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AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on the proposed $8B transformation of Penn Station in New York City and the Trump connection.

There are two things we know a lot about in New Orleans: partying and hurricanes. For a long time those weren't unrelated. The hurricane party was a New Orleans institution — you'd ride out the storm with your neighbors, a case of beer, and a sense of invincibility. These days, after Katrina and Ida, hurricanes aren't quite the occasion they used to be. But there's still a connection between the two — just a more businesslike one. Now, the connection shows up after the storm, not during it. When you drive around New Orleans after a big storm, you see a lot of blue roofs. They’re tarps. When you drive around any other time, you see houses draped in tarps in other colors, covering houses that are being fumigated, mostly for termites. All of these tarps, plus many others used in places like grain ships, in transporting seafood, and for keeping ammunition weather-proof for the US military, are manufactured in Ponchatoula by a New Orleans company – J&M Industries. The Managing Owner and President of J&M Industries is Maurice Gaudet IV. After the hurricane’s blown through and you get back to partying, there’s another local manufacturer you might want to know about. The company and their product are both called Louie Louie. Louie Louie are cans of effervescent drinks, in flavors like Hurricane Punch, Ginger Cucumber and Blackberry Lemon. But it’s more than the flavor that sets these drinks apart from a regular seltzer. Louie Louie describes itself as a, “cannabis infused beverage.” Each can has 5 milligrams of THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that, when you smoke it, gets you high. And 5 milligrams of CBD, the cannabis derivative that promotes relaxation. When you drink Louie Louie it’s reportedly quicker acting and not as long lasting as eating a gummy and, according to the company’s marketing, gives the drinker “a relaxed buzz.” Marie LaFrance is a Co-Founder of Louie Louie. Anyone who has had any contact with the news media over the last decade has heard politicians from every party and at every level – federal, state, and local – talk about "manufacturing." Once you hear that word, the next part of the conversation is usually about China, Canada, the Midwest or northeast of the US. It’s very rare, if ever, that you hear about manufacturing in New Orleans. And yet, here we are. J&M Industries has been around for over 50 years and are are showing no signs of slowing down. Louie Louie has been only been around a few years and every indication is they’re just getting started. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to RetroLogic! I'm Dan Caporello here with Sam Wagers, Shannon Eno and John Cummins, Special Guest Ryan (Games With Coffee) Intros   But RetroLogic isn't just a podcast. It's a community of retro gamers! - We've got an active, friendly, and free discord. - Giveaways - Contests - AND Dive into our family of Retro podcasts! Like RetroGroove, a music history podcast, and On Topic Retro, a podcast dedicated to 1 video game per episode hosted by our very own John Cummins. - you can find everything at our website retrologic.games   Housekeeping   Sam: Streaming FE Path of Radiance and Armored Core 2   On Topic Retro: Zelda Skyward Sword Retro Rewind Super Castlevania IV Gradius   Backlog recap   The Price Is Retro - 13:55 If this is your first time playing Price Is Retro, here's how we play. I'm going to list off 4 or 5 games and everyone has to guess how much the lot is worth in total. Whoever is closest to the actual value wins that round! Everyone has a list and everyone guesses on each other's list. At the end, the player that won the most rounds wins the episode! But watch out for the robot Deus Guess Machina! He averages all of our guesses together for his own guess Dinosaur - Leonard - adds up original costs, retail value Ghost - Polterguest - always guesses 300 Dan's List Sam's list John's List Shannon's List   Spot the fake Pikmin treasure Show Topic - 5   Puzzle games SameGame/CHAINSHOT (1985) Tetris and all its iterations (what's your favorite?) (1988)   The many attempts to make a real "sequel" to tetris (or market something unrelated as one) Tetris 2/Tetris Flash (1993) Breakthru (1994) Tetris attack (1996) 3D tetris (1996) Tetrisphere (1997)   Pajitnov's other puzzle games: Welltris (1989) Hatris (1990) Faces…tris III (1990) Wordtris (1992)   Never had the staying power of the original   The other titans of the genre: Columns (1989) Dr Mario (1990) Puyo Puyo (1991) Yoshi (1991) Vs Puzzle games really took off Cosmo gang the puzzle (1992) Yoshi's Cookie (1992) Wario's woods (1994) Bomberman Panic bomber (1994) Puzzle bobble (1994) Panel De pon (1995) Magical Drop (1995) Super Puzzle Fighter II turbo (1996) (characters actually have unique patterns they send to opponents)   Largely fell out of fashion, but seem to be coming back Dr. Luigi (2013) Puyo Puyo Tetris (2014) Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 (2020) Tetris effect: connected (2020)   Tetris 99 (2019) Crystal Crisis (2019)   Licensing opportunities (some already mentioned), spinoffs Aforementioned puzzle fighter, yoshi's cookie, dr mario, puyo puyo Dr Robotnik's mean bean machine (1993) Pac attack (1993) Panel de pon's "tetris attack" and "pokemon puzzle league" forms Kirby's avalanche (1995) Hebereke's Popoitto (1994) Kirby Star Stacker (1997) Rampage Puzzle Attack (2001) Pokemon Trozei (2005) Puzzle & dragons Super mario edition (2015)   Snood (1996) This game is on like every platform.  I'm not sure how it displaced puzzle bobble but it did. Bejeweled (2001) Bejeweled-likes (Zoo Keeper, Jewel Quest, Chuzzle)   Meteos (2005)   Mobile as the new haven for matching puzzle games   Block puzzle hybrids Block Hole/Quarth Puzzle Quest Puzzle & Dragons Henry Hatsworth   Suika game (2024) Community Couch Savannah the Hyena Queen — 5/29/2026 9:27 PMFriday, May 29, 2026 9:27 PM Does Mario's Super Picross count? That game is fun, specially the Wario levels   Savannah the Hyena Queen — 5/29/2026 9:30 PM I'm really bad at picross so my clear times are abysmal, but it's still a really relaxing loop that's nice if I don't really want to play something more involved   Your Wallet's Defense Attorney — 5/29/2026 9:33 PM Mario's Super Picross is what got me into Picross, a past time I have become thoroughly engrossed. It's the perfect thing to do while paying attention to something else. In fact, I used to catch up on Retro Logic episodes while playing Mario's Super Picross...   SNES_is_Life — 5/29/2026 9:44 PM Yoshis cookie!   Drex1981 [ARC],  — 5/30/2026 9:37 AM I don't know if this counts or not but in the original Metal Gear Solid when fighting Psycho Mantis. You had to switch to controller port 2 to avoid being controlled by him. Thanks for listening to the RetroLogic Podcast! We are proudly part of the Nintendo Dads family of podcasts. If you like what you hear, check me out on Bluesky at @retrologicgames.bsky.social. You're also welcome to jump into our friendly and 100% non-toxic Discord Community! The link to that is in my Blusky bio. You can also find everything on our website Retrologic.games  

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 This is the fourth episode in a four part series on simple podcasting. 02 Introduction In this episode we will discuss alternatives to Audacity when it comes to analyzing audio spectrums to find the sources of unwanted noise. I previously promised some gratuitous hackery, and we will get into that in this episode. 03 Recall that with Audacity you first import the audio file, then select the part of the audio you wish to analyze (or ctrl-A for all), and then select analyze > plot spectrum. This is in fact the only feature of Audacity that I know how to use. I am definitely not an audio expert. I do however have some background in processing and analyzing other signals, so some of the basics are familiar to me. 04 We can accomplish the same thing that Audacity does in this instance provided we can do the following. First, we need to get the data out of the audio file and into a form which we can import into other software. Second, we need to perform certain mathematical operations on this data. Finally, we need to be able to plot the results of these calculations on a chart. -------------------- 05 Fourier Transforms First though, we need a bit of mathematical background. What Audacity is doing when it shows a plot of frequency versus amplitude is that it is showing the results of a Fourier Transform. A Fourier Transforms is a mathematical operation that converts the time domain into the frequency domain. Any complex signal, audio or otherwise, can be broken down into a collection of sine waves of various frequencies. For example, a simple square wave signal of say 100 hertz can be represented as a sine wave of frequency 100 hertz plus a collection of higher frequency sine waves which add together to give the sharp corners. 06 A Fourier Transform finds these sine waves and sorts them out into separate bins, with each bin representing an individual frequency or a collection of closely related frequencies, depending on how fine grained the sorting is. 07 This is exactly what we want when we are trying to figure out how to filter out noise. Recall that earlier in this series we had to solve a problem with a high pitched background noise which was originating in my cheap microphone. Analyzing this audio by frequency showed that it was a series of individual tones at 1 kHz intervals. We were then able to use filters targeted at those frequencies to get rid of that noise. 08 There are several optimized versions of the Fourier Transform algorithm. A very common one is the Fast Fourier Transform, common abbreviated to just "FFT". This is so common that the term "FFT" is often used to simply mean any Fourier Transform even though this is not technically correct. 09 Typical FFT algorithms require that the number of data samples is exactly a power of two. So the number of samples we need may be something like 4096, 8192, or 65536, to give a few random examples. When we transform from the time domain to the frequency domain, each sample becomes a single frequency "bin". So the more samples we have, the finer the resolution we get in terms of frequency. 10 If we assume we are dealing with flac files recorded at a 44.1 kHz sample rate, that is, 44100 samples per second, then if we have 32768 samples, each "bin" represents slightly more than 1 hertz. If we have 65536 samples, then each "bin" represents a fraction of a hertz. For our purposes we will pick 65536 samples. That means we need 1.48 seconds of data. For simplicity's sake we will record at least 2 seconds of data and then just discard the samples that we don't need. 11 There is a further complication here. Fourier Transforms normally work with complex numbers. Recall from your school days that as well as integers and real numbers there are complex numbers. Each complex number consists of two parts, a real component and an imaginary component. I won't go into the details of this, just accept that each sample needs to have two components. Fortunately, if we don't have complex number data we can just set the imaginary component to zero and use that. This is enough talking about the theory, let's get into the practical details. -------------------- 12 Extracting Data from Audio Files First we will look at how to extract the data from the audio files. Fortunately, one of the programs which we have already been using can do this. To do this we will use Sox. I am not aware of an equivalent feature in ffmpeg. 13 Sox calls itself "SoX - Sound eXchange, the Swiss Army knife of audio manipulation" Sox is free software and is licensed under the GPLV2 or later. In this case we want to use a feature which allows us to convert a binary audio signal file to a text data file. To convert the file to text data we just give the output file a ".dat" file extension and Sox will do this for us. 14 Here is a command example. sox inputfile.flac tdata.dat 15 This gives us a file in the following format, assuming this is a mono audio recording. ; Sample Rate 44100 ; Channels 1 0 0.045471191406 2.2675737e-05 0.055023193359 4.5351474e-05 0.048217773438 6.8027211e-05 0.053192138672 etc. The first line states the sample frequency The second line states that the data is for channel 1. The data starts on the third line. Column 1 is the time in seconds. Column 2 is the waveform data point. 16 To analyze the data we want a subset of these samples. When we convert from the time domain to the frequency domain, our resolution will be determined by the number of samples. We would like therefore to have at least as many samples as the sampling rate. We also want the samples size to be an even multiple of two. The number of points we want to have is equal to the next even multiple of two above our chosen sampling rate, 44,100 Hz. This number would be 65536. 17 To extract this data from the file we can do the following. tail tdata.dat -n+3 | head -n65536 | awk '{printf "%sn", $2}' > tdata.csv 18 We use tail to skip over the first three lines. We use head to take the next 65536 lines and discard the rest. We use awk to extract the second column which we will use as the real component. We now have this data as a csv file in one column. -------------------- 19 Analyzing the Data To analyze the data we need software which can calculate FFTs. I will now show two examples of this, a very simple case using Libre Office Calc, and a more complex but more complete one using GNU Octave. 20 Using Libre Office We can do fourier analysis and plot charts using Libre Office. Take the csv file of data that we previously created. For this example I used data from a recording of silence so that I could see what internal noise was being generated by the headset. Open the csv file and import it into Libre Office Calc. 21 Now select all 65536 rows of column A. The Fourier function will automatically fill the imaginary component with zeros if we don't provide an column of imaginary numbers, so we don't need to provide a column of zeros. Then select Data > Statistics > Fourier Analysis. 22 A window will open allowing you to select various parameters. For Results to:, enter "D1". Grouped by Columns. Select OK. 23 New data should now appear starting in cell D1. The first line will say " Fourier Transform" The second line will state the input range. The third line will state "Real" in column D, and "Imaginary" in column E. The data will start in row 4. 24 For our simple example we will ignore the imaginary data and just use the real data, which will form our Y component when we plot it on a chart. We now need to create the X axis data. 25 Each cell is a "bin" of frequencies. Each cell therefore represents (sample frequency) / (Number of samples) Hz. 26 To create the X axis data showing frequency, enter the following formula in to column C to the left of each D column number. =((44100/65536) * (ROW() - 4) 27 We can now create an XY chart showing the frequency analysis. You may need to exclude the first couple of dozen rows as very low frequency components which cannot be heard may otherwise overwhelm the data we are interested in. Also, you only need the first half of the chart. The FFT mirrors the data from the first half of the array into the second half. 28 Because characterizing a sine wave requires a minimum of 2 points, although we have a sample frequency of 44.1 kHz, we really only have sound waves up to a maximum of half that, or 22.05 kHz. Create the chart with lines only. If you followed the above instructions, you should see something resembling what we saw in Audacity, except with each bin more sharply defined. 29 In the data that I had from a recording of unfiltered headset noise, I could see a distinct noise spike every 1000 hertz. 30 However, we have taken several shortcuts. First, the imaginary component of the data was ignored. Second, the magnitude (that is, Y axis) has both positive and negative peaks. Third, the data is not scaled to dB sound units, so we just have a relative measure. However, that by itself is enough to tell us where the frequencies are that we need to construct filters to deal with. 31 We could refine this spreadsheet a bit more to deal with the above issues, but I think we have demonstrated the basic principle, and working with a spreadsheet can be a bit awkward. However, if working with a spreadsheet is what you want to do, then you can add more columns and more formulae to improve on it. -------------------- 32 Other Analysis Software I will go on to GNU Octave in a moment, but I want to get a few other alternatives out of the way first. I won't go into any detail on them other than to point them out to people who want to have a go at trying these themselves. 33 Grace There is math and plotting software called Grace. This is free software, released under the GPL V2. According to the documentation, it seems to have the features we need, including an FFT function. However, I could not get it to work properly on Ubuntu 24.04. I could not get it to load a data file and plot data. 34 The error messages were vague and unhelpful. The file navigation system didn't work. There was no obvious path to success, and if it isn't easy to use then there is no point to it. This is fairly old software, designed for X Window and Motif. I gave up on it as not suitable for this series as I am looking for some fairly low effort things for people to try themselves. If someone else can get it to work on their PC, perhaps they could do an HPR episode on this themselves. 35 Command Line FFT Packages There are several command line FFT packages. They will read data from std in or from a file and output the FFT. However, these are not packaged for Ubuntu and appear to be distributed as C source code which you would download and compile. You can experiment with those if you wish, but I felt they were a bit out of scope for discussion here as I am looking at common tools that are ready to use. 36 Here are two examples. One is Command-line Fast Fourier Transform utility https://github.com/gregfjohnson/fft Another is cli-fft https://github.com/jonolafur/cli-fft 37 I have not tried these and cannot say whether they are any good or not. Similarly, there are a number of FFT packages that are libraries for languages such as Python. If you want to take the time to write a short program to go with them, you can create a dedicated FFT command line program. However, I felt that this too was out of scope for what I was trying to do here. 38 Doing it the Hard Way Hypothetically, it may be possible to write an FFT function in bash bc, which is the arbitrary precision calculator language which is part of the standard shell package. I say hypothetically, because I have not tried it. I think it would be an interesting challenge, but I don't have the time at the moment to try it. If anyone feels motivated to give it a try, they're welcome to give it a go and then do a podcast episode on it. -------------------- 39 GNU Octave We have seen that as well as using features built into Audacity to analyze the audio spectrum to see the frequencies of undesired noises, we were able to do the same using a Libre Office spreadsheet. 40 Now we'll look at another bit of software, GNU Octave. GNU Octave is free software, licensed under the GPL V3 or later. It is a mathematical scripting language, very similar to Matlab. People use it for mathematical, engineering, and scientific work. It can be found in most Linux distros and is available for some other operating systems as well. 41 Octave has two features built in that we need for our purposes. It does FFTs, and it has a plotting system built in to produce graphs. -------------------- 42 We will take the same audio test file that we used with Audacity and Libre Office and use it here as well. The bash script to convert the flac file to text data is essentially the same, with the exception that file extension on the output file as is ".txt" instead of ".csv". This latter change was an arbitrary decision on my part. 43 As a quick review, this bash script uses sox to convert a flac file to a text ".dat" file. Then it uses tail, head, and awk to extract the first 65536 rows of data, skipping over the header information and ignoring the first column of time data. This script will be in the show notes. -------------------- #!/bin/bash # This version is for use with the GNU Octave script. sox hsnoisemono.flac hsnoisemono.dat tail hsnoisemono.dat -n+3 | head -n65536 | awk '{printf "%sn", $2}' > hsnoisemono.txt -------------------- 44 We now have a 1.1 MB file containing 65536 samples of data in text format. Now the next thing we need to do is to create a short Octave script file. I will just give a brief overview of the script here, the full script will be in the show notes. 45 I put the script in a file called "octavespectrum.m". I have never used Octave before now, but the convention seems to be to give the script a ".m" ending. The "she-bang" line is "#!/usr/bin/env octave". If you make the file executable you can run it like any other script, or you can type "octave" and then the name of the script to run. 46 I won't read out the script in detail, as that would be too hard to following along in a podcast. However, I pass several arguments to the script including the name of the data file, and then two integers that I use to limit the display area in the Y and X axes so I can have the chart focus on the areas of interest that I want to see. I also pass a string containing the name of the graphic file that I want the chart exported to. This was an arbitrary decision on my part and you can just hard code these values in if that is what you want to do. 47 The arguments are accessed by calling the "args()" function, which returns an array of strings. Next, it reads in the specified file using the "dlmread()" function. This reads all of the data into an array. 48 Next, it performs a hamming windowing function on the data. I'll explain that briefly. It is standard practice when doing FFT signal processing to "window" the signal. Since the signal sample is of finite length, it will stop at each end of the array. 49 Unless you were lucky enough for this to happen exactly at a zero crossing, this would produced an abrupt transition in the data which looks like "noise" to the FFT. The solution is to taper the signal off gradually towards the ends so that when it gets cut off the signal is fairly small at that point anyway. There are a variety of different windowing functions, but "hamming" seems to be the most commonly used. 50 Next, it does an FFT using the "fft()" function. 51 This gives us real and imaginary outputs. These are combined by summing the squares of each corresponding real and imaginary element and then taking the square root of each and storing that in a new array. This gives a single array of the same length as the originals, but combining the two output components. If anyone wants to tell me that this isn't how things are done in the audio world, they're welcome to make an HPR episode telling us all the right way to do things. 52 Then it does some scaling and selection of subsets of data so we get the X axis in hertz and just the number of samples that we wish to look at. If you are looking at the script, the thing to keep in mind is that Octave will work on entire arrays of data in a single operation. You don't need to write explicit loops for this. The looping is handled implicitly as part of the syntax. 53 It also does various other things that make the chart easier to read. The comments in the script describe these in more detail. Since this is a script it's easier to add these sorts of refinements than is the case for a spreadsheet so I have made the effort to add them. Finally it calls the "plot()" function. If an output graphics file name was provided, it also creates a PNG file containing the same image using the "saveas" function. 54 We now see the chart, and it looks more or less as expected. However, this chart is interactive. You can zoom and pan the data, something that you can't do with either Audacity or Libre Office. The chart window doesn't have a function for exporting the resulting chart to a "png" file, it will only save to an ".ofig" file. The ofig file is not a standard graphics file, it is a serialization of the chart data that can only be looked at using the Octave chart viewer. 55 Alternatively, you can just take a screenshot of the chart after you have interactively zoomed and panned to a point of interest. At the bottom left of the chart window is a pair of x-y coordinates which tell you the current position of the mouse pointer in chart units. This is very handy as it can be used to get the exact (or close to exact) frequency of each noise spike. 56 The Y axis is not scaled in any particular units such as dB, as I'm not sure how to do that according to audio industry conventions. On the other hand, I'm not sure that it's really necessary, as I don't know what dB means in tangible terms anyway. It does show relative sizes, so it helps to determine whether you have one noise frequency or multiple frequencies to worry about. 57 If anyone is familiar with how to scale the raw data from a flac file as exported by Sox into dB units according to audio industry convention, then they are welcome to create an HPR episode telling us how to do it. -------------------- 58 Comments on GNU Octave I had never used GNU Octave before this, although I had heard of it and it is quite a significant piece of software for a specific segment of users. 59 The syntax is a bit odd especially in how it deals with array operations, but I was able to google various examples and answers to eventually get this working. A few other peculiarities are that it uses the percent "%" character to denote a comment, and leaving out the semi-colon at the end of the line causes it to print the answer to the console after executing the statement. 60 The GNU Octave solution was harder to get working than the Libre Office method. However, once it was working it is easier to use repeatedly. If I were to want to automatically generate audio files with different filtering or other options and wanted to script the creation of a large number of images showing the results, this would be the way to do it. 61 When your run the Octave script you may get a warning which says something like "QSocketNotifier: Can only be used with threads started with QThread". This is apparently a routine warning message from the Qt graphics system which has no real significance in this context and can be ignored for our purposes. -------------------- 62 We now have a bash script which will use sox to extract the data from a flac file, and a GNU Octave script which can be used to display the resulting frequency spectrum. This does more or less the same thing as "Plot Spectrum" does in Audacity, but allows for zooming and panning to get a more detailed look at the data. 63 However it doesn't give you an absolute reading of the sound levels in dB, something that Audacity does provide. What I wanted it for though was to find the frequencies of the audible noise in the signal, something that it does quite well. -------------------- #!/usr/bin/env octave % Perform an FFT on the data in a file and plot the results. % ====================================================================== % The sampling frequency. This must be changed to accommodate the % actual sampling frequency if it was something else. samplefreq = 44100; % Thickness of line on plot. linewidth = 2; % ====================================================================== % The name of the data file is passed as a argument. args = argv(); if length(args) < 3 quit endif % File name. fname = args{1}; % Clip the peak values. peakclip = str2double(args{2}); % How much data to show, in kHz. rbound = str2double(args{3}) * 1000; % The optional file name to save a chart image to. if length(args) > 3 chartfile = args{4}; else chartfile = ""; endif % ====================================================================== % Read the data in from the file. sampledata = dlmread(fname); % Number of samples. samplecount = length(sampledata); % ====================================================================== % Window the data. This helps deal with the discontinuity of data at % each end of the array and the effects this has on introducing apparent % noise into the signal. windoweddata = (hamming(samplecount) .* sampledata); % ====================================================================== % Do the actual FFT. fftresults = fft(windoweddata); % Get real component. r = real(fftresults); % Get the imaginary component. i = imag(fftresults); % Combine the real and imaginary. In order to square each element of each % array, we must use the ".^" operator, not just "^". rfft = sqrt(r.^2 + i.^2); realfft = rfft(1:samplecount); % ====================================================================== % Scale factor for frequency. fscale = samplefreq / samplecount; % X axis scale, scaled to frequency. f = (0:samplefreq/2) * fscale; % Take a subset of the data if specified. rbound has to be re-scaled % from kHz to array increments. freq = f(1:min(rbound / fscale,length(f))); % y axis. We take the absolute value and then limit (clip) the peaks % so that a few large peaks don't obscure the smaller ones. mag = min(abs(realfft(1: length(freq))), peakclip); % Plot the results. figure; whandle = plot(freq, mag, 'LineWidth', linewidth); title(["Audio Spectrum of ", fname]); xlabel("Frequency (Hz)"); ylabel("Unscaled Magnitude"); grid on; % If the appropriate optional argument was specified, save the chart % to a file of that name. if length(chartfile) > 4 saveas(gcf, chartfile, "png"); endif % Need this so the plot window stays open. waitfor(whandle); % ====================================================================== -------------------- This is the shell script used with the above Octave script. The arguments are 1 - the file name for the input data file. 2 - The value to clip the peaks at. 3 - The upper frequency bound in kHz. 4 - The output graphics file name. #!/bin/bash octave octavespectrum.m hsnoisemono.txt 10 12 hsnoisemono.png -------------------- 64 Episode Conclusion In this episode we covered the following topics. What Fourier transforms are. Extracting data from audio files using Sox. Analyzing the data using Libre Office. Analyzing the data using GNU Octave. And, several alternative analysis methods. 65 Series Conclusion This is the end of a four part series on simple podcasting. In the first episode, we covered a simple podcast recording method. This first episode is all you really need to make a podcast. 66 In the second episode we covered basic filtering and a few other simple topics. The methods discussed in that episode provide basic improvements to your audio if you feel the need for it. 67 In the third episode we covered how to analyze audio noise problems using Audacity and additional filtering techniques to deal with specific problems that we may find. We also covered command line recording, playback, and getting information about an audio recording. 68 In the fourth episode we engaged in a bit of gratuitous hackery for the fun of it and showed how to use alternative software methods to analyze audio signals. 69 I hope that this series has been both useful and entertaining and that you will use the knowledge gained here to create and submit your own HPR podcast episodes. -------------------- -------------------- Provide feedback on this episode.

