Podcasts about Cyprus

What if you could switch between deep focus and true recovery on command, instead of white-knuckling one gear until you burn out? Serial entrepreneur and Organic Technology creator Hess Adnani joins Nick to map the human operating system: a two-axis model of your nervous system and your mind that tells you where you are and how to move. He explains why recovery is a productivity multiplier, not lost time, and how to read your body's free daily signals instead of leaning only on wearables and bloodwork. Meet our guest Hess Adnani is a serial entrepreneur and innovation ecosystem architect, and the creator of Organic Technology. He built Cyprus's largest startup community, facilitated over two million euros in funding, and helped create 100+ jobs. He now teaches founders to build strong companies and strong inner systems at the same time. Resources & tools: BioEnergetic Baseline (map your energy and nervous-system state): https://outliyr.com/app/bioenergetic-baseline Energy Leak (find what's draining you and blocking recovery): https://outliyr.com/apps/energy-leak/ Braverman Brain-Type Test (understand your default mind state): https://outliyr.com/app/braverman-test-online Create your FREE Outliyr account and unlock special tools and resources: https://get.outliyr.com Thank you to our partners Outliyr Biohacker's Peak Performance Shop: get exclusive discounts on cutting-edge health, wellness, & performance gear Ultimate Health Optimization Deals: a database of of all the current best biohacking deals on technology, supplements, systems and more Latest Summits, Conferences, Masterclasses, and Health Optimization Events: join me at the top events around the world FREE Outliyr Nootropics Mini-Course: gain mental clarity, energy, motivation, and focus Key takeaways Your internal state sits on two dials: the nervous system and the mind, forming four states of being. Wise mode is open and creative; doer mode is focused and executing. Camping in one mode backfires: doer mode leads to burnout, wise mode to stalling. Hustle past two weeks and output slides toward 50%; two to three days of recovery restores 80% to 90%. Short activations shift your state in minutes, with no equipment. Roughly 20% of your body's daily signals reveal about 80% of your health. Episode highlights 1:47 What Organic Technology is 5:15 Wise mode vs doer mode 19:09 Why camping in one mode burns you out 24:44 Recovery has a quality 37:18 The "invisible jacket" activation 49:30 Your body as an 80/20 diagnostic 56:02 The free assessment, plus a live activation Links Watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/5cf_nfY7lOo  Full episode show notes: https://outliyr.com/280 Connect with Nick on social media Instagram Twitter (X) YouTube LinkedIn Easy ways to support Subscribe Leave an Apple Podcast review Suggest a guest Do you have questions, thoughts, or feedback for us? Let me know in the show notes above and one of us will get back to you! Be an Outliyr, Nick

Most Bitcoiners sell self custody like the bank is about to raid you tonight. I started on an exchange, and I would tell you to as well. But there is a line where that changes, and today I am giving you the exact question I use to know when I have crossed it.What your bank balance actually is, and the real story of what happened in Cyprus in 2013 when a European bank took nearly half of people's savings, completely legallyThe word Europe's most senior official was widely reported as using about ten trillion euros of ordinary people's savings last month, and what it actually reveals about how your money is viewed from the topThe one honest question that tells you when you have genuinely outgrown keeping your Bitcoin on an exchange, no panic, no arbitrary amount, just the test I use myselfI built a free calculator that shows exactly what consistent monthly Bitcoin investing could do to your wealth over 5, 10 or 20 years. It's called the Steady Stack Calculator — punch in what you can afford to put in each month and see what the numbers actually look like at the other end. Most people are genuinely surprised. You can also download the 10 Bitcoin Mistakes to Avoid document completely free at the same link.Steady Stack Calculator and 10 Bitcoin Mistakes Document — click here to grab both for freeHit follow, so you never miss the latest insights on money, finance, invest and build wealth - plus clear guidance on cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and Bit Coin for today's serious investors.

Israel, Greece and Cyprus face a changing Eastern Mediterranean shaped by Turkey, energy security, maritime power and regional instability.Shay Gal examines why cooperation must evolve into a lasting security architecture and what that means for Europe, the U.S. and the Levant.Music licensed through Soundstripe.Code: KRSH8VHBFKIEQYN9, JDQAZE3J0EWSDOVN

"I think the gravity and the power of tango ... to bridge a 50-year-old divide is kind of missed." Cypriot social dancer and creator of a.tango .for.every.body Savvas Kourtis on crossing borders, cultivating curiosity, and adapting tango to work better for every partnership. Producer/Host: Liz Sabatiuk | Music: "La Madrugada," written by Ángel Maffia with lyrics by Cátulo Castillo and performed and recorded by Juan Villarreal y Patricio Crom | Image Credit: Michaël Jacob Show Notes Follow Savvas's tango activities in Cyprus via the Instagram profile of a.tango .for.every.body.  Learn more about tango at the University of Edinburgh, see a performance of Savvas's teachers Emily-Rose Sarkova and Refik Unluer, then watch a demo to the song that accompanies this episode (!) featuring Carmen María Hergos, Savvas's teacher in Barcelona (who is now based in Mexico).  Hear more about the International Queer Tango Festival in Berlin in Humans of Tango episode 30, “Creating spaces to grow, with Astrid Weiske.”   Learn more about Cyprus's 1974 coup and subsequent Turkish invasion. For another perspective on how dancing with beginners can inspire innovation, listen to Humans of Tango episode 15, “Instinct Tango, with Aníbal Dominguez.” Read the lyrics of "La Madrugada" in English, translated by Jake Spatz (who you can listen to in Humans of Tango episode 32). Read musings about the episode and check out our elevator selfies on Substack. Read a transcript of Savvas's episode here.

Gary Stearman welcomes Israeli author Avi Lipkin for a revealing discussion about Turkey's desire to restore the Islamic Caliphate, the strategic importance of Cyprus and the growing rivalry between Sunni and Shiite powers. Avi explains why the struggle involving Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Israel could help set the stage for the prophetic wars described in Scripture.

Gary Stearman welcomes Israeli author Avi Lipkin for a revealing discussion about Turkey's desire to restore the Islamic Caliphate, the strategic importance of Cyprus and the growing rivalry between Sunni and Shiite powers. Avi explains why the struggle involving Turkey, Iran, Syria, Lebanon and Israel could help set the stage for the prophetic wars described in Scripture.

The Hamlet Podcast - now bringing you a twice weekly exploration of Shakespeare's Othello. Act Two, Scene One: we arrive in Cyprus, and meet the governor Montano as he and some fellow soldiers observe a wild storm at sea. Written and presented by Conor Hanratty

What an interview we've got for you with the return of Open Goal Meets as Si Ferry and Andy Halliday travel to Limassol in Cyprus to interview Rangers title-winning defender and Europa League Finalist, Connor Goldson! In a brilliant candid chat, Connor goes into detail about his time at Ibrox where he was signed by his Liverpool idol, Steven Gerrard from Brighton. He discusses all of the highs and lows in the run-up to him being a key player in the club's title winning season where they stopped rivals Celtic from winning 10-in-a-row. He also talks through his teammates over the years including the likes of Alfredo Morelos and Allan McGregor before taking us inside the dressing room for the historic Europa League run to the final under Van Bronckhorst where Rangers beat the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Leipzig en route to Seville in 2022. There's also plenty of reflection on the years that followed under Michael Beale and Philippe Clement which eventually led to his exit after 6 years at the club. Enjoy a brilliant podcast with Connor Goldson who is looking in great health after undergoing heart surgery for the 2nd time in his career which he also discuss with the lads in a fascinating conversation! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What an interview we've got for you with the return of Open Goal Meets as Si Ferry and Andy Halliday travel to Limassol in Cyprus to interview Rangers title-winning defender and Europa League Finalist, Connor Goldson! In a brilliant candid chat, Connor goes into detail about his time at Ibrox where he was signed by his Liverpool idol, Steven Gerrard from Brighton. He discusses all of the highs and lows in the run-up to him being a key player in the club's title winning season where they stopped rivals Celtic from winning 10-in-a-row. He also talks through his teammates over the years including the likes of Alfredo Morelos and Allan McGregor before taking us inside the dressing room for the historic Europa League run to the final under Van Bronckhorst where Rangers beat the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Leipzig en route to Seville in 2022. There's also plenty of reflection on the years that followed under Michael Beale and Philippe Clement which eventually led to his exit after 6 years at the club. Enjoy a brilliant podcast with Connor Goldson who is looking in great health after undergoing heart surgery for the 2nd time in his career which he also discuss with the lads in a fascinating conversation! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sara and Roger discuss the possibility of bringing back a national airline and how the Greek Cypriot Mayor of Nicosia has stood in solidarity with the Turkish Cypriot Mayor of Lefkosa.

Food has a way of carrying a place with it. A recipe can preserve a memory. A bottle of wine can carry a taste of home across an ocean. This week, we explore the food of the eastern Mediterranean – from Cyprus and Greece to Lebanon – and the stories that come with it. First, we speak with Anissa Helou, author of Lebanon: Cooking the Foods of My Homeland. Anissa tells us about the cuisine she grew up with in Beirut – much of which sounds surprisingly familiar to the food traditions of Louisiana. Now based in Sicily, she has continued to write to preserve these culinary traditions and knowledge for future generations. Next, we hear from first-generation Greek-American writer and comedian Gus Constantellis. When Gus unexpectedly lost his mom to a sudden stroke in 2023, he began writing down his memories of her and the recipes she made for their family. The result was a deeply personal and humorous tribute to his mother called My Greek Mom's Recipes: She Died. I Wrote This Cookbook. Finally, we speak with Ari Kyriakides, a Cyprus native who has called New Orleans home for decades. Ari's the owner of Ambeli Wine Imports and Distribution, a Louisiana company he created to make Cypriot wine widely available in the U.S. He tells us how he's working to put Cyprus on the map one bottle at a time. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Food has a way of carrying a place with it. A recipe can preserve a memory. A bottle of wine can carry a taste of home across an ocean. This week, we explore the food of the eastern Mediterranean – from Cyprus and Greece to Lebanon – and the stories that come with it. First, we speak with Anissa Helou, author of Lebanon: Cooking the Foods of My Homeland. Anissa tells us about the cuisine she grew up with in Beirut – much of which sounds surprisingly familiar to the food traditions of Louisiana. Now based in Sicily, she has continued to write to preserve these culinary traditions and knowledge for future generations. Next, we hear from first-generation Greek-American writer and comedian Gus Constantellis. When Gus unexpectedly lost his mom to a sudden stroke in 2023, he began writing down his memories of her and the recipes she made for their family. The result was a deeply personal and humorous tribute to his mother called My Greek Mom's Recipes: She Died. I Wrote This Cookbook. Finally, we speak with Ari Kyriakides, a Cyprus native who has called New Orleans home for decades. Ari's the owner of Ambeli Wine Imports and Distribution, a Louisiana company he created to make Cypriot wine widely available in the U.S. He tells us how he's working to put Cyprus on the map one bottle at a time. For more of all things Louisiana Eats, be sure to visit us at PoppyTooker.com.

