Podcast appearances and mentions of David Wright

This week Andrew welcomes longtime baseball writer Ken Davidoff back to the podcast. For 30+ years, Ken lived his childhood dream of being a sportswriter. Then, at age 50, he decided it was time for a change and stepped down from his role as a baseball columnist at the New York Post. Now, Ken is an adjunct professor and the co-author of the new book 101 Lessons From The Dugout: What Baseball & Softball Can Teach Us About The Game Of Life. This conversation is a deep dive on Ken's decision to walk away from the job he dreamed about having as a kid – and an exploration of many simple (yet powerful) life lessons Ken shares in his book. This episode is filled with important wisdom everybody needs to hear. ** Follow Andrew **Instagram: @AndrewMoses123X: @andrewhmosesSign up for e-mails to keep up with the podcast at everybodypullsthetarp.com/newsletterDISCLAIMER: This podcast is solely for educational & entertainment purposes. It is not intended to be a substitute for the advice of a physician, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.

I asked county cricket fans to give me their thoughts on how their teams would fare in 2026 and I got a great response! Here we have Evan Gallagher on Kent, Dan Haggar on Essex, Barrie Funnell & David Wright on Surrey, Oliver Hawke on Leicestershire, David Griffin on Derbyshire, Harry Everett on Somerset and a certain "David from York" on Lancashire and Yorkshire.

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

With his new book "101 Lessons From the Dugout" releasing TOMORROW, Ken Davidoff is back on the show to discuss the writing process with Dylan Campione & Nicho Fernandez. Hear all about the structure of the book, our favorite lessons, David Wright's involvement in the project and so much more!  Make sure to grab your copy of 101 Lessons From the Dugout at your local bookstore as well as on Amazon!! 

With over two centuries of experience and $926B in assets (as of 9/30/25), Pictet Asset Management has a deep foundation in disciplined investing, and David, its Head of Quantitative Investments, explains how that expertise translates into modern quant and AI‑driven approaches. We discuss how he uses data, models, and human judgment to construct portfolios.-This podcast/webcast is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal, tax, investment, or business advice. It is not a solicitation, recommendation, or endorsement. All opinions expressed by participants are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Evoke Advisors Division of MAI Capital Management, LLC ("Evoke”), its affiliates, or any companies mentioned. Information shared has not been independently verified by MAI or its affiliates. MAI Capital Management, LLC (“MAI”) is registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), which does not imply any particular level of skill or training.Certain information contained herein has been obtained from third party sources and such information has not been independently verified. No representation, warranty, or undertaking, expressed or implied, is given to the accuracy or completeness of such information by any person.While such sources are believed to be reliable, Evoke does not assume any responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such information. Evoke does not undertake any obligation to update the information contained herein as of any future date.The content is intended for a general audience and does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell securities or adopt any investment strategy. Any examples or scenarios discussed are illustrative only, involve risks and uncertainties, and do not guarantee future results. Non-traditional assets carry significant risks and may not be suitable for all investors. Decisions should be based on individual objectives, risk tolerance, and circumstances.Statements herein are general and may not reflect an individual's or entity's specific circumstances or applicable laws, which vary by jurisdiction. Further, speakers' views are personal and may differ from Evoke and MAI recommendations and are not specific investment advice; and do not consider client objectives, risk tolerance, and diversification. Guests may have current or past relationships with Evoke and MAI, its affiliates, or the host, including as clients, service providers, or business partners. Participation does not constitute an endorsement or testimonial. No compensation has been paid or received for guest participation unless disclosed. MAI and its affiliates may have business relationships with entities mentioned in this podcast, which could create potential conflicts of interest. These relationships may include advisory services, investment management, or other arrangements. MAI seeks to manage such conflicts consistent with its fiduciary obligations and policies.(As of December 22, 2025)

Ross Halls and Tom Cann are back with our Ipswich Town Women's podcast.The duo discuss the appointment of Sean Burt as technical director and four new signings. They chat about the big point against Bristol City, the key taking points and standout performers. Plus hear thoughts from interim manager David Wright and forward Natasha Thomas. Then look ahead to two big away trips to Newcastle and Portsmouth. Kings of Anglia is sponsored by Stardust Spirits. Get 20% OFF with promo code KOA at https://www.stardustspirits.co.uk/Also sponsored by Molecular! Get 10% OFF with promo code KOA10 at https://www.molecular-uk.com/Subscribe on our website to watch the video version of the podcast - https://www.eadt.co.uk/subscribe/You can shop the KOA range here - (kings-of-anglia.myspreadshop.co.uk) 

Jerry's here with reaction from Cooper Kupp about the Seahawks going to the Super Bowl. The Mets are introducing Freddy Peralta today and David Wright asks fans to be patient with the process. Rangers fans can be happy that their team beat the Bruins.

Carlos Mendoza just pulled back the curtain on a fractured Mets clubhouse, revealing that stars Juan Soto and Francisco Lindor may not be seeing eye-to-eye. Jerry has Rangers' OT thriller and David Wright's plea for fans to trust the "Stearns Masterplan." He also has a snowy Moment of the Day and we end the show pondering the alleged "supervolcano" in Yellowstone.

David returns to answer the 5 Questions. We explore scorps, timber framed shops, and his go-to finishes. Plus the Woodworking News. Check it Out!David Wright@wrightwindsorchairstudio on InstagramWrightwindsors on FacebookSutherland Welles Finishes - Use code "MWA25" for 10% off your first orderMWA Podcast - Patreon Page@mwa_podcast on InstagramHosts' Contact Info:Kyle Barton@barton.kyle & @bbcustomtools on Instagrambbcustomtools.comOn Youtube under BB Custom Tools & Kyle BartonKyle Barton on FacebookSean Wisniewski@Seanw78 on most social mediaBrian Obst@obstwoodworks on InstagramJeff Wyatt@copperjohn_woodworks on InstagramVideo - Windsor Chairmaking Basics with Jeff Wyatt

On this episode, we're excited to welcome David Wright as our guest. David is an outstanding chairmaker and instructor working out of his shop in western Maine. He has been making traditional Windsor chairs since 1987, with his work held in many private collections and featured in gallery exhibitions throughout the U.S. Over the past 35 years, David has also taught Windsor chairmaking to countless students, including Greg Pennington. Check it out!David Wright@wrightwindsorchairstudio on InstagramWrightwindsors on FacebookSutherland Welles Finishes - Use code "MWA25" for 10% off your first orderMWA Podcast - Patreon Page@mwa_podcast on InstagramHosts' Contact Info:Kyle Barton@barton.kyle & @bbcustomtools on Instagrambbcustomtools.comOn Youtube under BB Custom Tools & Kyle BartonKyle Barton on FacebookSean Wisniewski@Seanw78 on most social mediaBrian Obst@obstwoodworks on InstagramJeff Wyatt@copperjohn_woodworks on InstagramVideo - Windsor Chairmaking Basics with Jeff Wyatt

