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Pediatric irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) can significantly affect quality of life and presents unique treatment and counseling challenges for patients and families. This course reviews evolving management strategies for pediatric IBS-C, including newly approved treatment options and practical considerations for therapy selection. You will be better prepared to evaluate treatment approaches and counsel families on the safe and appropriate use of therapy for pediatric IBS-C.HOSTRachel Maynard, PharmDGameChangers Podcast Host and Lead, Clinical & Partnership Education, CEimpactGUESTChristopher Hartley, PharmD, BCPPSPediatric Clinical Pharmacy SpecialistThe Johns Hopkins Hospital Pharmacists, REDEEM YOUR CPE HERE!CPE is available to Health Mart franchise members onlyTo learn more about Health Mart, click here: https://join.healthmart.com/PRACTICE RESOURCEReceive the exclusive Practice Resource to use as a reference guide for this episode by enrolling in the course. Click here to enroll!CPE INFORMATION Learning ObjectivesUpon successful completion of this knowledge-based activity, participants should be able to:1. Describe current treatment considerations for pediatric IBS-C, including recently approved pharmacologic options.2. Compare factors that influence treatment selection and family counseling for pediatric IBS-C.Rachel Maynard and [Speaker] have no relevant financial relationships to disclose.0.075 CEU/0.75 HrUAN: 0107-0000-26-300-H01-PInitial release date: 8/3/2026Expiration date: 8/3/2027Additional CPE details can be found here.

In hour two, is Sydney Sweeney actually a good actress? CBS puts Tony Romo on leave after his arrest. A message to Peter Bendix and the Marlins ahead of the trade deadline. Plus, reviewing a list of the highest-paid podcasters in the world.

God's love for His children is deeper than we can fully comprehend. In today's episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef reminds believers that God not only redeemed us for eternity, but He also walks with us through every season of life—comforting, protecting, delivering, and sustaining us. Before the foundation of the world, God knew His people by name. He orchestrated every detail of our lives, opened our eyes to His great salvation, and gave us the Holy Spirit to teach us, guide us, and remind us of Christ's words. Yet when trouble comes, many pray as though God must be persuaded to care, failing to remember the depth of His love already displayed at the cross. Dr. Youssef warns that too many believers live beneath their spiritual privileges. Instead of standing on God's promises, they surrender to fear, anxiety, and discouragement. But the child of God has access to the limitless resources of heaven. We are not powerless, and we are never alone. When trials come, the Holy Spirit strengthens us, the Word of God guides us, and the presence of Christ surrounds us. Our hope is not rooted in human ability or favorable circumstances, but in the unchanging character of our faithful Savior, who has already won the victory through His death and resurrection. As Christians, we can turn to God with confidence, knowing we are His beloved children, and pray:  Lord, we both know that I'm in trouble, but I know Your Word says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). I am confident that You have already blessed me with every spiritual blessing. You have given me all the strength I need to face these problems. I know that You are walking with me and that You promised never to leave me nor forsake me (Hebrews 13:5). I thank You for hearing my concerns and for providing a solution. Help me to discern Your will and to obey You faithfully. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.   The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today's devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don't have to walk through it alone.

In this episode of the Barbell Rehab Podcast we sit down with Jared Maynard of Unbreakable Strength. Jared shares his clinical evolution over the years and his story with a rare disease that has radically influenced his mission. We discuss what we see as the most meaningful aspects of rehab, the benefits of personally training hard as a coach or clinician and questions to consider when building a program.  We also dive into the role of imposter syndrome and new grad nihilism in clinical practice and practical perspectives around these. Jared also shares his insights around decision fatigue and perfectionism that limit many coaches and clinicians and highlights how he tries to help folks manage these challenges. You can find Jared on instagram @jared.unbreakable. We hope you enjoy this episode!    Explore Barbell Rehab Live Certifications We offer three in-person, hands-on certification courses for rehab and fitness professionals. Compare all courses and view upcoming dates: barbellrehab.com/certification-comparison/ Each course is 2 days, 15 CEU hours, and CEU approved.

Where does the summer of 2026 in London compare with other summers when we talk sunshine and lack of rainfall? 980 CFPL Weather Specialist John Wilson weighs in.

A review of Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas in 2026. Earlier this year, Matt took a seven-night Caribbean cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas from Port Miami. Matt shares his experience navigating flight cancellations due to a Georgia storm and the Miami Marathon's impact on transportation. He praises the ship's cleanliness, exceptional dining in both the main dining room and specialty restaurants, and highlights Perfect Day at CocoCay, Puerto Rico, and Saint Thomas as memorable ports. Despite limited grab-and-go food options and slightly longer disembarkation, Matt considers the cruise excellent value, recommending it for families and couples alike.Hear his complete thoughts in this week's inerview.  Share your thoughts: doug@cruiseradio.net  Sponsor Cruise line protection is designed to help if you can't take your cruise. Third-party travel insurance helps protect you during the trip. Including medical care, delays, and unexpected issues. Compare plans and save up to 30% at TripInsurance.com. About Cruise Radio: Cruise Radio has been delivering cruise news, ship reviews, and money-saving tips weekly since 2009.

Retirement planning isn't just about the numbers—it's also about trying to create a life you'll enjoy living. Join Wes Moss and Christa DiBiase on this episode of the Retire Sooner Podcast as they tackle listener questions, share fresh retirement planning perspectives, and explore the habits that may help shape a more fulfilling future, including sleep! • Discover The Retire Sooner Method, including the Money & Happiness Green Zones, the Retirement Superpower, and the role Core Pursuits may play in retirement. • See how sleep, net worth benchmarks, liquid investable assets, income, and mortgage payoff may influence long-term retirement planning. • Hear practical discussions about long-term care, IRMAA (Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount), healthcare before Medicare, and managing short-term cash. • Compare the bucket strategy, retirement account consolidation, fixed annuities, and structured notes while weighing flexibility, liquidity, and risk. Listen and subscribe to the Retire Sooner Podcast with Wes Moss and Christa DiBiase for engaging and educational conversations about retirement planning, retirement investing, retirement income, and financial independence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Friction Tax: Are You Trapping Customers? Signing up takes less than a minute. Canceling takes 45. The cancellation button is buried. Customer support is difficult to reach. Returning a product requires multiple steps. A "retention specialist" keeps a customer on the phone until surrender feels easier than leaving. That is more than poor customer service. It is the customer friction tax: the extra time, effort, confusion, and frustration customers must absorb because a company benefits from making it difficult to cancel, return, receive help, or leave. In this episode of the Customer Service Revolution Podcast, Denise Thompson and John DiJulius examine when ordinary operational friction becomes deliberate customer exploitation—and what that friction reveals about an organization's priorities. When Customer Friction Becomes Part of the Business Model New York City recently adopted a click-to-cancel rule for automatically renewing and continuous-service subscriptions. Beginning October 1, 2026, covered businesses must clearly disclose subscription terms and provide consumers with a straightforward way to cancel. The fact that cancellation procedures need government regulation raises a larger customer experience question: Can an organization call itself customer-centric when it intentionally makes leaving difficult? John explains that ease of doing business should apply throughout the entire relationship—not just when the customer is ready to buy. That includes reaching support, resolving a problem, returning a purchase, changing an agreement, and canceling a service. Bad Profits Create Long-Term Damage Some companies generate revenue through what John calls "bad profits": hidden charges, excessive fees, restrictive policies, complicated contracts, or deliberately difficult cancellation processes. These practices may protect short-term revenue, but they can also: Destroy customer trust Generate complaints and negative word of mouth Increase service and staffing costs Create opportunities for competitors Force employees to defend policies they believe are unfair Increase frontline frustration and turnover Produce retention numbers that disguise customer dissatisfaction Blockbuster once generated approximately 16% of its revenue from late fees. That revenue made abandoning late fees appear financially dangerous—but it also prevented the company from adapting to a subscription model that customers increasingly preferred. Retention Is Not the Same as Loyalty A customer who remains because canceling is difficult has not been retained through loyalty. That customer has been trapped through friction. Healthy customer relationships produce repeat business, referrals, trust, and advocacy. Customer captivity may temporarily improve retention metrics, but it does not create customers who create more customers. Leaders must look beyond cancellation rates and ask why customers stay. Are they staying because they value the relationship—or because switching, canceling, or finding an alternative feels like too much work? Customer Friction Also Damages the Employee Experience Frontline employees frequently bear the consequences of unreasonable policies they did not create and cannot change. When employees repeatedly have to say, "I don't make the rules," it signals a larger system problem. Employees become the messengers for decisions designed to protect revenue, absorbing customers' anger while lacking the authority to make things right. Removing unnecessary customer friction is therefore both a customer experience and employee experience strategy. How Leaders Can Find Their Biggest Friction Points John recommends that leaders experience their organization as customers do. Purchase something. Attempt to return it. Try to cancel. Contact support. Track how many screens, calls, transfers, explanations, and approvals the process requires. Do not merely ask whether the process works. Ask how hard the customer must work to make it work. Leaders should also: Listen to customer calls and analyze customer sentiment Identify recurring complaints and escalations Examine policies that produce fees or prevent cancellations Compare earned sales from repeat customers and referrals with sales purchased through advertising Track retention after contractual obligations end Give employees appropriate authority to resolve problems Remove incentives that reward short-term revenue at the customer's expense Making it easier for unhappy customers to leave may feel risky. But making every customer feel trapped is far more dangerous. Trust is more valuable than captivity. Key Takeaways Ease of doing business must apply to the entire customer relationship, including cancellation, returns, support, and service recovery. Retention does not prove loyalty when customers face barriers to leaving. "Bad profits" may increase short-term revenue while damaging trust, referrals, employee morale, and long-term growth. Frontline employees suffer when they must defend policies they know are frustrating or unfair. Customer complaints and service-recovery situations are opportunities to demonstrate empathy and rebuild loyalty. Leaders should personally test their organization's customer journey. Repeat business and referrals are stronger indicators of loyalty than cancellation rates alone. The critical question is not whether a process works, but how hard customers must work to make it work. Memorable Quotes "Not all profit is good profit." "A customer hasn't been retained through loyalty. They've been trapped through friction." "Every company's job is to create customers who create customers." "You wouldn't have to chase new customers if you were keeping the existing ones." "Leaders need to spend time on the front line so they can feel the pain." "Don't ask whether the process works. Ask how hard the customer must work to make it work." "Trust is far more valuable than captivity." Episode Chapters 00:46 — The hidden friction tax customers are paying 02:12 — What ease of doing business really means 04:15 — Poor experience or calculated business decision? 06:29 — How leaders can recognize deliberate friction 08:58 — Can a high-friction company be customer-centric? 10:52 — Service recovery and rebuilding customer trust 14:55 — When retention dashboards hide dissatisfaction 18:32 — How bad policies affect frontline employees 20:28 — Charles Schwab's campaign against bad profits 23:48 — The difference between loyalty and captivity 25:47 — Why retention and referrals matter 28:45 — How to uncover your biggest friction points 30:16 — The customer journey every leader should test ROX Dashboard:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/rox-dashboard/ The DiJulius Group Methdology: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/x-commandment-methodology/ Company Service Aptitude Test:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/c-sat-forms/individual-c-sat/ Schedule a Complimentary Call with one of our advisors:  tdg.click/claudia Ask John!  Submit your questions for John, to be aired on future episode:  tdg.click/ask Customer Experience Executive Academy: https://thedijuliusgroup.com/project/cx-executive-academy/ Experience Revolution Membership:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/ Books:  https://thedijuliusgroup.com/shop/ Contacts:  Lindsey@thedijuliusgroup.com , Claudia@thedijuliusgroup.com If you want to learn how world-class organizations build cultures customers cannot live without, explore The Experience Revolution Membership. Inside the membership you'll gain access to livestream workshops, practical frameworks, and proven strategies used by organizations around the world. Learn more at https://thedijuliusgroup.com/membership/

How much should you have saved for retirement? It's one of the most common questions people ask, and new retirement savings data from Fidelity gives us a chance to see how Americans compare. But while the numbers are interesting, they don't answer the most important question: Will your resources support the retirement you want to live? In this episode, Tyler Emrick, CFA, CFP® reviews the latest retirement savings data, explains why averages can be misleading, and shares real-life examples of why income, lifestyle, and thoughtful planning matter more than simply comparing account balances. We discuss: What Fidelity's latest retirement savings data shows by age and generation Why average and median tell two very different stories Why retirement readiness is about much more than your 401(k) balance How pensions and guaranteed income can significantly change the retirement equation Why two families with similar account balances can have completely different retirement outcomes A better way to measure retirement readiness than comparing yourself to everyone else Have questions? Need help making sure your investments and retirement plan are on track? Click to schedule a free 20-minute call with one of True Wealth's CFP® Professionals. http://bit.ly/calltruewealth   Our website:  https://www.truewealthdesign.com/  Phone: 855.TWD.PLAN Contact our team: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/contact-a-financial-advisor/  Schedule your no-cost discovery call: http://bit.ly/calltruewealth    Check out our other no-cost financial resources here: https://www.truewealthdesign.com/financial-resources/    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrueWealthDesign/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/true-wealth-design/  X: https://x.com/truewealthdesgn    Watch the show now on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjENBHOti-IEJFqeydZm_Fg?sub_confirmation=1

The stock market is sitting at historical highs, but inflated valuations mean we could be facing a major correction or extended period of low returns. With leveraged funds adding dangerous fuel to this speculative fire, the risk of a sharp market shock is real. If you're approaching or currently in retirement, now is the time to review your portfolio. On the consumer front, T-Mobile is turning its back on the customer-first culture that made it famous, forcing legacy subscribers off locked-in rates and hitting loyal users with continuous price increases. You don't have to accept a bloated cell phone bill. By breaking up family plans based on actual usage, avoiding the "free iPhone" trap that locks you into expensive contracts, and exploring budget-friendly sub-brands that use the exact same towers, you can slash your monthly bill down to $10–$30 a line. Calculate your annual cell phone spend today—you might be shocked by how much you can save! Compare plans right now at clark.com/phoneplanfinder. Plus, Christa shares your #AskClark questions and Clark gives his take. All this and more on the July 29, 2026, episode of The Clark Howard Show.   Submit your questions: Ask Clark. High Market Anxiety: Segment 1 Ask Clark: Segment 2 Beat Cell Service Hikes: Segment 3 Ask Clark: Segment 4 Mentioned on the show: A Key Investing Lesson to Remember Right Now How To Find and Choose a Financial Advisor - Clark Howard The next crash: why this time might not be different Why You Need To Lock Your Brokerage Account Today What Is a Solo 401(k) and How Does It Work? - Clark Howard  T-Mobile Retires Legacy Plans: Expect a Price Increase - Clark.com Why Now Is the Time To Switch Your Cell Phone Service How To Get a Free Cell Phone in 2026 (Best Deals + Hidden Catch) The Best Phone Plan For You – Compare Phone Plans What Should You Do if Your Insurance Claim Is Denied? Credit Score Guide - Clark Howard  Clark.com resources: Episode transcripts Community.Clark.com  /  Ask Clark Clark.com daily money newsletter Consumer Action Center Free Helpline: 636-492-5275 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Gen Z creator went viral saying she won't take financial advice from anyone born before 1990. Millions of people sent me this video expecting me to go after her. Instead, I'm doing something different. I'm telling you what she got right, what she got wrong, and why 124 trillion dollars is about to change hands between generations, and most people are not ready to catch it.This is not a reaction video. This is a real conversation about debt, about the economy, about whether the "rules" have actually changed or if we've just stopped applying what works. If you've ever felt like you're doing everything right and still falling behind, this episode is for you.Watch until the end. I give you 5 things to do starting today, not next month.Websites Mentioned in This Episode:- https://www.anthonyoneal.com/book — Pre-order Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck and get over $275 in free bonuses (before August 20th)- https://www.anthonyoneal.com/invest — Compare top investing platforms and open your first account- https://www.anthonyoneal.com/savings — Open a high-yield savings account- https://www.anthonyoneal.com/ethos — Get a term life insurance quote in 10 minutesABOUT ANTHONY ONEAL:Anthony O'Neal is a nationally bestselling author, speaker, and host of The Table with Anthony O'Neal. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance & Banking and is a professor of Consumer Economics at Virginia Union University. Since 2014, he's helped millions of people get out of debt, build wealth, and break generational poverty. His mission is to help you maximize your income, eliminate debt, and create a life of freedom and legacy.

