookie banners are broken 07:55 Centralized privacy control across the web 08:52 Browsers, OS-level identity, and agentic browsing 10:54 Minor mode and protecting children from tracking 12:10 Do consumers want granular control? Rewards and defaults 13:43 GDPR, Digital Omnibus, and Europe's direction 18:21 Aligning incentives for users, publishers, and ad tech 21:56 22 years at DoubleClick and Google 22:12 Did Scott invent RTB? Network proxy bidding explained. 31:00 The Refresh: Google, Meta scams, and agentic ads 54:15 Wrap-up: YouTube vs Netflix and the Oscars move Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the JDE Connection podcast, Chandra and Paul reconnect after Paul's brief absence, discussing the challenges and benefits of hosting solo and duo episodes. Paul shares highlights from his recent travels to Europe for Oracle's Applications Unlimited (AU) Sales Days, offering insights into how JD Edwards customers across various European cities engage with regional user groups, product updates, and collaborative mini-conferences. The hosts explore business trends around centralized versus decentralized IT structures and how these models impact technical debt, innovation, and adoption within organizations. 04:33 Where was Paul? 08:25 Oracle's Applications Unlimited Conference Overview 12:01 ERP's Role in Business Strategy 13:30 Centralized vs. Decentralized Business Models 16:58 AI Discussions Surprisingly Absent 21:52 Midwesternism of the Week Resources: If you have concerns or feedback on this episode or ideas for future episodes, please contact us at thejdeconnection@questoraclecommunity.org

Welcome to another episode of Our Agile Tales, Navigating World Crises: The Agile-Law-AI Alliance in Action!In this continuation of our conversation with Ondřej Dvořák, CEO of AgiLawyer and COPS Solutions, we go deeper into how you actually run and scale an agile, cross-border legal-aid initiative in the middle of a war. If the first episode was about launching Linking Help, this one is about surviving the scale-up.Ondřej walks us through the messy, very human side of scaling legal aid for Ukrainian refugees: from dealing with thousands of requests in a language he didn't speak, to building a “clearing desk” and help desk function led by Ukrainian lawyers, to teaching volunteer lawyers across multiple countries how to work in a pull-based, Kanban system when they're used to command-and-control and assigned work.We explore how culture and ways of working showed up in very concrete ways - why France “just got it” from day one, while countries like Romania needed more support and education before becoming top performers. Ondřej talks about how simplifying the Kanban system (fewer columns, fewer concepts, one clear task: connect the person to a lawyer) was crucial to onboarding busy legal professionals quickly in a crisis.We also dig into scaling patterns: how they expanded country by country, used “early adopter” lawyers to grow local networks, and centralized the help desk while keeping case work decentralized. From there, the conversation shifts to constraints: the difficulty of fundraising for legal aid (which is hard to “picture”), differences in how pro bono is treated across jurisdictions, and the legal and ethical challenges of using AI to support legal work, especially questions of accountability and liability when AI-generated guidance might be wrong.If you're interested in how Agile, Kanban, and crisis-driven decision-making play out in the real world, across borders, cultures, and regulatory systems, then this episode is a rich case study in making agility practical, humane, and scalable beyond software.Episode Outline00:00 Introduction & recap of Part 101:05 The language barrier: Ukrainian requests and the need for a “clearing desk”07:58 Designing the help desk workflow10:45 Teaching lawyers a new way of working: pull vs. command-and-control13:12 Culture in action: why France “just worked” and Romania needed more coaching16:00 Simplifying Kanban for legal work18:48 Scaling country by country: early adopters, bar associations, and building local communities22:10 Centralized help desk, decentralized service: funding, hiring Ukrainian students, and managing demand24:55 Business model and funding constraints: the challenge of raising money for legal aid26:10 Legal and AI constraints: pro bono differences, AI-assisted legal opinions, and accountability28:30 Reflections on crisis as a catalyst and the future of global, AI-supported legal aid29:07 ConclusionAbout Ondrej DvorakOndřej is the co-founder of Linking Help, a nonprofit that mobilized legal aid for Ukrainian refugees using Scrum and Kanban to coordinate real-time support. It's a powerful story of how agility can make a real difference in humanitarian crises—far beyond the domain of business. Andre's work shows how Agile thinking can help even the most traditional sectors become more humane, responsive, and resilient. You can follow Ondřej on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/ondrej-dvorak-agile/Visit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about

Lessons from WWII: Unleashing Private Enterprise — Arthur Herman — Herman explores the strategic tension during WWII between New Deal administrators favoring centralized government command and industrialists prioritizing private sector innovation and operational flexibility. FDR and Knudsen learned from the disastrous centralized economic control failures of WWI, choosing instead to permit American private enterprise to "determine production methodologies and develop solutions for urgent national requirements." The fundamental secret to Allied victory was unleashing private sector dynamism, entrepreneurial expertise, and competitive energy. Herman draws contemporary parallels, arguing that modern defense strategy must replicate this model, contrasting bureaucratic NASA operations with innovative private enterprises including SpaceX. 1951 THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL

The arbitrage era is cracking — fast. With Sonder filing bankruptcy and operators across the country getting crushed by fixed leases, the truth is clear: the STR model you choose determines whether you scale… or sink.In this episode, we break down why arbitrage is failing, what Sonder's collapse teaches every host, and why co-hosting remains the most profitable, low-risk, scalable model in 2025 and beyond.Inside this episode: • Why arbitrage collapses under pressure • The hidden costs operators never calculate • Why co-hosting produces higher margins with lower risk • How boutique operators beat centralized “big brand” models • What the fastest-growing hosts are doing differently • The shift every STR operator must make in 2025Message me to get a free resource and see how the program could fit your goals.Click the link below:https://go.strsecrets.com/podcast?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=Captivate&utm_campaign=T034&utm_content=RESOURCE00:01:00 – The Real Cost of Arbitrage: Leases, Debt & Cash Burn00:02:30 – Why Arbitrage Margins Collapse in Today's Market00:03:45 – Co-Hosting vs. Arbitrage: The Risk Difference00:05:10 – Arbitrage at Scale Becomes a Cash-Flow Death Trap00:06:15 – Real Examples of Small Operators Losing Money00:07:10 – The Tiny Margin of Error That Kills Arbitrage Deals00:08:30 – Why Co-Hosting Wins: Low CAC, High Lifetime Value00:10:20 – How Operators Are Scaling Co-Hosting With $0 Spend00:12:20 – Centralized vs. Local: Why Guest Experience Matters00:15:00 – Why Arbitrage Can't Keep Up With Industry Changes00:17:00 – The Bankruptcy Wave: Small Operators Getting Hit00:18:30 – How to Pivot Out of Arbitrage Before It's Too Late00:20:10 – What a Healthy Co-Hosting/PM Business Looks Like00:22:00 – No Get-Rich-Quick: The Reality of STR SuccessGet FREE Access to our Community and Weekly Trainings:https://group.strsecrets.com/

The arbitrage era is cracking — fast. With Sonder filing bankruptcy and operators across the country getting crushed by fixed leases, the truth is clear: the STR model you choose determines whether you scale… or sink.In this episode, we break down why arbitrage is failing, what Sonder's collapse teaches every host, and why co-hosting remains the most profitable, low-risk, scalable model in 2025 and beyond.Inside this episode: • Why arbitrage collapses under pressure • The hidden costs operators never calculate • Why co-hosting produces higher margins with lower risk • How boutique operators beat centralized “big brand” models • What the fastest-growing hosts are doing differently • The shift every STR operator must make in 2025Message me to get a free resource and see how the program could fit your goals.Click the link below:https://go.strsecrets.com/podcast?utm_source=Podcast&utm_medium=Captivate&utm_campaign=T034&utm_content=RESOURCE00:01:00 – The Real Cost of Arbitrage: Leases, Debt & Cash Burn00:02:30 – Why Arbitrage Margins Collapse in Today's Market00:03:45 – Co-Hosting vs. Arbitrage: The Risk Difference00:05:10 – Arbitrage at Scale Becomes a Cash-Flow Death Trap00:06:15 – Real Examples of Small Operators Losing Money00:07:10 – The Tiny Margin of Error That Kills Arbitrage Deals00:08:30 – Why Co-Hosting Wins: Low CAC, High Lifetime Value00:10:20 – How Operators Are Scaling Co-Hosting With $0 Spend00:12:20 – Centralized vs. Local: Why Guest Experience Matters00:15:00 – Why Arbitrage Can't Keep Up With Industry Changes00:17:00 – The Bankruptcy Wave: Small Operators Getting Hit00:18:30 – How to Pivot Out of Arbitrage Before It's Too Late00:20:10 – What a Healthy Co-Hosting/PM Business Looks Like00:22:00 – No Get-Rich-Quick: The Reality of STR SuccessGet FREE Access to our Community and Weekly Trainings:https://group.strsecrets.com/

In this episode, I pick up where I left off on why socialism is a bad idea. I talk about how centralized control always leads to corruption, because there's nobody you should trust with that kind of power. I break down why socialism kills excellence by removing the incentives that push people to perform at their highest level. I also explain how rewarding victims over producers pulls everyone down instead of pushing people to rise. Show Notes [01:18]#1 Centralized control breeds corruption.  [08:05]#2 No Incentive for excellence.  [14:49]#3 Rewarding victims over producers. [23:26] Recap Episodes Mentioned: 2199: Why DIE [Diversity, Inclusion & Equity] Is The Enemy Of High Performance 2307: How To Do DIE The RIGHT Way [Part 1: Diversity] 2308: How To Do DIE The RIGHT Way [Part 2: Diversity] 2309: How To Do DIE The RIGHT Way [Part 3: Diversity] Next Steps: ⚡️ Power Presence Protocol  Command The Room Without Words → http://PowerPresenceProtocol.com 

-Now at version 4.5, the new system offers state-of-the-art performance in coding, computer use and office tasks. -President Donald Trump has issued a new Executive Order that launches the “Genesis Mission,” an AI-focused initiative that will be led by the Department of Energy. It will “harness the current AI and advanced computing revolution to double the productivity and impact of American science and engineering within a decade,” the DOE explained. -Cameo, the app that allows people to buy short videos from celebrities, has won an important victory in its legal battle against OpenAI. On Monday, a federal judge granted the company a temporary restraining order against OpenAI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join hosts Micah and Josiah Kennealy as they welcome Tyler Gay, leader of Christ Fellowship's multi-site young adult ministry. Tyler shares his story and the evolution of their ministry, discussing key strategies, leadership insights, and the spiritual foundations that have shaped their growth and impact throughout 14 church locations. Main Topics Covered: Tyler's background and his central support role at Christ Fellowship Navigating the challenges and opportunities of leading a multi-site ministry Defining moments: implementing a name tag system to double ministry engagement Centralized vision versus empowering local teams—how to keep culture consistent while allowing creative expression The importance of clear, consistent communication and building trust across locations How digital engagement and social media play a role in today's ministry—along with healthy boundaries and “digital detox” Encouragement for young leaders: pursuing spiritual health, prayer, and personal holiness above platform Key Takeaways: Creative and relational approaches can have exponential effects on ministry growth and connection Sustainable ministry is built on both vision and practical, relational leadership Investing in leadership and empowering volunteers fuels lasting impact Pursuing digital presence should be balanced with real-life relationships and spiritual depth Learn more about youngadultstoday: www.youngadults.today Give to the mission of youngadultstoday: https://tithe.ly/give?c=5350133 Resources: Free eBook "10 Steps to Starting a Successful Young Adult Ministry: https://www.youngadults.today/book/starting-a-successful-young-adult-ministry Join our FaceBook Group Community with 2500+ leaders: https://www.facebook.com/groups/796270437396021 

