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August can feel like one of the tougher months for fly fishing, and in many ways, it is. BUT - with the right approach, you can still have a great time on the water this month. Depending on where you live, your best option might be fishing early in the morning, or chasing non-trout species. If you have easy access to the high country nearby, this is a great time to go out and explore all the less-visited places where the fishing is still fast and furious.  LINKS FROM THE SHOW FLIES - Get the VFC 3-Packs - CHECK THEM OUT Join the VFC Online Community - CHECK IT OUT QUESTIONS FOR THE SHOW - SUBMIT HERE #LIVEREELLIFE MOMENT - SUBMIT HERE Get the FREE Field Guide - CHECK IT OUT

Dupree Financial Group Blog  ·  The Tom Dupree Show From This Week’s Episode Retirement Investing  ·  August 1, 2026 Is Your Retirement Portfolio Too Concentrated? A 25-year-old hedge fund manager lost roughly $35 billion in a matter of days this week. Here’s what his leverage and the market’s concentration in seven stocks have to do with your retirement account. By Tom Dupree, Founder, Dupree Financial Group  |  dupreefinancial.com  |  859-233-0400 This week, a 25-year-old former OpenAI researcher named Leopold Aschenbrenner watched roughly $35 billion disappear from his hedge fund in a matter of days. Two years ago, he wrote a 165-page essay predicting the future of artificial intelligence with such confidence that Silicon Valley treated it like scripture. This week, his fund — built on borrowed money layered on top of a handful of AI stocks — got forced into a fire sale to Ken Griffin’s Citadel at a steep discount. It’s a dramatic story. But here’s the direct answer to the question that actually matters for your retirement: if most of your money sits in a plain S&P 500 index fund, you may be more concentrated in a handful of the same stocks than you realize — and that concentration, not any single hedge fund’s collapse, is the real thing worth understanding before your next portfolio review. You don’t need borrowed money or a 165-page manifesto to be exposed to this. You just need to own “the market” and assume that means you’re spread across 500 different companies. Key Takeaways Leverage magnifies both directions. Borrowing money to buy investments can boost gains on the way up, but it can wipe out capital just as fast on the way down. That’s the entire story of this week’s hedge fund collapse. Seven stocks now make up a large share of the S&P 500. Depending on the week you check, the “Magnificent Seven” technology stocks account for somewhere between a third and roughly 40% of the entire index’s value. Owning an index fund is not automatically owning a diversified portfolio. A market-cap-weighted index gives its biggest companies the biggest influence — so when those companies wobble, so does “the market.” Know what you own and why you own it. That’s not a slogan — it’s the single most useful question a retiree can ask before the next headline-grabbing selloff. Why This Week’s Story Is Bigger Than One Hedge Fund Every generation produces an investor who seems untouchable — brilliant, early to a trend, riding a wave everyone else is still arguing about. Aschenbrenner’s fund, Situational Awareness, reportedly grew from roughly $200 million to as much as $45 billion in under two years, largely on concentrated bets in AI infrastructure names. Then, using leverage reported as high as 400% — meaning roughly four borrowed dollars for every dollar of the fund’s own capital — a sharp pullback in a handful of semiconductor and AI stocks triggered margin calls his prime brokers couldn’t ignore. That’s the mechanical part, and it’s worth understanding in plain English: when you borrow against an investment and that investment drops in value, your loan doesn’t shrink with it. At some point the lender requires more collateral — a margin call — and if you can’t provide it, your shares get sold for you, often at the worst possible moment. There’s no easy way around that math. It requires diligence, not confidence. Most retirees reading this aren’t using 400% leverage. But there’s a quieter version of the same concentration problem sitting inside a lot of 401(k)s and IRA rollovers, and it doesn’t require a single dollar of borrowed money to hurt you. What the Numbers Actually Show According to CNBC’s reporting on the collapse, Aschenbrenner’s fund held roughly $45 billion in assets at its peak, before margin calls forced the sale of its leveraged public stock positions — including major holdings like SK Hynix and CoreWeave — to Citadel at a discount, with the fund’s overall assets falling to around $10 billion within about 30 trading days (CNBC). TechCrunch’s coverage confirms Aschenbrenner had no prior professional trading experience before launching the fund in 2024, and that the losses came from both AI stocks falling and short positions in software companies moving the wrong way at the same time (TechCrunch). Meanwhile, the broader market has its own version of this concentration story. Reporting from Forbes notes that the “Magnificent Seven” technology stocks made up roughly a third of the S&P 500’s total market capitalization heading into 2026, with some advisors calling the resulting concentration risk a “legitimate concern” (Forbes). Separate reporting from CNBC put the figure as high as 35% to 40% of the index in recent trading, prompting some strategists to recommend equal-weighted alternatives to reduce that concentration (CNBC). The SEC’s own investor education office has published plain-language guidance on why borrowing to invest carries risks that go beyond the investment itself — including the fact that a broker can sell your securities to meet a margin call without waiting for you to act, and can do so without advance notice (SEC Investor.gov). It’s the kind of guardrail worth reading once, even if you never plan to use margin yourself. “Leverage is a thing to be used very judiciously and very carefully, because if you use it in a way that’s irresponsible, it can cost you everything.” — Tom Dupree The Reframe: This Isn’t a Bet on Whether AI Wins or Loses Dupree Financial Group’s Take Most of the commentary this week has been framed as a debate: Is AI spending going to pay off, or is it a bubble? That’s an interesting argument, and reasonable people disagree about it — Microsoft’s stock jumped double digits on one earnings report this year, while Oracle’s bonds have drawn scrutiny over its own AI-related spending. But that debate is largely beside the point for a retiree building income for the next 40 or 50 years. The actual lesson isn’t “buy AI stocks” or “avoid AI stocks.” It’s that when a market’s returns get concentrated in a small number of companies, your risk gets concentrated right along with it — whether you meant it to or not. That’s exactly why our approach starts with cash flow analysis, not headlines: dividend-paying companies across sectors like insurance, telecommunications, and financials keep generating income whether or not seven technology companies are having a good month. You get paid to wait, in good markets and choppy ones, instead of hoping a narrow slice of the market keeps carrying the whole index. What This Looks Like in Practice We build separately managed accounts around companies with a history of paying and growing their dividends, purchased when they’re out of favor and less expensive — not around chasing whichever seven stocks are dominating the headlines that quarter. Bonds play a role too: current income, lower volatility, and dry powder to buy good companies when the market temporarily marks them down for reasons that have nothing to do with their underlying business. None of this means avoiding growth, and it doesn’t mean the S&P 500’s biggest companies are bad businesses — several of them are genuinely excellent. It means not letting one basket, however impressive, decide the outcome of your retirement. All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal, and no strategy removes that risk entirely. The goal is to understand it, size it appropriately, and build income you don’t have to sell into a downturn to access. Five Things to Check in Your Own Portfolio 1Pull up your 401(k) or IRA’s top ten holdings. Most plan providers list this on your statement or online dashboard. If you don’t see it, call and ask — it’s your money, and you’re entitled to know. 2Add up what percentage those top ten represent. If it’s a plain S&P 500 index fund, expect a meaningful chunk of your total to be concentrated in a handful of names, most of them technology companies. 3Ask whether that concentration matches your risk tolerance at your stage of life. A 35-year-old accumulating wealth can absorb more concentration risk than someone drawing income in retirement. 4Check whether you’re using any form of leverage or margin, even indirectly through certain funds or products, and make sure you understand exactly what happens if those positions move against you. 5Get a second set of eyes on the whole picture. It’s easy to know your account balance and much harder to know what’s actually driving it. That’s the gap a complimentary portfolio review is built to close. Frequently Asked Questions What is “concentration risk” in a stock market index? Concentration risk means a large share of an index’s total value — and therefore its performance — comes from a small number of companies. In a market-cap-weighted index like the S&P 500, the biggest companies carry the most influence, so a downturn in just a handful of names can drag down the whole index. Why did Leopold Aschenbrenner’s hedge fund lose so much money so quickly? Reporting indicates the fund used leverage as high as 400% on concentrated AI stock positions. When those stocks declined, the borrowed money amplified the losses, triggering margin calls that forced a distressed sale of the fund’s holdings within about a month. Should retirees stop investing in S&P 500 index funds? Not necessarily — index funds remain a legitimate, low-cost building block. The point is to understand what you actually own inside that fund, including how concentrated it has become, rather than assuming “index fund” automatically means “diversified.” What does “leverage” mean in plain English? Leverage means borrowing money to increase the size of an investment beyond what your own capital could buy. It can amplify gains, but it amplifies losses the same way — and if the investment’s value drops enough, the loan doesn’t shrink to match it. How can I tell how concentrated my own retirement portfolio really is? Start by looking up your fund’s top ten holdings and what percentage of the total they represent — most providers publish this. If you’re unsure how to interpret it, a portfolio review with an advisor can walk through what you actually own and why. The Close By the time you read this, Leopold Aschenbrenner’s fund will likely have faded from the headlines, replaced by whoever’s turn it is next — because, as history keeps showing us, there’s always a next one. But the question his week left behind isn’t really about him. It’s about whether you know what you own, and whether you’d be able to answer calmly if your own portfolio had a bad week. That’s the whole point of retiring on income instead of hope: you don’t need to guess right about which seven stocks win. You need a plan that keeps paying you regardless. Keep Learning Listen to the full episode — hear Tom, James Dupree, and Michael Dawahare walk through the Mag Seven earnings debate and this week’s market moves in more detail. Learn more about Dupree Financial Group — our fee-only, fiduciary approach and the team behind it. Schedule a complimentary portfolio review — see exactly how concentrated your own accounts are today. Tom Dupree Tom Dupree is the founder of Dupree Financial Group, a fee-only, fiduciary Registered Investment Advisory firm based in Lexington, Kentucky. He has spent 48 years in the investment business, starting as a municipal bond salesman in the late 1970s, and hosts The Tom Dupree Show, a weekly radio and podcast program covering the financial topics that matter most to retirees. About The Tom Dupree Show The Tom Dupree Show is hosted by Tom Dupree, founder of Dupree Financial Group and a 47-year veteran of the investment business. Each episode covers the financial topics that matter most to retirees and those approaching retirement — in plain English, without the Wall Street spin. Dupree Financial Group is a fee-only, fiduciary Registered Investment Advisory firm based in Lexington, Kentucky. The firm manages separately managed accounts focused on income-generating, dividend-paying portfolios — no products sold, no commissions, no conflicts of interest. Past episodes are available at dupreefinancial.com under the Radio tab. Schedule a Complimentary Portfolio Review If you’re not sure whether your retirement account is more concentrated in a handful of stocks than you’d like — we’ll take a look. No charge. No pressure. Just an honest conversation about what you own and whether it’s working for you. Call: 859-233-0400  |  Visit: dupreefinancial.com All investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past market performance discussed above refers to historical index and company data, not to the performance of any Dupree Financial Group account. Dupree Financial Group  ·  Fee-only. Fiduciary. 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A $35B Hedge Fund Lesson | Dupree Financial Group appeared first on Dupree Financial.

Cash flow management tips matter because your business can survive without profit for a period of time, but it cannot survive without access to cash. About this episode Good cash flow management is vital, nay, critical, to the success of your business. Cash is what keeps the business moving. It pays bills, wages, suppliers, loans, tax, overheads, and the costs that keep everything running. In this episode, we share seven practical cash flow management tips to help your business stay on track. We look at cash reserves, cost control, inventory, leasing, equipment loans, borrowing at the right time, and why good financial advice can help you spot problems before they become painful. Cash flow may feel like one of the biggest headaches in business, but ignoring it makes the problem worse. With the right habits, we can protect cash, plan ahead, and reduce the risk of being caught out. What you'll learn in this episode Why cash flow is critical for business survivalWhy you can survive without profit for a time, but not without cashHow a cash reserve protects the business when things changeWhy cost consciousness matters even when cash is flowingHow poor inventory control can damage cash flowWhen leasing equipment may protect short-term cashWhy borrowing during good times can give you better optionsHow a good accountant can help with forecasting and budgets Why cash flow management matters Cash flow is the movement of money into and out of your business. It is the cash available to pay what needs to be paid, when it needs to be paid. Profit matters, but profit alone does not pay the bills if the money is not in the bank. A profitable business can still fail if cash is not managed properly. This is why we need to treat cash flow as a regular part of business management, not something we only look at when pressure builds. Our episode on How different is cash to profits? is a useful follow-on if you want to understand why profit and cash are not the same thing. “You can survive without making profits for a period of time, but you can't survive without access to cash.” 1. Create a cash reserve The first cash flow management tip is to create a cash reserve. A reserve gives your business a safety net when activity changes, costs rise, customers delay payment, or unexpected problems appear. As a rule of thumb, aim for three to six months of operating costs or average cash flow. Think about what your business would need if no more customers bought from you for a while. How much cash would keep the business ticking over? That figure becomes your target. It may take time to build, but having a reserve gives you breathing space and more control. 2. Stay cost conscious Cost consciousness is not about cutting everything. It is about developing financial discipline and keeping control of spending, even when cash is flowing into the business. Good times do not always last forever. If we cannot save money when things are going well, it becomes much harder to do it when things get tougher. A minimum viable budget can help. It gives you a practical spending framework, so growth does not turn into careless spending. For more practical planning support, our episode on Build Your Cash Flow with a Spreadsheet: Create a Practical Forecast shows how a simple forecast can help you look ahead. 3. Keep an eye on inventory If you run a product-based business, inventory can have a major impact on cash flow. Stock costs money to buy, money to hold, and money to manage. If too much cash is tied up in inventory, that cash is not available for wages, bills, tax, marketing, or other commitments. Poor stock control can also create hidden costs. Items may be misplaced, damaged, stored badly, or become obsolete. You may even end up ordering replacements you do not need. The aim is to hold enough inventory to meet demand, without overstocking or leaving cash trapped in slow-moving items. 4. Consider leasing equipment Buying equipment outright may be cheaper over the long term, but it can put pressure on short-term cash flow. Leasing may cost more overall, but it can reduce the immediate cash leaving the business. Instead of one large payment, the cost is spread over time. That can make cash flow easier to manage. Leasing may also give you options at the end of the agreement, such as buying the equipment or upgrading. The right choice depends on your business, your cash position, and how essential the equipment is. 5. Look at equipment loans An equipment loan is another way to fund business assets without paying the full cost upfront. It works in a similar way to a traditional bank loan, but it is linked to the equipment being financed. Depending on the lender, risk profile, terms, and business position, this may be suitable for some businesses. The key is to shop around, compare options, and understand the cash impact before committing. We should not only ask, “Can we afford the asset?” We also need to ask, “Can the business cash flow support the repayments?” 6. Borrow when the going is good This may sound strange, but borrowing when the business is in good shape can sometimes be smarter than waiting until there is a crisis. When finances are healthy, you may have more choice, stronger bargaining power, and better access to rates. If you wait until the business is already under pressure, borrowing may be harder, more expensive, or not available at all. Opening a line of credit before you need it can give the business flexibility. The point is not to borrow recklessly. It is to plan ahead and avoid leaving funding decisions until panic sets in. 7. Hire a good accountant Cash flow problems often sneak up on business owners. They should not, but they do. A good accountant can help you prepare budgets, build forecasts, review cash flow, and spot pressure points before they become serious. Looking through the windscreen of the business is much better than being surprised by what has already happened. That support can help you make better decisions around reserves, costs, stock, loans, leasing, and growth. If you need help with cash flow forecasting, budgeting, or financial planning, you can get in touch with us. Good cash flow management is about preparation Cash flow management is about preparing for the worst while keeping sensible financial habits when the going is good. That means building a reserve, staying cost conscious, watching inventory, thinking carefully before buying equipment, exploring suitable funding options, and getting support before cash pressure becomes urgent. Good habits make cash flow easier to manage. They also help your business stay resilient when things change. Practical cash flow management steps Work out your target cash reserveBuild towards three to six months of operating costs where possibleCreate a minimum viable budgetKeep reviewing costs, even when cash is strongMonitor inventory and avoid tying up cash in slow-moving stockCompare buying, leasing, and loan options before purchasing equipmentExplore finance options before the business is under pressureUse forecasts and budgets to look aheadGet professional support before problems become urgent Related episodes Build Your Cash Flow with a Spreadsheet: Create a Practical ForecastSix steps to managing your cashflowWhy Working Capital is Important for Your Business Key takeaway Cash flow management is not optional. It protects the business, gives you breathing space, and helps you deal with pressure before it becomes a crisis. Build a cash reserve, stay cost conscious, manage inventory, think carefully about funding, and use forecasts to look through the windscreen of your business. Plan it, Do it, Profit. Share this episode Share this episode: Listen on Apple Podcasts

Stock markets have had some stumbles recently, with selloffs in the technology sector followed by rapid recoveries, but the fundamentals of the AI rally have not changed, says Dr. Jacky Tang, the Private Bank's CIO for emerging markets. “The reality is these stocks have had incredible runs so far this year. So investors are constantly asking themselves whether they've become a little bit too optimistic,” Jacky says. “To me, this feels more like a market that's digesting the gains rather than a market that is losing its way.”In the week ahead, the US jobs report is likely to be the event to watch, particularly after recent debates around how much the Federal Reserve is willing to do to control inflation. “The market is obsessed with trying to figure out what the Fed would do next. And I think the jobs report is one of the biggest clues,” Jacky says. “The last payroll number came in softer than expected. So everyone is waiting to see whether it was just a temporary wobble or the start of a broader cooling trend.”For more investing insights, please visit wealth.db.comIn Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as in Asia Pacific this material is considered marketing material, but this is not the case in the U.S. No assurance can be given that any forecast or target can be achieved. Forecasts are based on assumptions, estimates, opinions and hypothetical models which may prove to be incorrect. Past performance is not indicative of future returns.Performance refers to a nominal value based on price gains/losses and does not take into account inflation. Inflation will have a negative impact on the purchasing power of this nominal monetary value. Depending on the current level of inflation, this may lead to a real loss in value, even if the nominal performance of the investment is positive. Investments come with risk. The value of an investment can fall as well as rise and you might not get back the amount originally invested at any point in time. Your capital may be at risk.The services described in this podcast are provided by Deutsche Bank AG or by its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in accordance with appropriate local legislation and regulation. Deutsche Bank AG is subject to comprehensive supervision by the European Central Bank (“ECB”), by Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and by Germany's central bank (“Deutsche Bundesbank”). Brokerage services in the United States are offered through Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., a broker-dealer and registered investment adviser, which conducts investment banking and securities activities in the United States.Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. is a member of FINRA, NYSE and SIPC. Lending and banking services in the United States are offered through Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, member FDIC, and other members of the Deutsche Bank Group.The products, services, information and/or materials referred to within this podcast may not be available for residents of certain jurisdictions. © 2026 Deutsche Bank AG and/or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. This podcast may not be used, reproduced, copied or modified without the written consent of Deutsche Bank AG. 030620 030121

PWTorch editor Wade Keller is joined by PWTorch's Javier Machado to review WWE Smackdown with live chat and caller interactions throughout starting with a thorough discussion on the CM Punk-Cody Rhodes exchange and why it seemed effective and disciplined, but was the crowd engaged or slightly bored? Also, Nick Aldis shows fire and fight and he shares his story of going from pro wrestler to GM. Plus is Chelsea Green the dark horse to become Interim Champ? Are the Tongans with Haku too badass to be successful as heels? A full preview of the entire Summerslam line-up with thoughts on what happens afterward including potentially Kevin Owens, Randy Orton, or Drew McIntyre being a big part of the next few months.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/wade-keller-pro-wrestling-post-shows--3275545/support.

My cats Mac & Cheese (see episode pic) have been having a hard time. I've learned a lot observing their reactive nervous systems because it's so easy to feel compassion for them.This episode uses that extended metaphor to also talk about when AuDHD nervous systems feel reactive, including with meltdowns that can include anger or violence. Depending on how much reactivity is affecting your life, it may require professional help. No matter what, you deserve compassion

⚖️ Can You Get Full Custody Without Going to Court? | Los Angeles Divorce Can you obtain full custody without appearing in court? In many California custody cases, parents who agree on custody arrangements may submit their agreement to the court for review. Depending on the circumstances, a judge may approve the proposed custody order without requiring a formal court hearing. Even when parents agree, the paperwork must still be complete, accurate, and comply with California law. This video explains how uncontested custody agreements work and why proper documentation remains essential.

Burnie and Ashley discuss their personal beef, cow wrangling, monster cow, Nic Cage, stolen film, bison domestication, Spiderman Brand New Day, and Gaelic Football. UPDATE: Now featuring today's episode. Depending on your podcast service you may need to re-download.

