Podcasts about Chen

Credits: 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™   CME/CE Information and Claim Credit: https://www.pri-med.com/online-education/podcast/frankly-speaking-cme-500 Overview: To celebrate our 500th episode, each member of our team revisits a popular topic from the podcast's earlier installments—GLP-1s, cervical and breast cancer screening, diet and exercise, contraception, hypertension, and lipid management—to trace how the evidence and guidelines have changed since it was first covered. Whether you're catching up or reinforcing what you know, this milestone episode helps you bring the latest evidence into everyday patient care. Guest: Robert Baldor, MD, Alan Ehrlich, MD, Susan Feeney, DNP, FNP-BC; FAANP, Jillian Joseph, PA, Mariyan L. Montaque, DNP, FNP-BC, Jill Terrien PhD, ANP-BC, FAAN   Music Credit: Matthew Bugos Thoughts? Suggestions? Email us at FranklySpeaking@pri-med.com  Episode resource links:  Zhou H et al.  Evaluation and Comparison of the PREVENT and Pooled Cohort Equations for 10‐Year Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Risk Prediction. Journal of the American Heart Association Volume 14, Number 4 Goff DC et al. 2013 ACC/AHA guideline on the assessment of cardiovascular risk: a report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association task force on practice guidelines. Circulation. 2014;129:S49–S73. Circulation. 2018 Jul 24;138(4):345-355.  eClinicalMedicine 2025: 103741. Curry, J. (2018). Screening for cervical cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force Recommendation Statement. JAMA.320(7):674-686. doi:10.1001/jama.2018.10897 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30140884  Perkins RB, Wolf AMD, Church TR, et al. Self-collected vaginal specimens for human papillomavirus testing and guidance on screening exit: An update to the American Cancer Society cervical cancer screening guideline. CA Cancer J Clin. 2026;e70041. doi:10.3322/caac.70041   Screening for Cervical Cancer (2026). Obstetrics & Gynecology, 148(1), e63-e67. https://doi.org/10.1097/AOG.0000000000006257  Jad Zeitouni, Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, Yusuf Dundar, Gregory Zimet, Mark A. Varvares. (2025). Two decades of the HPV vaccine: its promise, progress, prospects, projections, and posterity, The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, (51), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lana.2025.101243 Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 28, no. 6 (2026): 5043–5057, https://doi.org/10.1111/dom.70698.  Relationship of early rapid weight loss to efficacy and safety of tirzepatide and semaglutide for obesity: SURMOUNT-5 post hoc analysis. Am J Med. 2026 Jul;139(7):913-921. doi: 10.1016/j.amjmed.2026.03.010 US Preventive Services Task Force; Nicholson WK, Silverstein M, Wong JB, et al. Screening for breast cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. JAMA. 2024;331(22):1918–1930.  Trentham-Dietz A, Chapman CH, Jayasekera J, et al. Collaborative modeling to compare different breast cancer screening strategies: a decision analysis for the US Preventive Services Task Force. JAMA. 2024;331(22):1931–1946. Giaquinto AN, Sung H, Miller KD, et al. Breast cancer statistics, 2022. CA Cancer J Clin. 2022;72(6):524–541.  Qaseem A, Harrod CS, Balk EM, et al. Screening for breast cancer in asymptomatic, average-risk adult females: a guidance statement from the American College of Physicians (Version 2). Ann Intern Med. 2026.:  American Cancer Society. Breast Cancer Facts & Figures 2022–2024. Atlanta, GA: American Cancer Society, 2022.  Hu X, Chehal PK, Kaplan C, et al. Racial differences in patient-reported symptoms and adherence to adjuvant endocrine therapy among women with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive breast cancer. JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(8):e2225485.  Torres JM, Sodipo MO, Hopkins MF, Chandler PD, Warner ET. Racial differences in breast cancer survival between Black and White women according to tumor subtype: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Clin Oncol. 2024;42(35):4225–4234.  Bailey ZD, Krieger N, Agénor M, Graves J, Linos N, Bassett MT. Structural racism and health inequities in the USA: evidence and interventions. Lancet. 2017;389(10077):1453–1463. Hypertension. 2026;83:00–00. DOI: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.125.25787 Allen RH, Bartz D. Opill: The Over-the-Counter Contraceptive Pill. Obstet Gynecol. 2024;143(2):184-188. doi:10.1097/AOG.0000000000005455  Cahill EP, Kaur S. Advances in contraception research and development. Curr Opin Obstet Gynecol. 2020;32(6):393-398. doi:10.1097/GCO.0000000000000666  Charles DN, Nagarsheth M, Oshman L. Pain Management for IUD Insertion in Primary Care. Am Fam Physician. 2025;111(4):299-301.  Chen, C., Strasser, J., Banawa, R., Luo, Q., Bodas, M., Castruccio-Prince, C., Das, K., & Pittman, P. (2022). Who is providing contraception care in the United States? An observational study of the contraception workforce. American journal of obstetrics and gynecology, 226(2), 232.e1–232.e11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2021.08.015  Diedrich,J., Klein, D. Peipert, J.(2017). Long-acting reversible contraception in adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis, Am J Ob Gyn, April 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2016.12.024  Li RHW, Lo SST, Gemzell-Danielsson K, Fong CHY, Ho PC, Ng EHY. Oral emergency contraception with levonorgestrel plus piroxicam: a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial. Lancet. 2023;402(10405):851-858. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01240-0  Mørch LS, Meaidi A, Corn G, Hargreave M, Wessel Skovlund C. Breast Cancer in Users of Levonorgestrel-Releasing Intrauterine Systems. JAMA. 2024;332(18):1578–1580. doi:10.1001/jama.2024.18575  Nguyen AT, Curtis KM, Tepper NK, et al. U.S. Medical Eligibility Criteria for Contraceptive Use, 2024. MMWR Recomm Rep. 2024;73(4):1-126. Published 2024 Aug 8. doi:10.15585/mmwr.rr7304a1  Paradise SL, Landis CA, Klein DA. Evidence Based Contraception: Common Questions and Answers. American Family Physician. 2022. https://www.aafp.org/afp/2022/0900/contraception The views expressed in this podcast are those of Dr. Domino and his guests and do not necessarily reflect the views of Pri-Med.

In this episode of the Epigenetics Podcast, we talked with Kunal Rai from MD Anderson Cancer Center about his work on active DNA demethylation and its role in cancer progression. A major part of the conversation covers his postdoctoral work on active DNA demethylation. He describes how he identified an AID-MBD4-based mechanism, later supported by GAD45, and how this work showed a role for DNA demethylation in early neuronal differentiation and in colon cancer initiation. We then discuss his move into his own lab and his work on melanoma progression. He explains how he used broad epigenomic profiling, chromatin state analysis, and 3D chromatin methods to study enhancers and chromatin organization, and how these approaches helped reveal changes linked to cancer progression. Another topic is his work on epigenetic regulators such as RNF2 and KMT2D. He describes findings on polycomb and trithorax-related factors, including tumor-suppressive roles for KMT2D in melanoma and lung cancer, and how KMT2D loss affects cell phenotype and metabolism. Finally, we talk about lab organization, collaboration, and newer technologies. He says his group works across multiple cancer types and increasingly includes immunology, single-cell methods, spatial epigenomics, and clinical translation, while still using ChIP-seq, CUT&RUN, and CUT&Tag where appropriate. References Fiziev, P., Akdemir, K. C., Miller, J. P., Keung, E. Z., Samant, N. S., Sharma, S., Natale, C. A., Terranova, C. J., Maitituoheti, M., Amin, S. B., Martinez-Ledesma, E., Dhamdhere, M., Axelrad, J. B., Shah, A., Cheng, C. S., Mahadeshwar, H., Seth, S., Barton, M. C., Protopopov, A., Tsai, K. Y., … Rai, K. (2017). Systematic Epigenomic Analysis Reveals Chromatin States Associated with Melanoma Progression. Cell reports, 19(4), 875–889. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2017.03.078 Terranova, C. J., Tang, M., Maitituoheti, M., Raman, A. T., Ghosh, A. K., Schulz, J., Amin, S. B., Orouji, E., Tomczak, K., Sarkar, S., Oba, J., Creasy, C., Wu, C. J., Khan, S., Lazcano, R., Wani, K., Singh, A., Barrodia, P., Zhao, D., Chen, K., … Rai, K. (2021). Reprogramming of bivalent chromatin states in NRAS mutant melanoma suggests PRC2 inhibition as a therapeutic strategy. Cell reports, 36(3), 109410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2021.109410 Related Episodes Epigenetic Signatures During Aging and Cancer (Alena van Bömmel) Epigenetic Mechanisms in Breast Cancer (Luca Magnani) The Effect of Histone Demethylases on Gene Expression and Cancer Cell Stability (Johnathan Whetstine) Contact Epigenetics Podcast on Mastodon Epigenetics Podcast on Bluesky Dr. Stefan Dillinger on LinkedIn Active Motif on LinkedIn Active Motif on Bluesky Email: podcast@activemotif.com

The robots are at it again, and this time they're solving, and breaking(?), math and cryptography! Things have been happening in the lattice corner including new leapfrogging complexity results in the closest vector problem (CVP), AND a possible poly-time quantum attack against the dihedral coset problem (DCP) that made everyone freak out for about a week (UPDATE: looks like it's busted: https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/1693). ALSO, there was an important distinguisher attack against Classic McEliece, which on its face doesn't sound like a big deal, unless you're familiar with the track record of efficient distinguishers in the history of code-based cryptography…

Most Americans never truly disconnect from work—even on vacation. After decades of tying your identity, daily rhythm, and sense of worth to a paycheck, stepping away feels less like freedom and more like freefall. Oz Chen spent years financially independent before he could accept it, wrestling with the psychological gap between having enough money and being okay with not working. Key Topics Discussed Oz's Background and FI Journey (00:02:30) Oz shares his introduction to financial independence through Tim Ferriss's Four Hour Workweek, his career as a UX designer, and the moment he officially accepted being financially independent at 37—years after crossing the actual threshold. The Job That Changed Everything (00:08:15) After seven comfortable years at one tech company, management changes, an acquisition, and mounting burnout made Oz's dream job unsustainable. He reveals the "work policy statement" he'd written that predicted exactly when he'd need to leave. Taking FMLA Leave as an Experiment (00:15:40) Rather than quitting outright, Oz used 12 weeks of FMLA medical leave to test what not working would feel like. He set a deliberately low bar for success—sleep and play pickleball—instead of maintaining his productivity mindset. The Unexpected Layoff (00:22:30) During the final week of his sabbatical, Oz received a layoff notice with severance and garden leave. What could have felt devastating instead felt like "divine timing," perfectly aligning with his planned departure. Wrestling with Fear and Acceptance (00:28:00) Oz shares his practice of writing acceptance statements for every fear—from scarcity feelings to relationship changes. By acknowledging fears without resisting them, he reduced the suffering that comes from fighting his own emotions. Practical Strategies for Decumulation (00:35:45) Breaking down the scary process of drawing down investments: think month-by-month rather than annual withdrawals, and sell "junk" investments (random stocks, crypto) first before touching beloved index funds. Life After Work and Future Plans (00:42:20) Oz describes his current life taking community college music classes, learning trades, and planning for the next 2-3 years before potentially having children. He emphasizes honoring different life seasons and remaining flexible about future work. Notable Quotes Ginger: "Pain plus resistance equals suffering. The pain is part of the human experience, but the resistance is the thing that you can control." Oz Chen: "I accept that not having a paycheck coming in will feel weird and scary. I can have the feeling and it doesn't have to change what I'm doing." Oz Chen: "Clarity through action versus expecting clarity before action. Breaking things down into smaller components generates clarity." Oz Chen: "The productivity engine is something that often buzzes in the background for optimizers. There's always something to work on, always something to optimize." Oz Chen: "I realized my fear was a very generalized fear. Writing down that fear and asking, is that true? helped me see it's potentially a reversible decision." Key Takeaways Write a work policy statement listing specific conditions under which you'd leave your job, similar to an investor policy statement for market downturns Break down your fears by writing them out specifically, then question their validity and put dollar amounts to worst-case scenarios Create acceptance statements for your financial fears to reduce internal resistance rather than trying to eliminate fears entirely Calculate your first 3-6 months of expenses in retirement month-by-month rather than thinking about annual withdrawals to make decumulation less daunting Consider using all available time-off options (PTO, unpaid leave, FMLA if eligible) to experiment with extended breaks before making permanent career changes Identify "junk" investments in your portfolio that you'd be happy to sell first before touching core index fund holdings Set a low bar for success duri…

On April 26th, 2026, Sebastian Sawe did what many thought was impossible.  Running the marathon in under two hours. Today on Nudge, I explain the psychological tricks Sawe may have used to break the record.  --- Become an FSB member: https://get.fsb.org.uk/nudge/ Unlock the Nudge Vaults: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/vaults Join 12,199 readers of the Nudge Newsletter: https://www.nudgepodcast.com/mailing-list Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phill-agnew/  Buy Alex's book Endure: https://amzn.to/3TdJv7P  ---  Today's sources:  Blanchfield, A. W., Hardy, J., & Marcora, S. M. (2014). Non-conscious visual cues related to affect and action alter perception of effort and endurance performance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8, Article 967. Carter, J. M., Jeukendrup, A. E., & Jones, D. A. (2004). The effect of carbohydrate mouth rinse on 1-h cycle time trial performance. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 36(12), 2107–2111. Damisch, L., Stoberock, B., & Mussweiler, T. (2010). Keep your fingers crossed! How superstition improves performance. Psychological Science, 21(7), 1014–1020. de Morree, H. M., & Marcora, S. M. (2010). The face of effort: Frowning muscle activity reflects effort during a physical task. Biological Psychology, 85(3), 377–382. Gray, K. (2010). Moral transformation: Good and evil turn the weak into the mighty. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(3), 253–258. Huang, D.-H., Chou, S.-W., Chen, Y.-L., & Chiou, W.-K. (2014). Frowning and jaw clenching muscle activity reflects the perception of effort during incremental workload cycling. Journal of Sports Science & Medicine, 13(4), 921–928. McCormick, A., Meijen, C., & Marcora, S. (2018). Effects of a motivational self-talk intervention for endurance athletes completing an ultramarathon. The Sport Psychologist, 32(1), 42–50. Stoate, I., Wulf, G., & Lewthwaite, R. (2012). Enhanced expectancies improve movement efficiency in runners. Journal of Sports Sciences, 30(8), 815–823. Strack, F., Martin, L. L., & Stepper, S. (1988). Inhibiting and facilitating conditions of the human smile: A nonobtrusive test of the facial feedback hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 768–777. Williams, E. L., Jones, H. S., Sparks, S., Marchant, D. C., Midgley, A. W., & McNaughton, L. R. (2014). Deception studies manipulating centrally acting performance modifiers: A review. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 46(7), 1441–1451.

(Spirit Rock Meditation Center)

Folge 48: Systemische Schwächen? US-Außenpolitik und Machtmissbrauch im Kongress (aufgenommen am 20. August 2026) Housekeeping Veranstaltungen der Atlantischen Akademie Alle Shownotes findet Ihr hier auf unserer Website.