Officials are exploring how federal intervention could simplify AI law. We break down potential scenarios and state reactions. It's a timely policy discussion.Get the top 40+ AI Models for $20 at AI Box: ⁠⁠https://aibox.aiAI Chat YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@JaedenSchaferJoin my AI Hustle Community: https://www.skool.com/aihustleSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this powerful episode, million-dollar biller Emily Audibert breaks down how she went from six months without a single placement to becoming one of the most sought-after recruiters in the go-to-market tech space. Her turning point wasn't a new tool or technique—it was understanding the balance between masculine and feminine energy in selling, sourcing, influence, and relationship-building.

Charles Burton Charles Burton discusses his book, The Beaver and the Dragon, illustrating China's fundamental untrustworthiness and statistical manipulation, which has intensified under centralized leadership, noting Canada's past cooperation with China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) failed as officials often falsely reported data, and despite historical deception and security risks, there is a push in Canada to increase trade with China to offset trade issues with the United States, with Burton cautioning that trusting the Chinese Communist Party has always "gone badly wrong."

In this episode, I tackle one of the most persistent myths inside BigLaw: that partnership guarantees freedom. After years of billing, grinding through deal cycles, and fighting for promotion, most lawyers expect partnership to mean finally having more control over clients, staffing, and schedules. But as I explain, the modern BigLaw firm operates much more like a global corporation than the old-school partnership many lawyers imagined as they were working their way towards becoming a partner in their firm. Centralized management, committees, client teams, centralized staffing, and internal politics shape a partner's actual authority far more than most attorneys realize. I walk through how partners can actually feel a loss of autonomy in areas they assumed they would gain more control over, why this happens, and, most importantly, the steps smart partners take to regain meaningful agency inside a the structure of their firms. At a Glance: 00:00 Introduction and the myth that partners "finally get to do what they want" 01:20 How autonomy erodes through committees, billing rules, discounts, and restrictions on expenses 02:15 Why client teams and global relationship partners can limit control, even over clients you originate 02:39 The gap between what lawyers imagine partnership to be and the corporate reality of BigLaw 03:00 How institutionalization has changed BigLaw  03:30 Why centralized systems protect firms but often reduce individual partner freedom 04:09 How client management may be reassigned to multi-partner teams 04:41 The politics of potentially being a "co-relationship partner" and thus losing losing influence and authority over key client relationships 05:04 Centralized staffing and resource managers replacing partner-led staffing 05:28 Why partners feel responsible but not in charge 05:53 Structural dependency: why BigLaw's infrastructure limits independence 06:21 How platform reliance prevents partners from "going independent" 06:42 Deferred comp, origination credit rules, and how compensation systems quietly place limits on  partners 07:16 The psychological dependency created by discretionary compensation factors 07:47 The emotional side of autonomy: validation, identity, and exhaustion 08:36 The paradox: greater authority but less agency 08:59 What smart partners do to regain leverage 09:22 Building allies across finance, HR, IT, and marketing 09:48 Owning the client relationship, not just the work 10:13 Developing portable capital so you're staying by choice, not constraint 10:42 Building strong internal teams to regain practical autonomy 11:12 Why complete independence is tough to achieve and what autonomy actually looks like in 2025 11:38 Understanding what you control vs. where you only have access 12:07 Reframing autonomy and focusing on leverage that matters 12:47 Closing reflection and how to use this understanding to build the practice you want Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts & Spotify Do you enjoy listening to Big Law Life?  Please consider rating and reviewing the show! This helps support and reach more people like you who want to grow a career in Big Law.  For Apple Podcasts, click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a Review." Then be sure to let me know what you loved most about the episode! Also, if you haven't done so already, follow the podcast here!  For Spotify, tap here on your mobile phone, follow the podcast, listen to the show, then find the rating icon below the description, and tap to rate with five stars. Interested in doing 1-2-1 coaching with Laura Terrell? Or learning more about her work coaching and consulting? Here are ways to reach out to her: www.lauraterrell.com  laura@lauraterrell.com   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauralterrell/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraterrellcoaching/  Show notes: https://www.lauraterrell.com/podcast  

Global intelligence analyst and former Economic Editor of Veterans Today, Mike Harris, rejoins the program to expose the ongoing, systematic attacks against the United States and other Western nations. He breaks down who is behind these assaults, why they're happening, and how they tie into the crumbling global financial order.As the existing power structure fights to maintain control, Harris lays out the geopolitical and economic forces shaping what may be the most pivotal moment in modern history.Follow Mike Harris and his work at https://theinteldrop.orgSee exclusives and more at https://SarahWestall.Substack.com

Is your recruiting desk—or your entire firm—running on chaos instead of systems? You're not alone. Most recruiters feel the turbulence daily… but the top-performing firms operate differently. They run on an Operating System that eliminates chaos, drives consistent billings, and creates scalable growth. In this episode, Ben sits down with Kelsey Boyd, a transformational operator who helped overhaul a multi-brand recruiting organization—rebuilding systems, rewriting processes, revamping tech, and implementing EOS to create genuine business momentum. This conversation is a masterclass in turning recruiting chaos into predictable success.  

