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Front Row
The Grand Finale of Downton Abbey

Front Row

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 10, 2025 42:30


As the Downton Abbey franchise comes to an end after fifteen years, with the cinema release of Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale this Friday, we discuss the enduring appeal of the upstairs-downstairs class-based period drama with the chatelaine of the 'real Downton', Highclere Castle, the Countess of Carnarvon, and with Caroline Frost of The Radio Times. Suede frontman Brett Anderson talks to us about the 21st century anxieties which have informed the renowned indie-rock band's new album, Antidepressants. Two medical professionals who've turned a razor-sharp scalpel to writing informed by their careers in the NHS: Adam Kay, the junior doctor-turned writer of the bestselling memoir This Is Going to Hurt, discusses writing his debut novel, A Particularly Nasty Case, a murder-mystery set in the corridors of a busy hospital. And nurse and playwright Uma Nada-Rajah talks about her tragicomic production Black Hole Sign which is set in an A+E department and which opens in Scotland this weekend.Plus we hear about a new initiative - launched today - which aims to develop filmmaking skills in children as young as 3 years old. Presenter: Kirsty Wark Producer: Mark Crossan

Unstoppable Mindset
Episode 369 – Unstoppable Marketing Strategist with Aaron Wolpoff

Unstoppable Mindset

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 9, 2025 64:03


Our guest this time is Aaron Wolpoff who has spent his professional career as a marketing strategist and consultant to help companies develop strategic brands and enhance their audience growth. He owns the marketing firm, Double Zebra. He tells us about the name and how his company has helped a number of large and small companies grow and better serve their clients.   Aaron grew up in the San Diego area. He describes himself as a curious person and he says he always has been such. He loves to ask questions. He says as a child he was somewhat quiet, but always wanted to know more. He received his Bachelor's degree in marketing from the University of California at San Diego. After working for a firm for some four and a half years he and his wife moved up to the bay area in Northern California where attended San Francisco State University and obtained a Master's degree in Business.   In addition to his day job functioning as a business advisor and strategist Aaron also hosts a podcast entitled, We Fixed it, You're Welcome. I had the honor to appear on his podcast to discuss Uber and some of its accessibility issues especially concerning access by blind persons who use guide dogs to Uber's fleet. His podcast is quite fascinating and one I hope you will follow.   Aaron provides us in this episode many business insights. We talk about a number of challenges and successes marketing has brought to the business arena. I hope you like what Aaron offers.     About the Guest:   Aaron Wolpoff is a seasoned marketing strategist and communications consultant with a track record of positioning companies, products, and thought leadership for maximum impact. Throughout his career, Aaron has been somewhat of a trendspotter, getting involved in early initiatives around online banking, SaaS, EVs, IoT, and now AI, His ability to bridge complex industry dynamics and technology-driven solutions underscores his role as a forward-thinking consultant, podcaster, and business advisor, committed to enhancing organizational effectiveness and fostering strategic growth.   As the driving force behind the Double Zebra marketing company, Aaron excels in identifying untapped marketing assets, refining brand narratives, and orchestrating strategic pivots from paid advertising to organic audience growth. His insights have guided notable campaigns for consumer brands, technology firms, and professional service providers, always with a keen eye for differentiating messages that resonate deeply with target audiences. In addition to his strategic marketing expertise, Aaron hosts the Top 20 business management podcast, We Fixed It, You're Welcome, known for its sharp, humorous analysis of major corporate challenges and missteps. Each episode brings listeners inside complex business scenarios, unfolding like real-time case studies where Aaron and his panel of experts dissect high-profile decisions, offering insightful and actionable solutions. His ability to distill complex business issues into relatable, engaging discussions has garnered widespread acclaim and a dedicated following among executives and decision-makers.   Ways to connect with Aaron:   Marketing company: https://doublezebra.com Podcast: https://wefixeditpod.com LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/marketingaaron     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:20 Hi there, and welcome to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Today, we get to chat with Aaron Wolpoff, who is a marketing strategist and expert in a lot of different ways. I've read his bio, which you can find in the show notes. It seems to me that he is every bit as much of an expert is his bio says he is, but we're going to find out over the next hour or so for sure. We'll we'll not pick on him too much, but, but nevertheless, it's fun to be here. Aaron, so I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. I'm glad you're here, and we're glad that we get a chance to do   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 01:58 this. Thanks, Michael, thanks for having me. You're gonna grill me for an hour, huh?   Michael Hingson ** 02:04 Oh, sure. Why not? You're used to it. You're a marketing expert.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 02:08 That's what we do. Yeah, we're always, uh, scrutiny for one thing or another.   Michael Hingson ** 02:13 I remember, I think it was back in was it 82 or 1982 or 1984 when they had the big Tylenol incident. You remember that? You know about   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 02:25 that? I do? Yeah, there's a Netflix documentary happening right now. Is there? Well, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 02:31 a bottle of Tylenol was, for those who don't know, contaminated and someone died from it. But the manufacturer of Tylenol, the CEO the next day, just got right out in front of it and said what they were going to do about removing all Tylenol from the shelves until it could be they could all be examined and so on. Just did a number of things. It was a wonderful case, it seemed to me, for how to deal with a crisis when it came up. And I find that all too many companies and organizations don't necessarily know how to do that. Do they now?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 03:09 And a lot of times they operate in crisis mode. That's the default. And no one likes to be around that, you know. So that's, I guess, step one is dealing even you know, deal with a crisis when it comes up, and make sure that your your day to day is not crisis fire as much as possible,   Michael Hingson ** 03:26 but know how to deal with a crisis, which is kind of the issue, and that's, that's what business continuity, of course, is, is really all about. I spoke at the Business Continuity Institute hybrid conference in London last October, and as one of the people who asked me to come and speak, explained, business continuity, people are the what if people that are always looking at, how do we deal with any kind of an emergency that comes up in an organization, knowing full well that nobody's really going to listen to them until there's really an emergency, and then, of course, they're indispensable, but The rest of the time they're not for   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 04:02 sure. Yeah, it's definitely that, you know, good. You bring up a good point about knowing how to deal with a crisis, because it will, it, will you run a business for long enough you have a company, no matter how big, eventually something bad is going to happen, and it's Tylenol. Was, is pre internet or, you know, we oh, yeah, good while ago they had time to formulate a response and craft it and and do a well presented, you know, public reassurance nowadays it's you'd have five seconds before you have to get something out there.   Michael Hingson ** 04:35 Well, even so, the CEO did it within, like, a day or so, just immediately came out and said what, what was initially going to be done. Of course, there was a whole lot more to it, but still, he got right out in front of it and dealt with it in a calm way, which I think is really important for businesses to do, and and I do find that so many don't and they they deal with so many different kinds of stress. Horrible things in the world, and they create more than they really should about fear anyway,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 05:07 yeah, for sure, and now I think that Tylenol wasn't ultimately responsible. I haven't watched to the end, but if I remember correctly, but sometimes these crisis, crises that companies find themselves embroiled in, are self perpetuated? Yeah?   Michael Hingson ** 05:23 Well, Tylenol wasn't responsible. Somebody did it. Somebody put what, cyanide or something in into a Tylenol bottle. So they weren't responsible, but they sure dealt with it, which is the important thing. And you know, they're, they're still with us. Yeah?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 05:38 No, they dealt with it. Well, their sales are great, everyday household product. No one can dispute it. But what I say is, with the with the instantaneousness of reach to your to your public, and to you know, consumers and public at large, a lot of crises are, can be self perpetuated, like you tweet the wrong thing, or is it called a tweet anymore? I don't know, but you know, you post something a little bit a little bit out of step with what people are think about you or thinking in general, and and now, all of a sudden, you're in the middle of something that you didn't want to be in the middle of, as a company well,   Michael Hingson ** 06:15 and I also noticed that, like the media will, so often they hear something, they report it, and they haven't necessarily checked to see the facts behind it, only to find out within an hour or two that what they reported was wrong. And they helped to sometimes promote the fear and promote the uncertainty, rather than waiting a little bit until they get all the information reasonably correct. And of course, part of the problem is they say, well, but everybody else is going to report it. So each station says everybody else is going to report it, so we have to keep up. Well, I'm not so sure about that all the time. Oh, that's very true, too, Michael, especially with, you know, off brand media outlets I'll spend with AI like, I'll be halfway through an article now, and I'll see something that's extremely generated and and I'll realize I've just wasted a whole bunch of time on a, you know, on a fake article, yeah, yeah, yeah, way, way too much. But even the mainstream media will report things very quickly to get it out there, but they don't necessarily have all the data, right. And I understand you can't wait for days to deal with things, but you should wait at least a little bit to make sure you've got data enough to report in a cogent way. And it just doesn't always happen.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 07:33 Yeah, well, I don't know who the watch keepers of that are. I'm not a conspiracy theorist in that way by any means?   Michael Hingson ** 07:41 No, no, it isn't a conspiracy. But yeah,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 07:44 yeah, no, no, I know, but it's again. I think it goes back to that tight the shortness of the cycle, like again. Tylenol waited a day to respond back in the day, which is great. But now, would you have you know, if Tylenol didn't say   Michael Hingson ** 07:59 anything for a day. If they were faced with a similar situation, people would vilify them and say, Well, wait, you waited a day to tell us something we wanted it in the first 30 seconds, yeah, oh, yeah. And that makes it more difficult, but I would hope that Tylenol would say, yeah. We waited a day because we were getting our facts together. 30 seconds is great in the media, but that doesn't work for reality, and in most cases, it doesn't. But yeah, I know what you're saying,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 08:30 Yeah, but the appetite in the 24 hour news cycle, if people are hungry for new more information, so it does push news outlets, media outlets into let's respond as quick as possible and figure out the facts along the way. Yeah, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 08:46 Well, for fun, why don't you tell us about sort of the early era and growing up, and how you got to doing the sorts of things that you're doing now. Well, I grew up in San Diego, California. I best weather in the country. I don't care what anyone says, Yeah,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 09:03 you can't really beat it. No, I don't think anyone's gonna debate you on it. They call it the sunshine tax, because things cost a lot out here, but they do, you know, he grew up here, you put up with it. But yeah, so I grew up, grew up San Diego, college, San Diego. Life in San Diego, I've been elsewhere. I've traveled. I've seen some of the world. I like it. I've always wanted to come back, but I grew up really curious. I read a lot, I asked a lot of questions. And I also wanted, wanting to know, well, I want to know. Well, I wanted to know a lot of things about a lot of things, and I also was really scared. Is the wrong word, but I looked up to adults when I was a kid, and I didn't want to be put in a position where I was expected to know something that I didn't know. So it led to times where I'd pretend like I need you. Know, do you know? You know what this is, right? And I'd pretend like I knew, and early career, career even, and then I get called out on something, and it just was like a gut punch, like, but I'm supposed to know that, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 10:13 what did your parents think of you being so curious as you were growing up?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 10:17 They they liked it, but I was quiet, okay? Quiet, quiet, quietly, confident and curious. It's just an interesting, I guess, an interesting mix. Yeah, but no, they Oh, they indulged it. I, you know, they answered my questions. They like I said, I read a lot, so frequent trips to the library to read a lot about a lot of things, but I think, you know, professionally, you take something that's kind of a grab bag, and what do I do with all these different interests? And when I started college undeclared, I realized, you know, communications, marketing, you kind of can make a discipline out of a bunch of interests, and call it something professional. Where did you go to college? I went to UCSD. UCSD, here in San Diego, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 11:12 well, I was just up the road from you at UC Irvine. So here two good campuses,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 11:18 they are, they are and UCSD. I was back recently. It's like a it's like a city. Now, every time we go back, we see these, these kids. They're babies. They get they get food every you know, they have, like, a food nice food court. There's parking, an abundance of parking, there's theaters, there's all the things we didn't have. Of course, we had some of it, but they just have, like, what if we had one of something or 50 parking spaces, they've got 5000 you know. And if we had, you know, one one food option, they got 35 Yeah, they don't know how good they have it.   Michael Hingson ** 11:53 When I was at UC urban, I think we had 3200 undergraduates. It wasn't huge. It was in that area. Now, I think there's 31,000 or 32,000 undergrads. Oh, wow. And as one of my former physics professors joked, he's retired, but I got to meet him. I was there, and last year I was inducted as an alumni member of Phi, beta, kappa. And so we were talking, and he said, You know what UCI really stands for, don't you? Well, I didn't, I said, What? And he said, under construction indefinitely. And there's, they're always building, sure, and that's that started when I was there, but, but they are always building. And it's just an amazing place today, with so many students and graduate students, undergrads and faculty, and it's, it's an amazing place. I think I'd have a little bit more of a challenge of learning where everything is, although I could do it, if I had to go back, I could do it. Yeah, UCI is nice. But I think you could say, you could say that about any of the UCs are constantly under, under development. And, you know, that's the old one. That's the old area. And I'm like, oh, that's I went to school in the old area. I know the old area. I remember Central Park. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So you ended up majoring in Marketing and Communications,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 13:15 yeah. So I undergrad in communications. They have a really nice business school now that they did not have at the time. So I predated that, but I probably would have ended up there. I got out with a very, not knocking the school. It's a great, wonderful school. I got out with a very theory, theoretical based degree. So I knew a lot about communications from a theory based perspective. I knew about brain cognition. I took maybe one quarter of practical use it professionally. It was like a video, like a video production course, so I I learned hands on, 111, quarter out of my entire academic career. But a lot of it was learning. The learning not necessarily applied, but just a lot of theory. And I started school at 17, and I got out just shortly after my 21st birthday, so I don't know what my hurry was, but, but there I was with a lot of theory, some some internships, but not a ton of professional experience. And, you know, trying to figure it out in the work world at that point. Did you get a graduate degree or just undergrad? I did. I went back. So I did it for almost five years in in financial marketing, and then, and I wear a suit and tie to work every day, which I don't think anyone does anymore. And I'm suddenly like, like, I'm from the 30s. I'm not that old, but, but no, seriously, we, you know, to work at the at the headquarters of a international credit union. Of course, I wear a suit, no after four and a half. Years there, I went back to graduate school up in the bay the Bay Area, Bay Area, and that's when I got my masters in in marketing. Oh, where'd you go in the Bay Area? San Francisco, state. Okay, okay, yeah, really nice school. It's got one of the biggest International MBA programs in the country, I think. And got to live in that city for a couple years.   Michael Hingson ** 15:24 We lived in Novato, so North Bay, for 12 years, from 2002 to the end of June 2014 Yeah, I like that area. That's, that's the, oh, the weather isn't San Diego's. That area is still a really nice area to live as well. Again, it is pretty expensive, but still it   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 15:44 is, yeah, I it's not San Diego weather, a beautiful day. There is like nothing else. But when we first got there, I said, I want to live by the beach. That's what I know. And we got out to the beach, which is like at the end of the outer sunset, and it's in the 40s streets, and it feels like the end of the universe. It just, it just like, feels apocalyptic. And I said, I don't want to live by the beach anymore, but, but no, it was. It was a great, great learning experience, getting an MBA. I always say it's kind of like a backpack or a toolkit you walk around with, because it is all that's all application. You know, everything that I learned about theory put into practice, you got to put into practice. And so I was, I was really glad that I that I got to do that. And like I said, Live, live in, live in the Bay. For a couple years, I'd always wanted   Michael Hingson ** 16:36 to, yeah, well, that's a nice area to live. If you got to live somewhere that is one of the nicer places. So glad you got that opportunity. And having done it, as I said for 12 years, I appreciate it too. And yeah, so much to offer there.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 16:51 The only problem I had was it was in between the two.com bubbles. So literally, nothing was happening. The good side was that the apartment I was living in went for something like $5,500 before I got there, and then the draw everything dropped, you know, the bottom dropped out, and I was able to squeak by and afford living in the city. But, you know, you go for look, seeking your fortune. And there's, there's, I had just missed it. And then I left, and then it just came back. So I was, I was there during a lull. So you're the one, huh? Okay, I didn't do it, just the way Miami worked out. Did you then go back to San Diego? I did, yeah. So I've met my wife here. We moved up to the bay together, and when we were debating, when I graduated, we were thinking, do we want to drive, you know, an hour and a half Silicon Valley or someone, you know, somewhere further out just to stay in the area? Or do we want to go back to where we where we know and like, and start a life there and we, you know, send, like you said at the beginning, San Diego is not a bad place to be. So as it was never a fallback, but as a place to, you know, come back home to, yeah, I welcomed it.   