Teenage Stroke: When Recovery Feels Like Losing Yourself Benjamin Miller was 16 years old and playing football in Texas when a carotid artery dissection changed the course of his life on September 22, 2017. He didn’t know what a stroke was. He didn’t know that the word would come to define the years that followed not because of what it took from his body, but because of what it took from his sense of who he was. Teenage stroke recovery is not what most people picture. The standard narrative runs like this: young brain, high neuroplasticity, rapid recovery, inspirational outcome. And in some ways, that’s true. The motor and language systems that stroke damages can rebuild quickly in an adolescent brain. But there’s a part of recovery that neuroplasticity doesn’t touch, and that’s identity. Who Was Benjamin Before the Stroke? He was a football player. In Texas, that means something. It means a community, a future, a sense of place in the social architecture of a town. When the stroke took that away, it didn’t just end a sport. It ended a version of himself that he hadn’t finished becoming. “My soul was torn in half,” Benjamin said in this conversation with Bill Gasiamis. It’s one of those phrases that stops you not because it’s dramatic, but because it’s accurate. “My soul was torn in half.” — Benjamin Miller, EP422 The stroke forced him to grieve something most 16-year-olds don’t have language for: the future self they were building toward. When that future collapsed overnight, he was left with a present he didn’t recognise and a past that no longer pointed toward anything. Why Teenage Stroke Is Different Teenage stroke recovery carries a layer of complexity that adult stroke recovery doesn’t always share. Adolescence is the developmental period in which identity is actively constructed; it’s not a fixed thing waiting to be restored. When stroke interrupts that process mid-construction, the survivor isn’t returning to who they were. They’re trying to become someone they haven’t yet figured out how to be. Benjamin’s experience of turning to substance use during his recovery wasn’t a character failure. It was, as he articulates in this episode, an attempt to manage an identity fracture that nobody around him had the vocabulary to name. When the pain doesn’t have a name, people find their own ways to survive it. This is one reason teenage stroke recovery deserves its own conversation separate from paediatric stroke outcome data, and separate from the adult recovery narrative. The emotional, psychological, and social dimensions are specific to this life stage. You might also recognise elements of this in other episodes: the identity rupture that follows sudden stroke in a young person surfaces in Young Stroke Survivor Recovery and Identity Loss After Stroke. Benjamin’s story adds a dimension that’s less often named: what happens when the loss of identity happens before you’ve finished building one. When the Brain Heals Faster Than the Self Can Here’s something worth naming a phenomenon the clinical literature notes but rarely centres in recovery conversations. Adolescent neuroplasticity is real. Benjamin’s brain had the capacity to rebuild physical and linguistic function faster than an older adult’s would. But neuroplasticity is a structural property of the brain. It doesn’t extend to the psychological work of integrating a traumatic experience into a developing sense of self. The result is a gap, sometimes a wide one, between the physical recovery that others can see and the internal recovery that isn’t visible at all. Benjamin appeared to be “doing well” in many respects while internally carrying a fracture that hadn’t been addressed. This gap is one of the least-discussed aspects of teenage stroke recovery. If you’ve experienced it, or watched someone you love experience it, it may be the most important thing in this episode. The Road Back And What It Actually Looks Like Benjamin’s memoir, Ed and I, available on YouTube, traces this journey. What comes through clearly in his conversation with Bill is that the path forward required him to walk through the things he’d been managing around the grief, the identity loss, the fracture itself. Recovery, in his telling, doesn’t take you back to who you were. It takes you through who you are now. That reframe from restoration to transformation is one that many stroke survivors eventually arrive at. Bill’s book The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened documents ten tools for exactly that kind of recovery. For more episodes touching on identity and recovery: Emotional Recovery After Stroke Mistakes, Identity After Stroke — Cassie Jewell, Stroke With No Warning Signs — Tom Ballo, Losing Confidence After Stroke, and Stroke Brain Healing Neuroplasticity. Listen to EP422 This episode doesn’t pretend that recovery is a clean arc or that there’s a single turning point you can point to. What it offers instead is something more honest: the lived texture of finding yourself again when you’re not sure who you’re finding your way back to. Listen to EP422 of the Recovery After Stroke podcast wherever you listen. If a stroke or any trauma has made your world feel smaller, Bill’s new book Your World Doesn’t Have to Stay This Small is a practical guide to rebuilding your life, even when you’re not ready. Find it on Amazon at mybook.to/yourworld. If this show has helped you, you can support it at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. Benjamin Miller on Identity, Substances, and Finding His Way Back “My soul was torn in half.” Benjamin Miller had a stroke at 16 and lost more than football here’s how he found his way back. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction – Teenage Stroke09:01 The Day of the Stroke11:56 The Loss of Identity17:12 Coping Mechanisms: Alcohol and Escapism22:37 COVID-19: A Blessing in Disguise28:57 The Journey of Healing Begins32:40 Facing Uncomfortable Emotions38:45 Spiritual Awakening Through Adversity42:34 The Power of Breath and Movement47:35 Building Community in Recovery55:39 Finding Belonging and Understanding59:12 Creating a Path for Self-Healing Transcript: Introduction – Teenage Stroke Benjamin Miller (00:00)when I was told that by my father that. It felt like my soul was torn in half, because like I always saw myself as a student athlete and the bigger part of that was the athlete. And now I lost half of my identity and. I just didn’t know how to as a. 17 year old now like how to move forward with life and I didn’t know who I was and the only thing I defined myself as was taken away from me So now I was just like in this weird place where I felt like I was drowning on a day-to-day basis. Bill Gasiamis (00:33)hello, everybody. Welcome back to Recovery After Stroke. I’m Bill Gasciamas. My guest today had a stroke at just 16 years old, a carotid artery dissection that ended his football career and cracked his sense of who he was, right at the age when most people are just beginning to figure that out. Before we get into it, if you’ve been finding value in this podcast, my new book is out now. It’s called Your World Doesn’t Have to Stay This Small. A practical guide to rebuilding your life after trauma even when you’re not ready. You can find it on Amazon by searching my name or you can click the link in the show notes. Now it’s on to the episode. Bill Gasiamis (01:14)Benjamin Miller, welcome to the podcast. Benjamin Miller (01:16)Sir, thank you for having me. Bill Gasiamis (01:19)Tell me what’s regular life like for you before the stroke? Benjamin Miller (01:26)Yeah, I mean, when I had my stroke, I was 16 years old and I was in my third year of high school. So it was really comprised of just school, going to school every day and then playing sports after school. Like through the school, would play American football. I played baseball earlier in my life. And then towards the end of my high school, I just continued to play American football because I had the goal of following in my two older brother’s footsteps. for playing football, American football, in college at that time. So I just saw myself as following their path and going to play college football. And that’s what I was chasing throughout high school. Bill Gasiamis (02:09)How long ago was that? The stroke? Benjamin Miller (02:12)It was 2017, the fall of 2017. So Bill Gasiamis (02:16)Okay. Benjamin Miller (02:16)coming up on nine years on the 22nd of September. Bill Gasiamis (02:23)I I expect that stroke is the last thing going through the mind of a sixteen year old and the family of a sixteen year old. So Benjamin Miller (02:34)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (02:34)w do you have any recollection of what it was like on the day of the stroke? Was there some kind of sign, was there anything that gave you an inkling of something being wrong before everything happened? Benjamin Miller (02:53)maybe like right before, because just playing American football, you’re always hear about head trauma and just CTE and concussions. And that’s always the biggest worry for playing football. But it was during the game that Friday night, it was the second game of our football season. And it was in between the first quarter and second quarter. And I came over to the bench and like in between going back on the field, our coach like brings the offense or defensive units together and we like talk about any in-game adjustments and I came over and sat down on the bench and I just noticed my balance like start to tip like I was having to stare down at my feet in order to stop myself from falling over and Yeah, just from there like I like grew up in a Society like especially in football. It’s I don’t know if I surround football is the same but just no pain no gain so Bill Gasiamis (03:51)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (03:51)you’re always pushing yourself to your limits and That was like a saying that I grew up in if you’re hurt you can walk off the field if you’re injured you can so unfortunately, I played until I go back on the field and The first or second play of the next series I help my teammates make a tackle. get back up to my feet and then I collapsed face first and at the ground. And from there, I, I’m able to like the trainers obviously come on the field and help me to the sideline and they’re running concussion tests, asked me, what’s your name? Where are you? What are you doing? And I’m answering every question. But even at that early stage, I mean, it was just like, that’s like when the initial carotid dissection happened. It was probably in the guy, my teammate I was playing next to actually, he went on to study pre-med and he saw my aphasia on my face and he’s told our other teammates that Ben is having a stroke, but who’s going to listen to a 17 year old kid? And like we had a team doctor on the sideline, the trainers, no one really knew what was wrong with me. They just thought it was a severe concussion. So that’s what it was treated as. So I spent probably 20 to 30 more minutes on the sideline. And before I was, yeah, it was just like a, just a failure on the part of the adults around me at that time. And yeah. Bill Gasiamis (05:28)Yeah, rough. The dissection that happened do you think it might have been from a collision during the game or what what’s the thinking behind the cause of the stroke? Benjamin Miller (05:42)Yeah, that’s something like a question that I’ve like both my parents and myself as I’ve always had, but it just never could be answered. Whether it was just from like one hit. saw a chiropractor for the first time at the beginning of that week, like the Monday before the injury. So maybe like a neck adjustment caused it or maybe like it could have been genetic. So like that’s what my parents’ biggest concern was, was having my two older brothers still playing college football at that time. That if it’s genetic, is there a chance that it can happen to our two other sons? But they Bill Gasiamis (06:19)Yeah. Benjamin Miller (06:20)just… Bill Gasiamis (06:21)Sorry, Ben, I was gonna say yeah, it I know what you mean about genetic in that sometimes people’s carotid arteries for no reason do dissect. and sometimes I’ve heard the connection with chiropractic, there’s been a few well, it’s very well documented people going for adjustments. The thing about the adjustment is it’s never known whether or not the person was feeling something in their neck because of a dissection. They went to the chiropractor, they had an adjustment, and then it caused the situation to get worse, or do you know what I mean? Like it may not have totally been linked, but I get that. I’ve met people who have had dissections who had no injury, had no adjustment, They just had a dissection. So that’s a thing. when you went to the chiropractor for the neck adjustment the week before, was it because you had an issue that you needed to deal with? Was there some kind of pain that you were experiencing? Benjamin Miller (07:29)Yeah, I mean, I was actually dealing with lower back pain. So one of my teammates recommended me to a chiropractic, but he adjusted my whole back all the way up to my neck. So it wasn’t like, I wasn’t going there for a neck adjustment, but he just happened to do one while I was in there. Bill Gasiamis (07:47)Yeah, which is pretty standard procedure for a chiropractor. If you go there, you get your neck adjusted. Okay. so then you’re sitting on the sideline for another twenty or thirty minutes, and then what happens? How do they finally decide something’s not right? The Day of the Stroke Benjamin Miller (08:06)Yeah, so just after that time period, the team doctor called my parents down to like in Texas, like we play in like massive stadiums even as kids. So he called my parents down to like the railing of the stands to the field and told my parents to bring our family car so they could take me to a local clinic. And as I’m walking out of the stadium, I Like there’s like a incline up to get out of the stadium because it’s kind of like a bowl shaped and I can’t walk up like a 15 degree incline. Like I started like tipping over to my right side. So then they have to bring a athletic cart. They sit me in the cart and there’s like a trainer sitting behind me, holding me upright so I don’t slump out the side of the cart. And it was probably like a 15 meter ride to my parents’ car. And my parents saw me from there and drove me straight to the emergency room at a bigger hospital. And from there I was, I would say in the emergency room prior for like two, three hours and they were running CT scans of my like base of my skull up. So they didn’t see the actual carotid. Bill Gasiamis (09:16)What Benjamin Miller (09:17)Yeah. So it was like with everything, how everything happened, like I’m so lucky to be here and be able to move and be able to speak and. But yeah. So then probably I probably got hurt around. 8 p.m. and it was around 12 a.m. where they finally called downtown to the bigger hospital in Houston, downtown Houston and a neurosurgeon on call that night said he’s having a he had a carotid artery dissection so then they life flighted me down and on the life flight down to Houston to downtown that’s when I lost consciousness in the helicopter so Bill Gasiamis (09:54)Mm. And then at some point you wake up in hospital, Benjamin Miller (10:00)Yeah, I woke up in the ICU probably, this happened Friday night, I would say maybe Monday morning. So I was unconscious for a couple days. Bill Gasiamis (10:11)Mm-hmm. And then after that, what are you dealing with? You wake up, you’re told you’ve had a dissection, a stroke, and then what are you dealing with physically? What’s not happening for your body? Benjamin Miller (10:28)lost all use of the right side of my body. So it was just immediately starting rehab, rehab. And Bill Gasiamis (10:36)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (10:37)yeah, I mean, I was just going from like being on the verge of being a higher level athlete to my right side, going back to like, I was always describing it as like a newborn. Bill Gasiamis (10:49)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (10:49)I didn’t know how as a 16 year old to really handle that. I mean, it took like In the beginning, it was easy because I was so focused. Like I believed I was going to play American football again. So I was just like so committed to the rehab and doing therapy multiple times a day and just really just with that goal of getting back on the field. So the really the early days are really driven by that want to get back on the football field. The Loss of Identity Bill Gasiamis (11:20)Was there a moment you had the realisation that it’s not going to happen and what was that like? Benjamin Miller (11:27)Yeah, probably in June of 2018, I had a follow up with my neurosurgeon and before we went in to go see him, because I was supposed to, I got hurt September of 2017. So about nine months later and my parents sat me down and told me, Ben, when we go see your neurosurgeon tomorrow, he’s going to tell you after retire. And that was, yeah, that was like a very, I didn’t know how to deal with that as a 17 year old. Like very soon after that I fell into alcohol use and then, yeah, just progressed from there. Bill Gasiamis (12:04)Got it. And by nine months later, were you up on your feet? Had you recovered the deficits or were they still there? Benjamin Miller (12:15)Yeah, I mean, I was lucky that I was 16. So my brain was still very plastic and I recovered like really I was in a wheelchair for the first day. Like September 23rd, I was in a wheelchair. I mean, like probably like just one day after. And then I was up and walking on day two and just like my strike pattern of the ground wasn’t correct. Like I would swing my leg and have drop foot as many stroke people patients suffer with. but I wasn’t gonna let the stroke, like the people around me seeing me as still struggling from the stroke. So even like the early days in the hospital, I just hide it from everyone. Anytime my parents or my friends or anybody, my brothers would ask, how am I doing? I just tell them, I’m okay, I’m fine. You don’t need to worry about me. Which then led to me needing to find a release in alcohol later on the line, so. Bill Gasiamis (13:10)The whole I’m fine, you don’t need to worry about me was so that you can convince yourself perhaps and them that you’re good to go, you’re ready to just slide back into life exactly the way that you were. Benjamin Miller (13:24)That’s definitely it. Bill Gasiamis (13:27)Yeah. But you clearly weren’t okay if you’re we’ll talk about the alcohol in a moment, but you’re clearly not okay. What are you experiencing psychologically or emotionally that you’re hiding from them? Like what’s actually happening in that moment? Benjamin Miller (13:44)Yeah, Maybe just. It was more so from the retirement from football. It felt like when I was told that by my father that. It felt like my soul was torn in half, because like I always saw myself as a student athlete and the bigger part of that was the athlete. And now I lost half of my identity and. I just didn’t know how to as a. 17 year old now like how to move forward with life and I didn’t know who I was and the only thing I defined myself as was taken away from me and along Bill Gasiamis (14:21)Mm. Benjamin Miller (14:22)with like missing a whole semester of school. It was just like I just stopped caring about school too. So now I was just like in this weird place where I felt like I was drowning on a day-to-day basis. Bill Gasiamis (14:36)Setback after setback. It’s not that you become unwell and then you wake up in the morning and you just can’t play football. It’s also you’ve missed school, so you’re gonna go back and probably repeat that. Your friends have moved on. They’re doing what you know, seventeen year olds do, playing football, going out, doing their studies, who knows what they’re doing. You’re You have to pick up the pieces and there’s a lot of pieces to pick up, right? There’s so much. The alcohol did it was it something that you did before this incident in in that had you as a sixteen year old had alcohol before? I know most kids would have at some point in America, in Australia, by the time they’re sixteen, they’ve had a drink. Had you had a drink before that? Benjamin Miller (15:29)I didn’t actually just with the role models that my brothers were, were very straight edge guys, like just focused on the goal of Bill Gasiamis (15:38)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (15:39)college football. And so like I was very much the