In this week's episode of The Hydrogen Podcast, Paul Rodden explores three major stories that define hydrogen's next phase — profit discipline, integrated scale, and global ambition.

What does it really take to grow a recruiting business to $300M, scale contract staffing revenue, and execute a profitable exit—while keeping your team together? In this high-impact episode of The Elite Recruiter Podcast, host Benjamin Mena sits down with industry veteran Jon Davis, who reveals the exact strategies that turned his firm into one of the most successful staffing organizations in the country. Whether you're running a solo desk or scaling an agency, this episode is your roadmap to recurring revenue, massive valuation, and building a business buyers fight to acquire.

Send us a textCheck us out at:  https://www.cisspcybertraining.com/Get access to 360 FREE CISSP Questions:  https://www.cisspcybertraining.com/offers/dzHKVcDB/checkoutGet access to my FREE CISSP Self-Study Essentials Videos:  https://www.cisspcybertraining.com/offers/KzBKKouvA single compromised API key can undo months of hard work. We open with a clear-eyed look at a reported Treasury-related incident tied to a privileged access platform and use it to expose a bigger problem: API governance that lags behind development speed. If an API is a doorway into your environment, why do so many teams leave it unlocked, unlogged, and unmanaged? We share a practical blueprint for centralizing API traffic through gateways, tightening authentication, rotating keys, and getting real visibility into what flows in and out.From there, we dive into CISSP Domain 1.6 with crisp, exam-style questions that double as leadership lessons. We compare civil and criminal standards of proof, explain where regulatory investigations fit, and show how penalties differ across case types. You'll hear why chain of custody can make or break a criminal data theft case, how direct and circumstantial evidence complement each other, and what lawful collection requires under search and seizure laws. Along the way, we clarify GDPR's reach, the role of the SEC in insider trading probes, and how ECPA, CFAA, and FISMA divide responsibilities across privacy, computer crime, and federal system security.We also make the case for forensic readiness as a standing control, not a post-breach scramble. Centralized logging, synchronized time, packet capture on critical paths, immutable storage, and clear retention policies give you faster answers and stronger footing with regulators. Inside the organization, administrative investigations live or die by policy clarity, and whistleblower protections keep truth-tellers safe enough to speak. By the end, you'll have tangible steps to harden APIs, gather admissible evidence, and navigate the maze of legal and regulatory expectations with confidence.If this helped sharpen your thinking, follow the show, share it with a teammate who owns APIs or incident response, and leave a quick review so others can find us. Your feedback guides what we tackle next.Gain exclusive access to 360 FREE CISSP Practice Questions at FreeCISSPQuestions.com and have them delivered directly to your inbox! Don't miss this valuable opportunity to strengthen your CISSP exam preparation and boost your chances of certification success. Join now and start your journey toward CISSP mastery today!

On Monday's Mark Levin Show, the Democrat Party government shutdown is the best evidence why the government should never, for example, take over our healthcare system. It's not controlled by Democrat politicians (senators) abusing the filibuster rule to blackmail the country and do as much damage to the economy as possible to further government control of the economy and leftwing political agendas. Also, the U.S. air traffic control system and TSA should be privatized.  It's unacceptable that our air traffic could come to a halt because air traffic controllers wouldn't show up for work during the shutdown.  Later, the media is ignorant for mischaracterizing the pardoning of 77 people involved in challenging the 2020 election results as an attempt to overturn them. Challenging elections is a longstanding legal right, dating back to John Adams' era, and includes demanding recounts, lobbying state officials like the Secretary of State, and submitting alternative slates of electors to the Archivist of the United States to preserve potential wins. These actions are neither obstructive nor criminal.  Afterward, Rep Chip Roy, who's running for Attorney General of Texas, calls in and explains that Texas is under attack by a network of radical Marxists and Islamists seeking to seize it from America. The nation is rooted in Judeo-Christian principles, the Constitution, and Western civilization, which directly conflict with Sharia law.  He also explains that Democrats are exposing their scheme by admitting Biden's temporary COVID subsidies are essential for Obamacare to function, as even the Washington Post acknowledges it was never affordable.  Finally, Tucker Carlson platformed a guest who downplayed Christian persecution in Nigeria and had previously represented an accused Nigerian figure involved in targeting Christians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Are manual case tracking systems slowing down your dental practice? In this episode, Dayna Johnson dives into the inefficiencies of traditional case tracking and how dental teams can modernize their workflows for better communication, accessibility, and patient outcomes. She explains why manual tracking methods—like whiteboards and spreadsheets—often create chaos instead of clarity and how adopting digital solutions can help your team stay organized and efficient. ✅ Key Takeaways: ~ Manual tracking systems waste valuable time and lead to errors. ~ Centralized, digital tracking improves accessibility and accountability. ~ Clear communication and regular updates keep everyone aligned. ~ Training your team is critical for successful system adoption. ~ Investing in technology enhances patient outcomes and clinical efficiency. ⏱️ Chapters: 00:00 Inefficiencies in Lab Case Management 00:56 Streamlining Lab Case Creation

Recruiting is chaos—and few people know how to tame it better than Derek Pittak, CEO of Lingo Staffing and certified EOS Implementer. Before joining the world of staffing, Derek worked inside the Department of Defense and a regional bank. Then one life-changing conversation pulled him into recruiting, where he went on to lead a $125 million portfolio of staffing brands and introduce EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to over 40 firms. In this first part of our conversation, Derek unpacks how he made that leap, what EOS actually is, and why systems—not luck—separate scalable recruiting businesses from the rest.