Michael Hingson ** 18:08 And so what did you do when you came back to San Diego?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 18:12 So I have my best friend from childhood was starting as a photography company still does, and it was starting like a sister company, as an agency to serve the photography company, which was growing really fast, and then also, like picking up clients and building a book out of so he said, you know you're, I see you're applying for jobs, and I know that you're, you know, you're getting some offers and things, but just say no To all of them and come work with me and and at the time it was, it was running out of a was like a loft of an apartment, but it, you know, it grew to us, a small staff, and then a bigger staff, and spun off on its own. And so that's, that's what I did right out of, right out of grad school. I said no to a few things, and said there's a lot, lot worse fates than you know, spending your work day with your best friend and and growing a company out and so what exactly did you do for them? So it was like, we'll call it a boutique creative agency. It was around the time of I'm making myself sound so old. See, so there was flash, flash technology, like web banners were made with Flash. It had moved to be flash, Adobe, Flash, yeah. So companies were making these web banners, and what you call interactive we got a proficiency of making full website experiences with Flash, which not a lot of companies were doing. So because of that, it led to some really interesting opportunities and clients and being able to take on a capability, a proficiency that you know for a time. Uh was, was uh as a differentiator, say, you know, you could have a web banner and an old website, or you could have a flash, interactive website where you take your users on an experience with music and all the things that seem so dated now,   Michael Hingson ** 20:14 well, and of course, unfortunately, a lot of that content wasn't very accessible, so some of us didn't really get access to a lot of it, and I don't remember whether Adobe really worked to make flash all that accessible. They dealt with other things, but I'm not sure that flash ever really was. Yeah, I'm with you on that. I really, I don't think so.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 20:38 What we would wind up doing is making parallel websites, but, but then mobile became a thing, and then you'd make a third version of a website, and it just got tedious. And really it's when the iPhone came out. It just it flash got stopped in its tracks, like it was like a week, and then action script, which is the language that it runs on, and all the all the capabilities and proficiencies, just there was no use for it anymore.   Michael Hingson ** 21:07 Well, and and the iPhone came out, as you said, and one of the things that happened fairly early on was that, because they were going to be sued, Apple agreed to make the I devices accessible, and they did something that hadn't really been done up to that time. They set the trend for it. They built accessibility into the operating systems, and they built the ability to have accessibility into the operating systems. The one thing that I wish that Apple would do even a little bit more of than they do, than they do today, although it's better than it used to be, is I wish they would mandate, or require people who are going to put apps in the App Store, for example, to make sure that the apps are accessible. They have guidelines. They have all sorts of information about how to do it, but they don't really require it, and so you can still get inaccessible apps, which is unfortunate,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 22:09 that is Yeah, and like you said, with Flash, an entire you know, ecosystem had limited to no accessibility, so   Michael Hingson ** 22:16 and making additional on another website, Yeah, a lot of places did that, but they weren't totally equal, because they would make enough of the website, well, they would make the website have enough content to be able to do things, but they didn't have everything that they had on the graphical or flash website, and so It was definitely there, but it wasn't really, truly equal, which is unfortunate, and so now it's a lot better.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 22:46 Yeah, it is no and I hate to say it, but if it came down to limited time, limited budget, limited everything you want to make something that is usable and efficient, but no, I mean, I can't speak for all developers, but no, it would be hard. You'd be hard pressed to create a an equally parallel experience with full accessibility at the time.   Michael Hingson ** 23:16 Yeah, yeah, you would. And it is a lot better. And there's, there's still stuff that needs to be done, but I think over time, AI is going to help some of that. And it is already made. It isn't perfect yet, but even some graphics and so on can be described by AI. And we're seeing things improve over, over, kind of what they were. So we're making progress, which is good,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 23:44 yeah, no, I'm really happy about that. And with with AI and AI can go through and parse your code and build in all you know, everything that that needs to happen, there's a lot less excuse for for not making something as accessible as it can   Michael Hingson ** 23:59 be, yeah, but people still ignore it to a large degree. Still, only about 3% of all websites really have taken the time to put some level of accessibility into them. So there's still a lot to be done, and it's just not that magical or that hard, but it's mostly, I think, education. People don't know, they don't know that it can be done. They don't think about it being done, or they don't do it initially, and so then it becomes a lot more expensive to do later on, because you got to go back and redo   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 24:28 it, all right, yeah, anything, anytime you have to do something, something retroactive or rebuild, you're, yeah, you're starting from not a great place.   Michael Hingson ** 24:37 So how long did you work with your friend?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 24:42 A really long time, because I did the studio, and then I wound up keeping that alive. But going over to the photography side, the company really grew. Had a team of staff photographers, had a team of, like a network of photographers, and. And was doing quite, quite a lot, an abundance of events every year, weddings and corporate and all types of things. So all in, I was with the company till, gosh, I want to say, like, 2014 or so. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 25:21 And then what did you go off and do?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 25:25 So then I worked for an agency, so I got started with creative and, well, rewinding, I got started with financial marketing, with the suit and tie. But then I went into creative, and I've tried pretty much every aspect of marketing I hadn't done marketing automation and email sequences and CRMs and outreach and those types of things. So that was the agency I worked for that was their specialization, which I like, to a degree, but it's, it's not my, not my home base. Yeah, there's, there's people that love and breathe automation. I like having interjecting some, you know, some type of personal aspect into the what you're putting out there. And I have to wrestle with that as ai, ai keeps growing in prominence, like, Where's the place for the human, creative? But I did that for a little while, and then I've been on my own for the past six or seven years.   Michael Hingson ** 26:26 So what is it you do today? Exactly?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 26:30 So I'm, we'll call it a fractional CMO, or a fractional marketing advisor. So I come in and help companies grow their their marketing and figure themselves out. I've gone I work with large companies. I've kind of gone back to early stage startups and and tech companies. I just find that they're doing really more, a lot more interesting things right now with the market the way it is. They're taking more chances and and they're they're moving faster. I like to move pretty quick, so that's where my head's at. And I'm doing more. We'll call em like CO entrepreneurial ventures with my clients, as opposed to just a pure agency service model, which is interesting. And and I got my own podcast. There you go. Yeah. What's your podcast called? Not to keep you busy, it's called, we fixed it. You're welcome. There you   Michael Hingson ** 27:25 go. And it seems to me, if my memory hasn't failed me, even though I don't take one of those memory or brain supplements, we were on it not too long ago, talking about Uber, which was fun.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 27:39 We had you on there. I don't know which episode will drop first, this one or or the one you were on, but we sure enjoyed having you on there.   Michael Hingson ** 27:46 Well, it was fun. Well, we'll have to do more of it, and I think it'd be fun to but so you own your own business. Then today,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 27:53 I do, yeah, it's called Double zebra.   Michael Hingson ** 27:56 Now, how did you come up with that name?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 27:59 It's two basic elements, so basic, black and white, something unremarkable, but if you can take it and multiply it or repeat it, then you're onto something interesting.   Michael Hingson ** 28:13 Lots of stripes. Yeah, lots of stripes.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 28:17 And it's always fun when I talk to someone in the UK or Australia, or then they say zebra or zebra, right? I get to hear the way they say it. It's that's fun. Occasionally I get double double zero. People will miss misname it and double zero. That's his   Michael Hingson ** 28:34 company's that. But has anybody called it double Zed yet?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 28:39 No, that's a new one.   Michael Hingson ** 28:41 Yeah? Well, you never know. Maybe we've given somebody the idea now. Yeah, yeah. Well, so I'm I'm curious. You obviously do a lot to analyze and help people in critique in corporate mishaps. Have you ever seen a particular business mistake that you really admire and just really love, its audacity,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 29:07 where it came out wrong, but I liked it anyway, yeah, oh, man,   Michael Hingson ** 29:13 let's see, or one maybe, where they learned from their mistake and fixed it. But still, yeah, sure.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 29:23 Yeah, that's a good one. I like, I like bold moves, even if they're wrong, as long as they don't, you know, they're not harmful to people I don't know. Let's go. I'm I'm making myself old. Let's go back to Crystal crystal. Pepsi, there you go for that. But that was just such a fun idea at the time. You know, we're the new generation and, and this is the 90s, and everything's new now, and we're going to take the color out of out of soda, I know we're and we're going to take it and just make it what you know, but a little unfamiliar, right? Right? It's Crystal Pepsi, and the ads were cool, and it was just very of the moment. Now, that moment didn't last very long, no, and the public didn't, didn't hold on to it very long. But there's, you know, it was, it let you question, and I in a good way, what you thought about what is even a Pepsi. And it worked. It was they brought it back, like for a very short time, five, I want to say five or six years ago, just because people had a nostalgia for it. But yeah, big, big, bold, we're confident this is the new everyone's going to be talking about this for a long time, and we're going to put a huge budget behind it, Crystal Pepsi. And it it didn't, but yeah, I liked it.   Michael Hingson ** 30:45 So why is that that is clearly somebody had to put a lot of effort into the concept, and must have gotten some sort of message that it would be very successful, but then it wasn't,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 31:00 yeah, yeah. For something like that, you have to get buy in at so many levels. You know, you have an agency saying, this is the right thing to do. You have CD, your leadership saying, No, I don't know. Let's pull back. Whenever an agency gets away with something and and spends a bunch of client money and it's just audacious, and I can't believe they did it. I know how many levels of buy in they had to get, yeah, to say, Trust me. Trust me. And a lot of times it works, you know, if they do something that just no one else had had thought of or wasn't willing to do, and then you see that they got through all those levels of bureaucracy and they were able to pull it off.   Michael Hingson ** 31:39 When it works. I love it. When it doesn't work. I love it, you know, just, just the fact that they did it, yeah, you got to admire that. Gotta admire it. They pulled it off, yeah. My favorite is still ranch flavored Fritos. They disappeared, and I've never understood why I love ranch flavored Fritos. And we had them in New Jersey and so on. And then we got, I think, out to California. But by that time, they had started to fade away, and I still have never understood why. Since people love ranch food so   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 32:06 much, that's a good one. I don't know that. I know those because it does, it does that one actually fill a market need. If there's Doritos, there's, you know, the ranch, I don't know if they were, they different.   Michael Hingson ** 32:17 They were Fritos, but they they did have ranch you know they were, they were ranch flavored, and I thought they were great. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that one didn't hit because they have, I think they have chili flavor. They have regular. Do they have anything else honey barbecue? I don't know. I don't know, but I do still like regular, but I love ranch flavored the best. Now, I heard last week that Honey Nut Cheerios are going away. General Mills is getting rid of honey nut cheerios. No, is that real? That's what I heard on the news. Okay, I believe you, but I'll look it up anyway. Well, it's interesting. I don't know why, after so many years, they would but there have been other examples of cereals and so on that were around for a while and left and, well, Captain Crunch was Captain Crunch was one, and I'm not sure if lucky charms are still around. And then there was one called twinkles.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 33:13 And I know all those except twinkles, but I would if you asked me, I would say, Honey Nut Cheerios. There's I would say their sales are better than Cheerios, or at least I would think so, yeah, at least a good portfolio company. Well, who knows, who knows, but I do know that Gen Z and millennials eat cereal a lot less than us older folks, because it takes work to put milk and cereal into a bowl, and it's not pre made, yeah. So maybe it's got to do with, you know, changing eating habits and consumer preferences   Michael Hingson ** 33:48 must be Yeah, and they're not enough of us, older, more experienced people to to counteract that. But you know, well, we'll see Yeah, as long as they don't get rid of the formula because it may come back. Yeah, well, now   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 34:03 Yeah, exactly between nostalgia and reboots and remakes and nothing's gone forever, everything comes back eventually.   Michael Hingson ** 34:10 Yeah, it does in all the work that you've done. Have you ever had to completely rethink and remake your approach and do something different?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 34:24 Yeah, well, there's been times where I've been on uncharted territory. I worked with an EV company before EVs were a thing, and it was going, actually going head to head with with Tesla. But the thing there's they keep trying to bring it back and crowd sourcing it and all that stuff. It's, but at the time, it was like, I said it was like, which is gonna make it first this company, or Tesla, but, but this one looks like a, it looks, it feels like a spaceship. It's got, like space. It's a, it's, it's really. Be really unique. So the one that that is more like a family car one out probably rightly so. But there was no consumer understanding of not, let alone our preference, like there is now for an EV and what do I do? I have to plug it in somewhere and and all those things. So I had to rethink, you know what? There's no playbook for that yet. I guess I have to kind of work on it. And they were only in prototyping at the point where we came in and had to launch this, you know, teaser and teaser campaign for it, and build up awareness and demand for this thing that existed on a computer at the time.   Michael Hingson ** 35:43 What? Why is Tesla so successful?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 35:48 Because they spent a bunch of money. Okay, that helps? Yeah, they were playing the long game. They could outspend competitors. They've got the unique distribution model. And they kind of like, I said, retrained consumers into how you buy a car, why you buy a car, and, and I think politics aside, people love their people love their teslas. You don't. My understanding is you don't have to do a whole lot once you buy it. And, and they they, like I said, they had the money to throw at it, that they could wait, wait it out and wait out that when you do anything with retraining consumers or behavior change or telling them you know, your old car is bad, your new this new one's good, that's the most. We'll call it costly and and difficult forms of marketing is retraining behavior. But they, they had the money to write it out and and their products great, you know, again, I'm not a Tesla enthusiast, but it's, it looks good. People love it. I you know, they run great from everything that I know, but so did a lot of other companies. So I think they just had the confidence in what they were doing to throw money at it and wait, be patient and well,   Michael Hingson ** 37:19 they're around there again the the Tesla is another example of not nearly as accessible as it should be and and I recognize that I'm not going to be the primary driver of a Tesla today, although I have driven a Tesla down Interstate 15, about 15 miles the driver was in the car, but, but I did it for about 15 miles going down I 15 and fully appreciate what autonomous vehicles will be able to do. We're way too much still on the cusp, and I think that people who just poo poo them are missing it. But I also know we're not there yet, but the day is going to come when there's going to be a lot more reliability, a lot less potential for accidents. But the thing that I find, like with the Tesla from a passenger standpoint, is I can't do any of the things that a that a sighted passenger can do. I can't unless it's changed in the last couple of years. I can't manipulate the radio. I can't do the other things that that that passengers might do in the Tesla, and I should be able to do that, and of all the vehicles where they ought to have access and could, the Tesla would be one, and they could do it even still using touch screens. I mean, the iPhone, for example, is all touch screen. But Apple was very creative about creating a mechanism to allow a person to not need to look at the screen using VoiceOver, the screen reader on the iPhone, but having a new set of gestures that were created that work with VoiceOver so that I could interact with that screen just as well as you can.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 38:59 That's interesting that you say that, you know, Apple was working on a car for a while, and I don't know to a fact, but I bet they were thinking through accessibility and building that into every turn, or at least planning to,   Michael Hingson ** 39:13 oh, I'm sure they were. And the reality is, it isn't again. It isn't that magical to do. It would be simple for the Teslas and and other vehicles to do it. But, you know, we're we're not there mentally. And that's of course, the whole issue is that we just societally don't tend to really look at accessibility like we should. My view of of, say, the apple the iPhone, still is that they could be marketing the screen reader software that I use, which is built into the system already. They could, they could do some things to mark market that a whole lot more than they already do for sighted people. Your iPhone rings, um. You have to tap it a lot of times to be able to answer it. Why can't they create a mode when you're in a vehicle where a lot more of that is verbally, spoken and handled through voice output from the phone and voice input from you, without ever having to look at or interact with the screen.