In this episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal delivers a rich expository sermon on James 5:1–6, one of the most striking prophetic passages in the New Testament epistles. Drawing on the Jewish literary and cultural context of James's original audience — Jewish Christians scattered from Jerusalem by persecution — Tony unpacks why this text is not a blanket condemnation of wealth, but a devastating judgment oracle against those who hoard riches and oppress the vulnerable. Along the way, he explores the eschatological weight of accumulated wealth, the theology of God's omniscient justice, and the stunning comfort available to the suffering believer. The episode closes by returning to James's thesis: that trials of every kind, including economic oppression, can be counted as joy because of who God is and what He has done in Christ. Key Takeaways James is a deeply Jewish book written to a specific audience — Jewish Christians dispersed from Jerusalem by Saul's persecution, not a general audience of wealthy or Gentile believers. The prophetic "Come now" signals a judgment oracle, not a direct address — James is not rebuking wealthy members of his congregation, but pronouncing eschatological judgment on oppressive landowners using a technique common in Amos, Malachi, and Micah. Hoarding wealth is not morally neutral — it is self-condemning — The corroded gold and moth-eaten garments are not just symbols of decay; they serve as legal evidence against those who refused to use their wealth for God's glory and the good of others. Withholding wages from laborers constitutes a form of murder — In the ancient world, depriving workers of their wages could literally cost them their lives. James draws on Old Testament law to frame predatory economic exploitation as a capital sin. God sees and hears the cries of the oppressed — The wages of defrauded workers "cry out" to the Lord of Hosts, echoing the blood of Abel in Genesis 4. God's justice is not passive or delayed out of ignorance — it is certain and coming. Matthew 25 reframes Christian mercy as care for the body of Christ — The sheep-and-goats judgment is not a general humanitarian mandate, but a specific call to care for persecuted brothers and sisters — and to recognize that mistreating them is mistreating Christ Himself. Trials are counted as joy through the doctrine of imputation — Suffering is not stripped of its pain, but it can be moved from the loss ledger to the profit column because God uses adversity as the instrument of sanctification and glorification. Key Concepts The Prophetic Address: Who Is James Actually Talking To? One of the most common misreadings of James 5:1–6 is assuming James is directly rebuking wealthy Christians in his own congregation. Tony Arsenal corrects this by grounding the passage in its literary and historical context. James employs a well-established prophetic technique — seen in Amos, Malachi, and Micah — of addressing an absent party in order to pronounce judgment on them, while simultaneously comforting those who overhear the oracle. His audience is the dispersed, impoverished Jewish Christians who fled Jerusalem under Saul's persecution. There were almost certainly no wealthy landowners in the room. The "Come now, you rich" is a judgment declaration directed outward, designed to assure the suffering poor that God has seen their oppressor and will act. Far from being a proof-text for radical poverty, the passage is a pastoral comfort wrapped in prophetic fire. Corroded Gold as Legal Evidence Against the Soul James's claim that gold and silver have "corroded" is deliberately shocking — and theologically precise. Gold, uniquely among metals in the ancient world, does not corrode. By saying it has already corroded, James is not making a metallurgical claim but a moral and eschatological one. The accumulated, hoarded wealth of the oppressor has lost its purpose. It sits idle while workers starve, and in doing so it becomes evidence — a legal witness — against its owner in the court of divine justice. Tony draws a direct line between this image and Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about treasures stored on earth being subject to moth and rust. Both brothers — Jesus and James — appear to be drawing on the same shared wisdom, likely rooted in the same household and the same mother's instruction. Unused wealth does not just fail to help others; it actively indicts its holder. Counting It All Joy: The Accounting Logic of Sanctification Tony closes the sermon by returning to James 1:2 — the thesis statement of the entire letter — and unpacking the word "count" as an accounting term, directly related to the doctrine of imputation. Just as righteousness is reckoned to the believer in justification, so suffering can be reckoned as joy in sanctification. This is not a call to pretend pain isn't real, or to perform contentment. It is a theological reframing: what belongs in the loss column of the ledger can, by faith, be moved to the profit side — not because the trial was pleasant, but because God is sovereign, good, and working all things toward the believer's conformity to the image of Christ. The oppressor means their wickedness for evil. God means it for glory. The supreme example is the cross itself — the only truly innocent man, suffering the worst evil ever committed, for the redemption of His people. Memorable Quotes The corrosion of that gold serves as evidence for the condemnation of those who are harming you — and the corrosion of this wealth is an indication of the corrosion of their very souls. He sees your pain. He sees your suffering. He sees your victories even when no one else is celebrating them. He sees you — and that should be a great source of comfort. Imputation is an accounting term. And when we count it all joy, we're taking what should be a red line in the loss ledger — what should be an expense — and we're able to move it to the profit. Not because it didn't hurt, and not because we wanted it to happen, but because our God is good enough to not rob us of the chance to be sanctified. Full Transcript Tony Arsenal: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you." It's always a little, uh, strange to sort of jump into the middle of a series, and, um, you know, Wes is one of the most competent preachers that I know personally, so I trust that he has given you a good and satisfying overview. Uh, but I don't feel like I would be doing my responsibility if I didn't at least touch on a few things, uh, related to the, the intro to James that I think is relevant for this particular passage in a way that maybe is not relevant for the rest of the book. So some of this I hope is review, I, I anticipate is review, but I think it's worth, uh, touching on. James, as you know, is the, the half brother of Jesus. He was the leader of the Jerusalem church, and specifically he was sort of the figurehead of the Jewish church as a whole. Um, the Jewish church was the only church for the very early part of the church's growth. There were always, uh, Gentile believers. Even in the Old Testament, there were Gentiles who trusted in the Lord of Israel and the God of Israel. They were often called God-fearers. They rarely converted all the way to Judaism, but they were sort of seen as an attachment to the Jewish people. They didn't participate in all of the blessings of the Jewish people, but they did participate in most. They often had the same kind of protection. They were in a form of covenant with God. Um, they were able to worship and offer sacrifices. The temple itself had a whole portion of the temple dedicated called the Court of Gentiles, specifically for these Jewish worshipers. And as the church spread, primarily through persecution, which we'll touch base on here in a minute, as the church spread out from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth, it took on a, an increasingly Gentile Greek flavor. As more and more primarily initially Greek converts came into the church, and then of course, as it spread to other sort of non-Hellenistic lands, other, other types of people, other nations, other people groups joined the church, the scriptures which-- the New Testament we receive primarily from Paul, at least in terms of the epistles, um, also began to take on a more Gentile flavor. Not because Paul was a Gentile, but because Paul was ministering primarily to Gentiles What we'll see here is that James is a very Jewish book. I'm sure that along the way there's been several kinds of things pointed out to you to show that, but I wanna show a couple things that not only establish James as the author, James the brother of, of Jesus, but also root the, not only the author, but the audience in a distinctly Jewish Christian, uh, context. So you don't have to turn there, I'll read this, but in Acts, uh, 15, which is the, the great Jerusalem Council, uh, we read this. It says, "With the following letter..." So the, the council meets, they make a decision about what k- what parts of the Jewish law were going to be commended to and recommended, uh, and required for the Christian believers, the Gentile Christian believers, and when they're done, they send this letter to all of, all of the churches. And it says, "With the following letter, the brothers, both apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are at, of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings." Now, I don't know about you, but I always sign my emails the same way, right? I've got, like, my work signature that I have to use, that the, the hospital makes me use with all the proper formatting and colors and fonts, but I always have the same signature. Mine is very simple. I just say, "Thanks," right? I just sign it as, "Thanks," above my signature, and I'm sure you all have that sort of characteristic way you sign a s- sign an email, or maybe it's the way you say goodbye at the end of a phone call. My father-in-law always says, "So long," which is a phrase you don't hear very often, so it's very distinct to him. We all have these little tells in our communication that sort of tip off who they're from. If you turn quickly back over to James 1, so just flip the page, uh, to the left here, he starts his letter by saying, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings." It's the only two letters in the New Testament that we have where the author identifies himself, sends to a sort of generalized audience, and then signs it, "Greetings." Now, James, the brother of Jesus, was the leader of the Jerusalem Church. He was the leader of the Jewish ch- the Jewish Church in general, and he signed the letter coming from the Acts Council as sort of the presiding minister. If, if we were, y- you might call them, like, the moderator of your business meeting, or we would call them the moderator of our presbytery or our session in the Presbyterian context I come from. He was the one who sort of, like, presided over there, and so the letter that went out to the churches was signed in his name and written, drafted by him. So we see this characteristic way that the letter is addressed with this final word, "Greetings," which is not used frequently in the New Testament We also see when we look at the language carefully that the audience of this, uh, of this letter, it's debated and there are good arguments, but i- in my opinion, it's very clear that the audience of this letter is not Jewish Christians in general or, uh, Jews who have not yet converted. There are some people who would say that 'cause they're called the 12 tribes. But instead it is the Jewish Christians who originally dwelled in Jerusalem and were sent out into the countryside after the persecution that was started primarily by Saul. If you look at Acts, Acts 1 which is, uh, the passage where Saul begins to persecute the church or where Saul kinda comes on the scene as the persecutor of the church, there's a couple distinct, um, distinct linguistic markers we should touch base on. Starting in verse one it says, "And p- Saul approved of his execution. And there arose a day-- that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. They were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entered the house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison." When we look at this and we compare it to that, uh, again, that first verse of James where he says to the ones who are scattered, we see that there's a pretty strong linguistic parallel that tells us that the people he has in mind for this letter, the people he's addressing, are the same people who were dispersed or scattered out of Jerusalem in the persecution. When he says to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, that word dispersion is not really a translation. It's what we call a transliteration. So it's not like we've taken a word and sort of given it an English word. We've just changed the word, the letters over to English letters. In Greek, the word is diaspora, dispersion, and in, uh, Acts 1, the verb used to, to sort of describe this scattering of them is diaspero. And it is a picture of scattering seed. This is what a farmer would do. So it's not even the normal word we would use when someone is fleeing persecution. It's this idea that God has scattered Christians out into the world, in this case by persecution. He scattered them out into the world to be planted. A lot of this is where we get phrases from Tertullian about the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Now, why does this matter? As I mentioned, we often think in Gentile categories when we're reading the New Testament, and for good reason. One, we're all, all Gentiles, I'm presuming. I, I don't, I don't think-- I think I mentioned this last time, and no one came up and corrected me. I don't think anyone here is ethnically Jewish with ancestry that they're directly aware of, you know, where they trace their lineage directly back. Europe is a, a big amalgamation of just about everything, so most of us probably have a smattering of different ethnicities. But none of us are ethnically Jewish to the idea that we would, uh, identify as such in the same way. And even if we were, we've been raised and grown up in a Gentile context. We live in the West. We have-- We think in different categories. And what's more is most of the New Testament is written primarily to Gentiles by someone who is ministering to Gentiles. So Paul uses a fair amount of, of Hebraisms or things that are related to the Old Testament. Of course, he's explaining the Old Testament, and he makes ample reference to the Old Testament because that is the word of God, and it is profitable for our teaching, our correction, our reproof, and ultimately for our, our sanctification. But he uses metaphors and language in a way that is not common to the Israel context that Jesus and James and Peter and the other apostles were raised in. We don't have time to go there, but there's even some metaphors that Paul uses that are actually used the opposite way in, uh, in the more Hebraic Jewish, uh, epistles we have. One example that comes to mind is, um, Paul looks at the concept of milk, and that's not necessarily a good thing, right? It's not a bad thing, but it's what immature believers use, right? They can't handle the meat of the Bible. They have to be given the milk of the gospel before they can progress to the meat. In the Book of Hebrews, which I don't think was written by Paul, and in other places, Peter uses milk as a way to talk about nourishment, right? We think of the land flowing with milk and honey. Milk was not seen as some sort of substandard food that was only for babies. It was seen as, like, the richest, best thing that you could eat. We all have a linguistic environment that we grow up in. We all have a shared vernacular. You know, if I say something like, "You can't get there from here," everyone knows what that means. Obviously, you can get there from here, but you have to take this circuitous route. We know what that means. I think if we went around the room, we probably would find that there is this shared language. And then if we took individual families, we'd find that even within those families, there's further narrowing down of sort of like inside jokes and words that are used in ways that are not necessarily the same as others So when we read James, or when we read the letters of Peter or the letters of John, we should default to thinking more along the lines of comparing them to the words of Christ in the Gospel, first and foremost, and then to the Old Testament before we start to think about them necessarily comparing them to Ja-- or to Paul or to other kind of first century Hellenistic literature. That's not, of course, to say that Paul and James contradict. I'm sure that we went through a long explanation with much detail when you got to James chapter two, which is, of course, the most famous example. Paul uses the word justification or justify in a legal sense to make or to declare someone to be righteous. It's the verdict that the judge delivers, and it communicates the status. It actually performs what it says. When the judge says, "I find you not guilty," it changes your status from being potentially guilty to being cleared of all charges. Paul uses it slightly differently. He's not using it in the sense of to make someone righteous or to declare them righteous. He's using it to say they've been shown to be righteous. They've been validated. They've been vindicated. And if we get that mixed up, that's the source of all sorts of confusion. So when we come to this passage, and we'll get there, I promise, when we come to this passage, we have to understand some of the metaphors and the language that's being used draws from an existing body of shared cultural language that is foreign to us and is in some ways foreign to the rest of the New Testament, apart from what we see in the Gospels And it's important to remember, and this is why it's so key to land, that the audience of this letter is the persecuted, poor Jewish Christians who probably had a fairly comfortable life, relatively speaking, living in Jerusalem. These are city folks. These are people that live in Jerusalem or farm into the fields immediately around Jerusalem. They were established. They owned land. They probably had family that they had to leave, and now they're scattered out into the country with nothing. They're sent out into the world with no jobs, no family connections, no social welfare. Because they've left the Jewish faith, at least from the perspective of the Jews, they can't even go to their Jewish brothers and sisters and rely on the hospitality that's required in the law of Moses This is so important when we think about how James opens the letter and delivers what I think is his thesis statement. "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of every kind." Trials like not knowing where the next meal is gonna come from, not knowing where the next roof over your head is, not being sure you can feed your children. We all face real trials and tribulations in our life. Some of them are related to our faith, and some is just the fallen human condition in the fallen world we live in. But we're talking here about a totally different category of, uh, trial and persecution than most of us hopefully will ever experience That brings us to our actual passage now. James opens up this section with a linguistic marker that signifies this is a change in topic. He says, "Come now," or another way to translate it might be, "Now listen. Listen up." When my son is doing something that, uh, I need him to stop or I need to give him instructions, I hold him by his shoulders and I say, "Look at my eyes. I want your eyes right here. Look at my eyes." That's what Paul is doing. He's stopping and he's interrupting the flow of language. This shows us this is a new topic and a new audience. James is not speaking to rich Christians in his audience. First, 'cause there likely weren't any rich Christians directly in his audience. Remember, these are the, the poor Christians scattered out into the Judean countryside, into Samaria He's using a technique that's really common in the prophets. It's common in Jesus, where he's addressing the people who are not really listening as a way to establish that they will be judged, to hold them accountable, but also to comfort those who are hearing the message. This is a form of prophetic address. We see this in Amos, where he's chastising the Jewish leaders. Uh, in Malachi and Micah, this happens. Malachi is primarily, at least initially, is primarily, uh, a book that is railing against the rich leaders in Jerusalem who had oppressed their own brothers and sisters. The chances that those Jewish cr- uh, Jewish leaders were reading his prophecy or hearing his prophecy is pretty slim. So he was addressing a different group to establish the judgment that he was proclaiming on another party. Jesus does this when he says like, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees." There were probably scribes and Pharisees in the audience there, but he wasn't just talking to the people in front of them. He was pronouncing a judgment oracle, a judgment prophecy on all people who fit that category, and James is doing the same thing here James is not opposing wealth generally. Sometimes James is used as kind of a New Testament example to justify the idea that we should all be poor and wear shabby clothing and walk around barefoot and dirty all the time. Right? This is a key passage that's used, uh, in parts of the church that really emphasize sort of a poverty-based lifestyle. Think of like the wandering monks of the Middle Ages or the, the, um, sort of more radical exclusionists that exist even in our day. I remember when I was in college, I was really enamored with this figure named Shane Claiborne. Some of you have probably heard of him, and I remember I was so impressed because he, he didn't buy new shoes. He just cut new shoes out of duct tape and put them back together. Now, there's some, you know, there's some rugged, uh, rugged get-it-done-ness that, uh, I think us, uh, New Englanders can appreciate, but God does not call us to wear duct tape shoes, at least not universally. I'm not gonna comment on whether he calls Shane Claiborne to do that. I also don't think Shane Claiborne does that anymore. Um, some of us he may call to a lifestyle of poverty in association with a mission field or in association with a specific calling. He does not call us generally to be poor or to not gain wealth What he is opposing here is the refusal to use wealth appropriately for God's glory and the accumulation of wealth just for wealth's sake We'll see that as we unpack the language here a little bit. He establishes that he's not just talking about the earthly hoarding of wealth, as though somehow the very act of accumulating wealth was itself the problem. What he's doing is he's pronouncing an eschatological judgment on those who hoard wealth and use it to oppress others. We see here he says, "Come now, you rich, and weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you." Th- that word weep and howl, those are li-- those are words that are most commonly used in prophetic literature to describe the final cry of anguish. Think about the weeping and gnashing of teeth that Jesus talks about. This is the language he's using. He's talking about the final estate of those who refuse to submit their wealth to God He says, "Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be the evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasures in the last days." Now, remember what we said. We, we should read this not in light of some general wisdom, although it is general wisdom that if we accumulate wealth, it tends to not actually go well for us if we're not utilizing it in God-honoring ways. But we should read this in light of the most obvious connection, his big brother, Jesus, who taught his people, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be." To maybe land this linguistic, uh, this linguistic connection a little more, I don't know, vibrantly, I'm gonna speculate a little bit. So if you don't like it, then you can disregard it. This is not God's Word. This is a speculation. I can just imagine little Jesus, little nine-year-old Jesus, and probably little six or seven-year-old James and the rest of their siblings, and there's quite a few of them. And we have Joseph, uh, who maybe at this time was still living, although probably not. We know he was living until Jesus was later, you know, 12, he was still around, but we don't know exactly when he left the picture. But he was a carpenter, and he was not, probably not overly wealthy. Uh, they had had to pick up and move, you know, cross-country anyways. They-- We don't know exactly where they were from initially, but they went to Bethlehem, and then they returned to Nazareth. They probably didn't have a lot. There were a lot of mouths to feed and only one business. They didn't have a farm. They didn't own livestock that we know of. I can just imagine a time when little J- little James or one of his sisters was frustrated about the fact that they didn't have anything. And I could picture Mary getting down and going, "Do not store up treasures in, in, uh, in heaven or on Earth. It's all gonna waste away." The same way we might tell our children kind of a, a moral kind of story. Sometimes we have this picture, last time I was here I, I spoke on Philippians 2, we have this idea that Jesus was somehow like Superman, that he, he was just pretending to be a normal human most of the time. As it touches his humanity, as, as we think about Jesus as a human, he had a, his own human set of thinking faculties, his own human knowledge. He grew in wisdom and stature is what Luke teaches us. Well, where did he get some of this wisdom? There's a good reasonable argument to be made that some of the pr- more proverbial type sayings that we see in Christ, that they actually come from the wisdom of his mother and father. And a really good reason to believe that is James relies on the same exact, uh, sort of proverbial wisdom to l- land his point. He doesn't create his own metaphor, he goes back to, at the very least we can say he goes back to the words of Christ. That's a very safe position to take. But this is the shared linguistic context that they both grew up in And he says, "You've done this in the last days." Now, the, the phrase last days in the Bible, uh, in the New Testament generally refers to the time period from Christ's resurrection to his return. We, for a lot of reasons, think about it as kind of like that climactic end period in time. Depending on your, your persuasion, maybe this is when the Antichrist comes, or maybe this is before or after, or maybe during the time when the church is raptured. But in either case, we think of that sort of last period in time before Christ finally comes back. But the New Testament writers are really talking about the entire duration, from Christ's resurrection to his return is what they're referring to. But it does have in view this idea that we are in the last times. The, the final judgment is not necessarily strictly something that's out there in the future. We are living in the last days now, and so what we do and what we say and, and how we worship and if we worship is eschatology. It is the theology of the last times He also positions this as though this is a universal thing going on with those who hoard wealth. This is a very shocking image. Um, we have very good ways to preserve things in our modern world, right? We have ways to m- to make, uh, stainless steel that won't rust, or at least won't rust quickly. But most things in the ancient world, even most precious metals, corroded. Um, I remember when I was growing up, there was this project in my hometown. I lived in a, a little town called White Bear Lake in, in, um, Minnesota, although little is relative. It's pretty big compared to most of what we have out here. And I remember when I was maybe 12 or 13 years old, they had this big building project to build this brand-new, beautiful lakeside pavilion in the center of town, and it w- just gleamed in the sun. It was so gorgeous, and it was made of copper, and everybody loved it, and two years later, it was bright green. I think it's still bright green. I think they figured out it wasn't worth repairing, so they, they just, they just make sure it doesn't keep getting worse, and at some point, I'm sure they either have or will tear it down. But the one metal in the ancient world that didn't do this was gold. It's part of why gold is such a durable measurement of wealth is because it doesn't wear out. It doesn't corrode. It's very soft. It's very easy to damage it, which is why we don't build statues out of it, or we don't build, uh, buildings out of it usually, but it didn't corrode. So when James says here, "Not only your silver, which tarnishes and corrodes, but your silver and gold have corroded." Not are corroding, but have corroded. The rich hearer of this is probably, you know, sitting around like Scrooge McDuck with a pile of gold coins thinking, "Ah, it looks pretty good to me." And what James is saying is, "No, no, no. No, it's corroded. It's eating away at your heart. It's lost its value because you refuse to use it, and so it sits in a pile doing nothing for no one, except serving to further your own condemnation." This is such a crazy, shocking situation that the insanity of not using your wealth, period, the insanity of sitting on your wealth in the ancient world is going to serve as a form of evidence justifying the condemnation of these wicked fools And further, the corrosion of this wealth is an indication of the corrosion of their very souls. There's something about money. I was-- When I was here a couple times before, I preached one of the wealth passages out of Ecclesiastes, and there's something about money that has a unique way of really, really wrecking us. Either we don't have it and we want it, or we have it and we don't wanna lose it, or we have it and we don't spend it wisely. It seems like there's an infinite number of ways to screw it up. And we landed last time that the gospel is good news because with the nearly infinite ways of screwing it up, we're going to screw it up. But the one way that he talks about screwing it up here is hoarding it and sitting on it and not using it Moving on into verses four and five, James moves us now to a more sort of temporal register. He starts out by talking about what wealth is and what it's doing and how it will ultimately affect the entire life and eternity of those in his targeted audience, those he's proclaiming this prophetic, uh, judgment against. But in verse four, he moves back to the behaviors that are being, uh, being engaged in to show the state of these people's souls. He says, "Behold, the wages of the laborers you, who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." James here points at the, at the behaviors that show this hoarding behavior, and he does it for a number of reasons. One, he needs to call out sin. That's part of the role of a Christian, and especially a leader or a minister in the church, is, um, to not only call out sin in the body of, of Christ, but in a, I think a very particular way, and there's all sorts of, uh, all sorts of theological controversies flying on around about Christian nationalism and other associated things. Some of it is just the spirit of the age. Um, post-COVID, there's a, a real strong sense that our government has failed us and we need to replace it with something else. But there is a, a true way, and I, I think some of those things are a little misguided, but there's a true way that the church, particularly her leaders, should be speaking to the culture around us, and yes, even to the government, to proclaim the truth of God into a wicked and godless culture. This might take the form o- of a m- minister who goes to a town hall meeting to speak out against a gambling association that's going to be forming, or a, an elder in the church or a deacon in the church who goes to speak to, uh, to the city hall or to the state legislature about the wickedness of abortion and about what we see it does to women's lives when they are fooled into thinking that this is the right thing for them. Again, the church is not the state, and the state is not the church, and we should be very careful not to cross those lines for all sorts of reasons. But we as a culture, as a Christian culture, in the United States particularly, have lost sight of our responsibility to speak truth in all circumstances to those in power So James is doing that, of course. But even more so, this is a way that he establishes for his direct audience, for the Jewish poor Christians who have been scattered in this diaspora, in this dispersion. He looks at them in a sense and says, "I see you. I see what's happening to you." And as God's representative, as his chosen voice for this message, as his inspired author, God sees you too This goes back again, the first two chapters of James serve as kind of a thesis statement and table of contents for the whole book. We get an idea of what may have been happening, the actual, uh, acts that were being engaged in, in, in chapter two verse six, he says, "You have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?" James has in mind here a form of predatory land purchasing, where the rich were sort of sweeping up property. They were sweeping it up, and then they were charging probably exorbitant prices to those who would lease the land to try to eke out a living. Does that sound at all like any of our current context, right? When's the last time any of us have tried to buy a house and found anything reasonable? Well, a large part of that is that there are big companies that are scooping up all the land and buying all the, the developments. Now, I'm not commenting on those particular situations. I don't know those people. I don't know their hearts, and some of those things actually are doing good things for the community. But we're familiar with this idea of someone who will purchase a resource, who will then jack the price up in order to turn a profit on it. I'm not opposed to turning a profit. Y- y- yeah, it takes money to run a business, and you have to, you have to recuperate those funds if your business is going to survive. But there's a, there's a way that that can be done that is a predatory act These rich landowners were getting fat on those that they were victimizing In our, in our modern world, we tend to think of someone who is overweight as unhealthy, for good reason, right? Too much weight, and I say that with someone with a little too much padding around the middle, so no, no judgment on this, but too much weight is not healthy, right? We hear that from our doctors, that there's a healthy weight range and there's an unhealthy weight range. In the ancient world, obesity was not the concern, right? Malnutrition was the concern. And so when you see, uh, a king in the Old Testament who's, who's noted to be fat, that's not always negative. Sometimes it is, but he's noted to be fat or he's noted to be large. Even the word for glory, I'm sure you've heard this before, the word for glory in the Old Testament has to do with being heavy. So this idea of weightiness or, um, being able to eat enough to actually gain weight instead of being thin was seen as a good thing, but not when you use it as a way to victimize other people. A person who gathers wealth honestly and enjoys it, that's, that's Proverbs right there. That's the Book of Ecclesiastes in its sort of positive sense, is that we, when we accumulate wealth and we use it for God's glory, it's perfectly okay for us to also use it for our enjoyment. God wants us to enjoy the fruit of our labor. But when we accumulate wealth and use it as a way to gain power over someone and to abuse them, that is what James is railing against here And ultimately, with the audience that James is writing to, this is a form of murder. This is why he says, "You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter." Because a person who can't feed their family in the Old Testament or in the New Testament era was likely to see them die. There are not a ton of people in modern America that are starving to death on the streets. It's not to say it doesn't happen. It's not to say that there's not things like food insecurity or malnutrition, but there are, there are plenty of places people can go to get their basic food needs met. It was not like that-- It's not like that in most of the world now, and it certainly was not like that in the ancient world. And so a, a landowner who again refuses, we're talking about the Jewish landowners, refuses to obey the Jewish law to leave some leftovers for the poor, and instead gleans all the way to the corner so that they can turn a little bit of extra pro-profit, is not only sinning against the Old Testament law, but is committing murder in the strictest sense by refusing to preserve the life of these poor, uh, Christians who are destitute And again, James is encouraging his readers here that the Lord has not ignored their plight. We can think back to the Book of Habakkuk, where Habakkuk basically lodges a lawsuit against God, saying, "You are not paying attention. You're not doing your thing. You're not being faithful to your covenant." And God says, "Let me show you how faithful to my covenant I am. The Chaldeans are on the way." And Habakkuk is like, "Whoa, wait a second here. That's not what I had in mind." God sees the oppression of the poor. He knows when His people are targeted. He knows when children are abused or when widows are ignored. He knows when the government does something to shut down a church, or when the medical institution refuses to acknowledge your personal rights. He sees those things, and He's not ignorant, and He's not static. He's not sleeping on those things. The purpose here is to comfort the oppressed by showing that God is not ignorant of what has happened to them. Just two quick Old Testament examples that use similar language. In Genesis 4, we read of Cain and his murder of Abel, and in verse eight it says, "Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?' And the Lord said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.'" Numbers, uh, 35 verses 30 says, "If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. And you shall accept no ransom from him who has fled to the city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land except for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it." There's a rich history in the Old Testament of language of inanimate things, land, blood, wealth, other kinds of things that give testimony to God in some way, and specifically of these inanimate, uh, impersonal things testifying to the sin of the people that dwell around them. Even Christ says, "If these people do not worship me, the rocks will cry out." Now, the rocks are not literally crying out, although it certainly would be within God's power to make the rocks sing. But Christ is not saying in that passage that the rocks are going to form mouths and begin singing Hosanna or whatever song they might have been doing. What he's saying is that the very rocks themselves give testimony to the glory and goodness of God. So even if the people around here fail to do so, the entire rest of creation is doing so, and that is what James is saying here. My dear brothers and sisters scattered in the dispersion who have nothing, and in society's eyes are nothing, some of you are facing persecution. Some of you will be killed for your faith, but God sees because the wealth that is being accumulated on the breaking of your own backs is crying out. The corrosion of that gold serves as evidence for the condemnation of those who are harming you We often want justice in the moment. I think we always want justice in the moment, don't we? I think it's a really hard discipline to say, "That person wronged me, but I'm okay letting God sort it out." That is a hard pill to swallow, but it is often the pill that we have to take. It's the medicine that God uses to further our justification, our j- our, uh, excuse me, our sanctification Paul says, you know, "Do not take vengeance. Let the Lord do that." We can trust, and this is where the comfort of this passage comes for us, brothers and sisters, we can trust that when we are wronged, that when someone has done something to us that is a violation of God's law, that that sin will be punished. Now, when we're dealing with other Christians, that sin has already been punished, and so it is not, it is not appropriate for us to hold onto that and to take vengeance. That's what the parable of the unmerciful servant is all about If I as a Christian refuse to forgive my brother and sister when they've wronged me, it's me saying that I'm a better judge of their sin and I'm a better executioner than the Lord is when he punished that sin on the cross. But that sin was not atoned for when we're talking about unbelievers. When we're talking about those who will ultimately end their earthly life and find themselves waking up in flames, that sin has not been atoned for, and so God will have his justice, and we will have our justice. We won't turn there, but in Revelation, we're familiar with the passage, I think it's chapter six, where the martyred saints are under the throne and they say, "How long, O Lord?" Well, God doesn't answer their question, but he gives them new clothes. When Job cries out and he's, he's saying, "I don't understand why this is happening. Why are you targeting me, God? Why, why are you a hunter with your arrows in my liver?" God doesn't tell him why, but he says, essentially, "I'm God and you're just going to have to trust me that this is right." We see a very similar, uh, kind of situation here when we think about when, uh, when Abraham, uh, when God tells Abraham what he's about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, and then Abraham negotiates, apparently negotiates with God, uh, trying to secure the salvation of the city for the sake of the righteous. And we read starting in verse 20 of chapter 18, he says, "The Lord said to, to Abraham," he says, " 'Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. If not, I will know.' " God is always seeing and investigating the sin of people We're, we're teaching my son, August, the children's catechism, which is a, a great resource. Um, and one of the questions is, "Can you see God?" And the answer is, "No, but he always sees me." Now that may feel at first to some people like a little bit of a heavy-handed answer, but knowing that God sees us is not just there to correct our sin. It should do that, right? Even the secret sins we commit in the dark when, when we're not being watched by anyone else, even, even those God sees. But do you know what else He sees? He sees your pain. He sees your suffering. He sees your victories even when no one else is celebrating them. He sees your progress. He sees you, and that should be a great source of comfort Now this passage, especially verse six, can be a little bit hard to apply because although we're the targeted audience, we're not the target of the judgment oracle. So I think what we have to do, we have to, we have to think about this in light of the way that God talks about the judgment of unbelievers in other places in the scripture, and how that helps us to understand kind of what our, what our status is. If you'll take your Bibles and open to Matthew chapter 25, I think the, um, the account here of the goat and sheep judgment, uh, is instructive for us Starting in verse 31, it says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory and the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King answered them, 'Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those on the left, 'Depart from me for you for, uh, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, I was naked and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also, uh, they also will say, answer saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not minister to you?' Then he will answer them saying, 'Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Now, this passage is sometimes understood as a general command to feed the poor or the sick, or to visit those in prisons, or any of the f- the sort of mercy ministry things that, that, um, are mentioned here. And those are all things that Christians should do, right? We should be engaged in, um, in mercy ministry to the poor, to those who are destitute. We should be mindful and thoughtful of those who have needs around us. What this passage is teaching, though, is not a general command to feed all people, but a specific command to care for your brothers and sisters in Christ when they have a need He doesn't say to the righteous, "You did these to everyone." He says, "Whatever you did to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me." All of the things that are listed here, the, the six mercy ministries that are listed by Christ here, are things that persecuted Christians were suffering at the time, persecuted Jew- Jewish Christians, and that would be common experiences for, for Jewish Christians and for all persecuted Christians. Right? They're hungry. They don't have food. Our diaspora Jewish Christians don't have land to farm, and even if they're able to scrape together enough funding to lease out a farm, they're being, uh, they're being totally overwhelmed by the cost of that. The sort of homeowners association dues of these pyramid schemes that were going on in the first century, they were so exorbitant that it wasn't even subs- subsistence farming. Christians were being thrown in, uh, in prison. They didn't have enough money to replace their clothes when it wore out. They couldn't have access to clean water. We take clean water as such a, such a basic thing, and it's so easy. You just turn on the tap, or you just go to the store and you buy a bottle of $7 water. It wasn't like this in the first century. If you didn't have a well, you didn't have water, unless you had someone who cared enough to share this precious resource with you. And so what Christ is saying to, to his people, both in the immediate audience on the Sermon on the Mount, uh, and in this, the Olivet Discourse here, what he's saying to his people is when someone in the body of Christ does not have what they need, the body of Christ should step up and make sure that that is the case, that they take care of that person. And likewise, he's saying to those who are not a part of the body of Christ, "Depart from me, I never knew you." Now, the intro to this, why it sometimes is called a parable, is the sheep and the goats. We sometimes go way too far into the arena of comparing the behavior of sheeps with the behavior of the people here, right? Sheep are nice, they're affable, they listen to you. In reality, from what I understand, sheep are pretty dumb and can be very stubborn, right? And then we, we read and we go, "Goats are stubborn, they're rebellious, they're not really good for anything." Well, there's a reason people have goats on farms. They, they can be stubborn, right? They can be destructive, but they also serve a purpose. So the point here is not that sheep are good and goats are bad. The point is that sheep are not goats and goats are not sheep. And, uh, another point that comes with this is sheep don't become goats by behaving like goats, and goats don't become sheep by acting like sheep. I have some friends that will tell you they have very affectionate, friendly, lovable goats, right? I'd, I would... If I could get my kids one of those little pygmy goats that everybody loves, I would do that, 'cause they can be very kind, very sweet, and they're very smart. But they're not sheep. And if you read this passage carefully, this fact that those who are taken to the right are, are in fact taken to the right is not because they fed the poor. It's not because they ministered to Christ by feeding the least of these. They did those things because they were part of the kingdom The King says to those on His right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The sheep on the right were always going to be the sheep on the right. They were predestined according to the counsel of God's will before all time to live and walk in good works. That's just Ephesians 2 there. That's also just James 2 there. You have faith, I will show you my faith by my works. This is evidence language, loved ones Likewise, the ones who are told to depart into eternal darkness were also predestined not to inherit this kingdom. No kingdom was prepared for them before the foundation of the world. They have no inheritance. They have nothing. They will end up in the state that they are trying to impose on these poor Jewish Christians. They will end up in the state that they may be trying to impose on some of us in this room And for the final verse here in, in chapter five, in verse six here, there's a lot of discussion and debate in the commentaries about who the identity of this righteous one is. It says, "You've condemned and murdered the righteous person, he does not resist you." Now, some commentators will take the fact that this is the singular righteous person, that he has been murdered and h- was condemned, and will take this as a reference to Christ. And that would, would make good sense, right? The Jewish, the wealthy Jewish landowners, the wealthy Jews in Jerusalem who per- who persecuted and cast out, um, the Christians, they were in the same group of people who condemned and murdered Jesus And at least at the time of writing this, and in many ways in our own day, God is not necessarily resisting them. He's allowing them to store up judgment for the coming day of wrath There are others who will take this as sort of the hypothetical singular, right? The righteous one or the righteous person is this, uh, representative hypothetical person that represents all of the persecuted Christians. And so it's more like saying, um, to the, the wealthy landowners who are persecuting Christians, "You have condemned and murdered the Christians, the righteous people, and we do not resist you." Now, at the end of the day, it's, it's always good to have good, sober, well-intentioned, text-based debates about what the Bible means. We can and we should try to convince others, uh, when we think they're wrong about what the scripture means. So that's not what I'm saying here. But in many ways, which of those two perspectives it actually is doesn't change the interpretation of this passage. Like we read in Matthew 25, like we read in Acts 9 when Christ comes and confronts Saul, what you do to God's people, you are doing to Christ himself. What you do to the body, you have done to the head. It's a little bit weird to say that when I stub my toe, I injure my head, but that's true, right? I don't injure my toe as though it's some separate piece. It's not like I'm a Lego man where I can just swap out a hand that gets cracked and put it back on. When I injure my toe, I injure myself. My whole body is injured even though it's specific to a part of my body. When you-- when someone persecutes you, when they, uh, try to extort your wealth, your funds, when they try to harm your body, when they try to take away your children, all things that are happening not just out there in the world, but in our country, even in our own region. When they try to tell you that because you don't wanna play a basketball game, that you can't play sports at all. When a city taxes a portion of a church's property because they don't think it's being used for religious purposes, they are doing that to Jesus Christ himself, and God will not be mocked This should call us both to faithfulness and to encouragement How people treat Christ or how people treat Christ's people, including how we trust, tr- uh, treat Christ's people, shows us what we think about Christ. The people who take care of the church do so because they love God, and they do it out of a regenerated heart that already loves God. And the people who hate the church do it because they hate Christ, and they do it out of their wickedness and out of their wicked heart This brings us back again to the thesis statement of James. "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." And then he says later in that, uh, first chapter in verse nine, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower fails, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." Now, you're all coming up to the end of James here. Um, we probably have two, two more sermons, I would guess, and the rest of this chapter is reinforcing this. It's unpacking for the immediate audience and therefore for us, it's unpacking that although the rich have their punishment coming to them, that likewise our consolation, our comfort from Christ is also coming to us. He closes the whole letter out, he returns to his thesis statement to say, "I'm not going to pretend that the trials you're going through are joyful, but you can count it all joy." You can reckon it, you can impute it as joy, my brothers and sisters. You can put it in the joy column instead of the t- the pain column, right? We had discussion about the beautiful word imputation in the announcements and scripture reading in the beginning here Imputation is a, is an accounting term. And when we count it all joy, we're taking what should be a red line in the, in the loss ledger, right? We're taking what should be an expense, and we're able to move it to the profit. We're able to move it to the positive side, not because it didn't hurt and not because we wanted it to happen, but because our God is good enough to not rob us of the chance to be sanctified When we are oppressed and opposed, those who are oppressing and oppose us mean it for evil, just like Joseph's brothers, uh, and Pharaoh, and all sorts of wicked men in, in the Old Testament and in our own world. Pilate, Herod, you mean, you name it in the Bible, this applies. They meant their wicked acts for wicked things, but God, rich in mercy, works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And what is that purpose? That we might be transformed into the image of Christ so that Christ may be glorified and He may be the firstborn among many brothers. When we face trials and suffering of every kind, it leads us to our sanctification and to our ultimate glorification. We do not earn those things. We don't sanctify ourselves any more than we justify ourselves, or that any more than we will glorify ourselves or will raise ourselves from the dead. That is all God's work from start to finish. But God does use these things that He brings us through as a way to bring about that work It's like he bends us over the hammer, over the anvil of trials, and he hammers us until we become a sharp sword in the hand of, in his hand. Or he polishes us with a rough cloth until we become a smooth, beautiful gem, right? Think of any number of refining things that need to be done. It always involves, if the thing was, uh, was a person, it always involves something that would hurt a little bit. It always involves a little bit of damage to wear away the impurities. Our sanctification and our glorification is no different than that. He uses adversity. He uses the wicked actions and intentions of, of evil men and women. He uses those things to glorify us. So although we should never, uh, we should never seek those things, right? You don't have to go and make yourself the soft target to the wicked people. It's okay to keep your head down. There's nothing wrong with that. The Jewish Christians were probably doing their best to keep their heads down most of the time, and that's fine. There's not any words in scripture about being a coward if you don't, if you don't put a target on your back. But your target is gonna get there eventually, and that's not a bad thing. We can welcome that. We can count it as joy because of who God is and what he's done. The supreme act of suffering, the supreme act of, of evil happened to the only innocent person there ever was, and it happened to him for us.  this episode is available below.

