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In this month's EM Quick Hits Podcast we introduce not one, but two new series! First, "EMC²" - EM Cases Cases (we know, horrible name ;) where Anton or Katie discuss a knowledge building case with a special guest. And second, "Coaching the EM Mind" with Dr. Sara Gray a professional coach for EM providers, where Katie discusses with her the science and best expert advice on how to perform your best in the ED. Plus, a withdrawal syndrome that is new EDs, life-threatening and requires specific treatment - metetomadine withdrawal, EMS handover done right, why community ED docs should not use the PECARN C-spine Rule and Part 2 of Petro's tips on management of traumatic pneumothorax... Please consider a donation to ensure EM Cases continues to be Free Open Access here: https://emergencymedicinecases.com/donation/
***"Original Description"*** Hello Lovelies. Today again for you and exclusively the Mixmission Bargrooves Live here on EMC. Today, our Kai plays the finest House Music in terms of Soulful, Vocal and Disco House. We hope you enjoy listening and watching :-) Greetings, Your EMC Team
Bryan Cantrill is the co-founder and CTO of Oxide Computer Company. We discuss why the biggest cloud providers don't use off the shelf hardware, how scaling data centers at samsung's scale exposed problems with hard drive firmware, how the values of NodeJS are in conflict with robust systems, choosing Rust, and the benefits of Oxide Computer's rack scale approach. This is an extended version of an interview posted on Software Engineering Radio. Related links Oxide Computer Oxide and Friends Illumos Platform as a Reflection of Values RFD 26 bhyve CockroachDB Heterogeneous Computing with Raja Koduri Transcript You can help correct transcripts on GitHub. Intro [00:00:00] Jeremy: Today I am talking to Bryan Cantrill. He's the co-founder and CTO of Oxide computer company, and he was previously the CTO of Joyent and he also co-authored the DTrace Tracing framework while he was at Sun Microsystems. [00:00:14] Jeremy: Bryan, welcome to Software Engineering radio. [00:00:17] Bryan: Uh, awesome. Thanks for having me. It's great to be here. [00:00:20] Jeremy: You're the CTO of a company that makes computers. But I think before we get into that, a lot of people who built software, now that the actual computer is abstracted away, they're using AWS or they're using some kind of cloud service. So I thought we could start by talking about, data centers. [00:00:41] Jeremy: 'cause you were. Previously working at Joyent, and I believe you got bought by Samsung and you've previously talked about how you had to figure out, how do I run things at Samsung's scale. So how, how, how was your experience with that? What, what were the challenges there? Samsung scale and migrating off the cloud [00:01:01] Bryan: Yeah, I mean, so at Joyent, and so Joyent was a cloud computing pioneer. Uh, we competed with the likes of AWS and then later GCP and Azure. Uh, and we, I mean, we were operating at a scale, right? We had a bunch of machines, a bunch of dcs, but ultimately we know we were a VC backed company and, you know, a small company by the standards of, certainly by Samsung standards. [00:01:25] Bryan: And so when, when Samsung bought the company, I mean, the reason by the way that Samsung bought Joyent is Samsung's. Cloud Bill was, uh, let's just say it was extremely large. They were spending an enormous amount of money every year on, on the public cloud. And they realized that in order to secure their fate economically, they had to be running on their own infrastructure. [00:01:51] Bryan: It did not make sense. And there's not, was not really a product that Samsung could go buy that would give them that on-prem cloud. Uh, I mean in that, in that regard, like the state of the market was really no different. And so they went looking for a company, uh, and bought, bought Joyent. And when we were on the inside of Samsung. [00:02:11] Bryan: That we learned about Samsung scale. And Samsung loves to talk about Samsung scale. And I gotta tell you, it is more than just chest thumping. Like Samsung Scale really is, I mean, just the, the sheer, the number of devices, the number of customers, just this absolute size. they really wanted to take us out to, to levels of scale, certainly that we had not seen. [00:02:31] Bryan: The reason for buying Joyent was to be able to stand up on their own infrastructure so that we were gonna go buy, we did go buy a bunch of hardware. Problems with server hardware at scale [00:02:40] Bryan: And I remember just thinking, God, I hope Dell is somehow magically better. I hope the problems that we have seen in the small, we just. You know, I just remember hoping and hope is hope. It was of course, a terrible strategy and it was a terrible strategy here too. Uh, and the we that the problems that we saw at the large were, and when you scale out the problems that you see kind of once or twice, you now see all the time and they become absolutely debilitating. [00:03:12] Bryan: And we saw a whole series of really debilitating problems. I mean, many ways, like comically debilitating, uh, in terms of, of showing just how bad the state-of-the-art. Yes. And we had, I mean, it should be said, we had great software and great software expertise, um, and we were controlling our own system software. [00:03:35] Bryan: But even controlling your own system software, your own host OS, your own control plane, which is what we had at Joyent, ultimately, you're pretty limited. You go, I mean, you got the problems that you can obviously solve, the ones that are in your own software, but the problems that are beneath you, the, the problems that are in the hardware platform, the problems that are in the componentry beneath you become the problems that are in the firmware. IO latency due to hard drive firmware [00:04:00] Bryan: Those problems become unresolvable and they are deeply, deeply frustrating. Um, and we just saw a bunch of 'em again, they were. Comical in retrospect, and I'll give you like a, a couple of concrete examples just to give, give you an idea of what kinda what you're looking at. one of the, our data centers had really pathological IO latency. [00:04:23] Bryan: we had a very, uh, database heavy workload. And this was kind of right at the period where you were still deploying on rotating media on hard drives. So this is like, so. An all flash buy did not make economic sense when we did this in, in 2016. This probably, it'd be interesting to know like when was the, the kind of the last time that that actual hard drives made sense? [00:04:50] Bryan: 'cause I feel this was close to it. So we had a, a bunch of, of a pathological IO problems, but we had one data center in which the outliers were actually quite a bit worse and there was so much going on in that system. It took us a long time to figure out like why. And because when, when you, when you're io when you're seeing worse io I mean you're naturally, you wanna understand like what's the workload doing? [00:05:14] Bryan: You're trying to take a first principles approach. What's the workload doing? So this is a very intensive database workload to support the, the object storage system that we had built called Manta. And that the, the metadata tier was stored and uh, was we were using Postgres for that. And that was just getting absolutely slaughtered. [00:05:34] Bryan: Um, and ultimately very IO bound with these kind of pathological IO latencies. Uh, and as we, you know, trying to like peel away the layers to figure out what was going on. And I finally had this thing. So it's like, okay, we are seeing at the, at the device layer, at the at, at the disc layer, we are seeing pathological outliers in this data center that we're not seeing anywhere else. [00:06:00] Bryan: And that does not make any sense. And the thought occurred to me. I'm like, well, maybe we are. Do we have like different. Different rev of firmware on our HGST drives, HGST. Now part of WD Western Digital were the drives that we had everywhere. And, um, so maybe we had a different, maybe I had a firmware bug. [00:06:20] Bryan: I, this would not be the first time in my life at all that I would have a drive firmware issue. Uh, and I went to go pull the firmware, rev, and I'm like, Toshiba makes hard drives? So we had, I mean. I had no idea that Toshiba even made hard drives, let alone that they were our, they were in our data center. [00:06:38] Bryan: I'm like, what is this? And as it turns out, and this is, you know, part of the, the challenge when you don't have an integrated system, which not to pick on them, but Dell doesn't, and what Dell would routinely put just sub make substitutes, and they make substitutes that they, you know, it's kind of like you're going to like, I don't know, Instacart or whatever, and they're out of the thing that you want. [00:07:03] Bryan: So, you know, you're, someone makes a substitute and like sometimes that's okay, but it's really not okay in a data center. And you really want to develop and validate a, an end-to-end integrated system. And in this case, like Toshiba doesn't, I mean, Toshiba does make hard drives, but they are a, or the data they did, uh, they basically were, uh, not competitive and they were not competitive in part for the reasons that we were discovering. [00:07:29] Bryan: They had really serious firmware issues. So the, these were drives that would just simply stop a, a stop acknowledging any reads from the order of 2,700 milliseconds. Long time, 2.7 seconds. Um. And that was a, it was a drive firmware issue, but it was highlighted like a much deeper issue, which was the simple lack of control that we had over our own destiny. [00:07:53] Bryan: Um, and it's an, it's, it's an example among many where Dell is making a decision. That lowers the cost of what they are providing you marginally, but it is then giving you a system that they shouldn't have any confidence in because it's not one that they've actually designed and they leave it to the customer, the end user, to make these discoveries. [00:08:18] Bryan: And these things happen up and down the stack. And for every, for whether it's, and, and not just to pick on Dell because it's, it's true for HPE, it's true for super micro, uh, it's true for your switch vendors. It's, it's true for storage vendors where the, the, the, the one that is left actually integrating these things and trying to make the the whole thing work is the end user sitting in their data center. AWS / Google are not buying off the shelf hardware but you can't use it [00:08:42] Bryan: There's not a product that they can buy that gives them elastic infrastructure, a cloud in their own DC The, the product that you buy is the public cloud. Like when you go in the public cloud, you don't worry about the stuff because that it's, it's AWS's issue or it's GCP's issue. And they are the ones that get this to ground. [00:09:02] Bryan: And they, and this was kind of, you know, the eye-opening moment. Not a surprise. Uh, they are not Dell customers. They're not HPE customers. They're not super micro customers. They have designed their own machines. And to varying degrees, depending on which one you're looking at. But they've taken the clean sheet of paper and the frustration that we had kind of at Joyent and beginning to wonder and then Samsung and kind of wondering what was next, uh, is that, that what they built was not available for purchase in the data center. [00:09:35] Bryan: You could only rent it in the public cloud. And our big belief is that public cloud computing is a really important revolution in infrastructure. Doesn't feel like a different, a deep thought, but cloud computing is a really important revolution. It shouldn't only be available to rent. You should be able to actually buy it. [00:09:53] Bryan: And there are a bunch of reasons for doing that. Uh, one in the one we we saw at Samsung is economics, which I think is still the dominant reason where it just does not make sense to rent all of your compute in perpetuity. But there are other reasons too. There's security, there's risk management, there's latency. [00:10:07] Bryan: There are a bunch of reasons why one might wanna to own one's own infrastructure. But, uh, that was very much the, the, so the, the genesis for oxide was coming out of this very painful experience and a painful experience that, because, I mean, a long answer to your question about like what was it like to be at Samsung scale? [00:10:27] Bryan: Those are the kinds of things that we, I mean, in our other data centers, we didn't have Toshiba drives. We only had the HDSC drives, but it's only when you get to this larger scale that you begin to see some of these pathologies. But these pathologies then are really debilitating in terms of those who are trying to develop a service on top of them. [00:10:45] Bryan: So it was, it was very educational in, in that regard. And you're very grateful for the experience at Samsung in terms of opening our eyes to the challenge of running at that kind of scale. [00:10:57] Jeremy: Yeah, because I, I think as software engineers, a lot of times we, we treat the hardware as a, as a given where, [00:11:08] Bryan: Yeah. [00:11:08] Bryan: Yeah. There's software in chard drives [00:11:09] Jeremy: It sounds like in, in this case, I mean, maybe the issue is not so much that. Dell or HP as a company doesn't own every single piece that they're providing you, but rather the fact that they're swapping pieces in and out without advertising them, and then when it becomes a problem, they're not necessarily willing to, to deal with the, the consequences of that. [00:11:34] Bryan: They just don't know. I mean, I think they just genuinely don't know. I mean, I think that they, it's not like they're making a deliberate decision to kind of ship garbage. It's just that they are making, I mean, I think it's exactly what you said about like, not thinking about the hardware. It's like, what's a hard drive? [00:11:47] Bryan: Like what's it, I mean, it's a hard drive. It's got the same specs as this other hard drive and Intel. You know, it's a little bit cheaper, so why not? It's like, well, like there's some reasons why not, and one of the reasons why not is like, uh, even a hard drive, whether it's rotating media or, or flash, like that's not just hardware. [00:12:05] Bryan: There's software in there. And that the software's like not the same. I mean, there are components where it's like, there's actually, whether, you know, if, if you're looking at like a resistor or a capacitor or something like this Yeah. If you've got two, two parts that are within the same tolerance. Yeah. [00:12:19] Bryan: Like sure. Maybe, although even the EEs I think would be, would be, uh, objecting that a little bit. But the, the, the more complicated you get, and certainly once you get to the, the, the, the kind of the hardware that we think of like a, a, a microprocessor, a a network interface card, a a, a hard driver, an NVME drive. [00:12:38] Bryan: Those things are super complicated and there's a whole bunch of software inside of those things, the firmware, and that's the stuff that, that you can't, I mean, you say that software engineers don't think about that. It's like you, no one can really think about that because it's proprietary that's kinda welded shut and you've got this abstraction into it. [00:12:55] Bryan: But the, the way that thing operates is very core to how the thing in aggregate will behave. And I think that you, the, the kind of, the, the fundamental difference between Oxide's approach and the approach that you get at a Dell HP Supermicro, wherever, is really thinking holistically in terms of hardware and software together in a system that, that ultimately delivers cloud computing to a user. [00:13:22] Bryan: And there's a lot of software at many, many, many, many different layers. And it's very important to think about, about that software and that hardware holistically as a single system. [00:13:34] Jeremy: And during that time at Joyent, when you experienced some of these issues, was it more of a case of you didn't have enough servers experiencing this? So if it would happen, you might say like, well, this one's not working, so maybe we'll just replace the hardware. What, what was the thought process when you were working at that smaller scale and, and how did these issues affect you? UEFI / Baseboard Management Controller [00:13:58] Bryan: Yeah, at the smaller scale, you, uh, you see fewer of them, right? You just see it's like, okay, we, you know, what you might see is like, that's weird. We kinda saw this in one machine versus seeing it in a hundred or a thousand or 10,000. Um, so you just, you just see them, uh, less frequently as a result, they are less debilitating. [00:14:16] Bryan: Um, I, I think that it's, when you go to that larger scale, those things that become, that were unusual now become routine and they become debilitating. Um, so it, it really is in many regards a function of scale. Uh, and then I think it was also, you know, it was a little bit dispiriting that kind of the substrate we were building on really had not improved. [00:14:39] Bryan: Um, and if you look at, you know, the, if you buy a computer server, buy an x86 server. There is a very low layer of firmware, the BIOS, the basic input output system, the UEFI BIOS, and this is like an abstraction layer that has, has existed since the eighties and hasn't really meaningfully improved. Um, the, the kind of the transition to UEFI happened with, I mean, I, I ironically with Itanium, um, you know, two decades ago. [00:15:08] Bryan: but beyond that, like this low layer, this lowest layer of platform enablement software is really only impeding the operability of the system. Um, you look at the baseboard management controller, which is the kind of the computer within the computer, there is a, uh, there is an element in the machine that needs to handle environmentals, that needs to handle, uh, operate the fans and so on. [00:15:31] Bryan: Uh, and that traditionally has this, the space board management controller, and that architecturally just hasn't improved in the last two decades. And, you know, that's, it's a proprietary piece of silicon. Generally from a company that no one's ever heard of called a Speed, uh, which