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 40:19 I bet you're right, yeah, it's just another app at that point   Michael Hingson ** 40:22 well, and it's what I do. I mean, it's the way I operate with it. So I just think that they could, they could be more creative. There's so many examples of things that begin in one way and alter themselves or become altered. The typewriter, for example, was originally developed for a blind Countess to be able to communicate with her lover without her husband finding out her husband wasn't very attentive to her anyway. But the point is that the, I think the lover, created the this device where she could actually sit down and type a letter and seal it and give it to a maid or someone to give to, to her, her friend. And that's how the typewriter other other people had created, some examples, but the typewriter from her was probably the thing that most led to what we have today.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 41:17 Oh, I didn't know that. But let me Michael, let me ask you. So I was in LA not too long ago, and they have, you know, driverless vehicles are not the form yet, but they we, I saw them around the city. What do you think about driverless vehicles in terms of accessibility or otherwise?   Michael Hingson ** 41:32 Well, again, so, so the most basic challenge that, fortunately, they haven't really pushed which is great, is okay, you're driving along in an autonomous vehicle and you lose connection, or whatever. How are you going to be able to pull it off to the side of the road? Now, some people have talked about saying that there, there has to be a law that only sighted people could well the sighted people a sighted person has to be in the vehicle. The reality is, the technology has already been developed to allow a blind person to get behind the wheel of a car and have enough information to be able to drive that vehicle just as well, or nearly as well, as a sighted person. But I think for this, from the standpoint of autonomousness, I'm all for it. I think we're going to continue to see it. It's going to continue to get better. It is getting better daily. So I haven't ridden in a fully autonomous vehicle, but I do believe that that those vehicles need to make sure, or the manufacturers need to make sure that they really do put accessibility into it. I should be able to give the vehicle all the instructions and get all the information that any sighted person would get from the vehicle, and the technology absolutely exists to do that today. So I think we will continue to see that, and I think it will get better all the way around. I don't know whether, well, I think they that actually there have been examples of blind people who've gotten into an autonomous vehicle where there wasn't a sighted person, and they've been able to function with it pretty well. So I don't see why it should be a problem at all, and it's only going to get   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 43:22 better. Yeah, for sure. And I keep thinking, you know, accessibility would be a prior priority in autonomous vehicles, but I keep learning from you, you know you were on our show and and our discussions, that the priorities are not always in line and not always where they necessarily should   Michael Hingson ** 43:39 be. Well. And again, there are reasons for it, and while I might not like it, I understand it, and that is, a lot of it is education, and a lot of it is is awareness. Most schools that teach people how to code to develop websites don't spend a lot of time dealing with accessibility, even though putting all the codes in and creating accessible websites is not a magically difficult thing to do, but it's an awareness issue. And so yeah, we're just going to have to continue to fight the fight and work toward getting people to be more aware of why it's necessary. And in reality, I do believe that there is a lot of truth to this fact that making things more accessible for me will help other people as well, because by having not well, voice input, certainly in a vehicle, but voice output and so on, and a way for me to accessibly, be able to input information into an autonomous vehicle to take to have it take me where I want to go, is only going to help everyone else as well. A lot of things that I need would benefit sighted people so well, so much.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 44:56 Yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, AI assisted. And voice input and all those things, they are universally loved and accepted now, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 45:07 it's getting better. The unemployment rate is still very high among, for example, employable blind people, because all too many people still think blind people can't work, even though they can. So it's all based on prejudice rather than reality, and we're, we're, we're just going to have to continue to work to try to deal with the issues. I wrote an article a couple of years ago. One of the things where we're constantly identified in the world is we're blind or visually impaired. And the problem with visually impaired is visually we're not different simply because we don't see and impaired, we are not we're getting people slowly to switch to blind and low vision, deaf people and hard of hearing people did that years ago. If you tell a deaf person they're hearing impaired, they're liable to deck you on the spot. Yeah, and blind people haven't progressed to that point, but it's getting there, and the reality is blind and low vision is a much more appropriate terminology to use, and it's not equating us to not having eyesight by saying we're impaired, you know. So it's it's an ongoing process, and all we can do is continue to work at it?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 46:21 Yeah, no. And I appreciate that you do. Like I said, education and retraining is, is call it marketing or call it, you know, just the way people should behave. But it's, that's, it's hard. It's one of the hardest things to do.   Michael Hingson ** 46:36 But, you know, we're making progress, and we'll, we'll continue to do that, and I think over time we'll we'll see things improve. It may not happen as quickly as we'd like, but I also believe that I and other people who are blind do need to be educators. We need to teach people. We need to be patient enough to do that. And you know, I see so often articles written about Me who talk about how my guide dog led me out of the World Trade Center. The guide dog doesn't lead anybody anywhere. That's not the job of the dog. The dog's job is to make sure that we walk safely. It's my job to know where to go and how to get there. So a guide dog guides and will make sure that we walk safely. But I'm the one that has to tell the dog, step by step, where I want the dog to go, and that story is really the crux of what I talk about many times when I travel and speak to talk to the public about what happened in the World Trade Center, because I spent a lot of time learning what I needed to do in order to escape safely and on September 11, not ever Having anticipated that we would need that kind of information, but still preparing for it, the mindset kicked in, and it all worked well.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 47:49 You You and I talked about Uber on on my show, when you came on, and we gave them a little ding and figured out some stuff for them, what in terms of accessibility, and, you know, just general corporate citizenship, what's what's a company that, let's give them a give, give, call them out for a good reason? What's a company that's doing a good job, in your eyes, in your mind, for accessibility, maybe an unexpected one.   Michael Hingson ** 48:20 Well, as I mentioned before, I think Apple is doing a lot of good things. I think Microsoft is doing some good I think they could do better than they are in in some ways, but they're working at it. I wish Google would put a little bit more emphasis on making its you its interface more more usable to you really use the like with Google Docs and so on. You have to hurt learn a whole lot of different commands to make part of that system work, rather than it being as straightforward as it should be, there's some new companies coming up. There's a new company called inno search. Inno search.ai, it was primarily designed at this point for blind and low vision people. The idea behind inner search is to have any a way of dealing with E commerce and getting people to be able to help get help shopping and so on. So they actually have a a phone number. It's, I think it's 855, shop, G, P, T, and you can go in, and you can talk to the bot and tell it what you want, and it can help fill up a shopping cart. It's using artificial intelligence, but it understands really well. I have yet to hear it tell me I don't understand what you want. Sometimes it gives me a lot of things that more than I than I'm searching for. So there, there's work that needs to be done, but in a search is really a very clever company that is spending a lot of time working to make. Sure that everything that it does to make a shopping experience enjoyable is also making sure that it's accessible.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 50:08 Oh, that's really interesting. Now, with with my podcast, and just in general, I spend a lot of time critiquing companies and and not taking them to test, but figuring out how to make them better. But I always like the opportunity to say you did something well, like even quietly, or you're, you know, people are finding you because of a certain something you didn't you took it upon yourselves to do and figure out   Michael Hingson ** 50:34 there's an audio editor, and we use it some unstoppable mindset called Reaper. And Reaper is a really great digital audio workstation product. And there is a whole series of scripts that have been written that make Reaper incredibly accessible as an audio editing tool. It's really great. It's about one of the most accessible products that I think I have seen is because they've done so well with it, which is kind of cool.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 51:06 Oh, very nice. Okay, good. It's not even expensive. You gave me two to look, to pay attention to, and, you know, Track, track, along with,   Michael Hingson ** 51:16 yeah, they're, they're, they're fun. So what do people assume about you that isn't true or that you don't think is true?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 51:25 People say, I'm quiet at times, guess going back to childhood, but there's time, there's situation. It's it's situational. There's times where I don't have to be the loudest person in the room or or be the one to talk the most, I can hang back and observe, but I would not categorize myself as quiet, you know, like I said, it's environmental. But now I've got plenty to say. You just have to engage me, I guess.   Michael Hingson ** 51:56 Yeah, well, you know, it's interesting. I'm trying to remember   Michael Hingson ** 52:04 on Shark Tank, what's Mark's last name, Cuban. Cuban. It's interesting to watch Mark on Shark Tank. I don't know whether he's really a quiet person normally, but I see when I watch Shark Tank. The other guys, like Mr. Wonderful with Kevin are talking all the time, and Mark just sits back and doesn't say anything for the longest period of time, and then he drops a bomb and bids and wins. Right? He's just really clever about the way he does it. I think there's a lot to be said for not just having to speak up every single time, but rather really thinking things through. And he clearly does that,   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 52:46 yeah, yeah, you have to appreciate that. And I think that's part of the reason that you know, when I came time to do a podcast, I did a panel show, because I'm surrounded by bright, interesting, articulate people, you included as coming on with us and and I don't have to fill every second. I can, I can, I, you know, I can intake information and think for a second and then maybe have a   Michael Hingson ** 53:15 response. Well, I think that makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? I mean, it's the way it really ought to be.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 53:20 Yeah, if you got to fill an hour by yourself, you're always on, right?   Michael Hingson ** 53:26 Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I know when I travel to speak. I figure that when I land somewhere, I'm on until I leave again. So I always enjoy reading books, especially going and coming on airplanes. And then I can be on the whole time. I am wherever I have to be, and then when I get on the airplane to come home, I can relax again.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 53:45 Now, I like that. And I know, you keynote, I think I'd rather moderate, you know, I'll say something when I have something to say, and let other people talk for a while. Well, you gotta, you have a great story, and you're, you know, I'm glad you're getting it out there.   Michael Hingson ** 53:58 Well, if anybody needs a keynote speaker. Just saying, for everybody listening, feel free to email me. I'd love to hear from you. You can email me at Michael H i@accessibe.com or speaker at Michael hingson.com always looking for speaking engagements. Then we got that one in. I'm glad, but, but you know, for you, is there a podcast episode that you haven't done, that you really want to do, that just seems to be eluding you?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 54:28 There are a couple that got away. I wanted to do one about Sesame Street because it was without a it was looking like it was going to be without a home. And that's such a hallmark of my childhood. And so many, yeah, I think they worked out a deal, which is probably what I was going to propose with. It's like a CO production deal with Netflix. So it seems like they're safe for the foreseeable future. But what was the other I think there's, there's at least one or two more where maybe the guests didn't line up, or. Or the timeliness didn't work. I was going to have someone connected to Big Lots. You remember Big Lots? I think they're still around to some degree, but I think they are, come on and tell me their story, because they've, you know, they've been on the brink of extinction for a little while. So it's usually, it's either a timing thing, with the with with the guest, or the news cycle has just maybe gone on and moved past us.   Michael Hingson ** 55:28 But, yeah, I know people wrote off Red Lobster for a while, but they're still around.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 55:35 They're still around. That would be a good one. Yeah, their endless shrimp didn't do them any favors. No, that didn't help a whole lot, but it's the companies, even the ones we've done already, you know, they they're still six months later. Toilet hasn't been even a full year of our show yet, but in a year, I bet there's, you know, we could revisit them all over again, and they're still going to find themselves in, I don't know, hot water, but some kind of controversy for one reason or another. And we'll, we'll try to help them out again.   Michael Hingson ** 56:06 Have you seen any successes from the podcast episodes where a company did listen to you and has made some changes?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 56:15 I don't know that. I can correlate one to one. We know that they listen. We can look at the metrics and where the where the list listens, are coming from, especially with LinkedIn, gives you some engagement and tells you which companies are paying attention. So we know that they are and they have now, whether they took that and, you know, implemented it, we have a disclaimer saying, Don't do it. You know, we're not there to give you unfiltered legal advice. You know, don't hold us accountable for anything we say. But if we said something good and you like it, do it. So, you know, I don't know to a T if they have then we probably given away billions of dollars worth of fixes. But, you know, I don't know the correlation between those who have listened and those who have acted on something that we might have, you know, alluded to or set out, right? But it has. We've been the times that we take it really seriously. We've we've predicted some things that have come come to pass.   Michael Hingson ** 57:13 That's cool, yeah. Well, you certainly had a great career, and you've done a lot of interesting things. If you had to suddenly change careers and do something entirely different from what you're doing, what would it be?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 57:26 Oh, man, my family laughs at me, but I think it would be a furniture salesman. There you go. Yeah, I don't know why. There's something about it's just enough repetition and just enough creativity. I guess, where people come in, you tell them, you know you, they tell you their story, you know, you get to know them. And then you say, Oh, well, this sofa would be amazing, you know, and not, not one with endless varieties, not one with with two models somewhere in between. Yeah, I think that would be it keeps you on your feet.   Michael Hingson ** 58:05 Furniture salesman, well, if you, you know, if you get too bored, math is homes and Bob's furniture probably looking for people.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 58:12 Yeah, I could probably do that at night.   Michael Hingson ** 58:18 What advice do you give to people who are just starting out, or what kinds of things do you would you give to people we have ideas and thoughts?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 58:27 So I've done a lot of mentoring. I've done a lot of one on one calls. They told I always work with an organization. They told me I did 100 plus calls. I always tell people to take use the create their own momentum, so you can apply for things, you can stand in line, you can wait, or you can come up with your own idea and test it out and say, I'm doing this. Who wants in? And the minute you have an idea, people are interested. You know, you're on to something. Let me see what that's all about. You know, I want to be one of the three that you're looking for. So I tell them, create their own momentum. Try to flip the power dynamic. So if you're asking for a job, how do you get the person that you're asking to want something from you and and do things that are take on, things that are within your control?   Michael Hingson ** 59:18 Right? Right? Well, if you had to go back and tell the younger Aaron something from years ago, what would you give him in the way of advice?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 59:30 Be more vulnerable. Don't pretend you know everything. There you go. And you don't need to know everything. You need to know what you know. And then get a little better and get a little better.   Michael Hingson ** 59:43 One of the things that I constantly tell people who I hire as salespeople is you can be a student, at least for a year. Don't hesitate to ask your customers questions because they're not out to. Get you. They want you to succeed. And if you interact with your customers and you're willing to learn from them, they're willing to teach, and you'll learn so much that you never would have thought you would learn. I just think that's such a great concept.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 1:00:12 Oh, exactly right. Yeah. As soon as I started saying that to clients, you know, they would throw out an industry term. As soon as I've said I don't know what that is, can you explain it to me? Yeah? And they did, and the world didn't fall apart. And I didn't, you know, didn't look like the idiot that I thought I would when we went on with our day. Yeah, that whole protective barrier that I worked so hard to keep up as a facade, I didn't have to do it, and it was so freeing. Yeah, yeah, yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:41 I hear you. Well, this has been fun. We've been doing it for an hour. Can you believe it? Oh, hey, that was a quick hour. I know it was a lot of fun. Well, I want to thank you for being here, and I want to thank you all for listening. Please give us a five star rating wherever you're listening or watching. We really appreciate it. We value your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you and get your thoughts on our episode today. And I'm sure Aaron would like that as well, and I'll give you an email address in a moment. But Aaron, if people want to reach out to you and maybe use your services, how do they do that?   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 1:01:12 Yeah, so two ways you can check me out, at double zebra, z, E, B, R, A, double zebra.com and the podcast, I encourage you to check out too. We fixed it. Pod.com, we fixed it.   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:25 Pod.com, there you go. So reach out to Aaron and get marketing stuff done and again. Thank you all. My email address, if you'd like to talk to us, is Michael, H, I m, I C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, and if you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest on our podcast, we'd love it if you give us an introduction. We're always looking for people, so please do and again. Aaron, I just want to thank you for being here. This has been a lot of fun.   Aaron Wolpoff, ** 1:01:58 That was great. Thanks for having me. Michael,   **Michael Hingson ** 1:02:05 You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com . AccessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for Listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.