Learn how to build a sales process that creates trust, scales with your team, and frees founders from being the only person who can close deals. Most founders don't actually have a lead problem—they have a sales dependency problem. When every important sales conversation depends on the founder, growth eventually hits a ceiling. Revenue becomes unpredictable, hiring salespeople becomes frustrating, and the business struggles to scale beyond the founder's personal capacity. In this episode, Charles Gaudet sits down with sales expert, author, and military veteran Dan Rochon, author of Teach to Sell, to explore how founders can replace high-pressure sales tactics with a repeatable, trust-based system that anyone on the team can learn. Together, they discuss why great sales conversations feel more like teaching than convincing, how rapport and curiosity outperform pressure, and why the best sales organizations build systems—not superheroes. If you're looking to scale your business beyond seven figures without remaining the bottleneck, this episode is packed with practical strategies you can implement immediately. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Why founders become the biggest sales bottleneck Many entrepreneurs unknowingly build businesses where every important sales conversation depends on them. That creates growth ceilings, limits valuation, and makes scaling nearly impossible. Stop selling the product—sell the transformation Customers don't buy features. They buy the journey from their current frustrations to their desired outcome. Great salespeople sell the destination, not the vehicle. Trust beats pressure every time High-pressure sales tactics may occasionally generate short-term wins, but they destroy long-term relationships. The best sales conversations help prospects make confident decisions instead of forcing them into one. Curiosity is one of the most valuable sales skills Exceptional salespeople spend far more time asking thoughtful questions than delivering presentations. The quality of the conversation is determined by the quality of the questions. Rapport isn't small talk Real rapport comes from demonstrating genuine interest, doing your homework before the call, actively listening, and meeting prospects where they are—not asking about the weather. Systematize your sales process before hiring salespeople Many founders hire experienced sales reps without documenting how their own sales process works. Without a repeatable playbook, even talented salespeople struggle to succeed. How to interview great salespeople Instead of relying on resumes, role-play real sales conversations during the interview process. Watching candidates think, listen, ask questions, and handle objections reveals far more than previous experience alone. Teach your team to sell—not just close When your sales process is built around education instead of persuasion, it becomes far easier to train new team members, create consistency, and remove founder dependency. Emotional intelligence is a competitive advantage The best salespeople recognize changes in energy, adapt their communication style, and prioritize understanding before attempting to influence. The best businesses build trust that scales Predictable revenue comes from predictable sales conversations. When trust, messaging, and communication become systems rather than individual talents, businesses become significantly easier to scale—and ultimately more valuable. RESOURCES MENTIONED: Dan Rochon Website: https://teachtosellbook.com Book: Teach to Sell Follow Charles Gaudet & Predictable Profits: Facebook: https://facebook.com/PredictableProfits Instagram: https://instagram.com/predictableprofits X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/charlesgaudet LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/charlesgaudet Learn More: Predictable Profits: https://www.predictableprofits.com Free Founder Community: https://www.predictableprofits.com/community Join Here: https://start.predictableprofits.com/community Growing your business is hard—but it doesn't have to be. The Beyond 7 Figures podcast brings you the strategies, systems, and conversations that help founders build businesses that are more predictable, scalable, and profitable. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, review, and subscribe so you never miss another conversation designed to help you build beyond seven figures.   Mixed & Edited by Next Day Podcast info@nextdaypodcast.com

An individual retirement account, or IRA, can be a valuable tool for long-term saving. But like any financial tool, it needs to be understood and used wisely. Proverbs 18:15 says, “An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” That's good wisdom for every area of life, including how we manage money. As stewards, we don't want to make financial decisions simply because an account is popular or because someone told us we ought to have one. We want to understand the tools available to us and use them with wisdom, patience, and trust in the Lord. So, how well do you really know your IRA? Let's walk through a few common misconceptions with a simple true-or-false quiz. True or false: You can contribute to an IRA even if you already have a retirement plan through your employer. True. You can contribute to a traditional or Roth IRA even if you also participate in a 401(k), 403(b), or another workplace retirement plan. In 2026, the total amount you can contribute across all your traditional and Roth IRAs combined is $7,500, or $8,600 if you're age 50 or older. You'll need enough taxable compensation to support your contribution, and income limits may affect whether you can deduct a traditional IRA contribution or contribute directly to a Roth IRA. The important point is that having access to a workplace retirement plan does not necessarily prevent you from contributing to an IRA. These accounts can often work together as part of a thoughtful long-term strategy. True or false: An IRA is an account that holds investments, not an investment by itself. True. Think of an IRA as a container. The account itself provides certain tax advantages, but what happens to the money depends largely on the investments you choose to hold inside it. Depending on your IRA custodian, those investments might include mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, stocks, bonds, money market funds, or other investment options. That distinction matters. Sometimes someone will say, “I bought an IRA,” when what they really mean is that they opened an IRA and then invested the money inside it. The IRA is the account. The investments within that account determine how the money is put to work. There are also limits on what an IRA can hold. IRA funds generally cannot be invested in life insurance or collectibles. Certain precious metals may qualify if they meet specific IRS requirements and are held properly. Self-directed IRAs can provide access to more specialized investments, but greater flexibility can also bring greater complexity and risk. As with any financial decision, it's important to understand what you own and why you own it. True or false: Your will determines who receives your IRA, regardless of the beneficiary listed on the account. False. An IRA allows you to name one or more beneficiaries who will receive the account when you die. Those assets generally transfer directly to the beneficiaries outside of probate. In most cases, the beneficiary designation on the account takes precedence over what your will says. That's why beneficiary designations shouldn't be treated as something you set once and forget. Review them periodically, especially after major life changes such as marriage, divorce, the death of a spouse, or the birth or adoption of a child. Estate planning is about more than documents. It's about making your intentions clear and preparing well for those who may one day steward what you leave behind. True or false: Traditional IRAs are subject to required minimum distributions. True. Traditional IRAs are generally subject to required minimum distributions, commonly called RMDs. For those subject to the current age-73 rule, the first distribution generally must be taken by April 1 of the year following the year you turn 73. After that, annual RMDs are typically due by December 31. Failing to withdraw the required amount can result in a significant tax penalty, though that penalty may be reduced when the mistake is corrected promptly. Roth IRAs work differently. The original owner generally does not have to take required minimum distributions during his or her lifetime. Because contributions are made with after-tax dollars, qualified withdrawals can also be tax-free. Those differences are important when deciding how various retirement accounts may fit into your broader financial plan. Retirement Accounts Are Tools, Not Our Security So, how did you do on the quiz? The goal isn't to become a retirement expert overnight. It's to keep growing in wisdom. An IRA can be a useful tool for preparing for the future, but no retirement account can provide ultimate security. Our hope is not in an IRA, a pension, a 401(k), or the number on a balance sheet. Our hope is in Christ. That changes the deeper question we ask about retirement planning. Instead of simply asking, “How much can I accumulate?” we can also ask, “Am I using what God has entrusted to me in a way that reflects faithfulness, generosity, and eternal priorities?” Retirement accounts are simply tools in the hands of a steward. Understanding how they work helps us use them wisely—but remembering whom they ultimately belong to helps us use them faithfully. On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions: I'm 68, and my husband is 71. We're retired with about $500,000 invested, a $100,000 mortgage at 2.75%, and a $30,000 car loan at 4.99%. We wanted to pay them off from our investments, but our advisor says the tax bill would be about $37,000 and recommends using a HELOC instead, then making one annual payment from our investments. Does that strategy make sense? He also recommends a trust, but we already have wills and our final arrangements paid for. Why might we still need one? My grandson is moving to Bali for two years for work. Should he send his earnings back to the U.S., or open a local bank account and keep the money there? I'm 61 and hope to retire at 63. About 80% of our retirement savings is pre-tax, and 20% is Roth. If we withdraw from pre-tax accounts first, our income could exceed the ACA subsidy limits. Should we consider Roth conversions or use Roth withdrawals earlier to better manage our MAGI and healthcare costs? Resources Mentioned: Faithful Steward: FaithFi's Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner) FaithFi Field Guide: How Much Money is Enough?  Our Ultimate Treasure: A 21-Day Journey to Faithful Stewardship by Rob West Wisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and Anxiety Rich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich Fool Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA) FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every weekday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God's resources. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Noah Hopton, CEO and Founder of Finvisor, helps startups and growing businesses simplify operations by building integrated back-office teams that combine accounting, finance, payroll, HR, insurance, and technology. By combining experienced financial professionals with modern technology, Noah enables businesses to streamline operations, stay compliant, and focus on sustainable growth.  In this conversation, Noah introduces The Adjacent Extension Framework—Earn the Trust, Build the Relationship, Listen for Other Problems, Connect Other Specialists, and Empower the Team with Tech. He explains why proactive service creates lasting client relationships, how solving adjacent business challenges leads to sustainable growth, and why integrated back-office teams outperform disconnected vendors. Noah also shares how AI is reshaping finance operations by automating repetitive work, empowering finance professionals to focus on strategic decision-making, and helping businesses leverage technology to enhance—not replace—human expertise. — How to Outsource Your Back Office with Noah Hopton  Good day, listeners. Steve Preda here with the Management Blueprint Podcast, and my guest today is Noah Hopton, the CEO and Founder of Finvisor, helping seed and Series A companies that have outgrown spreadsheets and part-time bookkeepers but aren’t ready for a full-time finance team yet. Their job is to give you the financial clarity to make good decisions at every stage of growth. Noah, welcome to the show.  Yeah. Pleasure to be here, Steve.  Well, great to have you here, and I’m very curious about your career and your business and what you built here. I’m particularly curious about your personal ‘Why’ and how you manifest it in your business.  Personal ‘Why.’ That’s great. Well, I’ll be honest, I didn’t go in thinking I was going to be an accountant or run an accounting firm. You know, I studied accounting in school. Eventually, I thought I was going to probably be more in a kind of front-of-house sales relationship because I enjoyed the people part—making relationships and meeting people.  But I was very fortunate that I found the consulting, fractional CFO world, where I got to discover a love of problem-solving, creating relationships, and creating value for clients. For me, it was kind of this love of helping clients understand their business, helping clients understand what to think about around the corner, where it's not just being in-house with one set of books that you're closing.Share on X  When you’re at Finvisor, my day-to-day, at least when I started, was probably working with 10 to 12 clients a month and helping them understand, “Okay, how did they perform last month? Can they hire a certain number of people? And what’s the plan going forward?”  Yeah, I mean, that’s super helpful. I started life in accounting as well with KPMG, and what attracted me was to essentially have that language of business so that I would be able to understand how a business works and have this confidence of not flying blind, right? That’s really, really cool. So how did you evolve from a CFO into a founder? What was the trigger point for you?  So I was very fortunate. I actually was at a prior firm at one point when I started my career, and they were a little bit like the cobbler with bad shoes, where eventually they decided they had to close shop, and clients were going to be given notice. I, myself, was given notice saying, “Hey, in a week, you’re not going to have a job, Noah.” And so I was really given this moment in life, saying, “Hey, if I enjoy what I’ve been doing, do I think I could do it better than the firm I’d been at?  And do I want to make this leap into being a founder and starting a business?” And so my co-founder and I both talked to each other and said, “Look, we love our clients. We love what we’ve been trying to build. I think we just need to do a little bit of a refresh and restructuring of how this operates.” And so we started our own company. I was very lucky that I started with about, I had about 30 clients and a team of four on day one, which I think is unusual.  Most people in the accounting space start off as a one-person shop, trying to grow from one to two, and having to double their clients or double their size to get there. We were fortunate to have five team members and 30 clients on day one. Originally, our vision was just, “Hey, let’s help with the fractional CFO and the bookkeeping,” but that really evolved over time as we added additional services and really understood where our clients were having problems in their back office.  What are the areas where maybe the insurance brokers they’d been working with weren’t very hands-on and kind of came in once a year? Our clients were asking us, as their CFO, “Hey, can you help us select our health insurance?” And we’re like, “Well, we’re kind of doing the broker’s job. Why don’t we build out our own team?” So that was one of the first verticals we moved into and added by building an insurance brokerage. From there, we kept building, where now not only do you have your CFO and accountant helping you, but you also have them with the ability to go out to market, help you compare quotes, and help get your insurance in place. So you’re essentially expanding the array of virtual services that you’re providing, or fractional services that you’re providing, to your clients?  Correct. Yeah. We really try to own the full back office end to end because I think a lot of people deal with, “Okay, great, I have a bookkeeper, I have a tax accountant, I have an R&D tax provider,” and they’re dealing with four or five different vendors that don’t really communicate. The client is the person playing telephone between the two, and we’re like, “Wait, stop. Why is this the solution?” We should just build a different business where it’s all under the Finvisor umbrella.  It’s all full-time team members who are actually working together on behalf of the client, even if fractionally. Some of our clients only need five hours of a payroll specialist, but they need someone to own that role, and they need that person to be able to talk to their sales tax team because it’s like, “Oh, we hired someone in a new state. Is sales tax applicable there?” And connect those dots because, when you have these disconnected providers, you have a lot of things that can drop because they’re not in people’s field of view.  Yeah, I mean, it’s a great service. If you can get a competent team that will take care of your back office, then you can focus on figuring out message-market fit and then essentially scaling revenue. You don’t have to worry about it, and you don’t have to babysit inexperienced people that maybe you can afford to hire, but who would not be able to own the job.  Yeah, exactly. I mean, it’s kind of the, “Do you want to…” You know, I think at least when we started in 2014, there was more of a generalist bookkeeper. That’s kind of the typical solution people went with. Nothing against that, but it’s kind of nice to have dedicated specialists in the different back-office areas that you need. I mean, bookkeepers are great.  They’re usually not your best payroll and HR people. They’re not thinking about California final-paycheck laws, or whether you need to offer a 401(k) if you hire someone in California. Whereas, if you have someone whose entire job is payroll and HR, and you need Finvisor to help run your payroll, they’re going to be thinking about those edge cases and helping you along so that you can just build your business, get to the next milestone, and not worry about tripping yourself up because of compliance, taxes, or a lack of visibility in your reporting. Yeah, that’s great peace of mind. So this podcast is about frameworks, and I wonder, what is your framework? How do you help your clients, or how do you figure things out? What have you developed? We’re about 400 frameworks in, so I’m looking for something unique that helps you and is easy to explain—three to five steps maximum.  Yeah. I mean, one of the ones that comes to mind for us is what we’ve really called the Adjacent Extension Framework. So, first, do really good work and earn your client's trust in one area. Makes it easy for them to approach you.Share on X For us, it’s historically been accounting. People think, “Great, get my books put together.” But for us, it’s really about creating a relationship and earning the client’s trust.  Then, as step two, listen for the other problems they’re having. What are the adjacent problems they’re asking you to solve? And then for us, what we’ve really done is double down in those other areas by building specialists in those verticals. Once you’ve earned the client’s trust, if you’re doing their accounting and all of a sudden they’re struggling with invoicing or collections, you can say, “Hey, we can also help you with accounts receivable and collection efforts because we see your AR balance increasing on your financial statements.” At that point, they’re already thinking, “Great, I like working with this person.  Let’s give their team a try and help us solve another problem.” So, for us, it’s really been about finding those adjacent problems, building a team that specializes in them, and then connecting the client with the right expert. The last piece that’s really coming to market now is using technology to empower the team. Historically, a lot of our value came from having experts who could handle the edge cases or the gray areas between payroll, accounting, taxes, and sales tax. Now, with technology, you can also build the data infrastructure to highlight what’s happening for the client while helping guide the team as they manage those clients.  Love it. So what I’m hearing is, number one—or maybe even number zero—is do a great job, right?  The trust.  Okay. So that’s maybe another way of saying it: earn the trust. But is doing a good job enough to earn that trust, or is there more to it?  I mean, I think in any service business, you want to be proactive. A lot of bookkeepers, accountants, and even legal professionals are usually waiting for the client to ask a question before providing an answer. I think the goal should be to think ahead for the client and proactively provide guidance. That came naturally for us because we sit in the fractional CFO seat.Share on X  But even if you’re just doing bookkeeping, you can still catch these things for clients and help them out. Or if you’re selling P&C insurance and helping clients with their general liability coverage, you can think about what other types of coverage they may need. So I’d say the more proactive you can be, the better. The other thing is meeting clients where they already are.  For us, a lot of our clients are on Slack, so we connect with them on Slack. We chat with them as if we were full-time employees because we don’t want the experience to feel different. We don’t want you to feel like you’re emailing a generic support inbox and not knowing when someone is going to get back to you. If you only need fractional-level support, it shouldn’t feel like you’re getting fractional value or a fractional level of communication.  I love it. So you actually own the function inside the organization, so it feels like you’re part of the team, or your people are part of their team. So that builds the trust. So, do a great job, or earn the trust, number one. Number two, build the relationship. Number three, listen to other problems that they might have. Number four, connect them to other specialists. And number five, empower the team with technology.  Yeah. That’s a lot of it. I mean, as an advisor, we’ve grown… I mean, 60% of our growth comes from client referrals. So I think you know you’re doing something right if clients are recommending you to their friends and network. And so hopefully, if someone’s listening to this and you’re not getting referrals, you should be thinking about, “How do we either create more trust for our clients to be referring us, or how do we become more top of mind when clients are having these conversations?”  That’s great. So 60% of your growth comes from referrals. What’s the other 40%? How do you drive growth? What drives growth for you? What’s the other way to drive growth besides referrals?  Yeah. I mean, I think it’s also being connected with the ecosystem that you’re in. In our space, there are a lot of technology partners. Think about Xero, which is an accounting software, QuickBooks Online, NetSuite, payroll software like Rippling, Bill.com. They all have accounting partnerships, and the more you can build with them and grow your team alongside them, clients will reach out to them and say, “Hey, do you have someone who can help us set up Bill.com or help us set up Rippling?  We don’t have a payroll team to do our state tax registrations.” So we’ve seen a lot of good momentum as our software partners start sending us clients to help us grow. I think the other area is trying to figure out where you can have partnerships that will do introductions. We’ve been very fortunate in partnering with a number of VCs. Obviously, the VCs have worked with us because we’re on the board, or we had a mutual client. A lot of them will start to build partnership channels, and it’s a great opportunity.  They’ll say, “We just invested in this company, and you should go talk to Noah’s team to help with your accounting or your fractional CFO.” So it’s really about finding those tangential operators or entities that complement whatever you’re doing.  So are these primarily personal relationships that need to scale, or do you have a way to scale this across other people in your organization—this ability to develop partners? Or is it mainly you?  It depends on the role. A lot of our fractional CFOs on the team continue to build relationships. I would say probably 40% of our new clients come through a channel that’s not through me. There’ll be other people on our team who have built relationships with another VC or another software company. I think one of the key things we’ve always focused on is hiring people who are very, I would say “doers” might be the wrong word, but people who can self-manage and be project managers.  If you find the right people who can take a step back and look at the bigger picture, I mean, sometimes people come to Finvisor and they don’t realize that we ourselves are a business. Yes, you’re doing accounting like you were in-house and getting the books closed, but if you do good work and you realize clients are having problems, you have to think, “Hey, how can I help clients more and also help Finvisor create a win-win?” A lot of times, when we’re hiring, we’re trying to find people who have that type of drive to continue building and helping us internally, and not just do one part of the puzzle they’re responsible for. That might not be the most direct answer, but I would say a lot of it is hiring—making sure it's not just me leading the growth, but me building a team that can help lead the growth outside of just me.Share on X  Yeah. So how do you share the context so that your team members can connect the dots as well as you can? What’s your approach to that?  There’s a couple of ways we’ve done it. One way is we use a note-taker that then feeds into our CRM. For all client communication, whether they meet with us on Zoom or Google Meet, the transcripts are put into a centralized hub for us. It also connects to our CRM in terms of what we’re doing for the clients. At any point in time, someone can ask, “Hey, what’s going on with this client?” They can understand, “Great, this is what the payroll team talked to them about this week.  This is what the CFO team talked to them about last month. These are the problems they’ve been bringing up.” So we can capture that information without it having to be provided orally every single time, and without having to rely on a chat or an email to the team. There are some moments when it’s useful to give the team a larger update, but in general, it’s good to figure out a way to capture the essence of what you’re doing for your clients so that the team can then, in an AI chat-specific way, talk through, “Hey, great, what’s going on with this client? What are their needs? What has changed in the last six months? Who’s working on the client?”  I’ll have a VC that we’re talking to say, “Oh, we’re looking to invest in the CPG space and this type of vertical. Do you have any clients?” We’re at a point now where I don’t know every client. I usually have an idea about most clients, but there are definitely clients where I don’t know everything that’s happened in the last six months because I don’t talk to all 200 clients.  But I can go to our central hub to gain that information and understand, “Okay, great, which client is looking to fundraise and might want to be connected to this VC?” It’s a nice way to connect the dots. They’re looking to invest. The client is looking to raise. We also do brown-bag sessions. We’re a distributed team, so I think you have to be a little more intentional about how you educate the team. We’ll have weekly meetings where we walk through new technology, new changes in what we’re offering, new positioning, and continue educating the team in a more structured format.  The other thing we’ve done to help the team understand what’s going on is to make information as accessible as possible, similar to how we communicate with clients. So the team doesn’t have to log in to a pretty outdated CRM to pull information on a client. It’s either available directly in the Slack conversation or in a more modern tool like Notion, where you can easily search and find the information you want. So basically, you’re managing and harvesting your data and using that to feed people information about how they can develop partnerships. Is that what I’m hearing?  Yeah. And I think a lot of it is also figuring out which playbooks and processes are repeatable, documenting them better, and then educating the team around them. For example, with our fractional CFOs, we want to be in the board meeting. If we can be in the board meeting, A, we can help clients answer questions about their finances more easily, and B, it’s good to have visibility into what the board is saying about the business and where they want to go.  Then, obviously, the VCs are going to say, “Oh, great, this is Ian at Finvisor.” If he reaches out to me about a partnership, they’re going to have a better understanding of what we do because they’ve been in the room with us—or they’ve been in a virtual or in-person boardroom with us.  So you’re basically sharing the playbook so that they have a better understanding of what they can refer you for. Correct. Yeah.  So, switching gears here, Noah, what’s one thing that you’re trying to actively figure out in your business right now?  I mean, the question everyone is trying to figure out, at least in my space, is how they’re going to use AI in some fashion. That’s the kind of million-dollar question everyone keeps talking about—AI in accounting, AI in finance. Right now, we’re really structured in how we’re trying to use it and apply it. But the question I have is, what’s the next year going to look like? What’s five years going to look like as this technology gets more legs and more trust behind it? We’re pretty intentional about what we’re building and how we’re using some of the newer technology with AI. But I think there’s a lot that, at least for me, you have to continue to iterate. The world today feels different than it did three months ago. I’d say for most of Finvisor’s history—and this has been 12 years—it hasn’t felt like that, where a year later things might feel marginally different because we’re maybe 20% bigger or whatever might have happened.  Now, I think there’s a lot more excitement and unknown around technology and how it can either make people more efficient or help highlight and surface better issues that clients need to talk through. But I also feel like we’re in a moment where everyone’s trying to throw AI into every technology. So we're also trying to stay true to who we are, which is people first, relationships first—technology powering us, not being the solution.Share on X  So as you’re scaling AI to improve the information that your people have, your CFOs have, that presumably is going to lead to people doing less of the mechanical, repeatable tasks and more of the judgment tasks. So how do you scale judgment as you’re scaling the impact with AI?  On our side, I think it’s A, trying to organize and structure the data coming in. B, trying to create tooling that isn’t unique to one client but is built in a way that can be customized for each customer. A lot of the firms I talk to that are in the Finvisor space just take a blanket approach—turn Claude on for every fractional CFO, let them connect it to QuickBooks, and try to figure out their own playbooks.  That’s not how we’ve ever run the business. We don’t just hire accountants and let them run the accounting and see how the output turns out. We’re more focused on figuring out what is actually useful for review. Right now, I think AI has been most helpful around quality. It can definitely check that things are consistent and make sure edge cases are being caught.  I think we’re going to get to a future state where it’s not only making sure quality is at the 95th percentile of confidence, but also giving visibility into metrics like CAC, LTV, and churn—things that would normally take longer to pull together. Your fractional CFO might currently spend hours reviewing Stripe data or Shopify data to come to a conclusion. AI can cut out maybe 40% of that data-cleanup layer, where it’s like, “Okay, now they have the tools to dig in and understand what the underlying problem is,” instead of spending so much time cleaning up the data and getting everything organized.  So currently, at least my thesis is that it’s going to allow us to manage more clients because some of the day-to-day—I don’t want to call it busy work—but the work you have to do before you get to the exciting parts of the job will become more automated and less manual, like pulling data out of Stripe, Shopify, your CRM, or NetSuite.  So does that mean you’ll have a different type of people, maybe higher-level thinkers? Or do you think you can elevate your current team to that level?  Yeah. I think you’re… Sorry, I know I was originally answering this through the fractional CFO lens. Most of our fractional CFOs are already at the top of that organizational pyramid. For them, it’s really about helping them have cleaner data, better visibility into the actions they need to take, and better insight into what they should be reviewing and discussing with the client.  If I think more broadly about the back-office finance team, I do think a lot of the more generalist staff accountant and AP specialist roles won’t be spending as much time on the day-to-day blocking and tackling. If a client has 1,000 transactions a month flowing through their bank and credit cards, historically that accountant would sit in QuickBooks Online clicking “Okay, okay, okay,” reviewing every transaction and coding it. Eighty percent of those transactions will simply be coded automatically in real time as they come in. That leaves them to focus on the 20% that actually requires human judgment.  For me, the question is, can we continue to empower those people to be more impactful with that 20%? Are they the right people for that 20%? We’ve always tried to hire people who are proactive and broader thinkers, so I think we have the right team to step into that. If we’d built a traditional BPO model with an outsourced accounting team made up of people who were really just coding transactions at a basic level, I’d be more worried because getting those people to step up and handle edge cases is difficult.  But that’s not how we’ve historically built Finvisor. We’ve always tried to find people who are a little more… I’d rather hire an A-plus player than a B-player just because there’s some savings in the cost structure. I’d rather have the right people who can perform 80% of the time when they’re at bat than just hire someone because they’re cheaper.  Yeah.  Wrong baseball analogy there, but yeah.  Yeah, I understand. So you have A-plus people. Maybe the people who are doing more bookkeeping-type services—their jobs may become automated—but your A-players are going to have best-in-class information, and they can serve more clients that way.  Yeah. I still think that if you think about the typical accounting structure—if you’re working in-house and you have a bookkeeper and a controller—it’s still helpful. Depending on the size of the company, if you’re a small company, you probably won’t need that bookkeeper.  The controller can handle the edge cases and close the books. But at a certain scale, you’ll still want that junior resource supporting the controller so the controller can focus on the higher-level, more strategic work. I think people will simply be able to do more with less if they’re the right person. There will be people who, if they aren’t good at staying on their toes and figuring out edge cases, won’t be the right fit.  AI will probably replace some of those roles. But I think there’s a great opportunity for people who can think more strategically. They don’t have to be a CFO. They can just be a really smart bookkeeper who’s good at handling edge cases. They’ll simply be able to manage three times as many clients as they could when they had to code every single transaction.  Okay. If you had a magic wand and you could fix one thing in your business over the next 12 months, what would it be?  One area that we probably haven’t prioritized enough because of growth is SEO, AEO, and our overall sales build-out. Our paid advertising hasn’t been the strongest part of our business because it hasn’t been the top priority. If I had a magic wand, I’d have someone clean up our SEO and AEO visibility because I know clients love us and we do great work, but I don’t think we’re showing up the way I’d like from an SEO and AEO perspective. So that would be it. Yeah.  Yeah. Yeah. Love it. So, who are your ideal customers? Who do you want knocking on your door? Is it venture-backed companies primarily, or do you also work with private company founders? Who are your sweet-spot customers?  A lot of our clients are going to be in that 5-to-50-employee range, where they don’t need a full-time back office, a full-time accountant, a full-time CFO, or a full-time payroll specialist, but they need someone to own those roles. That way, we can put together the right Finvisor team to support them. We’ve intentionally made ourselves pretty modular, so while the largest group of our clients is in the tech VC world, we also have a lot of SMBs—law firms, beauty businesses, and other professional services businesses.  I would say that, if you looked at the Finvisor client base as a whole, you’d probably see a lot of startups. But we’re also starting to see more SMBs and more traditional businesses that don’t have VC funding but still need help with their accounting, bookkeeping, and modernizing their back office. So it’s a bit of both. Most of our clients are going to be in that 10-to-50- or 100-employee range, where they’re complex enough that they care about their financials and want to understand what they spent last month, where they’re going, and how they’re going to get there.  Earlier-stage companies are sometimes just a little too early. If you’re a one- or two-person company with just an idea, there’s a reason people think about their financials on more of a cash basis. They can think about the five clients they’re working with. Their bank balance ties pretty closely to their financials. There’s not a huge difference between the two when you’re a sole proprietor.  But as you start to evolve, that’s where Finvisor can provide more value. For all of our clients, we do accrual accounting, so we’re recognizing your revenue and your costs over the life of the service. As you start to grow and build, that’s really helpful. Obviously, if you’re at day one, it’s less impactful because you’re living more day to day, week to week, and month to month.  Steve Preda: Okay. So if we have those kinds of companies—which we do among our listeners—and they hear about this and want to fix their back office and outsource it to a reliable partner who can help them own those functions and give them good advice, what’s the best entry point? Where should they go, and how can they connect with you personally as well?  Yeah. hello@finvisor.com comes to me and the sales team. There’s probably a 95% chance you’ll talk to me if you reach out because I still love connecting with most new businesses that come through the door. The other area I wanted to call out that could be helpful for businesses is PEOs. PEOs are great, but I think at some point clients need to graduate from the PEO, and Finvisor is uniquely positioned to be both your insurance broker—helping you quote large-group plans—and your payroll and HR team to help you leave the PEO.  For a lot of our clients, once they pass that 100-employee mark, it’s like, “Great, we now qualify for a large-group plan,” which might have better rates than what they’re getting through the PEO. They just don’t have the team or bandwidth to get off the PEO. We’ll come alongside those larger companies and say, “Great, let’s quote a large-group plan for you. We’ll also put together a transition plan to register you in the 20 states where your employees are currently located.  We’ll make sure you get your workers’ compensation and employment practices liability insurance in place so there’s really no difference—apples to apples—from being in the PEO to running your own payroll.” We help with that transition because I’m always surprised to see companies with hundreds of employees still on a PEO, where the savings could be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars if they left. They just don’t have the internal team because they’ve always been on a PEO. They’ve never had to do state registrations, so they don’t know how to do them. Because of that, they’re usually not looking for an alternative path to get off that structure. We can at least review it with them and help them out if it’s a good fit. And just to remind our listeners what a PEO is, in case they don’t know.  Oh, sorry. Yeah. A PEO is a Professional Employer Organization. If you’ve heard of companies like TriNet or Justworks, they’re PEOs. In the health insurance space, there are four primary ways you can get health insurance. Most companies start with small-group plans in the early days because they’re state-mandated. For example, in California, if you’re under 100 employees, the rates my company gets would be the same rates Steve’s company gets if we’re both under 100 employees and we’re asking Blue Shield for a quote from the same ZIP code. That’s small-group insurance.  Then there’s level-funded, where carriers quote specifically based on your employee group. There’s large-group, which is somewhat similar but designed for larger organizations. Then there’s the PEO. Let’s say you’re a 10-person company. You don’t have enough employees to qualify for large-group health insurance, which is usually discounted because the risk is spread across hundreds of employees. The PEO says, “We’ll employ your team. Instead of you directly employing 10 people and buying health insurance for only those 10 people, we’ll employ your team and give you rates based on the 10,000 employees we already have.” PEOs are really popular in places like California and New York, where health insurance is very expensive.  But once you get above about 100 employees, you can usually qualify for your own large-group rates, which are similar to what the PEO is getting. The difference is that the PEO is generally marking up those rates because they need to make a margin on the plan. You can often get those rates directly yourself.  Yeah. That makes perfect sense. Okay. So if you’re listening to this and you’re building a venture-backed startup, or you’re the founder of a professional services firm, a law firm, or another small business with 10 to 100 employees, and you don’t yet have the budget—or maybe you simply don’t need—a full-time CFO, insurance advisor, HR leader, and other functional specialists, then reach out to Noah and Finvisor.  Check out what they have to offer and see what services might be a good fit for your business. Thanks, Noah, for coming on the show and sharing your expertise. It’s fascinating to see how this field is evolving, how you’re tapping into technology, and how you’re focusing on the highest-quality CFOs to help your clients. If you enjoyed this conversation, stay tuned.  Follow us on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Make sure you don’t miss an episode. Every week, we bring you exciting entrepreneurs and their best management frameworks. Thanks for coming, Noah, and thanks for listening.  Thanks, Steve. Appreciate it. Important Links: Noah's LinkedIn Noah's  website Noah's email: hello@finvisor.com