has to be, is written all on caps, so I guess it needs to be screamed. [00:15:50] Bryan: Um, a speed has a proprietary part that has a, there is a root password infamously there, is there, the root password is encoded effectively in silicon. So, uh, which is just, and for, um, anyone who kind of goes deep into these things, like, oh my God, are you kidding me? Um, when we first started oxide, the wifi password was a fraction of the a speed root password for the bmc. [00:16:16] Bryan: It's kinda like a little, little BMC humor. Um, but those things, it was just dispiriting that, that the, the state-of-the-art was still basically personal computers running in the data center. Um, and that's part of what, what was the motivation for doing something new? [00:16:32] Jeremy: And for the people using these systems, whether it's the baseboard management controller or it's the The BIOS or UF UEFI component, what are the actual problems that people are seeing seen? Security vulnerabilities and poor practices in the BMC [00:16:51] Bryan: Oh man, I, the, you are going to have like some fraction of your listeners, maybe a big fraction where like, yeah, like what are the problems? That's a good question. And then you're gonna have the people that actually deal with these things who are, did like their heads already hit the desk being like, what are the problems? [00:17:06] Bryan: Like what are the non problems? Like what, what works? Actually, that's like a shorter answer. Um, I mean, there are so many problems and a lot of it is just like, I mean, there are problems just architecturally these things are just so, I mean, and you could, they're the problems spread to the horizon, so you can kind of start wherever you want. [00:17:24] Bryan: But I mean, as like, as a really concrete example. Okay, so the, the BMCs that, that the computer within the computer that needs to be on its own network. So you now have like not one network, you got two networks that, and that network, by the way, it, that's the network that you're gonna log into to like reset the machine when it's otherwise unresponsive. [00:17:44] Bryan: So that going into the BMC, you can are, you're able to control the entire machine. Well it's like, alright, so now I've got a second net network that I need to manage. What is running on the BMC? Well, it's running some. Ancient, ancient version of Linux it that you got. It's like, well how do I, how do I patch that? [00:18:02] Bryan: How do I like manage the vulnerabilities with that? Because if someone is able to root your BMC, they control the system. So it's like, this is not you've, and now you've gotta go deal with all of the operational hair around that. How do you upgrade that system updating the BMC? I mean, it's like you've got this like second shadow bad infrastructure that you have to go manage. [00:18:23] Bryan: Generally not open source. There's something called open BMC, um, which, um, you people use to varying degrees, but you're generally stuck with the proprietary BMC, so you're generally stuck with, with iLO from HPE or iDRAC from Dell or, or, uh, the, uh, su super micros, BMC, that H-P-B-M-C, and you are, uh, it is just excruciating pain. [00:18:49] Bryan: Um, and that this is assuming that by the way, that everything is behaving correctly. The, the problem is that these things often don't behave correctly, and then the consequence of them not behaving correctly. It's really dire because it's at that lowest layer of the system. So, I mean, I'll give you a concrete example. [00:19:07] Bryan: a customer of theirs reported to me, so I won't disclose the vendor, but let's just say that a well-known vendor had an issue with their, their temperature sensors were broken. Um, and the thing would always read basically the wrong value. So it was the BMC that had to like, invent its own ki a different kind of thermal control loop. [00:19:28] Bryan: And it would index on the, on the, the, the, the actual inrush current. It would, they would look at that at the current that's going into the CPU to adjust the fan speed. That's a great example of something like that's a, that's an interesting idea. That doesn't work. 'cause that's actually not the temperature. [00:19:45] Bryan: So like that software would crank the fans whenever you had an inrush of current and this customer had a workload that would spike the current and by it, when it would spike the current, the, the, the fans would kick up and then they would slowly degrade over time. Well, this workload was spiking the current faster than the fans would degrade, but not fast enough to actually heat up the part. [00:20:08] Bryan: And ultimately over a very long time, in a very painful investigation, it's customer determined that like my fans are cranked in my data center for no reason. We're blowing cold air. And it's like that, this is on the order of like a hundred watts, a server of, of energy that you shouldn't be spending and like that ultimately what that go comes down to this kind of broken software hardware interface at the lowest layer that has real meaningful consequence, uh, in terms of hundreds of kilowatts, um, across a data center. So this stuff has, has very, very, very real consequence and it's such a shadowy world. Part of the reason that, that your listeners that have dealt with this, that our heads will hit the desk is because it is really aggravating to deal with problems with this layer. [00:21:01] Bryan: You, you feel powerless. You don't control or really see the software that's on them. It's generally proprietary. You are relying on your vendor. Your vendor is telling you that like, boy, I don't know. You're the only customer seeing this. I mean, the number of times I have heard that for, and I, I have pledged that we're, we're not gonna say that at oxide because it's such an unaskable thing to say like, you're the only customer saying this. [00:21:25] Bryan: It's like, it feels like, are you blaming me for my problem? Feels like you're blaming me for my problem? Um, and what you begin to realize is that to a degree, these folks are speaking their own truth because the, the folks that are running at real scale at Hyperscale, those folks aren't Dell, HP super micro customers. [00:21:46] Bryan: They're actually, they've done their own thing. So it's like, yeah, Dell's not seeing that problem, um, because they're not running at the same scale. Um, but when you do run, you only have to run at modest scale before these things just become. Overwhelming in terms of the, the headwind that they present to people that wanna deploy infrastructure. The problem is felt with just a few racks [00:22:05] Jeremy: Yeah, so maybe to help people get some perspective at, at what point do you think that people start noticing or start feeling these problems? Because I imagine that if you're just have a few racks or [00:22:22] Bryan: do you have a couple racks or the, or do you wonder or just wondering because No, no, no. I would think, I think anyone who deploys any number of servers, especially now, especially if your experience is only in the cloud, you're gonna be like, what the hell is this? I mean, just again, just to get this thing working at all. [00:22:39] Bryan: It is so it, it's so hairy and so congealed, right? It's not designed. Um, and it, it, it, it's accreted it and it's so obviously accreted that you are, I mean, nobody who is setting up a rack of servers is gonna think to themselves like, yes, this is the right way to go do it. This all makes sense because it's, it's just not, it, I, it feels like the kit, I mean, kit car's almost too generous because it implies that there's like a set of plans to work to in the end. [00:23:08] Bryan: Uh, I mean, it, it, it's a bag of bolts. It's a bunch of parts that you're putting together. And so even at the smallest scales, that stuff is painful. Just architecturally, it's painful at the small scale then, but at least you can get it working. I think the stuff that then becomes debilitating at larger scale are the things that are, are worse than just like, I can't, like this thing is a mess to get working. [00:23:31] Bryan: It's like the, the, the fan issue that, um, where you are now seeing this over, you know, hundreds of machines or thousands of machines. Um, so I, it is painful at more or less all levels of scale. There's, there is no level at which the, the, the pc, which is really what this is, this is a, the, the personal computer architecture from the 1980s and there is really no level of scale where that's the right unit. Running elastic infrastructure is the hardware but also, hypervisor, distributed database, api, etc [00:23:57] Bryan: I mean, where that's the right thing to go deploy, especially if what you are trying to run. Is elastic infrastructure, a cloud. Because the other thing is like we, we've kinda been talking a lot about that hardware layer. Like hardware is, is just the start. Like you actually gotta go put software on that and actually run that as elastic infrastructure. [00:24:16] Bryan: So you need a hypervisor. Yes. But you need a lot more than that. You, you need to actually, you, you need a distributed database, you need web endpoints. You need, you need a CLI, you need all the stuff that you need to actually go run an actual service of compute or networking or storage. I mean, and for, for compute, even for compute, there's a ton of work to be done. [00:24:39] Bryan: And compute is by far, I would say the simplest of the, of the three. When you look at like networks, network services, storage services, there's a whole bunch of stuff that you need to go build in terms of distributed systems to actually offer that as a cloud. So it, I mean, it is painful at more or less every LE level if you are trying to deploy cloud computing on. What's a control plane? [00:25:00] Jeremy: And for someone who doesn't have experience building or working with this type of infrastructure, when you talk about a control plane, what, what does that do in the context of this system? [00:25:16] Bryan: So control plane is the thing that is, that is everything between your API request and that infrastructure actually being acted upon. So you go say, Hey, I, I want a provision, a vm. Okay, great. We've got a whole bunch of things we're gonna provision with that. We're gonna provision a vm, we're gonna get some storage that's gonna go along with that, that's got a network storage service that's gonna come out of, uh, we've got a virtual network that we're gonna either create or attach to. [00:25:39] Bryan: We've got a, a whole bunch of things we need to go do for that. For all of these things, there are metadata components that need, we need to keep track of this thing that, beyond the actual infrastructure that we create. And then we need to go actually, like act on the actual compute elements, the hostos, what have you, the switches, what have you, and actually go. [00:25:56] Bryan: Create these underlying things and then connect them. And there's of course, the challenge of just getting that working is a big challenge. Um, but getting that working robustly, getting that working is, you know, when you go to provision of vm, um, the, all the, the, the steps that need to happen and what happens if one of those steps fails along the way? [00:26:17] Bryan: What happens if, you know, one thing we're very mindful of is these kind of, you get these long tails of like, why, you know, generally our VM provisioning happened within this time, but we get these long tails where it takes much longer. What's going on? What, where in this process are we, are we actually spending time? [00:26:33] Bryan: Uh, and there's a whole lot of complexity that you need to go deal with that. There's a lot of complexity that you need to go deal with this effectively, this workflow that's gonna go create these things and manage them. Um, we use a, a pattern that we call, that are called sagas, actually is a, is a database pattern from the eighties. [00:26:51] Bryan: Uh, Katie McCaffrey is a, is a database reCrcher who, who, uh, I, I think, uh, reintroduce the idea of, of sagas, um, in the last kind of decade. Um, and this is something that we picked up, um, and I've done a lot of really interesting things with, um, to allow for, to this kind of, these workflows to be, to be managed and done so robustly in a way that you can restart them and so on. [00:27:16] Bryan: Uh, and then you guys, you get this whole distributed system that can do all this. That whole distributed system, that itself needs to be reliable and available. So if you, you know, you need to be able to, what happens if you, if you pull a sled or if a sled fails, how does the system deal with that? [00:27:33] Bryan: How does the system deal with getting an another sled added to the system? Like how do you actually grow this distributed system? And then how do you update it? How do you actually go from one version to the next? And all of that has to happen across an air gap where this is gonna run as part of the computer. [00:27:49] Bryan: So there are, it, it is fractally complicated. There, there is a lot of complexity here in, in software, in the software system and all of that. We kind of, we call the control plane. Um, and it, this is the what exists at AWS at GCP, at Azure. When you are hitting an endpoint that's provisioning an EC2 instance for you. [00:28:10] Bryan: There is an AWS control plane that is, is doing all of this and has, uh, some of these similar aspects and certainly some of these similar challenges. Are vSphere / Proxmox / Hyper-V in the same category? [00:28:20] Jeremy: And for people who have run their own servers with something like say VMware or Hyper V or Proxmox, are those in the same category? [00:28:32] Bryan: Yeah, I mean a little bit. I mean, it kind of like vSphere Yes. Via VMware. No. So it's like you, uh, VMware ESX is, is kind of a key building block upon which you can build something that is a more meaningful distributed system. When it's just like a machine that you're provisioning VMs on, it's like, okay, well that's actually, you as the human might be the control plane. [00:28:52] Bryan: Like, that's, that, that's, that's a much easier problem. Um, but when you've got, you know, tens, hundreds, thousands of machines, you need to do it robustly. You need something to coordinate that activity and you know, you need to pick which sled you land on. You need to be able to move these things. You need to be able to update that whole system. [00:29:06] Bryan: That's when you're getting into a control plane. So, you know, some of these things have kind of edged into a control plane, certainly VMware. Um, now Broadcom, um, has delivered something that's kind of cloudish. Um, I think that for folks that are truly born on the cloud, it, it still feels somewhat, uh, like you're going backwards in time when you, when you look at these kind of on-prem offerings. [00:29:29] Bryan: Um, but, but it, it, it's got these aspects to it for sure. Um, and I think that we're, um, some of these other things when you're just looking at KVM or just looks looking at Proxmox you kind of need to, to connect it to other broader things to turn it into something that really looks like manageable infrastructure. [00:29:47] Bryan: And then many of those projects are really, they're either proprietary projects, uh, proprietary products like vSphere, um, or you are really dealing with open source projects that are. Not necessarily aimed at the same level of scale. Um, you know, you look at a, again, Proxmox or, uh, um, you'll get an OpenStack. [00:30:05] Bryan: Um, and you know, OpenStack is just a lot of things, right? I mean, OpenStack has got so many, the OpenStack was kind of a, a free for all, for every infrastructure vendor. Um, and I, you know, there was a time people were like, don't you, aren't you worried about all these companies together that, you know, are coming together for OpenStack? [00:30:24] Bryan: I'm like, haven't you ever worked for like a company? Like, companies don't get along. By the way, it's like having multiple companies work together on a thing that's bad news, not good news. And I think, you know, one of the things that OpenStack has definitely struggled with, kind of with what, actually the, the, there's so many different kind of vendor elements in there that it's, it's very much not a product, it's a project that you're trying to run. [00:30:47] Bryan: But that's, but that very much is in, I mean, that's, that's similar certainly in spirit. [00:30:53] Jeremy: And so I think this is kind of like you're alluding to earlier, the piece that allows you to allocate, compute, storage, manage networking, gives you that experience of I can go to a web console or I can use an API and I can spin up machines, get them all connected. At the end of the day, the control plane. Is allowing you to do that in hopefully a user-friendly way. [00:31:21] Bryan: That's right. Yep. And in the, I mean, in order to do that in a modern way, it's not just like a user-friendly way. You really need to have a CLI and a web UI and an API. Those all need to be drawn from the same kind of single ground truth. Like you don't wanna have any of those be an afterthought for the other. [00:31:39] Bryan: You wanna have the same way of generating all of those different endpoints and, and entries into the system. Building a control plane now has better tools (Rust, CockroachDB) [00:31:46] Jeremy: And if you take your time at Joyent as an example. What kind of tools existed for that versus how much did you have to build in-house for as far as the hypervisor and managing the compute and all that? [00:32:02] Bryan: Yeah, so we built more or less everything in house. I mean, what you have is, um, and I think, you know, over time we've gotten slightly better tools. Um, I think, and, and maybe it's a little bit easier to talk about the, kind of the tools we started at Oxide because we kind of started with a, with a clean sheet of paper at oxide. [00:32:16] Bryan: We wanted to, knew we wanted to go build a control plane, but we were able to kind of go revisit some of the components. So actually, and maybe I'll, I'll talk about some of those changes. So when we, at, For example, at Joyent, when we were building a cloud at Joyent, there wasn't really a good distributed database. [00:32:34] Bryan: Um, so we were using Postgres as our database for metadata and there were a lot of challenges. And Postgres is not a distributed database. It's running. With a primary secondary architecture, and there's a bunch of issues there, many of which we discovered the hard way. Um, when we were coming to oxide, you have much better options to pick from in terms of distributed databases. [00:32:57] Bryan: You know, we, there was a period that now seems maybe potentially brief in hindsight, but of a really high quality open source distributed databases. So there were really some good ones to, to pick from. Um, we, we built on CockroachDB on CRDB. Um, so that was a really important component. That we had at oxide that we didn't have at Joyent. [00:33:19] Bryan: Um, so we were, I wouldn't say we were rolling our own distributed database, we were just using Postgres and uh, and, and dealing with an enormous amount of pain there in terms of the surround. Um, on top of that, and, and, you know, a, a control plane is much more than a database, obviously. Uh, and you've gotta deal with, uh, there's a whole bunch of software that you need to go, right. [00:33:40] Bryan: Um, to be able to, to transform these kind of API requests into something that is reliable infrastructure, right? And there, there's a lot to that. Uh, especially when networking gets in the mix, when storage gets in the mix, uh, there are a whole bunch of like complicated steps that need to be done, um, at Joyent. [00:33:59] Bryan: Um, we, in part because of the history of the company and like, look. This, this just is not gonna sound good, but it just is what it is and I'm just gonna own it. We did it all in Node, um, at Joyent, which I, I, I know it sounds really right now, just sounds like, well, you, you built it with Tinker Toys. You Okay. [00:34:18] Bryan: Uh, did, did you think it was, you built the skyscraper with Tinker Toys? Uh, it's like, well, okay. We actually, we had greater aspirations for the Tinker Toys once upon a time, and it was better than, you know, than Twisted Python and Event Machine from Ruby, and we weren't gonna do it in Java. All right. [00:34:32] Bryan: So, but let's just say that that experiment, uh, that experiment did ultimately end in a predictable fashion. Um, and, uh, we, we decided that maybe Node was not gonna be the best decision long term. Um, Joyent was the company behind node js. Uh, back in the day, Ryan Dahl worked for Joyent. Uh, and then, uh, then we, we, we. [00:34:53] Bryan: Uh, landed that in a foundation in about, uh, what, 2015, something like that. Um, and began to consider our world beyond, uh, beyond Node. Rust at Oxide [00:35:04] Bryan: A big tool that we had in the arsenal when we started Oxide is Rust. Um, and so indeed the name of the company is, is a tip of the hat to the language that we were pretty sure we were gonna be building a lot of stuff in. [00:35:16] Bryan: Namely Rust. And, uh, rust is, uh, has been huge for us, a very important revolution in programming languages. you know, there, there, there have been different people kind of coming in at different times and I kinda came to Rust in what I, I think is like this big kind of second expansion of rust in 2018 when a lot of technologists were think, uh, sick of Node and also sick of Go. [00:35:43] Bryan: And, uh, also sick of C++. And wondering is there gonna be something that gives me the, the, the performance, of that I get outta C. The, the robustness that I can get out of a C program but is is often difficult to achieve. but can I get that with kind of some, some of the velocity of development, although I hate that term, some of the speed of development that you get out of a more interpreted language. [00:36:08] Bryan: Um, and then by the way, can I actually have types, I think types would be a good idea? Uh, and rust obviously hits the sweet spot of all of that. Um, it has been absolutely huge for us. I mean, we knew when we started the company again, oxide, uh, we were gonna be using rust in, in quite a, quite a. Few places, but we weren't doing it by fiat. [00:36:27] Bryan: Um, we wanted to actually make sure we're making the right decision, um, at, at every different, at every layer. Uh, I think what has been surprising is the sheer number of layers at which we use rust in terms of, we've done our own embedded firmware in rust. We've done, um, in, in the host operating system, which is still largely in C, but very big components are in rust. [00:36:47] Bryan: The hypervisor Propolis is all in rust. Uh, and then of course the control plane, that distributed system on that is all in rust. So that was a very important thing that we very much did not need to build ourselves. We were able to really leverage, uh, a terrific community. Um. We were able to use, uh, and we've done this at Joyent as well, but at Oxide, we've used Illumos as a hostos component, which, uh, our variant is called Helios. [00:37:11] Bryan: Um, we've used, uh, bhyve um, as a, as as that kind of internal hypervisor component. we've made use of a bunch of different open source components to build this thing, um, which has been really, really important for us. Uh, and open source components that didn't exist even like five years prior. [00:37:28] Bryan: That's part of why we felt that 2019 was the right time to start the company. And so we started Oxide. The problems building a control plane in Node [00:37:34] Jeremy: You had mentioned that at Joyent, you had tried to build this in, in Node. What were the, what were the, the issues or the, the challenges that you had doing that? [00:37:46] Bryan: Oh boy. Yeah. again, we, I kind of had higher hopes in 2010, I would say. When we, we set on this, um, the, the, the problem that we had just writ large, um. JavaScript is really designed to allow as many people on earth to write a program as possible, which is good. I mean, I, I, that's a, that's a laudable goal. [00:38:09] Bryan: That is the goal ultimately of such as it is of JavaScript. It's actually hard to know what the goal of JavaScript is, unfortunately, because Brendan Ike never actually wrote a book. so that there is not a canonical, you've got kind of Doug Crockford and other people who've written things on JavaScript, but it's hard to know kind of what the original intent of JavaScript is. [00:38:27] Bryan: The name doesn't even express original intent, right? It was called Live Script, and it was kind of renamed to JavaScript during the Java Frenzy of the late nineties. A name that makes no sense. There is no Java in JavaScript. that is kind of, I think, revealing to kind of the, uh, the unprincipled mess that is JavaScript. [00:38:47] Bryan: It, it, it's very pragmatic at some level, um, and allows anyone to, it makes it very easy to write software. The problem is it's much more difficult to write really rigorous software. So, uh, and this is what I should differentiate JavaScript from TypeScript. This is really what TypeScript is trying to solve. [00:39:07] Bryan: TypeScript is like. How can, I think TypeScript is a, is a great step forward because TypeScript is like, how can we bring some rigor to this? Like, yes, it's great that it's easy to write JavaScript, but that's not, we, we don't wanna do that for Absolutely. I mean that, that's not the only problem we solve. [00:39:23] Bryan: We actually wanna be able to write rigorous software and it's actually okay if it's a little harder to write rigorous software that's actually okay if it gets leads to, to more rigorous artifacts. Um, but in JavaScript, I mean, just a concrete example. You know, there's nothing to prevent you from referencing a property that doesn't actually exist in JavaScript. [00:39:43] Bryan: So if you fat finger a property name, you are relying on something to tell you. By the way, I think you've misspelled this because there is no type definition for this thing. And I don't know that you've got one that's spelled correctly, one that's spelled incorrectly, that's often undefined. And then the, when you actually go, you say you've got this typo that is lurking in your what you want to be rigorous software. [00:40:07] Bryan: And if you don't execute that code, like you won't know that's there. And then you do execute that code. And now you've got a, you've got an undefined object. And now that's either gonna be an exception or it can, again, depends on how that's handled. It can be really difficult to determine the origin of that, of, of that error, of that programming. [00:40:26] Bryan: And that is a programmer error. And one of the big challenges that we had with Node is that programmer errors and operational errors, like, you know, I'm out of disk space as an operational error. Those get conflated and it becomes really hard. And in fact, I think the, the language wanted to make it easier to just kind of, uh, drive on in the event of all errors. [00:40:53] Bryan: And it's like, actually not what you wanna do if you're trying to build a reliable, robust system. So we had. No end of issues. [00:41:01] Bryan: We've got a lot of experience developing rigorous systems, um, again coming out of operating systems development and so on. And we want, we brought some of that rigor, if strangely, to JavaScript. So one of the things that we did is we brought a lot of postmortem, diagnos ability and observability to node. [00:41:18] Bryan: And so if, if one of our node processes. Died in production, we would actually get a core dump from that process, a core dump that we could actually meaningfully process. So we did a bunch of kind of wild stuff. I mean, actually wild stuff where we could actually make sense of the JavaScript objects in a binary core dump. JavaScript values ease of getting started over robustness [00:41:41] Bryan: Um, and things that we thought were really important, and this is the, the rest of the world just looks at this being like, what the hell is this? I mean, it's so out of step with it. The problem is that we were trying to bridge two disconnected cultures of one developing really. Rigorous software and really designing it for production, diagnosability and the other, really designing it to software to run in the browser and for anyone to be able to like, you know, kind of liven up a webpage, right? [00:42:10] Bryan: Is kinda the origin of, of live script and then JavaScript. And we were kind of the only ones sitting at the intersection of that. And you begin when you are the only ones sitting at that kind of intersection. You just are, you're, you're kind of fighting a community all the time. And we just realized that we are, there were so many things that the community wanted to do that we felt are like, no, no, this is gonna make software less diagnosable. It's gonna make it less robust. The NodeJS split and why people left [00:42:36] Bryan: And then you realize like, I'm, we're the only voice in the room because we have got, we have got desires for this language that it doesn't have for itself. And this is when you realize you're in a bad relationship with software. It's time to actually move on. And in fact, actually several years after, we'd already kind of broken up with node. [00:42:55] Bryan: Um, and it was like, it was a bit of an acrimonious breakup. there was a, uh, famous slash infamous fork of node called IoJS Um, and this was viewed because people, the community, thought that Joyent was being what was not being an appropriate steward of node js and was, uh, not allowing more things to come into to, to node. [00:43:19] Bryan: And of course, the reason that we of course, felt that we were being a careful steward and we were actively resisting those things that would cut against its fitness for a production system. But it's some way the community saw it and they, and forked, um, and, and I think the, we knew before the fork that's like, this is not working and we need to get this thing out of our hands. Platform is a reflection of values node summit talk [00:43:43] Bryan: And we're are the wrong hands for this? This needs to be in a foundation. Uh, and so we kind of gone through that breakup, uh, and maybe it was two years after that. That, uh, friend of mine who was um, was running the, uh, the node summit was actually, it's unfortunately now passed away. Charles er, um, but Charles' venture capitalist great guy, and Charles was running Node Summit and came to me in 2017. [00:44:07] Bryan: He is like, I really want you to keynote Node Summit. And I'm like, Charles, I'm not gonna do that. I've got nothing nice to say. Like, this is the, the, you don't want, I'm the last person you wanna keynote. He's like, oh, if you have nothing nice to say, you should definitely keynote. You're like, oh God, okay, here we go. [00:44:22] Bryan: He's like, no, I really want you to talk about, like, you should talk about the Joyent breakup with NodeJS. I'm like, oh man. [00:44:29] Bryan: And that led to a talk that I'm really happy that I gave, 'cause it was a very important talk for me personally. Uh, called Platform is a reflection of values and really looking at the values that we had for Node and the values that Node had for itself. And they didn't line up. [00:44:49] Bryan: And the problem is that the values that Node had for itself and the values that we had for Node are all kind of positives, right? Like there's nobody in the node community who's like, I don't want rigor, I hate rigor. It's just that if they had the choose between rigor and making the language approachable. [00:45:09] Bryan: They would choose approachability every single time. They would never choose rigor. And, you know, that was a, that was a big eye-opener. I do, I would say, if you watch this talk. [00:45:20] Bryan: because I knew that there's, like, the audience was gonna be filled with, with people who, had been a part of the fork in 2014, I think was the, the, the, the fork, the IOJS fork. And I knew that there, there were, there were some, you know, some people that were, um, had been there for the fork and. [00:45:41] Bryan: I said a little bit of a trap for the audience. But the, and the trap, I said, you know what, I, I kind of talked about the values that we had and the aspirations we had for Node, the aspirations that Node had for itself and how they were different. [00:45:53] Bryan: And, you know, and I'm like, look in, in, in hindsight, like a fracture was inevitable. And in 2014 there was finally a fracture. And do people know what happened in 2014? And if you, if you, you could listen to that talk, everyone almost says in unison, like IOJS. I'm like, oh right. IOJS. Right. That's actually not what I was thinking of. [00:46:19] Bryan: And I go to the next slide and is a tweet from a guy named TJ Holloway, Chuck, who was the most prolific contributor to Node. And it was his tweet also in 2014 before the fork, before the IOJS fork explaining that he was leaving Node and that he was going to go. And you, if you turn the volume all the way up, you can hear the audience gasp. [00:46:41] Bryan: And it's just delicious because the community had never really come, had never really confronted why TJ left. Um, there. And I went through a couple folks, Felix, bunch of other folks, early Node folks. That were there in 2010, were leaving in 2014, and they were going to go primarily, and they were going to go because they were sick of the same things that we were sick of. [00:47:09] Bryan: They, they, they had hit the same things that we had hit and they were frustrated. I I really do believe this, that platforms do reflect their own values. And when you are making a software decision, you are selecting value. [00:47:26] Bryan: You should select values that align with the values that you have for that software. That is, those are, that's way more important than other things that people look at. I think people look at, for example, quote unquote community size way too frequently, community size is like. Eh, maybe it can be fine. [00:47:44] Bryan: I've been in very large communities, node. I've been in super small open source communities like AUMs and RAs, a bunch of others. there are strengths and weaknesses to both approaches just as like there's a strength to being in a big city versus a small town. Me personally, I'll take the small community more or less every time because the small community is almost always self-selecting based on values and just for the same reason that I like working at small companies or small teams. [00:48:11] Bryan: There's a lot of value to be had in a small community. It's not to say that large communities are valueless, but again, long answer to your question of kind of where did things go south with Joyent and node. They went south because the, the values that we had and the values the community had didn't line up and that was a very educational experience, as you might imagine. [00:48:33] Jeremy: Yeah. And, and given that you mentioned how, because of those values, some people moved from Node to go, and in the end for much of what oxide is building. You ended up using rust. What, what would you say are the, the values of go and and rust, and how did you end up choosing Rust given that. Go's decisions regarding generics, versioning, compilation speed priority [00:48:56] Bryan: Yeah, I mean, well, so the value for, yeah. And so go, I mean, I understand why people move from Node to Go, go to me was kind of a lateral move. Um, there were a bunch of things that I, uh, go was still garbage collected, um, which I didn't like. Um, go also is very strange in terms of there are these kind of like. [00:49:17] Bryan: These autocratic kind of decisions that are very bizarre. Um, there, I mean, generics is kind of a famous one, right? Where go kind of as a point of principle didn't have generics, even though go itself actually the innards of go did have generics. It's just that you a go user weren't allowed to have them. [00:49:35] Bryan: And you know, it's kind of, there was, there was an old cartoon years and years ago about like when a, when a technologist is telling you that something is technically impossible, that actually means I don't feel like it. Uh, and there was a certain degree of like, generics are technically impossible and go, it's like, Hey, actually there are. [00:49:51] Bryan: And so there was, and I just think that the arguments against generics were kind of disingenuous. Um, and