Although each of us is free to believe whatever we want, when it comes to our personal finances, we tend to operate with a number of shared beliefs. One of these is the belief in the benefit of ownership. For example, it’s better to own your own business than be an employee. Financially, that benefit is not necessarily true. Many startup business owners go for years before they even pay themselves at all. And many employees make a lot of money. Emotionally and psychologically, though, it’s a different story. Because happiness is, by definition, how you feel – owning your own business can be the greatest thing ever - if you feel good about the inevitable challenges it brings. Both of Peter's guests on this edition of Out to Lunch have taken the leap from employee to owner. And both of them have businesses that are dependent not just on their business acumen, but also on their singular talent and taste. Sue Zemanick started her career in New Orleans in 2003 as a chef at Commander’s Palace. By 2005 she was Executive Chef at Gautreau’s in Uptown New Orleans. In 2013 Chef Sue won a James Beard Award for “Best Chef, South.” In 2019 she opened her own restaurant in Mid City, called Zasu. In 2025, Zasu earned the Olympic Gold Medal of hospitality, a Michelin Star. Zasu is one of only a handful of restaurants to earn Louisiana's first-ever Michelin stars — and the only one run by a woman. Margaret Sche came to New Orleans from Los Angeles where she had been a fashion stylist, merchandiser and trend forecaster. Margaret was surprised to find there wasn’t a women’s fashion store here that was truly reflective of the style of the city, and the flair of its female fashionistas. She corrected that gap in the market with a store, called The Saint Claude Social Club. Today, the store is called The Closet by Saint Claude Social Club, and it has a whole different business model. It’s a fashion rental store – a real-world version of online fashion rental businesses like Rent The Runway and Nuuly, but with a local-focus. It has a curated collection of fashion ranging from Mardi Gras ballgowns to vintage finds that Margaret picks up in Paris. When you start your own business making widgets, you hope to eventually get to a point where the widget factory rolls along and keeps making money even when you’re at Disney World. But when you start a business that depends entirely on you – like your own restaurant or a curated fashion boutique - you’re not just making widgets. You’re creating experiences for other people. People don’t eat in a Michelin Star restaurant just to get enough carbs to get through the next 8 hours. And they don’t go to a curated fashion boutique to find clothes just to keep warm. The types of businesses Sue and Margaret are running demand the same kind of business skills as it takes to run a widget factory, and a whole lot more. Their businesses wouldn’t exist without their particular talents, creativity, and imagination. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Singapore’s National Day Parade is heading back to the National Stadium in 2026, and while the bigger venue means nearly double the crowd capacity, it also means some iconic crowd favourites like the Red Lions, mobile column and aerial displays won’t be making an appearance. On What’s Trending, Hongbin Jeong unpacks the biggest changes coming to NDP 2026, from indoor drone shows and immersive performances to the launch of a three-song NDP album and a new micro-drama series. Plus, we ask listeners: what’s YOUR favourite part of NDP every year?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I want to start out today by running through a few notable New Orleans landmarks:The new terminal at Louis Armstrong Airport. The U.S Custom House.The gold/copper skin on the Superdome.The Civic Theater.The W New Orleans French Quarter Hotel.The Xavier University Dormitories. There are a whole lot more on this list too. If you’re wondering what the link is between all of them, it’s the construction company that built them, or in some cases re-built them. It’s a 50 year old family firm, called Gibbs Construction. Gibbs Construction was founded in 1976, by Larry Gibbs. 43 years later, In 2019, Larry’s daughter, Lauren, took over as owner and CEO of the company. Now, here’s a list of other New Orleans buildings. See if you can tell me what these have in common:The LaLaurie Mansion on Royal Street.The Hermann-Grima House.Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop.The Andrew Jackson Hotel.The Old Ursuline Convent. If you’re a New Orleanian, you’re probably saying, with as much nonchalance and more confidence than you have in today’s weather forecast, “Oh yeah, they’re all haunted.” Along with the French Quarter, fabulous food, and live music, the supernatural vibe that is a natural part of New Orleans is an element of the city people come here to experience. Most tourists – and locals by the way – learn about our haunted history courtesy of the oldest and largest ghost tour business in New Orleans - a company called, Haunted History Tours. Haunted History was co-founded in 1994 by partners Sidney and Kalila Smith. Today, Kalila is the sole owner of the company. Kalila is a leading authority on the subject of supernatural New Orleans. She’s the author of multiple books, including New Orleans Ghosts, Voodoo & Vampires, and Tales From The French Quarter. Her many TV appearances include CNN, Fox News, The Today Show, The Travel Channel and Discovery. She was a contributor to Sony's PlayStation II game Ghosthunter, and produced a PBS documentary on Southern hauntings. Visible & Invisible A lot of businesses have a lot in common. But some don’t. About the only way anybody could run a complex, multi-million dollar construction company is by having years of experience in the industry, which in Lauren's case she got to some degree by growing up in it. On the other hand, what’s made Kalila's business successful is the very opposite of continuity – it’s the ability to do something nobody had done before she came along and created it. Lauren and Kalila are wonderful examples of the multi-dimensional tapestry of our unique New Orleans economy, and vastly different but equally important contributors to it. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’re under 30, and you have any kind of original, innovative ideas, you might not know that before you were born people like you generally left New Orleans and went to places where forward-thinking was appreciated. Then, in 2005, after Hurricane Katrina had knocked the city to its knees, the river of intellectuals and social activists started to flow in other direction. All kinds of smart people with new ideas started coming here. Two of them were young guys who arrived as part of the revolution in education. Jonas Chartock was CEO of an organization called Leading Educators. Matt Candler was CEO of an organization called New Schools For New Orleans, and then Founder of an education startup called 4.0 Schools. Like pretty much everything else in New Orleans at the time, our schools and our entire education system was in ruins. In a period we can now look back on as something of an Enlightenment, Jonas, Matt, and a generation of educators completely re-imagined our education system and built what was both an education laboratory and beacon for the nation. In 2016 Jonas and Matt were guests on Out to Lunch. They were fired up about the education revolution they were a part of leading. Today’s Out to Lunch is a reunion. Ten years and some-odd on, Jonas and Matt are still revolutionaries. Matt is building electric motorbikes under the banner of Night Shift Bikes. And he’s helping build a number of other battery-based companies as General Partner of an investment fund called The Batteries Included Fund. Jonas is CEO of The Childrens Bureau of New Orleans. It’s a non-profit that provides primarily mental health support for children who have experienced a traumatic event. That support is in the form of immediate crisis intervention, and longer-term, evidence-based therapies for children and families impacted by trauma. people come and go out of your life. You’re friends for a while, maybe you were even close friends or partners – but things change, life goes on, and one way or another you drift apart. That person might not be a central part of your life any more they way they were, but your relationship with them had an affect on you, and when you run into them these days it’s still good to see them. It can even be like old times and you pick up right where you left off. It’s kind of the same for the City of New Orleans’ relationship with Matt and Jonas. They might not be the central revolutionary savior figures they were when you first rolled into town, but they’re still here. Their contributions to the education revolution continue to ripple through the system in various ways, and their current contributions to the city are not insignificant either. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is publishing expert, author, and newsletter pioneer Jane Friedman, a 25+ year industry veteran and the author of The Business of Being a Writer. She talks candidly about how the publishing industry has transformed in the creator economy era—and why building a sustainable writing career today requires far more than just landing a book deal.In this episode, Jane breaks down the transformative shifts reshaping publishing, from the rise of Substack, TikTok, and direct-to-reader marketing to the growing legitimacy of self-publishing and hybrid publishing models. We get into why entrepreneurial authors are thriving, how video platforms are driving book sales in surprising ways, and why newsletters and email lists remain one of the most powerful tools for writers. We also talk about platform building, ownership and rights, bestseller lists, audiobook strategy, and how today's authors are thinking differently about control, distribution, and long-term career sustainability.Plus, Jane shares her nuanced take on AI's growing role in publishing—from the ethical outrage surrounding copyrighted training data to the practical ways writers are already using AI for research, brainstorming, and marketing support, and why writers who completely ignore AI may eventually put themselves at a disadvantage.Subscribe to Jane's industry newsletter The Bottom Line. Follow her on Instagram @janefriedman, and buy your copy of The Business of Being a Writer on Bookshop.org, Amazon, or wherever books are sold!Get your copy of Courtney's debut memoir Girl Gone Wild from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming classes you might be interested in:How to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminar12 Months to a Full Memoir in Essays Incubator: Write Your Memoir in a Year: https://writingworkshops.com/products/memoir-in-essays-incubator-nonfiction-writing-workshop-online-june-2026Land Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminarSo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocakEdit & Elevate: Revision Intensive: https://writingworkshops.com/products/edit-elevate-revision-intensive-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakThe Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocak

In the mid 1700’s, a French author, Voltaire, wrote a biting satire that has remained a classic piece of literature ever since. The novel, Candide, is about a student who is continually beset by all kinds of horrific disasters. It’s basically a buddy comedy in which the kid’s super-upbeat tutor keeps encouraging him, by saying, “All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.” It’s kind of today’s equivalent of advising a kid in a disadvantaged public school to, “follow your dreams and anything is possible.” The fact is, if you’re a high school kid from an economically disadvantaged background, and you’re in a not-so-great public school, it’s going to take a lot more than a positive attitude to succeed after you graduate. That’s the harsh reality that drives a ground-breaking New Orleans organization called YouthForce NOLA. YouthForce NOLA partners with every public school in New Orleans to form a bridge between the schools and local businesses. They provide kids with internships that give them real world experience. Kids and business owners, who wouldn’t normally know each other existed, get to meet and mutually benefit from their association. YouthForce NOLA can quote all kinds of statistics that explain why its operating model is spreading across the country, but this one set of numbers tells the story: since 2015 around 2,000 young people have earned over $3 million in paid internships - and 99% have continued on to college or a career. The Founder and CEO of YouthForce NOLA is Cate Swinburn. Along with YouthForce NOLA, there are a lot of organizations whose sole purpose is helping people. These organizations are generally grouped under the banner, “non- profit.” A non-profit business doesn’t have to pay federal taxes. They’re mostly exempt from property taxes. They have access to grant funding. They can receive donations that are tax deductions for the donor. And there are a whole bunch of other benefits too. But, - and there’s always a “but” when it comes to what looks like easy money – these non-profit business have to jump through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops and comply with all kinds of regulatory requirements to retain their legal definition of a 501(c)3 business. Other purpose-driven organizations that raise and spend money for reasons other than making a profit – like foundations and public entities – also have unique requirements. Here in New Orleans there’s a company whose business is maximizing the efficiency of all these types of organizations. It’s called Trepwise. It’s Founder and CEO is Kevin Wilkins. Kevin brought the original incarnation of Trepwise to Out to Lunch in 2016. The Bottom Line The term “the bottom line” is derived from accounting. It refers to the last line of a balance sheet in which you’re left staring at an incontrovertible fact – you’ve either made money or lost it. Over the last few years we’ve come to know businesses that deal in what’s called a triple bottom line. The three P’s of the triple bottom line are, Profit, People, and Purpose. In other words, there can be more to business than making money. Cate Swinburn and Kevin Wilkins are great examples of people who have proven skills in making profits, but who choose to add people and purpose to their professional lives. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you think it feels like things are speeding up and change is coming faster than ever, well, you’re right. It took us hundreds of thousands of years to get to a worldwide population of 3 billion. We got there in 1927. From there, it only took about 70 more years – one lifetime – to get to a population of 6 billion. Back at the 3 billion mark, fewer Americans lived in urban areas. When they needed to shop for necessary supplies they’d talk about “going to town.” “Town” was often a single street. A commercial corridor. A “Main Street.” Here in New Orleans, over the 300 years of our existence we’ve had a number of main streets. Canal Street. Dryades Street. Magazine Street. Recently we’ve added Freret Street. The current incarnation of Freret street as a commercial district began with the re-birth of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. One of the first outposts of resurrection was a then audaciously high-end, hip, cocktail bar and restaurant, called Cure. Cure would go on to win all kinds of awards, including the Oscar of hospitality - a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Bar Program” - and the company behind it, CureCo Bar & Restaurant Group would go on to open Val’s, also on Freret Street, and other establishments, including Cane & Table on Decatur Street. Neal Bodenheimer is a Co-Founder and the Managing Partner of these ventures, as well as a partner in Dauphine’s in Washington DC, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of Tales of the Cocktail Foundation, and author of the book, Cure, New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix ‘em. Tourists who visit New Orleans will often check out Freret Street and Magazine Street, but mostly they want to see The French Quarter. Typically, they’ll stay in a hotel in the Quarter, or at an Air B’nB in a neighborhood. There’s another local accommodation option too. It’s just west of the city. It sits on 7 and a half acres. It’s staffed by 12 employees, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and has a full concierge desk. There’s a shuttle service to the French Quarter, and to special events like Saints games and Jazz Fest. The concierge will arrange any tour you want to go on. And they have a souvenir shop where everything is intentionally priced lower than downtown. So, what is this place? It’s the KOA campground in River Ridge. There are 100 RV sites, 4 tent sites, and 3 deluxe lodges. The owners of KOA Campgrounds New Orleans are husband and wife team, Mike and Deborah Dunn. Yes, we have Big Ass Beers and Pat O’Briens, but we also have craft cocktails and Cure. And, yes, we have hotels on Bourbon Street and Air BnB’s Uptown, but we also have KOA Campgrounds in River Ridge. There is, as they say, more than one way to skin a cat. According to AI, the origin of that saying is unknown, but it’s thought to refer to the various solutions to the tricky business of cleaning and preparing catfish. Which is entirely appropriate for this part of the world, and for today’s conversation, referring, as it does, to various ways of achieving the desired result of enjoying a long life or a short stay in New Orleans by taking the road less traveled. Whether its locals who have turned Cure into an institution or visitors who have discovered the benefits of urban camping, all of us appreciate the unique ways both Deborah Sunn and Neal Bodenheimer are helping retain New Orleans’ reputation as a city that defies easy definition. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, I dust off four more old newspaper columns from the early days of me pretending I knew what I was doing.They may not be my finest work, and a couple of them feel like they were written by a man running entirely on coffee, deadline panic, and blind confidence, but they still carry the heart of where it all started. This round wanders through memories, small-town life, and the kind of ordinary moments that somehow felt important enough to make the paper. Some hold up better than others. Some probably should have stayed in the archives. Either way, it's a look back at the writing voice I was trying to find before I ever knew anyone might be listening to years later. 

In conversations about business, you don’t hear Karl Marx quoted very often. That’s principally because of his enthusiasm for communism, which is kind of the opposite of business… But Marx was an economist back in the mid 1800’s and the reason we still know about him is because he had some insights that are still relevant. Among them is the observation that everything contains the seeds of its own destruction. A current example of this is the way the internet is changing. Every single day there are 14 Billion – with a “B” – Google searches. Most of these searches lead the searcher to a website. If you own a website and a business, and you want people to find you online, you use a science called Search Engine Optimization. Or SEO. SEO makes sure that when someone’s searching for what you’re selling, your website comes up first on a Google search. Brian Hong has spent hours, weeks, months and years building websites and manipulating SEO for clients at his New Orleans company, Infintech Designs. Then along came the seed of the internet’s destruction. AI. AI doesn’t search the web the way a human does. But every day more and more people are using AI to do web searches. So how does Brian adapt? He gets into the AI business. He creates three AI companies, BigEasyData.ai, Flowbots.ai and Thorbit.ai. In one way or another, each of these defeat the death of SEO and instead use AI to grow a business. Any kind of business. HVAC. Plumbing. A medical practice. A law firm… To demonstrate his confidence in his AI tools’ ability to grow any business, instead of taking a fee, Brian will take a small stake in each company. And, but the way, in case you’re wondering, this is not theoretical, it’s actually working. In another example of Marx’s seeds of self-destruction – one of the ironies of the of the so-called “Information age” - is the death of information itself. We started publicly sharing written information as early as 59BC. That was the first newspaper. Almost continuously throughout human history since then, and certainly since the invention of the printing press, newspapers have played all kinds of functions in our communities. From a record of small-town births, deaths and marriages, to uncovering national political scandals and covering international wars, the newspaper has been a cohesive element of almost every literate community, everywhere. The demise of newspapers has been well documented. And news of the shrinking of the news industry continues. Which is what makes an organization called Deep South Today so interesting. Deep South Today is a nonprofit network of local newsrooms that includes The Current in Lafayette, The Garrison Project, Mississippi Today, and in New Orleans, Verite News. Warwick Sabin is President and CEO of Deep South Today. Among his varied past occupations Warwick served three terms in the Arkansas House of Representatives, he was a press secretary on Capitol Hill, he has a graduate degree from Oxford University in the UK, and from 2008-13 he revived and was the publisher of the equally prestigious Oxford American magazine. You’ve probably heard the expression, “When one door closes another door opens.” If that literally happens, you’re probably in prison. But as a metaphor it applies to both Brian's and Warwick's businesses. They're both in fields where the traditional way of doing things doesn’t work anymore, and they've both created original and unique pathways out of what has looked to most people like a dead end. Frankly, most people who care about these issues in this country are not looking in a southerly direction for solutions. It’s pretty amazing what these guys have accomplished already. Watch this space! Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is Antonia Crane, author, academic, and one of my all-time favorite memoirists. In this special episode, the tables are turned as Antonia interviews me about my debut memoir Girl Gone Wild, and we get into what it actually takes to write a book over 15 years and finally share it with the world.We talk about the long, nonlinear road from first essay to finished memoir, including incubators with Chloe Caldwell, revising through many drafts, and why sometimes you have to write an entire version of a book just to figure out what it isn't. We also get into structure, how trusting your gut can be more important than following industry expectations, the difference between factual accuracy and emotional truth, the challenge of fact-checking your own life, and why writing about the past often means confronting the parts you've tried hardest to forget. We discuss “dark teachers,” perfectionism, and the complicated process of making meaning out of tough experiences like addiction, abusive relationships, and sexual trauma.Plus, we get into sex work, feminism, the male gaze, and the cultural forces shaping Girl Gone Wild—from growing up in small-town Minnesota to chasing Hollywood dreams and encountering its underbelly.Subscribe to Antonia's Substack Meow Town. Follow her on Instagram @antoniacrane, and buy your copy of her amazing memoir Spent on Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!Get your copy of Courtney's debut memoir Girl Gone Wild from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:The Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakHow to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminar12 Months to a Full Memoir in Essays Incubator: Write Your Memoir in a Year: https://writingworkshops.com/products/memoir-in-essays-incubator-nonfiction-writing-workshop-online-june-2026Land Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminarSo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocak

Mistral has been on an absolute tear - with frequent successful model launches it is easy to forget that they raised the largest European AI round in history last year. We were long overdue for a Mistral episode, and we were very fortunate to work with Sophia and Howard to catch up with Pavan (Voxtral lead) and Guillaume (Chief Scientist, Co-founder) on the occasion of this week's Voxtral TTS launch:Mistral can't directly say it, but the benchmarks do imply, that this is basically an open-weights ElevenLabs-level TTS model (Technically, it is a 4B Ministral based multilingual low-latency TTS open weights model that has a 68.4% win rate vs ElevenLabs Flash v2.5). The contributions are not just in the open weights but also in open research: We also spend a decent amount of the pod talking about their architecture that combines auto-regressive generation of semantic speech tokens with flow-matching for acoustic tokens (typically only applied in the Image Generation space, as seen in the Flow Matching NeurIPS workshop from the principal authors that we reference in the pod).You can catch up on the paper here and the full episode is live on youtube!Timestamps00:00 Welcome and Guests00:22 Announcing Voxtral TTS01:41 Architecture and Codec02:53 Understanding vs Generation05:39 Flow Matching for Audio07:27 Real Time Voice Agents13:40 Efficiency and Model Strategy14:53 Voice Agents Vision17:56 Enterprise Deployment and Privacy23:39 Fine Tuning and Personalization25:22 Enterprise Voice Personalization26:09 Long-Form Speech Models26:58 Real-Time Encoder Advances27:45 Scaling Context for TTS28:53 What Makes Small Models30:37 Merging Modalities Tradeoffs33:05 Open Source Mission35:51 Lean and Formal Proofs38:40 Reasoning Transfer and Agents40:25 Next Frontiers in Training42:20 Hiring and AI for Science44:19 Forward Deployed Engineering46:22 Customer Feedback Loop48:29 Wrap Up and ThanksTranscriptswyx: Okay, welcome to Latent Space. We're here in the studio with our gues co-host Vibh u. Welcome. Thanks. Excited for this one as well as Guillaume and Pavan from Mistral. Welcome. Excited to be here.Guillaume: Thank you.swyx: Pavan, you are leading audio research at Mistral and Guillaume, you're Chief Scientist,Announcing Voxtral TTSswyxHost(00:05) Okay. (00:05) Welcome to Lean Space. (00:06) We're here in the studio with trustee co-hosts, Vibhu. (00:09) Welcome.VibhuHost(00:11) Very excited for this one.swyxHost(00:12) As well as Guillaume and Pavan from Mistral. (00:15) Welcome. (00:16) Excited to be here. (00:17) Thank you for having us.(00:18) Pavan, you are leading audio research at Mistral and Guillaume, you're a chief scientist. (00:23) What are we announcing today where we're coordinating this release with you guys?GuillaumeGuest(00:26) Yeah, so we are releasing Voxtral TTS. So it's our first audio model that generates speech. It's not our first audio model. We had a couple of releases before.(00:35) We had one in the summer that was Voxtral, our first audio model, but it was like a transcription model, ASR. Like a few months later, we released some update on top of this, supporting more languages. Also a lot of table stack features for our customers, context biasing, precision, timestamping and transcription. We also have some real-time model that can transcribe not just at the end of the level.(00:56) You don't need to fill your entire audio file, but that can also come in real-time. And here, this is a natural extension in the audio, so basically speech generation. So yeah, so we support nine languages, and this is a pretty small model, 3D model, so very fast, and also state of the art. Performed at the same level as the base model, but it's much more efficient in terms of cost, and also much, in terms of cost, it's also much cheaper, only a fraction of the cost of our competitors.(01:22) And we are also releasing the work that this model is running.swyx What's the decision factor?Guillaume It's a good question.swyxThere will be more. Yeah, Pavan, any sort of research notes to add on?Architecture and CodecPavan: But it's a novel architecture that we develop inhouse.We traded on several internal architectures and ended up with a auto aggressive flow matching architecture. And also have a new in-house neural audio codec. Which, converts this audio into all point by herds latent [00:02:00] tokens, semantic and acoustic tokens. And yeah, that's that's their new part about this model and we're pretty excited that it's, it came out with such good quality and Jim was mentioning. Yeah, it's a three B model. It's based off of the TAL model that we actually released just a few months back and insert trunk and mainly meant for like the TTS stuff, but they need text capabilities are also there. Yeah.swyx: So there's a lot to cover.I always I love any, anything to do with novel encodings and all those things because I think that's obviously I creates a lot of efficiency, but also maybe bugs that sometimes happen. You were previously a Gemini and you worked on post training for language models, and maybe a lot of people will have less experience with audio models just in general compared to pure language.What did you find that you have to revisit from scratch as you joined this trial and started doing this? At leastUnderstanding vs GenerationPavan: when it comes to, for, I think the, there are two buckets, I guess the audio understanding and audio [00:03:00] generation. The audio understanding, like the walkthrough models that Kim was mentioning that we released earlier.The walkthrough chat that we released I think July last year, and the follow up transcription only, models family that we released in January, that would be one bucket, and the generation is another bucket. I think. You can also treat them as a unified set of models, but currently the approaches are a little different between these two.To your question on how audio is fed to the model? In the understanding model, it's very similar to actually Pixar models that we also released,swyx: yes.Pavan: That'sswyx: amazing.Pavan: It was pretty, I, that was the first project I worked on after joined Misra. It was pretty, pretty nice. And Wtu was very similar in spirit.I guess So we feed audio through an audio encoder similar to images through a vision encoder, and it produces continuous embeddings and which are fed as tokens to the main transformer decoded transformer model. Yeah. On the model output is just text. So on the output side, there is nothing that needs to be done in these kinds of mode.I [00:04:00] guess the interesting part of what the generation stuff is, the output now has to produce audio and. The approach that we have is this neural audio codec, which converts audio into these latent tokens. There is a lot of existing attrition and a lot of models which are based off of this kind of approach.And we took a slightly. A different, design decisions around this. But at the end of the day, the neural audio product converts audio into a 12.5 herdz set of latents. And each latent is, has a semantic token and a set of acoustic tokens. And the idea is that you take these discrete tokens and then feed it on the input side.There's several ways to use this at each frame, but we just sum the embedding. So it's like having key different vocabularies. Combine all of them because they all correspond to one audio frame on the input side. The output side is the interesting part on the output side, the, it's not the, I don't know if it's the most popular, but one.Popular technique is to have a depth transformer [00:05:00] because you have K tokens at each time step, like with a text, you just have one token at each time step. So you just do predict the token from the vocabulary with, yeah, with just, you get probabilityswyx: This's a very straightforward text. VeryPavan: straightforward.swyx: Yeah.Pavan: But if you have K tokens, then the name thing would be to predict all of them in paddle. That doesn't work. At least that doesn't work that well because audio has more entropy. And the, one of the techniques people use is this depth transformer where you you almost have a small transformer, or it can be L-S-T-M-R in as well, but people use transformers and you predict the K tokens in auto aggressive fashion in that.So you have two auto reive things going on.Flow Matching for AudioPavan: So the thing we did differently is in, instead of having this auto aggressive K step prediction, we have a flow matching model. Instead of modeling this as a discrete token set we trained the codec to be both discrete and continuous to have this flexibility.So we did try the discrete stuff too, and which it works well, but the continuous stuff works just better. So yeah, we took this flow matching, so the, it's a flow [00:06:00] matching head, which takes the latent from the main transformer and like kind in fusion, it's denoising, but in this flow matching itself, velocity estimate.So you go from this noise t all the way to there. Audio latent, which corresponds to the 80 millisecond audio and then, which is sent through the work order to get back the 80 millisecond audio frame.swyx: Yeah. Is this the first application of flow matching in audio? Because usually I come across this in the image.Pavan: Yeah. Actually, in some sense there are models flow matching models in audio, but I think this specific combination I could be wrong. There could be somewhat. No. I haven't seen. I haven't seen much work in this, so I think it's novel and a lot of it's just a way bigger community, so they, I think they pioneer a lot of these diffusion flow matching work, and it's interesting to adopt some of the ideas there into audio and,swyx: yeah.Pavan: Yeah, I'm, personally that's the think part which is trying out about. One of more meta point is unlike text, even in vision, I think this is true, but in [00:07:00] audio step literature that there is no.Winner model, yet there is no, okay, this is the way you do things. It's it's still by, I think people are still iterating and figuring out like what's the best overall recipe. I guess the idea. Pretty sure there are models which are also completely end-to-end, like NATO audio. NATO audio, but it's still not come to a convergence point where this, the right way to think that.That also makes. A space pretty exciting to explore.Real Time Voice AgentsVibhu: What are some of the ways to look at it?Vibhu: There are ways where you can do diffusion for audio generation, but if you want like real time generation, that's a big thing with the approach I'm assuming that you took. Yeah. And also like how do you go about evaluating different axes of what you care about, yeah,Pavan: good point. I think we so you can do just flow matching diffusion for the whole audio. We didn't even go down that path because one of the main applications is voice agents and we want real time streaming, and that's the use case. That's not the only use case, but that's one of the primary use cases we want to get to.So we [00:08:00] picked the auto aggressive approach for that. And within the auto aggressive space, again, you can do chunk by chunk or you can do so we picked the. I think at least personally prefer the operations, which are the simplest, and so we try to see, can we just add audio as just another head to our regular transformer decode model because that kind of makes it easier for eventual end-to-end modeling of audio text native modeling.Yeah. And it works pretty well. So I guess we went with that and we tried a little bit, but the flow matching head itself, like we had a discreet. Diffusion kind of approach, which also works well, but the flow matching work better.swyx: I was just curious about how you also think about this overall direction of research.Do you basically, when you work with the audio team, do you set some high level parameters and then let them explore whatever, or how does it work between you guys?Guillaume: No I think the way it works is that we are the, we are prioritizing together, I think, what are the most important features because there are many things we can do [00:09:00] in audio.Yeah, I think we try to. These are like how we should do things, for instance. Ultimately what we want to do is to build this through duplex model, but we are not going to start this start there directly, I think is. Some of the project people are doing, butswyx: just to confirm, full effects means it can speak while I'm speaking or,Guillaume: yeah.Okay. Audio. Yeah. Yeah. So intimately we're going to get there, but for us it was, we decided to take it like a step by step. So we start with whatever is the most important. I think support customers, which is the transcription is the most popular use case. Then the speech generation, Soviet time, just a bit before that.And then actually to be like more, but try combining everything all together. But but yeah, we thought it was also important to like separate things and optimize each capability one by one before weswyx: measure of that together. And the super omni model. ButGuillaume: very interesting because as Par said, it's when you work on some other domains of this airline and everything, there are many areas where I think it's not as interesting.For instance. Many places, it's essentially just around data or like creating new environments on a lot of kind [00:10:00] of easy things. But things were, I think the research is maybe not as interesting. Were in audio. There are so many ways to actually build this model. So many ways to go around it. That's the sense I think is really interesting.And what we also tried for speed generation is that we tried multiple approaches. What was interesting that even though they were extremely different, they under the big know the particles but the for matching turned out to be quite more natural. So we are happy with this.swyx: Is there intuition why it maybe like flow matching is just models speech better in some natural fundamental, latent dimension?Pavan: No, I think the main thing is e even at a particular time step, there is a distribution of things.swyx: Yes.Pavan: To be predicted like the way you inflate. So you already know the word that you're speaking and Yeah. The intake space, let's say the word maps register a single token for simplicity.In most cases it does. So there is not a lot of so you just pick the word, but with within audio, even the same word could, even with your own voice, could be inflicted in so many different ways. And I think [00:11:00] any approach which like models this distribution and. And flow matching is one, one of the take.It's not the only one at all, but it's a one which works pretty reasonably well. I think that's better. So you have to pick across several different, the intuition I have is it's, there are some, several different clusters each corresponding to some specific way you would inflict, pronounce that thing.And you can't predict the mean of it because that corresponds to some blurred out speech or something like that. But you have to pick one. And then like sharpswyx: conditional inference.Pavan: Yeah, exactly.swyx: Is that all covered under disfluencies, which is I think the normal term of art. Pauses intonations. By the way, I have to thank Sophia for setting all this up, including like some of these really good notes becausePavan: Yeah.swyx: I'm less familiar with the audios for me.Pavan: No. I think dis dismisses are definitely one such Eno defenses is more likeswyx: which is arms are.Pavan: Yeah, arms. And also repeat like you like,swyx: yeah.Pavan: You do this full of words, your thinking, so you repeat the word.swyx: Okay. Whereas intonation is like a diff, it's up up [00:12:00] speak and all this.Okay.Pavan: Yeah. So I think there is a lot of like entropy. And modeling it as a distribution. And a, any technique which helps with it and the depth transformer is a conditional way of modeling this. And Transformers actually really good at it, even though that's a mini transformers. So I think that worked pretty well too for us too.It's just that the main concentration is when you have a depth transformer. If you have K tokens, you need to do K auto steps, right? Even though it's a small thing, it's K steps, which is very vacant, say heavy, but flow matching. We were able to cut it down significantly. So we are able to do the inference in quad steps or 16 steps and it works pretty well.And there are more normal techniques to bring it down even further to like, in extreme case, one step like we're not doing it yet, but it at least the framework, LEDs itself to more efficient and Yes.swyx: And the image guys have done.Pavan: Yeah.swyx: Incredible work guys. Yeah.Pavan: It now you just. Send a prompt and you get an image.swyx: Yeah. Surprisingly not enough. I think image model labs use those techniques in production. I think it's, I feel like it's a lot of research demos, but [00:13:00] nothing I can use on my phone today.Guillaume: The thing, there's a thing that would be interesting here is that since, indeed I've been so much sure that has been done in the vision community compared to radio dys, stomach, I think there are so many long infra Yeah.And there are so many things we can do to actually improve this further. So it's our first version, but we have so many ways to exist, much better and much more efficient, cost efficient, soswyx: yeah.Guillaume: So really it's not a new field at all, of course, but there are still so many things that can be done.Perfect. It'sswyx: nice. I should also mention for those who are newer to flow matching, I think the creator, this guy's name is Alex, he's done I think in Europe's maybe two Europes as ago. There was, there's a very good workshop. There's one hour on like this matching is I would recommend people look that up.That's the other thing, right?Efficiency and Model Strategyswyx: The efficiency wise, like I, I imagine like the reason is open weights the reason you pick 3.6 B backbone it you are 3.4 B you are, try to fit to some kinda hardware constraints. You kinda fits some kinda basic constraints. What are they?Guillaume: Not necessarily, I think something we care about in our model that they're efficient.So we have a [00:14:00] lot of separate model, for instance. So we have this that is very small, very efficient. We also have a small OCR model that is available. Good, highly efficient as well. And I think on a project maybe there, I think companies are going to take is to have a coverage general model that will do a bit of everything.But that is also going to be expensive. On here. What want say is if you care about this specific use case, if you can actually use this model, it just does that. It's extremely good at it. Survey, very efficient. That's why we can actually add. We do, but also OCR that are like really good at that.And that would be much more cost effective factors and the general model that will contain a lot of capabilities you don't really need. So yeah. So we're doing like general model, but also like more customized model. This,Open Weights and BenchmarksVibhu: how does it compare to other TTS models? It's, we are going follow open wave.We're just dropping it. I think it's pretty good.Pavan: Yeah, I think it's pretty good. Like it, it's definitely one of the best. For sure. It's probably I would say it's the best open source model, butVibhu: decipher themselves.swyx: Yeah.Voice Agents VisionVibhu: Why now? How does it fit into broader ral vision? How do you see voice agents?How do you see voice? I think every year I've heard, okay, you're a [00:15:00] voice. You're a voice. There's a lot of architectural stuff. There's a lot of end time that see it, your solving, but where do you see voice setting?Guillaume: We had so many customers asking for voice. That's also why we wanted to build it.What's interesting in this domain is that. In a sense, if you take something simple like transcription it doesn't seem like something that should be very hard to do for a model. It's essentially, it's pattern recognition. It's classification on this. Models are very good at classifying, right?Or nonetheless, when you talk to them it's not there yet, right? It's not, you don't talk to them the same way you talk to a person. On something, maybe people don't realize it. It's in English it's still much better than in any user language, even compared to French instance. If you talk to this million in French, when you see people talking to this they'll talk very slow.They'll articulate as much as they can. So it's not natural, right? We're not yet to this. And I think, yeah, maybe the next generation will not know this, but yeah, I think people that. But our edge will actually always keep this bias speaking very slowly when they talk to this model. Even if maybe, probably in a couple of years, maybe next year it'll not be necessary anymore.But yeah. But what's interesting is to see that yeah, even for like languages [00:16:00] like yeah, French and Spanish Germans that are not no, no resource on religion. You have a lot of audios there on still it's not as good. And I think a consequence. Because then for this, I suppose just is not as much energy, as much effort that has been put done in some other mod that for some vision or like coding.But but yeah, there's still a lot of progress to be done. I think it's just a question of doing the work and it's clear path I think to get there.Pavan: It's a little fascinating because I worked on Google Assistant I think while back at this point, but it's, I think it's, it like when you take a step back, it's fascinating.It's not that long ago. It was like four years ago or five years ago, and it's now it's completely audio in, audio out and the function calling and the whole thing happens completely end to end. And in a very natural,swyx: yeah,Pavan: natural way and still ways to go. Kim was telling, even despite all the previous, it's not like you're speaking to a person.When you talk to any of these agents, bots, or voice mode kind of situation, it's still like a gap. I think that's the great part and I feel like with even the existing [00:17:00] stack, we should be able to get to this very natural speech conversational abilities soon enough I guess.And we'll also hope. I get thatGuillaume: on this kind of the next step, right? Because when you talk to these agents, like usually people are just writing to them and sometimes they'll this very clear, for instance, you are, you want to write code, but you are, you have a very clear idea of how you want the model to implement what you in mind.But so here you are able to spend a lot of time writing. So it's not really efficient on audio is really like a natural interface that is just not there yet, but I think it's just gonna be the place.Vibhu: How's it like building, serving, inferencing, like we see a lot about, it's very easy to take LMS off the shelf, serve them.Fine tuning, deploying. I know you guys have a whole you have Ford, you have a whole stack of customizing, deploying. Is there a lag in getting that. Like distribution channel. Are you helping? There is. So like prompting, lms, you can have them be concise, verbose, all that.They're built on LM backbones, these models. How do you see all that?Enterprise Deployment and PrivacyGuillaume: Yeah, I think this is a lot of what we're doing with our own customers. Very [00:18:00] often they come to us, so it's for different reasons. I think one reason is sometimes they have this lot of privacy concerns.They have this data that it's very sensitive. They don't want data to leave. The companies, they wanted to stay. Inside the company. So we have them deploy model in-house. So either on a, either on premise or on private cloud. So they're not worried that it's given to a third party on the there some leakage.Sometimes they have this kind of many companies have this different, sensitivity of data they have like sometimes channel chat can send it to the cloud has to stay there. So then it creates some kind of heterogeneous workflows where it's annoying. You cannot send some data to the cloud.This one you can, so here, when we actually deploy the model for them, they don't have this consideration. They are like not worried that, this is going to leak. Everything is much easier. So we help them basically do this on the, so it's one of the very proposition. But but the other is very often, when customers use this off the shelf close model, but very sad is that they are not leveraging, these data that have been collecting for four years or something for decades.So much data. Sometimes it's trillions of tokens of [00:19:00] data in a very specific domain. Their domain, which is data that you'll not find in the public, on the public internet. So data on which, like close model, we actually not have access to one, which that's going to be really good. So if they're using like closed source models are basically not benefiting from all these insights.All these data they have collected three years, they can always give it into the context that in France, but is never as good as if you actually train the modern analysis. So yes, that's basically what we help them to do. We actually provide them some purchase, basically what we announced at GTC this week.So we provide them with this, it's basically like a platform with a lot of tools to actually help them process data. Trained on that. Yeah, it's actually the same thing that we're using in the science team. So it's actually very better tested infrastructure, like a lot of efficient training cut base.For a quality pre-training like a fine tuning, even doing S-F-T-I-L. So we help them do this using the same tools as what our science team is building is using. So since it's tools that we've been using for two years now, it's really better tested. It's really sophisticated.So it's the same thing. We are giving to them, giving the company the same thing [00:20:00] that what are same still using internally actually build their own ai and it makes a really big difference. I think sometimes customers. And many in general don't realize how much better the model becomes when you fine tune it on your own data.And you can have a, your model is here. You start from there. You have a cross source model, which is sort here, but if you actually fine tune it can actually really go much further than this. And then you have a very big advantage. The model is trained on your entire company knowledge, so it knows everything.You don't have to feed like 10 K tokens of contact at every query. So it's it's much easier. It's a bit, I think using a closed source model is really sad because it basically puts. You are not leveraging all this data and you are going to be using the same model as all your old competitors when you're actually using, everything you have been collected for years, which is really valuable.So yeah. So we help basically customers do this. We have a lot of solution I mean deployed for engineers that go in the company that basically look at the problem customers are facing to look at what they're struggling to do what we should do to solve it. So we help them solve them together.So it's I think our approach is a bit different, but here. [00:21:00] Some of their companies and competitors, it's, we don't just release an endpoint on sale, do some stuff on top of that, or we don't just give a checkpoint. We really look very closely with customers. We look at the issues they have, we had them solve them.We really make some tailored solution for the client are facing. Some example are also going to be, sometime we have some customers. They really wanted to have a really good model, really performance on some, like Asian languages on the, if you take some of the shelf models, they can speak it, they can write in this language, but it's not amazing.This language would be like maybe zero 1% of the mixture. So it has been included during training, but very little. So what we did here is upgrade. We trained a new model for them, but so this language was 50% of the mix, so it's much, much stronger. It knows of the dialects, it knows the, so it's yeah.So it's some example of things we can do and it's really arbitrary, custom. I think you had some of their customers, for instance, they wanted some. They wanted some 3D model that can do audio with a very good function cable. So something you wanted to put in the car in particular, they wanted this to be offline because in a car you don't necessarily have access to internet.So [00:22:00] yeah. So here we can actually build the solutions. There is no like model out of the box on this. In the internet you have this very, you have this very general model generalist, like he's strong model. But for things like this, they always want at specific solutions and on some other reasons.Sometimes they come to us is because, like they, they experiment with some closed source model. They get some prototype. They're happy with what they build. They, it works well. They're happy with the performance, and then they want to go to production and then they analyze. But it's extremely expensive.You cannot push this. It's so then they come back to us on this. They can help us build the same thing as this, but using something much cheaper on here. And here we can sometime be something 10 x cheaper by just functioning a model and it'll be better OnPrem on their old server and also much cheaper as well.So yeah,swyx: that's the drop pitch right there. Take all themoney.Vibhu: And outside of that you do, we do put open wave models so people can do this themselves. I feel like not enough people go outta their way.swyx: They're not going to, they're gonna ask them to do it as the expert. IGuillaume: think initially we didn't know, [00:23:00] we wanted completely short at the beginning of the company because, I think our study was not exactly the same as what it is today, but what we underestimated initially is the complexity of deploying this model and connecting them to everything to be sure it has access to the company knowledge on the, and it was, yeah, on, we were seeing customers struggling with this, but it was even, that was three years ago and no, things are much more complicated because now you don't just have, text on SFT on a simple instruction following.You have reasoning like your agents, you have like tools. You have a multimodal audio, so it's much more complicated than before. And even back then it was hard for customers. So they really need, have some support and this is why actually providing like always some four D position as well. The processFine Tuning and Personalizationswyx: I'm curious is there also voice fine tuning that people do?Pavan: So in this forge we also have a say unified framework. And the hope is like the er speech to text that we released earlier this year. And even the ER chart that we released last year. And I think a big people, I think there's a big, rich ecosystem [00:24:00] of people fine tuning whisper, and people want the same thing with w so it's much stronger than Whisper.And yeah, the the platform offers that kind of fine tuning yeah, which could be any kind of fine tuning. Like for instance, even sometimes people want to support new languages to this, which are tail languages, which we hope to cover. Certain natively, but if there is a language where you data and you want to frank you, I think this is a good use case.Or the other use cases, you, it's the same language, like even English but it's in a very domain specific way.swyx: Yeah. Terminology, jargon, medical stuff.Pavan: Exactly. And also there's specific acoustic conditions like there's a lot of noise or the, and. The model will do decently in most conditions, but you can always make it better.And that those are some of the use cases where you can improve it e even further. And that's one good use case for this and for text to speech. We're just releasing it so we'll have support for that soon too. I think it's similar use case.Voice Personalization Pavan: It's little different the kind of things that you want to extend a [00:25:00] text to speech model to, which could be like voice personalization, voice adaptation for enterprises.Many enterprises need very specific kind of tone, very specific kind of like personality for this kind of voice. And all of those are like good use cases for fine tuning.swyx: This one I was gonna ask you, we never talked about cloning voice clothing here. How important is it, right?Like I can clone a famous person's voice. Okay. ButPavan: the main use case would be like for enterprise personalization, like enterprises need like a lot of customization. You don't want the same. Voice for all the enterprises. Each enterprise want a customized, specialized something which is representative both their brand and also their, I guess safety considerations and the use case I think the kind of thing that you would deploy as a empathetic assistant in the context of a healthcare domain would be very different from the kind of thing that would be in a customer support bot and would be different from like more conversational aspects.I think those are the. [00:26:00] Customizations you would expect from enterprise. And that's the main use case, at least from our side.Vibhu: My, my basic example is you don't want to call to customer services and have the same exact voice. It's just, it's gonna be weird.Long-Form Speech ModelsLong-Form Speech ModelsVibhu: But also on the technical side of this, so there's like a few things in TRO that I thought were pretty interesting.He's a big fan of this paper. Oh, he said very good paper. He said this is the best SR paper he's ever read. Yeah. I've hyped up this voice paper enough. We covered it. Somewhere, but a big thing. So Whisper is known for 32nd generation a 32nd processing. You extended this to 40 minutes. There was a lot of good detail in the paper about how this was done.Even little niches of how the padding is. So it's very much needed. You need to have that padding in there, the synthetic data generation around this. I'm wondering if you can share the same about the new speech to text, right? Text to speech. So how do you. How do you generate long form, coherent?How do you generate, how do you do that? And then any gems? Is there gonna be a paper?Pavan: Yeah. Yeah. They would be a technical report. Okay. Yeah. I think I could have a lot of details.Real-Time Encoder AdvancesPavan: But me I think the [00:27:00] summary of it, actually, some of the considerations in this paper were, because we started with the wipa encoder as the starting point, and now we have in-house encoders, like the bigger time model, for instance, which we released in January.Also release a technical report for that real time model as well, which is this dual stream architecture. It's an interesting architecture. You should check it out. And there we have a causal encoder and I don't think there's any strong, multilingual causal encoder out in the community. So we thought it's a good contribution.So that's one nice encoder there. Other people want to adapt. That's a good end code. And we train it from scratch. I think her. Post stack is now mature enough that we are able to train super strong ENC codes. And some of these considerations, like spatting and stuff, is a function of the Whisper ENC code.And now that we train encoders, inhouse the design concentrations are different.Scaling Context for TTSPavan: And for the question on text to speech, I think that's also leans onto the original auto aggressive decoder backbone. I think, it says very, almost identical considerations. I think the long context in it's not even long con, [00:28:00] so the model processes audio at 12.5 herds, so one second maps to like 12.5 tokens.So I think one minute is like 7.8 tokens. You can get like up to 10 minutes in eight K context window and get half an hour and 30 K context window. So that's and 30 2K context is something that's we are very comfortable training on. We can extend it even much longer. 1 48 K. Okay. You can naturally see how it can extend to even our long generations.Yeah. We need the. Like data recipe and the whole algorithm to work coherently enough through such long context. But the techniques are some way very similar to the text, long context modeling. And the key differences, it's just doing flow matching order regressively instead of a text open prediction.swyx: Okay. I think that was most, most of the sort of voice questions that we had. ButWhat Makes a Model SmallVibhu: I have a big question on Mr. Al, Mr. Small. So what is small? How do we define [00:29:00] small? What is this? What is this? I remember the days of Misal seven B on my laptop. The snuff fitting on my laptop. I could run it on the big laptop, butGuillaume: it's just additional.Question of terminology, like here what we did, baseball is north active parameters, but it's true. Really not give it another name, but yeah, we could have called it medium, but only, I,I suppose it's a model that we released mixture of experts. It's a model that combines different model before which we were doing the same, is that we had one model, general model for Israel. Doing instruction following, were like a separate model that was Devrel trial. So qu coding specify specific to code with another model for Reason Maal.So this were separate artifacts built by different team at trial on what we're doing is basically merging all of this. It was, you had pixel trial was the first vision model. We was like a separate model on the way we do things internally is that we have one team focus on one capability, build one model.On the means mature, mature enough, we decide to merge this into the [00:30:00] matrix. But here it was the first time we basically match all of this into one. But there are some other things we did at first time to merge time, for instance, like more capabilities or function coding I think would be, are, it's going to be much, much better in this trial, small platform.But but yeah, so it's our latest model on the working is,Vibhu: and yeah, key things is it's very sparse. Six, be active pretty efficient to serve. 2 56 K context. Yeah,Merging Capabilities vs Specialistsswyx: I think what's interesting is just this general theory of developing individual capabilities in different teams and then merging them.Where is this going gonna end up?Vibhu: Like we've seen the five things put together in this. Yeah. What are the next five teams?swyx: I think actually OpenAI has gone away from the original four Oh. Vision of the Omni model. This was what they were selling. All modalities and all modalities out.But I feel like you might do it.Guillaume: I think there's some mod where it's not competitive use, for instance for audio. For audio here, if you want to do transcription, I think it makes no sense to use a model. If you just want to trans tech it, it'll be very inefficient. If you want to do audio, you probably just want to be the [00:31:00] one VR 3D model performance essentiallyswyx: the same.It's going to be incredibly cheaper. So here, that's why we wantGuillaume: to have a separate but just does this. Yeah, I think the question is just, yeah. If you are to, to your model. By speech and you asking like a very complex questions on how you do this on the, just to cascade things. Do you want to put a d in a model that has like a one key around it?It's like a, not a competitive discussion, I think unaware if you doing into the direction, but that's possible. Of course. But yeah. But I think for us, the next capabilities we want to try to integrate into these models when we are going to be yes, like marketing or no reasoning better, I think more capabilities that people don't talk too much about, but at high bottom, I think for our customers in our, on different industries, for instance, things are around like a legal computer.I design all these things that is this males out of the box are to put at that. Because people, if you don't prioritize this, there is not like too benchmark on that. Butswyx: this done how toGuillaume: make this good and this just start to do the work. Extracting some that processing it [00:32:00] expression. So yeah.But we are offering the imagine to this.swyx: I think for voice. Yeah. The key thing I think over maybe like the last year or so with VO and gr Imagine and all these things is joining voice with video, right? Which people don't understand spatial audio because like most TTS is just oh, I'm speaking to a microphone in perfect studio quality.But when you have video, like the voice moves around.Pavan: That's true. The constitution was a little different in the sense that there it's like a a standalone artifact where you get the whole thing and you consume it. But in a conversational setting, it's a, you need the extreme low latency.swyx: Yeah,Pavan: streaming would be one of the primary concentrations.swyx: You can build a giant company just doing that, right? So you don't need to do the voice, but I was just know on the theme of merging modalities, that is something I, I am like, wow. Like I didn't, everyone up till, let's say mid last year was just doing these like pipelines of okay, we'll stitch a TTS model with a voice thing and a lip sync [00:33:00] thing and what have you.Nope. Just giant model. Yeah.Open Source MissionVibhu: I have a two part question. So one is, it's still open. It seems like open source is still very core to what you guys do and I just have to plug your paper. Jan 2024. This is the one trial of experts like. Very fundamental research on how to do good.Moes paper comes out very good paper for anyone. That's just side tangent. No.swyx: This thing caused, we bring back, eight by 22 was like the nuclear bomb for open source. I think it takes Shouldn be more seven B more. Yeah. Yeah. But this is a bigger opposite than me.Yeah. Yeah I don't remember this. I remember, I don't think it was January, right? It was like new reps it was, it dropped during new reps and everyone in Europes was December of 25th, I think. Yeah. The model was did as well.Vibhu: It's just a little update probably.swyx: Yeah. No, but you have a point to make.Vibhu: No, you gotta check that. But then, I just want to hear more broadly on open source for you guys, and when you had asked earlier [00:34:00] about what's next, what are the other, side tapes working on you. You put out Lean straw. This,swyx: it's not necessarily surprise. I was like, I don't, this doesn't fit my mental model or Misra.Guillaume: Yeah. First for open source in general, I think it's really something which looks to the January of the company. I think we started it per once, is we so we have open sourcing with, since the beginning and even before this. So before this, so me and Tim were at Meta, we released LA and I think what was really nice.To see that before this, for most researchers like universities, it was impossible to work on elements. There was no alien outside. And if you look at many of the techniques that were developed after, for instance, was open source all this post-training approaches like even DPOD, like preference optimization, all of this were done by people that had access to this portal.And it'll have been impossible to do without this. So it's really making sense, move faster. So we really want to contribute to this ecosystem. I think like the deep and also like very lot of impact. All these papers that are I think in the open source community are really helping the science community as a whole to move faster.So [00:35:00] we want contribute to this ecosystem. That's why we're releasing very detailed technical reports. So ma trial and our first reason model, and ation, lot of results, things that work, things that did not work as well. Think helpful on the, yeah, so for the audio model also to share a lot of details, share of them for real time model.And the, yeah, so we really want to continue this, basically belong to this community of people who share science. I think we really don't want to be, leading in a world where the smartest model, the best models are only behind, close doors. Only accessible to a shoe companies that we, as a power to decide we can use them on it.I think it's a scary future. We don't want to live in, we really want this model to be accessible to anyone that want. Intelligence to be used unaccessible by anyone who can use it. So yeah, so that's why we are pushing this mission and source model. Yeah. So not, so yeah, no strategy. So it's open source, not the first model, so not the best on the Yeah.Lean and Formal ProofsGuillaume: LIN trial I think is also one step into this direction. So it's yeah, a bit different than what we are usually releasing. But we have a small team internally [00:36:00] working on them. Formal proofing, formal math. So I think a subject we care about in general and we were working on reasoning. I think we started too early before doing reasoning without LMD is very hard, especially when you work with formal systems because the amount of data you have is negligible.It's addressable community of people writing like formal proofs. But the reason why we like it is because I think there is if you look at what people are doing with reasoning, is there, the problems that you can use. Are usually going to be problems where you can verify the output. So for instance, all this ai ME problem where the solution is a number between 100, like a thousand.So you can verify, compare this with a reference or it's an expression. You can actually compare the output expression generic with the reference. But there are many, most of them have problem and most of the reason problem. There is no like way to easily verify the solution. If the question is show that F is continuous, cannot compare in the reference, right?If it's a probe that this is true or probes is properties, there is no way to. You cannot act, simply verify the correctness of your proof. So it's hard to apply the, there is no referable reward here. So [00:37:00] what you could provide is of course, like a judge and judge that will look at your proof. But it's very hard and it's very, you could do certain, some reward hacking happening there.So it's difficult. You could provide like a reference proof, but then there are also many ways to prove the same thing. So if the model says give negative reward because it's a different poop, maybe it was still digit proof, just different. So it's not going to work well. What's nice with lean and with formal probing is that you don't have to worry about this whatsoever.We just,swyx: they're all function is largely compiles in lean is functionally the same. Exactly.Guillaume: It's like a problem if it compiles it's correct. It's very easy. And you can apply this and then you can,swyx: it's just way too small. So no human will actually go and do it.Guillaume: Yeah, that's exactly.It's the only people can do it. It's like a very small committee of people doing a PhD on that. So it's super small. And it's sad because it's actually very useful on not just mat, but also in software verification. So for instance, software verification today. So tiny market. Very few industries work on this and we need that.It's usually going to be like companies like building airplanes, air robotics,swyx: likeGuillaume: things [00:38:00] where they absolutely want to be sure. Life depend on this, but it's very rare that people formally verify the correctness of their software. But I think one of the reasons for this is simply that it's just hard to do.swyx: Are you think of TLA plus? It's the language that some people do for software verification? No. That people use in a ference, but but yeah, it's the reason I think why people don't use it more and why this industry is not as big as could be is because it's very hard. But now with cutting edges that are there, it's going to be very different.Guillaume: We're going to see much more of this. So I think yes, industry there is going to be much larger in the future that we, these models. So yeah. Here also anticipating this a little bit, we wanted to work on that because it's proving like a math theory and like a, essentially the same tools.swyx: Yeah.Reasoning Transfer and Agentsswyx: One of my theories is that because the proofs takes so long, it's actually just a proxy for long horizon reasoning and coherence and planning. Maybe a lot of people will say okay, it's for people who like math. It's for being okay. It's like a niche math language. Who cares? But actually, and you use this as part of your data mixture for [00:39:00] post-training and reasoning, actually, it might spike everywhere else.Yeah. And I think that's un under explored or no one's like really put out a definitive paper on how this generalizes.Guillaume: Yeah, absolutely. AndPavan: I think evenGuillaume: that's what we're seeing already. For instance, you should do some reasoning on math as then the American should do reason even.Yeah. In the early stage. So we, the, there is some transfer, some sort of emergence that happens. And I think some, it's also interesting, it's not just I think the topic in general, but it's, there is a lot of connection with this on including agents because. Sometimes the model can see like a three that it has to prove it's very complex, but then it can take the initiative to say, I'm going to prove this three lr.I'm going to suggest three Rs, and I'm going to in parallel prove each R. So three of them in parallel with sub agents, but I'm also going to prove them in theory and the three tool so you can do this also. Pretty interesting. You can, even if you fail to put one of the LeMar, you can actually, maybe you succeed to put the normal lema too, so you get some possible reward here.So it's a bit less Spartan issue, just get to zero one for the entire thing. [00:40:00] So it's pretty interesting. I think we can actually,Vibhu: yeah, it's also an interesting case just for specialized models in general, right? Like the cost thing you show is pretty interesting yeah, similar score wise, you are, thirty, seventy, a hundred fifty, three hundred bucks.Smaller.swyx: I think cost is a bit unfair, right? ‘cause this one is at like inference cost. It's always there on top with their margins on top of it. But, we don't know anything else, so we gotta figure it out.Vibhu: Okay.Next Frontiers in TrainingVibhu: I did wanna actually push on that more. Not on cost, but you mentioned about, okay, it's a great way to have verifiable long context reasoning.What are other frontiers that, I'm sure you guys are working on internally, there's a lot of push of people pushing back on pre-training. Scaling, RL pushing, compute towards having more than half of your training budget. All on rl. Where are you guys seeing the frontier of research in that?Guillaume: You mean theVibhu: just in foundation model training in the next, one thing that you guys do actually is you do fundamental research from the ground up, right? So you probably have a really good look at where you can [00:41:00] forecast this out.Guillaume: Yeah. I think for us we're still working a lot on the pre-training side.I think we are very far from situational, the pre-training. I think ML four preprinting will be like big step compared to everything we have done before. So we are pretty excited about this. And I think on the other side, I think now we have more and more to think about this algorithm that will actually support this very long trajectories.I think when it was, for instance, GRPO for it doesn't really work this any bit of policy. Which was okay initially because you are solving math problem that can be solved in like a few thousand tokens. So the model can alize them pretty quickly. So when you do your update, the model is never too far off.It's never too far off. But now when you are moving towards this kind of problems where certain takes hours, like six hours to get a reward, then your model is co pick places. So you have bi new infrastructure that supports this, but also new A, so now everything we're doing internally, we're trying to. Build some infra that we actually anticipate is what we have in six months, one now, which is this extremely no scenarios on the, I think when we started Missal, part of me and [00:42:00] we wanted to, is very nice under element where people are there, they can do research, they like with a lot of resources.So it was nice. I think things changed a lot when I think when J Pity came out. I think after that I think was. This one is same again. But but yeah, but it was nice. And I think we also want to work part of this descrip beforeswyx: coming to the end.Hiring and Team Footprintswyx: We're just, obviously, I think you guys are doing incredible work.You've, they are a very impressive vision for open source and for voice. What are you hiring for? What's the what are you looking for that you are trying to join the company?Guillaume: Yeah, so we are hiring a lot of people in our sense team. We're hiring, in all our offices. So we have a, our H two is in France in Paris.We have a small team in London. We like a team in Pato as well. Co we open some offices in in SAU, in Poland. So one in Zurich. We also like some presence in New York as well on Sooner one in San Francisco. So we all bit either way also like hiring remotely. So we're going the team trying to hire like very strong people.I think we want to stay, so the team is not. Instead of fairly small team. [00:43:00] But I think we want to keep it that way. ‘Cause we we find it quite efficient. So like a small team they agile so yeah.swyx: Okay.AI for Science Partnershipsswyx: Let's focus on science and the forward deployed. We actually are strong believers in science.We started the our new science pod that focuses specifically on the air for science. What areas do you think are the most promis.Guillaume: What we're pretty excited about right now, and something we have already started doing or that we'd probably be able to share more about this in a couple of months, is that we are exploring AI for science.And there are a lot of areas where we think that you could get some extremely promising buzz. If you were to apply AI in these domains. There are a lot of long inputs. You just have to find these domains where actually AI has not been yet applied, and it's usually hard to do because the people working in those domains don't necessarily know the capability of these models.They don't know. How I would just have to pair them with Yeah, exactly. Your researcher slashing, which is actually hard to do. But this matching, we're doing it naturally with our customers. So we have some company we are very closely with. So for instance, ISM Andreesen are one of our partners, so we're doing some research with them on their other, like tons of extremely interesting problems.Columns in physics, in [00:44:00] science matter science that they're essentially the only ones to work on. ‘cause they're doing something No, no one else is doing on the, yeah. So there are many domains where AI can actually revolutionize things. Just you have to think about it on you familiar with what can do or to apply it.So yeah, it's something where more modeling with our partners, with our customers sort AI for s, but.swyx: Yeah. Okay.Forward Deployed Skillsswyx: And then for deployed what it makes a good four deployed engineer, what do they need? Where do people fail?Guillaume: I think it's usually you need people that are very familiar with the tech and not necessarily with a lot of research expertise, but that are actually pretty good at using this model that can actually like that know how to do functioning, that know how to like, start some error pipeline.And it's it's not easy. It's something that mucus. Majority of companies will not be able to do this on their own. So here I think we need people that are, that like to solve problems that are accept solving some complex, very concrete problem. It's applied science basically.And yeah, so I think it's not too different. I think from the case you need in research because it's essentially you are trying to find solutions to problems that in [00:45:00] customers have not yet. So sometimes it's easy. Sometimes you're here to do the work. You have to like create synthetic data.Find some edge case. So it can be, yeah. Depends on the problem. But but yeah, you have to, I think it also a bit of patience on the be creative. I think very similar skill is Asian,Pavan: the diversity of the work they do. It always surprises me. It's it's, it goes all the way from the kind of stuff they encounter in industries.It's just very interesting. I think.swyx: Any fun like success anecdotes.Guillaume: Yeah, it can be actually training this small model on edge that just we do one specific thing can be like training some very large model without some specific languages as well. Making models really good at some tube use, like for instance, computer ID design, these kind of things.Is that pairing with vision as well? Yeah,Pavan: and the fact detection for chips or like in, in factories identifying things like it, the. Diversity could be anything where you can deploy these foundation models. So yeah the work to make it work in that specific setting, basically whatever it takes to make it like add value in that, by the way, workflow.Vibhu: Yeah. [00:46:00] And it goes across the stack, right? Like even just pulling up the website like.swyx: It's so broad on compute. It is so broad.Vibhu: We didn't even touch on if you have a coding CLI tool. One thing you guys were actually like, I think the first tool was agents, ral agents. You had the agent builder, you can serve it via API and all that.And I'm guessing forward deploy people.Guillaume: Yeah.Vibhu: Help build that out and stuff.Customer Feedback LoopGuillaume: It is also why we are, so we're doing many things, but I think that's also part of the value proposition that sometime know customers. They're always very. Extremely careful about their data and they don't want to, they don't like, trusting so many partners, trusting one partner for code, giving the data to another third party for like audios and another one.So they don't like this here. What they really like with our approach that we can help them on anything so they don't have to send the data to so many clouds. So yeah,swyx: I think that there can be many orders of magnitude more. F Ds then research scientists and they don't need your full experience, but they're still super variable to customersGuillaume: in practice.These two teams [00:47:00] are still quite intertwine, very often. Yeah. So first of all, they're using the same tools, the same data pipeline and everything on the, it's it's very helpful for the science team to get the feedback and the solution team ‘cause they can. Look at these customers are trying to do this.This is not working. It can really be show in the next version. Yeah. But this is basically a real world eval. Yeah, it's real world eval and it's not something, for instance, if you're just working in the lab, it's just ships model. But you don't do this work of for customers. You have no idea for whether your model is good at this H case.For instance, you even in year found this, right? So yeah, there is a very gap, big gap between the public benchmarks that are very like academic. OnPavan: the rare cases are just very diverse and in the specific concept of a customer, you can fine tune and make it like first evaluate, create a solid eval, benchmark, and then measure in the context of their, the kind of audio.Like for instance, one use case is literally just, there's the word for kids and they have to just say it out. It's a very specific thing. You're just saying one word and then you have to you, you'll grade the kid whether they did it right or not. It's [00:48:00] like R for, but so there're very diverse use cases and the idea is that they, the.Applied scientist engineer will go and make it better. And then from the learnings we incorporate it into the base model itself. So it's it's just better out of the box.Vibhu: Yeah. It's a good full circle system. Like the foundation model evals are all just proxies of what you really, you're never gonna have one that says it, it doesn't make sense for there to be, a one word transcription like that.It's not something you wanna fit on. Perfect.Wrap Up and Thanksswyx: Everyone should go check out everything that Michelle has to offer and try the TTS model, which will link in the show notes. But thank you so much for coming tha thanks. Such a stretch. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.latent.space/subscribe