With training camps opening and pads about to come on, is it time to shuffle your 2026 rookie board?

Keith Redford is the Director of Fleet Operations at JAM Best-One Tire, a commercial tire and fleet service organization with locations across Michigan and Ohio. He began his commercial tire career at Belle Tire, moved into tire wholesale, and joined JAM in 2005.Redford brings more than two decades of experience to fleet tire management. His work focuses on controlling operating costs, strengthening preventive maintenance, and building service relationships that support fleets over the long term.In this episode…Commercial fleet customers need more than a shop that responds when a tire fails. They need a service partner who understands their operations, monitors spending, and recommends products that make sense for their equipment.Redford's approach is built around predictability. A structured program gives fleet operators a clearer view of annual tire expenses and the maintenance decisions driving those costs. Regular account reviews compare spending with prior years and connect the numbers to changes inside the customer's business.That creates a real tension for tire dealers. Good fleet tire management often means helping customers purchase fewer tires. Redford treats lower customer spending as the foundation of a longer relationship rather than a threat to immediate sales. Trust creates room for fleet growth, referrals, and deeper service partnerships.Consistent execution also depends on culture. Technicians, salespeople, and managers bring different skills to the operation, but no role succeeds on its own. The work ultimately supports drivers carrying goods and returning home safely.Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn: [01:26] Career progression in commercial tire sales and fleet operations[03:43] JAM Best-One's commercial tire business formation and growth[07:38] Extending national-account service standards to smaller fleets[12:01] Employee retention through a people-centered service culture[18:04] Commercial truck utilization as an economic indicator[20:26] Reducing fleet operating costs through long-term service partnerships[23:53] Applying a seek-to-understand leadership approachResources mentioned in this episode:Keith Redford on LinkedInJAM Best-One Tire WebsiteTread PartnersGain Traction Podcast on YouTubeGain Traction Podcast WebsiteMike Edge on LinkedInQuotable Moments:“We cannot be successful apart from one another because we all have different skill sets.”“At the end of the day, I want my people to know that they're valued.”“Our job is much more important than that. It's about people keeping people safe on the road.”“We're looking for those 20-year relationships.”“The more we understand their business, the better we can help them.”Action Steps:Create a fleet tire management baseline by pulling the previous 12 months of tire and mechanical-service invoices for each fleet account. Separate recurring maintenance from unplanned replacements and identify the accounts with the largest spending changes.Schedule account reviews with key fleet customers. Compare current spending with the previous year, document operational changes, and agree on the next maintenance priority.Standardize a small-fleet service program across every location. Define inspection intervals, reporting expectations, product recommendations, and the person responsible for customer communication.Review handoffs between sales, technicians, and location managers. Assign ownership at each stage so recommendations reach the customer and approved work reaches the bay without delay.Measure the relationship beyond monthly tire sales. Track annual customer spending, maintenance consistency, account retention, and referrals to show the long-term value of the program.

Most Canadians think mortgages only come from the big six banks. They're wrong, and it's costing them. In part one of a two-part series, Ryan and Neal break down what a Mortgage Investment Corporation actually is, how it works, and why it exists in the first place.They cover the borrowers banks turn away, how non-bank lenders get their capital, and why Canadian MICs are nothing like the Big Short. They dig into the numbers from Wawa's research: the top 43 mortgage investment entities manage nearly $38.5 billion in assets, delivered 9.2% weighted average returns in 2024, and yet still represent only 4% of Canada's total mortgage market. Compare that to the UK, where non-traditional lenders now account for 60% of gross mortgage lending.They also break down what causes a MIC to blow up, why the biggest players are built to survive a downturn, and the uncomfortable truth about what your bank is actually doing with your savings account.Show Chapters:4:56 Today: What Is a MIC (Part 1 of 2) 6:09 Why Canadians Only Think of the Big 6 7:14 The Borrowers Banks Turn Away 10:44 Why Canadian MICs Aren't the Big Short 11:00 What a MIC Actually Is 13:30 What Causes a MIC to Blow Up 15:36 MIC vs Broker vs Bank 16:12 Who Actually Borrows From a MIC 18:39 $38.5 Billion Managed by the Top 43 19:22 MIC Returns: 9.2% in 2024 20:45 MICs Are Only 4% of the Mortgage Market 21:41 The UK Has 60% Non-Traditional Lending 23:32 Banks Give You 2% While Lending Your Money at 9% 25:47 Why Big MICs Will Survive the Downturn 29:39 How a MIC Expands Through AcquisitionResources:Keystone Capital GroupCPLP Instagram: @cplpodcastKeystone Instagram: @keycapgroupFind Neal On:Instagram: @neal.andreinoLinkedIn: Neal AndreinoFind Ryan on:LinkedIn: Ryan MacNeilE-mail: ryan@keycap.ca

Andrew McCormick - 7News in Melbourne Tom Rehn AEDA Executive General Manager, Marketing & Tourism Michael Rossi BOM + SAPOL Demographer Mark McCrindle, McCrindle Research Former Diamond Kim Green The Advertiser Chief Court Reporter Sean Fewster Port Adelaide FC Chairman and Compare the Market Economic Director David Koch Front Page Sports reporter David Rumsey Kylie Boston Sally TindallSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Becoming parents has given us a whole new appreciation for children's songs, so in this episode, we're sharing some of our favorites with Santi and the memories they bring back. We talk about bilingual nursery rhymes, classic Mexican lullabies, interactive songs that make little ones laugh, and why some English nursery rhymes have surprisingly dark (or misunderstood) histories. Along the way, you'll learn about traditional songs like Los Pollitos Dicen, Martinillo, and Ricky Ran, discover how children's songs are translated across languages, and hear us compare the games and counting rhymes we grew up with in Mexico and the United States. Whether you're learning Spanish, raising bilingual kids, or simply feeling nostalgic about your childhood, this episode offers a fun glimpse into the music, traditions, and family moments that connect generations.Key Takeaways:Discover popular Mexican and English nursery rhymes, their meanings, and the traditions behind them.Learn how children's songs are translated across languages while keeping their rhythm, melody, and cultural charm.Compare childhood games, counting rhymes, and family traditions from Mexico and the United States through our own experiences.Links And Additional Resources:325 – Un Año con Santi: Lo Que Hemos Aprendido Como Papás | A Year with Santi: What We've Learned as Parents270 – Padres Primerizos – ¡Bienvenido, Santi! | First-time Parents – Welcome, Santi!247 – El Coco, El Ratoncito Pérez, y Otras Creencias de los Niños Latinos | El Coco, El Ratoncito Pérez, and Other Beliefs of Latin Children108 – Errores en la Música en Español | Errors in Spanish MusicJoin La Escala to practice Spanish, stay consistent, and connect with other learnersLevel up your Spanish with our Podcast MembershipGet the full transcript of each episode so you don't miss a wordListen to an extended breakdown section in English going over the most important words and phrasesTest your comprehension with a multiple choice quizSupport the show

Medical aesthetics is one of the few areas of healthcare where practice owners have real control over pricing. Because most services are cash pay, med spas are not waiting on insurance reimbursements or negotiating with carriers. Yet many practices give away that advantage by running constant promotions and training patients to shop for the lowest Botox price.  In this solo episode, I explain how deep discounts create margin erosion, weaken patient loyalty, and push the industry toward commoditization. I also share how stronger consultations, treatment plans, and value-based pricing can improve retention, patient experience, and clinic profitability without turning every appointment into a sales pitch. Discounts Train Patients to Wait for the Next Offer  Discounts can fill the schedule for a weekend, but they also change how patients see the practice. When every holiday comes with a coupon, patients learn that the listed price is temporary and the service is interchangeable. That is how Botox pricing and injectables start to feel like retail products instead of medical treatments.  Patients who choose a practice based only on price are also difficult to retain. They may come in for the promotion and leave as soon as another clinic advertises a better deal. You pay to acquire them, give up margin on the treatment, and still have no lasting customer relationship to show for it. Run the Numbers Before You Run the Promotion  A discount should never be approved simply because the calendar is slow or a competitor launched one. Before lowering the price, look at what the offer does to gross profit, cash flow, future capacity, and patient behavior. Promotional revenue can look impressive while the economics underneath it tell a very different story.  Calculate treatment margin after product cost, provider compensation, payment fees, and promotional spending  Measure how many discounted patients return and rebook at full price  Compare customer acquisition cost with patient lifetime value  Account for prepaid packages as future treatment obligations rather than immediate profit  Review inventory levels before promoting injectables or retail products  Determine whether the offer supports a broader treatment plan or only creates a one-time visit  Give the team clear language to explain value, outcomes, and next steps without relying on aggressive sales techniques  If the numbers only work when patients purchase more later, be honest about how often that actually happens. Upselling cannot carry the strategy when your intake, follow-up, and rebooking systems are not built to support it.  (00:05:43) Building lasting patient relationships (00:09:01) Setting confident pricing for services (00:10:40) Understanding value versus effort (00:15:21) Shifting from retail to patient focus (00:16:31) Improving client intake and planning (00:19:37) Identifying growth barriers for practices  Lead the Consultation With Medical Authority  A patient consultation should feel like clinical guidance, not a review of services and prices. Patients come to you because they want a result and need help understanding which treatments will get them there. When providers lead with patient education, set realistic expectations, and recommend a clear treatment plan, price becomes one part of the decision rather than the entire conversation.  This also creates a better patient experience. People are more likely to follow through, rebook, and trust future recommendations when they understand why the plan was created. Value-based pricing works when the practice can clearly connect its expertise, care, and treatment strategy to the outcome the patient wants. Patient Loyalty Creates More Predictable Growth  Practices that depend on promotions often see the same pattern: a rush of cash, a crowded schedule, and then another dip. That volatility makes financial management harder because staffing, inventory management, and marketing decisions are being made around short-term spikes instead of reliable demand.  A medicine-first approach creates cleaner practice growth. Strong treatment plans, consistent rebooking, and better customer retention increase patient lifetime value and make cash flow easier to forecast. Over time, that stability gives you room to improve margins, invest in your team, and expand without constantly discounting the work that built your reputation. A med spa with medical authority and loyal patients has far more control over its pricing, profitability, and future.  Follow Shannon & Keep What You Earn:   Shannon Weinstein is the founder of a fractional CFO firm specializing in helping 7-figure aesthetics and wellness practices scale with clarity, cash flow, and confidence.  Shannon is committed to helping med spa owners understand, fix, and maximize their business's enterprise value, offering actionable advice and resources, including a popular free video series specifically for aesthetics practice owners.  Connect with Shannon: Fractional CFO Services and Executive Financial Review: https://www.keepwhatyouearn.com/ Connect with Shannon: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannonweinstein  Watch full episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@KeepWhatYouEarn  Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1580071347  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shannonkweinstein/  The information shared is for educational purposes only and is not individualized financial advice. Aesthetics practice owners should consult a qualified professional before implementing financial strategies discussed here. 

Welcome to BeanTok! Apparently, the internet has finally discovered what homesteaders and prepared families have known for years—beans are pretty amazing. In this episode, we're separating the hype from the helpful, exploring why beans are suddenly trending on TikTok, and talking about how one inexpensive pantry staple can improve your health, simplify meal planning, and save money on groceries. Today's Joyfully Prepared Takeaways Discover why #BeanTok has millions of people talking about beans. Learn Wendi's simple method for cooking a week's worth of dried beans in the Instant Pot. Understand what really causes bean gas—and why it's often a combination of bean preparation and allowing your gut time to adjust. Learn how soaking and pressure cooking improve digestion and help your body absorb more nutrients. Find out why Wendi started adding cannellini beans to her morning protein shake—and why she isn't stopping anytime soon. Compare the true cost of dried beans versus canned beans and see how small changes can save your family money over time. Discover easy ways to use cooked beans in tacos, soups, salads, dips, breakfasts, smoothies, and freezer meals. Learn how replacing part of the meat in your favorite recipes can stretch your grocery budget without sacrificing flavor. Be inspired to rediscover one of the most affordable, nutritious, and versatile foods already sitting in your pantry. This Week's Joyfully Prepared Challenge Cook one pound of dried beans. Use them in at least two different meals this week. If you're feeling adventurous, blend a few cannellini beans into your morning protein shake—you just might surprise yourself! Resources Mentioned Beans & Beyond: Cooking for Preparedness & Everyday Meals (Digital Bean Guide) Search #BeanTok on TikTok for recipe ideas and inspiration. Try recipes like bean salads, soups, tacos, dips, and the viral Marry Me Beans. Remember, preparedness doesn't have to be complicated. Sometimes it begins with something as simple as learning to use what's already in your pantry.