As we move through midsummer, it's time to evaluate our forage situation. Depending on your location, meadow hay harvest might be starting, you could be on your second cutting of alfalfa, or preparing to cut warm-season annual crops soon. Ben Beckman, Nebraska Extension Forage Systems Educator.

If you wish to support our podcast, please follow this link. Thank you! Welcome to a new episode of The Way Out Is In: The Zen Art of Living, a podcast series mirroring Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh's deep teachings of Buddhist philosophy: a simple yet profound methodology for dealing with our suffering, and for creating more happiness and joy in our lives. In this episode, Zen Buddhist monk Brother Phap Huu and leadership coach Jo Confino talk about finding beauty and reverence in the most ordinary of things. Jo shares his new book, Between Earth and Sky, which documents his time in Mitla, Mexico, and his journey of deep looking and finding beauty in the seemingly empty land. Brother Phap Huu emphasizes the importance of mindfulness, stopping, and being present to see the wonder in everyday life.The hosts further share the concept of consciousness in everything, and the need for reverence in our habits and interactions. The conversation also touches on reciprocity, the importance of community, and the journey of opening one’s heart through listening and acceptance. The episode concludes with a short meditation guided by Brother Phap Huu, to help listeners ground themselves in the present moment and to recognize the beauty in all life. Co-produced by the Plum Village App:https://plumvillage.app/ And Global Optimism:https://globaloptimism.com/ With support from the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation:https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/ List of resources Between Earth and Skyhttps://www.parallax.org/product/between-earth-and-sky/ Interbeinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interbeing Plum Village Traditionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plum_Village_Tradition Order of Interbeinghttps://plumvillage.org/community/order-of-interbeing The Way Out Is In: ‘Space, Time, and the Ultimate Dimension (Episode #54)'https://plumvillage.org/podcast/space-time-and-the-ultimate-dimension-episode-54 Mitlahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitla Stephen Mitchellhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Mitchell_(translator) Tao Te Chinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching Samsarahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa%E1%B9%83s%C4%81ra Pema Chödrönhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pema_Ch%C3%B6dr%C3%B6n Quotes “We can see beauty everywhere.” “When we feel alive and present on this Earth, what more do we need?” “The first act of meditation is learning to stop. It is learning to take a pause and feel the present moment. And feeling the present moment is more important than thinking about the present moment, because, when we attune ourselves into our own body, into our senses, what we see, what we smell, what we hear, what we touch gives us an opportunity to be in touch with life in the very here and now.” “We can sit and look at a tree or even look at a rock and find all of life in that.” “This is it.” “We want to know what’s out in space, but we don’t know what is in our inner space.” “Depending on how we show up, our way of being can shift and change our whole mental formation, our whole consciousness of reality.” “Reverence creates a sense of reciprocity because, when we have reverence, we are in conversation with whatever is in front of us. So when we think of things as objects, we’re looking at them as separate from ourselves. But when we have reverence for things, we see that they are talking to us as well as we are talking to them.” “The beauty of Zen is turning a simple moment into a beautiful ritual.” “Reverence is a manifestation of our mental formations.” “I invite everybody to hold their next cup of tea, or coffee, or orange juice, with two hands. It shifts you into a different space. A simple action with two hands, and I’m fully present. Just like when we join our palms and offer a bow, it represents the body and the mind that come together.”

Your home may be more than a place to live in retirement. For some homeowners, it can also become a strategic financial resource—one that may help manage taxable income, protect investments during market downturns, and create greater flexibility around retirement withdrawals. Harlan Accola, who leads the reverse mortgage team at Movement Mortgage, joined the show today to explain how a reverse mortgage—specifically a Home Equity Conversion Mortgage, or HECM—can fit into a thoughtful retirement income strategy. A reverse mortgage is not right for everyone. But when used carefully as part of a broader financial plan, home equity may provide retirees with options they would not otherwise have. Why Reverse Mortgage Proceeds Are Different From Income One of the most common misconceptions about reverse mortgages is that homeowners sell or give up ownership of their homes. That is not the case. A reverse mortgage is a loan secured by the home, and the homeowner retains title as long as the requirements of the loan are met. Because the money received through a reverse mortgage is generally considered loan proceeds rather than earned or investment income, it is not typically included as taxable income on a federal income tax return. That distinction can be significant in retirement. Many retirees rely on a combination of Social Security, pensions, traditional IRAs, and 401(k)s. Withdrawals from tax-deferred retirement accounts generally increase taxable income, potentially affecting tax brackets and other income-based thresholds. Home equity can provide another source of cash. Instead of withdrawing every needed dollar from a traditional IRA or 401(k), a retiree may be able to strategically use home equity for a portion of living expenses. That could reduce the amount that must be withdrawn from taxable retirement accounts in a given year. The goal is not simply to avoid taxes. It is to thoughtfully manage when and how taxable income is recognized. Managing Retirement Withdrawals More Strategically Taxes in retirement are often about timing. Withdraw too much from a traditional retirement account in one year, and you may move into a higher tax bracket or cross other important income thresholds. Later in retirement, required minimum distributions can further limit how much control retirees have over taxable withdrawals. Social Security also adds another consideration. Depending on a retiree's income, up to 85% of Social Security benefits may be subject to federal income tax. That makes coordinating income sources especially important. For some retirees, access to home equity may allow them to take smaller taxable distributions during certain years while drawing on a reverse mortgage for additional cash needs. Meanwhile, money that remains invested has more opportunity to continue growing. That does not mean borrowing against a home is always preferable to withdrawing from investments. Reverse mortgages have costs, interest accrues on the loan balance, and using home equity reduces the equity that may otherwise remain available later. The question is whether strategically combining these resources could produce a better overall retirement outcome. Creating Flexibility for Roth Conversions Home equity may also play a role in Roth conversion planning. A Roth conversion involves moving money from a traditional IRA or other eligible tax-deferred retirement account into a Roth IRA. The amount converted is generally taxable in the year of the conversion, but qualified Roth withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. For some retirees, converting portions of traditional retirement accounts during lower-income years can make sense. The challenge is paying the resulting tax bill. Suppose someone converts a significant amount from a traditional IRA and then withdraws even more from that IRA to pay the taxes. That additional withdrawal can create additional taxable income, potentially making the strategy less efficient. A reverse mortgage may provide another option. Home equity could potentially be used to cover living expenses or the tax liability associated with a Roth conversion, allowing the retiree to better control how much is withdrawn from taxable retirement accounts. Over time, carefully planned conversions can also reduce the amount remaining in traditional accounts that may eventually be subject to required minimum distributions. Roth conversions involve many variables—including current and future tax rates, income needs, Medicare considerations, estate goals, and the retiree's overall financial picture—so they should be evaluated with qualified tax and financial professionals. Protecting Investments During Market Downturns Another potential use of a reverse mortgage is addressing what financial planners call sequence-of-returns risk. Sequence risk refers to the danger of experiencing significant investment losses early in retirement while simultaneously withdrawing money from the portfolio. Imagine that the market falls sharply and a retiree must sell investments to pay living expenses. Those shares are sold at depressed prices and are no longer invested when markets eventually recover. That combination of losses and withdrawals can make it much harder for a portfolio to recover. For retirees with sufficient home equity, a reverse mortgage line of credit may serve as what some planners call a buffer asset. Instead of selling investments during a severe market decline, a retiree might temporarily draw from home equity. When markets recover, withdrawals could shift back to the investment portfolio. Depending on the loan and financial circumstances, homeowners may also choose to repay some of what they borrowed, preserving greater home equity for future use. The broader principle is diversification—not merely among investments, but among the resources available to fund retirement. Home Equity Is a Tool, Not the Goal For many Americans, their home represents one of their largest financial assets. Yet traditional retirement planning often treats that wealth as untouchable until the home is sold or passed to heirs. A reverse mortgage can provide another option. That does not mean every retiree should borrow against a home. The costs, interest, estate implications, housing plans, and long-term needs all matter. Homeowners must also continue meeting loan requirements, including paying property taxes, homeowners insurance, and maintaining the property. But for the right household, home equity may become one piece of a coordinated retirement strategy—helping manage taxable withdrawals, create flexibility for Roth conversions, or avoid selling investments at an unfavorable time. As stewards, the goal is not simply to preserve every dollar of home equity or maximize every investment account. It is to wisely consider all the resources God has entrusted to us and use them with purpose. A home is first a place to live. But in retirement, it may also be a financial resource worth thoughtfully considering as part of the bigger picture. To learn more about reverse mortgages and Movement Mortgage, visit FaithFi.com/Movement. On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions: My daughter turns 20 in December and recently earned her nail technician license, but she isn't working yet. How can I help her start building credit and develop good saving habits? My husband and I are considering a reverse mortgage. Would we still own our home, and could we eventually sell it to a family member if we want to keep it in the family? I live on Social Security, have a paid-off home, a four-month emergency fund, and $75,000 in a CD. I received an offer to buy $5 gold pieces for $469 each, with a minimum purchase of five. Would buying gold like this be a wise move for me? My husband passed away, I used up my savings, and now I'm overwhelmed by debt. I enrolled in a debt-relief program that promised to lower my interest rates, but I'm not seeing much progress. What should I do next? Resources Mentioned: Faithful Steward: FaithFi's Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner) Christian Credit Counselors Movement Mortgage Capital One Savor Rewards Card for Students Bankrate | NerdWallet Open Hands Finance FaithFi Field Guide: How Much Money is Enough?  Our Ultimate Treasure: A 21-Day Journey to Faithful Stewardship by Rob West Wisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and Anxiety Rich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich Fool Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA) FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every weekday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God's resources. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Original Air Date: 8/1/2026 Episode Number: 470Episode SummaryThree topics this week. Dan opens with a paint science segment answering a listener question about urethane and enamel -- two words that appear constantly on paint labels and mean different things than most people assume. Then a full two-segment deep dive on moss and lichen: first, how to safely remove them from different types of siding, and then a step-by-step walkthrough of how Dan cleaned his own roof, what products he used, and what the warnings are. He closes with a quick listener question about painting over old glossy trim in a pre-1978 home.Timestamps[00:00] -- Show Intro and Promises[02:28] -- Paint Science: Urethane vs. Enamel[07:38] -- Choosing the Right Paint[09:56] -- Moss and Lichen Overview[10:35] -- Siding Segment Setup[11:06] -- What Moss and Lichen Are[12:43] -- Cleaning Brick and Masonry[15:09] -- Cleaning Wood Safely[16:56] -- Vinyl, Stucco, and Pressure Tips[18:27] -- Protecting Plants[19:22] -- Roof Segment Begins[20:02] -- Why Remove Roof Growth[20:14] -- Roof Damage Explained[21:52] -- Dan's Roof Wake-Up Call[23:48] -- Kill It, Don't Scrape It[24:12] -- Hire Out or DIY?[25:03] -- Best Cleaners Compared[29:20] -- Prep and Protect Plants[30:53] -- Rinse, Brush, and Apply[33:58] -- Results and Safety Warnings[36:41] -- Listener Q: Glossy Trim[37:57] -- Lead, Adhesion, and Primer[39:40] -- Wrap UpUrethane vs. Enamel: A Plain-English Explanation [02:28]A listener wrote in puzzled by the word urethane showing up everywhere -- waterborne urethanes, urethane-modified acrylics, polyurethanes -- and wanted to know whether it means something specific or just marketing. He also asked which is more durable, urethane or enamel, and which he should be reaching for.The short answer: urethane and enamel are not competing terms. They describe different things entirely.Paint basics. Every can contains pigment (color and hiding), liquid (what lets you apply it), and resin -- the binder. As paint dries and the liquid leaves, the resin and pigment form the paint film. The resin has enormous influence over how the finished coating behaves: hardness, flexibility, adhesion, resistance to moisture, cleaning, and abrasion.What urethane means. Urethane isn't an extra scoop of durability added to the can. It's a type of chemical connection that can be built into the resin structure itself. When a resin contains many of those connections, it's called a polyurethane. That chemistry is associated with toughness, abrasion resistance, and resistance to cleaners -- which is why you see the word on products for cabinets, doors, railings, and floors.What enamel means. Traditionally, enamel meant an oil-based product with a hard, smooth, glossy finish -- the go-to for doors, trim, and metal. Today it's used more broadly. You can buy acrylic enamels, waterborne enamels, and urethane enamels. An enamel can absolutely use urethane chemistry. They're not opposites.The analogy. Asking which is more durable, a urethane or an enamel, is like asking whether a pickup truck is better than a diesel engine. One describes the vehicle type. The other describes the technology inside. You can have a diesel pickup, just like you can have a urethane enamel.The practical takeaway. For an ordinary bedroom wall, don't hunt for urethane -- just get good washability and the right sheen. For cabinets, doors, or railings, an enamel built for those surfaces makes sense, and it may well use urethane chemistry. For a wood floor, get a polyurethane specifically designed for foot traffic. For exterior siding, hardness isn't even the main priority -- flexibility, adhesion, and weather resistance matter more. The product's intended use matters more than the words on the label. Stop into any RepcoLite, tell them what you're painting and what kind of abuse it'll take, and they'll sort it out.Moss vs. Lichen: What You're Actually Looking At [11:06]Before cleaning anything, it helps to know what you're dealing with, because moss and lichen behave differently from the algae and mildew covered last week -- and they have to be handled differently as a result.Moss is the green fuzzy stuff -- little soft pillows of growth, kinda charming, definitely not good for your house or roof. It grips whatever it's growing on and holds moisture against the surface.Lichen is stranger and tougher. It looks almost painted or glued on -- flat, crusty patches or small leafy, ruffled growths. It can be gray-green, orange, chalky white. Lichen is actually two organisms living together: a fungus that builds the structure and grips the surface, and an algae that makes the food. Together they can live almost anywhere and attach with a grip that's very hard to break. That's the core reason they need their own conversation -- algae and mildew are essentially films sitting on the surface. Moss and lichen are anchored into the surface, into the pores of brick, the grain of wood, down into mortar. Removing them incorrectly can cause more damage than leaving them.Cleaning Moss and Lichen Off Siding [12:43]Brick and masonry. Gently knock off the thickest mounded moss first -- but gently is the word. Plastic scraper, wooden edge, or a stiff-but-not-metal brush. No wire brushes on brick, especially older or softer brick. Nothing mounted on a power tool. Working through the harder outer face of the brick exposes the softer material underneath, which holds moisture longer and becomes even more vulnerable to freeze-thaw damage. You can create next year's problem while cleaning up this year's.After removing loose material, treat remaining moss and lichen with a cleaner labeled for both the growth type and the surface. Wet & Forget is a popular spray-and-leave option -- apply it, leave it alone, and rain carries away the dead material over weeks or months. Make sure whatever you use is designed to kill moss and lichen, not just clean the surface.Wood. Be careful with straight chlorine bleach on bare or weathered wood -- it breaks down lignin, the natural binder in the wood fibers, and can leave cedar blotchy and damaged in ways that don't reverse. Sodium percarbonate (oxygenated bleach -- essentially OxiClean) is gentler on wood and on nearby plants. Soft brush, go with the grain, low pressure, no wire brush.Vinyl and aluminum. More forgiving -- growth doesn't anchor as deep on non-porous surfaces. Soft nylon brush or cloth with a cleaner labeled for that siding type, let it sit, gentle scrub, rinse. Don't spray upward under the laps.Fiber cement. Check the manufacturer's guidance. Keep it gentle and low pressure.Stucco and EIFS. Porous and on the brittle side -- soft wash, right cleaner, low pressure. Older synthetic stucco (EIFS) is especially risky; aggressive washing can force water behind cracks and joints. If the surface is already cracked or failing, call a professional.Plants. Wet down all landscaping before starting. Cover sensitive plants with light plastic, but get it off quickly -- they'll cook under it. Rinse everything again when you're done.Why You Can't Leave Roof Moss and Lichen Alone [20:02]Moss growing thicker around the edges of shingles interferes with drainage and can cause shingles to lift or deteriorate -- creating openings for water to get in. That alone is a good enough reason to deal with it.Lichen is worse on a roof than on siding because it attaches directly to the protective granules on the shingles and can cause irreversible damage as it grips and eventually pulls them loose. There's also a curb appeal issue: moss and lichen-covered roofs read as neglected or failing, whether or not that's actually true.Dan put off dealing with his own roof growth for a couple of years, telling himself it wasn't a big deal. A roofer from Sheriff Goslin Roofing -- who came out to assess the roof's lifespan -- pointed out that the moss and lichen were actively taking years off the roof by pulling granules and giving moisture more places to work. That's what finally prompted action.Hire Out or DIY? [24:12]Before getting into the process, Dan makes the case for hiring it out -- because for a lot of people, that's the right answer. There are companies that specialize in roof and exterior cleaning. If the roof is steep, high, difficult to access, or if heights aren't your thing, hiring a professional is absolutely the right call. A fall is a lot worse than a moss problem.If you're still planning to do it yourself, read on.Cleaner Options for Moss and Lichen on Roofs [25:03]Wet & Forget. Apply per label directions and leave it. The treatment kills growth over time, and rain carries the dead material away over the following weeks and months. No rinsing, no aggressive follow-up. Depending on your roof pitch and setup, you may be able to apply most of it from a ladder or even the ground -- though you have to be very careful not to force water up under shingles at the wrong angle. Dan's roofer confirmed his customers have had good results with it.Oxygenated bleach / sodium percarbonate (essentially OxiClean). This is what Dan used. Mix approximately one pound of oxygenated bleach per two gallons of water. Apply with a pump-up garden sprayer. This is gentler on plants and on...

Physicians have been mystified by and are in the process of studying GOD. But in this case, the acronym "GOD" stands for "generation of diversity." The diversity that amazes them is the diversity found in our immune system. While we have fewer than 100,000 genes, our immune system is able to generate tens of millions of distinct antibodies to defend and protect itself from disease. How can only 100,000 genes produce thousands of times that many antibodies?Actually, we have two immune systems. The first is called the innate system. This rapid response system relies on common characteristics found in most microbes to bind and conquer them. The second immune system is called the combinatorial immune system. It is this second immune system that generates tens of millions of different and very specific antibodies. Its response is slower than the innate system because it responds to an infection by making and sending a variety of antibodies at invaders. Depending on which antibodies recognize the invader, the combinatorial system then begins to manufacture more specific antibodies until the invader is conquered.Researchers studying the details of the immune system are astonished at how evolution could design such a complex, ingenious and precise system. Even from a scientific standpoint, the simpler explanation is that our immune system, like everything else, was created by an all-wise, all-powerful Creator!John 11:11-12"These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well."Prayer: I thank You, Father, for providing us with immune systems, and I ask You for good health. In Jesus' Name. Amen.Ref: John Travis, “The Accidental Immune System,” Science News.  To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1232/29?v=20251111

Yesterday, anele had the shock of her life when a porcupine turned up at her house.The unexpected visitor sparked a huge conversation on the show, with listeners sharing what they believe it means when certain animals appear at your home. That got us thinking... South Africa is full of fascinating beliefs and superstitions about animals. Depending on your culture or family, an owl, a snake, a praying mantis, a black cat or even a porcupine can be seen as a message from the ancestors, a warning, or a sign of good or bad luck. So today we want to know... what animal beliefs did you grow up with? What does your culture or family believe certain animals bring, and where do those beliefs come from? Hang out with Anele and The Club on 947 every weekday morning. Popular radio hosts Anele Mdoda, Frankie du Toit, Thembekile Mrototo, and Cindy Poluta take fun to the next level with the biggest guests, hottest conversations, feel-good vibes, and the best music to get you going! Kick-start your day with the most enjoyable way to wake up in Joburg. Connect with Anele and The Club on 947 via WhatsApp at 084 000 0947 or call the studio on 011 88 38 947Thank you for listening to the Anele and the Club podcast..Listen live on Primedia+ weekdays from 06:00 to 09:00 to Anele and the Club broadcast on 947 https://buff.ly/y34dh8Y For more from the show go to https://buff.ly/gyWKIkl or find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/K59GRzuSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Keith welcomes back Todd Drowlette, star of A&E's The Real Estate Commission, to help demystify commercial real estate for residential investors.  They explore which sectors are most resilient to disruption from AI, automation, and Amazon, why certain office and warehouse assets still work, and how service-based retail like nail salons and quick-service restaurants can offer durable returns.  Todd breaks down the basics and advantages of triple net (NNN) leases, key considerations in office-to-residential conversions, and how rising interest rates are reshaping commercial deals.  He also shares negotiation tactics from large commercial transactions that investors can immediately apply to their next rental property purchase. Episode Page: GetRichEducation.com/616 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  FAMILY to 66866  Unlock truly passive real estate income—visit flockhomes.com/GRE today to see if your properties qualify for a 721 exchange with Flock Homes. To get in the best physical, mental, and professional shape of your life, go to DanielThomasHind.com and apply for Daniel's intensive 1-on-1 coaching for burnt-out entrepreneurs and executives. Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search "how to leave an Apple Podcasts review"  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— GREletter.com  Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. We're talking with the star of the A&E show, the Real Estate Commission today. What real estate sectors are safe from AI, robots, and Amazon disruption? How many deals on the commercial side are still going to implode due to mortgage rates resetting higher? And some of the best negotiation techniques from $100 million deals that you can use in your own deals, and more today on Get Rich Education. You know, Mid South Homebuyers, that top Memphis turnkey provider. I learned that a secret weapon behind their explosive growth is more than just you buying their properties. It's an executive coach. For nine years now, their CEO Terry Kerr and his COO Pat Nix have worked privately with a coach who I've now learned from too, and he doesn't market himself online anywhere. After 12 years behind the scenes, that coach is now making himself available exclusively for GRE listeners, his name is Daniel Thomas Hind. If you're a hard-charging business owner or investor who wants to get in the best shape of your life, physically, mentally, and professionally, you can fill out an application for a free consult. This is private one-on-one coaching for those willing to go to uncommon lengths to achieve uncommon results. Thanks to Daniel, we've all become better leaders, better operators, and better men. It started by showing up for ourselves. Now it's your turn. Go to DanielThomashHind.com. H-I-N-D. That's DanielThomashHind.com and sign up before spots fill. What if you got your mortgage loans the same place I get mine? You sure can at Ridge Lending Group NMLS 42056 They provided GRE listeners with more loans than anyone because Ridge specializes in investment property. They'll help you build a long-term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your prequal and even chat directly with President Caeli Ridge. While it's on your mind, start at ridgelendinggroup.com. That's ridgelendinggroup.com.   Speaker 1  2:19   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is Get Rich Education.   Keith Weinhold  2:35   Welcome to GRE from Peoria, Illinois to Peoria, Arizona, and across 188 world nations. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you're listening to Get Rich Education. Though we're a show centered on how to build wealth through residential real estate investing, today we're talking mostly about the commercial side with a guest that's more comfortable investing in commercial real estate than he is residential. We'll learn why. He is the star of the new real estate show called the Real Estate Commission that airs on A&E Network. Todd Drowlette, because he was here with us last year shortly before the show debuted, and he had so many interesting things to tell us then. That's why he's back. Now we know that residential real estate is positioned well at surviving the boom in artificial intelligence's influence because everybody still needs a place to live. You can't download a kitchen or living room, and a chatbot can't replace a roof. But some types of commercial real estate are vulnerable to AI. I'm going to ask Todd which types and businesses are the most resilient to survive AI, robots, and Amazon, because there surely are some. He does a good job of making commercial real estate approachable to those that have never invested in it before.   Keith Weinhold  3:59   Contrary to the narrative, he also likes to talk about why office real estate is not dead. Occupying both worlds, I will ask him about office to residential conversions and also get his take on what is happening with commercial loans because apartment investors have been feeling the pain ever since mortgage rates doubled and nearly tripled in 2022. I'll ask about commercial loans blowing up and just how much more of that is expected to happen because the pain is certainly not over there. Let's meet this week's guest. A series on A and E Television and streaming launched last year called The Real Estate Commission, and it's going well enough that it's gearing up for season two. The star of that show is with us today. He was with us last year just before the show debuted, and that's when he shared all kinds of interesting insights with us, like why. A gas station is on a certain side of the road. He's perhaps the most prolific commercial real estate broker in the nation. He's managing director at Titan Commercial Realty Group in New York, closing deals totaling over $2 billion all across commercial real estate sectors. He's represented everyone from local startups to national reits. Hey, welcome back to Get Rich Education, Todd Drowlette.   Todd Drowlette  5:26   Thank you so much for having me back. I appreciate it. It's always great to talk to you.   Keith Weinhold  5:30   Yeah, same. It was so interesting when you were here last year, and I do want to ask you about how it's going with the A and E show later. Most of our listeners own single family rentals or small multifamily, and I think the commercial side, Todd. Frankly, it it intimidates some people. I know I've thought of it that way before. What are some of the misconceptions that the residential side seems to have about the commercial side?   Todd Drowlette  5:56   So a big misconception is that you have to be smart to do it. You certainly do not. A lot of people also think you have to already be a multimillionaire to do it, right? So the same way with residential, there's levels to it. There's levels to commercial real estate. So I say there's pros and cons, right? So in commercial real estate, if you have an office building or a shopping center or a ground lease, you rent to a McDonald's, whatever. You don't get phone calls at two in the morning saying my hot water tank just exploded, my furnace isn't working. So you still get property management calls, but they're typically from you know Monday through Friday, nine to five type of thing, and you don't need millions of dollars. People think you do. It's like you can buy a small two or three tenant office building or a two or three tenant retail shopping center, maybe something has a nail salon, hair salon in it. Depending on the market you're in, that could be a couple $100,000 to buy. If you're in a tertiary town in the United States, if you're in a major metro, it could be a million, 2  million bucks. But the rent is commiserate with what you're paying. So if you can make an 8 or 10% return, a lot of banks will finance startup people as long they're looking in commercial at the quality of the tenant and what the lease is. So you could have no experience, but if you're going to rent to a Hertz rental car, a Starbucks, a McDonald's, even if you personally have like say a 750 credit score, it's decent. It's not a perfect credit score, but you're financeable. They're lending in commercial real estate based on the credit and the length of the leases, not necessarily on your own financials. And a lot of people don't realize that, and they think, "Oh, bank's never going to approve me because I've never done commercial real estate before. Well, nobody's ever done anything until they do it, right? So as long as you start small, banks will lend to people, you know, on smaller things, there's a ton of pros to being in commercial real estate compared to residential. There's less competition. It's easier to repeat deals because once you know one tenant's looking for something, then you can find the next thing they're looking for, and it's a small knit group. You know, if there's 3 million real estate agents in the United States, I would say across the entire country, maybe 10,000 of us are commercial real estate agents.   Keith Weinhold  8:05   Yeah.   Todd Drowlette  8:06   So if you get into commercial, once you get into that network of people with a deal with the tenants and the whatever, you know, if you're in, you're in. If you're out, you're out. That was a very long answer to a very short question.   Keith Weinhold  8:16   Well, some people even have one of the same hangups about residential real estate investing-they think just to buy income property takes an awful lot of money, not realizing you can start with a single-family home of less than 300k or even less than 200k still today and make a small down payment on it. And you know, Todd, I think one thing that refines commercial real estate for some people and piques interest among residential investors is one of the first things that they learn when they're finding out about commercial real estate investing is the triple net lease. Oftentimes, you see that abbreviated NNN out there, and how that can make things somewhat more hands off for that commercial real estate investor. So, can you tell us about triple net leases?   Todd Drowlette  9:00   I sure can. Number one, the funny thing about triple net leases: none of the three things the N's represent start with an N. So your triple nets are literally your real estate taxes, your insurance, and your commonary maintenance. None of which start with an N. Yet it's called N N N.   Keith Weinhold  9:14   It's kind of like reading, writing, and arithmetic. The 3r is what only one of them starts with an R. It's a terrible acronym, but yes.   Todd Drowlette  9:22   Exactly. So there's different types of triple net properties. So essentially, a triple net property, unlike most residential, where you're responsible, you get X amount of rent, and then out of that rent for your income, you're going to subtract out your school tax, your property tax, your property insurance, liability insurance, you know, snow plowing, lawn mowing, all that type of stuff, right? So triple net properties, you have absolute net properties, which is the best thing you can own from a landlord's perspective. Those are things that are called absolute ground leases or an absolute net lease. Typically, you'll see those in like many gas stations. Will be that a lot of McDonald's. Deals are that where essentially you own a piece of property, you buy a piece of property, and you go here. You have X amount of time to put your building up, do construction, get your approvals. You're going to pay me X per month in a ground rent. You build your own building, you own your own building, you're responsible for it, and I just own the dirt. And those are typically 10 to 20 year leases with options. The downside of a triple net ground lease is you can't depreciate anything because it's just ground, right? So you don't get the depreciation you get with other properties, but you have no risk other than the credit of the tenant. So if you're signing a lease with the United States Postal Service and it's the federal government, you know you're getting that. Those will trade typically about one percentage point higher than U.S. Treasuries because there's very, very little risk in it. But there is some risk, so as an investor, you need a little bit better return than the guarantee of a U.S. Treasury.   Todd Drowlette  10:54   Then you have roof and structure triple net properties, where basically, okay, the roof and the structure I'm responsible for as the landlord. Anything inside of that, or you're responsible for, and then the tenants pay the proportionate share of, like I said, the taxes, the snow plowing, whatever. If that's a multi-tenant building, then you run the risk. Oh, tenant moves out as the landlord, you got to pick up that percentage. If if you have a 10,000 foot building and someone's in 2000 feet and they move out, well, now you're responsible for 20% of that tax and CAM and insurance bill until you replace it with a new tenant. But typically, if you're investing in small strip centers, smaller office buildings, which people say office is dead, I've made a fortune in office. Office is not dead. You just have to own the right office in the right place. A lot of downtown offices are dead, where they're moving to the suburbs for drugs and a lot of other issues. But typically, you know, strip centers today, people are buying those for 8% returns to as much as 10, 12% and a lot of times they're vacancy. That's upside you can add into it as well. But again, these are all things that you can get into for a couple $100,000 down, and there's way more room for error than people think there is. As long as you have a professional that's looking at the lease for you before you buy it, you know you just want to make sure the guarantee is on the lease that you have corporate guarantees. But typically, if a bank will finance it, they're also looking at that. But it's not as scary as people think it is, and it's really a strong alternative to investing in single-family homes. Not that I'm knocking single-family homes. There's pros and cons to literally everything you do in life, as you know. 100.   Keith Weinhold  12:28   A triple net lease, where in commercial property the tenant covers three main expenses or nets: property taxes, insurance, and the maintenance and repairs. And in a lot of the situations, like Todd is describing, that really leaves landlords responsible for little more than the mortgage, really increasing the passivity here. And you know, tenants that are willing to shoulder a triple net lease, I don't think of them as taking on those extra costs for nothing. I think about it is in exchange, tenants typically pay lower rent then, and the tenant also gets more control over the property in a triple net arrangement.   Todd Drowlette  13:08   That's a generally safe thing to say, but I hate saying this. I can't believe I'm even saying this, but you know they say location, location, location. So it really depends on the market. The biggest mistake people make to go, oh, I get asked all the time, should I invest in land? I'm like, hell no, raw land. I go when I develop stuff, I have a use for it. Once I get the approvals, then I'll close and buy the land. Land banking stuff and just going and buying land and hoping it goes up in value. I have a number one rule that I always say to people, and it's anytime you can buy $1 for 50 cents, you buy it, but you don't buy property for $1 hoping it goes to $2 because there's no guarantee that that'll happen. In raw land, you know you have a guaranteed. You're paying taxes every year, so just paying taxes on something that's also not returning you anything is a terrible investment, in my opinion. You're speculating. If you want to speculate, just go to the casino, play roulette, pick black or red, and you have roughly a 50-50 shop minus the three greens, but there's a lot easier ways to make money than buying raw land. But shopping centers, triple net properties, there's definitely ways for people to get into that that are much lower risk, and they're not as scary as you'd think. And many banks will finance them.   Keith Weinhold  14:18   Now, if you had to buy one commercial asset today, what would that be? I know that might depend on some factors, but generally, I've got to say, industrial comes to mind for me as one of the hottest commercial real estate asset classes in quite a while.   Todd Drowlette  14:32   So I would pick two strategies. One would be high bay warehouse, whether it's specifically industrial or just warehouse, but things with high ceilings, open floor plans, like you know, a 20,000 foot warehouse, 30,000 feet, something in that range, that a lot of people want that type of use. Warehouse rents have been increasing way faster than office or retail rents have been in the same markets. And as things get more and more automated, you still need to ship stuff. You still need to. Stuff you still need to get things to people's houses, so with the whole AI boom and the crazy things that are happening, I think there's going to be a lot fewer people with jobs sooner than people realize. But I do think the warehouse is a good thing to be invested in, especially if it's on main streets. It could be retail, could be warehouse, could be whatever. The second thing I'll say that's very low risk are any businesses that Amazon can't compete with you for. So, a small strip center that's two or three tenants, that's a hair salon, a nail salon, service type business, retail tenants, because it's a turnover business. So, like nail salons, they're never going to come to your house and do your nails unless you're a billionaire, because they can make more money with people coming to them in back-to-back appointments. So any type of service business tenant that you can have, and typically nail salons, hair salons, they don't usually go out completely. Usually, if they don't want to do it anymore, they'll sell the business to somebody else, and you keep a tenant. From an ownership standpoint, there's very low turnover and having to pay new brokerage fees or do give tenant fit-ups or free rent to like get their business up and running. So I would either go high bay warehouse with loading docks like 18 foot, 20 foot or higher ceilings, open floor plans, overhead doors, 20, 30,000 square feet, or two or three tenant strip malls with high traffic counts, good suburban locations that have service type businesses. Those are your two. Would be very hard to lose as long as you don't overpay when you buy them.   Keith Weinhold  16:25   This is such an interesting thing to say when you think about a resilient business, something that can't easily be disrupted by AI or Amazon, which something like a nail salon would fit into. Tell us about some of those other types that might fit into a small retail center that are resilient that way.   Todd Drowlette  16:45   End caps, so any kind of like a Popeyes, a McDonald's, anything that's drive-through or food. Even you're starting to see, you know, the Tesla robots, and you're seeing more and more of that. However, people will still buy the food. So whether the employees are actually still in there, it's all robots. They still physically need a place that's close and convenient for people to drive to, or even the food delivery apps. Like a lot of the retail restaurants now are telling me 30, 40% of their orders are delivery through like Uber Eats and whatever. But those are great tenants to have because they're still making money, and as the world's changing, they're adapting. And I want tenants that adapt to the changing world. And honestly, they can afford to pay more. This is terrible. But from a strictly landlord perspective, the fewer employees they have, you don't have workers' comp claims, you don't have the insurance, you don't have all those things. The more you can afford to pay rent to landlords. So as the world's changing, those type of retail, small strip centers, end caps, fast food, QSR type food, quick serve retail. Those are definitely things that I would be considering if I was someone getting into this, and they're things that I also own. So I always recommend what I would do myself.   Keith Weinhold  17:55   Right, and with that commercial tenant, if they're serving fast food, yes, it's not like their customer has to physically show up there at that business for that business to thrive.   Todd Drowlette  18:06   And actually, if you have them as a tenant, because of the delivery, like with a drive-through, you're typically only working off one or two miles. But Uber Eats or these other meal services, they're now going out five, six, even seven miles in some places. So that actually means their sales could be higher. And another thing I didn't mention, but now I'm thinking, a lot of restaurant tenants will pay a percentage rent. So actually, as their sales go up, even though there's not more infrastructure, you know, strains from more customers coming in and out of your property, as they're doing the meal delivery, you're actually potentially be getting cut of that as a landlord with percentage rent, which is a thing that doesn't exist in residential real estate, obviously, there's multiple streams of income for triple net properties at times when you have percentage rent that doesn't exist in warehouse, where it's in retail. It doesn't exist in office, doesn't exist in warehouse, doesn't exist in residential. So that can be a nice bonus, and you see that with supermarkets, restaurants, different types of retailers pay percentage run.   Keith Weinhold  19:05   Okay, so in a sense, Todd, we've been talking about going against the flow, if you will, in being in businesses that are resilient toward disruption from AI or Amazon. But while we're talking about industrial real estate, warehouses do come to mind for me soon afterward, I think generations ago maybe industrial had the connotation of a dirty factory. But today, when I think about warehouses, I think about Amazon fulfillment centers or AI data centers. So, what is the business like for investing in those sort of warehouse deals, and how do those deals even get put together for these warehouse types.   Todd Drowlette  19:42   So you have two types. So you have people who do spec building. So there's guys that will go out and say, "Hey, I'm in the warehousing business, and they'll go through. They'll get approvals and they'll say they'll buy 10 acres, 20 acres, 30 acres, and they'll say, "Okay, we're going to." Put I'm making this up. 500,000 square feet of warehouse on this. They'll go get approved, but they basically will put up a spec building of 40,000 50,000 feet, and then they'll lease it. Depending how long it takes them to lease it, then they'll build the next one. Once you kind of have one building up, it's much easier to prelease. If you just have a piece of dirt and say, hey, I'm going to do a warehouse building here. Unless you have a direct in specifically with Amazon, and they're like, hey, we need to be in Skoda, New York, you know, at this exit within 10 miles of that. And it's like anything. Once you do something for someone once, they're working across the whole country. So if you're particularly good in a specific region as developer, they will often say, "Hey, find me a spot here, here, because they're in the business of getting open and running data centers. They don't care if you're making a profit on the real estate, and they're not set up to locally go through the approvals, know the politicians, know the process, that whole thing. So there's opportunities like that. If you don't know anyone from a hole in the wall, if you have a big piece of property and you start with whatever you're comfortable with to spec out a warehouse, 10,000 feet, 5000 feet. See how long it takes. Do you lease that in six months? Does it take three months? Does it take a year? And then you can kind of take some of the profits from that, either refinance, or if you have a construction loan, then build the next one, build the next one, and build the next one. You can kind of build out as the demand comes along.   Keith Weinhold  21:22   You're listening to Get Rich Education. We're talking to the star of the A and E show, the Real Estate Commission, Todd Drowlette. So much when we come back. He's going to update us on what's happening with office to residential conversions, how much higher interest rate pain is still going to surface in some of these deals, and a negotiation tactic or two that you can use for your own residential deals. I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Flock Homes helps you retire from real estate and landlording, whether it's one problem property or your whole portfolio, through a 721 exchange, deferring your capital gains tax and depreciation recapture. It's a strategy long used by the ultra wealthy. Now, mom and pop landlords can 721 the residential real estate request your initial valuation. See if your properties qualify at flockhomes.com/gre. That's flockehomes.com/gre. 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If you have office buildings that are vacant, you know, particularly in downtown municipalities like in Albany, New York, you know, our state capital in New York. Politicians and the government right now are creating a lot of incentives to convert those, where they're putting up grant and giving away millions of dollars to private developers that you don't have to repay. So there's a huge opportunity to have people take on a lot of the risk for you to do it. Some of the pitfalls people get into are you want to pick the right office building to do it for. So you want to a make sure that that office building either has on site parking garages or on site parking because I've seen people try to do it and that. Downtowns where there's no parking, and you can put a lot of money in a building with no parking. And if you're not in New York City, where people are used to, and you're competing against suburban apartments, that's a tough sell. So that's number one. Number two, for whatever reason, people really want in office buildings and downtown settings floor-to-ceiling windows. So you really want to pick office buildings that already have floor-to-ceiling windows because it can be very expensive. If you get over three floors, it can be very expensive to cut out windows and make them larger. And another, this is a huge money potential pitfall if you're not careful. Many municipalities and states have different codes for elevators for residential buildings than they have for office. It makes no sense to me, but office buildings. It has to do with fitting the elevator has to be large enough that you can get a stretcher if someone had a heart attack and needed to be wheeled out. Ah, for some reason, residential buildings require larger elevators, and if your shaft isn't big enough and your car isn't big enough. You could have a million dollars or more of an unexpected expense to either make the shaft bigger. Some buildings you can't even do it.   Keith Weinhold  26:08   Well, but if it was originally set up for-   Todd Drowlette  26:09   It doesn't make any sense either. This is new. If you have an office building that's 30 stories tall, people could have heart attacks in the middle of the day at the office. So how is that any different than if they're at home in an apartment and have a heart attack, so it doesn't make any sense to me why the code is different for the fire code. But in New York State, the fire code is different, and that can be astronomically expensive, or it can literally stop your project dead in the tracks if it just becomes cost prohibitive to do it.   Keith Weinhold  26:34   That's something that I never would have thought about. I generally like to see office to residential conversions revitalizing central business districts in our cities. You know, you talked about the parking before having less need for parking. If people can walk to work and where they work, that increases the walkability of an area. I like so many things about office to residential conversions, despite all the hardships and the pitfalls you have to avoid.   Todd Drowlette  27:01   Oh, they're great. You just want to make sure you're picking the right building. So my point is, if you have five or 10 vacant office buildings, mostly vacant office buildings, just make sure you're choosing the right one. And before you buy it, do your due diligence and go through with contractors and engineers and architects that understand all the codes and say, hey, the other positive thing that saves money in office conversions is most office buildings. If you have an elevator bank, typically have bathrooms directly across from the elevator bank, so water and sewer can be very expensive when you're running apartments. So having central lines going up through usually concrete floors can save you a ton of money in the design and the layout of how you place the units and do it around central bathrooms, but typically larger office buildings will have plumbing and sewer on different parts of the floor. So it just means you have to go less distance and it saves money. And a lot of office buildings, even older ones, have higher ceilings, which today is very desirable for apartments. So if you can have a building that has natural light, high ceilings, and you can get grant money to do it, that's definitely something people should look into. And even with a smaller building, I've seen people in New York people are converting 5000 foot office buildings into like five units. You know, there's money to be made. You just have to buy right. I always say, you know, if you can buy $1 for 50 cents. Buy it. Don't buy $1 and hope it goes to $2 A   Keith Weinhold  28:25   lot of these physical limitations, oftentimes in the office to residential conversion, and Todd in the residential world, oftentimes apartment buildings have been problematic. A lot of these syndicators have had their deals blow up because in 2022 or earlier they got five to seven year fixed rate debt. Those deals are coming due. The mortgage payments double, and a lot of times the operator just can't meet it, and it blows up. And apartment building values have been down about 30% nationally, largely for that reason, even though an apartment building owner gets a commercial loan, I still want to know from the commercial side and the commercial use type how much higher interest rate pain do you see that has surfaced and is still going to surface.   Todd Drowlette  29:17   So, I'll answer this by quoting my grandmother. She said, "Anytime you want to cook, whatever size pot you think you need, pick twice that size pot and start using that.   Keith Weinhold  29:29   Yeah.   Todd Drowlette  29:29   So I say the same thing when you're financing a deal or you're writing it out and seeing what your returns are. I always say to people, make sure that you have a big enough cushion in there for all the things you can never predict in commercial loans, there's a ton of guys that are about to lose their shirts, and you're starting to see it because, unfortunately, I don't know if it's true in residential real estate, but in commercial real estate, I've seen guys go from nothing to 50 million, 100 million, $200 million net worths, but I've also seen. Lose everything. So what happens in commercial real estate that you don't want to do is so many people say OPM, use other people's money, use other people's money, use other people's money, which is fine as a strategy. But what you don't want to do is cross collateralized loans. So if you have one property and then you go, oh, let me refinance that and then buy a next property and I'll refinance that and buy the next property, and then the bank's like, okay, we'll refinance that, but we're going to now tie all these properties together as one mortgage, or you're going to cross guarantee these properties. Right. The problem with that is, the people who do that strategy, if you started at that, you know, in 2021 when interest rates, you could get things at three and three quarters percent. Well, commercial loans are five-year loans typically, and they might have 20 or 20-five-year amortizations. So, unlike a residential mortgage that's a 15 or 20 or 30-year self-amortizing loan, they're not. At the end of five years, you have a balloon payment that you have to pay off. So, if interest rates are going down, that's amazing because if your tenants are the same, and even if your rents didn't change, and you bought something at 6% and now it's at 5% Your cash flow goes up significantly, and nothing happened other than your refinance. The problem is you have a ton of guys right now, guys, women, people that were financing stuff five years ago at three and three quarters, and now interest rates are hanging six and a quarter, six and a half, depending on the property, is might maybe seven. Same tenant, same everything. You're giving the keys back to the bank because you're broke now. Because all of a sudden you're financing, you squeeze too much out of the deal. I always say you can take on the in in or you can take on the out, but you can't have both. So when people are financing stuff, they just need to make sure. Like here's another thing I'll go off on. A lot of people will buy stuff with tax credits, and you see even with residential apartments, a lot of guys are financing that, selling people tax credits. Economies and things change and things move. If a deal is so tight that you need the tax credits to make the deal make sense, yeah, don't do the fricking deal because tax credits should be an added bonus. That's just, hey, that's a nice adding to the cushion. So many people have razor thin margins. They go, oh well, I do the tax credits. If I can get 70 cents on the dollar, this is how I make the money. I tell people I will have nothing to do with tax credit deals unless it's strictly a bonus. The deal has to stand on its own, and always assume in the course of five years interest rates could go up three points or down three points. Most people will not listen to me and will not do that. If you do that, you'll never get killed and you won't lose a property. It's super conservative, but there's enough money you can make, and if you buy it right, that's how you can afford to figure that spread in when you're financing something. But just so many people get greedy, and I just think back to my friend Bob Bear, who died. I met him when he was like 70-five. He was a billionaire, self-made, and he used to say to me, "It's not what you make; it's what you keep. And when people would ask how rich are you, he knew how rich he was. He would say, "I don't owe anybody in the world a dime.   Todd Drowlette  32:59   And to me, my entire strategy is I don't owe anybody in the world a dime. So I personally look at deals and say, out of my own cash flows, what can I buy? And instead of buying four properties a year, I might buy one property a year. But if I'm buying that and compounding my returns, I'm not paying interest to the banks. So it's just a different strategy. I sleep at night. I'm like the multimillionaire next door. I don't live extravagantly. I don't drive Ferraris and Rolls Royces. That's just not my thing. But I sleep at night and I have peace, which is important to me, knowing I don't owe anybody in the world a dime. But will I get as rich as the guy who's risking everything? No. But real estate to me is musical chairs, and the music always stops at some point. And there's never enough chairs for everybody. But if you're somebody who's in a cash position, which you're going to be going through in the next six months to a year, on the residential and commercial, I think there's going to be blood in the streets. And I think people who are sitting in cash are going to have like a once in a lifetime opportunity to buy things at a deep discount.   Keith Weinhold  34:02   Philosophically, we're different in one way. I use debt and leverage to grow larger, but ensuring that I do have enough income to cover the mortgage and all the operating expenses. But Todd, to your analogy about your grandmother in selecting a bigger pot than what she would need to cook whatever she's going to do, when it does come to debt, the last time I bought an apartment building myself, which wasn't recent, I could have chosen seven-year fixed-rate debt with a balloon at the end, or 10-year fixed-rate debt with a balloon at the end. The 10-year fixed-rate debt cost me one quarter of a percent more in mortgage rate, which dented my cash flow during the entire duration of that loan. But I did indeed choose that 10-year loan in order to have that much more certainty, and I sure am glad that that's what I did.   Todd Drowlette  34:54   That's always the game because it's people think that rich people know what you don't, or it's inside. Whatever I'm like. Number one, if you sit in a room with a bunch of rich people, yes, they will work against you if it benefits them to work together. But if it doesn't, you have egos and separate interests that are all competing. And there's always that thing of I know very very rich people who could buy and sell me 100 times over, and I also know that you don't know what you don't know, and the world has gotten so complicated, and financial markets are all intertwined globally. Anyone to be able to predict, it's like it's a crapshoot when you're like, okay, do I take seven years? Where do I think interest rates will be in seven years? It's hard to say where interest rates going to be tomorrow. You ask a banker tomorrow, they can't tell you. So it's like, what's your best educated guess of seven or 10 years? What's the better play? But I always go the conservative route.   Keith Weinhold  35:43   I think it's easier to predict the future direction of capital prices than it is interest rates. Myself,   Todd Drowlette  35:50   but I will say also, I am the exception. And if you have 100 other guests on here in the next year, well, 50-one more guests in here the next year, yeah, they would all say Todd's an idiot. That's terrible advice. If you want to get rich, literally leverage, leverage. Just do it intelligently, and I acknowledge that. I don't see the world the way other people do, but my end game is to be rich and comfortable, and to sleep at night with peace. And that's why I choose to do what I do, realizing I'm giving up. It's the you know what are you giving up to what do you gain benefit analysis, and I'm realizing I'm giving up some upside in my total potential net worth. But I like peace, and you know I had anxiety for years. I don't have it anymore, and I live my life to be as anxiety free as I can possibly be.   Keith Weinhold  36:34   That's interesting, and that certainly works for you, Todd. What's one negotiation tactic that you get from dealing with, well, let's say Decca or Centa million dollar commercial deals that our listeners could use the very next time that they buy a rental property.   Todd Drowlette  36:53   So the number one mistake I think people make is they assume what's motivating the other person, and they assume it's always price. So anytime I'm going to negotiate a deal from someone, whoever has the most information always wins, and whoever doesn't need the deal always wins. Yeah. So I want to know as much about that other person on the other side as I am. Are they going through a divorce? Are they desperate? Do they hate each other? Is it a partnership breakup? Did somebody inherit it and they live five states away and don't even know what this thing is worth that they have. So the number one thing from a negotiating standpoint is understand exactly who you're negotiating with and what's motivating them. From an actual tactic standpoint, just think logically through whatever the process is, and you can always go up. You can't go down. So the key is to offer as little as you can without insulting the person, so they don't even respond. So figure out what that fine line is, and before you go into the negotiation, know what your walk away number is. That's just the point you're not getting over. The fast way to lose in a negotiation is to get stuck in a bidding war. There's nothing I want so much that I'm going to overpay for it. So when people go, "Well, if somebody else is interested, I go then sell it to them. Yeah, I don't need it. Sell it to them. And then the other thing I'll say is, if you start the negotiation, this is the one piece. Say your number and shut up. So many people are scared of silence. And then, right, if the person doesn't immediately respond, they go, "Oh, well, I guess I offered you 500,000 I mean, I guess I could go 550. As soon as you talk after you give a number, you're negotiating against yourself. So throw the number, let it land wherever it lands, and do not talk until that person responds to you. That's like the number one mistake I see people do. They throw out a number, they get nervous with the silence, and then they immediately go up in their offer. That person could have been thinking, "Oh my God, did I forget to call back my whatever? And they're not even thinking about the number you just threw out. But people just assume, oh God, the number was too low, and then they negotiate against those. Do not do that.   Keith Weinhold  38:48   Risk the awkward silence. And yes, to your point about learning more about the other side, terms are often more important than price for sure. Well, Todd, you know a lot of commercial real estate content in mainstream media it tends to focus on these big institutional deals. But what has made your A and E show interesting, the Real Estate Commission, is what it's called. Is it focuses more on sort of leasing and this negotiation that we're just touching on there, and that's what makes you interesting. So tell us about what audiences can expect for season two of the Real Estate Commission on A and E.   Todd Drowlette  39:24   So, season two, you will 100% see real landlords, real brokers, real investors. You'll see real retailers. You'll see people relocating their offices in New York City. You'll see stuff in upstate New York. It's generally in the Northeast. In the first season, we helped a kitchen cabinet manufacturer relocate their suburban offices in Philadelphia. I sold a 50-unit HUD property that has a HAP contract you might be familiar with. That was crazy going through a bankruptcy foreclosure proceeding two year. That was crazy. Yeah, so you are going to. See more of that. It's a documentary. It's not a reality show, so you're watching the deal as it unfolds. Some things have happy endings. Some things have terrible endings, but they're real endings either way. So people will see a lot of that of deals happening in the Northeast. And if someone's listening and they're a business owner and they want to be part of the show, they can apply. We're announcing the casting will be open for about three weeks across the U.S. They can go to the realestatecommission.com/forward/tv and they can apply to be part of the show.   Keith Weinhold  40:32   Now, since you started this last year, I want to ask: Has this A and E exposure helped you generate more business and create traffic? I would really think so.   Todd Drowlette  40:42   Yeah, I wasn't sure. You know how because you never anything new. You never know, right? Like I put time and energy into it. It definitely did. Definitely, people start to notice you, which is a little weird. I was in a cell phone store, and they literally it was playing, and the guy's like, "Oh, it's you! Like, and then everybody who's walking in, he's like, "Hey, look, it's the guy on TV. He's right here. That was like kind of an awkward. Like, I'm like, "Okay, this is weird. Guy was excited, so that was fine. It's an adjustment of things, but it definitely has increased our overall visibility and people reaching out to do deals with us for sure.   Keith Weinhold  41:18   Is there any last resource you'd like to tell our audience about.   Todd Drowlette  41:21   I would just quickly announce the first season did so well. We're actually doing a spinoff show that'll also air on A and E called the Real Estate Commission New York that we're casting in upstate New York as well as New York City for brokers, agents, home sellers, home buyers that will actually document real buyers, real sellers, same thing. It'll follow our format, which I know there's a million shows on TV about real estate. Those are reality shows, not docu series. And I'll say, without going into the details, there's a very big difference between those two and what you're actually seeing on camera and what's happening. That will air in March of 2027, back to back with our show, I will make cameos in that. But I'm executive producing that show, so from your residential audience, that's a show they should tune into. I think they'll get a lot out of it.   Keith Weinhold  42:12   Congratulations! Your show has had so much success that it's setting the template for another show, and it has been most interesting since we first had you here last year to follow this along, Todd Drowlette. It's been a valuable chat. Thanks so much for coming back onto the show.   Todd Drowlette  42:28   I'd love to come back anytime, and thank you so much for having me on again. I appreciate it.   Keith Weinhold  42:38   Drowlette is spelled D R O W L E T T E. Todd and I talk a good bit off mic as well. In addition to the elevators, sometimes he emphasizes how cumbersome to impossible HVAC system compatibility is when you're doing office to residential building conversions. Too, you just never seem to hear about an easier than expected office to residential property conversion. It is most interesting and rare that Todd is not much of a leverage guy at all. Whereas in the vein of financially free beats debt free, I like to approach deals where the interest cost is lower than the expected opportunity cost. When it comes to negotiating, some of Todd's approach, you know, it's similar to what prominent hostage negotiator Chris Voss shared with you here on the show a few years ago. That silence is powerful in negotiating. In fact, if you feel like you need to say something to fill the silence. Use what Chris Voss calls the mirroring technique, and the mirroring technique that is simply repeating what the other party just said, kind of like a parrot would. For example, if you're trying to buy a property and the seller says that the best they can do is sell it to you for 550k and a delayed 90-day close. Reply with 550k and a 90-day close, and then listen to see if the seller comes down from there. Or instead, you can simply say nothing and just sit there with the silence like Todd recommended. The reason I like these particular negotiating techniques right here is that they're easy to remember and they're easy to do. You either remain silent or, per the mirroring technique, you just repeat the last words that the other party said. Thanks to Todd Drowlette today, you can check out the real estate commission on A and E Coming up here on the show soon. Back to residential, where for the first time ever on the show here we discuss what might be the greatest real estate cash flow strategy because it's becoming quite popular today. Until next week, I'm your host Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your daydream.   Speaker 1  45:08   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal, or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial, or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of Get Rich Education LLC exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  45:36   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building getricheducation.com  

The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. A carefully planned police operation can descend into chaos in a matter of seconds. Retired Akron, Ohio, police officer Timothy Dimoff knows that reality firsthand. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast social media like their Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , Medium and other social media platforms. During his law enforcement career, he worked undercover narcotics investigations and participated in dangerous drug raids alongside SWAT teams. The Podcast is available for free on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, iHeartradio and most major podcast platforms. #LawEnforcementTalk #Free #Podcast #Radio During one operation, a distraction device, commonly called a flash-bang or percussion grenade, was reportedly deployed incorrectly. In the confusion that followed, Dimoff was injured. Supporting articles about this and much more from Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast in platforms like Medium , Blogspot and Linkedin. His experience offers a rare look behind the badge at the risks of undercover police work, the unpredictable nature of drug raids, and the major changes that have made modern search-warrant operations more methodical and focused on safety. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. Dimoff shares his remarkable story on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast, available through Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms. What Are Drug Raids? The phrase “drug raid” is commonly used to describe a police operation designed to search a location for illegal drugs, weapons, evidence, or wanted suspects. In legal and law enforcement settings, these operations may be called search-warrant executions or search-and-seizure operations. Before officers can legally search most private properties, investigators generally must gather evidence, prepare an affidavit, and present their findings to a judge. If the Court determines that probable cause exists, a search warrant may be issued. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. Executing that warrant, however, can be the most dangerous part of the investigation. The conversation is available on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and most other major podcast platforms, where audiences continue discovering firsthand accounts from those who have lived them. Officers may have little reliable information about what awaits them inside the location. Potential risks can include: Armed suspects Barricaded doors Surveillance cameras Guard dogs Hidden weapons Fortified entry points Innocent family members or children Suspects attempting to destroy evidence Bystanders who do not understand what is happening Even after extensive planning, no officer can predict exactly how the people inside will respond when police arrive. Dimoff's experience demonstrates why these operations demand training, discipline, communication, and careful coordination. The Reality of Police Working Undercover Undercover narcotics work is far different from the polished version often portrayed on television. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. The episode is available across major platforms including their website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, with highlights shared across their Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles. Police officers working undercover may enter unpredictable environments without a visible uniform, marked patrol vehicle, or the immediate protection that normally identifies them as law enforcement officers. They may meet suspected drug dealers, make controlled purchases, gather intelligence, identify criminal organizations, and help build cases that eventually lead to arrests and Court proceedings. The danger is constant. One mistake, unexpected question, or suspicious reaction can expose an undercover officer's identity. If that happens, the officer may be surrounded by dangerous suspects with no obvious way out. For undercover officers, every conversation requires focus. Every movement may be watched. Every exit must be considered. Dimoff speaks about this demanding side of police work and the pressure officers experience while investigating narcotics crimes. His firsthand account goes beyond the dramatic images often seen on social media and reveals how quickly a seemingly controlled operation can become life-threatening. The Drug Raid That Injured Him While serving with the Akron Police Department in Ohio, Dimoff participated in narcotics operations involving SWAT personnel. During one drug raid, officers used a percussion grenade as part of the tactical entry. These devices are designed to create a sudden burst of light and sound, temporarily distracting or disorienting people inside a location. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. Available for free on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube and most major Podcast networks. They are not toys, and they are not harmless. If a flash-bang is deployed in the wrong location, bounces unexpectedly, or lands too close to an officer or civilian, it can cause serious injuries. The enclosed environment of a house or apartment can make its effects even more intense. During the operation Dimoff describes, the device was misdirected. He was injured in the confusion and physical struggle that followed. His story illustrates an uncomfortable truth about drug raids: even when trained officers and SWAT teams are present, something can still go wrong. A device can land in an unintended place. A suspect can respond unexpectedly. An officer can lose sight of another team member. A room can contain hazards that were not visible during surveillance. Plans matter, but conditions can change instantly. Why Police Use Flash-Bang Devices Flash-bang devices are intended to create a temporary tactical advantage during high-risk operations. The sudden light and explosive sound may distract occupants long enough for officers to enter, locate threats, and gain control of the scene. Their purpose is generally to reduce a suspect's ability to attack officers, reach a weapon, escape, or destroy evidence. However, the use of these devices requires sound judgment. Before deployment, tactical teams may consider: The seriousness of the suspected crime Whether firearms are believed to be present The suspect's criminal and violent history The presence of children or vulnerable adults The physical design of the building Available intelligence about the occupants The possibility of fire or other environmental hazards Whether less dangerous alternatives are available Dimoff's injury underscores why proper placement, timing, training, and communication are essential. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. The Podcast is available for free on the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast website, also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, iHeartradio and most major podcast platforms. The device is only one part of the operation. The safety of officers, suspects, families, and neighbors depends on the entire team understanding the plan and responding correctly when circumstances change. Drug Raids Have Changed Since the 1980s According to Dimoff, drug raids have evolved considerably since the 1980s. Earlier operations often involved different levels of training, equipment, intelligence, and tactical coordination. Over time, police agencies learned from injuries, fatalities, lawsuits, Court decisions, and reviews of operations that did not go as planned. Modern search-warrant executions are generally more deliberate and methodical. Depending on the agency and the level of risk, planning may include surveillance, threat assessments, photographs, diagrams, medical support, designated assignments, and detailed briefings. Officers may study: The number and identities of occupants Known weapons Criminal histories Possible escape routes Nearby homes and businesses The location of children Surveillance systems Dogs or other animals Doors, windows, fences, and other obstacles The safest time and method of approach Teams may also establish contingency plans in case the primary entry method fails. These improvements cannot eliminate every danger, but they may significantly reduce unnecessary risks. The goal is not simply to enter quickly. The goal is to execute a lawful warrant, secure the scene, preserve evidence, and protect everyone involved. How Common Are Tactical Drug Raids? Estimating the precise number of drug raids conducted across the United States is difficult because reporting practices vary among federal, state, county, and local agencies. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast continues bringing listeners real conversations from the front lines of crime, policing, trauma, survival, and healing. Some criminology estimates suggest tactical entries and search-warrant operations affect tens of thousands of people each year. Various independent estimates have placed the number of no-knock or quick-knock operations at approximately 20,000 annually. Other estimates suggest that drug searches historically represented a large percentage of tactical or SWAT deployments. These figures should be viewed cautiously because there is no single nationwide system that consistently categorizes and tracks every tactical warrant service in the same way. What is clear is that these operations are not rare. Thousands of officers and civilians may be affected by them each year, making training, oversight, accurate intelligence, and safety procedures critically important. No-Knock and Quick-Knock Entries Not every search warrant is executed in the same manner. During a traditional knock-and-announce operation, officers identify themselves and announce their purpose before entering. A no-knock warrant may permit entry without the customary announcement when legally authorized and justified by specific circumstances. Quick-knock operations may involve officers announcing their presence but entering shortly afterward because of an identified threat or concern. Supporters of rapid-entry tactics argue that they may prevent armed resistance, escape, or the destruction of evidence. Critics raise concerns about mistaken addresses, injuries to innocent occupants, confusion, and violent confrontations when residents do not immediately realize that the people entering are police officers. These competing concerns have led to major public debates, policy reviews, legislative changes, and Court challenges. Supporting articles about this and much more from Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast in platforms like Medium , Blogspot and Linkedin. Dimoff's story contributes an important perspective to that discussion. The risks are not limited to suspects or civilians. Police officers can also be seriously injured when tactical equipment is misdirected or an operation breaks down. What Television and Social Media Often Miss Drug raids are frequently reduced to short, dramatic video clips on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and other social media platforms. Viewers might see a door forced open, officers shouting commands, or suspects placed in handcuffs. What they usually do not see are the days, weeks, or months of investigative work that took place beforehand. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. The episode is available across major platforms including their website, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, with highlights shared across their Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn profiles. They may never see the undercover officer who gathered the original evidence, the detective who prepared the search-warrant affidavit, the judge who reviewed it, or the tactical team that spent hours planning the entry. They also may not see what happens after the raid. Evidence must be documented and secured. Reports must be written. Suspects may appear in Court. Officers may be questioned by prosecutors and defense attorneys. Every significant decision may be examined in detail. A tactical operation that lasts only minutes can produce a legal case that continues for months or years. That is why accuracy and professionalism matter at every stage, from the undercover investigation to the final courtroom testimony. The Emotional Impact of Dangerous Police Work Physical injuries are often visible. The emotional effects of police work can be much harder to recognize. An officer injured during a drug raid may replay the incident repeatedly, wondering what could have happened differently. Other team members may question whether they missed a warning sign or could have prevented the injury. Undercover officers face additional pressure because they must repeatedly enter environments where their safety depends on maintaining a false identity. They cannot always display fear, ask openly for help, or leave when they feel uncomfortable. When an operation goes wrong, the effects can follow an officer long after the scene has been cleared. Dimoff's willingness to discuss his experience helps the public understand that the risks of law enforcement do not end when the arrest is made. From Police Officer to Security Consultant After retiring from police work, Dimoff moved into security consulting. His transition allowed him to apply the lessons he learned in narcotics investigations, tactical operations, and street-level law enforcement to helping others recognize and manage risk. Former police officers can bring a valuable perspective to security work because they have seen how criminals identify vulnerabilities and exploit routines. They understand that safety is not based solely on equipment. It also depends on preparation, communication, awareness, and the ability to respond under pressure. Dimoff's injury became part of a much larger professional story, one that continued after he left the police department. His experience serves as a reminder that knowledge gained through difficult moments can later be used to protect businesses, organizations, and individuals. Follow the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast on their website, on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other social media platforms for more compelling interviews with police officers, investigators, authors, and first responders who reveal the realities behind the badge. An Important Conversation About Police and Public Safety Discussions about drug raids often become deeply divided. Some people focus on the dangers officers face when entering locations associated with drugs, weapons, and violent suspects. Others emphasize the risks to families, neighbors, and innocent occupants when police intelligence is incomplete or tactical operations go wrong. Both concerns involve safety. Dimoff's experience reveals why the subject cannot be reduced to slogans. Search-warrant executions involve law, human judgment, imperfect information, and rapidly changing conditions. Accountability matters. Training matters. Court oversight matters. Accurate intelligence matters. So does understanding the difficult decisions officers may be forced to make in seconds. The strongest public conversations begin when people move beyond viral social media clips and listen to those who have lived through these operations. Listen to Timothy Dimoff's Amazing Story Timothy Dimoff's interview provides a firsthand account of undercover narcotics work, dangerous drug raids, tactical policing, and the operation that left him injured. His story also explores how police training has evolved since the 1980s and why today's tactical teams place greater emphasis on planning, coordination, and safety. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast shares real stories from police officers, first responders, military veterans, survivors, and others whose lives have been changed by crime and trauma. Listeners can find the show across Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and other podcast and social media platforms. Learn and get access to money saving tips and how to increase your net worth at www.LetSavings.com Download the Free Ebook about ways and tips to improve your health. You can get the ebook for free at www.LetHealthy.com Get the Free Clubhouse App, it is Drop In Social Audio. Think of it as your own talk radio show on your phone, and best of all it is free. Be sure to look for me and follow me, that's John J Wiley or @letradioshow you can do all that here. The Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast social media like their Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , Medium and other social media platforms. You can contact John J. “Jay” Wiley by email at Jay@letradio.com , or learn more about him on their website . Find a wide variety of great podcasts online at The Podcast Zone Facebook Page , look for the one with the bright green logo. Be sure to check out our website . Listen to the Law Enforcement Talk Radio Show and Podcast on their website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and most major podcast platforms. Be sure to follow us on X , Instagram , Facebook, Pinterest, Linkedin and other social media platforms for the latest episodes and news. The Truth About Drug Raids and Police Working Undercover: What Can Go Wrong in Seconds. Attributions Wikipedia Akron Police Department SACS Consulting Facebook Facebook Group Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this message, Joel Thomas discusses how our trials, temptations, and tension shape us—and they have a way of revealing who or what we're truly depending on.

2021年八省联考英语听力第一节 (共5小题；每小题1.5分，满分7.5分)听下面5段对话。每段对话后有一个小题，从题中所给的A、B、C三个选项中选出最佳选项。听完每段对话后，你都有10秒钟的时间来回答有关小题和阅读下一小题。每段对话仅读一遍。1.Why does the woman refuse to go to the gym? A. She is sick. B. She needs a rest. C. She has to work.2.What are the speakers talking about? A. A kind of food. B. A close relative. C. A new restaurant.3.What will the woman probably eat? A.Beef. B. Grapes. C. Potatoes.4.What is the woman's suggestion? A. Repairing the sofa. B. Cleaning the kitchen. C. Buying a cupboard.5.What does the man think of the movie? A. Top quality. B. Above average. C. Surprisingly bad.第二节 (共15小题；每小题1.5分，满分22.5分)听下面 5 段对话或独白。每段对话或独白后有几个小题，从题中所给的 A、B、C 三个选项中选出最佳选项。听每段对话或独白前，你将有时间阅读各个小题，每小题 5 秒钟；听完后，各小题将给出 5 秒钟的作答时间。每段对话或独白读两遍。听第 6 段材料，回答第 6、7 题。6.Where are the speakers? A. In a restaurant. B. In a bookstore. C. In a supermarket.7.What does the man have to do now? A. Sign his name. B. Wait his turn. C. Call his friend.听第 7 段材料，回答第 8 至 10 题。8.When does the man play to check in? A. Three days later. B. Four days later. C. Seven days later.9.What kind of room does the man take? A. One with one bed and a kitchen. B. One with two beds and a kitchen. C. One with two beds and no kitchen.10.How much will the man pay? A. $400. B. $800. C. $1200. 听第 8 段材料，回答第 11 至 13 题。11.What does Susan do right before the conversation? A. She visited her brother. B. She called John Reeves. C. She toured the company.12.What does Susan think of the place? A. It's big. B. It's famous. C. It'scrowded.13.Who is Mihael? A. John's boss. B. Tara's husband. C. Susan'sbrother.听第 9 段材料，回答第 14 至 16 题。14.What did the woman do last night? A. She went to school. B. She listened to a talk. C. She decorated her room.15.What does the woman suggest the man do with his big table? A. Replace it. B. Have it painted. C. Make good use of it.16.What is a benefit of decorating a house by oneself? A. Saving money. B. Suiting personal taste. C. Strengthening family ties.听第 10 段材料，回答第 17 至 20 题。17.What is special about a live concert? A. The whole experience is unique. B. The sound quality is outstanding. C. The performance can be recorded.18.What does the speaker say about concerts by university performing groups? A. They are expensive. B. They are often of high quality. C. They are covered by the local media.19.What does the speaker suggest doing before the concert? A. Listening to the works to be performed. B. Checking information at the box office. C. Reading something about the concert hall.20.What is the speaker ? A. A news reporter. B. A theater designer. C. A college teacher.答案：1-5 BABCB 6-10 ABCCB11-15 CACBA 16-20 BABAC听力录音材料：(Text1)M: Are you coming to the gym?W: No, I don't feel like going today. I've been busy working the whole day and really need a peaceful time at home.(Text2)M: You should try this.My aunt made it.W: Mm, delicious. What is it?M: It's called couscous. It's made from wheat. There's some meat on top of it.(Text3)M: I'm cooking beef with potatoes. Do you want some?W: No, thanks. I'm on a diet. I only eat vegetables and fruits.M: OK, there are some grapes in the fridge. Help yourself.W: Thanks.(Text4)M: Lisa, do you think we should get a new sofa?W: Oh, our sofa is a bit old but perfectly usable. Right now, we need a cupboard in the kitchen much more.(Text5)W: Hey, Thomas. How was the movie last night?M: It was OK, not exactly a top quality one but still a welcome surprise. I would give it three stars out of four.(Text6)M: We'd like a table for four, please.W: Have you made a booking?M: No, we haven't.W: I'm afraid there will be about a ten-to-fifteen-minute wait.M: That's OK. Oh, by the way,we'd prefer a table by the window. W: In that case, you will probably have to wait longer.M: It doesn't matter.W: OK, I'll call you when the table is ready. Your name, please?M: It's Montague.M-O-N-T-A-G-U-E. Could we look at the menu while we are waiting?W: Certainly. Here you are.(Text7)W: Good evening. What can I do for you?M: Hi, I'd like to make a reservation.W: All right. Is it just for you?M: No. I need a room for three.W: Would two beds be OK?M: Yes, that would be fine.W: How long will you be staying with us?M: We'll be staying for four nights, starting one week from today.W: OK, we have a room with two queen-size beds and a kitchen.M: How much will it cost?W: Three hundred dollars per night.M: Wow. That's expensive. Do you have any rooms that cost less?W: Well, we have another room with no kitchen, 200 dollars per night.M: That's OK. I'll take this one.W: OK. All done. I hope you'll enjoy your stay.M: Thanks.(Text8)M: Oh, good morning. Susan Brown, isn't it?W: Yes, good morning.M: Oh, I'm John Reeves. I manage the Sales Department here at Rasco International. You can call me John.W: OK, John.M: Have you already been shown round the company?W: Yes. I got here at 9 a.m.And Tara gave me a tour of the place.M: And what did you think?W: It's a lot bigger than I thought it would be.M: Yes. A lot of people say that. Now we have over fifty people working here. Well, where did you hear about Rasco International?W: From my brother,Michael Brown. He worked for you a couple of years ago and he has always spoken well of you.M: Yes, I remember him.You'll say hi to him from me, won't you?W: OK, sure.(Text9)W: Sam, I listened to a lecture last night at the art gallery and the artist told us that we don't need to be professional to give our home a new look.M: So, did the artist say howto do it exactly? I'm about to decorate my house.W: Yes, I have noted down a few of the creative ways he talked about.M: I'd love to hear about them.For example, should I redesign the entrance to my home?W: Yeah, it's important.And it's the first thing people will see when they visit. It should reflect the design of the rest of your house. Depending on your budget, you might want to give your front door a fresh coat of paint.M: Mm, I'll consider that.Another thing is I have a big table in my dining room that no one ever sits at.W: Yeah. Some people never use their dining tables. So why hold onto them? Replace the big table with a smaller round table.M: That's a good idea. The whole family will still be able to sit there and it won't feel quite as polished.W: Yes, and all these creative ways can be finished on your own to suit your design style and personal taste.(Text10) Many students ask me about how to understand, and enjoy the experience of concert going. So today, I'd like to take some time to talk about it. First of all, a live concert is totally different from listening to recordings. In a live performance, what is performed, how it sounds and how the artist feels about the performance, these exist for only a very short moment and can never be repeated. As an audience responds to the excitement of such moments, feelings are exchanged between stage and hall. You have many kinds of concerts to choose from by many kinds of performing groups. Concerts by university performing groups are easily accessible, free or at a relatively low price and often of high quality. Announcements of such concerts will be found in the newspaper of our university. Performances outside the university are announced in local newspapers. These concerts tend to be more expensive but discount tickets are often available for students. Though tickets can usually be bought on the day or night of a concert, you have a wide choice if you buy them in advance at the box office or on the Internal. If possible, prepare fora concert by listening to some of the works to be performed and by reading about the musicians.

Welcome to the final installment of my interview with Steve Ahlquist, an independent journalist who covers social justice, economic justice, and environmental justice in the state of Rhode Island. Steve is the founder of the independent news site Uprise RI, and currently is sharing his reporting at his Substack, Steve Ahlquist News.In today's episode we're talking about where Steve's throughline may be leading him next and we'll also talk about some lighter, yet still vitally important topics, like what he's been watching, reading, listening to, and fantasizing about eating lately.We talked about:- Why it's a no brainer for him to support people whose rights are being threatened- The earlier journalists who inspire his work- How his business changes according to who is president- The challenge of eating healthy when you're out reporting all day- His “Superhero” playlistReach out to Steve at atomicsteve@gmail.com, and check out Steve Ahlquist News at https://steveahlquist.substack.com/.For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Thank you for listening! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does a witchy practice look like? Are there a specific set of rules we must follow? These are questions that many witchy-leaning folks tend to ask, especially when they're in the early stages of crafting a practice. Depending on one's approach, a witchcraft practice might look highly structured and precise or down-to-earth and unfussy. You may be drawn to intricate tools used by many high magic practitioners. Or you may like the everyday items found in your environment often favored by low magic practitioners. Some individuals adhere to a traditional lineage, while others prefer the folk magic of their ancestors. You may find comfort choosing a specific niche; such as, green, kitchen, or elemental witchery. Or you might seek out a more eclectic path, mixing and matching rituals as you see fit. There's no one "right" way to craft a practice. As we listen to the chirping cicadas, consider the practices that speak to your soul, that is the path for you. What am I reading?The Hidden Seasons: A Calendar of Nature's Clues by Tristan Gooleyhttps://bookshop.org/a/111301/9798893030105Embracing the Old Witch in the Woods: Liberating Feminine Wisdom from Christian Patriarchy by Angela J. Herrington and Shannon Harrishttps://bookshop.org/a/111301/9798889835233https://bookshop.org/shop/witchywomanwalkingWhat's playing on repeat?Hot Goblin by Em Beihold What's for dinner? Turkey & zucchini Meatloaf Ingredients:1 lb ground turkey2 zucchini Minced garlic (as much as you like!)Drizzle of olive oil1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs2 eggs1 cup Trader Joe's frozen Multigrain Blend with Vegetables (a hearty mix of brown, red, and sweet brown rice with black barley and vegetables) or similar equivalent 1 teaspoon ground cumin1 teaspoon green goddess spice blend - (mix of minced onion, garlic, black pepper, chives, green onion, parsley, and spinach powder)Salt and pepper Glaze 1/4 cup ketchup1/4 cup maple syrup1 tablespoon grainy mustard  Instructions: Preheat oven to 375 F. Sauté diced zucchini and garlic in olive oil, add frozen veggie mix, cook for a few more minutes. In a large bowl, mix together ground turkey, beaten eggs, breadcrumbs, and seasoning. Add cooked veggies, mix thoroughly. Mix glaze together, set aside. Press mixture into loaf pan, bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, poke holes into top of loaf with a fork, spread glaze over top, cook for an additional 25-30 minutes. Cool slightly before cutting. Enjoy! Dark Chocolate Pistachio Bliss Bites Ingredients:1 cup rolled oats or oat flour1/2 cup pistachios1/2 cup almond butter1/4 cup pure maple syrup1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt1 ounce finely chopped dark chocolate1/4 cup dried cranberries1/4 cup unsweetened coconutlemon zestInstructions:In a food processor, blend oats to a coarse flour. Add the pistachios and pulse until finely chopped. Add the almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract and sea salt then pulse into a dough forms. You should be able to press the dough between your fingers and have it hold together. Transfer the dough to a large bowl.Alternatively you can make these without a food processor by using oat flour and finely chopping the pistachios by hand. Place them in a large bowl with almond butter, maple syrup, vanilla extract, and sea salt then stir until a dough forms.To the bowl, add the chopped chocolate, cranberries, coconut and lemon zest. Stir until evenly combined. Using a scooper, scoop out tablespoon sized portions and roll into balls. Seal in a jar and refrigerate for up to 1 weekhttps://www.makingthymeforhealth.com/wprm_print/dark-chocolate-pistachio-bliss-bitesThe Hearth: Join Today!https://thehearth.circle.so/c/invitiationEmail: witchywomanwalking@gmail.comSupport the show

Explore the deeper meaning of divine feminine energy through the wisdom of Ayurveda, Tantra and the latest Quantum Physics research. In this episode, Katie discusses the sacred balance between wildness and structure, Shakti and Shiva. Whether you're new to these teachings or have been walking this path for years, today's episode offers an invitation to embrace your wild, feminine energy and deepen your relationship with yourself and the divine. Thank you to our dear friends at Banyan Botanicals for sponsoring this episode! Click here to learn more about Katie's favorite Organic Grass-Fed Ghee and to try it for yourself. Use the discount code KATIES15 for 15% off your first Banyan purchase! In this episode about divine feminine energy, you'll hear: ~ Honoring your sovereignty and intuition ~ Why is the feminine so difficult to define? ~ Katie's definition of divine feminine energy ~ Why are many people afraid of the feminine ~ The Ayurvedic concepts of prakruti, purusha and kundalini ~ Letting your wildness flow ~ The divine dance between Shakti and Shiva ~ When God winks at you ~ Quantum Physics research from the University of Ottawa ~ Parallels between Quantum Theory and Vedic Philosophy ~ Kundalini awakening ~ Things that prevent kundalini awakening  ~ Depending your relationship to divine feminine energy ~ What emotions are you willing to feel? ~ An invitation to enroll in Ayurveda School and receive all our Hot Girl Summer bonuses! Find the full show notes here: https://theshaktischool.com/ep-249-divine-feminine-energy/   Connect with Katie and The Shakti School: ~ Sign up for our free mini-course about Women's Wisdom and Ayurveda! ~ Follow The Shakti School on Instagram and Facebook ~ Read Katie's latest book, Glow-Worthy!

For a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, one appointment can open the door to practical support, renewed hope, and the life-changing message of the gospel. Dan Steiner, Founder and President of PreBorn!, joined the show today to explain how the ministry partners with pregnancy clinics across the country to serve women in crisis, protect unborn children, and introduce families to the hope found in Jesus Christ. A Calling Rooted in Christ Steiner's involvement in the pregnancy center movement began during his personal time with the Lord. As he prayed about how his life could reflect gratitude for what Christ had done for him, he became increasingly burdened by abortion and the lives affected by it. That conviction eventually led him to serve at a pregnancy center in the Midwest and later establish PreBorn!. From the beginning, Steiner says the ministry has been grounded in a simple conviction: Christ must remain at the center. Women facing unplanned pregnancies often need medical services, practical resources, and compassionate guidance. But their deepest need, like ours, is the hope and restoration found in Jesus. Today, PreBorn! works with nearly 300 pregnancy clinics, particularly in cities with high abortion rates. The ministry helps establish clinics, provides ultrasound equipment, covers the cost of ultrasound appointments, trains leaders, supports medical personnel, and connects women searching online for abortion information with nearby pregnancy clinics. Why Ultrasounds Matter Ultrasound technology is central to PreBorn!'s work because it allows a mother to see her child, often for the first time. According to PreBorn!, women who receive an ultrasound are significantly more likely to continue their pregnancies. The image on the screen can transform an abstract and frightening situation into a deeply personal encounter. Steiner shared the story of a pregnant 13-year-old who arrived at one of the ministry's partner clinics intending to have an abortion. She believed she was too young to become a mother and had not told her own mother about the pregnancy. But when she saw her child on the ultrasound screen, she began to weep. She chose life, and an adoption plan was later arranged for her baby. The ultrasound did not remove every difficulty she faced. It did, however, give her the opportunity to better understand the life developing inside her and to consider a different path. Caring for Women Beyond the Appointment Choosing life is often only the beginning of a woman's journey. Many women considering abortion are confronting financial pressure, unstable relationships, housing challenges, or uncertainty about how they will care for a child. That is why PreBorn's partner clinics seek to provide more than a single appointment. Depending on the clinic and the woman's needs, support may include maternity clothing, diapers, cribs, car seats, parenting resources, counseling, and ongoing care for several years. This compassionate approach recognizes that caring for an unborn child also means caring for the mother. Christians should never treat a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy as a political symbol or a problem to be solved. She is a person made in the image of God who deserves patience, dignity, truth, and practical help. “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). Sharing the Hope of Christ PreBorn! describes its mission as saving lives for both earth and eternity. Protecting unborn children is an essential part of its work, but the ministry also wants every woman and family it serves to hear the gospel. Romans 1:16 is central to that mission: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” Steiner recalled one young couple who entered a clinic divided over what to do. The father was pressuring his girlfriend to have an abortion because he feared repeating the destructive patterns he had witnessed in his own family. A counselor placed a fetal model representing the approximate size of their baby in his hand. As he looked at it, he began to cry. He knew abortion was not the answer, but he also felt powerless to become the father his child needed. The counselor then shared the hope of the gospel and explained that Jesus could redeem his past and begin transforming his future. According to Steiner, both parents placed their faith in Christ and chose life for their child. PreBorn! reports that more than 100,000 people have committed their lives to Christ through its ministry over the past two decades. These decisions are not produced by an ultrasound or a counseling technique. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Yet God often works through faithful people who combine truth, compassion, and practical care. Responding to a Changing Landscape Although the legal landscape surrounding abortion has changed significantly in recent years, the need for pregnancy care has not disappeared. The growing availability of abortion pills online means many women may never enter a traditional abortion facility. Instead, they can locate providers, schedule telehealth appointments, and receive medication through the mail. PreBorn! is responding by using digital outreach to connect with women as they search online. Trained team members can speak with them, answer questions, and help schedule appointments with partner clinics where they can receive medical services, an ultrasound, and compassionate support. This changing environment requires pregnancy ministries to pair unwavering biblical convictions with wisdom, innovation, and sensitivity. Behind every online search is a woman who may be frightened, isolated, or unsure where to turn. The goal is not merely to win an argument. It is to reach her with truth and love before she makes a decision she cannot reverse. Using God's Resources to Defend Life Faithful stewardship involves asking how the resources God has entrusted to us can be used to serve our neighbors and advance gospel-centered work. A gift of $28 to PreBorn helps provide an ultrasound for a woman facing an unplanned pregnancy. Donors may also fund an ultrasound machine for $15,000. According to Steiner, a single machine may remain in service for approximately 10 years and produce hundreds of scans each year. Of course, Christians will not all support the same organizations or participate in this work in the same way. Some may give financially. Others may volunteer, foster, adopt, mentor young parents, provide meals, or support a local pregnancy center. What matters is that our concern for life takes visible form. When God's people respond with generosity, women receive compassionate care, families find practical support, unborn children are given an opportunity for life, and doors open for the hope of Christ to be shared. To help provide an ultrasound for a woman in crisis, visit FaithFi.com/PreBorn or dial #250 and use the keyword “BABY.” On Today's Program, Rob Answers Listener Questions: I'm wondering about the new Trump accounts for children and whether they're a better option than a 529 plan for my grandson. If his parents open either type of account and I contribute, would I receive any tax benefit, and how would that work? I'm semi-retired, turning 65 in November, and currently have health, dental, and vision insurance through my school job, including an HSA that helps cover medical expenses. Do I still need to sign up for Medicare at 65, even if I keep my current coverage? And if so, how should I go about it? Resources Mentioned: Faithful Steward: FaithFi's Quarterly Magazine (Become a FaithFi Partner) PreBorn! Our Ultimate Treasure: A 21-Day Journey to Faithful Stewardship by Rob West Wisdom Over Wealth: 12 Lessons from Ecclesiastes on Money Look At The Sparrows: A 21-Day Devotional on Financial Fear and Anxiety Rich Toward God: A Study on the Parable of the Rich Fool Find a Certified Kingdom Advisor® (CKA) FaithFi App Remember, you can call in to ask your questions every weekday at (800) 525-7000. Faith & Finance is also available on Moody Radio Network and American Family Radio. You can also visit FaithFi.com to connect with our online community and partner with us as we help more people live as faithful stewards of God's resources. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Caleb Wilson and Matas Buzelis are already putting in work — and that could matter more than Bulls fans realize.On today's Chicago Bulls Central, Haize breaks down why Wilson's rookie season could become one of the biggest swing factors in the entire Bulls rebuild. After saying he was not taking time off after Summer League, Wilson was already back on the court in Chicago at a South Side Pro Run, where he was spotted building chemistry with Buzelis — including an alley-oop connection that should have Bulls fans excited for October.But the bigger question is this: Can Caleb Wilson show enough as a rookie to change how aggressive Bryson Graham needs to be next offseason?Haize breaks down the six things Wilson must prove: a potentially elite NBA trait, a respectable jumper, multiple frontcourt roles, improved decision-making, defense that translates beyond highlights, and functional fit next to Matas Buzelis and Josh Giddey.Plus, we look at the Bulls' possible 2027 cap flexibility. Depending on team options for Norman Powell, Zach Collins and Tre Jones, Chicago could have anywhere from practical starter-level money to major flexibility in the $60–70 million range.Also: Dailyn Swain's Summer League was rough, but his mindset after struggling as a de facto point guard should give Bulls fans a reason to avoid panic.

If you have been reading my work for a while, you may have noticed something.Every so often, my language changes.A familiar phrase disappears. A new one appears. Sometimes I introduce an entirely different way of describing an idea that I have been teaching for years.This isn't new. If you have been studying my work for any length of time, you have probably noticed these shifts in vocabulary. I regularly test different lexicons, and because of that I often begin my classes by defining exactly what I mean when I use a particular word. Sometimes I will use the same word in a completely different context.What I am doing with the use of different language is not altering reality itself, nor the observations I have made about it. Those have remained consistent over a lifetime of research into the human role in the co-construction of reality.What I am doing is test a new lexicon to see if I can breach the gap between reality and intellect..Words are not reality, although they can shape it. They are tools we use to comprehend reality's complexity.Some words work better than others.Over the years I have discovered that changing a single word can dramatically change how people understand, discuss, and apply an idea, method, tool or theory. A different lexicon can illuminate aspects of the same concepts that were always there but were difficult to describe with the previous vocabulary.Take the word manifestation.It is a perfectly useful word, but at a societal level and over time it has gathered many meanings. Depending on who you ask, it can mean attracting what you want, visualizing an outcome, positive thinking, creating reality, intention, magic, or any number of other things.Recently, I began testing a different word.Compatibility.The mechanics themselves have not changed.The model has not changed.What changes is the question people ask when they want a different experience of life.Instead of, “How do I manifest what I want?” the question becomes, “What reality am I presently compatible with? And how can I change it?”That single shift points much more directly toward the process I have been describing for years.The same thing is happening with other parts of my work.Rather than speaking about how events and people influence one another, I am testing language that describes reality as an ongoing discourse composed of threads of connectivity: what I call the Communication Network of Reality.Again, the observation is not new.Only the vocabulary is.Whether these particular words remain for years or eventually give way to better ones is almost beside the point.Their purpose is not permanence.Their purpose is effectiveness.Every time I try a new lexicon, I ask:* Does this point more accurately toward what I have perceived reality to be?* Does it help people understand the model more clearly?* Does it make the ideas easier to discuss, test, and apply?If the answer is yes to any of those, the words stay.If the answer is no, I keep looking and testing new ones.So if you notice my vocabulary changing from time to time, it doesn't mean I have abandoned the previous model or adopted a new one.More often than not, I am simply testing whether a different set of words makes the same landscape easier to navigate.Language is one of the most powerful tools we have for exploring reality. As well as creating it.So I'd like your help.Over the coming weeks I'll be testing this new lexicon in my articles, classes, and on my podcast, Driving to the Rez. We'll see together whether these new words simply sound different, or whether they make the underlying model easier to understand, discuss, and apply.The next stop? Threads of connectivity. Can you guess what they are made of?The discussion doesn't stop here - listen to the full podcast episode for unfiltered insights from Inelia and our panelists. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dttr.substack.com/subscribe

There's no law or policy that requires Pennsylvania to keep creating new state parks. Over the history of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources – and its various other names through the years – new state parks have been added and subtracted. There have been times when we added dozens of new state parks. Under Dr. Maurice K. Goddard, the Department of Parks and Forests – as it was called then - added 45 new state parks and 130,000 acres of land between 1955 and 1979. Dr. Goddard proposed building a state park within 25 miles of every resident of Pennsylvania.But growth to the state park system slowed down in the 1980s and 90s. The commonwealth entered a phase of improvement – focusing more on upgrading facilities than adding many more parks. We've also been in possession of a number of state parks that we eventually relinquished control to another entity. Such as Valley Forge, Independence Mall, Fort Necessity and Brandywine Battlefield. That's the thing. Depending on state leadership, availability of funds, the economy, political priorities, availability of lands and which governor is in charge, there is no guarantee that we will get new state parks. So when we get a new state park, it's important that we celebrate. Enter Laural Caverns State Park – Pennsylvania's 125th state park and its first subterranean park. What started out as a tourist attraction in the southwestern part of the state, is now a state park giving visitors a chance to explore 4 miles of underground passageways. Laurel Caverns is the largest sandstone cave in the world and one of the world's steepest caves.Guided tours provide visitors with the opportunity to walk or crawl through incredible geologic features. Most of the passage ceilings in the underground labyrinth are between ten and twenty feet high and many as high as 50 feet.  This makes it the largest cave in Pennsylvania.  And it now belongs to the people of Pennsylvania. How amazing is that?! On this episode I speak with Corie Eckman. Carie is the manager Laurel Caverns State Park. Be sure to support our 2026 sponsors:Keystone Trails AssociationPurple Lizard MapsPennsylvania Parks and Forests FoundationSisters' SunflowersDiscover Clarion CountyGo Laurel Highlands Support the showVisit our website to learn more about the podcast, to purchase merch and to find out about our incredible sponsors. Follow us on Instagram and Meta to stay connected. Hosting, production and editing: Christian AlexandersenMusic: Jon SauerGraphics: Matt Davis

#734: Depending on which source you ask, the U.S. is short somewhere between 1.2 million and 10 million homes — and the reason for that wild range says as much about who's counting as it does about the shortage itself.

Now THIS is going to be a podcast you DO NOT want to miss!    It's time for another episode of our HUGELY popular SIX ROUNDS VIP Guest podcast!   In this episode, Adam Lawerence, founder of Propenomix, co-founder of the Boardroom Club and a highly-respected UK property market analyst and Daniel Hill go behind the scenes with six surprise topics which neither have any idea of!    In this Six Rounds, at 10 minutes apiece, Dan and Adam covered the below HIGHLY PERSONAL questions and in many cases VERY PRIVATE topics which are now yours to enjoy!    Round One: What does Keith Starmer resignation mean? Round Two: Why are we so interested in the economy?  Round Three: Is the change in the students' market just a dip? Round Four: What's going to happen to the interest rate over the next 5 years and why? Round Five: What's your view on AI and trillionaire companies? Round Six: What's your approach on optimisation, including in health?   Depending how well you know Dan or Adam, these may or may not seem like the six round topics you would expect to see from two high performing entrepreneurs at the top of their game but that is the beauty of dropping the ego, opening up and going six rounds on The Blueprint Podcast.    Success and Failure are both very predictable.   LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!   We hope you enjoy....! Want to learn more?

In this episode, Kappy shares what's on his plate at the moment. Links and handles mentioned in this episode:The Compton Bentonville | IGWashington State University Creamery, Cougar CheeseReFED job post | CAVA job postSalt & Straw Ice Cream CookbookBilly Shore article | Norimoto Bakery | Adam Richman ig post | D'Romanos PizzaMango Chicken Sauce½ cup ketchup¼ cup rice vinegar 2–3 tbsp brown sugar1 tbsp honey1½ tbsp soy sauce or tamari¼ cup water1 tsp grated fresh ginger, optional but worth it (or ¼ teaspoon ground ginger)1 clove garlic, minced, optional (or ¼ teaspoon granulated garlic)Whisk all of the ingredients together in a small bowl before adding the sauce to the pan with the cooked chicken. Depending on how much chicken you're making, you may only need about half of the sauce.If you'd like a thicker sauce, stir together 1 tablespoon cornstarch and 1–2 tablespoons cold water to make a slurry, then whisk it into the simmering sauce until it reaches your desired consistency.Follow Beyond the Plate on Facebook and X.Follow Kappy on Instagram and X.www.beyondtheplatepodcast.com www.onkappysplate.com

Depending on who you ask, Pepper has not been making the best of his vacation days. Dylan is very critical of the activities Pepper chooses to do with his time off. However, some may say his super lame plans are a perfect way to recharge.

dattrax: Welcome my Fellow Brothers and Sisters to where house music resides. How is life treating you? Are you pursuing your dreams and goals??!! Hi-Five to you!!!____________________Thought that I'd share my super nerdy process for prepping tracks for a DJ gig or a new house mix. ____________________After I first buy and download a new batch of house music tracks from Traxsource or Bandcamp.I usuallv listen to them separatelv for a week or two. Try to get to know and understand them. As I listen to them over and over again, I imagine different combinations with my older house tracks that I have.Incorporating them into my collection.____________________If I'm making a new mix, then I'll start organizing them and adding a bunch of tracks that I'd want to mix with the new ones. If I'm prepping for an upcoming DJ gig, then I'll take the most danceable tracks and put them into one large folder. ____________________Usuallv takes me 4 to 8 hrs to choose and organize for each gig or new mIx. It's a therapeutic ritual and a lot of fun.It sounds boring, but it's not because I'm imagining the different directions that I can take the night or a mix. How do I judge how many total house tracks do I need for my gig? If my set is 3hrs, then 1 know that the avg speed for me is changing a track every three minutes.Other DJs like to play their tracks for 6-7mins each. Everyone has different preferences. So I know that I' probably end up playing 60 tracks give or take, within three hours. Then there's the issue of choice.Not too much or I won't have an overall feel or direction.That's why you see young laptop DJs bring a few thousand tracks and then are all over the place. Then I decide what I feel ike sharing. Track names will pop into my mind. So I go through the folder and move the tracks that I really love into a 'Priority' folder Then I go into a dozen rabbit holes. First, I collect evervthing into one folder. Then I make a priority folder and try to eliminate a lotThen I'll put them into folders according to energy levels.Mellow Vocal. Mellow Bit Harder Vocal Medium Mellow Vocal Medium Dubby Medium InstrumentalMedium level energy have the most ofIfI know thati won't be going harder, then nothing more to organize.Med Bit Harder HypeTwo more everv levels.Depending on the night or mix.Too little choice and I'm going to annoyed instead of having fun.So I give myself 5 to 8 choices per 60 tracks.So let's say the total is 350.You know how many tracks and how many energy levels you want to take them on.Choosing the very first track for your set. That's extremely important. Setting the mood and the expectation.Then just mix, sing and dance!!! Sharing your vision of house with your dancing friends.Interact with the dancers and try to surprise them with your combination choices.For house music. It's al about the combinations.____________________All the best to you and your loved ones.From your friendly neighbourhood Chinaman who LOVES house and LUVS you.May God Bless You and All Who You Love Abundantly

W/C 13th July 2026If I think about it rationally Dublin is no more of a city of contrast than any other. Most places you visit are marked by the different stages of their development, or the businesses that thrived there, and Dublin is no different. Depending on where you find yourself there are similarities with Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Oxford and of course Liverpool.I guess the reason why it seems more obvious in Dublin is the way that in collides, most notably in the buildings along ether side of the quays, toward the port area, because the style of this development was never intended to blend in. It is dominant and obvious, and that is not to say that I don't think it has a quality, just that it was always going to sit uncomfortably with what went before.A lot of money has been spent, but I don't know how much of it has trickled down or out to enhance the lives of those who were born and raised there.Stay safe.Different Worlds - MagnumBoundary StoneVillage LifeTherapy For Me (or TFM as I now refer to it) is a bit of an audio curiosity. It started out as a mechanism for me to clear my head, with the hope that by saying stuff out loud it would act as a little bit of self-help. It's remains loose in style, fluid in terms of content and raw - it's a one take, press record and see what happens, affair.If you want to keep in touch with TFM and the other stuff I do then please follow me on Facebook, Insta, Twitter or Patreon. Thanks for getting this far.

Welcome to Story River Fables (previously Waffle-Free Storytelling)Losing people we love is strange. Depending on the life and the loss, we experience pain, suffering, joy, gratitude, anguish, relief... and every feeling in between. It's a very human experience from which not a single one of us is spared.Anyway... this story is dedicated to a family. You know who you are.Sit in a forest, gather yourselves around each other, fill a mug, put your feet up, and remember the people you love in all their glory.When the story's done, feel free to enjoy the rest of the site (https://tinakonstant.com/) for more stories and other stuff and nonsense.TinaWritten and told by Tina Konstant (Copyright)Music created with the help of Suno.ai

In our Monthly Marketing Series, we'll be taking a look at the upcoming month and discussing tips and tactics to plan for holidays, seasonal trends, and a general marketing calendar to help bike shops stay ahead of the game and ready to capture sales. This month, we plan for August 2026.End of Summer Clearance Sale - The Tour de France is over, and summer is winding down.  For some retailers, invoices for big orders are due, and there is a need to turn some slow-moving inventory into cash. Fall is just around the corner, and now is the time to sell off spring/summer apparel to make way for fall/winter apparel.Action Item: Analyze your inventory for slow movers and spring/summer apparel. Depending on the quantity, consider a general category markdown or individual sale prices. Sale prices don't need to be at closeout discounts…perhaps start at 20% off.  Once you've whittled down your core sizes, mark down the extreme sizes to 30-40% off. Back to School Campaign - Know when your school districts are heading back to school… some districts can be as early as mid-July… historically it's mid-August. Consider the following: Kids Bicycle Trade-In campaign - Where all trade-in bikes go to a local charity. Free kids bike safety check - This should be a 10-15 minute check, checking: tire wear/tear, tire pressure, bolts are secure, brakes are in good order, and chain is lubed.  Opportunity to sell brake pads, bells, and bags/baskets.  Helmet Discounts - Discounts on helmets when trading in old helmetsLock DiscountsPannier bags, etc.Action Item: Find a local charity that is looking for bike donations. Make sure service staff understands the opportunity to sell pads, lube, etc. on safety checks. Workstand Library and Premium Pages for August:Kids bike guideBMX bike guide showing different styles of BMX bikes and P&ACustom Bike BuildsEnd of Season Sale (premium for retailers on our Marketing subscription)What to think about:Labor Day is Monday, September 7Are you open/closed? Update your hours on your website, Google Business listing, and all the socialsHoliday Season is just around the cornerCheck your inventory on gift cardsBe sure to email your questions to podcast@workstand.com. We read all emails sent, and we look forward to hearing from you.If you're a Workstand client with questions about your subscription, email support@workstand.com or call 303-527-0676 x 1. If you are not currently a Workstand client with questions about how our programs work, email info@workstand.com.Find Us on LinkedInMark Still, Senior Business DevelopmentDavid Martinez, Key Accounts AdvisorWe also publish Around the Workstand on our YouTube channel if you'd like to watch while you listen. Here is our Around the Workstand playlist.If you have any questions about the topics discussed in this episode of Around the Workstand or if you have ideas for new topics we can cover, schedule a time to meet with Mark Still here or email mark.s@workstand.com.

In this week's episode the Powell men discuss the joy and pain of being an #emptynest parent. Depending on your perspective , its a win win or a lose lose. #SouthCarolina #SenatorLindseyGraham died suddenly. Sad to say, we won't miss him. #MitchMcConnell , however, is still  "alive" . At least that's what the photo of the #KentuckySenator and his wife #ElaineChao is trying to suggest. We don't believe it. Just another mystery to be solved like the , let's call it what it is , murder of #NolanWells in #Mississippi. This case reeks. Hopefully #benCrump and others get to the bottom of it. The #DogDaysofSummer #DrAnnieAndrews #Iran #Trump 

When Steve turned on the Zoom to start the podcast, he saw Dave fast asleep. Once Dave explained that, by law, 64 year old men must take a nap at 2pm on warm summer days, they were able to touch on Trump Accounts, Reasons to be bullish on this Bull Market, and Financial Fraud. Unlike Dave, you'll be wide awake for the entirety of episode 130 of Plan For Life Now. Investors should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other important information is contained in the fund prospectuses, summary prospectuses and 529 Product Program Description, which can be obtained from a financial professional and should be read carefully before investing. Depending on your state of residence, there may be an in-state plan that offers tax and other benefits which may include financial aid, scholarship funds, and protection from creditors. Before investing in any state's 529 plan, investors should consult a tax professional. If withdrawals from 529 plans are used for purposes other than qualified education, the earnings will be subject to a 10% federal tax penalty in addition to federal and, if applicable, state income tax.

The Milky Way shines at its best on summer nights. Right now, it arcs across the east as the sky gets fully dark, and passes high overhead later on. Under dark skies, it looks like a hazy band of light. That band outlines the disk of our home galaxy. So for the astronomers who study the Milky Way Galaxy, it’s the go-zone – there’s lots to look at. But for those who study other galaxies, it’s been the no-go zone. In fact, it’s called the Zone of Avoidance, because it’s hard to see anything through it. The main problem is giant clouds of dust scattered throughout the galaxy. The dust absorbs visible light. Depending on which part of the disk you look through, in fact, the clouds can block more than 99 percent of the light from objects behind them. The other problem is that the Milky Way is crowded – millions upon millions of stars everywhere you look. So when you look into the band of the Milky Way, it’s hard to know whether you’re seeing a star or gas cloud in the galaxy or something beyond it. Fortunately, some wavelengths that are invisible to the human eye do get through: infrared light and radio waves. The infrared is best seen from space, but the radio can be turned in by giant antennas on the ground. Galaxies typically emit more of both of those forms of energy than individual stars do – important ways to avoid problems from the Zone of Avoidance. More about the Milky Way tomorrow. Script by Damond Benningfield

You ate something you didn't plan and now you're ready to write off the whole day and start over Monday. That right there is the actual problem. Here's what Corinne wants you to hear: the overeat is not why you can't lose weight. Eating two cookies won't keep weight on you. What keeps you stuck is the stupid shit you do after, when you decide you've blown it, eat the rest of the sleeve to "get it out of your system," and don't bother starting over till Monday. Depending on what day you mess up is how long the overeat lasts. That's what does it. Not the cookies. This week Corinne teaches her STOP method, four steps for the moment you eat too much so one mistake stays one mistake. Silence your inner asshole. Take the temperature down. Eat like it's an ordinary day. Pull out the lesson. You'll learn why the mean voice in your head is the gas, not the brakes, why starving yourself the next day backfires, and why an overeat is a signal that something deeper is going on, not proof you're broken. The STOP method gets you back on track fast. Figuring out why you keep ending up there, that's the work Corinne does with women inside No BS.

Friday, 10 July 2026   Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there. Matthew 21:17   Note: You can listen to today's commentary courtesy of our friends at the “Bible in Ten” podcast. (Click Here to listen)   You can also read this commentary, scrolling with music, courtesy of our friends at “Discern the Bible” on YouTube. (Click Here to listen), or at Rumble (Click Here to listen).   “And having left them, He proceeded out of the city to Bethany, and He overnighted there.” (CG)   In the previous verse, Jesus cited Scripture to the chief priests and scribes, noting that out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants the Lord had perfected praise. Matthew next records, “And having left them, He proceeded out of the city to Bethany.”   Of this, Ellicott says, “And went out of the city into Bethany.—St. Mark, as already noticed, places the incident that follows on the morning that followed the triumphal entry, and before the cleansing. We have to choose, there being an obvious error of arrangement in one or other of the narratives, between the two, and the probability seems on the whole in favour of the more precise and more vivid record of St. Mark.”   It is an appalling sentiment. There is no need to “choose” which we will believe. Nor is there an “obvious error of arrangement.” If Matthew is presenting categorical information, he is perfectly entitled to skip a day's affairs without mentioning the greater detail of Mark's narrative.   Mark notes that Jesus went to Bethany one night. The next night, he says, “When evening had come, He went out of the city” (Mark 11:18). That is immediately followed with, “Now in the morning.” Does Ellicott think Jesus stood outside the gates of the city all night and then walked back in?   Rather, He went somewhere. Logically, He went back to Bethany, as Matthew says in this verse being analyzed. Matthew skipping over a day does not mean we have to choose which gospel is correct. Nor does it mean there is an obvious error. As for Matthew's words, he introduces the location Béthania, Bethany.   Depending on the root word from Hebrew, it can have one of several meanings: House of Answer, Business, Affliction, Singing, Date, Figs, etc. The root ‘ana (with an ayin) alone fits several of these possibilities. The root ‘ana (with an aleph) fits others. Without first understanding whatever typology is being conveyed, being dogmatic about one name over the other may mean you are barking up the wrong tree.   As for going to Bethany, it is a short distance from Jerusalem, being situated on the eastern slopes of the Mount of Olives. It is said to be about two miles (or three kilometers) from the city. Understanding this, it next says, “and He overnighted there.”   A new word is seen here, aulizomai. It is found only here and in Luke 21:37. It is from aulé, a yard (as in open to the wind). Thus, the word literally signifies passing the night in the open air. If there were twelve of them plus Jesus (and any other disciples), even if they went to someone's house, it is unlikely all of them would sleep in a single house. Thus, it very well could mean that they made a bonfire in the backyard and slept there. There is no reason not to take this word in its literal sense.   Life application: Once again, we see a scholar, in this case a well-known and reputable scholar, calling into question the reliability of the word. However, if you take the two accounts and simply drop a day out of Matthew's because he is narrowing the focus of his attention on particular details, the accounts in Matthew and Mark coincide.   After the people's cries of Hosanna as Jesus entered the area, Mark 11:11 says, “And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.”   From there, He went back to Jerusalem the next day. Matthew, writing categorically, left off that note, not finding a single sentence about it being late necessary. As for the timing of the cursing of the fig tree, which doesn't seem to match, understanding that Matthew is still writing categorically, that issue is also resolved.   Take time to look at the accounts and see where the focus is. Then think about why there is a difference. Instead of dismissing things, contemplate. If you don't come to a resolution, it still doesn't mean there is an error. It means that you have not yet determined why there are variations in the account.   As has been explained before, we have three synoptic gospels. If all three followed exactly the same details, critics would say the texts were corrupt because they were just copied one from another. If they don't match in every detail, critics then say the texts are corrupt because they provide seemingly contradictory information.   There is no winning with people who intentionally do not want to believe the accounts are reconcilable. Trust that God is as in control of His word as He is of the workings of the universe. In the end, even if we don't understand everything in the Bible at this time, we will see how it all lines up someday. Until then, keep reading, researching, contemplating, and considering.   Lord God, the evidence that the Bible is Your word is overwhelming. In the places where we don't understand what is going on, help us to keep our faith that what is presented is there for a purpose. It is a great and precious word. Thank You for it because it tells us about Jesus, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Send us Fan MailBourbon and Badges, the Podcast. That's right. Feels good to say it. Gotta feel good to hear it. Tuning in, we find our bourbon-soaked, whisky-infused brothers spinning yarns of intellectual intel so far out there only the aliens understand. Not those illegal bastards that our Commander-in-chief is deporting, but those little green guys with the F-ed up antennas sticking out of their heads. Hang around long enough, and you will find the answers to such questions as who's pushing buttons? Foreigners with firearms, and where is my giraffe or J-raffe? Depending on where you're from. This episode is as hot as the great outdoors this week. So, find a cool place. Pour a cool drink, and you've got it, my brothers and sisters; Enjoy the Ride. Support the show Please find us on Facebook @ Bourbon Badges      On x On Instagram @ bourbon and badges, the podcast                                                                           As always, Enjoy the Ride Drink responsibly. Never drink and drive. 

Disease pressure is back in the dairy market conversation. New World screwworm has moved into the U.S. Avian flu is still lingering in dairy herds. Foot-and-mouth disease is also back in the conversation after a recent Dutton Ranch storyline raised questions about what an outbreak would mean for U.S. cattle and dairy. So, we got together the experts and asked: is U.S. dairy ready? Listen to the episode. Listen here. Also available on: Amazon Music Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube In this episode: In The Milk Check episode 101, host Ted Jacoby III is joined by Jamie Jonker, chief science officer and vice president of sustainability and scientific affairs for the National Milk Producers Federation, and Sarina Sharp, market analyst for the Daily Dairy Report and Risk Manager at Ag Business Solutions. We break down what these disease risks mean for dairy cattle, milk production, farm-level disruption and market economics. We cover: How screwworm could disrupt individual dairy farms Why the closed border with Mexico is changing feeder cattle flows, beef prices and dairy farm economics Where avian flu stands today, and why current cases are not affecting dairy like they did in 2024 Why foot-and-mouth disease remains a low-risk, high-consequence threat for U.S. livestock Get up to speed on what animal health risks mean for milk production, dairy markets and farm-level decision-making Listen to The Milk Check episode 101: Screwworm, Bird Flu and Foot-and-Mouth Disease: Is U.S. Dairy Ready? Got questions: We'd love to hear them. Submit below, and we might answer it on the show. Ask The Milk Check TMC-Intro-final Ted Jacoby III: Coming up on the Milk Check. Sarina Sharp: The border is shut, and it doesn’t look like it will open anytime soon, so we just have this vacuum of Mexican beef cattle. Ted Jacoby III: Welcome to the Milk Check from T.C. Jacoby & Co., your complete guide to dairy markets, from the milking parlor to the supermarket shelf. I’m Ted Jacoby. Let’s dive in. Ted Jacoby III: Today we are excited to have two special guests. First, we have Jamie Jonker, chief science officer and vice president of sustainability and scientific affairs for the National Milk Producers Association, And second, we have Serena Sharp, the excellent market analyst who does our weekly market report. Serena, Jamie, thanks for joining us today. We’re excited to have you. Jamie Jonker: Thank you for having me here. I think we’re gonna have a number of things that are quite timely to talk about today. Sarina Sharp: Thanks for having me again. Ted Jacoby III: In addition to those two, we have some of our usual suspects. We have Mike Brown, our VP of dairy market intelligence. We have Jacob Menge, our VP of trading strategy and risk management. We have my brother Gus, president of the dairy fluid group. We have Josh White, our VP of dairy ingredients. And we have Tristan Suellentrop on our sales and marketing team, and Manuel Polzer, who is part of Jake’s risk management team. Guys, thanks for joining us today. So the topic we’re gonna be discussing today, there are three different diseases that have been gaining news in terms of how it might be affecting milk production and dairy cows. The first would be screwworm which has come across the border from Mexico, the second is avian flu is back. And of course, the third is Dutton Ranch recently had an episode that talked about foot-and-mouth disease on their cattle farm in Texas. And so of course, we’re getting questions about that. But we’ll start with the one that’s probably getting the most attention, and that is screwworm coming across the border from Mexico. It is now in Texas, and it is in New Mexico. Jamie, why don’t you just give us a brief background on what is screwworm, and how does it affect dairy cattle versus beef cattle? Jamie Jonker: Yeah. Great question, Ted. New World screwworm is a fly that, lays its eggs in mammals. It was eradicated from the U.S. in the mid-1960s, and by 2002, it was eradicated all the way down to what’s called the Darien Gap in Panama. That is a forested area about 50 miles wide, where there are no official roads going through it. And so that was really great news about the many decades process to get it down there. What’s happened is starting in ’23, it started creeping back up through Central America through the movement of people and people moving with their animals. Got into Mexico in ’24. Started really taking off in Mexico in ’25, and then just this past June 3rd, we had our first official case in Texas. Today there are 27 confirmed cases in the U.S. 25 in Texas. Out of those about 16 are cattle, most of those are calves castrated males. There is at least one adult cattle in that. So far, all of those are beef cattle. What happens is the New World screwworm fly lays its eggs in any open wound. And when we think about a wound, I want people to understand that can be as small as a tick bite, so it doesn’t have to be a large gash on an animal. It’s very tiny. And what is very unique about the New World screwworm larvae, and also quite devastating, is that the larvae eat live tissue of the So when the eggs start hatching, and the female lays 200 to 300, it very quickly becomes an animal health and welfare issue for that individual animal. Unlike viral and bacterial diseases though, this is not directly transmissible from one animal to another. Obviously, as the larvae mature and become flies of their own, then they can continue to spread it in that area. But unlike what we’ll talk about in a little bit, the H5N1, which was highly transmissible between cows in an individual herd, this does not necessarily transmit from animal to animal. It’s when the larvae become flies, mate, and then the next generation can lay eggs in new animals So, what happens when it gets into these animals, in particular, newborn calves are highly susceptible because of the open umbilical area, they get in there, and, if left untreated, the mortality in newborn calves can approach fifty percent. However, highly recoverable if caught early and treated. Out of those twenty-seven animals, so far that have been identified at least one actually has been euthanized because that was the right decision for that animal. Where we are today, no dairy cattle so far as of June twenty-ninth when this is being recorded. But it is growing in terms of the geography where they’re finding domestic animals in Texas that have it. It’s a growing potential risk for dairy farmers that are in the Southwest. Ted Jacoby III: Jamie, sticking with beef cattle, does the beef industry handle infected cattle with screwworm right now? Jamie Jonker: Animals that have an infestation, essentially you have to clean out the larvae, then you treat the wounds. The other thing that you do is you wanna make sure that you do prevention treatment to prevent infestation from happening in other animals. Because once you have one animal infested, there’s likely a reproducing fly population there, and so there’s a higher risk for other animals in that location. There’s a number of products that are approved for prevention purposes. And they have withdrawal times, ranging, on the beef side, withdrawal times, thirty-plus days in some cases. Some of those products are also approved for use in dairy cattle. There’s a distinction that FDA does through its emergency use authorization and conditional approval processes that typically breaks between growing cattle and lactating cattle. For FDA purposes, lactating dairy cattle are twenty months of age or older, even if they’re not lactating. There’s only one product that’s approved for prevention in lactating dairy cattle at this point in time. That’s DECTOMAX. It’s an injectable product that has a nineteen and a half day milk withdrawal period and a thirty-plus day meat withdrawal period. Ted Jacoby III: Once these cows are infected and then treated, if it’s beef cattle, for at least 30 days they couldn’t be sold to a slaughterhouse, correct? Jamie Jonker: That’s correct. And we want to encourage folks to work with their veterinarian and only use those products that have been approved through the FDA processes. Because if you’re using other products, the withdrawal period is unknown; you’re setting yourself up to potentially have a residue issue. Ted Jacoby III: And how is National Milk right now working with dairy farmers in the United States to prepare for the possibility that we will have a infected dairy cow in the U.S.? Jamie Jonker: We are pulling together resources. We actually have a resource page on our nmpf.org website. And there’s a big pop-up right, right on top for New World screwworm resources for dairy farmers. We have some of our own resources. Obviously, there are lots of people putting together really great resources. We don’t need to recreate things that are done well, so we have links to other resources. We’re also keeping a keen eye on what’s happening as we get new detections in Texas, and potentially as the summer goes on, potentially in other states as well, and working with USDA, Texas Animal Health Commission, and others on keeping preparedness top of mind. Ted Jacoby III: It sounds like if you have a cow infected with screwworm, it’s reportable, and so the U.S.DA is keeping a register of where all the cows are that have been infected. Is that true for dairy as well? Jamie Jonker: Yes. If A dairy animal is found to have an infestation , the first thing we recommend, if you see something that you think might be New World screwworm in any of your dairy animals, contact your veterinarian. Because what we wanna have is an official sample taken so that they can determine whether or not it truly is New World screwworm, because some of these larvae and some of these flies, they look pretty similar, and you just can’t tell by a quick glance at them. But we get that official determination from USDA. What that does is that triggers a response, and that response is important because it’s the response to that individual animal, it’s a response to help mitigate the risk of spread on that farm and spread in that area. And when you have one or more animals that are found to have an infestation, a 20-kilometer zone is set up around them. That’s called the infested zone. There’s strict requirements on the ability for moving animals out of that zone. Then beyond that is another 20-kilometer surveillance zone. And the Texas Animal Health Commission has a great map that shows the zones in Texas, and as they’ve had an increasing number of domestic animals found to have infestations, some of those areas are starting to merge into a pretty large geography there close to the border. Ted Jacoby III: Is my understanding correct that if a beef cattle were to get infected within a 20-mile radius of a dairy farm, you couldn’t move the cattle out of that dairy farm either? Jamie Jonker: You would be able to move the animals, but you have to move them under permit. There’s inspection of the animals to ensure that they don’t have any infestations. Depending upon where they’re moving, there could be requirements for prevention treatment. That’s not necessarily that it happens 100% of the time. If they’re moving within the state of Texas, there might be requirements that are different than if the animals are moving, say, from Texas to elsewhere. And we certainly know that a lot of dairy animals spend part of their life in Texas and move elsewhere. We saw that starting in March of 2024 with the H5N1. Ted Jacoby III: So Jamie, is there a protocol set up for exactly how the milk from a dairy cow that would be infected with screwworm is handled, and how that herd would be managed if that were to happen, and what is that protocol? Jamie Jonker: Yeah, so if you have a dairy animal that is infested, you wanna get that animal isolated. You wanna have that wound where the larvae are cleaned out and then treated. There are a couple of additional products that are approved for lactating dairy cattle for treatment of the infestation itself, so Dectomax is the only one approved for prevention purposes. There’s a topical spray and a topical gel that are approved for an animal that has an infestation. You clean it out, you treat it with that, you isolate them and then, if you’re not doing additional treatments of animals in the herd, if the determination is you’ve got an isolated case and you don’t need to do a broader prevention process, that milk from all those other animals continues to flow. You wanna make sure that you’re not incidentally transferring flies in the cab of the milk truck because that is one way that you can move these flies quite a long distance by just accidentally trapping them in your vehicle. But unless the requirement is to do a broader prevention treatment in the herd, any animal that is not treated with an animal health product, its milk is perfectly sellable, so long as they’re continuing to meet the having no residues from other antibiotics. Ted Jacoby III: So, to be clear, milk from a cow that might be infected with screwworm, the milk itself is still absolutely fine and healthy unless You’re treating the cow with a medicine to get rid of the screwworm. Jamie Jonker: An infestation is an animal health and welfare issue. It’s not a food safety issue for meat or milk. Ted Jacoby III: Do you anticipate that we are going to have issues with screwworm in dairy cattle soon? Jamie Jonker: Soon is difficult to define. I would say that we have an elevated risk that it will occur at some point in time on a facility with dairy animals, a commercial dairy facility. And I say that because New World screwworm grows well in temperatures like we’re experiencing throughout a lot of parts of the U.S. right now. It’s very cold intolerant, and if you get three or four days at twenty degrees Fahrenheit, that kills most of the flies, so that’s great. But we are just at the end of June, so we have many months yet with temperatures that are very conducive for the flies to be active. And I think the other thing is that as we look at a growing geography in Texas of where we are finding screwworm infestations in domesticated livestock we probably don’t have enough New World screwworm sterile flies being produced today to respond to that. That is why USDA has worked with Mexico in renovating a fruit fly production facility there to produce New World screwworm sterile flies. I believe it was just announced late last week. That facility is up and running and at full production capacity probably towards the end of the year. That’s another hundred million flies to complement the hundred million that are being produced at the facility in Panama. And then there was, in April of this year, the announcement of a domestic plant being built on a military base in Edinburg, Texas. The target date for that is to be November of next year to produce three hundred million flies once it’s fully operational . You’ve heard Secretary Rollins discuss they are looking at ways to move that timeline faster. But I think when you consider we started off with a hundred million in Panama, we’re gonna be another hundred million sterile flies in Mexico by the end of the year, and then another three hundred million in Texas when that is up and running. That’s a realization that this is gonna be a multi-year process, and that it’s unlikely that it’s just gonna stay in a geography near the border. So, long way of saying, yes, I think it’s probably a matter of when it gets to a dairy facility and not if. Ted Jacoby III: Serena, do you think screwworm, if and when it starts to affect dairy cows, is going to materially affect milk production in the U.S.? Sarina Sharp: I guess it depends how widespread it is, but I generally don’t think so. I think that it’s gonna be a huge headache at the very least for an individual dairy producer who has to deal with it and for his livestock. But it’s not gonna be material in terms of how many dairies in the U.S. it’s likely to impact. And especially, if you look at where the beef cattle are and the typical temperatures in those areas versus where dairy cattle are in the United States, three days of cold is very common in a lot of dairy areas. And then thirdly, a lot of the beef cattle that have it now are in ranch country. They’re not in an operation where the cattle grower is hands-on, up close with these animals every single day. And on a dairy, that’s not the case. When you are milking cows every day, and bottle-feeding calves, and checking on your heifers, that’s a very hour-to-hour interaction with your livestock, and so it’s a lot easier to contain an infestation in that environment than it is on this vast ranch country with scrub brush in the southern plains. Ted Jacoby III: That makes a lot of sense ’cause you can go days without inspecting beef cattle, but you rarely go hours without inspecting a dairy cow. Sarina Sharp: Yeah. So, when I look at the market impact of screwworm on the dairy industry, I’m not focused on milk production at this point at all. I’m looking at its impact on beef prices and how that changes economics on the dairy farm Ted Jacoby III: How do you think it’s gonna change beef prices? Sarina Sharp: It has already changed beef prices because the United States closed the border with Mexico to live mammal imports. And so, the primary way that’s impacted us is we typically take hundreds of thousands and slightly over a million Mexican feeder cattle. So, that’s young beef livestock from Mexico into the United States, feed and finish them in the United States, and then they help increase our beef cattle supplies. That border has been shut for quite a while now, and for the first months of this screwworm infestation in Mexico, when it was not in the United States and not in northern Mexico, then there was a constant hope, “All right, they’ll get this under control, and we’ll reopen the border, and those feeder cattle imports, we’ll be able to bring them in again.” The border is shut, and it doesn’t look like it will open anytime soon, so we just have this vacuum of Mexican beef cattle. That means that the U.S. dairy industry is positioned to continue to supply beef crossbred calves to the beef cattle industry. That’s beef on dairy calves. At times when we have extra heifers, which is not right now, we’ll just place true dairy animals in feedlots. The price might incentivize us to consider that, although right now they’re so valuable as dairy animals, that’s not happening, at least not at scale. And then, it impacts the dairy cull cow price as well. So, I was talking to a producer last week who sold one full truckload of dairy cull cows at an average price of $3,500 per animal. That’s just an unheard-of price in the past, and it is really adding up to a lot for dairy producers’ bottom lines. For several days here, we were looking at $15, $16 milk and $4.30 corn, and the math wasn’t working out, but when you add a beef crossbred calf check and a dairy cull cow check into that mix, things are looking a lot better when you talk to your banker. Ted Jacoby III: So, it sounds like to me that even though from a public relations standpoint this is going to be a bit of a headache and we have to make sure we get the word out of exactly how screwworm is affecting the dairy industry and how we have protocols in place and plans to make sure that it doesn’t affect the milk supply, for the dairy farmer from a cashflow perspective, at the end of the day it’s probably a positive. Sarina Sharp: It is a positive. I do want to stress that there’s no less beef in the world because of screwworm. What we’ve changed is where those animals are, and the longer that the border stays closed, the more resources that the Mexican cattle industry is gonna pour into facilities to finish the cattle that are staying there, and then also beef packing facilities so they can just process them right there. So we are not importing Mexican feeder cattle. We are importing Mexican beef. So, that’s a positive for dairy producers who are supplying young livestock. In the long run, it’s a negative for the U.S. beef industry who would love to raise those cattle here and process them here. And every day that we don’t is a day that Mexico is investing in not sending them here and sending us the finished beef. Ted Jacoby III: That makes a lot of sense. Jamie Jonker: I think the one thing I would add is I don’t think there’s gonna be a milk disruption issue. But at an individual farm level, it could be very disruptive. So nationally, you probably won’t really notice much, but at an individual farm level, depending on what happens, it could be very disruptive. In contrast to H5N1, which was really a big issue in so many different places. This is something that is gonna be at the individual farm level. Ted Jacoby III: Do dairy farmers have insurance for events like this? Sarina Sharp: So I know that with H5N1, you were able to file for some insurance protection related to your lost milk revenue, and you also registered that as an event for your dairy RP. I imagine that if you’re not gonna lose milk production at scale, that it’s not insurable Ted Jacoby III: That makes sense. ​ Ted Jacoby III: Everybody, we will be right back after these messages. Diego Carvallo: I’m Diego Carballo with T.C. Jacoby & Co.. T.C. Jacoby & Co. specializes in international dairy markets. For new customers that haven’t done business with Jacoby, I would tell them that we can provide them with many of the powders, dairy products that they consume, not only with the physical product, but we can also help them mitigate their risk. We know dairy. We know the main players. We know the main providers for the whole value chain. We are one of the strongest players in the U.S. market because we have contact all the way from the farmer moving the liquid milk all the way to the end users that buy the end products. I am Diego Carballo with T.C. Jacoby & Co., and we bring dairy to the world. Ted Jacoby III: Jamie, where are we at with avian flu? Is it affecting the dairy industry as badly this year as two years ago, and how do you expect it to play out this year? Jamie Jonker: It is not affecting the dairy sector like it was in 2024. In 2024, there were 917 dairy farms officially identified as having H5N1 on their farms, probably some more that were not officially listed. Last year, in ’25 was only 171, and so far this year, halfway through the year, only 64. So, we’re seeing a downward trend but what we are seeing here is some lingering issues with H5N1 on dairy farms this year. There have been two dairy farms in Texas, three in Utah, and the remaining fifty-nine are all in Idaho. And based upon my conversations with USDA for the farms where they have the genotyping done, these are all B3.13 strains (HPAI H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, genotype B3.13) so far, so no new spillover events. It’s a circulating one. And they are all related to a lineage of B3.13 that are circulating in Idaho. And so, it’s still kinda hanging out there. When I look at it, it’s not gonna have the big impact on overall milk production. When I say big, I think when we looked at 2024, it’s probably about a 1% reduction in production. That’s not huge but not inconsequential. Unless there was movement of this to places where there hasn’t been virus before. And you can think about large production areas around the Midwest into the Northeast where there hasn’t been this virus before. And so, that’s the risk, is that this virus moves to places where we haven’t had it before. And that’s why I think it’s important that we do our best to see if we can eliminate this B3.13 strain entirely from the U.S. dairy cattle population because the only reason we picked up the three spillover events with the D1.1 strain is because we had the mandatory surveillance. Based upon my discussions with folks that some of those herds and veterinarians that are dealing with those herds, if you weren’t testing for it, you probably wouldn’t have known that you had an outbreak of bird flu in your cattle. Unlike this B3.13, which was just so devastating, most herds that got it, ten to twenty percent of their herd had very severe clinical symptoms . And, you could see starting in September of ’24 into January, February of ’25, what it did on milk production in California. California had over seven hundred dairy farms in those months that, that were impacted by it. Ted Jacoby III: So if I’m hearing you correctly, this strain is far milder than the strain that affected us in 2024, and as a result it’s unlikely to have a major effect on milk production. Jamie Jonker: This is the same strain as 2024 that has affected the vast majority of those dairy farms. But right now, it’s occurring In places where that strain has already probably impacted most of these dairy farms in some capacity. And so, when they’re getting it in their farms, they’re being picked up as part of the mandatory surveillance process. And they’re not getting that big outbreak in a two-week period where ten to twenty percent of the herd needs to be in a hospital. Ted Jacoby III: Is some of the reason why it’s having less of an effect because, like with human viruses over time, cows build up immunity to it and just don’t get as sick the second, third time they might get sick with the same virus? Jamie Jonker: That appears to be part of that process. In most of our farms, we’re turning over, a quarter to a third of our animals every year, so you have a new naive population coming in. And some of these farms, what they’re really experiencing are they’re just constantly bringing in new naive animals, and they get like a rolling infection. But you’re not having 10% to 20% of the herd all at once. Ted Jacoby III: Thanks, Jamie. Now let’s move on to the last subject we had: foot-and-mouth disease. Jamie, what is the status of foot-and-mouth disease in the United States today? Jamie Jonker: Hollywood likes to glamorize things and I’m happy to say it’s been nearly 100 years since we’ve had a foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the U.S., and I sure hope that we don’t have one in my lifetime, it can be quite devastating. But no FMD in the U.S. since an outbreak in California in the late 1920s. And importantly, there’s a lot of work that’s being done on preparation in case of an outbreak . Back in the 2018 Farm Bill, dairy, beef and swine lobbied really hard to modernize our U.S. FMD vaccine bank. And there was a significant amount of new monies that were put into that, and that has been modernized. We have the secure food supply plans, including the secure milk supply and secure beef supply plans, and secure swine supply plans that are in place to help us deal with how we continue continuity of business if an outbreak occurs in the U.S. And ,so we’re much better planned today than we were even ten years ago. That being said, FMD is a risk. We see that it moves around a lot more than we would like it to in other areas of the world. And the example that I’m gonna give, there’s seven different serotypes of FMD, and a whole bunch of subtypes. There’s one called South African type. That is typically a Sub-Saharan African type and has been quite devastating in South Africa over these past two years. In 2023, they had an outbreak of SAT 1 Type 1 in the African horn that moved into Middle East in 2025 and through the end of 2025 into 2026, an SAT Type III actually broke out starting in Asia, moving into India and China. And although not officially listed, probably also into Russia. And so it’s moved into places where they routinely vaccinate for FMD but they don’t vaccinate for this serotype. And unfortunately, the vaccines that they use do not have cross protection for the SAT types, and so it’s been a really big issue in those areas. And it’s a demonstration of how quickly animal diseases can move these days. It’s very much on my radar and of concern to me about how quickly they move. Obviously, we have several oceans on both sides of us that help keep some things at bay. But boy, there’s a lot of flights that come into the U.S. from places where FMD is every day. And we have ships that are coming to container ports that come from those areas as well. It’s not a zero risk. I would say it’s a very low risk. But we wanna make sure we keep it on our radar that we continue to be prepared. It’s better to be prepared for something that doesn’t happen than be unprepared and have an outbreak . I have fire insurance on my house not because I want a fire to happen. I have it just in case, and I hope I never use it. Ted Jacoby III: Why do you think the U.S. has been so much more successful than, let’s say, Europe at staying FMD free? Jamie Jonker: I think part of it is that bit of geographic isolation. The vast majority of the Western Hemisphere is free of foot-and-mouth disease. There may be some in Venezuela, but their political issues over the past decade, their instability , their reporting of disease has been a bit spotty, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they still had a little bit circulating there . But everywhere else in South America, including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay those places have all gotten rid of FMD, and they’ve done it through vaccination campaigns and culling. Essentially eliminating it from the Western Hemisphere, our risk is much lower than Europe, which has direct geographic connections to places where it’s endemic. Ted Jacoby III: That makes a lot of sense. Serena, I’ve got one last question for you. What is the thing that keeps you and your family’s farms what keeps you guys up at night in terms of a disease or an outbreak in the U.S.? Sarina Sharp: Foot-and-mouth disease would be terrible, but it doesn’t feel like that’s imminent. I think that another round of avian influenza feels much more likely to have a devastating impact on an individual dairy. It’s not something that’s keeping us up at night every night, but it is something that when you hear, “Yep, there’s 50-plus cases in Idaho,” it feels could happen right here, kind of no matter where in the US right here is. So I think that one is forefront of dairy producers’ minds. But I just don’t think that disease pressure is keeping dairy producers up at night in the way that it did in 2024 when it was a mysterious virus. We were trying to figure out how to treat it. We weren’t sure how it was spreading, and the impact on animal health was so severe. And it feels to me like how we treat the flu and, to a lesser extent, COVID today compared to how we did in 2020. I think that’s how dairy producers generally feel about disease pressure in general today. I don’t want myself or my kids to get COVID or the flu, and we sure don’t want avian influenza on any of our farms Ted Jacoby III: I’d have to agree with that sentiment. This is what I’ve heard today. I’ve heard that screwworm, we are well prepared to deal with it if it does get on a U.S. dairy, but in general, it’s not something we’re terribly worried about affecting milk production in the United States. Avian flu is something maybe we’re a little bit more worried about affecting milk production, but the strain that’s out there today is one that’s been out there before, and we seem pretty well prepared for it. And foot-and-mouth disease is not in the United States, and we’ve got a lot of protocols in place to really keep it at bay, and we’re in a pretty good place in terms of making sure that foot-and-mouth disease stays away from this country. Jamie, hey, thank you very much for joining us today. I really appreciate it. I learned a lot today, and thank you so much for your time. Jamie Jonker: Yeah. Thank you for having me. Ted Jacoby III: Thanks, guys. Thanks, Serena. Thanks, guys. Jamie Jonker: Thank you. Thank Sarah Olson: you, Serena. Jamie, thank Jamie Jonker: you. Yes, see you. Bye, guys. Ted Jacoby III: Coming up next time. Scott Briggs: Yeah, the US is really in a great position to drive global dairy markets over the next five to 10 years. Ted Jacoby III: Tune in next time when we have Scott Briggs from Bridgescape Commodities joining us, talking about milk production on the global scale and how the US is positioned to be competitive against the major global exporters moving forward

Full Text of Readings Thursday of the Fourteenth Week in Ordinary Time Lectionary: 386 The Saint of the day is Saint Augustine Zhao Rong and Companions Saint Augustine Zhao Rong's and Companions' Stories Christianity arrived in China by way of Syria in the 600s. Depending on China's relations with the outside world, Christianity over the centuries was free to grow or was forced to operate secretly. The 120 martyrs in this group died between 1648 and 1930. Eighty-seven of them were born in China, and were children, parents, catechists, or laborers, ranging in age from nine years to 72. This group includes four Chinese diocesan priests. The 33 foreign-born martyrs were mostly priests or women religious, especially from the Order of Preachers, the Paris Foreign Mission Society, the Friars Minor, Society of Jesus, Society of St. Francis de Sales (Salesians), and Franciscan Missionaries of Mary. Augustine Zhao Rong was a Chinese soldier who accompanied Bishop John Gabriel Taurin Dufresse of the Paris Foreign Mission Society to his martyrdom in Beijing. Not long after his baptism, Augustine was ordained as a diocesan priest. He was martyred in 1815. Beatified in groups at various times, these 120 martyrs were canonized together in Rome on October 1, 2000. Reflection The People's Republic of China and the Roman Catholic Church each have well over a billion members, but there are only about 12 million Catholics in China. The reasons for that are better explained by historical conflicts than by a wholesale rejection of the Good News of Jesus Christ. The Chinese-born martyrs honored by today's feast were regarded by their persecutors as dangerous because they were considered allies of enemy, Catholic countries. The martyrs born outside China often tried to distance themselves from European political struggles relating to China, but their persecutors saw them as Westerners and therefore, by definition, anti-Chinese. The Good News of Jesus Christ is intended to benefit all peoples; today's martyrs knew that. May 21st-century Christians live in such a way that Chinese women and men will be attracted to hear that Good News and embrace it.Saint of the Day, Copyright Franciscan Media

FOLLOW UP: MOTOR FINANCE COMPENSATION SCHEME PAUSEDIn what should be a surprise to no one following the story, thanks to the legal challenges of the Financial Conduct Authority's proposed compensation scheme for customers who were impacted by illegal practices by those who arranged their finance, that this has now been partially paused. Companies are to proceed with claims as far as they can before hitting the areas under review, as well as tell those where their claim has failed. If you wish to learn more, click this Motor Trader article link here.JUNE 2026 NEW CAR REGISTRATION FIGURESJune 2026 recorded the most registrations since the pandemic hit. Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) rose to a market share of 30% for the month, but still only 25% year to date. There was also a jump in private registrations. The Top 10 most registered models has some surprising cars, especially with the claimed number of Tesla's. The SMMT took the opportunity to highlight the difference between the mandate level and what the market is currently sitting at, for zero emission vehicles. For more on this, click the SMMT article link here.SKYWELL IMPORTER SHUTS DOORSThe UK importer for the Chinese brand Skywell, has suddenly closed their doors Innovation Automotive told all staff they were redundant on 30 June. This leaves a lot of unanswered questions regarding warranties, the future of the brand in the UK and repairs. Click this Autocar article link here, for more.Additionally, this also hits vans from DFSK as Innovation Automotive have failed to find a company to take over the warranty cover, parts ordering and repairs. To learn more about that, click this article link from Professional Van.BMW UK & IRELAND FIND A NEW BOSSBMW UK and Ireland has announced their new CEO, Neil Fiorentinos. He will take over the position 1 September 2026, following David George's departure in January. To read more on this, click this Motor Trader article link here.TESLA BATTERY TRAILERS KEEP GETTING STOLENThere has been 11 recorded incidents where trailers filled with Tesla batteries have been stolen from their Nevada battery factory. Some of the stolen Powerwalls have been recovered and all disabled by the company, remotely. More can be found out about this, by clicking this InsideEVs article link here.INSTAVOLT BUYS GENIEPOINTIn buying GeniePoint, Instavolt is the first public EV charging network to have over 1,000 UK sites. The company intends to upgrade the acquired locations and hardware. You can read more, by clicking this article link from Instavolt here.VW AND BOSCH AUTOMATED DRIVING DEVELOPMENT ENDSVolkswagen, CARIAD and Bosch have reached the end of their project that was to develop SAE Level 2 and Level 3 automated driving systems. VW had to issue a press release to make it clear the project finished as expected and it wasn't anything else. For more on this, click this electrive article link here.To read about the project from Volkswagen, click this link here.If you like what we do, on this show, and think it is worth a £1.00, please consider supporting us via Patreon. Here is the link to that CLICK HERE TO SUPPORT THE PODCASTNEW NEW CAR NEWS -BMW X5The fifth generation BMW X5 has been revealed, leaning into the Neue Klasse design language. There will eventually be a petrol, diesel, plug-in hybrid, electric and hydrogen version of this model. Initially the ICE versions will be built, starting this year, with a price around the £80,000 mark, whilst the electrified versions will cost more. Click this Autocar article link for more.Geely EX2Geely is bringing their third model to the UK, later this summer, with the EX2. This car is aimed squarely at the likes of the Renault 5. Depending on battery pack selected you will get, according to Chinese testing which is different from WLTP, 193 or 255 miles - expect these to be less under WLTP testing. No further details are available regarding the specifications or prices, at this time. Click this Autocar article link for more.SGT Automobili 5S-SGTSGT Automobili has created a tribute to the DTM styled Alfa Romeo 155, using the underpinnings of an Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio. The Alfa engine has been tuned to provide, in normal Stradale trim, 612bhp, but if you want the track focused Trofeo model there is 740bhp. Weight has been stripped out too, with the Stradale coming in at 1590kg and the Trofeo ending up at 1490kg. The company is at pains to say this is not a restomod or replica, but how such a car could look today. Click this Autocar article link for more.LUNCHTIME READS: VAMOS A LA PLAYA PARTS 5 & 6Once again you need to grab your towels and wind breakers as we look at the cars best suited to rushing to the beach in, from Brazil and North America, thanks to Driven to Write. And once again there is an eclectic mix of solutions to the problem of how to get to the beach. Click this link here for Part Five. To see Part Six, click this link here.LIST OF THE WEEK: 20 WEIRD AND WONDERFUL FIAT CONCEPTSFiat have a long history of fabulous concepts, Classic & Sports Car has compiled a list of their favourite 20 of them. Click this link here to see your options and thus if you agree with the choices made by the chaps.AND FINALLY: TINY BUT ENDURINGDiecast Endurance ran a MkII Ford GT40 for as long as it could go before breaking, continuously. They livestreamed the five days, one hour, 10 minutes, and 42 seconds endurance effort, utilising a belt sander to enable propulsion. Click this article from The Drive to see more, including a link to the video showing what happened.

Contributor: Meghan Hurley, MD Educational Pearls: What animal is the most lethal to humans?  Depending on how we define lethal, and animal, this answer is actually not straight forward.  Globally and in the U.S. the most lethal animal is humans, accounting for ~436,000 to ~20,000 deaths (homicides) per year on average respectively.  In the United States the most lethal animal is of the Hymenoptera order (bees, wasps, and hornets). It accounts for approximately ~60 deaths per year from anaphylaxis. Globally the number is harder to track, but is estimated between 250–3,800 deaths globally annually.  Globally the most lethal animal is venomous snakes, accounting for between 60,000-150,000 per year (whereas in the United States this number is closer to ~5).  Mosquitos, as a vector however for the pathogens they transmit, out rank all as the most lethal globally (excluding humans).   What are the key take-aways for each insect discussed in this episode? Mosquitos: In the United States, of lesser concern. Can potentially transmit West Nile Virus in the United States. Otherwise, treatment for general mosquito bites is topical antihistamines and over the counter steroid creams.  Hymenoptera order (bees, wasps, and hornets): Distributed throughout the US, and can also live in the ground.  Bees lose their stinger during a sting. Whereas wasps do not and can sting multiple times.  Typically stings are just localized for symptoms (pain and swelling) but can become anaphylactic.  Treat with IM Epinephrine as the first line. Consider bronchodilators from bronchospasms.  Multiple stings (around ~100), can cause end organ damage and rhabdomyolysis outside of just anaphylaxis alone. Require more aggressive management.  Fire Ants: Behave similar to bees (in swarm mentality), but have differing venoms. Can also cause global symptoms. Black Widow:  No deaths from Latrodectus hesperus (Western Black Widow) recorded in the United States. There are 3 deaths globally from widow species. Two from Madagascar, and one from a Mediterranean species of widow. Debate in the toxicology community about use of the antivenom, which may account for more deaths than the bite itself.  Black Widow bites are typically painful. Which is different from bites from recluse species.   Brown Recluse:  Rare in Colorado Typically painless bite, that creates a center necrotic eschar.  Tend to also not be lethal.  Bed Bugs Typically harmless and more of a nuisance to have. Can cause localized infections.  Bite presents in a "Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner" formation (i.e. linear 2-3 or more bites as the bug tracks and feeds on skin).  Will feed primarily on exposed skin. The biggest concern is ensuring no cross contamination from patient to provider or facility.  Bed bug bite delivers a small amount of local anesthetic, which can make them hard to detect. References Haskell MG, Langley RL. Animal-Encounter Fatalities, United States, 1999-2016: Cause of Death and Misreporting. Public Health Rep. 2020;135(6):831-841. doi:10.1177/0033354920953211 Herness J, Snyder MJ, Newman RS. Arthropod Bites and Stings. AFP. 2022;106(2):137-147. GBD 2019 Snakebite Envenomation Collaborators. Global mortality of snakebite envenoming between 1990 and 2019. Nat Commun. 2022;13(1):6160. doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33627-9 Wei YL, Wu Z, Li RL, Tang F. Review of selected mosquito-borne diseases: arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya, Zika, West Nile, Japanese encephalitis, yellow fever) and parasitic diseases (malaria, lymphatic Filariasis). Front Public Health. 2025;13:1712094. doi:10.3389/fpubh.2025.1712094 Forsberg K, Sheats KJ, Blair JM, et al. Surveillance for Violent Deaths - National Violent Death Reporting System, 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, 2022. MMWR Surveill Summ. 2025;74(5):1-42. doi:10.15585/mmwr.ss7405a1 Summarized by Dan Orbidan, OMS2 | Edited by Dan Orbidan & Ahmed Abdel-Hafiz, NREMT-P   Donate: https://emergencymedicalminute.org/donate/   Join our mailing list: http://eepurl.com/c9ouHf