Join us live: Our next live podcast, "Access Louisville: The State of Dining Out," is set for 4 p.m. April 21 at 500 West Jefferson. Three local chefs are coming on: Noam Bilitzer, of MeeshMeesh, Anne Shadle of Mayan Cafe and Lawrence Weeks of Murray's Creole Pub. We'll talk about issues facing the industry, including food costs, changing neighborhood dynamics and more. Tickets are available here.The restaurant scene is ever evolving and we go over the latest on the Access Louisville podcast this week.To start off the show, we chat about the future of Vincenzo's. With news of the potential redevelopment of the Humana Building and surrounding property, we've all been wondering what would happen to this venerable Louisville restaurant that's on the site. Reporter Michael L. Jones, who interviewed the brothers behind the restaurant, explains that a lot is still up in the air. Brothers Agostino and Vincenzo Gabriele opened the authentic Northern Italian restaurant in May 1986 after David Jones Sr., then chairman of Humana, invited Vincenzo to take over the former Columns location in the Humana Conference Center at 150 S. Fifth St. in Downtown Louisville.But they're now celebrating the restaurant's 40th anniversary at a time when the future of the Humana Building is in flux. LBF previously reported that Louisville-based Poe Cos. has signed a letter of intent to purchase the 26-story Humana Building at 500 W. Main St. and convert it into a 1,000-room hotel. Later in the show this week, we chat about the closing of Sharetea, a family-owned business in Middletown. We talk about the latest with Akiko's, a Karaoke bar on Bardstown Road. And we wrap up the restaurant talk with a chat about a new Cuban Italian restaurant, Prado 264, which is coming to the former Mark's Feed store space.  Following the restaurant talk, we go over some local media news, including a recent deal that saw WHAS-11 change hands. And we talk about the University of Louisville women's basketball team advancing to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.Access Louisville is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. You can follow it on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. 