Nausheen Chen is a public speaking coach who has worked with leaders at Amazon, NASA, and the UN. After years as a filmmaker, she left that career when her husband pushed her to build a business around the thing she had loved since childhood: performing and speaking in public. In this episode, Nausheen talks about why public speaking triggers fight or flight response, how thought structures like the rule of three stop you from rambling, and what real preparation looks like, from audience research to recording yourself on camera.  Links: Nausheen's Website: https://www.speaking.coach/ Nausheen's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nausheenichen/ Nausheen's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nausheen.speaking.coach

New energy vehicles accounted for more than 60 percent of China's new vehicle sales for the first time in July, consolidating the segment's position as the main growth engine of the country's auto industry, latest industry data showed.最新行业数据显示，7月新能源汽车占中国新车销量的比重首次突破60%，巩固了其作为中国汽车产业主要增长引擎的地位。Data released by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers on Wednesday showed that NEV output reached 1.576 million units last month, up 26.8 percent year-on-year, while sales rose 23.7 percent to 1.561 million units, or 60.4 percent of total new vehicle sales.中国汽车工业协会8月12日发布的数据显示，上月新能源汽车产量达157.6万辆，同比增长26.8%；销量达156.1万辆，同比增长23.7%，占新车总销量的60.4%。The milestone is a wider indicator of growth than the passenger car retail gauges often cited in the market, as the association's tally covers passenger and commercial vehicles and includes sales at home and abroad, showing that NEVs now form the bulk of the industry's overall sales mix.这一里程碑比市场上常引用的乘用车零售数据更能反映整体增长态势，因为中汽协的统计涵盖乘用车和商用车，且包括国内外销量，显示出新能源汽车已成为行业总销量结构的主体。The record was accompanied by a second milestone. In the first seven months of this year, NEV output rose 9.5 percent year-on-year to 9.014 million units, while sales increased 9.6 percent to 9.007 million units.这一纪录伴随着第二个里程碑的到来。今年前7个月，新能源汽车产量同比增长9.5%，达901.4万辆；销量同比增长9.6%，达900.7万辆。NEVs accounted for 51.2 percent of total new vehicle sales during the period, the first time the cumulative share has exceeded 50 percent.同期，新能源汽车占新车总销量的51.2%，累计占比首次突破50%。By contrast, the auto market continued to show signs of weakness in July. Vehicle output and sales totaled 2.573 million and 2.584 million units, respectively, for the month, down 6.8 percent and 8 percent month-on-month and 0.7 percent and 0.3 percent year-on-year, respectively. In the first seven months of the year, both output and sales fell 3.7 percent year-on-year, although the declines narrowed from the first half of the year.相比之下，7月汽车市场继续显现疲软迹象。当月汽车产销量分别为257.3万辆和258.4万辆，环比分别下降6.8%和8%，同比分别下降0.7%和0.3%。今年前7个月，产销量同比均下降3.7%，但降幅较上半年有所收窄。Chen Shihua, deputy secretary-general of the CAAM, said the auto market entered its traditional low season in July. Store traffic and orders eased, while automakers' midyear sales drives brought some demand forward. Persistent heat, typhoons and flooding in some regions also weighed on showroom visits, contributing to the month-on-month decline, he said.中国汽车工业协会副秘书长陈士华表示，7月汽车市场进入传统淡季。门店客流量和订单量有所回落，车企年中冲量也提前释放了部分需求。持续高温、台风和部分地区洪涝灾害也对到店客流造成影响，导致环比下滑。Yet the shift in the industry's growth base remained intact. "The twin growth engines of NEVs and exports helped offset pressure from the domestic low season, while the industrial structure continued to improve," Chen said.不过，行业增长基础的结构性转变依然稳固。“新能源汽车和出口双引擎有效抵消了国内淡季压力，产业结构持续优化，”陈士华说。He added that new energy passenger vehicles in the 100,000 yuan ($14,830) to 200,000 yuan price range provided the main volume support in the first seven months.他补充说，今年前7个月，10万至20万元价格区间的新能源乘用车提供了主要销量支撑。Exports provided the other pillar of growth. CAAM data showed that in July alone, NEV exports jumped 145.5 percent year-on-year to 553,000 units, accounting for about 53 percent of China's 1.043 million vehicle exports. It was the second consecutive month in which NEVs accounted for more than half of the export total.出口是另一大增长支柱。中汽协数据显示，仅7月当月，新能源汽车出口同比大增145.5%，达55.3万辆，占中国104.3万辆汽车出口总量的约53%。这是新能源汽车出口占比连续第二个月超过一半。"Conventional fuel vehicles had long dominated China's auto exports, but the structure began to shift this year as NEVs increased their share in June and July, surpassing fuel vehicles for two consecutive months," Chen noted, adding that the rapid growth of vehicle exports could also help offset weak domestic demand.“传统燃油车长期以来一直主导中国汽车出口，但今年6月和7月新能源汽车占比连续两个月超越燃油车，出口结构开始发生变化，”陈士华指出。他还表示，汽车出口的快速增长也有助于抵消国内需求疲软的影响。Chen expects NEV exports to continue growing at a brisk pace and exceed 4 million units this year.陈士华预计，新能源汽车出口将继续保持强劲增长势头，今年有望超过400万辆。"With the world's most complete NEV industrial chain and a clear edge in intelligent technologies, the competitiveness of China's automobiles is expected to be further strengthened," he said.“凭借全球最完整的新能源汽车产业链和在智能技术方面的明显优势，中国汽车的竞争力有望进一步增强，”他说。segment /ˈseɡmənt/细分市场growth engine /ɡrəʊθ ˈendʒɪn/增长引擎milestone /ˈmaɪlstəʊn/里程碑tally /ˈtæli/统计bulk /bʌlk/主体，大部分weighed on /weɪd ɒn/对……造成压力，拖累offset /ˈɒfset/抵消

Fast 300 Podcast-Folgen rund um Geldpsychologie liegen hinter Lena und Ingo. In dieser Episode feiert „How I met my money" seinen 6. Geburtstag. Was all diese Gespräche über Geld gezeigt haben? Rückblickend sind sich die beiden einig: Finanzentscheidungen wirken rational, sind es aber selten. Die eigentlichen Treiber sind häufig unbewusste Glaubenssätze über Geld, Scham über vergangene Fehler und das Bedürfnis nach Anerkennung. In dieser Folge sprechen Lena und Ingo über die großen Geldfragen: – was unser heutiger Umgang mit Geld mit den Erfahrungen aus unserer Kindheit zu tun hat. – warum Angst bei Geldentscheidungen oft eine größere Rolle spielt als fehlendes Fachwissen. – wie sich ihr eigener Blick auf Geld nach sechs Jahren HIMMM verändert hat. Die Bilanz nach 6 Jahren: Am Ende geht es nie nur um Geld. Zum Geburtstag interessiert die beiden vor allem eure Perspektive: Was soll von HIMMM bleiben? Und was darf anders werden? Kommentiere gerne unter der Folge oder schreib eine Nachricht an hallo@howimetmymoney.de.

This episode is brought to you by Alma. Visit https://helloalma.com/dg/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=paid&utm_campaign=privatepractice to learn more Get the Couples Therapy 101 course: https://www.couplestherapistcouch.com/ Join the Couples Therapist Inner Circle: https://www.couplestherapistcouch.com/inner-circle-new Join The Couples Therapist Couch Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/295562197518469/ In this episode, Shane talks with Annie Chen about attachment styles. Annie is an author, therapist, consultant, and coach who holds 2 master's degrees in counseling and psychology. With over 17 years dedicated to studying the mind, nervous systems, and relationships, she has developed a unique approach to relationships and working with people. Hear why attachment theory is so important, how we develop our attachment styles, how to approach attachment styles with your clients, the danger of talking in absolutes, and how much to dive into family of origin work.   To learn more about Annie Chen, visit: AnnieChen.net AttachmentQuiz.com The Attachment Theory Workbook I Want to Connect Instagram @AnnieChenLMFT   You can also listen to Annie Chen on Episode 90 of The Couples Therapist Couch

“Timing is everything” is as much of a cliché as “you only live once”, but behind those tired phrases is truth. When Bryan and I spoke with Abby Chen, the timing was right. She was celebrating two months since leaving a job at Apple and beginning her independent practice as Studio Present Tense. Throughout the conversation, Abby walked us through the tremendous amount of courage, deliberation and negotiation with her self that led up to that moment. She shared how she was able to give herself a chance and described the many barriers along the way. It was such a pleasure to share this intimate conversation that mirrors many talks many of us have in our careers and working lives.Congratulations again Abby on opening Studio Present Tense. Check out her work!Again, thank you all for listeningWe R here 4 U. Get full access to Graphic Support Group Podcast at graphicsupportgroup.substack.com/subscribe

Jac Marino Chen, author of “Ensnared: Overcoming the Darkness of the New Age and Occult with the Light of God's Truth,” discusses the dangers of New Age and occult practices, her own journey into spiritual darkness, and how she ultimately found freedom through faith in Jesus Christ. http://JacMarino.com

Eric Chen, Founder and CEO of Injective, sat down with me at the Injective Policy Summit to discuss the growing adoption of the Injective blockchain.

Various measures have been taken to confront risks of landslides, urban waterlogging and reservoir dam breaches as Typhoon Dolphin brought heavy rain and strong winds to Central and North China on Tuesday.周二，台风“白海豚”给我国华中、华北地区带来强降雨与大风天气，各地已采取多项举措，防范山体滑坡、城市内涝、水库溃坝风险。After the typhoon, the 13th of this year, made landfall in East China's Zhejiang province on Sunday, it moved west to Central China's Hubei province on Tuesday.今年第13号台风于周日在华东浙江省登陆，随后向西移动，周二抵达华中湖北省。Gales from level 7 to 10 and above brought by the typhoon have affected the province since Monday. Dolphin also brought heavy rain in cities such as Suizhou and Xiangyang during the period, with torrential downpours in some areas.自周一以来，台风带来7至10级及以上大风侵袭湖北。与此同时，随州、襄阳等城市普降大雨，局部地区出现暴雨。The rain is expected to continue until Wednesday morning and ease markedly by the same afternoon, according to Chen Xuan, chief forecaster of the Hubei meteorological observatory.湖北省气象台首席预报员陈璇介绍，降雨将持续至周三上午，周三下午雨势将明显减弱。"Long spells of rainfall will bring substantial accumulated precipitation. There are elevated risks of geological disasters, river floods and waterlogging in urban and rural areas, which need strengthened precautions," Chen said.“持续性降雨将造成累计雨量偏大，城乡区域地质灾害、江河洪水、内涝风险升高，需要加强防范。”陈璇表示。Starting at 8 pm on Monday, strong winds and rain swept through Xiangyang, and by 3 pm on Tuesday, the city-wide average rainfall hit 46 millimeters. The municipal flood-control headquarters activated the Level III flood-control emergency response.周一晚间8时起，大风暴雨侵袭襄阳。截至周二下午3时，全市平均降雨量达到46毫米。市防汛指挥部启动防汛Ⅲ级应急响应。Due to heavy rainfall in upstream areas, several rivers and urban drainage ditches have seen water levels rise. By 3 pm on Tuesday, about 10,000 people had been moved to safe areas, including those living along the rivers, according to local authorities.受上游强降雨影响，多条河流、城市排涝沟渠水位上涨。当地部门消息，截至周二15时，约一万名沿河居民转移至安全区域。Fifty-eight reservoirs had exceeded their flood-season limit as of 3 pm on Tuesday with the highest at 0.59 meters, and all below their designed flood level. Their water release gates have been kept fully open to drain water and bring reservoir levels down.截至周二下午3时，58座水库水位超汛限水位，最高超出0.59米，但全部尚未到达设计洪水位。水库泄洪闸门全开，持续泄洪以降低水位。Disaster relief materials such as tarpaulin coverings, excavators and sandstone materials have been prepared in advance.篷布、挖掘机、砂石料等救灾物资已提前储备到位。Relying on a digital platform, government workers monitor real-time conditions of major waterlogging-prone spots in downtown areas for quick response. For example, the platform detected water exceeding the safety limit at a culvert on Tuesday morning. Municipal workers were dispatched immediately for on-site handling.工作人员依托数字化平台，实时监控城区重点易涝点位，实现快速处置。例如，平台周二上午监测到一处涵洞积水超限，市政人员立刻赶赴现场处理。Across Hubei province, 27,800 emergency response personnel and 16,400 sets of rescue equipment have been deployed in advance in key areas affected by the typhoon such as Xiangyang, Shiyan, Huanggang and Suizhou.湖北省已在襄阳、十堰、黄冈、随州等台风影响重点区域提前部署27800名应急人员、16400台（套）救援装备。As of Tuesday noon, 25,478 people had been relocated. More than 4,500 tourist attractions, construction sites, factories and mines were closed, according to the provincial flood control and drought relief headquarters on Tuesday afternoon.省防汛抗旱指挥部周二下午通报，截至周二中午，累计转移群众25478人，4500余处景区、建筑工地、厂矿关停。With the rain belt moving further northward, the National Meteorological Center forecasts that from Tuesday to Thursday, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in northern China will experience heavy rainfall.随着雨带继续北上，中央气象台预报，周二至周四，华北京津冀地区将迎来强降雨。Beijing activated a Level II flood-control emergency response at 9 am on Tuesday. Most parts of the city are expected to receive more than 100 millimeters of rain within six hours and over 150 mm within 24 hours from Tuesday evening, according to the Beijing meteorological service.北京于周二上午9时启动防汛Ⅱ级应急响应。北京市气象台预报，周二晚间起，北京大部分地区6小时降雨量超100毫米，24小时累计降雨量超150毫米。The public has been advised to suspend outdoor activities involving mountains and water, avoid low-lying areas when traveling, and take protective measures for underground spaces.官方提醒市民暂停涉水、涉山户外活动，出行避开低洼地带，并对地下空间做好防护。The nearby Hebei province issued a meteorological risk alert for mountain-flood disasters at 11 am on Tuesday.邻省河北于周二上午11时发布山洪灾害气象风险预警。At noon the same day, a meteorological early warning for geological hazards was also released, saying that between 2 pm on Tuesday and 2 pm on Wednesday, there is a high risk of collapses, landslides, mud-rock flows and other geological disasters in cities such as Baoding, Zhangjiakou, Handan and Shijiazhuang.同日中午，当地再发布地质灾害气象预警：周二14时至周三14时，保定、张家口、邯郸、石家庄等地发生崩塌、滑坡、泥石流等地质灾害风险较高。Relevant authorities dispatched 623 teams to mountain areas across the province. Focused on densely populated zones, the teams carried out emergency inspections for geological hazards, Hebei Daily reported.《河北日报》消息，相关部门派出623支队伍深入省内山区，重点针对人口密集区域开展地质灾害隐患紧急巡查。Meanwhile, Hebei has equipped all 2,136 villages under threat with satellite phones or Beidou short-message terminals to guarantee unobstructed communications. Evacuation of residents was also in the plan based on conditions, it said.同时，河北为受威胁的2136个村庄配齐卫星电话或北斗短报文终端，保障通信畅通，并根据实际情况安排群众转移。Heavy rain was also forecast across a broad swath of the country through Wednesday night. The areas include Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Anhui, Shandong and Henan provinces.预报显示，截至周三夜间，我国大范围区域仍有强降雨，涉及浙江、江苏、安徽、山东、河南等省份。landslide /ˈlændslaɪd/山体滑坡waterlogging /ˈwɔːtəlɒɡɪŋ/内涝torrential /təˈrenʃl/猛烈的；汹涌的geological /ˌdʒiːəˈlɒdʒɪkl/地质的evacuation /ɪˌvækjuˈeɪʃn/疏散，撤离reservoir /ˈrezəvwɑː(r)/水库