same way, but after just the injury, being around my friends and not having like those same like level of role models in the same house that I fell into the, just down the wrong path. I won’t. say it’s my friend’s fault because it was… Bill Gasiamis (15:59)Yeah. Benjamin Miller (16:00)yeah, but it was… Bill Gasiamis (16:03)Sounds like it’s still tough talking about it. Benjamin Miller (16:07)Yeah, at times. Like sometimes it’s easier, sometimes… Bill Gasiamis (16:12)Hmm. With the I’m not sure. I’ve never I’ve drank and I’ve drank a lot to be drunk and I’ve drank too much where I’m completely gone and I don’t drink since the stroke. What’s the what’s it helping you do when you have a drink? Is it helping you forget? Is it helping the emotional part of it? What is it kind of putting a cloud over or And kind of stopping from coming forward. Coping Mechanisms: Alcohol and Escapism Benjamin Miller (16:46)Yeah, it was just, I mean, I would drink to escape, to be honest. It was just like my way to stop feeling the stress of how much I have to recover, the stress of how do I get back? How do I show people that I’m fine, that the stroke didn’t affect me? And it was just like a couple hours out of the night where I could just not feel any of the stress of me trying to hide the… Just the emotional pain of not knowing who I was and not knowing how to move forward with my life without football, without sports, without like the level of a student I used to be because I was just very, I was a perfectionist growing up and had to make the best grades in class, had to be the best on the football field, had to be just the strongest in the weight room. So I just didn’t know how to move forward without. trying to show everyone I’m still this perfect version of myself and just as Ben, the not perfect kid, the one who’s still fighting from what Bill Gasiamis (17:51)Mm. Benjamin Miller (17:51)he’s been through, but he’s not perfect anymore, even though. Bill Gasiamis (17:55)You never were perfect, but you at least were more capable of pulling off the facade, you know, because you did have good grades, because you were an athlete, because you always worked on improving things. So the th the the time that you were drinking gave you a little bit of relief from all the things that were kind of happening. in your head that you needed to kind of quieten down. And then did that escalate? Did it go from a small amount to a larger amount and then and then kind of how bad did it get? Benjamin Miller (18:38)Yeah, I mean, over my senior year of high school, it did escalate to abuse. I go solely on the weekends, like Friday night, Saturday night. But then beginning university and the fall of 2019, it was five, six nights a week. I would be drinking till I would be most nights just blocking out. So I didn’t remember what happened the night before. And then even waking up in the morning, it was. That’s the only thing I could think about was just making it back, getting through class, making it back to the nights where I could drink till I wouldn’t feel anything. And that continued through the end of 2019 and into the beginning of 2020, I joined a fraternity. And that’s when I noticed myself like really start to spiral, started to get into, like tried cocaine a couple of times, like was still drinking every night. And like that’s why COVID was like a lifesaver for me. that I could go home and, you know, because like I was on a very bad path at school. Bill Gasiamis (19:45)So you’re already heavy drinker, then you join a fraternity. Benjamin Miller (19:50)you Bill Gasiamis (19:51)You’re the perfect candidate for being in an in a fraternity, right? And you Benjamin Miller (19:55)Yeah, it was a mess. Bill Gasiamis (19:57)can yeah, you can see why that would escalate it because already the culture is about drinking, about partying, about being loose or crazy or whatever. And it makes sense that it would escalate and get really bad and get worse and then you try other things. And then COVID happens. And then that gives it the opportunity to have a bit of a break in the cycle. Benjamin Miller (20:27)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (20:28)Your studies up until COVID, even though you were drinking heavily and probably parting too hard, were the studies being affected or were you still able to put out good work? Benjamin Miller (20:42)I won’t say good work, but just grades that were good enough. Like not failing classes, but not excelling. just like Bill Gasiamis (20:49)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (20:50)B’s and C’s, maybe one or two A’s. just like for like the stand, like my perfection standards that I used to have, like just like kind of skating by. Bill Gasiamis (21:02)I l I love the sound B’s and C’s skating by. Dude, if I was getting B’s and C’s when I was at school, my God, that would be amazing. but I it gives me a good insight into like what the expectation of yourself is. I totally get it. Okay. So you’re skating by, you’re getting your grades. Does anyone n realize how bad things are? Like people in your periphery, your family going Ben, we’re concerned about you. We think we need to talk. Was it any of that stuff or were you hiding it? Benjamin Miller (21:36)I was very good at hiding it from everybody. really like, I didn’t let anybody at that point, like that early on in the journey, like anybody see what was going on underneath. Cause I didn’t understand it I didn’t have the ability to verbalize what I was going through emotionally, what I was going through mentally. So it’s like at that point I was even hidden from myself. I’d go that far. Bill Gasiamis (22:02)Wow. You had to saved yourself in thinking that everything is normal, perhaps. Benjamin Miller (22:07)Yeah, I just thought like the more time that goes by like Everything will be okay without me having to do anything especially like at that time COVID-19: A Blessing in Disguise Bill Gasiamis (22:17)Mm-hmm. And then COVID happens. Why is that a blessing in disguise? How did it change things for you? And then we’ll talk about what what you have to deal with after that. But at the ma in that moment COVID comes along and it changes something for the better. Benjamin Miller (22:37)Yeah, in March of 2020, I go back to Houston from I was at school in Chicago, Illinois. And from there, it’s just like just being at home with my both my brothers are back at home and in our old house. It was just nice the first time since like 2016 since my oldest brother left for school. That we’re all together again, and I could just get out of that environment that I knew I was spiraling and I still wasn’t in a better place at home. I’ll still. struggling with like I started using performance-answersing drugs at the beginning of that year too. Just to, I thought that if I big, like built my muscle and strong, like really strong, that my effects from the stroke would also heal. So I just spent like two, an hour to two hours every day in the gym just, yeah, just like over that period of time from March of 2022, December of 2020. just going to the gym every day and just trying to put on as much muscle as possible because I thought that would help me heal. And yeah, it didn’t. Bill Gasiamis (23:52)It didn’t Did you get bigger? Benjamin Miller (23:56)Yeah, I mean, I was I don’t know. And I would say I got up to like 100 kilos, like 220 Bill Gasiamis (24:02)Okay. Benjamin Miller (24:02)pounds. Bill Gasiamis (24:04)Yeah. So you got bigger you achieved that thing, so visually it may have looked like you were achieving something, but you didn’t feel better. So Benjamin Miller (24:15)So. Bill Gasiamis (24:16)what what did it feel like still? What does it feel like in your body when you’re gone back home, everyone’s together, you’re hitting the gym, you’re using performance enhancing drugs. What does that feel like? Does it feel like a letdown, a disappointment, or I’m not quite there yet? What what does it feel like? Benjamin Miller (24:37)I would say like, I’m not quite there yet. Like just always chasing a ever moving goal that like, as soon as it got closer, just like move further away. But I never like step back to like actually look at what I was chasing and realize that’s not what I’m supposed to be chasing. I need to be just turning around to my internal world and focus on healing myself from the inside out versus trying to do all this, put on another mask. do another substance, put another thing in my body, chase another goal, external goal, to try to heal versus turning around and looking inside. So that took many years. Bill Gasiamis (25:19)Hmm. I love that flip that you said healing from the inside out instead of putting on another mask. And that’s really profound to get to that stage where you when you realize that. and at the same time when you were hitting the gym, getting bigger, your right side, is that feeling different? Do you have deficits on that side still? Benjamin Miller (25:47)Yeah, I would say at that time, yes, I was still very tight through my whole right arm and right leg. Still, like anytime I went up a stair, I got hit my right foot on the top of the step. So it was like, and I just thought the more like just being a no pain, no gain mindset stuff, I’m in pain Bill Gasiamis (26:08)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (26:08)and I’m going to be recovering. I’m going to be gaining. And yeah, it just was. And like the more muscle I put on the tighter it became because just the range of motion wasn’t right through my shoulder and through my hip. I was still swinging my leg, still shoulder hiked forward versus like pulling it back and letting gravity work, like working with gravity instead of fighting it. So that was. Bill Gasiamis (26:33)Yeah. Yeah. I know what you mean because when I’ve been to the gym after the stroke, it’s I I tend to kinda achieve one thing and then the muscles get so tight that I’ve got to go and have a massage and try and loosen them up and try and get them moving again. And then it’s like that one two day recovery after you do your arms, for example, and your chest takes four or five days and it’s like back at the gym already. And I still haven’t overcome or recovered from four days ago. And it’s really challenging and frustrating. It kind of makes it kind of makes it harder to go back to the gym. You’re all I’m always thinking about, I’m gonna go there and it’s I’m gonna just tighten everything up and I’m gonna put myself in that situation and it’s not gonna recover. And I’m gonna have to get massage again. And it’s just this whole loop of. It’s very it’s very helpful, but it’s also something that has to be managed completely differently than it used to when you go to the gym and you recovered for two days and then you’re back again. and before we move on to the kind of the next phase of the conversation, I also wanna kinda understand this perfectionism in you on the field, off the field field, at school. Where did that come from? What Do you have like a sense of how that started and why it was a thing that you adopted and ran with? Benjamin Miller (28:12)I would say that just watching my two older brothers grow up and seeing like in my like kid eyes, they were like the perfect human being, like the perfect role models. Like I just tried to be like them in every way. And I always thought that they were like so up here and like, didn’t know like, I was three years and two years younger than them. So they hit puberty before me. just at the time that my oldest brother, Alex left for school, I would still be like, at his like chest level, always like looking up to them. So they were just like gods in my head. And I always would ask myself, how do I measure up to them? And because they were perfect in my eyes. So was like, I to be above perfect to The Journey of Healing Begins Bill Gasiamis (28:57)Mm-hmm. Benjamin Miller (28:57)be recognized as like their brothers. I got, it’s like always the bar I was chasing and yeah. Bill Gasiamis (29:08)And now you know they weren’t perfect, they were just bigger and older than you by three years and two years. Yeah. so then you have this realization that the healing has to start from the inside, but that’s gotta Benjamin Miller (29:26)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (29:26)be is that a relief that you work that out? Is that what what am I gonna do now? How how do you gr grapple with that? Benjamin Miller (29:37)Yeah, I’d say like, I had the, I know if I hit rock bottom, but I had to go even lower before I came to that realization. So I mean, yeah, like 2021 was probably the one of the lower lowest points. So it’s a, so like going back to school in January of 2021, I got into stimulant use at the same time as the performance enhancing drugs at the same time as alcohol and then marijuana came into the picture too. So I was just using like a cocktail of drugs just to get through a day. And I ended up that winter quarter, I did make the Dean’s List at school. was like the top performer, but I remember just like looking at that email and like, I have like all the external achievement again. And I was even more, like I was lower. I got a lower place emotionally and mentally and like felt so empty inside that I knew that this isn’t what I’m supposed to be doing at this point in time. So I went on medical leave from school like pretty soon after that. And that’s where I would say where the healing process really began was in the summer of 2021. And yeah, I mean, it’s been, I thought it’d take like in the beginning, the healing process would be like six months, but it’s been around five years that it’s taken me to be honest. So four years of just. sliding down and I would say like I might have like and like the healing process too has been like trying to make it up and then still falling and going back up. So it’s never a straight line for Bill Gasiamis (31:19)Never linear. Benjamin Miller (31:20)me a long time to recognize that let’s focus on the trend. Bill Gasiamis (31:25)Never linear man, far out. you you still make it on the Dean’s list, that’s cool. But I I get like it even under duress, you know, you still make it on the Dean’s list. And then you have this realization and it’s like you hear that analogy, you know, things are gotta get worse before they get better. Benjamin Miller (31:48)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (31:50)Dude, like how much worse can they get? Why should they get worse? Why can’t we just start improving from here? But is it’s for you the worst part? Was it about reconstructing from the beginning and then you therefore you have to get to the bottom because you can’t kind of reconstruct from b you know, above the bottom? Facing Uncomfortable Emotions Benjamin Miller (32:13)Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I would say in a way like I would say like the first over that summer of 2021, I just focused on like I was doing a lot like yoga almost every day, and that was the first time I started meditating in my life and working on like that’s really where my rehab started was just a lot of breath work, a lot of meditation, a lot of yoga, just to. begin to be able to sit with the emotions and the mental states that I couldn’t tolerate. And like at that early point in time, I still couldn’t tolerate it. still like so uncomfortable that I still had to go use marijuana just to get through the days. But it was just the beginning of that process of being able to tolerate what I had been running from through alcohol, through stimulants, through performance enhancing drugs for so long that like I was still inputting a substance into my body, but I could begin that process of sitting with it, even if it was for a minute. And those early days, two minutes, three minutes became 10, 15, 20, which then continued to expand longer. And the more just times I came back to sitting with those uncomfortable states. Bill Gasiamis (33:26)Yeah, wha what is it about being uncomfortable that people can’t handle? Do you think maybe you can tell me from your perspective? because you hear that, it’s almost ridiculous to hear somebody saying, I have a thought, it’s making me uncomfortable, I have to get that thought out. Yeah, I’ve b I’ve been there, so I’m not saying that Benjamin Miller (33:47)Thank you. Bill Gasiamis (33:49)people shouldn’t be doing that, but it almost does feel crazy, doesn’t it? Because it’s a feeling and a thought that makes you uncomfortable doesn’t necessarily put you in danger. But Benjamin Miller (34:01)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (34:02)we can’t do that. Like, do you have a any inkling as to why why philosophically that might be the case? Benjamin Miller (34:13)I mean, would just like our autonomic nervous system, a danger, like a physical danger versus a mental danger. can’t, our physical body can’t tell a difference. So they’re treated the same. And I would say like this. Yeah, so like just like uncomfortable, like state of mind or uncomfortable thought. just as humans, we prefer to be in a place of comfort, a place of safety. And so anytime something is uncomfortable, we tend to run in the opposite direction back towards what is known, what is comfortable, what is safe. And it’s like, that’s something I always like ask myself, like, how do I make my, what can I do today? That’s uncomfortable, but not like to the point that I lose myself and I just go off the deep end and where I’ve been. So just like a weird and like, feel like that place changes every day. It’s just like a balance that’s always, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (35:16)I get what you’re saying. So a a thing that is scary and dangerous, a physical thing, a bear, a tiger, you run. You can run away from that. If you’re lucky, you’ll outrun it, right? And then Benjamin Miller (35:30)Thank Bill Gasiamis (35:30)you’re safe. And then there’s no bear around and there’s no tiger around. So you’re good. You’re good to go. You can just move on with life. But when the body is confusing thoughts and feelings with the same type of Imminent danger, and you can’t run away from it, and it’s still there. You have to find a way to either escape it, which is short-lived because we’re harming ourselves to escape it, or you have to remind your body and yourself, your mind, that in fact you’re not in imminent danger. There’s nothing to run away from. This is An obstacle that I can tackle and overcome. Like it might just be on the path to, you know, that walk in the wilderness instead of a bear, it’s actually just a fallen log. A tree fowl, it’s an obstacle. I’ve just got to find a way around it, under it, over it, whatever. And if you’ve never used that muscle, then you don’t know how to do it. And then you get stuck behind something like a log that should not be as debilitating as it is. It should be something that you can find a way over. At 16, that’s understandable that, you know, most people haven’t dealt with real exponential life problems, you know, that just keep getting worse and worse. That changes your identity. They haven’t dealt with that. So they haven’t developed the skill. So could it just have been a case of you were a little premature? just from age an age perspective that y all you needed to worry about was playing football and and and studying and now you’ve got to deal with these existential issues, you know, that most people aren’t equipped to deal with at sixteen. Benjamin Miller (37:38)Yeah, mean, yeah, that’s like one thing in March of 2018. So about six months after my stroke, my mom took me to a neurosurgeon and he said, the good thing is that Ben is young and the bad thing is that Ben is young. And both of us didn’t really understand what he meant at that point in time, but just like the spiritual and existential journey that the stroke has taken me on. It’s that’s like been like both like the scariest and most comforting piece of the journey. Just because like I was never a spiritual person and not like in terms of religion, but just like believing in something higher, something bigger than me, some energy source that’s larger than us as human beings. And that’s been like the most like the biggest part of the journey, like the emotional side, the mental side, the physical side, we’re all. And like, I’m still on those journeys, but just like the spiritual side of it has been, yeah, just something I wasn’t expecting. Spiritual Awakening Through Adversity Bill Gasiamis (38:45)Yeah. It is kinda good that you discovered it early, but the path to discovering it is, man, so hard to have to go