Podcasts about conventional

Live on the floor of the Texas Tactical Police Officers Association conference in Round Rock, Texas, April 2026, we've got another full crew around the table: Chris Kuras of Good Dude Concepts, his partner Franco, Kevin Selent from Rogue Targets, and Tom Marchitto of Sub Second. Before a single product gets mentioned, the conversation lands exactly where Iron Sights always does: the people solving problems that their agencies were never going to solve for them, doing it on their own dime, on their own time, while still actively serving on agency teams at multiple capacities.The session digs into three specific problems and the products born out of frustration with each. Kevin Selent breaks down why every conventional paper target on the market may be presenting PID flaws in training, and how Rogue Targets' real-model, background-free, anatomy-based silhouettes force genuine processing speed under stress. Tommy Marchitto traces Sub Second from Jeff Thompson sewing belts in the barracks of 7th Group all the way to the patrol-focused Exigent Response course that exists because body cam footage kept showing the same training deficiencies over and over. And Chris Kuras walks through the full origin of the BRB, from cutting targets with a knife in a dark abandoned mall, to a year of garage prototyping, to a real-world vehicle rescue that saved two small children.Running underneath all of it is a trend that keeps pulling back to the surface: the shift happening right now in the law enforcement training space, where officers still on the job are refusing to wait for agencies to catch up, are sharing curriculum instead of hoarding it, and are building collaborative networks, not competing fiefdoms. The conversation covers processing speed, training time lost to bad setup, the politics of progressive use-of-force policies, what game film from other agencies actually teaches, and why rising tides lift all ships.In this episode:• Conventional paper targets have borders and backgrounds that let shooters see the target before fully processing PID, risk assessment, and the processing speed required for both.• Rogue Targets uses real-model casting calls to produce subjects in multiple positions, skin tones, clothing colors, and threat postures, including seated and ground-level targets, because real warrant service is three-dimensional and bad guys aren't brown cardboard standing in the center of a white wall• Sub Second originated when Jeff Thompson started sewing belts in the barracks of 7th Special Forces Group; the name came from a sub-second draw on the range that day, and the company evolved from common tactical belts to a patrol-specific belt with full MOLLE and no D-ring after agencies pushed back on the buckle• The BRB mounting solution places the bar on a rare-earth magnet behind the pistol on the belt rather than on the vest, solving two problems at once: spalling risk from solid metal against soft armor, and the practical reality that patrol officers need both hands free to breach and then immediately transition to a primary or secondary weapon• Exigent Response for Patrol course was titled deliberately to get past administration, because the phrase 'hostage rescue for patrol' got rejected outright at multiple agencies, even though the actual content is about giving patrol officers the minimum viable skill set to act in the minutes before a team arrives• A neighboring agency incident where a female was stabbed over 100 times validated the BRB in the field: an officer on a regional part-time team used the BRB to break and rake a rear window and pull two small children to safety before the suspect could reach them• The collaboration model running through Good Dude Concepts, Rogue Targets, and Sub Second is explicit: open-source problem solving, no gatekeeping of curriculum, cross-promotion on social media, and a Good Dude scholarship fund where revenue is redirected to sponsor officers to attend training classes• TTPOA stands apart from other law enforcement conferences because the vendors are also the instructors on the live training days, meaning officers are being trained on products by the same people who designed them from field experience, not by admin staff checking a procurement boxChapters:0:01 The Capable Standard: Scott's new project1:51 Iron Sights intro2:34 Live at TTPOA: setting the scene3:52 Chris Kuras and Good Dude Concepts4:54 Franco intro: SWAT and canine handler5:54 Kevin Selent and Rogue Targets7:30 Tommy Marchitto and Sub Second intro33:47 Why conventional targets may not be optimal in the shoot house37:38 How Rogue Targets was born55:55 Sub Second origin story1:00:17 BRB mounting solution and spalling problem1:41:39 Where to find everyone and closing shoutoutsMentioned:Chris Kuras — Owner of Good Dude Concepts, full-time SWAT officer and instructor in South Florida, creator of the BRB breaching tool.Franco — Police officer on SWAT and canine handler in South Florida, colleague of Chris Kuras who attended TTPOA to help with the Good Dude Concepts booth.Kevin Selent — Owner of Rogue Safety Group and creator of Rogue Targets; DHS federal SWAT team member based in Miami with over 16 years on a federal tactical team.Tom Marchitto — Patrol sergeant, K9 handler, and part-time SWAT member from Connecticut, member of the Sub Second team alongside Jeff Thompson.Jeff Thompson — Founder of Sub Second, who started sewing tactical belts in the barracks of 7th Special Forces Group.Devin — Attending TTPOA to help staff the Sub Second booth while Jeff Thompson managed a warehouse move.Kim Pastore — Founder of the Jorge Pastore Foundation, credited with pulling together the Iron Sights recording setup at TTPOA.Paul Costa — Firearms instructor at Achilles Heel Tactical, cited as an example of an instructor whose delivery of information is as instructive as the shooting content itself.Craig Douglas — Founder of ShivWorks, praised for his instructor development style and the clarity with which he delivers information.Scott Oates — Appeared alongside Craig Douglas and Brian Frias at the Combative Summit episode Scott recorded about how to deliver training information.Brian Frias — Appeared alongside Craig Douglas and Scott Oates at the Combative Summit; BJJ black belt and ShivWorks instructor.Tony — Friend and trainer in South Florida who connected Kevin Selent with Chris Kuras by suggesting Kevin Selent call Chris on the day he was testing his first targets.

Electricity demand is rising, capital is tightening, and nuclear is back in the conversation as utilities, governments, and large power users look for firm low-carbon supply. But the central question is not whether advanced nuclear can attract interest. It is whether any new design can get far enough ahead on cost, manufacturability, and fuel strategy to break from the economics that have constrained conventional nuclear for decades.Host Sylvia Leyva Martinez is joined by Thomas Jam Pedersen, co-founder and CEO of Copenhagen Atomics, to examine one of the more unconventional answers now being put forward: thorium molten salt reactors built around low-pressure operation, standardized manufacturing, and a fuel strategy that could use spent nuclear fuel alongside thorium. Their core argument is that most of the nuclear sector is still trying to improve on a legacy light-water model that may remain too expensive, too complex, and too slow to scale against the pace of future energy demand.A large part of the discussion focuses on what that alternative looks like in practice. Pedersen argues that operating at atmospheric pressure changes the cost and engineering profile of the reactor itself, making smaller units easier to manufacture and potentially easier to deploy repeatedly. He also lays out why Copenhagen Atomics sees spent fuel not only as a waste problem but as a potential input, provided it can be recycled economically and paired with thorium to achieve higher fuel efficiency. The commercial model follows the same logic: standardize the reactor unit, let customers source the rest of the plant locally, and avoid the bespoke, first-of-a-kind economics that have burdened much of the sector.The episode also looks ahead to the harder constraints that will determine whether that thesis holds. Licensing remains slow and expensive, investor appetite is still shaped by the long history of political and regulatory risk in nuclear, and even successful advanced designs are unlikely to make a meaningful dent in global electricity supply before 2035. The takeaway is that the real test for advanced nuclear is no longer just technical credibility. It is whether a new generation of reactor companies can prove they have found a model that lowers cost, reduces deployment risk, and makes nuclear scalable in a very different energy market.This episode is brought to you by twentytwo & brand – a marketing and PR agency built specifically for energy leaders.Lots of agencies say they work with energy companies. twentytwo & brand was built for them. They've partnered with more than 120 companies driving the energy transition – from growth-stage startups to globally recognised industry leaders. Media relations, brand design, video, paid advertising and community engagement – they cover it all under one roof. No onboarding lag, no industry crash course – they speak your language on day one. If you're ready to sharpen your story and supercharge your marketing, find them here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Can preterm birth be prevented? Historically the answer has been no, and the numbers back that up. In 2006 the U.S. preterm birth rate was about 12 percent. In 2024 it was 10.4 percent. Medicine has gotten dramatically better at keeping premature babies alive, but almost no better at keeping pregnancies from ending early. In this episode, Kristin and Dr. Abdelhak make the case that the answer is yes, preterm birth can be prevented far more often than it is now, and that the field has been looking in the wrong place. Preterm birth is not one condition. It is a grab bag: placental abruption, systemic infection like appendicitis or pyelonephritis, uterine overdistension from twins, triplets, or polyhydramnios, trauma, severe hypertension, stimulant and cocaine use. Every one of those causes announces itself. The woman with triplets is obviously carrying triplets. The woman with an abruption is bleeding and in pain. So what about the woman with none of that, doing everything right, who shows up at 30 weeks contracting and three centimeters dilated? For forty years the answer was "subclinical infection," a diagnosis Dr. Abdelhak takes apart in this episode. If it is subclinical, why is preterm labor the only clinical thing it ever does? Why does an appendicitis start with pain and fever and end in labor, while this mystery infection skips straight to the last step? And after four decades of amniocentesis studies cataloguing cytokines, interleukins, and prostaglandins, where is the treatment? There isn't one, because researchers found exactly what they went looking for. His answer is mechanical, not microbial. The cervix is a timekeeper on the pregnancy. Conventional teaching says contractions open the cervix. He argues it runs the other way: the cervix quietly gives way over weeks, and when it opens far enough, labor starts. That is why he says he is almost never surprised by a preterm labor. He was already watching the cervix shorten. Also covered: why previous preterm birth is the single strongest risk factor (it is the same cervix), why cone biopsy raises risk more than LEEP does, what funneling on ultrasound actually tells you, the difference between classic cervical insufficiency and the milder version that still lets you reach the third trimester, and why a three-hour precipitous labor at 38 weeks may be the same finding wearing a friendlier face. The practical takeaway: serial cervical length measurement for anyone with a red flag, first-time moms included, and cerclage when the cervix starts to open. Screening plus treatment, not a pill for an infection nobody can find. Plus: why the president and Taylor Swift would get their cervix measured every single week, and what that tells you about the standard of care the rest of us are offered. Topics covered, in order Why this topic is worth repeating, and why the framing here is not the conventional one The better question: preventing preterm birth, not preterm labor Fifty years, the March of Dimes, and a rate that has barely moved What we did get better at: neonatal survival and outcomes, not prevention Preterm birth as a grab bag, not a single disease Placental abruption Systemic infection: appendicitis, pyelonephritis, sepsis, severe pneumonia, COVID The subclinical infection theory, and the case against it Why the amniocentesis and cytokine studies found what they set out to find Uterine overdistension: twins, triplets, polyhydramnios Trauma, decidual hemorrhage Severe hypertension, pulsatile flow, and abruption risk before 20 weeks Cocaine, methamphetamine, smoking The patient nobody can explain, and what is actually going on The core claim: dilation causes the contractions, not the other way around Why Dr. Abdelhak is rarely surprised by a preterm labor Mild cervical insufficiency, and "dreamlike" cervical insufficiency at 38 weeks Why previous preterm birth is the number one risk factor LEEP versus cone biopsy, and why cone matters more Normal variation in cervical length, and the big nose analogy Length is not everything: bulk, thickness, and how the cervix feels Funneling on ultrasound as a warning sign The proposal: serial cervical length screening plus cerclage Why the numbers are U.S. numbers, and why international rates are not trustworthy The VIP standard of care, and who actually gets weekly scans Key takeaways Preterm birth is not one condition. Abruption, systemic infection, overdistension, trauma, and severe hypertension each have their own mechanism, and each is usually obvious on arrival. "Subclinical infection" is not a diagnosis, it is a placeholder. Forty years in, it has produced no treatment and no measurable drop in the preterm birth rate. The cervix is the timekeeper. When it is weak, it opens slowly over weeks, and labor follows the opening rather than causing it. Previous preterm birth predicts the next one because it is the same cervix. You cannot order a new one. Cone biopsy raises preterm birth risk more than LEEP, because more cervix is removed. Length is a clue, not a verdict. Plenty of women have naturally short cervixes and carry to term. Funneling, bulk, and change over time matter as much as a single number. The intervention that would move the needle already exists. Serial cervical length measurement in anyone with a risk factor, and cerclage when it starts to open. Screening and treatment, not a mystery pill. Terms mentioned Placental abruption — the placenta separating from the uterine wall before delivery. Pyelonephritis — kidney infection. Polyhydramnios — too much amniotic fluid. Uterine overdistension — the uterus stretched beyond its comfortable capacity, as with twins or triplets. Cervical insufficiency — a cervix that opens without labor. Funneling — the cervix opening from the inside out, visible on ultrasound before any external change. Cerclage — a stitch placed to reinforce the cervix. LEEP and cone biopsy — procedures removing cervical tissue after abnormal Pap or HPV findings. Precipitous labor — a very fast labor, often under three hours. Memorable quotes: "I am telling you what happened was the three centimeters dilated caused the contractions." "If it's subclinical, why doesn't it stay that way?" "The cervix is a mechanical timekeeper on the pregnancy." Got something you want to share or ask? Keep it coming. We love hearing from you. Email us or send a voice memo, and you might just hear it on the next episode. Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe your questions could be featured in our next episode. For additional resources and information, be sure to visit our website at Maternal Resources: https://www.maternalresources.org/ You can also connect with us on our social channels to stay up-to-date with the latest news, episodes, and community engagement: YouTube: youtube.com/maternalresources Instagram: @maternalresources Facebook: facebook.com/IntegrativeOB TikTok: NatureBack Doc on TikTok Grab Our Book: The NatureBack Method for Birth—your guide to an empowered pregnancy and delivery. Shop now at naturebackbook.myshopify.com