indeed, like they ended up adopting generics and then there's like some super weird stuff around like, they're very anti-assertion, which is like, what, how are you? Why are you, how is someone against assertions, it doesn't even make any sense, but it's like, oh, nope. [00:50:10] Bryan: Okay. There's a whole scree on it. Nope, we're against assertions and the, you know, against versioning. There was another thing like, you know, the Rob Pike has kind of famously been like, you should always just run on the way to commit. And you're like, does that, is that, does that make sense? I mean this, we actually built it. [00:50:26] Bryan: And so there are a bunch of things like that. You're just like, okay, this is just exhausting and. I mean, there's some things about Go that are great and, uh, plenty of other things that I just, I'm not a fan of. Um, I think that the, in the end, like Go cares a lot about like compile time. It's super important for Go Right? [00:50:44] Bryan: Is very quick, compile time. I'm like, okay. But that's like compile time is not like, it's not unimportant, it's doesn't have zero importance. But I've got other things that are like lots more important than that. Um, what I really care about is I want a high performing artifact. I wanted garbage collection outta my life. Don't think garbage collection has good trade offs [00:51:00] Bryan: I, I gotta tell you, I, I like garbage collection to me is an embodiment of this like, larger problem of where do you put cognitive load in the software development process. And what garbage collection is saying to me it is right for plenty of other people and the software that they wanna develop. [00:51:21] Bryan: But for me and the software that I wanna develop, infrastructure software, I don't want garbage collection because I can solve the memory allocation problem. I know when I'm like, done with something or not. I mean, it's like I, whether that's in, in C with, I mean it's actually like, it's really not that hard to not leak memory in, in a C base system. [00:51:44] Bryan: And you can. give yourself a lot of tooling that allows you to diagnose where memory leaks are coming from. So it's like that is a solvable problem. There are other challenges with that, but like, when you are developing a really sophisticated system that has garbage collection is using garbage collection. [00:51:59] Bryan: You spend as much time trying to dork with the garbage collector to convince it to collect the thing that you know is garbage. You are like, I've got this thing. I know it's garbage. Now I need to use these like tips and tricks to get the garbage collector. I mean, it's like, it feels like every Java performance issue goes to like minus xx call and use the other garbage collector, whatever one you're using, use a different one and using a different, a different approach. [00:52:23] Bryan: It's like, so you're, you're in this, to me, it's like you're in the worst of all worlds where. the reason that garbage collection is helpful is because the programmer doesn't have to think at all about this problem. But now you're actually dealing with these long pauses in production. [00:52:38] Bryan: You're dealing with all these other issues where actually you need to think a lot about it. And it's kind of, it, it it's witchcraft. It, it, it's this black box that you can't see into. So it's like, what problem have we solved exactly? And I mean, so the fact that go had garbage collection, it's like, eh, no, I, I do not want, like, and then you get all the other like weird fatwahs and you know, everything else. [00:52:57] Bryan: I'm like, no, thank you. Go is a no thank you for me, I, I get it why people like it or use it, but it's, it's just, that was not gonna be it. Choosing Rust [00:53:04] Bryan: I'm like, I want C. but I, there are things I didn't like about C too. I was looking for something that was gonna give me the deterministic kind of artifact that I got outta C. But I wanted library support and C is tough because there's, it's all convention. you know, there's just a bunch of other things that are just thorny. And I remember thinking vividly in 2018, I'm like, well, it's rust or bust. Ownership model, algebraic types, error handling [00:53:28] Bryan: I'm gonna go into rust. And, uh, I hope I like it because if it's not this, it's gonna like, I'm gonna go back to C I'm like literally trying to figure out what the language is for the back half of my career. Um, and when I, you know, did what a lot of people were doing at that time and people have been doing since of, you know, really getting into rust and really learning it, appreciating the difference in the, the model for sure, the ownership model people talk about. [00:53:54] Bryan: That's also obviously very important. It was the error handling that blew me away. And the idea of like algebraic types, I never really had algebraic types. Um, and the ability to, to have. And for error handling is one of these really, uh, you, you really appreciate these things where it's like, how do you deal with a, with a function that can either succeed and return something or it can fail, and the way c deals with that is bad with these kind of sentinels for errors. [00:54:27] Bryan: And, you know, does negative one mean success? Does negative one mean failure? Does zero mean failure? Some C functions, zero means failure. Traditionally in Unix, zero means success. And like, what if you wanna return a file descriptor, you know, it's like, oh. And then it's like, okay, then it'll be like zero through positive N will be a valid result. [00:54:44] Bryan: Negative numbers will be, and like, was it negative one and I said airo, or is it a negative number that did not, I mean, it's like, and that's all convention, right? People do all, all those different things and it's all convention and it's easy to get wrong, easy to have bugs, can't be statically checked and so on. Um, and then what Go says is like, well, you're gonna have like two return values and then you're gonna have to like, just like constantly check all of these all the time. Um, which is also kind of gross. Um, JavaScript is like, Hey, let's toss an exception. If, if we don't like something, if we see an error, we'll, we'll throw an exception. [00:55:15] Bryan: There are a bunch of reasons I don't like that. Um, and you look, you'll get what Rust does, where it's like, no, no, no. We're gonna have these algebra types, which is to say this thing can be a this thing or that thing, but it, but it has to be one of these. And by the way, you don't get to process this thing until you conditionally match on one of these things. [00:55:35] Bryan: You're gonna have to have a, a pattern match on this thing to determine if it's a this or a that, and if it in, in the result type that you, the result is a generic where it's like, it's gonna be either the thing that you wanna return. It's gonna be an okay that contains the thing you wanna return, or it's gonna be an error that contains your error and it forces your code to deal with that. [00:55:57] Bryan: And what that does is it shifts the cognitive load from the person that is operating this thing in production to the, the actual developer that is in development. And I think that that, that to me is like, I, I love that shift. Um, and that shift to me is really important. Um, and that's what I was missing, that that's what Rust gives you. [00:56:23] Bryan: Rust forces you to think about your code as you write it, but as a result, you have an artifact that is much more supportable, much more sustainable, and much faster. Prefer to frontload cognitive load during development instead of at runtime [00:56:34] Jeremy: Yeah, it sounds like you would rather take the time during the development to think about these issues because whether it's garbage collection or it's error handling at runtime when you're trying to solve a problem, then it's much more difficult than having dealt with it to start with. [00:56:57] Bryan: Yeah, absolutely. I, and I just think that like, why also, like if it's software, if it's, again, if it's infrastructure software, I mean the kinda the question that you, you should have when you're writing software is how long is this software gonna live? How many people are gonna use this software? Uh, and if you are writing an operating system, the answer for this thing that you're gonna write, it's gonna live for a long time. [00:57:18] Bryan: Like, if we just look at plenty of aspects of the system that have been around for a, for decades, it's gonna live for a long time and many, many, many people are gonna use it. Why would we not expect people writing that software to have more cognitive load when they're writing it to give us something that's gonna be a better artifact? [00:57:38] Bryan: Now conversely, you're like, Hey, I kind of don't care about this. And like, I don't know, I'm just like, I wanna see if this whole thing works. I've got, I like, I'm just stringing this together. I don't like, no, the software like will be lucky if it survives until tonight, but then like, who cares? Yeah. Yeah. [00:57:52] Bryan: Gar garbage clock. You know, if you're prototyping something, whatever. And this is why you really do get like, you know, different choices, different technology choices, depending on the way that you wanna solve the problem at hand. And for the software that I wanna write, I do like that cognitive load that is upfront. With LLMs maybe you can get the benefit of the robust artifact with less cognitive load [00:58:10] Bryan: Um, and although I think, I think the thing that is really wild that is the twist that I don't think anyone really saw coming is that in a, in an LLM age. That like the cognitive load upfront almost needs an asterisk on it because so much of that can be assisted by an LLM. And now, I mean, I would like to believe, and maybe this is me being optimistic, that the the, in the LLM age, we will see, I mean, rust is a great fit for the LLMH because the LLM itself can get a lot of feedback about whether the software that's written is correct or not. [00:58:44] Bryan: Much more so than you can for other environments. [00:58:48] Jeremy: Yeah, that is a interesting point in that I think when people first started trying out the LLMs to code, it was really good at these maybe looser languages like Python or JavaScript, and initially wasn't so good at something like Rust. But it sounds like as that improves, if. It can write it then because of the rigor or the memory management or the error handling that the language is forcing you to do, it might actually end up being a better choice for people using LLMs. [00:59:27] Bryan: absolutely. I, it, it gives you more certainty in the artifact that you've delivered. I mean, you know a lot about a Rust program that compiles correctly. I mean, th there are certain classes of errors that you don't have, um, that you actually don't know on a C program or a GO program or a, a JavaScript program. [00:59:46] Bryan: I think that's gonna be really important. I think we are on the cusp. Maybe we've already seen it, this kind of great bifurcation in the software that we writ
What does it really look like to juggle children, horses and your own headspace?In this episode, Katie sits down with Sarah Elebert (COO of Equitas) for an honest conversation about mental health, guilt, ambition and the pressure to be “coping” in equestrian life.This one's for you if you've ever:- Felt stretched between the yard and nursery drop-off- Missed the rider you used to be- Carried quiet guilt about not doing enough (in any area!)- Wondered how everyone else makes it look seamlessWe talk vulnerability, comparison, changing expectations, and the small “tack hacks” that make life with horses and little ones more manageable.Because raising horses and humans together isn't tidy... oh no! But... it is powerful.If it resonates, share it with another equestrian mum who needs the reminder.---P.s. If this episode resonated, you can support EMC in a few simple ways:Follow or rate the podcastShare the episode with someone who might need itOr support the project with a ', if you're able... ☕Every listen, share, and quiet show of support helps keep EMC independent, accessible, and rooted in real experience.Thank you for being here. We hope it continues to be a safe, fun and real space of resource for you
IEC 60601 has been central to medical electrical equipment safety for decades. From the prescriptive approach of the 2nd edition to the risk-based philosophy introduced in the 3rd edition, the standard has continuously evolved to address technological and regulatory complexity.Now, the upcoming 4th edition represents more than an amendment — it signals a structural transformation.This article explores:The Evolution of IEC 60601• Key shifts from the 2nd to the 3rd edition• Why risk management became central• What lessons shaped today's safety philosophyWhat the 4th Edition Brings• A major rewrite rather than incremental updates• The introduction of “atomic requirements”• Structural clarity for manufacturers, test labs, and regulators• Emerging technical considerations (digitalization, AI, cybersecurity, home use)Impact on Existing Devices• Will re-testing be required?• How to assess validity of existing test reports• Transition strategies with notified bodiesIntegration into Design & Documentation• Embedding IEC 60601 into risk management from day one• Required updates in risk files, EMC documentation, labeling, and usability engineering• Practical advice for SMEs with limited resourcesThe Future of IEC 60601• Greater harmonization with ISO 14971 and IEC 62304• Alignment with digital and AI regulatory frameworks• The long-term outlook for medical electrical safetyFor manufacturers, the message is clear:IEC 60601 is not just a testing standard — it is a design and risk management framework that must be integrated early and strategically.Who is Monir El Azzouzi? Monir El Azzouzi is the founder and CEO of Easy Medical Device a Consulting firm that is supporting Medical Device manufacturers for any Quality and Regulatory affairs activities all over the world. Monir can help you to create your Quality Management System, Technical Documentation or he can also take care of your Clinical Evaluation, Clinical Investigation through his team or partners. Easy Medical Device can also become your Authorized Representative and Independent Importer Service provider for EU, UK and Switzerland. Monir has around 16 years of experience within the Medical Device industry working for small businesses and also big corporate companies. He has now supported around 100 clients to remain compliant on the market. His passion to the Medical Device filed pushed him to create educative contents like, blog, podcast, YouTube videos, LinkedIn Lives where he invites guests who are sharing educative information to his audience. Visit easymedicaldevice.com to know more. If you need help implementing QMSR or preparing your teams for FDA inspections, contact: info@easymedicaldevice.com If you are located outside the EU/UK/Switzerland and need an Authorized Representative (and possibly an Importer), we can support you as well.LinkLeo Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leoeisnersafetyconsultants/Social Media to followMonir El Azzouzi Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/melazzouziTwitter: https://twitter.com/elazzouzimPinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/easymedicaldeviceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/easymedicaldeviceThis podcast is powered by Podcastics, the easiest platform to create and publish your podcast.
מגיל 13 היא פרצה למחשבים, בגיל 36 היא מנכ"לית חברה בשווי 300 מיליון דולר - טל קולנדר מחברת רמידיו חושפת איך בנתה עסק של 10+ מיליון דולר בהכנסות ללא גיוס כסף חיצוני במשך שנים, עד שאמזון הפכה ללקוחה וקרנות ההשקעות המובילות הציעו לה "הצעה שאי-אפשר לסרב לה".פתיחה וגיוס הכסף - 0:00הרקע האישי של טל ותחילת הדרך בסייבר - 4:03השירות הצבאי ביחידות מיוחדות - 8:43המעבר לעולם האזרחי ועבודה בדל EMC - 11:02הקמת החברה עם השותפים - 13:35המוצר הראשון ולקוחות ראשונים - 15:13הצמיחה ללא משקיעים חיצוניים - 17:17הגדלת הצוות והכנסות מעל 10 מיליון דולר - 18:53המוצר הנוכחי ופתרון בעיות קונפיגורציה - 22:28הרחבה לעולם הקומפליינס - 26:00הפיבוט למוצר חדש ופלטפורמה רחבה יותר - 27:27החיים עם משקיעים לעומת בלעדיהם - 29:13הצמיחה הבינלאומית ולקוחות גדולים - 32:24אסטרטגיית השיווק והאירועים - 35:36הסיבות לגיוס הכסף בשלב זה - 37:38התרבות הארגונית ואיזון חיים ועבודה - 39:20התוכניות לשנה הקרובה - 43:18החזון לטווח הארוך ו-2026-2027 - 45:34
How do strong relationships within underwriting teams and between underwriters and producers shape the surety business? In this episode, we sit down with Bob Bowman of Holmes Murphy, Justin Tomlin of FNIC Group, and Rocky Pofahl and Cory Hamling of EMC to explore the vital collaboration between home office, field underwriters, and producers — and why trust, clarity, and communication drive success. Don't miss this look at the people and relationships inside the business of surety! With special guests: Bob Bowman, Surety Underwriting Manager, Holmes Murphy Justin Tomlin, Senior Vice President – Surety Manager, FNIC Group Rocky Pofahl, Assistant Vice President-Bond Underwriting Superintendent, EMC Cory Hamling, Bond Director, EMC Hosted by: Kat Shamapande, Director, Professional Development, NASBP
In today's episode we speak to the 2026 EMC keynote speaker Dave Weber
This episode is a pause... and an invitation.Recorded as a solo episode, this episode sees Katie reflecting honestly on why the Equestrian Mums Club exists, how it's grown beyond (just!) a podcast, and what it's becoming... for equestrian parents navigating horses, children, work, identity, and exhaustion.It's about the real stuff we don't often say out loud. Whether that's the... mental load. The guilt. The joy. The feeling of being “between versions” of yourself. We're visiting;Why EMC was never about hosts, polish, or performanceThe emotional reality of balancing horses and parenthoodThe invisible labour behind community-led projectsWhy honesty matters more than expertiseWhat EMC has achieved so far (often quietly)Where the community could go next, and how YOU can be part of itIf EMC has ever made you feel seen, steadier, or less alone... maybe this episode explains why.New here? It shows you exactly where you fit.