Tipp FM Radio
Tipp Today Full Show 080925

Tipp FM Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2025 150:01


On Monday's Tipp Today, Fran spoke to our Sports Editor Paul Carroll for a lookback at the weekends sporting action, Cllr Jim Ryan on Councillors being told how to vote in the Presidential election, Dean McGrath on the pause in strike action at schools, Principal Viv Dooley from Cloughjordan as the mast protest continues, James Sexton on Inheritance tax, global news with Thomas Conway, Laoise from the Countess on the Graham Linehan case and its implications, the Taste of Nenagh event over the weekend, Pat and Mick on their views on the Presidential election and relationships expert Susan O'Donoghue on the purpose of anxiety.

Tipp FM Radio
The Graham Linehan case - Laoise from the Countess

Tipp FM Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 8, 2025 13:33


Comedian Graham Linehan has returned to the social media platform X after being banned by the Met Police. Mr Linehan is still under investigation for a Public Order crime and will have to answer bail later this month. Founder of the Countess, Laoise De Brun spoke about the case on Tipp Today with Fran...

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 4, 2025 is: abeyance • uh-BAY-unss • noun Abeyance is a formal word that is almost always used in the phrase “in abeyance” to describe something in a temporary state of inactivity—that is, something in a state of suspension. // The legal case is now being held in abeyance while the parties attempt to find a mutually acceptable solution. See the entry > Examples: “A restaurant popular with college students ... will temporarily lose its liquor license for more than a week in October after the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission found multiple underage patrons consuming alcohol. ... The actual liquor license suspension issued lasts for 18 days, but only nine of those days must be served, from Oct. 7 to 15, according to the report. The other nine days ‘will be held in abeyance for a period of two years provided no further violations' are found ...” — Katelyn Umholtz, Boston.com, 12 Sept. 2024 Did you know? Jaw-dropping suspense is at the etymological heart of abeyance: the word's Anglo-French forbear joined parts meaning “to open wide” and “to have the mouth wide open; gape, pant.” Almost always partnered with the word in, abeyance refers to a temporary lull in activity—a state of suspension (and perhaps suspense) before an action continues. If something, such as a plan or contract, is in abeyance, it is temporarily unable to take effect, be enforced, etc. When first borrowed into English in the early 16th century, abeyance referred to a lapse in succession during which there exists no person with a legal right to an estate or title of nobility; think of a property or title in this type of abeyance as being in a state of limbo, waiting for a rightful heir or owner. This meaning comes directly from its Anglo-French ancestor, which took the jaw-dropping suspense implied in the word's parts and applied it to the edge-of-one's-seat feeling when you don't know who the next Earl or Countess will be.

The Families of Character Show
Ep. #166: Inspiring Virtue Through Storytelling with Jeff Minick

The Families of Character Show

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 2, 2025 50:32 Transcription Available


Send us a Text Message and suggest a topic or guest!What if the secret to raising virtuous children isn't found in lectures or lessons, but in the stories we share? When educator and father Jeff Minnick recalls the tale of "The Countess and the Impossible" – a story about a boy striving for excellence in lawn-mowing that shaped his work ethic for six decades – we glimpse the extraordinary power of literature in character formation.In this episode we discuss:• Stories serve as powerful examples children naturally want to emulate• Reading aloud to children for just 15 minutes daily creates crucial bonding time while building language skills• Classic books like Little House on the Prairie and Anne of Green Gables teach virtue without preaching• Parents can find quality book recommendations through resources like "Honey for a Child's Heart", "Honey for a Teens Heart", and "Books Children Love"• Poetry helps develop language patterns and moral lessons that stay with children throughout life• It's never too late to start reading aloud with children, even with teenagersReclaim your role as the primary educator of faith and morals by sharing great stories with your children today.Be sure to check out Jeff Minick's articles on The Epoch Times website and Intellectual Takeout. The Thriving Family Accelerator provides an easy, 3-step process to lower stress, parent as a united team, and enjoy a true friendship with your spouse & relationship with your kids. Sign up now for this live parent coaching with proven methods for positively engaging your family and redistributing the mental load.

featured Wiki of the Day
Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville

featured Wiki of the Day

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 29, 2025 1:59


fWotD Episode 3038: Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day, your daily dose of knowledge from Wikipedia's finest articles.The featured article for Friday, 29 August 2025, is Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville.Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville (née Lady Henrietta Elizabeth Cavendish; 29 August 1785 – 25 November 1862), was a British society hostess and writer. The younger daughter of Lady Georgiana Spencer and the William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire, she was a member of the wealthy Cavendish and Spencer families and spent her childhood under the care of a governess with her two siblings.In 1809 Harriet married Granville Leveson-Gower, a diplomat who had been her maternal aunt's lover for seventeen years. The couple's marriage was long lasting and they had five children. During intermittent periods between 1824 and 1841, Granville served as the British ambassador to France, requiring Harriet to perform a relentless array of social duties in Paris that she often found exhausting and frivolous.A prolific writer of letters, Harriet corresponded with others for most of her life, often humorously describing her observations of those around her. Historians have since found her detailed accounts to be a valuable source of information on life as an ambassadress as well as life in the 19th-century aristocracy. Between 1894 and 1990, four edited collections of Harriet's correspondence were published.This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:12 UTC on Friday, 29 August 2025.For the full current version of the article, see Harriet Leveson-Gower, Countess Granville on Wikipedia.This podcast uses content from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.Visit our archives at wikioftheday.com and subscribe to stay updated on new episodes.Follow us on Mastodon at @wikioftheday@masto.ai.Also check out Curmudgeon's Corner, a current events podcast.Until next time, I'm standard Russell.

History of North America
434. Count and Countess Frontenac

History of North America

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2025 10:12


We can't turn the page on the seventeenth century without covering in depth the fascinating exploits, momentous discoveries, monumental battles, and adventurous saga of Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV. Frontenac (1622-98) was a French aristocrat, soldier and Governor General of New France in North America. He established a number of Forts on the shores of the Great Lakes and engaged in a series of battles against the English and the Iroquois Confederacy for control of the fur trade. Governor Frontenac's initiatives helped solidify French claims and influence stretching from Lake Superior to the Mississippi River, pushing French territorial boundaries along the future American-Canadian border and further into the interior of North America. Check out the YouTube version of this episode at https://youtu.be/kzWTHQZ_rfQ which has accompanying visuals including maps, charts, timelines, photos, illustrations, and diagrams. Frontenac books available at https://amzn.to/3HS4eZp Chateau Frontenac books at https://amzn.to/3JxbV7X French King Louis XIV books at https://amzn.to/3HGyVkr ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark Vinet's HISTORICAL JESUS podcast at https://parthenonpodcast.com/historical-jesus Mark's TIMELINE video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/MarkVinet_HNA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM Audio credit: France and England in North America by Francis Parkman, Jr. — Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, Librivox read by C. Major.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mystery x Suspense
Sherlock Holmes || The Blue Carbuncle || 1948

Mystery x Suspense

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2025 33:00


Sherlock Holmes || The Blue Carbuncle || December 26, 1948As London prepares for Christmas, newspapers report the theft of a near-priceless gemstone, the "Blue Carbuncle", from the Countess of Morcar's hotel suite. The police arrest John Horner, a plumber with a criminal record who was in the Countess's room repairing a fireplace grate.: : : : :My other podcast channels include: DRAMA X THEATER -- SCI FI x HORROR -- COMEDY x FUNNY HA HA -- VARIETY X ARMED FORCES -- THE COMPLETE ORSON WELLESEnjoying my podcast? You can subscribe to receive new post notices. Also, if you have a moment, please give a 4-5 star rating and/or write a 1-2 sentence positive review on your preferred service -- that would help me a lot.Thank you for your support.https://otr.duane.media | Instagram @duane.otr@duaneOldTimeRadio #duaneOldTimeRadio#mysteryclassics #oldtimeradio #otr #mysteryradio #radioclassics #rodserling #agathachristie #thewhistler #mystery #suspense #oldtimeradioclassics #classicradio #crimeclassics #duaneotr:::: :