I have something brand new I want to invite you to. It's a free live class called The Thriving Widow Blueprint: Why Conventional Grief Advice Fails and What Actually Works.If you've read the books, listened to the podcasts, tried therapy or a grief group, stayed busy, given it time, and you still feel stuck, this class is for you.So much of what we've been taught about grief is outdated or incomplete, and when it doesn't work, widows often assume they're the problem. You might wonder if you're grieving wrong, if you should be further along, or if this is simply what life is going to feel like now.In this class, I'll show you why some of the most common grief advice can keep you spinning, what the five stages of grief never taught us, and the difference between a grief problem and a you problem. Most importantly, I'll teach you what actually helps you move forward and start feeling like yourself again.The Thriving Widow Blueprint is completely free and live. Save your seat here: https://the-widowed-mom-podcast.captivate.fm/freeclass

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

Conventional wisdom about selling a business is pretty clear: If at all possible, get your money at closing. Don't leave a big chunk of the purchase price dependent on the future performance of a business you no longer control. David C. Barnett, who helps people buy and sell businesses, has challenged that conventional wisdom, arguing that earnouts and other forms of deferred payment can sometimes help buyers and sellers get better deals done. Josh Patrick, who has owned and sold businesses himself and advised many other owners through transactions, is more skeptical. Which is why I was kind of hoping for a fight.Instead, Dave and Josh end up agreeing on quite a lot—including that once a seller decides to leave money in a deal, choosing the right buyer becomes every bit as important as negotiating the right price. Can the buyer actually run the business? What happens if things go wrong? What information should the seller continue to receive? And how can the deal be structured so that both sides have an incentive to make the transition work? So no, this isn't quite the earnout cage match of my dreams. It's actually far more insightful than that. The episode is brought to you by Grasshopper Bank.

I am honored to connect with Dr. Eric Osansky today. He is a chiropractic physician, clinical nutritionist, and functional medicine provider. He is also an author who loves to write about hyperthyroidism and a lifestyle-focused approach to it. In today's conversation, Dr. Osansky unpacks his own Graves diagnosis in 2008 and highlights the typical symptoms of hyperthyroidism, the unique physiology of thyroid dysfunction, and specific risk factors. We explore traditional treatment pathways, the influence of low-dose naltrexone and other immunomodulatory supplements, and the gut-thyroid axis. We also discuss how most of our immune system is located in the gut, the influence of leaky gut and autoimmune disease, perimenopause as a trigger window for symptoms, and how these often overlap with thyroid health. Stay tuned for an interesting and insightful conversation on thyroid health, Graves' disease, hyperthyroidism, and more. IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN: What Graves' disease is, and how it differs from other causes of hyperthyroidism The first symptom of Graves' disease that Dr. Osansky experienced, and other common symptoms of Graves' disease Genetics, environmental triggers, and other factors that could contribute to autoimmune thyroid disease Conventional treatment options that are available for Graves' disease, how they work, and why treatment decisions should be individualized Why Dr. Osansky recommends continuing to support immune and gut health after radioactive iodine or thyroid surgery How low-dose naltrexone may help some people with Graves' disease modulate their immune systems Foods, lifestyle measures, and supplements that can support immune regulation alongside appropriate medical care The relationship between the gut microbiome, intestinal permeability ("leaky gut"), and autoimmunity How thyroid symptoms and hormone changes during midlife can overlap, and why laboratory testing is important when symptoms overlap Bio: Eric Osansky Dr. Eric Osansky is a chiropractor, clinical nutritionist, and certified functional medicine practitioner who has been helping people with hyperthyroidism and Hashimoto's since 2009. He is the author of the books "Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves' Disease", "The Hyperthyroid Healing Diet", and "Hashimoto's Triggers", and is the host of the Save My Thyroid podcast. Dr. Osansky was personally diagnosed with Graves' disease in 2008 and was able to restore his health through a natural approach, and since then has helped others reverse their hyperthyroidism through his SAVED Thyroid framework. Connect with Cynthia Thurlow   Follow on X, Instagram & LinkedIn Check out Cynthia's website. Submit your questions to support@cynthiathurlow.com  Join other like-minded women in a supportive, nurturing community: The Midlife Pause/Cynthia Thurlow.  Purchase Cynthia's book, The Menopause Gut. Cynthia's Intermittent Fasting Transformation Book The Midlife Pause Supplement Line Connect with Dr. Eric Osansky Website Save My Thyroid Project Substack Newsletter Dr. Osansky's books, Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves' Disease, The Hyperthyroid Healing Diet, and Hashimoto's Triggers, are available on Amazon.

Cognitive behavioral therapy may reduce tinnitus distress, while most drugs fall short.

Kinsella on Liberty Podcast: Episode 495. Lecture, "Rothbard's Revolutionary Contract Theory," "Liberté Tribute to Rothbard on his Centenary: Rothbard 100: A Legacy for Future Generations," Sociedad de la Libertad Latam (SdL) (a Latin American think tank based in Lima, Peru) and the 5th American Youth for Liberty Forum (Aug. 12, 2026, International Youth Day; via Youtube).  Attendees  included young people with a background in libertarian thought from Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico. The speech was my English language talk interspersed with a Spanish translation by the moderator, Rosa María Apaza, Presidente SDL LATAM. https://www.youtube.com/live/CwVbyai6es4?si=vnnBw4gMTW4oMTt3 The speech I read from is below, along with other information about this event. Related KOL493 | Rothbard's Greatest Hits: A Personal Mix Tape (Porto, Portugal) “The Title-Transfer Theory of Contract” A Libertarian Theory of Contract: Title Transfer, Binding Promises, and Inalienability, ch. 9 in Legal Foundations of a Free Society (Houston, Texas: Papinian Press, 2023) KOL225 | Reflections on the Theory of Contract (PFS 2017) KOL197 | Tom Woods Show: The Central Rothbard Contribution I Overlooked, and Why It Matters: The Rothbard-Evers Title-Transfer Theory of Contract KOL020 | “Libertarian Legal Theory: Property, Conflict, and Society: Lecture 3: Applications I: Legal Systems, Contract, Fraud” (Mises Academy, 2011)  around Slide 16: slides here KOL146 | Interview of Williamson Evers on the Title-Transfer Theory of Contract https://www.instagram.com/reel/DbUXhjqqNwC/?igsh=MWxkMGg1YWd3ZzNreg== https://youtu.be/LSt3 Faltan 8 dias para disfrutar la ponencia de Stephan Kinsella en el Homenaje Liberté a Rothbard y el V Foro Americano Juventud en Libertad#DiaInternacionaldelaJuventud#12Ago Desde 10 am a 9 pm Perú via canal YT 36 speakers del continente VLLC! Tgs ONPE Alcaldia de Lima Corvetto pic.twitter.com/qTLmZDuMoL — SDLLATAM (@SDLPeru) August 5, 2026 https://www.youtube.com/live/CwVbyai6es4?si=Q70FouQ-TGBeovZI https://www.youtube.com/live/Ows6cjGVE8U?si=MjfnkVhOuXlrBzY3

Your patient is nine years old. One first permanent molar is crumbling — the others look fine. Does it stay, or does it go?Is that broken-down first permanent molar really down to poor brushing — or is it Molar Incisor Hypomineralisation?When is the right time to take a first permanent molar out — and how do you read it off the X-ray?And how do you tell a parent their child needs an adult tooth removed — without losing them?First permanent molars of poor prognosis are one of the genuine head-scratchers of general practice — full of ifs, buts and timing. In this episode Jaz sits down with Dr Nicole Sturzenbaum, a paediatric dentist and the owner and clinical director of Toothbeary in Richmond, London, to work through the whole decision: getting the diagnosis right (molar-incisor hypomineralisation versus caries), reading the extraction window off an OPG, the restorative ladder from sealant to stainless steel crown, when to bring in the orthodontist, and how to handle the conversation with anxious parents. There's no one-size-fits-all answer — but there is a clear way to think about it.Protrusive Dental Pearl: Painless Polishing for Anxious KidsThe mechanical clean is what frightens children (and plenty of adults) — the scaler, the bristle brush, the gritty prophy paste. For the polishing part, a colourless plaque-dissolving foam gel does the job without any of it. It fizzes wherever there is plaque, so you can hand the child a mirror and show them exactly where to brush; it leaves the teeth satin-smooth, reduces gingival inflammation, and is painless and non-invasive.Two caveats: it does not remove calculus — you still need a hand or ultrasonic scaler for that — and you should agitate the gel gently at the gingival margin for the full effect. It is especially useful for orthodontic and adolescent patients because it reaches the nooks around brackets, which is where post-orthodontic white-spot lesions start.Product: Magic3 (3% hydrogen peroxide, colourless plaque indicator), by Dr Wyman Chan — protrusive.co.uk/magic3.What You'll Take From This EpisodeDiagnosis first — MIH or caries? The distinction changes the plan, the prognosis and the whole conversation with the family.Reading the extraction window off an OPG — why chronological age tells you nothing, and what the second molar's bifurcation tells you instead.The restorative ladder — seal, composite, preformed metal crown, or plan the extraction: matching the least invasive option that will actually hold.When to involve the orthodontist — essential or desirable, which teeth come out, and managing the space afterwards.Getting sensitive molars numb — why MIH teeth are so hard to anaesthetise, and the comfort stack that helps.Highlights of This Episode00:00     TEASER00:59     First Permanent Molars of Poor Prognosis in Children02:51     Painless Chemical Polishing for Kids (Protrusive Dental Pearl)04:53     Meet Dr Nicole Sturzenbaum, Paediatric Dentist11:49     MIH or Caries? Getting the Diagnosis Right15:14     What Is MIH? Causes, Grades and 'Cheese Molars'17:23     When to Extract a First Molar: Reading the OPG20:08     Sealant, Composite or Crown for MIH Molars22:32     Stainless Steel Crowns for Hypomineralised Molars25:52     Do You Need an Orthodontic Opinion Before Extraction?29:15     Talking to Parents About Removing an Adult Tooth31:56     Anaesthesia Tips for Sensitive MIH Molars36:14     Managing the Space After First Molar Extraction41:15     Balancing and Compensating Extractions Explained47:53     Early Orthodontics and Prevention at Toothbeary51:15     OUTROFrom the GuestDr Nicole Sturzenbaum is a paediatric dentist and the owner and clinical director of Toothbeary, a paediatric dental practice in Richmond, London. 

What happens when an AI agent is compromised, manipulated, or simply does something nobody expected, but already has permission to access your most sensitive systems? In this episode of Tech Talks Daily, I speak with Geoffrey Mattson, CEO of SecureAuth, about why securing enterprise AI requires businesses to think beyond protecting models and start paying much closer attention to identity, authorization, access control, and what AI agents are actually allowed to do. Geoffrey argues that AI agents present a different security challenge from traditional software. Conventional applications can be tested against relatively predictable behavior. AI models are far less deterministic, particularly when prompt injection, excessive permissions, unexpected behavior, and autonomous actions enter the equation. His advice is to assume an agent could behave unpredictably and control what happens when it attempts to access a database, execute a financial transaction, call an API, or interact with another business system. We discuss what this means as companies race to introduce agentic AI. Geoffrey shares examples of employees granting AI tools permissions without fully understanding what they have approved, along with agents gathering information that creates unexpected privacy and compliance problems. This creates a difficult challenge for CIOs and CISOs. Boards want AI adoption because of its potential competitive value, while employees increasingly depend on AI tools to do their jobs. Simply blocking agents is unlikely to work. Security teams instead need mechanisms that allow innovation while controlling what those agents can access. Geoffrey explains why Zero Trust becomes particularly relevant here. Rather than authenticating a user or agent once and assuming it remains trustworthy, enterprises need to continually evaluate whether an action should be permitted at that specific moment. This leads to the concept of continuous authorization. Geoffrey explains how identity security is moving from asking "Who are you?" toward understanding intent, behavior, context, and authority for individual actions. This becomes increasingly important when one AI agent can create sub-agents, which can then create additional agents and pass permissions down the chain. We also discuss why agentic AI is exposing years of accumulated security debt. Many of the underlying problems are familiar: excessive privileges, inconsistent access controls, incomplete Zero Trust implementations, and systems that trust identities for too long. AI agents amplify those weaknesses because they can operate at machine speed. Geoffrey describes this as combining the unpredictability of humans with the power of machines. For CIOs, CISOs, security architects, identity teams, and business leaders deploying agentic AI, this conversation offers practical questions to ask before connecting agents to enterprise resources. What can the agent access? What authority does it have? Can that authority be reduced as tasks are delegated? Is every important action evaluated independently? And can access be revoked immediately when behavior changes? The goal is not to prevent organizations from using AI agents. It is to create a security layer that gives developers and employees room to experiment while ensuring agents only have the authority they need at the moment they need it. As autonomous AI becomes part of the enterprise workforce, identity alone may no longer be enough. Businesses increasingly need to understand intent, control authority, and continuously decide whether the next action should be allowed.

