Podcasts about dutch brothers

In this episode of Welcome to Cloudlandia, I reconnect with Dan Sullivan for another wide-ranging conversation that blends current events, history, technology, and human behavior. We start by reflecting on the safety and comfort of life in Canada while discussing the news of missile strikes in Israel. From there, we explore the idea that innovation often advances when entrenched leaders move on—whether in science, business, or geopolitics. Dan brings up Thomas Kuhn's idea that progress happens after the old guard exits, creating room for new ways of thinking. Our conversation shifts into the role of AI as a horizontal layer over everything—similar to electricity. We compare this shift to earlier transitions like the printing press and the rise of coffee culture. Dan shares his belief that while AI will transform systems, the core of human life will still revolve around handled needs and personal desires. We wrap by talking about convenience as the ultimate driver of progress. From automated cooking to frictionless hospitality, we recognize that people mostly want things to be “handled.” Despite how fast technology evolves, it's clear that unless something is of deep personal interest, most people will let it pass by. As always, the conversation leaves room for reflection and humor, grounded in the reality that technological change doesn't always mean personal change. SHOW HIGHLIGHTS Dan and I explore the complexities of living in a "world-class" city like Toronto, discussing its cultural vibrancy against the backdrop of global geopolitical tensions. Dan delves into Toronto's significant role as a financial and technological hub, emphasizing its strategic importance in trade with the United States, where a substantial portion of Canadian exports cross the border. We discuss the transformative potential of AI in today's digital revolution, drawing parallels with historical innovations like Gutenberg's printing press, and how these advancements continuously redefine our society. We examine the evolution of Starbucks, from a unique third space with artisanal baristas to a more automated environment, and ponder the implications of this shift on quality and customer experience. The conversation shifts to the rise of independent coffee shops, highlighting how they meet the demands of discerning customers by offering premium experiences. Dean reflects on our relentless pursuit of convenience in modern urban life, where technological advancements shape our daily routines and enhance our quality of life. We conclude with a discussion on habit formation and the role of technology in reinforcing existing habits, while considering the balance between maintaining old routines and embracing new ones. Links: WelcomeToCloudlandia.com StrategicCoach.com DeanJackson.com ListingAgentLifestyle.com TRANSCRIPT (AI transcript provided as supporting material and may contain errors) Dean: Mr Sullivan, Dan: Mr Jackson, I hope the rest of your day yesterday went well. Dean: Oh, delightful, I learned stuff yesterday. That was a very nice day, beautiful, beautiful weather today. You know what, dan, if you could, as an option at the Hazleton, upgrade to include your perfect weather for $1,000, this is what you'd order, it's this kind of day. Yeah, mid-70s perfect white fluffy clouds. Yes, it's why. Dan: Living in a safe, globally unimportant country. That's exactly right. Holy cow, I don't know if you've seen, yeah, what's uh? I woke up like literally just a few minutes ago seeing all the, uh, the raining missiles on israel right now from Iran. Have you seen that this morning? Dean: Oh yeah, there's a lot of them. Most of them don't hit anything and most of them are shot down, but still it puts some excitement in your day. Dan: I mean really, yeah, these ones look like. They're something unique about these ones that they're supersonicersonic and many of them are hitting, yeah, different than what we've normally seen. Like normally, when you see it, it's the, the iron dome or whatever is, you know, intercepting them, which is always interesting, but these ones are like Direct, like you can see them hitting in inrael that's. I mean, could you imagine, dan, like you, just look at how geographically we are. You know we've won the geographic lottery in where we're positioned here, you know, just realizing that's never. Even though you can, all you know you always take precautions with the umbrella above us, over the outside. Dean: But I mean still that today. I've lived in Toronto for 54 years now, just past the anniversary, the 54th anniversary and I think that, first of all, when you have a really large city like Toronto, the center of a lot of things that go on in Canada, A world-class city like Toronto. Well, it's not a world-class city. But yeah, they have to go five years. I'm putting a new rule in for world-class cities. You have to go five years without ever saying the words. Dan: Yeah, we're a world-class city. Dean: We're a world-class city. And that takes you to stage one probation. Dan: Yeah. Dean: No, that takes you to stage two, probation, and then stage three probation is where all the people who've been saying it's a world-class city have either died or moved, and then it's sort of like science. There was a famous he wasn't a scientist, but he was a, I think, a science historian. Thomas Kuhn K-U-H-N if you ever came across that name wrote in the 1960s and he wrote a very influential book which is called the Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and he was asked many times when you have a sudden series of scientific breakthroughs and we really haven't had any for quite a long time, it's been mostly almost a century since we've had any real scientific revolutions. So all the progress we've made over the last century were for discoveries in physics and magnetism and electricity and uh, you know nuclear but they had already worked out how that was going to happen in the by the 1920s. and he said what when, all of a sudden, when you get a breakthrough, let's say, for example, they discover a new hydrogen atom and it essentially gives everybody free energy? That would be a scientific breakthrough. Do you think that I mean? Would you think? Dan: that would be. Dean: Yeah, yeah. In other words, energy just didn't cost anything anymore, you know, and the price of energy would go down. Dan: That would free up a lot of that, free up a lot of other things energy would go down that would free up a lot of that'd free up a lot of other things, and, uh, and, and he said, the single biggest cause for scientific breakthroughs is the funerals of old scientists. Oh who everybody defers to that you can't first them. Dean: Yeah, well, defers to, but they control promotion of young scientists. They control where the money goes for a scientist and then they die and their control loosens up and to the degree that control disappears. Now you get new. Dan: Yes. Dean: Yeah, so that's a long way around. But I think that in the world today there are people who are basically in control of geopolitical systems, economic systems, you know, cultural systems, and in the next 10 years, I think, a lot of the controllers are going. They'll either die or people will think they've already died. They don't have to actually die, they just have to be in a room somewhere and no one's heard, and no one's heard anything from them recently, and uh and uh, you know, and everything like that, and then things change and then things really shifted. But my sense about Toronto is that it's going to be the Geneva of the Western Hemisphere. Dan: Okay, that's interesting. Dean: Switzerland from a geopolitical standpoint really. I mean, nobody ever talks about well, what do the Swiss think about this? But lots of stuff happens in Geneva. People meet in Geneva. There's tons of money that goes through Geneva and you know, when you know people who hate each other want to talk to each other and feel safe about it, they do it in Geneva that's interesting. Dan: How did Switzerland become its neutrality known for? Is that just because of its positioning between Austria? Dean: and Germany mountains. Yeah, the uh, the germans had given some thought during the second world war to invade switzerland, and switzerland can put into the field in a very short period of time a very big army. I don't know what the numbers are. But the other thing is, uh, for the longest period I know maybe a century long they've been howling out the mountains. So they've got, you know, they've got secret bases inside the mountains, but there's also they've created lots of dams with big reservoirs and if there was ever an invasion they would just blow up the dams and they would flood the entire lowlands of. You know, people are told to the mountains, the entire lowlands of you know, people are told to the mountains, get to your bunker. You know everybody's got a bunker and they've all got guns and they do it. You know they just want to. They're in the middle of one of the most warfare inclined continents in human history. Europe is very warlike. It's always been warlike. Dan: Europe is very warlike. It's always been warlike, but they haven't wanted to be part of the wars, so they've taken the other approach. Dean: Yeah, and Canada is kind of like that, but the US is very uniquely positioned, because a lot of people don't know this. I mean, you come to Toronto and it's big skyscrapers, yeah, you know, and it's a financial center. It's very clearly a big financial center, it's a big communication center, it's a big tech center. But a lot of people don't know it's a big manufacturing center. There's the airport here. Dan: Oh yeah, All around the airport. Dean: Mile after mile of low-rise manufacturing Industrial yeah, all around the airport Mile after mile of low-rise manufacturing Industrial. Yeah Actually, sasha Kurzmer, who you'll see tomorrow, you'll see Sasha says it's the hottest real estate in Toronto right now is industrial space Really Wow, yeah. Yeah, we have enough condos for the next 10 years. I mean most of the condos we got enough. Dan: It's enough already. Yeah, that's true. That's funny right. Dean: I mean the vast number of them are empty. They're just. You know they just built them. Dan: Money lockers. Dean: Right yeah, money lockers right, yeah and uh, but a semi-truck you know like a big semi-truck loaded with industrial products can reach 100 million americans in 24 hours and that's where the wealth. That's where the wealth of toronto comes from. It comes from that distribution. Dan: Access to American market. Dean: Yeah, that's true. So you have the bridge at Buffalo, the big bridge at Buffalo. That goes across to New York and you have the big bridge at Detroit or at Windsor that goes across to Michigan and 80% of all the exports that Canada makes goes over those two bridges. Dan: Wow. Dean: Rapid-fire factoids for our listening audience. Dan: Yeah, absolutely, I mean that's. Dean: I like things like that. I like things like that. Dan: I do too. I always learn. You know, and that's kind of the you think about those as those are all mainland exports physical goods and the like but you know that doesn't. Where the real impact is is all the Cloudlandia transfers. You know, the transfer of digital stuff that goes across the border. There are no borders in Cloudlandia. That's the real exciting thing. This juxtaposition is like nothing else. I mean, you see, navigating this definite global migration to Cloudlandia. That's why I'm so fascinated by it. You know is just the implications. You know and you see. Now I saw that Jeff Bezos is back, apparently after stepping down. He's gotten so excited about AI that's bringing him back into the fold, you know. Dean: What at Amazon? Dan: Yes. Dean: Oh, I didn't know that. Dan: I saw that just yesterday, but he was talking about AI being, you know, a horizontal layer over everything, like electricity was layer over everything. Like electricity was, like the internet is, like AI is just going to be a horizontal, like over everything layer that will there's not a single thing that AI will not impact. It's going to be in everything. And so when you think about it, like electricity, like that I think I mentioned a few weeks ago that was kind of a curiosity of mine Now is seeing who were and what was the progression of electricity kind of thing, as a you know where it, how long it took for the alternate things to come aside from just lighting and now to where it's just everything we take for granted, right, like like you can't imagine a world without electricity. We just take it for granted, it's there, you plug something in and it and it works. Dean: You know, yeah, no, I, I agree, I agree, yeah, and so I wonder who I mean? Dan: do you? Uh and I think I go all the way back to you know that was where, like gutenberg, you know, like the first, the transition there, like when you could print Bibles okay, then you could print, you know, multiple copies and you know, took a vision, applied to it and made it a newspaper or a magazine. You know all the evolution things of it. Who were the organizers of all of these things? And I wonder about the timelines of them, you know? Dean: And I wonder about the timelines of them. You know Well, I do know, because I think that Gutenberg is a real, you know, it's a real watershed and I do know that in Northern Europe so Gutenberg was in Germany, that in Northern Europe, right across the you know you would take from Poland and then Germany, you would take from Poland and then Germany, and then you would take Scandinavia, then the low countries. Lux date that they give for Gutenberg is 1455. That's when you know a document that he printed. It has the year 1455, that within about a 30-year period there were 30,000 working presses in Northern Europe. How many years. That'd be about 30 years after 1455. So by the end of the—you've already surpassed 30,000 presses. Yes, but the vast majority of it wasn't things like Bibles. Dan: The vast majority of it was't things like Bibles. Dean: The vast majority of it was contracts. It was regulations. Dan: It was trade agreements. Dean: It was mostly commercial. It went commercial and so actually maps, maps became a big deal, yeah, yeah. So that made a difference and also those next 150 years were just tumultuous, I mean politically, economically I mean yeah yeah, enormous amount of warfare, enormous amount of became. Dan: Uh, I imagine that part of that was the ability for a precise idea to spread in the way it was intended to spread, like unified in its presentation, compared to an oral history of somebody saying, well, he said this and this was an actual, you know, duplicate representation of what you wanted, because it was a multiplier, really right. Dean: I mean that's, yeah, I'm. It was a bad time for monasteries yeah, exactly. Dan: They started drinking and one of them said you know what? We should start selling this beer. That's what we should be doing. Dean: We should get one of those new printing presses and print ads labels. Dan: Oh, we got to join in. Oh man, it's so funny, dan, that's so true, right? I mean every transition. It's like you know what did the buggy whip people start transitioning into? We're not strangers to entire industries being wiped out, you know, in the progress of things, yeah. Dean: Well, it wasn't until the end of the Second World War that horses really disappeared, certainly in Europe, certainly in Europe. It's. One of the big problems of the Germans during the Second World War is that most of their shipping was still by horses. Throughout the Second World War, you know they presented themselves as a super modern army military. You know they had the Air Force and everything like that, but their biggest problem is that they had terrible logistical systems, because one of the problems was that the roads weren't everywhere and the railroads were different gauges. They had a real problem, and horses are really expensive. I mean, you can't gas up a horse like you can gas up a truck, and you have to take care of them, you have to feed them. You have to use half of them to. You have to use half the horses to haul the food for the other half for all the horses. Dan: It's a self-perpetuating system. Yeah, exactly, that's so funny. Dean: Yeah, it's really an interesting thing, but then there's also a lot of other surprises that happen along the way. You know, happen with electricity and you know everything, but it's all gases and beds. Dan: Well, that's exactly it, and I think that it's clear. Dean: It'd be interesting with Bezos whether he can come back, because he had all sorts of novel ideas, but those novel ideas are standard now throughout the economy. And can he? I don't know how old he is now. Is he 50s? I guess 50s. Dan: Yeah, he might be 60-something. Dean: Yeah, well, well, there's probably some more ingenious 20 year olds that are. Dan: You know that are coming up with new stuff yeah, that were born when amazon already existed, you know I mean, it's like howard schultz with starbucks. Dean: He had the sweet spot for about 10 years, I think, probably from, I would say probably from around 90 to 2000. Starbucks really really had this sweet spot. They had this third space. You know, they had great baristas. Dan: They had. Dean: You walked in and the smell of coffee was fantastic and everything. And then they went public and it required that they put the emphasis on quantity rather than quality, and the first thing they had to do was replace the baristas with automatic machines. Okay, so you know, a personal touch went out of it. The barista would remember your drink. You know, yeah, a personal touch went out of it. The barista would remember your drink you know yeah. Dan: They were artists and they could create you know they punched the buttons and do the things, but they were not really making. Dean: Yeah, and then the other thing was that they went to sugar. They, you know, they brought in all sorts of sugar drinks and pastries and everything else. And now it wasn't the smell of coffee. When you walked in, it was the smell of sugar drinks and pastries and everything else. And now it wasn't the smell of coffee. When you walked in, it was the smell of sugar and uh and uh. So that I mean, people are used to sugar, but it's an interesting you know, and then he also, he trained his competition, you know, if you look at all the independent coffee places that could have a great barista and have freshly ground coffee. He trained all those people and then they went into competition with him. Dan: I think what really you know, the transition or the shift for Starbucks was that it was imagined in a time when the internet was still a place that you largely went to at home or at work, and the third place was a necessary, like you know, a gathering spot. But as soon as I think the downfall for that was when Wi-Fi became a thing and people started using Starbucks as their branch office. They would go and just sit there, take up all their tables all day. Dean: I'm guilty. Dan: I'm guilty, right exactly and that that kind of economically iconic urban locations, you know where you would be a nice little oasis. Yeah, it was exotically, exotically. European, I mean, he got the idea sitting in the. Dean: Grand Plaza in Venice you know that's where he got the idea for it, and yeah, so it was a period in a period in time. He had an era, period in time to take advantage and of course he did. You know he espresso drinks to. Dan: North. Dean: America. We, you know, maxwell House was coffee before Jeff Bezos, you know, and yeah, I think there's just a time. You, you know, I mean one of the things is that we talk about. We have Jeff Madoff and I are writing a book called Casting, not Hiring where we talk about bringing theater into your business and we study Starbucks and we say it's a cautionary tale and the idea that I came up with is that starbucks would create the world's greatest barista school and then you would apply to be, uh, become a barista in a starbucks and you would get a certification, okay, and then they would cream. They would always take the best baristas for their own stores and and. But then other people could buy a license to have a barista licensed, starbucks licensed barista license yes. And that he wouldn't have gone as quickly but he would have made quality brand. Yeah, but I think not grinding the coffee was the big, the big thing, because the smell of coffee and they're not as good. I mean, the starbucks drinks aren't as good as they. They were when they had the baristas, because it was just always freshly ground. You know, and yeah, that that was in the coffee and everything like that. I I haven't been. I actually haven't been to a starbucks myself in about two years that's interesting, we've got like it's very funny. Dan: But the in winter haven there's a independent you know cafe called haven cafe and they have won three out of five years the, the international competition in in Melbourne. Uh. Dean: Australia. Yeah see, that's good, that's fantastic yeah yeah yeah and Starbucks can't get back to Starbucks. Can't get back to that. You know that they're too big right, yeah, we just in winter. Dan: I haven't been yet because I've been up here, but it just opened a new Dutch Brothers coffee, which you know has been they've been more West Coast oriented, but making quite a stir. Dean: West Coast. That's where the riots are right. The riots are in the United. Dan: States. Dean: Oh man, holy cow, riot copy, riot copy. Dan: Yeah, exactly, I mean that's yeah. I can't imagine, you know, being in Los Angeles right now. That's just yeah unbelievable. Dean: Yeah, I think they're keeping it out of Santa Monica. That's all I really care about. Dan: Nothing at shutters right. Dean: Yeah, I mean Ocean Avenue and that. Have that tightly policed and keep them out of there. Dan: Yeah, exactly, it's amazing To protect the business. Yeah, I'm very interested in this whole, you know seeing, just looking back historically to see where the you know directionally what's going to happen with AI as it progresses here. Dean: Yeah, you know like learning from the platforms it's just constant discovery. I mean, you know like learning from that, it's just constant discovery. Dan: I mean uh, you know yeah yeah, I mean it's um. Dean: I had a podcast with mike kanix on tuesday and 60 days ago I thought it was going in this direction. Dan: He says now it's totally changed it and I said, well, that's probably going to be true 60 days from now yeah, I guess that's true, right, layer after layer, because we won't even know what it's going to, uh, what it's going to do. Yeah, I do just look at these uh things, though, you know, like the enabling everything, I'm really thinking more. I was telling you yesterday I was working on an email about the what if the robots really do take over? And just because everybody kind of says that with either fear or excitement, you know, and I think if you take it from. Dean: Well, what does take over mean? I mean, what does the word take over? Dan: mean, well, that's the thing, that's the word, right. That's what I mean is that people have that fear that they're going to lose control, but I think I look at it from that you get to give up control or to give control to the robot. You don't have to do anything. You know, I was thinking with with breakfast, with Chad Jenkins this morning, and we had, you and I had that delicious steak yesterday, we had one this morning and you know just thinking. You know, imagine that your house has a robot that is trained in all of the culinary, you know the very best culinary minds and you can order up anything you want prepared, exactly how it's prepared, you know, right there at your house, brought right to you by a robot. That's not, I mean, that's definitely in the realm of, of realistic here. You know, in the next, certainly, if we, if we take depending on how far a window out you take, right, like I think that things are moving so fast that that's, I think, 2030, you know, five years we're going to have a, even if just thinking about the trajectory that we've had right now yeah, my belief is that it's going to be um 90 of. Dean: It is going to be backstage and not front stage. That's going to be backstage yes, and that's got. You know I use the. Remember when google brought out their glasses, yeah, and they said this is the great breakthrough. You know all new technology does. And immediately all the bars and restaurants in San Francisco barred Google glasses. Dan: Okay, why? Dean: Well, because you can take pictures with them. Oh, I see, okay, and say you're not coming in here with those glasses and taking pictures of people who are having private meetings and private conversations. So yesterday after lunch I had some time to wander around. I wandered over to the new Hyatt. You know they completely remodeled the Hyatt. Dan: Yeah, how is? Dean: that it's very, very nice. It's 10 times better than the Four Seasons. First of all, they've got this big, massive restaurant the moment you walk into the lobby. I mean it probably has 100 seats in the restaurant. Dan: Like our kind of seats yeah. Dean: Yeah, I mean it's nice. I mean you might not like it, but you know you know, you walk into the Four Seasons and it's the most impersonal possible architecture and interior design. This is really nice. And so I just went over there and I, you know, and I just got on the internet and I was, you know, I was creating a new tool, I was actually creating a new tool and but I was thinking that AI is now part of reality. Dan: Yes. Dean: But reality is not part of AI. Dan: Say more about that. Dean: Well, it's not reality, it's artificial, oh it's artificial. Dan: It's artificial. Oh, exactly it's artificial. Dean: I mean, if you look up the definition of artificial, half of it means fake. Dan: Yes, exactly. Dean: Yeah, so part of our reality now is that there's a thing called AI, but AI is in a thing called reality, but reality is not in a thing called AI. Dan: Right. Dean: In other words, ai is continually taking pieces of reality and automating it and everything like that, and humans at the same time are creating more reality. That is not AI. Dan: AI, yeah, and that's I wonder. You know, this is kind of the thing where it's really the lines between. I'd be very interested to see, dan, in terms of the economy, like and I'll call that like a average you know family budget how much of it is spent on reality versus, you know, digital. You know mainland versus cloudlandia. Physical goods, food you know we talked about the different, you know the pillars of spending, mm-hmm and much of it you know on housing, transportation, food, health, kids. You know money and me, all of those things. Much of it is consumed in a. You know we're all everybody's competing outside of. You know, for everybody puts all this emphasis on Cloudlandia and I wonder you know what, how much of that is really? It's digital enabled. I don't know if you know. I just I don't know that. I told you yesterday. Dean: Yeah, but here, how much of it? The better question is. I mean to get a handle on this. How much of it is electricity enabled? Dan: Oh for sure, All of it. Dean: Most of it Well, not all of it, but most of it. I mean conversation, you know when you're sitting in a room with someone is I mean it's electronically enabled in the sense you like. Have it the temperature good and the lighting good and everything like that, but that's not the important thing. You would do it. Great conversations were happening before there was electricity, so yes, you know and any anything, but I think that most humans don't want to think about it. My, my sense is, you know, I don't want to have conversations about technology, except it's with someone like yourself or anything like that, but I don't spend most of my day talking about technology or electricity. The conversation we had last year about AI the conversation we're having about AI isn't much different than the conversation we're going to have about AI 10 years from now Did you? see this Next year. You're going to say did you see this new thing? And I said we were having a conversation like this 10 years ago. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely true, I don't think it's going to change humanity at all. Dan: Yeah, I'm just going through like I'm looking at something you just said. We don't want to think about these things. Girding of that is our desire for convenience, progressively, you know, conserving energy, right. So it's that we've evolved to a point where we don't have to think about those things, like if we just take the, if we take the house or housing, shelter is is the core thing. That that has done. And our desire, you know, thousands of years ago, for shelter, even hundreds of years ago, was that it was, you know, safe and that it was gave did the job of shelter. But then, you know, when, electricity and plumbing and Wi-Fi and entertainment streaming and comfortable furniture and all these things, this progression, this ratcheting of elevations, were never. I think that's really interesting. We're never really satisfied. We're constantly have an appetite for progressing. Very few things do we ever reach a point where we say, oh, that's good enough, this is great. Like outhouses, you know, we're not as good as indoor plumbing and having, you know, having electricity is much nicer than having to chop wood and carry water. Dean: Yeah, well, I think the big thing is that efficiency and convenience and comfort, once you have them, no longer have any meaning. Dan: Right. But the ratchet is, once we've reached one level, we're ratcheted in at that level of acceptance. Dean: I mean possibly I don't know. I mean I don't know how you would measure this in relationship to everybody's after this. First of all, I don't know how you measure everybody and the big thing. I mean there are certain people who are keenly interested in this. It's more of an intellectual pleasure than it is actually. See that technology is of intellectual interest. You me, you know, you myself and everything else will be interested in talking about this, but I'm going home for a family reunion next weekend in Ohio. I bet in the four or five hours we're together none of us talks about this because it's of no intellectual interest to anyone else. Ok, so you know but it is for us. It's a, you know, and so I was reading. I'm reading a is the observation of the interest and behavior of a very small portion of the population who have freedom and money and that. And the era is defined by the interest of this very, very small portion, the rest of the people probably they're not doing things that would characterize the era. They're doing things that may have lasted for hundreds but it doesn't. It's not interesting to study, it's not interesting to write about, and you know, I mean we look at movies and we say, well, that's like America. No, that's like actors and producers and directors saying this is how we're going to describe America, but that's not how America actually lives. Dan: Yeah, that's interesting, right, movies are kind of holding up a mirror to the zeitgeist, in a way, right. Dean: Like Strategic Coast, is not a description of how the entrepreneurial world operates no, you know the yeah. Dan: The interesting thing thinking about your thinking is is transferable across all. You know it's a durable context. That's kind of the way. That's what I look about. That's what I love about the eight prophet activators. The breakthrough DNA model is very it's a durable context. It's timeless. Dean: Yes, I mean if the Romans had the eight prophet activators, and they did, but they just didn't know they did. Dan: Right. Dean: Yeah, and you go forward to the Star Wars cafe and probably the ones who are buying drinks for the whole house are the ones who know the eight prophet activators. Dan: Secretly, secretly, secretly. Who's that? Dean: weird. Who's that weird looking guy? I don't know if it's a guy. Who is it who you know? Well, I don't know, but buy him a drink oh my goodness, yeah, I'm. Dan: I think this thing that is convenience. We certainly want things to get easier. I mean, when you look at, I'm just looking down no, we want some things to get easier. What things do we not want to get easier? Dean: The things that are handled. We don't want to get easier. Dan: Oh right exactly. Dean: Yeah, for example, if there was a home robot, we would never buy one, because we've got things handled. Dan: Yeah. Dean: Yeah, I have no interest in having a home robot. I have no interest in having a home shop for a cook. I have no interest in everything because it's already handled and it's not worth the thinking it would take to introduce that into my, into our life I mean yeah, and it right like that. So it's. Dan: There are certain things that we'd like to get easier okay, and we're and we're focused on that yeah, yeah, I think about that, like that's I was thinking, you know, in terms of you know the access we have through Cloudlandia is I can get anything that is from any restaurant you know delivered to my house in 22 minutes. You know, that's from the moment I have the thought, I just push the button and so, yeah, I don't have. There's no, no thinking about that. We were talking about being here in the. You know the seamlessness of you know being here at the Hazleton and of you know I love this, uh, environment, I love being right here in this footprint and the fact that you know the hotel allows you to just like, come, I can walk right in step, you know, get all the function of the shelter and the food and being in this environment without any of the concern of it, right? No yeah, no maintenance. No, I never think about it when I leave. Yeah, it's handled. Think about that compared to when I had a house here, you know you have so much. Yeah, that's the thing, that's a good word handled. We just want things handled. You know Our desires. We want our desires handled and our desires are not really. I think our basic desires don't really. Maybe they evolve, it's just the novelty of the things, but the actual verbs of what we're doing are not really. I think you look at, if we look at the health category, you know where you are a you know you are at the apex level of consumer of health and longevity. Consumer of health and longevity. You know all the offerings that are available in terms of you know, from the physio that you're doing to the stem cells, to the work with David Hasse, all of those things. You are certainly at the leading edge and it shows you're nationally ranked, internationally ranked, as aging backwards. Dean: I'm on the chart. You're on the chart exactly, but I got on the chart without knowing it. It's just a function of one of the tests that I take. Somebody created sort of a ranking out of this and I was on it. It's just part of something that I do every quarter that shows up on some sort of chart. They ask you whether you want to be listed or not, and I thought it was good for um, because your doctor is listed on it too, and I. I did it mostly because david hoss he gets credit for it, you know he does it for yeah you know, it's good. It's good for his advertising and you know his marketing and I mean it's just good for. It's just good for his advertising and you know his marketing, I mean it's just good for his satisfaction and everything like that. But you know that's a really good thing because you know I created that. It was like two years I created a workshop called well, it's a lifetime extender, and then I changed it to age reversal future, because not a really interesting term, because it's in the future somewhere. Right but age reversal you can actually see right now it's a more meaningful comparison number and I had hundreds of people. I had hundreds of people on that and to my knowledge nobody's done anything that we talked about which kind of proves to you, unless it's a keen interest you can have the information and you can have the knowledge. But if it isn't actually something of central motivational interest to you, the knowledge and the information just passes by. The knowledge and the information just passes. Dan: Yeah, and I think it goes. If you have to disrupt your established habits, what do you always say? We don't want any habits except for the ones that we have already established. Right, except for the ones that are existing. Dean: Reinforce them, yeah, reinforce them and anyway, today I'm going to have to cut off early because I have, and so in about two minutes I'm going to have to jump, but I'm seeing you tomorrow and I'm seeing you the next day. It's a banner week. It's four days in a row. We'll be in contact, so, anyway, you know what we're doing in context, so anyway you know what we're doing. We're really developing, you know, psychological, philosophical, conceptual structures here. How do you think about this stuff? That's what I think about it a lot. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's always pleasurable. Dan: Always, Dan, I will. I'll see you tomorrow At the party. That's right. Have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow night okay, thanks, bye.

Today, CF breaks down the story of Dutch Brothers & how their unique philosophy has catapulted them to the top of coffee.

► Get a free share! This show is sponsored by Trading 212! Sign up now and get a FREE fractional share worth up to £100! Use the signup code below to claim your reward. Start your investing journey today with commission-free investing for everyone from Trading212. https://www.trading212.com/Jdsfj/FTSE CAPITAL AT RISK ► Get 15% OFF Finchat.io: Huge thanks to our sponsor, FinChat.io, the best investing toolkit we've discovered! Get 15% off your subscription with code below and unlock powerful tools to analyze stocks, discover hidden gems, and build income streams. Check them out at FinChat.io! https://finchat.io/playingftse/?lmref=iQl2VQ ► Episode Notes: How did Steve W get on shorting Trump Media & Technology Group? Find out on this week's PlayingFTSE Show! The big news from this week is the US election. But while that's been moving markets, there have been some interesting moves from individual stocks doing their own thing as well. The FTSE 100 fell and the S&P 500 climbed. And – as usual – the Steves managed somewhere in between. There's a lot to get through in quickfire news this week. Steve W has two FTSE 100 stocks that he's starting to rethink his views on from the last month or so. Steve D has been looking at Dutch Brothers, Toast, and Adyen. All three are growing, but which does the stock market like the best? Alexander wept when we had no more worlds left to conquer. But Mastercard somehow still has some more – the company's slogan used to be ‘accepted everywhere' but it still isn't. That's a good thing, though, since it means there's more to come in terms of growth. So will either Steve or Steve finally do the decent thing and buy the stock? Palantir is a stock that we've stoically avoided on the show. No longer – Steve W thinks the company has got to the point where it has become too interesting for him to ignore. The business has moved on from scoring government contracts and started on corporate America. But Steve D is still not quite sure what the business actually does… Wise isn't in the FTSE 100 or the FTSE 250, but it's one investors should have on their radars. The payment company is growing, making more money, and widening its moat. Despite this, the stock is still well down from where it was at IPO. So is Steve D – who owns it – looking to add to his position, or even double it? Only on this week's PlayingFTSE Podcast! ► Support the show: Appreciate the show and want to offer your support? You could always buy us a coffee at: https://ko-fi.com/playingftse (All proceeds reinvested into the show and not to coffee!) There are many ways to help support the show, liking, commenting and sharing our episodes with friends! You can also check out our clothing merch store: https://playingftse.teemill.com/ We get a small cut of anything you buy which will be reinvested back into the show... ► Timestamps: 0:00 INTRO & OUR WEEKS 6:33 QUICK DUTCH BROS 8:50 QUICK VISTRY 12:41 QUICK ADYEN 16:34 QUICK BP 21:25 QUICK TOAST 25:47 MASTERCARD 37:39 PALANTIR 50:23 WISE ► Show Notes: What's been going on in the financial world and why should anyone care? Find out as we dive into the latest news and try to figure out what any of it means. We talk about stocks, markets, politics, and loads of other things in a way that's accessible, light-hearted and (we hope) entertaining. For the people who know nothing, by the people who know even less. Enjoy ► Wanna get in contact? Got a question for us? Drop it in the comments below or reach out to us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/playingftseshow Or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playing_ftse/ ► Enquiries: Please email - playingftsepodcast@gmail(dot)com ► Disclaimer: This information is for entertainment purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Always consult with a qualified financial professional before making any investment decisions.

+++ Alle Rabattcodes und Infos zu unseren Werbepartnern findet ihr hier: https://linktr.ee/wallstreet_podcast +++ Ein Podcast - featured by Handelsblatt. Nie zuvor hatte die Wall Street am Tag nach den Wahlen einen so guten Handelstag wie am gestrigen Mittwoch. Schaut man sich die unterschiedlichen Sektoren an, die die Rallye angeführt haben, sehen wir eine nahezu genaue Wiederholung in den Tagen nach dem letzten Sieg von Donald Trump. Wie zu erwarten war, sinkt auch die Volatilität deutlich. Im Fokus steht heute die US-Notenbank, die mit einer hohen Wahrscheinlichkeit am Nachmittag die Zinsen um 25 Basispunkte senken wird. Was das nahende Ende der Berichtssaison betrifft, ist das Bild uneinheitlich. Während es bei den Aktien von ARM Holdings, Albermarle, Match Group, SolarEdge und Wolfspeed unter Druck stehen, geht es bei den Aktien von Dutch Brothers, Elf Beauty, Gilead, HubSpot, Moderna, Take-Two Interactive, Lyft und Qualcomm aufwärts.

This week Foo has a Red Bull in the fridge... Whatever you do, don't call it Dutch Brothers. Gym's house gets wrecked by a trio of Safeway sandwiches. The Dads get sucked into playing Call of Duty Black Ops 6 Zombies with Chandler and they both have their thoughts. Some discussion about Destiny 2 difficulty. Foo's wife has an issue that Foo troubleshoots and makes her IT guy jealous. Give your mechanic as much info as possible.  Plus more!

Thanks for checking out our show this week, here are a few of the things you can expect us to talk about: What in the world is chaos packaging? Layers are total 'seltzer bros'. There is Hard Hopwater and it may be our future. Dutch Brothers but hard. Is a fanny pack okay for a beer garden? What beer would you bring back? Missing people and things. This and much more! Downloadable: PerfectPour583.mp3 HOSTED BY: Nick, Rad Stacey, Mikey MUSIC BY: Sunburns and Paul From Fairfax. BEER AND SHOW RELATED LINKS: SUPPORT THE SHOW AND BECOME A GOLDEN GOD! Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcast. You can also find us on Spotify and most podcast players. Perfect Pour's YouTube Channel. VOICEMAIL/TEXT LINE: 559-492-0542 Drop Us a Line: Email Perfect Pour. Join our free Lager Line Discord channel! Mikey's newsletter: Drinking & Thinking. Browse Mikey's Amazon Storefront. Check out Mikey's beer blog Mikey Top Pour. Send Postcards or Samples to us: The Perfect Pour – co Mike Seay 2037 W. Bullard Ave #153 Fresno, CA 93711

Kevin Miller and Kent Goldthorp look at Idaho's big election decision. Bethany from Camp Rainbow Gold asks folks to stop by Dutch Brothers to help their organization.

How do you take your coffee? Seriously. Very seriously. We're taking out coffee with a beer chaser and good friend (You!). Join us as we revisit one of our favorite topics. Send us a voicemail and let us know what you think! Let us know ******* on Beer Thursday on Instagram and enjoy Jay's brilliant beer photography while you're there!  Please support us on the Beer Thursday Patreon page! The next 18 Great Human Beings will get access to the Beer Thursday Facebook group at the $5 level. Never miss an episode and help us take you to the top with us by subscribing and leaving a 5-Star review on your favorite podcasting app: Apple Podcasts Listen on Amazon Music Spotify Stitcher iHeartRadio Here's what our house elf, Artie, says about this episode.  The Coffee Talk: Reflections and Preferences In this episode, the hosts discuss their coffee preferences, focusing on the brands and styles they find most appealing. The hosts reminisce about a coffee brand called Bones Coffee, which they appreciate for its robust flavor and exciting themes. They also discuss their transitions from drinking coffee with sweeteners and creamers to enjoying black coffee. They mention Dutch Brothers, a coffee chain they enjoy, noting their superior customer service and extensive customizable menu. They also talk about another coffee shop chain, 151 Coffee, and praise their excellent Americanos. The hosts express their whimsical discontent with how some hospitality outlets have changed recipes of condiments and beverages, respectively. The transcript concludes with the hosts urging their listeners to share where they enjoy their favorite coffee. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/beer-thursday/message

Back after a little break. We got some news after our last episode that caused us to lose our funny for a bit. This is us trying to get it back. Maybe not the funniest episode but we did one.... We definitely needed this. Thank for all the love and support.  please make sure to check out our amazing sponsors   ARTS MUFFLER for all of your automotive needs and LETS GET ROASTED coffee www.lgrcoffee.com use promo code: jeffandgreg at checkout for 10% off your order

My guest is Alex Van Wingerden is the owner and CEO of Westland Floral, Gallup & Stribling Orchids and Alexander Ranch.  Westland Floral traces its roots to the 17th century and the Cornelis Van Wingerden family of the Westland region of the Netherlands. For fifteen generations, the knowledge and passion for cultivating flowers, fruits, and vegetables under glasshouses have passed from one generation to the next.The story of Westland Floral evolves into the 21st century with the journey of four Van Wingerden brothers to America in 1967. Lured by the promise of prosperity and the American dream, the “Dutch Brothers” came in search of farmland where they could cultivate a better life. The brothers brought with them their families, the spirit of entrepreneurship, horticultural knowledge, and a passion for farming.Westland Floral  website - http://westlandfloral.com/, https://gallup-stribling.com/westlandfloral/ and https://alexanderranchinc.com/contact/sister-companies/This episode is sponsored by UnitedAg,  one of the largest association health plans to offer healthcare to the agriculture industry of California and Arizona.  Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg. Reach me kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkarUnitedAg's website - www.unitedag.orgThe episode is also sponsored by Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com/Blue Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com/Elite Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com/Gallagher - https://www.ajg.com/SAIN Medical - https://sainmedical.com/ 

Get inspired as Pastor Freddy T Wyatt shares about his 45-second encounter with Asia at Dutch Brothers Coffee! Text "mission" to 97000 to learn more about Real Life Sango or visit RealLifeSango.com    

Craigs, the list just keeps on giving this week as Talon and Sarah discuss the all-important question: how does one woo a goth? Plus, secret shoe signals, the invasive niceness of Dutch Brothers workers, and the way having a broken limb just makes your doctor seem that much hotter. As always, you can check out our Instagram @craigsistentialcrisis for visual components, more missed connections, polls, and other goodies! Send your missed connections to craigcripod@gmail.com. 

On this episode Dog and Dern reunite for an epic Road Trip. They head to Portland to a doctor appointment with Dog Bite's orthopedic surgeon. On the way home they stop by Double Mountain Brewing in Hood River to test some Pizza and Beer. Black Water Shoe Shops, they get Dutch Brothers, encounter some unique characters. Black Water works on getting a sponsorship from Zyn, and Dog Bite Gets Road Rage. With musical guests. The Slow Attack, Jimmy Swope, Ghost Train Trio, Betty Danger, Rachel Brooke, Ugly Valley Boys, .357 String Band, WhiskeyDick.

It's a busy What's Your Assumption. Anton and Jenny place a Delta Buster and talk about covered calls vs. short puts. They go over tick size in the British Pound and sell a put spread. They also look at reverse jade lizards in US Steel and Dutch Brothers.

It's a busy What's Your Assumption. Anton and Jenny place a Delta Buster and talk about covered calls vs. short puts. They go over tick size in the British Pound and sell a put spread. They also look at reverse jade lizards in US Steel and Dutch Brothers.

In this episode, Gilmore Cabochan and Eric Sugar discuss Dutch Brothers (BROS), a fast growing coffee retailer that is the "bro" version of Starbucks. We discuss their unique drink menu, the loyalty of its fan base, the current valuation of the company, and speculate on its future. Recorded on November 21, 2021. Is there a stock or topic you'd like to hear more about? Let us know by filling out this form: https://bit.ly/yolocapitalpodcast DISCLAIMER: All content on this channel is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial advice. Should you need such advice, consult a licensed financial or tax advisor. No guarantee is given regarding the accuracy of information on this channel.

In this week's pod we examine Business Insider's attempted takedown of media mogul Dave Portnoy and why we're buyers of Penn Gaming (6:39). We also review Grizzle conviction calls (29:24): Dutch Brothers, Compass Pathways, Airbnb, Arc Resources & Range Resources. We cap off the episode with an analysis of software growth rates vs. share price performance (50:25); and a postmortem on Peloton's ugly quarter (56:23). Charts for this episode can be found here: https://youtu.be/7PLPkMB-0Sw Grizzle Pod is brought to you by our friends at ycharts.com

Brady and Eric are joined by Annie Larner who discusses her terror with the corn (maze), local parades and other halloween events.   Welcome to Urban Field at South Street Station, Costco and a new proposed Dutch Brothers on Hover.  Brady closes out the show with a tax update -- adding extra energy to the program.Mentions include:Dutch Brothers CoffeeUrban Field pizzaCostcoThanks to Andy Eppler for "Nothing but the Rain" as our IntroSend Off MusicThanks to David Cutter Music for "Float Away"

Studio to studio - the Dutch Brothers unite. WHAT DID YOU THINK?Dale@1890Studios.comAdam@1890Studios.comPatrick@1890Studios.comWe love to hear from you! 1890Studios.comMERCH: https://www.redbubble.com/people/rustydutch/works/33655347-the-netex?asc=u

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Friday September 10, 2021 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Holmberg's Morning Sickness - Friday September 10, 2021

On this episode the guys were reunited! They talked about the new discord server(Linked below), the Snowpiercer series, Taco Bell, Dutch Brothers homeless employees, Brian's ER trips, Always sunny in Philadelphia, Serial killers, Activision/Blizzard being sued, anus and testicle sunning, the British guy identifying as Korean, did a deal breaker and much more! Be sure to join the discord so we can shoot the shit! See you there, and see you next week!Intro: https://bit.ly/ActUp_Outro: https://bit.ly/YouGotMe_Playlist: http://bit.ly/STS420JAMSDiscord: https://discord.gg/wPrdACWqmx

The show OPEN... Dutch Brothers... politics... the Phrase of the Day... new Monopoly... and bathrooms!

Makenna Aitken is a junior at the University of Arizona studying Biomedical Engineering.  She is currently working in Dr. Jennifer Barton’s tissue optics lab where she studies ovarian cancer.  She also serves coffee at Dutch Brothers!  After graduation, Makenna plans to get her master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering through the university’s accelerated program.  In Makenna’s spare time she loves to cook and play with her pitbull, Rocket.  Makenna’s favorite place to vacation is anywhere in California, particularly Disneyland.  She has been going there since she was 4-years-old and holds it near and dear to her heart.

This is a cool topic that actually came from some wives in the MAG community online who asked us to specifically talk about this. It is so encouraging to know that there are wives out there who are actively trying to understand how to help their husbands lead their home.What we believe about spiritual leadership is found in scripture.Ephesians 5:23-25 “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” PrayerDear Lord,Thank You for the gift of marriage. Thank you for the opportunity to consider these things and how we can mature as a couple. We pray we would walk in righteousness, gentleness and self-control. We pray we would be people who see others through the lens of compassion. Help us to be thoughtful in our responses to each other. Help us to be respectful in our conduct. We pray our interactions as a married couple would be a testimony of your power and authority in our lives. May your light shine brightly in us as we direct each other back toward you.In Jesus’ name, amen!Read The Transcript- Hey, we're Aaron and Jennifer Smith with Marriage After God. - Helping you cultivate an extraordinary marriage. - And today we're gonna share how a wife can encourage her husband to lead spiritually. Welcome to the Marriage After God podcast where we believe that marriage was meant for more than just happily ever after. - I'm Jennifer, also known as Unveiled Wife. - And I'm Aaron, also known as Husband Revolution. - We have been married for over a decade. - And so far, we have four young children. - We have been doing marriage ministry online for over seven years through blogging and social media. - With the desire to inspire couples to keep God at the center of their marriage. Encouraging them to walk in faith every day. - We believe that Christian marriage should be an extraordinary one. Full of life. - Love. - And power. - That can only be found by chasing after God. - Together. - Thank you for joining us on this journey as we chase boldly after God's will for our life together. - This is Marriage After God. - Hey guys, thanks for joining us on a new episode of the Marriage After God podcast. We're in season three and - It's so exciting. - I know. And I hope you've been enjoying this new season. We've been doing some fun posts. We've been doing some devotional style marriage encouragements and just, we're trying to make it a little bit more dynamic. - Dynamic, ah that's what I was gonna say. - A little bit more mixed content. I hope you're enjoying it. If you are, let us know on Instagram. Send us a message. Let us know what you think of the show. Also, we always want to encourage you, if you love an episode, if this is a particular episode that has blessed you, would you just take a screen shot of wherever you're listening to it at and post it in Instagram and tag, "Marriage After God." We love seeing those. We love sharing those on our own pages and it gets the word out. Let's other people know about it. - Okay, so I have to share with them. Knowing that we were going to be recording podcasts, I stopped by the local coffee shop. Shout out to Dutch Brothers. - Yeah. - They're really good. They're just one of those drive through coffee shops, but sometimes the people come outside to take your order and you know, I'm like, well into my third trimester. Very noticeably pregnant and I rolled my window down and he goes, "so what are we having?" And I said, "A girl!" He was-- - When you told me this, I thought you were kidding. - No. - I was like, oh, you got him good. - He was so embarrassed and he was like, "even if I ever assumed I would never say anything." And I go, "oh no, it's not your fault. "I just, I just gotten done on an appointment "and it's on my mind all the time "and people are always asking me "if we know what we're having." And we were just laughing about it. - That's really funny. And what's funny is you weren't kidding with him. You thought he asked you. - I thought it was a legitimate question, but he was wondering what kind of coffee we would take today. So that's funny. But I did wanna just give a little update on the pregnancy. You know where I'm at, it's been really good and hard at the same time. - It's been really hard. - Well, no complications. - This has been hard when-- - We shared about this already. No complications, but just, you know when you're chasing around four other little kids and your body is physically limited, it gets hard and uncomfortable at times. And so I've been feeling just a lack of energy lately. - Mmh hmm. - I've been feeling slower and being confronted with my, just physical limitations and that's hard for my mind to wrestle with 'cause my mind wants to go, go, go and do more and I can't. - A tip for husbands out there. If your wife is pregnant in her third trimester, just massage her feet and legs every night. - Yeah. - That helps a lot. - It's wonderful. - It's kind been where we've been at. - But all is good and I'm really exciting for the nesting phase to hit because I know that that's kind of like an extra burst of God's grace for soon to be moms. It just, it comes on. - A burst of endorphins. - Yup and you just go and you clean the things that you never even look at and it feels so great. And so, I'm kind of looking around my house going, nope, that's gonna wait for-- - The question will be is how long will it stay that way with our four other kids. - I know. Like the cleanliness, yeah. - Okay, we just wanna encourage you guys, everyone that's listening, we have some free downloads. - Mmh hmm. - We have two specifically, there's actually a bunch more, but the two I wanna talk about today is, "The Marriage Prayer Challenge." It's a 31 day prayer challenge where you sign up. It's completely free and we'll email you a marriage prompt, a prayer prompt and a reminder to pray every day for 31 days for your spouse. And you can go to MarriagePrayerChallenge.com and sign up for that for free and then our other free download, it's a new one. It's our "52 Date Night Ideas" ebook. We have, we came up with 52 unique date night ideas and so if you're looking to have a whole year of date ideas, just go to DateNightIdeas.com and sign up and download it for free. And those two free, well, those things, we created for you guys just to encourage you, to inspire you. So yeah, MarriagePrayerChallenge.com and DateNightIdea.com. - Cool, okay so, the topic for today is how can a wife encourage her husband to lead spiritually and when, how Aaron and I kind of set up and prepare for these podcasts episodes is we have a document that we both share and we kind of just, once we have the topic down, we'll go in every so often and add notes and look over it and share our thoughts about it. And I remember when I first went into this document, it just said the words, "honorably and gently." - I put all the notes I could come up with in there. - It was really sweet, but I just had to get that out of the gate because it was really cool to see your perspective of how, like what it takes for a wife to encourage her husband and those are two powerful words. - Yeah, to my defense, I actually did put more in there later. - I know. - I wrote down, and we'll get to some of those, but I wrote down a lot of the ways that you have encouraged me. - Yeah - Whether we've talked about it or not. - This was just the first note that I saw and I just wanted to add that because it was really cool. But this is actually a topic that came from the wives in our Marriage After God community and it was a question that kind of kept coming up in different ways and so we thought it would be fun to talk about it, discuss it. - Mmh hmm. - And encourage you listening. Both husbands and wives because marriage takes two. - Yeah and for the husbands and wives that are listening, husbands take note of the things that we talk about because even if your wife isn't encouraging you to be a spiritual leader, even if she doesn't know how to or hasn't started yet, it's important that we as men start stepping up in that role. Trusting the Lord. Chasing after Him and guiding our family closer to Him, to the word of God. - Yup. - And we do that by example. - Mmh hmm. - We do that by being faithful, trustworthy. - Yeah. - And so I just want to encourage the husbands. - I think that's really good and I think that as the husbands are listening, of course not using everything that we share as ammunition to go, "see, you should be doing this," - Oh absolutely. - but rather, use what we share today as an encouragement to you in how you should be leading. - Yeah. - And hopefully, it inspires you both today. - Yeah and just, I always bring this up. Our pastor, Matt, our old pastor would always say, "read your own mail." So, in those scriptures when it's talking to the wife on how she should be, we don't read that and say, "see, this is how you should be." - Because you've got the whole section yourself to be reading. - Yeah, I have my own mail I need to be opening up and reading and to honest, there's enough there for each of us to be doing our thing to not have to worry about how our spouse walking those things. - Mmh hmm. - That doesn't mean we can't encourage our spouse to be like, hey, I just want to encourage you, the way you were being, that was a little disrespectful. Or, like, we can always encourage each other. We're allowed to do that. Again, honorably and gently. - Yeah. - But there's so much in our own, in the scriptures that talk directly to us, that we should be just walking in. - Yeah. - In the spirit. And you know what, when we do that, our spouse, it's so hard for our spouse to not. - Mmh hmm. - Like when we're walking the way the Bible calls us to, it's gonna be really hard for our spouse, our wife, or your husband to not desire to walk in that way as well. - Okay so, first Aaron, before we get into the encouraging aspect of encouraging our husbands to lead, there's something else that you wanted to talk about. - Well, I think it's a good point that we should bring up of just where this idea of spiritual headship, spiritual leadership comes from, 'cause there's a lot of people who will be like, no, that's not right. it should be, this way or that way, but-- - It's not for Aaron and Jen. - It's not my idea. It's not like I came up with like, hey, the men should be in charge and the men should be leading. It's a biblical concept. It's the way, it's an order that God put in place and for His purpose, not for ours. - Right, so what we believe and how we operate in our family comes straight from scripture. - Right. - And that's what kind of where we wanted to start off on the foundational aspect of this. - Yeah and I want to encourage everyone that's listening that your desire should not be to live Aaron and Jennifer's way. - Mmh mmh. - Your desire should be to live the Bible's way. So you getting into the word and saying, wow, it says this. How does that play out in our marriage? - We're just big neon arrows pointing to the word of God. - Let's hope. - That's what we're here for you. - So Ephesians five, 23 through 25, the famous marriage scriptures. It says this. It says, "For the husband is the head of the wife, "even as Christ is the head of the church, "his body and himself at savior." So just real quick, it's not saying that the husband is the savior. It's saying that Christ is the savior of the church. But it's saying in that same manner, in the same manner that Christ is the head of His church, His bride, the husband is the head of the wife. And we talk about his in the Marriage After God book, that the picture of husband and wife, the symbol of marriage is to represent the gospel of Christ the Savior and His church, the bride. And so, that order of headship is specifically to highlight that, that point. So if I'm trying as the husband, if I'm trying to lead in a way that diminishes the gospel, I'm not leading well and I'm not walking in the spiritual leadership that God's called me to. So, if I'm being abusive, if I'm being vulgar, if I'm using my power that God's given me in abusive ways to manipulate, to control, that's not how Christ came. That's not how Christ loved His church. He came humbly. - Humbly, yeah. - And He came putting it, laying Himself down. That's exactly what the scripture's talking about. Giving himself up for her. And so, we don't just get to say, oh, see the Bible says I'm in charge, so now this is how I'm gonna do it. No, the Bible says I'm in charge, so I must do it His way. - His way, yeah. - The Bible's way. So, I just wanted to point out. - No, that's good. - But that's one of the first spots that we would run to in showing this headship, is the husband represents Christ. Your bride represents the church and that relationship represents how the gospel works. The redeeming nature, the love, the unity, the oneness of us being joined to Christ through His death and resurrection and so, headship comes straight from here and it also says, and when I read first Corinthians 11:3, - It says this, "But I want you to understand "that the head of every man is Christ. "The head of a wife is her husband "and the head of Christ is God." - What I love about this is it's showing this order again and saying the head of every man is Christ. It starts that way. It doesn't say that the head of every woman is man. It's not written that way. It says, "the head of every man is Christ," and what that means is my authority does not come from me being a man. It comes from Christ and Him saying this is the order I want. That, so we have to first realize that we are responsible to our own head, Christ. That the way I love and lead and disciple and walk, I'm directly accountable to Christ and He's gonna look at me and say, how did you walk in this authority I've given you? That's this is idea of derived authority. It trickles down. It's not just inside me because I'm a man. - Right. So, the second part of that is, "the head of thy wife is her husband," and this is very specific 'cause it's not that the head of every woman is a man-- - Yeah, which some people believe. - Well, can you clarify that? - Yeah, it's, this is specifically talking about the relationship again between a husband and a wife that me as a man in the church, I don't get to have every woman be in submission to me, - Right. - as Ephesians five, 23 would call a wife to be in submission to her husband. Women do not need to submit to me. My wife should, but that's it. I don't get to have any sort of extra authority in any other woman's life other than my own wife. So, we don't get to use this scripture as an excuse of women are in this position and men are in this position in the church and that's not what we do. - I think this order, God showing us this order is really important because when you're bringing two people into a single unity so that they're one, which you know, the scripture tells us, there's gotta be-- - Order. - There's gotta be order because otherwise you'll have two people trying to lead and what happens when that's going on? - Chaos. - Chaos because they're fighting for their own ways. They're doing their own thing and they expect the other person to follow and so this provides the outline. - Right, well and what's even more amazing is it ends with, "the head of Christ is God." There's a scripture that says, "Christ learned obedience "through the things that He suffered." Which is amazing because you're like wait, what? Not that He wasn't obedient. It's this idea of full obedience meaning even unto death, Christ was obedient to God. Christ, there's another scripture where Christ says, "I only came "to do what my Father has called me to do. "To go where my Father has called me to go "and to say that which my Father wants me to say." There's this perfect picture of Him being completely and perfectly in unity with God in His obedience to God and His will. - Which, I love this because it just further solidifies that Christ is our example. - Yup. - Right, Christ, it could have just been that Christ is God and that's the authority and that's it, but no, He says that, "the head of Christ is God." That means that Christ is in subjection to God's authority and if Christ is our example, then we need to follow. - Right and this is a big concept 'cause Jesus is God. - Yeah. - And God is God. And the Holy Spirit is God because we have this triune nature of God. Three individual persons, but one God head, right. But there's an order to it. - Yeah. - They've been in perfect unity since before the foundations of the world. So for all eternity, God, Christ and the Spirit have been in perfect harmony-- - They get it. - and unity, but it's in order. - Yeah. - God the Father. God the Son, God the Spirit. There's this order and it's showing us right here. It's saying, in the same way that Christ, God, has a head, God, God, right, It's kind weird. The husband is the head of the wife and Christ is the head of the church, and the head of man. So all this is showing is a derived authority trickled down. Christ got His authority from God. I get my authority from Christ. My wife gets her authority from me. This trickle down of roles and positions and we shouldn't go beyond that. We shouldn't try and extrapolate that and say, see, men need to have authority over every woman in the church. No, there's not a single woman in the church that needs to be submissive to me the way my wife should be submissive to me. She's the only one. Now, if we go back early on in Ephesians, right before this it says, it says, "Be in submission to one another "out of reverence for Christ." - For Christ. - Which is a command to the church as a whole, - Right. - Which means-- - Be unified. - Be unified. That each one of us in the body are not trying to be above another. We're trying to raise the other ones up, but that's not to be mistaken with people, 'cause people do this. They mistake that, saying, see, husbands should submit to their wives also. That's actually not what that's saying. That's a command to the church as a whole generally. People in the church should be in submission to one another out of reverence for Christ, okay. And then it goes on, it says, "wives submit "to your own husbands." It says, "your own husbands." Not to other men. It doesn't mean my wife needs to submit to any other men but me. And other women don't need to submit to me the same way my wife does. But generally, in the church we should be in a mutual submission to each other in the body, not in marriage necessarily. - Right, so this idea of leadership and headship, it's not something that you just get because you're a man. - Right. - Or men get because they're men and it's also not something that men are naturally good at just because they're men. It's something that they look to Christ and say, you're my example. You're my head. The authority comes from You and from God and I'm gonna walk in Your ways. - Right and then that leadership plays out when I'm doing it God's way. Now, if I'm not doing it God's way, does that mean I don't, that the wife doesn't have a responsibility? Again, going back to the reading your own mail. Whether or not the husband is walking in this way, which is why this episode's here, is the wife has a calling and an opportunity to walk in her own obedience to Christ. - Right. - And to walk a certain way that will bless her husband. - Yeah. - Bless her marriage and potentially change his heart and raise him up to be the leader that he's been called to be. So, I just wanna reiterate that men, we're accountable to someone. Wives, you're accountable to someone and it's Christ. And we each have an accountability and we need to make sure that we recognize that so that when we're leading our families, husbands, we recognize that we don't just get to lead it however we want. We lead it the way Christ wants. - Okay so, that was kind of laying the foundation down. I know people like to hear from us, so let's share a little bit about just our personal testimony of how we've been walking in this. You reading your mail about headship and leadership and me reading mine about submission. - Why don't we start with yours? - Okay, so, so I admit that I had this understanding that a wife was to submit to her husband, but of course, learning something requires the experience of walking through it and learning from mistakes. - Doing it. - And growing and allowing the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts when we're wrong and to submit to Him and be transformed by it. I would say that actually, the opportunity of marriage has helped me understand what submission is and what it looks like and I've gotten better at it over the years, but I wouldn't say I'm perfect. - Right. - But I, I know that it, in the beginning, it was easier for me to submit physically and what I meant by that is, I had this idea that wherever Aaron, wherever you would go, I would follow you. Whatever you chose to do, that would be an easy thing for me. I'm just gonna follow you. I'm gonna do it and I saw it as submission. But then there was all these other little areas that I didn't realize I wasn't submitting to you in. - Like me having a choice in something. Or desiring to go somewhere or something. - Yeah or trying to make a decision for our family that would change the way we functioned as a family or even, this was before kids and so, just between you and I, whether it was about health decisions or-- - Getting out of debt. - Getting out of debt. That was a really hard one for me. - Yeah. - And if people read the Unveiled Wife, they know about this. I think I might have shared it in Marriage After God, too. - You were not interested. - Well, I struggled because I saw it as your debt and I was very young and immature in my thinking and I didn't see us as unified in that and so submitting to your request of, hey, let's put this thousand dollars we just got, that we just earned from hard work and put it towards my school loan debt. I was like, uh uh. But what I found through the experience of walking through that with you is that when I did submit my heart and I said, "Okay, Lord, whatever you ask." I'm gonna do this and this was just one area but, being able to submit to you in that decision that you made for our family, it actually blessed me and it benefited me and I saw-- - Still does. - Yeah. Yeah, look at our, the years that have passed and becoming debt free, that's just one area that I feel like has really changed my heart in this area of submission to you and it does happen in all the little choices. I remember, just recently something happened where you, I wanted to go out to lunch 'cause I had a desire for a certain thing. I think it was a certain sandwich shop down the street and you said, "well, let's just eat at home," and I responded with the worst attitude and I said something like, "that's not what I wanted." And I did it in front of the kids. - At least you're honest. - Well, I'm really embarrassed but I was, I ended up leaving. I think I took Elliot with me and we were gonna run some errands and I was gonna go get my sandwich and the whole way there I just felt the Lord saying, "You need to call your husband. "You need to tell him you're sorry right now." Like, this is bad. And I remember telling you I was, "I'm really sorry "for the way that I responded to you in that moment," because I wasn't in submission to your decision to eat at home. I wanted what I wanted and I threw manipulation out. I threw my emotions out to try and get what I wanted and it wasn't right of me and so learning, even in the smallest of things, how to submit to you in my heart, in my actions, in my attitude, all of it. I don't know. I'm still learning this, but it really does benefit and bless our family when we walk in the order that God has provided for us. Told us how to do it. - Right and not just in the practical things, because to be honest, you've been blessed by submitting to me even in bad things that, like choices I've made, and submitting to me in things that you disagreed with. And the blessing isn't in that my bad choice turned out good or that my decision wasn't a poor decision, 'cause those things happen. I don't lead well all the time. The blessing in the encouragement and the power comes from your obedience to Christ. Your closeness to God. - Yeah. - Your, when it says that, "Christ learned obedience "through the things that he suffered," - Yeah. - sometimes that's the joy and that's the blessing, is like, regardless of your husband ever does the thing that you want him to or ever leads the way you want him to, the true power in blessing is in your obedience to God. - And I would say this to add to that, you're absolutely right. It's also, it builds trust. I'm trusting God because if I can see something, like you said, a bad decision or something like that that you're gonna make and I still submit to you, basically I'm saying I don't understand why you're choosing that but I'm gonna trust God with you and with what's going on. - And with my life and the situation. - And that has blessed us. Some of the opportunities with that that have come out has been a learning opportunity for you or a growth opportunity for me and it-- - Yeah, so when I think about this, I think of that first Romans eight, 28. It says, "and we know that for those who love God, "all things work together for good "for those who are called according to His purpose." So, Christian, raise your hand. Are you called according to His purpose? - Yup. - Yeah. Do you love God? - Yup. - Yup. So, even when you're husband's not leading well, does God, can God work that out for your good? 'Cause He promises to. And we may not know what that good looks like right now and it may not feel good and we talked about this feelings thing a couple episodes ago, but He's gonna work it out. - Yeah. - I like what you said. Trusting God. - Yeah, I didn't know you were gonna bring this verse up but as you were reading it and you were getting to the end of it, it says, "those who are called according to His purpose," and when I just think about marriage in and of itself, it's for His purpose. It's not for our purpose, although there's benefits to us. Because earlier you'd talked about what it represents and so when we submit to His order and we say, okay Lord, we're gonna walk this out. I'm gonna encourage my husband to lead. I'm gonna let him lead. He's gonna lead me, and the husband's over there saying, Okay Christ, I'm following You. I'm walking Your way, it's for His purposes. - Yeah, so I think that's a good, for the wife listening, heart posture is saying, Okay Lord. My life and my marriage is Yours and I want to practice trusting You. I want to practice loving You. I want to practice knowing You, and so this is one of the ways I'm gonna do that is walking in submission to my husband. - Yeah. - Even when I'm afraid of how he's making, the decision he's making. If I think he's wrong. - Yeah, well-- - It doesn't mean you can't encourage him, right? - Well, here's the truth. We cannot encourage our husbands to lead and feel confident in leading if we challenge every time they try. - You're right. Think about our kids. We have to give them opportunities to make choices, make decisions, do things on their own and if we never do that, they're never gonna get good at the things they wanna get good at, right. - Yeah. - So, even with your husband, just like anything, the moment they, and this has happened to us, I try and make a decision and there's an immediate fight, argument. - Confrontation. - Yeah, confrontational, or opposition. - Conflict, disagreement. - Like, no, I think that's a bad choice, rather than letting me figure it out. - And then going to the prayer closet with it. - I have enough room for it. And we've seen this time and time again in our own marriage. We've seen it in other marriages. This is the things is, we'll get messages from people saying, "how do I get my husband to lead, "'cause every time he tries, "I don't like the decisions he makes." And I'm just thinking he's never gonna figure out how to make better decisions if you're not gonna encourage him and say, okay, let's try that. I might not see how that's gonna work out, but I'm gonna follow you and let's see how that plays out. - If we do submit, if we do act out in submission towards our husband, then it's gonna require us to pray more for them - Oh yeah. - and the choices that they're making. I think all the wives need to hear that right now because how often are we praying for our husband's leadership? How often are we praying for the choices that they're making and how they're leading our family? That we want it to improve or that we want it to go a certain direction and that we're submitting those desires and things to the Lord. - And I would say, 'cause I'm just thinking about marriages where you have a super immature husband. Someone who just, the decisions they make are totally selfish decisions and those, that happens. You know, their hobbies or how they wanna spend the money. Where they wanna go or they just wanna leave and they just wanna, that's a hard place for a wife to be. I just wanna say my heart is broken for where you're at in your marriage, but for you, your prayer closet, getting on your knees before God and knowing that God loves you and your husband. - And that He has a purpose for it. - He has a purpose for what's going on. Just start praying that God captures that man's heart. - Yeah. - And pray fervently without ceasing. Pray daily, hourly, minute by minute for them and watch God move. And then also pray for opportunities. - Yeah. - Like very calm, gentle honoring opportunities to be like, hey, that's great if you wanna do that. I just wanna give you an encouragement. Would you consider how this is gonna bless us when you make this decision? - Yeah, respectfully communicate. - And how ever they answer, be like, okay, I just wanna encourage you to consider that. - That's great. - Love you. - 'Cause we have huge influence in our husband's lives in the way that they do make decisions. So, even if we don't feel like that's true, they're thinking about the things that we say and how we're saying them. - Yeah. - Right. - And I would also give an encouragement to wives to not be manipulative in the way they encourage their husbands to lead because I think sometimes there could be, oh yeah, I want him to lead as long as he leads my way. And so, doing, just using your emotional, emotions and the way you word things to get them to feel like their decision's bad and they should go with yours anyway, or, that's not how, no one responds well to those things. So just being careful how you're using your words and being prayerful in this journey of encouraging your husband. Again, prayer and running to the Father 'cause God's the only one who can change hearts. And that's what needs to happen in a lot of these men's lives. Husbands, if you're listening. If you're having a hard time leading, it's a heart problem in you that you need to go to the Father and say, change this in me. Why am I so afraid, or why is this so hard, or why am I feeling like I can't. Because even if your wife's not letting you, you should still be leading. - Yeah. - Because you can be an example in your home. - Okay, so real quick. For the relationship that the husband hasn't been spiritually leading and maybe the wife has, there could become a root of bitterness in her heart towards him and so when he does step up to try and lead, it can feel almost frustrating in the sense that he's doing it wrong or he's not doing it how she thinks he should. I know you mentioned all of that. - Well, she's been doing it for so long and now she has to like, wait, you're just gonna come in-- - How do you transition. How do you transition and sometimes that root of bitterness can get in the way and so I just wanted to call that out because you had touched on it briefly and I just, do you have any thoughts about that or an encouragement to a wife who may, there may be a situation that happens in the midst of them working together in the kitchen, how does she respond in that moment? - Yeah, well, it's even before that. If there is a root of bitterness like this, I've been leading and I've been doing this and my husband hasn't stepped up and there's this irked feeling. - Now all the sudden he's going to try. - Now you're gonna try or if you're gonna do it and you're not gonna do it my way. All those kinds of things. - How do they respond? - The first humbleness and repentance. - Yeah. - Within their heart. Saying, okay Lord. This is gonna be difficult, but I have been angry and bitter. And I just wanna repent that because I do want my husband to rise up. I do, I don't, say like, we need to tell the Lord, I don't want to get in the way of what You're doing in my husband's life. I actually wanna be a catalyst for what You're doing. I wanna be a part of it. - That's good. - So, I would just say start with humbleness and repentance. - Okay, so we're gonna move on and share just what are some ways that I have encouraged you to lead our family that's impacted you, 'cause I think hearing personal stories like this helps get the idea across. - So, I just have a list here. This is one of the things that I just wrote down notes of. Things that I've experienced that you've done for me that I felt encouraged me in my leadership. - Which, by the way, I had mentioned how we kind of prep our episodes. I didn't know you were gonna do this and so when I went in there to look over the episode. I saw this and I was so touched by it because I thought, oh, I didn't even know I was doing these things that have impacted you. So, I was really excited to hear this. - Well, thank you. So, the first one is you often ask me questions about the Bible. So, this does a bunch of things and we talked about this before. Scripture talks about this. It calls wives to go to their husbands and ask them questions. - Yeah. - And I know many wives would be like, well, I know more about the Bible than he does. Exactly. - Or I know where to go that would give me the right answer. - Exactly, like I have, oh, I have so and so or I have this Pastor or I have this podcast. Those things aren't bad. - Or whoever, yeah. - But just, ladies, listen. Listen to the power that this has in a husband's life. If every question you had about the Bible, even if you knew he didn't have the answer, if every question you had about the Bible, like you're reading scripture and you're like, this is weird or that's interesting or I wonder what he meant by that, and you went to your husband. You're husband's at home, he's watching TV or he's doing whatever, right, and you're like, hey, Hon, I was just reading in first John and it says, this, what do you think about that? And not in a facetious way. Not in way that sounds antagonistic, but genuinely wanna know what he thinks. - Yeah. - I would imagine in the beginning you'll have, what, what are you talking about? I don't know. Just go ask your pastor. I don't know. - Who knows. - Who knows how he's gonna respond, right. But imagine the 50th time. What do you think that husband's thinking to himself? He's thinking, she must think I have answers. She must think I know something, right? - I better know something. - She must believe or must be interested in my way of thinking about this. So, over and over and over again, running to your husband and saying, hey, what do you think about this? Hey, I read this. Have you ever read this before? What do you think it means? How do I know how to and over and over and over again you go to your husband and you ask these questions, eventually he's gonna start going to look for the answers. - Yeah, I would say space the questions out just so that he doesn't feel berated. Right, give him some breathing room because it could be, for some husbands, new. - Right, this is tactical. This is tactical. - No, it's not. It's a beautiful way that a marriage gets to look at the word of God together and so, my first thing is just give some space in between each question and then if you have a husband that's having a hard time answering those questions or maybe he forgets or maybe there's a lot of time that goes by and he never gets to that question, gets to answer that question, pray for him. Don't let that become bitterness in your heart that he's not answering your questions. - Yeah. - Let it become an opportunity for you to pray for him. - See it as a tool. Well first of all, the Bible tells wives to go ask their husbands questions. Second of all, over time that's gonna build up so much respect in him. When someone asks you questions, ladies, just think about this. If someone comes to you and says, hey I have this question. I wanna know your opinion, thought, idea, doesn't that make you feel so respected and honored? - Totally and I either wanna share right there what I think or I wanna go figure it out and then come back. - Yeah, 'cause that person really wants to know from you. Cool, so lets, I'm gonna run through a bunch of these and then we'll go a little deeper-- - Sometimes Aaron gets really excited, - I do. - and he starts teaching on a topic, but we're gonna share a little bit more about how you can encourage your husband specifically in just a little bit. But first, let's get through this list of what you came up with. - So again, these are things that I've seen you do for me. - Something I was gonna share real quick on this is one of the opportunities I always take is after a Sunday church service, if something stood out to me that I didn't understand, I'll come to you and say, "hey, what did "the pastor mean by this?" Or, "I'm kinda confused," or whatever the question is. - Right. - And so that's one opportunity and then, one of the things that we like to ask each other is, "what has God been teaching us lately?" So, I like that. - Yeah. So, the next one is, you encourage me in the things I'm already leading in. So, it's like this affirmation. You see me doing finances and you encourage me in that. Hey, thank you so much for doing, taking care of our family so well in that area. If you see me with my, doing something leadership wise with my kids, like discipling them, talking to them about something spiritual. Teaching them something, anything. - Positive reinforcement with words. - Oh yeah, so what you're doing is you're, and it, you're going out of your way to recognize leadership things in me and affirm those things. - Yeah. - You work hard to implement things that I have put in place. Which again, - I have a good example of it. - That's a submission thing and a leadership thing. - So, I had a good friend, Angie Tolpin from Courageous Mom, encourage me in home schooling to say, go to the husband, 'cause I'm there all day with the kids, but to go to your husband and say, what's your vision for home school? What do you want me to be teaching them? And then to take that vision and implement it and let your husband see the fruitfulness that comes from it. - Which gave me an opportunity to lead because I'm like, whoa, I didn't even think about that. - Now you gotta look into home school. - It took me some time to think about things that I cared about. - Yeah. - You did all the detailed stuff, all the standard things. - But you got to cast the vision and lead our family in that way. So, that's just one example, one area of what that looked like. - Which I kind of already mentioned this, but you reinforce my leadership with the children. So when you see me doing, leading my kids. Teaching them things. Encouraging them, you affirm me in that. - We also have to be unified in that. - I notice you were working on submitting to my leadership and yielding to my way of leading by laying down your plan-- - Can you see it in my eyes when I'm not? - Yeah, or inviting me to make the plan. These things encourage me and show me like, oh, she wants me to lead. - I used to come to Aaron at the beginning of, not every day, but important days and I'd say, okay, here's kind of like my expectations and what I want today to be like. - You could tell me yours afterwards, but this is what I want. - I've gotten into it but I still do that at times, but I do, I've gotten into a better habit of going to him on those days and going, hey, what were you thinking about today? Let's talk about this. I'm trying. - Well, you have gotten better and I've also raised up in that area. - Yeah. - So. - Being thoughtful. - Yeah, so we sit down and we'll discuss the plans for the week. It doesn't mean that you don't have a voice in it. - Right. - You're expecting me to lead in that. You've reminded me of what the Bible calls me to do in a loving way. So, there's been times that you said, "hey, I just want "to remind you that this week's coming up. "There's gonna be these things. "I'd love for you to put your heart on "and your mind of what you see for us. "How do you want this to play out? "Remember, that's your role. "I'm looking for you to do this in my life." And so you just in loving, gentle ways, saying "hey, God's called you to this. "I'm looking forward to it. "I'm excited for it and I'm reminding you to do it." - Yeah, no, that's really good. And I think there's been other times where just the way that I hear you talking with the kids, if it's a little harsh, I'll say, I'll remind you, gentleness. Sometimes it's just a one word phrase and other times it's just, there's actual scripture that comes to my mind that I feel like I need to share with you. - Yeah, there's been times in my life when I'm in sin, - Yeah. - And we're talked about this in our pornography episode - Oh yeah. - Awhile ago where you came to me and you actually spoke truth to me. - Jesus' words about adultery. - Instead of giving me your heart in your words, which you definitely had those, - Yeah. - you give me the word. - His words, yeah. - You showed me what you're doing is adultery. What you're doing, you're going to end up teaching our children. You need to walk in the freedom you have. You spoke all these truths to me in a very powerful way, but you reminded me what the Bible says. - Yeah, I want to admit to one more, but this is more like a failure slash warning for wives not to use scripture to get your own way and there's one scripture in particular that always comes to my mind when I'm frustrated at you or what you're doing and it's the one about, "husbands walk "with your wives in an understanding way." - You're not understanding me. - No, it's such a beautiful verse and I love it and I really do believe that you should be walking with me in an understanding way. - Yeah, of course. - But I shouldn't use, there's been a couple times where I've brought it up and I know I'm frustrated because I want you to understand me, but really, I just want you to yield to me. So, don't do that. - Right. - Don't do that. - You've gotten better on that. - Yeah. - These last two are really powerful ones. Ladies, wives, speak well of your husband in public to others. This is the most dismantling, one of the most dismantling, destructive things you can do is speaking down of your spouse in public. - Yeah. - You should never do that. That doesn't mean, like you're not, you're going to a confidential, a confident, a brother or sister in Christ to get advice and you're sharing situations. But that's not what this is and everyone knows when you're talking down about their spouse. - Here's the deal. If you're walking with the Lord, the Holy Spirit will convict you on those times that you're not walking faithfully and you are talking about your husband. - Okay, I get so frustrated about this and actually, if any of you that are listening have done this, I pray that you would think through it. Repent of it and change. I've seen people, public comments about their spouse. Oh, husbands and wives. Oh, my wife would never do this because of this, this and this, and I'm like, well, why are you telling everyone? Go talk to your wife about that. Or, I wish my husband would read this because he's this, this and this, and I'm like, whoa. - When you say public comments, are you talking about comments on social media? - Social media. - Okay. - And this is just, that's just one forum. - Yeah. - It's super public. Everyone sees it and I would just imagine, if I was that husband, I would be destroyed. And I think that's the point that they're doing it is that they feel destroyed so they're retaliating. - Yeah. - And so, I just want to encourage that we don't speak down about our spouses in public. My wife, Jennifer, you do this. Not speak down about me. You speak well of me. - Yeah. - Which makes me desire to live up to the words you speak about me because I hear it and I'm like, whoa, that's what she thinks of me. I didn't feel like that today. I didn't feel like I was being that way. So, speaking well of me in public is something that's been done that's been hugely impactful in my life. - I will say this just to encourage the wives who maybe have done this or it happens occasionally is in order to change, you have to repent and I remember years ago, it must have been within the third or fourth year of marriage, I went out to lunch with a friend and the conversation turned into this kind of complaining about you. - Complaining about me. - And I was on, I remember still where I was on the freeway feeling conviction from the Lord on how I spoke about you and I called that friend up and I was like, I have to apologize. What I said, what I did, it wasn't a good example. It wasn't what I should have done and I told you about it and I had to confess it. Otherwise I could have easily just stepped right back into it another time. And when we're confronted with our sin like that and we deal with it and we repent, it changes us. God changes us. And so I just want to encourage you, if you find yourself in the midst of doing something like that and the Lord convicts you, repent. - Yeah and again, I wanna separate this idea of sitting with a close girlfriend who's going to draw you back to the word of God, - Right. - and encourage you in saying, here's some things I'm dealing with. - I think we all know the difference. - Everyone knows the difference. - Versus I'm gonna tell you how much I'm bothered by my husband. - It's a heart posture. - It's totally a heart posture, So, speak well of people and of your spouse in public and then the last one is, Baby, you do this. You look to me for guidance pretty much for everything. It doesn't mean I have the answers all the time. I rarely have the perfect answer, but you come to me and say there's this, what about this. Hey, this things going in my, hey, I have this relationship thing, what do you think. So, that's become a pattern in our life. Coming to me for advise. - As it happens, I trust you more. I wanna hear from you more. I wanna get your perspective more and so, it's a building block, so like in marriage, you may not be at a point in your marriage right now where you feel that way. Where you desire your husband's perspective on something, but as you guys work through that and as you grow and you give him more opportunities for giving you advise on things or help walk you through certain things, you'll learn to trust him more. - So, that was really good. Let's talk about some of the benefits of walking in submission to his leadership. So, why don't you share some of the benefits you've seen from learning to walk in submission to and allow me to lead. - Okay, well, feeling loved and looked after. I feel like you truly are concerned with my welfare, our family's welfare and just when you make decisions or how you lead our family, it shows. There's evidence of that. - Just real quick. Husbands that are listening. Listen to these benefits because when you walk in leadership and walk in spiritual leadership, your wife's gonna experience the same benefits. - Yeah, totally. I feel like God's honored and glorified because we're working out that order that you mentioned earlier. - Yup. - And it's a stark contrast to the way that the world operates. It just looks different. So, they see that picture of marriage. I feel like there's less worry in my own heart because the burden is shared. So, if we are walking through something hard, I know, especially over time of submitting to your leadership, that I can trust you. I can trust God with you. What else? Our communication is better. I feel like we communicate more respectfully towards each other. Intentional discipleship of our children. - That's been a huge-- - Them seeing a good example of what it looks like for a daddy to lead and mommy to submit has been really cool and they get it, even at a young age. - It's amazing what they get. - Yeah. I feel like it provides an open and safe place for us to talk about things, especially biblical things. And if there is ever disagreement or misunderstanding on certain things, decisions that we have to make or concepts that are even in the Bible that we get to talk those things out and wrestle with them together. - Those are good benefits. - Yeah. - And it just, it's, yeah, it's obedience to God's order and it's a blessing. - Yeah. - When husband and wife are walking that way it's good. - It's awesome. - It's awesome. - Marriage is awesome. - Now, it doesn't mean you can't walk that way without your spouse walking their way. We're still called to read our own mail and walk in obedience to Christ. - Yeah. - But man, when you're both doing it, the ministry that you can do, the example you are to the world of the gospel is so beautiful. - Yeah, I will say this is another benefit, too, is that when we understand His purpose for marriage and His order and we're trying as hard as we can to walk, maybe it's not perfect, but we're walking in those roles and in those ways, we're motivated by an internal, eternal perspective that far outweighs any current circumstances that we face. So Aaron, wouldn't you agree that over time, the things that we face, the things that we have to walk through together are now, like after 13 years of marriage, they're much smaller to us in comparison to our view of what's motivating us, which is God, which is His-- - Well because we repent way quicker. - Eternity with Him. - We humble ourselves way quicker. We realize like, man the thing that we're really fighting about now, - Yeah. - is not worthy of this much attention. So, we back off quicker. We come to each other and say we feel dis-unified. - Right. - Let's work on that. Let's fix it. Our kids, we also recognize it in our children. When we have disunity, when we're not walking well with each other, - Yeah. - our kids experience that and respond to that. So, we wanna give some scripture. We're coming to the end. But here's just in the Bible. So, wives listening, if you have a husband that's not walking obedient, in obedience to the word, listen to what the Bible says. This is some of the most powerful scriptures, I think, to a wife on the power that she has in her husband's life. First Peter, chapter three says this. "Likewise, wives be subject to your own husbands." Remember, that submission reference to your husband. "So that even if some do not obey the word--" - Now this could be a non-Christian or it could be someone who claims to be a Christian but is not obeying the word. He's not walking the way God wants. - Right, that's what I love about this is it doesn't distinguish. It's saying someone who does not obey the word. - Yeah. - It could be both. It says this, "they may be one without a word "by the conduct of their wives. "When they see your respectful and pure conduct. "Do not let you adorning be external. "The braiding of hair, the putting on "of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear. "Let your adorning be the hidden person "of the heart with an imperishable beauty "of a gentle and quiet spirit which in God's sight "is very precious." And so, the point of this is, it's saying, in stark contrast to letting your outside appearance be the thing that is attracting and is getting the attention, it's not saying don't wear these things. It's saying don't let that be what you're using as your adorning. The thing that you're putting on to show who you are. Who you are should be that respectful and pure conduct from within and what it says right here, it says, "they may be one without a word." So, you want to win your husbands' hearts, not just for you but for them to be a leader. For them to raise up and sort of obeying the word of God. It's your conduct. Your gentle and quiet spirit, which is amazing. What that means is, wives, you can actually walk in such a way before your husband in your home that could transform them by the way they walk. Like, why are you so respectful? I'm this way and you just keep serving and you keep loving and you keep forgiving and you keep showing me by example what it looks like. That's powerful. - Yeah. - And so I just want to encourage with that scripture is like, the Bible says it, so you can trust God that it's saying wives, if you walk in this way, this is power in your husband's life. - I love how specific it is that it says, "without a word," because I think that often times we get creative with our words. Women, we know how to talk and we talk a lot sometimes. And sometimes we think that our words are gonna change our husbands. We think that if we say something enough. - I just need to get him to... - Right and so I love that there's a distinguishing note there, that, "without a word." And that shows the power of, like you said, our conduct and our behavior and the things that we choose to do. I think if we slow down and really meditated on this verse and understood what God was trying to teach us through it and walk it out, man, your husbands will be influenced by this. - Let's take it a step further. So, the wife represents the church. The symbol of the church, right. And what power does the church have in this world? Our conduct. - Mmh hmm. - It says that, "the world may know that you "are my disciples by the love you have "for one another." In other places it says, "that the world may know "that God sent Me by the love you have for each other." - Yeah. - So, wife, your conduct is that symbol and representation to your husband. - Yeah. - And church, our conduct is a body of Christ, is that symbol and light to the world. That's what that's representing. - In Proverbs 3, 5-6, it says, "Trust in the Lord "with all your heart and do not lean "on your own understanding. "In all your ways acknowledge Him "and He will make straight your path." And what I love about this in support of the verse we just read is coming back to our words. Sometimes we think our way is the right way and we're just gonna speak those words and we're gonna say that thing over and over and over again, but here God's saying trust me, lead on my understanding and I'm saying don't use your words, use your conduct. And so we need to pay attention. We need to acknowledge Him. We need to acknowledge His word and what He's sharing with us. - Amen. So, let's just end on five simple ways that they can start encouraging their husbands. Of course, we talked about all the ways I've seen you do it. - Yeah. - But there's just five ways. I'll do one, you do one. So, number one. Pray for him that he embraces his role as a future leader. - Number two, ask him to wash you in the water by the word at night or in the morning and if you don't know what I mean by that, Ephesians 5 25 says this. "Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church "and gave Himself up for her "that He might sanctify her, "having cleansed her by the washing of water "with the word so that He might present the church "to Himself in splendor without spot "or wrinkle or any such thing, "that she might be holy and without blemish." And so, getting in the word together. Talking about it. Making those safe places for you guys to ask questions, for you to ask him questions and get answers and learn together. - And don't become bitter if it takes time. - Yeah. - Just keep asking. Say, hey, when you're ready, I'd love for you to read to me. I'd love for you to talk to me about the Bible. - Yeah. - Which leads to number three. Ask him spiritual questions and questions about the word of God before searching it out on your own, which is super respectful and powerful. Just going to him and say, hey, I'd love to know your opinion on this. I'd love to know what you think about this. And just do that. Make that your pattern of, go to him first. - Yeah. - Don't go to your, you know, whoever you listen to on your podcast or who, blogs you follow or your pastor. Go to him first and then go to those places. And that let's him know that you totally respect him. First Corinthians, 14:35 says that is there's anything that they desire to learn, talking about wives, "let them ask their husbands at home." - And I will say this. I think you'll be really surprised by your husband's answers when he does share them with you. I've had girlfriends in the past tell me, you know, I'm not good at asking my husband questions, but I asked him recently, duh duh duh tah duh, and this is what he came back with, and she shared his response and it was incredible and then she got to affirm him in that and it built his confidence. - Yeah, which is number four. - You guys are so cool. Number four is affirm him with kind words. Let him know that you believe he can do this. - Yeah. Number five is be supportive in action. Meaning in front of the kids, being on the same page. If he has a decision, be like, let's do this. We're gonna do this as a family. Dad has made a decision. This is what Dad's decided. Showing him that you're rooting for his leadership. - And that means that things don't change when Dad steps outside of the home to go to work or Dad goes to run an errand. - You instill things that he's desired. - You are the, the mediator between you and your kids and you're going to be an advocate for his vision, for his decisions, for his leadership for them. - Yeah and just as encouragement, this, sometimes this takes times. This always takes time. But Jennifer and I, we're still learning how to do this. I've failed often. Jennifer fails often. This is something that we have to constantly be like, hey. We gotta get realigned. I know I have to remember my role. You have to remember yours. Let's do this. So we just want to encourage you to take those steps in prayer. To desire what God desires. To be in the word of God and yeah, just follow. His ways are good and we just need to chase after those. So as usual, we end in prayer. We pray that this episode encouraged you and so, let me pray. Dear Lord, thank you for the gift of marriage. Thank you for the opportunity to consider these things and how we can mature as a couple. We pray we would walk in righteousness, gentleness and self control. We pray we would be people who see others through the lens of compassion. Help us to be thoughtful in our response to each other. Help us to be respectful in our conduct. We pray our interactions as a married couple would be a testimony of Your power and authority in our lives. May Your light shine brightly in us as we direct each other back to You. In Jesus' name, amen. We love you guys. I hope this blessed you and encouraged you. Just get into those scriptures yourself. And we just want to remind you, if you have been following us for awhile and haven't left a review yet, would you please do that today? Just scroll to the bottom on your app, hit the star rating and if you write out a review also, we love reading those. Again, thank you for joining us and we look forward to having you next week. Did you enjoy today's show? If you did, it would mean the world to us if you could leave us a review on iTunes. Also, if you're interested, you can find many more encouraging stories and resources at MarriageAfterGod.com and let us help you cultivate an extraordinary marriage.

We sat down with the legacy franchisee up in Spokane, Washington, Kerry Parker! We talked about her initial franchise journey and securing here location in Spokane, working alongside her husband Kevin and what their dynamic is like, shares what she does to help cultivate leaders within her franchise, and also speaking on really peeling the layers back and looking in the beauty of people! Please enjoy!

Join Comedian Mike McCowan as he rants about his hatred for Dutch Brothers Coffee shops, people acting like heard animals and his time as a part time inmate in jail in work furlough. For those interested, the Outro song is Headache by Motionless In White. Follow Mike on Instagram @mikemccowanstandup and @dailyjailsurvivalguide --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/easilyIrritated /support

Starbucks vs Dutch Bros ? Which is better? Keri talks about coffee, New Year resolution and what is ahead in 2019.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/kerionthepodcast)

Greetings MMites! In this episode, I talk about the wonderful time that I had when I Headlined at the Nugget Casino in Carson City this past weekend. It doesn't matter if the crowds were big or small, Carson City Comedy Club truly loves comedy! My number one fan Jeanie was there and she had a blast, this woman lives for comedy. I also talk about my opening acts: Curtis Newingham and Nick Josten, they are great comedians that truly respect this art form.  Unfortunately, on Saturday, there was a "Comic" who didn't show any respect towards us, comedy and himself. I say "Comic" with quotes because... well just listen to the episode and you'll understand why.  This is a very fun episode and you will understand why Dutch Brothers doesn't respect you.  Don't forget to email me at mmipodcast19@gmail.com   

Show Summary: Tech Abilities is back in the studio and Serina, Andy and Jeff talk about Smart Devices. From Smart Switches, Smart Thermostats, Smart Smoke and Gas Detectors, Door Bell Cameras and the Google Hub. But is the Apple Home Kit App good enough? Check out this entertaining and informational look at the devices watching you and putting some convenience into your life. How did we get by without it? Hmmm. You can follow Tech Abilities on twitter @AbilitiesTech Contact: Tech Abilities is part of the Blind Abilities Network and be sure to check out all of our shows and podcasts. Thank you for listening! You can follow us on Twitter @BlindAbilities On the web at www.BlindAbilities.com Send us an email Get the Free Blind Abilities Appon the App Store.   Full Transcript: Tech Abilities: Hey Portal, You Watching Me? Smart Home Devices and the Smart Shadow Enters the Thought Bubble Serena Gilbert: It's called the Facebook Portal. Does anyone here trust Facebook? Andy Munoz: Other than the fact that we're tech nerds ... Serena Gilbert: Nope, I don't think I'm going to upgrade, and both of you did in a week. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, an accessible thought bubble. Serena Gilbert: Do you have a smart phonograph, Jeff? What the heck is that? Andy Munoz: Google's your friend, look it up. Serena Gilbert: So, you want a smart shadow. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Having these smart devices, they are truly game changers. Serena Gilbert: Silver. Andy Munoz: Space gray. Jeff Thompson: Gold. Andy Munoz: I smell smoke. Is your Nest going off, Jeff? Serena Gilbert: See what happens when you tell me I'm getting fat? Andy Munoz: I said you could grow into that Blind Abilities t-shirt. Jeff Thompson: Boom, music comes on and six sheets of toilet paper pop out. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. Serena Gilbert: All right, you guys ready? I'm not going to count down. I'm going to make you look for when we start [inaudible]. Good luck. Andy Munoz: Three, two- Serena Gilbert: No. Andy Munoz: One. Serena Gilbert: Nope. All right, I will count down. I'll be nice. Three, two, one. Welcome back to Tech Abilities. This is Serena Gilbert and I am, of course, joined with Jeff Thompson and Andy Munoz. Jeff, how are you? Jeff Thompson: Sorry. Serena Gilbert: Apparently, Jeff is choking. Jeff Thompson: I'm doing great, Serena. Glad to be back. Serena Gilbert: We haven't been around for a while now, but we are back and we've got a great episode. Andy, how are you? Andy Munoz: I'm good. I'm good. I'm actually glad to be back. Serena Gilbert: And, Andy's not choking for the record. Andy Munoz: Nope. No choking here. Jeff Thompson: Ouch. Serena Gilbert: Ouch. You'll be okay, Jeff. You're a big boy. Have you guys heard about the latest news about Facebook? Jeff Thompson: Oh, do tell. Do tell. Serena Gilbert: Apparently, they have a new smart device coming out called the Facebook Portal. Jeff Thompson: I'm got a feeling somebody's watching me. Serena Gilbert: Right? Andy Munoz: Cue the Michael Jackson song. There we go. Serena Gilbert: Perfect timing, Jeff, as usual. Everything about it is ironic from the name of it to all the press surrounding it. It's called the Facebook Portal so theoretically I know what they were going for there. It's like you're in the same room, but does anyone here trust Facebook? Jeff Thompson: How about you, Andy? Do you trust Facebook? Andy Munoz: You know, can you trust anything, honestly? Jeff Thompson: Right. Andy Munoz: Yet, we still use it. The way I look at it is I don't put something out there that I don't want somebody to know 'cause even with locking it down and doing all that stuff, there's people, they want it ... Where there's a will, there's a way. Don't put nothing out there that I don't want nobody to see. Serena Gilbert: The weird thing about Facebook is there's already a theory that we think Facebook listens to us when we're not in it. We've tested this. Start talking about childcare and all of a sudden, you're going to have every childcare center ad in your newsfeed that you ever wanted to see. Andy Munoz: Yep, yep. Serena Gilbert: There's something to it. I really do think that there's something that they're listening to. Imagine putting that in your living room where they're not only able to listen but see what you're doing. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we could really paint this into a corner if we want to, but when you look at other companies such as Target and Home Depot and various other ones on the internet that have had hacks exposing people's identification and personal information, it's inevitable that stuff like this is going to happen, I imagine. It seems like when something like this happens to Facebook, it seems like it really gets a lot of attention. Andy Munoz: Usually, if you have a big name and something happens ... We've all got these high expectations so then they lose credibility, but it really can happen to anybody. Serena Gilbert: Well, let's hear about the specs on this Facebook Portal and then tell me what you guys think about it too. It's funny when you think about it. There's two different versions. There's the standard one. It will be $199. The Portal Plus, as they call it, is a much larger screen and then it's an HD. That will be $349. Both of them say that the camera essentially will follow you as you're talking to somebody or video chatting with them. Serena Gilbert: They initially said that no data was going to be stored and that everything was nice and secure. They then came back and said, "But, wait. We will the information to target ads to you." Yeah. So, the camera's following you in the room and they're targeting ads at you. Still like it? I don't know. Andy Munoz: Regardless of whether you like it or not, there's just no getting away from it because you get the ads even on Facebook itself. I can go right now and I can do a search on Amazon for smart home devices and I guarantee you as soon as I click into Facebook, it's going to show me what I last searched for. For me, it's more or less going to be about what all can it do? What are all the different features? What's going to sell it to me that's going to allow me to really overlook that targeting commercial stuff to me? Serena Gilbert: You're not taking it off your Christmas list yet? Andy Munoz: I wouldn't say I would take it off. It doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to get away from that stuff. As much as you'd like to, as much as I'd like to, it's there. At this point, again, it's going to go back to, what are the features? What's going to make me want to buy this thing that I can't do with another device? Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff, you have this on your shopping list? Jeff Thompson: No, I don't have it on my Christmas list yet, but I should get that started. The thing is, with all these different devices and ecosystems out there, I'm starting to wonder if someone should start with one ecosystem and stick with just one such as yourself. What benefits does the Facebook Portal have over your Amazon Show? Serena Gilbert: I don't think it offers anything different because they both do the video chatting. The screen does appear to be a little bit larger on the Facebook Portal. I think that the entry-level price on it is cheaper because the Amazon Show is, I believe, $229 and the Facebook Portal would be starting at $199. There's a $30 difference there. Serena Gilbert: It's really funny because I saw the ad on Facebook, of course, and the comments ... I just had to read the comments 'cause they were so funny and everyone's like, "So, why can't I just FaceTime?" Jeff Thompson: Yeah, right? Serena Gilbert: You're offering me a speaker that you say I can make all these calls on, I can just do that on my phone already, so what's the point? 'Cause they're not boosting that it has this awesome sound quality, they're not advertising that it's smart. I guess it will have Alexa built into it. Sorry, guys. It will have the 'A' lady built into it, but why would you spend the money on a third-party device to have the 'A' lady when you can get that straight from Amazon anyway? Andy Munoz: The other part of it too is you can actually video chat via Facebook Messenger just depending upon what device you're using. If I'm sitting at my computer, I've already got a 19" HD display so why would I want to invest in something different other than the fact that we're tech nerds and we like to know these things and we never know when we're going to run across something where we're maybe going to have to maybe troubleshoot something like that. That would be maybe its sole purpose. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think that Facebook is coming late into the game in this. The newness of the new products coming out, everyone wanted to experiment or explore these new gidgets and gadgets and now we all have probably multiple ecosystems in our house. You might have a Google or Amazon or an Apple device going right now. Is it time right now to add one more to the mix that we have in our house? That sometimes I think it's not doing exactly what I thought it would. So, I think people are being desensitized from the thrill of it all, the newness of these types of gadgets and Facebook is just a little late into the game. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, it always makes you wonder, is there really room on my shelf for one more smart device? Where would I even put it? Jeff Thompson: I wonder what we're going to have to say to invoke the Facebook Portal, "Mr. Senator," or "Yo, Zucker." Serena Gilbert: You say, and does this sound at all familiar, "Hey, Portal." Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: Yeah, which those of us who are super lucky enough to have HomePods ... Jeff Thompson: Super lucky. Serena Gilbert: Super lucky. Jeff Thompson: Super. Serena Gilbert: Super- Jeff Thompson: Lucky. Serena Gilbert: ... lucky. We know what the wake word is for that. Very similar. Jeff Thompson: It'd be funny if it was Mr. Senator. Yes, Senator. Yes, Senator. Andy Munoz: What kind of responses does it give if you call it the wrong name? Jeff Thompson: I have no idea. It's not out until, what, November? Mid-November? Serena Gilbert: It says November. It doesn't even have a specific data, it just says November. I predict ... I think this is going to be a big, huge flop for Facebook. I think this is going to be a lot of lost money because who knows how many they've already produced. They'll probably sell maybe 100,000 which is nothing when there's how many billion users on Facebook? Jeff Thompson: Yeah, plus the fact when I looked it up. I think ten things came up when I did my search, nine of them were about, "Is this a good idea? Should they pull the plug now? Should they save their costs? Are the stocks falling on Facebook?" and, "Do you trust Facebook to secure this information that it's gathering?" I don't know. I don't think it's going to be on my Christmas list, Serena. Serena Gilbert: I know one thing that I keep trying to get you to add to the Christmas list, but I don't know if you will. Jeff Thompson: What's that? Serena Gilbert: Remember? I told my bestie that you wanted a HomePod. Jeff Thompson: Oh! And you want to go to CSUN. Serena Gilbert: You know it. Jeff Thompson: That's coming up. That's around the corner. Serena Gilbert: Better get to planning. Jeff Thompson: The more we talk, the closer it gets. Serena Gilbert: There's a really good Christmas gift right there. Andy can go too. Andy Munoz: Hey. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: We'll get in all kinds of trouble. It's in Anaheim this time. Jeff Thompson: Someone's got to run that Colorado show out there though. Serena Gilbert: We'll be okay. Andy Munoz: We'll survive. Jeff Thompson: A new device that's out from Google is the Google Home Hub ... Yeah, the Google Home Hub. Serena Gilbert: The need a better name for that one. Jeff Thompson: I was wondering if this was the answer to anybody out there that has collected a few devices, one for their Google Home that works on their ... One works on the Amazon Device. If this is the answer that will solve some of the problems of bringing everything together. Serena Gilbert: How does the Hub work? I don't fully understand it. Jeff Thompson: Okay. A hub is also known as a bridge and what it is is a central location device that actually can control all the different smart devices that you have located throughout your house. If you have smart plugs, smart switches, smart doorbells, smart thermostat, you can actually connect them up all to one spot, which is a hub and then access that. Jeff Thompson: Typically, what people do is access it through an iPad or something so they have one control. From there, you can set up groups, you can set up different modes for things to be on that come on at certain times, go off at certain times. You can group lights together, you can have full control over all these devices in one location rather than using the TP app, the WeMo app, and the Nest app and figure out everything else. You can actually tie them all together and that's what a hub/bridge does. Jeff Thompson: The HomeKit app, that app was put out, is something that was trying to become a bridge in your wi-fi system to tie all these together. Now, you've got to remember that everything has to be able to reach the wi-fi system. You might have a plug or a switch far enough away where your wi-fi isn't that great, so you'll have to do an extender. Whereas, you can get pretty elaborate. You can go into the Z-Wave system, which actually every device that's hooked up becomes a little transmitter too so it can chainlink all these together so it can reach a further distance. Jeff Thompson: Interesting stuff once you get interesting stuff once you get into the high-end of homes, but as for affordability and everything, I think Google Home Hub is an idea. It might be something that works good for you, but I think HomeKit really has the advantage here in wi-fi in the future. If you're just talking about adding some conveniences to your house and not really going into the major planning of a full day operation of automation going on. Jeff Thompson: Shades open. Lights on. Mood setting. Thermostat adjust and someday turn on stereo system. Play phonograph. Set the mood. The possibilities could be endless. You can do some of that with HomeKit, but yeah. Basically, that's was a hub/bridge does. It ties everything together under one physical device that you can access and control everything. Serena Gilbert: I'm just so distracted because I'm pretty sure you said phonograph. Andy Munoz: He did say phonograph. Serena Gilbert: What the heck is that? Andy Munoz: It's a record player. Serena Gilbert: Do you have a smart phonograph, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: I'm just saying, yeah, there probably is one. You can get one to skip and ... Andy Munoz: Yeah, you can get it to do some scratchin'. Scratchin'. You know? You know? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Yes, Jeff. You are definitely the old man right now. Andy Munoz: Well, it's funny because my kid's now into buying vinyls and I'm like, "Why are they even still making those," and come to find out yeah, they're making record players again. Jeff Thompson: I have two record players and I collected albums back in the day and I still have them. They're popular again. It's kind of neat. Andy Munoz: It's kind of interesting how technology's going full circle. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, for the young ones listening to our podcast, what's an album? You going to tell them that? No, I'm just kidding. Andy Munoz: Google's your friend, look it up. Serena Gilbert: On your smart speaker. Andy Munoz: Ask the 'A' lady, she'll tell you. Serena Gilbert: I am curious, because this is all about smart devices, if we could go around, I guess the virtual table and let's hear about what smart devices you have in your home right now and what you like, what you don't like, maybe, if you're on the market for a new one. We'll start with you, Andy. Andy Munoz: Okay. So, right now, I don't have any. I'm in the market. I've got a pretty archaic thermostat. The thing is huge, but the problem is I can see the numbers, but I can't see how it programs. I certainly want something that I have a little bit more that I can do with it then having to rely on somebody else to set it up. Jeff Thompson: What you're saying is you want to be the master of your own domain. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: There you go. Serena Gilbert: Seinfeld reference. Andy Munoz: Primarily, I'm just looking for a thermostat. Ceiling fans would be nice. Serena Gilbert: They make smart ceiling fans? Andy Munoz: Yeah, they make ... Serena Gilbert: I didn't know that. Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Serena Gilbert: That would be really cool. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. They invented the ceiling fan right after the phonograph. When I was looking up the Google Home Hub, the GHH, they claim that it can connect up to 5,000 different devices. So, that probably includes the phonographs and let's see, what came out right after phonographs? Ceiling fans, Serena. Yeah, there's probably a smart gidget or gadget out there for pert near anything. Andy Munoz: Oh, yeah. When I was working with Apple, I got a guy that called in that was setting up a smart garage door opener. Serena Gilbert: Now, why do we need that? I really don't understand that. What does it recognize your car when you drive up to it? Jeff Thompson: Well, when you have your smart Amazon Drive in your car, you can then just say, "Open, sesame." Serena Gilbert: Oh, my God. Jeff Thompson: Lower the drawbridge. Serena Gilbert: Secret passcode, right? I really don't understand what a smart garage door would do that a regular garage door ... You push a button and it opens. What else do we need it to do? Jeff Thompson: You have to actually move your arm to push the button. Serena Gilbert: I get it because ... We laugh at how lazy this is making us 'cause we don't have to leave our couch to turn the light on or off or adjust the thermostat, but it truly does open up accessibility for tons and tons of people with disabilities that have mobility impairments or maybe even a cognitive impairment where it just makes a life a lot more independent and affordable. Before, doing something like this would be thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, now they can just get it right on the market. Andy Munoz: Or, even just the simple fact that you either make some sort of adjustment cosmetically or what have you so that it could be used or you stay reliant on somebody to help you with that. Having these smart devices, they are truly game changers. For the rest of us, yeah, it makes us lazy. Jeff Thompson: As long as your wi-fi doesn't get knocked down. Andy Munoz: Yeah, that too. Yeah. Serena Gilbert: I was just thinking that. I was just about to say, "Until somebody hacks it." Then, it will drive you crazy. Jeff Thompson: One of the concerns I would be looking into is if I was going to get the Canary or the HomeSafe alarm system that hooks up to your wi-fi and is a smart device, that, just like the bridge and the hub, are these connected to just your wi-fi or if someone cuts your wi-fi cable, will it give you an alert through cellular or run off the cellular? Andy Munoz: I believe that they do because actually my brother-in-law just made some changes. He gave up his business-class wi-fi and went back to residential and they bundled it all and got the security system. Yeah, if the wi-fi goes down it then does go to cellular. Jeff Thompson: Oh, that's nice. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, 'cause we have a Honeywell Lyric. With got it for free from our home owner's insurance company and they gave us four of them. What it is is you put anywhere that there's water that could possibly leak and it's connected to wi-fi. It also puts this obnoxious, loud beeping sound A, when there is water that it detects and B, just when the battery is dying. Andy Munoz: Does it go onto the floor? Serena Gilbert: Well, you can do it two different ways. We have one on the hose of our washer and it's got this cord that you can wrap around it that if it detects the water then it will set off the alarm. Or, you can just set it on the floor and you don't need the cord then. As soon as it detects water it will start beeping and it will send a notification to your phone. Serena Gilbert: When we changed our wi-fi, we never put them back on the new wi-fi 'cause I frankly couldn't remember how to do it. When we changed our router out and had to get a new wi-fi network put up, it sent emails to me saying that they were offline. That's really cool because your hot water heater could be leaking for days and you'd never know. Ours is in the basement. We don't go down there but maybe once a month. Jeff Thompson: That's neat. That's less invasive. There's a more invasive one that actually goes right into your plumbing system. You cut the line and you put this device in there and it will notify you if the pressure drops. If you're on vacation, your lines should have no open valves so there should be a constant pressure and if that pressure drops significantly, then it will give you a signal and notify you that there's been a change, possibly a leak, that could really devastate your home. Serena Gilbert: Yeah, that could save a lot of money. Imagine if you came back from vacation and there were six feet of water in your basement. Jeff Thompson: Swimming pool, yeah. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: Well, I was talking to somebody that they were out of town, but their son was there. He didn't realize it, but there had been a leak. So, their basement flooded and, on top of it, they ended up with a $5,000 water bill. That was in the course of three weeks. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my God. I would cry. Oh, my God. Andy Munoz: Yeah, it was pretty crazy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, wow. I think a lot of these devices, like you're saying, for someone that has a speech impediment of some sort or something, that there's alternative devices now that through your wi-fi, making the home smarter. We just usually think about these devices that we're using today, but a lot of these switches and commands that we're using are pretty versatile and available to other people. Like you said, it used to be tens of thousands of dollars to make a home accessible for someone with a disability that it may help them open a door or turn on lights as you said, but now, these devices are stuff we buy off the shelf. Jeff Thompson: You can get the Hue lights and dim your lights and do other things and the switches and put everything on a timer. My driveway lights ... I have a WeMo light switch that my driveway lights come on when it gets dark, sunset, and goes off at a certain time. Then, I have some lamps in the living room that come on at the same time and go off at the same time. I have three switches working like that, plug in switches and one light switch. I like that automation because kind of get it. The lights come on. Oh, it's dark out, if you can sense that. If someone comes over, the house isn't just totally dark. Andy Munoz: Well, it's nice especially in today's society, you definitely want to have those lights on on the outside. You don't want people creeping up on your house. For me, I look at the negative side of that just because it is real. You definitely want to make sure that you have some light so your house can be seen, and I think it detracts from people wanting to do anything to it in a negative manner. Jeff Thompson: Plus, when you're away from home ... When I was in England, I could actually turn the lights off or on just from a flip on my phone, from the app. Andy Munoz: Right. Jeff Thompson: Something to remember about some of these home devices, it seems so great. Hey, just put a light switch in, but to put a light switch in with the WeMo and other ones, you do need all three wires there. You need your positive, your negative, and your neutral wire. Andy Munoz: Right. Jeff Thompson: Typically, a house that was built pre-90s, I believe, somewhere around there, switches were interrupters. So, they only ran the hot wire down to one side and to the other so when you switch is down, it breaks the connection. Lot of houses either had them drop down from the ceiling or they came up from the basement. The switches were not the place to run all the wires. They ran those to the lights above and just dropped down the ones. Jeff Thompson: That may be a problem if you want to add a light switch or a dimmer switch, but you will need to have all three there. If you don't, then you have to have an electrician come in and run a neutral wire up and facilitate it that way. So, that could get expensive. Andy Munoz: Right. It's good just to know that in general. Jeff Thompson: Oh, for sure. It also might justify spending the money for a smart light bulb where you can control that specific light bulb or a group of light bulbs with a command from an app or a voice command directed at one of your personal devices such as an Amazon, Google, Apple device, your smart speaker device. Jeff Thompson: Another device that I'm kind of interested is the Look or Nest makes a product, a couple other people make these products, they're cameras on your doorbell. When motion happens at the front door, you'll get a message on your phone that says, "Motion at front door," and that solves the problem of thinking, "Why do I need a camera at the front door?" Well, the camera does give the indication that there's motion, which then triggers the notification that you'll get, but these two need the existing wire that the previous doorbell used because they need a transformer. So, that's something you want to look into. Jeff Thompson: If you don't have a doorbell, then you'll have to install this pre-wiring beforehand. If you do have one, you have to make sure that it's 24 volts running to it because all these devices do need a power source to be running. Just beware, when you're thinking and considering and buying these products, read the small braille. Andy Munoz: Love it. Love it. Small braille. Serena Gilbert: Oh, man. Isn't all the braille small? Jeff Thompson: There is jumbo braille for people with neuropathy. Jeff Thompson: Serena, what kind of devices are you working with? Serena Gilbert: I have a WeMo plug. One thing I wanted to share with you guys is that, if you have Amazon Prime, there's been a few times just in the last few months where they sent out a deal where you can get a smart plug or a smart light bulb for only $10. We bought one when they did that and, sad to say, it's still sitting in the package because I need two and I've just been too cheap to buy the second one for my lamps downstairs. Serena Gilbert: It was summer when I bought them, so I was like, "Oh, we never need the lights on anyways." Now, it gets dark at like 6:15, 6:30 and it would be nice to just go on my phone and turn them on or use the Echo to turn them on. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I noticed and that's how I've got ... I don't know why I'm coughing. Serena Gilbert: You're just getting too old over there. Jeff Thompson: Geez, you're sticking with this one. Serena Gilbert: See what happens when you tell me I'm getting fat? Jeff Thompson: I didn't say that. I know not to say stuff like that. Serena Gilbert: Would you like to share what you said? Jeff Thompson: I said you could grow into that Blind Abilities t-shirt. Serena Gilbert: No, you said I'm going to grow into it because of the shake that I had. Jeff Thompson: Why don't you tell the listeners what you put in your shake tonight? Serena Gilbert: Shameless plug for Five Guys Burgers and Fries. I had a shake and I added Oreo to it and Oreo cream and Double Stuff Oreo. I see nothing wrong with that. Jeff Thompson: Plus, some ice cream, right? Serena Gilbert: Milk, with sugar. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so I'll repeat it. You'll probably grow into that t-shirt. Serena Gilbert: This is not helping you. You're going to get some hate mail from all the ladies out there. Jeff Thompson: If anybody else would like to grow into a Blind Abilities t-shirt, email us at info@blindabilities.com. Andy Munoz: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. Not very nice, Jeff. Andy Munoz: But, it is funny. Serena Gilbert: I'm telling my bestie on you. Jeff Thompson: You do have a HomePod, right? Serena Gilbert: I do. If anyone's ever listened to me on any podcast, they know I absolutely adore that HomePod. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, I hear it is good sound. So are the Sonos. The Sonos are pretty good and with the smart device built into those too. The thing is, with API on those since it's not a true Amazon device, you only get partial use of the full functionality of what you'll get out of an Amazon device like the Dot or the Echo. Sometimes you forget that you only get that limited usage out of them. I wonder how much the Facebook Portal will have? Serena Gilbert: It's probably the same API that they have on the Sonos because the Amazon's got to give you some reason to buy theirs. Why would you ever buy the Amazon one when the Sonos clearly sounds way better sound-wise. There has to be some incentive. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, just be aware when you're buying these devices what they connect up with. Some connect up with more than one platform. It might connect up to Amazon or it might connect up to Apple, but just check that out. Jeff Thompson: With the HomeKit app in your iOS device, that application is your hub, your bridge, and that might be the thing of the future, using your wi-fi. Whereas the hub, it just may be ... Serena Gilbert: I feel like it's another way for them to get you to spend- Jeff Thompson: More money. Serena Gilbert: $100. With me, 'cause I have the HomePod, I have the Amazon device, I'm trying to be smart about the devices that I choose since we don't have a smart home yet where either I can find some that work with both or depending on where the device that I'm buying is going to be, it works with whatever is closest to it. Andy Munoz: Definitely some strategy into it. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. One weird thing that I noticed when I did get the HomePod is, for some reason, and I don't know if it's the way that Apple's system is so locked down, but the devices that say they're compatible with HomeKit, they're never the ones ... They're always more expensive it seems. The ones that are compatible with the Amazon devices, there's so many of them that the price has come down on them. When you look at the ones that say HomeKit, it's like upwards of double the price for the same functionality. Andy Munoz: I'm guessing you're right that Apple is so locked down with everything that they do and you don't have a lot of choice as you do with Amazon or Google. A lot of the coding and development and stuff that goes into all that stuff is open source. Not to dog Google in any way, shape, or form by saying this, but their standards are more open than what you get with an Apple. I would venture to say that you're right on that. Jeff Thompson: When I first started down this path of adding smart switches and smart plugins, outlets to the house, I went with WeMo and I stuck with it. It seems to be doing good and just lately, I got an update and now the WeMo switches, the smart, mini WeMo switches, are able to work with the HomeKit, which is the native app in your iOS device titled, "Home," H-O-M-E. Jeff Thompson: The new ones that you get, they'll have a little code on them and you just scan it and it will register right into your application of your HomeKit and boom, there you go. That is very similar to my Nest Protect because all I did there was scan in the product and boom, it was connected up into my app, which just makes it very nice. Jeff Thompson: In the app, it does incorporate that these devices can now be synced up together. I have them synced up with my Amazon device, my google device, my iPhone. I can make my iPad, which stays at home basically, as the hub. By me invoking the HomeKit as my hub, do I really need a Google Home Hub? Do I really need a central device? I think I'm okay. Andy Munoz: I guess if you look at it from most people's perspective, we want it with generally a handheld device. Let's face it. There's times that we're not going to be in our home, when we want to be able to have that remote access, that remote control. I think that the hubs are a nice thought, but I don't know how realistic it is. Jeff Thompson: Serena, you had mentioned that you were considering a basement remodel. Have you thought about incorporating the smart home features? Serena Gilbert: It would be nice kind of thing, but yeah, we haven't officially done that. All I really want in the house right now is a smart thermostat because I really struggle with what temperature it is in the house. The house is only two years old. I meant the builder if they could put in a smart one for me and then I just spaced it. I regret that. Serena Gilbert: I really have to rethink it 'cause I know that my husband would like a doorbell camera at some point. It's like do we go with Ring; do we go with Nest because I'd like it to just all be the same brand just to make life easy. Jeff Thompson: I have a Nest Protect and that's a smoke alarm that mounts to the ceiling. If I buy another Nest Protect, they communicate with each other and announce their location. In a case of an emergency, you will know where the smoke is coming from. Speaker 4:           Emergency. There's smoke downstairs. Jeff Thompson: If I do get a Nest thermostat, that too will connect to the family of Nest products. If there is a fire, it will shut off the furnace so you don't have the air blowing around and flaming the fire ... Flaming? Wafting the flame. Serena Gilbert: Good job. Your old brain worked. Jeff Thompson: Oh, it may not be as quick as a Millennial, but it's wiser. Jeff Thompson: So, having items from the same family, the same Nest products in my situation pays off for me. I would also like to mention that the Nest Protect, the smoke alarm that's in the ceiling, has a glowing light on it and it comes on when it senses motion. So, in the middle of the night, if you walk past it, it will glow brighter. Serena Gilbert: That's cool. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, so that's a neat little feature that will help family members as well. Serena, you mentioned the doorbell with the camera. Now, some people may say, "Why do I need a camera when I can't see who's out there?" However, the camera senses motion and then it will send you a notification that there's motion at the front door. Serena Gilbert: That's very cool. Jeff Thompson: I see the benefits in that as well. Jeff Thompson: Now, a friend of mine, just to be fair, has the Honeywell thermostat. Serena Gilbert: Is the Honeywell app accessible? Jeff Thompson: He says it is, however, he doesn't use voice over but he tested it and he says it is. I haven't put it through the rigors, but it's $100 cheaper and Honeywell is a good product. It has high ratings on it as well. However, being in the same family and interconnecting as such, I think Nest makes a good line of product that really should be considered. Plus, Nest is owned by Google, right? Serena Gilbert: Is it? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: [inaudible] conspiracy. Andy Munoz: I have to say though, I'm with Jeff on the whole ... Usually, if I buy a brand, that's usually what I like to stick to and keep it consistent. A lot of it, I think, has to do for me about what the previous experiences have been. If I bought something like a Samsung TV and it's worked well for me, I'm going to be more inclined to go back out and buy that same brand just because I've had that good experience and I trust it. I think too, part of it too is if they can communicate with each other in some way, shape, or form, all the better. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, safety first. That brings up home security systems in your house that hooks up with wi-fi from doors to windows. I'm starting to wonder how many devices you can have connected up to your wi-fi system before it becomes over-weighted or strained. That's probably where a hub comes in because it would take that load. Until you get to that point, I think that's when you start wondering about a hub. Jeff Thompson: I just want to use the apps that each thing comes with. Set it up one time and move on. I don't want to have to pull that out all the time and say, "Honey, let's set the mood lighting for this movie," or have all my Christmas lights on my iPad so I can spell words or have special designs going across. That's not my bag. I just want these devices to work out of their own app. I just think the HomeKit, the home app, will suffice for most people that are venturing into the smart home devices. Andy Munoz: Well, because I think too we all have this thing where we generally know when we're going to be home and when we're not unless you have something where you're out of the norm, you have a function that you're going to go to or what have you. In my house, I generally know who's going to be home and when they're going to be home. To be able to say, "All right, yeah, let's have a heat come on at this time. Have it shut off at this time," that kind of stuff is super convenient. Andy Munoz: Because right now, it's one of those things where because I can't program it the way that I want and my wife isn't able to program it, she's [inaudible]. It's just an archaic thermostat. There's times she'll say 8:30 at night, "It's cold." I have to turn it up because yeah, it shut down when it really should have been on. There again, it would be nice to have something where definitely have that control and to be able to do that and know that it's going to be consistent. Jeff Thompson: Serena, do you want the Amazon Bathroom where you walk in and the lights come on, the toilet seat heats up, and boom, music comes on and six sheets of toilet paper pop out? Serena Gilbert: If you can find a way to heat my floor in my bathroom, I'd be happy. Jeff Thompson: Oh, they have that. Serena Gilbert: I don't know if I need the toilet seat heat. I'm okay. But, I was thinking about what you guys were talking about and I was just thinking of the cost savings with that. Just the heat alone to save it ... 'Cause right now, our heat's just either off or on. Then, we all know the theory behind how long it takes to raise the heat so many degrees. It's more expensive then to keep it steady. Serena Gilbert: Then, there's also the cost savings of if you own your house. Especially with the smoke detectors that you have, Jeff, I'm sure you're saving money on your home owner's insurance too. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, that's great, Serena, because if you contact your insurance company you can find out so much more about what you could be doing to your house for safety-wise that will ultimately save you money in the insurance policy premium. Serena Gilbert: It'd be totally worth it. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. You want to tell them you have a smoke alarm. Don't call them and tell them you don't have any. Serena Gilbert: What do you mean you didn't have one? Hold on a minute. We need to raise your premium a little bit. Jeff Thompson: Back pay. It's just really nice that there's devices out there that we can implement into our lives. Like you said, Andy, just make it more convenient and ... Especially the doorbell. I'm really intrigued about that, the camera. I was the one that would always say, "Why do I need a camera? I can't see blah, blah, blah," but that it alerts you, you know? Serena Gilbert: Some of them have it where you can speak to them. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Yeah. Serena Gilbert: And, hear the sound. Jeff Thompson: That's a neat alert. You know someone's at the front door. Andy Munoz: Yes, I was just going to say, "And, they have no idea that you're not even home." Jeff Thompson: Right. I'm going to get one before trick-or-treaters come out. This will be fun. Serena Gilbert: Scare them. Oh, my goodness. Well, it will especially help during the holiday season when you're expecting your Amazon packages 'cause if there's sound with it too, there's pretty distinct noise when the UPS truck pulls up. Jeff Thompson: I think if you do it right ... We should appeal to all the truck drivers that deliver packages to wear little bells on their shoes so we know it's them. Serena Gilbert: It's like a code. That reminds me though. I was watching Shark Tank a few weeks ago and there was a business on there and they didn't get a deal, but it was a smart device that it was a box that the driver would scan the code on the package, it'd open up the box, they'd put the package in there, and then it would close back up again. They didn't get a deal for obvious reasons because, frankly, the UPS drivers probably aren't going to scan it. They're just going to sit the package on top of the box and keep going. Serena Gilbert: It did bring up an interesting thing though. If they could have licensed that to UPS or FedEx or USPS, made it part of their flow, that could really curb porch pirates. Jeff Thompson: I got a question for you guys. What device isn't out there yet, but you would like to have a smart device as? Serena Gilbert: Oh, you know what I'm going to say as my son always says when I ask him questions. I want my smart self-driving car. Jeff Thompson: That's coming. Serena Gilbert: But it's not accessible. There's too many laws. Jeff Thompson: They'll probably have a little screen to open the door and it will be like, "Everything's accessible except you can't get in the door." Serena Gilbert: Yeah. You have to put in this passcode that's on this touchscreen. Jeff Thompson: They'll have a Captcha. Serena Gilbert: God, I hate those things. Then, you try to listen to it. Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Four seven three apple two orange W. Serena Gilbert: You're like, "Are you in a call center doing this?" I don't understand. Jeff Thompson: I know it's crazy. It's like, "Gosh, I had good hearing until I heard that." Andy Munoz: If you'd get you a tin can that would sound so perfect. Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Serena Gilbert: I hate those things. Jeff Thompson: I was on a website today. I know this is off topic. I was on a website today. It was all about accessibility. It's supposed to be an educational accessibility thing and all this stuff. It was really interesting. I was actually intrigued with the layout and stuff and they had a Captcha that was inaccessible. It's like, "Really? You did all this and now that." Andy Munoz: Somebody did not think that through. Jeff Thompson: No. Serena Gilbert: #accesibilityFail. Jeff Thompson: They have accessibility in their name. Serena Gilbert: Did you send them an email? Jeff Thompson: No. Andy Munoz: Wow. Jeff Thompson: I got off of it and I just sat there for a minute thinking, "That's so stupid." Serena Gilbert: You didn't make your trademark noise? Andy, what's the smart device that you're hoping for? Andy Munoz: Wow. That could be plenty but something that would open up my dryer and pull out my laundry and hang it up. Serena Gilbert: Oh, so you want the robot from the Jetsons. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: That's be Judy wouldn't it? Serena Gilbert: Just your luck 'cause wasn't George always getting all this technology failing for him? Andy Munoz: Yeah, she malfunctioned one day and she did a bunch of different weird stuff that was all backwards. Jeff Thompson: I think for a device that I'm looking forward to and I hope they have it someday, is really a personal assistant, but not a physical one that would actually do things for me but you know how you think of to-do lists and you think of all this stuff? Something that follows your thought like that. When you wake up the next day, it's like, "Jeff, remember the garbage." Serena Gilbert: You want a chip implanted in your head. Jeff Thompson: Just call it the thought bubble or something. Serena Gilbert: Thought bubble. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, an accessible thought bubble. Just like, "Lori told me three things yesterday. What was that?" "Jeff, you weren't listening where you?" I want that companion, that thing that actually helps me move along. Serena Gilbert: Jeff, all you have to do is win the Powerball and then you can just pay someone to follow you around for the rest of your life. Jeff Thompson: But, I think this would help people. We're talking about old age, but people who have memory issues and stuff. That seems to be a prominent thing in today's world. Everyone knows someone that might be going through it or someone that is affected by it. Something that could shadow you, your shadow. If your shadow could talk, it would remember. Serena Gilbert: So, you want a smart shadow? Jeff Thompson: Yeah. Do you guys think that's far off? Andy Munoz: Time wise maybe. I don't know. Technology's so rapid that anything's possible at any given point. I think, for me, it's even pointless half the time for me to put stuff even as reminders 'cause I just ignore them. Serena Gilbert: I'm the same way. Andy Munoz: For work and stuff, obviously, I pay attention to my calendar and that sort of thing, but outside of that, I'll say, "Yeah, I put it in my calendar. I'll do this, that, or the other." It's like it's there but nine times out of 10 I'm just going to blow it off and ignore it anyway. Serena Gilbert: I have a reminder on my phone right now that's 19 days old but I still didn't do it. Like, "Oh, I'll just ignore it and it will pop back up in a couple weeks." Jeff Thompson: Avoid shakes from Five Brothers. Serena Gilbert: Five Guys, get it right. Jeff Thompson: Avoid shakes from Five Guys. Serena Gilbert: You guys don't have Five Guys up in Minnesota? Jeff Thompson: No. We only got three guys. We're working on it. Serena Gilbert: You don't know what you're missing. You don't have Dutch Brothers. You don't have Five Guys. God, how do you live? Jeff Thompson: Well, you're in the fastest growing city in the United States right now. Serena Gilbert: It's 'cause we've got all these Millennials. They love it here. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: That's why we're getting all these cool home deliver things. We just got Prime Now here. We can get Whole Food delivered in two hours for free. Jeff Thompson: That's awesome. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Jeff Thompson: How big is Cold Spring? Serena Gilbert: Old Spring? Jeff Thompson: Colorado Springs. How big is Colorado Springs? Andy Munoz: The general city is like 400,000, but then you've got the surrounding areas that make up more and we're probably closer to 650 to 700,000. Jeff Thompson: Really? Serena Gilbert: I think they said by ... Do you remember what year it was, Andy? Maybe it was like 2050, which sounds far away, but it really isn't if you think about it. We would actually be bigger than Denver technically. Andy Munoz: That's what they're saying. Serena Gilbert: Yeah. Andy Munoz: It's ridiculous to think because when you go to Denver, you go to downtown Denver and you see all the big high rise buildings and stuff and then you come to Colorado Springs and you look at our downtown. It's like no comparison. I think the highest building we have is maybe 20 stories. Serena Gilbert: I don't even know if there's a 20-story one, honestly. If there is, then it's one of the hotels. Jeff Thompson: Which leads into is Colorado Springs going to be a smart city? Serena Gilbert: I don't think we will. Just politically, our city and then the other city, there's another small city that's in between Denver and Colorado Springs called Castle Rock, our two cities had the option to be part of the light rail system that's in Denver and they refused. Every time that it comes back up, they keep resisting and keep refusing because they don't want light rail here for some reason. I don't get it. Andy Munoz: Smart city means that you have to have some intelligence and Colorado Springs operates on the motto, "If it doesn't make sense, do it." Jeff Thompson: Yeah, it's really neat here because we do have the light rail running right through Fridley and it's neat. Even our buses and our light rails now have wi-fi while you're on them. Serena Gilbert: Very nice. Jeff Thompson: Yeah, we're not a bustling city anymore, but it's a big area. I think two-thirds of the population of Minnesota is located right in the twin cities, Saint Paul-Minneapolis and the seven-county area. It's nice that you get those little amenities like that but I always thought Colorado Springs was a ... Well, it's not Denver. It's a quaint little town. But, wow, number one in the United States for growth. Serena Gilbert: Real estate too. Andy Munoz: It's really been in just the last several years. It's just really kind of just took off. Serena Gilbert: Well, a lot of it is the people from Denver have moved down here so they're still making their Denver wages. So, they move down here and we're buying Colorado Springs waged houses and then that's driving it all up, but then they're still commuting to Denver for work. That's contributing to the traffic problems too. The commute's about an hour, hour and 10 if you go early enough. Andy Munoz: Yeah, if you go early enough. Jeff Thompson: They need to get that tunnel. Serena Gilbert: I still want my hyperloop. Jeff Thompson: That's ready to open up, isn't it? Serena Gilbert: No. There's a test track in L.A. it's either two minutes or two miles. It's probably the same difference, but they're going to open that up and let people actually be able to test run it. Like, regular people. Jeff Thompson: As opposed to the irregular people? Serena Gilbert: Hey. Jeff Thompson: No, I think it's really neat that smart cities are coming about. A lot of devices are happening. A lot of transportation things like you want the car and I think everyone's been thinking about that and dreaming about that and wondering. Now, we say it's right around the corner, but that's a long ways to that corner sometimes. Serena Gilbert: You know, it will be interesting though because you just told me the NFB conference next year is in Vegas. Vegas is testing a... Lyft is testing a whole fleet of driverless vehicles on the strip there. Jeff Thompson: So, beware. Serena Gilbert: That would be interesting. Andy Munoz: Stay off the sidewalks. Jeff Thompson: Tap widely. Serena Gilbert: But they're safer than human drivers you guys. The accidents they have are only when the human does something to it to cause it to happen. Jeff Thompson: Well, I think ideally it's all going to be safer when there's more and more of them because they'll be able to communicate with each other just like my Nest will be able to communicate with things. Those cars will communicate with the other cars so it will almost be like a light rail once you get a stream of them going in a sense. Serena Gilbert: The only thing I worry about is because obviously to get where you're going it's reliant on some sort of GPS. So, you know there's a couple things that go with that. When the network's down, what happens to the cars? Or, when you're like my house where you weren't on the GPS for two entire years, where does it go? Does it stop somewhere and say you're there when you're really not? Those are things they'd have to definitely fix. Jeff Thompson: From smart devices, smart houses, it will be interesting to learn more about smart cities and smart automobiles. Probably by next show we could get a smart host. Serena Gilbert: I guess I'm coming down off my sugar high. Andy Munoz: She's thinking, "I smell smoke. Is your Nest going off, Jeff?" Jeff Thompson: Maybe the wi-fi went down and the house is burning. Andy Munoz: Uh-oh. Serena Gilbert: Oh, my goodness. I could just see a comic right now where there's a drawing and there's clearly smoke and fire, but the person's just looking at their phone and it says they are like, "Nope. Smoke detectors say that there's no fire." Serena Gilbert: Well, I have had tons of fun talking with you guys. Hopefully, we've got some ideas for our Christmas list right, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: Mm-hmm. CSUN. Serena Gilbert: Still haven't sold you on the HomePod have I? Jeff Thompson: Well, I'm going to be here to look under my tree or I'll just listen under my tree. Maybe it will tell her how to set it up too. Serena Gilbert: But, it's Apple. It just works, right? Jeff Thompson: Oh, yeah. Andy Munoz: There you go. Jeff Thompson: I have to say that I sit amongst an orchard of Apples. Serena Gilbert: You've got every color Apple there is. Jeff Thompson: Oh, by the way, what color is your iPhone X? Serena Gilbert: Silver. Andy Munoz: Space gray. Jeff Thompson: Gold. Serena Gilbert: You got a pink one, Jeff? Jeff Thompson: No, I didn't get rose gold. I got gold. Serena Gilbert: Are you sure you didn't get rose gold? Jeff Thompson: Well, I don't know. I got the case on. I'll never know. Serena Gilbert: Exactly. I just find it so funny with the last podcast we did how much you guys specifically said, "Nope, I don't think I'm going to upgrade," and both of you did in like a week of each other. Jeff Thompson: I walked into the Apple store. That's what went wrong. Andy Munoz: Yeah, I walked into the Sprint store with my son and there we go. I have to run guys. I do have an errand that I need to run. Serena Gilbert: That sounds awful suspicious considering that it's like 10:00 at night. Andy Munoz: Got to go to the pharmacy. Serena Gilbert: I don't even want to know, Andy. Serena Gilbert: Anyway, I enjoyed talked with both you guys and I can't wait to record the next episode and until next time, bye. Andy Munoz: Peace. Jeff Thompson: Bye-bye. Serena Gilbert: Get off the phone. Andy Munoz: I want to thank you for listening. Be sure to follow Tech Abilities on Twitter. That's @AbilitiesTech. A big thank you to Jeff Thompson for the beautiful music. Once again, I want to thank you for listening. We hope you enjoyed. Until next time, bye-bye. [Music]  [Transition noise]  -When we share -What we see -Through each other's eyes... [Multiple voices overlapping, in unison, to form a single sentence] ...We can then begin to bridge the gap between the limited expectations, and the realities of Blind Abilities. Jeff Thompson: For more podcasts with a blindness perspective, check us out on the web at www.BlindAbilities.com, on Twitter @BlindAbilities. Download our app from the App Store, Blind Abilities. That's two words. Or send us an email at info@blindabilities.com. Thanks for listening.

During this hour of A&G, Jack shares his thoughts on last night's 60 Minutes interview with Mohammed bin Salman. Plus, why embarrass Rex Tillerson and there's a party at Dutch Brothers.

During this hour of A&G, Jack shares his thoughts on last night's 60 Minutes interview with Mohammed bin Salman. Plus, why embarrass Rex Tillerson and there's a party at Dutch Brothers.

During this hour of A&G, Jack shares his thoughts on last night's 60 Minutes interview with Mohammed bin Salman. Plus, why embarrass Rex Tillerson and there's a party at Dutch Brothers.

Dave Schafer sits down with Kelsey Verbanac from Boise Rescue Mission Ministries to discuss the Dutch Luv Event.Read More →

Here's something we didn't tell you about Producer Dana's Dutch Brothers experiment... HOLY BOOB CAM.

Producer Dana does a little experiment in the Dutch Brothers drive-thru. Her results are up on Facebook!

Producer Dana conducts an experiment with the color of Dutch Brothers straws.

New prime number found Velcro moon boots Shout out to our Dutch Brothers! Pete & Steve Bucks Facebook Q&A (What to do if someone's phone rings in church) Ring tones in church