Every day we're swamped with weird takes on everything from the Iran war to the malevolence of pigeons. Now Paper Cuts survivors Miranda Sawyer and Jonn Elledge join Jacob Jarvis to discuss the weirdest (and occasionally best) columns of the month… so you don't have to.  This time: Terrible Iran takes, energy bill nightmares and a loving look at Adrian Chiles' latest offerings.  • Spotted a column we should talk about next time? Send it to info@bunkercast.co.uk   www.patreon.com/bunkercast   Written and presented by Jacob Jarvis. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.  www.podmasters.co.uk   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the “Master Instructor Roundtable!” In this must-hear episode, host Wendy Batts is joined by Dr. Scott Cheatham—physical therapist, NASM Scientific Advisor, and co-editor-in-chief—to break down the launch of NASM's revolutionary "Journal of Fitness, Wellness, and Human Performance." Timestamps & Topics We Dive Into: ·      Why the NASM Journal is a Game Changer for Fitness, Wellness, & Human Performance ·      The Peer-Review Process: What Makes This Journal Different·      Making Research Work for YOU as a Trainer, Coach, or Health Pro ·      How to Use the Journal for Programming, Client Education & Staying Ahead ·      Surprising Evidence on Percussion Devices, Creatine, Recovery, and More ·      How to Contribute Your Own Ideas and Articles ·      The Future Vision: Specialized Issues, Columns & Growing with the Industry What's In It for You? ·      Get actionable, evidence-based insights you can use with clients starting right now ·      Discover how the journal bridges the gap between academic research and real-world results ·      Hear how NASM keeps trainers at the cutting edge—so you deliver better results and set yourself apart ·      Learn why every fitness professional should read this journal—even if you're not an academic Featuring: ·      Wendy Batts: NASM Master Instructor·      Dr. Scott Cheatham: Professor, Physical Therapist, NASM Scientific Advisor, Journal Co-Editor-in-Chief Key Questions Answered: ·      Why does the fitness industry NEED its own research journal? ·      How do you know you can trust these articles? ·      What's the REAL story behind popular fitness tools and trends—like massage guns and creatine? ·      Can you contribute to this journal (even if you're not a PhD)? ·      How can this journal make you a better coach/trainer, starting Monday morning? Perfect For: Personal trainers • Wellness coaches • Health pros • Fitness enthusiasts • Students • Anyone who wants to level up their expertise with trustworthy, practical, evidence-based guidance. 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.

Things don't always work out like you planned. You know, they just don't. Nobody gets married planning to one day get divorced. But, somehow, around 40% of people who get married for the first time find themselves at some point in that position. For people who get married a second time, 60% of those end in divorce. And if you’re brave enough to try it a third time, your chances of getting divorced go up to 70%. Add ‘em all up and that’s a lot of people. It may well include you. If not, it has almost certainly included either your parents, your kids, or somebody close to you. So, you probably know how difficult it can be to navigate this period of your life. One thing everybody in this situation has in common is, they need advice. Who do you turn to for help? You could ask a friend who’s been through it. You could Google “Divorce attorney near me.” Or, you could get yourself a Divorce Coach at a website called Divorce Plus. Divorce Plus has been around since 2023 and they cover every possible angle you could think of – as well as a few angles you may have never considered. Like, “Building Mental Strategies For a Healthier Divorce Process” and “Am I Married to a Narcissist and How To Cope.” The Co-Founder and CEO of Divorce Plus is New Orleanian, Richard Perque. Whether you’re married, single, divorced, or any variety of parent with young kids, you need help. Whether it’s every day or just occasionally, if you don’t have a built-in helper in the form of a family member, you’re going to need daycare. And if you happen to be a daycare provider, you’re going to need kid clients. For both parties, what would be the simplest possible solution to this? And I mean the absolute simplest. Could it possibly be, do you think, Daycare.com? It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Yep, it sure could. And it is. Daycare.com has over 250,000 daycare providers across the country. They’ve been dedicated to matching parents with daycare providers since 1997. The Co-Founder and President of Daycare.com is New Orleanian, Ryan North. One lesson most of us learn at some point in our life, is humility. No matter how smart, accomplished, good-looking or even rich and famous we are, we can’t do everything alone. Every single one of us needs help at one time or another. You can be the nicest, kindest, most generous, loving and caring person – or at least you can think you are – and still end up in a marriage that doesn’t work, for any number of reasons. You can be the most devoted parent, but have no alternative but to depend on daycare. Neither of these observations are all that revelatory. What is surprising, though, is that the solutions to both of these universal issues are coming out of New Orleans. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. Andrew Ward sits in as host for Peter Ricchiuti. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is Brooke Warner, publisher of She Writes Press, author of Write On, Sisters!, renowned former editor at Seal Press, and a 25-year publishing industry veteran. She talks candidly about how the industry has evolved, why traditional publishing is no longer the only path, and what it really takes to build a writing career today.In this episode, Brooke breaks down the current publishing landscape across every lane: traditional, hybrid, and self-publishing—and why more authors are thinking beyond the Big Five. She shares how hybrid publishing emerged as a “third way,” its roots in co-publishing, and why entrepreneurial authors actually prefer it. We also get into the catch-22 of platform building and what actually sells books now, from the rise of podcasts, Substack, and TikTok to the enduring power of email lists (and why social media doesn't convert the way you think it does).Brooke also dishes on PR, Amazon's outsized—and often unfair—influence, and the behind-the-scenes realities of book distribution. Plus, we talk about AI's growing presence in manuscript submissions, how publishers can spot it, and what it means for the future of writing.Subscribe to Brooke's Substack Writerly Things. Follow her on Instagram @brooke_warner, and buy your copy of Write On, Sisters! on Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!Get your copy of Courtney's debut memoir Girl Gone Wild from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Preorder 10 copies of Girl Gone Wild to join The Confessional—a live memoir writing residency during the launch of Girl Gone Wild. For more details, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.courtneykocak.com/teaching⁠⁠⁠⁠.The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:Edit & Elevate: Revision Intensive: https://writingworkshops.com/products/edit-elevate-revision-intensive-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakThe Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakHow to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminarLand Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminarSo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocak

In this very cool episode, Adam explains how basement floor thicknesses are are usually not enough to support lally columns….. and he shares a little tidbit about a time capsule he ran into on the job.

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday the tables are turned—host Courtney Kocak sits down with Trio House Press junior editor Lili Gourley to talk about her debut memoir Girl Gone Wild.Girl Gone Wild is a coming-of-age tale of ambition, delusion, drugs, sex, and misogyny... including selling T-shirts on the Girls Gone Wild bus.This special episode is a behind-the-scenes look at the book's 15-year journey from first essay to publication, the revision process, how the Girls Gone Wild tour became the title essay, substance abuse, the writers who influenced her journey, how memoir can literally heal you, and, most importantly, what I hope you get from reading it.Get your copy of Girl Gone Wild from ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bookshop.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Amazon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.Preorder 10 copies of Girl Gone Wild to join The Confessional—a live memoir writing residency during the launch of Girl Gone Wild. For more details, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠www.courtneykocak.com/teaching⁠⁠⁠⁠.The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:Edit & Elevate: Revision Intensive: https://writingworkshops.com/products/edit-elevate-revision-intensive-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakThe Multi-Passionate Writer's Life: https://writingworkshops.com/products/the-multi-passionate-writers-life-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakHow to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminarLand Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminarSo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocak

People who try and explain the complexity of human existence sometimes talk about “the seen and unseen world.” The seen world is the world of everyday reality in which we live. The theory of the unseen world attempts to explain some events in the real world - like love, happiness, and talent - in terms of the intangible. These explanations might range from suggestions of the existence of a soul, to past lives and karma. There is, of course, no substantiated evidence of the existence of an unseen world. Unless you’re talking about the restaurant business. In a restaurant, a diner’s real-world experience of sitting down at a table, enjoying a drink and a professionally prepared and served meal, is undeniably affected by a complex web of unseen causes. The interpersonal relationships in the kitchen... Whether or not the staff have health insurance... And chains of events like the restaurant’s ability to secure a minimum order of fresh shrimp from a supplier at a decent price - the profitability of which depends on the number of customers who show up and order the shrimp special - which itself is dependent on server education and a successful social media marketing campaign. At a big and successful restaurant, these demanding complexities are handled by a range of personnel – typically as many as 20 people – employing a range of complex systems. Here in New Orleans, Elizabeth Tilton realized if smaller restaurants – which most restaurants in the United States are – had access to these same personnel and systems, they would greatly increase their chances of success. That’s why, in 2019, she founded her company, Oyster Sunday. Oyster Sunday provides restaurants with concept development, financial strategy, project management, branding, marketing, PR, human resources, operations, and much more. Their clients are scattered all across the United States, and even around the world. The comedian Steven Wright has a great line: “It’s a small world. But I wouldn’t want to paint it.” When you step into an actual small world - like a music festival or a convention - you’ll notice there’s typically a whole other reality. It ranges from functional construction – like stages or booths - to decorations. These elements create both the infrastructure and the vibe of events. And despite Steven Wright’s trepidation, somebody has to not just paint all of that, they also have to design and build it. Here in New Orleans, and across the country too, the fabrication of those worlds is the work of a company called Downtown FabWorks. The Founder and President of the company is Daniel Krall. if there are two things we know something about in New Orleans – better than probably anywhere in the country – it’s eating out, and getting out and having fun. So, perhaps it’s not surprising that two industry leading, innovative businesses in these fields are the creations of two New Orleanians. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When you’re the CEO or Executive Director of a company, you’re responsible for, well, everything. If the company does well, you’re a genius. If the company does poorly, you’re fired. Typically, the definition of business success is how much money a company makes. And that can be a function of market share. Both of my lunch guests today are executives of major New Orleans companies. Each of these companies has 100% market share. Yes, 100%. Meaning, everybody in New Orleans who uses the products they sell uses their products. One of the companies supplies water, and removes sewerage. It’s called The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans. At this point if you’re saying, “Wait up, that’s not actually a private company,” well, you’re kind of right. Kind of. What the sewerage and water board isn’t, is a simple city department, like you find in New York City, Chicago, and Houston. Neither is it a wholly private company contracted by the city, like in Los Angeles or Phoenix. Instead, it’s a hybrid. It’s largely controlled by city politicians – the Mayor automatically serves as the board president – but it operates independently. It is not meant to make a profit, but it has its own revenue separate from city departments, and contracts with for-profit companies to provide some services. In short, it’s a public utility that’s run like a political board but expected to perform like a professional infrastructure company. And sitting on top of this complicated setup is the Executive Director of the Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans, Randy Hayman. If your house or business is hooked up to gas, sometime in 2025 you stopped paying Entergy for it and started paying a company called Delta Utilities. Nobody asked you if you wanted to switch your gas supplier from Entergy to Delta, Entergy just decided to sell off its gas division and Delta Utilities was the company that bought it. Delta Utilities is what’s called a “regulated utility.” Its operations, rates, service quality, and infrastructure investments are regulated by the State. But it’s a private company. Delta Utilities is owned by a private equity firm – Bernhard Capital Partners. It’s set up to serve customers, and to make a profit for its owners. One of the people responsible for administering this complex structure is the Chief Administrative Officer of Delta Utilities, Jeremy Turner. If you live in New Orleans, you’re 100% certain to have a relationship with the Sewerage and Water Board. Even if you have a septic tank in your back yard and you get all your water from your own well, you’re still going to be dependent on the infrastructure that keeps the city’s streets – and your house – free of flood water. And if you don’t have gas at your house, you can be pretty sure your favorite restaurant does. So, one way or another, the Sewerage and Water Board and Delta Utilities are woven into fabric of the everyday life of every person here in New Orleans. In the immortal words of Leslie Neilsen in the movie Airplane, “Good luck. We're all counting on you.” In the movie, that was a running joke, delivered even as the plane was in severe danger of crashing. In New Orleans, we often feel like we’re on the brink of disaster, but unlike Airplane, it’s not a joke. We are, in fact, all counting on Jeremy and Ryan. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States and Israel have carried out a sixth day of attacks. Columns of smoke are towering in the sky in the capital, Tehran, where the Azadi football stadium appears to have been severely damaged. We'll also investigate unconfirmed reports that the US is trying to foment a Kurdish rebellion in the north of Iran.Also in the programme: people in Nepal have been voting for the first time since last year's "Gen Z" demonstrations, in which dozens of young protesters died; and the drug trials that have had some terrific results for children with the severest epilepsy.(Photo: People gather on the sides of a road as smoke rises in the background following an explosion, amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran, in Tehran, Iran, March 5, 2026. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via REUTERS)