You've probably heard both sides of this argument: that organic and conventional produce are nutritionally identical, and that homegrown vegetables blow store-bought out of the water. Which one is true? In this episode, I dig through the peer-reviewed research on three separate questions: whether organic farming produces more nutritious food, whether soil health itself changes the nutrient content of what we eat, and what happens to those nutrients in the days between harvest and the moment food lands on your plate. I'm treating this as a real meta-analysis, pulling together findings from major systematic reviews, long-term field trials, and postharvest storage studies, and following the data wherever it leads. The answer is more interesting, and more useful for your own garden, than either side of the argument usually admits. By the end, you'll know exactly which parts of the nutrient-density conversation hold up under scrutiny and which parts are oversimplified, plus what it means for the food coming out of your own backyard. Let's dig in! Get your bag of Larry's Coffee and a free gift from their fair-trade partners at https://LarrysCoffee.com/JustGrow Peer-Reviewed Sources Smith-Spangler et al. (2012), Annals of Internal Medicine — Are Organic Foods Safer or Healthier Than Conventional Alternatives?: https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-157-5-201209040-00007 Baranski et al. (2014), British Journal of Nutrition — Higher Antioxidant and Lower Cadmium Concentrations in Organically Grown Crops (343-study meta-analysis): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4141693/ Worthington (2001), Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine — Nutritional Quality of Organic Versus Conventional Fruits, Vegetables, and Grains: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11327522/ Hunter et al. (2011), Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition — Evaluation of the Micronutrient Composition of Plant Foods Produced by Organic and Conventional Methods: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21929333/ Montgomery & Biklé (2021), Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems — Soil Health and Nutrient Density: Beyond Organic vs. Conventional Farming: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2021.699147/full Lehmann et al. (2014), Soil Biology and Biochemistry — Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Influence on Zinc Nutrition in Crop Plants: A Meta-Analysis: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0038071713004045 Reganold et al. (2010), PLOS ONE — Fruit and Soil Quality of Organic and Conventional Strawberry Agroecosystems: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0012346 Helfenstein et al. (2016), PLOS ONE — Organic Wheat Farming Improves Grain Zinc Concentration: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0160729 Hepperly, Omondi & Seidel (2018), MOJ Food Processing & Technology — Soil Regeneration Increases Crop Nutrients, Antioxidants and Adaptive Responses (Rodale Institute Farming Systems Trial): https://medcraveonline.com/MOJFPT/soil-regeneration-increases-crop-nutrients-antioxidants-and-adaptive-responses.html Davis, Epp & Riordan (2004), Journal of the American College of Nutrition — Changes in USDA Food Composition Data for 43 Garden Crops, 1950 to 1999: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15637215/ Marles (2017), Journal of Food Composition and Analysis — Mineral Nutrient Composition of Vegetables, Fruits and Grains: The Context of Reports of Apparent Historical Declines: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889157516302113 Favell (1998), Food Chemistry — A Comparison of the Vitamin C Content of Fresh and Frozen Vegetables: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0308814697001659 Rickman, Barrett & Bruhn (2007), Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture — Nutritional Comparison of Fresh, Frozen and Canned Fruits and Vegetables, Part 1: https://scijournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jsfa.2825 Li, Pegg, Eitenmiller, Chun & Kerrihard (2017), Journal of Food Composition and Analysis — Selected Nutrient Analyses of Fresh, Fresh-Stored, and Frozen Fruits and Vegetables: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0889157517300418 Galani et al. (2017), Antioxidants — Storage of Fruits and Vegetables in Refrigerator Increases Their Phenolic Acids but Decreases the Total Phenolics, Anthocyanins and Vitamin C: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5618087/ Jo, Shin & Lee (2003), Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry — The Effect of Post-Harvest and Packaging Treatments on Glucoraphanin Concentration in Broccoli: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jf0203592 Just Grow Something: https://justgrowsomething.com Gardening Courses: https://justgrowsomething.com/courses Just Grow Something Merch and Downloads: https://justgrowsomething.com/shop Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/share/g/18YgHveF5P/ Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/JustGrowSomething Feed my coffee habit: https://buymeacoffee.com/justgrowsomething Amazon storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/justgrowsomething Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with fellow Certified Exit Planning Advisor and Board Member of Employee Ownership Canada. Peter Walker - a proud Prince Edward Islander whose eighth-generation family farm shaped everything he believes about ownership, community, and legacy. Peter shares the story of the first business transition conversation he ever had (at 14, at the kitchen table, with his father) and how the eventual wind-down of the family farm rippled through his small community. The episode also marks a milestone for Canadian succession planning: the federal government has made the EOT capital gains exemption permanent, removing the sunset clause that had left owners and advisors uncertain. Peter and Colleen unpack why so many Canadian business owners - especially in rural and Atlantic Canada - avoid succession planning, the access-to-capital challenges outside major cities, the research behind employee ownership's financial and social benefits, and the single most important piece of internal due diligence a founder can do: knowing their own story before someone else writes it for them.   Key Takeaways: The EOT capital gains exemption is now permanent - and it's law. After years as a temporary measure set to expire at the end of 2026, the federal government moved in its spring economic update to make the up-to-$10 million capital gains exemption on qualifying sales to an Employee Ownership Trust permanent. That change has since passed into law (Bill C-30, Royal Assent June 18, 2026), removing the previous sunset clause and giving owners and advisors long-term certainty to plan around the structure. Peter, a board member of Employee Ownership Canada, was involved in the advocacy toward this outcome.   Peter's roots run deep in St. George, PEI (population 90), on a potato and cattle farm in his family since the 1790s - he would have been the eighth or ninth generation. His father sat him and his brother down when Peter was 14 to tell them they would not be taking over the farm. His father operated another 10 years, wound it down in a way that kept the land in the family (now approaching 300 years), but the closure cost about 15 neighbours their seasonal work, local businesses a customer, and the community a piece of its tax base.   Peter frames this as his third act - after Parliament Hill and a career at one of the big five banks. His work now has two halves: helping normalize the transition conversation for business owners, and advocating to grow employee ownership in Canada.   Two structural problems he sees, especially outside major cities: first, access to capital is severely limited - in his experience, capital does not flow easily east of Montreal or into rural regions. Second, the emotional, identity-driven avoidance of succession planning. Owners who strongly identify with being an owner resist planning for a day they can no longer be one, pushing it off until a crisis (death, divorce, disability) forces a rushed outcome.   A recurring insight: many owners can build a long-term strategic roadmap for their business in their sleep, but have never been taught to build one for themselves. The internal due diligence - deciding what you actually want your outcome and legacy to be - is the work most people skip.   The research behind employee ownership (five decades in the U.S., over a decade in the U.K.) is compelling: 8-12% productivity increases, more profitable and resilient companies, loans repaid faster, fewer closures in downturns, and employees retiring with roughly twice the retirement wealth of those at comparable non-employee-owned firms.   Employee ownership is a spectrum, not one thing: worker co-ops (fully democratic, one member/one vote), management buyouts, Employee Ownership Trusts (designed specifically as a transition vehicle), and Employee Share Ownership Plans. EllisDon - one of Canada's largest construction companies - is 100% owned by the people who work there.   Peter's framework for owners: stress-test your thinking across two axes - how much you care about the money, and how much you care about legacy. Conventional wisdom says maximize money and ignore legacy, but Canadian Federation of Independent Business research shows most owners feel genuine internal conflict between the two. If you land in the "maximize value, legacy doesn't matter" quadrant, you have earned the right to sell to a third party - go for it. If legacy matters, then employee ownership, ETA, family transition, or a mix deserve real consideration.   Start early - much earlier than most people think. Peter's father was 38 when he had that kitchen-table conversation, wrestling with 200 years of legacy. Most owners wait until they have decided to sell, which Peter considers far too late; the preparation should begin three to five years prior, at minimum.   A cash-rich exit is not only about maximizing the dollar value - it is about being intentional about what happens next for you, your business, your people, and your community. For many Canadian owners, especially in rural communities, the real opportunity is to begin planning early enough to create options that preserve local jobs and legacy - and, now that the exemption is permanent, to give employee ownership a serious look. Book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.   Please leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more founders find the show and build their path to an intentional, cash-rich exit.   ***   The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

The Guild Mortgage Company wants to be your home loan lender. They do all types of mortgages; FHA, VA, USDA & Conventional. Guild Mortgage Company is an Equal Housing Lender; NMLS 3274. Roy West NMLS 316801 Phone (409) 866-1901.

Unboxing Kickstarter projects and talking about comics. We run the gauntlet on this one. MUSICAL SPOTLIGHT: Steve Robinson & Ed Woltil DOWNLOAD Wurst & Mayhem 3. Wurst & Mayhem 3 By John Edingfield II, Ryan Kroboth And Dave Lentz. The Super Hero's Journey By Patrick McDonnell. … Continue reading →

Featured on WGN Radio's “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on August 8, 2026: Aimee Ferrarell, Accessibility Specialist at Access, joins the show to talk about overhead lift systems and how they can assist disabled users have more independence. Frank also talks about the toll caregivers take on when doing their best to help loved ones. To learn more about […]

Featured on WGN Radio's “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on August 8, 2026: Tim Stearns, owner and president of TJ Stearns Financial Planning & Benefits, joins David Hochberg to discuss your portfolio, what’s at risk, any overexposure to AI or tech and ensuring your investments are as tax efficient as possible. Get a head start on your […]

Featured on WGN Radio's Home Sweet Home Chicago on August 8, 2026: Lindholm Roofing's Assistant Manager Mike Huston talks about the recent damaging weather and why some homeowners don’t necessarily need a brand new roof or replacement! Sometimes all it takes is an expert inspect from the folks at Lindholm Roofing. To learn more about what Lindholm […]

This week on Home Sweet Home Chicago, David Hochberg is joined by Aimee Ferrarell, Accessibility Specialist at Access talking about overhead lift systems, Tim Stearns, owner and president of TJ Stearns Financial Planning & Benefits talking about portfolio risks, and Lindholm Roofing's Assistant Manager Mike Huston talking inspections. As always David takes calls and texts from passionate listeners on […]

Why CHI evaluates 85% more biomarkers to uncover hidden disease risk before symptoms begin DianeKazer.com/PATIENT DianeKazer.com/VIP DianeKazer.com/YEPTIDES Have you ever been told..."Good news! Everything looks normal." ✅ Then why are so many people with "normal" bloodwork still developing... ❤️ Heart disease

Mortgage and real estate expert David Hochberg joins John Williams to talk about how hot the sellers market is in the Chicago area, Fed Chair Warsh keeping interest rates steady, a disappointing ADP job report, and to answer all of your mortgage and real estate questions. David hosts “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on Saturdays from […]

Conventional wisdom teaches that biblical and scientific teachings are incompatible; that each must exist at opposing ends of reality. This idea is preached from church pulpits and taught in learning institutions from the lowest to the highest levels and polarizes people worldwide. Yet, when looked at objectively and with a genuine desire to glean the truth, the two forms of knowledge are found to be not only compatible, but mutually supportive in deep and meaningful ways. Together, they reveal such realities as; • The appearance of the universe from absolutely nothing; • The great age, inner workings, and purpose of our universe; • An accurate chronology of creation and the development of life; • The relation between antediluvian civilizations and today's mysterious megalithic structures • The farcical nature of Darwinian evolution; • The undeniable existence of a Creator The book provides evidence that is intriguing to both the religiously and scientifically inclined.

In this episode, I'm joined by Eddie Enever, a naturopath from Perth, Australia, and a stage 4 cancer survivor, who explains how he approaches integrative cancer care alongside conventional treatment. Eddie shares what he wishes more patients understood about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, treatment timing, recovery, and the risks of combining too many therapies without a clear strategy. You'll discover:• How hyperbaric oxygen therapy may fit alongside chemotherapy and other cancer treatments• Why more supplements and therapies are not always better• The foundations of cancer recovery, including nutrition, sleep, stress, and nervous system support• How Eddie approaches HBOT pressure, timing, and treatment blocks• What patients should consider after remission• Why rebuilding the body can be as important as targeting the tumor

We end the month with a packed show. As we complete July, the moving parts in each critical event are increasing every day. Today, we deal with quite a few.Congress voted again on Thursday to try to force an end to the conflict with Iran. Several Republicans joined Democrats but were not successful in passing it;China vehemently denied the news report by Reuters that China was sending weapons to Iran;Federal Courts have denied the policies of the Trump Administration's policy of deporting illegal aliens without a court hearing again. Conventional wisdom was that because they entered illegally, they could be immediately deported.More massive theft from our government has been revealed: this time in Southern States. How much? $350 million!Two WNBA players were busted on live television for betting on the outcome of the WNBA All-Star game!

The Guild Mortgage Company wants to be your home loan lender. They do all types of mortgages; FHA, VA, USDA & Conventional. Guild Mortgage Company is an Equal Housing Lender; NMLS 3274. Roy West NMLS 316801 Phone (409) 866-1901.