This episode covers the next part of chapter 30 from: “The frank realization that physical science is concerned with...” to “...this conception brings us to the law of miracles. " Summary: In this episode we focus on the concept of "mind stuff" and scientific breakthroughs, particularly the development of the electron microscope. Paramahansa Yogananda explains how electrons exhibit both wave and particle properties, and how this dual nature challenges traditional scientific understanding of reality. We also cover Sir James Jeans' concept of the universe as a "great thought" rather than a mechanical structure, and Einstein's famous equation E=MC^2. 0:00 Prior Episode; 10:10 Electron Microscope; 22:30 There is no material universe; 32:05 The Law of Miracles; 40:00 Looking Ahead. Links discussed in this episode: Tungsten crystals https://www.microscopy.ethz.ch/nbwo.htm https://www.yogananda.com.au/gurus/yoganandaquotes12.html Homework for next episode— Read, absorb and make notes on the next part of chapter 30 from: “Masters who are able to materialise and dematerialise their bodies...” to “...rise up as master of maya, knowing his dominion over the cosmos." #autobiographyofayogi #autobiographylinebyline #paramahansayogananda Autobiography of a Yogi awake.minute Self-Realization Fellowship Yogoda Satsanga Society of India #SRF #YSS
In this episode of the Altium OnTrack podcast, host Zach Peterson sits down with Karen Burnham, chief engineer and founder of EMC United, to explore why electromagnetic compatibility remains one of the most challenging aspects of product development. Karen shares her journey from physics to NASA Johnson Space Center and eventually into EMC consulting, offering invaluable insights into why so many engineers struggle with compliance testing and what they can do about it. Whether you're a new designer facing your first EMC test or a seasoned engineer looking to refine your approach, this conversation covers critical topics including common misconceptions about ground plane splits, the dangers of blindly following data sheet recommendations, requirements management pitfalls, and cost-effective pre-compliance strategies. Karen also discusses the evolving role of simulation and AI in EMC design review, upcoming changes to CISPR standards, and her practical seminars designed to help engineers avoid costly failures.
In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Alex Kangoun, CEO of Athena Solutions, Inc., about why data readiness—not AI models—is the real driver of success in the AI era. Alex shares how companies can overcome data management debt, build trust through incremental wins, and turn data into a competitive advantage. About Alex Kangoun Alex has over 20 years of data warehousing and business intelligence consulting experience across multiple industries. His experience includes solution delivery for BI and data quality initiatives. His core strengths include managing global projects involving teams across multiple locations. Prior to Athena Solutions Alex was responsible for BI solutions at Pitney Bowes and was Director of Business Intelligence and Data Quality at Monster.com. His other clients included Price Waterhouse Coopers, PTC, Fidelity, Teradyne, EMC, Citizens Bank, and others. Alex has MBA from Boston College and MS from Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture. Alex is certified Project Manager Professional (PMP) from PMI. About Athena Solutions Athena Solutions offers strategic data management and business intelligence consulting that empowers businesses to access and use their data to make better business decisions. The experts at Athena Solutions have over twenty years of business intelligence experience, having worked on over 100 successful projects in various industries such as financial services, healthcare, consumer product goods, retail, telecom and high tech. Watch Full Episode on Youtube. --- Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Alex Kangoun, CEO of Athena Solutions, Inc., about why data readiness—not AI models—is the real driver of success in the AI era. Alex shares how companies can overcome data management debt, build trust through incremental wins, and turn data into a competitive advantage. About Alex Kangoun Alex has over 20 years of data warehousing and business intelligence consulting experience across multiple industries. His experience includes solution delivery for BI and data quality initiatives. His core strengths include managing global projects involving teams across multiple locations. Prior to Athena Solutions Alex was responsible for BI solutions at Pitney Bowes and was Director of Business Intelligence and Data Quality at Monster.com. His other clients included Price Waterhouse Coopers, PTC, Fidelity, Teradyne, EMC, Citizens Bank, and others. Alex has MBA from Boston College and MS from Kiev National University of Construction and Architecture. Alex is certified Project Manager Professional (PMP) from PMI. About Athena Solutions Athena Solutions offers strategic data management and business intelligence consulting that empowers businesses to access and use their data to make better business decisions. The experts at Athena Solutions have over twenty years of business intelligence experience, having worked on over 100 successful projects in various industries such as financial services, healthcare, consumer product goods, retail, telecom and high tech. Watch Full Episode on Youtube. --- Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule. Apply to be a guest on our podcast: https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/ Visit our website: https://missionmatters.com/ More FREE content from Mission Matters here: https://linktr.ee/missionmattersmedia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The return-to-office debate has been hijacked by the wrong conversation. In this episode, Josh and Bob cut through the noise to reveal what's really driving RTO mandates—and it's not what most leaders will admit.There are two clouds hovering over every in-office decision: the Control Cloud and the Innovation Cloud. The Control Cloud is about distrust, micromanagement, and leaders who feel uneasy when they can't physically see butts in seats. The Innovation Cloud is about something entirely different—creating the conditions where teams can do their absolute best work together.Drawing from decades of experience building high-performing teams at companies like iContact, Teradata, and EMC, Josh and Bob make the case that co-located teams aren't just a preference—they're an innovation multiplier. They share stories of conference rooms turned into collaboration bootcamps, cube walls torn down with power drills, and the simple magic of a room erupting in applause when someone moves a sticky note to "Done."But this isn't about forcing people back to the office for control. It's about understanding what gets lost when we optimize purely for individual convenience over team collaboration. The watercooler conversations. The yelps from a frustrated tester that bring immediate help. The face-to-face tension that drives real innovation.Josh, who has debated this question with himself for fifteen years, finally lands on an answer: if he were building a team from scratch today, he'd build a co-located team of collaborative problem solvers. Not because remote can't work, but because the magic of true team collaboration is worth the commute.The question isn't whether you should return to office. The question is: which cloud is driving your decision? Stay Connected and Informed with Our NewslettersJosh Anderson's "Leadership Lighthouse"Dive deeper into the world of Agile leadership and management with Josh Anderson's "Leadership Lighthouse." This bi-weekly newsletter offers insights, tips, and personal stories to help you navigate the complexities of leadership in today's fast-paced tech environment. Whether you're a new manager or a seasoned leader, you'll find valuable guidance and practical advice to enhance your leadership skills. Subscribe to "Leadership Lighthouse" for the latest articles and exclusive content right to your inbox.Subscribe hereBob Galen's "Agile Moose"Bob Galen's "Agile Moose" is a must-read for anyone interested in Agile practices, team dynamics, and personal growth within the tech industry. The newsletter features in-depth analysis, case studies, and actionable tips to help you excel in your Agile journey. Bob brings his extensive experience and thoughtful perspectives directly to you, covering everything from foundational Agile concepts to advanced techniques. Join a community of Agile enthusiasts and practitioners by subscribing to "Agile Moose."Subscribe hereDo More Than Listen:We publish video versions of every episode and post them on our YouTube page.Help Us Spread The Word: Love our content? Help us out by sharing on social media, rating our podcast/episodes on iTunes, or by giving to our Patreon campaign. Every time you give,...
Guest speaker Anthony Reimer from Avant Missions joins us today to share about the work Avant Missions is doing, to update us on EMC missions around the world, and to share from God's word. Anthony uses the story of Gideon to show how God can use ordinary people to do extraordinary things.
In this episode, we sit down with Adam Zimman, author and VC advisor, to explore the world of progressive delivery and why shipping software is only the beginning. Adam shares his fascinating journey through tech—from his early days as a fire juggler to leadership roles at EMC, VMware, GitHub, and LaunchDarkly – and how those... Read more »
Earth's Mightiest Critics ring in the New Year with the escapism of economic uncertainty!Park Chan-wook's latest film, No Other Choice centers on Man-su (Lee Byung-hun) who has been out of work for several years. In a desperate attempt to eliminate job market competition, he concocts a darkly brilliant plan. It's no secret that Ian is not the biggest Park fan (who else on planet Earth thinks the remake of Oldboy is better than the original?!).The question, then, is can this critically acclaimed new slice of dramatic social commentary--and the rest of the EMC's very best arguments--turn things around?Join us as we seek truth, gainful employment, and airtight alibis. We'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!Support Kicking the Seat on Patreon, subscribe to us on YouTube, and follow us at:XLetterboxdInstagramFacebookShow LinksWatch the No Other Choice (2025) trailer.Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.Get seated with The Blonde in Front!Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…...And Film Obsessive...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue....and We Got This Covered.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.And save your celluloid soul with Dave Canfield's Substack, "Creature Feature Preacher".
Selling a business is one of the biggest financial decisions an owner will ever make, and the right preparation can shape both the outcome and the next chapter of life. In this episode, Larry Heller, CFP®, CDFA®, speaks with Gregg Schor, CEO of Protegrity Advisors, about what business owners need to understand before entering the mergers and acquisitions process. Gregg shares practical, experience-based insights into how different buyer types approach transactions and how sellers can position themselves well ahead of a sale to improve both financial and non-financial outcomes. Together, they walk through the typical Mergers & Acquisitions timeline and key decision points business owners should be prepared to navigate from early planning through closing. Gregg discusses: The different types of buyers in today's market, including strategic buyers, private equity firms, and family offices How seller goals influence deal structure, timing, and buyer fit The role of cash at closing, earnouts, and rollover equity in a transaction Why the best time to consider selling is often when the business is performing well What preparation really looks like, from financials and contracts to reducing owner dependency How the M&A process typically unfolds, from early planning through closing And more Connect with Gregg Schor: Protegrity Advisors LinkedIn: Gregg Schor gschor@protegrityadvisors.om (631) 285-3172 Connect with Larry Heller: (631) 248-3600 Schedule a 20-Minute Call Heller Wealth Management LinkedIn: Larry Heller, CFP®, CDFA®, CPA YouTube: Retirement Unlocked with Larry Heller, CFP® About Our Guest: Gregg Schor is the CEO of Protegrity Advisors and has over 25 years of experience managing mergers and acquisitions, corporate development, legal, and human resources for companies of all sizes in a wide range of industries. He has previously held senior management positions at companies that have been acquired by IBM, Microsoft, and EMC, including Deputy and General Counsel, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, Senior Vice President of Human Resources, and Director of European Operations. As a result, he brings a very unique perspective to Protegrity clients, having been on all sides of M&A transactions and in a variety of roles. Over the years, he has developed an extensive network of national and international relationships with public and private companies, private equity firms, family offices, search funds, and serial entrepreneurs, looking for businesses to acquire. He is on the boards of the Exit Planning Institute and the Alliance of Merger & Acquisition Advisors, and is a member of the Exit Planning Exchange (Long Island Chapters). Gregg received a J.D. from St. John's University School of Law and a Diploma on International and Comparative Law for study in Russia and Poland from the University of San Diego School of Law. He also completed the Mergers and Acquisitions Executive Education Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Certificate Program in Family Business Leadership and Governance from Cornell University.
Is your company's "AI disruption" happening with you—or quietly without you… and putting your business worth at risk? If you're leading a mid-to-large company right now, you're probably feeling two pressures at the same time: move faster with AI and don't blow up the business while you do it. Because AI isn't a future trend anymore—it's already being built, tested, and used across departments, geographies, and teams (often without a single unified view). And that creates a real leadership headache: how do you scale AI for competitive advantage while still keeping guardrails in place? In this episode, Jim Schleckser talks with Pete Foley (CEO of ModelOp) about what happens when AI spreads "like wildfire" inside an organization—and how to regain control without killing momentum. You'll walk away with: A practical way to get visibility into AI across your organization so you know what models exist, what they're doing, and where the biggest risks are hiding. A framework for putting governance and guardrails in place without slowing innovation—so you can move faster than competitors and sleep at night. A clearer path to scaling AI investments into real business outcomes (revenue, cost reduction, risk control) instead of letting models sit stuck in limbo for 9–12 months. Hit play now to learn how to build AI guardrails that protect your brand and accelerate results—so you can boost business worth before the market decides who survives the disruption. Check out: [02:10] "In five years, there'll be two kinds of companies…" — Jim frames the stakes of AI disruption and why ignoring it threatens long-term survival and business worth. [10:45] The real AI bottleneck: why models take 9–12 months to reach production — Pete explains what's slowing companies down and why that pace won't survive the next wave. [23:30] The "air traffic controller" approach to AI governance — visibility, risk assignment, guardrails, and real-time monitoring so AI can scale without chaos. About Pete Foley With more than 25 years of executive and entrepreneurial experience in enterprise software and a track record of successful business exits, Pete Foley's leadership gives ModelOp customers, partners and employees a high level of trust and confidence in the company and its future. Prior to co-founding ModelOp, Pete held several chief executive roles, including CEO of RingCube Technologies, a desktop virtualization software solution provider acquired by Citrix in 2011; CEO of PortAuthority Technologies, a provider of data leak protection systems, from 2005 through its acquisition by Websense in 2007; and CEO of Infoblox (BLOX) from 2002 through 2005. In addition, Pete was the Executive Chairman of Graphite Systems, a low latency, flash-based big data appliance that was acquired by EMC, from 2012 to 2015.
Lights! Camera! Diggler!Earth's Mightiest Critics close out 2025 with a look at Paul Thomas Anderson's classic 1997 drama, Boogie Nights! Mark Wahlberg stars as Eddie Adams, a young California dishwasher who gets lured into the glamorous, sinister world of 1970s adult entertainment. His found family includes legendary mogul Jack Horner (Burt Reynolds), Jack's matronly muse, Amber Waves (Julianne Moore), and fellow performer Reed Rothchild (John C. Reilly).Together, they build a new hard-core franchise while struggling against the unrelenting winds of drugs, video tape, and societal backlash.It's also a (really messed up) New Year's movie! AND a reminder of PTA's roots, as we prepare for the likely Awards sweep of his latest film, One Battle After Another.Join us for a free-wheeling Pre-NYE party, where we'll also take your questions, comments, and SuperChats!Support Kicking the Seat on Patreon, subscribe to us on YouTube, and follow us at:XLetterboxdInstagramFacebookShow LinksWatch the Boogie Nights (1997) trailer.As mentioned in the show, Ian had a couple of run-ins with Boogie Nights star Thomas Jane at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con. Presented here is the two-part "The Thomas Jane Affair":Part OnePart TwoPick up Warner Bros' recently released 4K UHD of Boogie Nights.In case you missed it: check out EMC's roundtable review of One Battle After Another from earlier this year.Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.Get seated with The Blonde in Front!Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…...And Film Obsessive...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue....and We Got This Covered.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.And save your celluloid soul with Dave Canfield's Substack, "Creature Feature Preacher".