On this episode of Amazin' Conversations, Jay Horwitz sits down with longtime baseball writer and author Ken Davidoff for a wide-ranging conversation about journalism, storytelling, and the life lessons that baseball can teach. Davidoff discusses his new book 101 Lessons from the Dugout, including how David Wright became involved by writing the foreword, why the book resonates far beyond the field, and how baseball terminology mirrors real-life decision making. The conversation also dives into Ken's decades covering the Mets and Yankees, memorable human-interest stories, relationships with iconic figures like Bobby Valentine, Ron Hunt, and Jesse Orosco, and why those behind-the-scenes stories matter more than ever in today's media landscape. A thoughtful, nostalgic, and insightful episode about baseball, people, and perspective. 00:00 – Opening memories & first Mets game covered00:44 – Ken Davidoff's journalism career and teaching01:06 – 101 Lessons from the Dugout and David Wright's foreword02:40 – Turning baseball terminology into life lessons03:50 – David Wright as a coach and father05:12 – Decades working together and human-interest storytelling06:17 – Ron Hunt, Shea Stadium seats, and fundraising efforts07:58 – Rusty Staub, community impact, and meaningful stories09:01 – Bobby Valentine, Subway Series memories, and interleague play11:13 – Mets writers dinners and staying connected to the game12:14 – The 1986 Mets and unforgettable personalities14:09 – Why this book is different and what baseball teaches us16:34 – Book release details and future plans ⏱️ Timestamps Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Security, compliance, and resilience are the cornerstones of trust.   In this episode, Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham continue their conversation with David Mills and Tijo Thomas, exploring how Oracle Cloud Infrastructure empowers organizations to protect data, stay compliant, and scale with confidence.   Real-world examples from Zoom, KDDI, 8x8, and Uber highlight these capabilities.   Cloud Business Jumpstart: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/cloud-business-jumpstart/152957 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.     -------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University. Nikita: Hi everyone! In our last episode, we started the conversation around the real business value of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure and how it helps organizations create impact at scale. Lois: Today, we're taking a closer look at what keeps the value strong — things like security, compliance, and the technology that helps businesses stay resilient. To walk us through it, we have our experts from Oracle University, David Mills, Senior Principal PaaS Instructor, and Tijo Thomas, Principal OCI Instructor.  01:12 Nikita: Hi David and Tijo! It's great to have you both here! Tijo, let's start with you. How does Oracle Cloud Infrastructure help organizations stay secure? Tijo: OCI uses a security first approach to protect customer workloads. This is done with implementing a Zero Trust Model. A Zero Trust security model use frequent user authentication and authorization to protect assets while continuously monitoring for potential breaches. This would assume that no users, no devices, no applications are universally trusted. Continuous verification is always required. Access is granted only based on the context of request, the level of trust, and the sensitivity of that asset. There are three strategic pillars that Oracle security first approach is built on. The first one is being automated. With automation, the business doesn't have to rely on any manual work to stay secure. Threat detection, patching, and compliance checks, all these happen automatically. And that reduces human errors and also saving time. Security in OCI is always turned on. Encryption is automatic. Identity checks are continuous. Security is not an afterthought in OCI. It is incorporated into every single layer. Now, while we talk about Oracle's security first approach, remember security is a shared responsibility, and what that means while Oracle handles the data center, the hardware, the infrastructure, software, consumers are responsible for securing their apps, configurations and the data. 03:06 Lois: Tijo, let's discuss this with an example. Imagine an online store called MuShop. They're a fast-growing business selling cat products. Can you walk us through how a business like this can enhance its end-to-end security and compliance with OCI? Tijo: First of all, focusing on securing web servers. These servers host the web portal where customers would browse, they log in, and place their orders. So these web servers are a prime target for attackers. To protect these entry points, MuShop deployed a service called OCI Web Application Firewall. On top of that, the MuShop business have also used OCI security list and network security groups that will control their traffic flow. As when the businesses grow, new users such as developers, operations, finance, staff would all need to be onboarded. OCI identity services is used to assign roles, for example, giving developers access to only the dev instances, and finance would access just the billing dashboards. MuShop also require MFA multi-factor authentication, and that use both password and a time-based authentication code to verify their identities. Talking about some of the critical customer data like emails, addresses, and the payment info, this data is stored in databases and storage. Using OCI Vault, the data is encrypted with customer managed keys. Oracle Data Safe is another service, and that is used to audit who has got access to sensitive tables, and also mask real customer data in non-production environments. 04:59 Nikita: Once those systems are in place, how can MuShop use OCI tools to detect and respond to threats quickly? Tijo: For that, MuShop used a service called OCI Cloud Guard. Think of it like a security operation center, and which is built right into OCI. It monitors the entire OCI environment continuously, and it can track identity activities, storage settings, network configurations and much more. If it finds something risky, like a publicly exposed object storage bucket, or maybe a user having a broad access to that environment, it raises a security finding. And better yet, it can automatically respond. So if someone creates a resource outside of their policy, OCI Cloud Guard can disable it.  05:48 Lois: And what about preventing misconfigurations? How does OCI make that easier while keeping operations secure?  Tijo: OCI Security Zone is another service and that is used to enforce security postures in OCI. The goody zones help you to avoid any accidental misconfigurations. For example, in a security zone, you can choose users not to create a storage bucket that is publicly accessible. To stay ahead of vulnerabilities, MuShop runs OCI vulnerability scanning. They have scheduled to scan weekly to capture any outdated libraries or misconfigurations. OCI Security Advisor is another service that is used to flag any unused open ports and with recommending stronger access rules. MuShop needed more than just security. They also had to be compliant. OCI's compliance certifications have helped them to meet data privacy and security regulations across different regions and industries. There are additional services like OCI audit logs for traceability that help them pass internal and external audits. 