Featured on WGN Radio's Home Sweet Home Chicago on 08/1/26: Rose Pest Solutions' Marketing Director Janelle Iaccino, A.K.A. ‘The Bug Girl,' talks wasp nests and how they can make a deck unusable. Janelle also talks about the quarterly maintenance program that can help keep your property pest-free year-round. To learn more about Rose Pest Solutions and […]

Featured on WGN Radio's “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on August 1, 2026:  IRS Tax Attorney Steven A. Leahy of the Law Office of Steven A. Leahy, PC, with Opem Tax Advocates, talks about all the rules you want to know about when it comes to tax on tips, mandatory gratuities, overtime pay, and NIL income for student […]

Featured on WGN Radio's Home Sweet Home Chicago on 08/1/26: Dave Schlueter of the Law Offices of David R. Schlueter joins the show to talk about “seller’s remorse,” and what’s in play when a higher offer comes in on a home after it’s already in contract. To learn more about what Dave Schlueter can help you with, […]

This week on Home Sweet Home Chicago, David Hochberg is joined by  Rose Pest Solutions' Marketing Director Janelle Iaccino, A.K.A. ‘The Bug Girl,' talking wasp nests, IRS Tax Attorney Steven A. Leahy of the Law Office of Steven A. Leahy, PC, with Opem Tax Advocates, talks about all the rules you want to know about when it comes […]

Struggling with unexplained weight loss, racing heartbeats, or anxiety that won't quit? Your thyroid could be the hidden culprit behind it all. This episode uncovers the truth about hyperthyroidism and Graves' disease, from early warning signs to natural healing strategies most doctors never mention.Host Jenn Trepeck sits down with functional medicine expert Dr. Eric Osansky on Salad with a Side of Fries to explore how diet, stress management, and gut health can help restore thyroid balance naturally.What You Will Learn in This Episode:✅ How to spot early symptoms of hyperthyroidism, from a racing heart to sudden weight loss✅ Why Graves' disease is often autoimmune, and how the triad of autoimmunity and 4 triggers fuel the condition✅ Natural options like bugleweed and motherwort that may support a balanced thyroid✅ How healing the gut and managing stress can influence long-term thyroid healthThe Salad With a Side of Fries podcast, hosted by Jenn Trepeck, explores real-life wellness and weight-loss topics, debunking myths, misinformation, and flawed science surrounding nutrition and the food industry. Let's dive into real-life wellness and weight loss, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store.TIMESTAMPS:00:00 Meet Dr. Eric Osansky, author of Natural Treatment Solutions for Hyperthyroidism and Graves' Disease, Hashimoto's Triggers, and The Hyperthyroid Healing Diet04:59 Dr. Osansky shares how he first noticed symptoms of Graves' disease through an elevated heart rate09:50 A breakdown of key differences between hyperthyroidism and hypothyroidism symptoms13:55 Exploring the autoimmune triad and how genetics, triggers, and leaky gut interact17:28 Environmental toxins, mold, and chemicals that may trigger thyroid imbalances22:03 Conventional treatment options like antithyroid medication and radioactive iodine explained26:30 Natural first steps for safely managing hyperthyroid symptoms and discussion of goitrogens31:22 Why stress management and quality sleep are essential for thyroid healing36:42 The gut thyroid connection and how gut health impacts hormone conversion39:34 Final thoughts on iodine intake and finding the right balance for thyroid supportKEY TAKEAWAYS:

What can you actually do to support gallbladder health—before or after gallbladder removal?In Part 3 of our Gallbladder Series, we move from theory into practice. After exploring the relationship between the gallbladder, microbiome, hormones, and bile acids in Parts 1 and 2, we discuss the clinical tools, supplements, dietary strategies, and testing considerations we use to support patients with gallbladder dysfunction, bile acid disorders, and post-cholecystectomy symptoms. We explore why some patients continue to struggle with digestive symptoms long after gallbladder removal, how hormone fluctuations impact bile flow, and why supporting the microbiome may be one of the most overlooked pieces of gallbladder care.Whether you're dealing with gallstones, bile acid diarrhea, digestive symptoms after surgery, or simply want to better understand how to support healthy bile flow, this episode is packed with practical takeaways.✔ Conventional approaches to gallbladder disease and gallbladder removal✔ Why removing the gallbladder doesn't always solve the entire problem✔ The long-term microbiome consequences of cholecystectomy✔ The connection between gallbladder function, metabolism, and insulin resistance✔ Taurine and glycine for bile acid conjugation and bile production✔ Bitter herbs and how they support bile flow and gallbladder function✔ Dandelion, gentian, chicory, and other classic digestive bitters✔ Phosphatidylcholine, lecithin, and cholesterol balance within bile✔ Choline supplementation and gallbladder support✔ Magnesium and gallbladder motility✔ Ox bile, TUDCA, UDCA, and digestive enzyme support✔ Psyllium fiber and bile acid regulation✔ Butyrate and microbiome support after gallbladder removal✔ The estrogen–microbiome–gallbladder connection✔ DIM and calcium-d-glucarate for estrogen metabolism✔ NAC, milk thistle, and liver support✔ Hormone replacement therapy considerations in patients with gallbladder disease✔ Functional testing options for patients with gallbladder concerns✔ How these concepts have changed our clinical approach to patient care✔ Gallbladder removal may be necessary, but it should also prompt a deeper look at why gallbladder dysfunction developed in the first place.✔ Taurine, glycine, bitters, magnesium, and phosphatidylcholine can all play important roles in supporting bile production and flow.✔ The microbiome is central to bile acid metabolism and should be considered in patients with ongoing digestive symptoms.✔ DIM and calcium-d-glucarate may help support healthy estrogen metabolism and reduce gallbladder stress in susceptible individuals.✔ Post-cholecystectomy patients may benefit from additional support for digestion, microbiome balance, fat-soluble vitamins, and bile acid regulation.✔ Hormones, bile acids, the liver, and the microbiome are deeply interconnected systems that influence one another in meaningful ways.Part 1: Gallbladder Physiology, Bile Acids & The MicrobiomePart 2: The Estrogen–Gallbladder Connection: Hormones, Menopause & Bile AcidsPart 3: Practical Strategies for Supporting Gallbladder Health Before and After SurgeryMusic provided by Blue Dot.

Conventional meat production negatively impacts the environment, public health, national security and economic stability. Despite this, meat consumption continues to rise each year. Bruce Friedrich explores these issues in his book MEAT: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food—and Our Future. Bruce joins us to discuss the book, and how advances into alternative methods of meat production could revolutionize the way we eat. Resources discussed in this episode:MEAT: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity's Favorite Food—and Our Future bookGood Food InstituteGFI BlueskyGFI InstagramGFI LinkedInGFI SubstackGFI ThreadsGFI YoutubeLivestock's Long Shadow reportDiet for a Small Planet bookThinking Fast and Slow bookGiving GreenBruce Friedrich LinkedInHave an idea for an episode? You can email host Jennifer Hetzel at sustainablygeeky@gmail.com.Like the show? Support us at Buy Me a Coffee, and rate/review us wherever you listen. You can also find us on Facebook, X and Instagram.Listen and subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, Audible, and YouTube.

We talked to Peter Tayler for Pioneers: Blood & Stars 1 and Pioneers: Blood & Stars 2, but this episode we skip 3 and go straight to 4 as well as a germ of an idea for the next series … Continue reading →

Featured on WGN Radio's Home Sweet Home Chicago on 07/25/26: Center Guard Plumbing's Mike Epping joins the show to talk about how they can help protect your home from the heavy rains plaguing Chicagoland. Go to wgnplumber.com or call 847-406-8883 to learn about what Center Guard can do for you. Use the word “Kevin” or “Cake” for a […]

Featured on WGN Radio's “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on 07/25/2026: Bob Schmitt of Junkluggers joins the show to inform Illinois residents that you can no longer throw batteries into the trash or recycling. Bob talks about a new statewide, manufacturer-funded drop off program. To learn more about what Junkluggers can do for you, go to www.junkluggers.com or give them […]

Featured on WGN Radio's “Home Sweet Home Chicago” on 07/25/2026: Mr. Floor himself, Igor Murokh, joins the program to talk about hardwood floor owners making mistakes without even knowing it. Igor talks about how Mr. Floor is leading the charge for cleaners and what listeners can do to save a lot of money. For more […]

This week on Home Sweet Home Chicago, David Hochberg is joined by Mike Epping of Center Guard Plumbing to talk about the heavy rains blowing through Chicago and how they can help you. Then, Bob Schmitt of Junkluggers informs listeners about batteries no longer being allowed in your trash. Next, Igor Murokh of Mr. Floor […]

On recent episodes Chris expressed a greater interest in kayak fishing and so the guys connect with Dan Melby, a muskie angler out of Wisconsin, to talk about not only his muskie fishing adventures, but how and why doing it all out of a kayak is a totally different muskie experience!  In this part one the guys drilled down on: Transitioning from multi-species to muskie angling Understanding the Wisconsin River system.Selecting the right river sections Locating muskiesBait selection on Wisconsin rivers Conventional lake fishing vs kayak fishing Choosing and outfitting a muskie kayak 

The Nurses Report on America Out Loud with Melissa Schreibfeder, BSN, RN, BC-FMP – After navigating years of chronic fatigue, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, and ultimately surviving inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, Amber was forced to look beyond standard approaches and ask deeper questions. What she discovered changed everything. The body is not broken. It is...

The Nurses Report on America Out Loud with Melissa Schreibfeder, BSN, RN, BC-FMP – After navigating years of chronic fatigue, Lyme disease, mold toxicity, and ultimately surviving inflammatory breast cancer, a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer, Amber was forced to look beyond standard approaches and ask deeper questions. What she discovered changed everything. The body is not broken. It is...

What makes a society prosper? Shawn Ritenour lays out the Austrian theory of economic progress, and its quarrel with mainstream growth theory. There is no single cause of prosperity, he argues—four "vehicles" drive it: the division of labor, capital accumulation, technological advance, and entrepreneurship. Conventional models can analyze each in isolation but miss the harder task of synthesis: how they must work together. And they leave out the one factor that coordinates the rest—the entrepreneur, the driving force who directs capital, labor, and technology toward what people actually want.Recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on July 22, 2026.Mises University is the world's leading instructional program in the Austrian School of economics, and is the essential training ground for economists who are looking beyond the mainstream.

Story at-a-glance Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that serves as the primary fuel for the cells lining your colon. These cells rely on it for the majority of their energy, making it one of the most important molecules for gut health Your gut bacteria produce butyrate by fermenting fiber, but modern diets and disrupted microbiomes mean many people make too little, and the gut suffers for it Conventional butyrate supplements are largely absorbed high in the digestive tract and destroyed before reaching the colon, where the molecule does its most important work — a textbook delivery failure That combination — deep, well-documented benefit plus near-total delivery failure — makes butyrate the ideal proving ground for targeted delivery technology It is the reason we chose the gut as the first demonstration of what 22nd Century delivery can do, and why more than 35,000 people are already waiting for what comes next

