Podcasts about connect x

Explore the rapidly evolving landscape of rewarded ads in mobile gaming with industry experts. In this episode we dive into the shift from simple install-driven models to sophisticated, data-led strategies that integrate live ops and deep user segmentation. Our guests Zino Rost van Tonningen, CEO at TyrAds and Arseny Lebedev, Co-Founder & CEO at Original Games discuss the critical role of data structure in the age of AI and why a "one-size-fits-all" approach no longer works for monetization.The discussion covers the diverse personas within the rewarded ecosystem—ranging from "rewards hunters" to dedicated casual players—and how these segments impact long-term profitability and LTV. Discover why rewarded ads are becoming a vital alternative for game discovery amidst the challenges of modern app store SEO.This is Part 1 of our in-depth conversation. Stay tuned for Part 2, where we dive deeper into the evolving world of rewarded ads, exploring how studios can leverage AI for hyper-segmentation, the critical importance of integrating monetization directly into game design, and expert tips for accurately measuring long-term campaign success.Timestamps:00:00 - The Evolution of Rewarded Ads02:40 - Data-Driven Market Correction06:30 - A Publisher's Perspective on Rewarded UA10:00 - High-Value User Behavior12:50 - Balancing User Segments for Profitability17:15 - Scalability and Competition19:35 - The Four Main Rewarded Personas** Let's Connect **

June 2026 brings powerful intuitive messages centered on Frequencies of Fullness, breaking free from limitation, and remembering the truth of who we are.In this two-part series, Marie Mohler shares insights, stories, and soul songs to support you on your Divine Creative Hero's or Heroine's journey.Part 1 includes:Monthly themes and big-picture insightsGathering at the River inspirationGarden Insights #14 energy updateFrequencies of Fullness returningThe future as frequencySacred parables and expanding beyond smallnessDiscernment between false and true inner voicesReclaiming freedom, truth, and creative powerPart 2 includes:23 new soul songs to uplift and empower(Songs include Lantern Compass, Way Home, We Are Free, Great Emancipator, Fullness Is Who We Are, and more.)If these messages resonate, please like, subscribe, and share.Support this work:https://buy.stripe.com/3csbIU4v8a52eR2aEEExplore more:https://www.frequencywriter.com/https://frequencywriter.substack.com/Connect:X: https://x.com/marie_mohlerYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colorthemagicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/frequencywriterRumble.com: https://rumble.com/c/c-353585​​​​Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@frequencywriterMore from Whole Soul School and Foundation:http://www.wholesoulschoolandfoundation.orgDisclaimer: These videos are for educational purposes only.Support the show

This June 2026 Part 2 video features 23 original soul songs inspired by the month's energetic themes of Frequencies of Fullness, remembering who we truly are, and expressing our authentic selves with boldness, freedom, and creative grace.These songs are offered as musical soul reflections for your journey — to uplift, encourage, and support your inner remembering. From Lantern Compass and Way Home to We Are Free, Great Emancipator, Golden Garden Within, and Fullness Is Who We Are, this collection is intended to resonate with your heart, awaken your spirit, and celebrate the beauty of becoming more fully ourselves.June's Part 2 soul songs include:Lantern CompassWay HomeHome Again CallingRe-Knowing AgainEpic SparkBe Me AgainRemembering MeRemembering I RememberLiving Garden GateWe Are FreeGrand Garden RiseGreat EmancipatorLiving GardenRiver Returning HomeLiving Garden 2Clay Falls AwayGolden ElaraCracked ClayGolden Garden WithinGolden CrackRed Mane RisingLeonard Shines BrightFullness Is Who We AreThank you for listening, supporting, and sharing these messages. May these songs inspire you to remember your light, honor your freedom, and embody your authentic voice.Please like, subscribe, and share.Support this work:https://buy.stripe.com/3csbIU4v8a52eR2aEEExplore more:https://www.frequencywriter.com/https://frequencywriter.substack.com/Connect:X: https://x.com/marie_mohlerYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@colorthemagicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/frequencywriterRumble.com: https://rumble.com/c/c-353585​​​​Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@frequencywriterDisclaimer: These videos are for educational purposes only.Support the show

Recorded live on-site at GDC, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Derek Day and Jamie Young, the cousins behind Emerald City Games, to talk about what it really takes to build an independent studio that lasts.Emerald City started in a basement in 2008, with families upstairs, developers downstairs and a team doing whatever it took to keep the dream alive. Fast forward and the studio has shipped more than a dozen titles across original IP and major franchises, including Star Trek and Tomb Raider.Derek and Jamie share how Emerald City has stayed independent by balancing creativity with survival, building strong internal tools, protecting its visual identity and staying flexible enough to work across original worlds, licensed IP and live mobile games.Skillz enters the conversation as the infrastructure layer that helps studios like Emerald City keep that focus. By bringing competition systems, backend support, analytics and live ops tooling closer together, Skillz gives developers more room to build the parts players actually feel: the game, the world, the community and the experience.In this episode, Peggy, Derek and Jamie get into:How two cousins built Emerald City Games from a basement into a long-running independent studioWhy staying independent means knowing when to say no, even when opportunities come callingHow the team puts its own creative stamp on major franchises like Star Trek and Tomb RaiderWhy retention, live ops and community now shape how mobile games are built from the startWhy integrated SDKs, analytics and platform tools can give indie teams more room to punch above their weightFor indie developers, Emerald City's story is proof that survival is a strategy. Stay creative, stay adaptable, build the right team and use the right tools so you can keep shipping the games only you can make.Let's Connect

We all develop habits whether it is conscious or not. How can we develop habits that grow us spiritually? Experiencing God in Everyday Life comes out on June 1st. Preorder at the link here: https://www.lifeway.com/en/product/experiencing-god-in-everyday-life-bible-study-book-with-video-access-P005853831   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 4:10 Defining Rhythms and Habits 10:52 How do habits function? 30:35 The Point of Habits   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org   DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3   CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In this PocketGamer.biz episode, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Ambrose Robinson, founder of Parable Studios and creator of Millennium Whisper, to talk about a very different future for AI in games.While much of the AI conversation is about scale, servers and bigger models, Ambrose is pushing in the other direction: smaller, smarter, actor-led and built to run on-device.As Ambrose puts it: If AI in games is going to create new experiences, it needs more than scraped data and generic outputs. It needs creative intent, ethical data capture and systems designed around the game itself.That is the thinking behind Millennium Whisper, the first on-device AI game released on Steam, a dating sim set in 1999 where characters generate emotional responses, remember interactions and share information across the game world.As Ambrose puts it, the problem with much of AI content today is that “there's no one on the other end.” This episode explores what happens when there is.Peggy, Craig and Ambrose dig into:Why AI-generated “slop” is damaging the conversation around genuinely creative AI in gamesHow Parable Studios uses actor-led data capture instead of scraping generic online contentWhy smaller, game-specific models can be more powerful than massive general-purpose systems • What on-device AI changes for cost, scale, latency and creative ownershipHow Millennium Whisper proves AI can unlock new kinds of narrative gameplay, not just automate productionWhy indies may be the first to show what AI-native games can really becomeThe big takeaway: AI should not replace creativity. It should open up game ideas that were too hard, too expensive or too strange to build before.If you care about where AI in games goes next, this is the conversation that cuts through the hype and gets to the heart of what actually matters.Chapters00:00 - Introduction to Ambrose Robinson and Parable Studios01:53 - How AI Can Help Indie Games Stand Out03:05 - The Importance of Human Creativity in AI06:18 - From Farm Life to AI Research11:03 - The Parable Engine and On-Device Models15:22 - Solving Scalability and Cost for Indies18:27 - Using Actors for Data and D&D Style Improv23:04 - Avoiding "AI Slop" through Specificity28:01 - Case Study: Millennium Whisper40:20 - Future Plans for Mobile and New GamesLet's Connect