07:11 Oracle University is proud to announce three brand new courses that will help your teams unlock the power of Redwood—the next generation design system. Redwood enhances the user experience, boosts efficiency, and ensures consistency across Oracle Fusion Cloud Applications. Whether you're a functional lead, configuration consultant, administrator, developer, or IT support analyst, these courses will introduce you to the Redwood philosophy and its business impact. They'll also teach you how to use Visual Builder Studio to personalize and extend your Fusion environment. Get started today by visiting mylearn.oracle.com.  07:52 Nikita: Welcome back! We know that OCI treats security as a continuous design principle: automated, always on, and built right into the platform. David, do you have a real-world example of a company that needed to scale rapidly and was able to do so successfully with OCI? David: In late 2019, Zoom averaged 10 million meeting participants a day. By April 2020, well that number surged to over 300 million as video conferencing became essential for schools, businesses, and families around the world due to the global pandemic. To meet that explosive demand, Zoom chose OCI not just for performance, but for the ability to scale fast. In just nine hours, OCI engineers helped Zoom move from deployment to live production, handling hundreds of thousands of concurrent meetings immediately. Within weeks, they were supporting millions. And Zoom didn't just scale, they sustained it. With OCI's next-gen architecture, Zoom avoided the performance bottlenecks common in legacy clouds. They used OCI functions and cloud native services to scale workloads flexibly and securely. Today, Zoom transfers more than seven petabytes of data per day through Oracle Cloud. That's enough bandwidth to stream HD video continuously for 93 years. And they do it while maintaining high availability, low latency, and enterprise grade security. As articulated by their CEO Erik Yuan, Zoom didn't just meet the moment, they redefined it with OCI behind the scenes. 09:45 Nikita: That's an incredible story about scale and agility. Do you have more examples of companies that turned to OCI to solve complex data or integration challenges? David: Telecom giant KDDI with over 64 million subscribers, faced a growing data dilemma. Data was everywhere. Survey results, system logs, behavioral analytics, but it was scattered across thousands of sources. Different tools for different tasks created silos, delays, and rising costs. KDDI needed a single platform to connect it all, and they chose Oracle. They replaced their legacy data systems with a modern data platform built on OCI and Autonomous Database. Now they can analyze behavior, improve service planning, and make faster, smarter decisions without the data chaos. But KDDI didn't stop there. They built a 300 terabyte data lake and connected all their systems-- custom on-prem apps, SaaS providers like Salesforce, and even multi-cloud infrastructure. Thanks to Oracle Integration and pre-built adapters, everything works together in real-time, even across clouds. AWS, Azure, and OCI now operate in harmony. The results? Reduced operational costs, faster development cycles, governance and API access improved across the board. KDDI can now analyze customer behavior to improve services like where to expand their 5G network.  Next up, 8 by 8 powers communication for over 55,000 companies and 160 countries with more than 3 million users, depending on its voice, video, and messaging tools every day. To maintain that scale, they needed a cloud that could deliver low latency global availability and high performance without blowing up costs. Well, they moved their video meeting services from Amazon to OCI and went live in just four days. The results? 25% increase in performance per node, 80% reduction in network egress costs, and a significantly lower overall infrastructure spend. But this wasn't just a lift and shift. 8 by 8 also replaced legacy tools with Oracle Logging Analytics, giving their teams a single view across apps, infrastructure, and regions. 8 by 8 scaled up fast. They migrated core voice services, deployed over 300 microservices using OCI Kubernetes, and now run over 1,700 nodes across 26 global OCI regions. In addition, OCI's Ampere-based virtual machines gave them a major boost, sustaining 80% CPU utilization and more than 30% increased performance per core and with no degradation. And with OCI's Observability and Management platform, they gained real-time visibility into application health across both on-prem and cloud. Bottom line, 8x8 represents yet another excellent example of a company leveraging OCI for maximum business results. 13:24 Lois: Uber handles more than a million trips per hour, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is an integral part of making that possible. Can you walk us through how OCI supports Uber's needs? David: Uber, the world's largest on-demand mobility platform, handles over 1 million trips every hour. And behind the scenes, OCI is helping to make that possible. In 2023, Uber began migrating thousands of microservices, data platforms, and AI models to OCI. Why? Because OCI provides the automation, flexibility, and infrastructure scale needed to support Uber's explosive growth. Today, Uber uses OCI Compute to handle massive trips serving traffic and OCI Object Storage to replace one of the largest Hadoop-based data environments in the industry. They needed global reach and multi-cloud compatibility, and OCI delivered. But it's not just scale, it's intelligence. Uber runs dozens of AI models on OCI to support real-time predictions up 14 million per second. From ride pricing to traffic patterns, this AI layer powers every trip behind the scenes. And by shifting stateless workloads to OCI Ampere ARM Compute servers, Uber reduced cost while increasing CPU efficiency. For AI inferencing, Uber uses OCI's AI infrastructure to strike the perfect balance between speed, throughput, and cost. So the next time you use your Uber app to schedule a ride, consider what happens behind the scenes with OCI. 15:18 Lois: That's so impressive! Thank you, David, for those wonderful stories, and Tijo for all of your insights. Whether you're in strategy, finance, or transformation, we hope you're walking away with a clearer view of the business value OCI can bring. Nikita: Yeah, and if you want to learn more about the topics we discussed today, visit mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Cloud Business Jumpstart course. Until next time, this is Nikita Abraham… Lois: And Lois Houston signing off! 15:48 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