through what you went through to to have these learnings and understandings. and then to learn that if you tackle the thing that you’re most afraid of, you can actually conquer it. You can overcome it. Benjamin Miller (39:10)Mm-mm. Bill Gasiamis (39:11)And If you get good at doing that, you can overcome most things. And you can also recognise when it’s time to live in the pain and discomfort, the suffering, whatever it is, to live in it temporarily and then Benjamin Miller (39:27)Thank Bill Gasiamis (39:29)r find a way through. What other than yoga and meditation, what else was it that helped you go on this other journey, this recovery or growth journey. Benjamin Miller (39:45)I would say there were a couple things. I don’t know if you ever heard about internal family systems. It’s Bill Gasiamis (39:50)No, tell Benjamin Miller (39:54)a theory from Dr. Richard Schwartz. He wrote the book, No Bad Parts. And that was in 2022 after going on another medical leave from school when I first discovered that book. And it was just talking about the different parts of the mind, like, and how different we get stuck through our history at different points in our life. The Power of Breath and Movement And we have to like there are parts of our brain like different voices like speaking to each other and they are some are trying to protect us some are trying to move us forward some are trying to keep us where we are and it just like developing a conversation between those parts because there was a lot of traumas I suffered from the stroke and being in the hospital and then just like post stroke to just like trying to hide my spasticity. from everyone, not showing my parents, not showing my friends, not showing anybody I was struggling at all. And just starting to understand the different voices in my head and even the young perfectionist Ben could always be trying to push me to be beyond perfect and just beginning to have a conversation between those different voices in my head and allowing them to speak instead of just repressing emotions, repressing, repressing until they’re like. bubble up and I need to go get drunk or high or need to use something just to survive during the day. And the biggest other big piece for me was I started to practice Tai Chi in 2022 and that was as big of it physically was for me. It was just as big spiritually. Just that’s what I, when I first learned just like the… how to start being like water and going with what is today and not trying to force. Yeah, just like force myself to be able to do every single Tai Chi movement and, but yeah, and that’s like still a thing I struggle with is like this past month, I pushed myself too hard in the gym and now have tendonitis in my right ankle. So I haven’t been able to train for the past two weeks and it’s frustrating, but it’s just like, I can look at it as a frustration or just something to learn from. And I can recognize I wasn’t being like water over the past month. Instead of resting immediately, I just let the injury build and build and build day by day until now I can’t train. So yeah, but the Tai Chi, like the breathing, the Tai Chi breathing technique. So that was like another thing. It’s like yogic breathing. You inhale and expand your belly. Then when you exhale, you contract. But in Tai Chi, it was as you inhale, you contract. And as you exhale, expand. So that was like something I was never aware of. So like whenever I’m meditating now or just like trying to relax, I’ll do a yogic breathing. And whenever I’m like doing something active, working out on a walk or just like moving around, like I’ll be like Tai Chi breathing. So that’s something I got to work with stroke patients in 2023 than last year and earlier this year. And I got something like I always stress with them was learning how to breathe because like I feel like as we never actually learn how to breathe it’s just like something we do unconsciously from the time we’re born and just like going back to that most basic step of being a living being of learning how to breathe I was like Bill Gasiamis (43:24)I it sounds like it was real insightful. A lot of people breathe incorrectly as well, and they haven’t realized that shallow breathing, you know, or the opposite of shallow breathing and therefore it puts them into a different physiological state. You know, shallow breathing can create anxious experiences and then and then the opposite can create hyperventilation, those types of experiences. So it’s like you can alter how you feel, even if your goal is to not worry about the thinking, or even if your goal is not about what you’ve been suppressing, even if you just get rid of all of the things that we could possibly help us resolve or overcome or grow from or be like water, even if we get rid of all of that and you just change your breath. And jumped on a YouTube video and found somebody that was doing a calm meditation for whatever purpose. And even if you just did that and you had no other agenda other than to just experience a different breath right, you Benjamin Miller (44:39)Thank you. Bill Gasiamis (44:40)some people will have a profound experience from doing that, wouldn’t they? Benjamin Miller (44:45)Yeah, I 100 % agree. I just, I know to this like, yeah, I say that’s just like where it started was just like the recovery journey for me started with my breath work and relearning how to breathe and just like learning a bunch of different techniques of breathing and just like seeing what worked best at what times and it’s just like a trial and error type. Just as like life after a stroke is, feels like you’re just trying things out and see what sticks, see what doesn’t. And tomorrow’s a new day. We’ll see if this still works today. And then if it doesn’t, we’ll find something else that just. Bill Gasiamis (45:24)Yeah. Curiosity seems to be a massive Benjamin Miller (45:28)Mm. Bill Gasiamis (45:29)thing for you right now. Is we’ll try this, see what happens, try this, see what happens, see what sticks. If it doesn’t stick, well then we’ll just move on. Tai Chi, how did you stumble across that? Like what made you start trying it? Benjamin Miller (45:44)I was seeing an acupuncturist in Houston actually when I came home on a medical leave and he recommended me to his Sifu or teacher and his teacher had from chemotherapy because he had cancer but he would get like the toast plasticity and he like so I knew he understood like the first time I walked in to meet him we were at a coffee shop and he told me you look calm cool and collected but I can tell you’re a raging fire on the inside. I’m like, okay, he just walked past every mask, everything I tried to show to the public and he could see what, how I actually feel. So it was just like that instant connection. And from there he started to train me. Like I could go to his house and we train in a private session twice a week for like a year really. Like I still practice every day by myself, but he just was the first person that I didn’t have to wear like this fake face to. And I could like go in and like, it was like more like talk therapy. Like we’d be doing Tai Chi, but I could just like tell him I was really feeling that I was still struggling with marijuana at that time. This was around 2023. And that was like the biggest thing like in my substance recovery journey was what he told me. He’s like, I don’t care what you do outside of. this training, but the fact that you’re showing up here today shows me that you’re trying to move in the right direction. And I know that the fact that you’re still showing up, that you will be eventually moving in the right direction. Don’t worry about where you are today. Just focus on where you’re going and the trend of months, years, and especially in substance use. you get, I mean, in stroke too, you get so caught up in the day today. Bill Gasiamis (47:35)Yeah. Building Community in Recovery Benjamin Miller (47:35)How am I gonna survive today? And just to start looking more long-term was a very, it’s a very hard. Yeah, it’s so hard. Bill Gasiamis (47:46)I love I love the acknowledgement of right now you’re in Tai Chi. Everything’s fine. You’re doing great. It shows me that you’re moving forward. And people forget to do that to themselves as well. Like how far have I come? Six months ago, I wasn’t walk walking. Six months ago, I couldn’t speak the way I’m speaking now. Even if it’s not perfect, it has changed. There’s signs of improvement. And all that kind of thing. It’s kind of the same conversation that you had with your trainer who was just saying, Yeah, we’re here, we’re doing it. And that’s another rep that is going to benefit you down the track. If it doesn’t feel like it’s benefiting you now, that doesn’t matter. It matters that you’re here and that you’re putting the work in and you’re turning up and the whole lot matters. one of the interesting funny things that came up in my head about Tai Chi, it’s a martial art, right? And Benjamin Miller (48:50)Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (48:52)and there was a meme on one of the socials where somebody was walking down the street and they were mugged and during the mugging they broke out into Tai Chi you know, to defend themselves or to stop the person stealing their bag. It was the epitome of you know like it’s probably not useful to stop the guy but calming Benjamin Miller (49:19)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (49:21)and getting yourself grounded and being okay about it was just a real cool thing to sort of to sort of see in that in that moment in that in that time it is a it’s a it’s a it’s a martial art but for a different purpose. It’s not for defending yourself or taking somebody down. It’s the exact opposite of what you were doing on the field as well. Benjamin Miller (49:53)just felt like refinding yourself in like the chaos of everyday life. That’s like how I describe it. Like it just allows you to come back to like your center line and just, just be. like, it’s like thinking of the Tai Chi versus a robber. Like that’s why I continued like from Tai Chi. started to go, I lived in Thailand in 2024 for a couple of months and train Muay Thai. as like the next stage to go from like super slow to start speeding everything up. And I was lucky enough to go live in up in Northern Thailand and Chiang Mai and train Muay Thai for a couple of months and have been back. And yeah, I’m actually going, my mom and I are to Bhutan where my mom is from at the end of October. And then I’ll go spend a little bit of time in Thailand before I come back home. So. Yeah, life is… Bill Gasiamis (50:51)I I I think about people going in practicing getting in the ring, MMA, Muay Thai, all that kind of stuff. It’s like, dude, how can you do it? How can you get in the ring and know that you’re going to get hurt? Benjamin Miller (51:09)I don’t, I won’t fight. just like, sparring is like very like just tap sparring. So it gets like all timing and rhythm, but Bill Gasiamis (51:17)Yeah. Benjamin Miller (51:17)like I had to retire from contact sports. So it’s just like more of like a therapeutic, like Bill Gasiamis (51:22)Okay. Benjamin Miller (51:23)beating my body up and learning how to throw kicks with both my right leg and left leg, throwing Bill Gasiamis (51:27)Okay. Benjamin Miller (51:28)punches. So yeah, I’m not going to go fight. Bill Gasiamis (51:31)I okay, good. That’s fine. I mean, even if you did, that’s fine as well. But that’s immediately when I what I went to when you said Moi Toy, like I’ve seen those dudes, they’re mental and amazing athletes, but they hurt themselves. And I saw how can you put yourself in that kind of danger? Even though that’s what you’re training to do. It my mind doesn’t go there, you know, it can’t physically make me do that. Of course I’ve defended myself in fights before if I’ve needed to. not as a fifty year old, but I probably still could, but getting in the ring is a completely different thing. So you’re not getting in the ring. That’s cool. so you worked with stroke survivors. How did that come about? Why did that come about? Benjamin Miller (52:19)Yeah. I was, like a guinea pig, like early patient at a stroke clinic in the Netherlands. And I, my, one of my mentors who’s co-owner of this clinic, Linda Radezdad, she wrote two books now, Stroke Rebell, Bill Gasiamis (52:37)Yeah. Benjamin Miller (52:38)Stroke Rebell 2, and just had the ability to go there and attend the clinic. And while I was there, I mean, they treated me like family. It was the first time, this was in 2022, so about four and a half years since my stroke, the first time I ran in four and a half years. And they just wanted me to come back and volunteer at their clinic. Cause I opened another one in Cyprus and that they just did last year one in South Carolina in the U S and then earlier this year in Florida. So I got to go out to Cyprus in 2023, then South Carolina last year, then Florida at the beginning of this year. And they just, mean, they just always treated me like family. And I’ve been so grateful for her and her partner, our young Kipers. Both of them have treated me like their own son, invited me into their house. I stayed with them after Cyprus, going back where they live in Germany and got to go to the clinic with them every day for two weeks while I stayed with them. And yeah, I I don’t know what I’d Bill Gasiamis (53:45)Yeah. How amazing. Benjamin Miller (53:47)do, but. Bill Gasiamis (53:48)I’ve heard of Linda and her partner. I’ve heard of them for many years and I don’t really understand what they do. Linda had a stroke, is that right? Benjamin Miller (53:58)She had two strokes in 2017 and at the beginning of 2018 I want to Drunk. Bill Gasiamis (54:03)Uhhuh. Okay. And now they run is it retreats? Are these clinics full time? and d do they see only stroke survivors or do they see all sorts of people? Benjamin Miller (54:16)I know Arjan when he ran his chiropractic clinic in Zutphen, the Netherlands, it was like he would see people with TBIs and strokes and just anything brain related. But now I think they’re focused on strokes and they host like two week retreats multiple times a year. I don’t know their website, but Yeah, they do them in Cyprus and Sweden in the summer. And then now they’re starting in the U S so it’s. Yeah, I don’t know what their end goal is, like how like what’s next for them, but I know they’re retreat. Like at least when I went in 2022, it was like. The amount of attention I got for. 14 days straight was nothing I’d ever experienced in any hospital or any. outpatient or inpatient rehab. It was something that I’ll forever be grateful for them for. But Arjan Bill Gasiamis (55:16)What’s the Benjamin Miller (55:18)just wrote his book. I couldn’t tell you the name of it, but Arjan Kuyper’s. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (55:25)Yeah, we’ll look it up. what did you gain from it, that first r retreat that you attended after fourteen days? W when you left, what did you feel like you left with? Finding Belonging and Understanding Benjamin Miller (55:39)I’d say the biggest thing was just like the mental and emotional piece that I didn’t feel alone for the first time in five years. I felt like I could walk into that clinic and just be Benjamin the stroke patient and not Ben this other guy that Ben this party kid and college Ben this wannabe bodybuilder. But I could just be the stroke patient who doesn’t know what he’s doing and just wants to recover further, but doesn’t know how to move forward. Yeah, that was like the biggest thing for me was just finding like a group of people for the first time in four and a half years. Bill Gasiamis (56:19)Yeah. I know that feeling of almost like belonging, but being understood and not needing to pretend and all that. That’s so good when you go into a room where people have been through what you’ve been through. It’s completely different because they get it and you don’t even have to talk. You just know that they get it and they know you. and it’s interesting that you said like what you got out of it was Like all emotional and kind of more more along the lines of things that are unspoken rather than I walked out better or I my muscle was better or this was better or that was better. That’s definitely a goal. That’s definitely something to work towards and always find a way to try and optimize. But you’re talking about I I left feeling better, thinking better, clearly more understood, more all these things. People don’t realize that the gravity of that experience and how profound li i it can change their life and put it on a different trajectory in a good way. Benjamin Miller (57:35)Yeah, I would say like even going back and volunteering, like helping work with stroke patients. It was the first time many of them would be around a group of people who they could just be themselves. could just like, they could struggle together. They could celebrate their wins, little wins together. Cause like, just like watching people walk for the first time. And I don’t know how like probably since their stroke and it was just, yeah. And like, they like just felt like, the level of community that they’d build and even though they’d known each other for one week, two weeks, so it was a really beautiful thing just to watch humans, like human beings in that way. Just like how I, I know how isolating at post stroke it can feel that no one understands like why me? And then just seeing people who feel the way that we felt and then finding that same level of community and home. Bill Gasiamis (58:31)Yeah, I know exactly what you mean. so it’s twenty twenty six, we’re near the end of twenty twenty six. How are you these days? How are you feeling? Benjamin Miller (58:42)Yeah, doing, I mean, been really well, to be honest. Had a great summer, great spring, just really on a upward trajectory right now. I wrote my memoir, Ed and I, available on YouTube and am working on self-publishing my workbook that I kind of built over these years called Self-Healing. Creating a Path for Self-Healing Just like a, I want it to be like a pocket size guide that can take anywhere. And just for anybody who just after for myself being through too many psychologists and psychiatrists to count on my hands and toes, that I just wanted to create a all inclusive guide to what helped me recover mentally and emotionally and be able to integrate. Like, I don’t think recovery is just like. You’re not recovered, you’re broken, then you’re healed. It’s just like a constant every day, check, check, check in, check in, check in, check in. Sometimes we start off the path, then we come back. We refine our center and it just, I don’t think it’s ever just a end journey. So just kind of created a workbook off that and I’m working on a website right now to have that. And we’d like to start public speaking, least around the United States right now. And I just see where we go. Bill Gasiamis (1:00:11)Yeah, man. It’s such a good place to find yourself. And I know the feeling of leaving the psychologists behind, you know, and the counselors behind and everyone behind and saying, Well, I don’t I think I’m good. I don’t need you now. I was probably seeing a counselor from the age of about twenty seven and still do, but there are lots of gaps in between sessions now where there previously wasn’t. There needed to be more regular sessions, sometimes weekly, and then every two weeks and then monthly. and then once or twice a year. But now I’m kind of back into the regular monthly. Benjamin Miller (1:01:00)you Bill Gasiamis (1:01:01)And it’s been like that for about a year. And it’s just because life has changed. Things are different and I’m reassessing and changing direction and all that type of thing. And I need somebody who’s got my back. Not not Benjamin Miller (1:01:20)Enough. Bill Gasiamis (1:01:21)that everyone around me doesn’t have my back. They do, all my family, my wife, everyone, they’re amazing. It’s just not their job to take go on the journey with me. Like they’re doing their own thing. It’s their own journey. So I I sort of seek out support. from an independent person to just be fully even though they’re getting paid to be fully on my journey with me to support me through that. And it’s so good to be able to go back to something like that, to reach out to somebody that has been left behind for a little bit. I’m gonna venture on my own, you know, I’m a big boy now. I’m gonna go and see what the world’s like. the world has thrown me a curveball. Okay. I’m gonna manage that, but also I’m gonna reach out and get