The Making Of Smile & Co. #2 — Episode 5: Operatories, Chairs, and Everything In BetweenIn this episode Ashley and Collin get into the equipment decisions behind Smile & Co. #2. From how many ops are plumbed versus equipped to why Ashley switched from Sirona to A-dec, this one is packed with real world advice for any startup doc trying to figure out where to spend and where to save.What You'll Hear In This Episode:The Operatory Layout Smile & Co. #2 is plumbed for nine operatories and currently equipped with five. Ashley walks through the layout including her open bay hygiene section with floor to ceiling windows, the restorative rooms, the cosmetic suite, and her plans for the remaining ops including a dedicated sedation room and a potential Botox suite tucked away in the back.The Sterilization Setup Ashley and Collin break down the sterilization area from dirty to clean, the gorgeous marble black countertops that patients actually compliment, the slat wall system from Uline that replaced traditional tip-out bins, and the tech cubby that keeps all the scanners and equipment tucked away and out of the patient flow. Sterilization has somehow also become the unofficial team hangout. No complaints.The Chairs Ashley went with A-dec for Smile & Co. #2 after her experience with the Sirona Intego chairs in Folsom. She breaks down the difference between the 500 Series in the cosmetic suite and the 400 in the restorative rooms, why she chose continental delivery, and why patient comfort should be the number one deciding factor when choosing a chair.The Assistant Package Two high speed suctions on the assistant side. A dedicated workstation. A round table. And garage style drawer doors for the tubs that slide out instead of swing open. Ashley is very extra about her millwork and zero apologies are being made.Electric Handpieces Once you go electric you never go back. Ashley makes the case for investing in electric handpieces from day one and shares the full mouth sedation case that reminded her exactly why she would never work without them again.The Equipment Philosophy If it improves the patient experience or makes your job more enjoyable, more efficient, and more profitable, it is worth the cost. That is Ashley's filter for every single equipment decision and it is the advice every startup doc needs to hear before they start spending.Coming Next Episode Technology, the Cerec, 3D printing, the music in the rooms, and all the little things that make Smile & Co. #2 what it is.Thank You to Our PartnersNet32: The dental marketplace that helps practice owners stop overpaying for supplies. Compare and save at net32.com/themakingof.Studio 8E8 — Dentistry's story-driven growth agency for startups. s8e8.com/vslKasper Opportunity Finder: Fill those empty chairs and reclaim lost revenue with one click. Get it free at meetkasper.com/register.Support the showFind Out MoreThank you for listening to The Making Of podcast. If you enjoyed it, please share with anyone you think will gain value from the show by clicking on one of the sharing tabs above.SUBSCRIBE to our NEWSLETTER HEREAlso, please consider leaving an honest review on iTunes. It helps other listeners find the show, and I would be forever grateful.Questions or comments? Feel free to contact us at - themakingofadental@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram or Facebook and improve your dental practice every day!Have you subscribed? Don't miss a single episode!

Send us Fan MailTwo recent slap-downs of "assault weapons" bans, one in Virginia via court injunction against their enforcement thereof and one in New Jersey that was nullified outright by a 3rd Circuit Court decision.Compare that to two other courts that recently upheld such Constitutionally illiterate bans in Massachusetts and Illinois, and you'll understand why Royce declares there are two parallel judicial systems at work in this country; one upholds and defends the Constitution while the other assaults it at every turn, conveniently ignoring the text of the 2nd Amendment as well as the Bruen standards set forth by the Supreme Court.Support the showThe Watch Floor - YouTubeAskari Media GroupBuy Paul Eberle's book "Look at the Dirt"Paul Eberle (lookatthedirt.com)

By the end of this episode, you'll understand how lawyers are actually AI maxxing in 2026, and how you can, too.Timestamps:0:00 Intro1:58 Why it's the best time to be a lawyer3:03 Hallucinations and cognitive surrender 5:33 Quality over efficiency8:13 Why AI upends legal work15:20 60% of contracts filed to EDGAR have mistakes20:04 How LLMs actually work25:59 Zero data retention, explained29:16 The privacy risk beyond training39:16 How to prompt 47:03 Michael Showalter's AI-native litigation stack55:27 Spellbook's Compare to Market Feature1:03:10 Building a regulatory agent1:09:50 The judgment crisis for junior lawyers1:12:15 Cooley's AI training methodYou'll hear from 10 people at the cutting edge of legal AI:Zack Shapiro, Founder and Managing Partner at Rains LLPMolly Abraham, General Counsel at CoinbaseSujit Raman, Chief Legal Officer at TRM LabsMichael Showalter, Founder of Showalter PLLCErich Dylus, attorney, programmer and creator of CamoTextAaron Kelly, General Counsel and open source AI expertDavid Wang, Chief Innovation Officer at CooleyScott Stevenson, CEO of SpellbookJustin McCallon, CEO of StrongSuitSamson Enzer, Partner at Cahill Gordon & ReindelThis episode is presented by Altitude, visit altitude.xyz/law to learn more about their financial operating system.Newsletter: Stay updated on emerging tech law for free at lawofcode.fm.Any feedback on this episode? Or how to improve the podcast? Click here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1QAcE1sQAKZIkma20DbyB5frgKdiK8UB6Fkb6CwaVP1I/edit Sponsors: Thank you to the Hyperliquid Policy Center and Solana Policy Institute for supporting this podcast.To get in touch with the Cahill team about how any issues discussed in this episode apply to your situation, email mtomsky@cahill.com. Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal or investment advice. Views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of their employers. Listening to this podcast does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Send us Fan MailHow much are you actually paying yourself? Not what your business generated last quarter. Not what you transferred after one good project. What are you consistently paying yourself, every two weeks or every month?If you're waiting to see what's left over, this episode is for you. Laura breaks down why your compensation has to be a planned, budgeted line item in your business, not an afterthought. Because hope is not a compensation strategy, and you deserve a business that pays you reliably for the talent, leadership, and energy you pour into it.In This EpisodeWhy the owner is so often the last person to get paid, and why that can't be the long-term planThe problem with "I pay myself when there's enough money" and what it costs you personallyHow to choose your ideal salary based on your real life, not thin airWhy your salary becomes your North Star, and how to work backward from it to revenue, margins, and project mixThe trap of top-line sales in interior design: why a big bank balance after a client invoice doesn't mean you can pay your mortgageOwner compensation vs. profit, and why they are not the same thingBuilding your pay into the annual budget first, then layering in everything elsePlanning for consistency in an industry with lumpy revenueWhat to do if your business can't afford your ideal salary yet (hint: that gap is the most useful information you've gathered all year)Why growing revenue without growing your pay isn't growth, it's a bigger job with the same paychequeHow paying yourself properly changes the way you price, choose projects, and leadYour Homework This WeekChoose your ideal annual compensation and divide it into a monthly or bi-weekly amount.Compare it with what you're actually paying yourself right now. What's the gap?Check whether your annual business plan includes your compensation as a real expense. If it doesn't, add it.Work backward: what revenue, gross profit, and mix of projects does the business need to produce to support it?You don't need to solve everything in one afternoon. But you do need to stop avoiding the number.In just one focused hour, we'll dive into whatever you need most—pricing strategies, client management, attracting high-end clients or building repeat business. You'll get clarity, strategy, and expert advice based on my 27+ years of running a thriving, seven-figure design firm.This is your chance to get real answers to the questions you've been dying to ask—from someone who's actually been there.Book your session as you need it—no strings attached.Be sure to follow along on Instagram @thebusinessofbeautifulspaces + @thorntondesign to stay up to date on what we're talking about next week. If you love our podcast, please, please, please leave us a review. If you have any questions or topic ideas OR you wish to be a guest email us thebusinessofbeautifulspaces@gmail.com or find us on instagram @thebusinessofbeautifulspacesLaura Thornton is the  principle designer of Thornton Design Inc, located in Kleinburg, ON.  Since founding the company in 1999, Laura has been committed to creating a new kind of interior design experience for her clients. Thornton Design is an experienced team of creative talents, focused on curating beautiful residential and commercial spaces in the Toronto, Ontario area and beyond. Now sharing all the years of experience with other interior designers to create a world of collaboration and less competition. The Business of Beautiful Spaces  I @thebusinessofbeautifulspacesThornton Design                                      I @thorntondesign

-How does Nebraska's average roster/starter age compare to the rest of CFB Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Any time Trump or one of his supporters brings up the 2020 election, insisting he didn't lose it, we hear the usual chorus of groans: why can't he get over it? He lost. Move on. The thing is, I can't get over it either. 2020 was the year everything changed. My entire world was turned upside down because I could see, for the first time, that I was in a bubble, a feedback loop that had shaped my perception of reality. It's just that it wasn't actual reality. It was a curated, hysteria-inducing delusion. It wasn't just me. Go on YouTube, and you'll find hundreds, if not thousands, of people whose lives were fundamentally transformed that year in one way or another. COVID made them quit their job and move into a van. COVID made them decide to divorce. COVID made them learn how to bake sourdough. And a lot of us were red-pilled. It was as though someone pressed the pause button and all of us froze in place for a time. Like in the movie Weapons where the kids suddenly wake up one day…Isolated and shut in, we all turned to social media and the internet, which meant more people were connected than ever before at a time when there were more people alive than ever before. We've never really fully processed what happened to all of us that year.It was the year we stopped trusting the science, the schools, Hollywood, the legacy media, and the government. Children were locked down and staring at their screens, with many of the lost boys finding their way into the dark corners of the internet and would emerge years later fumbling their way toward a rifle and a rooftop.That isn't all of it, or even half of it. None of us would emerge from that year unscathed. We can't talk about it as a country or a people because we are still so divided. The big things divide us, like the vaccine, the masks, the lockdowns, and most especially, the 2020 election.We were stepping into something we did not understand and weren't prepared for. Things have changed enough now that it will be hard to remember just how bad things got after Trump won in 2016. I remember because I was on the inside. I lived it with the Democrats and what would become a Doomsday Cult.We called ourselves “the resistance” even though we had all of the power. Trump and MAGA, they were the real resistance, or at least the revolutionaries going up against the most powerful machine in American history, maybe ever.All I knew was that I had to fight for my side. I woke up every day like a good soldier for the cause and went to battle online, wasting precious time with my daughter, or doing anything else except sitting and staring at a screen and fighting with people I didn't even know over issues that didn't matter with arguments that had no end and went nowhere.Inside the Doomsday Cult, we were awash with mass hysteria because every single day, every time Trump tweeted, the legacy media sent out more waves of hysteria that pulsed through the hive mind and kept reinfecting anyone who scrolled Twitter or Facebook. It was a new emergency every day. We were stuck in an unending state of trauma.The legacy media desperately wants to forget what happened, how they lied and gaslit the public. The consequences for these moral crimes have been minimal. A slap on the wrist for ignoring Joe Biden's cognitive decline, but there has never been a reckoning for what they did to all of us, people who trusted them, in 2020.What Happened to MeMy daughter had to leave her senior year at college to have her graduation on my balcony, but we did it because we were doing our part to help save the country during this once-in-a-generation pandemic.Mobilizing for the cause meant sewing our own masks, displaying them proudly on Instagram. It meant mixing our own hand sanitizer because it was all out at the drug store. Some people were wearing face shields. We were living in fear. We were cowed into silence. Half the country fell into Mass Formation Psychosis. We weren't allowed to attend weddings, churches, or schools, but somehow on Memorial Day, the George Floyd protests became the most important thing in America for months.Systemic racism, they told us, was more urgent than COVID. Really? Bringing the whole country — the whole world — to its knees was less serious than George Floyd dying at the hands of a police officer in Minneapolis? Yes. That's what they were telling us, and everyone was mandated to go along with everything that came next.These were our idols, we were told. It was the new state religion, even if Trump was still the president. This is the ideology we're allowed to gather for. This is worth tear ing down statues, burning buildings, carving out “autonomous zones” and demanding everyone put a black square on Instagram, capitalize the word Black and raise their fists to Black Lives Matter. The madness unfolding on the streets meant Democrats could actually lose in November, I believed. So why wasn't anyone trying to stop them? Why were the Democrats encouraging them? I started wondering what the hell was going on. It felt like unseen hands were manipulating events behind the scenes, and we were all expected to just go along with it.As I began to speak out and ask questions, I was turned into an enemy. “You've changed,” wrote Neera Tanden on Twitter. She was right. I had. By the time Twitter pressured the New York Times to back off their Tom Cotton essay, Send in the Troops, I was done. Maybe I was naive. I didn't understand the assignment. I'd seen too many Frank Capra movies. I'd begun to believe politics was like an Aaron Sorkin screenplay. I thought we were the good guys. We are the side with ethics and decency and fairness.I was like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 when Arnold Schwarzenegger shows up, and she thinks he's a bad guy, but when he says, “Come with me if you want to live, she realizes that everything is backward. The people she thought were the good guys weren't. The guy she thought was there to kill her was actually there to save her. By the end of 2020, I was as black-pilled as Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, disillusioned and wide awake. Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown.But what I saw them do - how we were all manipulated, how they rigged the election to be too big to fail - I could see for the first time that my side had too much power. So much power that American democracy was now beside the point.It didn't matter how the people voted, because we would decide who was allowed to win and who would become an existential threat to the world we were building, the utopia we were building online.When I left the party, I knew I couldn't be fully honest about what I believed happened, though I did say that the election had been rigged. I also couldn't be honest about what I knew about January 6th, at least not in the beginning. When I saw the riot break out, my first thought was, that's not MAGA. They don't do that.And anyway, even if they did, why couldn't the Democrats chalk it up to months of lockdowns and highly enraged, radicalized people on the Right just as there were on the Left that Summer. Why couldn't they? Because it was all still part of the long con, the mass delusion. These ideas were dangerous to hold for anyone in America but especially someone of the Left, and yet, I could not stop it. The truth began knocking. I ignored it as long as I could, but eventually, the knocking became a banging, and I had no choice but to open the door.How to Rig An ElectionOnce you start tugging on the question of why Twitter and Facebook censored the Hunter Biden laptop, you begin to unravel the bigger picture of just how deep the conspiracy went. But you don't need the whole story. You just need to know this: The FBI and the CIA worked against the sitting president to lie to the public that the laptop was “Russian Disinformation.” It was just a standard run-of-the-mill October surprise, timed to help ignite a scandal before the election. But it was also information the public had a right to know, as we would find out later. So anyone who shames Trump for calling the election rigged and denying it was legit will have to answer for this. But if you keep pulling on that string, you'll find the why of it. They were trying to fix all of the problems they believed caused Hillary Clinton's loss. This would be payback for the email scandal that hit her campaign, which she called “Russian Disinformation.” That would also turn out to be untrue.But there were other problems that needed correcting, like lazy voters who assumed Hillary would win because she was so far ahead in the polls and didn't bother turning out. They would fix this problem using COVID as the pretext to change everything about how people vote and how those votes are collected.They knew they had Pennsylvania won long before Election Day and it would only be a matter of convincing the public not to get too excited about a “red mirage.” To all of them, that's the right way to win an election.Trump won Iowa, Ohio and Florida, not to mention the bellwether counties that have decided our elections. The only other time anything like this happened was in 1960, when JFK won in a squeaker. Compare that to 2020, and you can see that something was very off about the numbers. Since the Democrats believed Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook had handed Trump the win in 2016 by using their marketing machine (the Clinton campaign refused their help), it was time for Zuckerberg to undo that damage, which came in the form of a $400 million slush fund used to “fortify” the election but mostly in the heavily blue districts. Had all of this been shared with the whole country as a way to improve our elections overall, that would have been one thing. But it was all done behind the scenes, in the shadows, far from the reach of anyone who might dissent. It was anything but ethical and anything but fair.It was all part of a grand scheme to stay one step ahead of Trump. If they already knew he would claim it was rigged, why not just rig it? Who would the people believe? Trump or the “bipartisan cabal” of unelected bureaucrats hiding in the shadows?The truth is that Trump was pulling ahead because the Left was losing its mind, and Trump picked up on it. He changed his campaign; no matter how many ways they tried to keep him from his rallies, he got the word out anyway. That would explain why he won those key states but lost so much in the popular vote. Our elections should not be decided months before Election Day. Candidates should have to make their case to the people, not hide in the basement and let the system do the work. It's the candidate's job to inspire the voters to vote for the kind of government they want, and it's the voters responsibility to be motivated enough to turn out to the polls and cast their vote. But with an easily manipulated hive mind like the Democrats had cultivated for ten years they didn't need any of it.The Year That Broke AmericaI've never been able to convince anyone of what I believed happened in 2020. If you were on the Left, chances are, you wouldn't be able to see it either. You would have trusted the same people I used to trust: CNN, New York Times, MSNBC, your social media feed.You would have come out of that year thinking Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square and that Donald Trump refused to lose, so he led a dangerous assault on the Capitol, putting our democracy under threat. Yet, after everything they did to Trump that year and for the four years prior, what else could he have done except protest? It was just a little too convenient that there happened to be a riot at the same time, a Reichstag Fire that handed absolute power to Team Blue.If you were still trapped inside the Doomsday Cult, you'd have been primed and ready to go to war on your fellow Americans because Vice President Kamala Harris would tell you January 6th was like 9/11 and Pearl Harbor. You would have thought Liz Cheney and the Prime Time Show Trial was legit. What an easy mark you'd be.If you never escaped, as I did, you'd still be trapped inside the Doomsday Cult and never have any idea that none of this is your fault. You were put into a kind of trance in 2020, even before, like the kids in the movie Weapons, frozen in place and used as an army to do the bidding of the Democratic Party.They made you believe, like they made me believe, that every day really was the end of the world as long as Donald Trump was in power. But it was never true, none of it. All the Democrats ever had to do was offer the people something better. If everything Molly Ball wrote about the election the “Secret Bi-Partisan Cabal” supposedly saved, how did Trump win again? In Weapons, the children are put under a spell and aimed at the enemies of the witch. Once the spell is broken, the children wake up and realize the person they should be mad at isn't the one she made them attack, but instead the witch herself for robbing them of their ability to think for themselves. And so it goes with the Democrats.// This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.sashastone.com/subscribe