Baseball Hall of Fame Voter Marc Narducci is back on the show for his annual episode. Mr. Narducci joins Dylan Campione & Matt Potter to discuss his two person ballot of Chase Utley & David Wright! Plus, a lot of Phillies talk and looking ahead to future ballots. We look forward to this episode every January and can't wait to see you again soon Mr. Narducci!    To have your opinions and questions answered on a future episode, let us know at SideRetiredPod@Gmail.com or DM us on Instagram & X (Twitter) @SideRetiredPod 

Understanding cloud costs can be challenging, but it's essential for maximizing value. In this episode, hosts Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham speak with Oracle Cloud experts David Mills and Tijo Thomas about how Oracle Cloud Infrastructure offers predictable pricing, robust security, and high performance. They also introduce FinOps, a practical approach to tracking and optimizing cloud spending. Cloud Business Jumpstart: https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/cloud-business-jumpstart/152957  Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community  LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/  X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu  Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.    -------------------------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript: 00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:27 Nikita: Welcome back to another episode of the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Nikita Abraham, Team Lead of Editorial Services with Oracle University, and I'm joined by Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services.  Lois: Hi everyone! Last week, we talked about how Oracle Cloud Infrastructure brings together developer tools, automation, and AI on a single platform. In today's episode, we're highlighting the real-world impact OCI can have on business outcomes. 00:58 Nikita: And to tell us about this, we have our experts David Mills and Tijo Thomas back with us. David is a Senior Principal PaaS Instructor and Tijo is a Principal OCI Instructor, and they're both from Oracle University. David, let's start with you. What makes Oracle Cloud Infrastructure the trusted choice for organizations across industries like banking, healthcare, retail, and government? David: It all comes down to one thing. OCI was built for real businesses, not side projects, not hobby apps, not test servers, but mission-critical systems at scale.  Most clouds brag about their speed, but OCI is consistently fast, even under pressure. And that's because Oracle built OCI on a non-blocking network and bare metal infrastructure, with dedicated resources and no noisy neighbors. So, whether you're running one application or 1,000, you get predictable, low latency, performance every time as OCI doesn't force you into any specific mold. You want full control? Spin up a virtual machine and configure everything. You need to move fast? Use a managed service like Autonomous Database or Kubernetes. Prefer to build your own containers, functions, APIs, or develop with low code or even no code tools? OCI supports all of it. And it plays nicely with your existing stack—on-prem or in another cloud. OCI adapts to how you already work instead of making you start over.  02:39 Lois: And when it comes to pricing, how does OCI help customers manage costs more effectively?  David: OCI is priced for real business use, not just the flashy low entry number. You only pay for what you use. No overprovisioning, no lock in. Virtual machines can scale up and down automatically. Object storage automatically shifts to a lower cost tier based on frequency of access. Autonomous services don't need babysitting or patching. And unlike some providers, OCI doesn't charge you to get your own data back. It's enterprise grade cloud without enterprise grade sticker shock. 03:26 Lois: Security and flexibility are top priorities for many organizations. How does OCI address those challenges? David: OCI treats security as a starting point, not an upsell. From the moment you create an account, every tenant is isolated. All data is encrypted. Admin activity is logged and security tools like Cloud Guard are ready to go. And if you need to prove compliance for GDRP, FedRAMP, HIPAA, or more, you're covered. OCI is trusted by the world's most regulated industries. Most companies don't live in one cloud. They've got legacy systems, other cloud providers, and different teams doing different things. OCI is designed to work in hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Connect to your on-prem apps with VPN or FastConnect. Run Oracle workloads in your data center with Cloud@Customer. Interconnect with Azure and Google Cloud or integrate with Amazon. OCI isn't trying to lock you in. It's seeking to meet you where you are and help you modernize without breaking what works. 04:40 Nikita: Can you share an example of a business that's seen measurable results with OCI? David: A national health care provider was stuck on aging hardware with slow batch processing and manual upgrades. They migrated core patient systems to OCI and used Oracle Autonomous Database for faster, self-managed workloads. They leveraged Oracle Integration to connect legacy electronic health records, OCI FastConnect to keep real-time sync with data in their on-prem systems, and they went from 12-hour downtime Windows to zero, from three weeks to launch a feature to three days, and they cut infrastructure cost by 38%. And that's what choosing OCI looks like. 05:37 Are you looking to boost your expertise in enterprise AI? Check out the Oracle AI Agent Studio for Fusion Applications Developers course and professional certification—now available through Oracle University. This course helps you build, customize, and deploy AI Agents for Fusion HCM, SCM, and CX, with hands-on labs and real-world case studies. Ready to set yourself apart with in-demand skills and a professional credential? Learn more and get started today! Visit mylearn.oracle.com for more details. 06:12 Nikita: Welcome back! Tijo, controlling costs while driving innovation is a tough balancing act for many organizations. What are the biggest challenges organizations face when trying to manage and optimize their cloud spending? Tijo: The first one is unexpected cloud cost. Let's be honest. Cloud bills can be shocking. You think you've got things under control, that the invoice shows up and you realize it is way over the budget. Without real-time visibility, it is quite hard to catch these surprises before they happen. The next one is with waste of resources and inefficiencies. It is quite common to find resources that are just sitting idle, such as unused storage, underutilized CPU, or overprovisioned memory. It may not seem like there are much of resource wastage at first, but over time all that is really going to add up. Then there is no clear ownership of cloud spend. It is one of the big problem in cost management. If cost are not clearly tagged to a team or a project, nobody feels responsible, and that makes it really tough to manage or reduce the cloud spend. There is also misaligned priorities across teams, and looking at different teams like finance, they may want to cut the cost while engineering want to move faster, operations want everything to be up and running. While every team is doing their best, but without a common approach to cost, it becomes challenging to prioritize tasks. Slow and reactive decision making is another challenge. Most cost issues gets identified after the bill is invoiced, and by then the budget has been already spent. Without timely data, it becomes difficult to make real time changes. And then complex, multi-cloud and regional footprint. As businesses grow across regions and with multi-cloud deployment model, tracking where the budget is going gets really tricky. More services means there are more teams and more complexity. Now, all of these challenges have one thing in common. They need a better way to manage cloud cost together. And this is where FinOps comes in. 08:42 Lois: And what exactly is FinOps? How does it address these cloud cost challenges? Tijo: FinOps stands for financial operations. It is a framework that brings teams like engineering, operations, finance, and beyond to work together so that the cloud spending becomes smarter, more visible, and better aligned towards business goals. And so FinOps is not just a tool, it is a way of working. According to FinOps Foundation, FinOps lifecycle happens in three phases: inform, optimize, and operate.  The inform phase is about visibility and allocation, which means you gather the cost, usage, and efficiency data in order to forecast and budget. The optimize phase is about rates and usage, and this is where you would take action to optimize or bring efficiencies. And then in operate, you turn those into continuous improvements through policies, trainings, and automation. 09:51 Nikita: Let's unpack FinOps a bit more. Why is understanding your cloud subscription model so fundamental in the Inform phase? Tijo: Because cost visibility is very important while managing your Oracle Cloud subscription. There are two ways to purchase OCI services. The first one, we refer to it as pay as you go model, which means you pay for what you use, and the second one is called universal credit annual commitment model, where you can purchase a prepaid amount of universal credits, and the prepaid amount will be drawn down based on actual usage. OCI provides a portal called FinOps Hub, where you can easily track how your usage has changed month by month over the past year. Through the Hub, you can monitor whether you have stayed within your credit allocation or not. You will also see how much of your committed credits have been used, how much is left, and when is your commitment set to expire. The next step is to gain visibility or to understand the cost. In Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, this starts with the service called cost analysis. OCI Cost Analysis is a service that would help you to filter, group, and visualize your cloud cost in a way that makes sense for your business. You can compare cost over time. You can drill down the cost by services, and track those spending by specific teams or projects. And then finally export detailed reports for finance or leadership reviews. OCI Cost Analysis gives you an interactive, near real-time view of your cloud spending. So you're not just seeing the numbers, you are understanding what is driving them. The next one is about setting up spending limits and this is done through OCI Budgets. For example, the organization can set up a monthly budget for the development team. If their usage, the cloud usage exceeds 80% of that limit, an alert will be triggered to notify the team. This means you can configure a threshold, send alerts, or even take actions automatically.  12:16 Lois: Tijo, what happens during the Optimize and Operate phases of the FinOps framework? Tijo: The inform stage was more about awareness. In the optimize phase, you take that data you've collected, and use it to optimize resources and improve efficiency. In OCI, we'll start with Cloud Advisor. OCI Cloud Advisor finds potential inefficiencies in your tenancy, and offers you guided solutions that explain how to address them. The recommendations help you to maximize cost savings. For example, it gives you personalized recommendations like deleting idle resources or resizing compute instances. Secondly, you can identify steps for performance improvements. And finally, enhance high availability and security with suggesting configurations for your cloud resources. In the third phase, operate, it is about making optimization as a routine or continuous improvements, and this is done through incorporating FinOps into your organization. OCI provides cost and usage reports that can automatically generate daily reports. These reports would show detailed usage data for every OCI service that you're using. You can export cost reports in FOCUS format. FOCUS is an industry standard and it stands for FinOps Open Cost and Usage Specification. 13:52 Nikita: And what makes the FOCUS format important for organizations? Tijo: The format enables the cost data to be consistent. It is well structured, and ready to use with other FinOps tools or dashboards. These reports can also ingest into Business Intelligence or analytics tools that will help you with better visualizations. Organizing your resources the right way is the key to get more accurate and simplified data. Without a clear structure, your cost data will be too complex. In OCI, this structure starts with your tenancy. Tenancy is your top level OCI account, and it represents the presence of cloud for your entire organization. Next, you have compartments. Compartments help you to break down your cloud environment into logical groups, for example, by department or business unit or projects. Then there are tags, and this is where cost visibility gets more meaningful. Tags allow you to assign custom labels to each resources. Things like environment type, cost center, or the owner name.   15:06 Lois: Some people think cost visibility is a concern mainly for finance teams. What's your perspective on this? Tijo: Cost visibility should be a shared responsibility, which means it shouldn't just be shared with the finance. Engineers, architects, and project owners all need to have access to the cost data that are relevant to them. Because when teams have visibility, they take ownership and that leads to better decisions which are faster, smarter, and more aligned to business goals. 15:42 Nikita: Thank you, David and Tijo, for joining us and sharing your insights. Lois: If you'd like to learn more, visit mylearn.oracle.com and look for the Cloud Business Jumpstart course. Next week, we'll explore security and compliance in OCI. Until next time, this is Lois Houston… Nikita: And Nikita Abraham signing off! 16:03 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