This month we were delighted to be joined for the second time by Avi (Dr KBH), who is a researcher in medical anthropology at the University of Helsinki. He is currently PI of the project “After Malaria” which investigates Cyprus and Finland and their successful malaria cessation stories. Avi gives us insight into this project and into the documentaries that are being made about each of the case locations. In addition to discussion of these works, Avi gave us a heads up about an event that will be held in Helsinki on November 13 and 14. If you are interested in public health and what a world after malaria looks like, then check out the WAM! Event (link below).Check out the WAM event details: https://www.lyyti.fi/reg/WAM_2026Check out the After Malaria project website: www.aftermalaria.org 

Before we begin Act Two or land on the shores of Cyprus, here is a bonus episode talking about how Shakespeare may (and may not) have imagined the island.

A special edition of Front Row from the BBC's poetry and performance festival - Contains Strong LanguageSince self-publishing a poetry pamphlet in 2020, Donna Ashworth has gone on to become the UK's bestselling living poet of the decade. She talks about her new book, The Art of Being Easily Pleased: Words To Unlock A Wonderful life, and shares some of her new poems.The phenomenally successful musical, Operation Mincemeat, which looks at a WW2 deception operation, began life as a 15 minute performance at The Lowry as part of the art centre's artist development programme. Natasha Hodgson and David Cumming, two of the original members of the team that created the show, discuss one of the musical's best loved songs, Dear Bill, and there'll be a special performance of it.Anthony Almeida is directing a new production of Othello, set in 1980s Britain which draws parallels between the political and military turmoil of that time with those of Shakespeare's 16th century setting in Venice and Cyprus. He talks about the play's language of leadership in challenging times.The TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Joelle Taylor set her collection, Maryville, in a butch bar to explore the lives of four butch lesbians and the underground landscape of queer culture. She discusses the new performance version of these poems that she'll be presenting at the Contains Strong Language festival. Presenter - Samira Ahmed Producer - Ekene Akalawu

Listen to Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes WNTN 1550 AM-Thursday morning, and the two most powerful men in the world sit down together for the first time in eleven years... Trump and Xi, face to face at Joint Base Andrews, with Iran, trade, and the future of artificial intelligence all on the table. On the same day, Mitsotakis stands at the UN podium while Cyprus accuses Erdogan of hypocrisy on the same stage. And tonight, Olympiacos opens its EuroLeague title defense on the road. A day when history is being made at every table, and Greece has a seat at most of them

Listen to Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes WNTN 1550 AM-Thursday morning, and the two most powerful men in the world sit down together for the first time in eleven years... Trump and Xi, face to face at Joint Base Andrews, with Iran, trade, and the future of artificial intelligence all on the table. On the same day, Mitsotakis stands at the UN podium while Cyprus accuses Erdogan of hypocrisy on the same stage. And tonight, Olympiacos opens its EuroLeague title defense on the road. A day when history is being made at every table, and Greece has a seat at most of them