Resistance training can significantly improve cardiovascular health in older adults by lowering both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as offering unique benefits like increased muscle strength and quality. In this “NASM CPT Podcast” episode, host Rick Richey reviews the latest meta-analyses and systematic reviews, sharing practical insights on how resistance training helps manage hypertension and supports healthy aging. Listeners will learn why resistance training is valuable for older populations, how it compares to aerobic exercise for blood pressure control, and the importance of starting with progressive resistance to minimize soreness and build confidence. Rick also addresses specific concerns such as training postmenopausal women and individuals with sarcopenia, providing evidence that regular, structured resistance training leads to greater health benefits, especially in those over 60. After listening, fitness professionals will be equipped with research-backed strategies for designing effective, safe training programs for older adults and addressing their concerns about resistance exercises. Chapters: [00:00:00] What are the cardiovascular benefits of resistance training for older adults? [00:05:43] How does resistance training affect blood pressure in people with hypertension? [00:10:53] How does resistance training benefit postmenopausal women? [00:14:14] What is sarcopenia and how can resistance training help elderly adults? [00:15:01] How should trainers safely begin resistance training with older or inexperienced clients? [00:18:48] How can trainers help older clients build strength and confidence progressively? Show References:Wang, X., Wang, Q., Zhao, W., Wang, J., Chen, L., & Wang, L. (2025). The efficacy of resistance training for the management of hypertension: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Postepy w kardiologii interwencyjnej = Advances in interventional cardiology, 21(2), 163–170. https://doi.org/10.5114/aic.2025.151598  Henkin, J. S., Pinto, R. S., Machado, C. L. F., & Wilhelm, E. N. (2023). Chronic effect of resistance training on blood pressure in older adults with prehypertension and hypertension: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Experimental gerontology, 177, 112193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2023.112193   Rivera-Mejía, S. L., Rúa-Alonso, M. A., Rial-Vázquez, J., Nine, I., Camacho-Villa, M. A., Enríquez-González, M. A. G., Varela-Sanz, A., Fariñas, J., Revuelta-Lera, B., Fraga-Germade, E., Giráldez-Garcí A, M. A., & Iglesias-Soler, E. (2026). Resistance Training Improves Cardiovascular Health in Postmenopausal Women: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Journal of applied physiology (Bethesda, Md. : 1985), 10.1152/japplphysiol.01180.2025. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1152/japplphysiol.01180.2025   Zhao, H., Cheng, R., Song, G., Teng, J., Shen, S., Fu, X., Yan, Y., & Liu, C. (2022). The Effect of Resistance Training on the Rehabilitation of Elderly Patients with Sarcopenia: A Meta-Analysis. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(23), 15491. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192315491 If you like what you just consumed, leave us a 5-star review, and share this episode with a friend to help grow our NASM health and wellness community! The content shared in this podcast is solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek out the guidance of your healthcare provider or other qualified professional. Any opinions expressed by guests and hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASM. Introducing NASM One, the membership for trainers and coaches. For just $35/mo., get unlimited access to over 300 continuing education courses, 50% off additional certifications and specializations, EDGE Trainer Pro all-in-one coaching app to grow your business, unlimited exam attempts and select waived fees. Stay on top of your game and ahead of the curve as a fitness professional with NASM One. Click here to learn more. https://bit.ly/4ddsgrm