One of the most respected players of his era, 7x All-Star 3B David Wright is our guest on this episode. Playing all 14 years of his career with the Mets, Wright was known for leadership, disciplined preparation, and an incredible work ethic (grit). He was also known for being a great teammate, and was named team captain for it. David shares his thoughts about the importance of being a teammate and what being named team captain meant to him. He also shares his youth sports story, how he was underestimated as a young player, how he leveraged his desire to outwork everyone, the role his parents played in his development, and much more. He also shares some fun stories from his time sharing a dugout with Frenchy, his thoughts as a dad and youth sports coach, and his advice for young athletes and parents.

Every system depends on reliable infrastructure behind the scenes. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) delivers that reliability with speed, flexibility, and built-in security.   Join Lois Houston and Nikita Abraham as they speak with Oracle Cloud experts David Mills and Tijo Thomas about what makes OCI different and how it drives real results for businesses of every size.   Cloud Business Jumpstart https://mylearn.oracle.com/ou/course/cloud-business-jumpstart/152957 Oracle University Learning Community: https://education.oracle.com/ou-community LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/oracle-university/ X: https://x.com/Oracle_Edu   Special thanks to Arijit Ghosh, David Wright, Kris-Ann Nansen, Radhika Banka, and the OU Studio Team for helping us create this episode.   -----------------------------------------------   Episode Transcript:   00:00 Welcome to the Oracle University Podcast, the first stop on your cloud journey. During this series of informative podcasts, we'll bring you foundational training on the most popular Oracle technologies. Let's get started! 00:26 Lois: Hello and welcome to the Oracle University Podcast! I'm Lois Houston, Director of Communications and Adoption with Customer Success Services, and with me is Nikita Abraham, Team Lead: Editorial Services with Oracle University. Nikita: Hi everyone, and welcome to a brand-new season of the podcast! We're really excited about this one because we'll be diving into how Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is transforming the way businesses innovate, stay secure, and drive results.  00:55 Lois: And to help us with this, we've got two experts who know this space inside out—David Mills, Senior Principal PaaS Instructor, and Tijo Thomas, Principal OCI Instructor, both from Oracle University. Hi David! For those who might not be familiar, could you explain what Oracle Cloud Infrastructure is? David: OCI, as we call it, is Oracle's enterprise grade cloud platform, built from the ground up to run the systems that matter most to business. It provides the infrastructure and platform services businesses need to build, run, and scale applications securely, globally, and cost effectively. To provide more context, all of Oracle's SaaS applications such as NetSuite, Customer Experience, Human Capital Management, Supply Chain Management, as well as Enterprise Resource and Enterprise Performance Management, they all run on OCI. But OCI isn't just for Oracle's own apps. It's a full featured cloud platform used by thousands of customers to run their own applications, data, and services. OCI includes platform services such as databases, integration, analytics, and many others, and of course, the infrastructure services, such as compute, networking, and storage, which comprise the core of OCI. Bottom line, if something is running on Oracle Cloud, OCI is behind it. OCI includes over 100 services across numerous categories like compute, storage, networking, database, containers, AI, developer tools, integration, security, observability, and much more. So, whether you're lifting and shifting legacy workloads or building new apps in the cloud, OCI has the building blocks. 03:02 Lois: David, who was OCI designed for? David: OCI was built from scratch to address the limitations of first-generation clouds. No patchwork of legacy acquisitions, just a clean, modern, high-performance foundation designed for real enterprise workloads. OCI was designed for businesses that can't compromise financial services, health care, retail, governments, customers with strict regulations, global scale, and mission-critical systems. These are the companies choosing OCI not just because it works, but because it works under pressure. 03:42 Nikita: What else makes OCI different from other cloud platforms? David: Oracle's network and storage architecture delivers low latency results consistently. Then there's pricing—simple, predictable, and often much lower than our competitors. OCI was designed with governance and security in every layer. OCI supports all types of cloud strategies: public cloud, hybrid deployments, multi-cloud environments, and even a dedicated cloud we can install inside your own data center. We call all that distributed cloud, and that's where OCI really shines. OCI gives you everything you need to modernize your technology stack, run securely at scale, and build for the future without giving up control or blowing your budget. 04:37 Lois: Now, Tijo, we've covered what OCI is, who it's for, and what makes it unique. Let's switch gears a bit and talk about cloud regions. For anyone who doesn't know, a cloud region is just a specific geographic location where Oracle, or any cloud provider, runs its own data centers. Why does the choice of region matter for businesses, and what should they think about when picking one? Tijo: Many businesses are required by law to keep their data within national borders, whether it is GDPR in Europe or local privacy laws in Australia or Singapore, choosing the right region would help you to stay compliant.  The closer your applications are to your users, the faster they perform. Running in a nearby region means lower latency, faster response times, and better customer experience. Then there is disaster recovery and high availability. Regions are the building blocks for setting up failover strategies. By deploying workloads in multiple regions, businesses can protect themselves from outages and keeping their systems in running state. Some businesses also need to meet industry-specific compliance requirements. Think of sectors like health care, government, or finance. They often require that the infrastructure and the data should stay within the national or regional boundaries. If your business is growing into new markets, regions allow you to deploy apps and services closer to your customers and without having the need to build new data centers. Regions also enable local integrations and partnerships, whether it is connecting with ISPs, local service providers, or complying with in-country partner requirements. Having a region nearby makes that integrations and operations smoother. Regions are not just about geography. They are a critical part of how the businesses would stay compliant, resilient, and responsive across the globe. Oracle runs a fast-growing global network of cloud regions, and each OCI region is fully independent and fully isolated. You choose your regions, and your data stays there. 07:06 Nikita: And are there different types of cloud regions? Tijo: There are several commercial regions, sovereign regions, government regions, and multi-cloud regions. Even with a wide range of cloud regions, some organizations cannot move their workloads and its data to the public cloud. Those workloads may need to stay in their own on-premises data center, but at the same time, they still want to leverage the benefits of OCI. 07:42 Take your cloud skills to the next level with the new Oracle Database@AWS course. Master provisioning, migration, security, and high availability for Oracle Database on AWS. Then validate your experience with an industry-recognized certification. Stand out in the multicloud space and accelerate your career. Visit mylearn.oracle.com for more information. 08:09 Nikita: Welcome back! We were talking about workloads and how some companies may have to keep their workloads on-premises. Why would they need to do that, Tijo? Tijo: First, data sovereignty. Let's say there may not be a list of public cloud region that the organization is looking for, or maybe the business need to set up a disaster recovery strategy within that specific location. Then there is security and control. Some industries have very strict regulations, and they require physical access and oversight of their infrastructure. And finally, there are latency-sensitive workloads. These are applications that cannot afford the delay of going back and forth to a remote cloud region. They need cloud services right next to their physical data center.  