This episode is sponsored by Radiant! Learn more at hcu.edu/radiant Preorder "The Adventures of Ben and Travis and the Divided Kingdom" children's book at benandtravis.com/books Donate to Ben's St. Jude fundraiser here: https://fundraising.stjude.org/site/TR?px=5816464&fr_id=164588&pg=personal Ben shares the story of his youngest son's cancer journey and how he has turned that story into something powerful for good! Links mentioned in this episode: Get our free ebook "28 Days of Focused Living" here: https://www.benandtravis.com https://www.facebook.com/groups/benandtravis Reframing Hope Book: https://www.benandtravis.com/books For extra content and material you can use for your family or ministry go to https://www.patreon.com/benandtravis Represent the show: https://www.benandtravis.com/store The Friday ReFresh: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-friday-refresh/id1611969995 Good Old Fashioned Dislike Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/good-old-fashioned-dislike/id1643163790 Co-Producers: Justin B., Doris C., Scott K., Mary H., Scott B., Kim C. This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

Beyond The Outer Realm welcomes special returning Guest, Author, Academic, Archeologist and dear Friend Mark Olly Date: September 22nd, 2026 EP: 774 DISCUSSION: What's Next? The Afterlife: Mapping Eternity Beyond The Final Threshold . Mark Olly returns and today we will be talking about the Afterlife. We will delve into the belief of various ancient cultures, and how some prepared for their journey beyond. We will explore Religious beliefs and how they play a part in our continued journey, life reviews, free will, Consciousness, reincarnation and much more! Contact for the show - theouterrealmcontact@gmail.com https://linktr.ee/michelledesrochers_ Please support us by Liking, Subscribing, Sharing and Commenting. Thank you All!!! About Mark: Mark Olly was born in 1962 in Warrington, England, and educated at Appleton Hall County Grammar School, Warrington College of Art & Design, the University of Liverpool Institute of Extension Studies field archaeology unit, various business schools, and El-Shaddai College of Advanced Ministry U.K. Manchester where he obtained a Certificate of Ministry (Ct.Min.AP) and Diploma of Biblical Studies (Dip.BS.AP). For over 22 years he worked as a professional musician, live DJ, compare, and in music management, founding Angelharp Music, Unicorn Entertainments Agency Ltd. and Legendthink Ltd. (one of the first ‘multi-media' companies in the world) before moving on to pursue a solo career as a writer, archaeologist and television presenter. This career has so far taken him to all parts of the UK, France, Egypt, Norway, Italy, Bulgaria, Cyprus, South America, Turkey, Malta, and North Africa in search of the ancient and the mysterious. His hobbies include collecting antiques and geological specimens, Dark Age, Celtic and Medieval costumed re-enactment, staging occasional exhibitions and live events, public speaking, and investigating ancient sites. He has six major books in print, appeared on Carlton Television's ‘The History Detectives', wrote and presented all three seasons (22 episodes) of ITV Granada's award nominated ‘Lost Treasures' adventure archaeology series, has presented for Sky History Channel, writes, presents and directs DVD's for US media giant Reality Entertainments / Reality Films, wrote and directed four Music Videos for International US band Hayseed Dixie and three for Sacred Wind's 2014/15 Christmas charity single, occasionally appears in movies, and recently played sessions with bands Soul Path, Sacred Wind, Metall Hose, Atakarma Giants, Wolf and Copperworm. He is visiting lecturer at Wilsmlow Guild and the University Of Chester, an exam invigilator, occasionally heads up his own archaeological unit, and runs his own DVD production and props company MythCo. If you enjoy the content on the channel, please support us by subscribing: Thank you All A formal disclosure: The opinions and information presented or expressed by guests on The Outer Realm Radio and Beyond The Outer Realm are not necessarily those of the TOR, BTOR Hosts, Sponsors, or the United Public Radio Network, Owner and Producers. "For Entertainment Purposes Only"United Public Radio & UFO Paranormal Radio www.uprntalkradio.com

Today, Justin welcomes back Tim Spicer. Tim served for 20 years in the British Army, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and saw active service in Northern Ireland, The Falklands Campaign, The Gulf War, and the Balkans, as well as serving in the Far East, Cyprus, and Germany. This is Tim's third appearance on the podcast. Today, he's back to discuss the story of Brian Franks, one of the original officers of the Special Air Service who served behind enemy lines during World War II and who continued to support British covert operations long after the war ended Check out Tim's first appearance on ep 200: From Biffy to Bond: The Real Spy Who Inspired “From Russia, with Love” and his latest sharing the stories of his own career on ep 206: Behind the Lines from Belfast to Sierra Leone. Connect with Tim: timspicerauthor.com IG: @timspicerauthor Check out the book, An Axe and Four Balloons, here. https://amzn.eu/d/03uFZnJn Connect with Spycraft 101: Get Justin's latest book, Murder, Intrigue, and Conspiracy: Stories from the Cold War and Beyond, here. spycraft101.com IG: @spycraft101 Shop: shop.spycraft101.com Substack: spycraft101.substack.com Patreon: Spycraft 101 Find Justin's first book, Spyshots: Volume One, here. Check out Justin's second book, Covert Arms, here. Download the free eBook, The Clandestine Operative's Sidearm of Choice, here. Kruschiki The best surplus military goods delivered right to your door. Use code SPYCRAFT101 for 10% off! https://kruschiki.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

John Diorio, vice president and managing director-North America for Celestyal Cruises, talks with James Shillinglaw of Insider Travel Report about his cruise line's expansion of itineraries into the Western Mediterranean, making it a specialist for the entire region. Celestyal now offers year-round sailings of the entire Med, including Greece & Greek islands, Turkey, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Gibraltar, Italy, Montenegro, Morocco, Portugal and Spain. For more information, visit www.celestyalcompass.com or www.celestyal.com  All our Insider Travel Report video interviews are archived and available on our Youtube channel  (youtube.com/insidertravelreport), and as podcasts with the same title on: Spotify, Pandora, Stitcher, PlayerFM, Listen Notes, Podchaser, TuneIn + Alexa, Podbean,  iHeartRadio,  Google, Amazon Music/Audible, Deezer, Podcast Addict, and iTunes Apple Podcasts, which supports Overcast, Pocket Cast, Castro and Castbox. 

Ep 324 Peacewarts: Morphological Peace 101 – The Afterlife of Walls: Turning Borders into Bridges (Class 5) We examine the physical mechanics of border transformation, tracing how dividing walls, military buffer zones, and fortifications are redesigned into shared spaces of cross-cultural encounter, local commerce, and ecological stewardship. Using the Nicosia Master Plan in Cyprus, the German and European Green Belts, and the 1998 Ecuador-Peru border settlement as historical anchors, we explore how to dismantle barriers and return divided land to the civic commons. Homework: Look up the history of the Nicosia Master Plan in Cyprus and summarize how municipal planners utilized the UN buffer zone for joint urban restoration. Write down one question about any of this episode's topics. If you don't have a question, write 'no question.' Optional: Reflect on a physical barrier, wall, or administrative dividing line in your region. Journal about how its architecture could be redesigned to serve cross-community exchange and ecological restoration. Books: If you would like to read more on this subject, some book suggestions are Hollow Land: Israel's Architecture of Occupation by Eyal Weizman and The Green Belt of Europe: From Vision to Reality edited by Andrew Terry, Karin Ullrich, and Uwe Riecken. Learning Topics: Border Architecture; Spatial Seams; The Nicosia Master Plan; European Green Belt; National Ecological Reserves; Ecological Stewardship; Re-Commoning. Join the Community / Get the Books: https://www.AvisKalfsbeek.com Podcast Music: Javier Peke Rodriguez “I am late, madame Curie” https://open.spotify.com/artist/3QuyqfXEKzrpUl6b12I3KW

160 Arrested for Being Gay — Why Is the World Silent? Over 160 people arrested in Turkey — for being LGBTQ. This is one of the most alarming crackdowns on gay rights in recent memory, and almost nobody's talking about it. This Gay Week, after an Ukraine check-in, Scott Jacobsen joins Karel to break down what's happening in Turkey: why it's happening now, who's behind it, and how the rest of the world is responding — or failing to. Then it's a global tour of LGBTQ rights right now: Cyprus, Australia, and the UK, looking at where things are improving and where they're getting worse. Join the conversation in the comments, LIKE this video, SUBSCRIBE to The Karel Cast, and SHARE it with someone who has an opinion. Support independent media at Patreon: patreon.com/reallykarel Watch and subscribe: youtube.com/reallykarel The Karel Cast is on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, Spreaker and other major platforms, plus TikTok and Instagram. LIVE Monday–Thursday at 10:00 a.m. Pacific. Karel is a history-making broadcaster, entertainer and commentator based in Las Vegas, joined by his little service dog, Ember. #KarelCast, #ThisGayWeek, #LGBTQ, #Turkey, #HumanRights, #GayRights, #LGBTQNews, #Cyprus, #Australia, #UK, #Ukraine, #ScottJacobsen, #NewsCommentary, #IndependentMedia, #Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i25SMcsfjD0

Acts 9–14 captures the church's transformation from a small, persecuted movement into a bold, Spirit‑driven mission stretching across cultures and continents. Saul's encounter with the risen Jesus turns an enemy into an apostle, Peter's ministry reveals that God welcomes Gentiles without barrier, and the church in Antioch becomes a diverse, generous base for global mission. Paul and Barnabas' first journey then shows the gospel's disruptive power—bringing healing, confrontation, joy, and opposition—as they proclaim Jesus from Cyprus to the cities of Galatia, strengthening new believers and entrusting emerging communities to God's grace.

In this solo episode of the Explaining History Podcast, we explore the Macmillan years – that remarkable, contradictory period of post-war British history when the country was forced to confront its diminished place in the world, even as it sought to cling to the vestiges of imperial power.When Anthony Eden led Britain into the Suez Crisis in 1956, he did so believing that Britain could still act unilaterally on the world stage. The rebuke from Eisenhower told a different story. The crisis exposed the weakness of Britain's post-war economy, triggered a run on the reserves, and revealed that the country could no longer act without American permission.Harold Macmillan – who became Chancellor in the aftermath and then Prime Minister in January 1957 – understood the lesson. Suez had been a tactical defeat, he told his cabinet, but it could yet prove "the prelude to a strategic victory." What followed was a decade of managed decline: the military budget was cut, national service was abolished, and the white paper on defence argued that spending 10% of gross national income on defence was excessive.Drawing on Kenneth Morgan's *The People's Peace*, we examine the "one nation Toryism" that characterised Macmillan's government – a form of liberal conservatism that would be denounced by today's Tory party as "creeping Bolshevism." We trace the withdrawal from empire: the end of the Mau Mau emergency in Kenya, the winding up of the Cyprus troubles, the independence of Ghana and Nigeria, and Macmillan's famous "wind of change" speech before the South African parliament in 1960.But we also confront the darker side of British decolonisation – the concentration camps and torture in Kenya, the police state in Nyasaland, and the selective memory that allows Britain to present its retreat from empire as "relatively tranquil and civilised."**Topics covered:**- The aftermath of Suez and the reality of decline- Macmillan's "strategic victory" and one nation Toryism- The 1957 Defence White Paper and massive retaliation- The abolition of national service- The end of the Mau Mau emergency and the Hola Camp scandal- The Cyprus settlement and the release of Archbishop Makarios- Macmillan's "wind of change" speech- The dissolution of the Central African Federation- Britain's diminishing role in the Middle East- The intervention in Jordan, 1958- Parallels with American decline today---*If you enjoy the podcast, please consider supporting us – we are migrating from Patreon to Substack. Details in the show notes.*Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the ConversationFacebook Group: facebook.com/groups/ExplainingHistoryPodcastSubstack: theexplaininghistorypodcast.substack.com▸ Read Articles & Go DeeperWebsite: explaininghistory.org Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On a Signal chat in August, a user called “Sponge Jobb” advertised a contract killing with a SpongeBob SquarePants avatar and a cryptocurrency fee. A Danish undercover officer answered as the hitman and walked straight into an alleged cross-border plot aimed at twin brothers holidaying in Cyprus. Cash drops, target photos, and talk of Turkish pistols followed before the twins left the island and police moved in. Eight people from Ireland, Norway, and Sweden have been arrested as investigators piece together a “violence-as-a-service” network that still will not name its motive.

Acts 15:36-41.  Paul and Barnabas, after having been partners for a lengthy time, have a sharp disagreement over staffing with Barnabas wanting to take John Mark with them and Paul not wanting to. They have such a strong disagreement they part company.   Colossians 4:10 we see the relationship of Barnabas and John Mark, that John Mark is the cousin of Barnabas.   Barnabas heads out one direction and Paul another. Barnabas takes John Mark with him and sails for Cyprus. Paul takes Silas with him and heads to Syria and Cilicia.   Take note of what has happened and has not happened. The mission has not suffered - both are going back to church groups they had established, going back to the believers they had led to Christ months ago. What has happened is a relationship has floundered.   However, we see in Scripture a real indication of God's mercy and grace - as they are later reconciled. Taking a look at Colossians 4:10 written later in Paul's life, we see in this verse that Paul is also sharing a greeting from John Mark - showing us that they are once again working together. They are united in their love for the Lord. And in Paul's final years, John Mark becomes one of Paul's closest associates.   We, too, are to keep out hearts open to Christ and open to reconciliation with one another.     Now What? Learn about God at https://www.awakeusnow.com EVERYTHING we offer is FREE.   View live or on demand: https://www.awakeusnow.com/tuesday-bible-class   For the full list of videos in this series, Dig Deeper, https://www.awakeusnow.com/dig-deeper   For more check out our Sunday series, God ACTS! https://www.awakeusnow.com/god-acts-then-now   Join us Sundays  https://www.awakeusnow.com/sunday-service   Or watch from our Youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/@AwakeUsNow/videos    Watch via our app. Text HELLO to 888-364-4483 to download our app.