This week, Dr. Mike Blackaby joins the podcast to discuss what it meanz to be spiritually mature. Experiencing God in Everyday Life comes out on June 1st. Preorder at the link here: https://www.lifeway.com/en/product/experiencing-god-in-everyday-life-bible-study-book-with-video-access-P005853831   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction to Experiencing God in Everyday Life 18:00 What makes Experiencing God in Everyday Life different from the original? 22:30 What is spiritual maturity? 35:15 Closing Thoughts   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org   DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3   RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. Register here: https://register.thecove.org/events/detail/4154?_gl=1*m0v287*_gcl_au*MTI3Mjk0NDM2MC4xNzc3OTIyMzYy   CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

There are certainly beautiful things in the world, but how does beauty relate to leadership? In episode 412, Richard and Daniel discuss how surrounding yourself with things that are beautiful can uplift your spirit and help you to love your neighbor well.   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction and Announcements 3:46 Leadership Trivia 5:00 Daniel's Background in Beauty 8:45 What does God consider beautiful? 12:14 What is it about sight and sound that makes them the only two senses we perceive beauty with? 18:40 Surrounding Yourself with Beauty 28:26 Embodying Beauty and Loving Your Neighbor 37:16 Leadership Trivia Response   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org   DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3   RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. Register here: https://register.thecove.org/events/detail/4154?_gl=1*m0v287*_gcl_au*MTI3Mjk0NDM2MC4xNzc3OTIyMzYy   Preorder Experiencing God in Everyday Life at: https://www.lifeway.com/en/product/experiencing-god-in-everyday-life-bible-study-book-with-video-access-P005853831   CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Recorded live on-site at GDC, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Justin Graysmark, founder of Eplay Studios, to unpack the unlikely path from teaching English in Poland to building a portfolio of 25 competitive games and driving 2 million installs on the Skillz platform.Justin didn't come into games through the usual route. He started with a love of competitive trivia, a serious winning streak on the leaderboard and the conviction that real rewards could make skill-based games even more compelling. In 2016, that spark became Eplay Studios.What followed was not overnight success. It was persistence, testing, missed shots, hard lessons and a lot of getting back up.As Justin puts it, game development has plenty in common with martial arts: you get your butt kicked, you learn, you try again. That mindset helped him move from early misses to games players actually wanted to play.In this episode, Peggy and Justin get into:How Justin turned a competitive trivia habit into a full-time indie studioWhy fairness, balance and trust are make-or-break in real-money competitive gamesWhat 25 games and 2 million installs taught him about working backward from the playerHow Skillz helped Eplay focus on gameplay while handling matchmaking, payments and competitive infrastructureWhy the Skillz and Beamable combination gives small studios more tools to build, test and iterate fasterWhy Justin started sharing his journey on YouTube to show other developers that success is possibleThe big takeaway: competitive games are not won by one great idea. They are built through persistence, player feedback and the willingness to keep testing what flies and what fails.If you are building your first game, your tenth or your next shot at something bigger, Justin's story is a reminder not to give up too early. In his words: “When you stick with it long enough, that's where the magic happens.”Chapters00:00 – Martial Arts Discipline00:38 – An Unconventional Path02:54 – Starting Eplay Studios04:17 – Milestone: 2 Million Installs05:27 – The Importance of Fairness06:31 – Infrastructure for Small Studios08:02 – The Skillz/Beamable Bundle09:21 – Documenting the Journey11:07 – Future of Competitive VR12:45 – Advice: Don't Stop EarlyLet's Connect

Are humility and ambition mutually exclusive? Can they coincide in a leader at the same time? In episode 411, Richard and Daniel discuss the importance of ambition in a leader. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 4:23 Leadership Trivia 5:46 Should a Christian leader be humble and not ambitious? 12:37 What are the dangers of not having ambition? 27:49 Where does your ambition come from? 29:57 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop - April 27-29, 2026 - here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

There are key similarities in good leaders, but God made each person unique with their own strengths and weaknesses and leadership is no different. In episode 410, Richard and Daniel talk about the differences between Christian leaders and leaders of the world. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 6:33 Leadership Trivia 7:30 Is there only one kind of leadership? 13:03 How should a Christian leader operate as opposed to a general leader out in the world? 20:47 What is different about the perspective of a Christian leader? 28:03 What are some practical things a Christian leader can do to lean into those differences? 32:54 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop - April 27-29, 2026 - here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Recorded following Pocket Gamer Connects London, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Nick Poole, CEO of Ukie, for a candid conversation about risk, ambition and what it will take to make the UK the best place to build and scale a games business.Nick brings a rare perspective to the role. Before leading the UK's trade body for games, he worked across libraries, museums and chaired Wikimedia UK. His throughline has always been culture, creativity and how institutions shape innovation. Now he's applying that lens to games.In this episode, we unpack:Why the UK risks becoming an “incubator economy” if it cannot retain IP and talentWhat's broken in the funding ladder from prototype to scale-upWhy tax relief is about competitiveness, not handoutsHow risk appetite across the industry has shifted post-2020Why studios must build companies, not just gamesWhat the Games Growth Package, expanded UK Games Fund and new skills initiatives actually mean in practiceNick is clear: the industry cannot afford to talk itself down. The UK remains one of the most creative and export-driven games markets in the world. But ambition and coordinated action are essential.We also explore the future of play, the role of generative AI in production pipelines and why automation should unlock creativity, not replace it.If you are a founder, investor or studio leader navigating 2025–26, this episode is about one thing:Reclaiming agency.Chapters00:00 Introduction and Pocket Gamer Connects London Highlights01:14 Guest Intro: Nick Poole's Career Path from Museums to Games03:57 Understanding Ukie: The Sword and Shield of the UK Games Industry05:40 Why Historical Government Support for UK Games Has Lacked07:41 How Studios Can Lobby Effectively: The "Made in the UK" Campaign11:51 Fixing the "Broken Rungs" in the Game Funding Ladder14:55 Building the New: Adapting Business Models for 2026 and Beyond16:14 Tax Reliefs and Fiscal Stimulus: Moving from VGTR to VGEC22:04 Industrial Strategy: Skills, Trade Missions, and the UK Games Fund36:58 The Future of AI in Games: Productivity, Curation, and Discovery Let's Connect