The Cognitive Crucible is a forum that presents different perspectives and emerging thought leadership related to the information environment. The opinions expressed by guests are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of or endorsement by the Information Professionals Association. During this episode, Bill Wall discusses Accrete AI's comprehensive AI platform. The conversation explores the necessity for the U.S. to balance military focus with information strategies, diplomacy, and a deeper understanding of the populace to achieve success in modern conflicts. Recording Date: 9 Dec 2025 Resources: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #56 Bob Jones on Governance Accrete AI Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph by T.E. Lawrence The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media by P. W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking Contagious: Why Things Catch On by Jonah Berger Link to full show notes and resources Guest Bio: Bill Wall is the CEO and Co-Founder of Accrete AI Government, an enterprise AI company helping government entities rapidly capture and analyze massive amounts of siloed data, providing analysts with deep insights that enable faster decision-making. Bill has a unique background, combining elite military service and deep experience in the sales and implementation of innovative solutions that drive business transformation. In the private sector, Bill has built technology teams across various industries. His professional experience includes leadership roles at companies like EMC, Praescient Analytics, Boundless Geospatial, and Flywheel Data, where he focused on IT solutions, big data analytics, and geospatial software. Before entering the corporate world, Bill retired from the Army as a Special Forces Lieutenant Colonel after twenty-two years in service. During his military career, he founded a computer network operations organization within the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and deployed multiple times to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Yemen where he worked closely with the national intelligence community to transform the way intelligence was developed and shared. Academically trained in international relations, Bill holds a Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a Master of Arts in International Relations and Latin American Studies from the University of Miami. Beyond his professional achievements, he has been married to Francesca for 30 years and is a father to two sons, sharing his home with two dogs and a cat. About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.
Friends, this episode is a vulnerable one.For the first time since launching Lead with Heart, I'm pressing pause on the podcast for Q1 of 2026. Not because I'm quitting. Not because the mission has dimmed. But because clarity asked me to make a courageous decision — one that aligns with the emotional sustainability I teach every dayIn this episode, I'm sharing the real story behind this pause: what 2025 revealed, what I'm witnessing across the nonprofit sector, the hard truth about capacity, the emotional health crisis facing nonprofit leaders, and why building the Lead with Heart Summit requires my full presence. It's about choosing purpose over productivity, depth over doing, and alignment over proving.In this episode:00:00:00 Embracing Leadership Clarity00:03:48 Prioritizing Emotional Sustainability00:08:08 The Lead with Heart SummitRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.NOTEWORTHY QUOTES“ When you become crystal clear on your one thing, the hard decisions stop looking like sacrifices and start looking like alignments.” - Haley Cooper“ Clarity does not make decisions painless. It makes them purposeful.” - Haley Cooper“Just because we are capable of doing something does not mean we have the capacity to do it all at the same time.” - Haley CooperSend Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
Earth's Mightiest Critics re-ignite the age-old debate: Do people actually care about Avatar?Following the death of their eldest son, Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) find themselves caring for Spider (Jake Champion), the human son of evil-military-leader-turned-evil-Na'vi-warrior Myles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Meanwhile, Quaritch discovers the volcano-dwelling Ash tribe, headed by Varang (Oona Chaplin), whose obsession with war and the dark arts gives a chilling edge to the invading military's deadly artillery.And there's a bunch of other semi-interesting stuff that's hastily abandoned for the hour-plus Act Three death-and-destruction montage...In this spoilerific roundtable review of the third film in James Cameron's bafflingly successful trilogy, Fire and Ash, the gang digs into why the (arguably) best and (arguably) final entry may be the strongest, and why that may not be enough to save it from a legacy of, "Hey, remember those big blue alien movies?"Also, the EMC talks about Cameron's bizarre Anti-AI public service announcement they saw ahead of the early-December press screening.Support Kicking the Seat on Patreon, subscribe to us on YouTube, and follow us at:XLetterboxInstagramFacebookShow LinksWatch the Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) trailer.And catch up with our previous review of 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water.Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.Get seated with The Blonde in Front!Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…...And Film Obsessive...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue....and We Got This Covered.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.And save your celluloid soul with Dave Canfield's Substack, "Creature Feature Preacher".
« Lutter contre les discriminations » est une série de podcasts proposés par les élèves de 5èmeA du collège Jules Michelet, avec l’aide de Mme Coudreau professeure documentaliste et Mme Robin professeure d’Histoire-Géo. La lutte contre les discriminations est un engagement fort dans les établissements scolaires, c’est aussi abordé en EMC (enseignement moral et civique). Les 5èmeA […] L'article Atelier radio – Lutter contre les discriminations – Collège Michelet est apparu en premier sur Radio Campus Tours - 99.5 FM.
I am so honored to share today's conversation with Laura Bode, the newly appointed Chief Philanthropy Officer at A New Leaf. A survivor of childhood trauma, Laura rebuilt her confidence as an adult with the support of key mentors who saw her potential before she could see it herself. Today, she leads a powerhouse nonprofit serving more than 30,000 people each year and has helped grow philanthropy revenue from $300,000 to over $10 million.In this episode, we dig into her remarkable journey, the emotional realities nonprofit leaders face, the burnout she's experienced firsthand, and how she rebuilt a healthier, more grounded approach to leadership. In this episode:00:00:00 Value of Mentorship After Trauma00:05:59 Strategic Shifts for Nonprofit Growth00:09:55 Optimizing Your Board00:14:02 Navigating Burnout00:23:39 Expanding Community EngagementRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.CONNECT WITH LAURALinkedIn: Laura BodeWebsite: https://turnanewleaf.org/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
I am so excited to welcome leadership coach Jen Recla to the Lead with Heart Podcast. Jen helps senior nonprofit leaders break free from burnout, reclaim their clarity and energy, and build teams that thrive even in seasons of complexity and change.In this episode, we dig into one of the most common and corrosive habits in the nonprofit sector: saying “I'm too busy.” Jen shares why this phrase keeps leaders stuck in survival mode, how urgency culture erodes team confidence, and how you can shift from reactive leadership to intentional leadership without adding more to your plate.If you're ready to lead with more calm, clarity, and confidence, this conversation is for you.In this episode:00:00:00 The Power of Supportive Leadership00:09:07 Intentional Feedback Skills00:15:56 Overcoming Overwhelm Patterns00:26:34 Strategy Building in Leadership00:29:11 Leadership in ActionRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.E8: Create The Transformation You Seek in Your Life & Relationships with Stephanie CourtillierThe Illustrated Happiness Trap by Russ HarrisCONNECT WITH JENLinkedIn: Jennifer ReclaWebsite: https://www.jenrecla.com/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.orgCONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
At first, we wondered why Zane Rowe was once again leading us back to Continental Airlines. With notable CFO tenures at VMware and EMC—chapters rich with transformation—surely there were fresh stories to surface.But as Rowe began tracing the logic behind flight profitability, route modeling, and data-rich decision making, the relevance snapped into focus. His Continental experience isn't just a recurring anecdote; it's the lens through which he still interprets complex systems today. That early foundation made this discussion every bit as insightful as our last—especially as he connected those lessons to Workday's AI trajectory and the accelerating pace of strategic decision making.“I spent a lot of time in the airlines in what we called flight profitability,” Rowe tells us. At Continental, he helped build systems to understand which routes truly created value when full planes were still losing money, he tells us. That work, grounded in heavy telemetry and EMC technology, showed him how finance could move from reporting results to reshaping the route portfolio, he tells us.In his first conversation with CFO Thought Leader, Rowe walked through those early chapters—from revenue management at a post-bankruptcy airline to a bold sales pivot at Apple and multiple CFO roles in technology, he tells us. In this second interview, he returns to the same storyline but takes it one step further, drawing a direct line from that profitability model to today's AI-driven world, he tells us.Now, as Workday's CFO, he describes AI as an equalizer that lets small teams run multiple forecasting models and ingest far more variables in cash projections than before, he tells us. He points to “Everyday AI,” a company-wide initiative, and a cross-functional AI leadership group that pushes common tools, responsible use, and regular check-ins on what is changing in the work itself, he tells us.Rowe's finance strategic moment this year is “recognizing the importance of investing more into AI”—organically and inorganically—because peers are not standing still and customers want those capabilities, he tells us. With a total addressable market “in the hundreds of billions of dollars” and revenue “much less than that,” he frames leadership now as deciding where to lean in hardest, he tells us.
On this episode of the Lead with Heart podcast, I'm joined by Javan Van Gronigen, the founder of the creative agency Fifty & Fifty and the nonprofit fundraising platform Donately, which has helped organizations raise more than $180 million since 2013. Javan has spent his career at the intersection of design, technology, and social impact. His work blends intuitive tech, storytelling, and data-driven fundraising strategies to help nonprofits raise more with less friction.In this conversation, we explore why consistent storytelling, not just technology, continues to drive real donor engagement, how nonprofits can track the right data without getting overwhelmed by dashboards, what digital giving trends to expect as we head into 2026, and more. Whether you're a nonprofit CEO, fundraiser, or marketer, this episode gives you practical tools to strengthen your digital strategy, deepen donor trust, and streamline your tech stack without burning out your team.In this episode:00:00:00 Digital Strategy and Fundraising00:14:25 Tracking Metrics That Matter00:18:24 Evolving Nonprofit Tech Choices00:27:25 Digital Engagement and Giving Trends00:32:41 Building Lasting Donor TrustRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.2025 Edelman Trust Barometer Global ReportCONNECT WITH JAVANLinkedIn: Javan Van GronigenWebsite: https://www.donatelySend Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.org Dr. Lola Gershfeld's EmC Masterclass helps you boost communication skills to raise more revenue. Trusted by top universities and global organizations. Use code LEADWITHHEART for 10% off.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
Gayatri Kalyanaraman is in conversation with Madhavan Jagannathan (Maddy) , Instrument and Control Engineer by training, software technologist by experience, and financial explorer at heart. With over two decades of experience across HCL, Adobe, EMC, Dell, and VMware, Maddy brings together deep tech, systems thinking, and a passion for financial markets. Gayatri introduces Maddy, highlighting 17 years of friendship and his rare mix of humor, humility, and insight across hardware, software, and finance.02:00 – The Physics of Curiosity Maddy recalls his fascination with science, choosing physics for his undergraduate degree, and his early ambition to pursue research at IITs before pragmatically opting for instrumentation at Madras Institute of Technology.05:00 – The Unplanned Leap into Software A “lucky break” leads him into HCL Technologies, where a chance campus interview launches his career in software — landing him in the prestigious Cisco division during the early internet boom.08:00 – Early Memories of the Software World Maddy reflects on working at the intersection of hardware and network management — when internet access was rationed, innovation was exploding, and curiosity was rewarded.10:00 – Settling into the Tech Ecosystem He discusses how he initially longed for the process industry, only to realize that the software world offered greater opportunities, intellectual challenge, and balance — ultimately leading teams early in his career.13:00 – From HCL to Adobe: Finding the Power of Software Maddy shares how joining Adobe in Noida, during its early transition to SaaS, transformed his understanding of software's reach and power. “That one year at Adobe changed my view of what software could do.”16:00 – The EMC and Dell Era: Process Meets Innovation He moves from startups to EMC, where he embraces Six Sigma, process excellence, and later joins Dell, leading teams focused on data center innovation. “Dell was about process discipline and fast engineering — a perfect blend of structure and innovation.”20:00 – Clarifying ‘Process': From Chemistry to Systems Thinking Maddy reflects on how his training in process control and systems modeling shaped his understanding of software and organizational design.23:00 – Discovering Financial Markets His long-standing curiosity about stock markets takes root. From reading stock pages in newspapers to managing his first ESOPs, Maddy begins to explore investing and financial systems deeply. “It started with curiosity — how a single number next to a company name could tell a story.”26:00 – The Birth of a Trader Inspired by his MBA classes and a growing interest in quantitative methods, Maddy takes professional trading courses — blending math, technology, and market behavior. “Trading is where math, technology, and psychology collide.”29:00 – Lessons from the Trading Floor He shares insights from independent trading during COVID, emphasizing discipline, emotional control, and the realization that he's better suited for his own portfolio than managing others' money.32:00 – The Intersection of Tech and Finance Maddy discusses how his tech background enhances his understanding of market microstructures, algorithmic trading, and the growing influence of AI and quantum computing in finance.35:00 – The Philosophy of Continuous Exploration For Maddy, trading and technology are both lifelong explorations. “Markets teach you more than finance — they teach you patience, humility, and the ability to think statistically about your own life.”38:00 – Reflections on Career and Curiosity Gayatri and Maddy reflect on his multi-layered career: from a hardware engineer and software innovator to a financial thinker who continues to connect systems, people, and ideas. Key Themes:Evolving from hardware and instrumentation to deep software systemsThe interplay between process thinking and product innovationLifelong learning and curiosity as a career compassApplying software and systems logic to financial marketsEmotional intelligence and discipline in trading Memorable Quotes:“Trading is where math, technology, and psychology collide.”“That one year at Adobe changed my view of what software could do.”“Markets teach you more than finance — they teach you patience, humility, and the ability to think statistically about your own life.”“I didn't plan my career — I followed my curiosity, and that made all the difference.”https://www.linkedin.com/in/madhavan-jagannathan-559bb51/Madhavan “Maddy” Jagannadhan is a seasoned technologist and financial explorer whose career spans hardware engineering, software system leadership and independent investing. With early roots in instrumentation and network hardware, Maddy went on to lead development teams at industry names like HCL Technologies, Adobe Inc., EMC Corporation and Dell Technologies—designing software-driven systems and complex processes. Today, Maddy blends his systems thinking, curiosity and trading insight into mentoring, personal investing and bridging tech and financial markets. Madhavan has an engineering degree in Instrumentation and Control from MIT (Anna University) and an MBA degree from Great Lakes Institute of Management.
