Podcasts about Duke University

Today, I'm excited to speak with Justin Papadakis, Deputy Chief Executive Officer and Chief Real Estate Officer at the United Soccer League (USL). Justin joined the USL in 2014 and has held various roles including President of Commercial Ventures and Chief Operating Officer and has led its expansion efforts across the USL Championship, League One, and Super League, and most recently, the announcement of USL's plans to launch a Division One men's professional league in 2027-2028. Prior to the USL, Justin served as leasing director, and later business development director, at DDR Corp, now called SITE Centers. While earning his dual degree in Public Policy and Economics at Duke University, Justin also played four seasons for the Blue Devils' Men's Soccer program. He has been recognized on America's Power List and Florida Trend's Florida 500, a list of 500 most influential business leaders in Florida. With Justin's help we delve into the world of soccer. He describes how the sport – and the business of soccer – has evolved in recent years and points out what sets soccer apart from other major sports. He also paints a picture for our audience of the soccer landscape today and how the USL fits in that landscape. We then take a look at soccer as an asset class in the broader category of sports and entertainment investment properties. Justin provides an educational overview of the unique investment attributes of soccer and soccer teams, highlighting how they are distinct from other major-league sports and what makes soccer franchises particularly attractive right now. Justin talks about the purpose and the mission of the United Soccer League (or USL) and explains how his organization helps UHNW clients and their family offices invest in and operate soccer franchises. Finally, he shares some practical considerations and risks family offices need to consider when they contemplate investing in sports in general and in soccer in particular. He offers valuable tips on how families and family offices should educate themselves and what resources exist for them to lean on in this growing and specialized segment of sports investing. Don't miss this educational conversation with a leading expert and experienced practitioner in sports franchise investing and operations.

Michael Regan recently served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Previously he was Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality where he secured the largest coal ash cleanup settlement in U.S. history. And he led negotiations on the cleanup of the Cape Fear River from PFAS contamination. Now he has taken a role at POLIS: Center for Politics at Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy.

Today I'm interviewing Dr. Sujay Kansagra, a Pediatric Neurologist and Sleep Medicine Physician at Duke University, about toddlers and sleep science.We're talking about all things sleep and kids, including crying at night, separation anxiety, toddler naps, & when to make the crib to toddler bed transition.⬇️ Connect with Dr. Sujay ⬇️IG:   / thatsleepdoc  YouTube:    / @thatsleepdoc  ResourcesLearn more about Jessica and Awesome Little Sleepers.Save your spot in my next free Toddler Sleep Masterclass at: ToddlerSleepMasterclass.comOther resources:Join me on Instagram @AwesomeLittleSleepersThe ONE thing you can start tonight to improve your toddler's sleep, click hereCheck out the blogWatch the YouTube channel ‘Sleep Tight Without a Fight' sleep course, click hereMy favorite sleep products, click here

In this episode of Picking Up: Where We Left Off, host Michael Carroll, Executive Director of the Hollings Center for International Dialogue, sits down with Dr. Yakut Ghazi of Duke University and education and technology leader Kapil Gaba to unpack how artificial intelligence is transforming global higher education. Drawing on experiences from the United States, South Asia, and beyond, they explore how AI and digital tools can personalize learning, expand access, and enable global collaboration—while also exposing the persistent digital divide. The conversation challenges the idea that “access to content” equals education, underscoring the continued importance of human connection, mentorship, and community in truly democratizing learning. The episode then turns to the rapidly changing world of work, asking what happens when AI and automation reshape both white-collar and blue-collar jobs. The guests discuss the growing vulnerability of traditionally stable professions, the heightened risks for the workforce, and the need for higher education to prioritize distinctly human skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and ethical judgment. They outline how universities and policymakers can respond through lifelong learning models, workforce upskilling, transparent AI adoption, and strong safeguards around data integrity and human supervision. The result is a candid, forward-looking discussion about opportunity and the role of higher education in an AI-driven future.

In this conversation, host David Bryan speaks with Dr. Tracie Canada about her recent book, which explores the intersection of race, gender, and college football. They discuss the unique experiences of Black college football players, the implications of a Black feminist perspective, and the importance of community and care among players. The conversation highlights the exploitation faced by student-athletes and the broader societal issues impacting their lives. Canada discusses the intricate dynamics of college athletics, focusing on the bonds formed among players, the challenges they face in balancing education and sports, and the systemic issues within the NCAA. She emphasizes the importance of brotherhood among athletes, the complexities of their educational experiences, and potential solutions to improve their circumstances, including unionization and cost-sharing. The conversation also critiques the term 'student-athlete' and advocates for a more honest representation of their roles within the collegiate sports system. Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous injuries, few pro-career opportunities, a free but devalued college education, and future financial instability. In one of the first ethnographies about Black college football players, anthropologist Tracie Canada reveals the ways young athletes strategically resist the exploitative systems that structure their everyday lives.Tackling the Everyday shows how college football particularly harms the young Black men who are overrepresented on gridirons across the country. Although coaches and universities constantly invoke the misleading "football family" narrative, this book describes how a brotherhood among Black players operates alongside their caring mothers, who support them on and off the field. With a Black feminist approach—one that highlights often-overlooked voices—Canada exposes how race, gender, kinship, and care shape the lives of the young athletes who shoulder America's favorite gameDr. Tracie Canada is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose ethnographic research uses sport to theorize race, kinship and care, gender, and the performing body. Her work focuses on the lived experiences of Black football players. Canada is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology & Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. I'm also the founder and director of the Health, Ethnography, and Race through Sports (HEARTS) Lab.Her research has been supported by various agencies, including the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Collegiate Athletic Association, and the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.In addition to her academic writing, her work has been featured in public venues and outlets like The Museum of Modern Art, TIME, The Guardian, and Scientific American.

David A. Hughes discusses his excellent book on the history of the deep state, the many parallels between the totalitarianism of one century ago and the current tyranny being constructed, and their renewed push to establish a global technocratic biodigital concentration camp once more. Watch on BitChute / Brighteon / Rumble / Substack / YouTube *Support Geopolitics & Empire! Become a Member https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com Donate https://geopoliticsandempire.com/donations Consult https://geopoliticsandempire.com/consultation **Visit Our Affiliates & Sponsors! Above Phone https://abovephone.com/?above=geopolitics easyDNS (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://easydns.com Escape The Technocracy (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://escapethetechnocracy.com/geopolitics Outbound Mexico https://outboundmx.com PassVult https://passvult.com Sociatates Civis https://societates-civis.com StartMail https://www.startmail.com/partner/?ref=ngu4nzr Wise Wolf Gold https://www.wolfpack.gold/?ref=geopolitics Websites Substack https://dhughes.substack.com Books https://www.amazon.com/stores/David-A-Hughes/author/B0D4X8J3KH Support https://davidahughes.net/support About David A. Hughes David A. Hughes was Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Lincoln (UK). He received his undergraduate and master's degrees from Oxford University and holds doctorates in German Studies from Duke University and International Relations from Oxford Brookes University. His research focuses on psychological warfare, 9/11, COVID-19, the deep state, technocracy, global class relations, and resurgent totalitarianism. He is author of “Covid-19,” Psychological Operations, and the War for Technocracy: Volume 1″ and “Wall Street, the Nazis, and the Crimes of the Deep State”. *Podcast intro music used with permission is from the song “The Queens Jig” by the fantastic “Musicke & Mirth” from their album “Music for Two Lyra Viols”: http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Enlace del curso: https://app.behindtheknife.org/premium/repaso-para-el-examen-de-certificaci-n-en-cirug-a-general Behind the Knife es el podcast quirúrgico líder en el mundo y una plataforma de educación quirúrgica. Nuestra misión es crear contenido innovador de educación quirúrgica que sea accesible para todos. Estamos muy emocionados de expandirnos al público hispanohablante y ofrecerles 4 episodios de muestra de nuestro Curso de Repaso para el examen de certificación de Cirugía General. Hoy, escucharás un caso de muestra de este curso de repaso en audio, que incluye 100 escenarios. El curso tiene un formato emocionante y completamente único. Cada uno de los 100 caso consta de dos partes. La primera parte es un caso oral perfectamente ejecutado que imita la realidad. Cada caso tiene una duración de cinco a siete minutos e incluye una variedad de tácticas y estilos. Si logras alcanzar este nivel de desempeño en tu preparación, seguramente aprobarás el examen de certificación con éxito. La segunda parte introduce comentarios de alto rendimiento para cada escenario. Estos comentarios incluyen consejos y trucos para ayudarte a dominar los escenarios más desafiantes, además de una enseñanza práctica y fácil de entender que cubre los temas más confusos que enfrentamos como cirujanos generales. Estamos seguros de que encontrarás este enfoque único de doble formato como una forma altamente efectiva de prepararte para el examen. Nuestro contenido está disponible en nuestras aplicaciones para iOS y Android y en nuestro sitio web (behindtheknife.org). Por favor, consulta las notas del programa para más información. Nos encantaría escuchar tus comentarios sobre este episodio enviando un correo electrónico a hello@behindtheknife.org y apreciamos tu ayuda para difundir la palabra entre tus colegas si disfrutas del material. Este contenido incluye 97 descripciones operatorias para todos los procedimientos comunes —y la mayoría de los poco comunes— incluidos en el Currículo de Cirugía General SCORE. Cada descripción está diseñada para ayudar a los candidatos a prepararse de manera eficaz para el Examen de Certificación en Cirugía General. presentadores de podcast: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD nació en San Juan, Puerto Rico, y se trasladó a los Estados Unidos en el 2012 para sus estudios graduados. Actualmente, es estudiante de post-grado en cirugía general en Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH es un residente de cirugía general en Duke y nació en Miami, en el estado de la Florida. Sus padres nacieron en El Salvador. Disclaimer: Los productos de contenido de Behind the Knife son únicamente para fines educativos. No diagnosticamos, tratamos ni ofrecemos consejos específicos para pacientes. ------ Behind the Knife is the world's leading surgical podcast and surgical education platform.  Our mission is to create innovative surgical education content that is accessible to all.  We are very excited to expand into the spanish audience and bring you 4 sample episodes of our General Surgery Oral Board Review Course which will be released over the course of the next week. Today, you'll hear a sample scenario from this comprehensive audio review course which includes 100 scenarios.  The course has an exciting and entirely unique format. Each of the 100 scenarios includes two parts. The first part is a perfectly executed oral board scenario that mimics the real thing. Scenarios are five to seven minutes long and include a variety of tactics and styles. If you're able to achieve this level of performance in your preparation, you are sure to pass the oral exam with flying colors. The second part introduces high yield commentary to each scenario. This commentary includes tips and tricks to help you dominate the most challenging scenarios in addition to practical, easy to understand teaching that covers the most confusing topics that we face as general surgeons. We are confident you will find this unique dual format approach a highly effective way to prepare for the test. The course contains crisp, concise operative descriptions that cover all SCORE common topics and and most SCORE uncommon topics. Our content is available on our iOS and Android apps and website (behindtheknife.org).  Please check the show notes for more information. We would love to hear your feedback by emailing hello@behindtheknife.org and appreciate your help spreading the word to your colleagues if you enjoy the material. Hosts: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to the US in 2012 for graduate studies. At present, she is a surgical resident at Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH is a general surgery resident at Duke and was born in Miami, Florida. His parents were born in El Salvador. Please visit https://behindtheknife.org to access other high-yield surgical education podcasts, videos and more. If you liked this episode, check out our recent episodes here: https://app.behindtheknife.org/listen

Is there anything more lifeless than a valley full of dried bones? From the skeletal ruins of life that used to be, a collage of hope for the start of Advent. Because here's the thing about hope: it makes the most sense and is the most powerful in the face of the hopeless.Sermon begins at minute marker 2:41 Ezekiel 37:1-14Resources:Hamlet and Horatio come upon two gravediggers who identify a skull as having belonged to Yorick, “Alas, poor Yorick! … a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy …” from Hamlet, Act 5, Scene 1.Mariame Kaba: “Hope is a Discipline.” from an interview by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein, in Beyond Prisons, January 2018. Published in: We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice, (Haymarket Books, 2021), p. 26-28.Andrea Gibson: “Even when the truth isn't hopeful, the telling of it is.” from Take Me With You.Barbara Kingsolver: “The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.” from 2008 commencement address at Duke University, titled “How to be Hopeful”.Jan Richardson, “Blessing of Hope,” The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief (Wanton Gospeller Press, 2016), 172-173.Image: detail from “Hamlet and Horatio in front of the gravediggers” (Act.V Sc.I), print by: Eugène Delacroix, British Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

This month, Mary got to have a fascinating exchange with Dr. Dan Papaj, a Full Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology with the University of Arizona. Vastly dedicated to pollinators - in particular, the Blue Swallowtail, Dan is an esteemed and longstanding researcher and faculty member. He completed his undergraduate work at Cornell University and earned his PhD in zoology from Duke University. He's a fellow in the Animal Behavior Society and has won fellowships with Bellagio and Fullbright. All along the way, he's retained inspiring relationships with his students. His inflluence now spreads through scholarly and ecological communities.In their conversation, Mary and Dan dipped into the social life of bees, the evolutionary trajectory of humans and the impact of drought on the desert. Listen in for new insights into how it looks to an active entemolotist.You can learn more about Dan by checking out his University of Arizona faculty profile. Just below, he's also provided a few links to some of his writing, and to resources on cultural evolution. Check them out. Learn more. And as Dan suggests, always make choices for our relatives, the pollinators.And a quick postscript. Early in the life of HILFH, we had the delightful honor of welcoming Sara Mapelli Tink as a guest (HILFH episode 5). Sara is known for her activism in support of bees - she dances with them covering her body. Check out her interview - it never gets old! LEARN MOREThe role of similarity of stimuli and responses in learning by nectar-foraging bumble bees: a test of Osgood's modelM Baek & DR Papaj. Animal Behaviour 219, 123036The relationship between preference and switching in flower foraging by beesDR Papaj & AL Russell. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 78 (3), 40______Dan's recommendations for learning more about cultural evolution:Cumulative cultural evolution. Culture and the Evolutionary Process. (1985). University of Chicago Press. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/C/bo5970597.html Dan's comment, “Boyd and Richerson's 1985 Culture and the Evolutionary Process is still in print at U. Chicago Press and for good reason.”An article by Gerbauly et al. on the development of lactose tolerance in humans. https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgzQcqtjBxVGRsHBrrNlBrnwFXxPC?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1 And a very cool photo of Bees ~https://photoawards.com/winner/zoom.php?eid=8-222523-21 MUSICJazz Restaurant Café Music. Music by

Enlace del curso: https://app.behindtheknife.org/premium/repaso-para-el-examen-de-certificaci-n-en-cirug-a-general Behind the Knife es el podcast quirúrgico líder en el mundo y una plataforma de educación quirúrgica. Nuestra misión es crear contenido innovador de educación quirúrgica que sea accesible para todos. Estamos muy emocionados de expandirnos al público hispanohablante y ofrecerles 4 episodios de muestra de nuestro Curso de Repaso para el examen de certificación de Cirugía General. Hoy, escucharás un caso de muestra de este curso de repaso en audio, que incluye 100 escenarios. El curso tiene un formato emocionante y completamente único. Cada uno de los 100 caso consta de dos partes. La primera parte es un caso oral perfectamente ejecutado que imita la realidad. Cada caso tiene una duración de cinco a siete minutos e incluye una variedad de tácticas y estilos. Si logras alcanzar este nivel de desempeño en tu preparación, seguramente aprobarás el examen de certificación con éxito. La segunda parte introduce comentarios de alto rendimiento para cada escenario. Estos comentarios incluyen consejos y trucos para ayudarte a dominar los escenarios más desafiantes, además de una enseñanza práctica y fácil de entender que cubre los temas más confusos que enfrentamos como cirujanos generales. Estamos seguros de que encontrarás este enfoque único de doble formato como una forma altamente efectiva de prepararte para el examen. Nuestro contenido está disponible en nuestras aplicaciones para iOS y Android y en nuestro sitio web (behindtheknife.org). Por favor, consulta las notas del programa para más información. Nos encantaría escuchar tus comentarios sobre este episodio enviando un correo electrónico a hello@behindtheknife.org y apreciamos tu ayuda para difundir la palabra entre tus colegas si disfrutas del material. Este contenido incluye 97 descripciones operatorias para todos los procedimientos comunes —y la mayoría de los poco comunes— incluidos en el Currículo de Cirugía General SCORE. Cada descripción está diseñada para ayudar a los candidatos a prepararse de manera eficaz para el Examen de Certificación en Cirugía General. presentadores de podcast: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD nació en San Juan, Puerto Rico, y se trasladó a los Estados Unidos en el 2012 para sus estudios graduados. Actualmente, es estudiante de post-grado en cirugía general en Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH es un residente de cirugía general en Duke y nació en Miami, en el estado de la Florida. Sus padres nacieron en El Salvador. Disclaimer: Los productos de contenido de Behind the Knife son únicamente para fines educativos. No diagnosticamos, tratamos ni ofrecemos consejos específicos para pacientes. ------ Behind the Knife is the world's leading surgical podcast and surgical education platform.  Our mission is to create innovative surgical education content that is accessible to all.  We are very excited to expand into the spanish audience and bring you 4 sample episodes of our General Surgery Oral Board Review Course which will be released over the course of the next week. Today, you'll hear a sample scenario from this comprehensive audio review course which includes 100 scenarios.  The course has an exciting and entirely unique format. Each of the 100 scenarios includes two parts. The first part is a perfectly executed oral board scenario that mimics the real thing. Scenarios are five to seven minutes long and include a variety of tactics and styles. If you're able to achieve this level of performance in your preparation, you are sure to pass the oral exam with flying colors. The second part introduces high yield commentary to each scenario. This commentary includes tips and tricks to help you dominate the most challenging scenarios in addition to practical, easy to understand teaching that covers the most confusing topics that we face as general surgeons. We are confident you will find this unique dual format approach a highly effective way to prepare for the test. The course contains crisp, concise operative descriptions that cover all SCORE common topics and and most SCORE uncommon topics. Our content is available on our iOS and Android apps and website (behindtheknife.org).  Please check the show notes for more information. We would love to hear your feedback by emailing hello@behindtheknife.org and appreciate your help spreading the word to your colleagues if you enjoy the material. Hosts: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to the US in 2012 for graduate studies. At present, she is a surgical resident at Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH is a general surgery resident at Duke and was born in Miami, Florida. His parents were born in El Salvador. Please visit https://behindtheknife.org to access other high-yield surgical education podcasts, videos and more. If you liked this episode, check out our recent episodes here: https://app.behindtheknife.org/listen

BONUS: When AI Knows Your Emotional Triggers Better Than You Do — Navigating Mindfulness in the AI Age In this thought-provoking conversation, former computer engineer and mindfulness leader Mo Edjlali explores how AI is reshaping human meaning, attention, and decision-making. We examine the critical question: what happens when AI knows your emotional triggers better than you know yourself? Mo shares insights on remaining sovereign over our attention, avoiding dependency in both mindfulness and technology, and preparing for a world where AI may outperform us in nearly every domain. From Technology Pioneer to Mindfulness Leader "I've been very heavily influenced by technology, computer engineering, software development. I introduced DevOps to the federal government. But I have never seen anything change the way in which human beings work together like Agile." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's journey began in the tech world — graduating in 1998, he was on the front line of the internet explosion. He remembers the days before the internet, watched online multiplayer games emerge in 1994, and worked on some of the most complicated tech projects in federal government. Technology felt almost like magic, advancing at a logarithmic rate faster than anything else. But when Mo discovered mindfulness practices 12-15 years ago, he found something equally transformative: actual exercises to develop emotional intelligence and soft skills that the tech world talked about but never taught. Mindfulness provided logical, practical methods that didn't require "woo-woo" beliefs — just practice that fundamentally changed his relationship with his mind. This dual perspective — tech innovator and mindfulness teacher — gives Mo a unique lens for understanding where we're headed. The Shift from Liberation to Dependency "I was fortunate enough, the teachers I was exposed to, the mentality was very much: you're gonna learn how to meditate on your own, in silence. There is no guru. There is no cult of personality." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies a dangerous drift in the mindfulness movement: from teaching independence to creating dependency. His early training, particularly a Vipassana retreat led by S.N. Goenka, modeled true liberation — you show up for 10 days, pay nothing, receive food and lodging, learn to meditate, then donate what you can at the end. Critically, you leave being able to meditate on your own without worshiping a teacher or subscribing to guided meditations. But today's commercialized mindfulness often creates the opposite: powerful figures leading fiefdoms, consumers taught to listen to guided meditations rather than meditate independently. This dependency model mirrors exactly what's happening with AI — systems designed to make us rely on them rather than empower our own capabilities. Recognizing this parallel is essential for navigating both fields wisely. AI as a New Human Age, Not Just Another Tool "With AI, this is different. This isn't like mobile computing, this isn't like the internet. We're entering a new age. We had the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Industrial Age. When you enter a new age, it's almost like knocking the chess board over, flipping the pieces upside down. We're playing a new game." — Mo Edjlali   Mo frames AI not as another technology upgrade but as the beginning of an entirely new human age. In a new age, everything shifts: currency, economies, government, technology, even religions. The documentary about the Bronze Age collapse taught him that when ages turn over, the old rules no longer apply. This perspective explains why AI feels fundamentally different from previous innovations. ChatGPT 2.0 was interesting; ChatGPT 3 blew Mo's mind and made him realize we're witnessing something unprecedented. While he's optimistic about the potential for sustainable abundance and extraordinary breakthroughs, he's also aware we're entering both the most exciting and most frightening time to be alive. Everything we learned in high school might be proven wrong as AI rewrites human knowledge, translates animal languages, extends longevity, and achieves things we can't even imagine. The Mental Health Tsunami and Loss of Purpose "If we do enter the age of abundance, where AI could do anything that human beings could do and do it better, suddenly the system we have set up — where our purpose is often tied to our income and our job — suddenly, we don't need to work. So what is our purpose?" — Mo Edjlali   Mo offers a provocative vision of the future: a world where people might pay for jobs rather than get paid to work. It sounds crazy until you realize it's already happening — people pay $100,000-$200,000 for college just to get a job, politicians spend millions to get elected. If AI handles most work and we enter an age of abundance, jobs won't be about survival or income — they'll be about meaning, identity, and social connection. This creates three major crises Mo sees accelerating: attacks on our focus and attention (technology hijacking our awareness), polarization (forcing black-and-white thinking), and isolation (pushing us toward solo experiences). The mental health tsunami is coming as people struggle to find purpose in a world where AI outperforms them in domain after domain. The jobs will change, the value systems will shift, and those without tools for navigating this transformation will suffer most. When AI Reads Your Mind "Researchers at Duke University had hooked up fMRI brain scanning technology and took that data and fed it into GPT 2. They were able to translate brain signals into written narrative. So the implications are that we could read people's minds using AI." — Mo Edjlali   The future Mo describes isn't science fiction — it's already beginning. Three years ago, researchers used early GPT to translate brain signals into written text by scanning people's minds with fMRI and training AI on the patterns. Today, AI knows a lot about heavy users like Mo through chat conversations. Tomorrow, AI will have video input of everything we see, sensory input from our biometrics (pulse, heart rate, health indicators), and potentially direct connection to our minds. This symbiotic relationship is coming whether we're ready or not. Mo demonstrates this with a personal experiment: he asked his AI to tell him about himself, describe his personality, identify his strengths, and most powerfully — reveal his blind spots. The AI's response was outstanding, better than what any human (even his therapist or himself) could have articulated. This is the reality we're moving toward: AI that knows our emotional triggers, blind spots, and patterns better than we do ourselves. Using AI as a Mirror for Self-Discovery "I asked my AI, 'What are my blind spots?' Human beings usually won't always tell you what your blind spots are, they might not see them. A therapist might not exactly see them. But the AI has... I've had the most intimate kind of conversations about everything. And the response was outstanding." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's approach to AI is both pragmatic and experimental. He uses it extensively — at the level of teenagers and early college students who are on it all the time. But rather than just using AI as a tool, he treats it as a mirror for understanding himself. Asking AI to identify your blind spots is a powerful exercise because AI has observed all your conversations, patterns, and tendencies without the human limitations of forgetfulness or social politeness. Vasco shares a similar experience using AI as a therapy companion — not replacing his human therapist, but preparing for sessions and processing afterward. This reveals an essential truth: most of us don't understand ourselves that well. We're blind navigators using an increasingly powerful tool. The question isn't whether AI will know us better than we know ourselves — that's already happening. The question is how we use that knowledge wisely. The Danger of AI Hijacking Our Agency "There's this real danger. I saw that South Park episode about ChatGPT where his wife is like, 'Come on, put the AI down, talk to me,' and he's got this crazy business idea, and the AI keeps encouraging him along. It's a point where he's relying way too heavily on the AI and making really poor decisions." — Mo Edjlali   Not all AI use is beneficial. Mo candidly admits his own mistakes — sometimes leaning into AI feedback over his actual users' feedback for his Meditate Together app because "I like what the AI is saying." This mirrors the South Park episode's warning about AI dependency, where the character's AI encourages increasingly poor decisions while his relationships suffer. Social media demonstrates this danger at scale: AI algorithms tuned to steal our attention and hijack our agency, preventing us from thinking about what truly matters — relationships and human connection. Mo shares a disturbing story about Zoom bombers disrupting Meditate Together sessions, filming it, posting it on YouTube where it got 90,000 views, with comments thanking the disruptors for "making my day better." Technology created a cannibalistic dynamic where teenagers watched videos of their mothers, aunts, and grandmothers being harassed during meditation. When Mo tried to contact Google, the company's incentive structure prioritized views and revenue over human decency. Technology combined with capitalism creates these dangerous momentum toward monetizing attention at any cost. Remaining Sovereign Over Your Attention "Traditionally, mindfulness does an extraordinary job, if you practice right, to help you regain your agency of your focus and concentration. It takes practice. But reading is now becoming a concentration practice. It's an actual practice." — Mo Edjlali   Mo identifies three major symptoms affecting us: attacks on focus/attention, polarization into black-and-white thinking, and isolation. Mindfulness practices directly counter all three — but only if practiced correctly. Training attention, focus, and concentration requires actual practice, not just listening to guided meditations. Mo offers practical strategies: reading as concentration practice (asking "does anyone read anymore?" recognizing that sustained reading now requires deliberate effort), turning off AirPods while jogging or driving to find silence, spending time alone with your thoughts, and recognizing that we were given extraordinary power (smartphones) with zero training on how to be aware of it. Older generations remember having to rewind VHS tapes — forced moments of patience and stillness that no longer exist. We need to deliberately recreate those spaces where we're not constantly consuming entertainment and input. Dialectic Thinking: Beyond Polarization "I saw someone the other day wear a shirt that said, 'I'm perfect the way I am.' That's one-dimensional thinking. Two-dimensional thinking is: you're perfect the way that you are, and you could be a little better." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's book OpenMBSR specifically addresses polarization by introducing dialectic thinking — the ability to hold paradoxes and seeming contradictions simultaneously. Social media and algorithms push us toward one-dimensional, black-and-white thinking: good/bad, right/wrong, with me/against me. But reality is far more nuanced. The ability to think "I'm perfect as I am AND I can improve" or "AI is extraordinary AND dangerous" is essential for navigating complexity. This mirrors the tech world's embrace of continuous improvement in Agile — accepting where you are while always pushing for better. Chess players learned this years ago when AI defeated humans — they didn't freak out, they accepted it and adapted. Now AI in chess doesn't just give answers; it helps humans understand how it arrived at those answers. This partnership model, where AI coaches us through complexity rather than simply replacing us, represents the healthiest path forward. Building Community, Not Dependency "When people think to meditate, unfortunately, they think, I have to do this by myself and listen to guided meditation. I'm saying no. Do it in silence. If you listen to guided meditation, listen to guided meditation that teaches you how to meditate in silence. And do it with other people, with intentional community." — Mo Edjlali   Mo's OpenMBSR initiative explicitly borrows from the Agile movement's success: grassroots, community-centric, open source, transparent. Rather than creating fiefdoms around cult personalities, he wants mindfulness to spread organically through communities helping communities. This directly counters the isolation trend that technology accelerates. Meditate Together exists specifically to create spaces where people meditate with other human beings around the world, with volunteer hosts holding sessions. The model isn't about dependency on a teacher or platform — it's about building connection and shared practice. This aligns perfectly with how the tech world revolutionized collaborative work through Agile and Scrum: transparent, iterative, valuing individuals and interactions. The question for both mindfulness and AI adoption is whether we'll create systems that empower independence and community, or ones that foster dependency and isolation. Preparing for a World Where AI Outperforms Humans "AI is going to need to kind of coach us and ease us into it, right? There's some really dark, ugly things about ourselves that could be jarring without it being properly shared, exposed, and explained." — Mo Edjlali   Looking at his children, Mo wonders what tools they'll need in a world where AI may outperform humans in nearly every domain. The answer isn't trying to compete with AI in calculation, memory, or analysis — that battle is already lost. Instead, the essential human skills become self-awareness, emotional intelligence, dialectic thinking, community building, and maintaining agency over attention and decision-making. AI will need to become a coach, helping humans understand not just answers but how it arrived at those answers. This requires AI development that prioritizes human growth over profit maximization. It also requires humans willing to do the hard work of understanding themselves — confronting blind spots, managing emotional triggers, practicing concentration, and building genuine relationships. The mental health tsunami Mo predicts isn't inevitable if we prepare now by teaching these skills widely, building community-centric systems, and designing AI that empowers rather than replaces human wisdom and connection.   About Mo Edjlali   Mo Edjlali is a former computer engineer, and also the founder and CEO of Mindful Leader, the world's largest provider of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training. Mo's new book Open MBSR: Reimagining the Future of Mindfulness explores how ancient practices can help us navigate the AI revolution with awareness and resilience.   You can learn more about Mo and his work at MindfulLeader.org, check out Meditate Together, and read his articles on AI's Mind-Reading Breakthrough and AI: Not Another Tool, but a New Human Age.

Enlace del curso: https://app.behindtheknife.org/premium/repaso-para-el-examen-de-certificaci-n-en-cirug-a-general Behind the Knife es el podcast quirúrgico líder en el mundo y una plataforma de educación quirúrgica. Nuestra misión es crear contenido innovador de educación quirúrgica que sea accesible para todos. Estamos muy emocionados de expandirnos al público hispanohablante y ofrecerles 4 episodios de muestra de nuestro Curso de Repaso para el examen de certificación de Cirugía General. Hoy, escucharás un caso de muestra de este curso de repaso en audio, que incluye 100 escenarios. El curso tiene un formato emocionante y completamente único. Cada uno de los 100 caso consta de dos partes. La primera parte es un caso oral perfectamente ejecutado que imita la realidad. Cada caso tiene una duración de cinco a siete minutos e incluye una variedad de tácticas y estilos. Si logras alcanzar este nivel de desempeño en tu preparación, seguramente aprobarás el examen de certificación con éxito. La segunda parte introduce comentarios de alto rendimiento para cada escenario. Estos comentarios incluyen consejos y trucos para ayudarte a dominar los escenarios más desafiantes, además de una enseñanza práctica y fácil de entender que cubre los temas más confusos que enfrentamos como cirujanos generales. Estamos seguros de que encontrarás este enfoque único de doble formato como una forma altamente efectiva de prepararte para el examen. Nuestro contenido está disponible en nuestras aplicaciones para iOS y Android y en nuestro sitio web (behindtheknife.org). Por favor, consulta las notas del programa para más información. Nos encantaría escuchar tus comentarios sobre este episodio enviando un correo electrónico a hello@behindtheknife.org y apreciamos tu ayuda para difundir la palabra entre tus colegas si disfrutas del material.  Este contenido incluye 97 descripciones operatorias para todos los procedimientos comunes —y la mayoría de los poco comunes— incluidos en el Currículo de Cirugía General SCORE. Cada descripción está diseñada para ayudar a los candidatos a prepararse de manera eficaz para el Examen de Certificación en Cirugía General. presentadores de podcast: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD nació en San Juan, Puerto Rico, y se trasladó a los Estados Unidos en el 2012 para sus estudios graduados. Actualmente, es estudiante de post-grado en cirugía general en Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH es un residente de cirugía general en Duke y nació en Miami, en el estado de la Florida. Sus padres nacieron en El Salvador. Disclaimer: Los productos de contenido de Behind the Knife son únicamente para fines educativos. No diagnosticamos, tratamos ni ofrecemos consejos específicos para pacientes. ------ Behind the Knife is the world's leading surgical podcast and surgical education platform.  Our mission is to create innovative surgical education content that is accessible to all.  We are very excited to expand into the spanish audience and bring you 4 sample episodes of our General Surgery Oral Board Review Course which will be released over the course of the next week. Today, you'll hear a sample scenario from this comprehensive audio review course which includes 100 scenarios.  The course has an exciting and entirely unique format. Each of the 100 scenarios includes two parts. The first part is a perfectly executed oral board scenario that mimics the real thing. Scenarios are five to seven minutes long and include a variety of tactics and styles. If you're able to achieve this level of performance in your preparation, you are sure to pass the oral exam with flying colors. The second part introduces high yield commentary to each scenario. This commentary includes tips and tricks to help you dominate the most challenging scenarios in addition to practical, easy to understand teaching that covers the most confusing topics that we face as general surgeons. We are confident you will find this unique dual format approach a highly effective way to prepare for the test. The course contains crisp, concise operative descriptions that cover all SCORE common topics and and most SCORE uncommon topics.  Our content is available on our iOS and Android apps and website (behindtheknife.org).  Please check the show notes for more information. We would love to hear your feedback by emailing hello@behindtheknife.org and appreciate your help spreading the word to your colleagues if you enjoy the material.  Hosts: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to the US in 2012 for graduate studies. At present, she is a surgical resident at Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH is a general surgery resident at Duke and was born in Miami, Florida. His parents were born in El Salvador. Please visit https://behindtheknife.org to access other high-yield surgical education podcasts, videos and more.  If you liked this episode, check out our recent episodes here: https://app.behindtheknife.org/listen

Enlace del curso: https://app.behindtheknife.org/premium/repaso-para-el-examen-de-certificaci-n-en-cirug-a-general Behind the Knife es el podcast quirúrgico líder en el mundo y una plataforma de educación quirúrgica. Nuestra misión es crear contenido innovador de educación quirúrgica que sea accesible para todos. Estamos muy emocionados de expandirnos al público hispanohablante y ofrecerles 4 episodios de muestra de nuestro Curso de Repaso para el examen de certificación de Cirugía General. Hoy, escucharás un caso de muestra de este curso de repaso en audio, que incluye 100 escenarios. El curso tiene un formato emocionante y completamente único. Cada uno de los 100 caso consta de dos partes. La primera parte es un caso oral perfectamente ejecutado que imita la realidad. Cada caso tiene una duración de cinco a siete minutos e incluye una variedad de tácticas y estilos. Si logras alcanzar este nivel de desempeño en tu preparación, seguramente aprobarás el examen de certificación con éxito. La segunda parte introduce comentarios de alto rendimiento para cada escenario. Estos comentarios incluyen consejos y trucos para ayudarte a dominar los escenarios más desafiantes, además de una enseñanza práctica y fácil de entender que cubre los temas más confusos que enfrentamos como cirujanos generales. Estamos seguros de que encontrarás este enfoque único de doble formato como una forma altamente efectiva de prepararte para el examen. Nuestro contenido está disponible en nuestras aplicaciones para iOS y Android y en nuestro sitio web (behindtheknife.org). Por favor, consulta las notas del programa para más información. Nos encantaría escuchar tus comentarios sobre este episodio enviando un correo electrónico a hello@behindtheknife.org y apreciamos tu ayuda para difundir la palabra entre tus colegas si disfrutas del material. Este contenido incluye 97 descripciones operatorias para todos los procedimientos comunes —y la mayoría de los poco comunes— incluidos en el Currículo de Cirugía General SCORE. Cada descripción está diseñada para ayudar a los candidatos a prepararse de manera eficaz para el Examen de Certificación en Cirugía General. presentadores de podcast: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD nació en San Juan, Puerto Rico, y se trasladó a los Estados Unidos en el 2012 para sus estudios graduados. Actualmente, es estudiante de post-grado en cirugía general en Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH es un residente de cirugía general en Duke y nació en Miami, en el estado de la Florida. Sus padres nacieron en El Salvador. Disclaimer: Los productos de contenido de Behind the Knife son únicamente para fines educativos. No diagnosticamos, tratamos ni ofrecemos consejos específicos para pacientes. ------ Behind the Knife is the world's leading surgical podcast and surgical education platform.  Our mission is to create innovative surgical education content that is accessible to all.  We are very excited to expand into the spanish audience and bring you 4 sample episodes of our General Surgery Oral Board Review Course which will be released over the course of the next week. Today, you'll hear a sample scenario from this comprehensive audio review course which includes 100 scenarios.  The course has an exciting and entirely unique format. Each of the 100 scenarios includes two parts. The first part is a perfectly executed oral board scenario that mimics the real thing. Scenarios are five to seven minutes long and include a variety of tactics and styles. If you're able to achieve this level of performance in your preparation, you are sure to pass the oral exam with flying colors. The second part introduces high yield commentary to each scenario. This commentary includes tips and tricks to help you dominate the most challenging scenarios in addition to practical, easy to understand teaching that covers the most confusing topics that we face as general surgeons. We are confident you will find this unique dual format approach a highly effective way to prepare for the test. The course contains crisp, concise operative descriptions that cover all SCORE common topics and and most SCORE uncommon topics. Our content is available on our iOS and Android apps and website (behindtheknife.org).  Please check the show notes for more information. We would love to hear your feedback by emailing hello@behindtheknife.org and appreciate your help spreading the word to your colleagues if you enjoy the material. Hosts: - Auri P. Garcia Gonzalez, MD PhD was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico and moved to the US in 2012 for graduate studies. At present, she is a surgical resident at Duke University. - Diego Schaps, MD, MPH is a general surgery resident at Duke and was born in Miami, Florida. His parents were born in El Salvador. Please visit https://behindtheknife.org to access other high-yield surgical education podcasts, videos and more. If you liked this episode, check out our recent episodes here: https://app.behindtheknife.org/listen

Did you know that there is hope for patients diagnosed with ALS? Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), the debilitating neurodegenerative disease commonly known as “Lou Gehrig's Disease,” is influenced by genetics and environmental factors, including living near bodies of water frequently impacted by harmful algal blooms. Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn for her conversation with Coco Newton, RD, MPH, CNS, a registered dietitian and holistic practitioner with expertise in functional medical nutritional therapy for improving the diet quality and quality of life for those diagnosed with ALS. Newton has been involved with Healing ALS: www.healingALS.org. She references the ALS Clinic at Duke University: https://alsclinic.duke.edu/our-research/ and the international conference on ALS and Motor Neurone Disease will be held Dec 5-7 in San Diego, CA: https://symposium.mndassociation.org/programme/. To learn more about algal blooms and neurodegenerative disease, see: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1087706 Related Websites: https://www.coconewton.com/

"I love to read, I devour books—wouldn't it be nice if I wrote something that somebody else would love to read?" — Lewis Bowling In this episode of Uncorking a Story, host Mike Carlon sits down with Lewis Bowling—author of 14 books, columnist, and educator at Duke University and North Carolina Central University. Lewis shares how a childhood love of reading sparked a lifelong passion for writing, why he focuses on nonfiction and history, and the story behind his latest book on Sam Ragan, North Carolina's literary godfather. From his first library under his grandfather's bed to his deep dives into archives for biographies, Lewis offers insights into the craft of writing and the joy of preserving history. Key Takeaways: Roots of a Writer: Lewis Bowling's writing journey began with a box of old westerns under his grandfather's bed and trips to the local library. Nonfiction Passion: Lewis prefers biographies and history over fiction, finding inspiration in real stories and lived experiences. First Book Milestone: His debut book chronicled the history of Granville County, sparking a career that now spans 14 titles. Sam Ragan's Influence: Lewis's latest work explores the life of North Carolina's literary godfather, a man who shaped the state's cultural identity. Research Over Writing: For Lewis, the thrill of writing starts with meticulous research—often more enjoyable than the writing itself. Current Project: He's 80% through a biography of Eddie Cameron, the namesake of Duke's iconic basketball arena. Advice for Writers: Writing isn't just typing words—it's living, observing, and channeling experiences into stories. Buy Sam Ragan: North Carolina's Literary Godfather Amazon: https://amzn.to/43KQwPJ Connect with Lewis Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lewis.bowling.3 Connect with Mike Website: https://uncorkingastory.com/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSvS4fuG3L1JMZeOyHvfk_g Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uncorkingastory/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@uncorkingastory Twitter: https://twitter.com/uncorkingastory Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uncorkingastory LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uncorking-a-story/ #UncorkingAStory #LewisBowling #AuthorInterview #WritingLife #NorthCarolinaHistory #SamRagan #BookLovers #BiographyWriting #PodcastForReaders If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend. If you have not done so already, please rate and review Uncorking a Story on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This interview is a replay of EP#2 . To date, it is the most-listened-to episode of the podcast. ___ In an age dominated by secularism and philosophical naturalism, the idea that people have supernatural experiences is often considered to be a relic of a bygone era. And yet, credible people still report such experiences. That's the subject of this episode, which features an interview with Dale C. Allison about his recent book, Encountering Mystery: Religious Experience in a Secular Age. In his book, Allison documents and discusses a range of religious experiences that people have reported -- including his own (which he shares in this interview). For students of the Bible, this topic is an important one to consider. The Bible is, after all, full of religious experiences. Allison's work on this subject will no doubt help modern people come to terms with a forgotten fact: There's more to reality than just physical reality. About Dale C. Allison:Dale C. Allison, Jr. is the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary. He earned his MA and PhD from Duke University. His academic research and publications include the historical Jesus, the Gospel of Matthew, Second Temple Judaism, and the history of the interpretation and application of biblical texts. Faculty Page: https://ptsem.edu/academics/faculty/dale-c-allison-jr/ Check out Dale's Book: Encountering Mystery+++Support The Bible (Unmuted) via Patreon: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/TheBibleUnmuted⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matthew's blog: ⁠matthewhalsted.substack.com⁠Don't forget to subscribe to The Bible (Unmuted)!

Beth Felker Jones (PhD, Duke University) teaches theology at Northern Seminary, and loves to write for the church and the academy. She lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband Brian, four kids, two dogs, and Dwight, her theology cat. She was on The Art of Holiness a couple of years ago to talk about her really great work, Practicing Christian Doctrine. She has also published a book called “God the Spirit. Today we are talking with her about her latest work, “Why I am Protestant.” What does it mean to be Protestant? How can its strengths shape faith in the modern world, and how should its challenges be addressed?

In this episode, we speak with Dave Evans, Partner at Apax Digital, the technology and growth equity investment arm of Apax Partners. Apax Digital focuses on growth equity and buyout investments in high-growth enterprise software, consumer internet, and technology-enabled services companies worldwide. The team leverages Apax Partners' deep tech expertise, global platform, and specialized operating experts to help companies accelerate growth and realize their full potential. Apax has raised and advised funds with aggregate commitments of approximately $80 billion across three sectors—Tech, Services, and Internet/Consumer—providing long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. Dave joined Apax in 2009 and focuses on high-growth internet, enterprise software, and tech-enabled services companies. He was previously in Morgan Stanley's Financial Sponsors Group and holds an MBA from Wharton and a BA from Duke University. Dave was recently recognized as a Top Software Investor of 2025 by GrowthCap. Dave supports Innocence Project. To learn more about this organization click here. I am your host, RJ Lumba. We hope you enjoy the show. If you like the episode, click to follow.

According to Forbes magazine, in 2020 alone global spend on corporate training programmes, often focused on leadership development, exceeded $350 billion. Yet how effective, if at all, are these programmes? And are they perhaps just a massive waste of time and money? To dig deep into the question of why leadership development might be failing us I am delighted to be joined on the podcast by Professor Moran Anisman-Razin.About our guest…Dr. Moran Anisman-Razin, is an Associate Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology in the Department of Work and Employment Studies at the Kemmy Business School, University of Limerick. She is also a Visiting Research Scholar at the Behavioral Science and Policy Center, Social Science Research Institute at Duke University, USA and Faculty Affiliate at the Center for Innovative Leadership, Carey Business School, Johns Hopkins university. Through her work, Moran explores questions of leadership in organizations and is particularly interested in examining leaders' perspectives and identities as shaping behavior, leader development, and exploring ways to make leadership development programs more evidence-based and rigorous.The MIT Sloan Management Review article discussed in the interview - Leadership Development Is Failing Us. Here's How to Fix It - is available here: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/leadership-development-is-failing-us-heres-how-to-fix-it/A key article also referenced in the interview - Uncomfortable but Developmental: How Mindfulness Moderates the Impact of Negative Emotions on Learning - https://journals.aom.org/doi/abs/10.5465/amle.2023.0434 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

SCTV's Dave Thomas talks about making bold life choices, growing up in Canada, Shakespeare saving his ass, choosing between big money success as an ad man or being a broke improviser at Second City, becoming head writer on SCTV, Martin Short, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, John Candy, Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Andrea Martin, Grace Under Fire, running an animation studio, turning to dramas like Bones and The Black List, going to Ukraine, Thailand, Mad Magazine, The McKenzie Brothers, Chester Hope, and how, to make it in Hollywood, you need at least two of these three things, Talent, Drive, & Luck. Bio: David William Thomas was born May 20, 1949, in St. Catharines, Ontario. He is the eldest son of British parents, Moreen Duff Muir (May 4, 1928 – May 18, 2022), a church organist for thirty years originally from Glasgow, Scotland and composer of church music, and John E. Thomas (1926–1996), a medical ethicist from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales who was head of the Philosophy Department at McMaster University, and the author of several books. Dave's younger brother, Ian Thomas, is a Canadian singer-songwriter. The family moved temporarily to Durham, North Carolina, where his father attended Duke University and earned a PhD in philosophy. The family moved back to Dundas, Ontario, in 1961, where Dave attended Dundas District high school, and later graduated with an honours Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.[1]  Starting his career as a copywriter at ad agency McCann Erickson in 1974, Thomas became the head writer of the Coca-Cola account in Canada within a year. After watching a Second City stage show in Toronto, and while suffering from self-described "boredom" in his advertising work, he auditioned for the Second City troupe and was chosen as a performer.[2] He was a cast member of the Toronto production of Godspell, along with Victor Garber, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, and Andrea Martin.[3] Paul Shaffer was the musical director.[3 He first achieved fame as a cast member of the Canadian TV comedy series SCTV, joining Godspell castmates Levy, Martin and later Short, plus Rick Moranis, John Candy, Harold Ramis, Catherine O'Hara and others. Notable characters on the show include Doug McKenzie of beer-swilling brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, editorialist Bill Needle, Scottish scone-chef/bluesman Angus Crock, motor-mouthed TV ad announcer Harvey K-Tel, Lowery organist/curio pitchman Tex Boil and the "Cruising Gourmet". Thomas's first film role was in Home to Stay, directed by Delbert Mann, in which Thomas played in a scene with Hollywood legend Henry Fonda. He then wrote, co-directed, and starred in the Bob & Doug McKenzie feature film Strange Brew. Soon after, he wrote for and acted in The New Show, produced by Lorne Michaels during his hiatus from Saturday Night Live. Short-lived, this show featured a powerhouse writing staff including Thomas along with Buck Henry, George Meyer, Jack Handey, Al Franken, Tom Davis, Valri Bromfield and Steve Martin. Thomas tried his hand at network television hour-long shows in 1986 when he wrote and co-executive produced Steel Collar Man for CBS. The pilot was produced but did not go to series. He co-wrote Spies Like Us (1985) with Dan Aykroyd.  In 1988, Thomas wrote another hour long show for CBS, B Men, which was back ordered, but Thomas took a directing job at Paramount, which caused the network to drop the series. He reportedly introduced John Travolta and Kelly Preston while directing them in the Paramount film The Experts.  He wrote for, produced, and starred in The Dave Thomas Comedy Show (1990). In 1991, he starred in the Showtime comedy, Public Enemy #2. In 1992, he tried his hand at reality TV and co-executive produced ABC's America's Funniest People with Vin Di Bona, but left after thirteen weeks to appear in the film Coneheads.  In 1993, he co-starred in ABC's Grace Under Fire with Brett Butler and Tom Poston and continued with the show for 5 seasons. In 1995 Thomas starred in the ABC television film Picture Perfect with Mary Page Keller and Richard Karn. In 1995 Thomas produced a pilot of a game show called Family Challenge for ABC. When ABC did not pick up the series, Thomas sold Family Challenge to the Family Channel, where he produced 144 episodes of the show spread over 2 seasons. In 1996, Thomas played the title role in the Fox television film Mr. Foster's Field Trip aka Kidz in the Wood with Julia Duffy. In 1996, he wrote the book SCTV: Behind the Scenes (McClelland & Stewart, publishers). From 1999–2002, he voiced various roles on the animated series Mission Hill. Thomas co-starred in the Paramount feature Rat Race. As of 2001, Thomas has been the Executive Creative Director of Animax Entertainment, an animation studio based officially in Culver City, California. In 2001–2002 Thomas appeared with Eugene Levy and Martin Short on Short's show Primetime Glick as Bob Hope (an impression he had first developed for SCTV with great success). In 2002, he co-starred with Jason Priestley, Dave Foley, and Ewen Bremner in Fancy Dancing. The next year he played a lead role in Beethoven's 5th. In 2003, he directed a hospital comedy feature film entitled Whitecoats, which he also wrote. As of 2004, Thomas was on the official Advisory Committee for the Comedy program at Humber College, the only such diploma program in the world. In 2004, he and Moranis again worked together voicing Rutt and Tuke, two moose based on the McKenzie Brothers, in Disney's animated feature Brother Bear.[4]  Thomas has had a long career doing voices for animation including Animaniacs, Duckman, CatDog, The Adventures of Tarzan, Justice League and multiple roles on The Simpsons, King of the Hill and Family Guy. In 2005, he had a guest stint as Charlize Theron's "Uncle Trevor" on Fox's Arrested Development. In 2006, he reprised his voice role in Brother Bear 2 and appeared as himself in the feature film The Aristocrats. He began production on ArnoldSpeaks.com, a video blog, as the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger; Animax Entertainment won an Emmy for a broadband animated series produced for ESPN, Off Mikes.  In 2007, Thomas and Rick Moranis reprised their roles as Bob and Doug McKenzie in a one-hour special, Bob & Doug McKenzie's Two-Four Anniversary, for CBC Television. The show featured cameos from McKenzie celeb fans like Ben Stiller, Dave Foley, Tom Green, Paul Shaffer, Andy Dick, Matt Groening, Barry Pepper, Martin Short, and Geddy Lee. Former Prime Minister of Canada Paul Martin was the host. In 2008, Thomas revived Bob and Doug McKenzie in a new animated series, Bob & Doug. While Thomas reprises the character of Doug in the new series, Moranis chose not to voice the character of Bob, which instead is voiced by Dave Coulier. Moranis is, however, involved in the series as an executive producer.[5]  In November 2009, Thomas received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from his alma mater McMaster University and gave the fall convocation speech. In 2010 Animax continued to produce branded entertainment, advertising and digital shorts for corporations like Disney, Warner Brothers, NBC Universal, and Kodak. In 2011, Thomas's company Animax produced another animated show for MTV entitled Big Box along with numerous Internet shorts such as Life With Dad.[6][7]  In 2012 and 2013 Thomas guest starred in the dramatic shows Perception and Bones as well as comedy shows Comedy Bang! Bang! and How I Met Your Mother. In addition in 2013 Thomas voiced the recurring role of Jeff Foxworthy's father Jesco in the CMT show Bounty Hunters.  Thomas joined the writing staff of the Fox crime drama television series Bones beginning in 2013. Thomas worked for two seasons on Bones, writing several episodes and working on staff as consulting producer for two seasons.[8]  In 2015 Thomas joined the writing staff of NBC's The Blacklist as a consulting producer. In 2020 life-sized statues of Thomas and Rick Moranis as their characters Bob and Doug McKenzie were put in place at the ICE District Sports Arena in Edmonton, Alberta.[9] Also in 2020, the Governor-General of Canada announced that Thomas was being appointed to the Order of Canada,[10] Canada's highest civilian award. In 2021, Thomas and Max Allan Collins teamed to write a sci-fi mystery novel, The Many Lives of Jimmy Leighton.

Young people today face noise, pressure and expectations that can drown out who they really are. I have met many who feel unsure of their path, and I believe this is one of the most important conversations we can have. In this episode, I sit with youth coach Hillary Spiritos, someone who has walked her own winding path from fearless child, to shy young adult, to a coach helping others reconnect with their inner voice. Her honesty about the old messages she carried and the ways she learned to trust herself again offers a lesson for all of us, no matter our age. Hillary and I talk about what young adults face today, why so many feel lost and how simple daily choices can move us away from fear and toward clarity. You will hear how she helps people uncover what they value, build resilience and create a life that feels true. I think you will find this conversation grounding and hopeful. My hope is that it reminds you, just as it reminded me, that we all have the ability to step forward with purpose and live with an Unstoppable mindset. Highlights: 00:10 – Learn how early life messages shape confidence and identity.01:27 – See why many young adults step back from who they really are.02:54 – Understand how internal stories influence your choices.03:55 – Hear how changing environments helps you discover new parts of yourself.13:42 – Learn how young adults navigate both opportunity and uncertainty.15:36 – Understand why modern pressures make clarity harder to find.19:00 – Discover why resilience begins with facing normal challenges.23:25 – Learn how redefining success opens space for authentic living.25:20 – See how guided reflection builds direction and self trust.39:57 – Discover tools that help you quiet the noise and listen inward. About the Guest: Hillary Spiritos, founder of Bat Outta Hell, is a pathfinding coach dedicated to helping young adults pursue the lives they envision by building self-trust and discovering their potential. She conducts workshops on essential life skills such as leadership development, interviewing, resilience, and maximizing your study abroad experience. Through her coaching, Hillary empowers young adults to navigate social media noise and societal pressures, encouraging them to listen to their inner voice and achieve their unique personal and professional goals. This process helps clients identify their values, overcome obstacles, and embrace their fears, ultimately leading to a fulfilling and authentic life. As a certified pathfinding coach, she offers her clients that unique in-between space to create and execute their life road map. Hillary brings years of experience as an Academic Advisor at NYU and Northeastern University, as well as a background in the corporate sector, both as an employee and freelancer. Ways to connect with Hillary**:** https://batouttahell.net/ https://www.tiktok.com/@bat.outta_hell https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillaryspiritos/ About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us. Michael Hingson  01:21 Well, hi everyone, wherever you happen to be today, I would like to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, and I am your host, Michael hingson, or you can call me Mike, one of those two, no other kind of words, just Mike or Michael. But we're glad you're here, whether you're watching, listening or doing both. And our guest today is a coach. She especially does a lot in coaching and working with youth, young people, and I'm really interested to learn more about that as we go forward. I think it'll be kind of fun. So I would like to welcome Hillary Spiritos to unstoppable mindset, Hillary, we're glad you're here. Thanks for coming. Hillary Spiritos  02:02 Hi, thank you so much for having me. Mike. It's a pleasure to be with you. Michael Hingson  02:06 Well, I think it's a pleasure to be with you too, so I guess it works out both ways, right? Wonderful. Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for being here. Why don't we start as I love to do, let's start at the beginning. Tell us sort of about the early Hillary, growing up and all that. Since you know you're dealing with youth and and all that, you were one once. So let's, let's hear about you. Hillary Spiritos  02:29 I was one once, absolutely. So I was a really fearless child. I had a really, like, wild fashion sense. I asked a lot of questions. I was pretty independent. I like to stay in my room and like play with my imagination and and then as I got older, I got a little bit shyer. I got a little bit behind the scenes. I started to I started to back away a little bit and kind of lose touch with who I was. And then I have finally, like when I was in my when I was in university, I really just decided that I didn't really know what I wanted to do, what I wanted to study what I was interested in, and it's been a process to kind of live my fullest, most authentic life, and that is what I want to help young people do. Michael Hingson  03:29 Why did you back away? Why did you become kind of, maybe less outgoing or less adventuresome, if you will? Hillary Spiritos  03:38 I think you know there are multiple reasons for this puberty is not like the least of which, but I would say that I'm a big believer that we are taught these messages when we're younger as children, and they get internalized. And I think I internalized messages that were to make myself smaller, to not cause waves, to just not be as big of a presence, perhaps. And so I you have to kind of rewire that. You have to break free from that, and then you can decide, actually, I'm not at the mercy of these stories that I've been told in these messages that I've gotten. Now, Michael Hingson  04:23 where are you from? Hillary Spiritos  04:24 I'm from New York City. Okay, Michael Hingson  04:27 yeah. Well, you know, New York is a tough place, so you can certainly learn to be outgoing and active there. But I hear what you're saying, yeah. Now, where are you now? Hillary Spiritos  04:39 I live in London, England, Michael Hingson  04:41 okay, yes, a little ways from New York, Hillary Spiritos  04:45 absolutely. But actually not as far as you might Michael Hingson  04:48 think, no, it's only, what a five hour airplane flight, right? Hillary Spiritos  04:53 But it's, it's actually shorter than going to California, yeah? Michael Hingson  04:58 So, yeah. You know well, but what took you to London? Hillary Spiritos  05:06 I have always wanted to live in London, and I really love the arts and culture and comedy scene here. I also am a deep, deep lover of travel, and obviously living on the continent of Europe, just gives me more opportunity to travel in that way and over the weekend, you know. And I also just am a deep believer in international education, study abroad, the ability to have cross cultural experiences, to learn more about yourself and your place in the world and the world itself through experiencing your life and yourself in a different Michael Hingson  05:46 place. Do you have a car, or do you just use the tube and public transportation? I Hillary Spiritos  05:52 use the tube and public transportation mostly. I mean, the thing about Europe is that it's really well connected over train. Michael Hingson  05:59 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And that that makes a big difference, because you can get wherever you want to go around Europe fairly easily by train, sure, absolutely, certainly, a lot easier than getting around most places in in the States. Hillary Spiritos  06:19 Yeah, that's that can be true, though. I mean, there is an ease to a car Absolutely, and there's like a lovely I can blast my music and be with my thoughts and be in my own space that a car brings you that the train doesn't, Michael Hingson  06:34 yeah, well, or you use earphones, but it's still not the same. Hillary Spiritos  06:39 Yeah, I have a lot of clients and students who are perhaps in places that they don't have their car, and they find that their car is their safe space, and the space where they can vent and listen to music and just be alone and and they feel fine that they really miss their car. So it's I mean, but I also grew up in New York City, so I, I, it's not a part of my it's not a part of my existence, really. Michael Hingson  07:06 Yeah, you're used to not having a car pretty much. I had a friend when I lived in in Winthrop, Massachusetts for three years. I had a friend. We both worked at the same company, and his philosophy was, buy a car, but don't get anything fancy. Just get a clunker. And when it dies, just leave it and go off and buy another one. And so he never did get any kind of a really high end car. And he had a couple where they died, and he just left them or got got them taken away, and then he went off and got a new Hillary Spiritos  07:43 car. Sure, I guess it's really just what you value. Yeah, absolutely. Michael Hingson  07:50 Well, I'm pretty used to having access to a lot of public transportation. Unfortunately, where I live here in California, we don't have a lot where I live anyway, of great transportation, but I remember living in the east, and of course, there was a lot more train access around New York, around Boston and around Washington, DC, for that matter, compared To out here, absolutely well. So where did you go to college? Hillary Spiritos  08:24 I went. I got my undergraduate degree at Duke University, and then I got my master's in international education at NYU. Michael Hingson  08:33 Okay, and so what was your Bachelor's Hillary Spiritos  08:37 in theater and comparative religion? Michael Hingson  08:41 That's a little different than international education. What prompted you to Hillary Spiritos  08:44 switch? Yeah, so that's a great question. So I actually changed my major in my junior year of college because I didn't believe that anyone would be accepting of me majoring in theater and comparative religion as two separate things, and I didn't think it was good enough, and I had all these judgments again from messaging that I received as a young person, and I finally decided that I wasn't going to listen to that. So I changed my major, and I actually worked in the theater and live events production for five or six years after college, and loved it, but I found that it wasn't fulfilling in the way that I wanted my work to be. It wasn't as soul feeding as I wanted my work to be. And I realized that I was an RA at Duke University, and I I just truly loved working with young adults and helping them find their path and figure out what they wanted to do with their life and who they were and what they valued and and so I found that I really wanted to be in the world of higher education, so I went and got my master's. Michael Hingson  09:49 But you didn't do that right out of getting a bachelor's. It was a little bit later. Hillary Spiritos  09:53 Yeah, it was about five or six years later. Wow. Michael Hingson  09:55 So what did you do for the theater while you were working? Hillary Spiritos  09:58 I. Yeah, I was a stage manager in the theater, and then I was a Live Events Producer, so concerts, festivals, movie premieres, anything like that. I helped Michael Hingson  10:11 produce. Did you do a lot of that around New York? Hillary Spiritos  10:15 Yeah, so New York, LA, I also worked in Boston, actually, both as in the theater, as well as at a university in Boston after I had gotten my masters. So yeah, Michael Hingson  10:29 I always enjoyed going to Broadway shows. There's, there's nothing like live theater. I agree. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's just a totally different kind of environment, and it's so much more fun than watching a movie or whatever, the sound is different and better and just the whole performance. There's nothing like seeing something on the stage. Yeah? Hillary Spiritos  10:54 I mean, I think it's all about To each their own. Right? There are actors and people who find that movies have changed their lives and and I definitely have movies that I watch over and over again for comfort, same with TV shows. But for me, personally, the theater, there's nothing like live theater. Live theater is like energizing for me, and if I go too long without seeing it, I get a little Michael Hingson  11:18 Yeah, well, you're in a in a town that has a fair amount Hillary Spiritos  11:22 of theater? Absolutely, yes. Michael Hingson  11:25 So what are your favorite movies? Oh, oh. Hillary Spiritos  11:30 I mean, I guess it depends on what genre we're talking about. But I really love the genre of, like, inspirational sports movies. I that also I remember watching all of those and just really resonating with the character of the coach and realizing that that's kind of who I wanted to be in life, that person who recognized the potential and helped everybody reach their potential. So I loved, you know, the Karate Kid and Mighty Ducks and, like the replacements and strictly ballroom and and miracle and, you know, any Rocky, Michael Hingson  12:10 you name it, yeah, A League of Their Own. Hillary Spiritos  12:14 Oh, League of Their Own is incredible. Michael Hingson  12:16 Absolutely, yeah, I always like the league of their own. Yeah, Hillary Spiritos  12:19 the natural is also a great fact be the natural. Michael Hingson  12:22 And I read the book long after seeing the movie, but I, but I read the book, and that was worth reading as well. Hillary Spiritos  12:32 I think I've also read it, but I'm not, I can't. Michael Hingson  12:38 Yeah, it's been a long time since since I've read it, but it was fun. I don't know my probably one of my favorite movies, and I love to quote it all the time. Goes away from sports. It's Young Frankenstein, but I'm a Mel Brooks fan. So what can I say? Oh yeah. Hillary Spiritos  12:55 Oh yeah. I mean, that's an incredible film, too. And I would say I love a lot of movies that are not inspirational sports movies as well, but yeah for sure, Michael Hingson  13:03 yeah, and I've always liked Casablanca. That's still one of my favorite movies of all time. Hillary Spiritos  13:09 Classic, absolutely, Michael Hingson  13:11 a classic, absolutely yes. But there's still nothing like going to see things on Broadway. You know, I used to see, I watched Damn Yankees the movie, and then when I lived back in the east, we got to see Damn Yankees on Broadway. I actually saw it twice. The second time was with Jerry Lewis playing Mr. Applegate, the devil, and it was the only thing he ever did on Broadway. And we, before we went to see it, there was a my wife read an interview with him, and he said his father had told him, you won't have really ever arrived in entertainment until you do something on Broadway. Well, he did a great job in the play. It was well worth seeing. Hillary Spiritos  14:00 Well, yeah, I mean that that's a challenging statement for sure. And I think it depends how you how he took that right, but that can also be very disheartening, Michael Hingson  14:11 yeah, yeah, well, he took it, he took it the right way. And, and, you know, he, I think he thought his dad was, was hoping his dad was watching from wherever his dad was and saw him on Broadway, but Broadway plays are fun, and I've seen a number on Broadway, and I've seen some plays not on Broadway, but still, people did a great job well. So you anyway, you did theater, and then you went back and got your master's degree, and you wanted to deal with young people. Why? Specifically just young people? Hillary Spiritos  14:50 I think that young adults are exist in such an incredible but volatile space. So like throughout life, we go through on this track of all pretty much doing the same things at the same time, at the same pace with everybody else. And then when we meet or when we get to university, there just becomes so many more paths, and paths start to diverge, and everyone starts to get a little bit mixed up, and then once you're out of university, then that happens even more, and that can be a period of incredible opportunity and possibility and excitement, but it can also be a time of really a lot of anxiety and challenges and obstacles and fear of the unknown, and I think that that is a really exciting, interesting, dynamic place to be. I also just love the ethos of young people, of I'm not going to take that this is the way it's always been done, mentality. I'm not going to just let whatever is going on in the world wash over me. I'm going to actually take a stand. I'm I'm going to stand for what I believe in. And I think that's just a really, I mean, there are some real fierce young people out here, out here, and so that's really uplifting and really motivating and energizing to see. Michael Hingson  16:18 Do you think that it's different now than it was, say, 30 or 40 years ago, in terms of dealing with youth and young people in terms of what they face and how they face it. Has it? Has it changed much? Or do you think it's really basically the same? And of course, the other logical question is, Is it easier or harder now? Hillary Spiritos  16:39 Absolutely, so I think that it is absolutely part of the human condition to try to figure out who you are and what you want, and that is something that young people are constantly dealing with at every generation. So that's absolutely true, but I do believe that there are certain things that make it harder for this generation, the Gen Z and Millennial like cohort, I think that whether that's the covid pandemic, social media, helicopter or lawn mower, snow plow, parenting, whatever you want to call it, that just this general state of the world, there are all of These structures and systems in place that are crumbling and broken, that young adults are having to get a grip and understand and find their feet in a world that is constantly shifting and and not meeting their needs. So I think it is definitely, I mean, harder is challenging to rank, right? Because, like, obviously, there are very hard challenges in various generations, but I do think it is very different. Michael Hingson  17:49 Well, you know, in 1917, 18, we had the pandemic of the flu. So it's not like this is the first time we've ever had that, but sure, it just seems to me, with everything that's going on today, with with social media, with instantaneous communications and so on, and probably other things where a number of people are raised in fear oriented environments, it is definitely a lot more challenging to be a youth growing up today. They're just too many challenges, much less you mentioned helicopter and other kinds of parents, I would assume that they're operating more out of fear than anything else, which is why they do what they do. Hillary Spiritos  18:36 Well, that's interesting. I think they absolutely could be operating out of fear, and they can be operating out of the I want you to reach this echelon. I want you to do this thing, have this job, so that you will be secure and safe. However, we know that that's not a given, right? There's no such thing as security in that way. But I would also say there's a way to be operating out of a projection of what they wish that they lived, and they're passing that along to their children as well. So there are various ways that it can manifest Michael Hingson  19:12 that's probably been somewhat true though, through most generations, although it may be a little bit more the case now, because there's so many outside forces, and they want to keep their kids from having to put up with all of that. Hillary Spiritos  19:23 Yeah, I would also say that their parenting used to be a little bit more hands off, and it is now. Let me remove the obstacles from my children's lives and let me and that's a generalization. Obviously, not all parents are like that, but there is a big push to let me make it somewhat easier, and that's not to say don't support your children, and that's not to say don't help them out. That's not to you know, but in removing all the obstacles, young people aren't given the opportunity to build. Of the self reliance and the resilience and the self trust that they need to move forward, Michael Hingson  20:05 yeah, and it may ultimately come down to, how many of the obstacles are you really removing, but? But that is true, that they make it they think easier. But the reality is, there are reasons why we all have to go through different situations to learn Hillary Spiritos  20:26 Sure, absolutely, I think if you, if you don't develop resilience or self reliance or grit, I think that that is, that is going to be a very challenging life until you learn to really develop those traits, those skills, tools, Michael Hingson  20:46 I know for students with disabilities. And this goes back 50 years. I know here in California, a number of the colleges and universities started hiring people to run offices for students with disabilities, and they would come in and Oh, we'll get we'll, we'll, we'll make sure you have your textbooks, we'll make sure you have a place to take your tests. And they do any number of things for students that some of us who grew up a little bit before those offices realized that the offices were were really creating more of a problem than a great solution, because they did everything for students, rather than students learning to do things for themselves. Students didn't learn how to hire people to read information for them, or how to go to professors and advocate for what they needed, because they just relied on the offices. And the offices would say, well, students don't know how to do those things, yeah, and they never will. It's the same, it's the same kind of concept. But you know, the reality is that there is a reason why there is value in having challenges put before you to overcome and deal with Hillary Spiritos  22:07 Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, it helps you recognize what you're capable of, and it also helps you realize that you have been through maybe something difficult previously, or you've gone outside of your comfort zone or tried something new or whatever, there's precedence there that you can do something like that again, and if you don't have those experiences, then you are unsure. I mean, I have clients who have not built up these experiences, or they don't recognize the experiences that they've had, and that's part of the work that we do, is that then they just feel so unprepared to go out in the world because they don't know what they're made of. Michael Hingson  22:47 Yeah, yeah. And it is, it is a real challenge. And you know, the other part about it is that what referring back to the offices for students with disabilities, what the offices should be doing, is encouraging students to to do the work, and then saying, this is what, what I actually went through, and then actually saying, if you have a problem and you can't get the things that you know you need to have, will help you. We will. We will bring the resources of the university to, for example, to to bear, to get you what you need. But you have to be the one to initiate it. And I think that's the issue. Hillary Spiritos  23:32 Sure, absolutely, it's it's it's the it's the asking questions without trying to figure out what the answer is yourself, or trying to find the answer yourself. And I think that can be manifest in many ways, and I think that that is also indicative of like a larger of a larger system, which is not being able to trust that you can figure it out, not being able to trust that you have the answer or that you can, like, trust your inner voice or your gut, and so you look outward and that so it can be part of a task, but it can also just be. It can manifest in your just general life. Speaker 1  24:14 Yeah. So what does redefining success mean today for young people, and how do they separate their goals from what society expects them to do, or societal expectations? Hillary Spiritos  24:28 Yeah, absolutely. So, as I kind of alluded to before, is that we learn these definitions. We learn these we have these messaging from when we were younger, and we learn what success means, what failure means, what courage is, and we start to internalize what we think other people will see as acceptable or good enough. And what we need to do is unpack that and. Try to redefine success and failure and all the rest of it for ourselves so that we can live our own lives and not be at the mercy of our prior messaging, childhood wounds of our parents, hopes and dreams and fears, perhaps what people of people in society might deem as not good enough, or not interesting, or whatever we want to live according to what we think we value. And so that would that's what redefining success means. Speaker 1  25:32 How do you teach people how to redefine success? You you have a coaching process that I assume that you use. So what is that? How does all that work? Hillary Spiritos  25:42 Yeah, so it's a three month process, and it's called aligned and alive. And the first month is helping young adults really get to the root of who they really are, what they really value, and what they really want their life to look like. And it is going deep, and it is being honest and answering those questions outside of societal expectations, and cutting through the noise to the best of their ability. And then the second month is really honing in on what is blocking you from going after the life you want, from imagining the life you want to create, and creating the life you imagine. And then the third month is reevaluating those what we those of things that we talked about in the first month, so who you really are, what you really value, and what you really want your life to look like. These things probably have changed over the course of this time, as you've kind of uncovered new aspects of yourself, and then we create an actionable strategic plan so that you're not just going off into the world unprepared and feeling unprepared to kind of take the next step. And there are absolutely follow up calls to just make sure that you feel the most secure and that you if you have any questions or kind of feel like you want to check in, that's absolutely acceptable and possible and hope like I hope you will and we will set up. And there are also people who don't work on this three month platform, but they also just meet with me regularly. So it's it depends on what you're looking for. This isn't a one size fits all situation. Michael Hingson  27:24 Yeah, what? Which makes sense? It it shouldn't be a one size fits all because everyone is a little bit different. Needless to say, absolutely. So I didn't mention it before, but we should talk about what is the name of your company? Hillary Spiritos  27:39 So the name of my company is called bat out of hell. There you go. Michael Hingson  27:44 See how did you come up with that? It's I think it's great. Hillary Spiritos  27:48 Thank you. I really love and have a kinship with bats. I think that bats are highly adaptable, perceptive, social creatures, and they spend a lot of their time upside down, so they see the world in a different perspective, and they symbolize transformation and rebirth and the shedding of the old to come into the new and out of the darkness and into the light, all of which I really resonate with and want the energy of the business. And then I also am not a one size fits all cookie cutter coach, let alone person. And I, and I wanted a name that kind of had that ethos, had that a bit of rock and roll in it, if you will. And so, yeah, I feel like it's has real momentum to it, and a real edge, which is great. Michael Hingson  28:44 And so you, of course, feel a great kinship for the TV show in the movies Batman, right? Just checking, Hillary Spiritos  28:51 yeah. I mean, there is, I'm not the biggest Batman fan, Marvel or super, but I will say there I did talk about this with people about how Batman, if I'm correct, embraced what he was most afraid of, and took that to help him fight the bad villains in Gotham. And so that is an incredible thing to do, to take what is blocking you, to take those fears, anxieties and and insecurities, and recognize where they come from, own them to and understand how they influence and manifest in your everyday life, so that you're not at the mercy of them. That's basically what Batman does. And that's great. That's dope. Michael Hingson  29:37 I think that happened probably more in movies than in the TV series, but that's Sure. Adam West was an interesting character for TV, but that that's fine. I actually sat a row in front of him on an airplane flight once, he was a whole lot different on the airplane than he was as Batman was interesting. Did you talk to him? No. He didn't have any interest in talking to anybody except, I guess it was his agent or or someone who he was with, and that was the only person he talked with. Okay, that's that's a lot. What do you do? You know, well, so the the thing is, though, that I think you're right. Batman, like anyone had fears and he and especially in the movies, he learned to embrace them and did the things that he needed to do. He he chose his life, although there were things that that led him to do it, he still chose his life and operated accordingly. And that's something that we all have the opportunity to do, is we can make choices. I think it's important that we monitor our choices. That is when we choose things. I can I can go back many years in my life and see how I got to where I am today by the choices that I made. And I think that's a thing that is worth people doing, is being introspective and and thinking about what you do, what you did, and how you got where you are, not in any kind of a blame way, but rather just to know, and that also helps you then decide where do we go from here, Hillary Spiritos  31:25 absolutely, to constantly or consistently, take stock of who you are and what you want, and to ask yourself questions of, is that true? Is that actually what I want? Is that actually what I value? Is that what I believe is, Am I doing this because somebody else says I should? Am I doing this because I don't want to be embarrassed, like, am I excited to do this, or excited and anxious, or do I just really not want to do it? All of these questions are really important to continually ask ourselves. But I think if you haven't learned to ask yourself those questions, or if you're feeling really lost at sea, or if you're feeling like you really just don't know how to cut out the noise, then it might be beneficial to talk to somebody. But absolutely, that's something that that's being introspective and reflective is is vital? Michael Hingson  32:19 Yeah, I think that's extremely important to do, and it's it's also all about working to keep fear from controlling you, and learning how to control fear. And the more you look at like, what, what you do every day. And I encourage people, as they're going to sleep at night, to be introspective. What happened today? What? Why did I react to that? Why? Why was I afraid? What can I learn from that, or even the good stuff that went really well, but how might I do it better? Being introspective and really listening to your inner voice helps a lot in being able to deal with fear. Hillary Spiritos  33:01 Absolutely, absolutely. I think it's the question of, are you able to listen to the to your inner voice? Do you trust your inner voice? Do you listen to your inner voice? Is there a reason why, even though you hear it, you're not doing it? Is there a reason why you're not taking the steps to engage with your life the way that you want. Do you not even know what the life you want to create is? And I think that these are really like listening to your inner voice is absolutely critical. It's vital. But sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do, Michael Hingson  33:38 no because we haven't learned to do it. The more we work at it, the easier it becomes. It's a matter of really exercising that muscle that is our mind. Because we can learn to trust that inner voice. We can learn to listen to that inner voice, but we have to make the choice to do it. No one else can do that for us, absolutely. Hillary Spiritos  33:59 And I think that's that's really important information, right? Because we're the ones that have to live with the consequences of our choices. We have to live. We're the ones who have to live in our lives, so to look outward for answers rather than looking inward. While it might feel more comfortable and you feel like, oh, that way I want won't make mistakes, or people will deem it acceptable, because I've I've taken the census, and everybody thinks that this is what I should do. It doesn't save you from you're the one who actually has to go through the motions, and you might be living someone else's life, and you're going to realize that at some point or another. Yeah. Michael Hingson  34:43 And, and, I guess, in a sense, hopefully you will realize it and use that to advance and go forward and more. Learn to listen to your inner voice and more. Learn to not be afraid of so many things. Yeah. Hillary Spiritos  34:57 And, I think that it's you. It's lovely to recognize that and try to get on the right path, or let's say, your path earlier rather than later. Yeah, because what you don't want is to necessarily look back and realize that you've lived your life according to someone else. It's the number one regret of the dying, right? So obviously, we do that to the best of our abilities, because all we can do is make the best decisions with the information that we have at the time. So it's keep it's a constant constant, trying to figure it out, but you we want to get on that. We want to live our most authentic life as as much as possible. Michael Hingson  35:41 Sure, you talk a lot, or you refer to reclaiming your 20s and 30s and so on. And I think that's an interesting thing, because it's it was a probably most people view it as a simpler time in life. But what are some of the misconceptions that people actually have about their 20s and 30s, and how do you refrain from dealing with uncertainty and turn it into opportunity? Hillary Spiritos  36:12 Yeah, that's really an interesting question, and it's a way really interesting way of phrasing it, because when you're older, you do tend to say, Oh, if only I, like, realized this in my 20s, because the or, like, what I could tell my 20 year old or 30 year old self is because actually, your 20s and 30s are fraught with a lot of challenges and a lot of insecurities and a lot of fears, and They're actually not necessarily simple times, but I would say some misconceptions are that you need to have it all figured out, that you're running out of time, that it's too late, or that you're behind, that everybody else has it figured out, and you you're lost, that your 20s are for figuring things out, and then once you hit your 30s, you're supposed To have it all figured out, and all your ducks in a row, the idea that your path is straight, and once you make a decision, then you're off to the races. And like you don't ever have to think about it again. If I could just pick the right career, pick the right partner, pick the right industry, I'll just be done. And that's that's not how life works. No. So I would say that we want to reframe uncertainty and all of these questions as opportunity. And so life is uncertain. And so when you learn to see uncertainty as possibility and obstacles as opportunity for growth, then you will begin to have more forward momentum, have live your live a more authentic life, and learn more about yourself and gain self trust and resilience and self reliance. And that's that's what we want to learn how to do in our 20s and 30s and beyond Michael Hingson  38:00 and beyond, because the reality is, it's all part of the same thing. Hillary Spiritos  38:04 Sure, absolutely, yeah, Michael Hingson  38:08 it, it may or may not get any simpler, or maybe we learn enough things that it looks like it's simpler, but because we've learned certain things that help us get through whatever it is we have to get through. But the reality is, it's all about learning. I think, yeah, go ahead. Hillary Spiritos  38:27 No, I just I think it absolutely is. So I think it's about if you start to recognize this in your 20s and 30s, you will as you go older, the wisdom comes with recognizing that you've done things like this. You've got a lot in your backpack. You have a lot of tools, you have a lot of experiences. You have the wisdom that comes with that. You have the self reliance and the self assurance that comes with that. And you know that you're going to be okay. You know that you can get through it because you've done it. So I think what being an adult means is, am I do I trust myself? Am I secure in who I am? Am I someone? Can I soothe myself? These are questions, rather than like, do I have the home, the kids, the you know, the traditional markers of adulthood really don't mean anything anymore. But what's really important is, Am I okay with me, and how do I want to engage in the world? Michael Hingson  39:22 Yeah, and the reality is that it is, I think, going back to something we talked about before, it is tougher today, because there are just so many external meth or things that influence or that try to influence, and it probably is a lot more difficult than it than it used to be, because towns are larger, there are more people around. You've got social media, you've got so many other things that you face daily, probably a number of which we didn't used to face, or at least not to the same degree. So. It is more of a challenge than it used to be. Hillary Spiritos  40:03 Sure, it's definitely it's definitely different, but I do believe that say that there are inflection points, right? And I do think that the advent of social media is a huge inflection point, and something that is not beneficial for young adults of today. Yeah, and it is in many ways detrimental and so but it is something that is here, and it is something that young adults have to navigate. How Michael Hingson  40:35 do you teach them to deal with all of that, all the noise, all the social media and everything else, because it's all there. And I'm sure that you as a coach, face this, because you hear it from the people that you work with. Well, but all this is going on. How do you teach people to know what to cut out, or how to cut out a lot of that, to be able to get back to that, I've got to really know me absolutely. Hillary Spiritos  41:02 So there are many tools that one can engage with. So there's actually sitting quietly and reflecting like literally cutting out the noise. There are mindfulness practices and meditation, there's journaling, and there's getting out in nature and exercise and dance and creative expression, and there are definitely tools in which you can get out of your head and into the body and and learn to literally cut out the noise. But I think what's really important is to figure out what resonates for each person, because, as we've said, everybody is different. But in particular for social media like it is really important to have an awareness of why you're using it so it feels like a neutral platform, or maybe it doesn't anymore. People are waking up to it, but it's optimized for engagement, and what you're seeing is someone's projected, curated reality. And so you want to ask yourself why you're doing it. You don't want to sit there and mindlessly scroll. You want to ask yourself what you're trying to get out of it. Are you looking for connection or validation, or creative inspiration or connection? And that can help you navigate through and help you realize what you want to get out from it, and not just like take it all in mindlessly, and we want to obviously be skeptical, skeptical of the information, and we want to limit our use, if not cut it out fully. And it's not a replacement for human connection. A lot of people we have feel like have a loneliness epidemic, because it's not, while social media does connect people, it's not a replacement for human to human connection. So it's really important to keep that in your life. And so I think it's just really important to continually engage with these questions of why you're engaging with it, and what it makes you feel, and how does it serve you? And do you want to be at the mercy of that? And the more you start to question it, the more you can break down those ties, Michael Hingson  43:16 yeah, and the more of that you do, then again, the more you're practicing some of that introspection that we talked about earlier, absolutely, which is really what it's all about. There's nothing wrong with, I don't want to call it second guessing, but there's nothing wrong with thinking about what you're doing, what you did, and using all of that as a learning experience. Life's an adventure. We should we should take it that way. Hillary Spiritos  43:43 Well, that's absolutely true as well. It's like all of these experiences are experiences. All of these are adventures. All of these are opportunities for growth, learning more about ourselves. And I don't want to minimize or belittle the fact that everyone needs to your life needs to be sustainable. You need to be able to like, live your life financially. So it's not like it's all fluff and but I do think it's important to recognize that this is all just a learning experience. Nobody really knows what they're doing. We're all trying to figure it out. So it's okay to take a little bit, cut yourself a little bit of slack, and be nicer to yourself and and it's actually really important to cut out the critical voice in your head, because that that is actually a huge reason of why you are feeling Michael Hingson  44:38 stuck. Yeah, I've said many times on this podcast that one of the things that I've learned over the last couple of years is to stop saying I'm my own worst critic. I used to do that because I will like to record speeches when I travel and speak publicly, and I come back and listen to them, and I always just sort of quickly. He said, I'm my own worst critic. I want to really listen to it, because if I don't tell me, nobody else will. And I realized what a negative thing to say. And I finally realized I should be saying I'm my own best teacher. Because in reality, no one can teach me anything. They can provide me with information, but I'm the only one that can truly teach me or open me up for learning Hillary Spiritos  45:21 that's beautiful. I love that I definitely have realized over the course of my life, that I have and I have certain narratives. We all do have certain narratives and stories that we've told ourselves about who we are as people that are actually quite negative and like we're not this kind of person, or we're not capable of this, or we're not the kind of person that does that, and it's actually limiting, and it's not going to help us in the long run Michael Hingson  45:50 well, and we've got to get over this negativity. Just also you do, yeah, the other thing is, I don't like failure. I don't like the term failure because it is so negative, I think that things don't always work out the way we expect. And if we view it as a failure, that's an end, but it's not. It is okay. Something happened. It didn't go the way I wanted. What can I learn from that? And that's the part I think that most of us miss. We don't take that step to really step back or jump back a little bit and go. What do I learn from this that will help me not make the same judgment as as last time? Will not make it go the same way. How do I make it go better next time? Hillary Spiritos  46:35 Yeah, and I think it definitely doesn't help that as young people, we are. We are like system, systemically taught to believe that grades and achievement is of the utmost importance, and the worst grade you can get is an F, and that means it's not good enough. Like that is the lesson we are learned. We are taught over and over and over again. So it is obviously not hard to deduce why we have this definition of failure. Yeah, and obviously our parents and other people in our community perhaps might have such fears, as we've talked about previously in this conversation, that might be like, if you do this, then you might fail at this. You like don't necessarily pursue this career, you might fail at this, and that's perceived to be a really bad thing. Yeah, but as you're saying, If you again, a failure is another way to read, another word that you may need to redefine. Because failure doesn't mean we're terrible. Failure doesn't mean we're incapable. Failure doesn't mean that we should, we should be never like we should stop doing this all together. It's not, it's not a judgment of our self worth. It's just a data point to help us realize, oh, this is not something that I maybe want to engage with, or, oh, I need to learn a little bit more about this, or whatever it might be. I also think it's important to recognize that failure, really, in my opinion, is not trying and not living the life that you want to live. It's if I believe that you can understand failure as like I'm just abdicating my responsibility to make these choices to somebody else, and I'm going to live the life that they've laid out for me, or not trying the things that you want to do, those could be perceived as failure. That's really the only way that can happen. The other Michael Hingson  48:32 part about it, though, is sometimes there may be some other cause for you're not succeeding at doing something. For sure, it could be you're dyslexic, and you don't, you don't do well at reading things, and nobody has diagnosed that. Nobody's figured that out, which is, again, another reason why it's always good for you to be analytical about what you do and and be introspective, or be willing to ask, Hillary Spiritos  49:00 absolutely, that's a great point, absolutely, Michael Hingson  49:05 because all too often we just tend to make assumptions. As you've pointed out, yeah, Hillary Spiritos  49:14 you always want to ask yourself, Is it true and how does that serve me? How does that belief serve me? Is it keeping me stuck? Michael Hingson  49:21 Right? Well, how do you help your clients navigate fear, and especially the fear of disappointing others and so on, as they're growing up and as they're gaining more experience? Hillary Spiritos  49:35 So this is actually definitely what we've been partially done, right? So it's redefining these, redefining failure for yourself and like or with any you know, just thought or assumption and asking yourself, Is it true? How does that serve you? Do you want to live at the mercy of that thought or belief and the fear of disappointing others? Is really interesting, because, as what we said before, it's not it's not someone else's life, it's your life, and you're the one who was to exist in that world. And it's also interesting, just as a note to recognize, sometimes we think we're going to disappoint somebody, because we assume what their response is going to be, but we've actually never had that conversation with them. So is that even true? Like, have you even had that conversation with them? Because we can often scare ourselves with these assumptions of what we think their response is going to be. So if we really don't even take the time to ask, but we're like, oh my god, we're paralyzed by the fear of of what we think they'll say. Then that's something we want to break through. And I also just think again, it's really important to recognize that you we want to build and form a relationship with our inner child, and so the way to live your fullest, fiercest, most authentic life and live the life you imagine is by creating a relationship with your inner child, because that is where your spark, your creativity, your passion, your zest for life, lives, but it's also where your fears and securities and anxieties live. But when you recognize that you are a composite of all of that, that is true, self love, and you can give that to yourself and other people, and also, again, when you recognize and own your fears and securities and anxieties, you're not at the mercy of them. And you can decide, I'm not going to bow down to them. I am going to move forward, I'm going to muster up the courage to move forward in the face of these fears and do what I want to do. Yeah, Michael Hingson  51:49 which makes a lot of sense. Well, you know, one of the things that I was wondering, how long have you been coaching? Let me ask that. Hillary Spiritos  51:56 So I opened up my business during the pandemic, so in 2020 but I've been doing this work for a lot longer than working in universities. Michael Hingson  52:09 So what did you do at universities? You worked in academia a long time? Hillary Spiritos  52:13 Yeah, so I was an academic advisor, and I got the reputation of being like my meetings just happened to run a lot longer, and I was not interested in having transactional conversations with students. I was more interested in trying to figure out who they are and what they wanted and why they weren't going after that, and what they wanted to major in, and what they wanted from their college career and beyond. And we got deep sometimes. And so, yeah, I was, I was someone who who just dug a little bit deeper for sure, Michael Hingson  52:45 well, and you I would think because of that, made students really think and become a lot more analytical about themselves. Hillary Spiritos  52:56 Yeah, I think it's really important to recognize why you are doing something, you know, I I ran into students, and I still have clients today who feel like if they don't know what they want to do, they should study business, or they really love art and drawing, or fashion or what, or some creative field, and their parents say that that's not good enough, and that they should study business or go into medical School or what have you like, there are lots of things that we accept as true or like, you know, maybe, oh, I can't study something in the humanities. I won't get a job from that. That's not important. You know, there are a lot of things we accept as true based on what society tells us, what society values, seemingly, what our parents and our community value, and it's really important to start questioning that and asking if that's really what we want to do. Because if you don't know what you want to do, and you think you're going to study business, because that's a catch all, but you actually realize that you don't enjoy math and you don't want to spend your day in front of a computer, you don't want like then you're going to be miserable. And it's really important to recognize that that's okay to not want that. Speaker 1  54:04 I really think one of the most important things to get out of college, and for those who don't go to college, then you get it from high school or from alternative ways. But I think that one of the most important things is not even necessarily dealing with your major but it is all this whole concept of character development. It's all the other lessons that you learn because you're in an environment where you have to do things differently than you expected that you were going to based on what your parents and other people told you. And I think that's one of the most important things that we could ever have happened to us is that we step out away from at some point in our lives, our Michael Hingson  54:48 growing up period, and we really put ourselves in an environment where we have to discover new things again. That's all part of life and being adventurous. Yeah. Hillary Spiritos  54:58 I mean, as someone who has worked at. Academia for a long time and still does a little bit of hot gossip. I absolutely believe that academics is probably the least important part of college. Michael Hingson  55:09 Yeah, I wasn't going to say that directly, but I agree. Hillary Spiritos  55:14 Yeah, it is mostly what is real. I mean, sure it's very important to learn things absolutely, but it is really important to engage with different perspectives, learn adaptability and communication and time management, and figure out who you are and what you value and what your place in the world, and what impact you want to have on the world, and how to navigate systems that you're unfamiliar with, and how to, how to engage in the world the way you want to. I mean, to try new things, take classes that you think you might be interested in, or like that are totally not, not related to your major, like whatever it is. I think it's absolutely 100% I agree. Speaker 1  55:56 The other part about it is, though, there are also a lot of people who who won't go to college, but doesn't look they don't have the opportunity to do that same learning. Absolutely, oh absolutely. Yeah, there are a lot of ways to get it. Makes a lot of sense, sure, Hillary Spiritos  56:11 and, and, and that's definitely true in general, but especially within the states. And I think this is the case worldwide. Education is often becoming inaccessible for a lot of people, and so you can absolutely engage this part of your life, in your job, in in volunteer work, out in your community, whatever it might be, absolutely it's just the question of the energy and the motivation and the intent that you bring. Michael Hingson  56:44 Yeah, what does leadership mean to you, and how do you work to help young people learn or start to learn, to lead authentically? Hillary Spiritos  56:54 So leadership, to me, is not a title. It's a behavior. It's a sense of self. So it's vision, it's integrity, it's It's empathy, it's courage, communication, authenticity, resourcefulness, all of these things, resilience, to tolerate discomfort and risk taking and so knowing yourself is crucial. What are your strengths? What do you enjoy? What do you value? What are your goals? How do you want to spend your time? What do you stand for? What impact do you want to have? And so we want to practice empathy and active listening to for ourselves and other people. So that means, again, like stopping the critical voice, not judging yourself, asking yourself if this is really what you want, really checking in with yourself and getting to know yourself. We want to build resilience and self reliance and self trust. So again, practicing obstacles is opportunity and for growth and learning how to emotionally regulate yourself and embrace risk taking and the unknown. And we want to cultivate our communication skills, so cultivating our own voice and understanding our own narrative again, as we spoke about and learn to have difficult conversations and not being afraid of somebody else's response and being okay with how they respond, and not taking it as a as like something about yourself criticism, right? As a criticism, exactly, and so, and then be just being a lifelong learner, right? So it's about life is, God willing, hopefully long, and you will pivot, and you will grow and change and embrace that opportunity, and don't be afraid of the fact that things might change. And this is, again, learning to listen to your inner voice, yeah, Michael Hingson  58:55 well, and I think that that's really, of course, once again, probably goes out saying that's what it's really all about. Well, how about I think some people say Gen Z isn't really prepared for the real world. What do you think about that? Yeah, I'm still trying to decide what the real world is. But anyway, Hillary Spiritos  59:16 right? So there, there are some assumptions made in that question, right about what the real world is, and and I also, but I want to focus on what the word I'm prepared really, yeah, because perhaps Gen Z is, quote, unquote unprepared in the way that traditional markers might understand. But millennials and Gen Z really grew up in a different world that is shaped by technology and mental health awareness and global crisis crises and social media. That doesn't mean they're unprepared, it just means they're prepared differently, and so in many ways, actually, Gen Z is more equipped to understand the complexity. The modern world. They're digitally fluent. They're able to understand mental health and diversity and inclusion. They question outdated systems that are broken and that are not working for the world and people in the world. And so what gives me hope is that people are not accepting that this is how it's always been been done, mentality, their purpose and mission driven. They're extremely adaptable. Have great emotional awareness, and they're willing to speak out and challenge norms. And so I truly believe that young people are the stewards of our planet, and the more that they live with curiosity and passion and compassion and empathy, the more that they can contribute to healing and transforming the world around them. So instead of like labeling them as unprepared, we should recognize that the world that they're stepping into and the world that we've created is unlike anything we've ever seen before, and we're trying to, like, build the plane as we're flying it. So it's really important to to not belittle them, and not talk down to young people as it seems like a lot of people do, and recognize that actually, young adults have a lot to teach the people who are in these systems that actually, seemingly aren't working anymore well. Michael Hingson  1:01:23 And the reality is, of course, who is really the unprepared? And it's it's also true that so many people have not learned to navigate the world that we've been creating and that we continue to create, and maybe they're the ones that really need to learn how to become more prepared by becoming more involved in some of these things that young people are learning to do automatically or on their own? Hillary Spiritos  1:01:50 Absolutely, absolutely. Michael Hingson  1:01:53 Yeah, well, in reality, to go back to an old joke, we'll know if people are really prepared if they can work VCRs, right? Okay, remember that nobody could work a VCR. They were always so complicated. And now, of course, we don't even know what VCRs are today. But I mean, the Hillary Spiritos  1:02:14 young people that I talked to don't know what VCRs are. You know what that's you know, the world keeps moving there. Michael Hingson  1:02:24 Yeah, yeah. It's amazing. It dawned on me a couple of years ago as a as a public speaker, that I'm now speaking in a world where we have a whole generation that has grown up without any memory of September 11, and it's an amazing thing to think about, but it has helped me learn how to tell my story better, so that I can, as I like to say it, bring people into the building and have them go down the stairs with me, Have them deal with everything that I dealt with, and be able to come out the other side better for the experience. And I think that's extremely important to be able to do, because so many people don't have a memory of it. And even for the adults who who do for most people, the World Trade Center experience is only as big as their newspaper photographs or their television screens anyway. Hillary Spiritos  1:03:25 Yeah, I think it is really important to recognize what everybody's actual lived reality is and what everybody's understanding of the world is, and so talking to young people who perhaps are not who did not live through September 11, or who did not live through or perhaps didn't, was weren't able to vote or didn't weren't, like, engaged in the Obama era of like, hope and engagement in politics in that way, or Millennials who were younger in the September 11, like it really, it's meeting people where they are, yep, and recognizing that that is their understanding of what America is, what the world looks like, what how they want to how they want to engage, what work looks like, what their view of their Future is, yeah, and recognizing all that's different. Speaker 1  1:04:21 I agree. Well, this has been absolutely wonderful, and I'm glad Hillary we had a chance to do this, and I want to thank you for being here and giving us a lot of great insights. And I hope that people will take some of this to heart, if people want to reach out to you, maybe to use some of your skills as a coach and so on, how do they do that? Yeah, Hillary Spiritos  1:04:41 absolutely. So my website is bat out of hell.net, Michael Hingson  1:04:47 and my Tiktok out of O, U T, T, A, yes, just want to make sure we spell it so, Hillary Spiritos  1:04:55 yes, B, A, T, o, u T, T, A, H, E, l, l.net, And then my Tiktok and Instagram are B, A, T, dot, O, U, T, T, A, underscore, hell. And if you would like to start working with me, I am absolutely taking on new clients, or we can schedule a consultation call so you can get to know me and the way I work and see if it's the right fit. So I would love to hear from you. Absolutely, we're we'll get through this together. Michael Hingson  1:05:24 Do you coach people all over the world? Hillary Spiritos  1:05:25 I do. I coach people all over the world. I coach individually, one on one coaching. I have group coaching, and I and I do workshops and seminars, so we can be in touch in various different ways. But yeah, I love, I love coaching. Michael Hingson  1:05:42 Well, super well. Thank you again. And I want to thank all of you for being here, and I hope that this has been useful and that you've learned something from it, and I hope that you'll reach out to Hillary, because she's got a lot to offer. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to hear what you think of today's episode. So please feel free to email me. Michael M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I, at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, i, b, e.com, we'd love it if wherever you're listening or watching the podcast today, if you'll give us a five star rating, we value that your ratings very highly. Love your thoughts and your input, so please give it. We really appreciate you doing it, and for all of you and Hillary, including you, if you know anyone else who you think ought to be a guest on unstoppable mindset, we're always looking for more people who want to come on and tell their stories to help us all see why we can be and should be more unstoppable than we think we are. So please provide introductions, always looking for more people to chat with. But again, Hillary, I just want to th

In thisempowering episode, Betsy Pepine, Owner of Pepine Realty, shares how to dismantle invisible boxes and embrace entrepreneurship. If you struggle with dissatisfaction and unseen expectations, you won't want to miss it.You will discover:- How to identify confining boxes from family and society- Why self-reflection reveals your true entrepreneurial path- What mentors guide you from employee to founderThis episode is ideal for for Founders, Owners, and CEOs in stage 1 of The Founder's Evolution. Not sure which stage you're in? Find out for free in less than 10 minutes at https://www.scalearchitects.com/founders/quizBetsy Pepine is a best-selling author, speaker, and serial real estate entrepreneur. Her brokerage, Pepine Realty, has been named to the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in the USA multiple times and has earned spots on the Top 50 Florida Companies to Watch and Florida Trend Best Companies to Work For lists. Additionally, the Wall Street Journal has consistently recognized Betsy's real estate team as one of the top-producing real estate companies in the United States. Betsy also owns a title company, a real estate school, and a property management brokerage. Betsy earned an economics degree from Duke University and an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.Want to learn more about Betsy Pepine's work at Pepine Realty? Check out her website at https://www.pepinerealty.com/Mentioned in this episode:Take the Founder's Evolution Quiz TodayIf you're a Founder, business owner, or CEO who feels overworked by the business you lead and underwhelmed by the results, you're doing it wrong. Succeeding as a founder all comes down to doing the right one or two things right now. Take the quiz today at foundersquiz.com, and in just ten questions, you can figure out what stage you are in, so you can focus on what is going to work and say goodbye to everything else.Founder's Quiz

Welcome to Madang.Madang is the outdoor living room of the world. Here, we invite you to sit and tune into unreserved, remarkable conversations with renowned authors, leaders, public figures, and scholars on religion, culture, and everything in between.This is the 54th episode, featuring Dr. Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D. (Duke University)  who is an award-winning author of eleven books, a speaker, preacher, and a trusted commentator on religion and contemporary spirituality. Her bylines include New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, CNN Opinion, On Being, and Readers Digest. She has appeared on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, and other global news outlets. She currently writes The Cottage, one of the most widely-read Substack newsletters. On this episode of Madang Podcast hosted by Faith and Reason, Butler Bass and I talk about her book, A Beautiful Year. We discuss her Substack: The Cottage, Resurrection, Parents, Christmas, Season of Creation and much more.I am grateful to The Upper Room for sponsoring this episode of Madang Podcast. Please check out their special webpage for Madang Podcast listeners and subscribe to The Upper Room daily devotional guide. The Upper Room is a daily devotional magazine published in more than 30 languages and 100 countries around the world. The daily meditations are written by readers of the magazine and others interested in sharing their faith experiences through writing. Every day, readers of The Upper Room around the world read the same story in many different languages and pray the same prayer together.Please reach out to me if you would like to sponsor the next episode of the Madang podcast⁠. Or simply ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠support me on my Substack: Loving Life⁠.

My guest on this episode is Bryan Kim from the Duke University Men's Golf team. With two wins early in the fall, he's put himself in contention for the Haskins Award and will look to lead the Blue Devils to a win at the ACC Championship in the spring.Bryan Kim - Duke Men's GolfThe Back of the Range - All Access Subscribe to The Back of the Range Subscribe in Apple Podcasts and SPOTIFY!Also Subscribe in YouTube,   Google Play , Overcast, Stitcher  Follow on Social Media! Email us:   ben@thebackoftherange.comWebsite: www.thebackoftherange.com  Voice Work by Mitch Phillips 

A Trump executive order is giving retail investors more access to private markets. Is that a golden opportunity — or fool's gold? SOURCES:Elisabeth de Fontenay, professor of law at Duke University.Steven Kaplan, professor of entrepreneurship and finance at the University of Chicago. RESOURCES:"Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors," (The White House, 2025)."The (Heterogeneous) Economic Effects of Private Equity Buyouts," by Steven J. Davis, John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ben Lipsius, Josh Lerner, and Javier Miranda (Management Science, 2025)."Risk-Adjusted Returns of Private Equity Funds: A New Approach," by Arthur G. Korteweg and Stefan Nagel (The Review of Financial Studies, 2025)."The Effects of Management Buyouts on Operating Performance and Value," by Steven Kaplan (Journal of Financial Economics, 1989). EXTRAS:"The Biden Policy That Trump Hasn't Touched," by Freakonomics Radio (2025)."Should Companies Be Owned by Their Workers?" by Freakonomics Radio (2024)."Do You Know Who Owns Your Vet?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023)."Are Private Equity Firms Plundering the U.S. Economy?" by Freakonomics Radio (2023). Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Financial expert Tricia M. Taitt shares her journey from Wall Street and Broadway to writing the Amazon bestseller Dancing with Numbers and founding FinCore, a financial planning platform for women entrepreneurs. Discover the mindset shifts that define a CEO, why financial literacy is essential for women entrepreneurs, and the most overlooked opportunity for increasing your business profit. Tricia also reveals the two biggest asks that transformed her life, including deferring a six-figure job offer to pursue her passion for dance. You'll hear Tricia discuss: The CEO Mindset Shift: Why she avoided the CEO title for years, and how she realized the role means building a team, not doing everything herself. From Layoff to Liberation: The pivotal moment in 2009 that led Tricia to combine her expertise (Wharton, Duke, Wall Street) with her passion for dance to create FinCore. Unlocking Profit: The single most overlooked profit opportunity Tricia sees across industries. Tough Love with Honey: How she balances compassion and accountability to help entrepreneurs face their money stories and understand the consequences of inaction. The Bold Ask: Tricia's most uncomfortable asks, including the time she asked a major corporation to defer her employment to dance. Important Links:Savvy Ladies (https://www.savvyladies.org/)Precious Williams' LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/precious-l-williams/)Lisa Zeiderman's LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisazeiderman/)Tricia M. Taitt's LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/triciataitt/)Important Links for Tricia:FinCore Website (https://fincorestrong.com/)Dancing with Numbers (https://a.co/d/7WZIpem)About Tricia Taitt:Tricia M. Taitt is the CEO of FinCore and Author of the Amazon best-selling book, "Dancing with Numbers: Grow A Financially Healthy Business and Choreograph the Life You Want".   She holds an M.B.A from The Fuqua School of Business of Duke University, and a BS in Economics with a Finance concentration from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. For over 20 years, she's been a finance professional. Half of the time was spent working on Wall Street while the other half was spent in the trenches side by side with small business owners.  As a result of working with FinCore, clients have been able to take control of their numbers and feel more confident in their ability to make decisions, while increasing profits by 10% and building a cash stash to invest in growth. 

From reluctant engineer to global changemaker, Nimmi Ramanujam bridges art, science, and empathy to revolutionize women's health. Her groundbreaking innovations — from the Pocket Colposcope to the Trisol therapy — are transforming cancer care, advancing inclusion, and inspiring a new era of purpose-driven engineering.00:35- About Prof RamanujamNirmala (Nimmi) Ramanujam is the Robert W. Carr Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Professor of Cancer Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, and Global Health at Duke University.She founded the Center for Global Women's Health Technologies(GWHT) in 2013 to reshape women's health through technology innovation.

Dr. Tracie Canada is the author of Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (2025) and the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. She is a Black feminist anthropologist and ethnographer whose research uses sport to theorize race, kinship and care, gender, and the performing body. Tracie joined Dr. Alvin Logan, Jr., the Director of Unite.Ed at the University of Washington and a former Huskie football player, and Dr. Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, to discuss her research and what it tells us about how black players experience college football, masculinity and care, and the changing dynamics of college sports today. Recorded on November 6, 2025. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

In this episode, CII General Counsel Jeff Mahoney interviews James D. Cox, a member of the Shadow SEC and the Brainerd Currie Distinguished Professor of Law at Duke University. Their discussion covers the Shadow SEC's view of SEC Chair Paul Atkin's plans to scrap quarterly reporting.

Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods are a married scientific duo. Hare is an evolutionary anthropologist and a Duke University professor, known for his research on how dogs evolved to understand humans and what this reveals about cooperation and intelligence. Woods is an author and researcher whose work sits at the intersection of science, empathy, and storytelling, often exploring what animal intelligence reveals about human behaviour, relationships, and society.Vanessa Woods and Brian Hare discuss their book 'Survival of the Friendliest,' which posits that friendliness, rather than aggression or intelligence, has been key to human success.Learn more about Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods and read their books!Keep up to date with Peter on SubstackKeep up to date with Kasia!Executive Producer: Rachel BarrettThanks to our volunteer researcher Chris van Ryn! And special thanks to Suzi Jamil! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of The Food For Thought Leadership podcast, CEO Mike Messersmith unpacks how Lasso's SpinTech — dubbed “an advanced cotton candy machine” — could revolutionize food texture, ingredient flexibility, and sustainability. About Mike Messersmith: Mike Messersmith is the CEO of Lasso, a new food tech company redefining consumer packaged foods. He joined the company in October 2024, deploying its proprietary Lasso SpinTech across new applications and partners to create a generation of healthier foods. Before joining Lasso, Mike served as President of Oatly North America where he oversaw the brand's U.S. launch in 2017 and led all facets of business and brand development surrounding its vegan, plant-based food and beverage products made out of oats. Prior to Oatly, Mike held a variety of marketing and commercial roles at The Nature's Bounty Co, Chobani, and PepsiCo. Before starting his career in CPG, Mike served as an officer in the Navy in a variety of roles including nuclear engineering management on aircraft carriers. He has his MBA from Harvard Business School, a masters in engineering management from Old Dominion University, and his undergraduate degree from Duke University. Mike lives in NYC with his wife Laura and their dog Kelce. More About Lasso: Stop compromising on texture, nutrition, or taste. Our machines make food, better. Your brand makes the headlines. Learn More: https://lassolabs.com/

Chris Martenson is an economic researcher, futurist, and author with a PhD from Duke University and an MBA from Cornell, renowned for forecasting the 2008 housing and stock market crashes.He founded PeakProsperity.com, where he explores the "Three Es" (economy, energy, environment) through his popular video series and book The Crash Course, warning of resource depletion and growth limits.

Every technology in music history leaves artists behind. What if one left them all behind? AI-generated music is severely undermining artists' ability to make a viable living. Is it a canary in the coal mine for music and for how AI will affect the future of work more broadly? Grammy-nominated musician Tift Merritt and Professor David Hoffman of the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy discuss the research they are conducting with students to address these issues.  Host: Anna Gassman-Pines. This episode is part of a month-long series of stories related to tech policy from the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Dr. Bailey arrives in Oxford after three years with Vanderbilt athletics. Additionally, Dr. Bailey has spent the last two years with Expansive Insight, a private practice focused on a broad range of mental health counseling, intervention and psychotherapy measures. "Oxford has already shown its kindness to my family," Bailey said. "I'm excited about serving in the 'Sip and being a part of the athletics family here at Ole Miss. I think being a sport psychologist is the coolest job in the world. It's truly a calling to work in mental health and sport performance, and I'm glad to serve the athletes here at Ole Miss." Prior to his time at Vanderbilt, Dr. Bailey acquired a wealth of experience in counseling and mental health treatment, most recently serving as a Predoctoral Psychology Intern for Duke University's CAPS program during the 2021-22 academic year. Further experience came with the Austin, Texas Fire Department and Emergency Medical Services unit, the 'Center for Relationships', a community wellness center in Austin, MD Anderson Cancer Center, work with persons who are incarcerated, and the University of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center. Additionally, Dr. Bailey has spent the last 10 years providing counseling services to local clients, including children, adolescents, and adults presenting with depression, anxiety, grief and loss, PTSD, OCD, marital and relationship issues, body image, sports and fitness and much more. Dr. Bailey is a licensed psychologist, licensed social worker, and a certified mental performance consultant. Dr. Bailey is also a lifelong athlete and sports fan. A native of Austin, Texas, Dr. Bailey holds a doctorate in counseling psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 2022. Dr. Bailey also earned his master's of science in social work and bachelor's degree in psychology at Texas in 2012 and 2009, respectively.

Duke Professor reveals how 90-year-olds tripled their muscle strength in just 10 weeks - and why we've been measuring muscle mass wrong for decades. Dr. William Evans explains the revolutionary new test that predicts disability, mortality, and even Alzheimer's risk. Learn the exact protocols for maintaining muscle mass as you age, the truth about protein requirements, and why your doctor isn't testing for sarcopenia. Plus: critical warnings about GLP-1 weight loss drugs and muscle loss in older adults.Dr. William Evans is a professor of medicine at Duke University whose pioneering research established sarcopenia as a recognized medical condition. In this episode, he reveals groundbreaking findings about muscle mass and aging that challenge decades of scientific assumptions.Dr. Evans explains why traditional methods like DEXA scans have been measuring the wrong thing, and introduces his revolutionary creatine-based test that accurately measures muscle mass with just a single urine sample. His research on over 4,000 people proves that muscle mass is central to how we age - affecting everything from physical disability to cognitive function and mortality risk.We discuss practical strategies for maintaining muscle, including resistance training protocols, optimal protein intake for older adults, and the concerning effects of GLP-1 weight loss drugs on muscle preservation. Dr. Evans also shares insights on hormone therapy, the future of muscle-building drugs, and why exercise remains the single most important intervention for healthy aging and Alzheimer's prevention.

Deirdre Jonese Austin (she/her) is a writer, womanist minister, and Black feminist anthropologist and ethnographer raised in the South and in the Protestant Church. Her work, ministry, and research develop out of her own experience and explore topics at the intersection of faith, race, gender and sexuality, and justice. Jonese has a Master of Divinity degree from Emory University's Candler School of Theology. She is currently a PhD candidate at Duke University in Cultural Anthropology, pursuing certificates in Feminist and African and African American Studies. Her doctoral project explores how Black women dancers in the U.S. South cultivate the sacred in their relationships with their own bodies and sexualities, the divine, and other dancers, at Black churches and at pole-dance and fitness studios. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/2025-carpenter-cohorts-august  

Amy Terwilleger, Esq. spent 13 years as a big firm business litigator and partner. This experience made clear that too many professionals don't leave enough room in their schedules for joy, happiness, and pleasure. Reconnecting with her passion for sexual empowerment (a journey that began long ago as a Women's Studies major at Duke University), a passion that was also evident in the informal role of coaching friends and family, she decided to pursue sex and relationship coaching full-time. Now, Amy brings her legal background as well as certification in sex coaching to each client experience, with a unique blend of logic and intuition. Amy also is passionate about divorce coaching and is uniquely qualified given her knowledge of applicable law and personal experiences. Amy dedicates her life to helping people find more joy, happiness, and pleasure in their lives. Amy's Website: https://confidentconnections.net/

In this episode, I talk with Diana Butler Bass about her new book A Beautiful Year and the deeper story that sits beneath our experience of time. We explore how the Roman calendar still shapes us with the imagination of empire - militarism, consumerism, and control - and how the Christian calendar offers a counter-formation rooted in love, hope, peace, and a circular sense of time that keeps drawing us deeper into God. Diana walks us through Advent's darkness and silence, the meaning of waiting in an age addicted to noise, the subversive beauty of St. Martin's Day on November 11, and the power of saying “no” to imperial narratives through the ordinary practices that shape a life. We talk about storytelling, grief, Candlemas, the parables of Jesus, and how the Christian year can help us embody a different kind of presence in the world - one marked by compassion, courage, and light. This is a conversation about time, but really, it's about learning to live a better story.Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D. (Duke University) is an award-winning author of eleven books, a speaker, preacher, and a trusted commentator on religion and contemporary spirituality. Her bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post, USA Today, CNN Opinion, On Being, and Readers Digest. She has appeared on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, and other global news outlets. She currently writes The Cottage, one of the most widely-read Substack newsletters. She lives in Alexandria, Virginia.Diana's Book:A Beautiful YearConnect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.comGo to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeConsider Giving to the podcast and to the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Contact me to advertise: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Support the show

It's been 75 years since the United States released its first and only national water strategy. In this episode, John talks with Dr. Newsha Ajami of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Dr. Martin Doyle of Duke University about why that original plan mattered, what it accomplished, and why today's challenges call for a new approach. They explore the historical context of the 1951 plan, the issues it identified that remain relevant today, and how political boundaries, fragmented agencies, and modern pressures like groundwater depletion and climate change make a new national strategy essential.

One of the most accomplished U.S. track athletes of all time, Shannon's career longevity is unmatched. Shannon is a 3x Olympian, Olympic Bronze Medalist, 2x World Bronze Medalist, World Record holder (DMR), and American Record holder at three distances (1500m, 2 miles, 5000m). Ranked in the world's top 10 for over a decade, Shannon made history at the London 2012 Games as the first American woman ever to medal in the Olympic 1500m. Shannon is also an Emmy Award winner, recognized for her work in sports broadcasting and storytelling. She has served as a broadcaster and in-stadium announcer for CBS, World Athletics, USA Track & Field, and the NCAA, and in 2024 she made her NBC Sports debut as a Track & Field analyst for the Paris Olympics. Beyond sport, Shannon is the co-founder of Imagining More, a nonprofit that promotes arts and athletics for youth. She was selected by the U.S. Department of State as a Sports Envoy to Morocco on the topic of Women's Empowerment Through Sport. A Duke University alum, Shannon graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. in English, Theater & Film Studies, and later earned her Master's cum laude in the Humanities. She also holds executive certificates from Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business (Next Step), Harvard Business School (Crossover to Business), and IMD (Innovation in Action). Shannon lives with her husband, Pablo, and their two children in her hometown of San Francisco, CA. Shannon's InstagramShannon's LinkTree Support the show

Officials in Charlotte, North Carolina, are expecting Border Patrol agents to arrive in the city in the coming days for a crackdown on illegal immigration. CBS News' Camilo Montoya-Galvez talks about why the administration is increasingly turning to Border Patrol agents for its immigration operations in cities that are not on the border. Then, AI stocks are sagging after reaching record highs, prompting some investors to warn of a bubble. We speak with The New York Times' Andrew Ross Sorkin about whether a crash is near. And, Vibe magazine is merging with Rolling Stone to help bolster its hip-hop coverage to include podcasts, long-form journalism and social media. Duke University professor Mark Anthony Neal discusses what this merger could mean for the future of Black cultural criticism.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The future of arts and culture depends on leaders who can innovate, adapt, and inspire—and Deborah Rutter has been doing it at the highest levels. With five decades of experience leading premier cultural institutions across the United States, she knows what it takes to drive meaningful change while keeping artists and audiences at the center.  In this live episode from Boot Camp 2025, the former President of the Kennedy Center and current Vice Provost for the Arts at Duke University shares lessons from her career on leading through periods of transformational growth and building the financial and operational resilience needed to sustain our organizations.   

In this episode of the Brain and Life podcast, co-host Dr. Katy Peters is joined by Elana Meyers Taylor, an accomplished American bobsledder and Olympian. She shares her journey from collegiate softball to becoming a world-renowned bobsledder and her experiences with concussions. Elana also discusses her concussion recovery process and her plans to contribute to concussion research. Dr. Peters is then joined by Dr. Joel Morgenlander, a professor of neurology and orthopedic surgery at Duke University. They discuss concussions in athletes, when it's safe to return to play, the importance of proper concussion management and the legal frameworks in place to protect young athletes from severe brain injuries.   Additional Resources New Brain & Life Book Explores Concussion How Sports Neurologists Protect Football Players' Brains Concussion Symptoms Checklist   Other Brain & Life Podcast Episodes on These Topics U.S. Soccer Legend Briana Scurry on Concussion and Mental Health Advocacy and Athleticism with the Pittsburgh Steeler's Cam Heyward We want to hear from you! Have a question or want to hear a topic featured on the Brain & Life Podcast? ·       Record a voicemail at 612-928-6206 ·       Email us at BLpodcast@brainandlife.org   Social Media:   Guests: Elana Meyers Taylor @elanameyerstaylor; Dr. Joel Morgenlander @dukehealth Hosts: Dr. Daniel Correa @neurodrcorrea; Dr. Katy Peters @KatyPetersMDPhD

Duke University cornerback Chandler Rivers joins the show to share how leadership, teamwork, and service define his journey on and off the field. A First Team All-ACC selection and All-America honoree, Rivers has been a key part of Duke's nationally recognized defense. Off the field, he's equally committed to making a difference in his community. In his hometown of Beaumont, Texas, he founded the Chandler Rivers Youth Football Camp, providing free training and mentorship to local youth. His efforts also include organizing food drives, volunteering at Duke Children's Hospital, mentoring students through the Emily K Center, and assisting those in need through outreach programs. Recognized as a member of the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, Rivers continues to set an example for what it means to lead through character, commitment, and service.

“When you really believe in what you're doing, you know how much of a difference that makes.” – Dr. Josh McConkey Today's featured bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated author is a father, husband, former professor at Duke University, and a Board-Certified Emergency Medicine physician, Dr. Colonel Josh McConkey. Dr. Josh and I had a fun on a bun chat about his book, “Be the Weight Behind the Spear”, leadership lessons from the military, who he'd meet from history (dead or alive), and more!!Key Things You'll Learn:What inspired Dr. Josh to join the militaryWhat it means to be the weight behind the spearHow he balances combat tours, emergency rooms, and writing award-winning booksWhat he learned about himself through the writing process, and what to expect from future booksDr. Josh's Site: https://www.weightbehindthespear.com/Dr. Josh's Book: https://a.co/d/0ZpsseLThe opening track is titled, “Unknown From M.E. | Sonic Adventure 2 ~ City Pop Remix” by Iridium Beats. To listen to and download the full track, click the following link. https://www.patreon.com/posts/sonic-adventure-136084016 Please support today's podcast to keep this content coming! CashApp: $DomBrightmonDonate on PayPal: @DBrightmonBuy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dombrightmonGet Going North T-Shirts, Stickers, and More: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/dom-brightmonThe Going North Advancement Compass: https://a.co/d/bA9awotYou May Also Like…Ep. 314 – Get Out the Door with David Hollingsworth, MBA (@holliworks): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-314-get-out-the-door-with-david-hollingsworth-mba-holliworks/Ep. 707 – Leadership Insights From a Former FBI Master Spy Recruiter with Robin Dreeke (@rdreeke): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-707-leadership-insights-from-a-former-fbi-master-spy-recruiter-with-robin-dreeke-rdreeke/Ep. 296.5 (Charm City Bonus Episode) – The Art of Human Care with Dr. Hassan Tetteh (@doctortetteh): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-2965-charm-city-bonus-the-art-of-human-care-with-dr-hassan-tetteh-doctortetteh/Ep. 307 – Failure Is Not The Problem, It's The Beginning Of Your Success with Col. George Milton: https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-307-failure-is-not-the-problem-its-the-beginning-of-your-success-with-col-george-milton/Ep. 389 – Unshakable, Undaunted, & Undefeated with Elizabeth Meyers (@thelizmeyers): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-389-unshakable-undaunted-undefeated/#HolidayBonus Ep. – Fireproof with David Hollenbach III (@HollenbachLEAD): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/holidaybonus-ep-fireproof-with-david-hollenbach-iii-hollenbachlead/167 - 7 Life Lessons From The Trailer Park with Clyde Middleton: https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/167-7-life-lessons-from-the-trailer-park-with-clyde-middleton/Ep. 373.5 – Business Secrets for Walking on Water with Frank Zaccari (@FZaccari): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-3735-business-secrets-for-walking-on-water-with-frank-zaccari-fzaccari/Ep. 773 – Serve Your Bigger Why Through Single Seat Wisdom with Dominic "Slice" Teich (@DomTeich): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-773-serve-your-bigger-why-through-single-seat-wisdom-with-dominic-slice-teich-domteich/Ep. 434 – A Soldier's Journey from War to Peace with Claude AnShin Thomas: https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-434-a-soldiers-journey-from-war-to-peace-with-claude-anshin-thomas/164 - Escape Average, Go for the Big with Michael Botts: https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/164-escape-average-go-for-the-big-with-michael-botts/Ep. 529 – Don't Gamble on Life Improvement…Until You Shift the Odds! with Kevin E. Eastman (@eastke1): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/ep-529-dont-gamble-on-life-improvementuntil-you-shift-the-odds-with-kevin-e-eastman-eastke1/72 - A Sprint to the Top with Daniel Blanchard (@dan007blanchard): https://www.goingnorthpodcast.com/72-a-sprint-to-the-top-with-daniel-blanchard-dan007blanchard/

Follow me @samirkaji for my thoughts on the venture market, with a focus on the continued evolution of the VC landscape.Welcome back to another episode of Venture Unlocked, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of the business of venture capital.Today, I sat down with Rob Go, Co-Founder and Partner at NextView, to discuss the shift in seed-stage investing and what seed funds need to consider to remain viable. The conversation was sparked by a series of Posts Rob wrote, the first of which was called a Crisis Moment in Seed. We spent a lot of time talking about what inspired the post and how seed managers should adapt to the shifted market. For anyone investing at seed, this is a must listen as Rob shared so many insightful views.Thanks for listening to another episode of Venture Unlocked. We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Rob. If you'd like to get Venture Unlocked content straight to your inbox, go to ventureunlocked.substack.com and sign up, or go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify and subscribe. Thanks again for listeningAbout Rob GoRob Go is the co-founder and partner of NextView Ventures, a thematic seed-stage venture capital firm focused on investing in founders solving meaningful problems for everyday people. Before launching NextView, Rob was a venture capitalist at Spark Capital, where he focused on the intersection of media, technology, and entertainment.Earlier in his career, Rob led the “Finding” business unit at eBay, where he helped design and launch over 20 products that transformed the platform's search and merchandising experience. He also worked in strategy consulting at The Parthenon Group, focusing on consumer and retail industries, and held product management roles at Fidelity Investments and BzzAgent.Rob holds a B.S. in Economics from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Beyond venture, he's a founding member of Highrock Church in Brookline, MA, and a dedicated husband and father who values family and faith as deeply as entrepreneurship.NextView Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm founded in 2010, with offices in New York, Boston, and San Francisco. They focus on seed-stage investments, typically ranging from around $250K to $4M, in companies building consumer, fintech, digital health, and B2B SaaS solutions that reshape what they call the everyday economy The firm has backed a number of notable companies, including ThredUp, Grove Collaborative, WHOOP, and TripleLift, all of which have achieved significant exits or growth milestones. Their hands-on, founder-first approach and thematic focus have helped them build a strong track record in seed investing.During the conversation, we discussed:* The Venture Landscape's Evolution Since 2011 (3:27)* The Entry of Accelerators Like YC and Mega Funds (6:21)* The Role of YC's Offer Structure in the Seed Market (9:14)* Mega Funds and the Influence of the Power Law (12:21)* AI's Market Impact and Opportunities for Seed Investors (15:18)* Defensibility and Differentiation in AI Applications (18:17)* The Importance of Distinct Strategies for Seed Funds (21:37)* Super Compounder Versus Classic Venture Approaches (24:26)* Adjusting Capital Allocation for Non-Consensus Companies (27:26)* The Role of Optionality in Navigating Downstream Capital (30:35)* NextView's Tactical Shift Toward Data and AI Tools (33:27)* Lessons on Discipline, Dogmatism, and Missed Opportunities (36:22)I'd love to know what you took away from this conversation with Rob. Follow me @SamirKaji and give me your insights and questions with the hashtag #ventureunlocked. If you'd like to be considered as a guest or have someone you'd like to hear from (GP or LP), drop me a direct message on X. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit ventureunlocked.substack.com

In this episode, host Melissa Berry sits down with Dr. Rebecca Knackstedt, a dedicated and compassionate plastic surgeon and Assistant Professor of Surgery at Duke University to discuss the transformative power of breast pre-habilitation.  Specializing in microsurgical breast reconstruction and certified in Functional Medicine, Dr. Knackstedt has cared for thousands of women preparing for breast cancer surgery. She is passionate about helping patients use evidence-based strategies, including nutrition, supplementation, stress management, and sleep optimization, to take an active role in their healing. Together, they explore how this powerful yet often overlooked step can significantly enhance recovery, improve outcomes, reduce complications, and provide a greater sense of strength and control during your breast cancer experience.  

My guest is Dr. Jennifer Groh, PhD, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University. She explains how our brain encodes sights and sounds and integrates them so we can navigate and understand the world around us. She explains what thoughts really are and how what you focus on determines your thoughts, not just in that moment but your future thoughts too. We discuss this in the context of how to improve your level of focus and happiness and how to complete tasks and task-switch more effectively. We also discuss how you can rewire the neural circuits that underlie your default patterns of thinking and attention. Sponsors AGZ by AG1: https://drinkagz.com/huberman Lingo: https://hellolingo.com/huberman Wealthfront*: https://wealthfront.com/huberman Our Place: https://fromourplace.com/huberman Helix Sleep: https://helixsleep.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/huberman Timestamps 0:00 Jennifer Groh 3:41 Sounds & Vision, Sensory Integration; Dynamic Maps 7:42 Context & Mapping; Screens, Projection & Perception, Ventriloquists 13:52 Sound Localization 16:53 Sponsors: Lingo & Wealthfront 19:50 Hearing Loss & Sound Localization, Ear Folds 21:56 Unfamiliarity of Hearing Your Own Voice; Tool: Bone Conduction Headphones 26:16 Tool: Headphone Volume & Protecting Hearing 28:57 3D Sound, Sound Distance, Thunder, Earthquakes 37:24 Sound Integration; Sound Frequency & Distance, Warning Signals 44:36 Sponsors: AGZ by AG1 & Our Place 47:39 Music, Rhythm, Community & Emotion 57:00 Music, Military; Courtship; Evolution of Music & Language 1:02:37 Ears, Visual & Auditory Integration, Sound Localization 1:09:48 Evolution of Visual & Auditory Systems, Music; Brain Controlling Vision 1:15:17 Sponsor: Helix Sleep 1:16:45 Physical Space & Sounds; Cathedrals, Sound Delay 1:22:37 Music, Emotion & Community; Science & Admitting Weakness 1:27:01 Thinking & Sensory Simulations; Forming Thoughts 1:33:18 Attention, Attractor States, Flow States, Tool: Changing Environment 1:37:38 Sounds & Environment for Focus, Attention, Tool: Mental Interval Training 1:44:37 Sponsor: LMNT 1:45:58 Endurance & Interval Mental Work; Mental Rest, Music 1:50:37 Musician, Rehearsal & Performance; Pressure 1:54:16 Chickens; Hypnotizing Chickens, Visual Attention & Focus 2:03:47 Relaxation, Phones & Schools, Boredom, Social Media 2:12:48 Acknowledgements 2:13:58 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter *This experience may not be representative of other Wealthfront clients, and there is no guarantee of future performance or success. Experiences will vary. The Cash Account, which is not a deposit account, is offered by Wealthfront Brokerage LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  Wealthfront Brokerage is not a bank. The base APY is 3.50% on cash deposits as of November 07, 2025, is representative, subject to change, and requires no minimum. If eligible for the overall boosted rate of 4.15% offered in connection with this promo, your boosted rate is also subject to change if the base rate decreases during the 3 month promo period. Funds in the Cash Account are swept to program banks, where it earns the variable APY. New Cash Account deposits are subject to a 2-4 day holding period before becoming available for transfer. Investment advisory services are provided by Wealthfront Advisers LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Securities investments: not bank deposits, bank-guaranteed or FDIC-insured, and may lose value. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From the archive: This episode was originally recorded and published in 2022. Our interviews on Entrepreneurs On Fire are meant to be evergreen, and we do our best to confirm that all offers and URL's in these archive episodes are still relevant. Rush Sadiwala is the founder and CEO at Framework, a platform to run challenges on. He worked as an investor prior to becoming a founder. He is an immigrant who graduated from Duke University and got an MBA from Columbia. Top 3 Value Bombs 1. You should work on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. 2. Having people do some work before joining your community creates more value. 3. Challenges are an incredible mechanism to achieve your goals. Turn your expertise into income by harnessing the power of challenges to grow your business and drive tangible outcomes for your customers - Framework Sponsors HighLevel - The ultimate all-in-one platform for entrepreneurs, marketers, coaches, and agencies. Learn more at HighLevelFire.com. Thrivetime Show - Attend the world's highest rated business growth workshop taught personally by Clay Clark and featuring Football Star and Entrepreneur, Tim Tebow and President Trump's Son Eric Trump at ThrivetimeShow.com/eofire.