If you loved Part 1, get ready for the blueprint. In Part 2, Derek Pittak returns to break down how recruiters can actually use EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) to scale—with simple, powerful tools that drive accountability, clarity, and focus. We cover everything from documenting processes (without 75-page SOPs) to running 90-day “traction” cycles, creating scorecards, setting rocks, and defining your company's vision so your entire team rows in the same direction.

2. When Politicians Panicked: The New Coronavirus, Expert Opinion, and a Tragic Lapse of Reason. The conversation reviews the governors' initial promise of two-week lockdowns, noting that centralized power is rarely relinquished. The economic crisis deepened as epidemiologists and experts supplanted the collective knowledge of the marketplace, resulting in central planning, mass unemployment, and debt. John Tamny contrasts the COVID-19 response with the 1968 Hong Kong flu pandemic, which caused the equivalent of 250,000 modern deaths but elicited virtually no political or market reaction. The difference lies in technology: 50 years ago, without Zoom or delivery services, lockdowns would have caused mass discomfort and riots, preventing politicians from acting. Lockdowns happened because they could, not because they had to.

Global intelligence analyst and former Economic Editor of Veterans Today, Mike Harris, rejoins the program to expose the ongoing, systematic attacks against the United States and other Western nations. He breaks down who is behind these assaults, why they're happening, and how they tie into the crumbling global financial order.As the existing power structure fights to maintain control, Harris lays out the geopolitical and economic forces shaping what may be the most pivotal moment in modern history.Follow Mike Harris and his work at https://theinteldrop.orgSee exclusives and more at https://SarahWestall.Substack.comOffers and links mentioned in the show:Buy Exercise Mimicking & Muscle Building Peptide SLP-PP-332 at https://www.limitlesslifenootropics.com/product/slu-pp-332-250mcg-60-capsules/?ref=vbWRE3JSee the peptide guide for the most effective weight loss and muscle preservation at https://sarahwestall.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-peptide-guide-for-weightPurchase the most effective weight peptide available, Next Generation GLP-1 Retatrutide - use code Sarah to save 15%: https://www.limitlesslifenootropics.com/product/retatrutide-ha/?ref=vbWRE3JCopyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.Disclaimer: "As a journalist, I report what significant newsmakers are claiming. I do not have the resources or time to fully investigate all claims. Stories and people interviewed are selected based on relevance, listener requests, and by suggestions of those I highly respect. It is the responsibility of each viewer to evaluate the facts presented and then research each story furtherSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when a $900K-a-year recruiter decides to stop building for others—and builds her own AI product instead? Jessica Oliver didn't have a tech background. No coding degree. No startup team. But that didn't stop her from vibe coding her own SaaS platform for government contracting—all while running her recruiting business and raising three kids. This episode is a masterclass for recruiters ready to go beyond placements and build something bigger. Free Trial of Juicebox and its AI Agents one of Jessica's favorite tools: https://juicebox.ai/?via=b6912d

Recruiting can feel like total chaos—constant fires, endless admin, and a million moving parts. But what if there were a simple system that top firms use to triple revenue, double profitability, and finally calm the madness? That's what you'll learn in this episode of The Elite Recruiter Podcast with host Benjamin Mena and EOS Implementer & former Executive Recruiter Jackie Kibler. Jackie reveals how the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS)—the framework behind Traction—can transform your desk or agency from reactive hustle to structured growth.  Jackie has implemented EOS across dozens of recruiting and service-based firms, helping owners regain control, align their teams, and scale faster. In this episode, she shares how EOS helps recruiters: Build a clear vision and roadmap for growth.Create processes that run the business, not chaos.Put the right people in the right seats.Use data and weekly scorecards to measure what matters.Run meetings that actually solve problems and move revenue forward. Her clients have seen triple revenue, better retention, and stronger culture by mastering these EOS tools.   If you've ever said: “We're growing, but I feel like I'm losing control.” “Our success depends on me doing everything.” “We make money—but it's messy.” Then this episode is your blueprint. You'll walk away knowing exactly how to bring structure, focus, and freedom to your business—whether you're a solo recruiter or running a $10 million agency.  Listen now to learn how to: Implement EOS to align your team and crush bottlenecks.Build 90-day “rocks” that drive consistent momentum.Run Level-10 meetings that eliminate wasted time.Always-Be-Recruiting—internally and externally.Use vision, data, and accountability to 10× performance.

What happens when a Marine-turned-headhunter takes on Wall Street? In this episode of The Elite Recruiter Podcast, host Benjamin Mena sits down with John Pierson, CEO of P2 Investments, to explore how he built a boutique firm serving hedge funds and elite investors—then reinvented the recruiting game with a candidate-first, talent agent model. From cold-calling billionaires at dawn to founding his own firm, John's story is a masterclass in risk-taking, storytelling, and redefining what recruiters can be in the age of AI.