08:59 Nikita: So, how does Oracle help with that? Tijo: To address these requirements, Oracle introduces a set of offerings. The first one is called dedicated region, and the second one is called Cloud@Customer services. Through both these offerings, you get OCI services right in your data center and all behind your firewall, while achieving the benefits of flexibility and automation.  09:24 Nikita: So, what's a dedicated region? Tijo: Dedicated region is a completely managed cloud region that brings all the OCI services and Oracle Fusion SaaS applications within your data centers. Along with deploying the full stack OCI, you would receive support for Oracle Fusion SaaS applications and also gain a consistent experience with the same SLAs, APIs, and the tools available in Oracle Cloud. 09:53 Lois: Ok and what about Cloud@Customer? Tijo: While dedicated region is ideal for large scale enterprise needs, with full stack OCI and SaaS, some organizations just require a lighter footprint. And that's where Cloud@Customer comes in. And to begin with, we'll talk about Compute Cloud@Customer. It is a fully managed rack scale infrastructure that allows you to use the core OCI services, like the OCI compute, OCI storage, and OCI networking services at your on-premises. With Compute Cloud@Customer, you can run applications and middleware systems to provide consistent user experience and simplify IT administration across your distributed cloud architecture. We can plan to run the same application stack everywhere and centrally manage them without needing experts in every location.  10:52 Nikita: Is there a way to make running your Oracle databases easier and more cost-effective? Tijo: That's why Oracle offers you Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer. Oracle Exadata Cloud@Customer combines the performance of Oracle Exadata with the simplicity, flexibility, and affordability of a managed database service delivered through customer data centers. It is the simplest way to move your current Oracle databases to the cloud, because it provides full compatibility with existing Exadata systems and Exadata Database services in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. You could also run the fully-managed Oracle Autonomous Database on Exadata Cloud@Customer that would combine all the benefits of having Exadata, along with the simplicity of an autonomous cloud service. And when Compute Cloud@Customer is combined with Exadata Cloud@Customer, you can run full stack applications completely in your own data center. Applications will use the same high performance OCI compute and database services you get in the cloud, so you don't have to change the way you architect or deploy them.  12:09 Nikita: So, what you're saying is that Oracle dedicated region and Cloud@Customer bring OCI services into your data center. Tijo: It enables you to run applications faster using the same high-performance capabilities and autonomous operations. You get all of this while maintaining complete control of your data so that you can address data residency, security, and connectivity concerns.  12:35 Lois: Ok. We've talked about where OCI runs. Now David, let's get into what it actually does. David: OCI compute lets you run business applications on demand without buying or managing physical servers. You choose the type and size of the virtual machine you want, and OCI handles the rest. Need more power for peak traffic? OCI can automatically add capacity and scale it back down after. In addition to virtual machines, bare metal servers are also available for ultra high performance jobs like simulations, AI, or high speed trading. Every business stores data, but not all data needs the same kind of storage. OCI gives you options, fast block storage for your compute servers. It works just like a hard drive for your home computer. Shared file storage for applications and microservices. Large scale object storage for backups, videos, or other data, and low-cost long-term storage for object archives. The system even moves rarely used data to cheaper storage automatically.  13:51 Lois: Given Oracle's expertise in databases, what are some of the database options businesses can access with OCI? David: Oracle Autonomous Database automatically patches, tunes, and scales itself. Need raw power? Use Oracle Exadata, or go open source with MySQL HeatWave, which can be used for real time analytics. With these and many other database options, you get high performance automation and reliability all on demand.  14:24 Nikita: With so many database options, how is everything kept connected and running smoothly on OCI? David: Every cloud service relies on a fast, secure network. OCI's Virtual Cloud network acts like your own private data highway. You control how traffic flows between your apps, your people, and your regions. Need private direct connections to your data center or office? Use OCI FastConnect to bypass the public internet. OCI networking provides high speed performance with enterprise grade security designed for global business. 15:05 Lois: And what security service does Oracle provide? David: OCI doesn't treat this as an optional add on. When you sign up for OCI, your environment is isolated, your data is encrypted, and admin actions are logged. And there are so many security services. Identity and Access Management for handling users and permissions, Cloud Guard to detect threats and misconfigurations, OCI Vault for managing your encryption keys, Data Safe to monitor sensitive data access, as well as many others. You can leverage to meet any government or business compliance requirement. All of these are included in OCI, no need to stitch together third-party tools. 15:55 Lois: What if I want to see what's going on in my environment? David: OCI has monitoring services for metrics, logging services for real-time insights, tracing for distributed applications, and alarms to notify you when things go sideways. All of these services are integrated. So you can see what matters when you need it without all the noise. 16:23 Nikita: David, let's say someone wants to build and deploy an app. What services does OCI offer them?  David: OCI provides numerous developer services for your teams to build apps or digital tools. OCI DevOps supports automated builds and deployments. OCI Container Engine for Kubernetes helps run microservices. OCI Functions supports serverless code that runs on demand. All of this works with familiar languages and frameworks. In short, OCI gives developers what they need to build, test, and deliver quickly without having to manage infrastructure. 17:03 Nikita: How does OCI make it easier for companies to bring their apps together and use AI, even if they don't have a dedicated AI team? David: Modern businesses run dozens of apps, and OCI helps you to connect them with Oracle Integration Cloud. With OIC, you can integrate SaaS applications as well as on-premise apps and systems, automate business processes and workflows, route and transform messages, and you can even expose key services as APIs so partners and systems can interact securely. OCI integration is the glue that holds modern IT together. OCI helps you turn data into decisions without needing an AI team. Use ready-made AI tools for language translation, image recognition, document understanding, speech transcription, and more. Or build your own models with data science and data flow services. It's all designed to bring machine learning into reach for every business. 18:10 Lois: Thank you, David and Tijo, for joining us on this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you want to learn more about OCI, visit mylearn.oracle.com and search for the Cloud Business Jumpstart course.  Nikita: Next week, we'll look at why businesses choose OCI and how they're using OCI services to create real outcomes. Until then, this is Nikita Abraham… Lois: And Lois Houston signing off! 18:38 That's all for this episode of the Oracle University Podcast. If you enjoyed listening, please click Subscribe to get all the latest episodes. We'd also love it if you would take a moment to rate and review us on your podcast app. See you again on the next episode of the Oracle University Podcast.