In this powerful conversation, I sit down with Pierre Berastain, former Regional Director for North America at the Center for Public Impact and co-founder of Caminar Latino-Latinos United for Peace and Equity. Pierre has spent over 15 years advancing social justice, gender equity, and systems change. Today, he joins us to talk about what it really means to decolonize leadership in the nonprofit world.Together, we unpack how colonizing narratives shape our understanding of risk, safety, and authority — and how leaders can begin redistributing imagination, rest, and voice to those most impacted by inequitable systems. Pierre challenges us to examine our cultural scripts and reimagine what it means to lead inclusively and authentically.If you're ready to explore how your leadership can foster belonging, equity, and courage in your nonprofit organization, this episode is a must-listen.In this episode:00:00:00 Pierre's Journey to Public Impact Leadership00:05:45 How Colonizing Narratives Shape Risk00:09:35 Redistributing Imagination and Rest00:17:15 Building Trust and Cultural Awareness00:25:09 Centering Lived Experience in LeadershipRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.Pierre recently announced he'll be joining The SAFE Alliance as its next CEO, supporting survivors of violence and abuse through integrated services. Read the announcement HERE CONNECT WITH PIERRELinkedIn: Pierre BerastainWebsite: https://pierreberastain.com/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.orgCONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
I am thrilled to welcome William Jarvis, Managing Director and Philanthropy Executive at Bank of America Private Bank, to the Lead with Heart podcast. In this episode, we unpack the 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy—a fascinating deep dive into how affluent households are giving today, what motivates their generosity, and how nonprofits can respond strategically.Bill brings decades of experience guiding families and institutions to align their values with their impact. Together, we explore why generosity remains strong despite fewer overall donors, how volunteering serves as a “gateway to giving,” why engaging the next generation of donors is crucial for the future of philanthropy, and more.In this episode:00:00:00 The State of Philanthropy00:06:07 Why Generosity Endures00:12:24 Engaging the Next Generation00:17:26 Local Giving and Donor Trends00:22:27 The Future of NonprofitsRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.2025 Bank of America Study of PhilanthropyE102: Rethinking Women's Giving: Insights on Philanthropy, Data & Donor Engagement with Jacqueline AckermanCONNECT WITH WILLIAMLinkedIn: William JarvisSend Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.orgCONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
Do you feel like you're just not charismatic? It's frustrating to see outgoing guys succeed with women, while you feel stuck. But what if you could become charismatic to women today, without changing who you are? Dating coach and bestselling author Connell Barrett reveals his Charisma Code—the 3-part formula that helps introverts become magnetic to women. Get ready to discover the E=MC² of dating to unlock real charisma.Episode Highlights:01:48: The Charisma Code Formula: AE + P + Pl = Charisma02:40: How Connell First Applied it for a Great First Date07:37: Authentic Expression (AE): Why Your Uniqueness Unlocks True Charisma12:42: Presence (P): How to Get Out of Your Head when Talking to Women19:05: Playfulness (Pl): The Flirting Secret Women Want You to KnowBOOK A FREE CONSULT CALL WITH DATING COACH CONNELL BARRETT TO LEARN ABOUT HIS 1-on-1 COACHING: http://www.datingtransformation.comEMAIL CONNELL AND HE WILL SEND YOU A FREE COPY OF HIS BESTSELLING BOOK, “DATING SUCKS BUT YOU DON'T”: Connell@datingtransformation.com
I am thrilled to welcome Tracy Hoth, founder of Simply Squared Away and host of The Organized Coach Podcast, to Lead with Heart! Tracy brings over 17 years of experience transforming chaos into clarity. She specializes in helping leaders create practical systems that reduce overwhelm, boost focus, and make space for what matters most: your mission.In this episode, we're exploring the powerful link between mindset, organization, and leadership. Tracy shares her 5-step SPACE framework to declutter both your digital and physical workspaces, empowering nonprofit leaders to reclaim their time, improve efficiency, and lead with calm clarity.If your Google Drive (or brain!) feels cluttered, this episode will help you breathe again and build systems that last.In this episode:[02:41] The mindset blocks behind disorganization[05:33] How beliefs from childhood affect your ability to stay organized[08:17] Tracy's five-step framework to simplify anything and reduce overwhelm[11:54] Why people struggle to let go and how to change that[18:04] Organizing for nonprofit growth and succession planning[23:35] The five-file digital system every organization can use[27:18] Habits to maintain long-term organization[28:59] The Organized Coach PodcastRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.15 Minute Declutter ChallengeFive Files FrameworkCONNECT WITH TRACYLinkedIn: Tracy HothInstagram: @tracyhothPodcast: The Organized Coach PodcastWebsite: https://simplysquaredaway.com/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.orgCONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comYouTube: thesavvyfundraiserProduced by Ideablossoms
I am so excited to welcome Dru Wischhover to the Lead with Heart Podcast. Over the past 20 years, Dru has founded three real estate companies — Inspired Title Group, Inspired Development Group, and Winspire LLC — dedicated not just to business success, but to making an impact. With every closing, his companies give back: funding scholarships, supporting mental health awareness, and mentoring the next generation of leaders. Through his mission, the inspired way, Dru has built more than companies. He's built a culture that elevates clients, team members, and entire communities.In today's conversation, we explore how leaders can break the stigma of mental health in the workplace and why a healthy culture is the foundation for long-term success. If you're a nonprofit or business leader ready to build happier, more supported teams and integrate mental wellness into your leadership style, this episode is a must-listen.In this episode:[02:55] Building companies that give back[05:55] How early experiences in service shaped Dru's lifelong commitment to philanthropy[09:48] Why culture is everything[16:13] Bringing mental health into the leadership conversation[20:19] How to create safe spaces for open dialogue at work[24:38] Simple ways to support your team's mental health[27:36] The power of trust and flexibility in building resilient teams[31:49] Reframing mental health as a leadership responsibilityRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.E81: Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.org Dr. Lola Gershfeld's EmC Masterclass helps you boost communication skills to raise more revenue. Trusted by top universities and global organizations. Use code LEADWITHHEART for 10% off.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
This Week's Callers Caller 1: Backdoor Clint says everyone likes SnailMail Caller 2: Jeff from OR talks about the budget 9" Caller 3: Nathan from Pittsburgh says he is excited for Trail Hero Caller 4: Beer Craig has a podcast suggestion for caring for your winch. Factor55 Winch Line Video: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DQCXD62DQYP/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Caller 5: Trevor talks about 1-15 Trail Ratings Caller 6: Chris Rea clarifies what EMC stands for Caller 7/8 Alex from Botches Off-road says congrats on getting married CALL US AND LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!!!! We want to hear from you even more!!! You can call and say whatever you like! Ask a question, leave feedback, correct some information about welding, say how much you hate your Jeep, and wish you had a Toyota! We will air them all, live, on the podcast! +01-916-345-4744. An alternative method would be sending us an email at Jimmy@snailtrail4x4.com or at Tyler@snailtrail4x4.com. You can also find us on Instagram at SnailTrail4x4 or 4x4ToyotaTyler Listener Discount Codes: SnailTrail4x4 -SnailTrail15 for 15% off SnailTrail4x4 MerchMORRFlate - snailtraill4x4 to get 10% off MORRFlate Multi Tire Inflation Deflation™ Kits4WheelUnderground - snailtrail for 10% offIronman 4x4 - snailtrail20 to get 20% off all Ironman 4x4 branded equipment!Sidetracked Offroad - snailtrail4x4 (lowercase) to get 15% off lights and recovery gearSpartan Rope - snailtrail4x4 to get 10% off sitewideShock Surplus - SNAILTRAIL4x4 to get $25 off any order!Mob Armor - SNAILTRAIL4X4 for 15% offSummerShine Supply - ST4x4 for 10% offBackpacker's Pantry - Affiliate
In this special episode, Kufikiri Hiari Imara returns to the podcast, to guest host an amazing conversation with the brilliant individuals behind Entheogen Melanin Collective - Imani Turnbull-Brown and Julian Fontaine Fox.Imani and Julian share the stories of how they each came to their advocacy and community work. They speak about the many intersectionalities of Blackness and Melanated Empowerment through storytelling. Entheogen Melanin Collective is fostering connection within the psychedelic space and offering healing in BIPOC spaces throughout and beyond the Boston area. Check them out and support their work at @EMCmass on IGBio: Imani Turnbull-Brown is a U.S. Navy veteran and holistic health & wellness consultant with a deep commitment to ancestral healing and community empowerment. She is the cofounder of the Entheogen Melanin Collective, an organization that uses entheogens as one of many tools to support education, integration, and accessibility to melanated joy, healing, and community. Rooted in her Afro-Caribbean heritage, Imani blends traditional wisdom with modern wellness practices to help others reclaim their wholeness.Bio: Julian Fontaine Fox is a passionate and longtime psychedelic entheogen advocate, poet, and storyteller. He began his advocacy while in Santa Fe New Mexico where he founded a chapter of SSDP and worked with Synergetic Press as a volunteer consultant and advisor. He is the co-creator of Entheogen Melanin Collective and a resident of Boston in Roslindale. In his role with EMC he facilitates community building and outreach. He plans and holds events in the Boston area for community members to attend holding workshops centered on intergration, healing and education. He also reaches out through tabling at bus stops and train stations offering a place for locals to ask and get answers about these substances are.Links: linktr.ee/entheogenmelanincollective
I am so excited to welcome Dr. Jennifer Dall, a grief-informed neurodivergent specialist and founder of ADHD Holistically, to the Lead with Heart Podcast. This episode explores how understanding and embracing ADHD can actually help nonprofit professionals, and especially leaders, thrive.Dr. Jen shares her personal story of being diagnosed with ADHD later in life, how grief reshaped her purpose, and what she's learned about navigating overwhelm, focus, and emotional regulation. Together, we discuss how nonprofit leaders can use neurodivergent strengths to their advantage and create supportive, inclusive workplace cultures that help everyone shine.In this episode:[03:15] Dr. Jennifer's late-in-life ADHD diagnosis[06:03] How ADHD presents differently in women and why it's often missed[10:10] Recognizing ADHD patterns[14:55] How to advocate for neurodivergence in the workplace without fear[20:21] The organizational benefits of supporting ADHD and neurodiversity[22:16] Why long-term coaching can overwhelm ADHD brains[24:44] Actionable tips for tackling everyday ADHD challenges[30:36] Lifestyle shifts for better focus and follow-through[32:05] One small mindset change that creates immediate impactRESOURCESThe Lead with Heart Summit is not just another conference. It's a powerful, purpose-driven experience created specifically for nonprofit fundraisers who are feeling burned out, stretched thin, and in need of real, meaningful support. April, 2026.CONNECT WITH DR. JENNIFERLinkedIn: Dr. Jennifer DallInstagram: @adhd.holisticallyWebsite: https://adhdholistically.com/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.orgCONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
I'm so excited to bring you this conversation with Bree Muehlbauer, an accomplished fundraiser, nonprofit leader, and senior director of philanthropy at Digital Health Strategies - a healthcare-focused digital marketing and fundraising agency. Bree is a CFRE and inclusive philanthropy certificate holder who blends her technical fundraising expertise with a deep commitment to equity and inclusion—all while navigating motherhood and leadership.In this episode, we explore the intersection of data-informed fundraising, inclusive philanthropy, and nonprofit leadership culture. Bree opens up about how becoming a mother transformed her perspective on leadership and the critical importance of creating supportive, flexible workplaces for parents and caregivers in the sector.In this episode:[02:47] Bree's journey from educator to nonprofit fundraiser[04:31] What inclusive philanthropy really means[06:48] The risks of bias in data and AI for nonprofits[08:48] Becoming a data-informed fundraiser[12:23] How motherhood transforms leadership perspectives[14:44] Planning for maternity leave and reentry in nonprofits[18:27] Building a supportive workplace culture for mothers[23:14] Inclusivity and caregiver support in nonprofit work[25:41] Work-life balance, perfectionism, and urgency[29:03] Trust, flexibility, and building resilient nonprofit teamsRESOURCESE17: Empowering Nonprofits through Data Equity and Communication Strategies with Meenakshi DasE26: How Employers Can Provide Psychological Safety And Support for Working Parents with Lacey Kempinski, CFRE & Founder of Balanced GoodCONNECT WITH BREELinkedIn: Bree MuehlbauerInstagram: @breeheartskaleSend Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.orgCONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
Cisco is well known for its data, networking, security, and collaboration products. On today's episode, Cisco's president and chief product officer, Jeetu Patel, joins Sam for a discussion about artificial intelligence, a “megatrend” Jeetu sees as perhaps more significant than the development of the internet or the automobile because of its ability to build on past technological advances. Jeetu and Sam discuss how to manage AI and how to staff for it — Jeetu argues that replacing less experienced or younger workers with technology deprives organizations of key perspectives and new ideas, and instead advocates for developing reverse-mentoring programs inside organizations. Read the episode transcript here. Guest bio: Jeetu Patel, Cisco's president and chief product officer, combines product design and development expertise, operational rigor, and market understanding to create high-growth businesses. He is tasked with building world-class products to solve customers' problems, and connect and protect every aspect of their organization in the AI era. Previously a general manager at Cisco, he led the strategy and development of its Security and Collaboration businesses. Before Cisco, Patel was the chief product officer and chief strategy officer at cloud content management company Box. He's also held roles at EMC, including chief executive of its Syncplicity business unit, CMO for the Information Intelligence Group, and chief strategy officer. He currently serves on the board of JLL, a commercial real estate services company. Jeetu has a bachelor's degree in information decision sciences from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Me, Myself, and AI is a podcast produced by MIT Sloan Management Review and hosted by Sam Ransbotham. It is engineered by David Lishansky and produced by Allison Ryder. We encourage you to rate and review our show. Your comments may be used in Me, Myself, and AI materials.
Today, Earth's Mightiest Critics look back on the life of a comedy legend with an unconventional panel review of John Candy: I Like Me!Colin Hanks' presents a sprawling and thoroughly moving documentary about the star of SCTV, Uncle Buck, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, and dozens more comedy classics.Featuring interviews with co-stars, family, and friends, I Like Me paints a portrait of a man haunted by childhood tragedy who spent the rest of his life taking care of others (be it direct altruism or simply by making them laugh)--possibly to the detriment of his own well being. Far from a downer, this film is a celebration of life in the truest sense.Executive Producer Ryan Reynolds and friends recently screened the film at the Chicago Theatre, and several members of the EMC were there. Unfortunately, they couldn't all get together for roundtable, so Ian talked with Don, Cati, and David individually about several aspects of the doc, including its status as one of the best films this decade; the bizarrely performative nature of the Chicago Theatre Q&A; and the rise of the Celebrity Documentary genre.John Candy: I Like Me is now streaming on Amazon Prime.Support Kicking the Seat on Patreon, subscribe to us on YouTube, and follow us at:XLetterboxdInstagramFacebookShow LinksWatch the John Candy: I Like Me (2025) trailer.All proceeds from the I Like Me screening tour support St. Jude Children's Children's Research Hospital. If you are moved to do so, please learn more about this wonderful organization here.Support all of Earth's Mightiest Critics at their various outlets:Keep up with Jeff York's criticism and caricatures at The Establishing Shot and Pipeline Artists.Check out Mark "The Movie Man" Krawczyk's The Spoiler Room Podcast.Get seated with The Blonde in Front!Follow David Fowlie's film criticism at Keeping It Reel.Get educated with Don Shanahan at Every Movie Has a Lesson…...And Film Obsessive...and the Cinephile Hissy Fit Podcast.Keep up with Annie Banks at The Mary Sue....and We Got This Covered.Make Nice with Mike Crowley of You'll Probably Agree.And save your celluloid soul with Dave Canfield's Substack, "Creature Feature Preacher".