Is there a limit to how much one can grow as a leader? In episode 408, Richard and Daniel talk about how giving yourself a ceiling is, in some ways, limiting the potential growth God could provide. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction and Leadership Trivia 2:45 Is there a hard ceiling on a leader's potential growth? 10:32 Is there danger when we limit our own growth that we limit the things God can do in our leadership career? 14:47 What are some initial steps to take to begin to raise your ceiling?  24:45 What are practical ways to develop the skills that are holding you back? 31:55 Why do you want to grow as a leader? 36:20 Why do you have to push your ceiling back further? 37:30 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Recorded live on-site at GDC, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Robert Burnett, Head of New Content at Skillz, and Jon Radoff, CPO of Beamable, to unpack what just changed for developers building competitive mobile games.With the acquisition of Beamable, Skillz is pushing into a bigger role: giving developers more control over progression, LiveOps and monetisation inside the game, while still handling the infrastructure that is hardest to build well. As Jon puts it, the goal is to build “a business operating system for a game studio” so developers can focus on gameplay instead of racking up debt. “If you're spending any of your effort building the tech instead of the fun, you're accumulating debt that doesn't do you any good.”Skillz also unveiled the Pro SDK at GDC, opening up more control inside Unity for developers who want to build competitive games with richer progression, more flexible monetisation and a stronger live-service layer. In this episode, Peggy and Craig get into:Puzzle Blockz, the first live proof point for the combined platformWhat this shift means for smaller teams that want to move faster without building every part of the stack themselvesHow advertising, IAP and competition can start to work together instead of sitting in separate silos If you are serious about building competitive mobile games that can keep players and grow revenue, start here.Chapters00:00 New Ways for Developers to Monetize01:34 The Acquisition of Beamable by Skillz01:59 Solving Pain Points with the Pro SDK04:46 A Business Operating System for Game Studios06:27 The Role of AI in Rapid Prototyping10:14 Economies of Scale in Game Development11:51 From Vibe Coding to Agentic Systems16:01 Case Study: The Puzzle Blocks Proof of Concept22:50 Iterating Based on Real-Time Player Feedback34:31 The Future Roadmap: Intelligence and AutomationLet's Connect

Although Easter has passed, it's always powerful to reflect on what the Easter season means. In episode 408, Richard and Daniel discuss the dualities of Good Friday to Easter and Scriptural applications of the Easter story! TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 3:38 Leadership Trivia 4:40 Reflecting on the meaning of Easter 23:34 Scriptural Applications 33:54 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop - April 27-29, 2026 - here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

As Richard likes to say, all leaders are born! But are there ways a leader can be made? Are there practical steps you can take to foster your leadership prowess? In episode 407, Richard and Daniel discuss how leaders are both born and made. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction and Leadership Trivia 2:20 Is a leader born or made? 9:14 What are some ways a leader can be made? 17:59 How can you lead without being in a leadership position? 25:40 What are the benefits of being a natural leader vs having to work against your nature to be a leader? 31:45 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

This episode is brought to you in partnership with GameAnalytics. PocketGamer.biz Podcast hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow sit down with Falko Boecker, Head of BD & Customer Success at GameAnalytics, to explore a hard truth about the industry:Studios are not short on data.They are short on clarity.Across rising UA costs, privacy shifts, AI disruption and tighter margins, one thing has become non-negotiable: teams must make better decisions, faster.But collecting data is not the same as using it well.Falko brings a rare perspective, having worked across journalism, publishing and business development before moving into analytics. His mission has always been to connect creative thinkers with the business side of games, and data is now the bridge.In this conversation, we unpack:Why “data maturity” is not the same as “data sophistication”Where studios get stuck when trying to think full funnelWhy infrastructure matters less than mindsetHow segmentation moves teams beyond surface-level metricsWhat actually changes between pre-launch and live opsWhy Roblox and fast-moving ecosystems are redefining how teams react to player behaviourOne of the most important takeaways:Data does not replace creativity. It sharpens it.As Falko explains, analytics should not be a black box owned by specialists. It should be accessible across design, product and marketing so teams can align around shared goals instead of siloed assumptions.We also explore how AI is beginning to shift analytics from reactive dashboards to proactive insight, and where humans still need to drive the decisions.If you are building a game in 2026, this episode is a reminder that success is not about having more dashboards.It is about asking better questions.** Let's Connect **

Servant leadership is what leaders should all strive for, but what does that practically look like? In episode 406, Richard and Daniel discuss the difference between serving and servant-leadership. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction and Leadership Trivia 2:50 What is a Servant Leader? 13:50 How can you have both servanthood and leadership at the same time? 38:39 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

There is a common misconception, whether conscious or not, that to be a leader you must look and act a very specific way. But, that's not always true. In episode 405, Richard and Daniel debunk this leadership myth. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction and Leadership Trivia 3:34 A Leader Has a Certain Look 4:40 Physical Appearance of a Leader 11:54 A Leader Must be a Great Public Speaker 18:10 A Leader Must Be Charismatic 24:25 A Leader Must Be The Smartest in the Room 32:14 A Leader Must Be a Visionary 39:00 Final Thoughts on Leadership Profiles 43:10 Leadership Trivia Response Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Recorded on location at Pocket Gamer Connects London, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Berkley Egenes, CMO at Xsolla, to examine a structural shift in the industry.Gaming is no longer just entertainment. It is becoming the commerce layer connecting developers, brands, platforms and players.Xsolla's recent rebrand reflects that evolution — moving beyond payments to enable publishing, distribution, promotions and marketplace infrastructure designed to help developers launch, grow and win.In this conversation, Peggy and Berkley break down:Why D2C is now a strategic pillar, not a workaroundHow casual games are outperforming expectations in web shop adoptionWhy Southeast Asia is accelerating faster than many Western marketsHow brands, telecoms and super apps are converging around gamingWhat happens when commerce, loyalty and gameplay start to mergeAs Berkley puts it, the stereotype of the “gamer” is gone. Everyone is a gamer. That makes gaming the most powerful engagement layer in digital culture.When attention lives in games, commerce follows.This episode explores why the next phase of growth may depend less on transactions inside the app — and more on orchestrating an ecosystem around it.Chapters00:00 The Evolving Identity of the Gamer00:40 Xsolla's Mission in Video Game Commerce02:53 Exploring Growth in Southeast Asia05:07 Unique Ad Experiences and Monetization07:07 Integrating Non-Endemic Brands into Gaming09:23 Insights from the Xsolla Report14:41 The Future of the Gaming IndustryLet's Connect

Are you prepared for battle? Richard and Daniel dissect each piece of the armor of God so you can identify which areas may need strengthening. TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction  2:45 Leadership Trivia 3:30 Last Week Review 6:21 The Belt of Truth 11:57 The Breastplate of Righteousness 15:03 Sandals of Peace 21:00 Shield of Faith 25:28 The Helmet of Salvation 29:00 Sword of the Spirit 31:19 Praying Always  35:35 Leadership Trivia Response   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In Part 2 of this two-part PocketGamer.biz special, host Peggy Anne Salz continues her conversation with Jon Radoff — CEO of Beamable and one of the early architects of online game infrastructure, long before LiveOps became a discipline and games-as-a-service became the norm.If Part 1 examined why backend now determines competitive advantage, Part 2 tackles the macro reality reshaping every studio's growth strategy.Installs have plateaued. Time spent has stabilised. Revenue growth is no longer coming from incremental user acquisition, but from deeper monetisation of existing players. Sensor Tower calls this the “monetisation-first” era, and the message is clear: scale alone is no longer enough.As Jon puts it: “Games is a services business now. You don't ship a product and walk away. You run it.”In this episode, Peggy and Jon unpack what that actually means in practice:• Why value per player now matters more than volume • How retention, loyalty and operational excellence have become the real growth levers • Where monetisation systems, competition frameworks and identity infrastructure reinforce each other • Why partnership can become a strategic advantage rather than a loss of control • Where AI lowers operational barriers — and where trusted infrastructure remains essentialThis conversation makes one thing explicit: in a monetisation-first environment, infrastructure is not plumbing. It is strategy.Together, these two episodes explain not just what the Skillz–Beamable integration represents, but why developers who adapt to this new growth model will be structurally better positioned over the next cycle.Chapters00:00 - Content That Would Never See the Light of Day00:42 - Democratize Game Development01:26 - Wild West Experience02:49 - Understand Roblox03:07 - Lesson for the Broader Game Industry04:28 - Co-creation with Your Player Population06:58 - Skillz and Beamable09:08 - Building Your Own 3D Engine10:44 - Exclusively Creative Industry13:40 - English Language Programming17:48 - Unique Technical Architecture of Games22:57 - The "1 + 1 Equals 3" MergerLet's Connect