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Last time we spoke about the ending of the Second Battle of Changsha. In late September and early October 1941, Chinese commander Chen Cheng planned an operation to retake Yichang, a strategic Yangtze River city whose control was essential for protecting the approach to Chongqing. Japanese forces were pulling back from Changsha, weakened by supply problems and casualties, which created an opportunity for Chen to intensify his campaign. Yichang had been captured by Japan in 1940, a defeat that Chen carried as a personal and political burden. He therefore moved to encircle the Japanese 13th Division inside Yichang and drive it to collapse. Although the Chinese held a clear manpower advantage—fourteen divisions against the encircled Japanese—progress was slowed by stubborn fighting from prepared, entrenched positions. The battle inside the city produced desperate close-quarters combat and heavy casualties, showing how the fate of Yichang and the wider defense of Chongqing were tightly linked.    #214 War hits the Pacific Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War.   The guns fell silent on October 9, 1941, as the Ninth War Zone's forces restored their pre-battle positions, marking the end of the Second Battle of Changsha. The balance sheet was grim on both sides, but it was China that bore the heavier cost. The Ninth Military Front suffered 70,672 killed, wounded, or missing. The concurrent Yichang offensive added a further 21,368 casualties to the Sixth Military Front, a force that outnumbered its Japanese opponents ten to one yet still failed to retake the city. By the time the dust settled, the Chinese army had lost nearly 100,000 men across both theatres. The Chinese command was frank, at least in private, about what had gone wrong. The Japanese had moved with a speed that recalled Blitzkrieg, advancing 130 kilometres in eleven days and withdrawing at twelve kilometres a day, catching the defenders perpetually off-balance. The 26th, 37th, 10th, and 74th Corps had been picked apart piecemeal rather than fighting in concert, the original plan to destroy the Japanese south of the Miluo River coming to nothing. Elite formations had paid a disproportionate price: the 74th Corps suffered 14,521 casualties, the 37th Corps 14,015, and the 58th Division alone lost 6,192 of its 11,907 men, nearly its entire fighting strength.   Yet none of this was the story the public would hear. On October 10th, China's National Day, radio stations announced the "Second Great Victory in Northern Hunan", the annihilation of over 40,000 enemy troops. Newspapers rushed out special editions. Congratulatory telegrams flooded in from government ministries and civic organizations. Senior officials seized on the moment: Sun Ke, Premier of the Executive Yuan, declared that the victory "laid the foundation for the counter-offensive and the recapture of Hankou and Guangzhou," while General Bai Chongxi called it "the pivotal moment for us to turn defeat into victory." Chiang Kai-shek, reading through the pages of triumphant commentary produced overnight by his propagandists, was reportedly impressed by their industry, if not convinced by their content. He had not wanted to call it a victory at all, but the political calculus was unavoidable: after four years of war, an exhausted nation needed the psychological sustenance that only "victory" could provide.   The gap between public performance and private reality was nowhere more visible than in the arrival of a twenty-two-member international press delegation on October 13th. Journalists from Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Hong Kong, and major Chinese newspapers were flown to Changsha and carefully guided through selected battlefields, where they inspected mountains of war trophies and heard testimony from soldiers and civilians. They left satisfied, presenting their war souvenirs—swords, binoculars, Japanese military flags—to their audiences back home as proof of Chinese heroism and Japanese defeat. Both China and Japan were claiming victory simultaneously. The only conclusion the foreign press could draw was that one side was lying, and it was not the side that had shown them the evidence.   Chiang Kai-shek's real verdict came at the Third Nanyue Military Conference, held from October 16 to 21. His anger was withering. He condemned his generals for their obsession with defending sprawling outer perimeter lines while leaving city centres barely fortified, a mentality so rigid, he said, that the Japanese could announce the exact time of their advance and withdrawal in advance and still execute it on schedule without interference. "Generals, what a disgrace this is!" On the failure to capture prisoners, only 263 prisoners were claimed across the entire front, of whom only 16 names were actually published, he was almost incredulous: "We can definitely defeat the enemy, capture many enemy prisoners, and seize countless enemy weapons! Even if we cannot capture ten thousand prisoners, we should at least capture a thousand! If not a thousand, then at least a hundred! But now, you don't even have ten!" The conference handed down punishments to match the rhetoric. Liao Lingqi, commander of the shattered 58th Division, was sentenced to death for desertion and shot on October 22nd. His men were so outraged that three regimental commanders resigned in protest; the division was pulled from the order of battle entirely and given three months to rebuild. Li Yutang, commander of the 10th Corps, was dismissed—though the Third Battle of Changsha would begin before his replacement could take post, and he would be reinstated to play a key role in the city's defence.   On the Japanese side, the 11th Army acknowledged 1,670 killed, 5,184 wounded, and 14 missing, far fewer than Chinese claims, though post-war regimental histories suggest the true figure was higher. Lieutenant General Anami, who had championed the operation, found himself stung by the charge that the battle had served mainly as material for Chinese propaganda. On November 23rd, he reportedly reacted with visible displeasure when someone in his headquarters said as much aloud.  Anami's annoyance was easy enough to understand, but the accusation carried a troubling degree of accuracy. The Second Battle of Changsha had yielded no decisive strategic gain and no substantial alteration in the military balance. What it did generate, rather effectively, was a story and by the autumn of 1941, stories were one of the few things China still had in plentiful supply. The most consequential struggles were taking place not along the Miluo River, but in foreign ministries and embassies, in Washington and Moscow, in the messages passing between Chongqing and London, and in the increasingly strained calculations of statesmen trying to determine, amid rapidly changing circumstances, whom to support and for how long.   For Chiang Kai-shek, the challenge was never merely military. It was structural, and had been so from the outset. He had always seen clearly, precisely because he understood China's weakness, that Japan could not be defeated by China alone. The country lacked the industrial base, the logistical reach, and after four years of relentless attrition more and more the manpower needed to force a decisive result on the battlefield. China's survival depended on making its war inseparable from the wars of other powers. Since 1937, Chiang's diplomacy had pursued that single objective: convincing enough great powers that their interests were aligned with China's, and holding that coalition together long enough for Japan to be subdued. That effort turned out to be vastly more difficult than it ought to have been.   The problem started with the international order in which the war emerged. Chiang had hoped to assemble a concert of allies willing to help defend China against Japanese aggression. He was blocked not just by the reluctance of neutral states to aid China, but by the speed with which alliances shifted in the opening years of the Second World War. He had never welcomed the prospect of a general European conflict, correctly fearing that it would push China even further to the margins of world attention. Even so, he recognized that once the lines had hardened between the imperial democracies and fascism, new alignments might become possible. From his perspective, the growing amity between Berlin and Moscow was therefore disastrous. He had been eager to draw the USSR into war against Japan. Instead, the Soviets were now effectively aligned with the Nazis, who were themselves allied with Tokyo.   The world created after Versailles had already enraged many Chinese. After all, the May Fourth demonstrations of 1919 had arisen directly from the settlement reached at the Paris Peace Conference. Yet that older order had at least possessed recognizable anchors, especially the dominance of the two great European empires and the United States. Now those empires were weakening, and no one could say with confidence what the new geopolitical order would be. For all Chiang knew, Germany might emerge as Europe's new dominant power. The early years of the European war produced a bewildering spectacle of diplomatic realignment.   The Nationalist government had previously enjoyed a short-lived flirtation with Nazi Germany. In fact, Hitler's regime continued supplying Chiang with munitions in the first months of China's war against Japan. The Anti-Comintern Pact of 1936 had theoretically joined Germany, Italy, and Japan into the Axis, but mutual distrust prevented them from forming anything like a fully coherent alliance. Chiang found it useful to imply to Western powers that he might be pushed into closer alignment with Germany, a particularly disturbing possibility for the USSR, which faced enemies in both Europe and Asia. But eventually the contradictions in German policy toward East Asia became too severe. In April 1938, Germany yielded to Japanese pressure and ended its support for China.   Britain offered little meaningful help. Neville Chamberlain became prime minister in May 1937 at the head of a Conservative-led National Government, and was quickly overwhelmed by the deteriorating European situation. If Czechoslovakia was for him a "far-off country of which we know nothing," China's fate was even more distant and obscure to many,  perhaps most  policymakers in London. The Nationalists had more success in cultivating the United States. At the Nine-Power Conference in Brussels in November 1937, the Chinese delegation failed to persuade Washington to impose sanctions on Japan and confront it directly. By the middle of 1938, however, American views were beginning to shift. As Japan pushed deeper into southern China, it became increasingly obvious that the occupied territory would be closed to foreign trade. In December 1938, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau arranged a private American loan of $25 million to China, to be repaid through shipments of tung oil, a varnish product whose real importance lay not in itself, but in what the arrangement signified: a quiet American expression of faith that Chongqing would survive. Chiang also held on to the hope of an even less likely partnership. He had become fiercely anti-Communist during the 1920s, yet in the early years of the anti-Japanese war his greatest hope still rested on Soviet entry into the conflict. Soviet advisers and pilots had aided China from 1937 to 1939, but the USSR never formally declared war on Japan. Still, as Japanese aggression in northern Asia intensified, it remained possible that the Soviets would eventually be drawn in.   Then, as so often happened whenever Chiang tried to impose some control over the course of the war, events beyond China's borders altered the struggle in fundamental ways. While Western attention remained fixed on Europe's darkening horizon, a battle with major consequences for East Asia unfolded on the frontiers of Outer Mongolia, Manchukuo, and the eastern Soviet Union. Throughout much of 1938 and early 1939, one faction within the Japanese Imperial Army sought to pressure the Soviets along their eastern frontier. The USSR appeared vulnerable; Stalin's paranoid purges had executed or exiled many of the Red Army's best officers. In May 1939, fighting broke out near Nomonhan between forces from Soviet-backed Mongolia and Japanese troops from Manchukuo. Within days, both sides had reinforced heavily, until nearly 60,000 Soviet troops faced about 40,000 soldiers from the Kwantung Army. Over the next four months, until mid-September, they fought a major battle ending in a decisive Japanese defeat and establishing the reputation of General Georgi Zhukov, who would later become one of Stalin's most celebrated wartime commanders. The much-derided Soviet Army had fought with formidable effectiveness, and the result was not only a ceasefire but also a nonaggression pact between the two sides, extinguishing, in one stroke, Chiang's hopes for a Chinese-Soviet military alliance. The final blow came after developments in northern Europe. In the Winter War of 1939–1940, the Soviet invasion of Finland led Britain and France to back a motion expelling the USSR from the League of Nations. China, then a member of the League Council, declined to use its veto to block the resolution. Stalin was enraged by Chiang's failure to prevent Soviet expulsion, and mutual suspicion thereafter poisoned relations between the two leaders for the rest of the war against Japan. China would now have to continue without further major Soviet backing.   By the spring of 1940, China's position had become deeply precarious. In March, senior Japanese negotiators sought an agreement with Chiang in Chongqing, while Wang Jingwei was trying to formalize his rival Nationalist government in Nanjing. This effort, known in Chinese as the Tong Operation, and in Japanese as Operation Kiri, led to talks in Hong Kong from March 7 to 10, 1940. Militarily, the Nationalists were in grave danger: the United States remained neutral, and Europe was in chaos. Indeed, that same spring, with France seemingly near collapse, the British government also sent out discreet feelers to explore the possibility of a negotiated peace with Germany. For China, Western assistance was nowhere in sight. The Japanese judged the moment favorable for pressing Chiang toward concessions. Faced with serious danger to his regime, Chiang allowed the door to negotiation to open just slightly.   As a consequence, the Japanese delayed full recognition of Wang Jingwei's new government. Through the summer and autumn of 1940, Tokyo remained uncertain about the defector. Prominent Japanese figures such as Count Arima Yoriyasu of the Privy Council said Wang's conduct demonstrated his untrustworthiness, and Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yōsuke continued to express interest in an agreement with Chongqing. Zhou Fohai captured the defectors' frustration, men who believed they had made the highest patriotic sacrifice when he wrote: "Chongqing sees us as collaborators, we see ourselves as heroes. We think only peace can save the country — that's why we think of ourselves as heroes. If we end up classed as heroes, then China and Japan will be at peace. If we end up classed as collaborators, then China and Japan will never be at peace."That formulation conveyed something genuine about the moral dizziness of the period. Most of the defectors were not men devoid of principles; they were men whose principles had carried them to a place that history would find exceptionally hard to pardon.   The "New Fourth Army Incident" brought to a close one of the most consequential years in modern Chinese political history. The battle of ideas unfolding in 1940 was already visible to informed contemporaries. Early in 1941, US Ambassador Nelson Johnson sent Washington a detailed assessment of the Chinese political situation in reply to another report passed along by Major Evans Carlson, an American officer who had made an extensive journey through the Chinese interior. The contrast between the two documents revealed a widening split in American views of China. Carlson, together with his travelling companion, the New Zealander Rewi Alley, had become increasingly sympathetic to the Communists after visiting their territories in 1938 and admiring their discipline. Carlson described the Nationalists as moving toward "fascism," and argued that American aid should be conditioned on Chiang's government being compelled to adopt more "democratic" institutions.   Johnson strongly disagreed. It was "only normal and natural," he wrote, that the Nationalists wanted to retain power, but during the war they had established the National Political Consultative Council, in which multiple parties, including the Communists, were represented. He also noted that the CCP could publish its own newspaper in Chongqing in a way that would have been impossible before the war. One might have expected the Nationalists to use the war as a justification "to extinguish . . . all political opposition," yet instead they had chosen to "muddle along." Johnson further thought that the influence of competing cliques inside the Nationalist Party had been overstated. Chiang Kai-shek, by contrast, had "grown in stature, as he has come to be recognized as the symbol of united resistance to Japanese encroachment"; ultimately, "it is he who makes the final decisions." Johnson did agree with Carlson that Chiang's regime was hesitant to encourage a broad-based popular movement animated by anything beyond anti-Japanese feeling, though he also pointed to Nationalist cooperative programs and county-level reforms. But he rejected the idea that American support should depend on sweeping political transformation. Chiang was committed to continuing the war against Japan, and Washington should back him in that effort. In a notably farsighted passage, Johnson wrote: "It is my view that since the fall of the Manchu dynasty and the collapse of the traditional Chinese concept of government the Chinese people have been feeling their way along toward a new evolving form of government. A definitive form of government has not yet been established and may not be established for decades; it may or may not be in the form of a democracy, but it will be a type of government that will be adapted to the needs of China and its people." The tension between these two American interpretations,  Carlson's idealized belief in the Communists and Johnson's pragmatic support for Chiang was more than a minor bureaucratic dispute. It foreshadowed a debate that would dominate American foreign policy for the next decade, and would still echo when the People's Republic was proclaimed in 1949.   The disastrous experience of 1940 seemed to cast doubt on whether any future for China existed outside the Japanese Empire. As 1941 wore on, another dreadful event shook the exhausted wartime capital. On June 5, Chongqing endured roughly five hours of bombing, driving the population into air-raid shelters. In one tunnel in the Shibati district, the conditions were even worse than usual. The large shelter was supposed to have lights and electric fans, but the generators had never been connected. Inside, the air was dark, hot, and suffocating. Around ten that evening, people began emerging from the tunnel when rumors spread that the Japanese were returning with poison-gas bombs. Air-raid wardens forced people back inside, even as others were still trying to come out. Bodies toppled over one another, and panic spread as people realized they could not breathe. Over the next few hours, hundreds died underground in the darkness. The exact number was never definitively established: the official figure was 461, though a contemporary police report placed it far higher, at 1,527. What rescuers remembered most vividly were the tortured expressions of the dead, people tangled together in each other's arms as they lost consciousness, clothing ripped to shreds by desperate hands clawing at one another, and bodies so drenched in sweat that they looked as though they had been soaked in water. One survivor, Tang Zhengchang, remembered a hand reaching out from a pile of corpses and pleading, "Sir, please help me . . ." The grip on Tang's shorts was so tight that it pulled them off; he escaped the tunnel naked from the waist down. Official descriptions of the disaster were softened. Even so, the tragedy deepened the city's gloom and in a place already saturated with grief, an added layer of darkness mattered a great deal.   Yet events elsewhere would soon offer the National Government a narrow margin of hope. Late in 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt won re-election as president of the United States. "I am not going to send your boys into any foreign wars," he had proclaimed during the campaign against Wendell Willkie. But Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull both understood that Nazi domination of Europe posed a grave challenge to American influence there. And with China's "Open Door" to trade effectively shut by Japanese occupation, it was becoming increasingly clear that strict neutrality might not remain viable. In a 1941 report on China's domestic and foreign situation, Ambassador Johnson noted that during Germany's sweeping victories across Europe in mid-1940, the Chinese had become anxious about whether the Allies would remain committed to their cause. Britain's refusal to surrender, however, together with continuing Soviet goodwill, lifted public morale in China. People now looked toward the United States and Britain for support and felt that "victory" was "virtually theirs."   Then, on June 22, 1941, the world awoke to news that roughly three million German soldiers were advancing into the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa, Hitler's invasion of the USSR, dramatically overturned the nonaggression that had governed relations between the two major European dictatorships for the previous two years. It transformed the war in Europe entirely. Less obviously, it also transformed the war in Asia. Thanks to intelligence leaks, Chiang Kai-shek had already realized that war between Germany and the USSR was likely. After the neutrality treaty between the USSR and Japan was signed on April 13, 1941, Chiang predicted that the United States would be drawn into the Asian war, and even that Japan might eventually reverse course and strike the Soviet Union. If that happened, China would become the critical Asian ally of both Washington and Moscow. Stalin had been caught off guard by the German assault — largely because he ignored increasingly urgent warnings from senior colleagues receiving intelligence from well-placed spies in Germany and the Comintern, eager to preserve its alliances, now pressed the Chinese Communists to cooperate more closely with the Nationalists. On June 23, 1941, the CCP Central Committee responded with a declaration that it would "persevere in the Anti-Japanese United Front, persevere in Nationalist-Communist cooperation," and would align itself with the British, the Americans, and others resisting the "fascist rulers" of the Axis.   In Chongqing and Yan'an, the German attack on the Soviet Union was interpreted as a hopeful sign that Japan's fortunes might be beginning to turn. In Nanjing, the reaction was different. On June 22, Zhou Fohai recorded in his diary that, although the outcome "cannot be predicted," members of the Nanjing regime "all believe Germany will win and will take Moscow within two months." Zhou speculated that Japan could not easily reconcile its neutrality treaty with the USSR and its membership in the Anti-Comintern Pact, which was supposed to unite the Axis against Soviet expansionism. Still, because Germany had struck first, Japan was under no formal obligation to help. Zhou also continued to view events through a lens he had never abandoned: that of Chinese nationalism. "If Chongqing joins the Allies and they win," he wrote, "then this is good for China." If they lost, it would be disastrous for Chiang Kai-shek; but because Wang Jingwei had established a government in Nanjing under Japanese sponsorship, China now had "a foot in both boats." It was a ruthless calculation, but not a wholly dishonorable one. Zhou was not merely advancing Japanese interests. He was hedging, wagering on multiple futures in the name of a China he believed would endure beyond whatever constellation of powers happened to dominate at the moment. Whether posterity would judge that conduct prudent or collaborative was a question he could neither settle nor live to see resolved to his satisfaction.   The summer of 1941 marked a major geopolitical turning point in the war. Until then, the conflicts in China and Europe had remained separate, if desperate, struggles on the Eurasian continent. Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union now forced Japan to decide whether it too would enter war against the USSR. Debate in Tokyo was brief. Although some officials, including Foreign Minister Matsuoka, favored striking north before moving south, both the Kwantung Army and the Navy advised against helping Germany at least until Germany had succeeded in drawing substantial Soviet forces away from Siberia and into Europe. Konoye, once again prime minister, agreed. With the northern option set aside, Japanese leaders turned toward another great power instead: the United States. Japan's failure to gain further decisive momentum in China had fueled demands for broader regional expansion, especially into Southeast Asia, with its abundant oil, rubber, and other strategic resources. From 1940 onward, measures such as the pressure to close the Burma Road made it increasingly obvious that Tokyo had adopted a more aggressive posture in Asia. Unable to subdue China, Japanese policymakers chose instead to escalate the conflict still further.   Japanese political life had become ever more dominated by the unresolved war in China. As early as 1938, military expenditures consumed about 70 percent of the national budget, and that same year a National Mobilization Bill granted the government "total war control" over the zaibatsu, Japan's major industrial conglomerates. By 1940, the New Order was making itself felt throughout everyday life, with campaigns against luxury and extravagant consumption taking on new prominence. In February 1940, a parliamentarian was expelled from the Diet simply for daring to criticize the "holy war" in China. In such an atmosphere, retreat from imperial ambitions became increasingly unthinkable. That figure, 70 percent of the national budget devoted to the military is worth dwelling on, because it reveals something essential about the trap in which Japanese strategists had placed themselves. The war in China had not been won, yet abandoning it would have meant admitting a failure so severe that it would have shaken the ideological and institutional foundations of military supremacy in Japanese politics. The only apparent ways out required pushing further in: more conquest, more extraction, more expansion. The logic was brutally clear, and profoundly destructive.   The Roosevelt administration watched these developments with growing alarm. Though still formally neutral, the United States was already using Lend-Lease to provide major assistance to Britain and the Soviet Union in their struggles against Germany. It now expanded aid to China as well. On February 10, Roosevelt's representative Lauchlin Currie visited Chongqing to inform Chiang Kai-shek that the United States would soon provide $45 million in military equipment. General John Magruder, head of the small AMMISCA mission,  the American Military Mission in China had been sent to Chongqing in September 1941, as part of quiet preparation for possible Chinese entry into an alliance against Japan. The China branch of the OSS, precursor to the CIA, was led by General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, whom Roosevelt had dispatched to China in early 1941.   The Americans repeatedly tried to discourage Japan from moving south into Southeast Asia, but relations only grew more confrontational. Japan occupied the southern part of French Indochina, and in response the United States imposed an oil embargo in July 1941. The consequences were immense. Japan imported around 80 percent of its oil from the United States. Without that supply, its navy, the essential instrument for southern expansion  had reserves for perhaps eighteen months. The real question facing Tokyo, then, was not whether it must act, but how soon. Unable any longer to resist mounting military pressure for war, Konoye resigned on October 16 and was replaced as premier by General Tōjō Hideki. Tokyo accelerated its preparations for conflict with the Western powers. Planned targets included Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, and the Philippines. I should note, if you want to learn about all of this history in more detail, you can go check out the pacific war channel on youtube. I have a chronological series that is just now talking about events like the Japanese invasion of french indochina and the road to pearl harbor.   Throughout the autumn of 1941, increasingly desperate negotiations took place between Japan and the United States. Washington insisted that Japan withdraw from China; Tokyo was equally firm that it would do no such thing. From the Japanese point of view, the demand to leave China was not a serious negotiating position but a demand for national humiliation a call to repudiate four years of war, vast casualties, and the ideological basis of Japanese militarism in a single diplomatic act. In the end, the gulf between the two positions could not be bridged.   While civilian and military leaders in Tokyo argued over the pace at which they should move toward war, few among Japan's rulers doubted that war was coming. At the imperial conference of November 5, it was formally agreed that if no satisfactory diplomatic solution had been reached by December 1, war would follow soon after. Talks in Washington between Ambassador Nomura Kichisaburō, diplomat Kurusu Saburō, and Secretary of State Cordell Hull led nowhere. On November 26, Hull delivered a note repeating the American position that Japan must withdraw from both China and Indochina. On December 1, the imperial conference resolved to go to war; the following day, the date of attack was fixed as December 8, December 7 by American time. In one sense, this was the culmination toward which the entire previous decade had been moving. The war in China had started as a localized conflict, then expanded into a continental one, and was now about to become something larger still: a truly global war, stretching from the North Atlantic to the western Pacific. China's long, lonely resistance would suddenly gain new dimensions and new allies,  though not the ones Chiang had spent four years trying to cultivate, and not under circumstances he would have chosen.   In the early morning of December 7, 1941, the US Pacific Fleet lay anchored at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, its sailors and officers still largely asleep as dawn crept across the Pacific. The attack did not come without warning signs,  American and Japanese diplomats had been locked in increasingly desperate negotiations throughout the autumn, each side hardening its position until no room remained to maneuver. Washington had demanded that Japan withdraw from China, a condition Tokyo viewed not as a serious opening offer but as a demand for national humiliation: a call to repudiate four years of brutal war, hundreds of thousands of casualties, and the entire ideological foundation upon which Japanese militarism rested. No agreement was possible on those terms, and both sides privately knew it.   The strike force assembled in secret was formidable. Six aircraft carriers,  the Akagi, Kaga, Sōryū, Hiryū, Shōkaku, and Zuikaku had sailed under strict radio silence across the North Pacific, launching their aircraft in two successive waves before the American base had any meaningful chance to respond. The first wave of approximately 183 planes swept in just before 8 a.m., targeting the rows of battleships moored along Battleship Row and the military airfields at Wheeler, Hickam, and Ford Island simultaneously, ensuring that American aircraft could not scramble in time to mount an effective defense. A second wave of roughly 170 planes followed less than an hour later, pressing the attack on damaged ships and harbor installations.   The destruction was staggering. The battleship Arizona suffered a catastrophic magazine explosion after a armor-piercing bomb penetrated her forward decks, killing nearly 1,177 of her crew in minutes, almost half of the total American dead from the entire attack. The Oklahoma capsized after being struck by multiple torpedoes. The West Virginia and California sank at their moorings. In total, seventeen vessels were damaged or destroyed, and the vast majority of military aircraft at the nearby airfields were caught on the ground and obliterated before they could take flight. Around 2,400 Americans were killed and another 1,100 wounded, making it the deadliest single attack on American soil or territory in the nation's history to that point.   Yet the attack was not a complete strategic success for Japan. The US Pacific Fleet's aircraft carriers, the vessels that would ultimately decide the naval war in the Pacific happened to be at sea that morning and escaped unharmed. The harbor's fuel storage and repair facilities were also left largely intact, allowing the fleet to reconstitute faster than Japanese planners had anticipated. What Japan achieved in tactical devastation, it partly squandered in strategic miscalculation. The attack ended American neutrality instantly and irrevocably. The following day, President Roosevelt addressed Congress, calling December 7 "a date which will live in infamy," and within hours the United States declared war on Japan. For China, after more than four years of fighting alone, the blow that devastated Pearl Harbor paradoxically carried a thread of desperate hope at last, the great power Chiang Kai-shek had spent years trying to draw into the conflict had arrived, not under circumstances he would have chosen, but arrived nonetheless. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. After years of fighting, China's situation darkened in 1941 with intense bombing of Chongqing and fears of poison-gas attacks. Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June shifted alliances and pressured Japan toward wider war. Japan escalated plans for Southeast Asia, suffered an oil embargo, and negotiations with the United States broke down over withdrawing from China and Indochina. Then the Pearl Harbor attack began the Pacific War.