ExplicitNovels
Legends of Godiva: Part 5

ExplicitNovels

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 27, 2025


Legends of Godiva: Part 5Surviving a Viking camp is not easy.Based on a post by LingeringAfterthought in 5 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.Godgifu found Cnut sitting by the stream, absentmindedly throwing rocks into it with a sour look on his face. She walked to his side and rested her hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry;" she said quietly."Why the Pindsvin sorry?" Cnut said quietly, "Afraid of Cnut the beast? Think he cut off the Pindsvin face for arguing with Cnut? You think easy? Be king to three countries?""And some of Sweden;" Godgifu added. "No; I don't. Half the time I can't deal with Coventry, much less Mercia. No; I meant I was sorry for assuming the worst about you. I only knew about you from stories told by people angry and hurting about what they had lost in war. After all that, I didn't even want you to be a man, much less one who's; well, goofy and likeable," she said, sitting down next to him."Not likeable. The Emma; she not like Cnut," he said with tired resignation."Look, if you say another woman's name during sex, of course she's going to be mad;""No. The Pindsvin not understand. The Emma not mad. The Emma not like Cnut. The Leofric say 'everyone like Cnut,' but the Emma; no," he said, throwing a pebble into the water."Well, what have you given her to like?" Godgifu asked, pulling a blade of grass out of the ground and putting it between her thumbs and blowing, making a loud screeching squawk sound. "What I mean is, you were in Coventry just a couple hours, and you got Sir Hulgar to like you; and he doesn't like anybody," she said, bumping his elbow with her shoulder."We play dice;""So, you spent some time with him, doing something he likes to do? Okay; when do you spend time with Emma?""Cnut king of three countries; spending time difficult. Give her good fuck. She even make the squirrel sound with good fuck, but then turn away after. Not talk. Not make the spoons. Just take the candle and the feather and scratches the paper with the ink and cries. The Emma not happy, not like Cnut. Maybe she think Cnut beast, too.""So, now you're going to Torksey so Leofric can tell her that, despite you saying Aelfgifu's name during sex, you're not fucking her anymore? Your plan is to prove the Emma's wrong to be upset and that you're right?" Godgifu asked."Yes. Tell her Cnut is right, good husband;" he said, his voice trailing off until he sighed heavily. "This; not good plan.""Nope. Telling us we're emotional and wrong about feeling something is pretty much going to go very badly for you every single time. You know what's a good idea?" she asked. Cnut glanced over at her uneasily. "Bringing me along with you," she finished."The Leofric; he not like this idea. The Pindsvin is small; break easy," he said, throwing a larger stone into the water."Yes, and the Leofric also won't tell you when you have bad ideas. I will. Bring me along, keep me safe somewhere and I'll help you win over the Emma. No problem. Everything fine," Godgifu said, imitating him and earning a scowl from Cnut."Pindsvin; you know Cnut not think 'everything fine' when he say 'everything fine,'" he admitted."Yes, Sire. Leofric knows, too. He just won't tell you so. He's too nice. He'll just help you anyway and probably get himself killed. Then, you would have an even bigger problem than no Emma," Godgifu said."What problem then?""Me.""Ah," Cnut said. Then, he stood and slowly pulled his tunic up and over his head, revealing a tanned and toned torso, bulging with muscles, so ridiculously gorgeous and perfect that Godgifu started laughing aloud. Knowing exactly the affect he had on her, Cnut grinned, threw his tunic at her, shucked his pants, and waded into the water to wash himself."Leofric! Help! I need to come again!" Godgifu laughingly yelled through the trees, watching Cnut bathe."Dammit woman, I'm currying Harold!" Leofric yelled back. "What happened? You were just supposed to apologize, for God's sake!""I am Cnut!" the King announced in explanation, causing Godgifu to burst into giggles. "Leofric! The Pindsvin comes with us to Torksey! Help us to win the Emma!" he yelled."What?" Leofric said, quickly running into the clearing. "Sire, that's; that's not; I mean; perhaps we should consider; it might not be;""The Pindsvin come! I am Cnut!""Don't I get a say in any of this, Sire?""See, I told you," Godgifu said, gesturing to Leofric. "He's too nice. You need me." She stood and pulled Leofric's tunic over her head and threw it down at his feet."Well, why does he need you?" Leofric asked, exasperated."I am Pindsvin!" she yelled happily, running naked into the water.Cnut, Leofric and Godgifu scouted the camp at Torksey, a fertile swath of land close to the banks of the River Trent. Numerous shelters and lodges lined the rough paths of the Vikings' army's winter home. Smoke came up in several places, no doubt from fires stoked by metalworkers that were melting down items stolen from England's holy places.Much to their surprise, there was also a small, but steady, stream of people approaching the camp. Cnut explained that it was known that many English towns nearby did business with the winter camp, but he never heard tell of numbers that would explain what they saw today. Everyone funneled toward a single entry point, where they would relinquish their weapons, submit to inquiries, and hand over a sum of money or goods before being allowed into the camp.Godgifu whispered to the two men crouched over where she lay behind the bush, "All right, so the plan is, I get in line, go in there and tell them I am a maid you sent to Emma, and then I talk with her and try to get her out of there;""No. That is not the plan. You're staying safe here at the ca;" Leofric said, frowning down at her, only to be interrupted by the King.Cnut grunted in agreement. "Yes. Plan very good. And the Pindsvin not say about when Cnut spray seed on numsen;"Godgifu looked over her other shoulder to Cnut and rolled her eyes, "Why on Earth would you think I'd tell her about you coming on my ass? Honestly; you think that we'd just be chatting about court or hairstyles and I'd just blurt out 'Oh, by the way;""No. You won't be chatting with anyone about anything because you will be here;" Leofric said, tugging her braid to turn her head toward him. Godgifu tugged her braid out of his hand, turned back to the King and raised her eyebrows, waiting for the answer to her question.Cnut held up a hand, effectively covering Godgifu's entire face, "Cnut knows the women. They get together. They say all the things," he said darkly.Leofric growled in frustration, "Diva, stop ignoring me. That is a Viking camp. Do you have any idea what they do to people, much less to someone like you?"Godgifu clenched her jaw and shook her head, "Leofric, you know I should be the one to go. I speak the language and I'm not, well; you two. If you two go and they recognized Cnut in there, they might hold him hostage and there's not a lot of people in the Witengamot that would pay to get him out. You can't go because you look exactly like every guy that's been fighting them all this time and they'd probably kill you on sight. Nobody ever worries about me because I look like a little;""Pindsvin; hedgehog, yes," Cnut said absently, patting the top of her head while squinting at the line of men entering the camp."So; what do I tell her to get her to leave?" Godgifu asked, worriedly watching Leofric rise angrily and stalk back to their camp."Tell her Cnut is here," he said, shrugging as if saying the obvious.Godgifu snorted and rolled her eyes, "Well, why would that make her leave the camp? You go off to another country after saying the wrong name when you were having sex and all of a sudden she's supposed to jump for joy when she gets a summons from you? No. You need to soften her up a bit. Be nice. Remind her of the good times. Like, what did you say when you asked her to marry you?""Not ask. Treaty. Treaty say 'Marry Cnut and promise not kill the Emma's Aethelred children. Send them to France. Not-dead children love France. Chalk cliffs. Good cheese. Everything fine.""Oh, dear God, you've really been leaning hard on this good-looking thing, haven't you?" Godgifu grumbled under her breath."I am Cnut;" he said, shrugging."Yeah, you are Cnut; and the Cnut is handsome. But, you know what? If you want to stay married and be a good king, you've gotta work harder than that. You've had it easy because you're tall, gorgeous, rich and powerful. Problem is, you're no longer trying to get a woman to bed, now. You're trying to make your wife happy and that's a completely different thing. A woman might get stupid once or twice about a handsome man, but unless you build more than that, she'll only hate herself more and more every time she gives in to you. Orgasms only make you happy for so long. Not-dead children living in another country aren't a good basis for a marriage, either. It doesn't give you a lot to talk about. I wish Leofric didn't hate the idea of it so much. He would know what to say," Godgifu said, glancing back to the grove of trees where Leofric had disappeared.Cnut grunted, "The Leofric has good words. Good words; ugly face.""Shut up!" she said, slapping his shoulder, "He's not ugly! He's just bruised. Don't be a jerk!""Why the small women always smæk big men?" grumbled Cnut scowling and rubbing his shoulder. "What Leofric say to win grumpy Pindsvin?" he asked.Godgifu thought for a while and smiled, shaking her head, "Not a thing, actually. In a situation where most people would have said a whole bunch of wrong things, Leofric just stayed quiet and close and invited me choose whether to talk to him; and it made me want to. He red me perfectly. That's what you need to do. Emma needs you to notice her, to enjoy her; to see what makes her happy." Godgifu sighed, looking up the trees to where Leofric had disappeared in the distance. She hated to do this. She wished there was another way."So, what makes the Emma happy?" she asked, poking Cnut in the hip with her elbow to draw his attention away from the camp.Instead of looking down at her, he kept his eyes fixed on the rough looking camp and sighed. "Not Cnut," he answered simply."Well, fine. I'll talk with her and get her to you, but just think about what I said, because making this woman happy just became your biggest challenge," Godgifu said.Cnut grunted in agreement and handed her a small pack, strapping it on her back and across her front in a way that seemed odd, yet comfortable. Looking back to the camp, she squared her shoulders, trying to be braver than she felt. "Okay;" she said, coughing to cover for her throat tightening in fear, "I'll come back as soon as I can. Tell Leofric; tell him; you know;" she said, wiping away the tears that started falling down her cheeks.Steeling herself, Godgifu started off for the Viking camp, but found her progress hindered when her feet left the ground. "What are you doing?" she squawked, as Cnut lifted her over his shoulder by her waistband and returned to the grove where Leofric had gone."The Leofric ready?" Cnut said, casually hanging Godgifu's kicking and squirming body from a branch on the tree and securing the strap around it that he had wrapped around her body under the guise of securing her pack.Leofric turned from Harold to Cnut, his face a mask of confused relief. "She's; not going then?""Pindsvin easy to catch when think she get her way. You not know this? Why work so hard?" Cnut said, casually ducking as Godgifu's foot grazed his ear. "She watch from here. Know her Leofric safe."Leofric nodded, glad Cnut couldn't see the fury in Godgifu's eyes. Leaning in and hoping she didn't take a bite out of him, he murmured, "Watch us. If anything goes wrong or if we don't come back by morning, go back to Coventry and tell Sir Hulgar what has happened. Tell no one who supports the Witengamot, just Sir Hulgar," he said, brushing Godgifu's hair back behind her ear."How am I supposed to do that? Loosen these straps. Cut me free. He's tied me up here like I'm going to be spit roasted," she hissed."How is it that treason is always the answer to every problem you come across? After we're gone, use the knife you're trying to wriggle out of your sleeve. You'll be free in 20 minutes. Now, give me a kiss for luck;" he whispered. Godgifu's lips trembled, unshed tears filling her eyes. Finally, she nodded and lifted her face to his. Expecting trouble, Leofric pecked her lips quickly and just barely dodged a head-butt from his future wife.With a glare of annoyance, Leofric reached behind her and pulled the hidden knife out of her sleeve, throwing it to the ground out of reach. Then, purposefully, he ran his hands over every inch of her body, removing three more weapons before he finished with her. "You come back," she said, wriggling against her bindings. "You come back, Leofric, or so help me I'll; I'll do the most dangerous thing I can think of; and then I'll keep doing dangerous things until I can join you again," she vowed.Leofric only smiled, took her face in his hands and kissed her tenderly, coaxing her lips with his until he felt her soften and kiss him back. "What did I do to deserve you?" he asked, smiling and pressing his forehead to hers."The Leofric was punishment for the Pindsvin tax debt! Come!" Cnut shouted, starting down the hill toward the camp. Leofric sighed, kissed Godgifu one last time, and took off to join the King.Godgifu watched the two men stride downhill and join the line of people waiting to enter the camp, slipping a length of thick wire out of the cuff of her tunic, careful to avoid the serrated edge carved into one side and began sawing away at the leather straps binding her to the tree. Her eyes never moved from the two men casually joining the line of men waiting to join the camp, trying to read their body language, drawing any possible meaning from the slightest gesture.Just as the men reached the front of the line, Godgifu cut through her bindings and climbed onto the branch to which she had been bound. When it was their turn to enter, Cnut spoke briefly to the guards. Then, he nodded to Leofric, who reached into his pack for a pouch; probably the money they were charging for admittance to the camp. Leofric handed the pouch to Cnut who passed it over to the guards. They were in! It was working!Then, Leofric turned toward her, his face lit up by the golden setting sun, and smiled. Godgifu almost raised a hand to wave to him; and then he sneezed. Leofric had done nothing more exciting than sneeze, when suddenly, as Godgifu watched in horror, the guards started shouting and sacks were thrown over both Leofric and Cnut's heads as the men protested, their hands were bound behind them, and they were dragged away kicking and struggling."Watch us. If anything goes wrong or if we don't come back by morning, go back to Coventry and tell Sir Hulgar what has happened;" Leofric's parting words echoed in Godgifu's mind. She had no intention whatsoever of heeding them, but having his voice with her was a comfort as she crept through the darkness around the edges of the Viking camp.Godgifu was accustomed to sneaking around unseen. After years of sneaking out of the castle, past servants and Sir Hulgar's watchful eye to rid herself of the veils she had to wear and put on the comfortable dress that she wore as Lady Godiva, she could easily melt into shadows or walk through lit places and be mistaken as someone else. These skills served her well as she prowled the cold marshes surrounding the encampment, watching and learning.She had seen the men drag Leofric and Cnut toward an area where numerous boats had been pulled onto the land and prepared for wintering. Had they been killed? Why would they have been brought to such a place? It didn't look like anyone spent much time out here with the boats. Most of the camp's population preferred the warmer areas where the metalworkers' fires burned. After searching the boat area, the only thing she saw was a disgruntled man arguing with himself as he carved a knife handle out of a piece of bone.Frustrated, Godgifu took to watching the occupants of the camp instead. Most of the men were engaged in some form of metalworking. Some were sorting pillaged items according to their metal into piles, where they would be moved to different areas of the camp to be broken into pieces and melted into coins or ingots by the ever-burning fires. Slaves were everywhere. Mostly boys and young men, though there were some women, as well. The most menial tasks were reserved for the male slaves: feeding the fires, carrying non-precious items around. The female thralls were most often seen sewing or cooking food, when they weren't regularly being pulled into a shelter to service one of the Vikings.From what Godgifu could tell, when they weren't counting their plunder or forcing themselves on their slaves, the Vikings mostly argued with each other. It appeared the camp was made up of several disparate groups of Vikings from different areas in Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. The languages were all somewhat similar, and because Godgifu spoke Danish, she was able to understand most of what they were saying. As for why they were arguing, it was surprising how petty it all was.Apparently two enormous blonde men, Hafdan and Gorm, were at odds because Hafdan used Gorm's favorite cup without permission and dented it when Hafdan came to blows with Toke over the proper lyrics to the song "Orm's Bloody Stump." After knocking Toke unconscious with the cup, Hafdan won the argument, but sadly the exceptional cup was irreparably damaged, in Gorm's view.Skarde told anyone that would listen that Leif's campsite was encroaching on his campsite. He ended his rants by pointing to a large rock marker he had placed at the border between the two shelters, promising that anyone who dared to touch it would be smelted along with the copper. Godgifu also saw Leif emerge and nudge the rock over a touch when Skarde had gone back inside his tent.Bjorn was despondent after burning half his beard away while playing a smelting prank on Balder. Apparently, the smelting prank involved a comical explosion of sorts, which killed Balder's favorite bed slave, as well as leaving half of Bjorn's beard charred away. Balder was insisting that Bjorn pay for the loss of his bed slave, and Bjorn was insisting that Balder should cut off half of his own beard first. Balder, for his part, did not appreciate Bjorn's logic.Most of all, the Torksey Vikings argued about something called "hnefatafl." Godgifu didn't understand the word, but it appeared it was a game involving many pieces on a board. It seemed to be like chess, but with one player starting with their pieces clustered in the middle of the board and the other player's pieces surrounding them.Godgifu learned that the Torksey camp was having a hnefatafl tournament, which explained the steady stream of people entering the camp after paying a fee. What she also gathered was that the tournament was not going well. Apparently, all the Viking groups that populated Torksey had different rules for playing hnefatafl, and because there was no recognized leadership among the different groups, the tournament that was likely intended as an enjoyable diversion for the colder weather had mounted quite the death toll amongst them. Indeed, it was rare that two Vikings of different bands would sit down at a hnefatafl board and it wouldn't end in blows or bloodshed.None of this explained why Leofric and Cnut were bagged and dragged away at the main entrance to the camp, but Godgifu hoped that an explanation and news of their welfare would come in time. Considering that the Vikings had no problems with maiming or striking each other dead for the slightest infractions, the fact that Leofric and Cnut were not killed immediately was actually encouraging. Godgifu had no doubt that if the Vikings wanted them dead, Leofric and Cnut would be dead.It was in a tent-like shelter on the outskirts of the camp that Godgifu found Queen Emma. Unlike the other shelters, it appeared somewhat cleaner and even more telling were the cracks of light between the walls of the tent by someone using candles inside. Gathering her courage, Godgifu waited until she would not be seen, and then crept up to the opening in the tent, where a soft voice could be heard muttering English in a vaguely French accent. "He roughly clasped her slender frame in his manly arms, shocking her untested virtue with the passionate, throbbing heat of his turgid;""Um; my Lady?" Godgifu whispered loudly.The voice fell silent, the occupant obviously pretending that no one was there. Godgifu would have found the situation amusing, if it weren't also so serious. "My Lady, I need to speak with you," she pressed.Silence."My Lad

Tudor History with Claire Ridgway
Elizabeth Boleyn Revealed: Interview with Sophie Bacchus-Waterman on Anne Boleyn's Mother

Tudor History with Claire Ridgway

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 22, 2025 56:16


What do we really know about Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire and mother of Anne Boleyn? Until now, she's been little more than a shadow in history — remembered only as the wife of Thomas Boleyn and the mother of Anne, Mary, and George. But in a groundbreaking new biography, historian Sophie Bacchus-Waterman uncovers Elizabeth's real story: her career at court, her influence, and her role in one of Tudor England's most ambitious families. In this exclusive interview, I talk with Sophie about: - Why Elizabeth has been so overlooked in Tudor history - The surprising discoveries made during her research - How Elizabeth shaped the rise of the Boleyns - Whether she's been unfairly judged in fiction and history - And what this biography reveals about Anne Boleyn's world. Sophie's new book: Elizabeth Boleyn: The Life of the Queen's Mother is the very first biography of this fascinating woman, and it shines a long-overdue light on her life and legacy. Pre-order on Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/Elizabeth-Boleyn-Life-Queens-Mother/dp/1803997656 Pre-order on Amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Elizabeth-Boleyn-Life-Queens-Mother/dp/1803997656/ Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more Tudor deep-dives. Want even more Tudor treasures? Join my channel membership for exclusive resources, a monthly magazine, and live Zoom discussions! Click “Join” under this video to find out more. #ElizabethBoleyn #AnneBoleyn #TudorHistory #TudorWomen #SophieBacchusWaterman #TudorDynasty #TudorBooks #HistoryInterview #ForgottenFigures #BoleynFamily #ClaireRidgway #AnneBoleynFiles

History Tea Time
Princess Margaret - Queen Elizabeth II's Infamous Sister

History Tea Time

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 19, 2025 32:13


Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon was a bright rose, who bloomed even in the shadow of her older sister, Queen Elizabeth II. She was a fashion icon and the life of many parties. She had a scandalous romance her sovereign sibling could never sanction, and a disastrous marriage which paved the way for future royal divorces. And through it all, she was a dedicated support and friend to the Queen. Let's peek behind the tabloid headlines and the outrageous scenes in the Crown, and get to know the real Princess Margaret. Join me every Tuesday when I'm Spilling the Tea on History! Check out my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/lindsayholiday Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091781568503 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyteatimelindsayholiday/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyteatime Please consider supporting me at https://www.patreon.com/LindsayHoliday and help me make more fascinating episodes! Intro Music: Baroque Coffee House by Doug Maxwell Music: Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100303 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ #HistoryTeaTime #LindsayHoliday Please contact ⁠advertising@airwavemedia.com⁠ if you would like to advertise on this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That Horrorcast
Nothing In Life Is Ever That Serious: Daughters of Darkness (1971)

That Horrorcast

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 15, 2025 84:11


Newlyweds stop at a posh French hotel on their way to England. They meet a beautiful red-lipped woman whom the hotel owner swears had been there 40 years ago, even though she hasn't aged. She introduces herself as Countess of Bathory and folks begin to wonder.To check out more information about That Horrorcast, take a look at our website: ⁠⁠https://thathorrorcast.com⁠⁠Twitter: ⁠⁠https://twitter.com/horrorpod666⁠⁠Art and other work done by host, Dmitry Samarov can be found on his site: ⁠⁠https://www.dmitrysamarov.com⁠⁠Mallory Smart's writing and random publishing projects can be checked out here: ⁠⁠https://mallorysmart.com

Late Boomers
Glamour, Scandal, and Survival with Countess Ilene Medecin

Late Boomers

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 13, 2025 47:24 Transcription Available


What happens when glamour meets scandal, and resilience triumphs over adversity? Join us as we sit down with Countess Ilene Medecin, the former First Lady of Nice, France, in Episode 253 of Late Boomers. Discover her electrifying journey from a family in Beverly Hills with roots stemming from legends in organized crime and the Hollywood makeup industry to the aristocratic circles of the French Riviera. Uncover the dramatic tales from her memoir, "Arrested," featuring political controversies, jail time, and high-society scandals. Tune in for a tale of strength, survival, and hope that will leave you inspired. Don't miss this captivating episode!Countess Ilene Medecin's Bio:Ilene Médecin's life is a tapestry of glamour, intrigue, and resilience. As the only American, aside from Princess Grace Kelly, to attain the esteemed position of First Lady of Nice and the French Riviera, Ilene's story is both unique and captivating. Born and raised in the heart of Beverly Hills, California, with two famous uncles—Max Factor, the iconic cosmetic mogul, and Jake the Barber, a pivotal figure in the rise of Las Vegas—Ilene's path to prominence seemed almost destined.“Arrested” is a riveting memoir that takes you through Ilene's extraordinary journey, from her star-studded upbringing to her glamorous and, at times, perilous life on the French Riviera. Marrying Jacques Médecin, a Medici Count affectionately known as “King Jacquou,” Ilene found herself at the center of a century-old political dynasty. Together, they mingled with royals, celebrities, and politicians, sharing their social circle with the likes of Princess Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier.Ilene's life, akin to a storybook Camelot, saw her at the pinnacle of a fantasy existence. However, this enchanting narrative took a dramatic turn, leading her from the heights of societal acclaim to the depths of a French prison cell. Amidst trysts and scandals, Ilene was unprepared for the fall of a prominent political family and her eventual arrest for her husband's alleged misdeeds. Jacques's career ended in a puzzling political exile in Uruguay, a stark contrast to his previous stature as Mayor of Nice, President of Alpes-Maritimes, French Minister of Tourism, and Member of Parliament.Connect with Ilene:Website: https://countessilenemedecin.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/countessilenemedecin/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/countessilenemedecinYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@countessilenemedecinBook: https://www.amazon.com/Arrested-Memoir-American-France-Riviera/dp/1667882406?&linkCode=sl1&tag=wrina...Thank you for listening. Please check out @lateboomers on Instagram and our website lateboomers.us. If you enjoyed this podcast and would like to watch it or listen to more of our episodes, you will find Late Boomers on your favorite podcast platform and on our new YouTube Late Boomers Podcast Channel. We hope we have inspired you and we look forward to your becoming a member of our Late Boomers family of subscribers.