I am thrilled to welcome Neil Ghosh to the Lead with Heart Podcast. Neil is the former CEO of SOS Children's Village USA, Senior Advisor to the Ousri Family Foundation, and the author of Do More Good - a #1 new release praised by President Bill Clinton and featuring a foreword by the Dalai Lama.Neil's life's work is centered on building bridges across divides with empathy, purpose, and action. In this episode, Neil shares how passion and compassion work together, why nonprofits must commit to listening and effective governance, and how we can all take daily actions—large or small—to create unity in a divided world.In this episode:[03:08] Lessons from the private, public, and nonprofit sectors[04:36] The difference between passion and compassion and why you need both[10:00] Passion, purpose, and action[13:46] Leadership lessons from Malala and the Dalai Lama on courage and compassion[17:50] Why nonprofit governance and transparency matter more than ever[23:50] How to vet ethical and transparent nonprofits as a donor[29:02] Why unity doesn't mean uniformity and how empathy sustains democracy[35:17] Combating loneliness in leadership through action and communityRESOURCESDo More Good: Inspiring Lessons from Extraordinary People by Neil GhoshCharity Vetting Tools: Charity Navigator, GuideStar, CharityWatchCONNECT WITH NEILLinkedIn: Neil GhoshInstagram: @neilghoshauthorWebsite: https://www.neilghosh.org/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.org Dr. Lola Gershfeld's EmC Masterclass helps you boost communication skills to raise more revenue. Trusted by top universities and global organizations. Use code LEADWITHHEART for 10% off.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
I am so excited to introduce you to Frank Velásquez Jr., a storyteller, social justice leader, and founder of 4 Da Hood. Frank is passionate about equity, authenticity, and helping leaders of color rise into their power with unapologetic joy.In this conversation, we explore how storytelling can double nonprofit funding, why creating restorative circles fosters trust and authentic connection, and how leaders can bridge divides in today's divisive climate. Frank also shares the inspiration behind his Ascending Leaders in Color program, his vision for equity-driven leadership, and his belief in healing separately to lead collectively.In this episode:[03:24] The birth of 4 Da Hood[05:36] The power of storytelling to increase nonprofit funding[07:20] Why the Ascending Leaders in Color program was created[11:17] Circle agreements and creating brave spaces[16:17] The restorative circle model and its role in leadership[20:18] Navigating tough conversations around race, gender, and opportunity[26:44] Carrying authenticity into the real world[30:30] Advocating for pay equity as nonprofit leaders of color[35:47] Regaining joy in your life as a leader[38:21] Frank's vision for 4 Da HoodCONNECT WITH FRANKLinkedIn: Frank Velásquez Jr.Instagram: @4dahoodllcWebsite: https://4dahood.com/ Send Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. Trusted by 80,000+ organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox offers easy fundraising tools to help you raise more. From fast donation forms to crowdfunding, events, and Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, grow your impact with donorbox.org Dr. Lola Gershfeld's EmC Masterclass helps you boost communication skills to raise more revenue. Trusted by top universities and global organizations. Use code LEADWITHHEART for 10% off.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
I am so excited to welcome Chris Wong to the Lead with Heart Podcast. Chris is a licensed therapist, executive coach, and host of The Art and Science of Difficult Conversations podcast. With over 15 years of experience in the nonprofit and health sectors, Chris specializes in helping purpose-driven leaders navigate difficult transitions, rebuild trust, and lead culture change that actually lasts.In this episode, we dive deep into the art of mastering hard conversations, the psychology behind conflict, and how nonprofit leaders can strengthen trust and resilience in their teams. Chris shares practical strategies for bridging generational differences, navigating hybrid workplaces, and leading with clarity when the stakes are high.In this episode:[05:05] Nonprofit leadership challenges: scarcity mindset[07:07] Bridging generational differences in nonprofit leadership[09:36] Why leaders avoid hard conversations and how to reframe conflict[14:14] Building trust in nonprofit teams and organizations[18:12] Cultivating relationships in hybrid nonprofit environments[20:58] A framework for approaching difficult conversations[27:55] Preparing nonprofits for crisis conversations[33:22] Addressing gossip during organizational change[34:21] Insights from Chris's own podcast on difficult conversations[36:53] Advice for anyone about to have a difficult conversationRESOURCESE7: Focusing on Emotional Connection to Boost Performance in Your Organization with Lola GershfeldCONNESend Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies for nonprofit leaders to create real impact. As the fundraising engine of choice for over 80,000 organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox's easy-to-use fundraising tools help you raise more money in more ways. Seamlessly embed a customizable donation form into your website that reduces donor drop-off with a 4x faster checkout, launch a crowdfunding or peer-to-peer campaign, sell event tickets, raise funds on the go with Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, and much more. Learn more at donorbox.org Dr. Lola Gershfeld's EmC Masterclass helps you boost communication skills to raise more revenue. Trusted by top universities and global organizations. Use code LEADWITHHEART for 10% off.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a CFRE, Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. Founder of The Savvy Fundraiser, she brings experience in human services, homelessness, and youth nonprofits. She specializes in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, empowering nonprofit leaders to build thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
Today's guest is is Miles Veth, a fourth-generation entrepreneur, founder of the Veth Group, a marketing ans sales services firm. After starting his career at EMC and learning how large companies can scale while still keeping a culture of warmth, he used that influence to shape the ethos of his own company: love your people, serve your customers well, and reinvest in the community.In our conversation, Miles shares how he integrates faith and business, what it means to build a company that tithes 10% of profits to causes his team cares about, and how he navigated both the highs of rapid growth and the challenges brought on by seismic changes in technology and sales.We also go deep into his views on what makes a great salesperson, the importance of transparency and honesty in business, and the unconventional tactics he has used to get attention and grow his company.Contact Dino at: dino@al4ep.comWebsites:al4ep.comvethgroup.comAdditional Guest Links:LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/milesveth/Authentic Leadership For Everyday People / Dino CattaneoDino on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dinocattaneoPodcast Instagram – @al4edp Podcast Twitter – @al4edp Podcast Facebook: facebook.com/al4edpMusicSusan Cattaneo: susancattaneo.bandcamp.com
CAREER-VIEW MIRROR - biographies of colleagues in the automotive and mobility industries.
In this episode of CAREER-VIEW MIRROR, we're celebrating the career to date of Richard Savoie.Richard is the co-founder and CEO of Adiona, which uses AI to power millions of efficient, lowest-carbon deliveries around the world for brands such as Coca-Cola and Amazon. He's a sought-after speaker and thought leader on transport, mobility, and AI.His career has taken him from New Hampshire to Boston, and eventually to Sydney, Australia, through roles at EMC, Smiths Medical, and Medtronic. Along the way, he's gained experience across engineering, medical devices, and entrepreneurship — building resilience, adaptability, and the insight to eventually launch his own business in sustainable technology.In our conversation, we talk about Richard's early years in Nashua, New Hampshire, where family challenges and early responsibilities shaped his determination. He shares how severe asthma inspired him first toward medicine, then pivoted him into engineering after falling in love with physics.We follow his path through Northeastern University, internships with Panametrics and EMC, and his transition into medical devices with Smiths Medical and Covidien. He reflects on career setbacks during the financial crisis, lessons from mentors, and the importance of empathy and relationships in leadership.We also talk about his relocation to Australia, his experience running a small medical device company, and the difficult decision to leave after equity disagreements — a setback that ultimately led him into entrepreneurship. Richard describes how Adiona's optimisation technology, developed through a partnership with Coca-Cola, delivered dramatic reductions in emissions and on-road time, and how branding, support structures, and resilience are critical to startup success.Connect with RichardLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richsavoie/Website: https://www.adionatech.com/About AndyI'm a business leader, coach, and the creator of the Fulfilling Performance framework—designed to help people bring more of themselves to what they do and experience greater fulfilment and performance as a result.Over the past 25+ years, I've led and developed businesses including Alphabet UK, BMW Financial Services in the UK, Singapore, and New Zealand, and Tesla Financial Services UK. Alongside this, I've coached individuals and facilitated leadership development programmes in 17 countries across Asia, Europe, and North America.In 2016, I founded Aquilae to support leaders and teams in the mobility sector and beyond. Through workshops, coaching, and peer mentoring, we enable high performance that's also fulfilling—for individuals, teams, and organisations.Learn more about Fulfilling PerformanceCheck out Release the Handbrake! The Fulfilling Performance HubConnect with AndyLinkedIn: Andy FollowsEmail: cvm@aquilae.co.ukJoin a peer mentoring team: Aquilae AcademyThank you to our sponsors:ASKE ConsultingEmail: hello@askeconsulting.co.ukAquilaeEmail: cvm@aquilae.co.ukEpisode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app. Episode recorded on 09 September, 2025.
I am so excited to welcome Amanda Pearce to the Lead with Heart Podcast! Mandy is the powerhouse founder and CEO of Funding for Good, bringing over two decades of expertise in nonprofit fundraising, organizational development, and business growth.In this episode, we dive into the realities of nonprofit burnout, the power of saying no, and how strategic planning can be your best tool for focus, fundraising, and freedom. Mandy shares her personal journey of leaving burnout behind and building a thriving consulting business that empowers nonprofits and consultants alike.In this episode:[03:04] How Funding for Good originated and became what it is today[05:55] What burnout looks like and how it sneaks up on leaders[10:17] Common patterns that lead to burnout and how to shift them[13:56] How strategic planning helps nonprofit leaders avoid burnout[17:21] Aligning fundraising strategies with your strategic plan[19:29] Who should be involved in creating a strategic plan[21:22] Cultivating buy-in and belonging when creating a strategic plan[23:44] Turning your strategic plan into action with timelines and accountability[29:41] Navigating nonprofit transitions and leadership turnover[34:12] How to communicate effectively with your nonprofit team[40:00] What work-life balance looks like for Mandy todayRESOURCES5-Part Strategic Planning WebiSend Haley a suggestion or request via text HERE!My book, Sow, Grow, Lead is live on Amazon! It shares my journey of starting a nonprofit in Malawi and offers practical strategies to help nonprofit leaders turn visions into reality, and create meaningful impact As the fundraising engine of choice for over 80,000 organizations in 90+ countries, Donorbox's easy-to-use fundraising tools help you raise more money in more ways. Seamlessly embed a customizable donation form into your website that reduces donor drop-off with a 4x faster checkout, launch a crowdfunding or peer-to-peer campaign, sell event tickets, raise funds on the go with Donorbox Live™ Kiosk, and much more. Learn more at donorbox.org The EmC Masterclass by Dr. Lola Gershfeld will help you enhance your communication skills to raise more revenue for your mission. This groundbreaking Emotional Connection process has been integrated into top universities' curriculum and recognized by international organizations. Use code LEADWITHHEART to enjoy a -10%.CONNECT WITH HALEYHaley is a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE), Stress Management Coach, and EmC trainer. She founded The Savvy Fundraiser, a nonprofit consulting and coaching business, and has experience with nonprofits in human services, homelessness, and youth sectors. Specializing in EmC, leadership, board development, and fundraising, Haley is dedicated to empowering nonprofit leaders to create thriving organizations.Instagram: @thesavvyfundraiser LinkedIn: Haley Cooper, CFREWebsite: thesavvyfundraiser.comProduced by Ideablossoms
What if the primary assumptions guiding your business decisions are outdated—and no one on your leadership team is willing to say it? This episode of The Construction Leadership Podcast dives into Peter Drucker's Theory of the Business and explores why many construction executives unintentionally resist change—despite clear signals from the market. Using the story of Jaws as a metaphor, we highlight how unchecked assumptions that led to past success can now lead to strategic misalignment, operational firefighting, and frustrated teams. In this episode, you will: Identify the assumptions that may be holding back your business—and how to surface them with your team. Learn a 3-part framework (EMC²) to lead with more clarity and less resistance. Understand how world-class leaders use “constructive discontent” to stay accountable and lead better through change with innovation. Listen now to upgrade your strategic thinking, build buy-in across your leadership team, and lead your construction business with more focus and less firefighting. You can download Drucker's seminal article here. This episode is brought to you by The Simple Sales Pipeline® —the most efficient way to organize and value any construction sales rep's roster of customers and prospects in under 30 minutes once every 30 days. *** If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts. Your feedback will help us on our mission to bring the construction community closer together. If you have suggestions for improvements, topics you'd like the show to explore, or have recommendations for future guests, do not hesitate to contact us directly at info@bradleyhartmannandco.com.
Is your CMS holding your creativity—and marketing growth—hostage? When speed and agility are everything, most marketing teams are still stuck in the slow lane—waiting on developers to publish updates, launch campaigns, or even fix a typo. Sound familiar? Today's guest says it's time for marketers to take the wheel. Mark Wheeler, Chief Marketing Officer at Storyblok is here to talk about redefining what a CMS should be—with a composable, API-first platform that puts control back in marketers' hands. With clients like Netflix and Adidas, Storyblok is helping to lead a movement away from bloated, outdated systems and toward a faster, smarter, more flexible way of working. About Mark WheelerAs CMO of Storyblok, Mark Wheeler leads the marketing strategy and execution to drive business growth and redefine the CMS category. Recognized as a Top 100 B2B global CMO, he's dedicated to building communities for marketers and developers. With a deep understanding of digital experiences, Mark ensures Storyblok delivers exceptional value. Previously, as CMO of LeanIX, he played a key role in doubling customers in two years and contributing to its successful acquisition by SAP. He has also held senior marketing roles at Nutanix, EMC, Sitecore, and Adobe. RESOURCES Storyblok: https://www.storyblok.com The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by TEKsystems. Learn more here: https://www.teksystems.com/versionnextnow Catch the future of e-commerce at eTail Boston, August 11-14, 2025. Register now: https://bit.ly/etailboston and use code PARTNER20 for 20% off for retailers and brands Online Scrum Master Summit is happening June 17-19. This 3-day virtual event is open for registration. Visit www.osms25.com and get a 25% discount off Premium All-Access Passes with the code osms25agilebrand Don't Miss MAICON 2025, October 14-16 in Cleveland - the event bringing together the brights minds and leading voices in AI. Use Code AGILE150 for $150 off registration. Go here to register: https://bit.ly/agile150 Connect with Greg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregkihlstrom Don't miss a thing: get the latest episodes, sign up for our newsletter and more: https://www.theagilebrand.show Check out The Agile Brand Guide website with articles, insights, and Martechipedia, the wiki for marketing technology: https://www.agilebrandguide.com The Agile Brand is produced by Missing Link—a Latina-owned strategy-driven, creatively fueled production co-op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. https://www.missinglink.company