On Friday's Football at Four on 973 ESPN South Jersey, Inside the Birds' Adam Caplan discusses the #Sixers LeBron James signing and how it compares to other big Philly sports teams' moves over the years.Who's on your list? #Eagles #Flyers #Philies► Subscribe to our Patreon Channel for exclusive information not seen or heard anywhere else and become among smartest Birds fans out there (just ask our members!!) + get all of our shows commercial free!!https://www.patreon.com/insidethebirds► Sign up for our newsletter! • Visit http://eepurl.com/hZU4_n.►Support our sponsors!!► Camden Apothecary: https://camdenapothecary.com/Follow the Hosts!► Follow our Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/InsideBirds► Follow Geoff Mosher on Twitter: https://twitter.com/geoffpmosher► Follow Adam Caplan on Twitter: https://twitter.com/caplannfl► Follow Andrew DiCecco on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andrewdiceccoNFL insider veterans take an in-depth look that no other show can offer! Be sure to subscribe to stay up to date with the latest news, rumors, and discussions.For more, be sure to check out our official website: https://www.insidethebirds.com.

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) — Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: ⁠⁠https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join⁠ Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3477: Ashley Lawrie explores whether eating more like our ancestors could improve modern health, examining the evidence behind the paleolithic diet and its effects on metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular risk, and cancer prevention. Rather than promoting a strict eating philosophy, the article highlights how choosing more natural, minimally processed foods may support better energy, focus, body composition, and long-term health. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://freeformfitness.ca/why-you-should-always-warm-up-before-your-personal-training-sessions-free-sample-warm-up-download/ Quotes to ponder: "Our ancestors would have also gotten their fats from animals and fatty-foods like nuts and seeds." "Studies are suggesting it could be useful for improving the health parameters of a few different populations." "Compare millions of years to a few thousand years of using tools and science and you'll find that our genes have spent way more time thriving on natural sources, than they have using protein bars and margarine as a fuel source." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Get the 200+ Page Optimal Living Daily Workbook (PDF) — Free. Want to turn today's episode into an actionable plan? Join the Optimal Living Weekly newsletter and I'll send you our 200-page digital workbook immediately. It's packed with the best takeaways from the show, formatted for easy reading and implementation at home. Get your free PDF workbook here: ⁠⁠https://oldpodcast.eo.page/join⁠ Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3477: Ashley Lawrie explores whether eating more like our ancestors could improve modern health, examining the evidence behind the paleolithic diet and its effects on metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular risk, and cancer prevention. Rather than promoting a strict eating philosophy, the article highlights how choosing more natural, minimally processed foods may support better energy, focus, body composition, and long-term health. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://freeformfitness.ca/why-you-should-always-warm-up-before-your-personal-training-sessions-free-sample-warm-up-download/ Quotes to ponder: "Our ancestors would have also gotten their fats from animals and fatty-foods like nuts and seeds." "Studies are suggesting it could be useful for improving the health parameters of a few different populations." "Compare millions of years to a few thousand years of using tools and science and you'll find that our genes have spent way more time thriving on natural sources, than they have using protein bars and margarine as a fuel source." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For Edge God in Podcast Edge God In Podcast 331: The Book of 1 Samuel 2 : A Heart That Honors God Choosing Humility Over Pride EdgeGodIn.com | Host: Estella Chavous Championing Human Potential in Christ Download Bible Study Template Learning Objectives By the end of this Bible study, participants will be able to: Examine Hannah’s prayer of praise to understand God’s character and His sovereignty over every circumstance. Compare the lives of Eli’s sons and young Samuel to identify the difference between outward religious activity and inward devotion. Recognize how pride, selfishness, and spiritual complacency can influence our relationships and decisions. Apply the Emotional Intelligence in Christ (EIC) Framework to evaluate personal attitudes, behaviors, and motives. Develop practical habits that cultivate humility, obedience, integrity, and faithful stewardship before God. Commit to honoring God in everyday choices by allowing Christ to shape both character and behavior. Scriptures: 1 Samuel 2:30 | Luke 16:10 | James 4:10 The book helped them understand five key areas: God Honors Those Who Honor Him Character Is Built Long Before Leadership Humility Positions Us For God’s Purpose Prayer: Heavenly Father, Thank You for inviting us into Your presence today. As we study 1 Samuel 2, help us understand what it truly means to honor You with our hearts, our attitudes, and our actions. Teach us to recognize pride before it grows, to embrace humility before You, and to choose obedience over convenience. Reveal any behaviors within us that are not pleasing to You, and through the Holy Spirit, transform us into people whose lives reflect the character of Christ. May this study not simply increase our knowledge but deepen our relationship with You. In Jesus’ name, Amen. Support Resources: Books & Resources: Understanding and Acting on Behaviors that lead to Christ-Filled Relationships: Designed to uncover the key behaviors that influence how you relate to Christ-Awareness, Discernment, Emotion, and Renewal. Situational Meditation Theory and Practice: Finding this space and learning to engage in meditation, contemplation and reflection. Situational Meditation Journal: A companion to the book, cultivating a lifestyle of presence and full engagement in the moment. Emotional Intelligence in Christ Project: Book, 6-Week Study Guide & Course