Most people who are quietly unhappy with their lives already know what they want — what they're missing isn't clarity, it's the sense that it's allowed. In this episode, Brett Ingram breaks down the permission problem: a learned decision system that trains capable adults to wait for someone else's approval before making changes they've already decided on internally. He traces where the pattern comes from, what waiting is actually protecting people from, and how to tell the difference between finally authorizing your own life and just making an impulsive mess of it. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why the permission problem doesn't look like indecision — it looks like competence, endless research, and a decision that never quite arrives The tell that separates a permission problem from a genuine "I don't know what I want" problem How childhood approval-seeking becomes an adult decision system, and why conventional success often trains the pattern further instead of curing it What waiting actually protects you from: responsibility for the outcome, disappointing people invested in the old version of you, and the friction of an identity that no longer fits The real difference between courage and recklessness, and between alignment and avoidance — they can feel identical in the moment but aren't the same thing Why clarity comes from acting in small, honest, reversible ways rather than arriving before you act The Seven Questions for Self-Authorization — a framework for telling the difference between wisdom and fear dressed up as wisdom Episode Timestamps [00:00] Introduction — the gap between knowing and allowing [02:00] The tension: doing everything right and still waiting for permission [03:00] What the permission problem actually looks like [06:00] Where it comes from — childhood approval and the decision systems we never replace [09:00] Why conventional success trains the pattern further instead of curing it [13:00] What waiting is quietly protecting you from [17:00] Courage vs. recklessness, alignment vs. avoidance [22:00] Permission as a capacity you build, not something you receive [25:00] Self-authorization in practice — small, private, reversible acts [27:00] The Seven Questions for Self-Authorization [29:00] Closing thoughts and where to go deeper Episode Summary Most of the people this show is built for have done the right things. They've built the career, hit the markers other people recognize as success, done some of the inner work. And somewhere underneath all that competence sits a decision they haven't made — not because they lack the resources or the self-awareness, but because some part of them is still waiting for someone to say it's okay. Brett Ingram's central argument in this episode is that waiting for permission isn't a character flaw or a personality trait. It's a learned decision system, trained into most people by people who loved them, in a context that made sense at the time. Which means it can be examined, and it can be retrained. The permission problem rarely looks like indecision. It looks like competence — someone extremely good at gathering information, weighing options, building a mental spreadsheet of pros and cons, and somehow never quite arriving at the decision they already know they want to make. Brett offers a clean tell: if you can describe exactly what you want and exactly why you haven't moved, and the reason isn't a hard constraint like money or safety but something closer to "I don't think I'm allowed," that's not an information problem. That's a permission problem, and it's different from genuinely not knowing what you want — in the latter case, you can feel the answer even if you haven't found the words for it yet. Brett traces the pattern back to childhood, where approval and safety are functionally the same thing — a parent's approval, a teacher's praise, a peer group's acceptance aren't just nice to have, they're safety information. That builds an early decision system that runs on outside signals. The problem is that system is meant to be temporary scaffolding, and for a lot of capable adults, it never gets replaced — it just gets more sophisticated. A parent's approval becomes a professional credential. A teacher's praise becomes a title or a salary band. Conventional achievement, Brett argues, doesn't cure the permission problem. It often trains it further, because the more validated the path, the more stepping off of it feels like risking the whole operating system rather than making a choice. One of the more useful distinctions in the episode is between what's protecting you and what's just delaying you. As long as a decision hasn't been made, you haven't had to be responsible for the outcome, disappoint the people who benefited from the old version of you, or find out whether the new version of your life actually works. Brett is careful not to swing the message the other way into "just trust yourself and go" — that version is just as dishonest as the one it's reacting against. Instead, he draws real lines: courage is acting in the direction of something you've examined and still believe in, even though it's frightening; recklessness is acting to relieve the discomfort of not having decided yet. Alignment is a decision that holds up when you're calm and rested; avoidance is one that only makes sense when you're activated or exhausted. They can feel identical in the moment. They are not the same thing. The episode's reframe is the core of the argument: permission is not something you receive, it's a capacity you build. That work starts with self-knowledge — your actual values as opposed to the ones you've inherited, your real patterns as opposed to the story you tell about yourself — which connects directly to the self-knowledge work that makes this kind of clarity possible. Clarity, Brett argues, usually doesn't come before you act — it comes from acting in small, honest, reversible ways and paying attention to what you learn. Self-authorization starts private and small: saying an honest sentence out loud to someone you trust, spending real time or money on a version of the thing you've been circling, letting yourself want something for a week without auditing whether you're allowed to. Brett closes with seven questions worth sitting with rather than a five-step framework: what you're actually waiting for permission to do, whose approval you've been treating as decisive, what legitimate responsibilities actually apply, how much of your delay is wisdom versus fear wearing wisdom's clothes, what the smallest honest experiment would be, what evidence would separate alignment from escape, and — the one people skip — what staying exactly as you are is already costing you this year. As he puts it: "Permission was never something you were missing. It was something you hadn't finished building." Resources Mentioned Thomas Edison's filament notebooks — referenced for his reframe on 10,000 failed attempts at the light bulb filament ("I've successfully identified 10,000 ways that don't work"), used to illustrate reframing failure as progress rather than proof to quit Greg Giraldo — comedian and former Harvard-trained lawyer, referenced as an example of leaving a validated, high-status path for the thing he actually wanted to do The Seven Questions for Self-Authorization — the episode's closing framework for distinguishing wisdom from fear when deciding whether to act or keep waiting Frequently Asked Questions What is "the permission problem"? The permission problem is a pattern where someone already knows what they want and why they haven't moved toward it, but the reason isn't a hard constraint like money or safety — it's a sense that they aren't allowed to make the change. It shows up as endless information-gathering and waiting for an external sign, rather than genuine uncertainty about what they want. Why do successful, capable people still wait for permission to change their lives? Because approval-seeking is a decision system built in childhood, when being liked and being safe were functionally the same thing. Conventional success doesn't cure this pattern — it often reinforces it, since the more validated the path someone is on, the more stepping off of it feels like risking the whole system rather than making a normal choice. How do I know if I'm making a courageous decision or a reckless one? Courage is acting in the direction of something you've examined and still believe in, even though it's frightening. Recklessness is acting mainly to relieve the discomfort of not having decided yet. A useful test is whether the decision still holds up after a good night's sleep — alignment tends to survive that; avoidance often doesn't. How can I tell if I really want something, or if it's just a temporary feeling? A genuine, authentic desire tends to be consistent — it shows up in quiet moments as well as dramatic ones, and it survives contact with real information. A temporary emotional reaction is usually loud and short-lived, and it tends to lose its shape the moment you get specific about logistics or things briefly improve in your current situation. Does giving yourself permission mean ignoring my responsibilities to other people? No. Brett draws a clear distinction between disappointing someone you have a genuine obligation to and simply making someone uncomfortable with who you're becoming. Real obligations — financial responsibilities, caregiving, health, commitments — deserve to be honored. Someone else's discomfort with your growth isn't automatically one of those obligations. What questions should I ask myself before making a big life change? Brett offers seven: What am I actually waiting for permission to do? Whose approval have I been treating as decisive, and have I actually asked them? What legitimate responsibilities do I need to account for? How much of my delay is wisdom versus fear? What's the smallest honest, reversible experiment I could run? What evidence would separate alignment from escape? And what is staying exactly as I am already costing me this year? Do I need to feel certain before I make a change? No — the episode argues the opposite. Certainty is usually downstream of experimentation, not upstream of it. Clarity tends to come from taking small, honest, reversible actions and paying attention to what you learn, rather than waiting for full certainty to arrive before you're willing to move at all. Keep Exploring If this episode resonated, these are worth your time: Mind & Inner Life Pillar — The full framework on self-knowledge, values, and the inner work that makes real change possible → Mind & Inner Life Guide Growth & Self-Becoming Pillar — Goes deeper into the experimentation, identity, and timeline questions this episode touches on → Growth & Self-Becoming Guide Breaking Free From Other People's Expectations — A closer look at untangling your own choices from what other people expect of you → optyoumize.com/blog/podcast/breaking-free-from-other-peoples-expectations Enjoyed This Episode? The best way to support optYOUmize is to subscribe and leave a review — it takes about two minutes and makes a real difference in helping more people find the show. Apple Podcasts · Spotify · Amazon Music · YouTube Leave a Review →

Butyrate is a short-chain fatty acid that serves as the primary fuel for the cells lining your colon. These cells rely on it for the majority of their energy, making it one of the most important molecules for gut health Your gut bacteria produce butyrate by fermenting fiber, but modern diets and disrupted microbiomes mean many people make too little, and the gut suffers for it Conventional butyrate supplements are largely absorbed high in the digestive tract and destroyed before reaching the colon, where the molecule does its most important work — a textbook delivery failure That combination — deep, well-documented benefit plus near-total delivery failure — makes butyrate the ideal proving ground for targeted delivery technology It is the reason we chose the gut as the first demonstration of what 22nd Century delivery can do, and why more than 35,000 people are already waiting for what comes next

The boys have a booth at Ai-Kon, this year, but they have a problem: how are they supposed to attract the attention of passerby attendees with all the other great things to do?The solution: hire a cute waifu!This week, AniPro holds a tournament to decide which anime waifu would make the best helper at their booth!Also, Cole's reunited with an old flame, Jay's jamming to music, and more!

Featured on WGN Radio's Home Sweet Home Chicago on 07/18/26: Rose Pest Solutions' Marketing Director Janelle Iaccino, A.K.A. ‘The Bug Girl,' talks spiders and the underlying pest issues attracting them. Janelle highlights the Healthy Home Maintenance program for year-round protection. To learn more about Rose Pest Solutions and what they can do for you, go to rosepestcontrol.com or […]

Send us Fan MailCatherine D'Aragon, CEO of First Aid Beauty, joins Skin Anarchy to discuss how the brand built its barrier science foundation years before barrier repair became a trend, why it develops products around problems instead of buzzy ingredients, how it responds to dupes, what changed after the P&G acquisition, and the GLP-1 body care innovation coming next. Below are the biggest questions answered in this episode.Did First Aid Beauty focus on barrier repair before it was a trend?Yes. The brand was founded in 2009 around sensitive skin, and its hero product, Ultra Repair Cream, carries a clinical claim of strengthened skin barrier in seven days, long before barrier language dominated the market. D'Aragon is direct about the wave of newcomers: "There's a lot of brands that came in and said, oh, we invented barrier repair, and now we're the brand for barrier repair." First Aid Beauty simply talked about it as sensitive skin science, and every formula since has been built to strengthen the barrier.How does First Aid Beauty decide which skincare trends to follow?By evaluating the science behind the trend rather than chasing it. "We need to evaluate the science behind the trend... we don't develop product in three months. We develop product, it takes years to develop." The brand does listen to its community for new ways to use existing products: the KP Bump Eraser body scrub was developed for keratosis pilaris, but when consumers began using it to prep skin before tanning, the brand added that usage to its messaging. Trends can expand how a product is talked about, but they never start the development process.How do you build a skincare brand that lasts?Stay true to the brand DNA through every launch decision. First Aid Beauty was founded to deliver problem solving formulas for sensitive skin with a luxurious experience, filling the gap between effective but joyless drugstore products and sensorial prestige ones. D'Aragon admits the brand once drifted: "We kind of went off track and we launched product that was really not in that kind of problem solution sensitive skin, and we decided to discontinue those products." Anything that makes sensitive skin react in testing never launches, no matter how promising.Is retinol safe for sensitive skin?Conventional retinol often is not, which is why First Aid Beauty spent years solving the problem before entering the category. "We spent like three years researching and we found a very specific technology about encapsulated retinol with slower delivery, then it's less irritation." The encapsulation slows release into the skin, delivering the antiaging benefit without the stripping that disqualifies most retinol products for reactive skin.Can exfoliation work for sensitive skin?Yes, if the acids are chosen for gentleness rather than intensity. The Facial Radiance Pads pair glycolic acid with lactic acid, a gentler acid, to deliver what D'Aragon calls "real exfoliation, but without the irritation." The combination approach reflects the same principle as the retinol work: the category is not off limits for sensitive skin, but the formulation has to be rebuilt around it.Who is the First Aid Beauty customer?Not one person but several distinct tribes, which the brand studies through extended consumer research sessions. "We call it the simple girl, the person that just wants simple product that works and is tired of the trend and is tired of going to social media." Other tribes are actively problem solving specific skin concerns. The brand adapts its messaging to each tribe but never adapts the products themselves, which stay anchored to the science.How does First Aid Beauty respond to dupes?By testing them head to head rather than ignoring them or cutting prices. "We buy the product, we tried it, and we try to find why we have superiority claims. And every time we are superior versus the competition." Superiority shows up in ingredient selection, concentrations suited to sensitive skin, and even material choices like the fabric of the pads. The brand holds its accessible pricing rather than racing dupes to the bottom, and focuses on educating consumers about the differences.Are skincare dupes as good as the original?D'Aragon encourages consumers to investigate rather than assume. "Look at the concentration of the acid, of any ingredient that is important for that product. Look at the combination of ingredients and look it up and try it if you want." Her confidence comes from watching the pattern play out: many consumers try the dupe, then return to the original because it delivers on its promise.Did the P&G acquisition change First Aid Beauty?The brand gained resources without losing its identity. Access to P&G research and development means even more rigorous science, testing, and safety standards, though it can slow launches. "Sometimes we're a little bit slower to launch some products... but at the end of the day, for the consumers, I think it's a plus." The brand also kept its Boston offices and much of its original team rather than relocating to P&G headquarters, preserving the culture that built it.Are indie skincare brands tested as rigorously as big company brands?Not always, and D'Aragon says consumers rarely realize it. Speed to market can come at the cost of testing depth: "In three, four months, you have a new product coming out to life. But has it gone through all the testing? I'm not sure. The US market is not that regulated." She argues that big company ownership, often framed as diluting a brand, can actually mean a safer product because of the additional scientific rigor behind it.How does First Aid Beauty choose new ingredients?Problem first, never ingredient first. "We don't innovate by ingredient because something is buzzy. We innovate by what's the next problem to solve." Once the problem is defined, the team researches which ingredients can solve it safely for sensitive skin. D'Aragon's logic is durability: a buzzy ingredient fades within a year or two, but the problem a product solves remains, which is why Ultra Repair Cream still works across countless scenarios years later.Is First Aid Beauty launching a GLP-1 skincare product?Yes, in body care. D'Aragon revealed that the brand's next innovation targets skin changes from GLP-1 weight loss: "That's gonna be our next innovation next year, in that body GLP-1, to help people with the saggy skin." She frames it as a problem affecting every age and gender that few brands are addressing, consistent with the brand's approach of solving unsexy problems the fancy skincare world ignores.Why doesn't First Aid Beauty lead with fragrance in body care?Because the brand solves problems, and fragrance is not a problem. "There's a lot of brands that are leading with their fragrance. And we will never lead by fragrance... we're there to help you fix some problem." First Aid Beauty was in body care years before the current boom, anchored by the KP franchise, and its ingrown hair pads have become a fast growing product for men and women alike. A generic shower gel or body lotion will never launch because it solves nothing.What leadership advice does Catherine D'Aragon offer?"Agility, flexibility, adaptation, resilience are all qualities that are super important." With teams split across Boston, New York, and Cincinnati, she also insists on protecting time together in person, arguing that the human interaction lost during COVID never fully returned at brands that stayed remote, and that no amount of collaboration tooling replaces it.What career advice does she have for people entering the beauty industry?Rotate through as many functions as possible in the first decade: influencer work, PR, social media, brand marketing. Stay humble through industry cycles, because some years will be tough regardless of talent. Above all: "Be curious, try a lot of things, but also be curious outside of beauty and see what other categories are doing." She notes the industry has reinvented itself roughly 25 times during her career, and curiosity is what keeps a marketer relevant through every wave.Listen to the full episode with Catherine D'Aragon of First Aid Beauty on Skin Anarchy, available wherever you get your podcasts.Shop First Aid BeautyDon't forget to subscribe to Skin Anarchy on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform.Reach out to us through email with any questions.Sign up for our newsletter!Shop all our episodes and products mentioned through our ShopMy Shelf!Support the show