Welcome to this episode of The New Warehouse Podcast, recorded at Traba's Manhattan office. Kevin is joined by Akshay Buddiga, co-founder and CTO of Traba, and engineering director Jeff Chen. Traba began by using technology and operational support to improve industrial staffing. Its next evolution is Neo, an AI operating system built for the industrial supply chain. Buddiga and Chen explain how AI agents differ from chatbots, connect fragmented warehouse systems, and reshape the relationship between people, automation, and warehouse intelligence.Learn more about Pallite here.Learn more about Big Joe's AP44 here. Follow us on LinkedIn and YouTube.Support the show

Weniger Einnahmen, geringere Vertragsfreiheit der Flächeneigentümer, Einbremsung der Energiewende: Das kann der Pachtpreisdeckel im EEG-Entwurf bewirken. Bauernverbände fordern nun seine Streichung.

Bill Horan talks with Benjamin Chen, author of LESSONS FROM THE MAT. Benjamin will discuss why the concept of Seiryoku-Zenyo (which means maximum efficiency, minimum effort) is so important, what are the 4 kinds of knowing, why stillness is the first principle, and why alignment is the key to all of our success.

20 minute podcast between myself, Andy Lewter the author, and Dr. Chen, literary professor and host of the podcast, that discusses the contents of the book "Broken Promises".  The podcast explores the contents of the book with the actual Biblical narrative found in Genesis 38.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: From Artifact to Heart: A Curator's Qixi Festival Triumph Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-08-07-07-38-20-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 夏日的午后，阳光照在紫禁城的红墙黄瓦上，显得格外辉煌。En: On a summer afternoon, the sunlight shone on the red walls and yellow tiles of the Zijin Cheng, making it appear particularly magnificent.Zh: 李伟站在大殿中，心里充满期待和压力。En: Li Wei stood in the grand hall, filled with anticipation and pressure in his heart.Zh: 他是一名策展人，正筹备一个文化遗产展览。En: He was a curator preparing a cultural heritage exhibition.Zh: 这次展览不仅是他的工作，更是他向父亲证明自己的机会。他的父亲，是一位著名的历史学家。En: This exhibition was not only his job but also his chance to prove himself to his father, who was a renowned historian.Zh: 李伟的助手是小美和陈。En: Li Wei's assistants were Xiaomei and Chen.Zh: 他们三人一起工作，努力将展览做到最好。En: The three of them worked together, striving to make the exhibition the best it could be.Zh: 由于时间紧迫，展览准备工作变得很紧张。En: Due to tight timelines, the preparation for the exhibition became stressful.Zh: 李伟担心高温会影响到珍贵的文物。En: Li Wei was concerned that the high temperatures might affect the precious artifacts.Zh: 他想到了一个创新的气候控温技术，希望能保护好这些文物。En: He thought about an innovative climate control technology, hoping to protect these artifacts well.Zh: 小美有些怀疑：“李伟，这个方法行得通吗？”En: Xiaomei was somewhat skeptical: "Li Wei, will this method work?"Zh: 李伟看着满脸担忧的小美，坚定地说：“我们必须试一试，为了文物的安全，也为了展览的完美。”En: Looking at the worried face of Xiaomei, Li Wei firmly said, "We must try for the safety of the artifacts and the perfection of the exhibition."Zh: 离七夕节只剩一天了，李伟和他的团队决定彻夜工作。En: With only one day left until Qixi Festival, Li Wei and his team decided to work through the night.Zh: 夜色温柔地笼罩在紫禁城上空，李伟的心里却依旧紧张。En: The gentle night covered the skies above the Zijin Cheng, but Li Wei's heart remained tense.Zh: 他不停地检查文物的状况，确保不会有意外发生。En: He continuously checked the condition of the artifacts to ensure no accidents would occur.Zh: 然而，意外总是来得毫无预兆。En: However, accidents always come without warning.Zh: 展览当天，一件关键的文物因意外的湿度损坏。En: On the day of the exhibition, a critical artifact was damaged due to unexpected humidity.Zh: 李伟心里很焦急，他面前有两个选择：撤下这件文物，或者冒险将它展示出来。En: Li Wei was very anxious and faced two choices: remove the artifact or risk exhibiting it.Zh: 经过深思熟虑，他决定展示这件文物。En: After careful consideration, he decided to display the artifact.Zh: 他在文物旁加上一段解说，讲述文物的抗争与坚韧，并将其与人类的爱情和耐力联系起来。En: He added an explanation beside the artifact, narrating its resilience and struggle, linking it to human love and endurance.Zh: 这与七夕节的主题完美契合。En: This perfectly aligned with the theme of Qixi Festival.Zh: 当日，展览顺利结束。En: On that day, the exhibition ended smoothly.Zh: 观众们都对李伟的解说感动不已。En: The audience was deeply moved by Li Wei's explanation.Zh: 李伟不仅收获了掌声，还在人们心中刻下了文物与爱情故事的印记。En: He not only received applause but also made a lasting impression in people's hearts with the story of artifacts and love.Zh: 李伟站在展馆门口，享受着晚风带来的丝丝凉意。En: Standing at the entrance of the exhibition hall, Li Wei enjoyed the slight coolness brought by the evening breeze.Zh: 他突然明白，父亲的尊重，不在于他做了什么，而在于他是怎样用心去做。En: He suddenly understood that his father's respect did not lie in what he did but in how he did it with heart.Zh: 他微笑着，心中充满了信心与对未来的期待。En: He smiled, filled with confidence and anticipation for the future. Vocabulary Words:afternoon: 午后grand: 辉煌curator: 策展人anticipation: 期待renowned: 著名的timeline: 时间stressful: 紧张artifact: 文物innovative: 创新的climate: 气候skeptical: 怀疑perfection: 完美gentle: 温柔humidity: 湿度resilience: 抗争endurance: 耐力audience: 观众applause: 掌声impression: 印记breeze: 晚风slight: 丝丝confidence: 信心explain: 解说narrate: 讲述precious: 珍贵strive: 努力coverage: 笼罩anxious: 焦急consideration: 深思熟虑unexpected: 毫无预兆

In 1986, after more than six years behind bars, Chen Chu was released on parole. She immediately doubled down on Taiwan's democratic struggle. In Part Two, we trace her rise from dissident to political heavyweight. We cover her role in founding the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), the fallout from the Kaohsiung MRT migrant-worker scandal that cost her her job as labor chief, and her razor-thin victory in the 2006 mayoral race. She would go on to shape Kaohsiung for more than a decade, but her administration was not without controversy, most notably over the devastating 2014 gas explosions.Cover image shows Chen Chu at a final 2014 mayoral campaign rally in Fongshan, Kaohsiung. (By Eryk Michael Smith)

When Song loses her son River in the Beijing Train Station, she never gives up hope that they will be reuinited. River, a musical prodigy, never doubts that his mother is still out there looking for him. Chen Keller honors us to discuss this very special book that will grab you by your heart from the very first page. Readers will not have to wonder why LITTLE WONDER was picked by Jenna Bush and Oprah as one to read.

Today, Spencer Dalke discusses with Jac Marino Chen her remarkable journey from New Age spirituality, occult practices, astrology, tarot, and ritual magic to faith in Jesus Christ. Drawing from her personal story, Chen explains how ideas like manifestation, the law of attraction, crystal healing, and spiritual awakening can deceive people into darkness, while highlighting the life-changing power of Scripture, the Gospel, and biblical truth. If you've ever wondered about the rise of New Age beliefs, the spiritual realities behind the occult, or how Christians can lovingly engage those searching for meaning, this compelling conversation offers insight, hope, and practical wisdom for navigating today's spiritual landscape.  What is New Age spirituality?  Chen's story finding and exiting the New Age movement.  Following Christ from darkness into freedom and grace.  “They used Bible verses in rituals. I thought, ‘I'm really getting to know God.' That's why I say this all the time: It's so important to read the Bible for yourself and to be biblically literate.”  “I started ravenously reading [Scripture] from Genesis to Revelation. In New Age [spirituality], it's this endless quest for knowledge. I'm a seeker but never arriving. But in Christ, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.”  Featured work: Ensnared: Overcoming the Darkness of the New Age and Occult with the Light of God's Truth  Connect with Jac Marino Chen at JacMarino.com and on YouTube, Instagram, and more.  For more faith-filled, Gospel-centered content, download the Pilgrim Radio app today on Google Play and Apple, or stream at PilgrimRadio.com. 

Restaurants, Buvetten und Veranstaltende in Basel müssen bei einer Sturmwarnung den Betrieb unter Bäumen einstellen. Der Aufenthalt unter Bäumen stelle während eines Sturms eine Gefahr für Leib und Leben dar, schreibt der Kanton. Aufgrund der Trockenheit drohen Äste abzubrechen.

Are wearable devices like Fitbits, Apple Watches, and fitness trackers really worth it? In this episode of the “NASM CPT Podcast,” host Rick Richey dives deep into the science and practical truth behind modern wearable tech.