Netflix Is Struggling to Stay on Top…. and the Stock Reflects It For years, Netflix has been the dominant force in streaming, consistently taking market share from its competitors. However, recent data suggests the competition is beginning to chip away at that lead.   Netflix reported earnings last week, and the results showed a company that is executing well. Profits continue to grow, customer cancellations remain among the lowest in the industry, and the company is still producing blockbuster franchises like Bridgerton and Stranger Things that attract millions of viewers.   The concern in the report wasn't profitability, it was engagement. Viewer engagement measures how much time subscribers spend watching content and how often they complete a movie or series. The more engaged customers are, the less likely they are to cancel their subscription in favor of another streaming service. That's why this metric is so important.   Netflix still accounted for 7.8% of total TV viewing in April, making it the largest subscription streaming platform. However, that was its lowest share since May 2025, suggesting competitors are gradually gaining ground.   The stock has reflected those concerns, declining roughly 40% over the past year despite continued earnings growth. I've always liked what Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings had to say as he frequently emphasized the importance of staying focused and keeping the business simple. That's a philosophy that has served our investment firm well over the years.   Now, with increasing competition from Disney, HBO Max, YouTube, and others, Netflix is reportedly exploring additional subscription offerings similar to what Amazon and Apple provide. Personally, I think that would be a mistake.   At this year's Emmy Awards, Netflix earned 111 nominations. Instead of expanding into new subscription services, why not invest even more heavily in creating award-winning shows and movies? If they produced enough quality content to earn 120 or even 130 Emmy nominations next year, subscriber engagement would likely take care of itself.   Sometimes the best strategy isn't to do more, it's to do one thing exceptionally well. What do you think? Have you canceled or considered canceling your Netflix subscription? Or do you still believe Netflix offers the best streaming service?   U.S. oil supplies are falling to concerning levels U.S. oil inventories have fallen to levels that should be a concern. The current U.S. oil stockpile is just under 410 million barrels. On a seasonal basis, we have not seen inventories this low since 2018. The seasonal comparison is important because summer is one of the highest-consumption periods of the year.   The U.S. consumes about 20.6 million barrels of oil per day, produces approximately 13.9 million barrels per day, and relies on imports for roughly 7 million barrels per day. At the same time, the United States exports about 4 million barrels of oil per day, likely because companies can receive higher prices for that oil in international markets. If we somehow stopped producing and importing oil entirely, the current commercial stockpile would last roughly 20 days.   The Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which has been reduced to approximately 317 million barrels, is also at its lowest level since 1983. At current consumption rates, that reserve would represent roughly 15 days of consumption.   Replenishing U.S. oil inventories to higher levels could take many months or even years. Now with WTI oil around $90 a barrel that higher price could actually be a good thing.   You may be wondering why I would say that, especially since higher oil prices often mean higher gas prices at the pump, but higher gas prices may encourage consumers and businesses to reduce their energy consumption. A lower consumption rate could help slow the decline in inventories and give the U.S. a chance to rebuild its oil supplies.   Over the last six months, have you found yourself reducing your energy usage? And do you plan to reduce your consumption going forward?   Banks Had a Great Quarter, Is It Time to Invest? Last week, the banks reported financial results that topped estimates for both earnings and revenue. They also showed improved efficiency as expenses declined as a percentage of revenue. After such a strong quarter, you might think the coast is clear and it's time to invest in the banking sector.   For the cautious investor, however, it's important to look at the other side of the coin. I'm not expecting the banks to fall dramatically but returns going forward could be more muted because of several factors.   First, there is net interest margin, which measures the difference between what a bank earns on its assets and what it pays depositors and debt holders to borrow money. Banks now have very large balance sheets, so even if net interest margins decline, the dollar amount of profits can remain substantial. However, further pressure on margins could still become a headwind for future earnings growth.   There are also other risks for conservative investors to consider. The ongoing situation with Iran could create additional uncertainty. The AI boom could experience a rough patch, and while the economy and labor markets appear strong right now, investors cannot ignore the possibility of an economic slowdown.   Rising interest rates could also prove difficult for banks if rates move significantly higher from current levels, potentially putting pressure on their profit margins. The good news is that bank valuations are not excessively high, which could help limit the downside risk in the event of a market pullback.   To be clear, we are not anticipating a major decline in the banks we hold in our portfolio. However, investors should make sure the banks they own have very strong balance sheets. Strong capital positions and manageable debt can help reduce downside risk if the economic environment becomes more challenging. A strong quarter is certainly a positive sign for the banks, but investors should remember that great earnings today do not always guarantee great returns tomorrow. Valuation, balance-sheet strength, and the economic environment will all play an important role in determining future returns.   Are new homes actually a better deal than existing homes? There is an interesting trend developing in the housing market: the median price of a newly built home is now lower than the median price of an existing home. Historically there has been about a 20% premium for new homes.   At first, that sounds surprising. New homes are typically more expensive, so how can they now be cheaper? One major reason is that the type of new homes being built and sold has changed. Builders are increasingly focusing on smaller homes, townhomes, and more affordable developments. Townhouses now account for about one in five new single-family homes, which is the highest share since the National Association of Home Builders began tracking the data in 1985. In many cases developers are focusing on attainable homes for the middle-class which means the homes are roughly 1,200 to 2,000 square feet on smaller lots. As a result, the median price of a new home can look lower than the median price of an existing home, even though that doesn't necessarily always mean buyers are getting more house for their money.   In other words, the comparison isn't always apples to apples. A new townhome or smaller home may have a lower price than an older, larger single-family home. That can make new construction appear to be a better deal, but buyers need to carefully consider what they are actually comparing.   There are some real advantages to buying new. Builders are offering incentives such as mortgage-rate buydowns and assistance with closing costs. These lower rates make the monthly payment lower and more achievable than a comparable existing home. New homes typically require less maintenance, come with modern finishes and new appliances, are more energy efficient, and often come with warranties.   But there are risks and a big one many people may not consider is lower resale value. Many of these new home developments only provide a handful of floorplans and they are built on a smaller parcel of land, which leads to less distinctive homes. If you go to sell your home within a few years, you may also be competing against the homebuilder if new homes are still being built in the community.   The bottom line: new homes may offer some of the best deals in the housing market right now, but buyers need to look beyond the headline numbers. Compare the size, location, price per square foot, HOA fees, upgrades, and the total monthly cost. A new home may be a better deal than an existing home, but make sure you understand exactly what you are getting for your money.   Stock Trading Is Off the Charts! There is a frenzy happening in the stock market right now. With individuals buying and selling stocks, along with institutional investors constantly trading, Wall Street is generating enormous trading fees. But one has to ask the question: Does all of this activity make sense?   U.S. average daily trading volume in equities and options hit a record in the second quarter, with 73 million options contracts and 20 billion shares traded. Think about that number for a minute: 20 billion shares of stock changing hands over just three months. Let that sink in.   We have not seen this much activity in individual stocks since the end of the dot-com bubble, and we all know how that turned out.   The good news is that, with this frenzy of stock trading, more people are beginning to seek professional help managing their portfolios. The bad news is that many brokers are really just salespeople who may not have a strong investment philosophy or truly understand what they are doing. They will simply ride the wave until the crash comes, just as happened at the end of the tech bust.   Back then, even a year after the market had collapsed, some brokers were still telling their clients to stay invested because the market would eventually come back. I remember an old saying I learned when I first entered the industry: “The broker knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”   It took the Nasdaq more than 15 years to get back to breakeven after the dot-com bubble burst when it fell close to 80% from top to bottom. That is why it is so important, when seeking financial advice, to understand the investment philosophy of the broker or investment adviser you are working with. Does their philosophy make sense to you? Does it align with your goals? And, most importantly, does it make sense for your portfolio?   When markets are rising and everyone is making money, almost any strategy can look brilliant. The real test is what happens when the frenzy ends.   If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is! A recent story in Barron's highlights a warning that applies to everyone, not just professional athletes.   Several current and former professional athletes reportedly invested in an online business opportunity that sounded too good to be true. Three former NFL players were interviewed by Barron's and collectively they said they lost more than $1 million. The pitch was simple: invest at least $50,000 in an online store and they'll handle everything from social-media marketing to manufacturing store inventory. Investors were told they would get their original investment back within six months, and then receive 80% of the profits.   Sounds like a great deal, right? Unfortunately, according to the investigation, it appears the sales weren't real. The stores were built using Shopify and appeared to be generating significant revenue. But investigators reportedly found questionable orders, including one $5,000 order for 100 desktop humidifiers and 120 USB-powered cup warmers. The person at the shipping address said they never placed the order and “Who needs 100 humidifiers and 120 cup warmers?” There were also other red flags including one e-commerce site, Dailyprodtrend, doesn't appear in Google search results and the web address is just a random string of numbers and letters.   The scheme is run by a 24-year-old entrepreneur named Mohamed Coulibaly and to gain credibility he used celebrity connections citing the names of about two dozen current and former pro athletes and other public figures as clients in a pitch deck. He also has created an image of wealth and success with one athlete saying he saw what appeared to be $25 million in a business account that Coulibaly showed him on a cellphone screen. It's important to remember that no matter how successful someone appears or how many famous people they know you still need to do your own due diligence.   A big problem is the websites were just the beginning of what appears to be a longer con. Once investors had their Shopify login credentials, they were given the impression the business was healthy due to these “fake” orders and then were presented with an even bigger bet that involved the Dubai investment firm Middle East Venture Partners. Unfortunately, this appears to have led to more red flags and still no return on investment.   Before investing, you should independently verify the revenue, customers, expenses, bank statements, contracts, and the actual business itself. Don't simply rely on an online dashboard or someone else's claims about how much money is being made.   The bottom line: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And the more exciting and guaranteed the opportunity sounds, the more skeptical you should become.   Financial Planning: Conservation Easements: Valuable Planning Tool or Tax Trap? Conservation easements are a tax planning strategy that allows a landowner to permanently donate certain development rights to a qualified conservation organization in exchange for a charitable income tax deduction equal to the reduction in the property's value. When used as Congress intended, they can provide meaningful tax benefits while preserving land for future generations. For example, a family that owns a 1,000-acre ranch valued at $10 million may have no intention of developing the property and want to ensure it remains open space permanently. By donating a conservation easement that limits future development, the property value may decline to $6 million, creating a $4 million charitable deduction while allowing the family to continue owning and using the land. This type of transaction aligns with the purpose of the law because the conservation benefit is the primary goal and the tax deduction is an incentive. However, taxpayers should be cautious of strategies that appear too good to be true. In recent years, the IRS has aggressively challenged syndicated conservation easement transactions that were marketed primarily as tax shelters. In these arrangements, investors often contributed a relatively small amount of capital to a partnership that acquired land, and promoters claimed the donation of a conservation easement created deductions several times larger than the investors' original contribution. For example, an investor might contribute $250,000 and be promised a $1 million charitable deduction based on an aggressive property valuation. Many of these transactions relied on inflated appraisals and lacked a genuine conservation purpose, resulting in significant IRS scrutiny, disallowed deductions, penalties, and litigation. While conservation easements can be used in specific situations, they should be approached with caution and used only when there is a legitimate conservation objective. As with many tax strategies, a benefit that appears disproportionately large compared to the underlying economic activity is often a warning sign that additional due diligence is needed. Are Porsche Cars Losing Their Excitement? Porsche cars have long been known for their high-end, exciting sports cars. But lately, the company has been losing sales compared with last year.   Porsche faces plenty of competition, but its global deliveries were down 16% during the first six months of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. Last year, the company benefited from strong demand for the electric Macan, while it also ended production of the gasoline-powered 718.   The company was also hurt by the loss of U.S. tax incentives for electric vehicles, which contributed to the decline in sales. Porsche sold 37,712 vehicles in North America, a 13% decline from last year. China, which accounts for roughly 10% of Porsche's sales, saw an even larger drop, with sales falling 32% to 14,501 vehicles.   The price of a Porsche starts at around $65,000, but the average transaction price is closer to $125,000. And if you know anything about these cars, you also know that the maintenance and upkeep can put significant pressure on your wallet. You would think that if you're spending $125,000 on a car, you shouldn't have to spend a fortune maintaining it. But that can be part of the trade-off when owning a high-performance luxury vehicle.   So, are Porsche cars losing some of their excitement? Would you be willing to spend $125,000 on a new Porsche, or would you rather purchase a less expensive American car?   Time to Say Goodbye to EV Car Maker Polestar? I would occasionally see Polestar vehicles on the road, and I believe the company even has a dealership at UTC Mall. However, I didn't know much about the company and was surprised to learn just how complicated its ownership structure is.   Polestar is closely tied to Volvo, which is 79% owned by the Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. The automotive world has become incredibly complicated over the years. I always thought of Volvo as a Swedish company, but that is no longer technically the case.   The ownership change began in March 1999, when Ford Motor Company paid $6.5 billion to acquire Volvo. However, Ford later sold 79% of Volvo to Geely in August 2010 for approximately $1.8 billion. The remaining 21% is publicly owned through stock ownership. In other words, Ford appears to have taken a significant loss on its investment.   Now, Polestar is facing serious challenges in the United States. The U.S. government is concerned about the company's connection to China and the possibility that data collected by the vehicles could be accessed by the Chinese government. As a result, new Polestar vehicles are no longer expected to be sold in the U.S.   What is strange, however, is that Volvo vehicles are still being sold in the United States, even though Volvo is also majority-owned by Geely. The situation shows just how complicated the relationship between the U.S. auto market and Chinese ownership has become.   There are currently reports of fire-sale discounts on Polestar vehicles, with some discounts reportedly reaching as much as $25,000 just to move the cars. These vehicles originally sold for roughly $55,000 to $75,000 when new.   I'm not sure who would want to purchase one at this point. The biggest concern may not even be the vehicle itself, but what happens to service and support for existing owners. It is possible that Volvo will continue servicing Polestar vehicles, but I would be skeptical about whether maintaining a separate service infrastructure for the brand will be worth the company's time.   After all, relations between the United States and China are currently far from ideal. For Polestar owners, that could create some serious questions about the future of their vehicles.   The New Tobacco Companies The three remaining major players in the tobacco industry are Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, and Altria Group. It should come as no surprise that the number of cigarettes sold in North America has dropped by about 33% since 2020, while the number of tobacco smokers continues to decline rapidly.   But don't be fooled: Tobacco companies have developed smoke-free products that are gaining popularity, but that does not mean they are healthy. The two primary alternatives tobacco companies are now selling are vaping products and something called an oral nicotine pouch.   It is easy to see when someone is vaping because of the large clouds of vapor produced. Nicotine pouches, however, are much less noticeable. They are placed between the front of your teeth and your lip, similar to chewing tobacco. The difference is that you don't need to spit out saliva every few minutes because the nicotine is slowly released into your system.   Currently, in North America, about 7% of the population vapes, up from 3.7% in 2020. Nicotine pouches are also growing rapidly, although you can't see who is using them. In 2024, approximately 23 billion nicotine pouches were sold worldwide, a 50% increase from 2023.   Make no mistake: Both of these products contain nicotine, which is highly addictive and keeps people coming back for more. Some may believe that nicotine pouches are simply a way to move away from cigarettes, but that isn't necessarily the case. The pouch itself can become addictive as well.   Tobacco stocks have performed well, with some nearly doubling over the last few years. More institutional investors who previously dumped these stocks for ethical reasons are now returning because of the growth of smoke-free products.   It all sounds like smoke and mirrors to me. There are simply too many issues surrounding nicotine and the addictive nature of these smokeless products for me to feel comfortable investing in the tobacco industry.   Companies Discussed: Fiserv, Inc. (Ticker: FISV)

A review of MSC Seashore from Port Canaveral, Florida. Staff writer Richard Simms cover key cruise news, including arrests at Port Canaveral, a serious shore excursion injury highlighting travel insurance importance, a norovirus outbreak on the National Geographic Seabird, and Carnival's humorous response to a viral dining etiquette video. Holland America and Princess Cruises' charitable penny donation initiative is also featured.  Then, Anne shares her review of MSC Seashore's Yacht Club experience on a four-night Bahamas cruise from Port Canaveral, covering Ocean Cay MSC Marine Reserve, dining, entertainment, the private Yacht Club, embarkation, and whether the premium experience is worth the cost. Share your thoughts: doug@cruiseradio.net  Sponsor Cruise line protection is designed to help if you can't take your cruise. Third-party travel insurance helps protect you during the trip. Including medical care, delays, and unexpected issues. Compare plans and save up to 30% at TripInsurance.com. About Cruise Radio: Cruise Radio has been delivering cruise news, ship reviews, and money-saving tips weekly since 2009.  

Send us Fan MailI sincerely hope that you are enjoying the episodes that make up the Hall of Imagination. A wax museum is a wonderful metaphor. During the day, the figures are silent exhibits. At night, they become people again. That gives me tremendous freedom to let them explain themselves, argue, laugh, and even admit uncertainty—all while hopefully making it clear to my audience that they're listening to a dramatization grounded in history.After I had finished talking with the inventor of paper in the previous episode, I came face-to-face with a wax figure of a man who is often called the inventor of printing–JOHANN GUTENBERG–not surprisingly, my first remark was you must be the inventor of printing–I have spoken with an individual who is often said to be the inventor of paper– But, from what I understand you are the inventor of the movable press.Guttenberg: That is only partially true. One must note that I developed the first method of using movable type and the printing press in such a way that a great deal of written material could be printed with speed and accuracy. Compare this to the scribe or monk– However well intentioned–could not transcribe written communication at the speed of a machine– And that machine was the printing press–a machine that used movable type. And although there was a form of movable type used in China and Korea, it never came into general use until relatively recent times.Support the showThank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.

Radiologic technology salaries in Kansas rank last nationally, but Southwest Kansas cities pay significantly more due to critical shortages. Learn how a twenty-two-month associate degree unlocks mid-tier allied health pay with strong specialization potential. Newman University City: Wichita Address: 3100 McCormick Website: https://newmanu.edu/