Before Christmas, I asked you to send me one photograph from 2025. Not necessarily what you consider to be your best, not your most liked, and not something measured against anyone else in either competition or social media terms. Just the picture that said to you, "This was my 2025." The one you kept coming back to. My plan was to invite ten photographers to the first episode of 2026 to talk about their pictures and the why behind them. Over a hundred arrived, each with a story attached, and it quickly became clear that with the compelling stories you sent in, we'd need to spread this across two editions, and so that is where we are. As I spoke to the people behind these pictures, the conversations opened out into how we see, why we photograph, and what was going on in life when the shutter was pressed. This episode is the first half of those conversations. Unrushed, unscripted, and simply photographers talking about images that meant something to them, and by extension, saying a little about themselves.  David Wright reflects on serenity in photography through an image that feels like an emotional time capsule. John Charlton talks about a Northern Lights photograph whose meaning runs far deeper than the light in the sky. Wayne Richards joins me on the path to talk about a rag tied to a railing that all but demanded to be photographed. Kim Cofield shares thoughtful advice drawn from her experience of making animal portraits, and Mark Creamer looks back on a photograph made in the middle of a disaster zone. Read more about our photographic adventures on our photography travel website, The Journey Beyond. Links to all guests and features will be on the show page, my sincere thanks to our Extra Milers, without whom we wouldn't be walking each week and Arthelper.ai, giving photographers smart tools to plan, promote, and manage your creative projects more easily. WHY: A Sketchbook of Life is available here.

Taking the Artist's Edition Index from print to the spoken word. This month I discuss shipping changes, 2025 AE Index Dunbier Awards, and reviews of David Wright's Carol Day: Cousin Hugo, Raven Intégrale Version Classique, and La Ribambelle en Écosse Dupuis Artiste Édition.

NFL talk kicks things off with True or False: Is Drake Maye the NFL MVP? Then we rank playoff teams from 6–1 based on who we'd want to face, debate which QB to build a franchise around, and run a Bijan Robinson edition of "Who Would You Rather Build Your Offense Around?" We shift to the NBA for two spicy WHUF trade scenarios including Trae Young to the Kings and Anthony Davis on the move. Wrapping the show in the MLB, we play Hall of Fame or Hall of Very Good — from pitchers like Felix Hernandez and Andy Pettitte to hitters like David Wright, Chase Utley, Manny, ARod, Beltran, and more. Football takes the stage, basketball gets weird, baseball gets historical — a little bit of everything. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Former Major League Baseball pitcher, Steve Trachsel and Chef Jason Morse with help from pitmaster, Doug Scheiding, sling a heaping helping of baseball and barbecue talk on episode 323 Steve Trachsel was a Major League pitcher for 16 years.  Known primarily for his time with the Chicago Cubs and the New York Mets, he also played for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the Toronto Blue Jays, and the Baltimore Orioles.  He first joined us on episode 127 and then again on episode 143 during which he discussed a masterful gem he threw against the Boston Red Sox as he outdueled Pedro Martinez.  In this appearance we discuss the game he pitched on August 26, 2005 as he returned to the rotation after an injury and beat the San Francisco Giants 1-0.  The one run was supplied by David Wright's solo home run in the second inning.  Steve is a huge fan of barbecue and we are joined by Pitmaster, Doug Scheiding as all of us talk baseball and barbecue.  Chef Jason Morse aka Chef J had his first experience grilling and smoking meats when he was a Boy Scout.  His passion was further stoked during childhood visits to the Hawaiian island of Kauai, where his grandfather served in the U.S. Army, exposing him to a culture that honors fire-smoked cuisine.  As a teenager, Jason was frying up tortillas at a Mexican restaurant and honing his knife skills at a steakhouse in the suburbs of Minnesota.  Jason then pursued a culinary degree at Johnson & Wales University.  Chef J serves as Ace Hardware's national chef spokesperson and BBQ expert.  He also runs a culinary consulting business, 5280 Culinary.  He has led Colorado Proud campaign initiatives to promote the quality of locally produced meats and agriculture.  Chef J led a healthy cooking education program for nearly 70,000 Denver, Colorado kids. His service earned him an invite to help launch a White House initiative called the ‘Chefs Move to Schools‘ program, impacting millions of kids in their knowledge of nutritious cooking.  He is also the proud founder of Chef J's BBQ Provisions, a line of flavor-packed products that elevate his inventive BBQ recipes and can be found at Ace Hardware stores.  For more information on Chef Jason Morse go to https://chefjasonmorse.com/ We recommend you go to Rogue Cookers website, https://roguecookers.com/ for award-winning rubs, Chef Ray Sheehan's website, https://www.raysheehan.com/ for award-winning saucess, rubs, and cookbooks, Baseball BBQ, https://baseballbbq.com for special grilling tools and accessories, Magnechef https://magnechef.com/ for excellent and unique barbecue gloves, Cutting Edge Firewood High Quality Kiln Dried Firewood - Cutting Edge Firewood in Atlanta for high quality firewood and cooking wood, Mantis BBQ, https://mantisbbq.com/ to purchase their outstanding sauces with a portion of the proceeds being donated to the Kidney Project, and for exceptional sauces, Elda's Kitchen https://eldaskitchen.com/ We conclude the show with the song, Baseball Always Brings You Home from the musician, Dave Dresser and the poet, Shel Krakofsky. We truly appreciate our listeners and hope that all of you are staying safe. If you would like to contact the show, we would love to hear from you. Call the show:  (516) 855-8214 Email:  baseballandbbq@gmail.com Twitter:  @baseballandbbq Instagram:  baseballandbarbecue YouTube:  baseball and bbq Website:  https//baseballandbbq.weebly.com Facebook:  baseball and bbq     Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What's next for Discovery Park of America? In this special Reelfoot Forward episode, CEO Scott Williams sits down with senior collections and exhibits director Jennifer Wildes and manager of marketing and PR Zac Willis for a look at what's ahead in 2026 at the museum and park. The conversation offers a behind-the-scenes preview of upcoming exhibits, major events and cultural celebrations, including plans tied to America's 250th anniversary, new permanent exhibitions, expanded educational programming and returning events that have become regional traditions. Listeners will hear how Discovery Park selects exhibits, balances popular demand with mission-driven storytelling and plans year-round experiences for children and adults. As Discovery Park commemorates the 230th anniversary of Tennessee's statehood and the national America 250 celebration, several new exhibits will open next year. The museum will host "Home, Heart, Heritage: Quilt Exhibition Celebrating Black History," a traveling exhibition from Monthaven Arts and Cultural Center that features five double-sided quilts celebrating Black American contributions to Tennessee and the nation. Listeners will also learn more about "Brushstrokes of a Young Nation: The Art of David Wright," which will be on display in the Southern Artist Showcase Gallery. The exhibition will include prints by celebrated Tennessee artist David Wright, whose paintings of early settlers, frontier life and America's expansion offer a vivid visual journey through the nation's formative years. Another major highlight of Discovery Park's Tennessee America 250 programming discussed in the episode is the Celebrating 250 Years of Independence event July 3–4, 2026. On Friday, July 3, country music artist Mo Pitney will headline a free outdoor concert as part of Discovery Park's Rhythm on the Rails series. Whether you're a longtime member, a first-time visitor or simply curious about how a regional museum plans for the future, this episode offers a candid, informative look at how Discovery Park continues to evolve while staying rooted in the stories of West Tennessee and the Reelfoot Lake region. This episode is sponsored by Main Street Union City.