Most people start a business for the same reason: to make money. John Roberts started a business to give money away. John and his business partner, Mickal Adler, would certainly like to end up making money at some point – that is the end goal of their company, Boot 64 Ventures. It’s the word “venture” that’s the key to what’s going on here. Boot 64 is a venture capital company. The money they’re giving away as investments is partly privately raised capital, but it’s also funds that come from a federally created program called SSBCI, which stands for State Small Business Credit Initiative. We’ll get into the nuts and bolts of how this all works, but the general requirement for the fund is that businesses have to boost the state’s economy. Boot 64 Ventures is investing in diverse sectors that include AI, energy, food, tech, and healthcare. And now the story of another John who set out to make an investment. This John is John Stubbs. John started out life in Lafayette Louisiana and found himself spending 30-plus years in Washington DC, working in international trade and public health. John and his wife bought a house in New Orleans so they could spend some time here. John also made an investment in a restaurant here, called Jewel of the South. It took a long time, a lot of effort, and too much money to get the place open - which they accomplished just in time to get closed down by the Covid pandemic. When the restaurant re-opened, John decided for better or worse, with no restaurant experience, he was not going to be a passive investor, he was going to be an active owner. How did that work out? Well, if you live in New Orleans you might know it worked out pretty well. And if you live anywhere else in the US, you might know that too. In a prestigious and much-respected ranking of North America’s 50 best Bars, Jewel of the South was named Best Bar In The South for 3 straight years. In 2024, Jewel of the South won a James Beard Award for “Outstanding Bar.” If there was a simple formula for success, we’d all know it by now. The reality is, everybody’s path to success is different. There are so many bars in New Orleans, you can’t even get an accurate total number. One normally reliable source says there are 265. Another normally equally reliable source says there are 800. Whatever the actual number, if there’s one thing New Orleans didn’t need when John Stubbs opened Jewel of the South, it’s another bar. But it's not just one of the greatest bars in the city, but one of the greatest in the country. Over the next decade there are going to be a whole bunch of success stories of unique local businesses who have done something amazing, and Boot 64 Ventures might just be the reason for their very existence. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We read the columns and the pundits so you don't have to… On this month's round-up of the weirdest, worst and occasionally best opinion columns: Brutal takes on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from Camilla Long (Sunday Times) and Sophie Money-Coutts (Telegraph) while Brendan O'Neill (who else?). Plus: The Telegraph defends child labour, the Mail rages against fare-dodgers, and why the I's Kate Lister is the best sex columnist on the planet. Paper Cuts alumni Jonn Elledge and Miranda Sawyer join Andrew Harrison to dismantle February's punditry.  • Got a column we should be talking about next month? Send it to info@bunkercast.co.uk  THE COLUMNS: • Camilla Long on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor in the Sunday Times. • Brendan O'Neill on “The hunting of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor” • Sophia Money-Coutts – “I know how high society works – and why the Epstein scandal could easily happen again” • Angus Colwell in defence of child labour in the Telegraph • Gaby Hinsliff in the Guardian – “Do you remember your first crappy job? Today's young people would wish for half your luck” • Kate Lister in the i – Pushing for an open marriage? Check your market worth first  • Dominic Lawson in the Mail – Why on earth would a wealthy banker dodge £5,900 in train fares? Keep The Bunker proudly independent by backling us at www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait with Sophie Clark. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is Courtney Maum—novelist, memoirist, and author of Before and After the Book Deal—and she talks candidly about the reality of a writing career, the myth of the breakout book, and why longevity matters more than literary hype.In this episode, Courtney breaks down what publishing actually looks like across every lane: Big Five launches with national tours, indie presses that nurture your inner “art witch,” and self-publishing born out of necessity. She shares the story behind the book that almost never happened—and how the lowest advance of her career became the one that defined her platform—plus why the industry now expects authors to function as marketers, publicists, event planners, and content creators all at once.We also discuss building an audience in the newsletter era, the limits of social media, and why “a thousand true fans” is a better goal than virality. Courtney explains how writers can protect their mental health in a system built on comparison, what's actually changed since 2020 (AI, proposals, platform pressure), and why readers—not gatekeepers—ultimately determine a book's shelf life. This conversation is essential listening for any writer trying to build a sustainable creative career in today's publishing landscape.Preorder Courtney Maum's latest book Alan Opts Out and preorder Courtney Kocak's debut memoir Girl Gone Wild.Subscribe to Courtney Maum's Substack Before & After The Book Deal. Follow her on Instagram @cbmaum, and buy your copy of Before and After the Book Deal on Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:Land Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminarSo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocakEdit & Elevate: Revision Intensive: https://writingworkshops.com/products/edit-elevate-revision-intensive-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakHow to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminar

When we started out making a show about New Orleans business, people – even in the business community – said, “Well that’s great, but what are you going to do after 6 weeks?” That was 2011. We’ve recorded a new episode of Out to Lunch almost every week since then. And we still haven’t run out of guests. In fact, there are so many people doing interesting things in New Orleans business that we rarely have anyone on the show more than once. But, once in a while, we like to check in on some of our earliest guests and see what they’re up to. Back in 2012, in our first year on the air, we met a young man by the name of Kenneth Purcell. Kenneth had some ideas that bridged the gap between the real world – that most of us lived in in those days – and the virtual world, that was beginning to stagger to its feet. To put this in context, in 2006 Apple launched a music player called the i-pod. In 2007 they launched the iPhone. In 2010 they launched the iPad. Locally, before all that, in 1999, Kenneth launched a company called iSeatz. iSeatz wasn’t a device, it was a then-revolutionary new way of making a reservation at a restaurant: Online. I won’t go through every twist and turn in the story, but basically, Kenneth’s company, which is still called iSeatz, went on to pioneer the back-end of online travel and financial services. Among other accomplishments, iSeatz was the company that came up with the idea of using air-miles to buy things other than air tickets. Today, iSeatz creates and provides the online travel engine for companies like Expedia, Trip Advisor, Avis, Hertz, Wyndham Hotels, and American Express. In 2014, at the Idea Village Entrepreneur Week, we met a young woman called Catherine Todd. Catherine and her partner had founded a business called Where Y’Art that had just won Idea Village’s entrepreneur prize for an arts-based business pitch. It was a then-innovative online art gallery: A curated marketplace where selected local artists would be introduced to people who buy art. Today, the company is called Where Y’Art Works and is focused on providing local art to organizations that want to decorate. Where Y’Art Works collaborates with interior designers, facilities teams, set designers, and industry professionals to put original art by local artists in spaces in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, North Louisiana, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. To date they’ve completed over 325 commercial projects - including putting art on the walls in the Sheraton Hotel, Fidelity Bank, and Ochsner and LCMC facilities. In the process, they’ve paid local artists, framers and installers over $6.5m. If we had to pin an exact date on the birth of New Orleans and give it an astrological sign, the city is probably Gemini. The twins. I say that because there seem to be two co-existing versions of the city. One is the city that never changes. You can leave for years and when come back, your favorite people and your favorite dishes at your favorite restaurants are still be here. The other New Orleans is the city that is constantly changing. New brass bands, new Mardi Gras parade groups, new types of king cakes, and new businesses that are growing, or getting bought and sold. Catherine and Kenneth have a foot in both camps. Their businesses are still growing, they’re changing and adapting, but they've been at it now for long enough to become local institutions. And even though they're still both young, they’re the entrepreneurial OG generation – the inspiration for a whole new generation of entrepreneurs. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I have three questions for you. One - What are your parents’ names? You can probably answer that easily. Two - What are your grandparents’ names? You can probably answer that as well. Now here's the third question. What are the names of your great grandparents? Do you know? Off the top of your head… This is not a scientific survey, but I’ve asked enough people this question to be fairly confident that most people cannot tell you the names of their great grandparents. It doesn't take very long for us to lose track of our history. And that's just in our own family. For something as complex and large as the City of New Orleans, we have a repository of our collective memory. It’s called the Historic New Orleans Collection. It opened its doors as a small museum in the French Quarter in 1970. Today, under the current leadership of President and CEO Daniel Hammer, HNOC has grown to 14 historic buildings spread over 3 blocks in the Quarter. It houses over 1 million artefacts, it publishes books, and a quarterly magazine. When you go to a transportation museum, you see cars, boats, and planes. When you go to a music museum, you see musical instruments and hear songs. When you go to a history museum, you can't actually see history. What you do see is representations of history, usually in the form of documents and photographs. History is a retrospective ordering of what were at one point live events. Museums of the future will be able to display historical events of today as they happened in real time - in the form of video. Not only do we record and post countless hours of human activity on video, we also live stream it. If you'd like to see human history being made right now, from pretty much any place in the world, you can do that, at a website or app called Who’s Live. Who’s Live is an aggregator of live streaming video from around the world and across the country, categorized into sections like News, Sports, Education, Gaming, and many more. There is literally something for everyone, 24 hours a day, on Who’s Live. And it’s the brainchild of New Orleanian, Nate Voerhoeven. When someone tells you, “That was then but this is now,” it’s generally not good. It’s typically a shorthand way of saying, “Things have changed and you need to keep up.” But, when you think about it, “Then” and “Now” is all we’ve got. As far back as The New Testament, we’re warned that we’re not promised tomorrow. So we need to make the most of the present moment. There’s probably nobody on earth who is doing more than Nate Verhoeven to channel every human current event into a single present moment. And there’s nobody in New Orleans doing more than Daniel Hammer to preserve the most significant of those events for future generations. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Well that's just, like, your opinion, man…” We're swamped with hot takes, cold takes, tepid takes and more opinions than anyone can handle. Now Paper Cuts survivors Miranda Sawyer and Jonn Elledge join Andrew Harrison to choose the weirdest (and occasionally best) columns of the month… so you don't have to. This time: Telegraph reverse-ferrets on Trump, Sarah Vine goes H.A.M. on the Beckhams, everyone tries to wring something out of The Traitors… and much more! • Spotted a column we should talk about next time? Send it to info@bunkercast.co.uk  www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello Paper Cuts people! If you miss our lovely show, don't worry. We're getting the band back together for a look at the opinion columns, monthly on The Bunker. Paper Cuts survivors Miranda Sawyer and Jonn Elledge join Andrew Harrison to choose the weirdest (and occasionally best) columns of the month… so you don't have to. This time: Telegraph reverse-ferrets on Trump, Sarah Vine goes H.A.M. on the Beckhams, everyone tries to wring something out of The Traitors… and much more! • Get The Bunker every weekday.  • Spotted a column we should talk about next time? Send it to info@bunkercast.co.uk  www.patreon.com/bunkercast  Written and presented by Andrew Harrison. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio production: Robin Leeburn. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Artwork by James Parrett. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. www.podmasters.co.uk  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

View this video at https://macmost.com/how-to-use-multiple-columns-in-mac-pages.html. Pages allows you to use two or more columns on a page by simply changing one property of the text. There are also ways to use different numbers of columns throughout your document, justify text, and link text boxes in page layout mode for multiple columns.

In almost every conversation about healthcare, we hear the term, “provider.” Typically, we assume a healthcare provider is a doctor. But, if you look at insurance company definitions of health care providers, the term includes almost every branch of medical care - therapists, podiatrists, imaging centers, home-health agencies, hospice, the list goes on. Ironically, the one person not on any official list of healthcare providers is “you.” A local wellness entrepreneur is changing that. Kwame Terra is Founder and CEO of bEHR Health Systems. The company’s principal product is an app directed specifically at Black Americans. The app doesn’t replace professional healthcare providers, but it aims to put the user front and center in directing their own health outcomes. The app store summary says, “At bEHR, we aspire to create a healthcare resource free from the shackles of racism that infect our current system and seamlessly integrate health into Black culture. This isn't just a health app for tracking and enhancing well-being; it signifies the initiation of our enduring commitment to stand as Black America’s health partner for life.” With roughly 14% of Americans – 48 million people - identifying as Black, and a 2024 Pew Research finding that 51% of Black Americans say they believe the U.S. health-care system was designed to “hold Black people back a great deal or a fair amount,” there would appear to be a ready market for this product. When it comes to the traditional provision of healthcare, the consistently best-regarded group and most trusted providers of medical care, are nurses. Patients and doctors alike typically regard nurses as critical to patient safety and care. There’s also a critical shortage of nurses. According to a recent report from the Louisiana Board of Regents, the state is projected to face a shortage of roughly 6,000 registered nurses by 2030. That’s about 40% short of the workforce needed, if nothing changes. One local institution that’s working to change that outcome is The University of Holy Cross, on the Westbank. Among its other courses, UHC has a dedicated Department of Nursing. RegisteredNursing.org – a nationwide organization of registered nurses – has rated UHC as the best nursing school in Louisiana. And UHC’s nursing department is one of the principal focuses of the school’s President, Dr. Stanton McNeely. If we did a simultaneous scan of every news-talk radio station and every TV news channel right now, it’s pretty likely we’re not the only people talking about healthcare. But it’s very likely we’re the only people talking about a Catholic-college-driven solution to the nursing shortage, and an African-American-focused entrepreneurial venture aimed at sidestepping healthcare racism. Even in something as ubiquitous as the healthcare debate, New Orleans manages to be, well, New Orleans. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joy Pullmann of The Federalist Joy Pullmann’s Columns at The Federalist False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American KidsThe post Elon Musk and Detaching Children from Marriage and Sex – Joy Pullmann, 1/23/26 (0232) first appeared on Issues, Etc..