In this conversation, Peter discusses significant updates regarding the Midnight project, focusing on the transition to phase two, which involves scavenger mining. He explains how users can participate in browser-based mining for $NIGHT tokens, the support from centralized exchanges like Kraken for token claims, and the opportunity to earn tokens through delegation to state pool operators in the Cardano ecosystem. The conversation emphasizes the importance of being prepared and aware of potential scams in the mining process.TakeawaysPhase two of the Midnight project involves scavenger mining.Users can mine $NIGHT tokens directly through their browsers.No technical setup is required for scavenger mining.Kraken will support the claim process for $NIGHT tokens.Users can earn $NIGHT tokens by delegating to state pool operators.The scavenger mining event will last for 21 days.30 million $NIGHT tokens will be available daily during the event.It's crucial to verify if your stake pool operator runs a Midnight node.Be cautious of potential scams in browser-based mining.Support for the channel is appreciated through various means.Chapters00:00 Introduction to Midnight Updates02:53 Scavenger Mining Explained05:48 Centralized Exchange Support for $NIGHT Tokens08:34 Earning $NIGHT Tokens through DelegationDISCLAIMER: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not affiliated with, nor compensated by, the project discussed—no tokens, payments, or incentives received. I do not hold a stake in the project, including private or future allocations. All views are my own, based on public information. Always do your own research and consult a licensed advisor before investing. Crypto investments carry high risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. I am not responsible for any decisions you make based on this content.

Centralized platforms cheat creators and fans with unfair cuts and hidden talent. YouBallin, on Solana, is a mobile-first platform where Talent participates in competitive events earning from NFTs and brand deals. Fans vote with $YBL tokens and Brands gain authentic engagement with target audiences. Native web2 onboarding and web3 account abstraction ensures mass appeal, targeting the creator economy's growth.Chris Arakelian is the CEO of YouBallin. She recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the platform.In this episode, Chris Arakelian introduced YouBallin as a decentralized, event-driven creator economy built on Solana, aiming to revolutionize the current centralized creator economy. She highlighted the problems with the existing model, including unfair monetization where creators receive very little revenue, algorithmic gatekeeping that prioritizes engagement over genuine talent, and an incentive structure that leaves fans as passive consumers. YouBallin's solution involves a philosophical shift, transforming fans into active owners and stakeholders through a transparent token economy.Arakelian detailed YouBallin's two-phase competitive event model for talent discovery and ownership. In phase one, emerging talents compete to be noticed by established creators ("legends") who vote for free, while fans use YBL tokens to advance wildcard talents. Phase two involves finalists receiving fractionalized NFTs, allowing fans to invest directly in a creator's journey and benefit from her popularity. She emphasized that YouBallin is a multi-sided marketplace targeting emerging talents, engaged fans, mentoring legends, and brands looking for authentic communities, creating a circular rather than extractive economy.She further explained that YouBallin differentiates itself in the Web3 landscape through its core utility, interactive event model, and domain-agnostic approach, supporting various categories beyond just music. Arakelian also introduced "TalentFi," a term for talent finance, which places ownership, instead of algorithms, at the center of discovery, aligning with the crypto ethos of empowering individuals through open and permissionless systems. The YBL token powers all transactions within the platform, fueling scarcity and strengthening participation in this closed-loop economy.About Our GuestChris brings 30 years of agency leadership and marketing communications excellence to YouBallin. Educated as a designer and trained as a client advocate, she's a Growth Engine dedicated to building brands and driving business outcomes. Prior to her appointment as CEO of YouBallin, Chris led Growth for Omnicom's most creative Brand Design Consultancy, Wolff Olins, where she ushered in net new client relationships for both established and emerging brands across a vast Web2 and Web3 landscape including ConcenSys/Metamask, Uber, Instacart, Arbitrum, Robinhood, Bloomberg, Kenvue, BMG, and more.Prior to Omnicom. Chris held senior positions at Consumer centric consultancies where she launched new as well as legacy brands into the world including Wild Turkey, Acuvue, Gillette Venus, and U By Kotex. Building futureproof brands that connect to audiences in an ever changing market is what fuels her passion and drives brand success across categories and geographies.To learn more about the project visit YouBallin.com, and follow the team on X.

Ever wondered what it really takes to scale a recruitment agency from the ground up—and have the guts to walk away at the top? In this episode, Benjamin Mena sits down with Gregory Fischer, who built AMI Network to over $4M in gross margin and $1.4M EBITDA—then left it all to build a new agency his way, powered by offshoring, smarter processes, and AI.

Dive into the gripping world of counterterrorism and FBI operations in Part 3 of Episode 262 of the Mike Drop podcast, hosted by former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland. In this installment, Ritland sits down with retired FBI Special Agent Harry Samit, a veteran investigator renowned for his pivotal role in pre-9/11 interrogations, including the arrest of Zacarias Moussaoui, often called the "20th hijacker." Listeners will uncover insider stories from Sam's 21-year career, including the rise of Somali extremism in the Twin Cities, high-stakes cases involving al-Shabab and ISIS recruitment, the FBI's evolution post-9/11, and candid critiques of Bureau leadership, from risk-averse management to directors like Kash Patel. Samit also shares thoughts on ongoing threats like lone-wolf radicalization via social media, the Patriot Act's impact, narco-terrorism, and even Epstein's mysterious death. Whether you're a true crime enthusiast, history buff, or concerned citizen, this episode delivers raw, unfiltered insights into national security, institutional challenges, and the human side of fighting terror—perfect for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of America's frontline defenses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Still just posting jobs on LinkedIn and hoping clients or candidates come to you? In a world where AI is changing recruiting fast, your personal brand and engaged network are your biggest competitive advantages. This episode of The Elite Recruiter Podcast goes beyond outdated tactics—host Benjamin Mena sits down with LinkedIn branding expert Alexis Albright Meschi to share the blueprint for building a brand that attracts business instead of chasing it.