In this PocketGamer.biz episode, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Craig Chapple sit down with Francesca ReDavid, VP of Product Growth at Mistplay, and Aaron Thandi, Chief Commercial Officer, to examine how rewarded is evolving in what many are calling the monetisation-first era.For years, rewarded functioned primarily as a UA lever, driving installs and early engagement at scale. But growth dynamics have shifted. Installs have plateaued. Revenue is concentrating deeper in the player journey. Studios are now under pressure to increase lifetime value, not just acquisition volume.That shift forces a rethink.Mistplay is preparing to launch a new feature called Playtime Events, designed to combine time-based rewards with contextual in-game milestones. The goal is structural: align rewarded mechanics more closely with how games actually drive engagement and monetisation.Rather than rewarding time alone, this approach ties incentives to meaningful progression points inside the game experience.The testing that led to this shift is significant.In this episode, you'll hear:Why rewarded can no longer operate as a simple traffic channelHow hybrid playtime-plus-task testing drove a 30% lift in playtime and a 20% increase in D30 ROASWhy RPG and strategy titles exposed the limits of generic reward structuresHow contextual milestones can reinforce progression loops rather than distract from themWhat UA, AdMon and Product teams must rethink as monetisation becomes the growth engineAs Francesca explains, rewarded increasingly needs to function as a companion to gameplay — embedded in progression, not layered on top of it.For studios navigating deeper engagement cycles in 2026, this episode explores why the next phase of rewarded will be defined less by installs and more by alignment with monetisation mechanics.Chapters00:00 Driving High Performance and Quality Experience01:34 The Monetization-First Era04:01 Rewarding High-Quality Users05:56 Defining Rewarded07:50 The History of Mistplay in Rewarded11:34 Rewarded No Longer a Source of Cheap Traffic15:12 Time Spent as a Key Indicator29:39 Playtime and In-Game Events33:38 Playtime Plus Task Mechanics48:02 Rewarded's Future: Personalization and ML** Let's Connect **

Kyle Farran has served in global ministry since 2007, with cross-cultural leadership experience in South Africa, Tanzania, and now Portugal. He and his wife, Heather, have three daughters—one married, one in university, and one still at home. Kyle currently serves as the Western Europe Regional Director for ABWE, where he leads and equips teams across multiple countries. His most recent book, Godly Grit: Unshakable Resilience and Grit for Lift and Leadership, is available for purchase today!  Order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Godly-Grit-Unshakable-Resilience-Leadership-ebook/dp/B0GJ2T2146/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3F2VG08T3PKWG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.Vdz3ByvcAkxoMNleh04tjOLIFxhF82DH7P8KcAoXyRk.01W59UlYHKCIBij16iHbKvNC1iqYuT1FXQT1iwl4gOA&dib_tag=se&keywords=godly+grit+kyle&qid=1770299258&sprefix=godly+grit+ky%2Caps%2C153&sr=8-1  TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction  1:25 Tell Us About Yourself 2:34 What's the difference between leaning in towards passion versus purpose when things get hard? 8:26 What is your definition of "grit?" Why is Godly grit so important? 16:26 What do you mean when you say it is an insult to God's character to be fearful when in a position of spiritual leadership? 20:49 Why do you recommend not to shield your spouse and kids? 29:11 What are some physical practices that can improve your physical and spiritual health? 35:31 What are some eating habits that can improve your physical and spiritual health? 40:11 What's the deal with cold showers? 43:15 What's the benefit of a mid-afternoon power nap? 46:57 The importance of courage as a leader 49:43 Any last words of wisdom to share? Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In Part 1 of this two-part PocketGamer.biz special, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow sit down with Jon Radoff, CEO of Beamable and an OG architect of online game infrastructure, building persistent systems long before “LiveOps” became a job title, to examine a shift many studios still underestimate.The pressure is real: move faster, iterate based on real player behaviour and extend lifetime value without burning runway.Studios know they need LiveOps. They know they need scale. What they often underestimate is where competitive advantage is now determined.Drawing on decades of building and operating live online games, Jon explains why infrastructure decisions can quietly shape, or sabotage, everything that follows.Peggy, Brian and Jon explore what Skillz's acquisition of Beamable's backend and LiveOps technology means for developers, and how bringing together competition systems, identity, payments and scalable backend services can reduce operational risk while freeing teams to focus on what actually differentiates their game.The hard truth: “If you're spending any of your effort building the tech instead of the fun, you're accumulating debt that doesn't do you any good.”Jon makes the case for treating infrastructure as a strategic lever rather than a technical burden and for recognising that games are no longer products you ship, but businesses you operate.In this episode, you'll understand:Why velocity and behavioural signal now outweigh feature roadmapsHow backend decisions directly impact runway, trust and long-term scalabilityWhat unified competition, identity and LiveOps systems unlock for 20-person studiosWhy socially connected mechanics are no longer reserved for massive teamsHow creator-driven ecosystems like Roblox are resetting player expectationsPart 1 closes on a pivotal idea: monetisation matters, but creativity at scale is the multiplier.In Part 2, the focus shifts outward to the macro forces shaping the industry and why we have entered what Sensor Tower calls the “monetisation-first” era.Chapters0:00 Game of Thrones Content Delivery Challenges3:17 Why Developers Shouldn't Build a Backend3:36 Aiming High and Iterating Rapidly4:23 Driving Engagement Through Content and Events9:10 The Number One Challenge: Velocity9:38 The Second Problem: Lack of Evidence12:07 The Need for Both Speed and Evidence16:15 Monetization as a Design Decision19:33 Embracing the Social Fabric in Games23:42 Creating a Regular Content Cadence and EventsLet's Connect