Society & Culture · Chen

Last time we spoke about autumn battle of Changsha. In late September and early October 1941, the Chinese commander Chen Cheng focused on Yichang, a crucial Yangtze stronghold whose loss would threaten China's position and the approach toward Chongqing. Chen Cheng's plan tightened a ring around the city while Chinese forces blocked Japanese reinforcement routes, including efforts to cut retreat lines at places like Jingmen and Dangyang. The battle's pressure was intensified by shifting momentum elsewhere. As the Japanese situation around Changsha became unstable—strained by supplies, exhaustion, and mounting casualties—the Japanese command began to withdraw north. Chiang Kai-shek used this to accelerate Chinese priorities, ordering rapid capture of Yichang within a tight deadline. Inside Yichang, the defense turned tragic as Japanese troops faced encirclement, heavy artillery barrages, and desperate street fighting.    #213 Blood, Rain, and Flags: The Last Struggle Around Yichang Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. While the struggle around Changsha occupied one half of the battlefield, another contest of equal consequence was taking shape farther west at Yichang. The two operations were not separate stories. They belonged to the same campaign, and each influenced the fate of the other. If Changsha was the city whose danger was plain to every observer, Yichang was the stronghold whose importance weighed most heavily on the calculations of commanders. In the autumn of 1941, the outcome in one place could not be understood without the other. For Chen Cheng, Yichang was more than a military objective. It was a wound that had never closed. The city stood on the Yangtze at a point of major strategic value, tied not only to communications and transport but also to the defense of the river approach toward the wartime capital. When Yichang had fallen in June 1940, it had done more than alter the front line. It had left behind humiliation. Three Japanese divisions—the 3rd, 13th, and 39th—had seized the city after twelve days and nights of intense fighting. At five in the afternoon on June 11, a unit of the Japanese 13th Division under Tanaka Seiichi had broken in from the southeast. Chinese troops of the 18th Army under Peng Shan and Luo Guangwen's 18th Division fought a savage close-quarters battle inside the city for a full day and night, while Japanese forces of the 3rd and 39th Divisions pressed from the north. At four in the afternoon on June 12, with Deng Ping's battalion covering the withdrawal, the Chinese finally pulled out and Yichang was lost. Men in high command do not always remember defeat in the same way as the men who fight through it. Soldiers tend to remember heat, hunger, the dead, or the exact corner where a friend fell. Commanders also remember those things, but they remember something else as well: failure recorded in the language of responsibility. Chen Cheng could not forget that twenty Chinese corps had been beaten by three Japanese divisions. At the time, Li Zongren had commanded the operation. Now the chance to erase that old disgrace seemed to be passing into Chen Cheng's own hands. On September 20, he received two telegrams, one from the Military Commission and one from Chiang Kai-shek himself. From that point onward, Yichang dominated his thoughts. By September 23, the Military Commission approved Chen's request to transfer the 33rd Army Group of the Fifth War Zone into the Sixth War Zone for the coming attack. On paper, his position seemed powerful. He now had fourteen divisions at his disposal. Yichang itself was held only by Uchiyama Eitaro's 13th Division and the Hayabuchi Detachment, together amounting to roughly sixteen thousand men. Even granting the usual Japanese superiority in training, firepower, communications, and local tactical cohesion, the Chinese possessed absolute numerical advantage. By September 28, the Chinese units had reached their attack positions, and Chen Cheng set his operational design in motion. The forces on the right bank were to attack first and pull the main body of the Japanese 39th Division southward. The 33rd Army would strike toward Jingmen and Dangyang in order to cut off the enemy's routes of retreat and reinforcement. Once these movements took hold, Yichang itself would be enclosed and crushed. Li Jilan's 94th Army, Li Yannian's 2nd Army, Song Kentang's 32nd Army, and other formations advanced according to plan. On paper the arrangement had clarity. On the ground it had resistance. The Japanese defended from strong fieldworks, and progress came slowly. Earthworks, wire, trenches, and mutually supporting positions transformed every apparent advance into hard labor. The Chinese pushed forward, but not with the speed Chen Cheng wanted. Even a favorable comparison of troop numbers could not cancel the fact that an entrenched Japanese force, once determined to hold, could impose a terrible price on assault. By October 1, Japanese troops outside Yichang began withdrawing into the city proper. Chen Cheng responded by ordering all troops to complete the encirclement. At last the operation seemed to be reaching the decisive stage. The city was tightening under pressure. The ring was nearly closed. Yet at that very moment time began pressing harder on both sides. On October 2, both Chen Cheng outside the city and Uchiyama inside it received telegrams that sharpened the crisis. The message sent from the Japanese 11th Army headquarters in Wuhan informed Uchiyama that the famous Tokyo Asakusa Art Troupe was coming to Yichang to comfort the front-line troops. The Expeditionary Army Headquarters in Nanjing had decided that, for political reasons, the troupe could not be turned back merely because combat conditions were dangerous. Their purpose was morale. That such a message could arrive at such a time reveals much about Japanese wartime culture. Appearances, spirit, ritual reassurance, and the emotional theater of endurance still had to be maintained even when military reality was worsening by the hour. The telegram that Chen Cheng received was very different. Chiang Kai-shek's order stated with brutal directness: the Japanese in northern Hunan had begun to withdraw, and Chen was ordered to spare no effort to capture Yichang within three days. Chen stared at the message for a long time. There was no need for explanation. He understood at once what Chiang meant. The battle for Yichang had already consumed days of hard fighting. Chinese units had suffered substantial losses. But the essential fact stood over every map and every order: if Japanese forces disengaging from northern Hunan reached Yichang in time to reinforce it, then all the effort already expended might amount to nothing. The battle had become not only a contest of strength, but a race. At nearly the same time, the command post of the Japanese 11th Army at Yueyang was confronting the other half of the same problem. On the night of September 30, the headquarters was brightly lit as Chief of Staff Isamu Kinoshita arranged reports, reconnaissance findings, and field messages before the army commander. The Japanese still possessed a valuable advantage: they had access to Chinese communication codes. But such intelligence could not solve every operational problem. It could not conjure food where there was none, restore exhausted bodies, or stop the battlefield from changing shape. By then the Japanese situation around Changsha had become increasingly unstable. The Hayabuchi Detachment, after entering the city, was entangled in fierce urban fighting with the Chinese 6th Provisional Division of the 79th Army. By the evening of September 30, neither side had eliminated the other inside the city. Outside Changsha, the Japanese 3rd, 4th, 6th, and 40th Divisions had assembled and kept major Chinese forces at bay. One element of the 3rd Division had even moved south by truck to Zhuzhou, fifty kilometers away, and occupied the abandoned city. Yet these outward signs of success concealed a serious weakness. The Japanese rear was fraying. Ammunition and food were running low. Divisions operating that deep in hostile territory could not sustain a prolonged campaign under such conditions. More than ten days of uninterrupted movement and fighting had also produced rising non-combat casualties. Men were collapsing from fatigue along the march. Sickness increased steadily. Units that had looked formidable on the offensive were beginning to wear thin from inside. At the same time, Chinese remnants from earlier defeats, new reinforcements, and formations that had regrouped after being thrown back were all watching for signs of weakness. Even if the Japanese divisions in Hunan still had the strength to fight several more actions, another question overrode everything else: Yichang. Yichang was not simply another point on the map. It was a strategic stronghold on the Yangtze and one of the key places from which Japan threatened Chongqing. The city also carried institutional memory. After its capture in June 1940, the occupying troops had initially been ordered to withdraw for rest and reorganization. But Imperial General Headquarters had reversed that decision almost at once and demanded that Yichang be held after all. Troops already on the road had to turn back and retake a city that had been burned, stripped, and rendered difficult to occupy. Among those who had insisted most strongly that Yichang must be retained was Anami Korechika, then vice minister of the army. Now Anami faced the consequence of that earlier insistence. However attractive the gains in Hunan might appear, Yichang could not simply be sacrificed. Uchiyama's 13th Division was not strong enough to hold indefinitely without relief. Anami looked at Hunan on the map—a rich province, beautiful and militarily tempting, much of it seeming almost within reach. But strategy does not reward attachment. With great reluctance, he gave the order to retreat. On the morning of October 1, all Japanese divisions received the reversal instructions, and at four in the afternoon they began moving north. For Xue Yue, this altered the entire meaning of the campaign. Since the beginning of the battle, he had known frustration, disappointment, and anger. Whatever private calculations he may have made about Chiang Kai-shek's strategic direction, Chen Cheng's political influence, his own mistakes in the earlier phase of operations, or the rivalries that had long poisoned Republican military life, none of those feelings prevented him from seeing the opportunity now before him. Once the Japanese turned north, pursuit was no longer merely a matter of salvaging dignity. It became an operational necessity tied directly to Yichang. His staff quickly drafted a pursuit order defining routes, timings, and methods. The document explicitly called for tracking and pursuing, interception, flanking movement, ambush, and surprise attack. This was not to be a ceremonial following of a retreating enemy at a respectful distance. It was meant to be pressure—enough pressure, if possible, to delay Japanese movement back toward Hubei. Two hours after Xue issued the order, another telegram arrived from Chongqing. Chiang Kai-shek instructed that since the enemy which had advanced into northern Hunan had begun retreating toward Yueyang on the night of October 1, the Ninth War Zone was to exploit their fatigue, pursue boldly, seize Yueyang if possible, sabotage the Wuyue Railway, and launch attacks, ambushes, and fierce strikes along the retreat route to prevent the Japanese from regaining their former defenses or shifting quickly toward Wuhan. The purpose was stated clearly: to facilitate the operations of the Third, Fifth, and Sixth War Zones. Xue Yue understood the message at once. The support provided by the Third and Fifth War Zones had been limited and often symbolic. The operation that truly mattered now was Chen Cheng's assault on Yichang. Pursuit in Hunan was not simply retaliation for the threat to Changsha. It was an attempt to buy time in blood, mud, and delay. He adjusted the pursuit deployment and ordered commanders at every level to go forward and supervise their units in person. Autumn rain began to fall over northern Hunan. Hills disappeared in mist and drizzle. Along the roads leading north moved Japanese soldiers under the Rising Sun flag; behind them and beside them, often through fields, villages, and broken country, moved Chinese troops under the Blue Sky, White Sun, and Red Earth flag. Their uniforms differed, their languages differed, their causes differed—but the exhaustion in their faces must often have looked terribly alike. Both armies moved through damp air, hunger, uncertainty, and the constant expectation of another clash. The pursuit, however, revealed the limits of Chinese strength as well as its persistence. On October 2, the battered remnants of the Chinese 74th and 26th Armies cleared battlefields along the Liuyang and Laodao Rivers and found no Japanese left there. The 74th withdrew to Liling to regroup. The 26th halted at Changle Street for replenishment. Yang Sen sent the whole 27th Army Group after the retreating enemy. Ou Zhen's 4th Army attempted to intercept the Japanese 40th Division, but the Japanese maneuvered skillfully and escaped. Ou Zhen pursued them north of the Miluo River for three days, reached the Changshui River, and found the south bank empty. The 20th Army tried to cut off the Japanese 6th Division at Fulipu. At first they could not even locate the enemy, but they did collect large amounts of matériel left behind. Deputy Commander Xia Jiong remarked, with rough optimism, that the Japanese were still "steaming hot" and would certainly be caught. His men ran hard, crossed the Miluo River, and finally did catch a rearguard. Yet the Japanese, intent only on getting away, adopted what Chinese accounts described as a low-key method of not retaliating and not becoming decisively engaged. After crossing Gaoqiao they withdrew into their previous defensive area, and Xia could do little more than stop, rest, and continue to watch them. The 58th Army intercepted more than two thousand Japanese troops near Guanwang Bridge. For a moment it seemed a major clash might erupt. Instead the Japanese fled, leaving behind large quantities of supplies. The Chinese followed them as far as Taolin and then halted when it became clear that the enemy had regained strong ground. These episodes were frustrating, but they were not meaningless. They showed that many Chinese formations had been too badly mauled in the earlier phase of the campaign to sustain relentless offensive pressure. They also showed that the Japanese, though in retreat, were still disciplined enough to avoid disastrous entanglements while shedding matériel to gain speed. The Chinese units that struck hardest during this phase were not those most damaged at the beginning of the battle, but fresher formations such as Xia Chuzhong's 79th Army and Fu Zhongfang's 99th Army. Xia's men ambushed the Hayabuchi Detachment and nearly destroyed it, killing two of its three battalion commanders. Fu's 99th Army fought a series of clashes with the Japanese 3rd and 6th Divisions and with the Hirano and Araki Detachments. The Japanese, eager to keep moving, absorbed losses rather than pause for extended battle. The 99th Army captured so much matériel that transporting it became a problem in itself. On October 4, a squad leader of the 197th Division even shot down an aircraft with machine-gun fire. Yet even here success had limits. By October 9, the entire Japanese force in northern Hunan had crossed the Xinqiang River and reoccupied its original positions. Chinese attacks achieved nothing decisive. The river once again became, in military imagination, almost a fixed frontier. As gunfire subsided in Xiangbei, all attention turned toward Yichang. The encirclement of the city was completed at noon on October 4. Chen Cheng ordered a general offensive to begin at four in the morning on October 6. Outside the city, Li Yannian's 2nd Army held fast against the Japanese 39th Division, which was trying to come in from Jingmen. Altogether, the Sixth War Zone had committed fourteen divisions—more than one hundred thousand men—to the operation. What followed was the familiar but always arresting spectacle of a great battle gathering itself. Small detachments moved forward to cut wire and destroy fortifications outside the city. Artillery officers adjusted their fire with care. Ammunition boxes changed hands continuously. Telephone operators hurried back and forth laying lines. Engineers worked with picks and shovels. Trucks forced their way down crowded roads with horns blaring. Boats were requisitioned along the riverbank, and dark-skinned boatmen weathered by the Yangtze wind moved among soldiers and officers. Behind the assault units stood medical stations under Red Cross flags, waiting for the wounded they knew were coming. All the machinery of battle was in motion. Inside Yichang, meanwhile, another scene unfolded that could only exist in wartime Japan's peculiar mixture of militarism and performance. At the field hospital of the Japanese 13th Division on the campus of Mingde Middle School, wounded soldiers wrapped in white bandages stood, sat, lay on stretchers, or leaned on medical orderlies in the yard watching entertainers from home perform while the dull rhythms of artillery sounded in the distance. The Asakusa Art Troupe had been founded in the mid-1920s and had made its name by combining modern popular elements with traditional stage culture. It had first won over ordinary audiences and then, as its reputation rose, gained acceptance among official and elite circles as well. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War, it was gradually folded into the machinery of wartime propaganda, performing works meant to praise sacrifice, glorify the empire, and strengthen morale. When the delegation of more than thirty members arrived at the 11th Army headquarters in Wuhan, the army added a military band of more than twenty men to accompany them to Yichang. But by the time they reached the city, the battle had already drawn close. They could not visit forward positions. Instead they performed for the wounded. The last performance featured heavily made-up young men and women dancing a popular folk number. As the dance continued, the women bowed and invited medics and wounded men who could still move to join them. Kimono and military uniform mixed. Smiles appeared beside bandages. Music from the home islands drifted out beneath the sound of an approaching siege. Then war interrupted the scene completely. Before dawn on October 6, Chinese artillery opened on Yichang with a deafening bombardment, and the cries of attack rolled over the city. As day came up, the troupe members watched stretchers being rushed into the field hospital where they had only recently performed. One of the sixteen-year-old twin geisha sisters, Mihoko, asked the troupe leader Akizuru through tears whether they would ever be able to return to Tokyo. Qiuhe, the famous dance artist in her fifties, answered gently that they would. General Anami, she said, was leading brave troops there and would arrive in the next few days. The child must pray. The reassurance was human, but it was also part of the wartime language of consolation. Outside the city, reality was harsher. For two days and nights the fighting remained severe. The Japanese fell back toward the edge of the city and resisted with desperation. The Japanese 3rd Air Regiment in Hankou committed itself heavily to the defense, flying sortie after sortie over Yichang. Aircraft came so often that some made four round trips in a single day. On the morning of October 8, a unit of the Chinese 94th Army crossed by boat from the west bank, bypassed the Gezhouba area, and landed at the northern end of Huangcaoba. Advancing south along the embankment, it established positions on the Yangtze side only about half a kilometer from the city. This foothold effectively dominated Japanese positions west of Yichang. Mortar rounds crossed the water. Heavy and light machine guns pinned the defenders outside the walls. At the same time, the 9th Division of the 32nd Army and part of the 99th Army pressed inward as well. The ring tightened. October 9 was grave for both sides. The Japanese withdrawal from northern Hunan had by now produced a relief force. Anami assembled elite troops from several divisions into a rapid deployment column for Yichang. For the Chinese Sixth War Zone, however, victory seemed very near. Inside the city the Japanese situation was increasingly desperate. Casualties were severe. The field hospital yard was filled with groaning wounded. Uchiyama summoned support personnel, medics, cooks, ordnance repairmen, and any wounded men still capable of firing. He armed them all and formed an improvised reserve. Then, while this force was assembling, he heard the sound of a trumpet. One of the band members, still practicing as if battle had not reached its climax, reminded him that the more than twenty members of the 11th Army band were also soldiers in uniform. He added them as well, creating a special unit of 388 men. Hundreds of sacks of rice were taken from storage and piled around division headquarters as fortifications. Uchiyama then turned to Chief of Staff Akinaga and said, "Let's not believe any miracles will happen." The line was bleak, but lucid. It meant that there would be no rescue through wishful thinking. If they lived, it would be because they held long enough. If they died, they would die without pretending that destiny had cheated them. Outside the city, Chen Cheng faced a different but equally harsh pressure. On October 2, Chiang Kai-shek had ordered Yichang taken within three days. On the 4th, Chen requested an extension until the 8th; Chiang agreed, but warned that because the Japanese were retreating from northern Hunan, the city must be captured by then or all previous effort would be wasted. Chen launched the general assault on the 6th, but fierce resistance on the ground and in the air slowed him. By the 8th, the city still had not fallen. He requested another extension, asking to take Yichang by October 10. This time Chiang sent no reply. Chen understood the silence. It meant that no political room remained behind him. At 2:30 in the morning on October 10, the Sixth War Zone opened another general offensive. One hundred and forty artillery pieces joined the bombardment. Shells fell across every part of the Japanese defenses until the repeated flashes made it hard for the gunners to tell what had not yet been hit. Then the infantry went in. Men shouted and surged forward like water breaking through a barrier. Hidden Japanese machine guns cut them down in wave after wave, but more men followed behind. The dead piled on the approaches so thickly that nationality itself seemed to vanish in blood and mud. Under that fire, dawn rose red. Uchiyama watched the sunrise from the highest building in the city, the three-story Yichang Bank. After the war, he told a reporter that the sky, the earth, and even the Yangtze had all seemed red to him, as if the river itself were carrying the blood of Chinese and Japanese alike. According to a later Japanese account, messages reached him from every side that morning reporting collapse. Roughly 5000 men were estimated killed or seriously wounded. At eight o'clock Uchiyama went down to the operations room. Waiting there were his chief of staff and senior officers. At that moment the final ritual of battlefield defeat began. A farewell telegram to Anami Korechika was read aloud. Nearby stood the regimental flag of the 104th Regiment, entrusted to Captain Izumi Shigeru before the regiment's complete destruction. Uchiyama then took the 13th Division's own flag—the imperial military color—and laid it over the regimental flag. Officers and men wept, removed their caps, and bowed their heads. Uchiyama's hands trembled so badly that it took him three matches to set the flag alight. In Japanese military culture, burning a flag was among the sternest rites of defeat. The flag could not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. To destroy it was to acknowledge annihilation while presenting that annihilation as a final offering to the imperial state. When the flags had burned and places for seppuku had been chosen, the farewell message remained. It declared that all officers and soldiers had done their utmost for the empire in the final struggle, that military flags, confidential documents, and imperial edicts had been burned, and that it was deeply regrettable that overseas Chinese and the delegation in Yichang had also suffered this fate. Uchiyama then added one final sentence in red pencil: the soldiers of the empire had fulfilled their duty and died for their country amidst the heroic cries of "Long live the Grand Marshal!" At 8:50 the clerk began encoding the telegram. Then Uchiyama said quietly to the officers waiting to die: "Please wait a little longer." The words postponed death by minutes. There was still the narrow possibility that communication mattered, or that the battle had not yet reached its absolute end. Chief of Staff Akinaga summoned his adjutant, Sakata Ryūshirō, and ordered that if the division commander and chief of staff died before the telegram was sent, Sakata was to form a suicide squad, break out by any means possible, and report the division's fate to 11th Army headquarters. At ten in the morning, the Japanese 39th Division attacking from Jingmen launched a new assault under Anami's strict orders against Li Yannian's 2nd Army. One regiment used poison gas to break through part of the Chinese line and reached the outskirts of Yichang. Chen Cheng personally directed the Chinese response, using elements of the attacking force and the 2nd Army to surround and beat back the thrust. By two in the afternoon, only the Dongshan Temple line remained intact among the different sectors of the Japanese city defense. Chinese troops had penetrated the city and were fighting bitterly in the streets, moving steadily toward division headquarters. At four in the afternoon, more than 2000 Japanese rapid deployment troops from northern Hunan reached the northeast approaches of Yichang and at once joined the relief effort. Chen Cheng threw reserves in to block them, and both sides locked in combat six kilometers outside the city. As dusk fell, the Chinese assault units in the city had also suffered terrible losses. Chen Cheng ordered them to regroup, replenish, and launch a final attack after dark. Then, at seven in the evening, almost as the order was issued, a violent gale rose and torrential rain began to fall. Such heavy rain was unusual in the Yichang area in October, and to men who had been living for days under the pressure of siege, death, and deadline, it must have seemed uncanny. The Chinese attacked through the downpour, but progress was painfully slow. At the same time, more than ten thousand Japanese troops arriving from northern Hunan reached the outskirts, fought for over two hours in the rain, and finally broke into the city, linking up with what remained of the 13th Division. At eleven that night, Chiang Kai-shek ordered the attack on Yichang halted and instructed the Chinese troops to return to their original defensive positions. The battle ended not in a clear verdict, but in exhaustion. One elderly resident of Yichang, Huang Jupu, later left a memory of the aftermath more vivid than any headquarters summary. He recalled that the heavy rain began at nightfall on the twentieth day of the eighth lunar month—October 10 in the Gregorian calendar—and continued into the next afternoon. Rainwater soaked the corpses lying in the streets until the water became a deep brownish-red pool more than two feet deep before it drained into the Yangtze and changed the river's color. The next day, he said, both sides sent corpse-collection teams into the streets under Red Cross flags. They pushed carts and worked separately, avoiding conflict, though sometimes they spoke to one another when trying to identify bodies. The Japanese recovery party included Chinese helpers and local residents. They turned corpses over, looked at clothing and weapons, and tried to determine nationality. Some bodies were naked, perhaps stripped wounded, which made identification harder. Since Chinese and Japanese could resemble one another, neither side wanted to take the wrong dead, fearing that a mistake would disturb the heroic souls to whom each army believed it owed proper burial. In the end, Huang remembered, it was the people of Yichang who pooled their money to bury many of the dead north of the city. Later an unmarked stone was raised there, with a bowl of rice and a stick of incense set before it. That image does something military history often fails to do. It restores weight to the end of battle. Armies issue attack orders, counterattack orders, pursuit orders, and retreat orders. Staff officers mark arrows on maps. Commanders calculate reinforcement and delay. But after all of that comes the business of soaked bodies in the street, identification, carts, shallow graves, and local people forced to do what armies can no longer fully do for their own dead. Seen as a whole, the operations in Hunan and Hubei during these weeks form one connected historical drama. The Japanese advance toward Changsha was real and dangerous, but it failed to produce decisive strategic gain. The battle strained the Chinese defense badly. Some units collapsed. Others improvised and recovered. The city was entered, contested, and then fought over again. Behind the forward line, Chinese forces such as Yang Sen's 27th Army Group harassed Japanese communications and supply, turning depth into vulnerability. At the same time, Chen Cheng's offensive against Yichang transformed what might otherwise have remained a local success for Japan in Hunan into a strategic dilemma. Once Yichang came seriously under threat, the Japanese command could not continue to treat the Hunan offensive as self-contained. It had to weigh possession against preservation, momentum against strategic necessity. That calculation compelled the retreat from northern Hunan. The retreat in turn changed the meaning of Xue Yue's operations. Pursuit became valuable not mainly because it might recover wounded pride or even because it might damage the retreating enemy, but because every hour of delay imposed on Japanese units moving north was another hour in which Yichang might fall. Yet Yichang did not fall. That fact is central, but it must be interpreted carefully. Chen Cheng had numerical superiority and fought with determination, but numbers alone could not cancel the difficulty of assaulting a fortified Japanese position under air attack and against fanatical resistance. Time worked against him. Every day lost increased the chance that Japanese relief would arrive from Hunan. Chiang Kai-shek's increasingly urgent telegrams reflected strategic logic, but they could not abolish battlefield reality. Men still had to cross open ground, cut wire, silence guns, and survive fire. Inside Yichang, Uchiyama's defense reveals the same pressure from the opposite side. He understood that his task was simple in principle and terrible in practice: hold until relief arrived. That necessity drove him to arm cooks, medics, repairmen, musicians, and wounded men. It drove him to build fortifications from sacks of rice. It brought him to the point of burning flags and preparing for ritual death while still delaying the final act long enough to see whether rescue might come. The presence of the Asakusa Art Troupe inside the besieged city sharpened the tragedy. They had been sent for morale and appearance, as if cultural performance might reassure an empire already growing anxious about the costs of war. Instead they became trapped witnesses to near-annihilation. The young girl asking if she would ever return to Tokyo cuts through all rhetoric. It is the ordinary human question that waits behind every doctrine of heroic sacrifice. In the end, neither side obtained everything it sought. Japan failed to turn its push into Hunan into a decisive result. China failed to retake Yichang despite concentration of force and a window of opportunity that for a time seemed very real. But that does not mean the campaign resolves into stalemate in any empty sense. It revealed important truths. For China, it showed both weakness and development. Weakness appeared in broken lines, uneven coordination, exhausted pursuit, and the inability to convert superiority in numbers into victory at Yichang. But development appeared too: a greater ability to coordinate war zones, to pressure Japanese rear areas, to force the enemy into strategic compromise, and to sustain resistance under conditions that would once have threatened outright collapse. For Japan, the campaign exposed the narrowing gap between aggressive offensive action and dangerous overextension. Japanese divisions could still strike hard, move with speed, and defend with ferocity. Their aircraft could still exact terrible cost. But logistics, fatigue, sickness, and the obligation to rescue threatened positions like Yichang increasingly limited what offensive success could mean. The deepest memory of the campaign may belong not to generals, however, but to the smaller figures history often notices only in passing: the soldier chewing dry ration without water; the wounded man who blew himself up rather than submit; the old beggar who revealed a depot; the band member still practicing trumpet in a city preparing for death; the frightened girl from the troupe; the townspeople who buried the dead after rain washed blood into the Yangtze. These are not decorative details. They are what make the history real. The autumn of 1941 in Hunan and Hubei was not one clean victory, nor one clean defeat. It was a season in which pressure in one sector altered decision in another, in which tactical success did not always yield strategic reward, and in which endurance itself increasingly became a form of power. That is why the campaign matters. It shows a war whose balance had begun to change, not dramatically or conclusively, but perceptibly. China still suffered, improvised, and fell short. Japan still advanced, struck hard, and held important ground. Yet the margin between them was no longer what it had been in the earlier years of the war. History moved that autumn not by omen or destiny, but by the hard materials of war: supply, timing, weather, command, fatigue, communications, morale, and blood. In Hunan and Hubei, all of those forces converged. They carried armies north and west, into cities and out again, across rivers, through rain, and finally into memory. I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. As Chinese pressure tightened, Japan's wider situation around Changsha deteriorated—fatigue, supply strain, and losses accumulated. When the Japanese began retreating north, relief efforts turned Yichang into a desperate struggle marked by shifting fronts, poison gas, street fighting, and heavy bombardment. Chiang Kai-shek demanded a deadline, forcing Chen into final assaults that ultimately failed to secure a clean victory.  