- Chip Shortage Spreads to Japan - Tesla Earnings Drop Along with ZEV Credits - Samuelsson Delivers, Volvo's Stock Goes Up - Renault Up Strong in Weak EU Market - GM Reveals All-New Centralized Computing System - Opel Could Rebadge Leapmotor Model for EU - Stellantis Could Get Broken Up - BMW Wants EU to Consider Biodiesel for CO2 Reduction

- Chip Shortage Spreads to Japan - Tesla Earnings Drop Along with ZEV Credits - Samuelsson Delivers, Volvo's Stock Goes Up - Renault Up Strong in Weak EU Market - GM Reveals All-New Centralized Computing System - Opel Could Rebadge Leapmotor Model for EU - Stellantis Could Get Broken Up - BMW Wants EU to Consider Biodiesel for CO2 Reduction

The President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, Jeffrey Rosen, joins us for a timely discussion of his new book, The Pursuit of Liberty. The relevance to today's dilemmas is matched only by the fascination of the deep historical analysis and amazing characters the book unearths.  In the differences that separated Hamilton and Jefferson, Professor Rosen finds the genesis of a divide that he maintains has informed most if not all of American constitutional history.  Centralized power versus states' rights; industrial centers vs rural life; a robust protest culture vs governmental support, and more.  We are honored to celebrate publication (today!) of this important book with its distinguished author.  CLE credit is available for lawyers and judges from podcast.njsba.com.

Last time the anti-monopoly crusader Tim Wu appeared on the show, he was warning broadly about the road to serfdom. But in his new book, The Age of Extraction, Wu gets much more specific. The real road to serfdom, he warns, runs through Silicon Valley. Forget for a moment about surveillance capitalism, Wu suggests, and imagine that the most existential threat to 21st century freedom and prosperity is the “platform capitalism” of tech behemoths like Google and Amazon. These multi-trillion-dollar companies, he argues, have transformed the very places where we do business—digital marketplaces that once promised democratization—into sophisticated extraction machines. Like the robber barons of the late 19th century, today's tech platforms have concentrated unprecedented wealth and power, creating an economic system that lends itself to the most Hayekian of medieval metaphors. The Silicon Valley business model is turning us into digital serfs, he warns starkly. That's the extractive goal—the ‘Zero to One,' as its most prominent ideologue Peter Thiel would say—of platform capitalism.1. On the core thesis of extraction: Wu defines the economic reality that now dominates our digital economy and explains why “extraction” is the word that best captures our era.“We have entered a world where we tolerate extreme levels of concentrated private power who try in every way they can to extract from weaker entities as much as possible. Much of the economy has become a resource for extraction by economically powerful actors.”2. On tech billionaires as modern sovereigns: Wu describes the mindset that has emerged among Silicon Valley's elite and why their detachment from reality has become dangerous.“They desire to be treated like kings of small countries. They want immunity from ordinary laws. If no one ever says no to you, whether you're an autocrat or a tech billionaire, that starts to become very bad for your character.”3. On Silicon Valley's ideological transformation: Wu traces how the tech industry abandoned its founding principles and embraced the very monopoly power it once claimed to despise.“Silicon Valley once glamorized small inventive firms and brilliant scientists who gave their work to the public. Peter Thiel said every company should aim for monopoly. That's basically where we live today. Everyone wants to be the platform.”4. On the fragility of centralized systems: Wu warns that the concentration of power in a few platforms has made our entire economic system dangerously unstable.“Centralized systems tend to be very fragile. They offer great advantages, but when they crash, they tend to crash hard. Whether it's the economy or web services, I think we're in for a hard crash coming at some point.”5. On history's verdict: Wu issues his starkest warning about what happens if America fails to address concentrated economic power voluntarily.“If we can't find some way to redistribute economic power, I think that history will redistribute it for us. The main and most effective tool of fundamental redistribution across the scope of history has been world wars and major revolutions. In a sense, we're being tested.”Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

From the Army Reserves to crypto swaps, @georgelennox_ shares how he found purpose building at @SideShiftAI. Great chat with @_dsencil & @FrederickMunawa at @WebX_Asia on decentralization, user experience, and real-world utility. Watch the full interview here.Timestamps:00:00 The Evolution of Trust in Crypto04:33 Journey into the Crypto Space05:57 Understanding Sideshift's Role08:46 Navigating Regulatory Challenges10:59 Developer Insights and Community Engagement15:09 Leveraging Technical Skills in Crypto17:07 Perceptions of Crypto in the Media19:59 The Evolution of Crypto Engagement21:18 Real-World Utility in Crypto23:36 Token Listing and Market Trends26:21 Transaction Volume Insights29:10 Competitive Landscape in Crypto Exchanges31:41 The Future of Centralized vs. Decentralized Exchanges33:16 User Demographics and Engagement Strategies36:37 Navigating Regulatory Challenges#crypto #tokensSubscribe to our channel and hit the bell "