The Pirate Street Journal takes a sharp look at business through the category design lens, and this episode delivers three stories that reveal how the decisions made today will define economic winners and losers for decades. From data center legislation in New York to Apple raising prices and a Costco cashier becoming a millionaire, each story points to the same underlying truth: the category you choose matters more than almost anything else. Whether you are a governor, a tech executive, or an hourly worker, picking the right side of the S-curve is everything. This is just one of the topics that Pirates Christopher Lochhead, Eddie Yoon and Bri Clark discuss on this episode of Pirate Street Journal. Each week, the Category Pirates pick three headlines worth paying attention to and break down the category underneath. You're listening to Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different. We are the real dialogue podcast for people with a different mind. So get your mind in a different place, and hey ho, let's go.   New York Said No to Data Centers and It Will Pay the Price On July 10th, New York became the first state in America to ban new data centers, with Governor Kathy Hochul signing a freeze on permits for hyperscale facilities for up to a full year. She cited higher power bills, water use, and grid strain as her reasons. Meanwhile, legislation is already being introduced to extend that freeze to three years. This is happening at the same time a study revealed New York has lost $11 billion in taxes due to millionaires leaving the state, and the city recently implemented rent control that has effectively killed new housing development. Compare that to Boise, Idaho, where four people started a memory chip company called Micron in the basement of a dental office back in 1978. Today, Micron employs more than 6,000 people, stands as the third largest private employer in Idaho, and just committed to a $15 billion expansion, the largest private investment in the state’s history. One town said yes 48 years ago and is still cashing that check. The next Boise could be anywhere someone decides to welcome the future, including, perhaps, the Big Island of Hawaii. The smarter move for any governor would not be a blanket freeze but a proof of concept, a small data center pilot that generates real-world data instead of relying on academic spreadsheets. Governors today have more power and agency than they may realize, and the choice between welcoming AI infrastructure or blocking it is really a choice between the future and the past.   Apple’s Price Hikes Signal the Return of On-Premise AI Apple recently raised prices across its lineup, with the Mac Studio jumping $1,300 and even entry-level MacBooks climbing $100. Tim Cook called the memory shortage a hundred-year flood, and he is not entirely wrong. DRAM and NAND prices surged roughly 60% last quarter and are projected to climb another 13 to 18% this quarter, with some analysts expecting memory costs to double again before the cycle ends. The AI hardware boom is still in its early innings, and anyone due for an upgrade should know that prices are only heading one direction. But the deeper story here is about data ownership and the return of on-premise computing. When businesses send their data into cloud-based AI platforms, those platforms can see everything. The controversy around Anthropic launching a product that competed directly with Cursor, a development tool built on top of Anthropic’s cloud, illustrated exactly why enterprises cannot afford to hand over their intellectual capital. Goldman Sachs, Merck, Citibank, none of them can afford to have an AI provider see their most sensitive work and potentially act on it. Apple’s privacy-first approach and its push to run more AI directly on device is not just a marketing position. It is a strategic response to a real problem. As LLMs commoditize, Apple is positioning itself as the gateway that routes your queries to the right model for the right task, while keeping your data on your device and out of someone else’s servers. Dell is also worth watching here, as its infrastructure business is growing at 40% while its consumer hardware grows at just 5%, a clear signal that the on-prem shift is accelerating.   The Costco Cashier Proves Category Kings Build Millionaires The Wall Street Journal ran a story about a Costco cashier who makes $32.90 an hour, started at $5.85 back when it was still Price Club, owns a three-bedroom home with a pool, and has a 401(k) worth over one million dollars. He is not an outlier. Costco’s CFO confirmed that many thousands of their hourly workers have crossed the seven-figure mark in retirement savings, and the company’s annual turnover sits at just 7% compared to a retail industry average of 60%. This story is really about category design in action. Costco became a category king in retail by capping its markups at 15% when every other retailer was charging 35 to 40%, offering generous health benefits even to part-timers, and building a culture that retains people for decades. When you combine low turnover with a growing stock, mission-driven leadership, and a business model that serves customers, employees, and investors simultaneously, you get the kind of compounding wealth that turns a cashier into a millionaire. The lesson applies whether you are scanning groceries or launching a startup. The category you pick matters more than the salary on your offer letter. Finding a company on the left side of the S-curve, one that treats its customers, its people, and its investors well while still growing, is the real career decision. The title and the paycheck matter far less than whether the category you join is heading toward abundance or quietly flatlining on the way down. To hear about all the topics in this week's The Pirate Street Journal, download and listen to this episode. You can also read more Pirate Street Journal entries in the Category Pirates newsletter.   We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and subscribe on Apple Podcast / Spotify!

The Career Stages Every Actor Goes Through There is a coaching phrase I keep coming back to. It gets better, it gets worse, it gets different, it gets real. And then it starts again. Better, worse, different, real. Over and over, sometimes all at once, sometimes so fast you can barely tell which one you are in. That is an acting career. And honestly, that is most creative careers. So today I want to talk about the stages, because here is what I find is true for so many actors I work with. They are not failing. They are just in a different stage than they think they are in, and that changes everything. Everyone Else Is Moving Forward and I Am Stuck This is the quiet belief that a lot of actors carry around. And whenever we compare ourselves to other people what we are really doing is telling the universe we are in the wrong place. But you are not in the wrong place. John over there is just in a different phase. That is it. Compare and despair. It is one of my favorite little sayings because it is so true. Comparison creates panic, and panic is absolutely useless unless it is your character who is panicking. Leave the drama on the stage. When you understand the stage you are actually in, the path forward gets a lot clearer. The Training Stage This is where you are focused on skill and craft. Studying technique, learning how to audition, learning how to work on camera, building those very first relationships in the industry. And so many actors want to skip this stage, which I genuinely do not understand. Improv classes and acting classes are fun. That is why we want to do this in the first place. It is joyful. So why would we rush past it? The desire to get representation immediately, to land big auditions right away, I get it. But I so strongly believe that opportunities come into our lives when we are ready for them. Without that training foundation, the opportunities that do arrive are very hard to sustain. The Positioning Stage This is where a lot of actors get confused. You can already be a strong actor, but casting still does not know where to place you. And sometimes that is because you do not know where to place yourself. The practical questions here are simple but important. What roles can you actually walk in and play right now? Do your headshots reflect that? Does your resume? Can agents and casting directors easily understand where you fit? Casting directors are solving a puzzle. The actor who clearly fits a piece of that puzzle gets called in first. Clarity in your own mind about what you want and what you offer, that clarity matters more than most actors realize. And I will throw this in because I talk about it a lot. If you are a voiceover actor, doing on-camera work supports your voiceover. If you are an on-camera actor, doing voiceover supports that. They feed each other. Work begets work. The Relationship Stage Your craft is strong, your positioning is clear, and now something else becomes really important. Your relationships with people in the industry. Casting directors, agents, producers, directors. You want them to recognize your name. You want them to trust your work. You want them to think, Josh is a great actor and Josh knows he is a great actor, and I know he is going to deliver. Because that is what makes us bring you back again and again. Acting careers do not explode overnight. They are built from little decisions over time, little actions and thoughts, working on relationships and craft and positioning a little bit every single day. Consistently. That is the whole thing. The Bottom Line If you are vague about where you are, you get vague results. You choose the wrong goals, you compare yourself unfairly, and eventually you burn out. But if you know exactly where you are at, you can focus strategically. Whether that is training, positioning, or relationships, every working actor you admire has moved through these stages. No one skips them entirely. Each stage prepares you for the next. Careers in acting are rarely built in giant leaps. They are built in stages. Want to Keep the Conversation Going? I have a class called Co-Creating Your Future. It is a three-hour taped class, so you can watch it whenever you want. Right now it's 33% off. And if you need some extra guidance, there are still some free consults available. Email me at peter@actingbusinessbootcamp.com As I always say, stay safe and treat yourself real well.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. 01 Introduction In this episode I will describe techniques for downloading podcasts using basic shell commands such as wget. I will illustrate this using a bash script that can be used to download HPR podcasts. Even if you do not have any interest in downloading your podcasts using this method, you may find some of the methods useful or interesting. It is the principles that are discussed here that are important, rather than the implementation. 02 I realize that there are already a number of different podcast download programs available, including at least one written in bash. However, you may feel that none of these suit how you wish to do things and want to create your own system tailored to your specific needs. If so, then I hope the following is of some use to you. If not, then you may still find some of the things discussed here to still be of interest. Some of the subjects I cover include wget to a user defined file name. parsing xml with xmllint. using inotifywait to trigger an action when a file is created or modified. using notify-send to send a message to the notification area. and a way of allowing a cron job to send a message to the user interface. 03 Background There has been an ongoing discussion in comments to some HPR episodes about problems downloading HPR podcast episodes. Apparently some people have been experiencing problems with the way the episode URLs are structured. 04 I am afraid that I don't fully understand the nature of these problems, so I won't be addressing that problem directly. Instead, I will present a bash script that I have written which can be used to download HPR podcasts. This bash script can be run using cron to automatically fetch new HPR podcasts and save them to a designated directory. This is a simplified version of a script that I have used for years to download HPR and other podcasts. 05 I won't try to read the full bash script out in this podcast, as that would be a bit dull to listen to. I will instead describe what each section does and why I chose to do things that way. Perhaps other people can offer suggestions of better ways to do things. I will post the full bash script in the show notes. 06 Fetching Podcasts The standard way of distributing podcasts is to publish an RSS feed containing URL links to the audio files. RSS is a very long established and widely supported mechanism for this and other purposes. An RSS feed is basically an XML document which can be accessed over HTTP. These URLs contained in the RSS XML document can then be used to download the actual audio files, such as MP3 or OGG files. 07 Basically what we need to do is the following • Download the RSS XML document. • Extract the URL links to the audio files. • Compare the list of these links to a previously saved list to see which ones are new and which ones are ones that we previously downloaded. 08 • Make a list of the new URLs. • Go through this list of new URLs and download each of the new audio files. • Check to see that we actually received the new audio file. • Add the URLs of the files we successfully downloaded to our saved list of podcast URLs 09 In addition to this, we would like to have the above happen automatically in the background without our having to take any action on our own. We may wish to receive a notification of when a new podcast has arrived however. We would probably also wish to receive notification of any errors or failures. 10 Fetching Podcasts - The Preliminaries Our desire to be able to run the script automatically imposes some requirements on our solution. To schedule the script we will use cron. Cron is a Linux facility to run scripts on a schedule. 11 One of the side effects of using cron however is that we need to specify the full path to the locations where we intend to keep any data files, plus also the full path to where we intend to put the downloaded podcasts. 12 So the first thing we need to do in our script is to specify a number of different values for things like file location, the URL for the HPR RSS feed, and several other things as well. I will skip over the details of these, although I may make reference to them later. 13 Get the RSS Data The first thing of real substance to do is to fetch the current RSS feed data. I have put this in a bash function called getrssurldata The contents of this function are a one liner, but with a number of elements chained together through pipes. 14 Downloading the RSS XML Document • First we use wget, which is a standard command on most Linux distros. • We specify four things. • First we set a timeout. I have chosen 20 seconds. • Next we set the retry limit. I have chosen 3. 15 • Then we specify that the output of wget is sent to stdout rather than saved as a file. • This is done by using the -O option followed by a space and then a dash. • The O option is usually used to specify a file to save the output to, but when used with a dash causes output to go to stdout. • Then we specify the URL of the HPR RSS feed. 16 Contents of the XML Document This gives us the HPR RSS XML document. There are about 5,000 lines in this RSS document. Most of those lines are the show notes which are also included in the feed. 17 Extracting the Podcast Episode URLs There are only 10 lines of the document that contain information that we are interested in however. These lines are enclosed in "enclosure" XML tags. We just need to find those lines and separate out the URLs 18 Standard Command Line Tools There are two ways that we can do this. One is to use a combination of grep, sed, and cut. Grep can find the lines containing the enclosure tags. Sed and cut can extract the URL from the surrounding extraneous data. 19 However, this method does not discriminate between real enclosure tags in the data portion of the RSS feed and enclosure tags in the show notes which are included in the feed from episodes such as this one. This may be an acceptable problem in practical terms, but we can do better. 20 Using an XML Parser The other method is to actually parse the XML document. there are at least two command line XML parsers that I am aware of. These are "xmllint", and "xlmstarlet". I have used xmllint in this example. I have not used xmlstarlet, so I can't offer any comment on how easy or difficult to use it is. 21 I won't give a detailed explanation of all the things that xmllint can do. It has many features, most of which, as the name suggests, have to do with finding formatting problems with the XML itself. Describing everything it can do would be at least one episode in itself. I will instead just give the particular command used and explain each element of it. 22 In this example assume that we are piping the output of wget directly into xmllint. The complete command is xmllint --xpath "//channel/item/enclosure/@url" - | cut -d'"' -f2 23 In this example, xmllint is the name of the command. --xpath tells it to parse the document according to the string which follows. "//channel/item/enclosure/@url" tells it to find a series of tags in the hierarchy of channel, followed by item, followed by enclosure, and then extract the url attribute from the enclosure tag. The "-" which follows tells it to look for input from stdin rather than from a file. 24 The result is a string which has the url attribute name, an equal sign, and the URL that we want enclosed in quotes. To get just the URL itself, we pipe the output from xmllint into cut, using the doublequote characters as delimiters. We then save the result in a temporary file. 25 Finding the New Episodes Next we wish to find the new podcast episodes. Each HPR episode is identified by a unique URL. This means that if we save the URLs of episodes that we have already downloaded, we just have to look for the URLs that do not appear in this saved list. https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4659/hpr4659.mp3 26 The easiest way to do this is to take our two lists of URLs, sort each into temporary files, and then compare the sorted URLs using the "comm" command. 27 This is simple, but has a drawback. Some podcasts occasionally change distributors. When they do this, the old podcasts are re-published with new URLs and you end up downloading a lot of old episodes over again. 28 With HPR we could get around this by extracting just the file name and looking for that instead of the full URL. I will however leave that problem as an exercise for the student and just accept that if the URL format changes we may end up downloading old episodes over again. Since the feed has a maximum of only 10 episodes in it however, that isn't really that big of a problem. It would be more of a problem with podcasts which have very large numbers of episodes in their feed, but the solutions to those will be feed specific. 29 Downloading the New Podcasts We should now have a list of URLs for the new podcasts we do not already have. Typically this should be only one file, but there could be several, or even as many as 10, if we have not turned on our computer in a while. Therefore, we need to iterate through the file of new podcast URLs and download each one. 30 Before we do that however, we should check to see if there is in fact anything new to download. To do this, simply use "wc -l" to count the number of lines in the list of new URLs and save the resulting number. 31 If this number is zero, there is nothing to download, we can skip the download step. As an additional check, we should see if the number of downloads exceeds some threshold value that we wish to set. This is not a major problem with HPR, but some podcasts have hundreds of files in their RSS feed rather than just the most recent ones. If we do exceed our download limit, then we need to log an error and skip downloading. 32 Assuming there are no problems so far however, the first thing we need to do is to extract the name of the audio file from the URL. We can do that using the "basename" command. We will use this to specify the name that we use when we save the audio file. 33 HPR has a very well formed file name. Some podcasts do not however, and for those you would need to construct some sort of suitable name either using information found in the URL or simply creating a name using a time stamp. 34 Next we download the audio file using wget. This is similar to how we downloaded the RSS feed, but with a few changes. One is that I have increased the timeout to 90 seconds. This may not have been necessary, but seemed like a good idea. 35 The next is that when specifying the output file name using -O, we use the file name we extracted from the URL. The third is that we specify a destination directory using the -P option. 36 After wget has finished, including any retries that it had to do, we next check that the expected new file is both present and not empty. We did this using an "if" statement with the "-s" option. If the file was found and not zero, then we add that URL to a temporary list of downloaded URLs. 37 If the file was not present, or was zero length, we output an error message to an error log. I will come back to this point later. 38 Next, if there is more that one podcast to download we sleep for 3 seconds. While not strictly necessary, it is considered to be "polite" to not hammer a server repeatedly, but rather to put a small delay between file downloads.. 39 After we have downloaded all the audio files in our list, we can add the list of URLs for the files downloaded to the permanent list. While we are at it, we should use "tail" to trim the permanent log to keep it from growing indefinitely. This limit should be several times bigger than the number of files in the RSS feed. In this case I selected 50. 40 Finally we write any errors to the permanent error log, and also write these same errors to another file used to signal errors for display to the user. We have now successfully downloaded at least one HPR podcast. 41 Notify the User of Events It would be convenient to be informed of new podcast downloads when they occur, and also be notified of any errors. One of the limitations of cron jobs is that they cannot access the user interface. This means that we cannot readily send a message directly to the notification system to inform the user of the presence of new podcasts or of errors. 42 inotifywait The solution to this is to use "inotifywait" to monitor particular files and directories for changes. The man page for inotifywait states the following - 43 inotifywait efficiently waits for changes to files using Linux's inotify(7) interface. It is suitable for waiting for changes to files from shell scripts. It can either exit once an event occurs, or continually execute and output events as they occur. End of quote. 44 In many Linux distros, inotifywait is provided by the "inotify-tools" package. I won't go over all the features of inotifywait. Instead, I will just describe how to use it for our purposes here. 45 inotifywait Modes I should point out first though that inotifywait operates in two different modes. In the normal default mode, it exits after being triggered by an event and must be re-established again in order to resume monitoring. In monitor mode, which is enabled by using the "-m" option, it runs indefinitely, responding to events. I will use the default mode here. 46 The man page for inotifywait provides a simple example that we could copy and modify for our purposes. A great many examples that you will find are based on this example. However, it doesn't quite do what we want, so we need to change a few things. 47 podfetchnotify The first shell script is one which monitors for the arrival of new podcasts and sends a notification to the user. I will call this "podfetchnotify". The complete scripts are in the show notes, I will just provide a brief description here. 48 Setting Up Event Watches Using inotifywait The script is enclosed in a while loop which run indefinitely. In the first line inside the while loop, we call inotifywait. inotifywait will then block until the event it is told to look for occurs. In short, execution of the script will wait there until an event occurs. 49 The names of the events are listed in the man file. In this case we are looking for "modify", "create", and "moved_to". Each of these does pretty much as you would expect, reacting to modifying an existing file, creating a new file, or moving a file to that directory. 50 Problems When Testing Using Text Editors I should point out that if you are testing a script which uses inotifywait, then modifying a file with a text editor may not produce the results that you may think it would. Instead it treats this as a new file with the same name, with the original file being erased. Since inotifywait attaches itself to the inode rather than the filename, it sees the file that the text editor changed as being a new file. If you wish to test this realistically, then use "echo" to overwrite the file by using I/O redirection. 51 Capturing Output In my example I capture the output from standard out into a variable, but I don't do anything with it. If you wish to for example display the name of the newly downloaded podcast file, then use the --format option along with an appropriate formatting code. There are details about this in the man page. On the next line we capture the exit code using "$?" 52 Responding to Exit Codes If the exit code was zero, then a monitored event was triggered and there should a new podcast in the directory. In this case we display a message indicating that a new podcast has arrived. I will describe how to send notifications shortly. If the exit code was not zero, then an error occurred. An example of such an error would be if the directory were not present when monitoring was started. In this case we display a message indicating that a fatal error has occurred and then exit. 53 Delay for More Podcasts Finally, we use "sleep" to wait for some arbitrary period of time to prevent notifications from being triggered multiple times if several podcasts were being downloaded in succession. In this case I chose to wait for 60 seconds. 54 We have now completed the process and can return to the top of the loop and resume waiting using inotifywait. 55 Sending Notifications to the User I mentioned above about sending notification messages to the user. In the Gnome desktop, notification messages appear from the centre of the top bar in a list. Other desktops or operating systems may have something similar. 56 To send a notification message to the notification area, you use the "notify-send" command. Simply follow notify-send with a quoted string and it will be displayed in the notification area. 57 podfetcherrornotify The second shell script is one which notifies the user of errors. I will call this "podfetcherrornotify". With this shell script we set up a watch on a file which contains any error messages from podfetch. This script is very similar to podfetchnotify. 58 The exceptions are With inotifywait we only monitor for "modify". There is no sleep command at the end of the loop. Instead we sleep for a few seconds just after getting the exit code from inotifywait. This helps prevent problems caused by race conditions. 59 Next we check the inotifywait exit code. If it was zero, then we read the error report file and send a notification message to the user containing that error message. 60 If it was not zero, then we check to make sure that the directory that should contain the error log exists. If it does not exist, then we send a notification message to that effect to the user and terminate the script. 61 If the directory exists, then we check to see if the error message file used for signalling exists. If the file does not exist, then we create it. 62 One of the reasons for an inotifywait error is that if the file that it is told to monitor does not exist, it cannot set up a watch condition. By creating the file we correct the cause of the error and allow inotifywait to operate normally. 63 Finally we increment an error counter and check to see if the limit is exceeded. If there are excessive errors, then send a notification message to the user and exit. The reason for this is to give the user an indication that the error notifications are not working for some reason and there may be a problem that needs looking into. 64 The error counter is reset every time the inotifywait exit status is ok, so occasional unexpected glitches should be something that is ignored. Of course podcast fetching errors are something that will probably happen only rarely if at all, so this final step may be seen as an unnecessary embellishment. 65 Installing the Scripts Next I will describe how to install and prepare the scripts to run. We need to perform the following steps. 66 • First, we need to create a directory to hold the scripts and their associated data files. • Next we need to create a directory to hold the downloaded podcasts. • Then we must copy the scripts to these directories and make them executable. • Then, we must edit the scripts to have the file path in the script match the locations of the new directories that we created. 67 • Then we need to install xmllint, or alternatively modify the download script to comment out the use of xmllint and enable the alternative method using grep and sed instead. • Then we need to run each script manually from the command line to check for errors. • If podfetch ran correctly, it should download the most recent 10 podcasts during this test. 68 Adding podfetch to the Crontab The above describes how to run the scripts manually. In order to fetch podcasts automatically, we need to add the podfetch script to the cron schedule. To do this, open a terminal. 69 Type "crontab -e", and then press return. A text editor should open up containing the crontab file. On Ubuntu, this editor is GNU nano. Enter the appropriate cron parameters. I will provide an example here for running it 12 minutes past the hour every three hours. 70 12 */3 * * * /home/username/pathtofiles/podfetch.sh 71 I won't explain cron in detail here. The example that I have just given should be good enough for most people. The "*/3" parameter will cause it to run every three hours. The "12" parameter will cause it to run 12 minutes past the hour when it does run. 72 Checking every three hours should be good enough for most people, but you can adjust that as you see fit. I would recommend however that you don't check more frequently than once per hour. Checking more frequently than necessary puts extra load on the distribution servers. It is very unlikely that you really do need each new episode the moment it is available. 73 I would also recommend changing the "12" parameter to some other random minute value. I would suggest avoiding on the hour or on the half hour, as a lot of other people are probably checking at those times, and it would be better to spread the load out more evenly over time. 74 The file path parameter should of course match the actual path to wherever you have located the script, including the correct user name. 75 Making the Notification Scripts Start Automatically The two notification scripts can be made to start automatically. The exact method to do this may vary according to distribution or desktop. 76 On Ubuntu this is done using the Startup Applications Preferences GUI program, which should come already installed. 77 I won't go into details on this here, it should be fairly self evident how to use it once you see it. What this program does is to create ".desktop" files in the ".config/autostart" directory in your home directory. 78 These ".desktop" files are all run automatically on start up. Once you have added the notification scripts, you will need to log out and then log back in to make them active. 79 Conclusion I this episode I explained how to write a set of simple shell scripts to automatically download each new episode of HPR as it comes out and to notify you of its arrival. 80 The download script described here is tailored specifically for use with HPR only. However, it was derived from a larger script that downloaded other podcasts as well, based on information read in from a text file. If you are feeling ambitious, you can add those features back into this to handle all of the podcasts that you listen to. 81 In a comment to another episode of HPR I had said that I would cover ID3 tags in MP3 files, but this episode is long enough now, so I will leave that subject for later. I look forward to seeing you again later on another episode of Hack Public Radio. # ====================================================================== podfetchdownloader #!/bin/bash # Fetch pending HPR podcasts listed in the HPR RSS feed. # 8-Jun-2026 # Licensed under GPLv3 or later. # ====================================================================== # Today's date and time as YYYYMMDDHHMMSS. podttimestamp=$( date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S" ) # The absolute path to the script. This is necessary when running it # using a cron job. podpath="/home/me/Apps/hprfetch" # This is the absolute path to where to store the podcast files. podfilepath="/home/me/Music/Podcasts/HPR" # Create the full path names here for all the text files used. podcastsfetched="$podpath/podcastsfetched.txt" poderrorslog="$podpath/poderrorslog.txt" poderrorsreport="$podpath/poderrorsreport.txt" tmpoldurlssorted="$podpath/tmpoldurlssorted.txt" tmppodsnew="$podpath/tmppodsnew.txt" tmppodstodownload="$podpath/tmppodstodownload.txt" tmppodserrors="$podpath/tmppodserrors.txt" tmppodcastsfetched="$podpath/tmppodcastsfetched.txt" tmplog="$podpath/tmplog.txt" # The URL for the HPR RSS feed. PodURL="http://hackerpublicradio.org/hpr_rss.php" # Limit on number of podcasts to download. DownloadLimit=11 # Name of the podcast. PodName="Hacker Public Radio" # ====================================================================== # Check if the required paths exist. # If this path does not exist, cannot log the error. if [[ ! -d "$podpath/" ]]; then echo "$podttimestamp Error - Could not find $podfilepath." exit 1 fi # Where to store the podcast file fetched. if [[ ! -d "$podfilepath/" ]]; then echo "$podttimestamp Error - Could not find $podfilepath." >> $tmppodserrors # Copy the errors log from the temporary errors file to the permanent files. LogErrors exit 1 fi # ====================================================================== # Check if the podcast log exists. We read it before we write to it, # so it must exist or we will hang on it not being present. if [[ ! -e $podcastsfetched ]]; then touch $podcastsfetched fi # ====================================================================== # Delete the specified files if they exist. # This accepts multiple file names in a variable number of parameters. CleanupFiles () { # $@ accepts multiple parameters. for f in "$@"; do # Check if the file exists. if [ -e "$f" ]; then rm "$f" fi done } # ====================================================================== # Copy the errors log from the temporary errors file to the permanent files. LogErrors () { if [ -e $tmppodserrors ]; then # The permanent log. cat $tmppodserrors >> $poderrorslog # This file is monitored for display by other scripts. cat $tmppodserrors > $poderrorsreport fi } # ====================================================================== # Get the URL data from an RSS feed GetRSSURLData () { wget --timeout=20 --tries=3 -O - "$PodURL" | xmllint --xpath "//channel/item/enclosure/@url" - | cut -d'"' -f2 | sort > $tmppodsnew # This is an alternate method that does not use xmllint. # However, it is not as robust. If someone were to include the # first grep search pattern in their show notes, then it would # look for that as a valid tag and output the following text # as a URL. #wget --timeout=20 --tries=3 -O - "$PodURL" | grep " $poderrorsreport fi # Increment the error counter. count=$(( count + 1 )) if (( count > 3 )); then notify-send "Podfetch error: Excessive unknown errors, exiting." exit 1 fi fi done # ====================================================================== Provide feedback on this episode.