Spiritual warfare is real and difficult to combat, but God calls us to put on our armor and reminds us that He will give us strength. Richard and Daniel talk about how to prepare for battle in episode 402 of the Richard Blackaby Leadership Podcast.  TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction  1:35 Leadership Trivia 2:25 Listener Question: What have you done to combat demonic attacks and oppression? 13:45 As Christians, how do you prepare for and approach spiritual warfare? 34:40 Leadership Trivia Response   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Ed Bjurstrom has decades of experience in management working in the pharmaceutical industry, including companies such as Amgen and Gilead Sciences. He owned Mountain Top Consulting and recently wrote a new book titled, "The Success Guide: How to Thrive in the Corporate Environment: A Focused Roadmap for Achieving Peak Performance, Leadership Excellence, and Building a Trust-Based Culture." Order your personal copy of his book at the link below! TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction to Bjurstrom's Leadership Experience 2:55 How did your engineering brain aid you and challenge you in your leadership experience? 5:50 How difficult is it to change your thinking to encourage success? 8:40 How do you keep your emotions from hijacking your leadership when under stress? 12:50 What do you mean by being in a "zone of creative tension?" 17:13 How do you manage to get the rest and sleep you need while working in a demanding position? 20:50 What advice would you give a manager in trying to align people with their passions at work? 24:16 What is the "flow state?" 28:42 If you were building a team today, what characteristics would you look for in potential team members? 32:00 Closing Remarks "The Success Guide" Link: https://www.amazon.com/Success-Guide-Environment-Performance-Trust-Based-ebook/dp/B0G3YHKCDN/ref=sr_1_1?crid=27LN92PHV2VNS&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.tsXSY6Kn6S7ULsiMykokv5BwJrLUI2CpszYHxzUOgG97mMvLN9zJla7EA9y5JOPRgzB-mFPbL-40Ly0rXTv7qMzaJutCnWtrP8HA8WM0amSbTgNmk46QI6pl9zJJfHdVUwN4ezGpBVSIlD3Py-saEA.e8HgV-305B9a5o9UYfyq9zr6XyT_TSmnw2dgPvyQEpM&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+success+guide+how+to+thrive+in+the+corporate+environment&nsdOptOutParam=true&qid=1770905320&sprefix=how+to+thrive+in+a+corporate+e%2Caps%2C199&sr=8-1 Mountain Top Consulting: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mountain-top-consulting-llc/about/  Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

At PocketGamer Connects London, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Cameron Simon, CFO at Offroad Games, whose journey from mining in South Africa to “mining” player data in mobile gaming offers a fresh take on sustainable growth.The interview grew out of a chance meeting at a dinner hosted by the Mobile Finance Collective, a new community bringing together finance leaders and founders in mobile apps and gaming, and surfaces some genuine gems along the way.Drawing on a background in heavy industry, Cameron explains how exploration, capital discipline and long-term yield thinking translate directly into player acquisition, LiveOps strategy and monetisation in mobile games.Key takeaways:⛏️ The parallels between mining ore bodies and building player value, from discovery and development to maximising lifetime return

The Richard Blackaby Leadership Podcast has made it to 400 episodes! This phenomenal landmark brings up the question of how do we support and pursue longevity in the assignment God has given us? TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction to Episode 400! 2:05 Leadership Trivia 2:37 The founding of the podcast 5:20 What is the benefit of longevity? 8:00 How long does it take before you begin to see the fruits of your longevity in a specific position? 10:50 Are there any verses in Scripture about longevity that stand out to you? 15:00 What are some things one can implement in their life to enable them to serve long term? 33:10 Leadership Trivia Response   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Chirag Ambwani, SVP Gaming & Entertainment, Corporate Development & Partnerships at Sensor Tower, discusses the state of mobile gaming, monetization strategies, and the growing influence of AI and non-gaming categories.In this video:Mobile gaming surpasses $90B, with non-gaming apps also hitting record highsShort drama emerges as a fast-growing category, led by former gaming publishersBlended monetisation (IAP, subscriptions and ads) continues to drive growthPuzzle remains strong, while sports and racing declineLegacy titles like Clash of Clans and Candy Crush thrive through live opsAsia publishers dominate top-grossing chartsAI is reshaping workflows, optimisation and ad spendSensor Tower expands into PC, console and web store dataTimestamps00:00 Intro00:24 The State of Mobile Gaming: $90 Billion and Growing01:44 The Rise of Short Drama: Former Gaming Companies Lead the Way03:43 Why Blended Monetization (IAP, Subscriptions, Ads) Is Key06:20 Legacy Titles and the Dominance of Asia Publishers09:00 AI Usage: Optimizing Spend and WorkflowsLet's Connect

This week Richard and Daniel discuss the length, width, height, and depth of God's love as they finish up chapter 3 of Ephesians.  TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 1:00 Leadership Trivia 1:45 Ephesians 3:18-20 34:50 Leadership Trivia Response   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In this PocketGamer.biz episode, hosts Peggy Anne Salz and Brian Baglow sit down with Yevhen Tarasenko, App Growth Consultant and ASO expert, to break down why sustainable organic growth is built on discipline, not shortcuts.Drawing parallels between ASO and drumming in a metal band, Yevhen explains why teams that treat the app store as a live channel and build always-on systems consistently outperform those chasing quick wins.You'll learn:

In the third installment of the Ephesians series, Richard and Daniel talk about Paul's powerful prayer for the Ephesians and how prayer can bring us into a deeper relationship with God.  TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction and Feedback 3:30 Leadership Trivia 4:20 Ephesians 3:12-17 35:30 Leadership Trivia Response   Questions or comments? Email us at podcast@blackaby.org DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Moving along to our second episode of our four-part Ephesians series, Richard and Daniel do a deep dive on Ephesians 3:10-13 about the wonders of the Church. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Introduction 2:35 Leadership Trivia 3:30 Ephesians 3:10-13 34:00 Leadership Trivia Answer DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In this PocketGamer.biz episode, host Peggy Anne Salz sits down with Martzel de Domingo, Head of Global Media and UA at Ubisoft, to unpack the tricks and traps marketers need to watch as measurement evolves and last-click attribution stops telling the full story.Martzel also shares how Ubisoft approaches measurement for large mobile IP launches like Rainbow Six Mobile and The Division Resurgence, balancing performance, brand, creators and CTV across the funnel.You'll learn:

In this episode, as we begin 2026, we start our study of Ephesians 3, focusing on the wonder of God's call. TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro  1:20 Leadership Trivia 2:20 Ephesians Introduction and Context 11:43 Ephesians Scripture Reading and Study 29:55 Leadership Trivia Answer DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Hey folks, Alex here from Weights & Biases, with your weekly AI update (and a first live show of this year!) For the first time, we had a co-host of the show also be a guest on the show, Ryan Carson (from Amp) went supernova viral this week with an X article (1.5M views) about Ralph Wiggum (yeah, from Simpsons) and he broke down that agentic coding technique at the end of the show. LDJ and Nisten helped cover NVIDIA's incredible announcements during CES with their Vera Rubin upcoming platform (4-5X improvements) and we all got excited about AI medicine with ChatGPT going into Health officially! Plus, a bunch of Open Source news, let's get into this: ThursdAI - Recaps of the most high signal AI weekly spaces is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Open Source: The “Small” Models Are WinningWe often talk about the massive frontier models, but this week, Open Source came largely from unexpected places and focused on efficiency, agents, and specific domains.Solar Open 100B: A Data MasterclassUpstage released Solar Open 100B, and it's a beast. It's a 102B parameter Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model, but thanks to MoE magic, it only uses about 12B active parameters during inference. This means it punches incredibly high but runs fast.What I really appreciated here wasn't just the weights, but the transparency. They released a technical report detailing their “Data Factory” approach. They trained on nearly 20 trillion tokens, with a huge chunk being synthetic. They also used a dynamic curriculum that adjusted the difficulty and the ratio of synthetic data as training progressed. This transparency is what pushes the whole open source community forward.Technically, it hits 88.2 on MMLU and competes with top-tier models, especially in Korean language tasks. You can grab it on Hugging Face.MiroThinker 1.5: The DeepSeek Moment for Agents?We also saw MiroThinker 1.5, a 30B parameter model that is challenging the notion that you need massive scale to be smart. It uses something they call “Interactive Scaling.”Wolfram broke this down for us: this agent forms hypotheses, searches for evidence, and then iteratively revises its answers in a time-sensitive sandbox. It effectively “thinks” before answering. The result? It beats trillion-parameter models on search benchmarks like BrowseComp. It's significantly cheaper to run, too. This feels like the year where smaller models + clever harnesses (harnesses are the software wrapping the model) will outperform raw scale.Liquid AI LFM 2.5: Running on Toasters (Almost)We love Liquid AI and they are great friends of the show. They announced LFM 2.5 at CES with AMD, and these are tiny ~1B parameter models designed to run on-device. We're talking about running capable AI on your laptop, your phone, or edge devices (or the Reachy Mini bot that I showed off during the show! I gotta try and run LFM on him!)Probably the coolest part is the audio model. Usually, talking to an AI involves a pipeline: Speech-to-Text (ASR) -> LLM -> Text-to-Speech (TTS). Liquid's model is end-to-end. It hears audio and speaks audio directly. We watched a demo from Maxime Labonne where the model was doing real-time interaction, interleaving text and audio. It's incredibly fast and efficient. While it might not write a symphony for you, for on-device tasks like summarization or quick interactions, this is the future.NousCoder-14B and Zhipu AI IPOA quick shoutout to our friends at Nous Research who released NousCoder-14B, an open-source competitive programming model that achieved a 7% jump on LiveCodeBench accuracy in just four days of RL training on 48 NVIDIA B200 GPUs. The model was trained on 24,000 verifiable problems, and the lead researcher Joe Li noted it achieved in 4 days what took him 2 years as a teenager competing in programming contests. The full RL stack is open-sourced on GitHub and Nous published a great WandB results page as well! And in historic news, Zhipu AI (Z.ai)—the folks behind the GLM series—became the world's first major LLM company to IPO, raising $558 million on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Their GLM-4.7 currently ranks #1 among open-source and domestic models on both Artificial Analysis and LM Arena. Congrats to them!Big Companies & APIsNVIDIA CES: Vera Rubin Changes EverythingLDJ brought the heat on this one covering Jensen's CES keynote that unveiled the Vera Rubin platform, and the numbers are almost hard to believe. We're talking about a complete redesign of six chips: the Rubin GPU delivering 50 petaFLOPS of AI inference (5x Blackwell), the Vera CPU with 88 custom Olympus ARM cores, NVLink 6, ConnectX-9 SuperNIC, BlueField-4 DPU, and Spectrum-6 Ethernet.Let me put this in perspective using LDJ's breakdown: if you look at FP8 performance, the jump from Hopper to Blackwell was about 5x. The jump from Blackwell to Vera Rubin is over 3x again—but here's the kicker—while only adding about 200 watts of power draw. That's insane efficiency improvement.The real-world implications Jensen shared: training a 10 trillion parameter mixture-of-experts model now requires 75% fewer GPUs compared to Blackwell. Inference token costs drop roughly 10x—a 1MW cluster goes from 1 million to 10 million tokens per second at the same power. HBM4 memory delivers 22 TB/s bandwidth with 288GB capacity, exceeding NVIDIA's own 2024 projections by nearly 70%.As Ryan noted, when people say there's an AI bubble, this is why it's hilarious. Jensen keeps saying the need for inference is unbelievable and only going up exponentially. We all see this. I can't get enough inference—I want to spin up 10 Ralphs running concurrently! The NVL72 rack-scale system achieves 3.6 exaFLOPS inference with 20.7TB total HBM, and it's already shipping. Runway 4.5 is already running on the new platform, having ported their model from Hopper to Vera Rubin NVL72 in a single day.NVIDIA also recently acqui-hidred Groq (with a Q) in a ~$20 billion deal, bringing the inference chip expertise from the guy who created Google's TPUs in-house.Nemotron Speech ASR & The Speed of Voice (X, HF, Blog)NVIDIA also dropped Nemotron Speech ASR. This is a 600M parameter model that offers streaming transcription with 24ms latency.We showed a demo from our friend Kwindla Kramer at Daily. He was talking to an AI, and the response was virtually instant. The pipeline is: Nemotron (hearing) -> Llama/Nemotron Nano (thinking) -> Magpie TTS (speaking). The total latency is under 500ms. It feels like magic. Instant voice agents are going to be everywhere this year.XAI Raises $20B While Grok Causes Problems (Again)So here's the thing about covering anything Elon-related: it's impossible to separate signal from noise because there's an army of fans who hype everything and an army of critics who hate everything. But let me try to be objective here.XAI raised another massive Round E of $20 billion! at a $230 billion valuation, with NVIDIA and Cisco as strategic investors. The speed of their infrastructure buildout is genuinely incredible. Grok's voice mode is impressive. I use Grok for research and it's really good, notable for it's unprecedented access to X !But. This raise happened in the middle of a controversy where Grok's image model was being used to “put bikinis” on anyone in reply threads, including—and this is where I draw a hard line—minors. As Nisten pointed out on the show, it's not even hard to implement guardrails. You just put a 2B VL model in front and ask “is there a minor in this picture?” But people tested it, asked Grok not to use the feature, and it did it anyway. And yeah, putting Bikini on Claude is funny, but basic moderation is lacking! The response of “we'll prosecute illegal users” is stupid when there's no moderation built into the product. There's an enormous difference between Photoshop technically being able to do something after hours of work, and a feature that generates edited images in one second as the first comment to a celebrity, then gets amplified by the platform's algorithm to millions of people. One is a tool. The other is a product with amplification mechanics. Products need guardrails. I don't often link to CNN (in fact this is the first time) but they have a great writeup about the whole incident here which apparently includes the quitting of a few trust and safety folks and Elon's pushback on guardrails. CrazyThat said, Grok 5 is in training and XAI continues to ship impressive technology. I just wish they'd put the same engineering effort into safety as they do into capabilities!OpenAI Launches GPT HealthThis one's exciting. OpenAI CEO Fidji Simo announced ChatGPT Health, a privacy-first space for personalized health conversations that can connect to electronic health records, Apple Health, Function Health, Peloton, and MyFitnessPal.Here's why this matters: health already represents about 5% of all ChatGPT messages globally and touches 25% of weekly active users—often outside clinic hours or in underserved areas. People are already using these models for health advice constantly.Nisten, who has worked on AI doctors since the GPT-3 days and even published papers on on-device medical AI, gave us some perspective: the models have been fantastic for health stuff for two years now. The key insight is that medical data seems like a lot, but there are really only about 2,000 prescription drugs and 2,000 diseases (10,000 if you count rare ones). That's nothing for an LLM. The models excel at pattern recognition across this relatively contained dataset.The integration with Function Health is particularly interesting to me. Function does 160+ lab tests, but many doctors won't interpret them because they didn't order them. ChatGPT could help bridge that gap, telling you “hey, this biomarker looks off, you should discuss this with your doctor.” The bad news is, this is just a waitlist and you can add yourself to the waitlist here, we'll keep monitoring the situation and let you know when it opens upDoctronic: AI Prescribing Without Physician OversightSpeaking of healthcare, Doctronic launched a pilot in Utah where AI can autonomously renew prescriptions for chronic conditions without any physician in the loop. The system covers about 190 routine medications (excluding controlled substances) at just $4 per renewal. Trial data showed 99.2% concordance with physician treatment plans, and they've secured pioneering malpractice insurance that treats the AI like a clinician.Nisten made the case that it's ethically wrong to delay this kind of automation when ER wait times keep increasing and doctors are overworked. The open source models are already excellent at medical tasks. Governments should be buying GPUs rather than creating administrative roadblocks. Strong strong agree here! Google Brings Gmail into the Gemini Era (X)Breaking news from the day of our show: Google announced Gmail's biggest AI transformation since its 2004 launch, powered by Gemini 3. This brings AI Overviews that summarize email threads, natural language queries (”Who gave me a plumber quote last year?”), Help Me Write, contextual Suggested Replies matching your writing style, and the upcoming AI Inbox that filters noise to surface VIPs and urgent items.For 3 billion Gmail users, this is huge. I'm very excited to test it—though not live on the show because I don't want you reading my emails.This weeks buzz - covering Weights & Biases updatesNot covered on the show, but a great update on stuff from WandB, Chris Van Pelt (@vanpelt), one of the 3 co-founders released a great project I wanted to tell you about! For coders, this is an app that allows you to run multiple Claude Codes on free Github sandboxes, so you can code (or Ralph) and control everything away from home! GitHub gives personal users 120 free Codespaces hours/month, and Catnip automatically shuts down inactive instances so you can code for quite a while with Catnip! It's fully open source on Github and you can download the app hereInterview: Ryan Carson - What the hell is Ralph Wiggum?Okay, let's talk about the character everyone is seeing on their timeline: Ralph Wiggum. My co-host Ryan Carson went viral this week with an article about this technique, and I had to have him break it down.Ralph isn't a new model; it's a technique for running agents in a loop to perform autonomous coding. The core idea is deceptively simple: Ralph is a bash script that loops an AI coding agent. In a loop, until it a certain condition is met. But why is it blowing up? Normally when you use a coding agent like Cursor, Claude Code, or AMP, you need to be in the loop. You approve changes, look at code, fix things when the agent hits walls or runs out of context. Ralph solves this by letting the agent run autonomously while you sleep.Here's how it works: First, you write a Product Requirements Doc (PRD) by talking to your agent for a few minutes about what you want to build. Then you convert that PRD into a JSON file containing atomic user stories with clear acceptance criteria. Each user story is small enough for the agent to complete in one focused thread.The Ralph script then loops: it picks the first incomplete user story, the agent writes code to implement it, tests against the acceptance criteria, commits the changes, marks the story as complete, writes what it learned to a shared “agents.md” file, and loops to the next story. That compound learning step is crucial—without it, the agent would keep making the same mistakes.What makes this work is the pre-work. As Ryan put it, “no real work is done one-shot.” This is how software engineering has always worked—you break big problems into smaller problems into user stories and solve them incrementally. The innovation is letting AI agents work through that queue autonomously while you sleep! Ryan's excellent (and viral) X article is here! Vision & VideoLTX-2 Goes Fully Open Source (HF, Paper)Lightricks finally open-sourced LTX-2, marking a major milestone as the first fully open audio-video generation model. This isn't just “we released the weights” open—it's complete model weights (13B and 2B variants), distilled versions, controllable LoRAs, a full multimodal trainer, benchmarks, and evaluation scripts. For a video model that is aiming to be the open source SORA, supports audio and lipsyncThe model generates synchronized audio and video in a single DiT-based architecture—motion, dialogue, ambience, and music flow simultaneously. Native 4K at up to 50 FPS with audio up to 10 seconds. And there's also a distilled version (Thanks Pruna AI!) hosted on ReplicateComfyUI provided day-0 native support, and community testing shows an A6000 generating 1280x720 at 120 frames in 50 seconds. This is near Sora-level quality that you can fine-tune on your own data for custom styles and voices in about an hour.What a way to start 2026. From chips that are 5x faster to AI doctors prescribing meds in Utah, the pace is only accelerating. If anyone tells you we're in an AI bubble, just show them what we covered today. Even if the models stopped improving tomorrow, the techniques like “Ralph” prove we have years of work ahead of us just figuring out how to use the intelligence we already have.Thank you for being a ThursdAI subscriber. See you next week!As always, here's the show notes and TL;DR links: * Hosts & Guests* Alex Volkov - AI Evangelist & Weights & Biases (@altryne)* Co-Hosts - @WolframRvnwlf, @nisten, @ldjconfirmed* Special Guest - Ryan Carson (@ryancarson) breaking down the Ralph Wiggum technique.* Open Source LLMs* Solar Open 100B - Upstage's 102B MoE model. Trained on 19.7T tokens with a heavy focus on “data factory” synthetic data and high-performance Korean reasoning (X, HF, Tech Report).* MiroThinker 1.5 - A 30B parameter search agent that uses “Interactive Scaling” to beat trillion-parameter models on search benchmarks like BrowseComp (X, HF, GitHub).* Liquid AI LFM 2.5 - A family of 1B models designed for edge devices. Features a revolutionary end-to-end audio model that skips the ASR-LLM-TTS pipeline (X, HF).* NousCoder-14B - competitive coding model from Nous Research that saw a 7% LiveCodeBench accuracy jump in just 4 days of RL (X, WandB Dashboard).* Zhipu AI IPO - The makers of GLM became the first major LLM firm to go public on the HKEX, raising $558M (Announcement).* Big Co LLMs & APIs* NVIDIA Vera Rubin - Jensen Huang's CES reveal of the next-gen platform. Delivers 5x Blackwell inference performance and 75% fewer GPUs needed for MoE training (Blog).* OpenAI ChatGPT Health - A privacy-first vertical for EHR and fitness data integration (Waitlist).* Google Gmail Era - Gemini 3 integration into Gmail for 3 billion users, featuring AI Overviews and natural language inbox search (Blog).* XAI $20B Raise - Elon's XAI raises Series E at a $230B valuation, even as Grok faces heat over bikini-gate and safety guardrails (CNN Report).* Doctronic - The first US pilot in Utah for autonomous AI prescription renewals without a physician in the loop (Web).* Alexa+ Web - Amazon brings the “Smart Alexa” experience to browser-based chat (Announcement).* Autonomous Coding & Tools* Ralph Wiggum - The agentic loop technique for autonomous coding using small, atomic user stories. Ryan Carson's breakdown of why this is the death of “vibe coding” (Viral X Article).* Catnip by W&B - Chris Van Pelt's open-source iOS app to run Claude Code anywhere via GitHub Codespaces (App Store, GitHub).* Vision & Video* LTX-2 - Lightricks open-sources the first truly open audio-video generation model with synchronized output and full training code (GitHub, Replicate Demo).* Avatar Forcing - KAIST's framework for real-time interactive talking heads with ~500ms latency (Arxiv).* Qwen Edit 2512 - Optimized by PrunaAI to generate high-res realistic images in under 7 seconds (Replicate).* Voice & Audio* Nemotron Speech ASR - NVIDIA's 600M parameter streaming model with sub-100ms stable latency for massive-scale voice agents (HF). This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit sub.thursdai.news/subscribe