The Box of Oddities
Postmortem Chic

The Box of Oddities

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2025 41:44


Box of Oddities Live National Tour September 10 - October 31, Halloween Night. Learn More Here! In this episode of The Box of Oddities, Kat and Jethro raise a glass to history's most unsettling happy hour. First, a post-mortem fashion icon: the corpse of Countess Virginia Oldoini, a.k.a. the Countess of Castiglione—19th-century Italian aristocrat, secret agent, fashion influencer, and full-time narcissist. She posed for over 400 photos, staged her own haunting re-creations of operas, and spent her final years obsessively preparing to be seen dead just right. Spoiler: her afterlife aesthetic was more “ghost of Versailles” than “eternal slay.” Then, we stumble drunkenly across the globe to explore humanity's weirdest regional cocktails. From "Fat Ass In A Glass" to "The Burnt Trailer", these aren't your hipster speakeasy cocktails. They're historic. They're horrifying. They'll make you question your liver's will to live. Drink deeply from the odd. #BoxOfOddities #WeirdHistory #CountessCastiglione #StrangeButTrue #BizarreDrinks #MacabreFashion #FermentedWhat #OddlyInformative #HistoryIsDrunk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not Another Heroine
Pick of the Week: The Countess Conspiracy by Courtney Milan

Not Another Heroine

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 16, 2025 8:50


If you like a down-trodden heroine, friends-to-lovers, and lots of science tid-bits, this might be the cupcake for you. Similar BooksEmily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcetthttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60657589-emily-wilde-s-encyclopaedia-of-faeriesAli Hazelwoodhttps://www.goodreads.com/author/list/21098177.Ali_HazelwoodSubscribe on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@notanotherheroineJoin us on Patreon! https://patreon.com/notanotherheroine

Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved
THE HORRIFYING MYSTERY OF SPONTANEOUS HUMAN COMBUSTION: Real Cases That Can't Be Explained

Weird Darkness: Stories of the Paranormal, Supernatural, Legends, Lore, Mysterious, Macabre, Unsolved

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2025 101:30


Read even MORE about Spontaneous Human Combustion with this additional deep-dive article:https://weirddarkness.com/spontaneous-combustion-thurston/When firefighters discover victims reduced to ash while their surroundings remain mysteriously untouched, investigators must confront an impossible question: can human bodies spontaneously burst into flames from within?Join the DARKNESS SYNDICATE: https://weirddarkness.com/syndicateIN THIS EPISODE: When flames consume a person from within, leaving behind only ashes and unanswered questions, science struggles to explain what witnesses swear they've seen. ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all thing strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = Lead-In00:02:39.316 = Show Open00:03:59.557 = Burning at Hawley Manor00:17:25.644 = Understanding Spontaneous Human Combustion00:26:53.658 = The Earliest Recorded Cases00:29:46.722 = The Countess's Mysterious End00:33:13.351 = The Innkeeper's Wife and the Birth of Legal Precedent00:36:26.458 = Victorian Nightmares00:41:08.115 = The Cinder Woman of St. Petersburg00:48:58.890 = The Meter Reader's Discovery00:54:25.005 = The Galway Ruling00:58:14.304 = Modern Horror in Broad Daylight01:01:07.301 = Survival Stories: The Ones Who Lived To Tell01:07:32.487 = The Witnessed Combustion01:11:39.695 = Other Historical Patterns of Horror01:16:50.654 = The Skeptics Strike Back01:27:58.195 = The Cases Revisited: Weighing Evidence And Mystery01:40:18.586 = Show CloseSOURCES AND RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE…https://weirddarkness.com/spontaneous-combustion-thurston/=====(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)= = = = ="I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46= = = = =WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.=====Originally aired: July 14, 2025NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.EPISODE PAGE at WeirdDarkness.com (includes list of sources):https://weirddarkness.com/real-spontaneous-combustion#SpontaneousHumanCombustion #SHC #MysteriousDeaths #UnexplainedFires #MaryReeser #DrBentley #MichaelFaherty #WickEffect #ParanormalMysteries #JTempleThurston #HawleyManor #ForensicMysteries #CharlesFort #HumanCombustion #TrueCrime #UnsolvedMysteries #StrangeDeaths #JackAngel #JeannieSaffin #KayFletcher #BrianJFord #AcetoneTheory #JoeNickell #LarryArnold #CinderWoman #ForensicScience #UnexplainedPhenomena #MysteriousFires #CreepyMysteries #FireInvestigation #ParanormalInvestigation #WeirdDarkness #TrueCrimeCommunity #UnsolvedCases #ForensicPathology #StrangePhenomena #MysteryFiles #UnexplainedDeaths #FireMysteries #HistoricalMysteries

School of Schlock
Episode 217 - Countess Dracula

School of Schlock

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 15, 2025 77:44


It's Hammer Horror time, and if you're a British cinephile you know exactly what that means! It means blood, dread, and bare breasts! An evil countess is killing virgins to maintain her own beauty, but will her upcoming wedding be spoiled by those who know her secret? Join Tom and Ryan as they talk about historical adaptations, inscrutable charatcer motivations, and uneven age makeup. It's our review of Countess Dracula! Time stamps: 0:03:40 - Background 0:30:30 - Summary 0:38:10 - Notable Scenes 0:48:10 - The Good 0:53:10 - The Bad 1:07:00 - The Ugly 1:12:30 - Final Thoughts

Rogue Insider Podcast
Gloriana Chapter 33

Rogue Insider Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2025 3:31


In Which Queen Gloriana and Una, the Countess of Scaith, Review the Past

Double Jeopardy - The Law and Politics Podcast
Lucy Letby: Will She Waive Privilege as UK Prosecutors Widen the Net?

Double Jeopardy - The Law and Politics Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 9, 2025 42:40


The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is reviewing new allegations against Letby herself, alongside claims of corporate failings that could amount to corporate manslaughter. As police investigate, questions are mounting about accountability at the highest levels of the health system and beyond. As police escalate their investigation into the National Health Service (NHS) leadership, three former senior managers at the Countess of Chester Hospital have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter.    Focusing on one of the most high-profile legal cases in recent memory to broader political issues in Britain from the legality of Israel and US military action under international law, to the complexities of legal privilege in criminal appeals, this conversation also marks the anniversary of the 7/7 bombings, examining how crises reshape laws on prisons and sentencing, freedom of expression, and crime and punishment.   Double Jeopardy returns with Ken Macdonald KC and Tim Owen KC to unpack the deeper legal and political implications behind the headlines offering expert legal commentary that connects current events with long-term challenges in UK politics, UK law, and the ongoing criminal justice crisis.   You can find the blog post from The Jolly Contrarian titled Lucy Letby: waiver of privilege?  Here.   If you'd like to listen through all our episodes about Lucy Letby, you can find them here:   Lucy Letby's Victims Strike Back: Identification Evidence, Miscarriages of Justice and Legal System Insights into How UK Juries Reach their Verdicts  Release Date: March, 26, 2025 Lucy Letby: The Experts Break Cover Release Date: February, 12, 2025 Lucy Letby, Fair Trials, and a Conservative Path to Justice  Release Date: November, 13, 2024 ⁠Lucy Letby Part 2: The Response  Release Date: August, 27, 2024 Lucy Letby The Shadow of a Doubt? Release Date: August, 16, 2024 --- Covering the critical intersections of law and politics in the UK with expert commentary on high-profile legal cases, political controversies, prisons and sentencing, human rights law, current political events and the shifting landscape of justice and democracy. With in-depth discussions and influential guests, Double Jeopardy is the podcast that uncovers the forces shaping Britain's legal and political future.   What happens when law and politics collide? How do politics shape the law - and when does the law push back? What happens when judicial independence is tested, human rights come under attack, or freedom of expression is challenged? And who really holds power in Britain's legal and political system?   Get answers to questions like these weekly on Wednesdays.   Double Jeopardy is presented by Ken Macdonald KC, former Director of Public Prosecutions, and Tim Owen KC, as they break down the legal and political issues in Britain. From high-profile legal cases to the evolving state of British democracy, Double Jeopardy offers expert legal commentary on the most pressing topics in UK law, politics, and human rights.   Ken Macdonald KC served as Director of Public Prosecutions from 2003-2008, shaping modern prosecutorial policy and advocating for the rule of law. He is a former Warden of Wadham College, Oxford, a crossbench member of the House of Lords, and a leading writer, commentator and broadcaster on politics and the rule of law.   Tim Owen KC has been involved in many of the most significant public, criminal and human rights law cases over the past four decades.    Both bring unparalleled experience from the frontline of Britain's legal and political landscape.   If you like The Rest Is Politics, Talking Politics, Law Pod UK and Today in Focus, you'll love Double Jeopardy.

How to Be Fine
Dean & Kristen Look Back: Class with the Countess

How to Be Fine

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 8, 2025 9:43


*Patreon-only Bonus Episode Teaser* Dean and Kristen are looking back - episode by episode - at their time on By The Book. Today, they give behind-the-scenes stories and updates on Class with the Countess, by Luann de Lesseps. To hear the full episode, get biweekly episodes of Dean & Kristen Look Back, listen to our complete Patreon-only bonus season of By The Book, read our weekly advice column, access the written rules of every book we've lived by, and more, visit Patreon.com/ListenToByTheBook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive
Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on three former bosses of Lucy Letby being arrested

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2025 3:39 Transcription Available


Three former staffers at the hospital where British nurse Lucy Letby murdered seven babies and attempted to kill seven others have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. The trio worked on the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester Hospital between 2015 and 2016. UK correspondent Gavin Grey explains further. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brexitcast
Welfare Bill Passes, But At What Cost?

Brexitcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 1, 2025 32:16


Today, MPs have narrowly voted in favour of the government's welfare bill. The controversial legislation passed after a series of last minute concessions by the government, but 49 Labour MPs still rebelled. Adam and Chris discuss what changes were made, how the government failed to manage the rebellion, and the political blow the prime minister has taken. Plus, three former senior staff at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked have been arrested on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughter. A seperate investigation was opened into the senior leadership team at the Countess of Chester hospital after Lucy Letby was convicted of murder and attempted murder in 2023.Adam is joined by BBC Social Affairs Correspondent Michael Buchanan.You can now listen to Newscast on a smart speaker. If you want to listen, just say "Ask BBC Sounds to play Newscast”. It works on most smart speakers. You can join our Newscast online community here: https://tinyurl.com/newscastcommunityhereNew episodes released every day. If you're in the UK, for more News and Current Affairs podcasts from the BBC, listen on BBC Sounds: https://bit.ly/3ENLcS1 Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. It was presented by Adam Fleming. It was made by Jack Maclaren with Anna Harris. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.

Horror 101 Podcast
Episode 159: Horror 101 - Episode 159: A Bay of Blood (1971)

Horror 101 Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 30, 2025 65:57


Welcome to our 159th show.  For the first time in 13 years we cover a Mario Bava horror film from 1971.  We recorded this on Friday the 13th to pay homage to a film that inspired the Friday franchise.  With 13 deaths in an 84 minute movie, Bava certainly had no issue with letting the blood flow!  We hope you enjoy as we give the Horror 101 Treatment to Bava's classic Italian slasher, A Bay of Blood from 1971.Show Highlights:01:00 Prelude to Terror05:15  Introducing Bava's works...13:20  The Countess' Demise16:30  Going to The Bay...17:42  Insects and Fisherman...18:50  Four in a Happy Buggy...23:40  The German's Death...24:28  Hooked Blade in the Face...25:25  Double Skewer...28:25  Visiting Paulo and Anna...31:00  The Squid and the Corpse...33:05  Axe Vs Scissors...34:40  Strangled by Phone...40:15  Simon's Vengeance...45:22  "Alls Well That Ends Well..."49:00 Final Thoughts...51:30  Scoring the Film...60:40  Conclusion...Thanks for Listening!

Fated Mates
07.40: Hot 2025 Summer Reads

Fated Mates

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2025 119:36


We're both staying very still in front of air conditioners this week, so that means we're very very happy to have a pile of summer reads at the ready! We're teeing up your piles of summer reads this week with our quarterly romance roundup! As a reminder, we haven't read most of these books -- but they're the ones toppling our TBR! As a reminder, preorders mean a lot more than they should these days, so if there's anything on this list that makes you go "oh, yes. that's for me," and you're able to preorder from your local bookstore (or from Pocket Books Bookshop with the code PREORDER) or reserve at your local library. The authors on this list thank you.As a reminder, Sarah has a new book out on July 8th -- go see her on tour in NYC, Chicago, Winston-Salem, NC, Newport, RI, Cambridge, MA, Decatur, GA, or Franklin, IN. There are a handful of tickets still available for Fated Mates Live in St. Louis, MO on July 8th! Join us!If you can't make the tour, you can preorder These Summer Storms signed with a special romance dust jacket from The Ripped Bodice. If you want more Fated Mates in your life, please join our Patreon, which comes with an extremely busy and fun Discord community! Join other magnificent firebirds to hang out, talk romance, and be cool together in a private group full of excellent people. Learn more at patreon.com.The BooksJuneWhen Javi Dumped Mari by Mia SosaBest Summer Ever by Jessica CunsoloKeeping the Countess by Lille MooreAn Ancient Witch's Guide to Modern Dating by Ceclia EdwardsSunny Side Up by Katie SturinoParty of Three by C. Travis RiceEliza and the Duke by Harper St. GeorgeSteel Horses & Leather Roads by Cher TeraisJuly

Mention It All
Secrets from Bravo's Love Hotel Ft. Joel Kim Booster

Mention It All

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 17, 2025 44:29


In today's episode, Dylan is joined by Love Hotel host and Bravo superfan Joel Kim Booster for a wildly unfiltered conversation about what actually went down behind the scenes of Bravo's steamiest new dating show. From Luann delivering peak Countess energy to Ashley Darby thriving in her post-divorce era, Joel pulls back the curtain on all the Cabo chaos. He dishes on casting rumors, which Bravolebrity should be in the mix for season two, and his thoughts on the finale. Plus, Dylan and Joel share their thoughts on Rachel Zoe joining RHOBH, Monique Samuels returning as a “friend of” on RHOP next season, and what the future holds for Summer House without Paige DeSorbo. Go to the Always On YouTube page to watch full length episodes every Tuesday: Youtube.com/@AlwaysOnBetches Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories
Countess Santa Eulalia, aka Libbie Shindler Stetson

All Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2025 32:45


From all Bones Considered: Laurel Hill Stories #075, part 2   Elizabeth "Libby" Shindler was an Indiana farm girl / schoolteacher who caught the eye of philanthropist / hatmaker John B. Stetson and became his third wife. When left a widow with several million dollars, she was pursued and captured by a Portuguese nobleman who was not quite what he claimed. 

The Secrets of Statecraft
“Well, He Got Beheaded”: Caroline, Countess of Derby, on her Husband's Family's Illustrious History | Andrew Roberts | Hoover Institution

The Secrets of Statecraft

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 2, 2025 57:12 Transcription Available


Caroline Stanley, Countess of Derby, is an English aristocrat, art historian, and philanthropist. Affectionately known as “Cazzy,” she is married to Edward Stanley, 19th Earl of Derby, and serves as the chatelaine of Knowsley Hall, the ancestral seat of the Stanley family in Merseyside. In this conversation, which also delves into topics ranging from medieval politics to family connections with William Shakespeare, she primarily discusses her edition of the remarkable travel journals of the 14th Earl of Derby, who travelled extensively in North America in 1824-25.