We're back with the third episode in our series on the podcast in which we're working our way through Pam's book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide. Today, we're continuing our exploration of the deschooling phase of the journey with stage seven: Shifting From Control to Connection. Last time, we questioned our beliefs about learning and now, we’re questioning our beliefs about parenting. We talked about how parenting doesn’t have to be adults vs children, that children are capable of making their own choices, that equal doesn’t mean fair, how quitting is not a failure, and how strong relationships are the key. We also remembered to allow ourselves the time and space to grow and change. Exploring these parenting mindset shifts was so much fun! We hope you find this episode helpful! Watch the video of our conversation on YouTube. THINGS WE MENTION IN THIS EPISODE Learn more about Pam's book, The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide. We invite you to join us in the Living Joyfully Network, a warm and welcoming online community of like-hearted parents. It's a non-judgmental space where you can steep in these unconventional ideas around parenting, relationships, and learning, and explore what they might look like day-to-day in your uniquely wonderful family. We offer a free month trial so you can see if it's a good fit for you. Click here to join us. Sign up to our mailing list on Substack to receive our email newsletters as well as new articles about learning, parenting, and so much more! Check out our website, livingjoyfully.ca for more information about exploring unschooling and navigating relationships. EPISODE TRANSCRIPT PAM: Hello everyone, I’m Pam Laricchia from Living Joyfully and I’m joined today by my co-hosts Anna Brown and Erika Ellis. Hello to you both. And we are back with another episode in our “A Field Guide” series. We are working our way through my book, “The Unschooling Journey: A Field Guide”, which is framed around the hero’s journey and is a weave of myths, contemporary stories, and tales from my own journey. And we are deep in the de-schooling phase of our journey right now. In the last episode of the series, which was episode 408, we dug into some of the popular conventional paradigms about learning and found new truths buried in there. And as we continue our journey on the road of trials, in this stage, which is stage seven, we are exploring some unconventional truths about parenting. If you’re newer to unschooling and this is your first time exploring these truths, you’re likely dancing with these ideas more intellectually to just understand what they mean, what are we talking about, and maybe some of the further reaching implications that come along with it. And if you’ve been unschooling for a while and feel like you already intellectually embraced these ideas and have been bringing them into your family’s lives, now’s the time to peel back some more layers to build more connections and contacts around them. Strengthening your web of understanding with your own experiences, building your wisdom around this. And this is where you move towards, what feels to me anyway, believing these truths in your bones, you own them. These are your truths. So, the first truth that we’re going to explore is that parenting is not adults versus children. And right off with that phrase, there are so many aspects to that one truth. Does the conventional approach of pitting adults against children really make sense for us? What assumptions are we making if we believe that to be true? Does it mesh with our experiences with our own children and with the families that we see around us? The presumption of parental power over children is definitely widespread in our culture. We are meant to assume good parenting means power struggles will happen, a battle of wills over whatever the issue at hand happens to be. Yet many of us see right in front of us that it’s a draining and stressful way to live. And that so many adults who grew up in that environment continue to have strained relationships with their parents. That’s always been a curious one for me. So what if, let’s play with what if we choose to drop the assumption that the one right way to successfully parent is to exert power over your child to ensure that they do the right thing at the right moment? It can be challenging when we have little idea of what else to do. Because shifting away from power and control doesn’t mean doing nothing. So to that end, I personally found it really helpful on my journey to focus on connecting with my child rather than directing them. That’s what I could do instead. That helped me shift my energy in the moment to be open to seeing more of what was actually happening rather than that tunnel vision that comes with trying to control something to go one particular way and my way. And to instead get curious about how they were seeing the moment too, recognizing them as other human beings who are with me in this moment, not ones I’m trying to show the right way to go. Anyway, I found this a huge part of my unschooling journey. ANNA: Oh my gosh, it really is this fundamental shift that changes everything. And I feel like we’re handed these ideas about parenting and what the dynamic between parents and kids should look like. This does not feel innate to me. It really feels like something that’s coming from outside. And I truly don’t believe that it feels good to anyone to be locked in power struggles with the people they love most in the world. And I think people press on because they think they’re supposed to. They think this is how it is. This is what I have to do. Even when they have these niggling feelings inside that it doesn’t feel good and I don’t want to interact with my family this way. Because it really just doesn’t make any logical sense. Control, manipulation, and punishments do not work well in any healthy relationship. So take it outside of that parent-child dynamic. It does not work. These are not tools we want our kids to use. They aren’t the tools that we use in our close relationships as adults. So why would we want to bring those tools into the relationship with these beings we cherish above all else? Why would we want to model that? That just never made sense to me. The idea that really helped me the most was understanding that needs drive behaviors. So behind every behavior is an unmet need. Conventional parenting is about controlling behavior, but it never gets at that underlying need where change can actually happen. And if we look for that underlying need and address it, what you find is that behavior that may be offending or challenging at the time can really melt away because the need is being met. And not only that, but it deepens our understanding of each other and our connection. Like you were talking about Pam, that’s how we get to that connected piece by understanding each other. And so for me, that kind of defines the shift from control to connection, from trying to control behaviors, to connecting to understand the needs and address them together. And once there, it just feels better to everyone. And in that environment, we are all learning critical relationship skills that set us up for success, how to express our needs, how to hear another person’s needs, how to problem solve together to meet the needs. That will play out over and over and over again in every relationship in our life, from the clerk at the post office to our closest partner. And that is where I wanted to spend my energy on us all fine tuning those skills together in a safe environment. ERIKA: I agree. This is such a game changer. Moving from that power over dynamic that we’re all so familiar with just from living in our culture, to this place of connection. It just makes such a huge difference in my relationship with my children. And really, like you’re saying my relationship with everyone. And I think it’s surprising to people when they first think about this or first see it in action, because people are not used to this dynamic. I’ve had many experiences, in relating to my kids, friends, with teenagers who are just like, what is this? This is an adult who’s not just trying to tell us to stop, an adult who’s just telling us what to do, or an adult who’s criticizing and judging everything that we do. I’m an adult who is interested in them and wants to hear what they are interested in. And I just have had so many comments like, this is so weird to me, my parents don’t want to hear about this, that I don’t understand this idea of adults who are nice to us. And I think a lot of teenagers have that experience, it really feels like adults are just against them. And so I think it's kind of mind blowing. It really surprises people. But it helps me to remember how I felt when I was a child, and how I felt like I was a whole person, and then people would treat me like I wasn’t, but I knew that I was. And so that feeling is the feeling that kids have. And so the power over dynamic does not make sense to them, it does not feel good to them. We can have people pleasing kids who go along with it. And then we can have kids who push against it, because it doesn’t make logical sense, and it feels terrible. And then about those kids we'll say, Oh, they’re a difficult child or whatever. But kids are people too. We’re all people. And so if I think about how I would have preferred to be treated when I was a kid, that’s a good place for me to start, with respecting children and not wielding my power over them. And what I’ve found in my family is that it’s just so peaceful. Our interactions have a lot more peace, understanding, and mutual respect. There’s not a reason for them to be pushing back so hard against me. There’s not a reason for them to ignore everything I say, because they think I’m just trying to control them. All of those elements that you typically see in mainstream media relationships between teens and adults, it’s just not there. It’s just so much more peaceful. And I think that helps all of us, it helps all of our nervous systems to not constantly be in battle with each other. And it has that feeling of, we’re solving problems together, you’re talking about the underlying needs versus me trying to force my will on to someone else regardless of what they want. And so again, these are our most important, most treasured relationships. So I just think why would we want to bring that power over dynamic into that space that’s so important to us. PAM: I know, I love that. I love all the little bits you guys brought to it. I love having this conversation. But when you think back on, especially, the teen relationships and the teen years, it’s like, oh my gosh, what a huge difference. I didn’t have a lot of conflict with my parents. But I also basically didn’t have a lot of conversations with them at that point, right? Because you knew they were, from best of intentions, but only looking through their eyes. It's about how they think you should do something. So much of it is their baggage from their experiences, right? And I want you to have a better life. It’s almost like inhuman expectations that they share and put on you, like, if I could help my child be the perfect teen into an adult and launch into that whole thing. Those are the kinds of stories that they’re bringing. And yeah, it just feels like one demand after another, right in the conversation. So you don’t start the conversations for the most part. Because you know where they’re going to go. So I, why set myself up for that, right? So that’s the distance that conventionally you see with teens and parents. If we don’t talk, then I'll never know what they’re bringing with those stories. I think when you tweak it to the kid, older kids, like wanting to build their independence, absolutely. That doesn’t mean the connection’s different. The connection is still strong. It’s still there. Of course they can do that. But I think we tend to blame all of that on the teens wanting independence, but so much of it is just because they are bucking against the control, right? ANNA: Absolutely. It’s just so disconnecting. PAM: So, the second truth we are going to dive into is that children are capable of making choices. And this is another one I think can be so surprising for people to discover, right? Because conventionally many parents make most of their children’s decisions for them. Just believing that they’re modeling the right thing to do. And then assuming that their children have learned it and will make those same choices when they grow up and are finally in control of their own lives. And again, most often it’s not done with any malice, right? We love our kids and we want them to learn good choices. But what if we aren’t telling our kids what choices to make? What do we do instead? Again, because it’s not about doing nothing. It’s not about leaving them to their own devices, all these phrases that you hear getting tossed about. It’s about processing with them. What are their questions in this moment? How are they seeing things? What choice makes sense to them? When we aren’t struggling with our kids and are actively trying to nurture that secure and supportive environment, they have the space to consider things from various angles. And make the choice that makes the most sense to them in this particular moment. And have conversations with us about it both before and after the thing. They learn how to make choices by making choices. And I think a key thing to remember as we make this shift in our parenting is to recognize that their choice may well be different from the choice that we would make in similar circumstances. Because, again, people are different. People are so different. I love how different people are. ERIKA: Yes, and I’m so glad you ended with people are different because I really think that is the key here. If I stay stuck thinking that what I would do in this case is the only right answer in that situation, then it can feel impossible to allow my children to make a different decision. But since they’re different people, it doesn’t really even make sense for me to try to impose my preferences on them. Because that takes away their learning. It takes away my learning about them. They can trust me as a sounding board if they want. But if my kids have the space to make their own choices about their own lives, which, you know, maybe that is a big paradigm shift right there, realizing that these are their lives, not mine. I don’t own their life as their parent. Then they can add to their own web of learning about what works for them. So how their choices play out for them will be so much more meaningful if they were the ones who made the original choice. If they’re just doing something that I suggested, and then however it works out, it’s like, why do they even care? It doesn’t really have that same sort of importance to them, because they didn’t choose it. I love the point too, about the opposite of us making choices for them is doing nothing. And it really is not that. It’s being present, building that trust, being trustworthy, being non judgmental about the things that they’re interested in and the things that they want to do. And so they will come to me if they’d like to imagine different scenarios, or if they’re not sure about something. And I know also just by having that connection, when they might need a little push or a little confidence booster, you know, you can do this, you’ve got this. And I know when to trust that even if it doesn’t work out how they thought it would. And sometimes I even know that it won’t. And sometimes I’m right about that. And sometimes I’m wrong about that. But even if it doesn’t work out, I just believe that what they’re learning about themselves and the trust that it builds for themselves, trust in themselves, and then also trust in me that I’m trusting them. There’s just so much trust building that’s happening. I think it’s just huge. ANNA: It really is. I love how you describe that interplay. Because I do think that’s a common first reaction. I’m not supposed to be over involved. So I’m just going to go away. And it isn’t hands off, but it is this what you were describing really being in tune with who they are and trusting in their journey, trusting in your relationship with them. Knowing when you can have conversations and when we can add a little something here. When do I need to just observe or listen or reflect back? And yes, this is where people are different means everything, because we really do tend to think that people see and experience the world in the same way that we do, and that they want to move through the world in the same way that we do. And they just don’t. So how I said it to myself in the early days was that I just don’t know what’s best for another person, even my child, ever. And that just helped stop me and help me stay open and curious about – what is their unique experience here? What are they getting out of this? And it also helped me learn about myself and what things were uniquely mine. And I like how you said, Erika, now, maybe I just lost it. But it’s that sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong. Sometimes it didn’t work out. But it’s not about it working out, right? It’s just about the unfolding of it, because we’re learning all along the way by just taking a step by trying something. I love that so much that this is even about letting go of some end goal of something that we’re all trying to get to. No, it’s about this exploration and learning about ourselves. And I just find kids are so capable. They know from the start, what they need at any given moment, and if they don’t have a fully formed vision of what that is, they know the next step they want to take, just so intuitively. I saw over and over again, they just don’t have the baggage that we’ve had, that I think can make things so much harder. And I think that baggage, kind of in light of what you were saying, is that we tend to have a fixed goal, like, this is what we’re trying to accomplish, so we have to be tunneling in on this endpoint. And I think kids are much more naturally playing with things and figuring things out. And then, like you said, Pam, oh my goodness, we learn how to make choices by making choices. I don’t know how many times I said that to people when my kids were little. I’m like, how can you say that you want them to make good choices, but you don’t let them make choices? How are they going to learn how to make choices? And in that process of making choices, we do learn what works for us, what doesn’t, when to slow down, when to go full steam ahead, when to pivot. All these things come from the doing, not from being told which decision to make. That just short circuits all the learning, and begins this external orientation that’s actually really hard to break. We’ve talked about this a lot too, that once that external orientation is fixed into you, from school, or even family, it’s really hard to step outside of thinking, what does everyone else want from me here? Versus, what do I want?. And I just found kids to be super capable of solving problems. Earlier I mentioned looking for these underlying needs, they have these best suggestions for solving issues. And I will say, if this is new for your family, it can take some time to develop that trust. Can I really say something here? Am I going to be heard? But it can develop, and with that trust, just like you were saying, Erika, it’s trust, trust, trust all around, everyone feels safe advocating for their needs and really helping each other meet their needs. I just love that. I know it’s a big shift to think that kids know best for themselves, but I truly believe that each one of us knows best for ourselves, and if we can give it some space and observe, you will start to see how different we all are, and how there is this knowing. And I feel like my kids helped me get back to my own knowing. It’s organically there in them from the start, and as adults, we may have to peel back some layers of conditioning, but I think it’s there for us too. PAM: Yeah, I think so. I love that. And I mean, as you were saying that, it just became more and more clear. That giving them the space to make the choices that feel like they make the most sense for them, is such an effective way for them to learn more about themselves, which they bring to the next choice and the next choice. It’s just this beautiful cycle. And then the reminder too, that it can take some time to build up that trust, absolutely, trusting that somebody’s not going to come back and tell them, no, no, no, that’s not the right way, do it this way. Or, see how it turned out after you made that bad choice, I told you so. Okay, so the third truth is, fair doesn’t mean equal. I found this one really interesting to think through. It was so interesting, we don’t want to show favor to one child over another, right? We want all our children to feel equally loved by us, and conventionally, we extrapolate that to treating our children equally. So, like, all kids get one piece of cake, and you’re careful to make them all the same size. That’s just one little example, but it’s like the epitome of fairness, right? But again, people are different, so instead, can we consider what the moment looks like through each of their eyes. How does it feel to each of them? So, I remember when I was thinking this through, I tested this little hypothesis. At the next birthday, I asked everybody how big a piece of cake they would like. And I was flabbergasted, nobody said the whole cake. But, so even as kids, I’d get different answers that really depended on how much they’d liked that particular cake or dessert, whatever we were having to celebrate, how hungry they were at the moment, if they were actually even fancying something sweet, right? So, getting the amount of cake they wanted felt fair to them. They felt seen and heard just by being asked, not just, this is the size that all kids get, and here you go, and, finish it, or you don’t get more. The whole thing, equal does not mean fair. I began to see fairness, not as that quantitative measure of anything that parents give, but as the qualitative measure of the value that each child receives. So, looking back over different seasons, one child may need more of their parents’ time, while another has a passionate interest that needs more of the family’s money to support it. We may be giving each of our children very different things in any particular moment, that take varying amounts of time, of our effort, of our money, but when their unique needs are being met, they each feel secure and happy, they feel seen and heard as who they are. And, in my experience, they do feel equally loved. What a difference, right? ANNA: Oh my gosh, all of these things are so important. This one is huge also, and it’s one I cannot get my mother to understand. It’s funny, because she really does think that doing exactly the same thing for all three of us is fair, and that shows that she loves us the same, and that we’re all equally loved. But gosh, being on the receiving end of that just feels super disconnecting, I don’t feel seen and heard or understood at all. But at this point, she’s 92, so there’s no real changing her, so the three of us will just roll with it. But again, there are three of us, we have a huge age gap, brother, sister, and then I’m the baby, huge age gap. We’re all so different. I think that’s why we talk so much about, people are different, because just understanding how different and unique we all are, just lights people up. They want you to know them, to see them, see their unique gifts and beauty. And so yeah, this whole, everybody needs to be treated exactly the same, does not do that. So, I knew that with this one, I wanted to examine it deeply and do it really differently with my kids. My girls are very different, I just have two, very different, though, and it really would have been a disservice to think in those kinds of black and white, equal is fair, terms. And I think a