New Orleans has been around for over 300 years. From almost the very beginning, bar rooms have been an integral part of our social life. There are French works of art depicting bar scenes as early as the mid 1800’s. Starting in the 1970’s, photographers like Mike Smith and Lee Crum started celebrating the exteriors of barrooms, along with other street scenes, finding an almost romantic beauty in depicting decadence and decay in black & white. The next iteration of uniquely New Orleans artistic reverence for our bar rooms comes from a company called We Might Be On Fire, a creation of textile manufacturer Shaun Watson. Among Shaun’s collection of rugs, knitwear and pillows with bold prints that include alligators, birds, and flowers, there’s a collection of blankets that feature the exteriors of bar rooms. These aren’t artistic impressions or airbrushed glow-ups, they’re true-to-life, blanket-sized depictions of the outsides of bars, like Snake ‘n Jakes, F&M’s, Pal’s Lounge, The Saturn Bar, Buffa’s, Big Daddy’s, and many more. Talking of barrooms, whomever keeps records of these things maintains we’re drinking less alcohol these days. Maybe they don't include New Orleans in the collection of this data: Wwe’re without a doubt one of the most alcohol-centric cities in the US, if not the world. You might think that in 300 years of drinking we’ve created every variety of alcohol known to man. Well, Paul Kelly has added one more chapter to the story of local booze brands by creating vodka using Louisiana sweet potatoes and cane sugar. Paul distills his distinct sweet potato vodka at his distillery in Bogalusa. With the label Paul Kelly Vodka, it’s available at over 60 stores across the state, including Total Wine, Rouse’s, and a wide range of bars and restaurants. Every evening, as the sun goes down in New Orleans, we’re faced with a decision. Do we stay home tonight? Or do we go out? If you decide to go out, there are a lot of places you can try Paul Kelly Sweet Potato Vodka. If you stay in, you can make a Paul Kelly Sweet Potato Vodka drink at home and curl up with a good book under your We Might Be On Fire blanket that features your favorite local bar. Is that the most New Orleans sign-off sentence in the history of radio? It might be. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you ever use the term “brainiac” to describe someone who’s super smart? We use a term like that because we tend to assume that someone is either highly intelligent, or they’re not. In other words, you’re either lucky enough to be born with a high-functioning brain that can get you into Harvard, or not. Well, guess what? Like pretty much everything else on earth, it’s not that simple. And by “it” I mean getting into Harvard, and the human brain itself. Let’s start with the brain, then move onto Harvard. Judy Weber is a Registered Nurse at a company called Cingulum Health, in New Orleans. Cingulum Health specializes in a kind of neurotherapy called TMS – Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. TMS has been around for some time. It’s an FDA approved therapy which consists of giving a patient non-invasive electrical stimulation to the brain, to treat what is technically called “treatment resistant depression,” or OCD, or migraines. What separates Cingulum Health from other TMS providers is the range of conditions they’re treating beyond depression, OCD and migraines, and the course of treatment they offer. Each course begins with the patient getting a Functional MRI, then having this brain scan interpreted by Cingulum’s proprietary software which then maps out an individual course of neurotherapy treatment. And the conditions they’re treating include Alzheimer's, Parkinson’s, stroke, tinnitus, and addiction. Now, as promised, we turn to Harvard. We all know that natural intelligence alone isn’t enough to get through high school and into a good college. Not only do you have to study, but the final arbiter of admission to a good college is getting a high score on the ACT. For a long time there’s been general acceptance that, like other tests, the ACT has an element of unwittingly systemic bias that makes it more difficult for certain sub-sets of students to do well. But even knowing that, it’s extraordinary to discover what Angelica Harris is up to. When Angelica first took the SAT she got a score of 16. Which is not high enough to get anywhere near an Ivy League school. She went to a test prep course, and raised her score by 2 points. Still not too good. Figuring that the problem was, she was the only Black girl in a predominantly white environment, Angelica developed her own prep system. The next time she took the test she got 32. That got Angelica into Washington University in St Louis. On graduation with a masters degree she turned her own college success into a college admission prep system for Black and Brown high school students, called Top Tutors For Us. With a business whose success can be proven by easy-to-digest numbers, Top Tutors For Us is being adopted by a growing number of school districts. Significantly, not a single school district that has adopted the system has dropped it, so business is booming. There’s two ways of looking at the path of scientific discovery. In one perspective, one small discovery leads to an incremental change, which taken together with lots of other small contributions, leads to advancement. The other perspective is, the status quo rolls on for years or decades, then someone comes along who completely changes the game and revolutionizes everything. Of course, both of those are true. Whether or not Top Tutors for Us and Angelica, and Cingulum and Judy are incremental contributors or game-changing revolutionaries, only time will tell. What we do know for now, though, is that they’re both making a significant difference to their respective fields, and to the lives of New Orleanians. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Joy Pullmann of The Federalist Joy Pullmann’s Columns at The Federalist False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American KidsThe post Taxpayer Funding for Childcare – Joy Pullmann, 1/6/26 (0063) first appeared on Issues, Etc..

View this video at https://macmost.com/how-to-turn-on-the-finders-hidden-media-info-columns.html. Want to view or sort by image dimensions, audio file durations or video codecs? You can do it in the Finder if you know the trick to turn on these hidden media information columns for List View.

This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with David Cote. He's a playwright, librettist, and theater critic based in New York City. When we recorded his interview, his opera, Blind Injustice was performed in New York at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and in Cleveland at Playhouse Square. Last year his opera Lucidity premiered with On Site Opera in New York and then had its Northwest premiere at Seattle Opera. Next year Lucidity has its European premiere in Germany.As a journalist, David's TV and theater writing appears in The A.V. Club, Observer, 4 Columns, American Theatre and elsewhere. He was the longest serving theater editor and chief drama critic of Time Out New York, and is the author of popular companion books about the Broadway hits: Moulin Rouge! The Musical; Wicked; Jersey Boys and Spring Awakening. https://davidcote.com/

This week on the podcast is part one of our interview with David Cote. He's a playwright, librettist, and theater critic based in New York City. When we recorded his interview, his opera, Blind Injustice was performed in New York at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and in Cleveland at Playhouse Square. Last year his opera Lucidity premiered with On Site Opera in New York and then had its Northwest premiere at Seattle Opera. Next year Lucidity has its European premiere in Germany.As a journalist, David's TV and theater writing appears in The A.V. Club, Observer, 4 Columns, American Theatre and elsewhere. He was the longest serving theater editor and chief drama critic of Time Out New York, and is the author of popular companion books about the Broadway hits: Moulin Rouge! The Musical; Wicked; Jersey Boys and Spring Awakening. https://davidcote.com/

Welcome, writers and book lovers. The Bleeders is a podcast about book writing and publishing. Make sure you subscribe to the companion Substack: https://thebleeders.substack.com/welcomeToday's guest is Sari Botton, writer, editor, and publisher of the Substack hits Oldster and Memoir Land, joining The Bleeders to talk candidly about her unconventional path through publishing, why she ultimately chose ownership, longevity, and creative control over chasing traditional industry validation, and how she built a thriving ecosystem around her work.In this episode, Sari breaks down what it really takes to build a sustainable writing and publishing career outside the gatekeepers. She shares how she launched bestselling anthologies like Goodbye to All That and Never Can Say Goodbye after being repeatedly told “you can't do that,” what it was like working at Longreads during a pivotal moment in digital publishing, and why Substack ultimately gave her the freedom she'd been seeking all along. We also dig into her debut memoir And You May Find Yourself... and the realities of publishing creative nonfiction, including the emotional and ethical challenges of writing about real people, the importance of blurring and revision, and why small presses—and even self-publishing—can sometimes offer more protection and creative freedom than major publishers. This conversation is a must-listen for writers questioning what success in publishing actually looks like in the creator economy.Subscribe to Sari's Substacks Oldster, Memoir Land, and Adventures in "Journalism." Follow her on Instagram @saribotton, and buy your copy of And You May Find Yourself... on Bookshop.org, or wherever books are sold!The Bleeders is hosted by Courtney Kocak. Follow her on Instagram @courtneykocak and Bluesky @courtneykocak.bsky.social. For more, check out her website courtneykocak.com.Courtney is teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:How to Make 2026 Your Best Writing Year Yet: Manifest Your Writing Goals: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-make-2026-your-best-writing-year-yet-manifest-your-writing-goals-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocakNew Year's Newsletter & Pitch Party Extravaganza (use code BLEEDERS for $100 off): https://www.courtneykocak.com/store/new-years-newsletter-pitch-party-extravaganza-2026How to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought: https://writingworkshops.com/products/how-to-build-a-platform-for-writers-who-shudder-at-the-thought-zoom-seminarStart a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-a-newsletter-to-supercharge-your-platform-network-business-zoom-seminarLand Big Bylines by Writing for Columns: https://writingworkshops.com/products/land-big-bylines-by-writing-for-columns-zoom-seminarSo You Want to Start a Podcast?: https://writingworkshops.com/products/start-podcast-workshop-courtney-kocakEdit & Elevate: Revision Intensive: https://writingworkshops.com/products/edit-elevate-revision-intensive-zoom-seminar-with-courtney-kocak

WMAL GUEST: CAL THOMAS (Syndicated Columnist) on Latest Political Developments WEBSITE: CalThomas.com BIO: Veteran Commentator and Author with Columns in Hundreds of Newspapers Where to find more about WMAL's morning show: Follow Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Audible, and Omny Follow WMAL's "O'Connor and Company" on X: @WMALDC, @LarryOConnor, @JGunlock, @PatricePinkfile, and @HeatherHunterDC Facebook: WMALDC and Larry O'Connor Instagram: WMALDC Website: WMAL.com/OConnor-Company Episode: Wednesday, December 10, 2025 / 6 AM HourSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to episode 402.   Get your weekly dose of weirdness with our news roundup!   Wacky news, weird news, funny stories and unique comedy stylings aplenty….    This was a mad week but hey,   It's all in a day's work for The Amish Inquisition!   Stop the world, I want to get off!   _______________________________   Follow us here: https://allmylinks.com/the-amish-inquisition Signup for the newsletter, join the community, follow us online, and most importantly share links!  Producer Credits for Ep 402:   Producers - Rhona Kesson, Mathew Chinn, Allan Wilson _______________________________   Leave us a voicemail: 07562245894 Message us here....follow, like, subscribe and share. (comments, corrections, future topics etc). We read out iTunes reviews if you leave them. Website - http://www.theamishinquisition.com/ Join the Element server: https://matrix.to/#/%23the-amish-inquisition%3Amatrix.org Subscribe to the Newsletter: Drop us an email and let us know Get your Merch from: The Amish Loot Chest - https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/amish-inquisition-loot-chest Email - theamishinquisition@gmail.com Buy us a Coffee - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theamishguys Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/theamishinquisition Rumble - https://rumble.com/c/c-1347401 Twitter - https://twitter.com/amishinqpodcast Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/amish.inquisit.3 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theamishinquisition/?hl=en Bitchute - https://www.bitchute.com/channel/0fNMZAQctCme/ YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmv8ucrv5a2KpaRWyBWfBUA Find out how to become a Producer here - http://www.theamishinquisition.com/p/phil-1523918247/   Become a Producer! The Amish Inquisition is 100% supported by YOU.  NO Ads, NO Sponsorship, NO Paywalls. We really don't want to suckle at the teat of some faceless corporate overlord. But that is only avoidable with your help! Join your fellow producers by donating to The Amish Inquisition via the PayPal button on our website, simply donate whatever you think the show is worth to you. If you find the podcast valuable, please consider returning some value to us and help keep the show free and honest.

A lot of business success stories contain familiar scenarios. They include a previous spectacular failure; everybody telling an entrepreneur they’re crazy; and an entrepreneur explaining that what might look like an overnight success was anything but. And then there are entrepreneurs like Peter's lunch guests on this edition of Out to Lunch who both had ideas for very different businesses, went ahead and opened their doors without any drama, and were instantly successful. Troy Bergeron spent 30 years in the music transportation business, driving tour buses for rock musicians like the late Ozzy Osbourne and transporting equipment across the country. When he quit all that and came back home to New Orleans, he was wondering what he was going to do with himself when he overheard a woman complaining there was no doggie transportation option here. And that’s when Doggie Bus was born. Doggie Bus is Uber for dogs.You book your dog’s ride on the Doggie Bus app; Troy shows up in his specially converted passenger van; on the app you track where your dog is, when he gets where he’s going, and when he’s on the way home. Troy launched Doggie Bus in New Orleans in January 2024 and he’s already franchising the business to other cities. Samantha Weiss had never lived in New Orleans. In New York City she’d put her MBA and job in financial services on hold and started pursuing a career in food. Then the Covid pandemic derailed those plans. Samantha and her friend Kelly Jacques came up with an idea - open a bakery, in New Orleans. 30-seconds of online research will tell you, New Orleans already has 40 bakeries - twice as many per capita as your average city in the US. Nonetheless, Samantha and Kelly moved to New Orleans and in 2022 took over a space that used to be Santa Fe restaurant in the Marigny, and they opened Ayu Bakehouse. If you live in New Orleans, you may know the rest of the story. Ayu Bakehouse was an instant success. Since opening they’ve been featured in numerous national publications - including Vogue, The New York Post, USA Today, and Bon Appetit - which named Ayu one of the most exciting bakeries in the country - and you’ve probably either tried or heard about their King Cake which has been voted Best in New Orleans in the Times Picayune readers’ poll. You’d have to be living under a rock these days not to be impacted by a seemingly endless onslaught of stressful developments - from international conflicts to national politics to local scandals, and even the daily war between your car and potholes. But, no matter what else is going on around us, there are at least two things that are universally bright spots in all of our lives. Puppies. And pastries. Besides running successful businesses, Troy and Samantha are making the world a brighter and better place for humans, dogs, and Kevin the cat. Out to Lunch was recorded live over lunch at Columns in Uptown New Orleans. You can find photos from this show by Jill Lafleur at itsneworleans.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The comedian Myq Kaplan has appeared on The Tonight Show, Conan, Late Night with David Letterman, and many other television programs. He also hosts two podcasts, has released comedy albums, and has a new comedy special, Rini, which is also the name of his girlfriend. That's an unusual name but then so is Myq. He used to be Mike but changed it at summer camp one year and it stuck. You can change your name whenever you want to. Myq loves advice columns. Your Dear Abbys, your Ann Landerses, even your Dan Savages. Just likes hearing solutions that go with people's problems. Myq also thinks there's a correlation between people who like advice columns and fans of cryptic crosswords. So lean back, relax, listen to the gently repeating problem-solution continuum of our talk with Myq. And get a GNS. That's good night's sleep. Sincerely, Sleeping with Celebrities.Watch Myq Kaplan's new comedy special, Rini, on YouTube or listen on the streaming service of your choice. Subscribe to Myq's weekly newsletter, "Arty Har-Hars" on Substack - https://myqkaplan.substack.com/Hey Sleepy Heads, is there anyone whose voice you'd like to drift off to, or do you have suggestions on things we could do to aid your slumber?Email us at: sleepwithcelebs@maximumfun.org.Follow the Show on:Instagram @sleepwcelebsBluesky @sleepwithcelebsTikTok @SleepWithCelebsJohn is on Bluesky @JohnMoeJohn's acclaimed, best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback._________________________________________________________________________Join | Maximum FunIf you like one or more shows on MaxFun, and you value independent artists being able to do their thing, you're the perfect person to become a MaxFun monthly member.

View this video at https://macmost.com/resize-columns-to-fit-filenames.html. A new setting in macOS Tahoe 26.1 allows the users of Finder Column View to force columns to automatically resize to perfectly sit the folder and filenames of those columns.

The invasion of Zululand did not arrive suddenly. It had been constructed brick by brick over the preceding months, through decisions made in distant offices and on dusty border farms. By early January 1879 the machinery of British imperial confidence was fully wound, and the commanders in Natal believed they were about to conduct a short, sharp campaign to correct what they regarded as a troublesome frontier problem. For the people living along that frontier, the mood was more complex. Rumour travelled faste, and the Zulu intelligence network was already humming with accurate reports of British movements. Settlers and colonial units in Natal, meanwhile, watched the gathering storm with a mix of unease and bravado. The Boers, who had faced Zulu power before, offered advice the British would soon wish they had followed. And so, as the new year opened, both sides prepared for a conflict neither truly understood. The British approached with modern rifles, rockets and the calm assurance of empire. The Zulu prepared with discipline, speed and an intelligence system that outperformed anything Chelmsford could muster. All that remained was for the first column to step across the river January 11 1879 — the rainy season in Zululand lasts from January to March so the going would be muddy and the rivers flooding, but most importantly, there would be lots of sweet green grass for the thousands of oxen and horses. The fuel tank of mother nature was full. The British were keen to exploit their power, and were going to cross the border using ox-drawn wagons. On the eve of the invasion, Lord Chelmsford had declared martial law along the borders with Zululand. The Boers and the settlers who fought alongside this army met with Chelmsford and advised him to adopt the standard laager once inside enemy territory, a proven technique of holding out against vast numbers of warriors. Chelmsford ignored this advice from people who regarded as lower on the imperial ladder, but also because it took a great deal of time and effort to wheel the wagons into a circle, then outspan the oxen and even longer to reverse this procedure and inspan. He was going to learn a dreadful lesson in a few days and would begin laagering his troops as advised but too late for 1500 of his men. He had initially planned to break his 17 000 strong army in to five columns and to invade Zululand from different points, all joining up to converge at Cetshwayo kaMpande's Great Place, oNdini — modern day Ulundi. By breaking up the columns, Chelmsford was hoping they would move faster across wet Zululand. He was forced to trim the number of columns down to 3 - the same number of columns in a Zulu attack with their two horns and a central chest tactic. These two combative nations were deploying similar ideas, the centre crashing into the foe as the two wings fold around them from the sides like the thumbs pressed together and hands throttling an enemy. It was in the area of intelligence however that Cetshwayo was ahead of Chelmsford. Whereas the British had no idea about where the Zulu army was, once the British entered Zululand, Cetshwayo was provided daily updates about the movement of his enemy. Even the smaller reconnaissance patrols were under scrutiny. He had a network of spies throughout the region, from beyond southern Natal all the way to Delagoa Bay, and into the Transvaal. If you've listened to this series you'll remember how the Zulu and other military societies like the Basotho and amaNdebele valued accurate information at a time of war. Zulu spies were extremely detailed gatherers of data, an oral society after all prides itself on being able to memorize long lists of facts and figures. The number of troops, horses, guns, the direction of movement, the names of the commanders, even their character type all flowed into the Zulu heartland and Cetshwayo and his counsellors hungrily consumed the data.

Joy Pullmann of The Federalist Joy Pullmann's Columns at The Federalist False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids The post Preparing for Thanksgiving, Advent and Christmas – Joy Pullmann, 11/13/25 (3172) first appeared on Issues, Etc..

Joy Pullmann of The Federalist Joy Pullmann's Columns at The Federalist False Flag: Why Queer Politics Mean the End of America The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids The post Returning to a Culture of Life – Joy Pullmann, 11/3/25 (3072) first appeared on Issues, Etc..