Classic Radio Theater with Wyatt Cox
Classic Radio 05-11-25 - The Enormous Radio, The Elusive Countess, and I Won't Die Alone

Classic Radio Theater with Wyatt Cox

Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2025 155:43


A Dramatic SundayFirst a look at this day in History.Then The CBS Radio Workshop, originally broadcast May 11, 1956, 69 years ago, The Enormous Radio.  A newly purchased radio picks up voices from neighboring apartments instead of regular broadcasts.Followed by The Man Called X starring Herbert Marshall, originally broadcast May 11, 1951, 74 years ago, The Elusive Countess.  Ken Thurston finds an elusive countess aboard an ocean liner en route to Hawaii, and a spy named George Korloff, dead for six months but recently seen in a bar in San Francisco!Then The Mysterious Traveler, originally broadcast May 11, 1948, 77 years ago, I Won't Die Alone.  Two crooks steal $254,000, but only one gets away. They meet seventeen years later. Hear another radio role from the guy who used to portray Ed Norton!Followed by Lights Out, originally broadcast May 11, 1938, 87 years ago, It Happened starring Mercedes McCambridge. A young woman visiting Paris is kidnapped by a man claiming that her father owes him $150,000. Her adventures in the sewers of Paris include a madman who makes jewelry from the bones of the dead bodies floating past.Finally. Lum and Abner, originally broadcast May 11, 1942, 83 years ago, $10,000 in War Bonds.  Lum and Abner finally come to a decision on what to do with the $10,000. The obvious answer is war bonds!Thanks to Honeywell for supporting our podcast by using the Buy Me a Coffee function at http://classicradio.streamFind the Family Fallout Shelter Booklet Here: https://www.survivorlibrary.com/library/the_family_fallout_shelter_1959.pdfhttps://wardomatic.blogspot.com/2006/11/fallout-shelter-handbook-1962.html

Long may she reign
Mary Boleyn

Long may she reign

Play Episode Listen Later May 9, 2025 23:43


Mary Boleyn was Anne Boleyn's elder sister, and while she didn't lose her head, she still had a hell of a life. As the eldest daughter of a rising family in the Tudor court, she was expected to keep her head down, marry well and advance her family, but much like her sister, she took her own path in life, and it led to scandal. Hear her story on today's episode.This podcast is sponsored by Common Era Jewellery. Use code: AYDEN for 15% offBibliographyBevan, Richard. “Anne's Sister: 10 Facts About Mary Boleyn.” History Hit. Accessed February 20, 2025. https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-mary-boleyn/.Claire. “The Anne Boleyn Files.” The Anne Boleyn Files, August 26, 2011. https://www.theanneboleynfiles.com/bios/tudor-characters-competition/mary-boleyn-by-karissa-baker/.Contributors to Wikimedia projects. “Elizabeth Boleyn, Countess of Wiltshire.” Wikipedia, February 19, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Boleyn,_Countess_of_Wiltshire.———. “Mary Boleyn.” Wikipedia, February 20, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Boleyn.———. “Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire.” Wikipedia, February 19, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Boleyn,_1st_Earl_of_Wiltshire.———. “William Carey (Courtier).” Wikipedia, February 4, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Carey_(courtier).———. “William Stafford (Courtier).” Wikipedia, January 13, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Stafford_(courtier).Dunn, Wendy J. “The Final Mystery of Mary Boleyn.” The Hist Fic Company (blog), March 10, 2023. https://www.thehistoricalfictioncompany.com/post/the-final-mystery-of-mary-boleyn?srsltid=AfmBOopLQlnDKiy4ZULxLDrs1x_1cy61k4KPalyHCEIk6oOmHW2EsN22.History... the interesting bits! “Mary Boleyn – History… the Interesting Bits!” Accessed February 20, 2025. https://historytheinterestingbits.com/tag/mary-boleyn/.ryangibson. “Mary Boleyn: Biography, Portrait, Facts & Information.” cldyson, January 31, 2015. https://englishhistory.net/tudor/citizens/mary-boleyn/.

Brian Thomas
Rick Hutto - BOOK - The Countess and the Nazis

Brian Thomas

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 30, 2025 13:25 Transcription Available


Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald
Countess Luann, Love Hotel, Stagecoach and Divorce

Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2025 94:07


Countess Luann is here to talk about what it was really like to film her new reality show Love Hotel. But first, I give you the details on my Stagecoach Weekend. Kim Kardashian's Paris robbery finally goes to trial. Virginia Giuffre who helped put Jeffrey Epstein away has died by suicide and it's now being investigated. Dorit filed for divorce. What are Bill Belichick's 24-year-old girlfriend's true intentions? Luann then shares how she had a “marry rich” type mentor who was instrumental in getting her to become a Countess. She also tells never been heard juicy stories about her life pre Real Housewives. Enjoy! - For a limited time get 40% off your first box plus get a FREE item in every box FOR LIFE. Go to  https://HUNGRYROOT.COM/JUICYSCOOP  and use code JUICYSCOOP -Find exactly what you're booking for on ⁠https://Booking.com⁠, Booking.YEAH! -Right now, listeners of this show can get an extended 30-day free trial! Just go to https://DipseaStories.com/JUICYSCOOP to start your free trial. -Catch Sister Wives, All New, Sunday at 10 on TLC. -Stop putting off those doctors appointments and go to https://Zocdoc.com/JUICY to find and instantly book a top-rated doctor today. Stand Up Tickets and info: ⁠https://heathermcdonald.net/⁠ Subscribe to Juicy Scoop with Heather McDonald and get extra juice on Patreon: ⁠https://bit.ly/JuicyScoopPod⁠  ⁠https://www.patreon.com/juicyscoop ⁠ Shop Juicy Scoop Merch: ⁠https://juicyscoopshop.com ⁠ Follow Me on Social Media: Instagram: ⁠https://www/instagram.com/heathermcdonald ⁠ TikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@heathermcdonald⁠  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rogue Insider Podcast
Gloriana Chapter 20

Rogue Insider Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 29, 2025 28:16


In Which the Queen Continues Her Search for Consolation and the Countess of Scaith Makes a Dreadful Discovery

Improv Exchange Podcast
Episode #171: Lizzie Lee

Improv Exchange Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2025 35:22


Lizzie Lee is a genre-defying vocalist blending classical precision with the soul and spontaneity of New York's jazz tradition. Her voice—praised for its rich color and “acrobatics and élan”—offers a bold reinterpretation of the American Songbook and beyond. Raised in Alaska and trained in Paris and New York, Lizzie brings a rare combination of global sensibility and emotional connection to her work. Her debut album, 72nd Street, recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studio, is a striking statement of identity: lush, lyrical, and rooted in both tradition and risk. The album features a stellar lineup including Joe Farnsworth (drums), Stacy Dillard (tenor sax), John Webber (bass), Joe Block (keys), and Rob Nuovo (guitar). With performances across NYC, the northeast and internationally, and acclaim from artists like Bill Frisell and David Broza, Lizzie is merging elegance with edge, storytelling with swing, while fast becoming a name to know among vocalists in the jazz world. In the classical genre, Lizzie is a dynamic soprano praised for her “brilliant coloratura, acrobatics, and élan” (Opera Magazine) and has performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Lizzie debuted in Europe at Staatstheater Darmstadt and has received international acclaim for her roles as the Parrot in the world premiere of Mahosot: Architect of Dreams by Somtow Sucharitkul in Bangkok and as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro in NYC. She has appeared as a soloist with the Jenaer Philharmonie, Bergische Symphoniker, and in concerts in Vienna with Maestro Francisco Araiza. Her artistry has been shaped through work with legendary mentors such as Martina Arroyo and the late Dalton Baldwin, whose influence continues to inspire her interpretive depth and stylistic sensitivity. Lizzie has performed at iconic venues such as Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House and has worked closely with artists from many of the world's most prestigious theaters including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, and Opéra Bastille.

RedHanded
Episode 396 - Lord Lucan: the Vanishing Earl

RedHanded

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2025 95:18


When the Countess of Lucan burst into a West London pub drenched head-to-toe in blood, it instantly sparked a national obsession. Lord Lucan – the suave, speedboat-racing, professional-gambling aristocrat – was wanted for the murder of their housekeeper, Sandra Rivett. And he had disappeared without a trace.This week, we sift through the theories on Britain's most famous fugitive (from the bonkers to the actually quite credible) to try to get to the bottom of the nation's favourite murder mystery once and for all.Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSources available on redhandedpodcast.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coffee Meets Vodka Podcast
EP 61: The Valley, Katy Perry, and Countess Cabaret

Coffee Meets Vodka Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 24, 2025 52:54


Send us a textAre we witnessing Bravo TV history?! The Valley S2E2 was intense to say the least... This week, we're all over the place—in the best way. Sister Wives sold Coyote Pass, Robert Irwin's joining DWTS, and Bravo Next GenUpdates in the Lively vs. Baldoni lawsuit dragging in Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman into it, and why everyone's suddenly obsessed with Imrul's sex life from Summer House. Plus: The Valley drama, Countess Luann's show, and more!Connect With Us: Instagram TikTok LinkTr.ee Email: coffeemeetsvodkapod@gmail.com Host: Raya Hensler Instagram TikTok Content Strategist: Kathy Lam Instagram

Genstart - DR's nyhedspodcast
Seriemorder eller syndebuk?

Genstart - DR's nyhedspodcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 18, 2025 27:01


Den værste barne-seriemorder i britisk historie sidder nu fængslet på livstid for mordene på 7 spædbørn. Men en voksende gruppe eksperter mener nu, at 35-årige Lucy Letby er uskyldig. Den tidligere neonatalsygeplejerske var ansat på Countess of Chester Hospital og blev idømt 15 livstidsdomme for blandt andet at have forgiftet børnene på afdelingen med insulin og forårsaget blodpropper hos dem. Men nu hersker der tvivl om hendes skyld: Er hun seriemorder eller syndebuk for et inkompetent hospital og et nedprioriteret sundhedssystem? Det taler Genstart med DRs Storbritannien-korrespondent, Tinne Hjersing Knudsen om, som har fulgt sagen gennem alle årene. Vært: Simon Stefanski. Program publiceret i DR Lyd d. 15. april 2025.

History Tea Time
Women of the Titanic

History Tea Time

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2025 31:51


On the night of April 14, 1912, 2,224 people faced doom in the middle of the fridge north Atlantic. The luxury liner hailed as unsinkable was about to do just that and disappear beneath the waves. The tragedy has long captured the public imagination with heroic tales of millionaire John Jacob Astor going down with the ship like a gentleman and fictionalized romances about people who weren't really on board. Today lets met a handful of the real women who were on board that terrible night. We'll learn more about the famous first class ladies like Madeline Astor and Molly Brown but also met some of the lesser known passengers of second and third class including the only black family aboard. And we'll meet a crew member who was truly unsinkable. First Class: Helen Churchill Candee Molly Brown Lady Lucy Duff-Gordon Madeline Astor Noël Leslie, Countess of Rothes Ida Straus Second Class: The Hart Family (Eva Heart) The Laroche Family The West Family (Barbara West) Third Class: The Goodwin Family (The Unknown Child) The Dean Family (Millvina Dean) Crew: Violet Jessop Join me every Tuesday when I'm Spilling the Tea on History! Check out my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/lindsayholiday Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091781568503 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyteatimelindsayholiday/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyteatime Please consider supporting me at https://www.patreon.com/LindsayHoliday and help me make more fascinating episodes! Intro Music: Baroque Coffee House by Doug Maxwell Music: “Allegro” by Emmit Fenn#HistoryTeaTime #LindsayHoliday Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise on this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tudor History with Claire Ridgway
Priest Harbourer Countess

Tudor History with Claire Ridgway

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 12, 2025 5:02


On 13th April 1630, a remarkable woman passed away—Anne Howard, Countess of Arundel. She was no ordinary noblewoman. In a time when Catholicism was outlawed in England, she risked everything to protect priests and defy the authorities.   Who was this fearless countess, and why did she go to such great lengths for her faith? Watch to uncover the fascinating and daring story of Anne Howard, the Priest Harbourer Countess.   Don't forget to like, subscribe, and hit the notification bell for more Tudor history deep dives!   #TudorHistory #AnneHoward #HiddenHistories #PriestHarbourer #CatholicResistance #ElizabethanEngland #TudorNobility #TudorScandals #HistoryMakers

History Tea Time
King Charles II's Illegitimate Children

History Tea Time

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2025 32:45


Charles II, King of England, Scotland & Ireland from 1660 to 1685 is one of the most notorious lotharios in history. He loved the ladies and took both noble women and commoner actresses to bed, sometimes multiple times a day. And the ladies were certainly up for it. In addition to enjoying the charming sovereign's company, they also enjoyed the gifts, estates, and noble titles he lavished upon them and their children. Last week we met Charles's 14 known mistresses. Today we'll meet the results of all that sensual behavior, the King's 13 recognized illegitimate children. To his sons he granted Dukedoms and Earldoms and for his daughters he arranged marriages to the wealthiest noble bachelors. The King personally populated a new generation of English peers. But despite his lusty libido, Charles didn't have a single legitimate child to inherit his throne. When he died and his unpopular brother became King James II many in the nation looked to his eldest illegitimate son as a possible alternative monarch and rebellion ensued. Let's meet King Charles II's 13 Illegitimate Children... James Scott, Duke of Monmouth Charlotte FitzRoy, Countess of Yarmouth Charles FitzCharles, Earl of Plymouth Catherine FitzCharles Anne Palmer, Countess of Sussex Charles FitzRoy, Duke of Cleveland Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton Charlotte Lee, Countess of Lichfield George FitzRoy, Duke of Northumberland Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans James Beauclerk Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond Mary Tudor, Countess of Derwentwater Join me every Tuesday when I'm Spilling the Tea on History! Check out my Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/lindsayholiday Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091781568503 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyteatimelindsayholiday/ Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyteatime Please consider supporting me at https://www.patreon.com/LindsayHoliday and help me make more fascinating episodes! Intro Music: Baroque Coffee House by Doug Maxwell Music: Brandenburg Concerto No4-1 BWV1049 - Classical Whimsical by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100303 Artist: http://incompetech.com/ #HistoryTeaTime #LindsayHoliday Please contact advertising@airwavemedia.com if you would like to advertise on this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Trashy Royals
107. Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione | The Too-Much Countess

Trashy Royals

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 3, 2025 49:35


Turns out that selfies aren't really a new phenomenon, and as cameras emerged as a new technology in the 19th century, there was a nearly perfect subject who made the form her own. Meet Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione, spy, diplomat, model, courtesan, art director, and one-time mistress of Emperor Napoleon III. It's quite a resume and a heck of a story - a minor noble whose beauty was legendary but whose arrogance and self-importance certainly rubbed the Parisian upper crust the wrong way. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amalia Kussner - Miniature Artist of the Gilded Age
Muriel White - The Countess Who Defied The Nazis

Amalia Kussner - Miniature Artist of the Gilded Age

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2025 27:07


Send us a textMuriel White was born into great wealth during the Gilded Age and both her parents was well known in society. Her mother's impressive beauty was written about by authors Edith Wharton and Henry James. Her father, Henry White, was one of the most respected diplomats of that era, with a career extending through WW1. Muriel married a Prussian count just before World War I and for a while had an idyllic life and became the mother of three children. The marriage ultimately failed and as Germany was overshadowed by the Nazis, Muriel was quite vocal on her opposition to them. She was allowed to stay in the family castle and sent her children away to America. While deprived of financial support and with her passport confiscated, she risked her own life in various acts of defiance, including helping to smuggle out a Jewish family. This interview with author Rick Hutto will highlight this woman's incredible life and you'll also learn about his journey as a author to write this biography. Richard Hutto website or https://rickhutto.comBook website or www.thecountess.netKathleen's author site or www.kathleenlangone.comSocial media:Instagram or @phihpodFacebook or search "Kathleen Langone Author"Threads or @phihpod

Reformed Rakes
The Countess Conspiracy

Reformed Rakes

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 25, 2025 84:49


We would characterize Milan's works as the best possible combination of historical research and alternative realities that serve her characters' stories. She doesn't fudge history out of laziness or received wisdom, but in order to tell a better romance and backs up her creative license with research into aspects of history that might go underdeveloped in a weaker author's books. She says of her settings: “I try to write books that I say are historically possible, but not historically average.” The Countess Conspiracy is the third book in the Brothers Sinister series, which is linked together by two brothers, one the heir and one illegitimate and their best friend, who is their cousin, from school. This book's hero is the best friend from school and the heroine is his childhood best friend, with whom he shares a deep secret about his career as England's leading researcher on genetics in botany. Support us on our Patreon!Visit our website for transcripts and show notes: reformedrakes.comFollow us on social media:Twitter: @reformedrakesInstagram: @reformedrakesBeth's TikTokChels' TikTokEmma's TikTokChels' SubstackEmma's SubstackThank you for listening!