big part of this is watching my own language, countering the cultural messages about fair, like you did with the cake, right? And so you created a new fair, which is, hey, how much do you want, and let me help you get that. And I think it takes some digging in, to figure out what the need is in any given situation. Sometimes you can just ask, but sometimes there’s a little more to it. And also, just to build the culture of trust, that we will work to meet all the needs, and to recognize our choices in each moment. I think the other byproduct of everyone trusting that they’ll get their own needs met, is actually, they’re pretty happy when other people are getting their needs met too, because we can all celebrate each other doing our own things, and because we know that if we want something, we’ll figure it out, there’s no doubt about that. So, as I was thinking about this one, I’m not even sure you can step away from this kind of equal as fair cultural idea, without moving to a more connected idea of everyone getting their needs met. I think it kind of goes hand in hand, so you don’t have any kind of backlash or misunderstanding about it. ERIKA: Yeah, when I was growing up, we definitely had a huge, equal is fair, message in our family as well. And I think the funny thing is that, by constantly emphasizing trying to make everything equal among the three kids, we became so fixated on looking for the little discrepancies of, like, that’s a little bit more, that’s a little bit less, and we were also focused on it, and it gives you that feeling of scarcity, right? We were always on the lookout for, that’s not fair, how come she got that, I only got this, like, all of those things. And so when I contrast my memories of that with my own children’s experience, it’s just so interesting. From the beginning, I was so careful not to ever indicate that our food, my attention, our toys, whatever the resource was, I made sure I was showing them that there’s abundance, they don’t have to fight over it. And so we provided what we could to each one, but it was what they individually wanted, and, like you both have said, people are different, so I’m not just handing both of them the same thing. Maybe sometimes, and in fact, sometimes that really helps too, to create that feeling of abundance, we don’t need to fight over things, but we don’t need all the same things, we all get what we need. And so, when my kids were younger, my mom would play with them, but it was overwhelming, because if you have little kids, you know, a lot of times they’re both talking at the same time, wanting something, wanting her attention. And I remember she would set a timer. Okay, I’m going to play with Maya for 15 minutes, and then it will be your turn, Oliver, which feels really fair, but it really is just equal, because one might not need the full 15 minutes, and then the other one’s just focusing on what they’re not getting for those 15 minutes. And so, even though it was at times overwhelming in those younger kid days, I did try to just include them both at all times. So I’m hearing them both, you know, kind of being like, oh wow, oh wow, oh, you know, it’s just the spec, and that’s all they really wanted. They wanted to be able to say what they wanted to say in the moment. It was more chaotic, I think, but they didn’t really notice that, they just knew that I was there, they both felt I was there for them, and they don’t have a feeling of competition between each other, and still don't, to this day. And so I feel like many of these paradigm shifts boil down to, people are different. This one feels like that too. If we can recognize that people are different, we know that meeting each person’s needs in our family is going to look different, and that’s what makes a family really interesting and unique. PAM: Yeah, I love that you guys are both pointing out how so much of these boil down to, people are different. And it’s just recognizing that difference and incorporating it into the different aspects, that really is one of the fundamental paradigm shifts. Okay, so fourth truth, and that is, quitting is not a failure. Choosing to quit an activity, I mean, think about it just for a second, it is as much a learning experience as starting an activity. So conventional wisdom says that if we let children quit whatever they want, they will never finish something when the going gets tough, right? They’ll just say, oh, that’s too hard, I’m going to quit. And I see you guys both smiling, that is just not what we see, and I bet you, anyone listening, if you watch your kids in action for any length of time, it’s not what you’ll see either. In fact, if we continue to insist that they finish what they start, what they’re likely learning more fundamentally is to not try out new things unless they’re quite sure they’ll enjoy it. Because they can’t quit it, they’ll have to stick it out, as it were, you committed to this, like, all those kinds of messages. So they’re just going to only want to engage with something that they’re pretty darn sure they’ll be happy to follow through. So what that means is less exploration and less learning. When we favor connection over control, our children gain lots of experience with wanting to try something, choosing different ways to explore it, and seeing how well those different paths meet their goals. They’ll discover things that they like, they’ll discover things that they don’t like, and they will get a better feel for the clues that help them decide when they want to lean into something and when they want to quit and move on. And each time they choose to quit, they’re learning so much. Okay, I just got a rush of goosebumps, because I love this point. How does that choice feel moving forward? Do they miss the activity? If they miss it, that’s not a failure, that’s not wrong. What do they miss about it? That’s more learning. What are they doing with the time that quitting the thing freed up for them? Are they enjoying that? Are they enjoying that more? There’s just so much that comes when you quit something, that’s not the end, it’s not like, you therefore are not allowed to think about it ever again, right? There’s just so much processing that unfolds even beyond that one act, and it’s not forever either. ERIKA: Oh yeah, I think mainstream parenting culture is just so hooked on this. They really want kids to stick it out, and I feel like it’s in this way that we don’t expect ourselves to. And yeah, I think it’s a little short-sighted, right? It’s trying to teach responsibility and commitment and all of these things, but who wants somebody who is committed to something that they’re no longer enjoying? This is a path that does not lead to success, it’s a path that does not lead to good places. I still carry with me some feelings of failure that I have, due to, you know, in quotes, quitting something. I don’t even like the word quitting, because that kind of makes me feel like, I’ll never go back, I quit it. But I don’t view it like that with my kids, they can stop doing an activity and come back to it later, and there’s really no weight to that. But if I look back, I can see that my choices were valid, and that my life path has ended up being amazing, but looking back at certain things, I still feel the pressure and the weight of that, what felt like failure at the time, just because of the messages that I absorbed. Sometimes we don’t know how something’s going to feel until we try it. When we do and it’s not a fit, sometimes it’s an immediate thing, right? Like when I tried taking computer programming in college, I was like, immediately, no, my brain doesn’t do this. For some reason, I thought it would, it didn’t. And so sometimes it’s right away, but sometimes we’re just changing and growing over time. We all know, we’re growing and changing so much, even as adults, but our kids are certainly growing and changing, we see it happen right in front of us. And so maybe it’s like, this used to be great, now it’s not anymore. And so I think it’s just a gift to be able to listen to our inner voice, and make a choice that fits us right now, without that pressure of, this is a forever choice, or this is a failure if I don’t do this. There’s just no one right way to live, and each choice we make, it’s going to lead us somewhere, so we could just try things, quit things, shift gears, dive deep into something, and as long as we’re listening to our own voice, we can trust that we are building a life that works for us. I think we only really get stuck if we’re focusing on the external voices that don’t know us on the inside, and know what we really want and need. ANNA: It really is a clue, that those outside voices are taking up way too much space, because those outside voices, the peanut gallery about the quitting, they’re not the ones that are going to be there doing the thing, they’re not the ones that know how you’re feeling. So it really is just that, slowing down to recognize that and push it away, because this idea of quitting equals failure, is so ingrained, and it’s so counterintuitive, because you’re right, Pam, if kids are forced to stay with something that isn’t working for them, what they learn is to not try, because, I’m going to be stuck with it forever. And they’re so young, you know, they don’t know if they’ll like piano or baseball or that specific art class, there’s so many factors involved, and all the time that they’re stuck in something that they don’t love is time they aren’t getting to try other things to find out what they do love. And I love your point, Erika, that sometimes we know right away, nope, this is not for me, but sometimes interest wanes, right, and we grow and we change, and we’ve gotten what we’ve wanted out of it. I think that’s another thing, sometimes parents get caught up. Oh, but they’re so great at the piano or that sport. But that person, that unique human, has gotten what they want out of that experience, and that’s okay. All of that is okay. And goodness, I mean, I’m 57 and still I want to dabble and try things to get a better sense of if something will work for me. I can get very excited about a lot of different ideas, but until I’m actually doing it, it’s hard for me to say, does it suit me? Does it fit in my life? Do I want this? Is this how I want to be spending my time? And just quickly, if money is your sticking point here, because that's usually a big one for people, we have a podcast about this, but David really helped me move through this one with the financial idea of sunk costs. And so the reframe is that we’re paying for the opportunity. When we go into it with this idea of we’re paying for the opportunity to try this, it feels very different. The value is in learning whether it’s something we’re enjoying versus the value being in getting all of these specific instructions or finishing the class or staying on the team. And if letting the team down is your sticking point, you only have to have played a tiny bit of sport to know that someone who doesn’t want to be there isn’t helping the team at all. And you kind of alluded to this, Erika, like we really don’t want somebody that’s forced to be in any situation, sports or otherwise, or any kind of work. And all of this doesn’t mean that there’s no discussion though, right? Because sometimes there are discussions before, during, and after. And for us, thinking back, if something was a particularly pricey activity,because that happens and kids are like, I want to do this thing. And it’s a year’s commitment for thousands of dollars. We would talk about how we spend that money, where it comes from, what it impacts. Is there another way to learn more about the activity before we commit to something that’s maybe as long or as expensive as that? What I found is that kids are so creative and they often could find their own alternative paths as we’re playing with it and looking different things up. And also just talking to the organization, is there a way we can observe or trial it? People are pretty accommodating when you ask nicely. And I know for me, sometimes it is hard to ask for what I need. I don’t want to bother anybody. I know how busy and hard they’re working to do this program, but I really do find people to be understanding and generous when they can be. And that’s the information we need, right? Is it possible? If not, okay, then that’s another thing to put in the hopper for the decision. And I just love that all of us feel comfortable leaving something that isn’t working. I have seen this play out in all of us over the years. You really just won’t find any of us stuck in jobs we hate for decades, which is so common in our culture. And we know there’s always a choice and there’s always another way. And I think I just have seen it serve my kids and it serves me and David as well. PAM: Yeah. And I think that’s the whole point, with the relationships, with connection being in the lead, those processes are something that we can do actively. Like, okay, you’re stuck in a job that you really don't like, you may end up quitting immediately, but also it can be, you’re disliking it more and more and more over time, but we’re having conversations, we’re making plans. It’s not, well, you know, you have this job, it pays well, or whatever reason we say, oh, you need to stay, et cetera. No, you actually can. That's the control piece coming right back in. We can instead focus on that connection piece. We can talk through it more and even later, it feels lighter, at least for me showing up to something maybe I don’t like, but I know I’ve got a plan to move through it. I know where I’m going to keep talking. It’s not black, white, like we were talking right at the beginning there. And then there was just one other tiny piece. And now did I lose it? I’m trying to think what you, oh, oh, it was about, was it about, it was about like, how much we learn, I think, when, oh, yes, it was, it was, sorry. But it’s something that I love to do. When people come to the network. When we have the quitting discussions, et cetera. And, but then, so we talk about like, once they’re interested in something that may be expensive, I love brainstorming all sorts of ways that you can be involved in it without the expensive class. Because so often, certainly at the beginning of our journey, we turn it into – they’re interested in swimming, swimming lessons. Oh, piano, piano lessons, like dance, dance lessons. That’s our first go-to because that is what we know, right? But there are so many other possibilities that can help them experience the thing that they’re interested in and may or may not at some point want actual lessons for it, but you don’t have to wait for the lesson to become involved. You can go swimming in the public pool. There are just so many possibilities. So I love that piece of just brainstorming ideas and people get very excited and off they go to play and it’s very fun. Okay. Okay. Finally, truth number five, strong relationships are key. It’s not about parenting that parent-child power dynamic in which the overarching goal is to turn out a successful adult, right? It’s about being in relationship with your child. This is a lifelong relationship. We’re two human beings. We’re multiple human beings. That relationship shifts over time as they grow and change, as we grow and change. It looks very different when they’re young versus when they’re in their teens versus when they’re young adults versus when they’re older adults. Even if at any given moment, it feels like things will never change, right? But they really, really do. You can’t imagine when this is ever going to change. And, and getting focused on and fixating on when it will change is going to get in your way. But that’s a conversation for another day. A few years ago, I wrote a very long essay about the value of relationships to learning. And I will link in the show notes to anyone who’s interested. But oh my gosh, when I first came to unschooling because my kids were in school, it was like, oh, how are they going to learn, right? And in the last episode, we talked about paradigm shifts around learning. But I really did come to see pretty quickly that I didn’t need to worry about the learning. What I could focus on was a relationships and this shift from control to connection and recognizing that strong relationships really just drive everything like that was key for me. ANNA: Yeah, I think when we switch the lens to being in relationship, things just change dramatically across the board. I’ve talked about it before, but I would just often ask myself – Is what I’m about to say or do going to help or harm our relationship? That kept me focused on what was important to me. And that litmus test really served me well. Because if I’m tending to the relationship, we’re able to navigate the challenges together from a place of connection. So if I’m wanting my kids to be safe. As parents, we kind of see that as a responsibility. They are safest when our relationship is strong and they can come to me versus rules and punishments to try to keep them safe, which serves to disconnect us. If my kids came upon a situation that seemed a little sketchy, they would ask me about it. They knew I wasn’t going to stop the exploration just off the bat, but that I could be a sounding board and a processing partner as they navigated it. For kids who think they’re going to get in trouble, they may push down those niggling thoughts that this doesn’t feel good or something isn’t right here because they want to learn more. There’s still something intriguing about it to them and they know their parents might deem it unsafe and stop the exploration altogether. And really that puts them in harm’s way without the support of someone who cares about them. And this applies when they’re young and maybe even more so when they’re teens. We always had a policy of, I will come get you no matter what, no questions asked if they ever needed out of something. And they also knew they could use me as an excuse. My mom needs me to come home. Because then it wasn’t about me stopping their exploration. It was about giving them tools, tools to get out of situations if they needed it, tools they could use to explore safely. And that’s just the safety lens. But this really applies to all areas. If we have trusted people in our corner, we’re going to be able to explore and learn more. And I think we can see that in our adult lives too. When we feel supported and loved and cared for, we’re so much more likely to learn and grow. Those basic needs have been met, we’re so much more likely to explore and learn and push the limits of what we can do. And I think that’s the piece that you’re getting at, Pam, right? This is the basis for learning. These relationships really, that is what makes learning happen and easier. ERIKA: Yeah, I think those strong relationships with people we trust helps us in every area of our lives. And it’s the same for our children. And I love the parts about how it helps with safety and with learning. It just makes so much sense. I had a book club with a bunch of unschooling parents, and we were reading Pam’s book together many years ago. And Pam joined us on a call one week. And we were all, I mean, everybody’s like, oh my god, Pam. It was very fun. But I remember having a bit of the conversation, someone felt like they had messed things up, they maybe had an argument with their child, or in some way felt like it was just this negative interaction, it didn’t feel good. And the question was more along the lines of, how can I do better? How can I stop doing that? And Pam’s idea was about how the repair is the important part. Because we’re trying to maintain this connection and relationship with our kids. But we’re humans, and we’re imperfect. And we’re going to say and do things that hurt our children at times, or we’ll say or do things that hurt other people in our lives at times. And so we can let that moment crush us and pull us away from them. And we can just dive into negative self-talk about what a terrible job we’re doing. Or we can see those moments as opportunities to own our parts, own our words and our actions, apologize for the impact, and make the repair with the person that we care about. I get goosebumps thinking about this, because it’s such a more powerful place to be. And it doesn’t require us to be perfect, which we cannot be. But since relationships are so important in all of these ways, when hard things happen in the relationships, knowing that we will be able to move through it, that builds trust between us and the other person. And it gives us more capacity to weather the next challenging thing, whether it’s something outside of our relationship, or the next misunderstanding between each other. And so I always come back to keeping my relationship strong. How can I feel more connected? How can I give my children the feeling that I understand them, and I’m here for them? And it doesn’t always mean I’m talking with them more, or even spending more time together. It’s really figuring out what do they want from me in this particular season? And since they’re unique individuals, what is it that’s helping us feel connected in this moment, in this season? And now that they’re teenagers, we do a lot of reflecting on, remember when that was hard, and we got through it? Things like that. I feel like it really helps us all build resilience and realize that being humans is sometimes hard, and we’re always learning, and I’m always learning. And I feel like me being vulnerable in that way just develops trust between me and my kids. And looking at that, what is going to help us in this moment just to increase our connection is such a valuable place to take a look. PAM: I love that. I love that you brought that up, because yeah, the whole thing, you'd say strong relationships are key. So I need to be perfect at that. I need to do my best at that. That’s the most important thing. I might have mentioned it at the time, the attachment parenting book I had read, because it’s the thing that knocked me, it’s like, oh really? That around 50% or so of our interactions with our children go awry in big ways or in little ways, and that it is the repair that brings us back, right? It’s not trying to avoid it, because imagine what someone feels if they think someone else is perfect. Oh, they’re perfect at that. They make all the right choices. That does nothing but put pressure to be perfect on them. They’ll be putting that on themselves as well. I want to be as good, etc. So, understanding that repair piece, that is so much where trust is built. That we’re coming back, that we’re going to be engaging again. We’re going to be moving through this, and as you said, using those previous examples of times you guys have moved through challenging things, and just bringing those up when new challenging things come up. We may not know how this is gonna resolve, but we know that we’ll find our way through it. We can trust that. So I love that so much, and thank you. Thanks so much to you both for having this conversation. I feel like we touched on a lot of interesting pieces, so I hope people find it helpful. Thanks so much to all our listeners for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this dive into the second stage of the de-schooling phase of our journey as we challenge some of our conventional beliefs about parenting, and we invite you to join us in the Living Joyfully Network to continue the conversation. It is a warm and welcoming online community of like-hearted parents, a non-judgmental space where you can steep in these unconventional unschooling ideas, and just explore what they might look like day-to-day in your uniquely wonderful family. And your first month is free, so you can get a sense of whether the community is a good fit for you. We are very excited to welcome you. To learn more and join us, just follow the link in the show notes or go to livingjoyfully.ca and choose Network in the menu. Wishing everyone a lovely day. Thanks so much. Bye!