As we begin 2026, Richard and Daniel discuss making wise resolutions, accountability, and discipline. Happy New Year! TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Happy New Year! 3:25 Leadership Trivia 3:57 Resolution Statistics 6:35 As a leader, how can goal setting set you up for a successful year in 2026? 7:45 What's the key to making a good resolution? 12:53 What are some examples of God-appointed resolutions? 17:10 What are some ways people can be more successful in remaining disciplined in their resolutions for 2026? 22:20 What is the value of accountability when it comes to setting goals? 32:22 Richard's 2026 Resolutions  35:28 Leadership Trivia Response   DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Many times we look to the year ahead around New Years, but it is perhaps more important to reflect on the year that has just passed. As we welcome 2026, Richard and Daniel chat about how we can evaluate and learn from 2025.  TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 1:36 Leadership Trivia 2:23 How do you reach the end of the year and evaluate how the last year went? 4:05 What is the role of humility? 5:53 What are things we shouldn't overlook when looking back on and evaluating the year? 8:51 From a Biblical perspective, how do we reflect on the year? 17:36 How do you apply finishing the race to a leader reflecting on the year? 22:13 What are some ways that you can reflect on your spiritual journey? 25:03 How do you measure the success of a year? 27:43 How can a leader evaluate their year beyond just achievements? 30:50 Do you have any final words of encouragement as we end another year? 33:04 Leadership Trivia Answer DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In our final week of Advent, Richard and Daniel talk about the most important commandment: love.  TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 4:45 Are there any statements or quotes you've particularly hung onto as a leader? 9:07 As a leader, what does it look like practically to be defined by love?  14:08 How do you not fall into the trap of people pleasing? 18:09 How is love connected to servant leadership? 21:05 How can loving people be powerful and good for business? 24:25 Why is it so hard for many leaders to love those they lead? 30:00 What is love, what isn't love, and how do we love our employers/employees? 35:08 Advent Ending and What's Next! DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