Welcome to episode #1005 of Thinking With Mitch Joel (formerly Six Pixels of Separation). Every major leap in human connection starts as a simple question: what if? For Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard, that question led to the invention of the cable modem and the birth of broadband internet access as we know it. Often called the “father of the cable modem,” Rouzbeh is a visionary engineer and entrepreneur whose work transformed how billions of people access information. His new book, The Accidental Network, traces the improbable journey from an idea nobody believed in (“why would anyone want the internet at home?”) to the global infrastructure that now powers our economy, culture and daily life. In this conversation, he reflects on the messy, human side of innovation: the skeptics who dismissed broadband, the long nights building hardware that few thought possible, and the radical choice to make his breakthrough technology open-standard so the world could share it. Rouzbeh speaks with humility about how chance, persistence and purpose collided to shape the digital age, and how broadband became not just a business revolution but a social one, connecting homes, hospitals, schools and communities. He also wrestles with the moral dimension of progress, calling for a balance between capitalism and conscience as we enter an era defined by AI, environmental strain and “data as the new oil.” From the early chaos of coaxial cables to the moral complexity of modern networks, Rouzbeh's story is a reminder that technology's true purpose isn't speed or profit... it's improving the quality of life for everyone it touches. Enjoy the conversation… Running time: 1:00:46. Hello from beautiful Montreal. Listen and subscribe over at Apple Podcasts. Listen and subscribe over at Spotify. Please visit and leave comments on the blog - Thinking With Mitch Joel. Feel free to connect to me directly on LinkedIn. Check out ThinkersOne. Here is my conversation with Rouzbeh Yassini-Fard. The Accidental Network. Follow Rouzbeh on LinkedIn. Chapters: (00:00) - The Accidental Network: Origins and Vision. (06:00) - The Entrepreneurial Journey: Overcoming Naysayers. (12:07) - From Business Applications to Consumer Connectivity. (17:51) - The Open Standard Gamble: A Strategic Choice. (23:45) - Navigating the Dot Com Boom and Bust. (30:08) - The Rise of Broadband: Transforming the Cable Industry. (30:35) - The Journey of an Entrepreneur. (32:01) - Scaling and Selling the Company. (33:27) - Contributions to the Cable Industry. (36:11) - Philosophy of Innovation and Humanity. (39:11) - Data as a New Resource. (42:13) - Access as a Human Right. (43:26) - The Last Mile Challenge. (46:36) - Future of Connectivity. (50:02) - Centralized vs. Decentralized Networks. (54:07) - Environmental Considerations in Technology. (56:15) - Reflections on a Successful Career.

October 10, 2025- The union representing police officers at SUNY campuses is looking to standardize and centralize their operations, which they argue will increase efficiency and performance. Our guest is Kurt Nolan, executive director of the PBA of New York State.

The Blue-Collar Twins sit down with Byron Gifford—the “godfather of door-to-door”—to unpack his ground-zero start in summer sales, the Evergreen chapters (launch, rapid expansion, strategic exits), and the operating cadence that lets his team add tens of thousands of accounts without melting down. It's a masterclass in self-financing hypergrowth, centralizing ops, and developing leaders who can actually carry the load. You'll hear: Hypergrowth reality: why fast scale feels like self-financing—and why people are harder than cash.Ground zero of D2D: Salesnet → Eclipse → starting a pest company from a marketing engine.Evergreen playbook: launch, densify, sell, reinvest—then rinse and repeat across markets.Centralized backbone: one call center, cookie-cutter ops, and tech/termite cross-sell that de-risk seasonality.Beyond the doors: building non-D2D channels (digital, referrals, tech upsells) until they rival summer volume.Leadership & longevity: morning “elevated state,” systems, and a health comeback that reset the throttle. Show links: From Gym Teachers to Service Leaders: The Julio Twins' Story | Last Bite Mosquito, Viking Pest https://youtu.be/DAYxtzhswxs From PE Teachers to Pest Control Owners: The Julio Twins Share Their POTOMAC Experience https://youtu.be/HAx9noqsqTo https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulgiannamore www.potomaccompany.com https://bluecollartwins.com Produced by: www.verbell.ltd Timestamps 00:00 – Cold open: cash for growth vs. developing the right people 00:48 – Intros: the Blue-Collar Twins welcome Byron “godfather of D2D” Gifford 01:42 – BYU mission → first summer selling → top rookie with Salesnet 03:18 – Salesnet bankruptcy, pivot to Eclipse, and launching a pest company from a sales org 06:00 – 2008 crash, reset, and the road back 08:58 – Evergreen launch: Seattle → Portland (sale) → Denver/Albuquerque; a parallel trash-marketing sidecar 14:00 – D2D economics: densification, rising CAC, and the 2–3 year LTV/retention bend 18:58 – “A-Team” cadence: department heads, cash-model precision, people as the limiter 22:00 – Morning routine: elevated state, gratitude, workouts, and living by the calendar 27:00 – Lyme disease detour → stem-cell recovery → throttle back on full 29:56 – Branch-owner model (50% local equity), lessons, and selective sales to strategic buyers 36:52 – Beyond D2D: digital, tech-sales, and termite cross-sell compounding into real scale 40:00 – Ogden, UT hub: central call center and cookie-cutter ops for multi-market control 43:26 – Panels, PestWorld, and a PCT Top-10 goal on the horizon 49:00 – Leadership philosophy: set expectations, kill drama, find solutions, keep moving

HEADLINE: China's Deflationary Cycle: A Consequence of Overproduction and Centralized Control GUEST NAME: Anne Stevenson-Yang SUMMARY: China is mired in a fearful deflationary cycle driven by chronic overproduction and a government unable to shift from supply-side investment to stimulating consumption, perpetuating a "race to the bottom" under CCP leadership. China faces widespread deflation, causing consumer uncertainty and stemming from government-backed overproduction. The CCP leadership pours money into factories to meet GDP targets, despite overbuilt infrastructure and property. This "involution," or economy eating itself, continues due to a lack of innovative solutions and reluctance to cede economic control. 1940 MAO