Does the Greek diaspora really have influence — or simply access?Endy Zemenides, Executive Director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), joins Global Greek Influence for a wide-ranging conversation about power, advocacy and the changing geopolitical environment facing Greece, Cyprus and the global Hellenic community.Zemenides challenges the diaspora to think beyond visibility and ask a harder question: are Greeks actually at the tables where decisions are made?We discuss why traditional Greek advocacy has too often amounted to “talking to ourselves”; why the next generation of the diaspora must exercise influence outside the Greek community; and how Greece and Cyprus can build real strategic leverage in an increasingly uncertain international order.The conversation also turns to Turkey and Erdoğan, NATO, the future of the rules-based order, European defence, and the Cyprus question — including a provocative challenge: 50 years after 1974, what should Cyprus aspire to become by 2074?“If you're not at the table, you're not going to have influence.”A conversation about the difference between having connections and having power — and what Greeks around the world can do with both.Global Greek Influence explores how Greeks and the diaspora shape business, politics, culture and global affairs.Music licensed through Soundstripe.Code: EGYR37IF1FMOXV0M

In late summer, a criminal using the name “SpongeJob” posted a wanted ad on Telegram, an the encrypted messaging service.He was looking for a hitman to travel to Cyprus to kill two men, twins from the UK. Everything would be supplied, including a gun, for a fee of about €60,000.His ad was answered, but unbeknown to SpongeJob, the willing gun for hire was the Danish police, who then sent an undercover officer to Cyprus to pose as the hitman and to foil the murders.That Danish officer was able to tip off the Cypriot police, who arrested three men, two Norwegians and an Irish man who had travelled from Limerick. It is now believed that the hit on the twins was commissioned by veteran criminals with close links to the Kinahan cartel.For Europol, the Cyprus contract is a prime example of the growing underworld phenomenon of international “violence as a service” (VAAS).Irish Times investigative reporter Conor Gallagher explains how the hit was planned – and how it then fell apart.Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Week 153     Luke 23:20-22 ESV   22 A third time he said to them, "Why? What evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish and release him."       John 19:1 ESV   Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him.       Matthew 27:27-30 ESV   Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head.             John 19:4-5 ESV   4 Pilate went out again and said to them, "See, I am bringing him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in him." 5 So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, "Behold the man!"       John 19:6a ESV   6 When the chief priests and the officers saw him, they cried out, "Crucify him, crucify him!"       Matthew 27:24-26 ESV   24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man's blood; see to it yourselves." 25 And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.       Deuteronomy 21:6-8 ESV   6 And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley, 7 and they shall testify, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.8 Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.'       Genesis 9:6 ESV   6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man,   by man shall his blood be shed,   for God made man in his own image.       Psalm 26:6-7 ESV   I wash my hands in innocence   and go around your altar, O Lord,   7 proclaiming thanksgiving aloud,   and telling all your wondrous deeds.       John 19:11 ESV   11 Jesus answered him, "You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin."       John 19:16-17a ESV   16 So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus, 17 and he went out, bearing his own cross       Matthew 27:32 ESV (with Mark 15 and Luke 23)   32 As they went out, they found {luke they seized} a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. {mark and luke who was coming in from the country}, {mark the father of Alexander and Rufus} They compelled this man to carry his cross. {luke They laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus}     Acts 2:8-10 ESV   8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome       Acts 11:19-21 ESV   19 Now those who were scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia and Cyprus and Antioch, speaking the word to no one except Jews. 20 But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who on coming to Antioch spoke to the Hellenists also, preaching the Lord Jesus. 21 And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number who believed turned to the Lord.       Romans 16:13 ESV   13 Greet Rufus, chosen in the Lord; also his mother, who has been a mother to me as well.    

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis stepped up to the podium at the Thessaloniki International Fair last Saturday to lay out his government's economic agenda for the upcoming year in a speech that essentially set the stage for national elections in 2027.Aside from presenting a 2.2-billion-euro package for next year, he also laid out a roadmap to 2030 that includes reducing unemployment, raising the average salary and the minimum wage, and maintaining economic growth, all while drawing a clear line in the sand when it comes to the political and geopolitical dilemmas he believes will shape the upcoming election.With Greece gearing up for elections, Europe's eyes locked in on Germany, where the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, dominated a crucial state election on Sunday, marking the first time since 1949 that a far-right party has won a state election. The result has many wondering if Germany's political center can still isolate the far right, while broader questions are emerging about what this could mean for Europe. Is this a harbinger of further far-right victories on a continent that's facing a number of challenges ranging from the war in Ukraine to the economy and inflation?Shifting us back to the Eastern Mediterranean, having wrapped up his speech at TIF, Prime Minister Mitsotakis traveled to Egypt, where he met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, sending a strong message not only about the state of Greek-Egyptian ties, but also about the three countries' commitment to regional cooperation. The meetings took place against the backdrop of broader regional developments, including the Mecca Agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan.Nick Malkoutzis, Yiannis Mouzakis, Dr. Markus Ziener, and Vassilis Nedos join Thanos Davelis on this week's episode of The Greek Current with insights on all of these developments.A little more info on our guests:Nick Malkoutzis and Yiannis Mouzakis are the co-founders of Macropolis.gr.Dr. Markus Ziener is a professor of journalism and Visiting Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund.Vassilis Nedos is Kathimeirni's diplomatic and defense editor.You can support The Greek Current by joining HALC as a member here.

For decades, Ottoman expansion had transformed the Mediterranean. Venice was threatened, Cyprus was under attack, and old European rivals faced a difficult choice: cooperate or confront the Ottomans alone. Into this crisis stepped two very different commanders, one an ambitious young prince, the other a trusted Ottoman servant. Their paths were about to collide at sea — at the Battle of Lepanto.

On this week's Totally Extra: Celine Dion admin before Paris, an anxiety about not being able to look at the sun, and Imo gets everyone drunk on 20.5% cocktails at 2:30pm.Plus, a Dubai cleaner dealing with a dead hamster takes some shocking initiative, a bridesmaid dress listed on Vinted for £40, an aggressive godparent campaign that ends in a night nanny promise, the pettiest dumping reasons ever, Charlie Bigham's lasagne, and a woman who passed out from a wedgie at a Cyprus water park.It's time to get TOTALLY EXTRA. Extra chat, extra rants, extra bants, extra stories, nonsense and more.LuAnna: The Podcast is a Global production, available every Monday and Thursday on Global Player, YouTube or wherever you get your shows. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss an episode.Remember, if you want to get in touch you can:Email us at luanna@everythingluanna.com OR drop us a WhatsApp on our NEW NUMBER: 07521564640Please review Global's Privacy Policy: https://global.com/legal/privacy-policy/

THE WORLD THAT NEEDED HIMSomething changed in Western democratic politics over the past two to three decades.Blair's New Labor is not Wilson's Labor. Clinton's Democrats are not Roosevelt's Democrats. Then came Citizens United and with it a flood of money and even greater corrosion of democratic politics.And then something even more revealing happened.In 2012, Barack Obama won re-election on hope and change. In 2016, roughly one in eight Trump voters, between seven and nine million people, had voted for Obama four years earlier.That is not contradiction. That is the same wound voting twice.Each disappointment priming the next surrender. Each failure making the soma more appealing.Curtis Yarvin's philosophy is the third expression of that wound at the philosophical level. Not a vote for a person. A vote for a different kind of system entirely. The logical conclusion of two consecutive failed bets on the existing one.For nearly two decades he wrote under a pseudonym, Mencius Moldbug, arguing that democracy is a failed experiment that should be replaced by a CEO monarch. No elections. No independent civil service. No press the monarch can't remove.Almost no one read his blog. Then Peter Thiel read it. Then JD Vance. Then Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen.In January 2025, Curtis Yarvin was a guest of honor at Donald Trump's Coronation Ball.The pseudonymous blogger is now in the room where power is exercised.That isn't a coincidence. That is the mechanism arriving at its destination. THE SOMAYarvin's offer isn't primarily intellectual. It's emotional. And it lands on one of the most legitimate emotions available right now.Exhaustion.And what he offers in response to that exhaustion is more sophisticated than anything Aldous Huxley imagined in 1932 when he named it soma in Brave New World. A gram is better than a damn.This episode shows you exactly what the offer is. And why it feels, to millions of people, like relief rather than surrender. THE ESC ANALYSISThe twelve-year-old who couldn't meet the peer criteria grew up. And built something.Yarvin grew up moving. Portugal. Cyprus. Dominican Republic. Serial displacement. Serial belonging failures. In Cyprus he was three grades ahead of his peers. When he returned to the US he described himself as a twelve-year-old sophomore and described that twelve-year-old, in his own words, as "a little arrogant asshole."The formal systems rewarded his intelligence. The peer systems did not.This episode shows you what the wound produced when it was given two decades, a philosophy blog, and eventually the ear of the most powerful people in the current administration.And in January 2025, he was in the room where those same people were seeking his counsel.In Dov Baron's ESC reading, that moment is not healing. It's validation. And those two can look the same, but they are psychologically universes apart. THE QUESTION TO CARRYWhere in your life have you accepted the needle, the soma, because the alternative was feeling everything?And who handed the numbing drug to you? NEXT WEEK: THE SERIES FINALEFour episodes have shown you the mechanism operating in other people.Episode 5 is the episode where Dov turns the lens on himself.And on you.The question he's going to answer is not theoretical. It comes from the bottom of a hundred and twenty foot fall.And it's the question this entire series has been building toward.You need to be there for it. IN THIS EPISODE00:00 Disappointment to Surrender00:45 Comfortably Numb Shift03:37 Show Framework and Lenses04:48 Politics Converge and Abandonment06:47 Obama to Trump Wound09:21 Meet Curtis Yarvin10:58 Exhaustion and Soma Offer13:57 Yarvin Origin Story17:02 Pseudonym and Validation19:19 Turning the Lens Inward21:18 Soma Question and Outro THE SERIES: WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO BELIEVE THAT?Episode 1: You Didn't Think It. It Was Thought For You. [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-dov-baron-show/id272512829?i=1000784372760]Episode 2: The Wound the Framework Needs [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-dov-baron-show/id272512829?i=1000785947055]Episode 3: The Man Who Documented His Own Wound [https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-dov-baron-show/id272512829?i=1000787315154]Episode 4: The Philosopher They Needed (this episode) ABOUT DOV BARONThe analysis in this series is not theoretical.Dov Baron has spent thirty years in the rooms where the most consequential decisions get made. Not observing. Being the person that founders and senior executives call when the external success has arrived and something essential is still missing.Most people who find this series want to know one thing.How do I get access to that room?His work sits at the intersection of the Emotional Source Code and the Emotional Meaning Architecture: the psychological frameworks that reveal what is actually driving behavior, identity, and meaning before it reaches the level of conscious examination. The same frameworks that produce the analysis you've been listening to.He has worked exclusively by referral for twenty years. He has personally interviewed every client. And he has said no to at least as many as he has said yes to.If you are a founder or senior executive who has built something real and arrived at the quiet place where the winning has stopped being the thing, reach out directly at dov@dovbaron.com with the subject line: The Room.Not to buy anything. To find out whether you belong in it. ABOUT THE POLYMATHIC PERSPECTIVEThe Polymathic Perspective examines the emotional logic beneath power, culture, identity, and meaning. Together, we discover how psychological, cultural, and geopolitical patterns drive behaviors, not just in people, but in systems. If you've been told your curiosity is a liability, it's your greatest asset. RATE, REVIEW, SUBSCRIBEIf this episode changed how you look at your own political exhaustion and who benefits from it, please rate and review The Polymathic Perspective on Apple Podcasts. Share it with one person who has quietly folded the newspaper and stopped expecting anything different. Connect with Dov Baron:https://DovBaron.comdov@dovbaron.comRate, review, and send this episode to the most thoughtful builder you know. That is how the algorithm finds the people who still ask why. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Στο νέο μας επεισόδιο, φιλοξενούμε την Αθηνά Σκοταρά,Επαγγελματία Ανώτατης Εκπαίδευσης & Σύμβουλο Καριέρας στο Ανοικτό Πανεπιστήμιο Κύπρου,για μια ουσιαστική συζήτηση γύρω από τον ρόλο και την αξία του coaching στην ανώτατη εκπαίδευση.Το coaching δεν είναι μια ιεραρχική διαδικασία, ούτε αφορά την παροχή έτοιμων λύσεων.Είναι μια δομημένη, ανοιχτή και συνεργατική διαδικασία προσωπικής ανάπτυξης, που ενδυναμώνει το άτομο να ανακαλύψει τις δικές του απαντήσεις και να προχωρήσει με μεγαλύτερη καθαρότητα και σκοπό.Μια διορατική συζήτηση για το πώς το coaching μπορεί να αποτελέσει ένα ουσιαστικό εργαλείο ανάπτυξης — πέρα από το εταιρικό περιβάλλον — και μέσα στην ανώτατη εκπαίδευση.