Sometimes the smartest dynasty move is paying up for a stud instead of chasing a discount.

How much does a Hawaii trip really cost in 2026, and are you budgeting enough before you book?

In this episode Ashley and Collin dive into the design details behind Smile Design Studio in Roseville. From the Pinterest board that started it all to the $200,000 lighting package that got vetoed, the $45,000 fireplace that never happened, and the cosmetic wing that patients cannot stop raving about.What You'll Hear In This Episode:The Design Vision If Tom Ford met dentistry, what would that look like? Ashley shares the Pinterest board of boutique hotels, restaurants, and resorts that inspired the entire aesthetic of Smile Design Studio. Neutrals, blacks, clean lines, and a vibe that is anything but a dental office. She also shares the one scent detail that had patients asking questions the moment they walked through the door.The $200,000 Lighting Reality Check Ashley wanted uplighting, downlighting, chandeliers, and statement fixtures throughout the entire space. The lighting package quote came back at $200,000. She scaled back. Tastefully. And the office still looks stunning.The Fireplace That Never Was A see-through fireplace separating the lounge from the consultation room was on the original design. The quote came in at $45,000. It did not make the cut. Neither did the full kitchen in the break room. Sometimes champagne taste has to meet the hotdog budget.The Design Box After flying to Denver to meet with the architect for the 3D walkthrough, Ashley received a large box of every material sample for the office. Flooring, tile, millwork, wallpaper, and hardware. She and Collin spent hours going through it and there is an unboxing video to prove it.Hardware, Furniture, and Finishing Touches Matte black hardware throughout. Chandeliers from Crate and Barrel, West Elm, and CB2. Sofas and lounge chairs from Rove Concepts. A white sofa in the patient lounge that the team Scotchguards on the regular and would do again in a heartbeat.The Coffee Bar A single serve machine that grinds beans fresh for every cup, sparkling waters, flavored syrups, and creamers. Ashley also shares the California ADA accessible counter height detail that catches a lot of practice owners off guard.The Cosmetic Wing The crown jewel of Smile Design Studio. A dedicated cosmetic photo studio with a black wall and light boxes, a private patient restroom with river rock flooring, a concierge desk, and Ashley's personal office with a couch and TV for patients during long procedures. It feels like a completely separate business within the practice and it is the single thing patients compliment most.The Advice Worth Writing Down Know your long game. Design for who you are and where you are going. And if this is your first location do not go balls to the wall. Save that for when you have already proven the concept.Resources Mentioned: Scent diffuser and espresso machine links coming in the show notes and newsletter soonThank You to Our PartnersNet32: The dental marketplace that helps practice owners stop overpaying for supplies. Compare and save at net32.com/themakingof.Studio 8E8 — Dentistry's story-driven growth agency for startups. s8e8.com/vslKasper Opportunity Finder: Fill those empty chairs and reclaim lost revenue with one click. Get it free at meetkasper.com/register.Support the showFind Out MoreThank you for listening to The Making Of podcast. If you enjoyed it, please share with anyone you think will gain value from the show by clicking on one of the sharing tabs above.SUBSCRIBE to our NEWSLETTER HEREAlso, please consider leaving an honest review on iTunes. It helps other listeners find the show, and I would be forever grateful.Questions or comments? Feel free to contact us at - themakingofadental@gmail.comFollow us on Instagram or Facebook and improve your dental practice every day!Have you subscribed? Don't miss a single episode!