RedHanded
UPDATE: Is Lucy Letby Innocent?

RedHanded

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2025 75:11


An independent panel of experts has concluded that NO murders took place at the Countess of Chester hospital. If true, it would mean that Lucy Letby, currently serving 15 life sentences and branded the UK's most prolific child serial killer, is innocent – and the subject of the worst miscarriage of justice in recent British memory.We go over what was covered at last week's press conference – and whether it changed our minds on this complex case.Watch the press conference:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT8CO15IHMsStatistical Smoke and Mirrors with Prof John O'Quigley:https://youtu.be/k8jkl255PWI?si=DlYAFeNgU8NFlZ-YFull sources available on redhandedpodcast.com--Exclusive bonus content:Wondery - Ad-free & ShortHandPatreon - Ad-free & Bonus EpisodesFollow us on social media:YouTubeTikTokInstagramVisit our website:WebsiteSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dark Side of Wikipedia | True Crime & Dark History
Doubt Cast on Lucy Letby Convictions as Experts Challenge Insulin Poisoning Claims

Dark Side of Wikipedia | True Crime & Dark History

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2025 16:42


A major new study challenges key evidence used to convict Lucy Letby, the former nurse serving 15 whole-life sentences for the murder and attempted murder of infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital. The report, authored by international experts, states that there is "no scientific justification whatsoever" for the claim that Letby deliberately poisoned babies with insulin and highlights a "very strong level of reasonable doubt" about her convictions. Professor Geoff Chase, a world-leading expert on insulin's effects on pre-term babies, said it was "very unlikely" that lethal doses were administered, contradicting the prosecution's case. The trial hinged on blood test results showing low blood sugar, high insulin, and low C-peptide levels. However, a detailed review of the babies' medical records by experts in neonatology and bioengineering found that the data was "inconsistent" with insulin poisoning. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is now formally reviewing the case after a panel of 14 experts found no evidence of murder or deliberate harm. Senior Conservative MP (member of parliament) Sir David Davis has called the case "one of the major injustices of modern times." During Letby's trial, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC (kings court) told jurors the nurse "undoubtedly" poisoned two infants eight months apart by adding synthetic insulin to their feeding bags. However, the 100-page study, authored by Chase and chemical engineering expert Helen Shannon, points out that low blood sugar is "not uncommon" in premature infants. The babies also lacked symptoms typically associated with insulin poisoning, such as seizures or heart arrhythmia. The report, citing over 250 peer-reviewed papers, criticizes the reliability of the immunoassay test used to detect insulin. Shannon stated, "There is no scientific justification whatsoever for the prosecution's claim that there was 'no doubt that these were poisonings.'" She argued that a more forensic test should have been used. The insulin charges were crucial to Letby's conviction, as they were considered the strongest evidence of deliberate harm. Letby's defense lawyer, Benjamin Myers KC, told jurors he could not dispute the test results because the original blood samples had been disposed of. A CPS spokesperson defended the verdicts, stating, "Two juries and three appeal court judges have reviewed a multitude of different strands of evidence against Lucy Letby." The Court of Appeal also rejected her request for an appeal in May 2024. With the CCRC now reviewing the case, the new expert findings raise serious concerns about the reliability of the medical evidence presented at trial. #LucyLetby #JusticeForLucyLetby #LegalReform #WrongfulConviction #MedicalEvidence #InsulinPoisoning #CriminalJustice Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on The Downfall of Diddy, The Trial of Karen Read, The Murder Of Maddie Soto, Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, The Menendez Brothers: Quest For Justice, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary
Doubt Cast on Lucy Letby Convictions as Experts Challenge Insulin Poisoning Claims

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 10, 2025 16:42


A major new study challenges key evidence used to convict Lucy Letby, the former nurse serving 15 whole-life sentences for the murder and attempted murder of infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital. The report, authored by international experts, states that there is "no scientific justification whatsoever" for the claim that Letby deliberately poisoned babies with insulin and highlights a "very strong level of reasonable doubt" about her convictions. Professor Geoff Chase, a world-leading expert on insulin's effects on pre-term babies, said it was "very unlikely" that lethal doses were administered, contradicting the prosecution's case. The trial hinged on blood test results showing low blood sugar, high insulin, and low C-peptide levels. However, a detailed review of the babies' medical records by experts in neonatology and bioengineering found that the data was "inconsistent" with insulin poisoning. The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) is now formally reviewing the case after a panel of 14 experts found no evidence of murder or deliberate harm. Senior Conservative MP (member of parliament) Sir David Davis has called the case "one of the major injustices of modern times." During Letby's trial, prosecutor Nick Johnson KC (kings court) told jurors the nurse "undoubtedly" poisoned two infants eight months apart by adding synthetic insulin to their feeding bags. However, the 100-page study, authored by Chase and chemical engineering expert Helen Shannon, points out that low blood sugar is "not uncommon" in premature infants. The babies also lacked symptoms typically associated with insulin poisoning, such as seizures or heart arrhythmia. The report, citing over 250 peer-reviewed papers, criticizes the reliability of the immunoassay test used to detect insulin. Shannon stated, "There is no scientific justification whatsoever for the prosecution's claim that there was 'no doubt that these were poisonings.'" She argued that a more forensic test should have been used. The insulin charges were crucial to Letby's conviction, as they were considered the strongest evidence of deliberate harm. Letby's defense lawyer, Benjamin Myers KC, told jurors he could not dispute the test results because the original blood samples had been disposed of. A CPS spokesperson defended the verdicts, stating, "Two juries and three appeal court judges have reviewed a multitude of different strands of evidence against Lucy Letby." The Court of Appeal also rejected her request for an appeal in May 2024. With the CCRC now reviewing the case, the new expert findings raise serious concerns about the reliability of the medical evidence presented at trial. #LucyLetby #JusticeForLucyLetby #LegalReform #WrongfulConviction #MedicalEvidence #InsulinPoisoning #CriminalJustice Want to listen to ALL of our podcasts AD-FREE? Subscribe through APPLE PODCASTS, and try it for three days free: https://tinyurl.com/ycw626tj Follow Our Other Cases: https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com The latest on The Downfall of Diddy, The Trial of Karen Read, The Murder Of Maddie Soto, Catching the Long Island Serial Killer, Awaiting Admission: BTK's Unconfessed Crimes, Delphi Murders: Inside the Crime, Chad & Lori Daybell, The Murder of Ana Walshe, Alex Murdaugh, Bryan Kohberger, Lucy Letby, Kouri Richins, Malevolent Mormon Mommys, The Menendez Brothers: Quest For Justice, The Murder of Stephen Smith, The Murder of Madeline Kingsbury, The Murder Of Sandra Birchmore, and much more! Listen at https://www.truecrimetodaypod.com

Everyone's Business But Mine with Kara Berry
Hooking up with Luann: A Southern Hospitality Recap

Everyone's Business But Mine with Kara Berry

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 3, 2025 61:04


It's the season 3 premiere of Southern Hospitality! Joe and TJ are beefing over the Countess, Maddie's new man confuses everyone, Michols the manager is a beast who's scared of beverages and more!Follow me on social media, find links to merch, Patreon and more here! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Morbid
Episode 628: The Murder of Nancy Evans Titterton

Morbid

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 19, 2024 65:08


On the morning of April 10, 1936, Nancy Evans Titterton, novelist and wife of NBC Radio executive Lewis Titterton, was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death in the bathtub of her apartment in Beekman Place, a prominent New York City apartment building. Upon first inspection, the crime scene yielded few clues—a fingerprint in the bathroom, a length of rope used to bind her hands, and little else. Within a week, detectives were no closer to solving the case than they were on day one, until a break finally came when the rope and a single horsehair was traced to a local upholstery shop, and ultimately to an apprentice upholsterer named John Fiorenza, who, along with his boss, Theodore Kruger, discovered Nancy's body while delivering a piece of furniture. Eventually, Fiorenza confessed to assaulting and murdering Nancy Titterton, but claimed temporary insanity. At the trial, the jury rejected Fiorenza's defense and he was found guilty and he was executed in January 1938. Although the case of Nancy Evans Titterton may seem rather straightforward, it stands as an early example of science and law enforcement coming together to solve a case that had previously seemed destined to remain unsolved. Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesNew York Times. 1937. "Clemency is asked for John Fiorenza." New York Times, January 12: 3.—. 1936. "Fiorenza counsel accuses a 'fiend'." New York Times, May 21: 7.—. 1936. "Fiorenza doomed to electric chair." New York Times, June 6: 34.—. 1936. "Fiorenza insane, alienst swears." New York Times, May 26: 48.—. 1936. "Fiorenza's mother sets up an alibi." New York Times, May 23: 34.—. 1936. "Plea of insanity by Fiorenza likely." New York Times, April 23: 5.—. 1936. "Scientists study clues to slayer of Mrs. Titterton." New York Times, April 12: 1.—. 1937. "Titterton slayer is put to death." New York Times, January 22: 42.—. 1936. "Upholdwerter's aide confesses murder of Mrs. Titterton." New York Times, April 22: 1.—. 1936. "Woman writer, 34, found strangled in bathtub in home." New York Times, April 11: 1.Schechter, Harold. 2014. The Mad Sculptor: The Maniac, the Model, and the Murder that Shook the Nation. New York, NY: Little A Publishing .Times Union. 1936. "Countess tells of prowler knocking on door 8 hours before writer was strangled." Brooklyn Times Union, April 11: 1.—. 1936. "Arraigned and denied bail, he then retraces flght." Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), April 22: 1.—. 1936. "Fiorenza guilty in first degree." Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), May 28: 1.—. 1936. "Johnnie was a good boy, sobs mother of slayer." Times Union (Brooklyn, New York), April 21: 1.—. 1936. "Hunt mysterious prowler." Times Union (Brooklyn, NY), April 12: 1.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stuff You Missed in History Class
Six Impossible Episodes: Listener Requests III

Stuff You Missed in History Class

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 2, 2024 40:13 Transcription Available


This episode includes six stories requested by listeners that wouldn't quite work as standalone episodes. The topics include: Nellie Cashman, Ela of Salisbury, Charles "Teenie" Harris, Jane Gaugain, Edward A. Carter Jr., and Alice Ball. Research: ·       National Parks Service. “Nellie Cashman.” https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/nellie-cashman.htm Arizona Women's Hall of Fame. “Nellie Cashman.” https://www.azwhf.org/copy-of-pauline-bates-brown-2 ·       Backhouse, Frances. “Angel of the Cassiar.” British Columbia Magazine. Winter 2014. ·       Hawley, Charles C. and Thomas K. Bundtzen. “Ellen (Nellie) Cashman.” Alaska Mining Hall of Fame Foundation. https://alaskamininghalloffame.org/inductees/cashman.php ·       Clum, John P. “Nellie Cashman.” Arizona Historical Review. Vol. 3, No. 4. January 1931. ·       Porsild, Charlene. “Cashman, Ellen.” Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. XV (1921-1930). https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/cashman_ellen_15E.html ·       Ward, Jennifer C. "Ela, suo jure countess of Salisbury (b. in or after 1190, d. 1261), magnate and abbess." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. October 08, 2009. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Oct. 2024, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-47205 ·       McConnell, Ally. “The life of Ela, Countess of Salisbury.” Wiltshire & Swindon History Centre. https://wshc.org.uk/the-life-of-ela-countess-of-salisbury/ Order fo Medieval Women. “Ela, Countess of Sudbury.” https://www.medievalwomen.org/ela-countess-of-salisbury.html. Charles “Teenie” Harris Archive. Carnegie Museum of Art. https://carnegieart.org/art/charles-teenie-harris-archive/ ·       National Museum of African American History and Culture. “Photojournalist, Charles “Teenie” Harris.” https://nmaahc.si.edu/photojournalist-charles-teenie-harris ·       O'Driscoll, Bill. “Historical marker honors famed Pittsburgh photographer Teenie Harris.” WESA. 9/30/2024. https://www.wesa.fm/arts-sports-culture/2024-09-30/historical-charles-teenie-harris-pittsburgh-photography ·       Kinzer, Stephen. “Black Life, In Black And White; Court Ruling Frees the Legacy Of a Tireless News Photographer.” New York Times. 2/7/2001. https://www.nytimes.com/2001/02/07/arts/black-life-black-white-court-ruling-frees-legacy-tireless-photographer.html ·       Hulse, Lynn. "Gaugain [née Alison], Jane [Jean] (1804–1860), author, knitter, and fancy needleworker." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. August 08, 2024. Oxford University Press. Date of access 30 Oct. 2024, https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-90000382575 ·       "Edward A. Carter, Jr." Contemporary Black Biography, vol. 104, Gale, 2013. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/K1606005739/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=77e0beae. Accessed 30 Oct. 2024. ·       National WWII Museum. “Staff Sergeant Edward A. Carter Jr's Medal of Honor.” 2/15/2021. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/staff-sergeant-edward-carter-jr-medal-of-honor ·       Lange, Katie. “Medal of Honor Monday: Army Sgt. 1st Class Edward Carter Jr.” U.S. Department of Defense. https://www.defense.gov/News/Feature-Stories/Story/Article/3347931/medal-of-honor-monday-army-sgt-1st-class-edward-carter-jr/ ·       National Parks Service. “Edward Carter Jr.” Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument. https://www.nps.gov/people/edwardcarterjr.htm ·       Dwyer, Mitchell K. “A Woman Who Changed the World.” University of Hawaii Foundation. https://www.uhfoundation.org/impact/students/woman-who-changed-world ·       University of Washington School of Pharmacy. “UWSOP alumni legend Alice Ball, Class of 1914, solved leprosy therapy riddle.” https://sop.washington.edu/uwsop-alumni-legend-alice-ball-class-of-1914-solved-leprosy-riddle/ ·       Ricks, Delthia. “Overlooked No More: Alice Ball, Chemist Who Created a Treatment for Leprosy.” 5/8/2023. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/08/obituaries/alice-ball-overlooked.html  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Not Skinny But Not Fat
LUANN DE LESSEPS: THE COUNTESS & CABARET STAR

Not Skinny But Not Fat

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2024 49:36


The Countess & Cabaret star Luann de Lesseps is here and oh man this woman made this 11am recording feel like it was midnight at a nightclub! The vibes were vibing as the kids say! We discuss her love of younger men, where she's at with her sobriety, her star-studded night out, her cig habit and more!Produced by Dear MediaThis episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.