Listen to Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes WNTN 1550 AM- Iran is drawing a new line in the water — and oil is already at $99. Greece, Egypt, and Cyprus are rewriting the map of the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo. And the Red Sox have won five straight, because some things still make sense.

Listen to Daily Global #News from Grecian Echoes WNTN 1550 AM- Iran is drawing a new line in the water — and oil is already at $99. Greece, Egypt, and Cyprus are rewriting the map of the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo. And the Red Sox have won five straight, because some things still make sense.

On Monday Greek and Israeli officials met in Tel Aviv to sign the largest bilateral defense contract between the two countries, a deal worth just over €3 billion that will see the implementation of the Achilles Shield, Greece's first multi-domain defence dome set to cover all of Greece's territory.It's important to note that this agreement also signals Greece's intent to bolster its own defense industry, a key priority for Athens, with at least 19 Greek companies already involved in the deal and accounting for more than €750 million of the program.Aside from deepening ties on the defense front, this deal builds on a number of key diplomatic initiatives over the past decade that have brought the two countries closer together, and is seen as part of a wider arc of cooperation that ties into initiatives like the 3+1 with Cyprus and the US and IMEC.As the Achilles Shield takes shape, Turkey is ratcheting up tensions in the region, locking horns with Israel over Syria. This Israel-Turkey rivalry is escalating amid profound changes that seem to signal the unraveling of the old US led order in the Middle East, and amid growing concerns in Athens that Ankara could be taking Greek-Turkish ties into a new period of heightened tensions.Developments on the geopolitical side are heating up just as Greece is beginning to take stock of another summer holiday season that could break new records. While many will focus on these record breaking numbers, Kathimerini took a different approach recently, choosing to look back at the early days of tourism in Greece and the decades-long debates that have followed about the value of tourism for the country.John Psaropoulos, Sinan Ciddi, Steven Cook, Alexia Kalaitzi, and Erini Karamouzi join me this week as we explore these issues.A little more info on our guests:John Psaropoulos is an independent journalist, Al Jazeera's correspondent in southeast Europe, and publisher of Hellenica on Substack.Sinan Ciddi is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and director of its Turkey program.Steven Cook is the  Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.Alexia Kalaitzi is an award-winning journalist and features reporter for Kathimerini.Dr. Eirini Karamouzi is a professor of contemporary European history at The American College of Greece and an associate professor of contemporary history at the University of Sheffield in the UK.You can support The Greek Current by joining HALC as a member here.

The Hamlet Podcast - now bringing you a twice weekly exploration of Shakespeare's Othello. Act One, Scene Three | The scene continues - will Desdemona be going to Cyprus? What will Othello have to say? Written and presented by Conor Hanratty

ACTS 4:32-37- ALL THINGS IN COMMON - BRIAN SUMNER - 2026ACTS 4:32-37 "Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. 33 And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all. 34 Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, 35 and laid them at the apostles' feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.36 And Joses, who was also named Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated Son of Encouragement), a Levite of the country of Cyprus, 37 having land, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles' feet.”To support this channel and partner with Brian in Ministryhttps://www.briansumner.net/support/For more on Brianhttp://www.briansumner.nethttps://www.instagram.com/BRIANSUMNER/https://www.facebook.com/BRIANSUMNEROFFICIALTo listen to Brians Podcast, click below.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Purchase Brians Marriage book at https://www.amazon.com/Never-Fails-Da...Brian is a full time "Urban Missionary" both locally and internationally with a focus on MISSIONS - MARRIAGES - MINISTRY. Since coming to faith in 2004 doors continued opening locally and internationally to do more and more ministry with a focus on Evangelism, Outreach Missions, Marriage, Counsel, Schools, Festivals, Conferences and the like.  Everything about this ministry is made possible because of people personally partnering through the non profit. God Bless and thank you. †Support the showSUPPORT THE SHOW

In this episode, we explore the complex history and contemporary character of Turkish Cypriot Islam, a tradition often described as highly secular, private, or even residual. My guest, Mete Hatay (Senior Research Consultant from the Peach Research Institute in Oslo), helps me unpack the many explanations Turkish Cypriots themselves have given for this secularism -- from claims of Alevi or crypto-Christian ancestry to broader narratives shaped by modern Turkish nationalism and a long history of religious marginalization. We trace Islam's arrival in Cyprus and examine how early patterns of settlement—including the banishment of heterodox or “undesirable” Muslim groups to the island—shaped the religious landscape. The episode examines how the mid-19th century Ottoman reforms began dismantling these traditions long before modern secularism took hold. We explore how efforts to centralize authority, suppress heterodox practices, and control waqf resources alienated Cypriot Muslims from their own religious institutions. British colonial rule, despite preserving formal autonomy through the Evkaf, further weakened Islamic infrastructure. We also look at how Cyprus became an unexpected refuge for Young Turks and how, in the early 20th century, Kemalist ideals found unusually fertile ground among Turkish Cypriots--shaping attitudes toward religion, education, and public life for decades to come.

Ghost is back live for the first time in a while, kids tucked in, wife out of town, and a full month of news to catch up on. He starts with the fallout from the Mecca agreement, the Saudi Turkey Pakistan defense pact he had been mapping out since February, and why he thinks Egypt, Iran and Syria will all eventually join. From there he digs into a resurfaced 1962 interview where Israel's first prime minister laid out a vision that sounds a lot like modern globalism, then walks through the new three billion dollar Israel Greece defense deal, complete with laser interceptors he expects to see tested in the Aegean. He also covers a suspicious ferry sinking near Cyprus, a wild historical detour involving yogurt and the Armenian genocide, and a leadership shakeup inside Iran's IRGC that has him questioning whether the organization even still exists.

Noemi Beres is the Co-Owner of Podcast Connections, helping entrepreneurs and experts grow through meaningful podcast interviews. A linguist with a Master's degree in Danish Language and Literature, she has worked in online marketing since 2007 and is passionate about communication, connection, and storytelling. Based in Cyprus, Noemi is also the creator of the Walk with Noemi vlog and Silent Thinking Sessions, both focused on mental and emotional well-being through calm, reflective conversations and daily walks. Websites:https://www.podcastconnections.co/https://noemiberes.com/ LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/noemiberes/ Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/noemi_beres_/ ***********Finalist "Women in Cloud - Podcast of the YEAR" - #empowHERaccess Global Prestige Awards 2026Susanne Mueller / www.susannemueller.biz TEDX Talk, May 2022: Running and Life: 5KM Formula for YOUR Successhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT_5Er1cLvY Join Substack: https://substack.com/@susannemuellernyc?Enjoy one coaching session for free if you are a yearly subscriber. 800+ weekly blogs / 500+ podcasts / 1 Ironman Triathlon / 5 half ironman races / 26 marathon races / 4 books / 1 Mt. Kilimanjaro / 1 TEDx Talk

The crew and captain of a ferry have been taken into custody after the vessel capsized off the northern coast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Eight people have been confirmed dead with a further 17 still missing. Also on the programme: Spain asks for help from the EU to process hundreds of migrants who crossed into its North African territory of Ceuta; and the director of a new biopic about Charles de Gaulle tells us how the general's self-belief persuaded Winston Churchill that Free France could fight back against the Nazis. (Image: Survivors arrive on shore after being rescued from the sea following a boat capsize off northern Cyprus, August 30, 2026. Credit REUTERS/Stringer)

The Hamlet Podcast - now bringing you a twice weekly exploration of Shakespeare's Othello. Act One, Scene Three | Othello is to be sent to Cyprus to fight against the Ottomans - but what is to become of his new wife? Written and presented by Conor Hanratty

Andy Burnham has pledged to keep hundreds more criminals behind bars as part of changes to the government's early release scheme. Anyone convicted of unlawful killing will now be excluded, including two men jailed for the manslaughter of PC Andrew Harper. But some prison governors fear jails could soon become full. In other news: at least eight people have died and 22 others are missing after a passenger ferry capsized and sank off northern Cyprus; and people in Iceland have voted against resuming talks on joining the European Union.

On the 5 September 1986, hijackers took over a Pan-American Airways flight during a stop-over at Karachi Airport in Pakistan. The armed Palestinian terrorists wanted to fly the plane to Cyprus and Israel, to free members of their organisation who were jailed there. But, after the pilots escaped the cockpit, the plane stayed on the ground for 16 hours with almost 400 passengers on board. When the power on the plane ran out – the hijackers began to shoot indiscriminately. 22 people were killed and more than 150 injured. Madhvi Bahunga was a Pan-American Airways flight attendant, who was on the plane that day. She speaks to Tim O'Callaghan. Witness History is a short BBC World Service podcast about history that takes you inside big moments from the past through first-hand testimony and archive. Each weekday, in around nine minutes, we revisit one moment that helped shape the world and hear it through the voice of someone who was there. Scientists, artists, campaigners, soldiers, leaders and everyday people tell their true stories.When you subscribe to Witness History, you'll be taken inside turning points in world affairs from West Africa's fight back against Boko Haram in 2015 to the behind-closed-doors talks that led to the US-Cuba “thaw” and the surprise announcement of restored relations. You'll discover what it was like to experience disasters and how people recovered from them, including the Tabasco floods in Mexico, Portugal's worst train disaster, and the huge clean-up after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. You'll explore culture and ideas too: Sweden's Expedition Robinson, often credited as the first modern reality TV game show; the friendship between The Beatles' George Harrison and Indian sitarist Ravi Shankar; and the night a tiger attack brought Las Vegas superstars Siegfried and Roy's show to a sudden end. And if you're curious about inventions, we'll tell you how air fryers, BlackBerry, YouTube, Alexa, GPS, superglue, the shopping cart (shopping trolley) and bubble tea were created. If you're new to Witness History, the appeal is simple: real voices, one strong true story, and a fresh way to understand today through events from history – all in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of tea or a walk around the block. Join millions of BBC World Service podcast listeners around the globe and enjoy the insight, context and detail Witness History will bring you.(Photo: Flight 73 the day after the hijacking at Karachi Airport. Credit: Kraipit Phanvut/AFP via Getty Images)

What would your life look like right now if you had said yes to every single thing that scared you? This episode explores that question with someone who has spent over four decades doing exactly that. Elisabeth Villiger Toufexis, a Swiss-born author, podcaster, life coach, and hypnotherapist who has visited more than 100 countries and speaks six languages, joins host Sana to talk about what saying yes to life beyond comfort really means, why fear is conditioned rather than instinctive, and how to tell the difference between genuine growth and running from your problems. About the Guest: Elisabeth Villiger Toufexis is a Swiss-born author, podcast host, master life coach, NLP practitioner, and hypnotherapist based in Cyprus. A former tour guide and conference interpreter fluent in six languages, she is the author of The Soul Kit and One Suitcase, 1000 Stories, and hosts the podcast Most Memorable Journeys. Key Takeaways: We're only born with two instinctive fears, falling and loud noises, everything else is conditioned, and conditioning can be examined and released. Saying yes to life doesn't mean fear disappears, it means fear stops being the one in the driver's seat. Problems don't stay behind when you leave, low self-esteem and unresolved pain travel with you until you actually face them. You can't control what happens to you, but there's a space between what happens and how you respond, and that space is where your freedom lives. Simple daily practices, deep belly breathing and naming two or three things you're grateful for, can meaningfully shift how overwhelmed or afraid you feel. Connect With the Guest:

Josiah Osgood — Multi-Part, Part Two: Professor Josiah Osgood continues with 58 BCE, when the rivals took separate paths; Cato went to Cyprus to model honest administration while Caesar sought military glory in Gaul. The death of Julia, Caesar's daughter and Pompey's wife, eventually severed the alliance between the two generals, allowing Cato to convince the Senate to appoint Pompey as sole consul to restore order. When Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BCE, sparking civil war, Cato reluctantly followed Pompey's retreat. Following Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus, Cato fled to Utica, where he chose suicide over Caesar's clemency, stabbing himself and tearing open his own wounds to mar Caesar's victory. His death transformed him into a saint of the Republic, inspiring generations of poets and dissidents under the later Roman Empire. (2)