Jade and I discuss Monsta X's movie, Connect X, that was showing in movie theaters at the beginning of December, we talk about Wayv's exciting new music from their album, Eternal White and then we wrap things up with our wishes and things we like to see or not see in K-Pop for 2026.

Week 3 of Advent centers around joy and how we can experience joy despite our worldly circumstances.   TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Introduction 2:10 Leadership Trivia 2:50 Why has God placed the topic of joy so close to your heart? 6:45 Why are the younger generations unhappier than older generations? 8:30 What is the Biblical view of joy? 12:45 What is the difference between joy and happiness? 16:10 Is it ok to feel joy in difficult times? 19:25 How can a leader keep their joy even faced with weariness, critiques, etc.? 25:10 What is the role of humor in Christianity? 32:50 Leadership Trivia Answer DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark your calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God – Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. More info to come. Join Blackaby Ministries' next Spiritual Leadership Coaching Workshop here: https://www.blackabycoaching.org/workshop CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com

In this episode we conclude our study of Nehemiah's leadership and Sam says farewell to hosting the Richard Blackaby Leadership Podcast. DONATE: If you have enjoyed this podcast and want to support our ministry into the next 20 years, click here: https://bit.ly/382Exi3 RESOURCES: Mark you calendars for May 18-20, 2026 when Richard will be presenting Experiencing God - Part 2 at the Cove in Asheville, NC. https://register.thecove.org/events/detail/4154 Use code, 'PODCAST' for free access to the Intro to Spiritual Leadership Coaching Online Class. https://www.blackabyinstitute.com/course/intro-to-coaching CONNECT: X: @richardblackaby Facebook: https://bit.ly/2WvZPzw Read Richard's latest blog posts at www.richardblackaby.com  

Can any brand become a mobile provider? That's the question Matthew Roberts explores at MWC Barcelona 2025, as he sits down with two industry leaders who are reshaping traditional telecom models through Amdocs' ConnectX—or as some might call it, “telco in a box.” First, Matt is joined by Stephanie Ormstron, Head of Commercial and Product at AT&T's MVNX Ecosystem. Together, they unpack what mobile virtual network experiences (MVNX) are, how they differ from traditional MVNOs, and why they're opening up powerful new partnership opportunities. Stephanie explains how non-telco brands can now tap into AT&T's network and embed connectivity directly into their customer experience. Next, Matt speaks with Zbigniew Pawlik, better known as Zibi, Founder & CEO of MVNE.PL. Inspired by a transatlantic sailing trip, Zibi shares how he launched his own mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) in Poland. He walks through the challenges of getting the venture off the ground, why the Polish market has lagged behind the rest of Europe, and how ConnectX is making telecom entrepreneurship more accessible than ever. Whether it's a fintech platform bundling data, or a retail brand offering loyalty-driven mobile plans, hear how connectivity is becoming less about infrastructure—and more about experience.

You are here. This is what alignment feels like.To support your Earth JourneyToday's full article: https://sairaembra.substack.com/p/as-above-so-below?r=4qkzq3Peace, I'm Saira Embra

Explore the world of telecom leadership with Carrie Charles on the latest episode of 5G Talent Talk. Joining her is Lynn Whitcher, the President of the Women's Wireless Leadership Forum (WWLF) and General Counsel for MD7. Lynn shares her remarkable journey from litigator to telecom industry leader, offering insights into the evolving landscape of wireless infrastructure and the crucial role of women within it.In this episode, Lynn emphasizes the significance of networking and relationship-building in the telecom industry, shedding light on WWLF's mission to support and empower women professionals. Discover the wealth of opportunities available through WWLF, a national organization powered by the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), as Lynn and Carrie delve into the organization's impactful programs and networking events, including the WWLF annual event coming up at Connect (X) in Atlanta. Learn how WWLF is driving change by promoting STEM careers and advocating for greater female representation in the wireless industry.Join the conversation as Lynn and Carrie explore the importance of employer support, the evolution of diversity initiatives, and the power of self-investment in career advancement. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a budding talent, this episode offers actionable insights and inspiration for thriving in the dynamic world of telecom.  Join the 5G Talent Talk community today: broadstaffglobal.comInstagramLinkedInFacebookYouTube

Step into the dynamic world of wireless infrastructure with Carrie Charles on 5G Talent Talk as she sits down with Patrick Halley, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA). Discover Patrick's unexpected journey into telecommunications and his pivotal role in shaping connectivity for all. Patrick shares insights into WIA's mission to advocate for widespread wireless infrastructure deployment, ensuring connectivity everywhere. Get an exclusive sneak peek into the upcoming Connectivity Expo "Connect (X)" in Atlanta, promising unparalleled opportunities for collaboration and knowledge exchange. Explore WIA's groundbreaking workforce development initiatives, including apprenticeship programs and innovative training, addressing the evolving needs of the industry. Gain valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities facing the wireless industry in 2024 and beyond, from the impact of artificial intelligence to the proliferation of private 5G networks.   Join the 5G Talent Talk community today: broadstaffglobal.comInstagramLinkedInFacebookYouTube

Adam Stone, CEO of StartAdam, sheds light on how his unique communication consolidation tool skyrocketed in user acquisition using the power of SEO. By connecting platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Telegram, StartAdam simplifies B2B communication in an ingenious way.Here's what you'll discover:

Andy & John celebrate their 50th episode by recording one on the ConnectX 2023 show floor.  They interview a variety of ConnectX participants including Vin Manoli of Pike Renewables, Scott Duncan of Obscure Tech LLC, and Nick Davis of WirelessPSC.

Andy & John discuss AT&T's new at home 5G offering, Europe already planning for 6G, and the upcoming ConnectX show in New Orleans.