In this episode of Excess Returns, we sit down with David Wright, Head of Quantitative Investing at Pictet Asset Management, for a deep and practical conversation about how artificial intelligence and machine learning are actually being used in real-world investment strategies. Rather than focusing on hype or black-box promises, David walks through how systematic investors combine human judgment, economic intuition, and machine learning models to forecast stock returns, construct portfolios, and manage risk. The discussion covers what AI can and cannot do in investing today, how machine learning differs from traditional factor models and large language models like ChatGPT, and why interpretability and robustness still matter. This episode is a must-watch for investors interested in quantitative investing, AI-driven ETFs, and the future of systematic portfolio construction.Main topics covered:What artificial intelligence and machine learning really mean in an investing contextHow machine learning models are trained to forecast relative stock returnsThe role of features, signals, and decision trees in quantitative investingKey differences between machine learning models and large language models like ChatGPTWhy interpretability and stability matter more than hype in AI investingHow human judgment and machine learning complement each other in portfolio managementData selection, feature engineering, and the trade-offs between traditional and alternative dataOverfitting, data mining concerns, and how professional investors build guardrailsTime horizons, rebalancing frequency, and transaction cost considerationsHow AI-driven strategies are implemented in diversified portfolios and ETFsThe future of AI in investing and what it means for investorsTimestamps:00:00 Introduction and overview of AI and machine learning in investing03:00 Defining artificial intelligence vs machine learning in finance05:00 How machine learning models are trained using financial data07:00 Machine learning vs ChatGPT and large language models for stock selection09:45 Decision trees and how machine learning makes forecasts12:00 Choosing data inputs: traditional data vs alternative data14:40 The role of economic intuition and explainability in quant models18:00 Time horizons and why machine learning works better at shorter horizons22:00 Can machine learning improve traditional factor investing24:00 Data mining, overfitting, and model robustness26:00 What humans do better than AI and where machines excel30:00 Feature importance, conditioning effects, and model structure32:00 Model retraining, stability, and long-term persistence36:00 The future of automation and human oversight in investing40:00 Why ChatGPT-style models struggle with portfolio construction45:00 Portfolio construction, diversification, and ETF implementation51:00 Rebalancing, transaction costs, and practical execution56:00 Surprising insights from machine learning models59:00 Closing lessons on investing and avoiding overtrading

David Wright of Spectrum for the Future and Jason Wallin with the OnGo Alliance discuss how CBRS might be impacted as the FCC and NTIA look high and low for spectrum. They also explain whether the band is under siege or only mildly threatened. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BT & Sal ignite a fiery debate on the Mets' future, discussing the implications of Pete Alonso's departure and whether it clears the path for Juan Soto to eventually become the franchise's greatest player. Sal dismisses the conspiracy theory that Alonso was moved to make way for Soto's "GOAT status," arguing it was a purely financial and strategic decision. The hosts explore the concept of "The Greatest Met"—a conversation that pivots to the most "beloved" player, with the consensus landing on David Wright over Piazza and Seaver. They also touch on the Mets' new disciplined approach under David Stearns, urging fans to "trust the process" as the team moves away from the Alonso era toward a new, Soto-led future.

BT and Sal dive headfirst into the controversial 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, which they deem "light." The discussion kicks off with a viral single-vote ballot for David Wright, prompting a fiery debate on the Mets Captain's true Hall credentials versus his "Hall of Fame person" status. The hosts break down their respective five- and four-man ballots, agreeing on Carlos Beltrán (despite the sign-stealing controversy) and "King" Félix Hernández (dominance over longevity). Sal makes a passionate case for Andruw Jones (ten Gold Gloves) and Andy Pettitte (postseason legacy), while BT argues for Francisco "K-Rod" Rodríguez based purely on his historic peak and questions why all the steroid-era greats like A-Rod and Manny Ramírez shouldn't just be inducted together.

BT & Sal dive into the buzz surrounding the Diddy documentary, highlighting the "unreal" vintage footage and the early rise of the hip-hop mogul. The conversation shifts to a fiery debate over the 2026 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, triggered by a voter who submitted a ballot with only David Wright's name. Sal and BT dissect their differing picks, agreeing on Carlos Beltran and Felix Hernandez, but clashing over Andy Pettitte and closers like K-Rod. They also tackle the elephant in the room: whether A-Rod and Manny Ramirez should be let in despite their PED use. In football, they debate whether the Giants should gamble on the past glory of Bill Belichick or the program stability of Mike McCarthy, acknowledging the "purgatory" status of the Yankees. The show concludes with a special "Call from Down Under" from a loyal Mets fan in Australia seeking solutions for the Mets' dire pitching situation, which Sal labels "slop."

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church

The Official Corporate Podcast of Antioch, The Apostolic Church