Markets never stop moving, and neither do the conversations that matter most to investors and future retirees. Join Wes Moss and Connor Miller on this episode of the Money Matters Podcast as they break down the latest retirement planning, investing, financial planning, and personal finance headlines with historical perspective and practical context. • Find out how the latest inflation data may influence Federal Reserve policy and interest rate expectations. • See what early projections for the 2027 Social Security COLA—and rising Medicare Part B premiums—may mean for retirement income planning. • Compare wage growth and inflation to better understand what's happening with purchasing power. • Explore the buzz around IPOs while examining what history suggests about IPO investing versus long-term index investing. • Discover how stocks, bonds, and cash have historically performed after inflation across different investment time horizons. • Consider how oil prices, global events, and corporate earnings may influence market volatility and investor sentiment. • Follow the broadening earnings story across the S&P 500, including the growing impact of artificial intelligence spending and wider sector participation. • Learn about the retirement planning tools and bonus resources available with The Retire Sooner Method. Listen to the Money Matters Podcast for more conversations connecting today's headlines with retirement planning, investing, financial planning, and personal finance. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss a new episode.

Brilliance of the Seas transatlantic cruise review. Royal Caribbean's Brilliance of the Seas takes center stage this week as John shares his 23-night back-to-back cruise from Barcelona to Boston. The cruise combined an eight-night Western Europe sailing with a 15-night transatlantic cruise featuring Iceland, Greenland, Scotland, Portugal, Spain, and Atlantic Canadian maritimes. He discusses the ship's classic Radiance-class design, oceanview cabin, dining, entertainment, rough seas, and why Brilliance remains a favorite despite being more than 20 years old. Plus, hear what it's like to visit the Blue Lagoon, chase the Northern Lights, explore Greenland's remote villages, and whether a transatlantic cruise is worth adding to your bucket list. Share your thoughts: doug@cruiseradio.net  Sponsor Cruise line protection is designed to help if you can't take your cruise. Third-party travel insurance helps protect you during the trip. Including medical care, delays, and unexpected issues. Compare plans and save up to 30% at TripInsurance.com. About Cruise Radio: Cruise Radio has been delivering cruise news, ship reviews, and money-saving tips weekly since 2009.

Brian makes a lofty allegation towards Case's breakfast habits. Chicago’s best morning radio show now has a podcast! Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and remember that the conversation always lives on the Q101 Facebook page. Brian & Kenzie are live every morning from 6a-10a on Q101. Subscribe to our channel HERE: https://www.youtube.com/@Q101 Like Q101 on Facebook HERE: https://www.facebook.com/q101chicago Follow Q101 on Twitter HERE: https://twitter.com/Q101Chicago Follow Q101 on Instagram HERE: https://www.instagram.com/q101chicago/?hl=en Follow Q101 on TikTok HERE: https://www.tiktok.com/@q101chicago?lang=enSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Glenn Robison's Rapidly Rotating Records, bringing you vintage music to which you can't not tap your toes, from rapidly rotating 78 RPM records of the 1920s and '30s.On this week's show, we'll maintain a flawless tempo as we hear some tunes about crows and potatoes and a birthday salute to Fud Candrix. And we'll finish up not with Compare and Contrast segments, but Clarify and Correct segments. There's lots of great music and interesting information so set aside an hour with your favorite beverage and prepare to be transported back to a different–and we think better–musical era. Just click the link above to listen streaming online and/or download for listening at your convenience. THANKS FOR LISTENING! ENJOY THE SHOW!Here's the complete playlist:Segment 1: Fud CandrixSwingnight In Dixieland (Christmas In Dixieland) - Fud Candrix mit seinem Tanzorchester   Always - Fud Candrix mit seinem OrchesterTwo Left Feet - Tanzorchester Fud CandrixSegment 2: Competitive Ballroom DancingHere Am I - Henry Jacques and His Strict Tempo OrchestraGangway - Joe Loss and His BandRomany - Jack Harris and His Orchestra at Ciro's Club, LondonSegment 3: Spud CellsHot Potatoes - Blind BlakeSweet Potato Blues - Lonnie JohnsonSweet Potato Piper - Dorothy LamourSegment 4: CorrectIngen Ros Utan Tornen (No Rose Without Thorns) - Helge Lindberg's OrchestraDaSpirar Alltid Upp Ett Litet Hopp (Then A Little Hope Always Sprouts) - Vernons OrchesterSka Jag? Ska Jag? (Should I?)  - Gunnar GregorSegment 5: ClarifyDream Garden - Henry Thies & His Castle Farm OrchestraRoyal Garden Blues - Mamie Smith's Jazz HoundsIn A Little Garden (You Made Paradise) Waring's Pennsylvanians / Tom Waring, v.

July 12, 2026

Thinking about sailing Norwegian Jade? This week, Doug sits down with listener Ben to review an eight-day Pacific Coastal cruise from San Diego to Vancouver. They discuss the ship's interior staterooms, specialty dining, entertainment, thermal spa, public spaces, ports of call, and whether Norwegian's Free at Sea Plus package delivered good value. Ben also shares tips for sailing Norwegian Jade after its recent refurbishment, along with advice for anyone considering a Pacific Coastal repositioning cruise. Before the review, staff writer Richard Simms covers the week's biggest cruise headlines, including: Regal Princess crew member overboard incident Holland America reveals more details about its fleetwide Evolution refurbishment program Royal Caribbean linked to Galveston's proposed fifth cruise terminal Port Canaveral moving forward with a $175 million expansion Virgin Voyages passenger removed after an alleged drug-related arrest in Greece Royal Caribbean extends the suspension of Labadee calls into 2027 Share your thoughts: doug@cruiseradio.net  Sponsor Cruise line protection is designed to help if you can't take your cruise. Third-party travel insurance helps protect you during the trip. Including medical care, delays, and unexpected issues. Compare plans and save up to 30% at TripInsurance.com. About Cruise Radio: Cruise Radio has been delivering cruise news, ship reviews, and money-saving tips weekly since 2009.

Retirement is about more than growing your nest egg; it's also about building friendships, finding purpose, and making informed financial decisions along the way. Join Wes Moss and Christa DiBiase on this episode of the Retire Sooner Podcast as they blend listener questions, new research, and practical conversations about retirement planning, retirement investing, and personal finance. • Hear an inspiring listener story about trading everyday life for a full-time adventure aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean. • Discover new research on how long it may take to build close friendships and why those relationships may matter throughout retirement. • Learn why making new friends often gets tougher with age—and what may help create more meaningful connections. • Explore how The Retire Sooner Method encourages balancing financial security with purpose, relationships, and the experiences often associated with making retirement meaningful. • Explore portfolio diversification, pensions, liquidity, and how stocks, bonds, and cash may work together in a retirement portfolio. • Compare working with a financial advisor versus DIY investing, including what research suggests about each approach. • Review how financial planning may extend beyond investing to include tax planning, estate planning, and family priorities. • Consider ways to balance retirement savings, mortgage payments, and emergency cash reserves when extra income comes your way. • Understand portfolio rebalancing during market volatility and what Treasury notes and yield to maturity mean for fixed-income investors. Whether you're counting down to retirement or already there, this episode offers thoughtful perspectives to help you navigate the road ahead. Listen and subscribe to the Retire Sooner Podcast for more conversations about retirement planning, investing, and living well in retirement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

She was 28 years old, making $72,000 a year, current on every single bill — and she sat across from me and cried.Not because she was broke.Because she did everything right and had nothing to show for it.No savings. No investments. Just a pile of payments that felt like chains.That moment changed how I talk about money forever.The truth is — most of us are following a blueprint that was never designed to build wealth. It was designed to survive. And the people who handed us that blueprint? They loved us. But love doesn't make a belief true.In today's episode, I'm breaking down the 3 beliefs your family passed down that are quietly destroying your chances at real financial freedom — and exactly what to do instead, no matter how old you are or where you're starting from.In this episode:Why doing everything "right" can still leave you brokeThe 3 inherited money beliefs that are keeping your family stuckWhy debt is a choice, not a fact of lifeHow silence about money is a generational tax on your familyThe new blueprint — debt freedom, multiple income streams, and financial transparencyWhat I would do at 25, 35, 45, and 55 to start building real wealth todayTake action right now:

David Bacon has a background in digital marketing, investor acquisition, and growth strategy, with a focus on alternative investments and expanding access to real estate backed opportunities. At Worthy Wealth, he focuses on investor education and connecting everyday investors to income generating real estate strategies, including senior living and other demographic driven sectors. In this episode, John talks with David Bacon about how Worthy Wealth is democratizing real estate investing through $10 senior living shares and housing bonds. David explains how pooling small investments into a diversified portfolio spreads risk, why the company charges no fees, and how its value add strategy of buying and modernizing functionally obsolete senior living facilities meets the surging demand created by an aging population.     Make sure to download our free guide, 7 Questions Every Passive Investor Should Ask, here.     Key Takeaways Open your capital raise to many small investors instead of relying on a few large checks Spread risk across a portfolio of assets rather than concentrating it in a single deal Understand how a deal is structured and who gets paid first before you invest Follow demographic demand, like the aging population, to find supply gaps in the market  Modernize functionally obsolete properties to create inventory faster than new construction     Topics Democratizing Real Estate Investing The 2012 Jobs Act opened investments once reserved for accredited investors to retail investors Worthy Wealth offers senior living shares and housing bonds at $10 each, with a $100 minimum first purchase for senior living Why Volume Beats Big Checks David would rather have a thousand investors at $10 each than one investor at $10,000 Recurring investments, automation, and round ups on everyday purchases add up to meaningful funds The Portfolio Approach to Risk Traditional real estate investments localize risk in a single asset Worthy Wealth pools investor money into a portfolio, so one problem property does not affect the rest Who the Typical Investor Is Millennials seeking financial independence are the sweet spot, while Gen Z investors are getting started early through mobile apps The model also serves gig workers without traditional retirement plans and higher end investors who see the supply and demand imbalance in senior housing Returns, Fees, and Deal Structure Worthy Wealth charges no fees and makes its money on the back end of each investment Investors earn a 5 to 7% quarterly dividend during a two to five year hold, plus 60% of sale profits, targeting a 15% annualized return The senior living product is a Reg D offering, while the housing bonds are a Reg A Tier 2 offering Understanding How Deals Are Structured John breaks down Reg A and Reg D offerings and the limitations each places on raising capital He urges investors to understand the capital stack and who gets paid first before committing to any deal The Silver Tsunami in Senior Housing More than 11,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and the 80 plus population will double in the next 20 years Occupancy at senior living facilities sits at 90% and has grown for 19 straight quarters Why Supply Cannot Keep Up The nation needs $1 trillion in senior living construction over the next decade, yet new construction is at a two decade low Banks charge 50 to 100% higher interest rates on horizontal work like utilities and dirt work, creating a financing bottleneck The Value Add Play in Senior Living 40% of existing facilities were built before the smartphone and are functionally obsolete Worthy Wealth buys these facilities at a discount, modernizes them, hands them to professional management, and sells them for appreciative income    

We break down the biggest cruise news stories of the week, including Carnival Cruise Line revealing its next-generation Carnival Destiny, a teacher fired from her school district for booking cruises around cheaper sailings, the latest Ruby Princess illness outbreak, Royal Caribbean's cruise port setback near Rome, and why an LGBTQ charter cruise aboard Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady was denied entry to ports in Turkey and Egypt. Later in the episode, listener Maureen shares her review of a five-night Celebrity Summit cruise sailing from Port Everglades to Key West and Nassau. She discusses Concierge Class, dining, entertainment, Royal Beach Club Paradise Island, and whether Celebrity Summit is still one of the best values in premium cruising. Cruise News This Week Carnival announces Carnival Destiny, the first ACE Class ship UK school principal banned after changing school schedules to book cheaper cruises LGBTQ charter aboard Virgin Voyages denied entry to Turkey and Egypt Royal Caribbean's proposed Rome cruise port faces environmental setback Second illness outbreak reported aboard Ruby Princess Virgin Voyages spa employee charged after alleged onboard assaults Cruise Question of the Week: Are slot pulls worth joining? Celebrity Summit Review Embarkation at Port Everglades Concierge Class balcony review Oceanview Café and Main Dining Room La Petite Chef specialty dining Entertainment and nightlife Non-smoking casino Key West jet ski excursion Royal Beach Club Paradise Island review Crew service Is Celebrity Summit worth booking? Share your thoughts: doug@cruiseradio.net  Sponsor Cruise line protection is designed to help if you can't take your cruise. Third-party travel insurance helps protect you during the trip. Including medical care, delays, and unexpected issues. Compare plans and save up to 30% at TripInsurance.com. About Cruise Radio: Cruise Radio has been delivering cruise news, ship reviews, and money-saving tips weekly since 2009.

Are you 40, feeling behind, and wondering if it's too late to start over financially? It's not. Here's exactly what I would do — step by step.In this video, I'm breaking down the real plan I would follow if I was 40 years old starting from zero in 2026. No theory. No fluff. Just a honest, step-by-step system built for the person who feels like life got ahead of them — but refuses to stay there.Here's what we cover:✅ Why the math is NOT against you at 40✅ Step 1 — Stop the financial bleeding (write it ALL down)✅ Step 2 — Build your $2,500 emergency buffer FAST✅ Step 3 — Attack every single debt with everything you have✅ Step 4 — Build your full 3–6 month emergency fund✅ Step 5 — Invest 15% like your future depends on it (because it does)✅ Why starting at 40 is actually an advantage✅ The story of Denise — 43 years old, $47K in debt, two kids, and what happened 14 months later✅ What your kids are really watching when you stay idle✅ How to break a generational cycle — starting this weekThis is not about getting rich. This is about getting FREE.

At 23, I bought a car I couldn't afford to impress people who don't even call me anymore.When I add up the payments, the insurance, the interest, and the opportunity cost of what that money could have become — that one decision cost me close to $200,000.Not in cash. In wealth I never built.And that car was just the beginning. The apartment. The clothes. The trips. The dinners. Every dollar I spent performing wealth was a dollar that never got to actually become wealth.In this video I'm giving you the 5 lessons I wish someone had told me at 25 — because if you're in your 20s, 30s, or even 40s, this information can change the trajectory of your financial life.What we cover:- Why your spending is not a money problem — it's an identity problem- Why making more money will NOT fix your finances (it will amplify the problem)- The real cost of waiting to invest — and the math that will shake you- How the people around you are quietly shaping your financial behavior- The difference between building YOUR wealth vs. funding everyone else'sTake action today:- Pre-order my NEW book Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck and get over $275 in free bonuses — but you must act before August 2: