Podcasts about east asian

In episode 708, Megan chats to Hanelore Dumitrache and Mariska Ramondino about using artificial intelligence to streamline workflows, understand your audience, and create a more impactful blogging business. Hanelore Dumitrache Hanelore Dumitrache is a food blogger, tech entrepreneur, AI educator and author. Her work tries to bridge the gap between technology and the blogging world. As the founder of Whimzi AI, she's currently developing AI-driven tools for food bloggers and content creators. Her food blog SugarYums focuses on East Asian street food and desserts.  Mariska Ramondino Mariska Ramondino is an international fiscal tax lawyer turned business consultant and now a food blogger with a consulting business on the side. Through her blog, she shares her passion for nutritious home-cooked meals and a more balanced lifestyle. She also offers writing and consulting services for fellow bloggers. Additionally, Mariska is a partner and co-founder of Whimzi AI, a tech-driven company providing custom AI solutions and AI-powered analytics for food bloggers. In this episode, you'll learn how to harness the power of AI to save time, make data-driven decisions, and deliver better user experiences on your blog. Hanelore and Mariska share their favorite strategies, tools, and mindset shifts to help you move past fear and use AI to grow a smarter, more efficient blogging business. Key points discussed include: - AI isn't a threat—it's an opportunity: Embracing AI can help food bloggers develop more well-rounded businesses and better serve their audiences. - Start by identifying what you don't love doing: Use AI to take over repetitive or tedious tasks like writing pin descriptions, social captions, or analyzing data. - Analyze your data with ease: ChatGPT can interpret your Google Analytics and ad reports to surface trends, content gaps, and monetization opportunities. - Build authority through topic clusters: Use AI to identify your strongest-performing content and build strategic clusters to boost topical authority and improve EEAT. - Use reader questions to fuel content ideas: Input comments and questions from your blog or social media into ChatGPT to identify missing content or new recipe opportunities. - Incorporate AI into your workflow as a virtual team: Assign AI roles like content strategist, SEO assistant, or copywriter to streamline weekly blog tasks. - Set and stick to your goals with AI support: Use AI to map out your time, reset your mindset, and stay accountable to your personal and business goals. Connect with Hanelore Dumitrache Website | Instagram Connect with Mariska Ramondino Website | Instagram      

This week please join author Robert Clarke and Associate Editor Wendy Post as they discuss the article "Causal Relevance of Lp(a) for Coronary Heart Disease and Stroke Types in East Asian and European Ancestry Populations: A Mendelian Randomization Study." For the episode transcript, visit: https://www.ahajournals.org/do/10.1161/podcast.20250617.454324

Regina Linke was born and raised in Texas, and she always enjoyed the creative arts, but she didn't learn traditional Chinese painting until after moving with her young family to Taiwan in her mid-thirties. Holding management degrees from Washington University in St. Louis and Cornell University, she worked in marketing technology and information systems for the travel and tourism industry. Now, however, she creates and illustrates stories that celebrate East Asian folklore and philosophy in an accessible way. Her most notable creations are the characters from The Oxherd Boy, a single-panel, webcomic that started on Instagram. A young boy, his family ox, and a rabbit living in his garden convey the three core schools of Classical Chinese thought: Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. The best-selling collection of these inspirational pieces called THE OXHERD BOY: Parables of Love, Compassion, and Community released in 2024, and was followed in 2025 by its first original story for children called Big Enough. A second picture book, Little Helper expanding on this world is slated for release in Summer 2026. Here's a link for behind the scenes of her painting: https://oxherdboy.org/pages/digital-painting And here's a link if you'd like to purchase "Big Enough": https://oxherdboy.org/pages/big-enough  

Send us a textIn this episode, we talk to Prof. Roy Baumeister about the psychology of alcohol use and addiction. We cover topics such as why people drink, the effects of alcohol, the role of emotions such as guilt, and how self-control works. Prof Baumeister is one of the most eminent living psychologists with over 40 books and 700 scientific publications. His book "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength" (with John Tierney) was a New York Times bestseller.Show notesShould alcohol research say more about the pleasure of alcohol use? A recent article published in the journal of Addiction prompted a range of responses and further comment. In discussing whether harmful effects of alcohol use are over-estimated, I mention studies using Mendelian Randomization. One of the studies in East Asian populations where genetic 'flushing' effects have been used to test whether risks of alcohol consumption providing evidence for there being no protective effects of moderate drinking.A recent meta-analysis looked at how different quality studies appear to account for different findings around low level alcohol consumption, thus explaining the supposed 'health benefits' of low consumption.  Support the showIf you are interested in one-to-one support for your drinking with Dr James Morris, contact him at DrJamesMorris.com For more episodes visit https://alcoholpodcast.buzzsprout.com/Follow us at @alcoholpodcast on X and Instagram

From the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, to the Chinese Revolution and Civil War, through the Long March and the rise of Mao Zedong, to the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, all the way to Deng's Reform and China today, Professor of East Asian and Global History Dr. Ken Hammond walk us through 200 years of Chinese history to highlight in detail how modern China was forged through centuries of class struggle, resistance, rebellion, and revolution.  After listening to this mega-episode you will have a profound, and deeply inspired, understanding of the rich modern history of China, and be much better able to understand its present and future.   This series originally aired on Guerrilla History in the Spring of 2024 Support Guerrilla History HERE Learn More, Follow, and Support Rev Left Radio HERE

In this episode, we sit down with Hyerin, an Indonesian native living in Korea, to talk about the challenges she's faced as a Southeast Asian navigating life in Korea. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We were honored to welcome Dr. Pierce Salguero back as our Satsang guest for a second time in May 2025. His conversation with Yvonne Unger was both inspiring and insightful, offering profound reflections that deeply resonated with our community.About Dr. Pierce Salguero:Pierce Salguero has studied spirituality through decades of practice and scholarship, specializing in hathayoga, meditation, shamanic rituals, spirit healing, Thai medicine, and Buddhist philosophy.His academic credentials include BAs in anthropology and cognitive science, an MA in East Asian studies, and a PhD in history of Buddhist medicine.He is now a professor researching Asian history, religions, and healing traditions. He likes to say that he is a student, friend, and fan of spirituality but also a researcher, a skeptic, and a critic.He shares with us a framework he calls Multidharma, distilling the lessons from a lifetime of exploration of spirituality, presented in a digestible way for modern seekers.Links that may be of interest:About Prof. Pierce Salguero:  ⁠https://multidharma.net/about/⁠Deep dive into the Multidharma Threads model:  ⁠https://multidharma.net/maps-and-territories/⁠Pierce's book for getting started:  ⁠https://multidharma.net/getting-started/⁠Love podcasts? You might also enjoy one of the programs listed here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://awakening-together.org/interact/podcasts/

What if the time between peri and post-menopause wasn't a decline, but a sacred portal? This episode is an eclectic blend of East Asian energetics, sensual empowerment, and a fierce reimagining of age. We talk White Tigress energy, the frequency of fabric, and how to style yourself as a future version of your most magnetic self. Midlife glow-up, but make it multidimensional.Show Notes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Elemental Archetypes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – Daoist self-cultivation practices⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yang Face⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ — Chinese facial tool brandConnect with us! If you enjoyed this episode, share it and tag us — We'd love to hear from you!To support us, please subscribe, rate and review the show.Follow us on Instagram ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@BeautyBirthrightPod⁠⁠⁠

A special interview with Oran Kivity on his mother's book “Daughter of the Waves: Memories of Growing Up in Pre-War Palestine.” Oran Kivity is a British author, acupuncturist, and independent publisher with a passion for forgotten stories and untold histories. Trained in East Asian medicine, he has written six books on acupuncture and moxibustion and runs Sayoshi Books, an imprint focused on Japanese and Chinese medicine. Oran recently republished Daughter of the Waves, a vivid memoir by his mother, pioneering journalist and biographer Ruth Jordan. Originally published in 1982, Daughter of the Waves depicted a nation in its formative years, its struggle for survival, and its transformation into statehood. Today, some forty years on, this compelling account is more timely than ever.==========================================

The transformation of Japan from hermit kingdom to imperial power happened with breathtaking speed. When American Commodore Perry's "black ships" steamed into Tokyo Bay in the 1850s, they shattered Japan's 250-year isolation with technology that seemed to come "from 200 years in the future." This technological gap created a constitutional crisis that would ultimately topple the Tokugawa Shogunate and usher in the Meiji Restoration of 1868.Jonathan Clements guides us through this pivotal period where Japan found itself facing what one historian calls "an invitation to an alien game" - forced to adopt international norms and institutions they never agreed to. Rather than becoming colonized like China or India, Japan's new leaders determined to become players in this global power game. They systematically studied Western nations, adopting what they perceived as the best elements of each: a German-style army, British naval technology, and aspects of French law.This selective modernization happened against a backdrop of growing militarism and expansionism, particularly toward Korea - strategically described as "the dagger at the heart of Japan." The 1894-95 Sino-Japanese War demonstrated Japan's new capabilities, but the subsequent "Triple Intervention" by Russia, France and Germany (forcing Japan to abandon territorial gains) created a humiliation that would fuel future aggression.Throughout this period, the Japanese government struggled with "gekokujō" - military insubordination where officers initiated "incidents" that expanded Japanese influence without authorization. The assassination of Korea's Queen Min by Japanese agents exemplifies this dangerous pattern where unauthorized actions expanded imperial control while undermining civilian government - creating precedents that would ultimately lead Japan toward its catastrophic Pacific War.Whether you're interested in East Asian history, imperial expansion, or the roots of 20th century conflict, this exploration of Japan's rapid transformation reveals how quickly a nation can reinvent itself - for better or worse.You can send a message to the show/feedback by clicking here. The system doesn't let me reply so if you need one please include your email.

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/southeast-asian-studies

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

If you had a male-coded childhood at all recently in the Anglo-American world, you have felt the influence of the Soldier of Fortune culture of the 1980s, within which martial arts and other action films featuring Silvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, and Steven Seagal were prominent, and accompanied by dojos proliferating even in mid-sized American towns. But what you may not know is that, like the sushi boom around the same time period this shadow-reich version of the East Asian martial arts was quite deliberately seeded into the pop culture of the Reagan Era by a rogue's gallery of all the usual WACL suspects: Moon Seonmyeong of the Unification Church, his high-ranking lieutenant Jhoon Rhee, Sasakawa Ryōichi—as well as Zionists like Menachem Golan and Haim Saban. Moreover, the hyper-individualism and hierarchicalism of this WACL school of karate, far from being inherent to the art, represents its co-optation and enlistment in a fight against its true roots in the struggles of the colonized and the working class in the Japanese Empire. In the proletarian fiction of 1920s Japan we find a little-known earlier chapter in the story of karate, when it was a new and exotic weapon, developed by Ryukyuan peasants under early-modern feudal and mercantile rule, and now wielded by Ryukyuan proletarians and the Korean and Japanese comrades to whom they taught it, to devastating effect against the bosses and their yakuza goons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Port (present-day Hà Tiên), situated in the Mekong River Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral, was founded and governed by the Chinese creole Mo clan during the eighteenth century and prospered as a free-trade emporium in maritime East Asia. Mo Jiu and his son, Mo Tianci, maintained an independent polity through ambiguous and simultaneous allegiances to the Cochinchinese regime of southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Siam, and the Dutch East India Company. A shared value system was forged among their multiethnic and multi-confessional residents via elite Chinese culture, facilitating closer business ties to Qing China. The story of this remarkable settlement sheds light on a transitional period in East Asian history, when the dominance of the Chinese state, merchants, and immigrants gave way to firmer state boundaries in mainland Southeast Asia and Western dominance on the seas. Xing Hang is Associate Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The Port: Hà Tiên and the Mo Clan in Early Modern Asia Ghassan Moazzin is Assistant Professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Charlotte, the Sage of Abby HillBased on the work of BradentonLarry, in 6 parts.  Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.The Sage and  a Kind of Good-Bye"The Sage is ready to see you now," said Wei, the tall Asian man who they had learned was the Abbot of the brown-robed monks – or the Order of Record Keepers, as they called themselves.Don gently urged Nicole to release his cock from her mouth and promised they would get back to playing soon. As he tied his grey robe about himself, Don saw that Toshia, who had been riding up and down on Alan's lap only a moment before was also hurrying to make herself "presentable". After waking up hours ago, and the following, almost routine, morning sex (Well, that's definitely the right way to start the day, particularly when you wake up sandwiched between two naked, sexy women! Don thought to himself with a happy smile), they had had a bite of breakfast and been asked to wait until they were called for. While they learned a little bit more about the Order, most of the morning was spent in lazy sexual play. It was now shortly after midday, and at least two of them were quite eager to meet this person whom they had been awaiting, and had gone to such lengths to find.They followed Wei to the foot of a winding staircase and proceeded up. At the top, behind a modest door, they were admitted to a good sized study, complete with shelves filled with row upon row of books. Windows all around the room let bright sunlight in. There were a few comfortable chairs, and a nice desk, behind which, in a brown robe, sat a middle aged woman with thick, dark brown hair falling down around her shoulders. She was apparently reading the last page of a stack of typed material.Wei gestured to a set of chairs that had been drawn into a circle of four, and said, "Please, make yourself comfortable, she will be right with you."Sure enough, right after he had closed the door behind himself but before they could get comfortable in their chairs, the woman looked up at them and smiled. "Hello," she said as she stood up and came around the desk. "You're obviously Don, and I'm guessing you're Toshia and you're Nicole.""That's right, and you're 'the Sage'?" Toshia asked."That's what they call me," she smiled as she sat down in a high-backed chair."I admit, I was expecting someone a bit ... more wizened," Don smiled."Well, it's really just a title, like 'the Crone', though I suspect the similarities end about there. You can call me Charlotte if you prefer.""Pleased to meet you, Charlotte," Toshia said."Likewise," Charlotte smiled again. "I know you must have many questions, but let me just say, I've just finished reading your various reports, and I've enjoyed them very much. Our scribes are chosen for their skill at asking the right sorts of questions and their ability to flesh out the stories they're given, but in this case they've had very good material to work with. The three of you have had some very interesting adventures. I particularly enjoyed reading about your encounter with the Bull, Toshia.""So, everyone who comes here looking for you tells their story and you read it?" Nicole asked."Yes, that's right. I confess, my personal 'kink' is to get off reading about, and sometimes watching, the exploits of others. I would have finished reading your reports earlier, but I had to keep stopping to masturbate.""Wouldn't it have been more efficient for us to just tell you directly?" Nicole asked with a twinkle in her eye that the Sage seemed to miss."Well, yes, but there are two problems with that," Charlotte answered. "One, we keep all the stories, as a record and a source of study...""You could just have someone type it up as we told you," Toshia pointed out.Charlotte nodded, "That's quite true, but then the narrator would be bristling with questions for me, which would slow things down and cause all kinds of complications.""Is that the second problem?" Don asked."No, the second one is that there seems to be some benefit to having each person tell his or her own story, and then comparing them.""How have our stories diverged?" Don wanted to know."Well, I've only just read the three of them, and haven't had hardly any time to think about them, but Don's way of looking at your time here in Eros involves a lot of digressions and interconnections, while Toshia's is more straight-forward. Nicole's is actually rather journalistic."Don could see that Nicole had half a mind to object to this, but he cut in with, "OK, but what's the point of all this anyway?"Charlotte the Sage frowned slightly and said, "I assume you mean the record-keeping?""Well, for now, yes.""At some point, long ago, the first Sage decided that one way of trying to make sense of the whys and wherefores of Eros was to start recording the experiences of people who, like him, remembered their lives before waking up here.""And, has it helped?" Toshia asked."Well, it certainly makes for some stimulating reading," Charlotte laughed. Then she added, "It definitely has served to build up some generalizations that seem to be helpful.""Such as?" Don prodded."Every single person who has come here, to this Abbey, and this goes back for 450 Erosian years, has spoken English rather fluently. Now, the only people who we interview are those who remember their lives prior to waking up here, but none of them has ever reported meeting anyone who doesn't speak English. This suggests that either the people who don't remember spoke English before they arrived here, were somehow rewired to speak English upon being brought over, or are native Erosians. This all seems to strongly suggest that whomever or whatever is responsible for selecting people for Eros speaks English, and that seems quite surprising and noteworthy to me.""So, which is it, were they brought here or are they natives?" Nicole asked."They were brought," Don said quietly, remembering his and Toshia's visit to the Library in the Manor."Well, the evidence does suggest that," Charlotte nodded. "They seem to have various personality traits and interests that wouldn't make sense for native Erosians, for one thing.""That's what I was thinking," Don added."Also, some people have actually met people they recognized or even knew quite well from Earth, but who seemed to have no memory of that other life.""That must have been bizarre," Toshia said."It has sometimes been ... awkward, to say the least," nodded Charlotte."All of this is very interesting, but you mentioned whomever, or whatever, is selecting people from Earth – English speaking people from Earth," Don said as he leaned forward. "Who or what is doing this, and why? What's the point of it all?"Charlotte smiled again, "I honestly can't say. I admit that the question puts me in a philosophical frame of mind. Imagine if I asked you what the point of it all was on Earth. Anyway, there are theories, of course. Some Sages have thought that we were being held prisoner here as lab rats, running countless experiments on human sexuality, others that there is some power, or powers, who feed off human eroticism, or who have lost the ability to generate it for themselves – the ultimate voyeurs. There seems no question that there's some intelligence behind it, though.""Why do you think so?" Toshia asked."Well, it only selects people who are quite dissatisfied with their Earthly sex lives." Charlotte held up her hand to forestall Toshia's objection. "The fact that it is very hard to sort out exactly what counts as such dissatisfaction seems to lend weight to this consideration. No doubt, Toshia would hesitate to say that she was dissatisfied in any way with Sarah, but it seems clear from reading her story that she would hardly think of the sex life she was having before as being satisfying now. Almost every single person who has found his or her way here has thought that being brought to Eros was a wonderful gift, which has led some to speculate that this was some kind of heaven."Don couldn't resist scowling at this notion, and Charlotte noticed. "I don't buy that either," she said with a smile. "On the other hand, it's the best afterlife I've ever heard of. Going back to the question of intelligence, one of the most telling bits of evidence is the two of you, Don and Toshia."After taking a moment to scowl thoughtfully at this suggestion, Toshia asked, "What do you mean?""As far as our records indicate, the two of you are unique. No pair of friends has ever woken up together like you have. Before you ask, I have absolutely no idea what that might mean. Perhaps it's for the purposes of one of those psycho-sexual experiments."There was a moment of silence before Don decided to ask, "What's up with the black robed figures?""The Watchers," Charlotte nodded. "Another indication that there is some kind of intelligent process going on. After 450 years of accumulating data, there has never been anyone – anyone recorded, anyway – who has managed to talk to, or even catch hold of, one of those bastards. They watch for a bit; then, when you think you're going to get your hands on one, they're gone.""Is it science or magic?" Toshia asked."I'm inclined to follow Arthur C. Clarke on this one and say I don't really know that there's a difference in this context.""There are so many questions," Don muttered, shaking his head. "How many people remember their lives? What's the distribution of their wheres and whens? Is there anything they all have in common besides being sexually frustrated?""Is there a way to get home again?" Toshia asked resolutely.Charlotte, knowing this was the issue that had motivated them in seeking her out, turned to Toshia with a serious expression and said, "Yes, or so it would seem anyway. There are apparently at least two ways. The first is to become bored with life in Eros. It seems that when that happens you will simply go missing, and it's presumed that you return to your Earthly life. As to the other, more proactive, way, the lake outside is the headwater of a river that runs several hundred kilometers to an ocean or a sea – we haven't been able to get anyone to engage in any kind of systematic exploration. Along the coastline to the left of mouth of river...""To the left facing the sea?" Don asked."Yes," Charlotte smiled again. "Go down the river, then turn left, and proceed along the coast, until you find a place called the Grotto of Ishtar, or just the Grotto. There, according to two people who have accompanied others seeking to leave, you'll find a way to return home."Toshia looked like she was ready to head off immediately, but a couple of concerns occurred to Don. He said, "I'm troubled by something: how can anyone here know that people return home safely? And, now that I'm saying that, how did the Scholar know that time moves differently here in Eros? It doesn't seem to make sense that we could know these things unless someone has been able to return home and then come back.""Very good, Don," Charlotte nodded, and Don found himself thinking that she must have been a teacher back on Earth. She explained, "There seems to be a way to go back and forth between Eros and Earth more or less at will. One of the more enterprising people who have visited the Abbey several times, a Stephanie Ayers, found someone with this ability and talked to him at great length. She then tracked down two more people, and in doing so was able to confirm these rumors and suppositions.""How are they able to do it?" Don asked intently."Stephanie says they have 'magic rings' that allow them to 'decide' to wake up in either Eros or Earth; or, should that be 'on'?""Where do they get those rings, and what do they look like?""I cannot answer the first, Don, but apparently they are simple rings of a shiny black material, something like hematite."Don sat back in his chair. That sounds familiar! After a moment of reflection, he smiled broadly and said, "I think I've seen someone with one of those, and I'm pretty sure I can find her again."Charlotte gave Don a long look and said, "I can guess what you have in mind, Don, but I should warn you that these ring people are not only very possessive of their rings, but also very evasive about how they came to acquire them. Stephanie hasn't been able to get any useful information so far, and she's been at this a while."Toshia brought the discussion back to the main topic with, "I wanted to ask another question – our flying carpet stopped working and several hundred kilometers is a long way – do you know of any way to make the trip quicker?""Well, yes," Charlotte answered, "I would take the riverboat.""The riverboat?""Yes, there's a riverboat that goes from the Resort down to the city on the coast, Rendezvous, and back. You might have to wait for it sometime, it doesn't keep to a schedule very well, but it docks just outside of the Resort, through the gate opposite the one you used to come here.""Wait," Don cut in, "there's a city?""Well, it's a town, really, but it's the biggest one in Eros as far as I know."This prompted what felt like a dozen questions in Don's mind, starting with those of economics. He was still having a hard time coming to grips with the weirdness of how Eros worked."Thank you for your time, Charlotte," Toshia was saying.Although Don wanted to interject with, "Are we leaving already?" he realized how important it was for Toshia to stay on the task of returning to Sarah, so he set aside the questions he was dying to ask and stood, saying, "Thank you very much." Nicole followed suit.The Sage stood up as well, and said, "If you decide to stay longer in Eros, please feel welcome to return to the Abbey anytime."Don smiled warmly at this suggestion, and thought it was a bit odd that he was leaving this attractive, intelligent woman without having had the pleasure of, well, pleasuring her. Eros had definitely altered his way of thinking.At the foot of the winding staircase, Wei met them with one of his smiles and their clothing. Once they had changed, Wei led them back to the entrance-exit. The other "monks" seemed particularly scarce. Similarly, the huge guardian of the bridge was nowhere to be seen as they crossed it.Toshia set the pace down the trail for the Resort. She was clearly in a hurry to get on the road, or river, as the case may be, to this Grotto of Ishtar. Don kept up with her easily, but also kept an eye on Nicole, who didn't walk as fast as Don and Toshia even when they weren't hurrying. He could tell that something was troubling the pretty young woman, but his own mind was still bustling with too many questions for him to ask her what was on her mind. Still, he wasn't surprised when, as they came around the last corner and saw the Resort's gate ahead, Nicole asked them to stop for a moment."I thought I should tell you this before we found the others," Nicole said, taking a moment to sit down on a nearby rock."What is it?" Toshia said with obvious and honest concern."I'm not going back," Nicole said. "Well, not yet. I'm going to wait until I'm tired of this place. I don't really have anybody back home to hurry back to, Toshia, and I fucking love it here. I'd come along to make sure you get to the Grotto safely, but it sounds like you and Don will be able to do that without me. I don't think you'll be able to shake Shelonda anyway, but you might want to consider leaving Victor and Amy here at the Resort. You know the rest of Eros isn't so nice and friendly, and this place is safe."Don smiled at Nicole and said, "It's been great having you along with us for this long.""If they're right about time, we'll all wake up 'tomorrow' and email each other," Nicole smiled with a bit of sadness. "Well, allowing for the date difference, that is. You better come visit me, Professor."Don laughed, and said, "Of course! I'm already looking forward to it.""You can come stay with us in Florida," Toshia smiled. Don could see a tear in her eye.He decided to make things a bit easier on them all by changing the subject, "You know, she has a good point about the others."Toshia seemed to fasten upon this line of thought, saying, "Well, Shelonda's going to be very hurt if we don't allow her to come with us, I think.""I'm not sure we're in any position to allow or disallow her, actually," Don said."True," Toshia nodded. "So, the most we can do is encourage her to stay here. Probably that's the most we can do for all of them.""We could suggest that they need to stay here to keep an eye on Nicole," Don mused.Nicole laughed, and said, "Oh, I'm sure I'll be quite alright here.""And, what happens if Nicole does eventually get tired of this place and goes missing?" Don nodded. "Do people who don't remember their past lives do that? Damn, I should have thought of asking that earlier."

This week Jun and Daniel review the popular Korean film "The Match" (승부), which tells the story of two legendary Go players in Korea during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Our hosts explore the cultural significance of Go in Korean society, discussing how it was once one of the four major activities Korean children would pursue alongside math academies, taekwondo, and piano. They delve into the controversy surrounding the film's star Yoo Ah-in and his drug scandal, examining Korea's strict cancellation culture and how it differs between actors, K-pop stars, and politicians. The conversation expands to cover the historic AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol match in 2016 and its symbolic impact on Korean society's understanding of AI. Through scene-by-scene analysis, they highlight cultural details from 1980s Korea including car parades for international achievements, traditional family hierarchies, smoking culture, and nostalgic elements like fumigation trucks and Nikon cameras as status symbols.If you're interested in learning about the cultural significance of Go in East Asian societies, understanding Korea's approach to celebrity scandals and cancellation culture, exploring the philosophical differences between individualism and traditional hierarchy in Korean society, or discovering nostalgic details about 1980s Korean life including housing styles and family dynamics, tune in to hear Daniel and Jun discuss all this and more! This episode also touches on topics like the decline of Go's popularity in modern Korea, the East Asian "Cold War" competition in Go between Korea, Japan, and China, and how the film serves as a metaphor for Korea's journey from copying to innovating on the global stage.Support the showAs a reminder, we record one episode a week in-person from Seoul, South Korea. We hope you enjoy listening to our conversation, and we're so excited to have you following us on this journey!Support us on Patreon:https://patreon.com/user?u=99211862Follow us on socials: https://www.instagram.com/koreanamericanpodcast/https://twitter.com/korampodcasthttps://www.tiktok.com/@koreanamericanpodcastQuestions/Comments/Feedback? Email us at: koreanamericanpodcast@gmail.com

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

Good afternoon, I'm _____ with today's episode of EZ News. Tai-Ex opening The Tai-Ex opened up 174-points this morning from yesterday's close, at 21,531 on turnover of $6-billion N-T. Taiwan names new reps to St Kitts & Nevis, Thailand The Executive Yuan named new representatives to St. Kitts & Nevis and Thailand yesterday. Edward Tao will be the new ambassador to St. Kitts and Nevis, one of 12 countries which maintains formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Tao is a career diplomat who most recent overseas posting was in Brisbane, Australia. He will replace outgoing Ambassador Michael Lin, who took up the post in July 2021. Meanwhile, Peter Lan will be Taiwan's top representative to Thailand. Lan is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and will replace current (目前的) envoy to Thailand, Chang Chun Fu. Lan previously served as ambassador to St. Vincent and the Grenadines from 2021 to 2023. He also served in Indonesia and acted as spokesperson for Taiwan's representative office in Thailan. (AH-CNA) Search for lost boy and rescuer continues The search for a lost boy and his rescuer is continuing of the coast of Taitung's Taimali. Yesterday a boy was swept out to sea while playing in a river, and he still hasn't been found. Also missing is a fisherman, surnamed Chen, who was nearby and jumped in to rescue the boy. Chen managed to grab hold of the boy and tried to swim back to shore, but they were both engulfed (吞噬) by a wave and disappeared, according to witnesses. Rescuers searched for the two last night, unsuccessfully, but paused overnight. The search continues this morning, with firefighters, coast guard, helicopters, and drones all dispatched to help out in the search. Those who know Chen describe him as someone always willing to help out, and say, they're hoping for a miracle. Elon Musk criticizes Republican spending bill Elon Musk has criticized Donald Trump's 'big, beautiful" spending bill, saying it would increase the deficit. The Tesla CEO leads the Department of Government Efficiency, which has been trying to slash (削減) federal spending. Ira Spitzer reports. Colombia Union Strike Blocks Traffic Colombia's unions have begun a 48-hour strike to support a referendum proposed by President Gustavo Petro to let voters to decide whether to overhaul the country's labor laws. The work stoppage that began Wednesday was in response to a direct call from Petro. He has argued that Congress is working against the interest of workers by repeatedly blocking his efforts to reform labor regulations. The referendum, whose questions would include whether workdays should be limited to eight hours, has become the crux (難點，關鍵) of long-running tensions between the executive and legislative branches. In the capital, some workers blocked public bus lanes, impeding the movement of thousands of people. Canada Manitoba Declares Emergency Over Wildfire The Canadian province of Manitoba has declared a province-wide state of emergency over a series of wildfires, and Prime Minister Mark Carney has agreed to send in the military to help. Manitoba's premier says the fires have forced 17-thousand people across several communities to flee. He calls it the largest such exodus (大批人的）退出，離開) in living memory in the province. Canada's wildfire season runs May through September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023, when fires choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. That was the I.C.R.T. EZ News, I'm _____. －－－－以下訊息由 SoundOn 動態廣告贊助商提供－－－－ 遺產稅、房產贈與、信託到底怎麼搞懂？ 《十樂不設

We revisit some of the most memorable moments from Chandler's conversations with Acupuncturist and East Asian medicine practitioner Jacques Depardieu. Jacques shares how acupuncture doesn't just treat pain—it reconnects you to your body, helps regulate your digestive system, and unlocks clarity on a deeper emotional and energetic level. From explaining how stress and digestion are intertwined to helping women return to their inner knowing, Jacques brings ancient practices into a modern, relatable context. This episode is for anyone feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, or simply curious about how energy work and body-based healing can support emotional transformation.What Will You Learn[00:07:06] How acupuncture supports the body's internal communication and energy flow.[00:09:00] Why acupuncture can release long-held emotional or physical tension.[00:10:30] How treating one part of the body can affect another through energetic meridians.[00:13:00] Why recognizing choice and agency is essential to healing.[00:17:30] The role of nature, music, and joy in everyday healing practices.[00:19:00] How East Asian medicine views digestion through a holistic lens.[00:22:30] Why emotional stress often manifests as physical symptoms.[00:24:00] How busy women can reconnect with their inner knowing.[00:26:30] The emotional toll of being mentally pulled in too many directions.[00:31:00] Why fulfillment must come from within—not from achievement or status. Want to Hear More from Hero Jacques? Check Out These Episodes!Awaken Your Healing Abilities with AcupunctureAccess the Power of Self-Worth with AcupunctureThe Gut-Life Balance: How Acupuncture Assists with Digestive DiscomfortHow to Live Consciously in a Digital WorldLet's Connect!Follow The Healing Heroes on Instagram & LinkedIn.Jacques DepardieuWebsiteChandler StroudWebsite | LinkedIn | InstagramMixing and editing provided by Next Day Podcast.

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/east-asian-studies

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/buddhist-studies

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/spiritual-practice-and-mindfulness

Just Awakening: Yogācāra Social Philosophy in Modern China (Columbia University Press, 2025) uncovers a forgotten philosophy of social democracy inspired by Yogācāra, an ancient, nondualistic Buddhist philosophy that claims everything in the perceptible cosmos is mere consciousness and consists of multiple karmically connected yet bounded lifeworlds. This Yogācāra social philosophy emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among Chinese intellectuals who struggled against the violent Social Darwinist logic of the survival of the fittest. Its proponents were convinced that the root cause of crisis in both China and the West was epistemic—an unexamined faith in one common, objective world and a subject-object divide. This dualistic paradigm, in their view, had dire consequences, including moral egoism, competition for material wealth, and racial war. Yogācāra insights about plurality, interdependence, and intersubjectivity, however, had the capacity to awaken the world from these deadly dreams. Jessica Zu reconstructs this account of modern Yogācāra philosophy, arguing that it offers new vocabularies with which to reconceptualize equality and freedom. Yogācāra thinking, she shows, diffracts the illusions of individual identity, social categories, and material wealth into aggregated, recurring karmic processes. It then guides the reassembly of a complex society through nonhierarchical, noncoercive, and collaborative actions, sustained by new behavior patterns and modes of thought. Demonstrating why Chinese Buddhist social philosophy offers powerful resources for social justice and liberation today, Just Awakening invites readers to think with modern Yogācāra philosophers about other ways of building egalitarian futures. Jessica X. Zu is assistant professor of religion and East Asian languages and cultures at the University of Southern California, Dornsife. She received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 2020, and her Ph.D. in Physics from the Pennsylvania State University in 2003. She is an intellectual historian and a scholar of Buddhist philosophy. Her research uncovers surprising ways that ancient Buddhist processual philosophy was reinvented by marginalized groups to seek justice, build community, and change the world.

The Resort along the way to the SageBased on the work of BradentonLarry, in 6 parts.  Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.After yet another trip to the showers and over breakfast, they discussed what to do next. They told Liu and Jimmy the abbreviated story of how they were trying to get up the mountain to the tower and how the gate wouldn't let them leave the resort until they really enjoyed themselves. Although they all admitted that they had thoroughly enjoyed themselves there in the Temple of Venus and Aphrodite, they suspected that the gate would not think they'd given the resort enough of a chance to impress them. It was Nicole who set the gears in motion for the day when she asked Liu, "What's that Clockwork Club like?""Well, there are fun games and sexbots..." Liu began."Wait," Toshia said cut in. "Did you just say 'sexbots'?"So, if only to satisfy Toshia, Nicole and Don's curiosity, they agreed to try the Clockwork Club next. They gathered their belongings from the Temple locker room. Jimmy, who preferred to spend the day by the pool, walked with them most of the way, and the remaining seven headed over to their next stop.The Clockwork Club was less imposing than the Temple, and had a much more complicated motif. Don thought the general structure looked as if someone had begun with a rather large, staid Victorian or Edwardian building, and then tried to make it some sort of steam punk. Strange weather-vane-ish instruments protruded at odd places, and there were quite a few smoke stacks poking up out of the roof all of which seemed to be producing steady quantities of steam and various colored smokes. There were many windows, all of them a deep emerald green.Stepping through the fancy, over-large wooden doors, they found themselves in what was at first glance an ordinary casino. There were flashing lights, row upon row of old-fashioned-looking slot machines with people cranking their levers, occasional ringing bells proclaiming winners, the happy sound of tokens spilling into waiting trays, and gleeful exclamations of delight. Of course, the people were all naked and seemed to be deriving some of their delight from sexual contact with their machines. And, then there was also the bulky gold robot trundling up to them; that was different."Hello ladies and gentlemen!" said the robot. "Welcome to the Clockwork Club!" The machine had a box-like head with a pair of "eyes" and a mesh-covered speaker mouth. It had two arms with crude hands at the ends, but no legs, only what seemed to be wheels at its base. Don was particularly amused by the top hat that was perched over its green-lensed camera eyes. "I'm George. Is this your first visit to our Club?""Not mine, George," Liu said with a smile and a wave for the robot."The rest of us are new," Don answered."I hope you enjoy our fine establishment. As a welcoming gift, please accept these complimentary tokens to get you started in our casino." There was a whirring sound, then the unmistakable sound of tokens cascading into a metal bucket, and a door opened in George's front. When a silvery bucket slid out, Don had to move quickly to keep it from spilling out on the floor. "If you would like more buckets, you may get those at the guest service desk over there." One of George's arms pointed in the general direction of a large wooden counter behind which were several other robots. "Most of our guests prefer to enjoy the Club without their clothing. We have convenient lockers available for your use, at a low, low cost of one token each. Would you like me to show you to the locker room?""I can do that, George," Liu offered."Thank you, sir or madam," George said cheerfully. "Would you like to purchase a tour of the Club for the low, low cost...""I'll do that too, George," Liu said."Thank you, sir or madam. If there is anything else you need please do not hesitate to ask myself or one of our many other servicebots. Have a great time everyone!" And, George promptly backed away from them.Although he was eager to explore this weird casino, Don knew this group, so he suggested, "Maybe we should visit that locker room first."Once they were all once again happily naked, Liu led the way back out to the main room. She pointed out that "The slot machines are divided into men's and women's." She led them over to one for a woman and showed them the saddle that sat in front of the machine. There was a thick dildo jutting up from the middle of the saddle. Liu explained, "Some of them don't have dildos, some have ones for asses, and some have both regular and ass dildos. You sit on them like this, put in a token, pull the lever down, and if the right combination of symbols comes up ... oh!"The strange symbols that clicked into place in the machine's display must have been a winning combination, because Liu trembled all over as the saddle and/or dildo did something obviously pleasurable to her. After a moment, she said, "Um, most of the time that doesn't happen; sometimes you just get a little tease, and sometimes you get much more. Oh, and sometimes you win a bunch of tokens, and there's the grand prize which is AMAZING and you get a lot of tokens too."Nicole said, "I think we're going to need our own buckets."As they went back to the customer service counter to get six more buckets and then divide up the tokens evenly, except for Liu who got one less, Don asked, "What are the tokens good for, besides more turns at the machines?""Oh, well, you can trade them in for sessions with the sexbots," she smiled."And those are good?" Toshia asked."Not everyone likes them, but I think they're a lot of fun. You know how sometimes they'll say 'he fucks like a machine'? Well, I've never met a man who can fuck like these machines.""Hmm," Toshia mused, to Don's great amusement."If you win really big, there's the orgasmatron, for women, and a special sexbot for the men," Liu went on. "I've never seen her, but they say she's incredible. There are other things to do here, too. Some people play games to exchange tokens between each other, and there are some rooms where people can use some of the Club's toys to play with each other."Don was more interested in the odd economics of this casino than actually using the machines to get off, but he cheerfully watched as everyone else moved to give the slot machines a try. At this point Don wasn't surprised to see that Toshia stopped by an automated lube dispenser and then selected a slot machine with a combination vaginal and anal set of dildos. He was too distracted watching Toshia, though, to see what the other girls selected. As it so happened, it was Toshia who had the first payout. On her fifth attempt, she got a small prize of eighteen tokens. Shortly after this, Amy won what seemed to be about ten seconds of stimulation that made her shriek in surprise and then carry on depositing tokens and pulling the handle with more determination. Then from the other side of the aisle, Victor said, "Oh wow! That's nice!"Don looked to see that the big man seemed to have found a machine with a sleeve for his cock, a cup for his balls, and a small dildo for up his butt. Apparently these mechanisms were able to give Victor the equivalent of what Amy's machine had done for her, because he continued to play with similar enthusiasm.Seeing that everyone, including the self-appointed tour guide Liu, was quite content to stay there and enjoy the slot machines for a while, Don decided to do a bit of exploring on his own. Taking his bucket and tokens, he moved off, down long aisles of flashing, vibrating machines and past many eager "gamblers". He paused to watch a lithe naked girl gasping and grinding as she won a minor jackpot, but then moved on. Toward the back of the main room on the ground floor Don came upon an area dominated by three large roulette tables. He expected to find everyone plugged into devices around the tables, but it seemed that everyone was actually just playing roulette. Well, there was at least one woman playing as she leaned forward over the edge of the table and a strapping young man screwed her from behind. For the most part, though, these tables just seemed to be a way for players to try to increase their number of tokens.At the very rear of the large room, there was a large, upright "wheel of fortune" device. Don stood by for several moments, trying to work out what was going on for himself. After depositing several tokens in a slot near a bright orange gate, which opened when the appropriate amount had been deposited, each player stepped up to the wheel and gave it an energetic spin. Naturally, there was a variety of spin results: several different token prize amounts, delivered with flashing lights and alarms via a chute to the side of the wheel; a couple of spin-agains; a few flat out losers; some wedges that Don couldn't make out, and didn't see demonstrated; and one result he thought was particularly interesting. If a player got that result he or she received only a colored ticket and proceeded off to a little lounge area off to the side. If anyone else was there with a matching-color ticket, the two people commenced playing together. If not, the ticket bearer was apparently obliged to wait there until someone turned up with the right ticket. Don wondered if anyone wound up spending hours just sitting there.Don decided to give the wheel a spin. He found that he had to deposit five tokens, which he did. The orange gate swung up and Don stepped up to the wheel. Setting his little silver bucket on a conveniently placed pedestal, he took a firm hold of two of the little handles and gave the wheel a mighty spin. It seemed to take a very long time to begin to slow down, and Don noticed that he was caught up in the excitement of the game. The wheel came to a stop on a wedge that was simply yellow, and a yellow ticket promptly popped out of the little slot next to the prize-token chute.As he took his ticket, Don thought this was a very clever device. Although he had not won anything; was, in fact, five tokens down; Don still felt like he'd won something and was still actively involved in the game, all for the price of a paper-ticket, if such things had a price here.Picking up his bucket and turning to the lounge/play area, he saw that another person was already there with a yellow ticket; a rather young looking, thin East Asian guy with long hair. Don wasn't particularly interested in playing with this young man, and he sensed a bit of reluctance on the other side of the handshake they shared. "I'm Don," he smiled calmly."Steve," was the apparently nervous reply."Steve?" Don repeated, a bit surprised at the very non-Asian name, but got nothing but a blank nod from Steve."Are we allowed to wait until a woman wins a yellow ticket?" Don asked with a smile."Oh," Steve grinned, "I suppose we could. Good idea."Don chuckled to himself, and looked around the lounge. There was an attractive woman holding a red ticket sitting nearby, watching the wheel spinners, and a male-female couple who had matched blue tickets a bit before Don had gotten his ticket. The man was lying back along a couch, while the woman knelt in front of him and gave him what looked like a quite satisfactory blowjob from where Don was sitting.The next person to join them was a woman, but she scored a blue ticket, and promptly took a seat next to the woman who had the red one. Don thought he and Steve ought to suggest ditching this game to the two un-partnered women, but realized this was hardly in the spirit of the Clockwork Club. They didn't have to wait long, though, before someone else won a ticket. This time it was a woman with a red ticket who obviously had no compunction about a bit of same-sex play. Soon the two women were engaged in an enthusiastic 69 within arm's reach of Steve, who was extremely distracted, and visibly excited, by watching them. The first couple; with the blue tickets; had finished and wandered off to the rest of the casino, before another player joined them: a very pretty young woman with another red ticket. Finally, after a string of out-right loser spins on the wheel, a cute little woman with long, straight, brown hair, small breasts and long legs won herself a yellow ticket.She grinned as she saw that there were two men waiting for her in the lounge area. She stuck out her hand and said, "Hi, I'm Emily! Were you boys waiting for little ol' me?""We certainly were," Don smiled back, and Steve nodded enthusiastically."Well, that was sweet of you," Emily continued to grin. "Let's go back over here and see how I can thank you for waiting so patiently."Before they could make it to the couch, though, Emily stopped them, dropped to her knees and was soon taking turns sucking on first Steve and then Don. As she went down on them, she looked up at them with her cheerful brown eyes, which Don thought was the sexiest thing he'd seen all day. Soon lovely Emily was on her hands and knees between Don and Steve, sucking the former and fucking the latter. Steve, who had been getting riled up for a while, didn't take too long to come, shoving forward into Emily and groaning loudly. As soon as he was done, he smiled at Don and headed back into the casino.Kids, Don thought to himself as he coaxed Emily up and over to the couch. She pushed him down on his back, and immediately climbed up over him, planting her feet on the firm couch by his hips. He smiled back up at her as she lowered herself down onto his straining cock. As Don felt her tight, wet embrace taking hold of his shaft, Emily leaned forward to rest her hands on his shoulders. Don reached under to support her butt in his hands as she began to ride up and down. Her hair was hanging down around her face and she never stopped looking him in the eye or smiling as she fucked him."Damn, that feels so good," Emily said. "You're going so deep!" They continued on in this position for quite a while, but as she began to get tired, Don suggested they change things up a bit. She lay on top of him as he twisted around and then sat up with her still mounted on him. Then, holding her up on him, Don stood up. Emily put her feet down on the couch behind Don and held onto his shoulders. He bent his knees, pistoning his cock up into her as she flexed herself in front of him. This position was easy to maintain, provided lots of clitoral stimulus, and put them face to face. Soon he was watching her cheerful face scrunching up as she gasped and shuddered with an intense orgasm. Before she was done, she leaned in and kissed him; hard and long! This was the final straw for Don and he felt himself boiling over up inside her, filling her with his hot cum.Emily thanked him for their mutual "winnings", as she laughingly called it, kissed him again, and headed off into the casino. Watching her petite frame walk away, Don decided it was time to head back and check up on the rest of the group. He was unsurprised to see that everyone was still there. Both Toshia and Liu noticed Don's return and gave him brief waves from their adjoining machines.Although he'd been gone for almost an hour, Don was back in time to see the first really big win. Naturally enough, the first one to win more than a brief titillation or a small pot of tokens was Toshia. As soon as the last symbol clicked into place, she said, "Ha! I won!" Then she stopped and her mouth just gaped open for a moment. "Oh my God!" she gasped. "That's ... oh fuck! Oh fuck!!"Don watched as she held on to the front of her machine and shook as the saddle and both the dildos did a combination of vibrating, pulsing and thrusting things that transported Toshia into a shaking trembling orgasm like nothing he'd ever seen. She cried out inarticulately as the machine carried her into another orgasm and then another.As she came down, she leaned forward on the machine and breathed, "Oh wow."Liu came over with a broad grin and said, "That's what the sexbots do for you, only more.""More would kill me," Toshia said weakly. Then, after a moment, she looked up at Don and said, "I want to try one!"Don laughed and said, "OK. How many tokens do we need?""One thousand," Liu answered quickly."And how many do we get with a jackpot on one of these machines?" Don asked as he crossed the aisle to an unoccupied unit."It varies, but you hardly ever win a jackpot."Don deposited a token, but did not mount the machine's saddle. As he pulled the handle down, Don looked over his shoulder to Liu and Toshia and said, "You mean 'hardly anyone ever wins a jackpot', not that I hardly ever do."Don held his bucket under the prize bin expectantly, even before the second symbol clicked into place. Sure enough, Don hit the jackpot. Flashing lights, a siren and a truly deafening barrage of ringing bells accompanied a flood of tokens pouring into the bin, Don's bucket and onto the floor. The display on the front of the machine indicated that he had just won 750 tokens."That's amazing!" Liu gaped from over his shoulder. She had abandoned her own machine. "You just played one token.""I'm just lucky, I guess," Don shrugged. He knew however that he had merely applied his technique of focused expectation that he had used so successfully here in Eros, in finding the Manor's exit and in fighting the Sisterhood. He expected to get a jackpot, so he got a jackpot.He passed his now heavy bucket of tokens to Toshia, who had joined him and Liu. Don took Toshia's bucket, dumped her pile into the nearly full bucket of his that she was holding and moved to another machine. In a few moments, there was another blaring claxon, another barrage of bright, flashing lights, and another cascade of tokens."How do you do that?" Liu asked amazed."Magic," Don smiled smugly at her. "You promised to give us a tour of the club, Liu. Can you do that and show us to the sexbots?""Sure," the pretty young woman said. "Anyone else want to come along?""I want to get one of those jackpots!" Amy said.Victor, Shelonda and Nicole all seemed to agree with Amy. So, Liu led just Toshia and Don off toward the back of the main room, where she showed them the roulette tables and the "Wheel of Chance.""It's fun," Don assured Toshia, briefly telling her what he'd been doing while she played the slots."We should come back and give it a spin," Toshia smiled, "if I survive the sexbot, that is."Liu led them up a circular staircase to the second floor, where they passed a number of small rooms which she said were, "Remote play rooms." As they went down the long corridor lined with doors, Liu explained: "You go into a room and get into the chair, and then you wait. On the third floor, someone deposits some tokens and they get to control a dildo, or two, or an artificial pussy that moves into you, or on you, Don. They get to watch you on a screen, but you don't get to see them. You can talk to each other, though. Oh, and the room you get when you go upstairs is random, so you never know who you're going to be playing with.""That sounds very interesting," Toshia mused."Another thing to try out, eh?" Don winked at her.Following Liu's delectable backside up two more flights of stairs, they came to the fourth floor, where they were greeted by a robot that looked just like George downstairs, except that it was silver and had no top hat. This one addressed them with a woman's voice and said, "Welcome, sir or madam. My name is Dolores and I am your hostess here in the sexbot rooms. Please deposit your ... one thousand ... tokens in the bin to my left."This project took several minutes, because Toshia didn't want to give up any extra of "her" tokens. Once they had deposited exactly one thousand tokens into the bin, Dolores said, "Thank you. Please follow me, sir or madam."The hostess robot trundled down the hallway, turned a corner, and led them to a door, which clicked open as she approached. Dolores gestured vaguely at the now open room, and said, "Here you go. Please enjoy yourself thoroughly.""We'll wait out here," Don suggested."Oh no you don't!" Toshia said with feeling. "I'm not letting a robot have its way with me without someone there to pull its plug, or whatever, if necessary.""Oh, it will respond to your commands," Liu assured her."Yeah, sure," Toshia said."OK," Don laughed. "We'll come watch. You don't have to twist my arm."The softly lit room they entered had warm carpeting and wood-paneled walls. In the center of the room was something that looked like a modified old-fashioned dentist's chair. A number of attachments, including a pair of stirrups that Don presumed looked like those found in a gynecologist's office, piqued Don's curiosity. In the corner of the room, was a barrel-bodied robot straight out of a 1950s B-movie. It seemed to have a soft black rubber or latex coating covering almost all of its body."You get up on the chair," Liu was saying, as if Toshia and Don wouldn't be preoccupied with the robot. "It will adjust for you, and you can push it into any position you want."Toshia looked over the chair and the stirrups skeptically, but then shrugged and hopped up onto the small seat. It was shallow so that she was already scooted forward. As soon as her butt hit the padding, the sexbot in the corner clicked to life. Lights blinked on its dome covered head and it took several steps forward toward the chair. There was a whirring sound followed by a series of clacks.

Clubbing & SwingingBased on the work of BradentonLarry, in 6 parts.  Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.Shelonda was next and explained that she had been Toshia's counterpart, picking up discarded towels from a different part of the Temple. "I was bending over all the time, and people kept squeezing my butt and playing with me. I liked it at first, but I got really horny very quickly. Fortunately, a guy stopped and started fucking me. I was really getting into it, and soon a bunch of guys and a woman were all over me." Shelonda provided all the details requested, but by now it was clear that everyone was getting frisky enough that they would need to go find a room to enjoy or start playing right there in the banquet room.Fortunately, Nicole didn't have anything much different to report than the others. She had been assigned the job of masseuse's assistant: fetching miscellaneous supplies, helping guests off the table after they were thoroughly relaxed, assisting with making sure everyone had a happy ending, etc. Of course, she'd had a wonderful time, and seemed to have actually done less work than anyone else.Then they had to decide where to start their free exploration of the Temple of Venus and Aphrodite. "I have to admit," Toshia volunteered, "that I'd like to see what an orgy that's been going on for seven years looks like.""And I'd like to check out that 'dark room' whatever that is," Don added."A bit of an orgy sounds good to me," Amy said with a grin.Toshia took Don's hand as they headed for the door, and said, "Then we'll check out the dark room."The main orgy room was easy to find. It took up almost the entire fourth floor. There were copious cushions scattered all over the floor, which had soft, luxurious carpeting anyway. Chairs, couches, loveseats, chaise lounges, day beds, and ottomans were abundantly available. Here and there steps led up or down to slightly different levels. Everywhere, though, there were naked bodies pleasuring each other."Fun!" Amy declared. Everyone agreed with her and immediately started looking for places to join in. Amy took Victor by the big hand and led him into the orgy. From where she was Toshia saw Amy dropping to her knees in front of Victor, eagerly taking his big cock into her mouth.Toshia grabbed Don by the arm, pulled him in the direction of Amy and Victor, and pulled him with her down to the floor. The knelt facing each other as they kissed. Don's hands moved greedily over her back, finding their way down to her ass and squeezing it tightly. Toshia laughed happily as Don's mouth descended on her neck and her hand wrapped around his already stiff cock. Then Shelonda and Nicole joined them, one on either side, Shelonda on Toshia's right, and Nicole on her left. The two black girls proceeded to kiss and caress Don and Toshia everywhere they could reach. Shelonda's right hand slipped in between Toshia and Don and found its way down to Toshia's crotch. Soon Toshia felt fingers slipping up inside her and brushing over her clit. Don was still kissing, sucking and biting at her neck, Nicole was pinching her nipple, Don was squeezing her ass, and Shelonda was fucking her fingers in and out, pressing her hand against Toshia's clit, and Toshia... Then Toshia was coming hard, gasping, shaking and moaning between her friends.Those friends gently laid her down on the floor, and then Don was between her legs, slipping his hard cock up inside her ready pussy. Toshia smiled up at him and pulled him deeper into her best embrace. "Fuck me, love," she said. "Fill me up with your cum."Don leaned down and kissed her. It was just a peck at first, but became a long, passionate, fiery kiss as he moved in and out of her there among the other naked bodies. For a while it was just the two of them, alone on the edge of a sea of writhing, gasping, grunting people. They were part of the orgy that had gone on for seven years, but for now it was just the two of them making quiet intense love. Don gave her another sweet, slow orgasm before she felt him pressing more urgently into her. Then he was thrusting hard as he pumped and pumped his cum into her pussy just as she'd asked. He trembled in her arms and buried his face in her shoulder. Toshia held him close to her and caressed his back and held his head to her. They lay like that for several long, sweet moments sharing their loving intimacy.Then, they became aware of their surroundings. First there were the now familiar sounds of Shelonda and Nicole enjoying themselves fully, and then there were the hands that were moving over their bodies. Toshia felt a hand slipping up along the length of her leg and another that brushed against her hand where it lay on Don's back.Don raised his head to look around, only to have a young woman with straight brown hair and startling white teeth pull his head back so she could lean over his shoulder and give him a long, passionate kiss. When she finally let him go, Don laughed and said, "Well, it's nice to meet you too.""Hi, I'm Brandi," the woman grinned back at Don and then down at Toshia. "Mind if I cut in?"Neither Toshia nor Don were sure who she was asking, but when they didn't object, Brandi assumed they didn't mind, and said, "Great!" She then wormed her way in front of Don to lower her mouth to Toshia's. Suddenly Toshia was kissing this beautiful, aggressive new woman, whose hand was already moving across to cup Toshia's tit firmly. Toshia found herself reaching up to hold Brandi's head in place so she would keep kissing her. As Don pulled away, Toshia murmured her disappointment but continued to kiss Brandi. She was happy to feel Brandi's fingers moving down over her belly and then slipping between Toshia's legs where they found Don and Toshia's mingled juices spilling out. Without hesitating, Brandi pushed her fingers and a healthy helping of those juices up into Toshia, who arched her back and moaned into her new lover's mouth.Toshia was still lying on her back, with Brandi kneeling over her almost perpendicularly to Toshia's left, kissing her Toshia and reaching down to finger Toshia's pussy. This left Toshia's right breast exposed, and someone got his or her mouth in there and fastened upon Toshia's erect nipple. As this mysterious new mouth sucked and pulled on Toshia's tit, Toshia felt this person, who she was now sure was a woman, caressing her ass, and then sliding her hand around to join Brandi's in playing with her. Two more fingers pushed up into Toshia's pussy, and Toshia began to moan around Brandi's tongue. When those second two fingers pulled out of her Brandi worked a third of her fingers into Toshia, and then the mystery woman pushed her slippery two fingers slowly up Toshia's ass. This pushed Toshia over the edge, and she began to shake and cry out with an intense, long orgasm.Brandi finally broke their kiss and Toshia realized from the gentle swaying of the girl over her that Brandi had been getting fucked from behind almost all the time she had been fingering Toshia. Toshia smiled back up at the pretty woman's face and noticed that she also had beautiful full breasts, and Toshia couldn't resist reaching out with her left hand to catch one of Brandi's tits in her hand. Then, she looked down to see the lovely, dusky hued woman or Iranian or Indian descent who was still fingering Toshia's ass. Toshia grinned at this woman, who smiled back. Toshia began to work her body around clockwise, taking a moment to carefully throw her right leg over the dark-eyed beauty, and being careful not to dislodge those probing fingers, until she was able to scoot under Brandi's body to play with those beautiful firm tits of hers. The beautiful brown woman fingering her ass moved in between Toshia's legs and began to lick and suck at her pussy and clit, while Brandi lowered herself so Toshia could get her mouth on Brandi's nipples, one at a time. All while someone steadily fucked Brandi.Toshia could tell from the way Brandi was moving over her that the man behind her was fucking her harder and harder, and then knew he was coming inside her. When Brandi began to shift and threatened to pull away, Toshia reached up to grab her waist and pulled her closer. Brandi got the hint, smiled down at Toshia and carefully moved into position with her pussy over Toshia's mouth. With her hands still on Brandi's hips, Toshia pulled the pretty woman down until she could get her tongue up inside Brandi's cum-filled pussy. Toshia drank down the thick, sweet jizz and promptly began to lick at Brandi's clit. Meanwhile, the woman licking Toshia's clit and fingering her ass had pushed her thumb up into Toshia's pussy, and was flexing her wrist so that Toshia's pussy and ass were being steadily fucked by her digits. Soon Toshia's back was arching up off the carpet as she came long and hard between the two women. She didn't stop licking at Brandi, though, and was soon also rewarded with feeling the pretty woman sitting on her face trembling and shaking as Toshia brought her off.This seemed to be the signal for their little threesome to dissolve. As soon as she caught her breath, Brandi carefully got off Toshia's face and without another word moved off to find fun elsewhere. Toshia also felt the woman between her legs pulling away, but Toshia sat up and caught the woman's head in her hands and pulled her up toward her. They met with a long, playful kiss, mingling the tastes of Toshia's and Brandi's pussies as well as traces of Don's cum and that of whoever had fucked Brandi."I'm Toshia," she said as she leaned back, pulling the other woman back and over her."I'm Nadja," said the other woman with a smile. Her fingers and thumb slipped out of Toshia's ass and pussy, but she immediately pushed her fingers up into Toshia's wet and grasping pussy, pressing the heel of her hand against Toshia's clit, as she lay down on top of Toshia and continued to kiss her.Toshia moved her hands over Nadja's petite frame, over her back and down to her tight little ass. She was unsurprised to feel a man's hands also exploring Nadja's backside. Then, whoever the man was, his hands moved up to Nadja's narrow waist and pulled her up a bit. Nadja stopped kissing long enough to say, "I believe I'm about to be violated.""Mind if I watch?" Toshia grinned."As long as you do it while you kiss me," Nadja said, lowering her mouth to Toshia's again.Sure enough, Nadja's motions on top of Toshia indicated that she was being slowly and steadily fucked. Toshia worked her left hand up between them until she could feel the hard cock sliding in and out of Nadja's pussy, and then began to stroke Nadja's clit with her fingers. Nadja kept working her fingers in and out of Toshia pussy while kissing Toshia and being fucked from behind. Toshia found the whole scene incredibly erotic, particularly as Nadja began to come without taking her mouth off Toshia's. The tiny woman moaned and trembled between Toshia and the man behind her without pausing in her passionate kissing and fingering.Toshia thought she might come again, but the man fucking Nadja beat her to it. Nadja murmured approval into Toshia's mouth, and Toshia felt warm cum on her fingers. As the man pulled out of Nadja, spilling more cum over Toshia's hand, Nadja looked down at Toshia and said, "Now that was delightful."Toshia grinned and said, "I'm not done with you, yet. Sit on my face.""If you insist," Nadja laughed. With almost startling enthusiasm, she pulled her fingers from Toshia and crawled up until she was kneeling over Toshia's face.Holding the tiny girl's ass in her hands, Toshia pulled her down to her mouth, where she began to lick up the man's cum and then to lavish her oral attention on Nadja's hard clit. Nadja pressed down on Toshia's mouth, and leaned back a bit, squeezing her small tits tightly. As Toshia sucked on Nadja's clit and then went back to tonguing it firmly, she thought, This must be what people really mean when they talk about Heaven.As Don pulled away to let the new girl, Brandi, get acquainted with Toshia, he decided to have a look around to see what everyone else was up to. He carefully stood up and took a couple of steps to get out of the actual orgy.He spotted Amy on her back, her head on a good-sized pillow. Straddling her chest with his hands on her head and his cock sliding in and out of her mouth and throat was a trim East Asian guy with his black hair buzzed almost down to his scalp. Amy's legs were parted and ready for someone to get between them. Nearby, Victor was standing over an athletic white guy with short, curly reddish hair, who was sitting facing the same way as Victor and who was sucking on Victor's big cock and fondling his balls, all while Victor flexed his knees, pushing that schlong of his in and out of the other fellow's mouth.Don noticed that an adorable woman was now joining in on Brandi and Toshia's little session, and that a man had begun to fuck Brandi from behind. Near this scene, Shelonda had secured the services of a tall, fit black guy with short hair, who seemed as young as the Nymphets to Don. The young man was sitting on the floor, leaning back on his arms and with his knees slightly bent. Shelonda was sitting on his cock, leaning back, supporting herself with her arms and riding up and down on the cock inside her. Meanwhile, an athletic woman, with large tits, long legs, a tight ass and long straight black hair, had her mouth on one of Shelonda's tits and seemed to have a hand down playing with Shelonda's clit.Before he could locate Nicole, Don felt a warm hand slide up his arm and then squeeze his shoulder. He turned to look into the face of a very pretty woman, who he would guess to be Chinese. She had short black hair, an impishly coy expression and surprisingly blue eyes. Before Don could ask her name or even properly appreciate her slender frame and long legs, this beauty smiled and sank to her knees in front of him. She stroked his cock with her long fingers and kissed the head before sucking it into her mouth. Don gently reached down to caress her hair and watched as she began to bob her head up and down on his quickly hardening shaft.Looking up from this perfect vision for a moment, Don spotted Nicole. The petite young woman was on her back, basically in a missionary position, a muscular white guy with long, curly, brown hair fucking her steadily. However, Nicole's legs were extended out straight, in a V aimed at the ceiling, and there was a tall, caramel skinned woman with a spectacular ass and long, wavy black hair with a bit of gray in it sitting on Nicole's face. In front of this second woman, making out with her, was an athletic Polynesian-looking woman with large breasts and long, wild hair who was in turn sitting on someone's face.By now the mysterious woman in front of him was sucking Don's cock with enthusiasm, and he was again rock hard. He noticed that Toshia was moving around to get under Brandi's body, while the other woman kept her hand between Toshia's legs. Don realized there was too much going on in this huge sex-filled room, and he would simply have to focus his attention. He didn't have to deliberate long to decide where to direct that focus first.Pushing her gently back from his sex, Don bent down, took the Asian woman's face in his hands and kissed her. She responded warmly. After taking the time to really enjoy the sensations of kissing a new and very friendly woman, he said, "I'm Don.""And I'm Liu," she smiled."I'm very pleased to meet you, Liu," Don smiled. "Now, why don't we lie down so I can give as good as I'm getting?""That sounds wonderful," Liu grinned and backed away a bit to let Don lie down on his back. She wasted no time then in getting into position over him. Don felt her mouth on his prick again, as he reached up to pull Liu down so he could get his mouth and tongue on her moist, delicious sex. He ran his tongue from her clit up along between her lips, tasting her sweet pussy. She was short enough that his arms were behind her legs, so Don had to lean up a bit to get his mouth on her, but it also meant that he could easily use his hands to caress her ass and spread her cheeks a bit as he pushed his long, strong tongue up inside her. He was aware of her mouth and hands on his cock and balls, but Don concentrated on what he was doing. When he began to focus on her clit, sucking and licking on it, he pushed two fingers up into her pussy. Apparently Liu loved this because she promptly pushed back on Don. He obliged her by pushing his fingers deeper, and then adding a third finger, fucking them in and out of her as he continued to tongue her clit. Soon Don was working his fingers in and out of Liu vigorously and she was shaking and gasping on top of him as a long orgasm wracked her slender body.As she came down, Don slipped his fingers out of her vagina and gave her clit and pussy lips tender kisses. He felt Liu sighing happily, and then she decided to change positions. She pushed herself up so that she was kneeling over him, and quickly moved down, so that she was straddling his pelvis. Don basically lay back and watched as Liu took his rigid cock, wet with her saliva, in her hand, raised it until it was pointing straight up, and then pushed the fat head into her tiny pussy. He reached up and held on to her hips as she slowly sank down on him. Don found himself admiring the muscles of her back as Liu began to move on him. He caressed her lovely ass as she rode slowly up and down on his cock. Once she was comfortable with him in her, Liu began, very slowly, to lean forward, pushing Don's cock "down" further than it was used to. It was uncomfortable at first, and a bit painful for a moment at times, but Liu eventually worked herself down so that her feet were up by Don's shoulders, she was supporting herself with her hands between his legs, and she was leaning low while she worked her body back and forth getting Don's hard shaft to move inside her pussy in an unusual and delightful way. Don was able to squeeze and caress her ass as she rode him. He slowly pushed his thumb into her exposed asshole which made Liu cry out happily.Don was so intent on fucking Liu that he was actually surprised when Amy's face appeared over his. He barely had time to notice that the pretty blonde's face was, as was so often the case, covered with pearly cum before she was kissing him deeply. Don found himself laughing as he returned Amy's enthusiastic, playful, and rather sloppy kiss. When she finally pulled away, Amy said, "Who's your friend, Professor?""Liu," he grinned as he wiped his face with his forearm. "Why don't you introduce yourself?""Good idea!"Looking down over Liu's backside as she continued to writhe back on his cock and thumb, Don watched Amy kneel down in front of Liu and just lean forward and kiss the pretty Chinese girl.Then, as if he'd followed Amy, or been carried along in her sexual wake, Victor came over and knelt down by Amy, who noticed him right away. Don could tell there were introductions made and a brief discussion, but since it all took place down near his feet he couldn't make out any of the details. He later found out that what happened next was all Amy's idea. With Amy's help, Liu pushed herself up, relieving the interesting downward pressure on Don's cock. With a brief, luminous smile over her slender shoulder at him, Liu slowly pushed herself up off Don's thick shaft. Amy's hand wrapped around Don and kept him pointing straight up for Liu. The two girls quickly positioned woman and cock so that Liu could lower herself slowly so that Don pushed up into her exquisitely tight, hot ass."Oh, that feels so good!" Don heard Liu say."It sure does!" he agreed as he slipped his hands around her thin waist.Liu leaned back then, and Amy coaxed Don to bring his legs together. Don helped support Liu as Victor straddled Don's legs and pushed his big cock down so the fat head could press against Liu's waiting pussy. Don felt Liu tense as Victor slowly eased his thick organ into her.Amy leaned over Victor's shoulder with a grin and said, "How's that feel, Liu?""So good!" was the answer.Don felt Liu shuddering as Victor kept filling her with that large prick of his. Liu wrapped her long legs around Victor's hips and her arms around his neck, while Don supported her from below and Victor began to fuck in and out of her, simultaneously working her up and down on Don's cock.It was now Shelonda's turn to make an appearance. She crawled up next to Don, kissed him on the cheek and said, "That looks like fun.""It is!" he grinned. "I hope you've been having a good time.""Of course I have," she smiled. "I can't help but notice you're not really doing any work here, Don."He laughed and said, "What did you have in mind?"She gave him another quick kiss, this time on the lips, and then promptly moved around to back in and kneel over his face. With practiced ease, Shelonda lowered her pussy down to Don's face. He happily and greedily began to lap at her sweet pussy and clit, careless of the fact that at least one man had obviously come inside her before now. Don focused on giving Shelonda the tongue lashing she so richly deserved while also enjoying the sensations of having his cock inside the tight embrace of Liu's ass while Victor gave her pussy a vigorous fucking. The first one to come was Liu; Don felt her ass clenching on him as she shook and trembled in his grasp. Victor was next; feeling the big cock inside Liu swelling and pumping cum into her pussy was an interesting feeling for Don. By this time, a man had come up in front of Shelonda as she knelt over Don and she was giving him a nice, deep blowjob, but this didn't keep her from having a long, loud orgasm as Don turned his head a bit from side to side and tongued her clit firmly.Shelonda was still squatting over Don's mouth and well on her way to another orgasm, when Victor slowly pulled out of Liu's pussy. A small flood of warm fluid ran down over Don's balls. Don couldn't see what was going on down there, but in only a moment his legs were nudged apart and he felt an undeniably feminine tongue licking and sucking the cum from him and Liu. After several delicious moments, the mouth shifted from Don to Liu.Don was vaguely aware that Shelonda had managed to coax an orgasm from the man in front of her, and then Don succeeded in making her come again with his tongue. As Shelonda carefully extricated herself from the little foursome that had Don and Liu as the nucleus, Liu began to come again, crying out and shaking. Don let her fall back on him as she whimpered with delight.Don had assumed that the woman who had been licking Liu was Amy, so he was surprised to see a new woman kneeling between their legs. This was a beautiful, middle aged black woman with gray eyes and a lovely bald head. She smiled at both Liu and Don and then started to stand up, but Liu stopped her."Don't go. I need a little break and I can tell Don here isn't ready to stop playing just yet," Liu said."Well, OK then," said the other woman with a warm smile and the barest hint of a Southern accent.Liu managed to gently pull herself off Don's hard cock and then twisted around to kiss him goodbye before crawling out of the action.Soon Don was looking down into the beautiful bald woman's smiling face as he steadily fucked in and out of her pussy. Her pelvis was rolled back and her legs were up, resting on Don's thighs which were spread out. One of her hands squeezed and pinched at her breast while the other reached down to stroke her clit. Don was leaning forward on his outstretched arms."I really should get your name," Don said."I don't see why," she laughed. "Now shush; I'm about to come."Don kept going without coming through three more encounters. Liu caught up with him as a cute little blonde, who had just rode him to three intense orgasms as he knelt holding her in his arms, kissed him goodbye and crawled off to find another lover or two. Liu bent down and kissed him, saying, "You don't ever stop, do you?""Why stop?" he grinned back. "Are you ready for more?""Uh-hum," she said. "Do you want me all to yourself or find some more playmates?"As Don pondered this dilemma, he caught sight of Toshia for the first time in about an hour. Off to the side of the orgy, a tall, fit white guy with short brown hair was laying on his back and his head on a thick pillow. His legs were spread so Toshia could lie on her belly between them and, supporting herself on his thighs, give him what looked like an intense blowjob. Her feet were up in the air, which Don thought was just adorable. Don stood up and said, "I definitely want to get you to myself, but let's go play with those two for now."Hand-in-hand, they crossed to Toshia and the object of her oral attentions. Don gestured Liu to the man on his back, and he knelt down by Toshia and the man's legs. He ran his hand over Toshia's back, and, as he reached her ass, he leaned down and whispered in her ear, "There you are. I hope you've been a very naughty girl."She took her mouth off what Don now realized was a surprisingly long cock, swallowed, took a breath and said, "I certainly have. We weren't supposed to be keeping count were we?"

We're joined by Professor Ravi Ramamurti, founder and director of the Center for Emerging Markets at Northeastern University in Boston, who's one of the world's leading experts on innovation in emerging economies.   Professor Ramamurti who along with his co-author coined the term ‘reverse innovation' — the phenomenon where innovation flows not from West to East, but from developing countries upward into wealthier markets. In this wide-ranging conversation, he challenges long-held assumptions about who innovates, how innovation spreads, and what lessons emerging markets are teaching the world.   We dive into: How reverse innovation has become a mainstream force, from portable ultrasounds to healthcare delivery models. What made India's hospitals 90% cheaper than the U.S. while matching quality. The rise of China as a global innovation leader in EVs, solar, AI, and biotech. How internal competition and STEM education give China an edge. What separates emerging market multinationals from their Western counterparts. Why globalization might retreat in the West but accelerate across the Global South. The role of business model innovation, not just technical R&D, in driving growth. What policymakers in emerging economies should focus on to unlock innovation. This episode is part of the Emerging Market Innovation Series, created in collaboration with Strategic Counsel, and also features Hafidzi Razali, founder and CEO of Strategic Counsel.   Key Takeaways from the Episode:   1.⁠ ⁠Innovation Is Reversing Direction: Emerging markets are no longer just catching up—they're now originating impactful innovations that reshape global industries.   2.⁠ ⁠Business Model Innovation Matters: From mobile payments to frugal healthcare, the biggest breakthroughs often come not from new tech, but from rethinking cost and access at scale.   3.⁠ ⁠China Is Now a Global Innovation Engine: Whether it's batteries, solar, AI, or pharmaceuticals, China is leading with original ideas—not just copycat models.   4.⁠ ⁠Internal Competition Fuels Innovation: China's provinces, companies, and universities are in constant competition, making it one of the most dynamic innovation ecosystems in the world.   5.⁠ ⁠Emerging Market MNCs Start Differently: Unlike Western firms built on tech superiority, EMNCs often scale through local problem-solving, cost innovation, and process excellence.   6.⁠ ⁠Don't Underestimate South-South Trade: As Western markets close, emerging markets may open up to one another, forming a new kind of globalization led from the Global South.   7.⁠ ⁠Innovation Needs State Support — and Deregulation: Countries need smart deregulation, investment in human capital, and openness to global ideas to create fertile ground for local innovation.   8.⁠ ⁠The AI Era Will Shake Up Everything: Professor Ramamurti shares early thoughts on how AI could redefine software economies like India's and change the geography of work.   (00:00) - Intro (01:39) - What is Reverse Innovation? (02:55) - What sparked Europe's rise in the 19th century—and is the West now in decline? (09:35) - Examples of Reverse Innovation (14:10) - What are some original innovations from emerging economies that led global trends? (17:01) - Why are business model innovations just as critical as technical breakthroughs? (18:15) - Is China still reliant on Western education for innovation, or has it built its own R&D ecosystem? (20:17) - Do emerging economies need to copy before they can truly innovate? (22:49) - Is local competition between Chinese municipalities driving the country's innovation boom? (25:53) - Is China's tech dominance threatening local industries in Southeast Asia? (28:01) - What makes emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) different—and potentially better—than Western MNCs? (30:31) - As labor costs rise, how can China and emerging economies stay competitive in manufacturing? (32:26) - Can Latin America rise to global tech prominence like China—and what stands in its way? (34:06) - Are Latin American governments investing in local innovation like East Asian state-owned giants do? (35:41) - What should emerging market policymakers do to spark innovation and global competitiveness? (37:38) - How should emerging markets innovate in a world moving away from globalization and free trade? (40:37) - Is globalization making rich countries lose their edge while manufacturing hubs gain design power? (43:38) - What groundbreaking research is coming out of the Center for Emerging Market Studies at Northeastern University? (45:52) - Outro   Join us for a powerful and myth-busting discussion with Professor Ravi Ramamurti as we explore the next chapter of global innovation from the perspective of the rising world.   Follow our host on Linkedln to know more or subscribe to our emailing list to get new episodes directly into your inbox.  

Bright on Buddhism - Asian Religions Series - Shintō Part 3Hello and welcome to the Asian religions series. In this series, we will be discussing religious traditions in Asia other than Buddhism. Buddhism never existed in a vacuum, and as it has spread all across East Asia, it has developed, localized, and syncretized with local traditions in fascinating and significant ways. As such, we cannot provide a complete picture of East Asian without discussing those local traditions such as they were and are. Disclaimer: this series is very basic and introductory, and does not and cannot paint a complete picture of these religious traditions as they are in the present or throughout history. Today, we will be continuing our discussion of Shinto, a very historically and culturally significant religious tradition in Japan. We hope you enjoyResources: Hardacre, Helen (1991). Shintō and the state, 1868–1988 (1st paperback print. ed.). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691020525.; Josephson, Jason Ānanda (2012). The Invention of Religion in Japan. University of Chicago Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0226412344.; Breen, John (1 July 2010). "Resurrecting the Sacred Land of Japan: The State of Shinto in the Twenty-First Century". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. doi:10.18874/jjrs.37.2.2010.295-315; Teeuwen, Mark; Breen, John (2010). A new history of shinto. Chicester: Wiley-Blackwell (an imprint of John Wiley & Sons). ISBN 9781405155168.Do you have a question about Buddhism that you'd like us to discuss? Let us know by emailing us at Bright.On.Buddhism@gmail.com.Credits:Nick Bright: Script, Cover Art, Music, Voice of Hearer, Co-HostProven Paradox: Editing, mixing and mastering, social media, Voice of Hermit, Co-Host

China's Ministry of State Security has infiltrated and is conducting espionage at all levels of Stanford University. By law, all Chinese nationals are required to report back to the Chinese Communist Party on their research and daily activities when asked. Sometimes this spying is voluntary and conducted by those who wish to see America fall behind in the global tech race. Other times, Chinese nationals are coerced into spying on their school, friends, and teachers through transnational repression. How can universities and Congress work together to prevent Chinese espionage? And how is the Chinese government buying influence in American universities and American society writ large? Elsa Johnson is the managing editor of the Stanford Review and a sophomore studying international relations and East Asian studies.Garret Molloy is a staff writer and the business manager of the Stanford Review. He is a sophomore studying Hayek, economic history, and libertarian thought.Read the transcript here. Subscribe to our Substack here. Read Elsa and Garret's reporting here.

Learn more about Startup Capitalism (and use promo code 09POD to save 30%):
 https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501781391/startup-capitalism/ Transcript: https://otter.ai/u/Tmx6NA_VRaCB-WSUO1lIHbWfO9c?utm_source=copy_url Robyn Klingler-Vidra is Reader in Entrepreneurship and Sustainability at King's Business School, King's College London. Ramon Pacheco Pardo is Professor of International Relations at King's College London and the KF-VUB Korea Chair at the Brussels School of Governance of Vrije Universiteit Brussel. We spoke to Robyn and Ramon about the different strategies that China, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan take in emulating the Silicon Valley approach to economic growth and innovation, how these East Asian countries want their big businesses to “gain innovative DNA by working with startups,” and how these evolving new strategies from Asia directly challenge, and will certainly influence, the current Silicon Valley playbook.

We were honored to welcome Dr. Pierce Salguero as our May 2025 Satsang guest. His conversation with Yvonne Unger was both inspiring and insightful, offering profound reflections that resonated deeply with our community.Please be sure to join us for Part 2Dr. Pierce Salguero will be joining us again for a second Satsang on Thursday, May 29th at 11:30am ET.Some Information About Dr. Pierce SalgueroPierce Salguero has studied spirituality through decades of practice and scholarship, specializing in hathayoga, meditation, shamanic rituals, spirit healing, Thai medicine, and Buddhist philosophy. His academic credentials include BAs in anthropology and cognitive science, an MA in East Asian studies, and a PhD in history of Buddhist medicine. He is now a professor researching Asian history, religions, and healing traditions. He likes to say that he is a student, friend, and fan of spirituality but also a researcher, a skeptic, and a critic. He is going to share with us a framework he calls Multidharma, distilling the lessons from a lifetime of exploration of spirituality, presented in a digestible way for modern seekers.Links that may be of interest:About Prof. Pierce Salguero:  https://multidharma.net/about/Deep dive into the Multidharma Threads model:  https://multidharma.net/maps-and-territories/Pierce's book for getting started:  https://multidharma.net/getting-started/Love podcasts? You might also enjoy one of the programs listed here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://awakening-together.org/interact/podcasts/

This podcast episode, hosted by Kikee Doma Bhutia from the University of Tartu, features journalist and analyst Aadil Brar discussing India's foreign policy amidst rising global tensions. The conversation focuses on India's balancing act between the US, China, and its own strategic autonomy in a contested Indo-Pacific region. Key topics include India's evolving role as a middle power, responding to China's assertiveness along the India-China border and in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining its traditional non-alignment stance. India's foreign policy is at a crossroads, shaped by five tense years since the Galwan Valley clash with China. Despite rounds of talks, the border remains uneasy and trust is scarce. Today, China's assertiveness drives nearly every major Indian strategic decision-from military deployments and Quad partnerships to concerns over Beijing's mega-dams on the Brahmaputra. Meanwhile, the US sees India as a key counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, but Delhi is determined to maintain its independence and avoid being boxed into alliances. As India watches China's moves from the Himalayas to Taiwan, the question is clear: Are we witnessing a true pivot in Indian foreign policy, or simply a sharp recalibration to meet new realities? The answer will shape Asia's balance of power for years to come. The podcast was brought to you by host Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia a Research Fellow and India Coordinator at the Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her current research combines folkloristics, international relations and Asian studies, focusing on the role of religion and culture in times of crisis, national and regional identities, and geopolitics conflict between India and China. The podcast guest speaker Aadil Brar is a journalist and international affairs analyst based in Taipei, currently a Reporter at TaiwanPlus News. His reporting focuses on international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security. Previously, he was a China news reporter for Newsweek and has contributed to the BBC World Service, The Print India, and National Geographic. In 2023, he was a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Brar holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MSc. in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/chinese-studies

This podcast episode, hosted by Kikee Doma Bhutia from the University of Tartu, features journalist and analyst Aadil Brar discussing India's foreign policy amidst rising global tensions. The conversation focuses on India's balancing act between the US, China, and its own strategic autonomy in a contested Indo-Pacific region. Key topics include India's evolving role as a middle power, responding to China's assertiveness along the India-China border and in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining its traditional non-alignment stance. India's foreign policy is at a crossroads, shaped by five tense years since the Galwan Valley clash with China. Despite rounds of talks, the border remains uneasy and trust is scarce. Today, China's assertiveness drives nearly every major Indian strategic decision-from military deployments and Quad partnerships to concerns over Beijing's mega-dams on the Brahmaputra. Meanwhile, the US sees India as a key counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, but Delhi is determined to maintain its independence and avoid being boxed into alliances. As India watches China's moves from the Himalayas to Taiwan, the question is clear: Are we witnessing a true pivot in Indian foreign policy, or simply a sharp recalibration to meet new realities? The answer will shape Asia's balance of power for years to come. The podcast was brought to you by host Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia a Research Fellow and India Coordinator at the Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her current research combines folkloristics, international relations and Asian studies, focusing on the role of religion and culture in times of crisis, national and regional identities, and geopolitics conflict between India and China. The podcast guest speaker Aadil Brar is a journalist and international affairs analyst based in Taipei, currently a Reporter at TaiwanPlus News. His reporting focuses on international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security. Previously, he was a China news reporter for Newsweek and has contributed to the BBC World Service, The Print India, and National Geographic. In 2023, he was a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Brar holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MSc. in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies

This podcast episode, hosted by Kikee Doma Bhutia from the University of Tartu, features journalist and analyst Aadil Brar discussing India's foreign policy amidst rising global tensions. The conversation focuses on India's balancing act between the US, China, and its own strategic autonomy in a contested Indo-Pacific region. Key topics include India's evolving role as a middle power, responding to China's assertiveness along the India-China border and in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining its traditional non-alignment stance. India's foreign policy is at a crossroads, shaped by five tense years since the Galwan Valley clash with China. Despite rounds of talks, the border remains uneasy and trust is scarce. Today, China's assertiveness drives nearly every major Indian strategic decision-from military deployments and Quad partnerships to concerns over Beijing's mega-dams on the Brahmaputra. Meanwhile, the US sees India as a key counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, but Delhi is determined to maintain its independence and avoid being boxed into alliances. As India watches China's moves from the Himalayas to Taiwan, the question is clear: Are we witnessing a true pivot in Indian foreign policy, or simply a sharp recalibration to meet new realities? The answer will shape Asia's balance of power for years to come. The podcast was brought to you by host Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia a Research Fellow and India Coordinator at the Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her current research combines folkloristics, international relations and Asian studies, focusing on the role of religion and culture in times of crisis, national and regional identities, and geopolitics conflict between India and China. The podcast guest speaker Aadil Brar is a journalist and international affairs analyst based in Taipei, currently a Reporter at TaiwanPlus News. His reporting focuses on international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security. Previously, he was a China news reporter for Newsweek and has contributed to the BBC World Service, The Print India, and National Geographic. In 2023, he was a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Brar holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MSc. in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This podcast episode, hosted by Kikee Doma Bhutia from the University of Tartu, features journalist and analyst Aadil Brar discussing India's foreign policy amidst rising global tensions. The conversation focuses on India's balancing act between the US, China, and its own strategic autonomy in a contested Indo-Pacific region. Key topics include India's evolving role as a middle power, responding to China's assertiveness along the India-China border and in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining its traditional non-alignment stance. India's foreign policy is at a crossroads, shaped by five tense years since the Galwan Valley clash with China. Despite rounds of talks, the border remains uneasy and trust is scarce. Today, China's assertiveness drives nearly every major Indian strategic decision-from military deployments and Quad partnerships to concerns over Beijing's mega-dams on the Brahmaputra. Meanwhile, the US sees India as a key counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, but Delhi is determined to maintain its independence and avoid being boxed into alliances. As India watches China's moves from the Himalayas to Taiwan, the question is clear: Are we witnessing a true pivot in Indian foreign policy, or simply a sharp recalibration to meet new realities? The answer will shape Asia's balance of power for years to come. The podcast was brought to you by host Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia a Research Fellow and India Coordinator at the Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her current research combines folkloristics, international relations and Asian studies, focusing on the role of religion and culture in times of crisis, national and regional identities, and geopolitics conflict between India and China. The podcast guest speaker Aadil Brar is a journalist and international affairs analyst based in Taipei, currently a Reporter at TaiwanPlus News. His reporting focuses on international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security. Previously, he was a China news reporter for Newsweek and has contributed to the BBC World Service, The Print India, and National Geographic. In 2023, he was a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Brar holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MSc. in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/world-affairs

This podcast episode, hosted by Kikee Doma Bhutia from the University of Tartu, features journalist and analyst Aadil Brar discussing India's foreign policy amidst rising global tensions. The conversation focuses on India's balancing act between the US, China, and its own strategic autonomy in a contested Indo-Pacific region. Key topics include India's evolving role as a middle power, responding to China's assertiveness along the India-China border and in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining its traditional non-alignment stance. India's foreign policy is at a crossroads, shaped by five tense years since the Galwan Valley clash with China. Despite rounds of talks, the border remains uneasy and trust is scarce. Today, China's assertiveness drives nearly every major Indian strategic decision-from military deployments and Quad partnerships to concerns over Beijing's mega-dams on the Brahmaputra. Meanwhile, the US sees India as a key counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, but Delhi is determined to maintain its independence and avoid being boxed into alliances. As India watches China's moves from the Himalayas to Taiwan, the question is clear: Are we witnessing a true pivot in Indian foreign policy, or simply a sharp recalibration to meet new realities? The answer will shape Asia's balance of power for years to come. The podcast was brought to you by host Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia a Research Fellow and India Coordinator at the Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her current research combines folkloristics, international relations and Asian studies, focusing on the role of religion and culture in times of crisis, national and regional identities, and geopolitics conflict between India and China. The podcast guest speaker Aadil Brar is a journalist and international affairs analyst based in Taipei, currently a Reporter at TaiwanPlus News. His reporting focuses on international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security. Previously, he was a China news reporter for Newsweek and has contributed to the BBC World Service, The Print India, and National Geographic. In 2023, he was a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Brar holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MSc. in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. ​

This podcast episode, hosted by Kikee Doma Bhutia from the University of Tartu, features journalist and analyst Aadil Brar discussing India's foreign policy amidst rising global tensions. The conversation focuses on India's balancing act between the US, China, and its own strategic autonomy in a contested Indo-Pacific region. Key topics include India's evolving role as a middle power, responding to China's assertiveness along the India-China border and in the Indo-Pacific, while maintaining its traditional non-alignment stance. India's foreign policy is at a crossroads, shaped by five tense years since the Galwan Valley clash with China. Despite rounds of talks, the border remains uneasy and trust is scarce. Today, China's assertiveness drives nearly every major Indian strategic decision-from military deployments and Quad partnerships to concerns over Beijing's mega-dams on the Brahmaputra. Meanwhile, the US sees India as a key counterweight to China in the Indo-Pacific, but Delhi is determined to maintain its independence and avoid being boxed into alliances. As India watches China's moves from the Himalayas to Taiwan, the question is clear: Are we witnessing a true pivot in Indian foreign policy, or simply a sharp recalibration to meet new realities? The answer will shape Asia's balance of power for years to come. The podcast was brought to you by host Dr. Kikee Doma Bhutia a Research Fellow and India Coordinator at the Asia Centre, University of Tartu, Estonia. Her current research combines folkloristics, international relations and Asian studies, focusing on the role of religion and culture in times of crisis, national and regional identities, and geopolitics conflict between India and China. The podcast guest speaker Aadil Brar is a journalist and international affairs analyst based in Taipei, currently a Reporter at TaiwanPlus News. His reporting focuses on international security, U.S.-China relations, and East Asian security. Previously, he was a China news reporter for Newsweek and has contributed to the BBC World Service, The Print India, and National Geographic. In 2023, he was a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellow and a visiting scholar at National Chengchi University in Taipei. Brar holds a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia and an MSc. in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. ​ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What does it really look like to run a wellness business while traveling the world with your kids—and still deliver real results for your clients? In this episode, I'm joined by Stacy and Markus Naugle, founders of Common Sense Health and true pioneers in the world of digital nomad entrepreneurship. With a combined 70 years of experience and a powerful blend of East Asian medicine, molecular biology, and lifestyle coaching, they're on a mission to help people burn bright—not out. They share the unfiltered truth about what it takes to build a global brand, raise a healthy plant-based family, and deliver science-backed health solutions from anywhere on the planet. Their work in diabetes reversal, metabolic health, and high-performance coaching has helped clients in over 60 countries—from rural communities to corporate hubs. If you're looking for proof that you can build something deeply impactful and mobile, this is your roadmap. Key Takeaways What it's really like to travel full-time and raise kids while running a business How Stacy and Markus transitioned from brick-and-mortar to global coaching The unexpected challenges of taking a practice online Why niching down to metabolic health transformed their business How they personalize group coaching using global food traditions The key differences in supporting men vs. women with lifestyle protocols How they address diabetes, insulin resistance, and burnout with lifestyle medicine The daily non-negotiables that fuel their health and leadership What it actually takes behind the scenes to stay consistent and mission-driven Their “fusion” model: ancient wisdom meets modern science Connect with Stacy & Markus Naugle Business: Common Sense Health Website: yourveganfamily.com/Common-Sense-Health Free Resource: Calorie Density Chart + Low Glycemic Food List Instagram: @high_performance_health_coach Facebook: Stacy Naugle Coaching LinkedIn: Stacy Naugle Whether you're craving freedom, building a virtual practice, or want to impact lives globally—this episode will expand what you believe is possible.  

梅雨季 méi yǔ jì - plum rain season; East Asian rainy season冷空氣 lěng kōng qì - cold air mass暖空氣 nuǎn kōng qì - warm air mass交會 jiāo huì - to meet; to converge形成 xíng chéng - to form; to develop滯留鋒 zhì liú fēng - stationary front (a weather front that doesn't move much)卡在上空 kǎ zài shàng kōng - stuck overhead (of weather systems)毛毛雨 máo máo yǔ - drizzle強降雨 qiáng jiàng yǔ - heavy rainfall典型 diǎn xíng - typical; representative華中地區 huá zhōng dì qū - Central China region梅子 méi zi - plum成熟 chéng shóu - to ripen; mature熱帶 rè dài - tropical zone晴朗 qíng lǎng - sunny and clear輪流 lún liú - to take turns; alternately天氣預報 tiān qì yù bào - weather forecast悶熱 mēn rè - hot and stuffy防曬用品 fáng shài yòng pǐn - sun protection products防雨用品 fáng yǔ yòng pǐn - rain protection items環島 huán dǎo - to travel around an island (especially Taiwan)滑 huá - slippery視線 shì xiàn - visibility; line of sight減速慢行 jiǎn sù màn xíng - slow down (used in driving or riding)積水 jī shuǐ - water accumulation; flooding路段 lù duàn - section of the road硬闖 yìng chuǎng - to force one's way through漏水 lòu shuǐ - water leakage把門窗關緊 bǎ mén chuāng guān jǐn - to close doors and windows tightly排水溝 pái shuǐ gōu - drainage ditch清乾淨 qīng gān jìng - to clean thoroughly排水口 pái shuǐ kǒu - drainage outlet排水通暢 pái shuǐ tōng chàng - smooth drainage牆壁 qiáng bì - wall滲水 shèn shuǐ - water seepage鋪 pū - to lay out; to spread抹布 mǒ bù - cleaning cloth; rag之類的 zhī lèi de - things like that; and so on地下室 dì xià shì - basement低窪 dī wā - low-lying (area)抽水馬達 chōu shuǐ mǎ dá - water pump豪雨或雷雨警報 háo yǔ huò léi yǔ jǐng bào - heavy rain or thunderstorm alert你想讓中文更進步嗎 ? 我可以幫你！

【聊了什么 The What】 这个四月，疲惫娇娃被邀请去了大城市东京参加两年一度的星战庆典。 这个地表浓度最高的星战粉丝盛会是一个持续了三十多年的文化现象，也是一个迪士尼的商业帝国和星战的跨越多个时代的原生粉丝文化的结合，这次的日本庆典是近几届中规模最大的一届，也在各种细节中致敬了日本的历史和文化。 我们除了在红毯上采访到了巨多明星以外，还有特别多见闻需要和几个女的们yap yap. 所以这期是一集氛围闲聊，主要聊聊阿花和一芳在庆典中的见闻。我们聊了星战粉丝群体的多元化和演变、庆典现场的独特氛围和活动安排、庆典中的重磅官宣（新电影、瑞恩·高斯林等等！）、与《曼达洛人》和《安多》主创及主演的采访体验、星战IP与日本文化的交融等等…… 另外这一期的许多提到的和明星们的面对面采访视频都在我们的同名小红书发布了。请大家在小红书上关注我们！《安多》第二季也开播了！欢迎大家点这里回顾我们聊第一季的节目！ In mid-April, CyberPink was invited to Tokyo Japan, to attend Star Wars Celebration! It was our first time at this iconic gathering of all fans across galaxies, but Star Wars Celebration has been around since the late 1990s. It's a testament to the multi-generational and organic nature of being a Star Wars fan, but also goes to show the commercial prowess of Disney (which acquired LucasFilm in 2012). This year's celebration in Japan was the largest in recent years and paid tribute to Japanese history and culture in many subtle ways. Your favorite gals got to join the press line and interview your favorite stars, but that's not all! In this episode, the gals who went spill the tea with the other gals on what exactly went down at Star Wars Celebration 2025. We talk about the evolving diversity of the Star Wars fanbase (and movies), the unique vibe and programming at the event, major announcements (New movies! New shows! Ryan Gosling!), what it was like interviewing the creators and stars of The Mandalorian and Andor, how the Star Wars IP merges with Japanese culture, and more… Additionally, many of the face-to-face interview videos with celebrities mentioned in this episode have been posted on our Xiaohongshu account with the same name. Please follow us on Xiaohongshu! Andor Season 2 has also premiered! Feel free to click here to revisit our episode where we discussed Season 1! 【买咖啡 Please Support Us】 如果喜欢这期节目并愿意想要给我们买杯咖啡： 海外用户：https://www.patreon.com/cyberpinkfm 海内用户：https://afdian.com/a/cyberpinkfm 商务合作邮箱：cyberpinkfm@gmail.com 商务合作微信：CyberPink2022 If you like our show and want to support us, please consider the following: Those Abroad: https://www.patreon.com/cyberpinkfm Those in China: https://afdian.com/a/cyberpinkfm Business Inquiries Email: cyberpinkfm@gmail.com Business Inquiries WeChat: CyberPink2022 【时间轴 The When】 00:01:10 为什么会被邀请参加？星战庆典背景 00:02:30 星战粉丝群体的演变与自我认知 00:04:23 参与者非常多元化，各个年龄层都有；场地巨大，分为不同展台和舞台；光剑到处都是 00:16:30 “妈妈我们出息了”之红毯采访体验：我们和所有大明星们都聊了一遍天 00:20:06 高司令要进入星战宇宙了 00:27:00 近年星战故事的焦点变化：不再只关注原力/绝地，普通角色戏份增加，《安多》和《曼达洛人》中的风暴兵也很可怕。从“将军的故事”到“生灵的故事” 00:31:07 Pedro Pascal（佩德罗·帕斯卡）采访：关于他的“守护者”角色（《最后生还者》和《曼达洛人》） 00:35:25 回到日本之行与星战文化交融；文化挪用与互相启发/融合的讨论，中国所扮演的角色 00:47:47 迪士尼的商业模式：虽然看起来是粉丝主导的聚会，背后是迪士尼强大的垂直整合商业帝国。通过提供沉浸式体验和产品，巩固其地位 00:50:10 粉丝选择哪个IP是购买选择，是为多巴胺和身份买单 00:53:00 海登·克里斯滕森与安纳金：作为“美强惨”杨过，在东亚女性粉丝中非常受欢迎 00:57:15 下届星战庆典预告：2025年星战50周年，将在美国洛杉矶举办 00:01:10 How did we get invited? What is Star Wars Celebration? 00:02:30 The evolution of the Star Wars fandom and self-perception 00:04:23 Fans from all ages and across the world attended; the venue was massive and divided into various stages, booths, and exhibition space; Lightsabers were everywhere 00:16:30 “Mom, we made it!” Red carpet interview experience: We got to chat with all the major stars 00:20:06 Ryan Gosling is joining the Star Wars universe 00:27:00 The shift in Star Wars storytelling focus: No longer just about the Force or Jedi — more screen time for everyday characters. Even stormtroopers have personalities. From “stories of generals” to “stories of ordinary beings” 00:31:07 Interview with Pedro Pascal: On playing “protector” roles 00:35:25 Return to the fusion of Japan and Star Wars culture; Cultural appropriation vs. mutual inspiration and the role China plays 00:47:47 Even though the celebration feels fan-led, it's backed by Disney's powerful vertically integrated empire. Through immersive experiences and products, they're reinforcing their dominance 00:50:10 Choosing a fandom/IP is like a purchase decision: It's about paying for dopamine — and identity 00:53:00 Hayden Christensen as Anakin: As the “beautiful, strong, tragic” type, he's especially beloved by East Asian women fans 00:57:15 Teaser for the next Star Wars Celebration: 2025 will mark the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, and the celebration will be held in Los Angeles, USA 【拓展链接 The Links】 Star Wars Celebrations 官网 《安多》第一季的节目！ 【疲惫红书 CyberRed】 除了播客以外，疲惫娇娃的几个女的在小红书上开了官方账号，我们会不定期发布【疲惫在读】、【疲惫在看】、【疲惫旅行】、【疲惫Vlog】等等更加轻盈、好玩、实验性质的内容。如果你想知道除了播客以外我们在关注什么，快来小红书评论区和我们互动。 Apart from the podcast, we have set up an official account on Xiaohongshu. We will periodically post content such as “CyberPink Reading,” “CyberPink Watching,” “CyberPink Traveling,” “CyberPink Vlog,” and more. Those are lighter, more fun, and more experimental stuff about our lives. Leave us some comments on Xiaohongshu!

Leader and manager development was CHROs' top priority in 2025, according to the 2025 Gartner HR Priorities Survey. When employees are frustrated by the leadership at the organization, their engagement, performance and productivity suffer. Adam Galinsky, professor at Columbia Business School and author of "Inspire: The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others,” joins the Talent Angle to share research on what makes leaders inspiring, rather than infuriating, and how organizations can adapt their leadership development strategies to nurture inspiration at scale. Adam Galinsky is a celebrated social psychologist at Columbia Business School known for his research on leadership, decision-making, teams, and ethics. His scientific research — consisting of more than 1,000 studies published in more than 200 scientific articles — has been cited more than 64,000 times. In Adam's latest book, “Inspire The Universal Path for Leading Yourself and Others,” he weaves together his decades of research and global consulting experience to reveal the science of how to become more inspiring. His TED Talk, “How to Speak Up For Yourself,” has been viewed more than 7.5 million times, and his book “Friend & Foe: When to Cooperate, When to Compete, and How to Succeed at Both” was an audible and eBook bestseller. Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner's HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

There are few more respected economic analysts in the world than the Financial Times Chief Economic Commentator Martin Wolf. Yesterday, we ran a conversation with Wolf about the survival of American democracy. Today, we talk Trumpian economics, particularly tariff policy. Wolf characterizes Trump's trade policies as historically unprecedented in their scale, comprehensive nature, and unpredictability. But are they “dumb”, I asked? He acknowledges genuine issues driving tariff policy like global imbalances and deindustrialization but believes the current approach won't solve these problems. Wolf explains that the US-China trade war is causing significant economic disruption, with prohibitive tariffs likely stopping trade between the world's two dominant economies. He warns that investor confidence is damaged by unpredictability, which will take years to restore, and questions the wisdom of dismantling America's alliance system. Dumb, dumb and dumber. Five Key Takeaways* Trump's tariff policies are unprecedented in economic history for their scale, comprehensive nature affecting most of the world, and extraordinary unpredictability.* There are legitimate economic problems regarding global imbalances and deindustrialization, but Wolf believes the current approach won't solve these issues and may worsen them.* The economic consequences include potential slowdowns in US retail sales, reduced profits for retailers, job losses, and decreased manufacturing investment due to uncertainty.* Investor confidence is severely damaged by unpredictability, with concerns about US government stability reflected in Treasury markets, and this uncertainty could take "a decade or two" to fully dissipate.* Wolf compares the current US withdrawal from global leadership to America's post-WWI rejection of the League of Nations, calling it "strikingly willful" and potentially destabilizing for the global order. Full TranscriptAndrew Keen: Hello everybody, we are at the London office of the Financial Times with the chief economics commentator of the newspaper, one of the world's leading economists, Martin Wolf. Martin's been on the show many times. Martin, before we went live you suggested to me that this was your moment, that suddenly economics has become interesting again. Is it because of this Tariff thing that a certain Donald Trump has introduced well, there's no doubtMartin Wolf: what you describe as this tariff thing has created a novelty, to put it mildly. He's done things that as far as I can see have never been done before in the history of economics. So and you don't normally live through an experience with a set of policies, trade policy, which has been pretty unexciting since the Second World War, and you're suddenly in a different world. And that was not quite what we expected. In addition to that, it's not even as though it's sort of predictably in a different world. It was sort of every day or so. It seems to be something different. So in that sense, yes, it is very, very exciting. Now, there are other things going on, obviously in the administration and other areas which might turn out to be even more important. The attack on science and the funding of science, for example, the attack on universities. These are all very, important, the dismantling of important parts of the government, the relationship with allies, but I think this tariff war is remarkable for its scale. We've never seen changes in tariffs on this level before. It's comprehensive nature that base effects most of the world and it's extraordinary unpredictability. So this This is a new world for economists and we will be studying this, I'm absolutely sure, for half a century.Andrew Keen: My sense, Martin, is that one of the reasons you're enjoying it is because you're a natural polemicist and you haven't pulled your punches in your columns. I think you recently wrote in one of your last FTPs that America is inevitably going to lose in this war against China. Is it as dumb? As it seems. I mean, you're the chief economist at the chief economics commentator at the FT, one of the world's, as I said, most respected economists. You're an expert on this area. Is it just dumb? Are there any coherent economic arguments in favor of tariffs, of what they're doing? Well, I think...Martin Wolf: There is a genuine problem, and part of that is to do with trade. And more broadly the balance of payments, which is affecting the U.S., is genuine. There's a real set of issues, and economists, including me actually, have been discussing these problems, which you might call actually two problems, the global imbalances problem and the deindustrialization problem. These are two real problems, economic and social. The problem is that it's very hard for me to see how these policies that are now being introduced will solve those problems worldwide, and they are global problems. And the way the war is being pursued, if you like, by the Trump administration is such as, I think, inevitably to lose the many of the allies they ought to have in this contest and therefore they are playing this match, if we like, without the help of lots of people who should be on their side. And I don't think the way they're going about it now will solve that problem. I think making it worse but yes there are a couple of genuine real problems which is perfectly reasonable for them want to for them to want to address address if they can do so in a coherent well-plannedAndrew Keen: relatively inclusive way is it a problem with China essentially in terms of China producing too much and not buying enough of American goods is that the heart of the problem I think the problem China'sMartin Wolf: not the only such country. They are right to observe that Germany has also behaved somewhat in the same way, but Germany's capacity for disruption, though very real in Europe and I wrote about that in my book on the crisis published about a decade ago, is not global. The rise of China was bound to be a massively disruptive event. How could it not be? Suddenly there's a new peer competitor out there in the world. I don't think we had the right or the capacity to prevent its rise I would have strongly opposed any such effort but some people I'm sure would disagree but China is a vast country with a tremendously capable population and an even more capable government than we thought 20 or 30 years ago and its rise was going to be very disruptive its disruption is for the world I mean it's also disrupted Europe a lot it's disrupted any country that is competing with Chinese manufacturers. Actually, that includes Japan. Japan has been displaced as a manufacturing exporter to significant degree by China. So it's not just about America. One of the mistakes is thinking it's just about America. The rise of China is a fundamental transformational moment. And there is a specific problem with China, which is it's been following the general line of East Asian manufacturing-led development but because it's much bigger and because there are features of its economy particularly excess savings which are even larger than in other countries the disruption is even bigger so there's a genuine disruptive force here which we should have started dealing with consistently.Andrew Keen: About two decades ago. My sense is that Trump is trying in his own peculiar way to walk back some of these policies. But has the damage already been done? Well, that's a very interesting question.Martin Wolf: There are two dimensions that some damage has been done because it's working through the system now. Right now, there's essentially prohibitive tariffs between the US and China. And that means that trade between these two countries is largely going to stop and inevitably that's going to do a lot of damage because they, on both sides, but notably with China's supplies of manufacturers to the U.S. There are an enormous number of businesses across the United States that depend on these products. So that's going to be a disruption and it's going show itself up in economic activity and retail sales in the U.S. That's going have a significant effect. But I think the more important point is the degree of unpredictability and the degree of zaniness of what's happened, introducing these so-called reciprocal tariffs, which were reciprocal on one day and essentially getting rid of them the next for 90 days without anyone knowing what will follow them, for example, or introducing these obviously not expected, massively prohibitive tariffs on China, 145% tariffs and 125% on the other side, people suddenly realize that sort of anything can happen, things that they couldn't possibly imagine. It was completely outside their worst nightmares that this is what would happen when Donald Trump became president. After the first term, they didn't experience that. So I think the realization... That the range of possible developments of events is so far outside what you thought was possible changes the way you view the future and inevitably I think it's going to make investors who are going to be affected by trade which is basically anyone in manufacturing quite a lot of other businesses very very nervous about making commitments which they can't walk back so I think that everybody's going to become very risk averse. That includes allies, potential allies, because they don't know what's going happen to them. Should they align themselves with the US? Well, maybe that won't work. Look at what has happened to Canada. So, I think the In this respect, they have broadened the range of possible futures in relationship to the US, still the most important country in the world, beyond anything they could imagine, and that cannot disappear quickly. It will take, I would have thought, a decade or two at best before people will say, Now we know exactly what's going on.Andrew Keen: Exactly how the U.S. Is going to behave again. In terms of the economic consequences, Martin, is the real damage, at least at this point, 100 days into the Trump administration, is there real damage to the U S economy and the U,S. Consumer? I think that...Martin Wolf: That's certainly going to be important. There's no doubt about it. There's a basic proposition in economics, which is still basically true. The biggest victim of protection, particularly at this sort of level. Is your own country. You are imposing massive adjustment shocks on your country by suddenly putting out of reach, a huge range of goods that they were used to buying. So that's a huge shock and they have to adjust their spending habits, the firms have to adjust how they structure themselves. That's ineluctable and as it all goes away, And if it all goes away, will they assume that it's all back to normal? I don't know. But of course, because the US is the US, it has imposed tariffs now, significant tariffs by historical standards. It used to be an average of 2% or so. Now it's 10%, leaving aside China and leaving aside of course the automobile sector which has got higher tariffs and all the other special cases that are being considered. So these all affect other countries. And, of course, the effect on China is certainly going to be very, very substantial because it's losing the ability, really, to export to its biggest single market, if you don't regard Europe as a single market. So there will be damage to China. And then there's a really big question. What does it mean for all the countries that might replace China? Vietnam for example, other East Asian countries, is there now going to be a huge opportunity or is the US going to jack up its, reintroduce its reciprocal tariffs, 50%, close to 50%, which case they're going to lose the market. So I think at the moment you'd have to say that everybody is going to feel... Actually or very close to actuallyAndrew Keen: damaged. And what's that gonna look like? Higher prices, fewer jobs? Well I would be, there will be countries that will, in the US in particular. What should we be so to speak looking forward to in the next couple of years? Well when I assume thatMartin Wolf: There will be a slowdown in retail sales of consumer goods which will be really quite significant. It will affect the profits of major U.S. Retailing and retail firms significantly and jobs in those activities. That's sort of the shock effect. There will be a risk factor in investment above all investment in manufacturing which will also be significant so I would expect manufacturing investment to decline too. Will that lead to an actual formal recession? I don't know. I don t have enough expertise on the day-by-day numbers. I think there s an additional factor which we mustn t underestimate, how that will play out, we don t know, which is the loss of confidence in the U.S. Government, and you can see that in the Treasury s market, which is most important market in the world, and the pricing there suggests some real nervousness about the future of stability of US economic policy. And here, I think the most important thing will be will there be a war on the Fed? Who's going to be the next Fed chair? What will Trump try to do to get the Fed to do what he wants? So there's going to be a shorter term medium short term impact on the economy. Through exports and, above all, also import availability. And there's going to be bigger concern which will affect investment. And, I think, people's confidence in US financial assets, which is ultimately about confidence in the US government and the consistency and probity of its policies. So short, medium, and long-term effects. How bad it will be, that depends very much on what is decided in the next few months. If in the end, the trade war disappears, Trump stops threatening the Fed, everybody thinks well they tried that it was a huge disaster and they've learnt and he's very flexible he could go away still but the next I think the next two three months are going to be very very important do they walk all this back pretty decisively or do they stick with it or even play double or quits we don't knowAndrew Keen: I don't know whether Mr. Trump knows. Finally, and that's one of Donald Runfield's unknown unknowns, especially when we get into the head of Donald Trump. Finally, Martin, you're very good at the big picture. What people are talking about this moment at the end of a US-centric economic world order, the demise of the dollar, perhaps the rise of cryptocurrency, obviously the 90s. Dimension. Was this? Two final questions. Firstly, is that true? Are we seeing a reoriented global financial system in America and the dollar no longer being central? And secondly, for all Trump's stupidity, was this in the long run inevitable? I mean, of course, Kane says in the long run, everything is inevitable, including our own deaths. Uh is this something that we should have expected it's just all come in a rush in a mad rush at the beginning of 2025 well these these are really difficult questions i think that's why i asked you you're the chief economics commentator in the ft if you can't answer them no one let's just say how i think about itMartin Wolf: There are two reasons why you could think the world wouldn't continue as it was. The first is the rise of China has genuinely changed the world. And the unipolar moment was clearly over and China is clearly a more credible peer competitor of the US across the board than the Soviet Union ever was. So in that sense, the world that the US comfortably dominated had gone, and it was bound to require a, and something I've written about many times, a forceful alliance strategy by the US using its web of alliances which are still so potent as the basis of its power and influence to maintain anything like that order. So that was the situation. What I don't think was inevitable is that the president who sort of declared the end of the US-led order would also be someone who basically stands not just for America first but America alone. I always attacked his allies so forcibly. So he has, as it were, taken apart the Alliance system and the values that were linked to that, on which I think U.S. Leadership was going to depend increasingly in future. So that's a, it doesn't seem to be a necessary shock and a rather strange one if you consciously detonate as such an important part of your power, but I suppose it is possible to argue that after 80 years since the war, second world war, the Americans have just sort of got tired of that world and tired of the responsibility of that well and they've sort of gotten tired with themselves, with the system that they've been living under. That's so obvious. Left and right agree they don't like modern America. Well once we look at that, then it may be that this was inevitable, but it was inevitable then for reasons that I don't fully understand. And that's probably a failure of my imagination. And the core remains that while America couldn't go on being precisely what it was in the 90s or early 2000s, where they made a bigger mess of it, but they didn't have to jump out of the world and the world they created with this stupendous speed. And it's very similar, and even more dramatic in its effects, when after the First World War the Americans repudiated the League of Nations, said Europe's got nothing to do with us, we're just going to leave it, gone. You sort it out and you know what happened as a result. Germans elected the Nazis and the Nazis started conquering the whole of Europe. So it's the American withdrawal. So suddenly, and so completely, well, complete, that's unfair, but so suddenly, with no obvious strategy to replace it, that seems to me striking, strikingly willful and a little bit mad and in any case, for me it's a surprise.Andrew Keen: And it changes the world. Well, on that chilling note, Martin Wolff, the chief economics commentator of BFT, given us much to think about. Martin, thank you so much. This story is only just beginning. We're gonna get you back on the show in the not too distant future to explain what comes after America. This is a public episode. 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Although East Asians make up a significant share of entry-level roles in U.S. biopharma, few have risen to senior leadership positions. That disparity is what inspired the launch of ElevAAte—a new nonprofit founded this year to support and grow East Asian American leadership in the industry. In this week’s episode of "The Top Line," Fierce Pharma Deputy Editor Angus Liu speaks with two of ElevAAte’s co-founders: Architect Therapeutics CEO Angie You and Candid Therapeutics CEO Ken Song. The veteran biotech leaders discuss why a group like ElevAAte is needed and how East Asian Americans can harness their collective strength to build the next generation of biopharma executives. You and Song—who led Amunix’s $1.2 billion sale to Sanofi and RayzeBio’s $4.1 billion acquisition by Bristol Myers Squibb, respectively—also share insights from their dealmaking careers and offer advice for young professionals entering the field. To learn more about the topics in this episode: Though prevalent in the lab and middle management, East Asian Americans are underrepresented in biopharma C-suites: report Candid's T-cell engager shopping spree rolls on with WuXi Biologics pact worth up to $925M A reason to fight: Former FDA leader Janet Woodcock inspires 3rd Biotech Sisterhood summit Takeda taps Julie Kim to take over for retiring CEO Christophe Weber This episode is sponsored by Cencora. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Conflict management is an increasingly essential skill for individuals in leadership positions. However, it is a topic that often makes people — especially leaders and managers — feel uneasy. As leaders are responsible for handling conflicts between their employees, teams, and peers, it is crucial for them to have effective strategies for conflict management. Amy Gallo, the author of “Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)," joins the Talent Angle podcast to provide valuable insights and strategies on how to effectively manage conflicts and transform them into productive dialogues within your organization. Amy Gallo is a workplace expert who writes and speaks about gender, interpersonal dynamics, and difficult conversations. She's the best-selling author of “Getting Along: How to Work with Anyone (Even Difficult People)” and the “HBR Guide to Dealing with Conflict,” as well as hundreds of articles for Harvard Business Review. For the past five years, Amy has co-hosted HBR's popular Women at Work podcast, which examines the struggles and successes of women in the workplace. Her advice has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, BBC, and NPR. Caroline Walsh is a managing vice president in Gartner's HR practice. Her teams help HR leaders build and execute talent, diversity, rewards, and learning strategies and programs. Caroline has also led Gartner research teams on commercial banking strategy and leadership. She holds a bachelor's degree in East Asian studies from Columbia University, and a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University.

Brighton, U.K. based ceramicist, Nicola Gillis makes functional tableware. Nicola takes inspiration from the East Asian use of tableware, a specific purpose for each vessel and where pleasure is drawn from individuality. Although there are commonalities, she does not seek to replicate exact size or marks and embraces imperfection. Shadows and light on daily walks throughout the seasons and the beauty found in degraded surfaces and patina also inform her work. Nicola has developed her interest in ceramics over the past 8 years, studying on the full-time Ceramic Development course at Forest Row School of Ceramics in 2019, and beginning to sell her work in during 2020. Initially using the wheel, Nicola developed her practice to include hand-building with slabs, carving, and coils, all of which she finds to be a slower, more thoughtful approach to making. https://ThePottersCast.com/1123