The New Age movement is more popular than ever. Practices like tarot cards, crystals, manifestation, astrology, energy healing, and spirit guides are often presented as harmless tools for personal growth. But what does the Bible say? In this episode, I sit down with Jac Marino Chen, author of Ensnared: Overcoming the Darkness of the New Age and Occult with the Light of God's Truth, to hear her powerful testimony of how Jesus rescued her from a life immersed in the occult, ritual magick, addiction, and spiritual deception. Jac's explanation of the gospel was so powerful it brought tears to my eyes. I know you'll walk away from this conversation encouraged and reminded that while the occult is real and spiritually dangerous, it is no match for the saving power of Jesus Christ. No one is beyond His reach. God is still breaking through the darkness, setting captives free, and transforming lives by His grace. Jac Marino Instagram Find Shanda www.shandafulbright.com Instagram & Facebook: @shandafulbright Email: hello@shandafulbright.com Free Resources: https://shandafulbright.com/links YouTube: http://bit.ly/ShandaYT2021 Store: www.Shandafulbright.com/shop  

Sophie Chen Keller joins Carol Fitzgerald to talk about her latest novel, LITTLE WONDER, which was published by Jenna Bush Hager's imprint, Thousand Voices. It is an Oprah's Book Club pick and a Bookreporter Bets On selection. Song, a migrant worker, and her 11-year-old piano prodigy son, River, are separated in a massive crowd at a Beijing train station on the busiest travel day of the year. The story follows both characters over the years as they search for each other while building separate lives. Sophie describes LITTLE WONDER as being about motherhood, music, and the love between a mother and a child. She shares that she was born in rural northeastern China, was raised in the US, lived in Beijing, and is now residing in Germany. Her own experiences as a mother and a pianist deeply informed the novel. Carol and Sophie's conversation also touches on themes of longing, stage fright, social inequality in China, and the COVID-19 pandemic as portrayed in the book. And yes, Sophie explains what she was doing when she got the call from Oprah. The interview that Oprah taped with Sophie was her first real exposure to reader reactions. She found the audience's questions to be surprising and insightful as they made connections she had not anticipated. Our Latest "Bookreporter Talks To" Interviews: Ben Reeves: https://youtu.be/Jsr5c3WQPuQ Rachel Beanland: https://youtu.be/6Piw8q7pGkc Lisa Scottolin: https://youtu.be/9MsfXILFZ_Y John Searles: https://youtu.be/LA2gXPoc_zk Jenny Jackson: https://youtu.be/V116A5eBBBE Beatriz Williams: https://youtu.be/d554V2bGHSQ Lori Foster: https://youtu.be/C2xlNPgKjm0 Lisa See: https://youtu.be/5UpTJ_YAnxE Our Latest "Bookaccino Live" Book Group Events: Bruce Holsinger: https://youtu.be/wwQjtlPePBQ Wally Lamb: https://youtu.be/-eMtMznKoVE Laura Dave: https://youtu.be/RRWrSjdxyrc Lisa Ridzén: https://youtu.be/dleYdLoh0bY Patrick Ryan: https://youtu.be/keazeWK1lto Lily King: https://youtu.be/_yo2x2ZA0B0 Sign up for newsletters from Bookreporter and Reading Group Guides here: https://tbrnetwork.com/newsletters/ FOLLOW US on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookreporter Website: https://www.bookreporter.com Art Credit: Tom Fitzgerald Edited by Jordan Redd Productions

In this episode of “Research Ethics Reimagined,” we speak with Willyanne DeCormier Plosky, DrPH, and Blythe Chen, MPH, of The Multi-Regional Clinical Trials Center of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard (MRCT Center) about the evolving legal landscape for clinical trials following the 2022 Dobbs decision, and how varying state laws around reproductive health create new privacy considerations for participants. The guests describe MRCT Center's related research and their Pregnancy Privacy Protections for Participants (P4) Toolkit, a set of resources designed to help researchers and Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) improve informed consent language and communicate clearly with participants.

Send us Fan MailWhat were some of the biggest metastatic breast cancer updates from the 2026 ASCO Annual Meeting and which findings are already changing care?In this episode of OUR MBC Life, Dr. Chen breaks down key research findings and what they mean for people living with metastatic breast cancer. This episode also includes a Q & A featuring questions from our community about treatment,  side effects and what these new advances mean for people living with metastatic breast cancer.We're so happy you joined us! If this conversation resonated with you please share it with someone who might need it. Don't forget to like and subscribe here to follow us on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. You can find more episodes, resources and ways to get involved on our website Our MBC Life. Have a topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at ourmbclife@sharecancersupport.org. And don't forget to follow us on our socials @ourmbclife. Remember you are not alone.

Many women move through major life transitions without getting clear information about what's happening in their own bodies. Whether it's conversations about painful periods or menopause, fertility or contraceptives, these topics affect millions of people everyday, but they are difficult to talk about openly. In this episode, Shoshana sharesthree TED Ed lessons centered around women's health help you understand your body better.Talks featuredWhat is vaginal discharge, and what does it say about your health? | Elizabeth Micks3 things that can cause painful periods | Chen X. ChenHow does the morning-after pill prevent pregnancy? | Alison Edelman Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Are you spending a fortune on complex skincare routines but still struggling with acne, inflammation, or dull skin? In this episode of Beauty Bytes, I am joined by Dr. Felice Chen, a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), neuroscientist, and the co-founder of the holistic skincare brand Moonbow. Dr. Chen bridges the gap between Eastern and Western philosophies, explaining why you can only truly heal your skin when your nervous system feels calm and safe. We discuss the ancient practice of facial mapping, revealing how breakouts on specific areas of your face—like your chin or between your eyes—directly correspond to internal inflammation in organs like the uterus or liver.  Dr. Chen also shares actionable holistic advice to help modern audiences calm their chronic fight-or-flight responses. We dive into why you should stop drinking ice water, the specific herbal teas that detox the liver and balance the blood, and how you can manually stimulate your vagus nerve at home without acupuncture needles. If you want to stop fighting your body and start healing it from the root cause, this conversation will completely change your approach to wellness and beauty.  Guest Information: Dr. Felice Chen is a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor and the co-founder of Moonbow. You can explore her holistic skincare line at moonbowskin.com or visit her integrative clinic, Felice Acupuncture, located in Culver City. 