The Real Estate Espresso Podcast is sponsored by the Cost Segregation Guys. Cost Segregation is the key to accelerating depreciation and improving cash flow for your real estate assets. Click HERE to connect with them and get a discount on their services. ------------Today we are talking about what may be the beginning of a nuclear renaissance. I realize that this is a real estate podcast. But occasionally I come across something that has the potential to have global impact.Over the July Fourth weekend, nuclear startup company Aalo Atomics brought a reactor to criticality at Idaho National Laboratory. The reactor was manufactured in roughly forty days. That is an extraordinary achievement, but the real story is not the stopwatch. The real story is the system behind it.The first enabling technology is the coolant. Conventional reactors use water under high pressure. High pressure demands thick reactor vessels, specialized forgings, heavy components, and a supply chain with very few qualified manufacturers. These reactor vessels are hugely expensive and take an extraordinary amount of time to manufacture. Aalo uses liquid sodium, which transfers heat at low pressure and has a high boiling point. Lower pressure allows thinner steel vessels that can be made from plate, rolled, welded, inspected, and moved through an industrial process. That changes the manufacturing problem from one of heroic craftsmanship to one of repeatable production.Instead of building one plant as a unique civil project, the design is broken into truckable modules. A module can be built indoors, where tools remain in place, workers repeat tasks, and quality is measured at every station. That sounds ordinary because it is how automobiles, aircraft, and industrial equipment are manufactured. The building was completed in thirty six days, the reactor was fabricated in less than a month, and hundreds of fuel rods were assembled in 2.5 days.------------**Real Estate Espresso Podcast:** Spotify: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://open.spotify.com/show/3GvtwRmTq4r3es8cbw8jW0?si=c75ea506a6694ef1)   iTunes: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-real-estate-espresso-podcast/id1340482613)   Website: [www.victorjm.com](http://www.victorjm.com)   LinkedIn: [Victor Menasce](http://www.linkedin.com/in/vmenasce)   YouTube: [The Real Estate Espresso Podcast](http://www.youtube.com/@victorjmenasce6734)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/realestateespresso](http://www.facebook.com/realestateespresso)   Email: [podcast@victorjm.com](mailto:podcast@victorjm.com)  **Y Street Capital:** Website: [www.ystreetcapital.com](http://www.ystreetcapital.com)   Facebook: [www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital](https://www.facebook.com/YStreetCapital)   Instagram: [@ystreetcapital](http://www.instagram.com/ystreetcapital)  

Today we're bringing you an episode from our friends at KUOW's data podcast Control F. We’re heading into a long holiday weekend. If you’re taking a road trip, you’ll need to fill up the gas tank, maybe even get some new tires. For a longer journey, a rental car can be helpful. Don’t forget to pick up toiletries and refill your prescriptions. If you’re in town hosting grab some extra lawn chairs for the guests. You can get all of this at Costco – along with your groceries. Conventional wisdom is that Costco is a good deal. But grocery prices are up. Grocery inflation is up 27 percent in the last 5 years following pandemic supply chain disruptions and international turmoil. So, will shopping at our local bulk retailer Costco save you some money this holiday? We can only make Seattle Now because listeners support us. Tap here to make a gift and keep Seattle Now in your feed. Got questions about local news or story ideas to share? We want to hear from you! Email us at seattlenow@kuow.org, leave us a voicemail at (206) 616-6746 or leave us feedback online.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.