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Hidden Trails and Ancient Tales: Mei and Chen's Taishan Adventure Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-07-27-07-38-19-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 夏天的泰山，天空湛蓝，空气清新。En: In the summer, Taishan, the sky is azure, the air fresh.Zh: 学校组织了一次游览活动，梅和陈站在广场上。En: The school organized a field trip, and Mei and Chen stood in the square.Zh: 周围是古老的石阶和高耸的庙宇。En: Surrounding them were ancient stone steps and towering temples.Zh: 梅充满好奇，她想知道这里的历史和传说。En: Mei was full of curiosity; she wanted to know the history and legends of this place.Zh: 而陈显得有些不耐烦，他觉得冒险比听老师讲解有趣得多。En: Yet, Chen appeared somewhat impatient, finding adventure far more interesting than listening to the teacher's explanation.Zh: 导游带领大家上山，讲述泰山的神圣历史。En: The tour guide led everyone up the mountain, narrating the sacred history of Taishan.Zh: 梅听得入神，她想象古代朝圣者如何一步步攀登，希望能够在这里找到内心的宁静。En: Mei listened intently, imagining how ancient pilgrims climbed step by step, hoping to find inner peace here.Zh: 陈在一旁，不时地看看周围，心思早已飞到那些神秘的小路上。En: Meanwhile, Chen glanced around, his mind already wandering to those mysterious trails.Zh: 走到半坡，陈拉着梅，小声说：“我们从这条小路走吧，那边看起来更有趣。”En: Midway up, Chen tugged at Mei, whispering, ""Let's take this path. It looks more interesting over there."Zh: 梅心里犹豫，她知道跟着导师能学到很多，但冒险的诱惑同样吸引着她。En: Mei hesitated; she knew she could learn a lot from the guide, but the lure of adventure was equally tempting.Zh: 梅看向陈，眼里写满了期待。En: She looked at Chen, her eyes full of anticipation.Zh: 最终，她决定跟随陈。En: Ultimately, she decided to follow Chen.Zh: 他们悄悄脱离了队伍，沿着一条不为人知的小路攀爬。En: They quietly slipped away from the group, climbing along a lesser-known trail.Zh: 山间的小径崎岖不平，但他们走得很快。En: The mountain path was rugged and uneven, but they moved quickly.Zh: 阳光透过树叶洒在身上，温暖而明亮。En: Sunlight filtered through the leaves, warm and bright on their bodies.Zh: 不久后，他们来到一个山顶，眼前是一片极美的风景。En: Before long, they reached a mountaintop, revealing a stunning landscape.Zh: 远处的山连成一线，近处的松柏绿意盎然。En: Distant mountains lined up on the horizon while nearby pine trees were lush and vibrant.Zh: 两人坐在石头上，一边欣赏风景，一边享受这短暂的宁静时光。En: The two sat on a rock, admiring the view and enjoying a moment of tranquility.Zh: 梅感受到了一种不同的愉悦，她明白了陈所说的冒险的价值。En: Mei felt a different kind of joy and understood the value of the adventure Chen spoke of.Zh: 时间过得很快，他们意识到该返回了。En: Time flew by, and they realized it was time to return.Zh: 两个朋友小心翼翼地回到大队伍中，没人发现他们的缺席。En: The two friends cautiously rejoined the main group, and no one noticed their absence.Zh: 梅在心中笑着，她不仅学到了历史，还增添了一段属于自己的特别回忆。En: Mei smiled inwardly; she not only learned about history but also gained a special memory of her own.Zh: 这次经历让她懂得，知识与冒险并不冲突。En: This experience taught her that knowledge and adventure are not mutually exclusive.Zh: 有时候，勇敢地踏出自己的步伐，或许能让生命更加精彩。En: Sometimes, bravely stepping out on one's own path can make life more exciting.Zh: 从此，梅在学习中也带着更多的好奇与勇气，她知道，有些风景，只有走出去才能看到。En: From then on, Mei approached her studies with more curiosity and courage, understanding that some views can only be seen by stepping out. Vocabulary Words:azure: 湛蓝curiosity: 好奇legend: 传说impatient: 不耐烦sacred: 神圣pilgrim: 朝圣者inner peace: 内心的宁静wander: 游荡glance: 看看mysterious: 神秘tug: 拉anticipation: 期待slipped away: 悄悄脱离rugged: 崎岖uneven: 不平filter: 透过tranquility: 宁静stunning: 极美lure: 诱惑pine trees: 松柏cautiously: 小心翼翼absence: 缺席mutually exclusive: 冲突courage: 勇气exciting: 精彩approach: 接近stepping out: 走出去adventure: 冒险tear: 撕裂trails: 小路

One prominent UFO researcher once said, if you start looking for patterns, you will find them. And people think one of the worst patterns to emerge in 2026 is the pattern of important scientists going missing or ending up dead.   Is it a fear‑mongering conspiracy where netizens are connecting together a few dots and calling it a line? A link? Or is it a real legitimate theory? I can't be the one to tell you.   Dr. Chen, a Chinese researcher based in the United States, has the type of resume where if something happens to him it makes you want to throw coincidence out the window.   Outside a small Massachusetts courthouse, he locks eyes with a younger man… and within seconds, Chen is running him down, firing 5 to 6 shots, and leaving his 23‑year‑old nephew dead in the parking lot. Has this once brilliant scientist finally gone mad?       Full show notes available at RottenMangoPodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fluent Fiction - Mandarin Chinese: Finding Balance: A Weekend Escape in Yunnan Find the full episode transcript, vocabulary words, and more:fluentfiction.com/zh/episode/2026-07-26-07-38-19-zh Story Transcript:Zh: 在云南省的一个夏天，群山环绕的小木屋里，山间的清风带来了竹林的幽香。En: In a summer in Yunnan Province, inside a cabin surrounded by mountains, the mountain breeze carried the serene fragrance of bamboo forests.Zh: 木屋内，李伟、小敏和陈三位朋友正享受着一段闲暇时光。En: Inside the cabin, Li Wei, Xiao Min, and Chen, three friends, were enjoying a leisurely time.Zh: 他们决定利用这个周末小憩，逃离城市的喧嚣。En: They decided to use this weekend to relax and escape the hustle and bustle of the city.Zh: 起初，小敏兴奋地计划了一系列活动。En: Initially, Xiao Min excitedly planned a series of activities.Zh: 她建议大家去茶馆体验当地的茶艺，也安排了傍晚的山间徒步和篝火晚会。En: She suggested that everyone visit a teahouse to experience the local tea culture and also arranged for an evening mountain hike and bonfire party.Zh: 然而，作为一个内心沉思的人，李伟感到有些不适应。En: However, as a person who is introspective, Li Wei felt a bit out of place.Zh: 她渴望在湖边找到一些属于自己的宁静时光，以思考生活的方向。En: She longed to find some peaceful time by the lake to contemplate the direction of her life.Zh: 小敏的计划固然精彩，但忙碌的行程让李伟感到不安。En: Although Xiao Min's plans were fantastic, the busy schedule made Li Wei feel uneasy.Zh: 她心里明白，需要一些个人空间来平衡这种忙碌。En: She understood in her heart that she needed some personal space to balance this busyness.Zh: 因此，她决定每天清晨早起，去附近的湖边走走。En: Therefore, she decided to get up early every morning to take a walk by the nearby lake.Zh: 那里的环境使她心情宁静，她期待着这段独处时光带来的启示。En: The environment there made her feel calm, and she looked forward to the insights this time alone might bring.Zh: 一个清晨，当李伟漫步在湖边，晨雾渐渐散开，阳光温柔地洒在湖面上。En: One morning, as Li Wei strolled by the lakeside, the morning mist gradually lifted, and the sunlight gently spilled over the lake's surface.Zh: 就在这宁静的时刻，她遇到了同样起早的陈。En: In this quiet moment, she encountered Chen, who had also risen early.Zh: 陈微笑着问她为何如此早起，李伟向他倾诉了自己的内心矛盾。En: Smiling, Chen asked her why she was up so early, and Li Wei confided in him about her inner conflicts.Zh: “生活中，需要平衡，”陈平静地说道，“有时忙碌，有时要慢下来。En: "In life, balance is necessary," Chen said calmly, "Sometimes you are busy, and sometimes you need to slow down.Zh: 倾听自己内心的声音。En: Listen to your inner voice."Zh: ”这番对话在李伟心中引发了共鸣。En: This conversation resonated with Li Wei.Zh: 她仿佛从一团迷雾中走了出来，明白了自己需要怎样平衡生活中忙碌与宁静的关系。En: It was as if she had walked out of a fog, understanding how to balance the busy and the peaceful aspects of her life.Zh: 回到小木屋，李伟感到焕然一新。En: Back at the cabin, Li Wei felt rejuvenated.Zh: 她决定向朋友们敞开心扉，表达自己对于适度放松的需求。En: She decided to open up to her friends and express her need for moderate relaxation.Zh: 小敏和陈都很理解，并调整了活动安排，增添了自由活动时间。En: Both Xiao Min and Chen understood and adjusted the schedule, adding free time for activities.Zh: 周末很快结束，李伟收获了一份宁静和清晰的内心。En: The weekend ended quickly, and Li Wei gained a sense of tranquility and clarity within.Zh: 她意识到，生活需要平衡，而与朋友坦诚交流则是其中的一部分。En: She realized that life requires balance, and honest communication with friends is a part of that.Zh: 走在朝阳下的她，微笑着出发，觉得未来的路已不再迷茫。En: Walking forward in the morning sun, she smiled as she set off, feeling that the road ahead was no longer uncertain. Vocabulary Words:serene: 幽香leisurely: 闲暇introspective: 沉思contemplate: 思考uneasy: 不安insight: 启示mist: 迷雾tranquility: 宁静clarity: 清晰rejuvenated: 焕然一新bustle: 喧嚣bonfire: 篝火confide: 倾诉balance: 平衡encounter: 遇到schedule: 行程forest: 林breeze: 清风gradually: 渐渐spill: 洒fragrance: 香moderate: 适度solitude: 独处amid: 中hike: 徒步resonate: 共鸣aspect: 方面communicate: 交流direction: 方向environment: 环境

This week on the HowToBBQRight Podcast, looking for the perfect tea to serve at your next cookout? Luzianne Tea has you covered (00:00). Y'all have been crushing it in the Porter Road community giveaway—thank you for all the support! (00:44) This past weekend, Malcom decided to take on Mr. Chen at his own game and cook up his best homemade Chinese food yet (06:33). Malcom shares his homemade crab rangoon recipe that's guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser (17:30). Everyone orders the classics at a Mexican restaurant, but the next time you're there for margaritas, don't skip the ribeye steak (23:45). Looking for the best budget-friendly cuts of meat? Here's how to get the most value for your money (26:26). We've cooked plenty of inexpensive cuts over the years, but smoked pig feet might be a first for us (30:45). SPAM just released a brand-new hot dog, and we have to give it a taste test (37:27). What's the best burger to make at home? We break down our favorite burgers, toppings, and cooking methods (46:15). We've got some news to share soon, and the podcast may be taking a short break (53:35).

Today, on Karl and Crew, we wrapped up our weekly theme, “First Principle.” The author of “Ensnared: Overcoming the Darkness of the New Age and Occult with the Light of God’s Truth,” Jac Marino Chen, shared how Jesus delivered her from abuse, addiction, and the occult, encouraging listeners that no one is beyond the reach of God’s saving grace and transforming power. The President of Dallas Theological Seminary, Dr. Mark Yarborough, drew from his book The Rekindled Heart to share practical, biblical essentials for reviving a fading faith and living with renewed passion for Christ and His mission. We then turned to our listeners on the phone line and asked, “Did the Lord ever use Moody Radio to allow you to hear exactly what you needed in that moment?” You can hear the highlights of today’s program on the Karl and Crew Showcast. If you're looking to hear a particular segment from the show, look at the following time stamps:Call Segment [ 07:25 ]Jac Marino Chen [ 26:05 ]Dr. Mark Yarborough [ 39:13 ]Donate to Moody Radio: http://moodyradio.org/donateto/morningshowSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fernando Martín presenta dos noticias, una real y otra inventada. La real narra el caso de Chen, una mujer china que padece una rara enfermedad que le impide escuchar voces masculinas. En '¡Buenos días, Javi y Mar!', los oyentes comparten experiencias sobre cambiar pañales en sitios insólitos: Laura lo hizo en un avión, David en el suelo de una gasolinera y Maribel en una barca del Retiro. El programa también analiza los hábitos de ducha de los españoles, donde el 70% se ducha por la mañana, con una duración media de 3-4 minutos que se alarga a medida que avanza el día. Finalmente, se comentan divertidos lapsus linguae, como un niño que confunde una película con "Experiencia Guarra", una alumna que llama "fresca" a su profesora o un empleado que dice "obsesionado" en vez de "organizado".

Long before becoming a three-time mayor of Kaohsiung, Chen Chu (陳菊) spent decades in Taiwan's democracy movement. Born into a farming family in Yilan in 1950, Chen Chu moved to Taipei to attend university, and was soon drawn into the dangerous world of the dangwai opposition struggle against one-party KMT rule. After the Kaohsiung Incident of December 1979, Chen was sentenced to twelve years, and would spend more than six years behind bars – much of that time isolated with fellow prisoner and future vice president Annette Lu.Cover image shows Chen Chu marching in one of the first martial law-era political protests: The Jan. 1979 Ciaotao Incident.

In this podcast, E. L. Chen talks about Slasher Summer, slasher movies, the best writing advice she's ever heard, and much more. [4:25] Slasher Summer elevator pitch. [6:25] First experiences with slasher movies. [11:30] Watching A Nightmare on Elm Street. [16:35] Lessons taken from other slasher stories within horror fiction. [18:55] Planning process. [24:30] The cabin backstory. [26:20] Editorial input. [31:40] Slasher references. [38:00] Favourite slasher. [40:30] Lessons learnt writing Slasher Summer. [44:50] One Of Us Is Already Dead. [54:20] Best and worst writing advice. [1:00:15] Advice to eighteen-year-old self. [1:03:10] Something that frightens Elaine. [1:07:00] Connect with E. L. Chen. Full podcast show notes are available here: https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/tih-672-e-l-chen-on-slasher-summer-slasher-movies-and-best-writing-advice Support This Is Horror Podcast on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thisishorror

Have we unknowingly embraced New Age ideas and ideals, even as Christians?How do we identify them, in our lives and the lives of others? How can someone find Jesus, while neck-deep in occult practices?Ben is joined by author, speaker, and ex-New Age practitioner, Jac Marino Chen, who shares her powerful story of conversion to Christianity.  Check out Jac's YouTube channel HEREBuy Jac's new book HERE----------------------Ben has completely revised and updated his powerful book, Jesus in the Secular World: Reaching a Culture in Crisis—a must-read guide for anyone longing to reach those who may never step foot in a church. Packed with real-world insights and practical strategies, this book could be the breakthrough you've been searching for.Don't wait—get your copy today!Click HERE to check it out on Amazon.For more information, go to: jesusinthesecularworld.com------------------------Questions, comments, or feedback? We'd love to hear what you think! Send them to provokeandinspire@steiger.org, or send us a message on Instagram.Click HERE to receive news, thought-provoking articles, and stories directly in your inbox from Ben, David, Luke, and Chad!Click below to follow the regulars on Instagram!Ben PierceDavid PierceChad JohnsonLuke GreenwoodSend us Fan MailNewest Midroll

The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth written by Rhoda Broughton [1868] Get your own copy of E.L. Chen's SLASHER SUMMER and more audio books from Penguin Random House Audio here: https://sites.prh.com/audiobooks-for-horror-fans/adults/?ref=PRHBE09F1CD1E0A&aid=47836&linkid=PRHBE09F1CD1E0A If you want to leave me an anonymous question (or comment, or critique, or confession) click here: https://ngl.link/shelbyshark1 TRIGGER WARNINGS AVAILABLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SHOW NOTES. MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. Intro music by Brandt Parks Leave me a voice mail! ‪(323) 546-8764‬ Ad Free version available on Patreon You can send your stories to: scareyoutosleep@gmail.comhttps://linktr.ee/ScareYouToSleep Music by Epidemic Sound and Co.AG Additional sound effects from Freesound.org Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today's poem is Articulation of Solace by Yongyu Chen.The Slowdown is your daily poetry ritual. In this episode, Maggie writes… “I've read a lot of books over the years, and some have fundamentally changed not only the way I write but the way I think. I mean books that broke everything wide open for me, showing me possibilities — in form, and in content — that I couldn't access before. Today's poem impacted me like those beloved texts, with its jewellike sentences and its use of the field of the page.” This show is supported by gifts from listeners. Power your daily dose of poetry at Slowdownshow.org/donate

I received a podcast review that basically said because a guest talked about chronic inflammation it was a "MAHA podcast." So I decided to go straight to one of the top inflammation researchers in the world and ask him directly: is chronic inflammation actually real, or is it pseudoscience?  My guest is Dr. David Furman, the Director of Stanford Medicine's 1000 Immunomes Project (the largest longitudinal study on aging and the immune system in the world) and an Associate Professor at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, and his answer might surprise you. We play a game of Myth or Fact and bust some of the biggest inflammation claims all over the internet, from gluten and dairy to seed oils, and microplastics. We also get into how to actually test whether you're inflamed, the surprising link between chronic stress, depression, and your immune system, why your coffee habit might be doing you a favor, and exactly what to do about all of it if you have no money to spend.